Sometimes called the abyss. This is the where those who commit the most unforgiveable atrocities are sent, to this swirling black mass of nonexistance. it is vast, marked by devilish castles and globulous portals to anywhere. In addition, the ruler of this place is a beast of so much size and power that it could never exist anywhere else. It is simply called 'Abyss' for no other name could truly encompass its size and vast hunger.

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Inverse Time
Dothaven
The Exalted Plane
The Unsung Plane
The Celestial Plane
Infinity

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Felina's feet hit the ground hard, skid for her speed, and her head jerks around, eyes scanning the surroundings somewhat...but most senses are looking for Top Hat.

His signature is obvious, right next to Mi'ehna's. Mi'ehna's normal signature shows through the blackness, weak and flickering, losing its light by the second. The barren mountains and black sky of this place seem to pulse along with her.

Felina's face is intently foccussed, and deadly serious...she spares no speed in heading that way.

Along the obvious path, Felina's trek takes her upon a very irate Drianis, who is in the last stages of battering down a massive iron gate with his new maul. The thing gives way about the time Felina gets there. 

"If you have come to stop me, walk away," he warns Felina. The level of energy flowing in his body is practically unholy. Whatever masks had been in place have fallen away.

"No. Top Hat was taken." She raises a hand, condensing an energy attack to help.

The gate lasts about .3 seconds after that, groaning fiercely as it falls away from them. 

"So quickly?" Drianis doesn't even face Felina, just... soldiers on. "The beacon is just ahead. She is still alive, I know it."

According to her signature, though, not for much longer. The physical traces of the black energy can be seen just ahead, and Mi'ehna appears on the trail in front of them. Her arms hang at her sides, her eyes half-closed, and her complexion pale and weak. 

"Felina," she whispers, "I will not fight you again. Go home."

"I can't do that Mi'ehna. Tell me how to help you."

"K..i...l...l.. m...e..." Mi'ehna's eyes flash blue, then pink, then gold, then violet, and black again. "Finish what you started..."

Drianis turns his head, looks at Felina. "What is she talking about?"

"... try to trick you..."

The last bit only sounds to Felina.

She pauses at the unspoken comment. Heart chills somewhat. Somehow she knows...if she doesn't make exactly the right choices in the next two minutes, she's going to die. Somehow...even more pressingly than usual. "I didn't come to kill you, Mi'ehna. I don't have to. The black power in you is already doing that, and it won't take long...is there some way to rid yourself of it, blow it off as energy?"

"Too much... power. Locked inside me. It ebbs a little bit. Mi'ehna's life force is gone, vanished completely within her body. A hint of a certain sorcerer's influence lies beneath, though, animating her.

Felina stiffens visibly. "Mi'hena...! ...Moorn. What the hell are you doing, I thought you cared about her."

Drianis's eyes narrow.  "Someone needs to explain this to me... where is Moorn? Felina! What is this?!?" The maul is raised. Drianis turns his eyes upon Felina, fury ruining his sense of logic.

In the distance, Daimord Di appears at the crest of a hill. Radivishe Moorn on the other side.

"Felina. This is your fault. How dare you fight with Mi'ehna the way you did?" Moorn's voice speaks through Mi'ehna's mouth.

Something about this situation...Felina's "danger" sense is practically choking her, it's never screamed louder in the entirety of her life. Somehow she knows...she has to get Drianis back on her side. Or she's dead.

Her hands are a little upraised, not even in a good position to defend, totally and completely passive. Her eyes lock on his, ears back. "Drianis. Listen to me. Radivishe Moorn is controlling Mi'ehna from inside, that's his voice speaking now. He's talking about something that happened in Dothaven. Mi'ehna had made me promise earlier in the day to kill her if Moorn was going to take her...I did everything I could to try to save her, but I was completely pinned down by a powerful wind elemental and couldn't get to her to help her. He had her pinned down. She begged me to kill her and I wouldn't...I tried everything. Feeding her power even. But nothing helped. And Moorn broke both her arms, there was absolutely nothing she could do to fight...I couldn't get to them, and he was going to take her. There wasn't time and...I honored my promise to her. I killed her. But then I helped bring her back." She's speaking very quickly...accompanying it with psychically projected memory...the pain, what Mi'ehna had really been going through. Everything she'd tried to save her...under what circumstances she'd finally killed her.

The guardian grabs a quick breath. "She's in danger again now. Abyss's energy is killing her, fast. Her body can't handle it. I don't know how to help her, but I want to try...and I do know I can't do that without your help."

"She just admitted to killing your daughter! Are you a total fool, Drianis?" Daimord Di's voice calls down into the valley, snapping Drianis out of his consideration. "This is all her doing, and you know that!"

The violet-haired warrior looks to the ground, lifts the maul. Faces Felina. "You harmed my daughter," he whispers, "but if you had meant her any real harm, you would not have told me to my face."

"Moorn, your plan is shit. I'll do this myself." Daimord Di lifts from the ground, to a strong mental negation from Radivishe Moorn, and charges Felina and Drianis. His unearthly energy swirls around him, and he comes forth with all guns blazing.

In the same instant, Mi'ehna crumples to the floor, bereft of the black energy. Radivishe Moorn disappears over the hill, shaking his head.

Felina catches her breath. Her danger sense isn't quiet, of course...but it's suddenly left overwhelming. Her eyes dart to Daimord, then to Mi'ehna, then Drianis. "Think you can handle him while I try to help her?"

Drianis moves, to answer her question. Moves so fast that his tears can't catch up. A wail, a rumbling roar that might be hatred, might be misery erupts from with him. The maul swings fast, meeting a bewildered Di in mid-charge. Heavy waves of violet energy emit from the haft, sensing faintly of Tel-tiono. The result is... not pretty. Suffice to say that Daimord Di won't be doing much of anything standing-related for a few weeks.

That works.

Felina drops to a knee beside Mi'ehna as Drianis moves, a hand on the other telepath's forehead. "Mi'ehna. Mi'ehna, you with me?"

Mi'ehna does not respond at all. If she is alive, it is not an obvious trait. The black, though, is gone from her energy, leaving her eyes and hair a shimmering, gorgeous gold. 

Ahead, over the hill, a harsh blue light shines up and out of the next valley. It positively reeks of the black energy, but in a sense, a familiar energy as well... almost like that of the nether plane. Beyond that, an unfathomable well of blackness just... exists.

Felina's eyes dart that way, then travel back to Mi'ehna. She scans her mind for anything that might remotely be considered dangerous, or potentially dangerous, to anything else. Any trace of Moorn left behind would count.

But there is nothing. The only trace of Moorn exists just in front of the infinite blackness, but is beginning to flow into that blue light.

Felina grits her teeth. Well, crap...if he's getting away, with that kind of power... "Drianis, I'm sending Mi'ehna back to the arena. Hopefully someone there can help her. Just hit the same spot she's laying in the next five seconds or so if you want to follow." That said, Mi'ehna vanishes, and Felina takes off towards where she senses Moorn disappearing at a loping, leaping sprint.

Moorn stands before an altar, hands raised, black energy channeling into and out of the shrine itself. In front of him the ground drops off into nothingness, an endless, swirling mass of... nothing.

Except for a pair of eyes, glowing in the black, gazing down into the altar from a height of no less than a thousand feet.

Felina stops...fangs bared, but she stops, evaluating, all senses straining. She's about half an instant from attacking him, hands drawn back to do so...but she doesn't know what he's doing. It could possibly create a huge energy explosion of whatever he's channelling. The eyes...what the hell...?

"So you came anyway," Moorn's voice hails her, straining, trembling... it's all he can do to control the unbelievable energy swimming at his fingertips. "Felina... meet Abyss."

The eyes blink.

"I am trying to earn a way out of here, thank you very much."

Felina's hands lower, just the slightest bit, eyes narrow. "And just what is it you're doing to accomplish that?"

"Creating a homonculus..." Moorn's voice falters for a moment. "I made a deal with Abyss. Apparently one of his... associates... was moronic enough defy him, and was disposed of. Fitting, I wish I could have seen it. So I am crafting a body for the new one, from Abyss's energy and traces of Path, Origin, Grakhast, and your... 'father'. Any more questions?"

Felina's a little slack-jawed at this. She can fight Moorn. She probably can't fight Abyss. How is it that this sociopath manages to leave her at a loss for words at least once a year...? "Yeah," she manages after a moment, flabbergasted. "What the hell sort of purpose is killing Origin and Path suppoesd to serve when only Fate's being created?"

"Fate was unmade. Abyss can revive the others," Moorn answers quickly, but there is a great deal of pain in his voice now. It's almost too much for even him. "He can... revive Mi'ehna, as well..."

This is so...bloody demented. I swear, only he could be involved with this... Felina's fangs are still gritted...but then sighs. Lets her hands drop.

Moorn stiffens, drops to a knee. Abyss blinks. 

"You are the Deyono. Help him, and my deal will extend to you, as well. I will grant you the right to come and go as you should desire. Without Fate, time has no meaning."

Felina hesitates at this.

But only for a second. "Knowing me as you must, you're asking me to finish stringing together a homonoculus made out of dead and tortured people?"

"Only their energy. They fought, to raise their levels high enough. It is not my doing that Mi'ehna ripped out Grakhast's eye. Nor my problem. I will revive the dead."

"Wow, you're real pleasant character to your lackies, huh?"

Abyss blinks. "Then stay sealed here forever."

The earth between Moorn and Mi'ehna begins to rumble. Abyss is moving. His hand, the size of a dozen Moorns, reaches through the blackness as if to shield the altar from the Serinian. Dark matter pours down from the scaled claws, restoring Moorn's dwindling life force as the homonculus approaches completion.

"You may leave, now."

Felina flinches at this. Mind races to her brother. Well done, Felina...your mouth probably just killed Saea. "Wait." Her voice is uncharacteristically contrite. Almost pleading, really...but not quite. "I'll help. If you'll let me. Please."

It takes a moment, but Abyss's immense claw recedes into the blackness. 

"Good choice, Puss. I need you to support... what has already been made. Quickly," Moorn explains to her, still shaking from the strain of the immensely powerful spell."

Felina nods...closes her eyes as she steps closer, mind opening guardedly towards the creation, then more fully to the energies around. She lets out a slow breath...picks up the energy, supports it...and quickly finds out why Moorn's having so much trouble, sucking in her breath at almost immediate pain at the strain. That's slow, though, and her control doesn't waver. Her body and mind are designed for energy manipulation...and she's worked hard at it.

The body that forms is an interesting one. Sort of thin, at first, but definitely humanoid. Longish ears... it is quickly apparent that the being being created under Abyss's direction is Serinian. A male Serinian. An altogether attractive male Serinian, even.

"I cannot believe that my efforts are creating a housecat," Moorn grumbles as the last sparkles of black energy transfer between himself and the shrine. One can practically smell the life force in the air. Quietly, though not subtlely, a living signature grows within the homonculus. "Felina. What do you think? Should I have given him a bigger package?"

"Only to live vicariously through your creations," she puts in as smoothly as possible. Her breath is a little strained...but reasonably stable. She and Moorn together, as disgusting as it is, make a formidable team.

Moorn honestly contemplates showing her at that point. But then... she has claws.

"So Abyss... honor your end of the deal. Let us free and bring Mi'ehna back. She is with her idiot father now." Moorn looks up to the eyes, which blink, of course. 

"I cannot bring her back yet."

Moorn's face goes inscrutable. "Let us try this again without the part that makes you a hypocrite."

"I need a sample of her energy signature. As she is dead, I cannot acquire one."

Felina sighs, fingers between her eyes. This day just keeps getting longer and longer. But she can't just let Mi'ehna down. "What about a psi-magically generated copy? Will that work?"

"She would be imperfect. Can you honestly tell me that you could recreate every single detail of her? I suggest you seek out her double."

Moorn's eyes harden at that. "And if her double is dead?"

"Then you should settle for being allowed to leave."

"If her double's dead, I have a few shadows of ideas for contingencies," Felina notes softly to Moorn. Looks back up to Abyss. "Okay. How do we move between inverse time and the larger universe?"

A moment of silence is interrupted by the clatter of two stones to the shrine floor. 

"Just like teleporting. Only... do not try to alter time. It is a fool's errand, that."

Moorn takes up his stone, eyes closed. His thoughts are guarded, but the idea that he has really screwed up is plain. That, and Mi'ehna's face pretty much dominates his psyche. 

"I will search on my own terms," he informs Felina. "Do whatever you like."

Felina takes up the stone, far move impassive. "Fine. I'll hit up a few of my nether plane friends to look a bit later. But good luck." Voice doesn't change, and she doesn't look at him. Not a hand of friendship by any means...but she wants Mi'ehna to survive, too.

"Just so you know," Moorn quietly says to Felina, "I wasn't going out of my way to hurt you for once. Mi'ehna... she was already dead. She died... protecting me from the Malufel." He opens his eyes. "I needed her ridiculous pissant of a father to part with some of his considerable energy, in order to finish this homonculus . It could have been anyone else to fuel his fury... I had planned to use Daimord Di as a scapegoat. But you happened to be there, this time. Bad luck. Goodbye." And he vanishes, just like that.

So, considering the fact that she can feel her foresight slowly returning and gaining distance again...she was going to die on an accident? Well. That's anticlimatic. She looks up at Abyss for a moment, then down, trying to be a little more respectful than she had to start. Regardless of whether she particularly likes this being or not, it probably hadn't been right to mouth off to it. It's just been a long day. "Abyss...I don't suppose you could tell me if...Fate's altercation was to try to warn me of something to come?" She can put two and two together. There are plenty of clues.

"Now that it is inconsequential, yes. Fate gave his existence to warn you. But do not let what the sorcerer said fool you. No one else could have been in your place just now."

Felina nods. That she understands. Looks at the stone he'd given her, raises it just a little. "Thank you." She turns to head back to the Celestial Plane, mind very quiet.

"Be cautious of Drianis. If you speak to him... he has just lost his daughter again. He will not be himself."

Felina stops a moment...nods. "I'll keep that in mind. Thanks."

Abyss's eyes close. A soft hum floats through the air, and various forces begin to surround the living homonculus. He has nothing else to say to her.

The Guardian waits a few more moments, and then starts walking again.