The Forgotten Zodiac

Arachne had already been cornered just short of the encampment. She was defenseless; she skipped around attacks with blade, but she soon found herself under assault of fist and foot, which didn't fare well with her at all. By the time Israel caught sight of her, she was curled in a defensive position with her arms over her head and knees curled up to her chest. Her attackers stood around her, attempting to decide what to do with the bruised and battered girl.

Verolen hesitated still. Finally, he placed a hand on Dysonius' chest, letting loose his pain-inducing magic. Dysonius screamed, but bit back on it and settled for pained groans every few moments while he grinned at Verolen. The demon reacted by pumping more into the human, but he flinched back when Dysonius screamed again.

"L-like I'd ever tell you...anything..." Dysonius spluttered, laughing once the pain had stopped.

Israel let out a screech, and, instead of attacking the humans, who outnumbered him, simply grabbed Arachne and lifted into the sky, hurrying to get away from the reach of their hands and bows.

L'arc tried to do his part by tightening the hold of the vines around Dysonius, making them cut into his legs and arms. Bermuda was next to L'arc, trying to pursuade the Dryad to sit Sylas down and let the Naiad take another look at him.

Arachne screamed at first, but quickly realized who it was. She curled into her servant's grip, sobbing into his shirt. The humans below followed on foot, not having bows on hand to shoot with.

Dysonius winced as his bandaged arm was squeezed, but he just kept laughing. Sylas' eyes were open again, though he stared blankly ahead and just laid there limply. "Sylas," Dysonius called. "Oh, Sylas! Get up, boy." He grinned in satisfaction as the human squirmed out of L'arc's grip, staggering forward. He collapsed on the ground in front of Dysonius, breathing heavily. He clearly wasn't in his right mind at all, but apparently Dysonius knew exactly what was going on. "This is the chance you've b-been waiting for, isn't it? N-now...get up and kill me!" Dysonius laughed.

Surprisingly, Sylas staggered to his feet again, apparently barely able to keep himself standing. He looked around with bleary eyes for a weapon, his eyes falling on Verolen's sword.

"No, Sylas, we need him alive!" Verolen yelped, transmuting his sword back into a harmless cloak before the human could take it. "What are you even thinking? Come on, snap out of it!"

"Kill him," Sylas breathed, his voice hardly more than a whisper. "I have to...he ordered me to..."

Israel, not wanting to lead the humans back to where the others were, stopped when he realized that they were following him. He hovered a few feet above their reach, looking unsure of what to do. He rubbed Arachne's back, murmuring to her soothingly. "It's all right, they can't reach us," he said, flying up a few more feet for good measure. "Where should we go?" he murmured, mostly to himself and not Arachne.

L'arc directed his gaze to Sylas. "Stop it, we need him alive!" he repeated. He knew that trying to hold Sylas back with vines wouldn't work, not only for the reason that he was already using a good amount of power to hold Dysonius in place, but because Sylas could just as easily command the vines to do as he wanted them to. ((hinthint.))

Arachne whimpered. "Tirattle," She sniffed. "I hear music coming from there." She stated, though no music could be heart. Tirattle was miles upon miles away, at that... "It's very nice music, I want to hear it closer..."

Sylas coughed weakly, his knees threatening to buckle underneath him. He turned his head, looking at the others while he went limp, his arms hanging beside him. He remained on his feet though, and his stance made him look a little...maniac. When he decided that he wouldn't get any closer to a weapon, he looked at the vines with a small gurgle from the back of his throat.

"Crush him," He said, speaking to the vines. They obeyed at once, wrapping all the tighter around Dysonius' chest and limbs. Bones snapped, Dysonius screamed until he couldn't any longer. He looked at Sylas, heaving in a final breath. He said two more words. "Kill them," And then there was a final crack. Loud and obvious; Dysonius' neck. The human went limp, dead, though the vines kept squeezing and wringing absolutely any life out of him.

Sylas looked back at the others, but his body gave out on him. He collapsed again, but he didn't get up this time. There was still a lot of internal damage, more than Bermuda had been able to reach in the few seconds of the spell that he had used.

"Uh, okay, okay," Israel nodded. He strained his ears, but even he could not hear it. "This way, right?" he asked, winging off to the north.

"No, Sylas, no, why did you do that?!" L'arc shouted, anger working onto his features. He hurried over and began to shake Sylas ineffectually, before Bermuda made him stop. The Oceanid Prince took up his heal staff again, using his magic to sense where Sylas was the most hurt, before getting to work.

L'arc whirled to Verolen. "Why didn't you stop him? What are we supposed to do now?"

Eve bit her lip. "On the plus side, this really only leaves your father as our main targe--" she trailed off as L'arc sent her a blatent 'i feel like killing something and if you don't shut up it will be you' face.

"Yes," Arachne nodded. "This way." She looked behind them, down at the humans. She trembled and buried her face in Israel's shirt again, holding onto him for dear life.

"What was I supposed to do, run Sylas through again?!" Verolen snapped back. "I don't know what we're supposed to do! Didn't you grab some of the papers that were on and in Dysonius' desk? They might have had information on where Byrne and Verdi were sold to! That would have spared us from any of this!" He snapped, frowning. He quickly calmed himself down, closing his eyes for a moment. "L'arc, just calm down. Did you hear what Dysonius ordered last?" He looked down at the barely-conscious human. "He might be trying to kill us next..."

"We were trying to get out of there alive, that was hard enough, wasn't it?" L'arc hissed back. He took pause as Verolen mentioned Sylas. "Sylas wouldn't harm us. He wouldn't. We're a family, all of us, and we have to find Byrne and Verdi," L'arc fumed, beginning to pace back and forth.

"I concur about Byrne and Verdi, but Sylas wouldn't heartlessly kill someone, either." Verolen objected. He looked over at Dysonius. "I'm not sure what was done to Sylas, but he just pretty much heartlessly killed Dysonius."

"VCF says that he's seen something like this before." Rush spoke up. "It's a form of hypnotism...it has something to do with driving the victim to the point of death and then hypnotizing them. Every time they're put into similar conditions, they follow orders mindlessly...VCF says he'll look for something to fix it, but it'll take a little bit."

"So, when he wakes up..." L'arc looked to Rush to finish the sentence. He certainly didn't think Sylas would harm anyone, but Verolen had a point - the evidence was right before them. Bermuda looked over the group.

"Well, we're really no closer to finding Byrne and Verdi now, are we?" he asked. He sighed. "We might try going back to the camp, but after that fiasco, I doubt that's a good idea..."

"When he wakes up, he will indeed try to kill us. May I suggest tying him up?" Rush said thoughtfully. "Perhaps chain him, even..."

"At this point, I suggest we retreat and try to figure out what to do now." Verolen sighed. "And what you said earlier, about my dad being the only one for us to focus on now? Yeah...he'll find others. Just you wait and see."

L'arc opened his mouth to protest, but could think of no reasonable alternative. he clamped his mouth shut and nodded once. "Verolen transmute your cape into something that'll hold him still. I'll carry him," he said.

"Where to?" Bermuda asked. He took pause, then frowned, saying, "Wait, shouldn't Israel be back with Arachne by now?"

Verolen nodded, transmuting his cape at once. It wrapped tightly around Sylas, tightening around his body to the point where he could breathe, but not move. "I don't know," He said, looking around at the skies above them. "I don't see him...maybe he was seen?" He bit his lip, shaking his head. "I dunno..."

Bermuda reached for his sending stone. "Did Israel have a stone with him? No, that's right, he gave his to Verdi..." the naiad thought a moment, then turned to Verolen. "What about Arachne? Is there some way you might be able to... I suppose the word I'm looking for is detect. Can you detect her somehow? Selkies can sense their kin, can demons do that?" Bermuda asked.

"Not...not really," Verolen said, thinking hard. "But Arachne is like a black hole of magics. I think we can try and sense magic in a wide area, and look for a spot with absolutely no magic whatsoever."

"That makes sense. There's always some magic or another floating about in the air," Rush said, looking around. "But if there's no magic, that means either it's some polluted human gathering, or Arachne. We should be able to find them, at least."

Bermuda nodded. "Good idea," he said.

L'arc lifted Sylas. "Well, I'll be no help with that. Have at it, you guys," the drayad said.

Bermuda began to mutter under his breath, apparently talking to Adahre. His spirit would help him project his magic over a wider area. Eve also seemed to be concentrating, from where she stood by Aries.

Rush started concentrating at once, starting to pace. His powers were earth and ground typed, he was able to send out a wave of searching magic through that. The problem was, Israel was probably flying with Arachne, which meant that Rush wouldn't be the one finding them. Definitely not.

Sylas groaned, opening his eyes ever so slightly.

L'arc looked down as Sylas stirred, concern ebbing onto his face. "Sy?" he called. "You... you okay, there?" he asked.

"...I'm not getting anything," Eve said, looking up. "How about, you, Rush? Bermuda?"

"Shh!" Bermuda hushed her quickly, still trying to concentrate.

Sylas didn't move much, just staring up at L'arc. "No. Not okay." He murmured, blinking slowly. "You're...alive. Not okay. I have to..." He shuddered a bit, closing his eyes again. "Can't..."

"I spotted a gap," Rush frowned. "But it was hazy. Not on the ground. I can see pretty far, but only through the ground. After just a small distance, I can't see much. Anyways...I kind of saw a hole, but it wasn't clear at all, and it was moving too quickly for me to pin it."

L'arc patted Sylas's head once, not sure what to do to make him better. He glanced up as Bermuda spoke.

"Okay, I think I know where they are," he said. "They're moving pretty fast, but they're headed north. If I can warp us ahead of them, maybe we can intercept wherever they think they're going," he said. He motioned for them to cluster up around L'arc and Sylas. "Come on, let's go before they get themselves into trouble."

((I want so badly for thems to get into trouble. But I suppose we probably should find Byrne and Verdi first. Unless Israel and Arachne would be taken to the same place as Byrne and Verdi. Which I really hope is a testing facility, BTW. ))

Israel looked down at Arachne. "Are you okay?" he asked softly, slowing his pace a little now that they were far removed from any humans that could hurt them.