The Forgotten Zodiac

"Yes, I can see that," she said, watching Null closely as he departed. "Hmm...that one..." She shook herself slightly, saying instead "Come. Sylas, please lead the way back to your campsite. I would like to spend a moment conversing in the quiet of a spot where I might sit. I am not quite used to Luna's mortal body yet." She moved forward at a gentle walk, casting a glance at Dark as she passed him.

His response was to immediately look completely afraid, cowering behind Sylas timidly.

"Certainly." Sylas still seemed a bit surprised, but he did well at hiding it. He took Dark around the shoulders and led him (and Aveta in turn) to the miniature camp. It was well hidden; Leo was keeping the entire area invisible to outsiders. To anyone else, it would just be a bare spot in a field of grass. Nothing unusual at all. There was a single tent and a small campfire that was just barely enough to cook a caught rabbit over it.

"We have to be careful. There are soldiers everywhere..." Sylas murmured as he sat down near the fire, rotating the meat a bit.

"What did you call them? Feather coats?" Cyprus blinked.

"Yes. Have you seen them?"

"No...we were near one of their camps, but we tried very hard not to be noticed."

"Smart. But I suppose you didn't see...all of them have feathers on their pauldrons. Red feathers, tipped in gold. If not their shoulders, then their lapels. All of them have feathers." Sylas shrugged.

"Why?"

"Gossain is an army fabled to have slain Pheonixes. It's a bit of an intimidation. Whether or not it's true, it's how I identify them. Each army has its own thing. Alastorians wear blue gloves. So I call them blue-hands. Storaph's army favors masks, so they're the no-faces."

"You seem to have a lot of experience with soldiers." Cyprus blinked.

"I've seen a lot of war. I do what I can, in and outside of them...but I'm honestly not too sure I can do anything this time. I mean, yes...we managed to get Riordan out of Gossain. But where does that leave us? Being chased down by a furious Titan, nothing between us and him but a little crystal ball."

((It's called the Valzt, by the way. It's a special orb of fairy magic. Do with that information what you will.))

((Neato.))

"Little crystal ball, you say?" Aveta said, inclining her head a bit as she studied Sylas. "And pray tell, where did you come about this object?"

Dark stared at her quietly from behind Sylas before slipping forward to where Leo laid silently nearby, licking his paws. The boy curled up next to the panther, resting his head and one arm over the thick black body, and though Leo growled, he didn't move. By now, he had come to tell Leo's growls apart; he always growled, even when he was happy. Dark had heard the same growl when Sylas petted him.

Sylas smiled at her. "I'd really rather not say, to be honest. I think you know anyway. You're the Goddess, after all." He reached into his pocket and pulled out the orb. "It wants me to give it to you. It speaks to me..." He held it out to her. "I'm not one to argue with such divinity."

((How did he get it?))

She accepted with an extend of her hand towards him, ready for him to place the pearly object into her hand. Once Sylas did so, she closed her fingers around it and sighed. "Valzt...lost so long ago, rediscovered now..." she murmured, tucking the little orb into the folds of her dress.

((It was in the ruins of the Temple of Stars. Underneath it. Sylas figured something had to be fueling all the spells and stuff that Zephyr broke.))

"It's pretty important then, huh? I figured it would be..." Sylas shrugged. "It's probably better off with you. See you later, Valtz."

"Thank goodness. That little circle is noisy." Ink sighed a bit, shaking his head. "Terribly so..."

"Either way, we were about to move on." Sylas continued talking, now on the subject of their plans. "We'll try to make contact with the oncoming blue-hands about the numbers here, then move on to find Werr."

Aveta turned her head, giving Ink a searching look before closing her eyes, seemingly lost in thought.

Dark glanced up at Sylas, finally speaking for the first time in a while. "...We're heading further into Alastor, then," he said. "What will we do with them?" He indicated Ink, Riordan and Null with a small turn of his head.

"Bring them with." Sylas said, quite definitively. "We've no reason to abandon them now. They don't want this war any more than the rest of us...yet here we are. Sure, they sided with a Titan. A mistake, to be sure. But they see the err in their ways. No need to overcomplicate things. They're coming along with."

Dark looked down thoughtfully, then shrugged and went back to petting the ever-growling Leo, saying "I don't like Riordan. He's scary...and he's really quiet. It's...like how I used to be after I lost Light."

Light. His insane twin that chose death over remaining bonded to his sibling. Dark bit his lip slightly at the memory, instead nesting closer against Leo, who flicked him sharply with his long black tail.

"He's lost someone important to him, too." Sylas shrugged. "From the look he's got on his face...I'd say his wife." He kept his voice low, so that Riordan might not hear. "It's not exactly something light..."

"She's not dead," Cyprus murmured. "But she's not alive, either. Veros is keeping her suspended on the edge so that he can use her soul for his gain. I...I can't reach her there."

"Even if you could, you can't interefere." Sylas tutted.

Dark glanced over to the carriage, where he knew Riordan was currently staying, and said "Well...I don't think we should tell him. Imagine if, when he thinks she's dead, he suddenly thought there to be a chance to save her. We'd never stop him and he'd rush off to his death..." Leo's growling stopped after a moment, his gaze lowering as he grew lost in thought.

"True." Sylas shrugged. "Best to just...let sleeping dogs lie, I suppose."

"Dog? There's a dog here? I want to see!" Cyprus stood up at once, grinning.

"Er...no. Sit down, kiddo, you'll hurt yourself." Sylas chortled.

"Oh...right. Sorry." The Demigod sat down again. "Say, when were you planning to leave?"

"Tonight. Right at sunset." Sylas shrugged. "The soldiers shouldn't trail back this way, but we have to be careful nonetheless..."

Leo snorted and rolled onto his side, saying "I'm taking a nap."

Dark frowned at him, giving him a small poke and saying "You always take naps lately."

"I'm old, I have an excuse."

"What? That's not a good excuse."

"Yes it is. Shut up."

"You're SO grumpy."

"Again, I'm old. Therefore, excuse."

"Hmph."

"Hush, Dark." Sylas smiled slightly. "Leo's just tired. Leave him be for now." He himself laid back in the grass, watching the clouds. "It gets tiring. Doing what we do...we 'ought to retire for good, but there isn't a place where we can just relax, is there?" He chuckled, closing his eyes. "Nope...not a one."

Forin stomped out of the gate, looking a little...beaten up, to be honest. And furious. He hefted Diana a little higher on his back, turning to watch Cern hobble out of the gate with Malice at his side. Vuker followed quickly. They were all scratched and a little wounded, but they had a long way to go.

"Forin...where are we gonna go?" Vuker rubbed the bandages around his head, frowning.

"Back to the others. We saw what we were meant to."

"What if we get attacked?" Diana whimpered.

"We won't. Veros wants Werr to know what's happening, after all...we'll be fine. At least until we get to Werr and the others."

"You are certain of this?" Cern rattled, though he was already starting to walk.

"I am."

A shadow suddenly fell over them, followed by a familiar caw that made them think, for a brief second, that Jagat had happened upon them. But it was Zelana that landed, Carlyle on her back, not the blue-jay gryphon.

"Hey! What the crap is going on around here?!" Zelana snapped, fluffing her feathers out indignantly as her boyfriend slid from her back and she was able to switch forms. "We come back from our vacation and find out that the castle is in ruins! We couldn't find anybody!"

Forin simply glared at them both, continuing to walk.

"Hey...that doesn't look so good," Carlyle pointed to Diana's leg, which was tightly wrapped in bandages. What appeared to be shards of rock jutted out from her wound. Forin had been unable to remove them, lest he cause a lot of internal damage. "What happened?"

"The ground tried to eat me. This is one of it's teeth." Diana said flatly, shivering a bit at the memory of it.

"Don't go to Kaislun. The ground itself is revolting...it was a massacre. We were holed up in the castle with whoever had survived. Titus and Galai can keep the beasts from getting in, but we had to get out. So...here we are." Forin grunted.

"Giant monsters hewn from earth and wood. Puppets of the mighty Titan of Ages. Destroyers." Cern added cryptically.

Vuker just glanced down, looking terribly upset.

Zelana snorted, returning Forin's glare easily. "So basically, we leave for a bit and the world ends. Great," she growled, taking Carlyle's hand and resting her chin on his shoulder. They were an unlikely pair, really, but as the old saying went, 'Opposites attract.' And they were certainly opposites at times. "We couldn't even find bodies in the Alastor rubble, so we can only hope they got away," she said, kissing Carlyle's cheek gently.

"They got away, that's for sure." Forin kept walking. "We'll go back to the castle and pick up their tracks from there. If that doesn't work, Veros will make something happen to put us on the right track."

"You speak like that's a good thing. From the rumors we've heard, Veros is a Titan...aren't Titans evil?" Carlyle frowned.

"Yes. But if he wants Werr to know what's happening, then we'll find him sooner or later. Now are you coming with us, or not?"

"Of course we are," Zelana snapped, quieted only when Carlyle stroked her hair back gently. "I mean, true, I dislike Werr and his scraggly bunch of no-hopes, but I...owe them quite a lot. After all, I would still be a slave if not for them. And I'd've never met Carly." She grinned slightly and flicked his ear.

Forin glared at them, but there was something else in his gaze. A burning jealousy, and a great sadness. "Whatever." He said nothing more as he turned and continued to walk. Carlyle blinked at Zelana, but shrugged and followed.

"Aw, look. Diana fell asleep." He pointed out a few minutes later. "She looks a little pale, though..."

"She was attacked by earth. It acted with the best poison it had. Infection." Cern said over the clicking of his wooden joints. "Vuker is suffering as well, but dragon blood handles such things easier."