"You think I have anyone, anything that I can go to? Everyone I know is either dead or blindly following orders by the king. I've had to murder the same people that I once called a brother in arms. I've had to face families of those I deceased. And now, I'm told I have a sister. Which may or may not be true. And you want me to show sympathy, and a burning desire to befriend a complete stranger, albeit one who saved my life. I didn't want to die by them. But god damnit. Do I want to die either in the thrill of battle or the sorrow of a bottle. I will never be deserving of a dramatic death"

Carlyle didn't feel like explaining any further his point of view on Allora being his sister. He didn't doubt it, but wouldn't just accept the fact that he had a sister. Especially one going down the war path.

"I was with a group before I was apprehended. I will be vague because I dont entirely know you, but I will release that one of them can harness supernatural powers, in and out of combat. Have you any idea where a group of people could be?"

Allora remained quiet as he spoke then looked down
"I'm sorry, I was just telling you who i was."
she sighed
"If you don't want me around then I'll go. I just wanted to find my brother and see if he was still alive"
she looked over at spirit
"I passed a group a while back, I cant remember how many there were but there was one woman whose eyes glowed blue from time to time. I helped them locate a child"
she looked up at Carlyle
"Spirit can take you to them if you like, I've succeeded in my search and from here I'm not sure where I'll go"
she started walking towards the woods



Cora pointed in a direction in the woods
"There is a small cave just over that hill. Its where I ran to hide when the town was attacked"
she started walking towards the hill and gestured the others to follow
"Its not far i promise"


Ella looked over at Elvan
"Thank you for you help,"
she looked down at Mathuriel
"We have to figure something out so that this doesnt keep happening to him"

Elyan gave Ella a curious look.
"Wait, you think there might be a way we can do that? If he could use his powers more easily, it'd probably be a big help to us. Do you have anything in mind?"

Ella shook her head
"I wish I knew, I've tried to ask him if he is ok to see if I can get any info out of him but he tells me the same thing over"
she looked at Mathuriel and shook her head
"I wish we could find out more so we could help"

A faint trickle of blood ran from Mathuriel's nose.
"I'm not... giving you... that bloody... scroll..." he moaned in his sleep, shaking and groaning like he was having a nightmare.
"Get out...no...I won't... You can't...make... me...who's...Ella...?"

Ella looked up at Elyan
"He soiunds like he is having a night mare I think we should wake him"
she gently shook Mathruiel
"Mathuriel wake up"
she spoke in a gentle tone as to not startle him

Heizengard looked at Cora. "Yeah that sounds like a good Idea..."
He then looked at Ella. "Hold on I'll wake him." Saying that he kicked him in his ribs as hard as he could. "Wakey wakey princess."

The pain woke him up.
His first action was to sit upright, vomit blood, then snarl angrily and level his sceptre at Heizengard.
A flicker of recognition, and he jerked it to the right - just in time. The weapon glowed, and a dimensional portal opened, flat, in one of the houses. Had Mathuriel not adjusted his aim, Heizengard would have been torn in half.
He got to his feet, shaking, eyes bloodshot, almost falling unconscious again.
"NEVER. DO. THAT. AGAIN." he hissed, anger blistering through his tone.

Elyan helped Mathuriel steady himself as he was standing up.
"It's a good thing that attack of yours missed. What a shame it would've been if it hit our good friend Heizengard, right? Truly, we would have lost one of the greatest minds of our generation."
His words were dripping in not-so-subtle sarcasm that he made no attempt to hide as he occasionally glanced at Heizengard. He turned back to Mathuriel and spoke in a more sincere tone.
"So...what were you talking about a minute ago? Something about a scroll?"

Heizengard just laughed at the two "princesses" and walked off, trying to hide his face from the others. He didn't want to appear Weak to anyone in the group or too Cora.

Ella waited for mathuriels answer.
"You also said my name in your sleep"
She looked at him with a raised brow
"What is this scroll you spoke of in your sleep, and why are you mentioning my name?"

Mathuriel looked at them blankly.
"...Scroll? Name? I..." He struggled to remember. "I... I can't remember. I'm trying, but trying to think about it... it's like there's something blocking my way."
He looked up at her.
"Maybe it was a nightmare."
He wiped blood from his nose.
"By the way, can you tell Captain Kicker over there that if he ever does that again, I will transport vampire leeches into his organs."

Zenith was trying to rest in the corner.

Serena looked at Mathuriel. She felt sick at the blood but came closer.
"Are you-" She swallowed as nausea rolled over her. "Is that okay?" She pointed at the blood smeared off of his nose."

Mathuriel opened his mouth to reply, and swiftly turned his head, vomiting about a bowl's worth of blood onto the ruins next to him.
"I can't go beyond my limit, otherwise I start taking magical energies from my life force," he started explaining as he wiped his mouth.
"When I go down like that, it's because I've overloaded my energies."
He dabbed at his nose again.
"This is weird though. I've been to over a thousand dimensions of all shapes and sizes and this is the only one that causes my nose to bleed. Weird. Maybe something in the air."

Ella looked ag Mathuriel
"Try not to over do it again"
She looked ahead of them.
"We arenlokking for a cave to rest for a bit before going after the king since we all seem to havs overdo it"
She looked at the group
"Cora said it was just over that hill. I suggest we get there asap so we dont run into anymore of the kings men. I dont think any if usnare upmfor another battle. Not just yet at least"
She started making her way towardz the hill
"Come on Let get going"

OOT: Gonna try to move things along a little bit.

While carrying Mathuriel, Elyan looked over to Cora who was somewhat far away but still within earshot.
"You there, new girl. We need a plan once we're done resting up today. Any ideas where the villagers might have gone? Maybe some sort of hiding place just in case some kind of disaster were to happen?"

Mathuriel grunted as he was jostled around on Elyan's shoulder, but didn't ask to be put down - his legs felt too weak.
"The spirit of these people isn't dead. That could be useful when it comes to the whole king-slaying deal we - *oof* - have planned."
He adjusted a little.
"Elyan, you could really do with some shoulder padding."

OOT gonna have everyone enter the cave now


As they reached the top of the hill Ella spotted the cave Cora had spoken of. The group continued until the reached the mouth of the cave
"Well this looks like a good place to rest"
she looked up at the sky and noticed it starting to get dark
"We can stay here for the night, rest up and head out towards the king at dawn"
she looked back at the group
"how does that sound to everyone?"

"Sounds... good... to me."
Mathuriel climbed down from Elyan, said "Thank you," walked towards the nearest wall, bounced off it and fell fast asleep, still stained with blood.

Ella walked over to a wall of the cave and rested up against it
"I think we should all get some sleep now"
she rested her head against the wall but instead of falling asleep she stared up at the ceiling for a while


Cora found a spot on the ground curled up and drifted to sleep

Elyan stared blankly as Mathuriel fell to the ground.
"...I'm not moving him."
He shrugged and looked for a place to lie down. Before drifting off to sleep, he looked towards Ella.
"So, big day tomorrow. Are you gonna be ready? Personally, I'm expecting an epic, glorious battle for the ages that people will sing songs about for generations to come, and all that good stuff. Should be fun, right?"

Serena cuddled next to Zenith.
"Sorry I got mad." She whispered. "Guess you were right."
"I guess so. It doesn't feel good to be, though. I'm just wondering if we ended up causing more deaths."
"They don't seem reluctant to kill. Why?"
"Tough question, Serena. It could be a couple things. Maybe a worse fate awaits if they disobey. Perhaps they get desensitized to it. But for now, how about we just try to sleep?"
Serena nodded and closed her eyes. Zenith wrapped her arms around Serena and felt her sorrows fall far away.

Heizengard sat down with his back against the wall and looked over at everyone else. He wasn't able to stop thinking about what happened in town and about his daughter. He wanted to go back into the town on his own and kill the knights there but he had no idea where Mathurial sent them so he stayed put. He wasn't able to fall asleep.