The Long and Dangerous Road

[Anonymous]

Lindraeus swept through the sunny streets of Cerenis, once again wearing a hooded cloak that obscured much of his facial features. The partly cloud, seaside town was in stark contrast to the place on Earth he last visited: a stormy, rainy Zantaric. He appreciated the fair weather and the breeze brought in by the ocean, the decidedly much more cheery atmosphere that Cerenis presented.
It was unfortunate that his purpose for being here was not as cheery.
Lindraeus knew he was here for the singular intention of starting out on the long and dangerous road of bringing down The Will of Divinity, the very organization that he worked for and disagreed with. Back in Zantaric, he came across and managed to survive an encounter with a woman named Feydeh Soygi, one of the many people directly affected by the Will's nefarious deeds. Together, they resolved to bring the Will to its knees, and they agreed that Cerenis was the place to start, for the Will had a few outposts secretly scattered throughout the peaceful town.
Lindraeus had come back to Earth only after checking back in the Will, to maintain his cover as one of its loyal employees. During that time, he learned a few interesting little details that he was more than excited to share with Feyda once he caught up with her.
Speaking of catching up with her, he kept up his watch for the very green and very noticable building known as Fischer and Son's -- their agreed meeting place in town. The Angel faintly recognized the part of town he was in, and remembered that the billiards house was close by. He hurried along, avoiding eye contact with everyone he passed and remaining as insignificant as he could; there was no telling who anyone truly worked for, and he wasn't trying to take very many chances.
And then he spotted it, Fischer and Son's, just down the next street. Lindraeus smiled a bit under his head, and started toward the green-painted building.

[Anonymous]

"That's impossible! You can't call what pocket the 8 ball will land in when you still have three solids to drop. Even if it did land in the pocket, there's still no way you can land the other three before it." A billiards competitor yelled across the table at a dark looking woman, who was rounding the end of a pool stick with the blue chalk provided. She had dark blue, shoulder length hair and wore sunglasses to cover her eyes. She wore a black longcoat with two large holes in the back. The holes were also through her white shirt she wore underneath, revealing her bare shoulder blades.
The woman, Feyda, maintained a grin as her competitor ranted on. The gathering crowd around the table only grew as more and more onlookers found amusement in the way she played. She had already pocketed a few hundred gold pieces in winnings.
"I'll make you a fair deal. If I don't land the 8 ball after the other three of my solids in this one shot, then I will give back the share of gold your friends have lost to me. If I do, then everything currently in your pockets will come to me." Feyda explained, pressing the sunglasses closer onto her face after having already put the chalk down on the table.
"Fine. But I still highly doubt that as a possibility." The competitor agreed, only receiving a smile from the dark woman. Without a word, she leaned over the table with the stick in hand and angled herself behind the cue ball. Once she was in position, she closed her eyes and pushed the stick forward with a quick jab.
A small puff of blue dust left the end of the stick as it collided with the white ball. The ball was struck at the bottom, therefore, it left the table as it leaped over the 8 ball. After landing on the 1 ball, both shot off in different directions, each at a corner pocket. The 1 ball sank into it's respective pocket as the white ball rebounded of both ends of the table around the pocket. The cue ball ended its collision course upon hitting the 8 ball, coming back around the table. The 8 ball instantly flew into the 5 ball, dropping the ball into the side pocket and changing its course. It then bounced off the 2 ball and changed course again. This time, the 2 ball flew into the corner pocket while the 8 ball slowed its pace, approaching the side pocket, opposite to the one the 5 ball sank into. It slowed almost to a stop as it neared the edge of the pocket before slowly rocking in.
The competitor's jaw almost hit the table when the spectacle happened. It happened exactly the way Feyda called it. The 8 ball went it after the three solids. All that was left on the table was the 9, 10, 12, and 15. The competitor gritted his teeth in anger as he threw his sack of gold at Feyda and stomped away from the table. The dark woman caught the bag without even looking.

[Anonymous]

Lindraeus came in on the tail end of what seemed like an argument. When he got a better look at things when he entered Fischer and Son's, he saw that it was Feyda and a competitor in the center of the attention, making a wager. Lindraeus made his way to the popular pool table, getting himself into a vantage point to see the game when the final bet was agreed upon. Before Feyda went into action though, Lindraeus noticed the holes in the back of her coat and was briefly reminded as to the true reason for them being here.
He watched when Feyda took her shot, and before he knew it, she had done exactly what she said she would do. The enraged competitor seemed to lob her prize at her out of sheer spite, but Fey caught it like it was second nature. Lindraeus smiled a little when it was all said and done; it looked like Feyda really did know he way around these parts.
"Wow, you're really good. Not that I play, but that looked pretty amazing," congratulated Lindraeus as he came up to her, lifting his head a little to allow her to see his face under his hood. "So, this isn't the first time for you coming to Cerenis or playing a round of pool, huh?"
His statement actually prompted him to ponder a little bit, to wonder what exactly Feyda and similar people would do with their spare time.

[Anonymous]

Feyda tossed her most recent winnings up and down as she leaned back against the pool table. Her audience was thinning in populous as no one was bold enough to challenge her skill anymore. Therefore, no show to watch. the dark woman's eyebrows were perked when she heard Lindraeus with his approach. She turned a smile to him as she pressed the sack of gold down upon the table to lean into it.
"Well Lindy, just so you know, this used to be my favorite relaxing town. Let's just say, I usually come here to retire every now and again." With her words, Feyda pushed herself away from the table and tossed the bag to Lindraeus.
"Here's lunch for a month. You needn't worry about me. I got me covered for a long time." She added as her smile shifted into a slightly wicked grin. She certainly was quite busy before her comrade got there.

[Anonymous]

Lindraeus perked an eyebrow. Lindy? For some reason, that just sounded kinda weird to his ears, but he wasn't about to make a big fuss over a nickname. It did sound like Fey spent much of her time up here on Earth, which was definitely good. Lindraeus had no experience in Hell, but he heard the all the stories and had done all of the research, and that already terrible place was further warped by the wiles of his imagination.
The next thing Lindraeus noticed was the sack of Earthly money sailing through the air, straight at him. His twitch reflexes acted, but lacked precision, and he ended up juggling the bag between both hands for a good five seconds before finally securing it safely in his grasp. During his bumbling with the money bag, he'd stumbled back two steps and definitely lost 'cool' points among the pool house patrons.
With a smile that was anything but confident, he held up the money bag in plain sight to show Feyda that, in fact, he did have it under control. As he was putting it away, he said to her, "Hey, um, thanks."
Then, after he was done, there was a moment of awkward silence. Lindraeus was thrown off track by Feyda's airborne gift and forgot what he was going to say momentarily.
A spark of inspiration was clearly visible in Lindraeus' eyes when he was back on track, "Oh! Yeah, right. I found out something very interesting when I checked back in, Fey."
He came closer to her, so that he could lower his voice and keep his back to most of the others in the pool house. He wasn't intentionally trying to look secretive, but he knew he had to be. "The Will's onto something big. I mean, big! Action Protocol 771 was enacted not too long ago. What that means is, well, it means that everything has been put on standby, and almost all resources are being redirected to one project. One big undertaking. Strangely enough, I heard that even Mikael got pulled to help work on this. Rumor was that he was making a... uh... cage of some sort.
"But anyway, what that means for us is pretty good news. The satellite stations on Earth aren't shut down, but they are minimally staffed and supervised less. This is gonna give us a nice little umbrella to work under. And! I got a few local places we could start."
Lindraeus was obviously excited about the news he brought, and, for the first time, looking pretty eager about their self-made mission to disrupt the Will of Divinity. The only thing he was waiting on was the word from Feyda, and they'd be off.

[Anonymous]

"Oh?" Feyda raised her dark blue eyebrows in interest when Lindraeus mentioned he had news. The dark woman listened intently as her partner explained his findings. With a smile, she placed her hand upon his shoulder.
"Lead the way then." She spoke, maintaining her smile.

[Anonymous]

It wasn't much, but it was the word he was looking for. He couldn't tell if she was more interested in the inner workings of the Will or simply getting down into the business of tearing them down. She was pleased about something though, as evidenced by her smile, and somewhat to Lindraeus' surprise, the hand on his shoulder.
"Alright then, I got a place in mind. It's close. Follow me," said Lindraeus, mentally chastising himself for being redundant by saying 'follow me' a few seconds later.

While en route to the building via Cerenis' sunbathed streets, Lindraeus briefed Feyda on a little backstory behind this particular location. "The codename for the outpost is 'Brilliance'. It's primarily used as a records archive, with only occasional testing and experimentation being performed there. Outpost Brilliance is one of the few records archives on Earth, and is the main location for storing records of Projects that pertain to Earth in some way. I'm sure we can find some records that pertain to Heaven though if we look, and that'd be really useful for incriminating them with the Vindication."
Lindraeus scratched his chin, wondering if there was anything else he should cover. He almost smacked himself when he remembered some more pertinant details about the outpost. "Oh yeah, let's see. Outposts on Earth are almost all underground, and Brilliance is no exception. The entrance to the outposts are usually an unassuming shop, house, or what-have-you that's common for Earth and the region. More often than not, normal humans are employed to keep watch over the entrance to the outpost and add an extra layer of distracting sincerity to the disguise. Brilliance itself isn't too big, and is staffed by ten personnel, max. Maybe one security person present, maybe. The walls are like any other secure structure in Heaven, and teleportation isn't possible through them. So basically, they'll be trapped in there once we have control of the entrance. Hmm... that's about it."
A couple minutes later, Lindraeus' eyes locked onto the building he sought. It sat across a small square made by intersecting roads, nestled in a corner nearly behind the two other stores to the left and right of it. The building was quite unassuming and unmemorable, like Lindraeus said earlier.
He made a very slight nod at the store, saying to Feyda, "That's it, right there. Jacie's Fishing Goods. How do you wanna do this?"
Now that they were there, after all of that briefing and history he put out earlier, Lindraeus found himself stripped of knowledge. He knew a lot about the outpost, but how exactly they were going to go about quietly overtaking it was a different story. He figured they might just walk in the front door and go from there, but somehow that just didn't seem right. Or maybe his mind was simply too cluttered with all the gawdy stories and boasting of actual field agents.

[Anonymous]

Feyda was never one that was fond of history lessons. That said, she was off in her own world, polishing off her Desert Eagle as Lindraeus went on. After a bit of time with the man yammering on, Feyda had put her weapon away and began examining the rounds. Finally, Lindraeus had finished talking and mentioned that they were at their destination with a question thrown in. The dark woman smiled with the answer that came to mind.
"You point, I shoot." She noted as she cocked the upper portion of her Desert Eagle back and loaded a round into the chamber. She then walked up to the door of the fishing goods building and kicked the door open.

[Anonymous]

Lindraeus didn't have time to think; Feyda was already on the move. He started after her after she was at least four steps ahead of him, voicing his concerns to her as she approached the building, "Fey, I don't know if this is the greatest idea. Maybe we could-"
Kick open the front door.
For some reason, Lindraeus expected a host of terrible things to come flooding out of the portal as if they opened up a gate to Hell. As such, he made a movement to shield himself, but such precautions readily became unnecessary.
Stranger than the tide of ill intent he had envisioned, was the near complete stillness inside the store. Few loose products dangling off the wall on hooks were rattled when the door slammed against the wall, but other than that, nothing moved inside the store. All of the fishing goods were in place in the store, but there was no shopkeeper or anyone attending to them.
Lindraeus blinked, mentioning, "Huh... there should be someone up here. Is the store open?"
To answer his own question, he stepped past Feyda and into the shop, glancing back at the front of the door. The sign that hung off of it had the 'OPEN' side displayed, but he couldn't remember if it was that way before the door was kicked. There was no reason why it wouldn't be though, given the time and weather of the day.
He looked to Feyda, suggesting, "Maybe... they're doing something?"
Lindraeus knew the top level, or ground level as it was called sometimes, of the outposts were a blindspot. There was no need to raise any kind of suspicion by placing even the most discrete surveillance equipment up here, especially when there was a local lookout employed. He and Feyda should still have the element of surprise with them, at least he hoped.
"Alright then," he said. "We have to find the entrance to the actual outpost now. Most times it's in the floors." Lindraeus finished his sentence with his head lowered, his eyes scanning the ground he walked on carefully. He made a few rounds about the store before he finally stopped directly behind the front counter.
Lindraeus motioned for Feyda, then kneeled down, staring down at a particular spot in the floor. He put his hand on it, and his hand pulsed with a silvery aura as a bit of miraculous energy flowed from it.
Abruptly, a large, square section of the floor started to become transparent. And as that section of wooden floor temporarily vanished from reality, what it revealed was that Lindraeus and Feyda stood at the top of a spiral staircase. Architecture of the staircase was certainly not native to Earth, and neither was the metal that it and the underground walls that enclosed it was made of. The spiral stairs appeared to go down for at least four or five stories, where the base of the stairs faced a thick metal door that was the entrance to the outpost.
Lindraeus looked back to Feyda and asked, with a slight bit of humor, "Same plan?"

[Anonymous]

Feyda was instantly disappointed when she set foot through the door. The shop was barren. There was no retaliation, nor a startled merchant, ducking for cover.
"Well, this bites. I was expecting to shoot someone." The dark woman noted what appeared to be jokingly. In actuality, she was being serious. She sauntered off into the store to look around while Lindraeus did his thing. When he signaled her, she complied and wandered in his general direction.
Fey sized up the door at the bottom of the staircase within the hole Lindraeus unveiled. She couldn't help but smirk at his dull humor.
"Yeah, same plan." She noted as she reached into the inside of her longcoat.
"Only, this door will require a little more of a kick." With the last word spoken, the dark angel pulled out a thermal grenade and tossed the pin to it to Lindraeus. She then tossed the grenade to the door and turned away to walk the other direction.
"You might wanna get down." She added calmly.

[Anonymous]

When Feyda made known the need for a little extra kick, Lindraeus, for some odd reason, literally assumed she was going to go down the staircase and kick the metal door as hard as she could. Fortunately for her foot though, she dispelled all the foolishness of that notion when she produced a more explosive means of breaching the door. He watched as the grenade plummeted down the steep staircase and landed in front of the door, but didn't hesitate when the cautionary words were thrown out by Feyda.
Lindraeus turned away from the hole, the staircase, and the door along with her, and not even a full moment afterward, the ensuing explosion rocked the building slightly. He almost lost his footing during the event, but the metal-on-metal rattling of the door below them falling off of its thick hinges made up for it.
"That did the trick," stated Lindraeus.
One thing did puzzle him immensely, however; there was no commotion after the door was broken. No orders being shouted, no scurrying of hurried feet, nothing. If they didn't lose the element of surprise, they surely had lost it now, but it didn't make much sense.
Lindraeus froze for a second. What if they knew he and Feyda were coming?
He shook his head; that didn't make much sense either, after some thought. It was doubtful that they'd try to set up their trap in the same area as the archived records, which could easily become collateral damage. They surely would have sprung it up here on ground level, especially before he even had the chance to find and uncover the hidden way down to the outpost.
"Something's not right," he said to Feyda, looking straight at her to see if she shared his same concerns.
Lindraeus turned back to go to the hole and the top of the staircase. He peered over the edge, and down at the blast site where the metal door once stood. The soft, bluish light of the fluorescent light fixtures inside the actual outpost poured out onto the landing at the bottom of the staircase. Unmoving shadows distorted some of it, but nothing appeared to move inside of the room. Distant, ambient whirring and beeping of some of the machinery could heard faintly coming from the outpost below as well.
Trap or not, they weren't doing much good just standing up there though.
"Well, uh, let's take a look then, I guess?" Lindraeus suggested, unable to hide the hint of nervousness in his voice. He dropped a hand onto the rail, and started down the spiral staircase.

[Anonymous]

When Lindraeus looked at Feyda, he would notice a frown on her face. She was obviously disappointed about something.
"You're right about that. There's no one to shoot at." The dark woman retorted as her comrade nervously edged towards the hole. Not giving Lindraeus time to walk down the stairs, Feyda pulled out her Desert Eagle and trudged down the stairs, passing the man. She walked through the portal without being cautious about it and waited on the other side of the doorway for Lindraeus.

[Anonymous]

"Good... Heavens..." were Lindraeus' words when he stepped through the doorway.
Simply put, it was a massacre.
Blood stained much of the metal floor of the small outpost, and many of the cabinets full of records were wrecked or broken. Papers were scattered everywhere, some ripped, some crumpled, some left intact and simply strewn about the bloodied floor. The single metal pillar in the center of the octagon shaped room was bent, as if something had rammed or was thrown against it. Some of the ceiling lights were obscured by a spattering of blood, creating a soft sanguine light beneath them.
Then there were the bodies. Seven of them were all lined up in a row near the back of the facility, all in a sitting position with their throats slit. There were three that stood out though:
The security person, as he was the only one who was armed, laid face down by the bent pillar, his spine ripped out and sticking visibly out of his back in a twisted arch.
A naked woman, who looked more human than angel, who was tied up in a sitting position on the other side of the bent pillar. Both of her wrists were cut deeply, and a river of blood flowed out of each wound. The skin of her face was also neatly carved off, and all that was left was ragged muscle.
Lastly, one researcher laid dead on his back on the wall opposite the other seven. His body was pale, his skin flayed and slashed in countless places, and his face beaten into a bloody, concave mess. Above his body, the words "I AM NO ANGEL" were written in his blood on the wall.
Lindraeus didn't move, and apparently didn't breathe, for a good few moments. He finally turned around, looking away from the gruesome sight and appeared to be sick. "Merciful Heaven..." he choked out, throwing his hand out to the door frame to support himself, while he brought the other up to his mouth.
Through his revulsion and shock though, his mind raced with possiblities to explain the spectacle. Who did it? How did they get in? What did they want? How long was it since it occured? And did the Will know of the attack yet or not? Those were the questions he tried to answer, but without concrete facts, it was all speculation.
"This... this is... I don't know if I can stomach this," Lindraeus admitted, sinking down a little until he was on one knee. He dry heaved once, but seemed to recover after a few big breaths.
A quiet noise came from the other side of the octagon room, behind a large metal cabinet. The crunch of broken glass.
Lindraeus quickly whirled around, despite himself, and tried to tunnel his vision to exactly where the sound eminated from to avoid the sickening sight of slaughter. His hood was pulled back some, and his eyes were clearly terrified.
His heart pounded his chest furiously; he began to think that maybe he wasn't cut out for this.

[Anonymous]

"Well, shit..." Feyda began as she lowered her weapon. Her frown has grown in the last few minutes.
"It's no wonder why I wasn't blessed with any action. Were this a scenario of Clue, I would have given up from the get go." After her crude remarks the dark woman began wandering through the room, marveling at the different works of art. The Desert Eagle was raised once again when the crunch of glass was heard. Being the bold one, Feyda began slowly inching towards the cabinet.

[Anonymous]

Lindraeus wanted to say 'Be careful' to Feyda, but all that escaped his mouth was a choked gasp. He watched with no small amount of worry and dread as she approached the source of the sound. He knew very well that she was more than capable, but the spectacle splattered all about the outpost made him anxious nonetheless.
"What brings you here, I wonder?" came an aged and ragged voice from behind the cabinet.
Then the angel stepped out from his hiding spot. His appearance was very strange though: His wings were skeletal and debilitated, and his face was not youthful, but rather old and with a long, white beard. His clothes were simple, akin to what a peasant of Earth might wear. His frame was gaunt, and his eyes were devoid of any splendor and simply a dull shade of brown.
Lindraeus managed to get back onto his feet, as well as ask quietly, "Who... who are you?"
With only an acknowledging glance to the other angel, he kept his gaze more on Fey as she approached. "Perdieus. An angel banished from Heaven, awaiting his final judgement."
Lindraeus blinked, maintaining his tunnel vision focus on the skeletal-winged angel, "Perdieus? The Perdieus? From that famous Trial in Hallow?"
He nodded. "The same."
The next question came naturally, and it was probably one that was in the forefront of Feyda's mind as well, "What are you doing here? Did you... did you do all this?"
Perdieus glanced back at Feyda and her weapon before looking over at Lindraeus. He shook his head, saying, "Not by my hand, no. By my mouth, I suppose..."
"What do you mean?" asked Lindraeus, not following what he meant.
Perdieus started to walk slowly over to the body under the words written in blood, explaining, "You could say that I wanted to see what she'd do. I've nothing left to lose myself, so I can only gaze into the lives of others, to see what I have lost.
"I've lived around Cerenis for many years in solitude, but it was only yesterday that I was sought out by anyone. Sought... perhaps merely found.
"Her name was Anima. Disturbed lass, but determined and driven by principle, albeit a twisted one. After she discovered that I could not harm or be harmed, we had a very long talk. It was refreshing actually, to talk to someone, even if they were demented beyond repair.
"Seems she was searching for someone, and that these people might have had even the smallest clue to find him. The man named Neseraph."
Perdieus stopped talking, even though much of his story wasn't apparently finished and many questions weren't answered. He simply stared up at the blood-written words on the wall absently, almost looking like he might have forgotten where he was.

[Anonymous]

Feyda's deadly weapon was pointed at the new face as soon as he rounded the cabinet. She kept to herself as Lindraeus did the talking for a change. When this Perdieus made it known that he didn't slaughter the post, the dark woman lowered her weapon, but didn't lower her guard. She calmly listened as the man explained a bit, picking up the couple name that were mentioned. From the sound of it all, this Anima individual was looking for someone that shared the same name as Feyda's race. Perhaps his significance would share some insight of her unbeknown past.
"What else do you know, old man? I assume Anima did this to get answers of this Neseraph's whereabouts. Perhaps you were in this room when a potential answer was given?" Feyda's questions weren't really what one would expect. Her curiosity lied more around who her kin was and from the sound of things, Anima and Neseraph were the better start.

[Anonymous]

Perdieus blinked twice, then looked back at Feyda. It seemed like everything that was on his mind all came back to him at once, as evident by the slightly surprised look on his face. "Forgive me, lass. My mind wanders sometimes. To me, time seems to be at a standstill. I trouble frequently to seperate what was and what is..."
Getting back on track, Perdieus continued his story, seemingly invigorated by the simple act of talking to another person, "Anima beseeched me for my help in her search, and I did so help her. I have long knew of this place, for they knew of me. The angels here brought me in. They were not interested in camaraderie, but study and experimentation instead. And when she told me her story, I knew that the angels here responsible. I wondered, what would she do, and was it something I would have done, given her place?
"I led her here, under the pretense of good will. They opened their doors for me, and it was then I got my answer.
"She came in, lacking mercy. The guard fought furiously, but Anima made certain that he would fight no more. She closed the door behind us, sealing us all inside. Establishing control, she began to question all of the angels as she tore apart their writings. All of them denied everything, but one among them was panicked. He decried her actions, calling her an unfit angel. For this, she made it clear what she made of his statement.
"This made the human shopkeeper, captive from above and brought down here, weep heavily. I had not seen such a great shift from rage to care, but she quieted the troubled human. Anima held her head against her breast, stroking the shopkeeper's hair to calm her as she bled, and her troubles were no more. And a great shift again, as she satiated her hunger."
Despite his better judgement, Lindraeus took a second look at the body of the human shopkeeper. With more scrutiny, he noticed that the woman did have scattered chunks of flesh sliced off in bite-size portions at random places all over her body. After seeing that, Lindraeus could no longer hold back and turned around to vomit.
After a moment, Perdieus continued, "Once the rest where dispatched for, as she said, 'being of no use', Anima continued her search of their writings. She did all that you see before you here, until she found something and stopped immediately. She beckoned to me, and showed me.
"It was a picture of a white-haired man and sandy-haired woman, taken from another time and finding its way to be kept here. She excitedly pointed out the man to me as Neseraph, but of the woman, named Insera, she was unsure; she supposed that it might be his current love.
"She set out to find this woman then, thanking me for my help as she left. I asked where she would go, and what she was going to do. To me she said that she would continue her search, and find Neseraph through Insera if she had to. She was going to the kingdom of Connlaoth, to the city of Reajh, to call upon the aid of another man, named Blackbride. Telarn Blackbride."
Perdieus took in a considerate breath, then spoke of Feyda, "I wonder now, what will you do?"

[Anonymous]

Feyda listened intently as the old one continued with his story in detail. Everything was being pieced together as he continued. She ignored Lindraeus when he decided to lose his lunch and even ignored the fact that the human woman was feasted upon. Despite what kind of demented person this Anima may be, Feyda came to the conclusion that she may make an interesting ally were it for the destruction of those she currently stood around. Though the thought may be a bit off the wall, any ally is better than none. She was sure she would be able to cope with the insanity. The destination was given out and Perdieus' question prompted Feyda to put her weapon away.
"We pursue. C'mon, Lindy." Without giving her quick decision a second thought, the dark woman turned around and briskly walked passed Lindraeus and up the stairs.

[Anonymous]

Lindraeus struggled to catch his breath for a good moment, to control his stomach movements and save himself from another embarassment. He was lost on how Perdieus and Feyda could just simply look upon the grotesque sights here and not even show the slightest bit of nausea. Maybe one grew numb to it after a long while of being exposed to it. He stood up straight, then heard something he secretly wished he didn't hear.
"What? We're going after her?" said Lindraeus, unable to mask the surprise in his voice. It was a question that didn't need to be asked, as Feyda was already on the move. Reluctantly, Lindraeus began to follow, scooping up some random documents on the floor as he did in the hopes to find some kind of incriminating evidence as they traveled.
Perdieus watched Feyda and Lindraeus leave, and longed to follow them, to see how it all would play out. He knew that he couldn't, and resolved to stay where he was until he felt the need to leave. It could be minutes, days, or decades before he finally felt that need, he truly did not know.
He sat down, staring at the bloodied ground as his eyes lost focus and his mind wandered yet again.

[Anonymous]

High above the village nestled in the sea, the dimensional sky ripped and a dragon streamed out. Tumbling a bit from the change of air currents, she dropped down to the village. She'd been gone a long time, oh yes. And the spell she cast should have brought her to within the vicinity of the one she was looking for.

Perhaps only dragons would consider "around that city" to be "within the vicinity."

Nevertheless, she circled lower. Keen eyes searching, searching...

She was searching for a specific form with a specific colour. And she had quite a bit of patience about this sort of thing. Where are you, blue girl?

The dragon was a dark wine-red in colour, but there was a sheen about her scales that you couldn't quite see from this far off. She had a slender neck and tail, and lots of spikes because spikes were cool. And armour. And that fish-hook tail with the barb on the end. Those claws were pretty intimidating as well. Oh yeah, and her eyes glowed slightly. Her head was pretty well defined, designed to poke into things and then get stuck. But it looked cool, and that's what mattered, right? How many chandelier-wielding knights is she going to come across? And how long would a chandelier last around her neck anyway?

The wing buffeted her around as she lazily road the currents. She wasn't too concerned about being so in the open; afterall, anything interested enough in her to attack would be... entertaining. And if Feyda happened to look up before Latira saw her..

Well, it would be convenient.

Alas, convenience just got pushed aside by intuition. The bored and lazy dragon dropped to a low swoop on part of the town and smelt... blood.

Not just human blood, though that was in their as well...

The blood smelt similar to one she'd smelt before.

Oh Latira you bloodhound.

Banking sharply, she returned to the spot. A broken door? Sounds about right for Feyda. She landed on the street (no small feat! Do you realize how narrow these streets are?) and looked at the door with interest. Someone was moving inside.

She waited, standing as far to the far side of the street as she could manage, her shoulders at the height of the second story.