The first thing the group could hear were shouts and a child
crying, then Silas swearing out loud in frustration. This was apparently not
where he wanted to end up. They were in the Foundation Narrkonis Atrium.
The Purple Order seemed to have taken over the evacuation proceedings. Parts of the
building were now only held by the wires that ran on the outside. A large dish
crashed into the room, taking down with it a crystal chandelier that splashed into water
upon hitting the floor. Silas grabbed the attention of a fellow monk. Xera and Eryn recognised her as the female twin.
Eryn had realised they had not returned since Chloe had been here. In the
back of his mind thought they had forgotten something and didn't want to risk
getting caught. He tried to disguise his presence by following the orders of
another monk who was helping the last of the occupants out. Xera on the other
hand recognised the opportunity and seized it. He presented Chloe to the twin. Chloe to Xera's luck, was still
wearing the earrings she had been given at the time she had visited. The woman
coughed and shook her head. She questioned why he was wanting to be so selfish
at a time like this. Chloe protested that she was still conducting research
which was instantly shot down by a single glance. The woman told Eryn if they wished to discuss this, they would have
Silas by now had gathered his bearings a little, grabbed
Chloe and dragged her to Eryn. He again was intrusive with his analysis of her
arm to the point where she felt on the borderline of being violated. He had
pulled up the sleeve of her dress and found that the crystals had started moving up
her arm, converting her at an alarming rate. This fact however seemed to please
Silas, although the vocabulary used was less positive bordering on apocalyptic. He wiped the sweat from
his brow with his chubby hand and traced
his finger over one line. He then apologised to her; not for his behaviour but
for the letter the Aeon Priest had sent him. She had been ready to attack but again
she was disarmed by an unexpected phrase. He then asked her how long had it
been since she had been in contact with the Heretic. She had no clue what he
was referring to, so he said the name again more slowly, with a clenched fist
this time. He kept demanding to talk to the Heretic yet Chloe knew nothing of
it. For a split second her concentration waned and she hissed at Silas. She immediately
covered up her mouth but Silas wasn't offended, no, he was pleased. He told the Herertic that it would pay for the sons and daughters it had stole from his family
before returning to analysing the arm.
Silas asked the Eryn, now referring to him as the Hawk-Eye, where the Needlepoint Rook was. Eryn swallowed through gritted teeth. He knew
his bearings, and finding his way wouldn't be difficult but traversing the city
which was under mortar fire from rock gardens as well as instability from the ground,
it was almost as bad as the prospect of facing the Hawk-Eyes themselves. In his eyes, he had not
proven himself accredited to the fame he had been given and would immediately
be rejected as a fraud. He had tried, in his own ways, to act befitting the Hawk-Eyes name their ethics mirroring some from his home Stead. He however remembered the things he had done, the
things he had had to do to survive in the city. It had warped him and his sense
of self and he did not feel worthy. Regardless of his worries he plotted a course forward. He had lead the group in one direction
basing his navigation on the now crumbling towers, however his usual waypoints had dropped from the sky, or had crumbled down. Another shockwave brought down
another boulder, smashing into the walkway they had just crossed. Chloe quickly dashed around the outside of the tower they were left next to, but there
was no escape off of the walkway around it. There was however two buildings over twenty feet away,
one with an open window, the other with a viable walkway. They had no choice
but to leave as quickly as they could, or the tower and the platform might collapse.
The open window was possible but there was no way for Chloe
to see the floor so that she could land, so the group hastily decided to go for the other option.
There was a problem that they had not taken into consideration, Silas. His
plump figure made even the boardwalk groan under his feat, and there was little possibility
that he would be agile enough to rope swing like Xera had elected to do. Eryn
had been playing with his halo of flame as he tried to figure out a possibility when he felt his fingers stiffen, as
though being pulled by strings into the fire. He tried to tear his hand away from the halo
but it kept drawing his hand back in. With an almighty grunt he freed his hand
and with it, a flame construct of a hand, big enough for him to stand
upon. As he scratched his head with the
freed hand, its actions were mirrored by the entity in front of him. He
thought to himself that this was a possibility, although he would have to keep
away from anything flammable. He brought
the hand over to the edge of the walkway and simply stepped on. The hand
floated across the open air, with Eryn refusing to look down into the abyss
below.
He quickly returned back onto the platform where he immediately took out the gray canister that had
been retrieved by Xera earlier and covered Silas' back with a thin coating of
foam. Eryn then picked Silas up with the hand on the back of his clothing by the collar and
tossed the plump man into a barrel on the other side. Unfortunately for Silas this wasn't the only
injury suffered as he had noticed the back of his head had had the hair singed
off. Chloe took a length of rope given to her by Xera and jumped with crystal
heels over to the other side. She tied to the rope off and the end was called
for by Xera for Chloe to bring it over. However, the end of the rope perked up like a charmed snake and slid through the air over to his hand. This had never happened before but
something about it felt right, almost natural. Xera hid his smile, this ability would
be highly beneficial when it would come to larceny later on. Eryn floated
across supported by his hand, spraying where he would land with his cannister so that the wood
would not catch fire. The ground started
to shake again as all had arrived of the other side. The vibrations was slowing loosening the walkway away from its couplings with the
tower. The group dashed for cover around the corner away from the now collapsing
building only to be confronted with a broken piazza, blocked by the torn and
bloodied figures of facsimiles of Neave.
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