"I dont know!" Hollow plastered a sarcastic smile on her face "WHY DONT YOU READ MY MIND!!!" She screamed. She contined with her pacing. She wasnt trying to think about anything in particular anymore. She really didnt want him to read her mind. Hollow hated losing, especially like this.

She shook her head and said what she didnt want to. "I need help." Super softly so that he wouldn't really hear her. The sound of the words only made her more angry. She couldnt believe that she was doing this for thoes two little runts. Zeke and Fang were going to get it once this was all over.

"I'm sorry. What was that? I wasn't sure if I heard you correctly. You need......?" Thalian waited for Hollow to finish his obnoxious question.


Valerie trembled in her sleep. There as a dark shadow. Not just a shadow... It was a man. But it wasn't a man. He was a creature of shadow and fire. Fire... Aideen...

"AIDEEN!" Valerie cried out loudly as she sat upright in bed. Rolgen had been laying on one of her wings, so when she shot up like a rocket, Rolgen was catapulted onto the floor with a decided pound that shook the whole house. It rattled the most above the servant's quarters, and some dust from the ceiling sprinkled down in front of the depressed Aideen.

Valerie practically tumbled out of bed, her curly black locks flinging wildly about her face as she bolted down the steps to where Aideen and herself had been attacked not long ago, not even noticing she had just flung her husband out of his sleep. Her heart sank when she saw no one.

"AIDEEEN!" She screamed out, nearly bringing the house down as she rippled with the angry swirling energy in her bloodstream.

"Aideen no!" Valerie fell to her knees in front of the stairwell, thinking she had allowed Aideen to be killed or captured. She wanted to weep, but she was too strong for that. She merely bit her bottom lip with her fangs until they bled profusely.

Arianna was stunned by Knight’s cold eyes and a hand gesture that seemed to silence her protests. Her anger grew at his remarks that she would need training, she had yet to be bested in any fight. If she hadn’t been so captivated she would have…but her mind was starting to get hazy.

Knight had pressed his cold body against hers, holding her tightly as he transported them elsewhere. She felt no heartbeat coming from his chest, everything about him felt cold and dark. Arianna didn’t care, all she felt was exhaustion trying her best to fight him. So why fight it? Whisperings kept asking and encouraging what Knight was saying to be true. Believe him, don’t you want to be stronger?

They appeared in a large guest chamber with a cold, glassy, marble floor that Arianna fell on when they materialized. She felt confused, disoriented and sick. Control was starting to elude her and all she could see was Knight, the name fit him well. He was as cold and dark as night.

Struggling to sit up she tried to form words, but they wouldn’t come! Terror clutched at her stomach and then released in a wave of energy throughout her body. She pushed the wings from her body and enveloped herself to shield herself from whatever magic was occurring.

Taking a deep breath she spoke, “What do you want with me, Knight?” Energy was returning to her and she could tell the whispers in her head were fading. “What sort of training and what people am I dealing with?” She wanted to remain cautious, but she didn’t want Knight to think he’d gotten away unscathed. Arianna let fly the knife that she’d held so tightly early, purposefully missing his head by a few inches the knife hit the opposite wall and stuck. She smirked as she stood and wrapped the wings around her again.

Hollow closed her eyes and gritted her teeth. He was so annoying. "help." She said clenching her fist. He better watch was he says next.

The knife that had stuck fast in the wall beyond Knight's head melted away into nothing. But, it reappeared in his hand not a moment later: a new shape, a new curve, and even more deadly in appearance than it had been only seconds ago. He cast the knife hard in her direction and it stuck hard into the marble only inches in front of her.

"When you are quite finished playing games, notify me, so that I might further explain my proposal." He looked at Arianna with a sneer of indifference that would have made kings flinch. He walked to the end of the black marble hall and sat lightly on an impressive looking antique ebon high-backed chair with a deep black cushion.



"Oh REALLY!?" Thalian said in a most obnoxious tone of voice. "You want MY help? The great Hollow who can do anything herself no matter WHAT the challenge?" He had to laugh inspite of himself. He knew Hollow's tolerance of his snide remarks would only stretch so thin. He DID want to make it to Kara's castle alive... and with all his parts intact.

Hollow couldnt take it anymore. She reached up to Thalians shirt collar and grabbed it pulling him close. "Listen Thalian!" Her teeth began to grow sharper and her eyes were turning completley red. "I dont need any more crap from you! I need to find my apprentices and an item thats really important. ARE YOU GOING TO HELP ME OR NOT!!"

Hollows voice had a demonic echo behind it and she was starting to radiate a black mist from her whole body. Thalian was lucky that her skin wasnt changing colors or he would be in big trouble.

Walking past the knife she made sure to keep her eyes focused on him. Never had she been in the presence of one so powerful, or one so dangerous. Extra training was starting to sound like a good idea, but at what price? Arianna wondered this as she approached Knight.

“What did you have in mind, Knight?” She asked, trying to look uninterested by adjusting her black leather bracers and the daggers she had hidden there. Oh how she wished that she didn’t always have to retrieve her daggers and knife, or replace them when they went missing. Magic like Knight’s would be useful, but she had a difficult time obtaining any information on how to wield magic.

Thalian gulped noticeably, but tried to hide it anyway. Particularly since he wasn't gulping out of fear. Well, not entirely out of fear anyway... She actually looked quite stunning when she was angry. Before he could catch himself, these exact words tumbled out of his mouth. He quickly went to cover his mouth with both hands. In doing so, he let go of the reins, and since Hollow already had him on the side of the saddle by his shirt collar, this meant falling off the horse and onto the dust below as well.

He laid there looking very shabby and embarrassed as his eyes started to water from where he had bit his tongue as his chin collided with the ground. Even the horse seemed to be mocking him as it stamped and whinnied in mildly annoyed amusement.


Knight continued to stare at the girl in silence, before he finally broke the tense moment with a strange question.

"Arianna. Just how far would you go to avenge your family and your lands if they had been stolen from you?" He asked with an icy glare.

The knife once again melted into the floor and reappeared around his fist in the shape of a cutting crescent knuckle-guard.

Arianna had to tread carefully she didn’t want to say anything that could be potentially hazardous to her health. Surly in the year or so that she’d been killing people she may have killed someone’s family. She looked down at what used to be her knife, now Knight had transformed it into some knuckle-guard.

“I have a hard time believing that one as powerful as you would have those things stolen from him so easily.” Arianna let her wings relax and open up a bit, she started to look around the room. This was a rather large room for one person, she wondered who slept here? “Besides it looks like you have more than enough room here to accommodate anyone.”

Hollow tried to ignore what Thalian had just said. She had to! If Thalian was reading her mind right now... It would NOT be a good thing. The girl changed back to her regular state and approached her own horse. She needed to hide her face behind something. "A... Are you going to help me?" she stumbled.

"C... cause if not then Im just going to have to help myself!!" Hollow was now pretending to be angry so she could hide her embarassment. She felt so pathetic.

She concentrated on her naked horse. Compared to Thalians hers was... unfinished. It had no saddle or reigns and lateley Hollow had to ride it bare back. She wondered if she would be able to get a saddle on it or even better; learn to ride a horse. She didnt have a need to before. People always came to her.

Knight gave her an amused look. "You are correct on that particular notion. They were not stolen from me easily. In fact, the war leading up to my demise lasted almost two decades. I was outnumbered you see. Even when I had admitted defeat and rested helpless at the foot of my merciless enemy, she saw to it I be punished none-the-less. And now, here you find me, living in a hovel compared to the glorious castle in which I resided previously."

His face took on a definite terrifying countenance as his eyes glistened to a crimson red. They almost seemed to be filling up to their brims with dark blood. Even the room grew dimmer and the marble slats that made up the floor buzzed and hummed uncomfortably as he stood and shouted defiantly into the air. Knight was clearly not one to anger casually. He hissed into the space of the room, cursing. His long and deadly looking fangs stood out against the wall of inky black hair that had begun to swirl and waver behind him.

"That wretched snake!" Knight spat the words. "She now lives and rules over what was once my beautiful home! She has enslaved my people, taken my land, killed my wife and children, and now breeds her putrid family within the bowels of my residence!"

A dark and ominous shadow aura was creeping out from him like tendrils. The room was nearly completely black except from where Arianna glowed slightly and where Knight's blood red eyes pierced the blackness. The whole room was tremoring as if in the path of an earthquake and bits of marble and plaster began to fall from the ceiling.

"I WILL HAVE MY REVENGE! AND YOU ARE GOING TO HELP ME!"


Thalian was still working at gathering himself from the ground. "Of COURSE I will help you, you imbecile." He spouted, once again trying to recover from his embarrassing outburst only moments ago. He snagged the reins of the horse a little harder than he should have, because the horse reared a bit, looking at him like a teacher might look a pupil when they've done something stupid.

"Hmph." He ignored the horse. "Besides, you wouldn't last very long around here on your own. On top of that, you have not been introduced to Kara yet. These lands belong to her and her family. Should you cross paths with her unannounced in the state that you are in, she might just count you as an enemy and slaughter you on the spot." Thalian was trying to make Kara sound scarier than she really was. Still, he was only partly jesting... With all the strange activity lately from malevolent forces, there was no telling what kind of mood Kara would be in if she came across a hostile looking stranger like Hollow...

He felt the threads of Hollow's thoughts twinge again. Whoever was looking for her was definitely trying to sharpen their focus and gain a clearer sense of direction. He hesitated, and then swung himself onto the back of his father's horse and swept over to Hollow quickly, scooping her up and placing her on the saddle in front of him. He kept one arm around her waist so she wouldn't fall, flinching in his mind about just how skinny she really was. He would make sure Kara stuffed her face with an entire block of cheese and bread if he could help it.

He knew she would protest about being hoisted up like a toddler, not to mention leaving her horse behind. Ignoring her, he turned and whistled to the intelligent horse that had decided to stick by Hollow to follow him. He knew it would understand him. Before she could claw his eyes out, he squeezed her uncomfortably and yelled in her ear over the sound of the galloping.

"You are the most terrible rider I have ever seen you ingrate! So hold still before you spook MY horse! Hyah!" He spurred the horse faster. Hoping the alarming speed might shut her up before she got out of hand.

Everything became darker as Knight became more angered, until the only visible things were his blood red eyes and Arianna’s wings. She dove for the doorframe and brought her wings up to protect herself from the falling debris.

She started feeling the battering in her mind again, help him! They were more insistent now, undeniable and powerful. Her wings retreated into her body and she sat with her back against the doorframe. Arianna hadn’t been this frightened since her first kill, Knight’s attitude was just as hideous as that demon’s. But she couldn’t fight this, she didn’t know why she would be. Killing was her specialty, and for someone who’d lost their wife and children…why was she questioning it?

“I’ll agree to help you, but if this enemy is more powerful than you how am I to defeat them?” Her voice sounded colder, like it needed less air to be heard. Her body felt heavy and tired. She looked into Knight’s blood red eyes not knowing what her future held in store for her.

Knight grinned and his appearance only grew more fierce. He spoke, only it barely sounded like him. It was almost as if two voices were erupting from his throat at the same time, one so deep it sent cracks splintering through the stone in Arianna's direction. The other was Knight's normal voice, only just audible over the other.

"My dear child..." Knight said in a twisted fatherly voice. "You will succeed where I have failed for only one reason, and that is trust. It is hard to slay one with the face of an angel." He laughed and the entrance to the cave hall collapsed behind Arianna, shutting her in completely.

"I know her weakness... and I also know she would struggle to bring her malicious hand down on one as young and innocent as you seem. You will study her. Live with her. Breath with her, until you know her every move. Once you have gained her trust completely, that is when you will strike. Surely one as ruthless as you would have no trouble with this task."

The last question was definitely more of a statement. Although Knight failed to mention how this mysterious woman could have killed his family and taken his land during a murderous rampage when she could not even raise her hand to an innocent-looking face. Whether Arianna had caught that bit of information was unknown, but Knight would see to it she obeyed his whim regardless.

"You start your training tomorrow." His voice rang out again, sounding a little more like the original Knight. The room even started to brighten once more. All the damage that had been caused seemed to vanish before Arianna's eyes as if it had never happened, and her dagger had reappeared by her side, looking like its old self again.

Useless. Aideen wasn't sure whether she wanted to be disturbed that Thalian had read her mind, or disappointed about what he found there. Given how the Valrae had been reading her mind since she'd first met them, she leaned toward the latter. On top of being a cowardly monster, she was useless.

And yet the man was asking her to watch over his parents as they slept. Aideen did not know quite what to make of that. She had been ready to hide herself as best she could and walk to the castle with him, but now...

No, he was right. She wasn't ready. She was a newborn. Why would a newborn be ready for anything? Saying nothing, she sat back down on a stool, hugging the cloak and gloves to herself, nodding in agreement. He was right. It was no use arguing.

It was just as well that she was lost in her thoughts as Thalian yelled at Hollow. That made it easier to pretend that his anger was directed at the shadow child alone. She barely noticed when they left.

She sat hunched in her chair, lost in her thoughts until Valerie’s scream rang out, and dust rained down on her. Valerie! She was awake! And very upset, from the sound of it. Well, who could blame her? The elemental had led danger into the house and that had almost killed one, if not both, of her hosts. Anger was a normal reaction to that sort of thing.

Still, Aideen had given Thalian her word. She would help watch out for his parents. His parents were upstairs. Though they were awake now -- after that scream, Rolgen had to be awake now, to -- it was still past time she returned to the hearth.

Valerie was kneeling at the bottom of the stairs when Aideen reached her. Strange. She didn’t look angry. "Lady Valerie," she said softly, from a few paces away. "I'm sorry."

Valerie looked up and gave Aideen the most admiring look of confusiong and pure wonder. She was lost for words for a moment. She quickly climbed to her feet and grabbed the girl tight, holding her to her chest very tightly. She rested her face on Aideen's smothered head, kissing her over and over again like a grandmother might kiss a grandchild she thought was lost to her. She finally released Aideen and backed away, still keeping Aideen's chin cupped in her hands.

"Oh my dear child!" Valerie exclaimed. "I thought I had lost you! I could never forgive myself if I were responsible for your death! Never!" Valerie, once again, put Aideen into a crushing hug. Once she was certain Aideen was really there in front of her, she promptly straightened herself up, looking Aideen up and down and brushing her off like a mother dusts snow off her child's pants. "Yes, well, you seem to be quite alright dear!" Valerie said relieved, but also trying to regain the composure she had lost a moment ago. She also examined herself.

"I seem to be doing better as well. Tell me dear, what happened? How did you defeat that molten elemental? He didn't hurt you did he? Where is he now?" The stream of questions poured out of Valerie before she remembered her manners. "Ack! What kind of girl who's just been through their first fight in The Realm could discuss such matters on an empty stomach and no tea?! I'm so sorry dear. We will go to the kitchen at once and I will see to it you are stuffed until you never want to eat again!"

She grabbed Aideen by the hand firmly and began to walk towards the kitchen. She looked down for a moment and realized the huge hole in her dress from where she had been impaled the evening before. She blushed noticeably and quickly covered herself with her over robe, whirling around to make sure nobody had seen. Aideen was whirled around right along with her since Valerie kind of forgot she was holding her so tight.

"Oh my! This will not do at all! No it won't! Come come dear. We're going upstairs first so I can change and then we'll get you settled with breakfast!" Without waiting for Aideen to respond to all her chaotic lists of to do's, she was already half way up the stairs with a near bouncing Aideen in tow behind her, trying hard to keep Valerie from breaking her hand off by mistake. Valerie always meant well though...

When she re-entered the bedroom, she saw the half tumbled and ruffled Rolgen lying on the floor sleeping where he had fallen.

"Oh! Why that lazy... ROLGEN! WAKE UP THIS INSTANT! What are you doing just lying around sleeping on the floor when we have guests! Get up and make yourself decent at once!"

Rolgen started at the sound of Valerie's lecture and rolled over, looking up at her through eye-lids that were still half-asleep. He didn't seem to notice what he was really doing when he picked himself off the floor and staggered out of the room like a zombie while an unfortunate pillow case was beeing dragged along the floor by the heel of his boot the whole way.

"Men..." Valerie shook her head as she snapped the door shut behind him. "Now then! About my dress..." Valerie began mumbling all sorts of inaudible what-nots to herself as she rummaged roughly through her wardrobe. Something about Rolgen, a bird, an end table, and a boy named Willin.

Aideen found herself caught fast in a Valerie whirlwind, unable to get a word in edgewise much less escape. Any protests, and she had a few of them, would have to wait. She was still processing the fact that Valerie had been treating her like an infant, though she was a grown woman, at least in basic form. A newborn adult? It was still a paradox Aideen couldn't quite reconcile.

The image of Rolgen -- still half asleep in spite of everything -- and Valerie's flurry of activity proved to be too much. The Valrae were alive and well and, in Valerie's case, full of energy. It was better than the elemental could have expected, and then some. And so, when Valerie let go of Aideen's hand in favor of the wardrobe, Aideen found herself retreating to the front hearth. It was there that she finally dropped to her knees in the most hysterical giggle fit of her life, former or present. The hearth fire seemed to chuckle right along with her.

With keen eye and anticipation Sorida worked her hands, the simplest of her magic. The ground beneath Kara met her, but not as though she had fallen. With only the slightest tilt to her stance she was upight, an amazingly soft coniferous tree keeping her from her fall.

"Ah, Grace, the end of us all, no?"

Sorida had been smiling but was now grinning ear from ear, laughter bubbling through her and causing her appearance to dance even more than usual, despite her standing somewhat still. With an easiness that can only come from years of friendship she took Karas' hand and pulled her onto her feet. When Nelo's insisstant cries could be heard from the castle her ears twitched and she felt another warm smile grasp her face.

"I believe someone is out and about as usual." she said lightly. "'Ow 'ave you been my friend?"

Kara looked at the tree with distaste, despite the fact she was grinning on the inside about Sorida's method of upending her.

"Sorida! Look at this tree! I don't need one solitary tree sticking out of the middle of my fields for no reason! Get rid of it!" In spite of her tone, Kara was giving Sorida her usual mischievous look. It was a look that said,

Nice trick, but if you don't remove this yourself, I will remove it my way...

And Kara's way was a little less... subtle.

She also twitched a bit at the sound of Rowan and Nelo screeching inside the castle. She sighed.

"Aaagh Sorida... No matter how old they get they still insist on screaming like toddlers. Which in this case, probably means Anthony has done something foolish again... We had better get inside before they destroy each other. You remember what happened last time... I'm STILL trying to piece that corridor back together!"


"What on earth is so funny! Just look at my dress! It will take me a week to patch this properly!" Valerie exclaimed in an exasperated tone as she continuously tried to cover the hole in her middle. She wasn't yelling at Aideen so much as her dress, which did not respond to her of course. In fact, if it could have responded, it would still probably have looked at her with the same smug silence. Valerie glared at her gown as if she was waiting for it to say something sarcastic, and then with a flurry returned to tearing things out of the magic wardrobe.

Shakily she reached for her knife and looked at the reflection in the blade. The face of an angel? All Arianna saw was a monster, for all those she’d killed and now for all the ones she was going to kill. Her eyes became vacant as she placed the knife back in it’s sheath. How would anyone trust her, she was an angel of darkness they would see right through her. Too exhausted to continue or even stand she lay down on the cold floor and slept.

Her dreams were filled with the nightmarish screams of her victim’s and the innocent laughter of children as they played. She kept seeing flashes of herself stealing clothes to warm herself and pushing a boy out of harms way as she was trampled by horses. Then she was falling again, but this time her wings weren’t there and she continued to fall until….Arianna woke!

Every fiber of her body was in pain from sleeping on the cold floor, she still felt exhausted. She didn’t even know how long she’d slept. Where was Knight? Arianna wondered this as she carefully picked herself up off the floor and tried to stretch the kinks out of her body.

With something resembling a fluid snap of her fingers the tree melted back into the ground, leaving everything as it was. With a smug smirk Sorida crossed her arms over her chest.

"Spoil sport." she said with a teasing lilt.

"Ah, yes. 'Ow goes that task?" she asked, supressing a chuckle. She remembered well that day of mischief, and also remembered that she herself had played her part in the mayhem. Oh, the fun.

"And what of Rowan and Nelo, 'ow are they?"

OoC: Sorida hun. x3 Not Sordina.

"No! No! It's not the dress!" Aideen managed to gasp through her laughter. "You don't have a hole! You're whole! The dress...!" She succumbed to another round of giggles, this time accompanied by ember tears that, thankfully, died in the air before they could do any harm. If she had been able to think, she might have suggested that for all she knew the wardrobe could patch the dress of its own free will. It was a kind and helpful magic wardrobe, just the sort of furniture one could expect from a woman like Valerie. But of course, crouched on the floor as she was, hands folded over her stomach and nearly rocking back and forth, she could not suggest that.

"ill have you know I was able to get here on my own!" yelled Hollow without looking in Thalians direction. She was about to yell some more when he came and picked her up. At first she was really suprised cause she wasnt to sure what was going on. Once second she was looking at her horse and the next she was trying to find something to grab on to on Thalian's.

"What are you...! She was about to scream, but Thalian started to squeeze her waist. Anymore and she would have a cracked rib. Its not that he was holding her so tight it was more that she was just really fragile. She was about to yell again, but the speeding horse interuppted her. She could hardly breath correctly much less fight back. In her panick she reached for the horn of the saddle and held onto it as tight as possible.

Hollow was glad to see that her own horse was running along side them. She decided that it now belonged to her. She didnt want to sell it now.

Hollow's hair fell out of her jacket and into the wind. She tried to keep it from getting in anyones face by twisting it back infront of her. Thalian was definetly going to get it after she was off the horse and her balance had been regained.

Pain shot up her left side as she stretched, screaming Arianna wrapped her arms around herself. The wound had reopened, but it seemed deeper than before. She looked at the blood on her hands, warm and sticky. This was her blood, it was trickling from her body. Her vision swam and she tried to cling to consciousness, the last thing she saw was a dark shadow standing over her.

He followed the stream, up its gentle, winding incline. It was a very pleasant, clear sort of stream, its cheerful burbling like music to his fin-like ears. In his mind was the murmur of the stream’s inhabitants, the babbling of minnows, the philosophizing of snails, the grumbling of crayfish. All of them, like the horses and spirit bunnies, had been particularly exceptional water-dwellers to have been lured to the Realm. All of them had something to say. Not all of it was particularly meaningful, however, and the naiad was able, after a time, to ignore it.

His was not quite a classic swimmer's build, lean and toned with a former life of labor, but by no means broad in the shoulders. As he walked, his tall, streamlined form caught the moonlight, and smooth skin shown pale blue or green, depending on the angle.

He drunk in the night air, and the moonlight. Really, this was a pleasant place, at least so far. It was not what he had expected from Heaven -- or perhaps this was Purgatory, he wasn't sure -- but it was impossible to complain. He was young again, alive and well. The catfish had told him not to be alone, and yet...

The naiad found himself at the source of a the stream, a great spring pushing cool water from the ground, surrounded by ferns and cattails. It was beautiful. He pushed through the bracken and knelt before it, dipping one webbed hand into the water, his sandy hair tickling the tips of his ears. Just then, in spite of the catfish, he did not mind being alone.

Sorphiem glared at them. “Rules I live by?” he repeated with a shake of his head. He hadn’t really thought about it. He just did things. “Whatever I can get, I can take. There isn’t really much else to the world. No need for silly mottos,” he said finally.