Julengard is a bleak, cold land where nothing grows, and nothing lives. Since mortal travellers are so rare here, there is little in the way of service, or food, though there is plenty of clean water where the nymphs live.

---

Randleif Valkyrie appears at the foot of a cold, gray mountain. This place has spawned a good many of her poems in the past, and not for good reasons. Her eyes scan the area, thankful that no threat seems obvious.

Dewei looks around dully. "So. We're looking for 'Stygia'?"

"Not yet. First we have to find your friend." Randleif looks at Dewei with eyes that are as mysterious as they are authoritative, unlike her sisters. "I know you are in pain. You hurt, it is no surprise or small thing. But you must keep your head, and your heart filled with light, else this darkness will consume you." She looks to the ground a moment. "Have you a weapon, fair cat-man?"

Dewei nods. "Primarily sword and magic."

"May I see your sword?" Randleif inquires of him.

Dewei draws it, holding the blade to give the valkyrie the hilt.

She does not touch it, only looks it over. "Is this weapon precious to you? I was thinking, and I would like to offer you a special one to begin repaying you for what you have lost today."

"There can be no repayment, Miss Randleif. I..." cuts off. Fingers between his eyes. Right. Collects himself a moment. "I appreciate that, I do," he begins more softly. The sword was forged by my father and wrapped around my mother's spells. It will likely shatter someday, but until then, I am comfortable in it. Right now, I'd just very much like to find Ai." He does appreciate it on some level, but...Ai.

The valkyrie nods, not put off in the least. "You may need a wraith blade, though. Here, especially. Take mine." She holds it out to him by the blade, which seems surrounded in mist. "I have my bow. Please, take it."

Dewei nods, and does...looks up at the blade a moment, evaluating with his various senses. Huh...creepy. He smiles just slightly at Randleif, though, and nods. "Thank you, Miss Randleif."

"No miss. I am your subordinate." Randleif looks to the mountain, pointing. "Up there is Stygia's palace, built from the bones of dead giants. He lives his gimmick, it seems. Once we have found your friend, we may reach it... can you sense her?"

Dewei feels quietly, searching for her signature...he certainly knows it better than almost any other.

It is there, about halfway up the mountain. By a not-too-strange coincidence, Yue's is also floating around not far from there.

"Yeah, I sense her. About halfway up the mountain." He looks up its slopes. "Someone else we know, too."

"How odd," Randleif notes, shrugging. "Ah well. The path is obvious enough. We can follow it, and simply hope the Ehrgard Serpent is sleeping today." She points into the distance, where a grayish stretch of mountain is moving up and down slowly. "That is the monster, breathing."

"Good to know." Dewei nods, but isn't daunted, and follows around with Randleif. "Are there any unusual precautions that should be taken to avoid awakening it, if it becomes an issue?"

"No, not really. The beast is so big that it scarcely hears small things like us or thunder." The Valkyrie picks her way at Dewei's side, never ahead, as befits her ideas on her rank. "Those wavering lights ahead are spirits. Look closely, and you can see their faces."

Dewei nods. Does, at one, testing what she means...although he doesn't yet sense Ai, of course. "All right...up the mountain, then, I suppose?" He starts off that way, assuming that the Valkyrie will stop him if it's the wrong thing to do.

"Yes." She follows him, her bow drawn in case it needs fired. "I envy you, in a sense. For the bond you share with her." She speaks in present tense for a damned good reason. If Dewei thinks of Ai in past tense, ever, his morale will certain drop.

Dewei smiles the littlest bit as he navigates the path more or less carefully. "It's not hard...Ai is a very special girl. Many people wouldn't have us be together...but some things are worth it. Some person is."

"How lovely... if it were not for this bow in my hand, I would be writing about you two." Randleif puts out a hand quite suddenly, her cooing features sharpening into military alertness. "Hold. Look at that... the undead are pouring into the valley from Umliad."

Dewei narrows his eyes. "We should be able to stay ahead of them at this rate, anyway, yes?"

"Quite. But it is disconcerting. Stygia will certainly be on the defensive, trying to figure out what is going on." The Valkyrie shakes her head. "This has been such a strange day."

Dewei has to smirk at that just the littlest bit. "Randleif...it's always a strange day when anyone from my bloodline is around." And starts back up the mountain. "Do you think this will effect Stygia's willingness to release Ai early?"

"Styigia is an odd duck. I would think that my presence will reinforce his loyalty to the gods and facilitate her release, but there is a chance he might not be there now. Undead creatures have no place anywhere but Umliad, and their presence could indicate an insurgence." The Valkyrie glances down at them again, waves upon waves of every sort of decayed beast imaginable. "My Sigrimm is among them," she adds, almost as an afterthought.

"Sigrimm?" Dewei inquires, detecting the change in her voice and psyche and looking over to her.

"Oh," Randleif looks at him, out of the corner of her eye. "My unrequited love." She avoids looking to the flood of beasts below, in case she sees him. Dewei does not need her reaction to that today.

"I see..." Dewei glances down to them. "I'm sorry...is there any way the undead can be reclaimed here?"

"None that would not constitute Necromancy, which would get me fed to that serpent." She smiles at him, a very pretty-sad sort of smile, but still, perfectly platonic. "Which is why we are so fortunate in that Ai's soul is unbound now."

Dewei considers this quietly. "There must be a way," he observes finally, but makes no further comment. His mind is very much on Ai. Still, he's not oblivious to Randleif's pain, either, and will likely look into it in the future. Especially if she helps him find Ai. For now, though...he stops, seems to listen. Interesting...Yue is very close by.

"... and of all the things you don't miss, they tickle. But still, they feel wonderful on one's back." A certain soul, tinged in pink light, flickers when Randleif and Dewei draw near. "Kitten?" Yue's voice calls out. "It is you! What are you doing in this odd little world?"

"Looking for Ai...long story." Dewei blinks. What does one say to someone who just died. "Did you lose weight, Yue?"

Yue's laughter is like the crescendo of harpstrings. "Quite a bit! Do you like? I would pose for you, but... wait. Ai?  I thought I saw her! She was taken to the top of the mountain, ahead of even me. I'm third."

Dewei blinks. "What happens at the top of the mountain?" He looks between Randleif and Yue.

"Stygia judges the dead," Randleif puts in. "Those who are not chosen by we Valkyries, or have lost their souls and become undead, are sent to Stygia who chooses how they are sent back to the world."

"Your friend is cute," Yue notes. "When I have a body again, may I...?"

"If she doesn't hit you," Dewei acknowledges. He looks to Randleif. "Wait...Ai's about at the front of the line? I thought it would take six months."

"So did I," Randleif admits. "I wonder what is wrong... let's ask around, Dewei." She smiles at Yue. "A pleasure to meet you, miss."

"Good plan." Dewei nods, and smiles a little--just a little--at Yue. "Hey, take care...I know mother's anxiously awaiting seeing you again."

"Good luck, Dewei. Your cuteness is getting hugged, too, when I get out." And Yue goes back to talking to the other spirits, pleasantly enough. He's in a fine mood.

"There's a likely one," Randleif notes, pointing at a spirit floating down the mountain and grumbling.

Dewei nods, and changes his direction to intercept the spirit. "Excuse me..."

"Fuck do you goddamn want?"

Randleif tilts her head. "Indeed."

Dewei isn't too put aside. "I was wondering what has you so distressed, actually."

"Fucking Stygia, pushed back my review for some woman he found floating around. Apparently, he wants a wife, and she's it. Are you done wasting my time?"

"Yes. Thank you." Dewei's...a stage or twenty beyond taken aback. Just...no. Looks to Randleif. "Is there a quicker way to the top of the mountain?"

"I have wings," she nods, "but unfurling them will get the attention of every monster in this area."

"Do you suppose flight without them will?"

"Less likely. But how would you do something like that?" She tilts her head, blonde hair spilling out from under her helm.

"In this case, with motivation. Brace yourself, huh?" And with this warning,telekinesis has them movnig up the mountain at a quick clip, Dewei keeping a hand on his "I'm alive" charm as they hug the face fairly closely, but skirting areas he can't sense into adequately well to feel that they're clear. Running headlong into a monster would suck.

A low rumble sounds in the distance. Randleif looks that way, unable to see that Mitre is standing on the head of the Ehrgard serpent, kicking it just under its eye. She only sees the creature stirring.

"Something does not want us to succeed," she notes. "We must be quick."

Dewei glances in that direction. "I'm not fond of that fellow at the moment," he notes, and they gain speed up the mountain.

The air thins, and the scent of decay retreats as they reach the palace of bone. There are no guards, honestly, why would the be necessary here? The antechamber is simple... a long, low couch for Stygia, a few dozen endless casks of wine and barrels of food, and a spirit ringed in harsh blue-black light.

Ai.

Predictably, Dewei's whole visage changes, to something like shocked, relieved, happy, catious hope. "Ai!"

Randleif is just happy to be on the ground again.

"Dewei! Oh, thank heaven... I was so worried, I... this man is an idiot!" She laughs softly, but the darkly dressed, pallid fellow on the couch is not amused. His sunken, narrow eyes radiate distaste at this intrusion, while the worms wriggling in place of his hair even manage to look peeved.

"Battle-maiden, why have you brought a living one here?" he demands in a voice that chills even Randleif, who has heard it often.

"An error has been made, lord. I come on behalf of Auldrisk and Hrist, to beg the release of this soul, Ai, into the wheel. Immediately."

"Is that so? Why?" he asks, this time of Dewei. "Mortal?"

Dewei looks back to Stygia. His voice is chilling, to be sure, but damned if the sorceror's apprentice shows it. "To quickly rectify a serious miscalculation about her death. And because she's the creative force behind this entire world tree and bound to be goddess of it."

"Is that so? You mean if I will it." Stygia tilts his head. "I desire this creature. But, I am not a being of passions, so... entertain me. Convince me that she should not be mine, and she will not."

"What would you have me do?" No reservations, for once, accompany Dewei's manner.

"If I knew how you could convince me, I would not need convinced." Stygia is obviously a reasonable fellow, for a death god, but living in a well of souls all the time does leave a man bored beyond discussion.

"Dewei. If you say the things you told me at the foot of the mountain, even Stygia's cold heart may be moved." Randleif glances through a window, worriedly. "The monster is moving. We must hurry. It cannot hurt these dead lands, but you and I are vulnerable to it."

Dewei glances back at a rumble. Closes his eyes a moment. Opens them, and looks back to Stygia. "I didn't plan to descend into an underworld today. I just came here to see the world tree that Ai and I had planted, not really knowing what to expect, but at the same time not expecting this." He looks up. "But hearing that she'd been killed, and was no doubt shocked and terrified about the whole thing no matter what other state she was in, was more than enough...well, I love Ai. More than anything." He looks back to Stygia. "I would do anything for her, if I thought it would make her happy. And right now, I think that involves getting her back to the living world, and to her father and family. And whatever else you would have me do for that...for my sake, but mostly for hers...right now, I can just humbly beg her release." He blinks. "Also, her fortitude in persisting to glare and call you nasty names for all eternity shouldn't be underestimated."

As if to punctuate the point, Ai's spirit begins a round of swearing that, before it is finished, covers two hundred and twenty-six different languages. To be fair, ten of them are just dialects.

Stygia looks outside, at the mobilizing worm. Its head is coming up, giving the appearance that the mountains have pushed a cylindrical shoot into the sky.

"I have heard this speech before. Both parts of it." The lord of the dead runs a hand through his worms. "I will accept a replacement, though. You have authority over this Valkyrie, if she is not dragging you around by the scruff of your neck."

Randleif's face turns absolutely white.

"Command her to take Ai's place, and you may have your lady friend now."

Dewei is stunned. "I can't do that." He glances to Ai a few moments, something akin to desperately, before looking back to the god of death. "What about the undead pouring into Julengard? I can fix that so you don't have to bother with it, in return for Ai's release."

"Bother with it? What do you suppose that gigantic snake yonder is going to do to them?" Stygia tilts his head. "Unless you are saying that you let them in."

"Oh, Lord Stygia, stop this nonsense. You are harassing this man for fun!" Randleif glowers at him, but her cheeks are still rosy pink. "I ought to put an arrow in your wrinkling ass!"

"Woman for woman, I will take nothing less." Stygia ignores the Valkyrie.

"It's an illogical proposition even from your side. My command of Randleif is absolutely temporary. As soon as I die or leave the underworld, any command that I've given her is moot and then there's nothing holding her here. There must be someone in this universe who would actively want to be your bride...and you talk to most all of them at some point or another. Surely finding one of those would be more worth your time than keeping someone who hates you in a box."

"Randleif," the keeper of the realm turns to the Valkyrie. "Do you hate me?"

She blinks her expressive eyes. "No."

"Would you stay in a box, if I put you there?"

"Only if it was a very nice box, I suppose."

Back to Dewei. "Tick tock."

Dewei...has never been tenser in his whole life than he is at this moment. Well, maybe when he'd discovered the living Ai was an illusion...but still. He has a bit of a deer in the headlights look about him, and glances to Ai for guidance, eyes pleading for some sort of help.

The spirit flickers. "I asked this same question of your grandfather, actually, when he first arrived and I hated your mother for what she did to my father. He told me he couldn't offer someone else for himself, and I felt it was a worthy answer."

Stygia snorts. "You, madam, have no convictions."

Randleif pulls Dewei's arm most urgently. "If he is steadfast," she whispers, "you must outsmart him. What did you just say about your orders meaning nothing after you'd left the underworld? You could command anything of me, and when you left it would be moot, correct?"

He hopes to god she'll figure out what's going on, since he doesn't know--and doubts--whether she's dealt extensively with psychics in the past. "But he's the god of the dead. That's damned tough to deal with," he whispers in return. But, a second statement forms in her mind beneath it. "I wasn't sure enough that that was true. Is that really the case? Would you be free of him the instant I left Julengard? Think your answers, I'll hear."

Randleif looks around quite suddenly, as if someone from far off is calling her name and she cannot see him. Her eyes close a moment, and then open again, filled with questions. "I... feel the worst screeching in my head, suddenly," she says to no one in particular. Should this hurt?

"No... are you okay?" His brow creases.

The valkyrie shakes her head vigorously. "I think so. Forgive me if I spoke out of line." She presses her palm against her flaxen locks.

Dewei... Ai's voice wavers like mists in a strong wind. I think there is a seal on her mind, of some sort. Probably to prevent her from being controlled mentally. Stygia has it too.

Thanks Ai...damn, though. I swear I'm going to find a way...I love you too much to leave you here...

Dewei blinks. Suddenly remembers a low-level spell of his father's something from his assassin days. He's quiet for a moment, apparently thoughtful but really setting a cloak against his magic being sensed, and then starts speaking to Randleif again. What Ai and Stygia hear, though, is very different from what the Valkyrie hears.

"I'm not sure what to do, Miss Randleif...I can't just leave Ai here...."
"Sorry, will explain the screech later. You're hearing different words than they will right now. My question was, I wasn't really sure about my orders dissolving. Will you be really free of him the instant I leave Julengard?"

"No, but I will be free of your will," the confused Valkyrie answers. "If he takes me for his bride, that is a contract between us, and permanent. I would not object, save my heart belongs to another. But you could certainly command me to marry him two minutes after you Julengard, or something of the like."

"In that case, you'll be able to leave?" He wants to be sure. He's changing around her words, too, at unreasonable expense to his energy considering the spell level.

"Quite." She nods. "Stop worrying about me, sir, and start worrying about that spirit. Do you think I would stand here and let you waste your love when mine is forever lost? I should think I would strike you, sir."

Dewei has to smirk at that, face grateful. He doesn't change around anything from the "stop worrying" part. "I think that would make me feel right at home, considering my family." He takes a deep breath, face sobering...looks back to Stygia. "Randleif...is too persuasive, when I need so little persuasion. We will take your offer. She will stay, in return for Ai's freedom."

A pang of guilt with Ai's signature floats across the recognizable spectrum, but no words.

Stygia claps his maggot-crawling hands. "Good! Then we shall be married immediately. Imagine, this husk the husband of a Valkyrie! Emily will have a fit."

Randleif just blushes, as if she is genuinely flattered. Creepy.

Dewei shakes his head. "Please, if I may make one request...not until I leave Julengard." He has a profoundly guilty look upon his face, ears down. He doesn't look at Randleif. Actually, he's a damned good actor, courtesy of his father. "As soon as I've left this realm, it will be much harder to sense the wedding. For Ai as well...I don't know that either of us could really take it. Especially Ai. I could not do that to her, for my choice. By your leave, of course, Lord Stygia," he is quick to add, meekly, bowing his head.

Stygia is gazing at Randleif, and barely seems to hear. "Why," Ai's voice enquires, "does it feel like he planned this?"

"No, no. No. Not until they showed up, anyway." Stygia waves Dewei and Ai off. "Yes, yes. Take her. That angel is yours also, is it not? Take her too."

Dewei brightens slightly, offers Randleif about the guiltiest and most apologetic look in the history of looks, but nods. "Absolutely...and yes, the angel is a dear friend of my mother's. Thank you, Lord Stygia." Tell you shortly, Ai. Let's get out of here asap. And he bows his head once more, heads for the entrance, looking for Yue in a hurry.

Randleif is taken aback at that look. So far aback, in fact, that she is in tears before Stygia even speaks to her.

"It's alright," he tells her, "I know that he was trying to trick me. It was entertaining, after all. Quit crying already."

Of course, the angel is right where he was, discussing the nuances of heels and track and field.

"Yue," Dewei greets him... "you're all clear to leave, Stygia okayed it."

"Is that so? Lovely! So... where do we get our new bodies?" Yue flickers as he speaks.

"Oh, well, if you're okayed to leave you just go through yonder door." The spirit with them turns towards a mirror set against the mountainside, down by the stream of undead. In the near distance, the serpent is greedily scooping the shamblers into its mouth.

Dewei nods, and smiles at the spirit. "Right, then. Thank you for your help." He glances to the serpent. "For the record, I'm the only one here that thing can eat, so I strongly vote for heading that way."

"Quite." Yue and Ai flicker a bit, and stream off towards the mirror. Abruptly, a half dozen streams of phospohoresence gleam down upon the heads of the undead nearby, as a still shaken Randleif fires into the masses with her unusual bow. Her smile is just for Dewei and Ai.

Dewei blinks. "Randleif? How are you here?"

"Well, I still have to see you off." The Valkyrie shrugs her shoulders. "Hurry quickly, before the worm comes closer."

Dewei smiles a little, and nods. "Be careful, huh?" And he's off in a hurry for the exit.

Randleif lowers her bow, watching them disappear into the gateway. Her features have brightened with Dewei's smile. Empathy is lovely sometimes.

---

Dewei and Ting step through the gateway into Julengard, senses alert. "Okay, Spot...we have to be beyond careful. Find Randleif, and out, that's it."

"Alrightee!" Ting sets off in front, Dewei behind. This is quite simply because Dewei's better at watching from danger for every angle, and so that both of them can't be taken out in a single hit.

The threat, of course, is hard to miss. This close the features of the monster are impossible to make out, just as one could not tell a face is a face from a closeup so extreme the pores look like craters.

The undead are streaming every which way, what few remain. In the gray of the landscape only a small sparkle of mint green light provides color, near Stygia's palace.

And both twins are off that way at a blindingly quick clip. "That green's got to be Randleif, she wears emerald."

Ting nods. "If our communication gets cut off?

"You're faster than me. Distract the worm, but keep your distance! If Randleif's hurt or cornered, I'll try to get her out."

"Righy-o, then!" Ting's eyes gleam with something like feral excitement at this.

Arrow after sorcerous arrow, and the monster does not slow its frightful pace. Randleif leans back against the pile of skull, her bow at last clattering to the ground. She breathes slowly. The blow from the monster's tongue had done its duty well... she simply cannot hold the weapon any longer. Her green eyes are clouded over, and she wishes for the regenerative fields of Dame Astra with all her slowing heart. So this is to be it, after all.

Dewei takes a deep breath...one shot at this. His rapid flight springs off of a quickly-placed force platform, snagging Randleif by an upper arm and a wrist, dragging her quickly off to the side.

Ting, meanwhile, emits a thrilled, feral little call and sudden heat signature she trusts to get the worm's attention. Well, that and the burning naginata blade she's burying in the back of the creature's head. "Hiya! I'm a lot more interesting!" And with that, she springs back and away just as fast as she can, glowing brilliantly for attention.

The worm bellows, and the power of its voice is such that the mountains ring and rumble with it. Its great head swings about, thousands of feet of beast streaming for Ting in a blind fury. The monster can only barely see her, such is the size difference.

Randleif groans under Dewei's tug, but is in no position to argue with him.

Ting squeaks. She always forgets how...oh...enormous these things are. Every bit of speed enhancement she has and an occasional short teleport she hopes to not burn up her energy with keeps her ahead of the creature. She'd faltered just a moment at its cry, barely shielding her ears in time, but had just managed to jerk out of the way. "You know, you really aren't cute when you're mad."

Dewei, meanwhile, bundles Randleif into his arms as best he can, pokes her bow to follow, and hurries towards the exit under all the heaviest cloaks--heat and otherwise-- he can manage, keeping wary senses turned to his sister.

The beast is entirely focused on Ting, now. Its great head crashes into the mountainside to a roar of irritation, especially when the palace of bones collapses and plummets against its nose. Apparently, the beast decides, physicality will not function. And so a collection of pores in its massive body open up, spewing purplish venom as a mist in all direction.

Ting eeps. Not good. She throws an airtight spherical shield around herself. Of course, now she has limited air. Good plan. She splits into a Ting and two dopplegangers, as she had to Yue, all glowing brightly, and they zip off in three different directions. All away from Dewei. She tries to feel for where her brother is.

Again, the monster throws back its head and howls so powerfully that Alves worlds away cover their ears in annoyance. It is confused, but not stupid, and instead of chasing all three clones it focuses on the venom. Even the undead drop from the taste of that acrid filth.

The mirror gate yawns open for Dewei, just within leaping range.

And Dewei leaps, but stops just barely short. Tosses Randleif through, and looks back. "Ting, come on!"

Ting's cringing as the venom actually hisses against her shield. Magic venom...joy! All Tings stop glowing. One doppleganger streaks off for Stygia's palace. The other charges straight towards the worm's eye. And Ting is streaking for the exit. She tries to fade for an invisibility cloak, but doesn' thave the energy for what she's diverting to her shields.

Dewei holds up his hands and strengthens them for her, and then she blinks out of sight with a mental grin at her brother.

Sensing it has been foiled, the monster decides on one last motion. Fanning its cobra's hood the Ehrgard serpent swings its entire weight towards the mirror, the only viable escape point to mortals.

Ting blinks, and she and Dewei both spring for the mirror and both casting most of thier power into shields before it.