The Forgotten Zodiac

((Fixed eet. : P))

"You especially." Fawn stood and strode over to a closet, finding a cape and wrapping it around the dragon. "You shouldn't have done all that. You'll kill yourself, at this rate. You're not an actual being, this is your literal soul, in a made up world in the back of Remor's mind. You must be careful, especially so. Healer magic does nothing here. If only Seria were still in the natural world..." Fawn shook her head with a small sigh. "There's nothing for it. We can do nothing but wait, I suppose..."

Naybrin sat quietly in his chair, still shaking and chattering a bit, but getting better slowly. He tilted his head back, eyeing the room, then muttered "What is he playing at? What could he want with bringing us here? What could be his plans?" He broke off into soft mutterings, his mind clearly working hard.

Welk stroked Isslia's hair back, keeping his forehead pressed to Werr's neck. He still felt weak and shaky, but like Naybrin, he was recovering. He definitely didn't like it here. It felt too much like being trapped in the form of a tiny spectral...

((With that knowledge, Welk should be capable of all he had been capable of in his Spectral form. o3o))

For everyone else, this was a new experience. Isslia was busy plucking at her shirt, wondering why it had somehow become a part of her. Werr was marvelling at the fact that he felt like he was floating in space, but he knew he was sitting on the floor. Nate was checking the house for traps, ever the paranoid one.

Fawn, however, just said where she was, running her fingers through Malice's hair and over his little horns, murmuring gently to her son to gently wake him up. She looked up at Naybrin and smiled slightly. "That's a very narrow choice. He either wants to kill us himself...or he wants us out of the way."

((Oooo. : D))

Malice finally stirred under his mother's touch, opening his dark, black-rimmed eyes and sitting up. "Momma...?" he said worriedly, gently touching her face. "Are you okay?" He glanced around and, not recognizing where they were, cowered close to her. "Where are we?" he said softly, scared.

Naybrin shook his head, saying "Whatever his plans are, they can't be good. We need to find a way to halt his advance."

"Inside your father's mind. The wrong one, though, I'm afraid...don't worry. Obelisk will get us out soon." Fawn murmured to him before looking up at Naybrin. "If you had any ideas, I wouldn't object to them..."

"We can't exactly kill Remor, can we? He's immortal..." Werr frowned.

"His body and soul are, yes. Through his immortality, so Obelisk lives." Fawn nodded thoughtfully. Werr blinked; she seemed rather knowledgable on the subject. "I was thinking that perhaps there could be a way to take Remor's immortality from him. Bestow it upon Obelisk's soul, instead..."

"YOU WILL NOT." Remor's voice suddenly shot out above them. "You think I don't know what you're planning? You think I can't hear you?" The house melted away, replaced with a destroyed one. One that Werr...recognized. The ruins of the Grehi's home. He had gotten them removed from Alastor altogether, but this was not Alastor. This was the mind of an insane person, and he had complete control over where they were, what they saw, and what all happened.

If Werr was later asked if he was scared at that realization, he would deny it. Instead, he would explain that he had been terrified and horrified at the same time. It wasn't just 'scared', it was worse than that. If Welk hadn't been so close to him, he might have screamed.

Welk also shivered and pressed close, whimpering. "W-Werr..." he said, trembling. "What's happening?" His fear seemed to translate into something, and his outline suddenly bubbled and wavered. "What the heck?" he said, startled, quickly pushing Isslia into Werr's arms. He threw his head back as his form shifted, turning into a large pheonix. He blinked and stared down at his ruby-orange feathers, blinking rapidly, then curled close to his girlfriend and best friend again and said "What...what just happened?"

Werr went right back to stroking his friend, smiling a bit at the feathers, even though he was still scared. "This reminds me of a couple years back...remember when Malice had taken you out of your body, and...all we could think of to do was put you in that form that Obelisk called a 'Spectral'?"

"We're all Spectrals now. Though we're not outside the body, we're in one that can't contain us. This body is already so full. If not for the immortality of the body and soul of Remor, we would all be dead." Fawn sighed. Of course, changing the ownership of the immortality wouldn't change that; Obelisk was just as much of a person as Remor.

"Makes sense to me." Werr sighed heavily, still unhappy. He'd rather be outside, Spectral or not. He'd rather be home right now...

It was rather odd to see Welk meow softly, then. They might've expected a chirp. He bent his head and nuzzled close to Werr, the one he couldn't live without, tucking Isslia close to his feathery chest with a wing.

"So we're just going to wait here?" Cynyr scoffed, stalking back and forth angrily nearby. Werr could feel his anxiety. "Wait for what? To be killed, tortured, or worse?"

Werr sighed. "I don't suggest that..." He murmured. "Maybe if we can find the place where Remor is...you're right, Cynyr, we can't just stay here. We need to move, and not get killed, tortured, or worse." He looked around, then realized something with a pang of heartache and fear.

"Where's Lexanna?"

"Wakey-wakey," Remor sang softly, running his fingers through her soft hair. Lexi was strapped down to a table, positioned to where she couldn't move. The room...the room was awful. It reeked of blood and was dimly lit so she couldn't see the bloodstains on the floor. There were dolls...dolls hanging on the walls, watching with lifeless eyes.

Lexi opened her eyes slowly, fear striking through them at once. "Wh...where am I?" she said fearfully, trying to turn her head to glance around, only to find a strap across her forehead kept her from moving. "What is this?" she said, her voice shaking. "W-Werr...where is Werr? Why are you doing this?!"

"Oh, dear, these are too loose," Remor tutted, tightening the straps on her arms and legs. "Not to worry, Lexi, dear. It'll all be gone soon. Then it'll be just you and me." He smiled happily, walking away a bit and taking one of the dolls off the wall, putting it where she could see. It looked oddly like...well, herself. But different. She looked similar, with the same hair color, the same eye color, the same thin shape and soft skin. It took her a moment, but Lexanna realized she was looking at a corpse.

"Look here," Remor waved towards the doll. "Her name was Vietta. So kind, so pretty...almost like you, but...not quite. I brought her in here and cut out her soul, so she'd be with me for a little while longer. Obelisk doesn't know what I've been doing in here. Stupid thing. All these toys of mine are so similar, but...not quite right! It's always bugged me. But now, I think, is time to fix that. You'll be with me forever, Lexi! I'll take your spectral form and turn it into one of these dolls. But you'll be the best, I promise. I've been practicing so much...souls are so easy to play with, for me." He smiled and touched her cheek. "It won't hurt too much, dear."

((He will turn her into a doll, but she can return to her normal soul and body with Cyprus' help. It's just...shocking, no? -cue maniacal laughter with lightning and so on-))

((oDo Oh dear.))

Lexi began screaming at once, fear coursing through her entire body. She screamed for Werr, for Obelisk, for anyone that could hear her. It was pure, unabided fear that swept through her right now. The fear of death, the fear of being lost forever, alone. She screamed and wailed and sobbed, struggling as hard as she could against the bonds holding her. "Why are you doing this?!" she cried, her delicate face streaked with tears. She was glad for her black shorts at that moment; her dress was askew at the bottom. "Please, just let me go!" she cried.

"I don't know," Galai said in concern, touching the gates and closing her eyes. After a moment of brief scanning, she jerked her eyes open and said "We need to get inside." She scooped Diana up and, after giving a quick glance around, spread her wings free from their inner holdings and flew over the gate. She landed on the other side and rushed to the door, throwing it open.

Her scream was piercing and probably frightened Diana as much as the sight of the bodies on the floor in front of them.

"What can we do?" Galai said, slowly touching Sylas' lifeless body, tears in her eyes.

Nearby, on the couch, a form that had evidentally been sleeping woke. Dmitry glanced around wearily, still twitching and shaking weakly. Marion was wrapped around him in human form; apparently, he couldn't look at her snake form without bursting into violent shivering. He took her warm hand, which had been laying over his chest, and held it tightly, then slowly sat up and looked around. "What happened?" he said, fear filtering into his blue eyes.

"I can make contact with Titus," Galai said. "I can ask after Cyprus, see how Forin and Luen are coming along. Perhaps ask Titus to send Zephyr ahead of time with Cyprus..." She shook her head, closing her tear-filled eyes, then bent and began taking turns with each body, keeping the livng energy flowing through them.

"Yes, Forin and Luen are both alive," Galai said. "Apparently, they ran into some trouble with scapegoating for Allie, but they're recovering now. Oh..." She had just received the report on the blinded Luen. She chose not to tell Diana, thought. "Recovering," she repeated, nodding once. "Both alive and as well as they could be." She smiled and kissed Diana's forehead, then looked up to her husband and said "We need you to send Cyprus to us, if he's well enough to travel. We really, really need him."