The Forgotten Zodiac

((Oh, dear.))

"This'll do. It's working quite well, don't you think?"

"Ah, yes. You can see as well as I can."

The voices swan towards Bermuda as if through a thick layer of water. But he knew he was not submerged, for he was in his humanoid form. But he felt wet, all over, and his pulse thudded loudly, albeit weakly, in his ears. His too-heavy head struggled upwards in a vain attempt to entice his body to move, but he was immobilized.

"Ah, yes, at this rate, his tie to the spirit realm will be destroyed within the month. And then..." a dark chuckle, "No qualms about a public execution."

And Bermuda knew that he knew that voice, but he could not process the thought before it was burned away, and his body lurched as fire engulfed his nerves, and his throat expelled a raw scream. All he saw was white, and, for a few seconds, his hearing was completely clouded out.

Then,

"Yes. won't be long at all."

"Sire," Another voice wafted over Bermuda a few long moments later. This one wasn't even close to recognizeable. "We've located the demon prince. A squid-woman by the name of Bershee found him. She's demanding we pay a hefty price for him, but..." There was a small pause, then, "What should we do?"

((I dunno what's going on. I'll just go with it. 936))

((It was meant to be like that. Basically, Lucien and the other senators, who are power-hungry, want Bermuda out of the way, so they want to execute him for some reason that they'll make up to appease the public. They're not allowed to kill Spirit Charmers, though, so they are currently trying to split Bermuda and Adahre with some powerful magiks. And it doesn't feel good.))

"Kill her. We don't need such trouble. Just kill her and take the prince," Lucien returned.

Right, Lucien.

If Bermuda wasn't feeling in danger before, he certainly was now. He was with the senators... this could not bode well.

And Verolen...!

The prince tried once more to move, but failed. He could do nothing.

((I wouldn't imagine so.))

There was a long period of silence before anything else could be heard; and then, it was a bloodcurling sound that Bermuda had heard before. Verolen had just returned from the land of the dead.

"Get a gag on him!" Someone yelled.

"He'll bite my fingers off, are you crazy?! I tied his wrists, but that won't last long. Get the chains!" Another voice countered.

"V... Verolen!" Bermuda strained to call the prince's name. Half in the knowledge that that was the way to stop the screaming, half in the hopes that the demon prince would come to his senses, and help Bermuda out of this situation. As if in his response to his attempted call, the magic surrounding him pulsed again, and set Bermuda's nerves on fire; his scream quickly joined Verolen's.

((Bermuda's in one of the lower dungeons, in the royal palace. Other than that, just have at it. You're better at this than I am. ^^; ))

Lucien scowled, then waved his hand in the air, murmuring an incantation under his breath. Glowing golden threads leapt from the air and wound themselves around Verolen, some slipping into his mouth. "Hold still, would you?" the senator sneered.

((Ha, it's okay. : P Just keep goin'~ I'm just going to say that Bermuda is lying in a tub half-filled with magical water so that his face isn't covered, yeah?))

"Never!" Verolen snarled, coming to his senses enough to start fighting back. He managed to worm his pinkie around the thread, using his powers; they melted off of him and formed a long whip, which he attacked immediately with; but he was grabbed from behind by the same man that had dragged him here in the first place. He felt something sharp run through him, but oddly...it didn't hurt. His entire body was still numb, and though he felt the wound being formed, he was able to ignore it entirely. He grabbed the knife and wrenched it from his chest, using it to jab the man in the face; he fell back, dead at once.

Verolen was immediately tackled by two others, who pinned him to the floor. "Kill him again, something!" One of them snarled while Verolen thrashed and screamed.

Very suddenly, the room was flooded in a gas of some kind; there was more screaming, and the two men were thrown into Lucien. "You said you'd PAY ME, not try to KILL ME!" She screamed at them. When the gas cleared, it became obvious that she was mortally wounded; two of her tentacles had been sliced clean off, and there was a gash in her abdomen that was bleeding profusely and had what appeared to be a couple lines of her intestines hanging from it. She was shaking and tears ran down her cheeks in rivers, but she screamed and threw herself at them again, tackling all three of them at once.

((Poor squiddie.))

((Actually, it's a rune circle. A big, multi-one. Or something, yeah. What would be EASIEST is just get arachne in the room and have her cancel everything out. Alternately, Gabe could try to fix things, or Eve. Or Verolen, I suppose.))

Lucien screamed in rage, throwing up a light shield to protect himself. "Get them!" he stammered. He hurled a beam of power ((LOL I AM SO SORRY I COULDN'T HELP IT.)) at the squid lady, trying to kill her or, at least, get her out of the way until Verolen was under control. He shoved the two guards away from him, yelling, "Don't just stand there! Fight! Protect your lord!"

((Oh, okay.

I thought that Verolen would save him off the bat, but okay. xD They'll have to find some way to get to Bermuda quick, won't they?))

The guards were a little entangled at the moment; literally. Bershee was squeezing the life out of them, having caught them firmly in her tentacles. Her two free ones smashed into the light sheild repeatedly, crashing and banging and generally making a lot of noise.

((I'm good with him getting rescued now. All he's going to do is lay there.))

Lucien let out a yowl of rage, struggling to keep the barrier up. This currently took all of his attention, so he paid none to Verolen or Bermuda.

So, of course, Verolen scrambled over to his friend. There were rune circles everywhere, all chained together to the middle one, which Bermuda was lying in. Verolen yelped and cried out in pain as he tried to walk into it; it shocked him, badly. But again, the pain faded after only a second, and he forgot about it. Using that to his advantage, he pushed into the circle. He felt...giddy. Somehow he knew that the power of the runes were trying to hurt him, trying to keep him away. But he was practically invincible like this. He let out a short yelp as he felt something hit him from behind, propelling him forward; Bershee had thrown one of the guards at the rune circle, pleased when the guard in question screamed upon feeling the pain from the runes.

Verolen finally reached Bermuda's side, grabbing his friend by the ankle and somehow managing to drag him out of it. "Yo, squid-lady! You need help?" He yelled over the screaming. She wordlessly threw the second guard at Lucien, then grabbed Verolen and Bermuda both in her tentacles. She released another flood of gas and fled.

Before long, Verolen found himself submerged again. He tried to struggle desperately, but the squid woman slowly put something into his open mouth. He gasped desperately for air and coughed out water as he realized that he could breathe. It felt like a pearl in his mouth, from the size of it. "Lady, you're hurt, you need to--" He cut himself short, watching in shock as the squid-woman pushed her intestines back inside herself and murmured a healing spell, fixing the gash in mere seconds. Her tentacles had since stopped bleeding, and would grow back before long.

"My name is Bershee. I...had wanted to sell you for money. I'm poor and always struggling for food, but...while I was waiting to be paid, I had second thoughts. When they came in weilding swords, I...I dunno what came over me." She swam onwards, pulling Bermuda and Verolen into her arms so she could use all of her remaining tentacles to swim faster. Eventually, they reached a submerged cave that she settled in, taking Verolen up to the air pocket that she held trinkets and other shiny objects in. It was fairly large, and completely abandoned.

Bershee hefted Bermuda up onto the dry rock. "Breathe, my prince. Taste the air of freedom, and let me know that you're still alive in there."

The runes from the dark magic had emblazoned thenselves onto Bermuda's skin, and had the appearance of stinging welts. His face was pale and drawn, and it seemed that he was struggling to breathe, but he was conscious. His eyes were open in thin slits, his pupils gazing out at Bershee and Verolen. His lips moved, but no sound came. He shuddered, taking a deeper breath, and forced his voice to work.

"I'm... be... fine," he wheezed, his voice hoarse and strained from the months he'd spent screaming in the castle. He struggled with arms too weak to support him to get up and go back to the water, where he'd felt weightless and truly free, and in fact safer, but his mutinous limbs refused the command, and he resigned himself to laying limply on the rock Bershee had placed him on.

Not wanting to give in to the darkness of sleep yet, though it was inviting, he shifted his gaze steadily on Verolen, finding himself with many questions to ask the prince, but knowing that most of them would have to wait.

"You... okay?"

"I'm fine. A little...a little shaken, but fine." Verolen nodded, still awfully numb. "Go to sleep, Bermuda. Get better."

"Here," Bershee scooped him up again, carrying him to the back of the cave and gently lowering the prince into a pool. The water was fresh, cool and relaxing. She rummaged around for a bit before pouring a liquid of some kind on her tentacles, letting the runoff fall into the pool. "He'll get better faster like this."

Verolen nodded numbly, then tried to hand the pearl back to Bershee.

"Keep it, demon prince. I've heard a rumor that you don't know how to swim, and you fear water more than anything. Is it because you die so much in it?"

"Three hundred and fourty-six times..." Verolen swallowed hard, shuddering a bit. "I thought I would never breathe again. After the two-hundred mark, whenever I woke up, I would just cry and count the seconds until I died again."

"Well," Bershee sighed a bit. "Is it okay if I teach you how to swim? That pearl will last for as long as you keep it safe. Just don't try it in fresh water, it won't work in the slightest. But you really should learn how to swim. Your weakness is obvious right now, so it's best to be rid of it."

Verolen thought for a long while, then slowly nodded. He looked down at the pool Bermuda was in. "Will...will he really be okay?"

"Yes. I promise you. I wouldn't dare do anything to hurt the prince. Not all oceanicans are sided with the stupid senators, after all...they haven't locked all of us up yet."

((I like this lady, She's only been in here for like ten posts and she already has dramatic lines.

...I don't think Byrne's had any of those yet.))

Byrne had never seen the forest turn from winter to spring. He'd been either in a human city or with the Sirens since he was born, and now found everything in the forest new and vibrant and exciting.

I sound like a juvenile. was his next thought. He smiled to himself, then settled back against the Tree of Seasons, staring up at its strong, sturdy limbs.

"Think I could climb it, or would it drop me like you said trees used to do to Sylas?" he called to Aries a moment later.

((I was actually going to have her die later, but I guess I'll keep her. xDD

And oh, are we skipping ahead a few days?))

"It wouldn't just drop you. They dropped Sylas as a joke, but they never wanted to hurt him." Aries chortled. "Just be careful not to break any of the smaller branches. Damage to this tree, in large amounts, can be devastating to the rest of the forest." It was still cold, but the Tree of Seasons had since woken up. It had sprouted at least ten feet overnight. It would be even bigger tomorrow, Aries had informed them after pulling their tent back. Even as Arachne watched, she could see the leaf buds starting to slowly inch out of the branches. Soon, it would burst into green life. There was already a bird here, a large hawk nested at the very top

"Well," Arachne smiled as she watched. "Winter's come and gone, and only a handful of raiders attacked."

"That handful could have killed this tree easily if we hadn't been here," Aries said confidently.

"Oh no, I know." Arachne nodded seriously. "Should we call Gabe and tell him and Sylas and L'arc that the tree woke up?"

((You can kill her if you want, I'm not too attached. Not like I am to widdle Verdi.

And sure, time-skip's fine.))

"I would think that L'arc would know," Eve said, watching as Byrne leapt to his feet and started scrambling up the tree trunk. "I mean, he can sense it, can't he? Or something like that, I thought you said?" she asked, now turning to Aries as she awaited an answer.

((Heh, she might come in handy later, so I'll hold off.))

"Maybe. He'll definitely start feeling less tired soon, but he's a little further out than we want. It might be worth it to call," Aries shrugged. "Whatever gets Gabe to me faster, I suppose."

"Calling and making sure they know would make it go faster," Arachne giggled.

"Stop being happy," Rush groaned from inside the tent, and Aries could tell from the sounds that he was forcing himself to stretch. He had been getting better, but it was a very slow process. "Why are you so happy, Arachne?"

"Um..." She had to stop and think about that one. Finally, she smiled and nodded. "I know why. It's because my brother isn't dead anymore. He's not dead or dying."

((She can replace Israel in the circus. She needs the money, right? ))

Eve turned to Arachne, a smile on her face. "Really, you can tell? That's great! ... you wouldn't happen to know where he is, though, would you?" she asked.

((Pfft, no. Bershee is too proud for that. xDD Ela can find others, don't worry.))

"No..." Arachne shook her head sadly. "And we can't teleport to them either way, because I'm here." She sighed, then shrugged. "It doesn't matter. I just know that he's okay."