The Forgotten Zodiac

((xD Ha, that would be funny. Will not happen, of course, but a very funny thought. x3))

Cynyr smirked a bit and moved his hand out, allowing a certain little Spectral to crawl over to Werr and curl up against his neck, holding on tightly. They ate and had good, typical discussions, and everyone just seemed at ease. Seria, Lexi and Luna all had a good time talking to each other, and Cynyr gave Werr a nudge under the table. "They're all getting along. That's a good sign," he said, flicking his tail.

Welk looked over at Lexi questioningly, keeping his head resting against Werr's neck.

((Someone else might do it in the third book. o3o))

"Yes, it's good indeed." Werr smiled slightly, sighing as he watched Lexi chatter. Werr, however, looked back at Cynyr. "But we can't stay for too much longer. That puts everyone here in danger...have you seen the clouds? They followed us from the desert. It's not Obelisk causing those clouds..." He looked down at Cynyr's bag, where the Artifact was kept. "He'll be after us. You know that, right? We have to go on the offensive before he gets a chance to..."

Cynyr nodded, then said "We both should go outside and work with this thing. I have a feeling that Malice knows how to use the other one already, so we should train hard. I have a basic idea of how to work it already; it's all in thought. If you command it, it usually follows through. It does sting quite a bit, though, and that can lead to it hurting pretty bad. Probably because we're just mortals." He smiled a bit, then let his smile fade and said "I'm already done eating anyways. I'll meet you outside, 'kay?" He stood and ruffled Werr's hair, then headed out, already digging down into his bag.

((Also, after school today, we're gonna do it. We're gonna fix the ending to Darkness Rising. I havez idearz, so...yepyep.))

"Alright," Werr nodded a bit, then quickly ate the rest of his food. He quickly told Sylas where they were going; at this time, it would be foolish to go somewhere without someone else knowing.

When he was finished, he was quick to hurry outside to join Cynyr. The dragons had already moved a bit away, so there was no danger in hurting them. Werr did take note of the fact that Obelisk was there, though. Not saying anything, just sitting off to the side and watching.

"Right, what should we try first?" Werr questioned.

((Also also, the Artifact is split into two halves; The right hand creates, the left destroys. If I'm not mistaken, we have the left hand, which would prevent Obelisk from gaining his old body no matter what. Which is why he must wait until Malice is defeated.))

((Yepyep. :3

We have the right one, actually. I went back and checked, and it makes a bit more sense. If they had the destroying one, Cynyr couldn't have formed Welk's Spectral form. Maybe they can only form true bodies when they're used together?))

Cynyr put his hand into the gauntlet and flexed his fingers, then said "For now, I'm just going to see what it does. Then you take a turn." He swung his arm slowly out, closing his eyes and concentrating. Immediately, tall vines shot up out of the ground and followed the gauntlet, halting where they were when Cynyr stopped thinking about them. "Wow," he said, carefully poking at the vines.

((True, and Obelisk will have to destroy his current body somehow. xD))

Werr felt the thick vines, blinking in surprise. He took the guantlet when Cynyr handed it to him. He was a bit hesitant, but he thought quickly. A soldier rose from the ground, constructed entirely of stone, sword in hand and taking up a fighting stance as Werr moved the glove. One after another, more arose; five in total, before Werr ripped the gauntlet off of his hand and let it fall to the ground, whipping his hand around as though he had been burned. "Ouch...you were right, it hurts..." He muttered, rubbing his palm with his other thumb.

((Now...I go!))

Cynyr patted Werr's shoulder, then picked up the gauntlet and took his turn. He spun in a quick circle and vines shot up out of the ground, forming a solid, thick shield around the panther that felt like it was made of solid stone. The vines were unmoving until Cynyr finally ordered them aside with the gauntlet, and he was able to work with it a bit more before he had to put it down, his hand stinging badly. He rubbed it, flexing his fingers for a moment before putting it back on and doing it again. This time, Zephyr agreed to pose as a target and Cynyr used the vines to pull him to the ground, pinning him so thouroughly that the dragon couldn't get back up until the panther released him.

((Nooooooooooo! -glomp- My bunnyyyyyyyyyy!))

"Hmm..." Werr looked down at the guantlet as it was handed to him. "Hey, Obelisk! I want to try something," He turned to the dark being, smiling slightly in spite of the look Cynyr gave him. Obelisk slowly stood, moving away from the wall of the castle. Werr raised the guantlet, but nothing seemed to happen.

"That's...weird." He blinked, frowning slightly.

"If you're trying to kill me, you should know that it doesn't work like that." Obelisk explained quietly. "You have the right hand. 'Right Hand of the Goddess', as some call it. Creation limited only by the fact that you cannot create or recreate life. Destruction falls to the left hand, which Malice has. The only restriction on that is that he cannot destroy two things; firstly, the right hand. For the left hand to ruin the right would be nonsense. Secondly, it cannot touch that which has been blessed by the Titans, as they have an older magic than even fairies. The only two I know of who would survive an attack from Malice now would be Kiraki and myself. Kiraki being a child of Beoth and myself...being a guinea pig for some sick titan's immortality spells. Leviathan, if I'm not mistaken. So...you can't kill me like that. Thank you for trying, though."

"Oh. Well then..." Werr tried something different. In mere seconds, Obelisk was wearing a regal robe, black and red in color, complete with a hood that draped low over his face. "There. That looks better than all the bandages, at least."

"...wonderful. Thank you." Obelisk snorted, though whether he was being sarcastic or not, Werr couldn't tell.

Cynyr watched quietly, then gave a slight smile. "Maybe we should use it on Malice. He could use a new look. Maybe we'll give him a pink robe; perhaps he'll die of embaressment." He chuckled, then said "A suppose you can create almost anything with that. I was able to capture Welk's escaping soul with it. That has to be something." He glanced at the Spectral still sleeping on Werr's shoulder, just making sure he was still there. Little Welk was draped over his friend's shoulder, holding on tightly to his clothes. Cynyr smiled a bit, then said "It would take a lot more than that to give him his old self back, though. I miss it."

"Technically speaking, though, you could recreate Welk's body." Obelisk pointed out.

"I don't want that." Werr shook his head at once. "I don't. I want Welk to be in his real body. In the one Malice stole. Not some copy of him."

"That's what I'll never understand about you people. Malice made you a clone of Werr." Obelisk recalled from two years back. "One that functioned exactly like him. I kept the real one. Just barely kept Malice from killing him; not out of caring, just a bit of rebellion. But you...you wanted the real one back. Even though the clone had all of Werr's memories and would probably never turn on you or anything of the sort."

"It's not..." Werr shook his head. "It's not the same..."

"You're right. Malice and I, we can't create life. Those clones are just shells. The souls are different people, their own memories torn away and replaced with whatever he wants. I create other people - Dark, for example - without the memories. They make their own. It's not too complicated, you see, but the clones aren't actually Werr. Not that you realized that until I told you. Regardless...I'm going back to my game. See you later." He turned and shuffled away, frowning still.

Cynyr listened quietly and watched as Obelisk walked off, then sighed and turned to keep working with the gauntlet. He made two warriors out of the ground and made them duel, trying to keep ahold of both at the same time. He finally let them go and turned, noting that Welk woke up. The tiny Spectral shifted and lifted his head, brushing against Werr's cheek in the process. He rubbed his eyes, then carefully floated off of Werr's shoulder and turned in midair to look at him.

"Good," Werr watched Cynyr for awhile, then looked up at Welk. "Are you doing okay? You still look tired...do you need to eat anything in this form? Drink anything?" He questioned, obviously worried. "We can get you something. Anything." He asked, desperate to help his friend feel better. He hated feeling useless.

Welk smiled weakly and moved forward, hovering in front of Werr's face. He gently touched his miniscule hands to Werr's nose, closing his eyes and putting his forehead against Werr's. He didn't say anything, just floated quietly like that, then slowly drifted up and hung from some of Werr's hair, sighing lightly.

Werr focused on his Spectral friend, sitting down slowly. "Sorry, Cynyr...I know we need to train, but..." He sighed, raising a hand and stroking Welk with a single finger. "Do...you still have your cat form? I can scratch you behind the ears a bit, if you want..." He offered slightly, smiling a bit. "I know you like that. I miss it."

Welk shook his head sadly as Cynyr said "I don't mind. Spend time with Welk. I'll work." Welk watched him as he went back to work, pausing to rub his hand once in a while. Welk turned back to Werr, saying weakly "I can't. I don't have it anymore, I...I think. Um..." He slid down into Werr's hand, concentrating hard. His ghost tail flickered and shifted, seeming to sometimes split from his body as he closed his eyes and really worked hard. Slowly, he managed to form the basic shape of actual legs, then gasped and flopped down on Werr's hand, panting. "That's...as much...as I can do..." he whimpered.

"It's okay," Werr reassured his dear friend, shaking his head. "Don't push yourself too far, Welk. You'll get them back when you get your body back, I'm sure of it. And if you don't, we'll use the Artifact to make your lion form again. Easy." He smiled weakly, then sighed heavily. "I swear, this will never happen to you again, either..."

Welk slowly stood up, balancing carefully on Werr's hand and holding tightly to his thumb. He soon had to take his ghost tail back, too exhausted to keep up the legs. He curled around Werr's fingers, saying "It's okay, Werr. Don't blame yourself for anything, please. It wasn't you..."

"I'm not," Werr said firmly, shaking his head. "But I'm sorry this ever happened to you in the first place. And it won't happen again because we're going to kill Malice. I'm not blaming myself," He smiled at his friend again. "I've learned my lesson. Not everything is my fault. Sure, I'm kind of useless, but that's why I have good friends to help me with that. That's why I have Cynyr, and Seria, and Nate, Ophile, Forin, Luen...even Obelisk. And you. You helped me so much before...now it's my turn to do whatever I can to help you. We'll get your body back. We will."

Welk looked weakly up at his friend, then slowly floated up and settled against his neck again, where he felt the most comforted and safe. He sat up for a while, running his tiny hand over Werr's jaw and neck, then suddenly pressed his head close and cried quietly. Everything hurt so badly in this body, and Werr's words had made him feel very good and very sad at the same time.

Werr held his friend close, not wanting to move or let go.

Nate seemed to be playing the same sort of game as Obelisk, although his was more with purpose. He was patrolling the long hallways; he was still the Head Guard, after all. He had been quick to move the other guards around, give them positions around the castle, so that the moment anything happened, all of them would know.

Nate was a bit lost in thought, as usual. He was worrying for Tasia, of course, but also thinking about how they were going to make ends meet for Malice. It was a bit concerning; he had one half of the Artifact now. They had Werr back, certainly, but at a disastrous cost. Nate wasn't wondering if it was worth it or not - he was wondering how they would manage to bring Malice down now.

With all his thinking, it was a no-brainer that he would run into something eventually. He stopped when he bumped into Seria, then smiled when he realized who it was. "Sorry. Thinking."