"I will pass, means I will pass", she said stubbornly, "I don't want to go home...".

She crossed her arms and looked back at him.

The foreman's frown suddenly changed to a large grin, "A servant? .... Me? HAHAHAHAHA", He broke out in hysterical laughter. When his laughter died down he announced, "I am not a servant... but an officer... I command the servants... and his majesty commands me". An orb was snatched out of the air by something, "Here let me show you". The orb's light grew very bright and light up the entire room, revealing it was being held by some long tentacle like limb coming out of the foreman's back. Another limb also wavered in the air as well. The rest of its body was misshapen and distorted, it also had random metal plates attached to it, like its mask. "I am born... of his Majesty's magnificence!"

"And these... are the servants!", He pointed all across the room to distorted human shapes. They were not as grotesque or wildly deformed as the foreman, yet they also misshapen. "They... are basic... they are half willed... And they have no function... outside of control"




Bel looked a little worried, "So if your not heading home, then what will you be doing?" He asked her.

"Well I could help you", she said, "After all you are hardly in a condition to do much.".

She pointed out the various injuries and scratches then proceeded to emphasize her lack of them.

OOT sorry i thought i posted lol

nydia quickly stood up from her seat looking around the room in fear
"what are you?"
she looked back at the foreman
"d-did you do this to them, the.. servants?"
she looked back around the room, she slowly started to move towards the door

The foreman looked a little confused at her sudden change, " I was born... of the beautiful world... I am a.... thinker, librarian... foreman, officer... guider... I told you... once before.... And no... These servants... they either.... did this to... themselves... or... they were.... guided.."

Noticing she was backing up, he called out, "Oh do not.... Be afraid.. They always... follow my command... and nothing else..". The servants stood still, with only sight movements. Only a very few looked to their guest, but did nothing more.


////

"If your gonna help me, then fine. But if trouble comes, get away as fast as your legs can take you." Bel told her. The night was accompanied by a cold breeze and the moonlight was not strong enough to see much past the long field between them and the city. "Were gonna camp out near here, help me get some sticks together for a fire"

nydia stopped moving then looked around
"so they did this to themselves"
she looked back at the foreman
"your not gonna hurt me...are you?"

"Right!",

Rei turned and walked to the nearest tree. She paused and stared at it for a few moments then turned and walked to the next, once again just staring at it. This pattern continued for several minutes before she walked back to Bel.

"So, where do we get sticks from?"

The foreman gave a little laugh, "No... I enjoy.. company... It would be.. rather out of taste... to harm a guest.. wouldn't you agree?". The foreman poured himself another cup of tea, and splashed the boiling liquid on its metal mask again.



Bel sat down in the grass, "hmm" he looked around for sticks or something else that could be used. He glanced back to the keep and thought and an idea came up, "Try to pull some of the wooden vines off the walls, they look like they can be fine enough if we get enough bits".

"i will stay as long as you dont intend to hurt me"
seeing him splash his face again naydia tilted her head in curiosity
"why do you do that? splash yourself with your drink, why not just drink it?"

The foreman looked to her strangely, "I find it...more... odd... the way... you drink it" He looked around to the servants for a moment, "I find it... even more odd.. how life manages.... to exist here"

"i supposed everyone does things differently and sees things differently then others"
she sat back down in her chair
"why do you find odd that life exists here?"

"I find it odd... how life keeps itself in order here..... Neither side... could possibly conceptualize the... other side"... "Yet... Here I am... who crossed... the gap... and witnessed every side..."

He put his delicate little teacup on the platter hoisted by the wisps.

"I am afraid... our conversation will end here... I have to tend to matters..." Noticing that it is night time he added, "If you intend... to stay... please enjoy one of our... second floor rooms... they are the guest rooms... However, I must warn you... Do not venture further up the tower... His majesty dislikes company... Any other areas will most surely be locked".

He lifted himself up out of the chair and marched out of the room, with the servants and most of the wisps following behind him. "Its been... a very long while... since we ever had guests... hmm?"

naydia thought for a moment
"i guess i will stay, i was told to come here and wait so i guess its best i stay"
she stood up and headed towards the door
"second floor, is there any particular room or can i choose any?"

The foreman seemingly disappeared after he left the room, and her question was unanswered. They were no where to be found in the halls and the tower fell into silence, appearing as devoid of life as it was when she first got there. The tower was scantily lit, only a few candles were lit on scorns around the spiraling staircase, directly outside of the room Nydia was in. There was a very slight scratching sound coming from above, it was rapid and spastic, appearing only in intervals.

nydia headed out towards the hallway to and up the stairs heaing towards the second floor. she heard the scratching and wondered what was causing that noise. she looked up the stairs taking a few extra step up to see if she can find out where the noise was coming from
"is someone there?"
she took a few more steps then stopped
'should i continue on or just go to the guest room?'
she thought to herself

OOT: I'm not sure what to do with the rest of this, or if I should drop it... The conflict of this one really requires more characters to really work out. I had an idea of what would happen up to a conflict, and even composed some back story to what happened to cause this, etc. Give me response on what you think we should do, continue, change, etc... I'd be more than happy to post the stories if we want too (given that its dropped)

OOT: I don't think you should drop it, but I'd just be prepared for slow responses.

Asmodeus woke up.

He was sitting in a warm, stone-walled room. Candles flickered around him.
He got up, warily. "Where am I?"

A voice from the other end of the room made him jump.
"Back amongst the living, with a little extra to boot."

Asmodeus spun around, and saw a little old man grinning at him from a spindly chair.
"I've been waiting to die," said the old man matter-of-factly, "but I didn't want my gift to die with me. Or my curse. But either way... I saw what you did. Have them both. I hope they both drive you mad and serve you well..."

Asmodeus didn't even have time to speak before the old man smiled, and collapsed to the floor dead.

And then.
Then the voices.
Hundreds of them. Thousands. Hundreds of thousands. All in his head.

Asmodeus, caught completely off guard fell straight to the floor, his teeth locked together, screaming inside and out, as the voices tore through his brain...

From the top story of the tower, something rolled off from the staircase, it landed down to the ground with a thud. The sound echoed across the stone walls, disturbing the near perfect silence. That silence was else interrupted by the rapid scratching like sound coming from above the tower. None of the servants or wisps were to be found anywhere.

Asmodeus opened his eyes.
"Hello, boss," said a voice from somewhere above him - the only voice he could now hear.

"Uhh..." he groaned as he attempted to sit up.

"Watch it boss, you nearly squished me!"

"...Wha?"

It was at this point he realised he had a rat on his chest, looking at him intently.
"You're a talking rat."

"No," the rat responded patiently, "you can talk to rats. And everything else. Completely different."

"But you're a rat. You shouldn't even have the ability to form words let alone speak as coherently as that."

"It's magic, isn't it? Thanks to the old corpse in the corner, all creatures can now understand you as if they had the brains of one of you pale monkeys. And you can understand them. All the time."

Asmodeus took this in without question. It was becoming one of those days.
"I see. He said something about a blessing and a curse."

"The curse being you can't take a walk down the street without hearing the birds swearing at each other," said the rat brightly. "On the other hand... you can tell them to shut up and they don't have a choice. Every single thing except for your kind now has to do as you say. Neat, huh?"

"Yes... neat..."

nydia jumped when she heard the thud, the sound startled her. she heard the scratching continued and decided to walk further up the stairs
"well i might as well see where the noise is coming from, i wont be able to sleep with all that ruckus"

Asmodeus got up, and the rat hopped down onto the floor.
He walked towards the door - then Nydia and the tower flashed into his mind and he started running.

He flung the door open and started running towards the tower, anxious to find her, the rat on his heels muttering about big clomping feet..

The scratching sounds grew louder and more clear as she ascended up the stairs, it sounded almost like frantic scribbling, the stairs led to a single hall, without any doors except the ones at the very end of it. Those doors were slightly ajar and light came from it, as well as the scratching sounds. Not a single servant or wisp was nearby. 

Beyond the doors was an impossibly large room, it was lit by floating candles and it was bustling with activity. Various golden and silver pens floated in the air, writing on long scrolls that littered the floor. These pens moved with grace and wrote with an elegant style. They were swift and wrote what seemed to be entire paragraphs in a few seconds. The golden pens outnumbered the silver pens in the room, and in total there must of be about a hundred pens at work..... In the center of the room sat the great armored humanoid, it held a giant decorated pen in one of its four arms and wrote on an equally massive scroll. The paper was sprawled around him in a massive heap. It did not notice Nydia.

The door to the tower banged open, and Asmodeus ran inside.
"NYDIA!?"
But the tower was too large - his voice was lost amidst the dark corners of the place.
"See ya, boss," said the rat politely and vanished into the darkness.
Asmodeus rolled his eyes and started to run up the stairs, saving his breath for when he was sure he could be heard...

nydia quietly walked to the doors and peeked in noticing all the pens writing and the humanoid in the center of the room
"soo many pens"
she whispered to herself
"i wonder what they are all writing?"
she didnt want to bother the humanoid so she continued to watch quietly wondering what they were writing

The pens scribbled away, the paper they wrote on fell upon the floor carelessly. The giant was all the same, carelessly disposing the paper as if it didn't exist after it met his pen. However, something soon stirred the papers. With a new bright and almost blinding light the paper was tumbled around as if wind pushed it. The light was growing ever more so blinding and the wind grew more intense, pushing the papers vertically in a climax. The rushing papers obscured any view of what may be causing it, being tossed everywhere. When it all seemed to get worse, it suddenly ceased and the paper simply fell to the ground. The pens seemingly vanished during the mayhem, and so did the giant. The floor was just a great big mess of paper, you could not even see the flooring tiles. 

 Despite the pens and the giant being gone, the room was not inactive. A great thick edged mirror with wide, broad wooden sides was present in the middle. Light seemed to be emanating from it, but it was so did a gentle breeze, softly pushing the papers in small gusts. There was also some sort of noise coming from, like.. Rushing water. At the far distances she was, Nydia could spot shades of green and blue coming from it, resembling a lightly forested area at daytime.

 (OOT: Leaving plenty of possibilities here, such as Nydia looking into the mirror, investigating the papers, or even Asmodeus coming just then)