The Forgotten Zodiac

Isslia wailed and knelt over him, as did Werr. Forin instantly curled himself up around Diana, blocking her view of her wound and making her look up at him. Someone else was wailing too; Cyprus. He hated it when other people were suffering, he hated it with all of his being. And he couldn't do anything this time. He could barely move around. The healing spell before had been hard enough on his systems.

"Seria, get Welk first," Forin growled, soothing Diana to where she wasn't screaming quite so much. Indeed, the damage to Welk was much greater, and needed immediate medical attention. "Luen, ice her leg to stop the bleeding and numb it. Please. Werr," He looked over his shoulder at the human. "Panic is not helping."

"No. It's not." Werr stood with a sigh. "Ophile, get that door shut. We have to assume that Obelisk was taken down, and might not be able to get up again without our help. Who all is missing?" He did a swift headcount. "Right...Zelana, Cern, Marion, Dmitry and Lexi..."

"Zelana flew off not too long ago." Carlyle put in. "She didn't return. I was waiting, but she hasn't turned up yet."

"Okay, so she might be safe...only one less to worry about, though." Werr frowned, eying each door in turn. Gual wouldn't attack them head on. He would pick at them one by one, cause panic to spread throughout them, weaken them until they could be struck down. "How did he vanish like that?"

"It was shadow magic. I know it was." Ophile said quickly.

"He wasn't doing that before..." Werr growled in frustration. "Okay, fine. Nate, Ophile, Carlyle and Luen, I need eyes on every corner. Every shadow. Isslia, I need you to find as many candles and light sources as you can from the kitchen. You spent most of your time today in there, you know where the candles are, right?" He questioned. She nodded. "Cynyr, go with her. Get as many as possible."

Everyone leapt into action, carrying out his orders. Luen placed his bony hand gently over Diana's leg, numbing it neatly with his powers. Seria darted to Welk, who was still spasming with electricity, and began syphoning the charges out of him and into the ground, where it fizzed out. He shuddered and moaned, twitching heavily as she pried his hands away from his stomach, which was a fight in itself. His hands seemed locked in their curled, twisted position, and Werr had to help her pry the half-cat's hands away. She was quick to seal the wound, then move onto Diana.

Cynyr dipped his head and moved off with Isslia, as silent as the shadows themselves.

The kitchen was just a short hallway away from the main room. Isslia carefully poked her head out of the door, peering around this way and that. The entire house was dark...someone had closed the thick curtains, and blown out the candles that Fawn normally had lit here and there. Isslia carefully stepped out, then hurried down the hallway and into the kitchen. The kitchen itself was just as dark; the stove was dripping with water that Gual had obviously poured in to smother the flames. Isslia scurried over to the cabinets, pulling out a box filled with large candles with thick wicks that would produce a good amount of light. Which was what they needed. Isslia checked for another box, but couldn't find any. With Cynyr following close behind, she did the routine again; she checked the hallway before stepping out.

Fat lot of good that did.

She froze suddenly, then dropped the box, choosing instead to hold her head. She wailed as she felt great pressure on her skull; memories started popping up in her head, and somehow she knew that someone was watching them. It happened to Cynyr, too. When it all passed, there was a low, hissed voice, "I see..." Isslia whipped around, spotting the man in the hallway. She watched in horror as he started walking towards them. Isslia screamed and snatched up the box, running into the main room again, where it was safe.

"Iss...li...a..." Welk stammered, still twitching once in a while from the pain. His nerves felt fried, to be honest. He couldn't reach out to her, however. It hurt too much to move.

Luen bent and rested a hand gently against his forehead, and Welk immediately sighed heavily in relief. His chilled fingers felt so good against his heated skin, like they were chasing away the pain. Luen stroked his fingers softly down Welk's face and neck, over and over, until he was able to slip into unconsciousness comfortably.

Isslia scurried over to Werr quickly, dumping the box into his hands and running back to sit next to Welk. She transformed into animal form, squirming around to act as a pillow for her master.

Werr set the box down and got several of them out, using the candles currently in the room to light those. He set them up strategically, making sure the corners were well lit. He even opened the door of the grandfather clock and set a candle inside it. But he didn't expect the spot Gual came from next. Who the heck would expect a strange attacker to come from underneath a couch?

But he didn't hit anyone. Rather, he pressed in on everyone's minds, searching. Werr knew instantly what he was doing; finding their weaknesses and vulnerable points, so he could exploit them easily. Gual vanished before they could reach him, though.

"Shoot..." Werr gritted his teeth.

Welk's hand unconsciously found a clump of Isslia's soft fur, where he twinned his fingers in close and sighed.

A strangled yelp came from the hallway, and a moment later, Cynyr stumbled through, coughing. He looked more worse for the wear, his clothing a bit tattered and sizzling. He clutched his side, where several ribs were broken, and scrambled forward to avoid another blast of electricity. Gual didn't follow him inside, however, which was lucky, because he hardly looked like he could stand, let alone fight.

"He's practically corraling us in, and now he knows our weaknesses," Werr slammed the door shut before Gual could fire off more electricity. "We can't last like this. We need a plan..." He started pacing, thinking hard.

"Think and think all you want, boy." Gual's voice came from everywhere it could. Underneath the couch, under the candles, every spot where light was obscured, however tiny. "I can see everything. You can't keep me out, fool..."

"Why are you doing this? How did you get like this?!" Werr demanded.

"I was lying where you left me...I have to hand it to you, I didn't expect you to be this idiotic. But as I lay there, a little voice spoke to me. He asked me if I wanted power. Of course...I accepted. Now I can't stop...it's telling me to be angry. At you. You killed him...my little brother. Slayed him in cold blood. There's no way I can let you...any of you...go free. The Peacekeepers figured what I was doing when I left...they followed me here, but it's too late. There's no way they're getting in here. Not while I'm alive. And now...I know exactly how to break you. All of you."

There was dead silence for a long moment.

"Foolish Remor...or apparently, his name is Obelisk, according to the lot of you. He dragged Lexanna Jura into the Realm of Darkness before I could get at her. So...you'll be the last one I break, Werr. Consider yourself unlucky...you have to watch as your friends fall apart. One by one. Cern was the first to go...he broke like a twig. Literally, his spine was a stick. It was fun to snap that in half. But I can see none of you had any attachment to him. Who shall I pick off first...?"

Diana wailed, pointing at the window. He was there, watching them with a cruel grin on his face, one hand pressed against the glass. He vanished with a flash of black. "It's rather fun, knowing your enemies' fears...little Diana there saw the same sort of image only a few minutes before her parents were killed. Look at her," Gual chortled. Diana was hyperventilating at this point, trembling terribly and clinging to Forin desperately. "What else..." Without warning, a syringe (though empty) rolled out from underneath the couch. Spy wailed, backing up in alarm. "I can do a lot with these powers. A great deal...perhaps even destroy the ability to make life," Hands formed out of shadows and draped themselves over Seria's stomach.

Instantly, it was like a tornado had gone off in the room.

They had probably never seen Cynyr so angry before. Great hands of wind slammed everyone to the ground, holding them firmly as objects shattered around them. Sharp gusts of wind ripped through the room, and they knew that if they had been standing, there wouldn't even have been a full piece of them left. He threw the shadow hands off of Seria, screaming out "Get your hands off of my wife!" He bent low over her, fury etched onto his features, anger pouring from every vein, every cell. It seemed like he could never be calmed, either.

Gual laughed and laughed; Cynyr's wind had blown out most of the candles. The main source of light became the small fireplace, and it was quickly apparent that it was dying out, as well. But next to the fireplace, something was happening to Cyprus; he was being sucked down into a mass of goo that was clearly a portal into the Realm of Darkness.

A place where Gods and Demigods couldn't go.

But it was far too late. By the time Werr realized that all this had been a distraction, it was too late to stop it. By the time he yelled at Cynyr to stop pinning them all down, it was too late to try and pull Cyprus out of it. In a matter of instants more, Cyprus was gone.

One down, and only a few more to go until the rest of them were all sitting ducks.

((BEFORE YOU FREAK OUT

He'll be fine.))

Cynyr raged and snapped at every shadow in the room, but when Seria surged up and threw her arms around his neck, he seemed to calm. He relaxed, his powers dispelling back down to normal, and held her close, burying his face in her neck. "Are you okay?" he murmured.

"Yes," she whispered, her arms shaking. "Yes, I'm okay..."

He nuzzled her, then looked up at the others with something akin to shame in his eyes. "I..." he started, but merely cut off and looked away.

"It's okay. Just don't do that again," Werr said as he scrambled about the room, snatching up candles to light again. Nate helped him light them, blowing small puffs of flame at the wicks and getting the lights up again. He lit up one corner, then passed by a door to get to another corner.

The door flung itself open without warning, the shadows just out in the hallway practically swallowing him alive. He screamed, and it became apparent that there was fighting going on. Werr tried to open the door again, but the shadows were holding it shut. He strained and strained, only managing to get it open by a small crack; Nate's bloodied hand clawed at the door and the floor just inside.

Werr's grip slipped, and the door slammed on Nate's wrist with a painful crack. He clawed at the doorframe for several heartwrenching seconds before finally going limp; the shadows dragged his hand out and snapped the door shut again.

((Fixed))

Luen and Seria screamed and tried to go forward, but Cynyr grabbed his wife's arms and refused to let her go. "Stop it, you'll get taken too!" he shouted, and she went limb, sobbing. "We'll get him back," he said, the slight strain in his voice showing how disturbed he was by Nate's disappearance.

Luen wailed and struggled against Forin, who was practically hurting him in order to get him to stay. "No! Nate!" he cried, his ears stuck back against his head. "Forin, let go!"

((Fixed the last post. Accidentally left off the word 'crack' after 'painful'. xD))

"No! I won't lose you, Luen!" Forin snarled. He stood and made Luen sit down. "Werr was right, we're getting nowhere like this. What we need to do...is get outside. It's daytime. The light will keep Gual in here, and we can go somewhere safer and leave those of us who can't fight in that safe place. Do you understand, Luen?"

"We can't go through the doors," Werr shook his head. The main room was attached to the front door, but it was definitely sealed shut. "I doubt he'd let us escape...unless..." Forin seized an idle chair and threw it at the window.

It bounced back at him. It crashed into him and splintered, not that he seemed very hurt at all. He shook it off and tried to cut out of the wall; he got Vorpal in, but then...his weapon was stuck. The shadows closed around him, making it impossible to get the sword out. "Shoot...sorry, Vorpal..." Forin muttered, starting to pace impatiently.

"You really are stupid." Gual chortled. He sounded a bit...winded. Perhaps Nate had managed to injure him.

"What? A-ah! AH!" Vorpal shouted as the shadows closed over him, sucking him down into darkness. For only a moment, Vorpal's long, shimmering gray-black length seemed to shift. It nearly looked like a small silver hand tried to grab at the fading reminants of light before it was sucked down.

"Don't call him stupid!" Luen shouted, lunging for a passing shadow, but tendrils of wind grabbed the back of his neck and dragged him back. "Stop it, idiot!" Cynyr shouted at him. "You're not going to be of help if you get taken too! You'll just be one more butt to save!"

Luen fell silent, flopping down next to Allie unhappily. He burrowed his face in his hands, not knowing what to do.

Allie wrapped an arm around him. She would have aided in preventing his running about, but she was practically locked in her seat. "He knows what we're afraid of, Luen...I don't want you taken away from me..."

"I'm afraid to say it, but..." Werr looked down. "We...don't stand a chance..."

"Don't you dare talk like that!" Forin raged, a hand over the whole in the wall where Vorpal had been only seconds ago. "Think of something for us to do! Anything!"

"Th-the only thing I could think of is all of us rushing him at once! And that'll only get us all killed!" Werr screeched. "If...if Obelisk were here, there'd be no problem, b-but..." He looked down, upset and defeated.

"But Obelisk isn't there to save your butts this time, is he? No, he is not." Gual tutted. "Who should I take next? Perhaps I'll give you time to reconcile with your Goddess if you give up someone..."

Luen screamed out a terrible deer note, like a high-pitched whistle, then the room was coated in ice. He concentrated hard, waving his hands, real and metal, in delicate figures and patterns, muttering words only other mages had a prayer of understanding. The ice solidified and sharp flashes raked the surface, all around the room, scraping it down until it shone brilliantly. It caught the light from all of the candles and reflected it tenfold, casting a brilliant sheen into the room.

Panting, Luen had slipped to the ground, sitting numbly on his knees next to the foot of the couch. He had his hands sunk into the ice, and the white had crawled up half of his back as well. His antlers dripped with icycles. He kept his powers going, looking pale and shaking from exertion. But the brightness of the room gave them solid protection.

For now.

"L-Luen, you'll kill yourself," Forin warned, but it seemed to be working. Gual was silent for now, though the doors rattled and shook. He was clearly enraged; black flames engulfed the three doors, trying to eat at the ice. If Luen had stopped using his powers, it would succeed and they would be vulnerable again.

At the same time, though, it was cold. Cold that would have frozen Nate, had he been in the room. Isslia curled up on Welk's chest where it was warmest, shivering a bit. Werr joined her, hugging his dear friend and silently wishing Welk was awake. With a jolt of alarm, Werr realized that Carlyle had vanished. When had he been taken? He felt guilty for not noticing before now...

"Darn it! We can't stay in here and be picked off like this!" Werr screeched. "We have to get to Obelisk. Wake up, Welk, we need your fire! We need your light, please, wake up!"

((By the way, forgot to mention that Remor is actually doing most of this. Gual is just a puppet/scapegoat, at this point. Obelisk will make observations of the high level magics Gual seemed to be capable of, after only an hour or so of being granted a small amount of power, which doesn't make sense.))

Welk stirred slowly at his friend's voice, groaning in pain. "W...Werr...?" he coughed, blinking his crimson eyes open. "Whappen'?" He struggled up, leaning against Werr, then waved a shaking hand and lit it up in warm flames. With his other hand, he wrapping it around Isslia, holding her close to his chest.

With the addition of flames in the room, Luen's shimmering ice grew brighter.

((Oh dear. I knew Remor was behind it, of course.))

"Gual...Gual is attacking us. He got Nate, Cyprus, and Carlyle...Obelisk and Cern, too. We have to find Obelisk, we have to wake him up and make him fight back against this monster! B-but...we can't do it without you, Welk. Your flames make light, and that's what we need to get through the halls. We can't even walk past the doors without being taken, Welk, w-we..." Werr sounded extremely distressed. Finally, he trailed off and just hugged his dear friend.

That was when the ice over one of the doors shattered, the black flames finally managing to break past Luen's power. The door flew open, shattering more ice chunks and sending them flying. Shadows literally scooped up Cynyr and threw him back into the hallway before they dissapated due to the amount of light in the room. Gual appeared in the doorway next, firing off three more shots of electricity before vanishing again and allowing the door to slam shut; the dangerous beams bounced around the room haphazardly, reflected by Luen's own attempt at defending them.

Werr threw himself on top of Welk and Isslia, biting back a scream as he felt one bolt slam into his back. He wound up sobbing one name; Cynyr. He got Cynyr.

One of them was flung at Luen, but Forin moved right in the way of that, allowing the bolt to tear into his arm. He sank to one knee, holding the new wound. The other would have hit Seria in the head, but Diana - surprisingly - threw herself at it and took the bolt in the side. She collapsed, unconscious in instants; Forin screeched with anger and knelt beside her, then pulled Seria closer. "Sh-she protected you, heal her!" He wailed, angry and miserable.

"I know your weaknesses," Gual's voice whispered from the uncovered door. "I know how to break you."

There was screaming and shouting from the hallway, and to their horror, something slammed against the door and blood dripped in a silent, brutal wave from underneath it. Cynyr hadn't had a chance.

Welk forced his body up, ignoring how his nerves screamed in protest. Instantly, fire swept through the room, and it seemed to give the half-cat strength. He surged up, wielding his powers expertly. Where Luen's use of magic seemed to weaken him, Welk's only seemed to make him stronger. He bent and helped support Werr, still holding Isslia against his chest with one arm. His flames danced around each of them, not burning them at all, just cloaking them in warm, bright light.

Seria, still crying and sobbing, moved over to Diana without question and set about healing her, her tears sliding heavily down her cheeks.