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Neo would throw Rudra,who would use the wind to fly towards Drake like a buzzsaw from hell."Please,don't try,Neo might kill you if you try to attack us,even when you have a piece of the vase."The blue sword would say."Rudra's right,so you better listen to him."

"The illusions aren't supposed to be fun for you," she says with a laugh from... everywhere?

"Anyway, I don't see why me hiring a guide with a sword is unusual. I know you know that I'm stuck without geography data!" she says in answer to Jules's question, "Like he said, business is just business. And what? You figure he does his job and I just kill him off? What would that get me? Just because I'm willing to kill everyone in my way doesn't mean I plan on killing everyone around me, especially if they're useful. That would be.... inefficient."

"Unrelated fact, did you know that light takes 8 minutes and 43.22 seconds to get from your star to your planet?" her disembodied voice adds, "Just though you might be interested. It would take a non-material spell the same amount of time, too!"

This all happened in a flash, he looked at everyone, then Victi "Uh... Do I know you..?"

((Victi nor any of her illusions are anywhere in sight at the moment, sadly.))

Her disembodied voice replies ominously, "If you don't know who I am yet, then you might want to run. You don't want to be involved with blood magic artifacts, do you? Nasty business."

"Fight me you coward! I've fought gods, surely I can stand a little magic!"

"Business?...BUSINESS?!" Her eyes turned completely red. "Business is teaming up with the one person who is trying to take what doesnt belong to them by any means necessary for what? Pleasure?! Business for killing us no matter what it takes so SHE can get what she wants!? No this isn't 'business', this is some sick twisted plan she created and he is too afraid
of death to go against her!" She grips her chain and sickle. "This is ridiculous and simply typical. And to answer your question, I have seen people kill off their handy men for nothing less even after they served their purpose. Hello? Who the hell do you think I am?! I deal with demons and other unworldly creatures all the time! So i wouldnt put it past you to dispose of him once he is no longer useful." Her knuckles are white. "Its creatures like you who I dispise. Just because you have 'power' or think you have the upper hand you can just take whatever you want..." she bites her lower lip. "That's nothing to be proud of. These illusions... the tricks? You just like to watch your prey squirm. It's actually quite sad." She takes a deep breath not wanting to go into a complete demon form. She looks at the others. "We need to just get out of here. It's pointless to be fighting shadows and illusions." She says as she sees Drake about to claw at her gut. She just stood there unafraid of his attack when he was being charged by one of Neo's swords. "Fighting is pointless here..." she mumbles with a sigh as she recalls how friendly he seemed in their brief encounter.

The Spartan was confused, easily able to get hit by a presence

She sighed. “Something is coming. Maybe for all of us.” She felt weird about talking cryptically but she couldn’t help it currently. Evelyn seems to dislike the sunshine. She looks back at the path they followed towards where she figures her home is. “Thank you but... I have all I need to continue on. Though I know you don’t trust me but it was nice talking to you. It’s been a while since I’ve gotten out of my house. Thank you for talking to me.” She smiled. She brushed her hand over her hairpiece again and grabbed the cloak out of her bag. She began to put it on. It was completely black. She sighed one more time. She was planning on walking more of her journey but she wouldn’t leave unless she felt like the conversation was over.

"...for all of us," she echoes. Snippets of Kylarion's message come to mind and she shows a wry smile. "Heh, perhaps you're right."

Evelyn thanks her for the conversation, but declines Lisa's offer. She can't help but sigh with relief, but "my offer still stands. If you ever return and need help or supplies, my door is open, as it always is to travelers."

As they trail deeper into the woods, Lisa returns to her search. She scans the trees, parts undergrowth, and peers behind rocks and into burrows. While she searches for the little fluff-blob of black that makes Raven, she continues to speak. "...you're probably already aware, but there's a village lying only half an hour west of here. Mention my name to someone, or ask about 'those two witches from the woods.' They'll know where to send you." Unfortunately, most people from Trilling Creek know exactly where she lives. She, or more accurately her mother, is both heralded and stigmatized as the village's best but most undeniably weird doctor.

She turns away and calls for Raven. "Here, kitty kitty!" She laughs, waiting- praying -that Raven comes at her claws-out, spitting her best insults to match the audacity Lisa must have to call her Kitty.

Really now....

Well, that was too much of a risk for Victi to let stand, true or not.

The "offhand" mention of solar light delays wasn't random, she'd been planning on burning a ton of mana to blow the top half of the lighthouse off with a concentrated sunbeam. It would mean she'd have to lay low for a day or two while she recharged, but a bit of molten rock always livened up an evening.

Now it was time to change that plan.

The normal time to cast this was way too slow. Keeping a target lock on a building for twenty minutes? fine. Adjusting it to follow a person? not a chance.

The first thing she did was drop her illusions. she'd had one lurking behind the lighthouse in case they went looking, but it was pointless now. A few other things planned, but no more time for games.

The next was to use the void winds to make a mana structure between her and the star, along the path of the spell she had cast earlier. A modification to its waveform, adjusting the "command" she was giving to the star's own bizarre manasphere. Also, using the winds to direct the spell into the star more quickly.

Then she waited, another void-channel open and waiting, preparing to do two more things before chaos erupted.

Evelyn nods. She understands. She waved bye to Lisa before sighing and continuing her walk. She had actually planned to have a quick food stop at the tavern as drunk people were easy to draw away from sight. She put the hood of her cloak over her face hiding it. She sighed again. She needed to calm herself but the farther she got from a person, the more paranoid she got. She brushed her hand of her hairpiece before continuing to the village.

A glint of red and the szing of a blade flying through the air clues him into Neo's move. Drake turns mid-lunge and raises his sword, deflecting Rudra but also ruining his own attack. The enchanted sword struck with enough force to knock him away. He lands on his feet, using his morphed hand to grip the earth and keep him stable as he falls forward. He grows quiet, tuning out of Jule's guilt-tripping rant and focusing solely on the job. Breathe in. Breathe out. Don't think of the consequences until they surrender or their bodies hit the ground.

He pushes himself not straight up, but forward at Neo. Combined with a powerful kick off the ground, he leaps at him at a startling speed, his sword swinging to meet either Neo’s blades or the boy’s chest. He fully anticipates the former, as seen in the way he defensively lowers his body even while attacking.

Adriannu listened warily as Raven answered her questions and seized the shard worn around her neck protectively when the cat mentioned how Lisa was trying to figure out a way to destroy her shard. Thus finally giving away the location of her own to the black cat.

Yet when Raven spoke back with almost as much venom when stating that Lisa wasn't cruel, Adriannu looked rather wounded by it. It made her look more like the child Raven knew rather then the suspicious and highly guarded one from just moments ago. Looking rather timid and meek like that of a scolded child, the cat like girl quietly muttered. "Adults hurt Adriannu."

Then when the cat gently pushed away away her hands, she had expression of soul crushing rejection on her face with tears forming in her eyes. With Raven being the first sentient being to show her any affection in two years, Adriannu had already started to grow quite dependent on her for the affection that she had been so starved off. Thus taking this gentle pushing away of her hands much harder than a normal person would.

Once Raven finished speaking, it would take a few moments for the child to gain the courage to speak. "You promise? You promise this...adult won't beat me, won't starve me...won't..." She trailed off on the last one and didn't go back to complete it. Instead she looked at Raven with a pleading facial expression mixed with anxiety, but also a trace of hope.

(Yeah Adriannu has this interesting mix of independent/dependent behavior. Around most people she is extremely independent, but around those she likes and has affection for, she becomes extremely dependent. Emotionally that is.)

Multe looked down at the old broken-off handle and round disc she had just received from two young women. She squinted a bit, making a face, before she looked up and after the two, who had quickly taken off into the distance. She looked down again.

"I don't want this." Looking up, she shouted, "Hey! Humans! I don't want this!" They were too far away, however, and from the look of them they likely wouldn't take the shard back anyway. Multe sighed, and muttered a quiet, frustrated curse. From beside the smouldering remains of yesterdays fire, a dark-furred hare spoke up.

"They left a substantial amount of gold, wee goblin. You should thank them, maybe we'll actually get to eat something substantial. Or rent a room in town; I was never meant for sleeping on hard rock."

Multe ignored Nico, he always complained anyway. Besides, he wasn't wrong. They could get a decent meal and a clean-ish room for that gold. The humans had mentioned they were running from something, though.... and they seemed frightened.

She examined the handle closer, but other than the electrum edges she couldn't sense anything special about it. Her magic lay in common-work, though. She had never been good at magical objects.

Laying it down, she looked at the round disc. She had never seen anything like it before, and could not imagine how it could be carrying a message, like the women had said. She wondered at the slightly raised part, only partially aware of Nico sniffing the handle.

"Goblin.... this is big magic."

She scoffed. "Big magic? Thought you were learned in these things, Rabbit. Must be better words."

He rolled his strangely blue eyes, and was about to explain what he'd sensed when Multe's thumb accidentally pressed the button. The both startled, Nico scampering almost half a metre back, at the being that flickered into vision. That's too many tails, now was all Multe had time to think before the being spoke.

When he was done, the nisse and the hare shared a look. If a hare could grin, he would be doing it now, and big.

"A piece of the Bloodied Vase! Oh wee goblin, I knew sticking with you would be interesting! Now, the payment is blood, which should be easy enough...." Before Nico could attempt to pick up the shard with his mouth, Multe snatched it up and kept it out of reach.

"No! Absolutely not! I will not let you paint a target on our back for a little magical fun!"

The hare scoffed, "Very well, goblin, but you will share this reward with me, if we manage to live that long."

Beginning to pack up their meagre possessions of a sleeping sack, bow drill, some bowls and a waterskin, she thought about what they should do. She truly did not want a crazed, powerful hunter on her back, but to just abandon the shard... to thrust the responsibility on someone else, someone like Nico? She inadvertently shudders. No, she might as well. It's not like she had many plans, besides wandering. It would feel good to have some kind of purpose again.

Lisa hears the girl's footsteps recede from her and toward the light of the thinly-wooded hillside where they'd met. Toward Trilling Creek, as a matter of fact. She sighs, sad to see her go. Granted, there wasn't much to glean from that conversation aside from the fact that Evelyn is a strange girl in a dark place, but she must admit part of her enjoyed the unusual company.

Besides, she has a feeling they'll cross paths again, for better or worse.

Well, perhaps it's less of a gut-instinct and more of a pathetic feeling of hope, but regardless she promises to remember the mysterious girl with bright pink hair and a snowflake pin.

Now to finally find Raven. Lisa gives up calling out for her "kitty" and slinks silently through the woods, listening and looking carefully. Again, the idea of more shapeshifting crosses her mind. Hell, Raven might see her red-eyed lion face and dagger-like talons and come barreling out her hiding place, jaw hung open with excitement because only the most dangerously exciting thing could possibly drive Lisa to use her Chimeran gift.

Looks like she may not have to do that. Her ears prick toward the sounds of a solemn conversation muffled by distance and dense cover. One of the hushed voices sounds eerily familiar. Lisa can't pick out any of the words nor can she see anything at all, but she lets out a quiet "Aha!" and moves toward the noise. She approaches Adriannu's cave from behind the entrance, set to mount the earthen rise that forms its roof.

Raven’s voice falters when tears well in Adriannu's eyes. Oh, this is worse than I thought. A pang of sudden, impossible guilt weighs in her heart for even thinking of walking away. The cat hangs her head in shame just for a moment before raising her gaze ever so slightly to meet the child's quiet, pleading face.

“I promise. We- she won't hurt you.”

“Really, I promise." She tries a smile and a soothing mew, then tilts her head toward the cave's mouth. Every movement is slow as if she's trying to show that she won't simply run off. That she won't disappear as quickly as she'd come. "Now, would you like to follow me?"

Adriannu watched Raven with tearfilled eyes as waited to see if the cat would abandon her to her lonely solitude once more. Yet instead of walking away, the black cat looked rather ashamed of herself which brought a glimmer of hope to her damp eyes. However that look of shame would last only for a moment before Raven looked up slightly before promising that we...no the adult wouldn't hurt her.

The cat then tried to smile and gave a soothing mew while once again promising that she wouldn't be hurt by them. At this, Adriannu would wipe her tears away before offering a small and hopeful smile. "I'll follow, but if we are not coming back, then I need to need to pack first."

Should Raven confirm that they wouldn't be coming back, the child would get up and start to pack up what she could. The first thing to go in her pack was her bow drill as while she could make a new one, that would take time and fire was supremely important in the wild. Next she cleaned the knife she used for cooking before resheathing it and adding it to the bag. Neither the pot she had for boiling water or her two blankets would fit, but she had a way to pack them to. First the cat girl rolled a blanket as tightly as she could before using some stolen rope to tie it in place before repeating the process with the second one, but looped the rope around the handle of the pot first.

Now packed, Adriannu was free to follow Raven and quickly struck up a conversation as they traveled. Talking about a variety of things such as mentioning that she was ten years old, asking what Raven's favorite kind of meat was, if she had any good hunting tips to share and how much of the world had she seen amongst other things.

"I grow increasingly bored of all this! And quite frankly, man who is teaming with her, you chose the wrong team." She pulls out the gun she had stolen prior and aims it at Drakes hand, making sure she would not hit Neo if he managed to dodge it. She fires then searches for Victi.

(If this doesnt work then itll be deleted)

Raven nods. She lets the child pack, fighting the urge to cause mischief by diving onto the blanket as she rolls it or pawing at the loose rope. Refusing these easy energy outlets leads to her fidgeting, pacing, and mewing impatiently.

Finally! Adriannu is ready to go. She gallops out of the cave, turning to see her new friend following close behind.

Ignoring a frustratingly familiar scent- Make yourself known and tell me off; I dare you! -she happily chats with Adriannu.

She says she's ten. "I'm three! Er...maybe four."

What's her favorite kind of meat? "Fresh meat." She grins.

"Hunting tips? I dunno, you did pretty well stalking the pheasant."

"Oh...not much, but I have a story for you..."

Their conversation begins to shift to a darker and more or less relevant subject. "Oh."

"That's...I see."

"Hmm..." She falls silent and stops. Raven turns toward the way they came and calls out to someone hidden in the trees. "Did you hear any of that, you creep?"