Eruditis felt his spirits slowly but distinctly lifting. With so many Exalted on the journey, how could it possibly fail? Stamping down his cursed optimism, he said, "Very well. Yrudit will show you to your rooms. There is no time to waste. Your quest shall begin at dawn."

At that, Yrudit rose and beckoned them towards the exit.

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Landen nodded, and he rose, followed by Kjiro, and follwed Yrudit.

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You may (or may not) know me elsewhere as Elfpen

Alistina exited, feeling nervious. She wasn't so sure of herself with this upcoming mission, quest, thing...

~~~~~

Darnel followed Yrudit, falling behind the group...

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(}--{)Imagination Inspires Ideas -Zandain(}--{)
Married Cloud Strife 9/17/08

Rising mutely, Raina and Rylin followed the group at large, and Varna fell in step behind them.

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Silvryn, running a hand over the map, was one of the last to exit, accompanied by Aedha, who was looking quiet and troubled.

Kiarryn rose numbly. She had not specified whether or not she would be going - and as of yet she herself did not know. Return to the desert meant facing her past, and to stay behind meant facing the fact that she was a coward, too afraid of her own memories to assist even this greatest of causes.

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Midnight's hour descended upon the pyramidal bastion that was Zheariv. Midnight - the hour of deceit.

The two assassins that stole through the Order's alabaster halls felt nothing, thought nothing. They were automatons, tuned only to one intent alone: Kill.

Their chill breaths came in sepulchral wafts as they glided through the shadows. Their blood-red robes fluttered about their insubstantial frames. As they passed below a window, moonlight glinted upon their sole talismans - identical pendants that hung around their necks. If one looked closely, one would notice the curious design engraved upon their obsidian surfaces - that of an encircled X.

As if joined by mind, the two shades halted in the corridor housing the guests. They exchanged impersonal glances.

In authority first...

Silvryn...

...Penfire...

Dead.

They parted, one drifting to Silvryn's door, the other to Penfire's. A quietly spoken hiss, and both passed directly through the doors like tendrils of mist.

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Tal sat cross-legged on his bed, watching the flickering candle flame in front of him. He would be more tired than normal in the morning, but not for long--one of the bonuses of having the gift of Healing was that you healed yourself of a lot of the weariness that would normally plague other people. As for now, he was still contemplating the idea of his people being at risk. At this time of year, the Fhaji tribe was most likely in the region Eruditis had pointed out on the map, but while they weren't his tribe, if the plague moved on from them, his own tribe was only a little further away.

One of the many ornaments hanging from the ceiling suddenly moved, and he glanced up quickly, his eyes locking onto it. The snake-shaped decoration turned so that the head was pointing off past the door, in the direction of the other's chambers--his room was the first in the hall--but then it moved again, pointing at a slightly different angle. It shifted back and forth between the two points as though unable to determine which one to stay with, and Tal sprang to his feet, grabbing his saif as he headed for the door.

Once in the hall, he ran down it in the direction the ornament had been pointing. As nearly as he could tell, it was either Silvryn's room, Penfire's room, or the rooms of Raina and Rylin. If he didn't guess which ones first, there would be two murders to deal with that would have unpleasant consequences.

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Half-asleep, yet still sitting at the desk in his given quarters, Rylin rubbed one hand across his eyes, in an attempt to clear his blurring vision. Sleep.. his mind was urging quietly, yet insistently, but he ignored it as he dipped his quill in the inkwell again. Too much remained to write down, but he had to try..it would probably be the only record he managed to make before the Malre Divh caught up with him again. Just as he set quill to parchment again, he swore he heard running footsteps a fair distance down the hall.

What in the world..? was his first thought, as he laid his hand on the hilt of the sword still belted at his waist, and, standing up, he headed straight for the door and opened it just enough to look out into the wide hallway.

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Silvryn had fallen asleep in a chair by her window, her slender frame draped over it and black locks falling around her pale oval face like tendrils of the night sky outside the window. She did not stir even as footsteps echoed faintly in the hall. One long-fingered hand still grasped a map and a quill had fallen from the other, as though in mid-plan she had been overcome with exhaustion.

Aedha slept in the adjoining room, a troubled expression on her face even in slumber, but neither did she wake.

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Penfire, who was in the room across the hall from Silvryn, sat on the bed, a book in hand. He read from a lamp on the bedside table. It was one of his favorite novels, and the book was worn, and some of the pages stained and ripped.

Suddenly he felt the hairs at the back of his neck stick out, and a chill ran down his back. Automatically his hand went to the hilt of his sword wich lay next to him. He called out to Silvryn.
Silvryn... can you hear me? Wake up! Somethings not right!

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(}--{)Imagination Inspires Ideas -Zandain(}--{)
Married Cloud Strife 9/17/08

Yrudit had never been a sound sleeper, and when he heard the quiet footsteps outside, he jerked awake. His forked tongue instantly shot out, tasting the air... cold? Jolted to vigilance, he slipped on his azure robes and climbed out of bed.

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The shades, both in their respective victim's bedchamber, drifted in and out of the moonlight filtering through the windows like tendrils of insubstantial mist. Though each was in a completely different room, their movements were in concert, as if connected by degenerated purpose.

At the exact same time, they both glided into position behind their victims. At the exact same time, they both thrust out their skeletal fingers.

Skeletal fingers... pushed onward... onward... towards the back of their victims' necks...

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"Penfire..." murmured Silvryn in her sleep, violet eyes flickering open. "Nothing's wrong..."

But suddenly she was aware of a cold aura behind her and years of training forced the Princess into action. In an instant she had sprung from the chair with an inadvertant cry and the hilt of her lady's sword was in her hand - one of the many uses of telekinesis. Blinking sleep from her eyes, Silvryn could not determine whether the apparition behind her chair was of a dream or of reality, but one thing was certain. Her sword was of no use, and her many attributes, mind control and healing among them, did not appear to be either.

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Tal spun on his heel--a cry had come from Silvryn's room. He didn't bother trying to fumble with the handle of the door or break it down. With a burst of flame, he burned it to the ground.

He dashed in through the anteroom, past a frightened and obviously lseepy Aedha, and burst into the princess's chamber. It probably wasn't a good thing to do all the time, breaking into a lady's room like that, but there wasn't much time to waste. Silvryn stood with her back to the wall and her sword in her hand, but neither would help her much against the shade.

He raised his hand, and a stream of fire burst from it, sweeping through and around the creature, enveloping it in flame.

To his disappointment, though, the flame didn't seem to harm the shade. No shades lived in the Desert of Abyth, or rather none of his people had ever encountered one before, so he had no idea how to kill it. Still, it did seem to be kept back a little bit by the unending stream of fire.

"Step back--my use of the flame cannot hold it back much longer before it realizes it isn't harmed by it," he said over his shoulder as he himself took a step back towards the door.

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(sorry I would have posted sooner but my computer messed up so I had to start a new user but I'm still going to play Eryn just as my old user Helena)

Eryn jumped from bed sword in hand and hear yelling down the hall she ran down and saw the shade she had encountered them before but had no ideahow to kill it

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"Is all that we see or seem in a dream, but a dream?" -Edgar Allen Poe

[: ? # = $ ^ ~ +]


Normal is for Muggles!

((Ok... Quick Q about telekinesis... I know (obviously) That they can move things with their mind and all... But do they have to use their hands to direct it? And can they repel things? And (last one) Can said 'thing' be a somebody? Sorry... I assume that you guys are basing it off of Xmen, and well... I havn't seen that movie.))

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You may (or may not) know me elsewhere as Elfpen

Actually, I don't ever base it off of X-men. I just base it off of...I don't know what.

For Telekinesis, if you can move stuff with your mind, as I see it, using your hands is just like a visual aid--you don't need to do it, but it helps when you're more inexperienced, and later on it becomes habit.

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