(Daedalus)

IC: Daedalus Drachoren

"Oooookay. I'll, uh... I'll pretend I know what that means, too." Daedalus looked himself over. His left arm was hard to move, both from the creature's claws sinking into it and because of the bite on that shoulder, and his chest hurt from where the creature's other claws had embedded themselves. All three wounds were fairly shallow, but they still hurt. He wasn't going to be fighting at full capacity any time soon.

"At any rate, I suppose I should thank you," he said, rubbing his face. "If you don't mind me asking, why did you do it? What am I to you that you would take some of my pain?"

IC: Von Worten (Queen's Quest)

"CEASE!" I screamed, a strange spell of assertiveness overcoming me and causing me to activate my Crast, hopefully knocking Lytrel back.

Immediately after activating my Crast, I pulled back and clutched my book more tightly to my chest. A part of me wondered why I felt somewhat protective of the Queen, but as my feet shifted in the grass, the rest of me knew exactly why. I knew a thing or two about madness.

I blinked rapidly to clear my vision as my eyes turned to look at Xaeraz. I gingerly reached out with my mind and touched his, hoping to feel some signs of life.

OOC: Daedalus talking to Varentain, Von Worten Crasting Lytrel and trying to establish a mental connection with Xaeraz.

IC: Daedalus Drachoren

"I'm just going to pretend I know what that means," he grunted, rolling the Furnace Salamder's corpse off him and withdrawing his whipsword. "But that still leaves the second question: What did you do to me?"

He didn't mean to sound rude or ungrateful; he was truly curious. It hadn't really felt like healing, but the pain was mostly gone, so what else could it be?

OOC: Daedalus speaking to Varentain.

IC: Einefus Ingrayv (Ascension)

"Dis is either goo', o' rilly bad," I mutter, staring at the being in front of us.

IC: Daedalus Drachoren

He inhaled deeply as the pain began to fade. It was still there, of course, but it was no longer unbearable. What happened?

He opened his eyes--when had he closed them?--and was surprised to see that... well, he could see. Everything was really blurry, but at least he knew things were improving. He couldn't tell, but it looked like there was a shape near him.

Swallowing hard, Daedalus asked, "Who are you, and what did you do?"

IC: Von Worten (Queen's Quest)

I was hardly surprised at Xaeraz's words regarding the golden being, but I was surprised about Lytrel.

Strange. I hadn't remembered him having fangs.

"Yes, he said something about forcing us to betray her, and then he said he would leave his touch upon our minds to displease the Queen," I responded to Xaeraz. I then turned my gaze to Lytrel.

Before I could speak, however, he blurted out, ""Tell me you two. What is your honest, unabashed opinion of the Queen?"

I blinked away some tears and pushed away a tree limb that had brushed my cheek. "My unabashed opinion? She is powerful, proud, and perhaps a bit mad, but beyond her faults, she appears to be sad." I blinked again, unsure why I had spoken in such a way. "Something drives her to act as she does, and while not always agreeable, I think that we have little hope but to trust her. I would certainly rather aid her than this golden being."

Why? I asked myself. I wasn't sure I could answer that question.

OOC: Daedalus speaking to Varentain, Von Worten speaking to Xaeraz and Lytrel.

IC: Einefus Ingrayv (Ascension)

It would seem today is the day to test my willpower, because this time, I have to fight the urge to roll my eyes. I find all this lack of trust disturbing.

I step away from the door and say, "Ah's jus' tryna help, bu' if yuh wan's tuh be da only one tuh open da safe, be my..." I pause as the door opens completely. I didn't do that.

Before I know what happens, I am inside the safe with the others. The inside is huge. I am quite confused.

Until the words appear.

"Why no'?" I ask aloud. "Wha's yuh story?"

IC: Daedalus Drachoren

As Daedalus lay on the catwalk, he turned inward, trying to pull himself away from the pain. Maybe if he thought hard enough, he could make the pain go away. Mind over matter. That was a thing, right? It... well, it didn't really work, but he did, through his haze, notice something. It was a recent memory. Had someone spoken to him?

"What?" he whispered, straining through his teeth.

IC: Von Worten (Queen's Quest)

I took note of our other companions just as Xaeraz rose and greeted us. I was quite glad to see more friendly faces.

"We are alive, so I suppose the answer could be 'well enough,'" I said. "Though we did have a rather odd encounter with a strange golden being, who, unless I am horribly mistaken, was the very same being who previously invaded all our minds and is the guardian of this gem we seek. How went things with you?"

OOC: Daedalus talking to Varentain, Von Worten talking to Xaeraz.

@Daedalus

I had Varentain find Daedalus and attempt to help him.

 

@Scorp

Tenjou shot a laser beam at Tirkah, as his previous post hadn't indicated that he moved after firing. So she fired at the bullet trail's point of origin.

Wow, not sure how I missed that. I guess that's what happens when I skim the pages.

IC: Von Worten (Queen's Quest)

I cannot say the golden being's interference was unexpected, so I did not feel any anger or frustration when my feeble attack failed. I also found his words curious; why should the Queen be angry at us? He had touched all of our minds. Why would this touch be any different? I did not know the answer, but I saw no use in trying to figure it out.

Come, Nocton, we should continue our journey onward, I projected to Nocton as I began to move forward. I want to be free of this maze and back in the presence of the others.

IC: Daedalus Drachoren

Daedalus had stopped screaming some time ago, unable to sustain the noise for a long enough period of time. His throat was sore, his fatigue was high, but worst of all, his body felt like it was on fire. On the inside.

He lay, unmoving, on the catwalk, gritting his teeth. He hoped his immobility would lessen the pain. It didn't, but he also didn't think moving would help, provided, of course, he could move at all, which he didn't think was likely. The body of the stupidcursedblastedwhydidIsummonsomethingsohorribleandpainful Furnace Salamander was still on top of him, but he made no move to remove it. He just wanted the pain to go away.

Oh, and he was still blind.

OOC: Von Worten talking to Nocton. Daedalus still open to interaction/getting attacked.

IC: Einefus Ingrayv (Ascension)

It takes a lot of willpower for me not to shiver at the appearance of that face, and even more not to cringe when it begins to scream. My only reaction is to take a step back and give myself a shake when the noise stops.

I notice the safe opening, and I also notice Olis' look.

"Sha' we see wha's inside?" I say, stepping around the pedestal. I don't know if the thing is booby trapped or anything, so I step to one side and grab the door with one hand. I pull it open slowly, making sure the door is between me and whatever is inside.

IC: Daedalus Drachoren and Furnace Salamander

Okay, Daedalus, time to get up.

With a weary groan, Daedalus sat up and put his feet underneath him. He awkwardly pushed himself to a standing position, but as he began to straighten, he honed in a noise he had previously attributed to a steam leak in a pipe somewhere (which was kind of stupid, considering it wasn't a steady sound). It was a ragged, rasping sound, and it wasn't until Daedalus heard claws clanking against metal that he made the connection.

The noise, of course, was the still-living Furnace Salamander. When Sko jumped to his death, Orm disappeared, leaving the Furnace Salamander to fall to the catwalk, where it lay for a few moments, suffering from its wounds. It would have loved to slink away and nurse those wounds, but there was still a being invading its turf, and it needed to rid the area of said being.

Breathing raggedly, the creature righted itself and turned to face the rising Daedalus. Without preamble, it charged.

Daedalus froze, his head cocked to one side, listening. He realized what it was just a moment too late. He started to raise his sword to channel a sonic blast, but he never got the chance. The Furnace Salamander had already leaped, its foreclaws, aching though they were, extended. This time, however, it decided not to slash, but to dig in. Its right claw grasped Daedalus' left arm and squeezed its claws in, while its left claw grasped his chest, sinking its claws through his armor and into his body. At the moment, Daedalus' only consolation was that his sword had been raised in such a way that the creature impaled itself during the attack.

Of course, its hard to recognize such a silver lining when one is in such pain.

The creature's momentum sent the two tumbling backward. Daedalus gritted his teeth in pain and began thrashing to his left and right, trying to knock the creature off. The Furnace Salamander was breathing more heavily now and was significantly weakened, but, unfortunately, it was not quite dead yet. In a last attempt to rid his habitat of this intruder, it bit him. It probably aimed for his neck, but the combination of its weakness and Daedalus' thrashing caused the bite to land on his shoulder.

But ho

ly

fire

Daedalus screamed, pouring all his breath and his energy into the sound. The Furnace Salamander shuddered and then relaxed, but Daedalus didn't notice. He was too busy trying to scream away the lava that had apparently been poured into his body.

OOC: Daedalus greatly suffering from a Furnace Salamander bite. Open for interaction, I guess?

By the way, Daedelus, good luck with that furnace salamander!

Let us all weep for Daedalus.

IC: Daedalus Drachoren

So... stumbling footsteps, someone talking, someone else screaming, and then silence (well, except for the distant sounds of battle and the ambient noise, but you get what I mean).

"What just happened?"

IC: Daedalus Drachoren and Furnace Salamander

Daedalus rolled back to his right (well, technically his left, since he was on his stomach, but whatever), groaning as he did so. Apparently, using his mask twice in such a short span of time was kind of tiring. He was starting to get a headache, and worse, he still couldn't see.

And now something was shrieking.

Mid-jump, the Furnace Salamander could not avoid Orm's attack. It's claws were impaled on shadowy blades, though the creature's momentum carried it forward. To help, the Furnace Salamander began to furiously beat furiously to keep its body at the level of Orm's torso. Hopefully, it could knock the annoying, dark being over.

OOC: Furnace Salamander attacking Orm.

• Von Worten is still on the Queen's Quest, so she, obviously, is not in the round.
• Daedalus is currently blind and desperately trying not to be killed by Sko and Orm. He is being helped in this endeavor by a Furnace Salamander (which is a thing I did not know about until yesterday).

And that's it.

IC: Daedalus Drachoren

Uh, yeah, that noise didn't sound good. At all.

The specks had gotten a little dimmer--he could make out a few different colors--but that was about it. He was going to have to rely on his ears for the moment, and his ears told him to get out of the way.

He rolled to his left, trying to judge the distance to the edge; he didn't want to topple off. After a couple rolls, he stopped. He had avoided the whatever-it-was, but he was on his stomach now and he didn't know how much room he had to maneuver. He needed some breathing room, and for that, his mask could help.

Taking a deep breath, Daedalus activated his Zatth. Please, let it be something good, he thought, and as he felt himself grow wearier than he had the first time he used it, he got the impression it was something decent.

Of course, all he heard was a lot of clanging, but his opponent would see a Furnace Salamander loping toward him, just as angry as the Fireflyers, but much more dangerous. It charged toward Orm and leaped, its sharp claws extended forward to lash at this annoying tall thing that was shooting stuff.

OOC: Furnace Salamander attacking Orm.

IC: Einefus Ingrayv (Ascension)

I watch Oblitus place the heart on the pedestal, keeping the flame burning over my right hand. My left hand grips my pistol. I don't know what is going to happen, but I want to be ready for whatever it is.

I do find the placement of the safe odd, though. In fact, I find its presence odd. What's it doing here, especially near this heart pedestal?

IC: Von Worten (Queen's Quest)

I sighed. No, I wasn't going anywhere. I prepared myself for the inevitable, but I figured that it would not hurt to try to prolong it. I reached out with my mind and grasped at one of the Vahkis' staffs, trying to hurl it sideways at the other Vahki.

OOC: Von Worten attacking golden being's Vahki.

IC: Von Worten (Queen's Quest)

So there were limits to his power. He could not command without breaking the mind. Of course, that did nothing to remove me and Nocton from the predicament we were in.

A strange, assertive, and somewhat violent part of me urged me to activate my Crast and run away, but I was unsure if Nocton was still under the effects of the Vahkis' staffs. Besides, the golden being was still quite powerful, and he could probably stop me.

Though... my running would be more fun for him.

No. I could not do that.

Could I?

I looked down the maze to my right.

IC: Daedalus Drachoren

Daedalus was still blind, but the pure whiteness had given way to a large mass of white spots, which, for all practical purposes, meant absolutely nothing, but for an optimist, it meant things were less worse. Whatever that means.

Anyway, now (hopefully) safely away from the edge of the catwalk, Daedalus heard something rather confusing. His ears, excellent as they were, picked up some... oddities. He couldn't be sure, but it sounded like there was more than one person over there. He heard someone fall down (a result of whatever awesome beast of a Rahi he had summoned, perhaps?), but someone else was talking rather casually (if, perhaps, a bit louder than necessary). In fact, now that he thought about it, when he was intent on scrambling away, he had gotten the impression that there were two people fighting something. Had someone else appeared? He hoped not, at least if that someone was friendly to... whoever he was fighting.

And his words didn't make much sense: "Great. You got us deafened, and now I have to drag you around. Wonderful."

What?

You are not dragging me around, pal!

Daedalus sat up and drew his whipsword. Keeping it in sword form, he aimed it in the direction of the voice and channeled a couple sonic blasts through his sword. These probably wouldn't do much to his ears if he was already deaf, but the vibrations might rattle him. Hopefully.

IC: Von Worten (Queen's Quest)

I blinked several times as I absorbed the golden being's words.

Okay, yes, I suppose you could do as you have said. However, forgive me if I am not convinced of the viability of this plan of yours. Granted, your wisdom and knowledge is, no doubt, far beyond mine, but from what I have witnessed--I tapped my head--the powers of these Vahki things do not last long enough for your plan to be viable long-term.

I looked at Nocton, who still pointed his weapon at me. I had, at this point, exercised enough brain power to fit the pieces together. Whatever power resided in those Vahkis' staffs made Nocton easy to command. I could only assume that is what the golden being had been referring to.

I was about to speak further when I stopped, wishing I had not spoken at all. He could still see my mind (read it like a picture book, he said), so he might figure it out anyway, but I suddenly found it interesting that he mentioned the use of the Vahki at all. Why should he need their staffs to command us? If he was truly as powerful as he said, could he not simply command us of his own power? Or did he also have limits? Was it possible that his power was not infinite as he seemed to imply?

Interesting.

OOC: Daedalus attacking Orm, Von Worten speaking to golden being.

I am back. I've got some behind the scenes stuff I need to work on, but I will try to get updates for the Queen's Quest up tonight as well. Is anyone waiting on a response from me for that aside from Click/Kopen?

Von Worten (and Nocton) are waiting for Goldenrod to respond.

IC: Daedalus Drachoren and Fireflyers

Blink once. Blink twice. Three times. Four times. Five. Six. Seven, eight, nine, teneleventwelveyeahokay he was still blind. Maybe not as blind--the white light wasn't as white as it had been--but still unable to see worth... well, anything, really.

And apparently, along the way, Daedalus had started moving at an angle, because when he moved his left hand back to set it down, only the heel of his hand made contact with anything solid. The rest just kind of hung over empty space.

Uh oh.

He could not not put his weight on that hand now, and there wasn't enough hand on the walkway to support his weight, so his hand slipped off into the air. He slammed awkwardly against the walkway and scrambled madly with his right hand, hoping to find some purchase. There wasn't much to grab.

His legs went up, and for a brief moment, Daedalus feared he was going to roll sideways and backward off the walkway. However, he managed to regain something akin to balance and he dropped his legs down. He then scrambled to his right.

While this was going on, Skorm, now split, was demolishing the swarm of Fireflyers. Of course, they were a bit low on intelligence, so their singular goal was to bite the fire out of--or, well, bite the fire into--this--wait, no, these--two beings that weren't being very nice. However, they did have enough intelligence to know that continuing to fly in a straight line would probably get them all killed before they reached the one shooting lights, so they took to weaving. Nothing fancy, but enough, hopefully, that they wouldn't all be killed, because, you know, that would be kind of sad.

OOC: Fireflyers weaving and attacking Sko.

IC: Daedalus Drachoren and Fireflyers

The flash of light was painful, but even worse, it was blinding. Daedalus jerked back with a yelp (this one, sadly, devoid of power). His foot caught on absolutely nothing at all and he stumbled back to his rear. He immediately started spider crawling backward, hoping he wouldn't tumble right off the walkway. As he did so (spider-walked, not tumbled off the walkway) he activated his Kanohi Zatth. Of course, since all he could see at that moment was white, he didn't notice the small swarm of Fireflyers that he summoned (incidentally, he would probably be a tad angry, as the last Rahi he had summoned were also small and not incredibly dangerous). The small creatures were rather agitated to be pulled from wherever they had been pulled from, and they decided to attack the closest thing, which happened to be Skorm.

OOC: Fireflyers attacking Skorm. And for what it's worth, I know you didn't mention Skorm making himself visible, but I figure that the Fireflyers would still be able to notice his heat signatures (which, granted, would normally be hard to notice in a furnace, but seeing as Fireflyers prefer heat, I'd think that they could notice a variation in that. Or something.) If you have a problem with that, let me know and I'll edit.

IC: Einefus Ingrayv (Ascension)

I plod along beside Oblitus and Olis, staring up at the lights and into the darkness.

"Dis bullin' likes tuh be drama'ic, ain' it?" I yawn.

IC: Daedalus Drachoren

He'd had a great nap, but he was back in the arena. It was hot here. Daedalus wanted to avoid fighting again, so he started going down. He climbed down something--nearly fell off, too--and then jumped to a lower walkway. He didn't immediately see anyone this low down, at least not near him, so he kept his eyes up and around.

Now, you know those times when you are totally not expecting to touch something and you do? It can be a harsh touch or a soft one, but either way, your reaction is the same. You jerk and/or jump and/or shout something unintelligible. Well, that's what happened to Daedalus.

His body jerked violently upon contact with something that he couldn't see and he jumped, spun, and shouted, pouring roaring sonic power into the utterance. The trained ear might even here the strange, nonsensical words laced in: "FOOSEROEDAH!"

IC: Von Worten (Queen's Quest)

I stared at Nocton for several long moments, confused. I did not doubt that this golden being was controlling Nocton, so my confusion had nothing to do with that. I should note, at this point, that I probably should have feared greatly for my life at that particular moment, but my mind was heavily occupied by the question.

How does one answer such a question? I could say something about how boring it would be for him to kill me in such a way--play off his (possibly existent) pride--but he would no doubt expect such a response, and to be honest, I'm not convinced that it is as likely to work in real life as it is in the many tales I have read. I could also try to say something funny or condescending, but I doubted this being had anything akin to a sense of humor, and I was certainly in no position to condescend.

I looked back at the golden being (was his name really Teelah? I'm... not sure where I got that name) through the thinning trees.

Because there would be no reason for you to show yourself here and force my companion to do kill me. To be honest, I'm not really even sure why you have deigned to speak to me. Or bothered. You appear to be quite powerful. Engaging in such petty methods of killing those lesser than you is both ridiculous and unbecoming. There's no reason for you to make a show of power--you have already done an apt job of that.

So if we are going to chat, let me ask you a question: Why engage in such unnecessary acts as using another to kill me when you could easily do it yourself? Is it because you can't kill me yourself, or are you really that petty and pathetic that you must try to impress me in my last few moments by showing you don't have to stoop so low as to kill me yourself.

Now, I fell it beneficial to you readers to inform you that my tone was not derisive or condescending. My mental tone was sincere and truly curious, I was simply incapable of showing tact in the situation.

OOC: Daedalus attacking Skorm, Von Worten speaking bravely (or utterly stupidly) to the gold being.

Von Worten will obviously be unable to going the round due to being on a gem quest, and Daedalus... well, I think I might pick him back up, just to have something to do in the rounds, so he will fight in the round.