Just outside of Wu Yuan, past a carefully kept entryway leading into the underground, a massive subterranean fortress can be found. Its owner is Korliss, a vampire elder and father of Amilei Lei, who also doubles as one of the 'behind the scenes' rulers of Wu Yuan. The keep itself is a squat but massive structure that looks, all told, like a prison facility from the outside. Inside is a bit different, as Korliss is a creature of elaborate tastes.

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Wu Yuan
Yuan Orchards
Korliss's Keep
Other Side of the World

The Wretching Dragon

Second Floor Keep
Korliss Archive

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Dewei is, of course, protective of Minna as they approach, but it's fortunate that none of the refugees are likely afraid of vampires. Dewei's certainly met Amilei, anyway, more than once.

The wolf leads them to the front stair of a keep that has, since Kaies last saw it in his other life, been vastly renovated. It remains a scary sort of edifice, but has an obvious hint of a woman's sense of design about it and feels more comfortable than the jagged rocks and gargoyle statues of before.

Amilei herself stands at the top of the stairs, her milk white eyes aglow. "Dewei, dear! It is so wonderful to see you again, and how you have grown! Come." She holds out her arms.

Kaies just looks on, shaking his head. Lovely. Just lovely.

Dewei smiles a little, and heads up to her to a polite embrace. "It's lovely to see you, too, Miss Amilei. How are you?"

"To be honest," the vampiress, who only embraces him cordially as she is one of six women in existence who do not want to sleep with him, "worried. I heard from a man named Iscovis that Felina was in trouble. I dispatched an ally of mine there, but whether he has made it in time is beyond me."

Dewei shakes his head. "I have to go back to help. What ally?"

"His name is Overisk." She smirks. "A light elemental. He ought to be able to help."

Dewei smiles a bit, and nods. Looks back to the other two. Blinks when his sister and bewhildered father appear behind them. The other four. "Um...these are Minna and Kaies. Minna's one of mother's charges." Smiles at Amilei, squeezes her hand briefly, and turns to head back to the ether plane, his face a sad sort of determined.

Makyon falls through a portal about four feet up and smacks on the floor, followed shortly thereafter by Yue, who lands on top of him.

Amilei blinks her surreal eyes. "Quite a crowd, today. Dewei, look, I know you want to go, but if the threat is what they say it is you cannot help."

"I have to try. I can't win, but I can help."

Amilei shakes her head. "I won't let you go against your mother's wishes. Let Overisk handle the help. You, Dewei, need to go see Solomon."

"What? Why?"

Amilei steps down her stairs, flowing, like an elegant old banshee at the peak of human youthfulness. Her hand rests on Kaies's shoulder a moment, and she smiles at Minna, Yue, Makyon, Ting, and Orrin, but for now her words are for Dewei.

"Radivishe Moorn is dead," she explains. "His daughter is... in a poor way, indeed. She is with Solomon, resting. I've sent them to the Wretching Dragon."

Dewei's eyes widen.

Moorn, dead? How the hell?
Ai...god, Ai, she...but....
And if anything happens to him, if he goes in a situation where he knows he's going to die...
Her losing another one...
Is she okay?
But...

Only one person right now literally needs him to survive. Ai is...wonderful. In every sense of the word. A million men would give everything to lay beside her. She can find someone else.

He finally squeezes his eyes shut, brow furrowed, against tears. "Tell Ai...that I love her. And if anything happens, so that she won't wonder...that I'd already bought her a ring. Just hadn't given it yet."

Orrin, step and thoughts silent, had approached his son during the admission. Dewei's eyes pop open when a well-placed hand slams between his neck and shoulder, just a second before rolling up adn ending his dissertation. He goes down like so many stones.

The dumen shakes his head at his unconscious son. "I can honestly say that I've never before hit either my wife or my children, and don't much like the feel of it. But he needed that, I think."

Amilei looks at Orrin, eyes warm with understanding. "Orrin, do you remember your way around the keep?" She asks this earnestly, glancing at the others. "I will go and help your wife myself."

"Lady Amilei, I know you're powerful. But enough to take down two of hell's overseers? This keep really needs you." Orrin gathers up his daughter as he speaks.

"We don't need to take them down," Amilei insists. "Just escape. The hell and heaven of your world have no power here."

"If she was willing to go," Orrin points out grimly, petting back his daughter's hair, seeing his wife's face reflected there, "then she would already be here."

Makyon gets up at last, once Yue's gotten off of his back. He looks over at Orrin as he pats the dust off himself. "Felina is nothing if not a glutton for punishment. He has a point, miss."

Amilei smiles a little, grimly so. "You're right, both of you. Forgive me, my manners are poor today. Orrin, you may take your children to the first floor guest rooms. Kaies, you and Minna may use the second floor guest rooms. You," she smiles at Makyon, "may use the second floor east wing," and then to Yue, "as may you. Make yourselves at home."

Orrin bows. "Thank you. You're very kind, as always." Looks to Makyon. "Makyon, could you grab my son?" No cute nicknames, for either of them. Not really in the mood.

"Sure." He does, scooping up the lightweight kitty-boy and slinging him over his massive shoulder.

Amilei looks over the group, one after another. "Food will be served shortly. My servants are out acquiring some. I must attend to a few things, so please, my home is yours." And she heads up the stairs, dark yellow robe waving around her.

Yue smiles at her as she leaves. "Somebody likes you," she whispers to Kaies.

"It's a long story," Minna promises the incubus, equally quietly though the shadow of a smile is on her face. Not a real smile, but...she's still in quite a bit of shock at all of this. She takes Kaies's arm both to comfort him and be literally supported, since she'd had to leave her crutch back in the room.

Kaes snaps to attention, looking at Minna as if she isn't there for a second. "Sorry," he sighs, "just... right. Minna, can you handle the stairs...?"

"Mm-hm." She nods. "Just need a little help, is all." She smiles sheepishly. "I very much look forward to when my legs are equal lengths again."

"Soon, Minna, soon." He heads that way, with Minna in more or less tow, suddenly quite conscious of how close he had come to failing her.

Yue watches them go, shivering a little bit. He steels himself, and follows them. "Do you two mind if I join you...?"

Minna looks over to him, surprised, and finally smiles a bit. "Of course not, Yue. I think we all need one another, right now."

The incubus smiles a little, and goes on ahead of them to the Second Floor Keep.

---

Felina appears in her husband's room. "Hi."

Orrin wheels around quickly. His eyes widen. "Felina, you..."

The serinian's about to say something,. Is cut off when Orrin very suddenly covers the distance between them and wraps her in a tight embrace.

"Gods, Felina...never do that to me again...!" There are tears in his eyes. He kisses her hair and...just holds her, pets her hair, rocks with her, anything.

Felina closes her eyes and wraps her arms around his neck, her own eyes sparkling. She's not even sure why, fully. But a small sob cracks from her lips too. Of joy, or fear, or relief, of agony, or loss...she doesn't know. Or care.

It's several minutes before Felina distangles herself from her husband's embrace, and kisses him again. "It's all okay now, all right? Helantri Deru is...gone. But everyone's safe."

The Dumen's eyes cloud with mixed emotions, but he nods. "Absolutely. Hey..." smiles a little. "You should go tell the others you're okay."

Felina smiles, equally wanly, and nods. "Yeah...let them know. They've already heard, except Makyon, I'll tell him. Then I need to go check on our wounded, and then retrieve Mara-kuru."

"Right. Fel..." he kisses her again before she goes. "I love you. Remember that. Be safe."

Golden, feline eyes soften, and she nods. "I remember. I love you too, Orrin...so much. I'll be safe. I promise. For both of us." She squeezes his arm, and wanders off towards Makyon.

Makyon isn't too hard to find. He's sitting on the stairs, head in his hands, thinking hard about the whole 'what's next' issue.

Felina approaches quietly, and sets a hand gently on his shoulder. "You're thinking so hard," she observes. "Stop it. Burns after awhile."

He laughs softly, not a very typical Makyon laugh either. "It used to, but then I got help. It's about suppression." Pauses. "You had us all worried, Felina. Don't ever goddamn do that again."

Felina nods. Sits beside him...sighs quietly. "Yeah...Helantri Deru is gone, along with most everything that was in it. But everyone's safe."

"That's what is most important. I've seen you conjure things, so replacing it all shouldn't be a problem." He looks at her. "You can make some new memories. Speaking of things like that, you would have been proud of your youngest. He was all ready to risk everything to go save you."

Felina smiles a little, after a moment. "He's a good kid, that one." Ponders. "Orrin knocked him out, didn't he?"

"I wonder if this is a good time to cover for a bad thing that was a good deed?"

Felina grins at him. She does so like Makyon. He's her friend, certainly not just her apprentice. Puts a hand on his shoulder and helps herself up by it. "Yeah, well...I'm going to go check on Yoru. She was a bit torn up, but Solomon's pretty much the best healer in...anywhere."

He blinks. "Yoru? What happened?" He's up in a hurry, looking imploringly at her. Yoru's his sidekick, after all.

"Come along," Felina nods, and starts off towards the Shiny Thumb. "She was looking for everyone and trying to get them out of the house when the small demons overpowered her on numbers. She was...a little chewed on."

Felina has Mara cradled against her this time she approaches Amilei's keep, feeling for the elder vampiress.

Amilei is sitting a drafting table inside the keep, a long-tipped pen in her hand and a serious look on her face. Her arm is pocked with marks, the origins of which quickly become apparent when she pokes herself with the pen again and goes back to writing her dark red words.

"That looks uncomfortable," Felina observes in an appropriately soft voice when she finally comes upon the former inkeeper.

"It is. One grows accustomed, though." Amilei turns in her chair, a swivelly number whose modern design clashes with the archaic keep. "Did you find what you were seeking, dear?" She notes Mara, but doesn't comment on her yet.

"Not yet. I was wondering if I could impose on you to leave Mara here, too. She's slept through the whole thing with Moorn dying--she beat up one of Hell's overseers, actually, but burned off a lot of power in the process--and in case she awakens before I get done and back, it wouldn't be good for her to awaken alone in her big, empty house."

"Of course, of course. I can put her in with the incubus, the rooms are large enough." The vampiress looks back down to what she's doing. "Nothing that you have to do right now cannot wait, though. You need to rest, too."

"Yeah..." She shakes her head. "I'm actually fine physically, I'm just shutting down from the neck up, is all. Lovely thing for a psychic, eh?"

"Oh, pish. The brain is overrated and we both know it." Amilei puts down her pen, and rubs her arm. Finished at last. "I could bite you if you need persuasion, you know. You need the rest enough to take a nip."

Felina smirks. "Overrated and, in my case, underused. Fine, fine. Yue and Ansendul gave me access to the maze, though...I think I'll take it there. Gone five minutes, slept eight hours. Good stuff, that."

"Right." Amilei rolls up the letter, after blowing the script dry, and stamps it with a mark. "You know your way around here. Please excuse me if am being a poor hostess, I simply have too much to do to stay still for too long today."

"Understandable. Thank you for your hospitality, Amilei." Felina bows slightly, and then heads off to the Keep Second Floor to settle Mara. Does this while Yue is still in the other room, knowing that the proximity to him and the others is enough to help her peace--the nether plane should help, too--and she lays a "sleep well" spell over her nether double.

Then she opens a portal back to Saea's Gardens, where she immediately turns a lock to the the Millenium Maze.

---

Amilei's chair feels just a bit to hard on her bottom today, and so she finds herself lounging in the rafter's of her home's foyer. She can see the entrance of course, and calls down when she sees Dewei step inside.

"Welcome back," she coos, "are you feeling better?"

Dewei looks up to it, but only for a moment, before heading for the stairs. "I need to find Minna," he states simply.

Amilei smiles a little, assuming that he is only still angry with his father. She hops down, landing with typical vampiric grace, and puts herself in his way. The snow whiteness of her eyes settles upon him, analyzing him. "Want to talk first, young one?"

Dewei blinks once, although still with a slightly spacey look about him. "No." Tries to step around her.

"What if I bribed you with food?" Amilei presses, stepping in his way. She knows about men's appetites. All of them.  "Come on, Dewei. I haven't gotten to speak to you nearly enough lately."

"Later," the halfbred nods. "I need to find Minna." Tries again to step around the vampire elder.

Again, she blocks him. "Is something wrong? I need to know, if so." There is concern in her voice now. Dewei rarely ever fails to be polite.

Dewei just shakes his head a little, still more intent on getting by Amilei than anything else. He doesn't even seem annoyed by the blocking, just persistent. "I just need to take her to see Phenhine." And, of course, tries to get by again.

Amilei tilts her head a little bit, sets her thin hand on his chest to hold him back. "Phenhine, the spinstress who lives with all those insects? Dewei, what's gotten into you? You know that Minna cannot live here, Felina said so. And certainly not to see that perverted sociopath."

"Phenhine asked to see her...I need to take Minna to see her. Please, Amilei." He's, strangely enough, almost pleading in that apathetic way.

The vampiress has had quite enough of this vague insistence. Her fangs show for a second. "Dewei. What in the hells is going on? Tell me why you need Minna, this instant!"

Dewei blinks. "Because Lady Phenhine wanted to see her." And damned if he has a better reason.

"Oh no. No, no. Dewei, get out of my keep right now." Amilei's eyes have cleared with a sort of understanding that only comes to people just too late. "Until you have a better reason, begone with you. If I see you here again, I will feast on your blood until you can't stand. And then I shall throw you out."

Dewei blinks, truly confused. The way his mind is firing right now, it's an absolutely reasonable request. "Amilei, I just need to get Minna and my father...it will only take a moment..." and tries to step around her again, not seeming to consider guarding himself against a powerful, angry vampiress.

Her fangs bare again. Well. She warned him. Even at close range Amilei's cat-like pounce is a powerful movement, made so by ages of practice and unnaturally strong leg development. She has every intention of forcing him to the ground and sinking her teeth into his neck, or wrist if he happens to flail. Her irrational fear of things she does not implicitly know, for once, seems grounded.

Dewei's own fangs bare, stare hardening, and his one movement is meant to catch Amilei's arms and throw the power of her own pounce into rolling down the stairs.

She hadn't expected him to fight back, not as apathetic as he had been. The move sends her along with her momentum, bouncing hard against the long stairway until she comes to a rest at the bottom, neck bent at an odd angle, and unmoving. For now.

The half-dumen blinks. Is deeply torn...the buried part of his mind is kicking him in the shins. Help her, ass, you broke her neck! Eventually, a healing spell circle appears on the ground around the keep's elder, and he just starts back up the stairs towards the Second Floor Keep.

Later...

Down below, Phenhine glides at the head of her army of ants and bees with the imperious step of a conquerer, with her loyal spider Ikma clattering along at her side. She spies Amilei lying at the bottom of the keep steps, and kneels next to her.

"Dewei is such a good boy," she muses, looking over the broken neck as she deduces what happened. "Legion. Dispel this field."

Her command is directed at a tall, boyish fellow whose slight, almost dominatrix-like outfit is the mark of a nether warlock. A cloak covers most of him, though it too is emblazoned with symbols of his nightmarish order.

As the boy undoes Dewei's spell, Phenhine turns Amilei's head and, pausing a moment for effect, slaps her stiffly across the mouth. "I never liked you," she chuckles. "Now, Legion, I want you to listen very closely. You love me, don't you?"

The boy nods enthusiastically, his very human brown eyes shining.

"Good boy. Listen closely."

When Ting reappears in the keep, already resolved to check later to see if Phenhine is okay with her psycho-warlock, it's bearing her unconscious and only spider webbishly decent mother.

With Mara safely healed and in her bed, and Minna tending to Kaies, Amilei feels completely unable to accept yet another kink in the gears of her home.

"Is that... silk?" The elder vampiress touches the stuff. "Eeww..."

"It's...um... a spiderweb. It would be sexy if it weren't sticky! And still really long story probably. And a knock-out drug. Would you mind taking her Lady Amilei pretty please? There's one other thing I need to do real quick." So soon after talking to Phenhine, the Dumeni woman's scream cuts across the psychic's mind.

Amilei complies, despite the knowledge that her lovely dress is going to be ruined. She cradles Felina as gently as she might her own daughter, if she had one. "Do you need help, though?"

"No, I think it's more or less safe hopefully but thank you thank you see you soon!" And Ting poofs for Wu Yuan

"Sweet, sweet Ting," Amilei laughs as she carries Felina up to bed with Mara, "you are so much trouble in such a cute little package."