“Oh!” As she watches him fade among the strange faces, puzzled by his drive as his original purpose becomes marred by curiosity. Shaking her head, she realizes his absence and that she now stands alone, among the parasites and corrupt. She pushes her way past them and spots him entering the stairwell access, which are massive gold doors with mirrored windows. About to enter, the doors violently swing open as four females and a single male exit with laughter carrying over their lips. The women obviously look as though they are to host a party of decadence, look upon her, human and beautiful, and scuff as she stands her ground against a greater number. They do nothing as they pass by her, one colliding with shoulders but she absorbs the shock. The male wraps massive hands around two of them as they cuddle in and continue to laugh. This time the subject changes but not the intent. However, he continues to look upon her as though interested in cross species mating or pimping of a new level. She straightens herself and enters the doors with a huff. The doors smash against the inner walls and bounce violently back until they sway to neutrality.
Deano is nowhere in sight as she looks up the void space between the balusters, only to see empty stairs. She concludes that he must have phased through the material of the stairwell and simply reappeared at the top, where he was intending to head. Such gifts, such power, she questions the sanity behind the purpose as beings manipulate aspects of reality, at will, with impunity and lack of conscience. His will is often misanthropic she believed. However, he turns around and betrays that thought with random acts of generosity and gallantry. A villain, as champion of man, made real with the light of heroism carried from his invisible torch. His set of morals abhors her as his cannibalistic delights verge on inhuman. And again, is he human? She knew the answer, convinced herself of it in a past soliloquy. But, like her, she is not true human. A product of an ancient society who once lived, believed lived, on the plains of earth -- of an age before the rise of the Egyptian society, before the Atlantian society of old.
The ascent is effortless and sudden as she musters the limits of her physical abilities and soars up the nine flights at nearly 102 miles an hour. The ensuing thunder creates a vacuum within the empty space, sucking the doors inward on every deck, causing them to shuffle against themselves. A brief smile overcomes her at the sound of ringing gold and glass, as it benumbs her ears with their protest. Then the form of Deano, standing behind a pillar and watching something not yet in her field of view, greets her. She stealthily approaches him, but she recognizes his attention shift, despite her effort, for a fleeting moment then return to the voices beyond. Once again, he does not appear startled at her sudden presence. It was as though he knew, could tell, even though his back is against the danger. Or was it?
Looking over his shoulder, she sees what he sees and watches in silence. She quickly spots the human male, the robed being and a third being in dragon leather and mail behind them, standing in line in the corridor outside an open door. She waits for the punch line, anticipating some kind of conflict for where it concerns the robed figure. She reflects for a moment on the ‘How things work out’ theory as their plots seem to intertwine despite their dissimilarities. The three of them stood in a make shift stand off, speaking with hushed voices, using cryptic words to shadow their discussion. She takes a quick inventory of the three men, inspecting their persons to see distinguishing standouts. The massive blue-eyed human, the one from the Restaurant, carries nothing out of the ordinary other than a small pack tied to his left leg. Distinguishing anything outstanding on the robed figure is hard, for the many folds of his robes. However, there are no bulges or ostentation’s that press out to grab her attention. Then she looks over the third being. He appears apparently human yet different. He holds dangling in his left hand, a large, gold amulet at the end of a long gold chain. The massive amulet is as large as Deano’s hand and glows artificially under the sullen lighting of the corridor. She notices upon the amulet's surfaces inscribed glyphs and a panorama where figures of skulls have worms attempting to penetrate them.
“Give it to me. Else I send you into the pits of nothingness.” Orders the robed figure, who she knows as Samiari-Roth, demanding the leather clad human to return the amulet. Samiari-Roth -- the new possessor of Featheon’s Talon, is the vanquished, vindicator and High Priest of Kurse... Ethras’ brother. Which was fortunate, for she assumed Kurse to be free and now searching for his captor, betrayer... his sister Ethras? Yet, somehow he had gotten possession of the Talon -- how? She questions, and curses for she did not think of it earlier, in the Restaurant. This was going to be big, if not stopped and she remains confused about the details.
“You’ll have to pry it from my withering fingers...” The human spat. He takes a more defensive posture -- the toes of his forward foot point toward Roth as the other, parallels his shoulder, laced on the ball of the foot.
“I’ll be glad too.” His eyes glaze as they focus inward. With a deep breath he pulls in and springs forward launching a massive energy bolt of piercing white. The human moves like a Juicer and gently sidesteps’ the eruption, allowing it to sunder the void past him and deface the bulkhead behind.
