The three Celestial Plane dwellers actually appear on a world not far removed from Helantri Deru, but not actually on it. This is a hospitable place, to an extent. Dry, but the sand is soft and temperature perfectly bearable.

Ugh... It's some time before the green-clad wizard stirs, opening his eyes slowly against the light. His first waking inclination searches for Drianis and Mi'ehna with his peripheral sense. I am getting too old for this....

Drianis is fine. Well, once he manages to stop being horizontal, anyway. Mi'ehna did not fare quite as well, as she lays quivering against the foreign pressure pushing against and out from her mind.

He's not surprised he awakened last, not really...his body isn't quite up to par with their younger physiologies. But at least he's mentally prepared, even accustomed to jumps like this to some extent. He manages to stand up with his staff and walk carefully over to Mi'ehna, reasonably effectively hiding the fact that he's extremely dizzy. He kneels beside her. "Miss Mi'ehna? Are you all right?"

Mi'ehna looks up at him, but the static in her mind keeps her from really registering what he'd said. She's seeing six of him, actually.

Drianis teeters a bit, but manages to get to his feet and approach as well. "Mercy," he quietly laughs, "normally one must enjoy a night of drinking to get a hangover like this."

Tel-tiono's eyes sparkle lightly at this, and he nods. "Well, here's to auxilliary functions." He sets his fingertips very lightly to Mi'ehna's temple, aligning her energies to those of this universe and regulating the power flow again.

Mi'ehna calms swiftly, and stares up at the sky a moment before pushing up to her elbows and blinking. That... was some trip, Uncle. Next time, we shall have to walk it. She does favor him with a grateful smile, though.

"So now that we have arrived... where are we?"

"A distant parallel plane, on a world that I do not know the name of, in this universe's equivalent of the Topaz dimension, near an energy crossroads that presents ideal conditions for casting, especially psionics." He's quite familiar with it...the location of this Felina's apparent home is essentialy one of the locations that he'd considered for his own home. "Both Nightshades are on a nearby planet, directly over said crossroads. It is this Felina's home."

"Yes... I understood those last two sentences." Drianis smiles a hearty smile, and chuckles sheepishly. He is a brilliant man in his way, but quite a few things are just beyond his direct understanding.

Mi'ehna gets it, of course. This place feels so tranquil, now that my brain is not turning flips, she observes, her prodigal feet carrying her a few steps off. I know this architecture, vaguely. There was a little bit left standing in the ruins of Old Earth in our dimension, in the far corners of the wastelands.

"Well, they were most important." Tel-tiono smiles at Drianis--he understands that the other man's strengths are simply elsewhere--and nods to Mi'ehna, looking at the outlying buildings. Storage of some sort...maybe resting places. "Yes. I was born on Old Earth, in what's most probably noted as 'China' in most remaining documents. I am not surprised that Nightshade assimilated parts of the culture it into her sense of aesthetics as well."

I remember hearing about China from my friends who could read, ages ago. It is very pretty. Mi'ehna steps a bit closer to the other buildings, examining them almost cheerfully. I think my first adopted father was descended from there. Little bitty eyes, but very strong-looking. Like you, Uncle, in a way.

"The eyes make it feasible, yes...perhaps the most distinguishing characteristic of the region involved narrow, slanted eyes with pronounced epicanthic folds. In any case, I sense that we're expected. Are the two of you ready to pay our armored friend a visit?" He wants to get his daughter back. Now. Even if he can be coaxed into short explanations of this or that bit of trivial knowledge.

Mi'ehna grins at him... too much information is never enough when someone knows what he is talking about.

Of course! Just point my fist in the right direction. Her laughter bubbles within her mind, even softer and sweeter than it had been through her real voice.

Drianis nods, but stays quiet. It is kind of a nervous habit he has, to keep his mouth shut instead of answering questions. At one point he thought it made him look imposing, and did it on purpose. These days he just does it without thinking.

Tel-tiono nods, eyes sparkling the littles bit. "Of course. Miss Mi'ehna. Also: talk first, explosions later." At this, all of three of them appear in front of the complex's gates. The wizard looks up at them. Impressive, really. Open, just for them. But impressive.

Drianis steps in front of the other two instinctually, though in fairness, Tel-tiono could probably better handle himself should a scuffle break out. 

Trap, anyone? Mi'ehna reaches out with her respectable sense of empathy, 'listening' for anything that may or may not be amiss.

"I do not believe so, no. Though I would not think less of you for following your instincts and staying behind, Miss Mi'ehna," Tel-tiono notes.

Mi smiles at him, and saunters past Drianis towards the open gate in response. Her senses are peeled, of course, and Tel-tiono probably knows that she is watching quite closely for the traps she suspects anyway.

Tel-tiono follows, of course...Drianis will probably be happy to pick up the rear, anyway, since if there were some threat, that would be a likely direction. He's quite aware of their surroundings, but not truly wary, exactly. At least, not extremely so.

There is no trap. About two-thirds of the way through the grounds between the entrance and the elegantly formidable building in the center of it all, a serinian is sitting on a bench that appears to be simply a tree grown into an unnaturally geometric form. Her back's leaning on a more normal tree...she's definitely not in an easy-to-defend position.

She simply watches Mi'ehna approach from a moment before she comes into sight...sips her water. But doesn't move. Her face features the same blankness that it had worn in the Celestial Plane, and her armor glints lazily in the sunlight filtering through the trees.

Mi'ehna closes her eyes partway through the walk, and slows her pace. Such thick energies in the air have a way of forcing her to slow her pace, to gather herself enough to withstand the strange, invasive force of it. 

Standing at last before the trees, the empath stops walking and tilts her head a little bit. Well, that was easy, she thinks out loud, so... diplomacy. May we have Felina back? It seems so silly, but honestly, Mi'ehna doesn't know what else to say to this creature. It's worth a shot, anyway.

Drianis remains quiet, though at this point he is quite ready to defend them should things call for it.

A slow blink. That same unchanging face, though Felina seems to be evaluating Mi'ehna in some way. "No." She sips the water. Simple question, simple answer.

Mi'ehna scratches her hair. Why not? No threatening, no posturing... she isn't sure if she can handle this. It is far too drastic a change from the normal villain motif that she scarcely believes she's not dreaming.

Tel-tiono shifts his grip on his staff. Felina's eyes travel to him for just a moment...something deep in them seems to change at his leg--very deep--but then she looks back to Mi'ehna. "Because there was a threat on her life. She is safer now."

I hope you will forgive me, Mi'ehna tilts her head again, noting the glance at the older fellow's leg and storing that piece of information away for later use. But you could have just asked her. Attacking her and hurting poor Emshei was... rude.

"I had to test that she was the right one. She wouldn't have consented. I certainly know. The medium's involvement was unfortunate, but he moved struck first. Twice."

Of course he did, he was trying to defend her I bet. The big dumb oaf likes her even though he has not a chance in hell. The empath sighs, scratches her head again. Maybe if you told us 'why' you took her away, I would not feel so frustrated right now. What could be threatening her that would require her screaming in pain? 

Mi'ehna's eyes harden at that, the silly sort of innocence gone from within their colorless orbs. There is diplomacy, and there is business... this is business. It doesn't really occur to her that she isn't letting Tel-tiono ask the questions, but... she is motivated.

Tel-tiono, for now, lets her take this front stage...it's a good experience, and he's right here if it really looks possible to damage hs chances of getting his daughter back.

Felina's eyes travel over the little party for a few moments until she she finally shifts and stands up, her long coat falling neatly into place. "Come inside." She starts in the house's direction without waiting for a response. She's certainly not in a hurry...but the gesture does put her back to Mi'ehna, Drianis, and Tel-tiono.

Mi'ehna bites her lip, and looks back to her reticent father. Yup. He is fighting just as hard as she is against the urge to attack and be done with it. With a soft sigh she leads her feet along after the Serinian, still watchful, but somewhat less so.

Tel-tiono follows quietly as well, not leaning on his staff quite so much as he normally would. He observes their surrounding with a fair amount of admittedly muted interest as they walk.


Really, the reason that Felina's heading towards the house is that there hadn't been anywhere for the others to sit out here. Maybe not standing around and being ansy will slow down the "can we hit her with hammers now?" impulse.

The house is quite as nice attractive inside as out...very utilitarian, though. It depends on its architecture for its aesthetics, as decorations are minimal. Felina looks around a moment, then back to the other three. "Have a seat, if you like. Or a drink."

Drianis is the first to sit, as if irritated with this show of hospitality when there is such a pressing issue - a kidnapping for the love of mercy! - to be dealt with.

Mi'ehna leans up against a wall, finding that she does not trust the situation enough to put herself in a less defensible position.

Tel-tiono pauses just a moment, but then sits as well. He has a feeling that the seats are partly for his benefit, too. "Miss, as much as your hospitality is appreciated, we're very much concerned with the return of my parallel's daughter."

Mi'ehna blinks, opens her mouth to speak out of pure instinct. Para... I thought she was your daughter, Uncle.

Drianis gives his daughter a gentle nudge, shaking his head. Now is not the time to ask questions, though... in retrospect, he probably should have mentioned it already.

Tel-tiono considers explaining, but then lets it die for the time being, making a note to explain later.

This Felina bows her head a moment. "I suppose that explanations are due." She walks over to the window...looks out at the gardens for a few moments, and then turns to face the gathered party. "It seems strange, doesn't it, that 'parallel selves' can exist? Chaos theory should prevent it."

I have never seen anything prevented by a theory, Mi'ehna points out, and I think that you are pretty solid proof that it is not all that strange. She probably sounds petulant, but there is a polite edge to her tone now. She really has no idea what to think, and this 'calm explanation' thing is seriously throwing her off balance.

Tel-tiono is silent. He thinks he knows where this is going.

Felina nods. "But sometimes it's not a problem with the theory. In this case, the problem's partially explained by a stabilizing mechanism: parallels live and die very roughly together. They are not all directly connected...one dead version doesn't kill all of them. There wouldn't be anyone left by now if it worked that way; death is too easy to come by."

She looks back out the window. "The control comes in the form of one of the parallels--often called the 'original,' but, as that implies a chronological detail that may not exist, I prefer the term 'core being'--serving as a 'control center' of sorts. When the core being is killed, you can be certain that the others will follow before long. Higher Fate picks them off. A core being's death explains many to most of the 'freak accidents' that claim lives every day."

Now that sounds a lot like faith for an agnostic, Mi'ehna observes ruefully, doing her best to keep from snapping at this lecture. So let me see if I understand correctly... you think our Felina is this 'core being'?

A single nod.

"Why?" It's the first time that the wizard's spoken.

Felina looks over to him. Her face doesn't change, exactly, something in her bearing indicates a careful level of respect. "A study was done by several members of the Derrias perhaps two hundred years after your death on this matter. They identified a certain energy strand that they were never able to locate either more or less than once in a parallel set. Some ellicit experiments were run before the organization shut them down. In nine trials, when the version with the energy strand was killed, the entire parallel set died out. Quickly for full mortals, but no more than two hundred years for even the truly ageless."

Mi'ehna sighs softly, a whispered breath without any tone. I will never understand powerful types. If you told Felina that she was in danger, what makes you think she would have invited you to go to hell? Pardon me for getting hung up on this, but you hurt her and I could feel her screaming in my mind. I could feel her pain, Mi taps her head and then her heart, here. It was awful!

"It is the simplest, quickest way to test as the energy strand. It also tested her strength and reactions. If she was so easy for me to throw aside, she would certainly fall to manifested threats." She's not comfortable with this situation. She's not close to losing patience, exactly, but she doesn't want to be doing this...explaining to people that she's absolutely not going to give their friend and 'daughter' back.

Drianis leans forward a bit in his chair, dark violet eyes trained upon this new Felina. He regards her for a moment, shushing Mi'ehna was a glance before she allows her emotions to get the better of her any more.

"What sort of threat is after her, then? You above all people should understand that we cannot trust you right now, but, knowing who you are... I am inclined to think that we can." He clasps his big fists, leans his chin upon them in thought. "And if there truly is a threat to her life, then it is our business to try and help her, too."

"An enemy of mine stumbled upon the Derrias files on the core parallel experiments a decade or so ago. I have reason to believe that he has finally mustered an accurate way to identify and track core parallels, which would lead him to your Felina. I'm quite sure that he would eliminate her." More accurate than hers...nine unfortunate Felinas had already been subjected to the stabby thing, only for her to pat them and vanish.

"So we eliminate him. It is a solution so obvious that I am certain you have already thought of it, and as it has yet to be done, it must not be so easy." Drianis arches an eyebrow a bit. "How close am I?"

Felina nods once. "You're there."

You know... I have had just about enough with these 'there is no recourse any way you turn' situations! Mi'ehna huffs, but does not pursue this line of thought any further. So we cannot eliminate this person. Can we lay a trap for him? It is a him, right? Or no? Nervous energy is pumping through her mind about now... one of her personal caveats, actually, is being unable to deal with it.

Felina looks to Mi'ehna. "Sheran Tanru is male, yes, a demi-god turned mortal. He also overpowers me by an impressive margin. The only reason that he does not move against me directly--and, yes, part of the reason that he considers me a threat--is the fact that my father encountered him well before I was even thought of. Tanru was much weaker at that point, and Tel-tiono defeated him quite conclusively. One result was a powerful ward laid into his mind against his ever striking against my father or any of his children again. That remains to this day. However, the protection should not extend to parallel versions."

Tel-tiono is sitting straighter and listening carefully now. "Sheran Tanru is a horrible creature," he finally notes quietly to the other two. "He was committing atrocities very much like Radivishe Moorn's long before Gabriel Orr was even born. Though I did defeat a parallel version of this one very much as Nightshade described, the wards were placed because I did not have the skill to fully dissolve certain strands of his divine nature to destroy him wholly. The wards, and a severe block to his regaining power, were the ultimate result."

Felina nods. She's not sure how she feels about hearing the name "Nightshade" again...it's been a very long time. "He finally managed to con a few powerful young metaphysists into dissolving the block a piece at a time. One would dissolve a segment. Later, someone else would destroy another, believing that it still wouldn't free his power. This went on until he was finally able to break the block and regain his former power. He's built upon it quite a lot by now."

"So what if we found another divine being to help us? Or would that be irrelevant?" Drianis and Mi'ehna both are really feeling like spectators caught in the stands of a ballgame to which they do not know the rules. But it isn't going to keep them from trying. For her part, Mi'ehna just wants to see 'her' Felina, but that is kept quiet as well.

"I don't know of any applicable ones who are willing to help, unfortunately. It's a good suggestion, but I've already searched."

"Then what do you suggest we do?"

Felina shrugs a little. "I hadn't planned on moving against him so early, I have no plan for such. It isn't entirely impossible to defeat him considering the three of you, and natures of your powers...but nor is it improbably that he would kill two of you. Otherwise, the current solution, if temporary, should function perfectly well for a time. Tanru can't penetrate this area." Not entirely by the virtue of her shields. Part of the reason that she'd picked this location for her home is that certain energy characteristics make it difficult for divine-esque creatures to be at their full strengths.

"And where is Felina?" Tel-tiono finally inquires.

This Felina pauses a moment at the tone of his voice. The long-latent instinct to listen to whatever he says, especially if voiced strongly, is only buried, not dead. "She is suspended in an illusionary world derived from both my memories and hers. She should not so much as realize that she isn't home." It doesn't, of course, answer the question.

And where the hell is that?! Why are you dragging your feet on this issue? I can understand why you might not want to send Felina back home, but why put her in an elaborate unreality? Why not just let her stay here for a while? Why not tell us where she is!?

Drianis sets a hand upon Mi'ehna's shoulder, a gesture that does serve to quiet the empath a bit. Although... he does turn his eyes back to this Felina.

"She does have a point."

Felina blinks once, slowly. "She will not attempt to escape or wander if she does not know that she is confined. She was in danger before, but her stepping out into this universe would almost guarantee her death. Further...she would never be happy separated from her allies and family." The last part sounds like complete bullshit, but it's actually true. She has to appease her conscience at least a little.

Lovely. So we wait, then... for what? I hope you understand, and that it does not bother you too badly, Mi'ehna stands from the wall, looking down to the floor as she speaks. Thinks. But you have no idea how much you piss me off right now. It is not your fault, I am sure. But it does not change the fact.

Felina just nods to that.

"The other point remains," Tel-tiono notes, voice characteristically quiet. "All three of us would feel much better, I think, to see her."

Another blink. Before, finally... "All right. If you'll follow me." She turns to head into the hallway.

Mi'ehna honestly does not know what to think. She is torn in more directions than she is comfortable with, which is responsible for her outbursts of course. As a being whose emotions are like dry tinder at the least, there is nothing she can do to prevent them from running rampant under such a harsh stimulus as this. 

She does, however, follow. Drianis is not far behind.

The halls remain pretty well-lit for most of this level...soon they turn to a subterranean and more central part of the house, and so the light becomes artificial. High tech, though, it's not dark.

"She's in here," Felina finally notes, somewhat quietly. She undoes a magical lock and opens the door, holding it for the others.

Inside is a...strange sort of thing. There are three powerful, nested shields. The outermost is a powerful dual physical-magical shield, though it's best-suited against magic. The second is a cloak. The third, a sphere, is similar to the first in function, but of a different sort.

Inside all of this, there's some kind of large, circular platform with a complex spell circle inscribed onto it. A number of energy orbs flow around it in precise formation, but they're mostly invisible.

Tel-tiono's face...is hard to read. But it's definitely not neutral. Suspended in an energy sphere above the platform, their Felina hovers, eyes closed.

Mi'ehna wastes no time in stepping towards this thing, just sort of staring at Felina. Still... there is nothing she can hope to do. If she tries to free Felina, the other Felina could easily stop her. If she were to succeed, then this other impossibly powerful person would show up and kill her anyway. And probably everyone else in the room, too. But she cannot very well just give up and go home, either. The thought strikes her that this battle was not hers to fight to begin with, but even that notion makes her feel selfish and hypocritical. What about Drianis? he is here to fulfill a debt, and satisfy his own black and white notions of justic... the same ones that Mi'ehna had inherited from him. But he, too, is powerless to do anything. So, she simply sighs her voiceless sigh an sits upon the floor, head in her hands.

The second Felina just stands quietly behind, near the door, leaning on the wall with her arms folded. She hates these tactics, she does, and can't look at the three visitors. But she's out of options. She finally looks up when she senses that Tel-tiono has turned to look at her.

"This won't do, Miss. She may not be my 'real' daughter, but I know her as though she were. I, for one, am perfectly willing to help devise a way to defeat Sheran Tanru once again. Because this solution is not acceptable."

Mi'ehna looks up at that, smiles a little. Good for you, Uncle...

"Agreed. But, ah, I may have an idea, too..." Drianis scratches his hair, looking as if he has even surprised himself by thinking of something. "You said that you had checked for divinities who could help. I do not know if you have come into contact with Radivishe Moorn in your parallel, so I cannot say if you hate him enough to avoid his familiy line..."

Mi'ehna blinks. He reproduced? Eww!

Drianis nods. "He has a daughter, who is half-divine. What about it?"

Tel-tiono sets a comforting hand on Mi'ehna's head against the six hundred disturbing thoughts that no doubt were just joined by six thousand disturbing images. There are no spells involved, just a gentle touch. He just can't reach her shoulder as easily.

Felina glances between the three of them...finally looks up at her unconscious double. Is silent for a few seconds, before she finally looks back to Drianis. "I killed Radivishe Moorn." It's the purpose of her black sword, the bound one...what it was forged for, and why she has to bear the burder of such a wicked weapon still today. "But I wasn't aware that he had a daughter, only of her apparent mother. Do you know where she might be found?" Of course, this timeline runs about two thousand years ahead of theirs....

"In our parallel, she lived in a place called Niven Ai. Refused to live in her father's palace, refused to... well, much than acknowledge him." Drianis shrugs a bit. "I could show you in my mind, much easier than I could tell you where it is."

She nods. "That would be useful, yes."

Ugh... daughter. I hope she is more pleasant than him. Mi'ehna grins up at Tel-tiono, but says nothing to him right now. She's still having something of a personal conflict over this whole situation.

Drianis closes his eyes and searches back in his memory, until a very pretty, ivory palace floating on a rock in the middle of what appears to be a pocket dimension appears within his mindscape. "That is it," he points out, "it had a strange sort of aura to it. It made me feel like I was seeing double."

Felina closes her eyes a few long seconds. She's running through the array of dimensional maps in her mind, all the quirks she'd found through all the years she was a Guardian. She finally opens her eyes again. "Okay. I think I'm familiar with that location. If not, I know the second most likely place."

"Your first inclination's correct," Tel-tiono notes, nodding. "Mi'ehna, Master Drianis...I assume that you two will not consent to be left out of this matter no matter how I lecture and beg?"

You learn fast, Uncle! But... we are outmatched. Father knows it, too... I sitll want to help, though.

"We will help however we can," Drianis says, almost echoing her sentiment. "Even if it is not directly, Tel-tiono."

The wizard smiles a very little bit, and looks back up to Felina. He's silent for several long seconds, his mind on his daughter, caught in an illusion of a world. And yet, he has to concede the point that it wouldn't be safe to let her sit awake. She would most certainly try to leave if she knew that he, Drianis, and Mi'ehna were in danger without her. "In the meantime, Miss, I would appreciate it a good deal if you would simply dismiss your illusionary world and allow my daughter to sit asleep. I will be glad to amplify the spells to keep her such until our work here is done. She does not need to live a lie and be left questioning her reality."

Another pause, before Felina finally nods and steps towards the chamber. Oh yeah. This is why she'd never argued with him while he was alive. She walks past the others towards the fields.

Mi'ehna gets up, and watches closely... more with her mind than with her eyes. This place is a feast for someone with her particular mental condition.

Do you know everything? My father would have had the same idea, Uncle, only he would have used a stick of some sort. She grins at Drianis, who cannot hear what she's saying directly to Tel. "For you own good," WHAP! It happened now and again.

Tel-tiono smiles at her, and his eyes sparkle a bit...his children hadn't grown up without discipline, that much is certain. He doesn't say anything that could potentially be taken as offensive or challenging to the older Felina, though, and so says nothing.

Before long, the spells have altered--the small, travelling energy orbs are gone--and their Felina is lying on the spell platform. It can only be described as "asleep," really...the only enchanted thing about it is the fact that she won't wake up of her own accord, something that Mi'ehna should be able to sense plainly with the shields temporarily down, leaving the platform sense-able and approachable. A powerful cloak sits on the outside perimeter of the room for the duration of the switch, of course.

Eyes soft, Tel-tiono gently shifts his daughter to a more comfortable position and brushes her hair from her face. Rest well, daughter. Fate willing, you will be home soon. She stirs, but then lies still.

Mi steps closer, but then away again. A sort of odd sense of guilt is upon her now, as if she feels this is all in some part her own fault. Logic strikes that notion down, but she can still feel it in the back of her mind.  She closes her eyes and steps back, into her father's arms, and keeps her thoughts to herself.

"And she will be safe this way, as well?" asks Drianis, ever the pragmatist.

The elder Felina and Tel-tiono both nod as they step away from the platform, Tel-tiono grudgingly. "Yes. Her shields and cloaks really are quite stable and, coupled with the various qualities of this entire complex, I do not forsee trouble."

"Then we are free to go and find Mi'ehna?"

Mi glances at him quizzically. Um. I am right here, father.

"Ah... right." Drianis smiles a sheepish smile at them, and pats his daughter's head. "Moorn's daughter.  He named her Mi'ehna, in, ah, honor of you."

Mi's lip quivers a bit. She is silent, of course, but only briefly.

Eeeeewwww!!

Tel-tiono pats Mi'ehna's shoulder as the last shields go up. Really, his eyes are a empathetic to some degree...but mostly sparkling with quiet amusement. "This promises to be an interesting trip, I think. Shall we, then?"

I want to stay with Felina, Mi'ehna notes, nodding. Just in case something bad happens.

Drianis hesitates at that. "As... soon as everyone is ready, by all means."

Tel-tiono nods, eyes softening again. "Thank, Miss Mi'ehna. You have my deepest gratitude."

The elder Felina just stays quiet. She is, but he knows this, and she has nothign to add.

Mi smiles at them, and quietly sits a little bit away from the pedestal dingy.

Drianis moves for the hallway, ready as he will ever be for the trip to Niven Ai.

"If she is anything like our version, she will be somewhat difficult to coax into helping," Drianis points out, "she likes to stay neutral in matters. I had some dealings with her while I was looking for my daughter, and she empathized, but... I still had to do a great deal of convincing."

Felina nods. "Noted. Okay...are you both ready to go?"

Tel-tiono nods once.

"Quite," Drianis nods, lowering his ever present maul so that he's leaning on the haft of it.

She nods, and as soon as they clear the particularly cloaked areas of Helantri Deru, all three vanish, their next steps happening on Niven Ai.

---

When Drianis and Tel-tiono appear again on the grounds, it's for research purposes...Tel-tiono observes the layout with some interest. "Hm. This is arranged very much like my own home is. Was."

Drianis looks around, and smacks himself in the head. Yup. He's still wondering about what Ai was saying back there. "Blast it all, that witch-woman is in my head. What are we looking for, exactly?"

"Books. Scrolls. Something." The lights of Felina's study glow to life as they walk in. Tel-tiono's eyes glance over things...he takes a book from the shelf at random, and opens it. He tilts his head after a few moments. "Well. My daughter grows up to be quite a researcher. These experiments are new...they are not mine, and further, I've never seen record of them." He replaces the book.

"You will forgive me, of course, if none of this makes any sense to me." Drianis smiles a bit, and takes a book that looks like it might be on some sort of battle tactics. "This is interesting. I never would have thought that an infantry unit here could mke a feint like that without buckling under." 

He cannot read it. It is actually a cookbook.

Tel-tiono glances over what Drianis is reading mentally...the corners of his lips twitch. He's trying very hard not to laugh. "There is always room for a new skill, I am sure." His eyes are sparkling as he leafs slowly through the papers on the desk.

Drianis tilts his head a bit, violet hair spilling over his shoulder. "What are you smirking about?"

"I was simply wondering whether the nutmeg staged a counteroffensive."

Drianis blinks. "If I am reading a recipe, I do not want to know. Just look that way, old man."

Tel-tiono raises a hand a bit in acknowledgement, grinning a bit at Drianis's reaction. "Ah...here we are." His senses hadn't steered him wrong. "Now then...let's see what my dear old friend Sheran Tanru has been up to as of late."

Drianis carefully replaces the cookbook, and glances at the tome Tel-tiono has found. He smirks a bit, and stands back. Yup. Muscles pretty much sums it up, these days.

"We really must find you a battle to direct or somesuch," Tel-tiono notes as he begins leafing, eyes still amused.

"Just make sure that the carrots are obedient, and I will be just fine." It is a remark made without sarcasm, as dead serious as if he stood at court in the presence of a king.

"And I will organize the celery at once. Mm...interesting. So that's how those wards were broken..." Tel-tiono leafs through the pages, attention piqued.

Drianis remains silent, knowing that these are matters far beyond his knowledge or ability. When it is time to smash something, then, he is certain, he will be called up. For the moment, he just tries to get the image of Ai's mobile lips out of his mind.

---

Felina's teasing grin is already quite gone by the time they appear in her home again, in the gardens. Not as beautiful as Ai's, really...but then, Felina would go insane living in a place that pristine. "Tel-tiono and Drianis are in the house," she notes, and starts heading that way.

"Is that where Felina junior is?" Ai looks towards the house, wondering, and follows pleasantly along. "Nice place," she notes, "I can help you manage the overgrowth, if you like, later."

"Oh, this?" Felina touches a vineweed that's quite taken over two beds, though magic keeps it from progressing farther. "I appreciate it, but I'm attached to this stuff. It's extinct elsewhere in the universe after its planet was destroyed, the soil composition it requires is just too specific. And yes, she is."

"Fantastic, this 'stuff'." Ai trots along, smiling at the prettiness around her. "Very spartan, this place, as well. Simplicity in... drab... it's actually quite charming."

"Thank you." I think. "It's modelled largely after my father's old gardens, though I don't pretend to handle the style theory so well."

Ai grins. "Obviously not. But I forgive you." She looks ahead to the house. "The study is this way, right?"

Felina nods. Tel-tiono's still flipping through books...she blinks at a couple that are sitting open. She can't even figure out why he's cross-referencing one of them as he scribbles down notes. "Find anything?"

Tel-tiono turns his head to smile at them, and goes back to his notes. "Soon, I think. Welcome back."

Ai smiles at the both of them, giggling at Drianis, who is sitting against a wall fast asleep. "Poor baby," she chuckles, "not the scholarly type, is he? Did you find what you were looking for, master Wizard?"

"Yes, I did. Miss Felina has become reliable and thorough in taking important notes of her experiences. There is a wealth of knowledge here about Sheran Tanru's current forms and abilities." And yet...not enough. Enough to work with. But not enough to be sure.

"Is it possible that we could simply contact him, find out why he is doing this?" Ai steps around the table to stand next to the wizard, looking down at Felina's notes. "Detailed. Felina, you ought to consider dating some time... that should give you something else to do on a friday night."

Felina just folds her arms at this, fighting the urge to snap back something entirely too sharp for its own good. "This is more important."

Tel-tiono shakes his head. "No...I don't believe that would help, Miss Ai. Although Teru is no longer tied to a master, it seems to me from these readings that it has 'kill Felina Deyono' literally written somewhere into its mind."

Ai considers this, smiling prettily at Felina. "Sheran... Tanru. Hm... I know that name from somewhere, I just cannot place it." She glances at the reports, then back up to Felina. "Sweety, did you piss this fellow off that badly?"

"I've pissed off a lot of people, but I dont' think Tanru's one."

Tel-tiono nods. "Sheran Tanru is a powerful weapon, Miss Ai. A construct of sorts, built and used by the Yeliuran Derrias. One of his primary functions is assassination. From the observations in these pages, I am not entirely convinced that he is still in the service of the Derrias. However, if someone inlined into his mind to kill my...to kill Felina, whether before he apparently left their control or by tampering afterward, then the instinct will be there as an overwhelming, powerful desire that it has no reason to resist."

Ai considers this further, smiling her mocking smile. "So we brainwash him. But that means capturing him. And that means baiting him." She looks to Felina again. "With your figure, I doubt you have ever tried being bait before. Care to try a new experience?"

Felina's really starting to get irked...usually she couldn't care less about comments about her figure, since half her allies make them in jest, but this is fast getting old. She takes a slow breath before answering. "Wouldn't work."

Tel-tiono nods. "I spell that I laced into Tanru's very being long ago prevents him from attacking me, or my children. He cannot attack Felina directly...it is why he seeks to destroy my daughter instead. It would fate this Felina's death, and the wards do not extend to parallels to prevent it from attacking her."

"My children can't be used, either," Felina notes. Not that I would let them be...but the wards seem to extend to protect them as well."

Tel-tiono's mildly surprised at this, but nods, turning back to the scrolls to hold the softening of his eyes. "Yes. It should pass directly down my line of descent."

Ai turns her smile upon Tel-tiono. "Does the reading say anything about how Tanru tracks the Felinas? Perhaps an illusion spell could get his attention." She turns her eyes to Felina in an expression that clearly reads 'lighten up, I'm doing you a favor'.

"Mm...that is actually a fine idea, Miss Ai, and should work. I can even create a lightweight construct to prolong the illusion, it would not take more than a few hours for a very high-quality farce of that nature."

Felina returns Ai's look, briefly, then looks to her father. She doesn't get involved in any cute little "battle of wills," there's no point and, quite frankly, she doesn't care enough. "I can strengthen the cloak shields over part of Helantri Deru to allow you space to work unnoticed," she notes. "But we need to work on containment methods once the bait is taken."

Tel-tiono nods. "It is not impossible. Sheran Tanru is powerful and nearly immortal, but fallible."

"I will see about it, then. My father taught me some lovely tricks that might help, for certain." Ai's lip twitches a little bit at Felina. Some very dark thoughts are running through her mind right about now, below the surface; she knows she's dealing with empathic types. Father, she whimpers below the surface of her mind, is it right to let them fail? Vengeance for you... would it really soothe my heart?

"I am sure, Miss Ai. Your input would certainly be helpful...this was certainly one of your father's greatest areas of expertise." Tel-tiono, meanwhile, pokes Drianis awake psychically.

Felina nods agreement to this...looks to the door. "You're early, Dewei."

"I wondered what kind of wild party that you were having, is all." A physically young man notes as he walks in. He tilts his head at the unusual crowd. Tel-tiono...he suspects who that is, though he doesn't understand how, and there's deep-set confusion and curiosity and some other things as well in his eyes. He looks to Ai, too, though, after a moment, for another reason.

Dewei very clearly shares half his heritage with her...he's half serinian, and half dumen. His eyes, though not truly back, are a very dark gold-grey. The pupil is hardly distinguishable. His facial structure resembles Ai's to some extent and his hair is purely white, and the unmarked parts of his skin are rather pale. His lips are perhaps a little on the grey side, but that gene had apparently meshed with the one for skin markings just so, and, where his mother has faint, tan-like marks, he has several pitch black areas. Not many, but a few. His ears are about a third of the length of Felina's, and more rounded off than her points. He's about five foot seven, and, though still lithe, has a far more pronouned muscle structure than his mother's.

Felina takes the hint. "Oh...this is my son, Dewei. Dewei, this are Miss Ai, a parallel version of your grandfather, and a Master Drianis if he's awake."

He smiles at Ai with real friendliness, though he's disconcerted by Tel-tiono, clearly much more laid more laid back than his mother. "It's a pleasure to meet all of you."

Ai gazes at this... fellow... for a long moment before her lips part to speak. "It is a... Dewei, you said? It's nice to meet you, Dewei."

Drianis stirs in his chair, blinking. "Hm?"

Ai takes a step towards Dewei, examining him with her father's typical lack of subtlety. "What a pretty man you are," she notes, looking him over. "Do you have a personality?" The question is asked frankly, without sarcasm or mockery of any sort. She's just wondering if Felina's lack consumed his in the womb.

Dewei has a wry little half-grin on his face, more than amused. "That's a good question. Maybe I can ask you that ten minutes from now, and we'll decide from there?" He feels Drianis wake up, and smiles at him briefly in greeting, before looking back to Ai since she's the one he's speaking to. Partly because and partly despite his mother, he definitely has manners ingrained.

Felina, on a whim, quietly puts a hand on Tel-tiono's shoulder, to a small smile. He's still deciding how to handle this after an initial smile and returned greeting.

Ai glances at him. Honestly... she would be lying if she said that her real wonder here is that Felina actually... and another person... to the core of her soul she believes that there must have been a copious amount of booze involved. And possibly a deaf man. Blind, deaf man. Yes. Definitely in vitro. 

Drianis looks at Dewei for a moment, but just shakes his head. "I gave up being surprised by this place," he says with a slow nod.

Felina smirks at Drianis just the littlest bit. "I have two children," she explains after a moment. "Dewei, and his twin sister Ting. She's off on some extended training now." She's a member of the Derrias.

"And I'm here slacking," Dewei clarifies with half a curtsy.

A little bit of warm humor dances across Felina's face at this...she does love her children. "Yeah, yeah...enjoy it while you can, oh son of my heart."

"And then my mother will beat me up later!" Dewei finishes with a grin. He'd shown up here for some weapons and psi-battle practice.

Ai smirks her mocking smile, big lips making it alluring. "Just do not let her scar up this face." She glances at Felina. "So. Must I ask the obvious question here, Felina, or shall I spare you, and let you answer first?" Obviously. Where is the father?

Felina's eyes fade again at this, to their usual blankness, save a bit of sadness. "Their father is indisposed."

Dewei is quiet at this. A bit subdued, maybe, but not extremely. He just looks curiously over the visitors, smiling at Drianis when their eyes meet.

Ai just smiles more brightly. "Fair enough."

Drianis just scratches his hair, though he does rise from where he was. "I believe," he quietly says, mostly for Felina's benefit, "that we have a plan to implement. Lady Felina, I would love to help you, if I can." He smiles. "We do have a plan to implement, do we not? Shall I go back to sleep?"

Ai snickers and gives him a nudge. She is about to make a comment, but her eyes cloud a bit and she looks towards the door, behind Dewei.

"Excuse me," calls a softly rasping voice from the doorway, where stands a very... off-putting looking skeletal creature wrapped in tattered green robes. This close, the severe level of his energy cloaks becomes quite apparent. "May I join your powwow?"

Felina raises an eyebrow, just a little. Her dutiful son is fairly quick to step to her side, just a little in front of her, mostly in reassurance. "Well. This room is getting crowded. Have we met?"

"Only just now," the skeletal creature answers, its glowing green eyes sparkling with amusement. 

"Dewei, step away from it," Ai softly warns, all mockery gone from her voice. "It is an astral lich, the revenant of a dead divinity..."

"Very learned girl. I am Shigoriath, the envoy of Sheran Tanru." He bows his ancient-looking head. "I hope you do not mind my following master Dewei here."

Dewei glances to Ai for just a moment, before looking back to the lich. He refuses to leave his potentially protective position, though, until Felina nudges him behind her, something in her manner leaving no room for questions.

Tel-tiono has turned in his chair as well, hand on his staff. He remains quiet, though, and the staff seems to be more for possibly standing up than quick casting.

"Well I suppose that depends on what happens next," Felina notes after returning the bowed head, folding her hands. "What's your business here, Master Shigoriath?"

"To deliver a message." Shigoriath lifts his skeletal hand, its bony surface followed by a pulsing trail of jade glow. He utters not a word, nor does a projectile or force exude from him, but in that same instant Drianis doubles over in pain, hand clasping over his heart. His pained cry does not leave his lips... he has no defense against such an otherworldly energy as this being possesses.

The effect is instantaneous...Felina and Tel-tiono both immediately react against it with similar though not identical 'block then repulse' reactive shields. Hers concentrates more on stopping the energy flow, his on finding what's already in Drianis's body and neutralizing it, while shielding against new. Dewei starts to react, but stops when he senses both their energy rises...his hand's on the hilt of his sword, though, eyes locked on Shigoriath though his attention is divided, beyond tense.

Shigoriath's hand snaps back, his skeletal face only smiling in its natural death-grin. 

Drianis manages to keep his feet, but the shock of Shigoriath's putrification spell had done serious damage to his heart and lungs... the thought strikes him that, for all his incredible physical power, he only lives by the quickness of two Onos. Ai's arms support him in a hurry, and she adds her own healing spell to Tel-tiono's reaction.

"And see how powerful he is. Normal people are not so lucky. They vomit their own lungs." The lich moves back a bit, as if expecting to be attacked, but does not elaborate just yet. He wants to savor the moment.

Felina narrows her eyes...her own energies fade from action when she senses Tel-tiono's healing spells reach a high plateau. "What is your message, creature? Or do you just operate on theatrics?"

Shigoriath's head tilts a bit. "That was my message. Defeating you is not a matter of attacking you. My master knows that."

Ai's lips are moving, though her voice is silent. She is busily enchanting Drianis, to try and protect him from that happening again. She trusts that Felina can handle this... she'd better be able to, anyway.

"I was already aware that he had adopted that mindset." Felina narrows her eyes just a little. "But why the vendetta? I've never threatened your master in any way, and he's no longer in the service of the organization that would see me dead."

"Like a plague written into his mind, it is. He cannot escape its mad touch. His last command, branded into his brain unfulfilled, it haunts him. He cannot resist its call." Shigoriath floats back another pace. "We know that you have been searching. If you find the one you seek, you will deliver her to us. Or this," he gazes at Drianis, "may happen to more people."

Felina's ears are still back. "If there's nothing else," she states politely enough before baring her fangs at the last bit, "then I invite you to get the hell off my property."

Shigoriath shakes his head. "Nothing else. See you soon." The lich lifts and floats back, away, ever away, from Felina's home. It was a boring assignment for him, but... at least he was allowed to feast upon blissful agony for a moment.

"Yes. Well that came as a shock to me," Ai notes, her eyes still set upon Drianis. "Underneath all that sorcery, you are just a pitiful little human. Poor baby."

Drianis just blinks, and nods, his senses quite uncooperative at the moment.

Tel-tiono gets up long enough to step over to Drianis and kneel beside him, since having someone else at face-level can be orienting. "Master Drianis is a powerful fighter, Miss Ai. Humans have an unusual capacity for surprise." He's not referring to his being fully human himself, though that's true as well.

It's awhile before Dewei takes his hand from his sword. He doesn't, actually, until Felina turns enough to set a reassuring hand on his shoulder, reading his face and emotion. "It will be okay, Dewei. I promise. We'll find a way through. We have good help."

He nods. Starts to take it just for that for appearance's sake...but then, on a whim, reaches out and hugs his mother. He doesn't know what he would do if something happened to her...and there's seldom been a situation as serious as this to threaten.

Felina hugs him back reassuringly...pets the back of his hair gently, mind soothing and eyes soft and warm.

"Maybe, but that lich could have killed him in a blink if he had had a mind to." Ai snaps her fingers in front of Drianis's eyes, getting his attention. "Stay the hell out of this. You would just be leverage for them to use."

Drianis starts to protest, but... she's right. He has been utterly useless on this trip, but that at least is better than being a tool for the enemy. Ai pats his chest, reassuringly, and turns her attention back to Tel-tiono. 

"So he has a lich. What do you know about liches, master Wizard?"

"A fair amount, through study, combat, and an archelich friend as well." He looks to Felina. "Miss Felina, do you have any idea what and where Master Shigoriath's phylactery is located, in case this should become pertinent?"

Felina pauses at this a moment, then shakes her head as Dewei releases her so that she can do her thing again. "Not exactly. But I think I have it narrowed down to about two star systems in one dimension. Having sensed his presence should make pinpointing it simpler."

Drianis blinks at them, as if seeing them all for the first time. "His... what?"

"You shouldn't be talking," Ai scolds him as if he were a little child, "you should be quiet and rest."

"A lich's body does not regulate its life, Drianis," Tel-tiono explains as he finishes the last round of healing spells. "Destroying its body will delay it, certainly, but such actions can only amount to a setback for the creature. Its soul is tied to a physical item, usually magical itself. It is generally difficult to find, reach, and destroy the item in equal parts. All of a lich's power will be dedicated to defending his phylactery because its destruction would permanently destroy the lich as well."

Felina nods. "And Shigoriath is an exceptionally powerful lich. It wouldn't be easy to do. Dewei, help me search for anything that creature may have left behind, lest we be broadcasting our thoughts or the shields end up taken down from the inside out."

He blinks. He hadn't thought of that. He nods, and heads outside, the senses that he'd inherited from his mother and his grandfather peeled.

Of course Shigoriath is still there. Weeding about, searching for whatever it is that they are hiding there. Why bother to find Radivishe Moorn's daughter and bring her here? Why bring in that poor musclehead, who, in terms of pure power, very nearly equals Sheran Tanru? Not that he would ever pose a threat to him... he is too one-dimensional. And vulnerable. The question still bothers the lich, though, and so he is sniffing about not too far from the house, reading energy signatures and searching for points of ingress into whatever is behind that heavy cloak.

Dewei is startled to see the cloaked lich...makes a quiet mental note to his mother and, hand on the hilt of his sword, approaches without getting too close. "My mother asked you to leave. Please do so now."

"I'm busy, child. Go away." Shigoriath lays his bony hand upon the ground, eyes glowing with the energy he's analyzing. "Bah. The cloaks are too heavy... perhaps..."

Dewei narrows his eyes, then draws his sword, body flowing quite smoothly into a fighter's stance. He's his mother's son...and a warrior in his own right as well. "Get out. Or you're going to get thrown there."

The lich looks up at Dewei, hearing those words. "Do not tempt me, fledgling. Just because my master can't attack you directly, doesn't mean that I am likewise bound."

"You can undestimate me based on my age or not. But the fact remains that if you raise a single blow against me, then you'll be fighting everyone inside within moments. You may or may not be able to beat me...but you can't take them too. Get out." The half-dumen is intimidated...but damned if he's showing it. Even his eyes are positively steeled.

"I have no trouble with you. So I give you one final warning, half-breed. You can destroy this husk all you like, as can your darling mother or the other idiots in that room, but you run the risk of being killed only to send me away." Shigoriath clacks his graying teeth together, blinks a lashless, translucent lid... the only one he has. "Go to mommy, or I will boil you into pus."

Again, he's his mother's son...that means he's as stubborn as all hell. The time for talk's over. A powerful psionic attack goes crashing towards the lich even as Dewei follows, sword flashing forward at a charge.

Shigoriath's cold, dead hand slaps aside the psionic attack as if it were a physical thing, a frisbee to be ignored. His strange, twisted staff lifts and smacks against the ground with its butt, a mild tremor spell designed to spew the earth upwards and prevent frontal assaults.

It serves its purpose. Dewei isn't a Guardian and so can't be dependent on teleportation...a quick step sends him into a very neat jump over the wall of earth and the lich's head, sword flashing towards his back.

Shigoriath is no fighting genius, and so he has no real hope of dodging that. The blade sinks into what little flesh he has left, but no cry of pain arises from between his lipless teeth.

With a crackling and crunching pop, the Lich's head turns one hundred and eighty degrees, his eyes locking upon Dewei.

"Yes. Stab the corpse. Brilliant..." With the last syllable, a putrid, greenish gas rolls forth from within his musty skull and blows towards Dewei, hissing with half a voice. It's effect is not unlike the spell he had cast on Drianis, although far more mild and superficial in effect.

Dewei's eyes widen just a moment before he springs back, retreating a good many feet, coughing and temporarily blinded.

Shigoriath lifts from the ground, his spine crackling as his body turns to line up with his head. "No words," he warns before lifting his staff and swinging it in the air, as if aiming for something in front of him... but a discerning eye could see dozens of little flecks thrown to the ground from the tip of it. The staff wavers, and blinks... blinks... it's cycloptic eye opening at the rounded tip and staring outward.

From the ground, dozens of ashen hands shoot up, reaching for Dewei, as if the earth itself is trying to claim him.

Dewei's nothing if not quick and nimble...but not being able to see and senses going haywire from unaccustomed energies don't help. He springs back the instant the first set of fingertips brush his clothes, landing again, but a light, startled cry announces the moment his ankles are grabbed in grips too tight for his strength to break.

Shigoriath's eyes flare, and the hands extend from the ground upon arms of rock and soil, climbing him, reaching for his throat, his eyes, his nostrils... wherever they can find ingress. The lich simply watches calmly, reveling in the despair his unorthodox powers can cause.

For all his shortcomings, the youngest Ono isn't a pushover. He gets a hold of himself in second or two and grits his fangs, then leaps upward with tremendous strength, a vividly powerful, purely light-based attack bursting from his body at the same instant.

The arms disintegrate, falls back to the earth as harmless sod and soil. Shigoriath's staff closes its eye to protect itself, as dark energies flow outwards from within the lich's right hand. The land before him can almost be felt crying out in pain as he draws a slab of earth in front of himself to block the light.

Inside the house, Ai's eyes lighten a bit. "Did you all feel that?"

"Yes. Shigoriath is still here. Dewei is fighting him." Felina's voice is highly distracted, her expression tense and eyes far away, watching mentally...she's ready to teleport at an instant's notice, and waiting is killing her. But he has to fight his own battles if he's going to learn. Still, an arm or leg twitches occasionally as though to block for him, and she's a bundle of pure tension.

Right... the staff. Going after the lich's body hasn't proven a good strategy, but the staff...psionically enhanced jumps and speed get the half-bred fighter to a clear shot, and a disk of pure, compressed light enegy goes hurtling towards the staff, just below the eye, trying to cut the head from it even as he tries to jerk it up telekinetically.

"Whatever you think you are teaching him, stop it. That monster out there will break him for the sheer amusement of it." Ai is practically pleading with Felina... she has no idea why. She should not care, and doesn't, really... except, how could a parent be so cruel as to allow this?

Shigoriath grumbles as the staff is pulled from his hand, its head severed cleanly from the haft by Dewei's attack. The haft falls to the earth and sticks, and instantly the land beneath it goes fallow. A blight spreads from about fifteen feet in all directions, graying the earth, moldering the grass. 

The head of the staff turns a few times in the air, and then hangs, floating. Its eye snaps open, gazing hard at Dewei.

Shigoriath is impressed, he truly is. And when he is impressed, there is but one recourse.

"Rot."

A beam of concentrated sarcomancy erupts from the eye, a spell designed to turn flesh into goo, bone in to dust, the living mind into the shambling meat that is the liche animus. The walking dead.

It's in this instant that Felina vanishes from the home and quite literally tackles her son out of the beam's way, rolling over him once before ending up on her feet and leaving him safely on the ground. Her eyes are narrow. "He warned you." She raises a hand that glows with some of her highest-level magic. "Goodbye." Several things happen here. A complex, telekinetically-infused teleportation spell should shove the lich into a pocket dimension, where the obscenely powerful attack locked onto him can do its explosively disintigrating work on his body and staff without harming Helantri Deru.

It works beautifully. Shigoriath vanishes without a trace almost instantly, leaving nothing but the rotten earth and haft of his vile staff as evidence of his being here at all.

Ai appears a moment later.

"Is he whole?" She inquires this without her mockery, letting a bit of her worry shine forth... she's seen liches work, and Shigoriath's abilities are practically obscene for his... species?

Felina nods. "Absolutely. Don't let appearances fool you, Miss Ai." She glances to the other woman, expression, for the first time, totally lacking in spite or sarcasm or even guaredness, for once. "I would have died before allowing real harm to come to my son. I love him far more than my own life."

Felina kneels beside the younger psion as he pushes himself up to his knees. "You fought well, Dewei. I'm proud of you. Are you okay."

He nods. Some small part of him is humiliated to have lost, but...mostly he's just shaken from what he thinks had almost just happen. "Yes...I think so. Thank, you, mother." Then he hugs her tightly, brow furrowed...it's just a reminder to him. What would he do without her?

Felina holds him gently until his shock wears off...only the better part of ten seconds, actually, before embarassment and masculine pride get the better of him in front of Ai, and then she helps him up. He calls his sword to his hand, quiet for a few moments. "He...was looking for something. I don't know if he planted anything...he seemed intent on just searching. I don't know for what." Even before today, he knows better than to pick an unknown lich's mind.

He needn't have been embarassed. Ai had turned away right after the first second of the hug, staving off a fit of jealousy. "I cannot imagine he would have tried to trap this place. He seemed awfully straightforward for that. Besides, even he said he was only an envoy."

Felina nods. "It's bugs that I'm more concerned about, and will check just in case...but you're right. It seems unlikely. At least now everyone has at least a better idea of what type of force we're up against. And...you can make a more educated decision on whether you wish to be involved, Miss Ai." She wouldn't try to hold the half-divinity to anything she had said or implied by this point. All the information hadn't yet been presented.

"I said I would help, I will help. As hard as I had to fight to push away the urge to betray you to Tanru and avenge my father..." Ai looks to the ground, the rotten, mushy earth. "That took a great deal of effort. I will not have wasted it."

Dewei bows to her at this, speaking before his mother can. "Thank you, Miss Ai. You have my deepest gratitude...and my sister's as well, I am sure."

Ai looks to Dewei, over her shoulder. "You know, Felina, you should be grateful to him. If it weren't for your children, I would have probably gone home." She starts walking towards the house... she does not want to say more. She knows her father would scold her for showing such weakness to others, but she has lng since decided that sometimes it is necessary.

Dewei is somewhat confused by the proceedings...Felina puts a hand on his shoulder. "Radivishe Moorn was her father, Dewei," she explains quietly, "and she loved him as such." She straightens up, removing her hand. "Now come on. Let's remove any trace that lich may have left behind, huh?" He nods, and they start to do this...working close to one another. There's been enough excitement for a day.

Shigoriath left little in the way of anything, save for the haft of the staff... a foul, black sort of energy radiates from it, extremely detrimental to the touch.

Ai returns to the house, and looks for Tel-tiono. "Master Wizard, the lich is gone," she reports, her black eyes searching for him. "Tel-tiono?"

"I am here," the wizard responds as he helps Drianis try his balance on his feet. "That is reassuring, Miss Ai."

Dewei has a quick review in neutralizing this sort of item--it turns out that he hadn't needed it, he does it perfectly on his own--and the haft is wrapped in a certain variety of shield before it's disintigrated neatly, dark power neutralized.

"Hey, muscles. Are you okay?" Ai gives Drianis a smack on his chest, drawing an oof of surprise from between his lips.

"I am fine, I think. Nothing that a few years of peaceful rest will not fix."

She grins a bit. "For your sake, go home. You will be of no help here, Drianis, and if you were harmed, I think I might be sad. Why don't you and your daughter go to Niven Ai, and stay until this is all over? You can learn a thing or two there."

Drianis wants to protest. But he knows better, and so he just nods. Ai smacks him again. 

"Good man. I will send you there later. For now..." She turns her ebony eyes upon Tel-tiono, her expression changing, growing... complex. "May I have a word with you, alone, master Ono?"

"Certainly." The wizard nods, then looks to the purple-haired fighter. "Steady, Master Drianis?"

"Right as rain," answers the big oaf. He glances from Ai to Tel-tiono, his expression set in stone, but softer than usual. It as if he has some idea of what Ai has on her mind already. "I will just sit here for a while, while you two chat."

Tel-tiono nods and takes up his staff again, looking to Ai. "Well, then. Shall we?" He smiles at Ai, and heads out to the hallway at that eternally casual pace of his.

Drianis sits down, and closes his eyes again. In the back of his mind he knows that he has been lax for far too long. It's time to pick up some new tricks, or back out of the game.

Ai follows Tel-tiono into the hallway, wringing her pale little hands. She's quiet until she's sure that they are out of earshot.

"I am having something of quandary, Tel-tiono. No one else here can give me a good answer, so... do you mind if I pick your paternal sense for a bit?" She's trying to be polite, really, but is not quite successful. Not that she sounds mean or angry, just... impatient.

"Not at all, Miss Ai. Go right ahead." She has his attention, as marked by a soft, patient gaze.

Ai fidgets a bit, but smiles at him, a sweet, humble gaze that most definitely comes from her mother.

"Felina - and you, I suppose - needs me for this. Sheran Tanru is divine, and only a divinity can undo the energies protecting him from your breed of attack. At the same time, I am torn."  Her eyes find the floor, as she does not especially care to hide weakness before this man... he is probably older than her, so it works out nicely. "By aiding in the rescue of my father's killer, do I not run the risk of dishonoring him?"

"Tell me this, Miss Ai...would your potential aid be for Felina's sake?"

The half-goddess wonders at that question. "No. It is for her children. And for you and your daughter."

Tel-tiono nods as they head outside, into the gardens. "Your method and your goal, Miss Ai, are not necessarily one and the same. Your goal is not to help Felina. That is your means to the end." He looks down at a drooping flower...nudges it out of the way with the end of his staff so that it isn't stepped on, considering his next statement carefully. "If there is one thing that I know about your father, Miss Ai, it is that he was an exceedingly pragmatic man. Though he did consider all avenues, the goal was always tantamount. For example, although they have never been on truly comfortable terms, he and Felina worked or even fought together on more than one occasion, due to goals overlapping?"

"I did not know that," she admits, "though I did not know many specifics about my father's work. He shielded me from it..." Ai kneels, and touches the drooping flower. It springs up beneath her hand, standing proudly in all its vital color, and she continues on. "I have grieved him for fifteen hundred years. Too long... I know it... so you think that I should not concern myself with the method, so long as the end result is as I want?"

Tel-tiono's speaking very carefully. "I think, Miss Ai, that you should consider carefully whether the method outweighs the goal. Take a few minutes and let your mind wander, think through all of the things that you may possibly accomplish by this venture--Dewei and Ting are considerations, certainly, as is your gaining formidable allies and acquaintences--but also consider what you will be doing to facilitate that. I mentioned your father because he understands the concept of using a method that even he dislikes to achieve a more desireable goal. However, you are the only one here who can truly decide what he would think of this situation, and what impact that should have on your actions now. I would ask only one thing of you."

Ai walks along, listening calmly to all of this. She has yet to meet Ting, but she is already quite fond of Dewei. And she certainly likes Tel-tiono, more than enough to do something unpleasant to save the life of his daughter.

"What thing would that be?" Her voice is quiet, contemplative. He sounds far too much like a father for her own good.

Tel-tiono's face is more serious than its usual amiability. Just a little. But the change is there. "Whatever you decide, please, decide it all the way, and follow it through to its end. Think carefully now, so that you can rest easily with your decision...but make it with faith in your own heart."

Ai stops walking.

"How could you say something like," she inquires, genuinely curious, "when your daughter's life is in danger? How can you put someone like me first?"

Tel-tiono stops as well, leaning on his staff and looking back at Ai with a rather paternal expression that's very much become a part of his being, after so many years with his children. "'Someone like you,' Miss Ai? What sort of someone do you mean?"

Ai stares back at him, with the face of a very dutiful daughter that has yet to leave her after so long. "A perfect stranger," she calmly answers, "whose vanity could bring harm to your daughter."

"A young woman," he corrects, "with a life, history, and feelings of her own, who I cannot ask to abandon or deny her emotions and values. Besides..." he smiles that quiet, amiable little smile of his, "I am acting in my daughter's well-being as well. Your help, as you know, would be more than useful, Miss Ai. But your being unsure about your decision could very well lead to impeded performance and potential complications--though no, I do not mean to imply that you would intentionally harm our efforts. It would not have to be intentional. Even a hesitation brought about by understandably conflicted thoughts could put everyone in danger. Including yourself, and including my daughter."

The wizard sighs quietly. "I have lost two children already, in this last quarter century...I will have nothing jeopardize the effort to save another. She is precious to me, above all things." Even if she isn't really his.

Ai considers this for a bit, nodding her head idly. "Promise me one thing, and I will help you with all of my heart and focus. Promise me that you will guide your daughter into become less of a prudish ass than the Felina who killed father." She gives her hair a sweep, another idle gesture, but one meant only to keep her hands from wringing.

Tel-tiono's eyes sparkle lightly at this. "I will do my best, Miss Ai. Though, in her defense...I sense something very heavy weighing on this Felina's mind, more than even Sheran Tanru. Perhaps relating to the twins' father. She may not be herself."

"Do you ever get angry?" Ai tilts her head and begins to walk again, taking the initiative this time and leading him back towards sort of where Felina and Dewei might still be. "You seem far too complacent to have lived the life I know you have."

"Mm...certainly, Miss Ai, but rarely. Banishing high emotion is very much an integral part of learning to direct psionic ability. Being a soft-minded old man helps as well." He smiles.

"Despite what you might think about young ladies," she returns his expression, pouting her lips a bit, "that is a very attractive quality." She walks in silence afterwards, mind beginning to drift back towards why they are here.

Actually, if Ai can't stop fast, she's going to get bowled over by a tumbling, growling, and occasionally calling out and laughing, pair of people that finally ends with Dewei pinned to the ground. His sister grins at him. "Gotcha again."

"Gah!" Ai reacts swiftly, her movement instinctually throwing images of herself in four different directions. In half a blink three of the images converge on whoever is attacking Dewei in a flawless illusion attack; unlike her father, Ai had never mastered actually hurting an opponent with images.

"Gah!" The two half-dumen are quick to respond. Ting puts an elbow right into one of the attacker's guts, defending her prone brother...and ends up testing her posterior's durability when she goes tumbling right through it. She blinks. "Um..." she looks at Ai when her senses figure out which is the real one--after judging the movement patterns, actually--face entirely too much like her brother's in appearance... "nice illusions?"

Ai had been ready to tear into Ting, and a fraction of her vast power still tingles at her fingertips. She stands down at that face, though, and breaths a sigh of relief.

"Nice elbow," she answers, hand held over her heart. "I take it that you are Ting?"

Ting nods as she jumps up and helps her brother to his feet...though he's pretty much already there. "Me! It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss...?" she tilts her head.

"Ai," the demi-goddess says, "and the pleasure is all his. This is Tel-tiono." She smiles her mocking smile and gestures towards the old wizard. She's grinning like a moron on the inside. Ting is just adorable.

"Oh...right, mother said that you were here..." Ting bows to her grandfather's parallel with the utmost solemnity and respect...and then promptly perks right back up, grinning even before she's fully erect again. "Hey, I brought food are you guys hungry? Everyone knows you can't plan on an empty stomach. At least, I know that. And I'm the food-bearer."

Tel-tiono's eyes sparkle with warm amusement. "That would be lovely, Miss Ting, thank you."

"Yes, I think... yes. Food would be splendid." Ai bows her head a little bit, but only a little bit. She glances at Tel-tiono, though, having one more thing to say to him before they rush off to eat. "Thank you for the talk." And she walks towards Ting and Dewei, ready to pretend to eat.

"It was my pleasure, Miss Ai."

Ting is flitting around Tel-tiono with unusually careful interest, but still interest, asking about this and that and then this again. Before long and back in the house, there are plates going around and some hot, exotic-esque food, some unidentifiable stuffed substance that at least smells good, being dished up here and there. She'd bummed it off of a friend who can cook. She and Dewei are seldom very far from one another, though they don't really think about it.

Felina, meanwhile, is heading downstairs. "Miss Mi'ehna," she begins when she heads into the room," everyone is here again, and this place shouldn't be in any danger. Besides, we have some food out. Would you like to join us?"

Food? Mi'ehna's droopy lids perk up at that. Certainly! That is exactly how to get my attention. Mi stands up, smiles at the sleeping Felina, and trots along to the outside, humming mutely to herself. What was that horrible presence I felt earlier?

"A lich, one of Tanru's more trusted servant's. He's gone now."

Ah, I see. Mi'ehna steps into the more open area of where they are going, and promptly stops walking. Are you sure he is gone? Her hands lift to her temples, rubbing them fiercely. It feels so... so dead up here. Felina, excuse me, I think... She pauses a moment. I think I am going to be ill... her fingers come away from her temples red, as the putrid remnants of Shigoriath's presence invades her mind, heedless of her shields. Her skin begins to gray almost immediately.

"Mi'ehna?" Felina narrows her eyes and steps forward, shielding her own mind as she sets her hands on Mi'ehna's temples, searching for the problem.

It's not tremendously complicated. Some sort of spores that had fallen from Shigoriath's staff had lain dormant for a while, before releasing the unlife energy within. Actually, if left unchecked, they will poison much of the land... Shigoriath is nothing if not a vindictive prick. However, to Felina, it should be plain that Mi'ehna's mind is absorbing it all.

Mi'ehna leans over a little bit, eyes crossing. Better get back... I think... I might...

Ai comes charging out of the house about this time, cursing and growling beneath her breath. 

Felina's fangs are the littlest bit bared, but she's also a lot more experienced than the sleeping Guardian. She can deal with Mi'ehna's sort of power. Despite Mi'ehna's warnings, she doesn't back off...instead, a sort of light-related psionic energy starts branching through the other psychic's mind, trying to neutralize the spores.

Goddamnit. She knew she hadn't gotten them all.

Mi'ehna cannot stop herself, and she does what she was trying to warn Felina of, and retches. Her insides feel like they are boiling.

Ai steps next to Felina, without saying a word, and tries to heal the damage being done to Mi'ehna's viscera.


Felina wrinkles her nose a little, but doesn't stop what she's doing. Well, damn. That'll be fun to wash out. This jacket aren't as simple to make as the other Felina's clothes, and not as disposable. She intensifies the energy that she's uses, and broadens its reach within Mi'ehna's mind and body, though carefully avoiding disrupting Ai's power.

"Felina, go and get Drianis. Bring his fine ass out here, and I will send them both to Niven Ai. This kind of energy cannot exist there, and she will heal. Hurry up!" Ai intensifies her spells, trying her best to keep from frying Mi'ehna's poor brain. The empath's skin is almost a uniform gray by now, and were it not for their intervention, she probably would have putrified already.

Felina nods. She sets her spells to work without her and heads off to the door at a sprint, since this area is guarded from teleportation. She teleports as soon as she leaves a certain radius that she's intimately aware of, appears right behind Drianis, and grabs his shoulders. "Hi sorry let's go." They vanish right where she'd disappeared from, and poor Drianis finds himself dragged along at a fair clip.

Drianis doesn't even flinch. He's still chewing a small piece of meat as she drags him. "I should have seen it coming," he reprimands himself, "this is what we get for sitting down. What happened?" He wriggles away and trots behind her under his own power.

"Mi'ehna is having an adverse reaction to something left by the lich. She'll be fine, but we want to transport both of you away from it immediately." Oh yeah...transport. "Miss Ai, that area is guarded from teleportation. Meet me in the hall, I'll be standing right where the wards lift."

"Sorry, honey..." Ai lowers herself and hoists Mi'ehna onto her shoulder, thanking heaven that she's stopped being ill, and carries her that way.

Drianis is perfectly serious at this, and hurries in front of Felina to see to the safety of his daughter.

"Stop here, they'll meet us in a moment. We can't leave from any deeper in the hall, it's warded against teleportation. And again, don't worry. She looks bad...but she'll be fine. You have my word."

Ai comes running towards them a moment later... looking sort of ridiculous with Mi slung over her shoulder. "Here we are, ready everyone and bye bye!" She all but tosses Mi'ehna at Drianis as her teleportation spell flickers into a life. Drianis only has time to eep before the both of them vanish for Niven Ai.

Ai herself lets out a soft sigh. "We will have to end Shigoriath," she admits, "and I think I know where his temple is."

Felina nods. "Just show me the way. Everyone else needs to be warned of the contamination--the twins aren't staying here whether they like it or not--and told what's going on, but I think the two of us can handle this just fine, don't you think?" No need to endanger everyone, it looks fairly cut and dried.

"Guardian," Ai shakes her had, "you have a problem. If Shigoriath's temple is where I think it is, you will not be able to enter." Ai glances at Felina's crystal arm. "At least not with that. The entire Aurian Marsh repulses that kind of energy specifically. I believe that Shigoriath had a tussle with some of your people once... either way, you cannot go."

"Hmm...tricky. And interesting, that would have taken a stunning level of sorcery to accomplish that unless...ah. That rift." She ponders this, then looks up to Ai. "Well. What would you suggest, Miss Ai?"

"You could prepare a site for us to ensnare Tanru. We need a place where the interference in the area will be low, and away from civillians or structures that might be damaged should he fight back. I can lead Tel-tiono and your sprouts into the Aurian Marsh. With the four of us, it would be relatively safe."

Felina nods thoughtfully, though hesitantly. "Yes...I'm sure he can guard them, and they're really much more formidable together than one at a time..." she sounds very much like she's trying to talk herself into it. Good company or not, she isn't used to not being able to defend her children herself when necessary.

"You have not seem me in action yet, Felina. I am a divinity, you know." Ai winks, and nods. "I can take care of them. I promise."

Felina smiles, a little wanly and a little sheepishly, and nods. "Right. And they're more self-reliant than I give them credit for, anyway..." she sighs lightly. They're big kids, but she's still mulling over just how close Dewei had come to serious trouble earlier. What would have happened if she hadn't been there. She nods after a moment. "Well. I'll trust you on that one." She manages a slight smile. "I'll set up an energy beacon something like this..." here she displays a certain signature in an upraised hand before dissolving it, "when I'm ready, to make it easier to find me."

"All right," Ai agrees, "now quit worrying. I like your kids. I will not let some gaseous skeleton bring them to harm." She turns to head back to the food-room, to deliver the message to the others, after giving Felina one more big-lipped smile of reassurance.

"Is everything all right, Miss Ai?" Tel-tiono inquires when she arrives. He knows, of course. It's for everyone else's benefit

"Yes and no," Ai answers with a gleam in her eye. "Drianis and his daughter will be staying at my palace for a while. Mi'ehna was hurt by something the lich left here, so I sent them there to be safe. If all of you are willing, it really is tantamount that we head to the Aurian Marsh and deal with Shigoriath permanently, before we attempt to unscrew Sheran Tanru's mind. Questions?"

Ting blinks. "Wait. Someone catch me up. Who's Shigoriath...ohhhh..." the last bit comes, of course, as her brother fills her in mentally. She grins. "Sounds like a day trip to me! Let's go! Wait." She takes another bite of her food. "Okay. Now let's go." She grins a food-toothed grin.

Ai twitters a bit. "Dear, we will go just as you do this." She parts her lips a bit and licks her own teeth. "You have dinner facing front."

Ting tilts her head, and licks her fangs with the same feline-esque tongue her mother has. "Just saving some for later." She smiles sweetly.

"Fantastic, dear. Now pay attention, all of you. Where we are going," Ai straightens up a bit, tone growing more serious, "is not a place to kid around. There are creatures there who have nothing better to do than stick pointy things in fleshy bits. I know for a fact that there is a very powerful lich there, who probably has a vendetta now, and that the entire place is just horrible. So. Let's not jump down the well without a light."

"'Light' we can do," Dewei puts in with a nod. Both twins look serious now. "Spot and I are much stronger together than alone. I do the psi-magic stuff, especially the seeing stuff, and she handles the 'beating people with sharp sticks' stuff."

"With relish," Ting adds.

"Even so," Felina adds from the door as she comes into the room, "I want you two to wear these." With that, a bracelet materializes in front of each of their chests.

Ting grins. As usual, she looks more oblivious than she is; she can sense their energy signatures. "Pretty!

"And powerful. More specifically, these ward against powers aimed to make you undead yourselves, especially mentally. Damage to your bodies will be quite lessened, but it isn't the main goal." The solid metal bands tighten around the half-serinians' wrists when they put them on until they're skin-tight. "They can be overpowered, but only Shigoriath should be able to do that, and even his spell effects will be quite retarded by these. Be aware that, for that reason, your arms will become targets as soon as these things are sensed. They'll want to remove the bracelets at all costs, so guard your hands well. The bracelets are designed to cloak themselves, but that effect will dull with use." As though on cue, their power signatures begin to fade with that statement, until they're hardly "visible" at all.

"I wouldn't think you'd need one, Miss Ai, since you're divine...and I trust you have your own methods, Master Tel-tiono."

"Shigoriath can hurt me. Blasted mortal blood. But I should be fine." Ai admires the bracelets, lips pouting a bit in consternation. "Some of his minions will be able to bypass those, too. It sort of goes without saying that an undead mage lord has them, you know. Keep in mind, though, that our target is not Shigoriath, it is his phylactery. He will get progressively stronger, the closer we get to it, so I beg of you to not take this lightly. Right?"

The twins nod. Tel-tiono smiles lightly at them, but remains quiet himself.

Ai glances at each twin. "Heavens... I have to say it before I burst. You two are adorable." Her eyes sparkle with amusment, though, and she glances at Tel-tiono out of the side of her eye. "Not that you're a slouch, though. For a human."

Both the twins just grin brightly at this.

A little smile touches one edge of Tel-tiono's lips. "Well then. Is everyone ready to go?"

Ai closes her eyes and mumbles something quiet. A muted light burns in a straight line from her hand to the floor for a second, fading to reveal a staff that might be familiar to this parallel's Felina... it is the same staff that Radivishe Moorn had used to brain Ahmin Rei-ono long ago. Now, though, a surreal sort of energy flows within it, so heavenly light that it nearly feels dark. "Yes. Hold, and I will transport us all to the Aurian Marsh." A beam shoots out from the staff's head, tracing a massive rune that envelopes all four of them. The spell is swift, and in a puff of light the four of them are on their way.

Felina catches her breath at the sight of the staff, though Ai's clearly made it her own. She doesn't recall its having had any power to start...

For now, she closes her eyes and mutters a quick prayer to her own father even as she hurries off to decide between two suitable locations to prepare for ensnaring Shigoriath.

When the downtrodden post-Shigoriath party reappears later, they aren't all in the same place. Dewei ends up in his room, Felina and Ai in another, Makyon and Ting in another. The latter two are in Ting's room, actually...large, nice architecture, but a little bare. The only things really on the walls are weapons and one or two things that she thinks are pretty. Still definitely a girl's room, though, given the frills here and there.

"Put her to bed," Felina requests telepathically... "Ai and I are down the hall, to the left, and then the third door on the right."

Makyon grins a bit. Normally, to be in a girl's room right next to her mother would be something to worry about. But in this case, the mother can probably tell that he finds this funny, so he isn't worried. 

Still, it is with a gentle care that he turns back the sheets and places Ting upon her bed, tucking her in in a practiced manner that he can not recall learning. He pats her head, and moves for the door, to join Felina and Ai.

"Mmm..." at his departing energy, the younger fighter wakes up just a little, eyes heavily, barely open. "Thank you..." she mutters, then dozes back off.

The slip mage stiffens a little bit. He hasn't heard that phrase before, not really.

He heads down the hall, taking in the surroundings... it's a much nicer home than he can ever remember knowing. To the left... it even smells nice. He probably smells like a tomb. Three doors down...

"Hello?" He peeks his head inside, looking for Fel and Ai.

"Hi." Felina, hair pulled back more tightly then usual and a dust mask over her face--this is a clean room, a field you pass through in the door assures that--is careully making some black marks on Ai's leg. "Put this on." Another mask hovers in front of him.

Makyon obediently does so before entering the room. He's just betrayed one master, and knows he's treading dangerous waters here... no need to cause more problems.

Ai, for her part, lies as still as she can manage. She isn't awake, not in a conscious sense anyway.

"Germ mask," Felina explains. "No need to cause more problems than there already are." She looks over her marks, points to one starting low in the front of the pelvis. "As far as I can tell, the seal's grip goes up to here, too high to just remove it by removing the leg. But that's a fairly narrow arm...traces the black line downward. The actual seal is where that central 'x' is, but it has a reach here...and here..." traces the lines carefully. "And it goes about three inches down. Still crippling to just remove the section, but with a divine physiology, it will heal much more quickly and she'll be on her feet a lot faster than if the leg were simply taken off. Since she's half-divine, I'm not sure whether it would regenerate or not, and that's worrisome because I may not be able to completely recreate it as easily as for mortals. Thoughts?"

Makyon listens patiently to her explanation, impressed that she is as smart as she is to be such a fighter.

"Two things come to mind," he tells her, "one, is that Shigoriath could undo it. He is the kind of overlord who always made sure that he could deal with every threat his minions could pose, so as not to be overthrown. The other..." He looks Ai over, wonder. "Her mortal side could be fully invaded. Made undead. Never was there an undead who died of rot. And her divine blood would prevent her from putrifying, like the world worm you met."

"Mmm..." Felina frowns at this, thinking. "That's hard to undo. I've heard of methods, but...I don't have the means or full knowledge."

Ai's entire body shudders, and a gout of coagulating blood wells up in her wound, leaking out a little bit.

Makyon grimaces. "I don't see that we have a choice. Letting Shigoriath out here, this close to his phylactery, would be suicide."

"Well, the physical proximity shouldn't be a real issue...the pocket dimension it's sealed in is both technically physically distant and well-sealed." She has several, most of which are easier to find, so she doesn't feel uneasy in divulging this. "So go through this with me on a technical level. Why, if we remove the seal in its entirety, then all traces of sacromancy and irreversibly affected tissue from every area of her body, will relapse be a possibility? What's the jumping-off point for the spells, the danger point we can't get to?" Magic doesn't just spontaneously generate.

As she speaks, she sets her hands near the wound, forcing proper thinning and blood flow as best she can, careful to keep clots from getting into the rest of the stream.

Makyon really, really doesn't care for the way Felina's talking to him, but that's not the issue here.

"On a technical level? Do you think this wound is the only part of her that's rotting, Felina? Just don't look in her mouth." Makyon grumbles a bit. "By now her entire body has probably been poisoned... maybe. Can you speak to Dewei, right now?"

Felina sighs inwardly. She's trying to get the knowledge she needs to heal Ai the best way possible, not offend anyone. "Yes."

"Ask him if Ai was wounded when they spoke after I left Ting's side the first time. If she was, then she is in more trouble than she appears. If not, we can remove the seal and hope."

He's not oblivious to that. But he's jumpy, a bit... to see Ai in so much pain, so threatened in her life, and know that it is something with which he was connected, bothers him immensely.

Felina nods...pokes her son mentally. Dewei. Dewei, sorry, to disturb your sleep, but I need to know...what Ai injured when she met you the first time? Particularly a bite?

Dewei blinks several times, heavily, and takes a few moments to think to answer. Um... he thinks back carefully. Yes. Yes she was. Is everything okay?

It will be. Thank you, Dewei...go back to sleep now. She'll be fine.

"...damnit," she finally mutters aloud. Bites her finger. This is some hell of a moral dilemma. Whatever the choice, though, she has about fifteen seconds to make it.

Makyon looks up to Felina. Down to Ai. "Blame me if you must. But don't stand there and worry until she dies, alright?" He reaches out, tugging away his glove so that a single rune is visible to Felina's eyes. "That is the spell that will do it. Make her like me."

Felina takes a deep breath, nods. Looks to Makyon, face even again. "You know how to do this, then? I'm not as familiar with the process as I'd like, though my power may help if you walk me through it."

The slip mage shakes his head. "Better not. Let her hate me, instead." He holds up the hand, eyes closing, and Shigoriath's rune flares into an etherial beacon upon the back of his hand. "Last call. Ai, forgive me, if you can."

"I can try to ask her," Felina notes quietly. "Let her choose between this and death."

"Try," Makyon nods, "no one said this has to be permanent, though. So... let's ask her, first."

Felina sets her fingertips gently on Ai's temples. Ai. Ai, are you aware?

Ai does not physically move to respond, though Felina probably would not have expected such.

Not externally... and not really. Where are we... and why do I feel so cold?

We're in my home. And because you're dying. As callous as the words could be, they're not uttered without a good deal of sympathy. There are poisons corrupting and putrifying your body, Ai...a seal on them has a failsafe, I can't safely stop them. There may be a way...it would require parts of you to become undead, in a similar fashion to Makyon. But...I can't do that without letting you make the choice.

Dying...? So that explains... this light I see. Those people calling my name. Silence for a moment. I can't die yet. Do what you have to do.

Felina nods. You'll be fine, then, Ai. Changed, but fine. See you soon.

She blinks slowly once, orienting herself, then look to Makyon, removing her hands. "She says 'go for it.'"

The slip mage bites his lip. "Step back, Felina. And if your ears are as sensitive as they look, plug them." He thrusts his plam down against Ai's neck, and with a flick of his thumb, splits open the heavy veins there. The goddess cries out as her blood pours from the wound, but that cry is a whisper compared to the tortured screech that burns up her vocal cords when the rune's magic pours into her bloodstream. Her flesh grays for a moment, but then returns to normal, and the rot immediately begins to regenerate in her viscera.

Felina's biting down hard on her back teeth, but her tight lips and an unusual light in her eyes are the only indications of her mood. She finally breathes in again when she senses the damage seem to regenerate, laying a gentle hand on Ai's midsection to scope the internal processes when the rot begin to dissipate. "What a horrid process...but effective. Thank you, Makyon."

Ai looks like she did before, perhaps... not quite so radiant, though. Her eyes are open, and she is breathing better, but obviously in no shape to rise yet.

Makyon shakes his head. "She'll be fine now. And if I'm not mistaken, you have bigger problems to deal with." He glances at Felina.

"Yes. I need to stabilize the twins--both still have poison in their bodies, though it's been stunted--and Ting's energy level borders on worrisome...and then it will be downhill from there." There's a reason she needs to 'stabilize' and not 'heal' them. No time. She's not sure what's going on on Niven ai, the energies are becoming garbled. But a sickening sense of danger tells her that it's not good.

She pulls her hands down alongside Ai's body from her head to her feet, rendering the undead goddess perfectly clean. A second pass replaces her ruined clothes an absolutely comfortable silk nightdress. "I'm going to send you to a bedroom now, Ai. You need to rest, you're going to be disoriented from that transition." Then Ai vanishes.

Felina looks to Makyon, removing a mask that hadn't been necessary after all. "You're welcome to stay here awhile if you like, I realize you probably don't need to go back to Shigoriath's world. Or just until you've rested, if you prefer. If something looks like an unused guest room, it probably is. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to see to my children." She starts for the door.

Makyon lets her go, wondering about her, and then heads out to find a place to lie down for a bit. He has some thoughts, of course, but they can certainly wait. For now, resting is the plan.

Felina doesn't even take the time to walk around the corner...she vanishes, and reappears by Ting's side. The young psychic stirs, whimpers a little in her sleep, but doesn't awaken as her mother kneels beside her. Felina's whole demeanor changes...there's nothing hard in it. Nothing resolute, no warrior. Just a mother worried about her daughter, wishig to feel her pain instead, second-guessing everything that had lead to this, and wishing desperately that Ting had never been put through such a hellish experience. Wishing, in this illogical state, that she'd raised her children to be normal...to be civilians. To be the protected.

She knows on some level that never could have happened. But that level's too busy cringing at Ting's recent suffering.

An infinitely gentle clawed hand settles on Ting's face, a whisper of a touch, and the girl's nightmares dissipate. There will be a lot of them...she'd been reliving the solo fight with Shigoriath. And, thus, Felina finally gets to work, leeching the poison from her daughter's blood and transferring energy to her and cleaning her up and giving her fresh clothes in lieu of her rotted ones. Finally, she kisses Ting's forehead. "I'll return soon, my precious child. I promise."

The twin rests easier now. Peaceful.

Felina stands gently and leaves on quiet feet, mind a strange mix of troubled and peaceful. Then, about halfway to Dewei's room...she stops. Actually has to lean on the wall for balance. Gods, what just...? Why does she feel like...?

Near Dewei's room's door a very solemn Ai has been waiting on Felina. At the sight of the Serinian stumbling she pushes away from the wall and approaches, features cold, but not hateful cold, and set.

"Something wrong, Felina?" she inquires, her voice as rosy as ever.

Felina's brow is creased...when she finally looks up at Ai, though, it isn't so much consternation, as confusion. "I... don't think so. I think...something's right. Somewhere, something is very right...I feel as though something terrible has been lifted out of my mind..."

She realizes she's babbling, shakes her head a little, and looks up at Ai. "So...I'm unsure as to whether I should really ask how you're feeling." She stands up again, eyes shining with sympathy-that-she-knows-would-be-unwanted-and-so-is-largely-restrained.

"Right is right. For fuck's sake, Felina, let your guard down for once and hug a strange woman." Ai smirks a bit, and holds out one slender arm. "Come. You've enticed me to swear."

Felina's still at this a moment...then has to laugh. A wry but truly genuine sort of laugh. She gets off the wall, and then simply hugs the goddess tightly, with both arms. She's silent a moment, restraining the unexpected sob that threatens. "Ai...thank you. My god, thank you...you saved my childrens' lives, I have no doubt of that. Thank you."

Ai returns the embrace, nodding quietly. "Goddess, Felina," she quietly corrects. "Your goddess. And some things are worth being chewed on by a world worm and an ugly little opossum thing to achieve."

After a few moments, one corner of Felina's lips twitches up, and she gets back from the goddess just enough to look her in the face. "Just tell me one thing," she begins, tone quite serious....

Ai tilts her head, blinks those black eyes once. "Sure. What is on your mind?" So Ai isn't as good at reading people as either of her parents.

"Does it really smell as bad inside a world worm as I would imagine?" Felina's eyes sparkle in a rather Ting-like fashion at this.

Ai's lip twitches. Twice. And she laughs, a full-blown, oh-lord-that-was-so-dumb laugh. She doesn't answer, can't really, just laughs harder and hugs Felina again.

Felina grins just enough to show her fangs and allows the hug, returning it. She feels...so light. Like she wants to dance and yell and do all the things she never wants to allow herself...whatever Tel-tiono had done, it must be good. "Ai...keep in mind, in the future...you're welcome here any time."

Ai is moved, she really is. So... this is what had kept Felina down so badly, and all this time Ai had simply thought her an insufferable bitch.

"I would not dare stay away," she quietly says, pulling back from the hug just long enough to planet a gentle kiss upon Felina's cheek, just left of her lips. Close enough to make her jump, she's sure. "I am quite fond of Ting and Ding."

Felina has to grin at this. "You know, their father calls them that...." It's the first time in a long time she's been able to mention him without a frown. The mood is that good...enough to recognize a happy memory and not let it be overrun with others. It's happy. "Now, though, I really should attend Dewei. And, I have the feeling Tel-tiono and the others will be back soon."

The goddess nods. "In that case, I will go and have a stroll. Get ready to write out some remarks to make should I run dry after all this." She winks, and separates from Felina. "Thanks. For the confidence, that is."

"It's nothing...that hasn't been earned, Miss Ai. Thank you." Felina smiles...lets out a slow breath as she heads into Dewei's room. What an...interesting day.

Ai struts around Felina's house, determined to get used to the strange nuances of this altered form of hers. In the sunlight she is forced to cover her eyes, and the notion strikes her that Niven Ai will have to be darkened if she is to remain there. As a test she dips her fingers in a pool of water, and is thrilled to find that they do not melt.

"Hey," Makyon calls to her, seeing what she's engaged in. "It's just your eyes that will be sensitive to light. Water will not hurt you, neither will holy objects or ground."

She smiles a little as he approaches. "But no healing magic, right?"

The slip mage smiles back. "Come on. Let's go wait for the Wizard."

It isn't too long, of course, before Tel-tiono, Mi'ehna, and Drianis appear in the clearing in front of the house. "Now, you are sure that you feel all right, Miss Mi'ehna?" he inquires.

Nothing that a week of sleep and a slave masseuse would not fix, Uncle. She grins up at him, and gives him a nudge. Need a job?

Tel-tiono smiles at this, eyes amused. "I know a good many young men on the Celestial Plane would would clamour over one another, Miss Mi'ehna."

Mi'ehna shrugs her narrow shoulders. Maybe, but young men would be too interested in my body to pay attention to my body, if you understand.

Ai and Makyon emerge from the house about this point, Ai now sporting something rather like a sun hat to keep her eyes from burning so much. She waves to them cheerfully.

"Hence, the clamouring." Tel-tiono smiles at the two resident partial-undeads. "Hello to both of you. Miss Ai, it looks as though the transition treated you kindly."

"You knew?" The goddess inquires of him. Makyon just studies him for a moment... he doesn't recall actually meeting this man, but murmurs a hello anyway.

"I do now, and I can assume." Tel-tiono smiles.

Ai beams at him. "So can I. From the way Felina was acting, I can assume that you figured out a way to deal with Sheran Tanru...?"

Uncle was fantastic. He did not even have to blow that monster up at all.

Tel-tiono smiles at Mi'ehna, and nods to Ai. "I was able to sever the command line in his mind, the one that his assassination order on Miss Felina was encoded into."

"Then that means that the younger Felina can be freed." Ai is practically glowing again, though this time it is entirely figurative. "What are we waiting for, then? Let's go get her!"

Tel-tiono smiles again, face softening a bit, and nods. "Yes. It will be easiest and safest for Miss Felina to unwravel her own spells...we should ask her."

"You three go ahead," Drianis tells the wizard. "Mi'ehna and I will catch up later. We need to clean up so that we do not terrify your daughter."

Ai winks at him, and looks back that way.

Tel-tiono's eyes sparkle at this. "This is probably a sound course of action, Master Drianis. Well, Miss Ai...shall we proceeding with the badgering?"

"Quite. Oh." She puts her hand way up on Makyon's shoulder. "This is Makyon. He helped defeat Shigoriath, too." She turns to walk, leaving Makyon to just nod and follow along, headed for the house.

Tel-tiono bows his head politely. "It is a pleasure to meet you, then, Master Makyon."

"Oh, I know," Makyon chuckles. "The pleasure's all mine."

"Hey!" Ai waves from the door of the house. "Come on, boys!  I can't wait forever, this is too exciting."

Inside, Felina is examining Ting's thoroughly ruined weapon. The blade's compromised badly...this is nothing that can just be sharpened out. It could break. The upper haft is damaged as well, even worse...only the tang is keeping everything attached. She looks up when Ai and the others approach.

"Look what Ai found wandering about," Ai smiles her big-lipped smile at Felina. "The bearer of good news, you know." She glances at Tel-tiono, beaming.

Felina starts to smile at Ai...kind of stops when her eyes settle on Tel-tiono, though, when that tightens. It's not that she's not happy. Sometimes...emotion just exceeds the abilities of the face. "Tel-tiono...I don't know what exactly you just did. But I do know that, whatever it was...it worked." She bows to him, low, fist on her heart...a gesture of the upmost respect. No one here has any way to know just how very, very rare it is for her to do something like this. She can't remember the last time. "I don't know what you did, but I know you saved my life. I can still protect my children...and they'll stop being threatened to get to me. I can keep trying to restore their father...I can finally sleep knowing that they're not suddenly going to be thrown out into the universe without any parent to guide and protect them. Especially considering how you came here...thank you. On my behalf, and theirs..just...thank you." Her voice is soft by the end.

Tel-tiono smiles gently, eyes quietly warm. "Felina."

She looks up after a few moments.

"You know as well as I do, Felina, that you would have done the same, in the same circumstances. I am sure that your father would be very proud of you, and all that you've built and accomplished here. But...you are welcome."

Felina manages a tight smile...then turns away, looking down the hall and composing herself fully. Hey, she's still Felina. "Unguarded" isn't something she does well. "I've been debating whether to awaken your daughter, or waiting until you're ready to leave..." her voice is perfectly even again, borderline bland. "She probably shouldn't meet the twins."

"It would be something of a shocker, I think. Actually... she probably should not know that she was ever here, if she can get around it." Ai, though, is practically itching to meet this Felina, and compare her to the modern one.

Felina nods. "Ting and Dewei's race is obvious. If she sees it now, it may alter the way she handles her own future."

Tel-tiono just nods to this. He's still bursting with pride, in a way, to see how Felina turned out. Perfect? Nah. But she's certainly come far. And no one's perfect.

"So, I suppose it depends on when you three were planning to depart?" Felina inquires. "Where are Drianis and Mi'ehna?"

"Cleaning up," Ai answers for the wizard. "They both looked like hell had vomited them. I imagine that they'll meet us in the shielded chamber."

"Hm..." Felina nods, thinks. "Well...I guess we can hang out there for an hour or so, get her caught up on things, waiting on them. It's a bit on the creepy side just for how bare and sterile it is, but it's a perfectly comfortable room. Not that I'm trying to shove you out the door, Master Tel-tiono."

The wizard shakes his head. "No...it probably is high time for us to take our leave, for Nightshade's sake."

Felina smiles a bit, nods. "All right. Well...follow me, then?" She just props Ting's weapon against the wall for now, and starts off in that direction.

After quite a walk, she stops just outside the door to the chamber, pausing thoughtfully, and turns to Makyon. "Oh, by the way...don't be surprised if this younger Felina is severely disconcerted by you. Nothing personal, I assure you."

Makyon runs a hand through his hair, the classic cocky bad guy gesture. "I get it a lot. 'God, he's too pretty to be a zombie.'"

Felina has to snicker, though he couldn't guess at what. "That's not it. Believe." She just leaves it at that, chuckling to herself as she heads inside to where her much younger parallel is sleeping, and gets to dissolving the shield and cloak fields one by one.

Ai and Makyon stands side by side to observe this project, each considering what lies beyond. Makyon is still a little bit unaware of what has been going on, but he doesn't care; free of Sheran Tanru and Shigoriath, and has done a good deed already... hell of a resume, that.

The shields aren't easy to dispell even for their creator...it's a few minutes until she dissolves the innermost one, and then she sits on the edge of the platform, beside Felina, and sets her hands to either side of the other costructs head.

Young Felina's eyes twice. Then, without further warning, she punches her parallel soundly in the gut.

Older Felina coughs, eyes wide. She blinks slowly, twice. Hell of a punch, that. "Fair enough," she chokes, "I deserved that."

"Uh-huh."

Makyon turns away at a sound from the hall, and steps that way to check it out. It's probably Mi'ehna and Drianis, but... might as well check.

Ai takes a step forward and gazes at young Felina, then at older Felina. "My, dear, you have handled the centuries beautifully," she says to older Felina, noting the slight discrepancy between their appearances.

Older Felina manages a smile at this, managing to avoid clutching her gut despite tempation to the contrary.

As soon as Ai speaks, the other jerks to a sitting position, hand flying to the hilt of her sword, eyes startled and narrowed. Then she sees Tel-tiono just standing there. And she senses no danger. She blinks...sword hand finally goes to the bridge of her nose, eyes squeezed shut. "I am...so damned confused."

"Confused is alright," Ai laughs as she kneels beside younger Felina. "You missed out on the adventure this time, kitten. Are you okay?" She smiles her best smile, purely black eyes settiled upon the gold of Fel's.

Felina half-smiles sheepishly. "Yeah...I think so. Thanks." She looks at her parallel, then at her father. "How long was I out, then?"

"An eventful day and a half, Nightshade. I am sure that Miss Mi'ehna will fill you in if you ask, else I can do so later." The wizard smiles reassuringly at his "daughter"...he's just glad to see her awake and safe.

"I must be hearing things," Makyon's voice fades into earshot as he returns from the hall, "I didn't see them. Is the guest of honor awake?" He looks inside to younger Fel, and allows her his very best smile.

Felina starts when she sees him. Stares for several seconds. Then she just lays back again, arm lain over her eyes. "Oh, good. Hallucination it is. I didn't remember drinking that much last night."

Ai glances at him, wondering, but doesn't ask.

Makyon, on the other hand, is sort of confused. That isn't the reaction he was expecting even with Felina's warning. He steps closer to her, and taps on her arm with a gloved hand.

"Miss Ai, I don't think she believes we're here." He scratches his hair. "Well, I know. It is tough to believe what you see when you look at her."

Ai chuckles. "Keep dreaming, stud."

A smirk touches a corner of the Felina's lips and she ends up sitting up again. "You creep me out," she states simply, with a sweet little half-smile. "Nothing personal. Nice to meet you." She stands up...sways a little from laying down too long, catches her balance.

Makyon grins somewhat. He has no idea what her deal is, though. He glances at older Felina. "Someday you will have to explain to me what this is all about."

What what is about? Mi'ehna signs to her father as they enter, which he of course translates for the rest of them. Both of them look much better, though Mi has a long gash running over her right eyebrow, and Drianis has a nice red and blue bruise in the center of his forehead.

Elder Felina is quite amused. "Ask me after they leave."

Younger blinks when Mi'ehna and Drianis walk into the room. "Hey, are you two okay? What happened here?"

Drianis lays his arm around his daughters shoulders. "Much. But nothing that needs explained now. Are you ready to get back to your tower, miss Felina?"

"If my father is ready to go, I wouldn't complain." She looks to the wizard.

He smiles a little, and nods. "This room is guarded against teleportation, though, Nightshade. It would be unduly complicated to leave from here."

"Actually, do you suppose I could have a moment with her before she leaves?" Ai asks this somewhat meekly of all of them, though primarily of young Fel herself.

Felina--young Felina--blinks. She's a little on-guard, just because Ai is who she thinks she is, but she nods. "Sure. Alone, or is here fine?"

Ai beams. "Alone."

Felina nods. Smiles a little at the rest of the party...tries to not let her eyes linger on Makyon. "Right. Excuse us." She lets Ai lead. She doesn't know where they are, let alone where they're going.

The goddess leads Felina outside, to the garden area where Dewei and Shigoriath had first fought.

"Listen," she quietly begins, "I know that this is a mind job for you, and I sympathize. But I have a request for you, and... though it might be hard for you..." she sighs a bit. From her tattered cloak she produces a small cluster of forget-me-nots, light blue in color, which she holds out to Felina. "Do not hate my father. He is an idiot, but..." her eyes are already tearing up Dammit. "Please, if you see him, give him these." She knows that she doesn't have to tell her who her father is. She looks too much like him for that.

Felina's quiet at this for a few moments...her eyes are actually genuinely sympathetic, somehere deep in there. She definitely knows what it feels like to lose a father. She takes the flowers gently. "I'll give them to him, I promise." They're still on neutral terms after the 'revive Mi'ehna' thing, so it should be okay.

Ai beams again. "Thank you. And... yeah. Don't worry, everything here is taken care of. None of this will come back to haunt any of us." 

Felina manages to smirk. "Okay. I know about ten percent of what's going on, but...I probably don't need to know."

"You are better off. Just trust me when I say that hey look, there's everyone!" And Ai steps around Felina, whistling, as she walks towards the emerging Makyon, Drianis, Mi'ehna, and possibly Tel and Fel.

Felina's still...extremely disconcerted by all this. But amused by Ai's reaction, so the smirk continues until the others get closer. "Well. It was nice meeting you then, Miss...?"

The goddess stops walking. Turns her head.

"Mi'ehna Orr," she softly answers, her generous lips almost pouting. "But you can call me Ai. The pleasure is mine, Felina."

Felina bows her head, then turns to the others. "So...home?"

Tel-tiono smiles a bit. "Home. I am sure that your brother is concerned by now."

The elder Felina closes her eyes a moment.

Ai is at her side before her feet even register that she's headed that way. She reaches out and squeezes her clawed hand, her smile saying all that her voice won't, out of decorum. That it will be okay.

Drianis and Mi'ehna bid their respective farewells to all involved, and stand closer to young Felina in preparation to be sent home.

Elder Felina manages a small, sidelong smile to Ai. Thanks. She blinks, looks back to Tel-tiono and holds out her hand when he offers her a sealed envelope.

"For later," he notes with a quiet little smile.

She doesn't know what to say or do. It's been a very, very long time since she's had one of these...the sight of it is enough to send her on a madly nostalgic trip. "Thank you."

Younger Felina, meanwhile, walks up to Makyon, makes a beckoning gesture. He needs to come down to the level of the short people, she wants to tell him something quietly.

Makyon leans way down, eyes bemused, wondering what it is that she could have to say to him. He doesn't speak, as he doubts that she wants him to if she called him down with a gesture.

"I don't know what she would have told you, since we're just parallels and our histories don't run exactly the same," she notes quietly. "But just for the record, your body originally belonged to my dead lover, and I slept with version two. Therefore, you creep me out." Her tone is quite amused in her dry little way. She'll never see him again anyway. She just pats his shoulder, and heads off to join the others without another word, face quite amused.

Makyon stands up. "Dammit," he quietly says, "you have no idea how it sucks to be the odd one out."

Younger Felina just waves over her shoulder at this. Her face is a bit on the red side. "Well. Shall we go?" She asks of Mi'ehna and Drianis.

Mi pouts a bit.

Sure, unless you want us to have a smoke or something. For a few minutes.

Drianis gently baps the back of her head.

Ow! Alright, alright.

Felina grins at this. They remind her of her and Diamond.

Tel-tiono raises his staff a little. "Alright, then...brace yourselves, and hold onto one another."

One everyone is ready, there's a swirl of pink light, and then they're gone.

Felina lets out her breath, then looks to Makyon. Observes a moment. "Let me guess. She told you. And no doubt more than I would have." Even her ears are a hair red, though her countenance is stubbornly blank.

Makyon glances at her out of the side of his eye, grinning a bit. "Smile, Felina. It looks so much better on you."

"Yes, yes...note to self: kidnapping any Felina will lead to some form of retribution." She snickers.

"I promise I won't bring it up much." The slip mage runs a hand through his hair again, breathes out. "That's much better, by the way."

Ai pouts. "I was hoping I'd actually get to keep Muscles. Ah well. I should return to Niven Ai and see what's still standing."

"Ah...right. I'll help you rebuild stuff," Felina offers.

"Oh, that's alright," Ai smiles at Felina. "I can do it. I was tired of the way it looked anyway. You just... spend some quality time with handsome here." 

Makyon does go a little red at that.

Felina senses his discomfiture, and enjoys a brief "see? you blushed too, ha" look before looking back to Ai. "Are you sure, Miss Ai? After all, I owe you quite a bit." She smiles. "It may be a good start."

Ai nods. "Oh, quite sure. I've seen his pecs. Ta, dear. Don't be a stranger." She fades, and winks as she vanishes, bound for her homeworld, and her poor abused palace.

Felina has to snicker, turns, and walks back towards the house, face quickly blanked again in a way so characteristic of her. "Well. I guess I have time to fully repair the Ting and Dewei then, after all. Wander where you will...kitchen's in the east wing, by the way. The house is almost--but not quite--too small to say it has "wings." But, it's descriptive.