Silence makes no sound after the first gentle vibration, and Skye decides not to be concerned about it. He named the blade well, it seems. Once he's left Vanity's house and comes to that first gazeebo again, he looks around for any sign of where he might go next. After a moment, he remembers the tiles and walks to the edge to see if they're still there.

They're still there. In fact, most of the bridges seem to be in place, the traps disarmed... it's as if the temple knows that Skye isn't intent on escape. Some of the nymphs are pointing and chittering, but it really looks like smooth sailing all the way up to the earth temple.

Thankful for this, Skye makes his way through the temple, silent and respectful of his surroundings. Despite the anger boiling just below the surface, he is still in awe of the beauty of the place.

"Hey! Pretty boy!" A splash of water smacks onto the floor just behind Skye as the mermaid emerges from the water, shaking her hair out of her eyes. "Hey, remember that song I sang for you when you first came here?"

Skye has to think for a moment. Skye under sky... and something else about a squid... Xsa...
"I remember."
And he wishes he didn't.

"Yeah, it's really funny when you ignore people, isn't it?" The mermaid hmphs at him and swims away, her tail splashing lots of water everywhere. In her wake, an endless darkness begins to dominate the water as the first of many tree-sized tentacles bursts through the surface, reaching for him with suckers the size of beer kegs.

Skye doesn't have time to respond to that, instead he leaps back and pulls Fairfight out.

The mermaid, who has perched on a rock some distance away, just tilts her head. "It's a kraken. That's like a bee stinger next to it, pretty boy!"

The tentacle drops down towards Skye, not too quickly, but then... it's the size of a tree. It really doesn't have to.

"Even a bee sting can kill," Skye replies, though he's not too sure he believes it just now. He shifts his weight and leaps out of the way with all the grace of a pigeon, keeping a tight grip on Fairfight and Silence.

He's more than quick enough to dodge. The tentacle smashes through the glass of the bridge, leveling it behind him.

"Oh! You aren't ignoring that are you?" The mermaid twitters, but doesn't follow him... there's an angry kraken in the water. It's not a good place to be.

Skye isn't out of the (figurative) water yet, though. The sea monster is still after him, arms reaching for him in pairs. The door to the earth temple looms very near, though, a thick black shadow set in a wall of diamond and stone.

Skye isn't in a hurry to play dodging games with the kraken, but he can't avoid the flailing, massive limbs reaching for him. Seeing the door, he runs toward it, taking care to watch the tentacles coming at him.

There are enough obstacles in the monster's way that its path is impeded somewhat, allowing Skye to put distance between them. 

In the doorway of the temple, a titanic rock creature stands in wait. There is plenty of room for Skye to run, either beneath its legs, or to its side, still.

Cursing his ill fortune, Skye slides underneath its legs, pausing a moment to sheath Fairfight and catch his breath. He doesn't like the looks of the creature at the doorway and makes to run again. 

Skye clears the rock creature, and literally two seconds later it hefts a boulder and rolls it in front of the gate. The Kraken's tentacles slap against the stone, but it is enchanted with earth magic and is able to hold. The creature turns, looking for Skye, but deigning not to follow him if he wants to run.

The earth temple looks more like a cave than anything. It opens into a vast chamber with a ceiling hundreds of feet up, a river with a boat dock, and a hill path leading up.

He takes only a moment to take in the hugeness of the ceiling before taking the hill path, making a mental note to himself to not ignore mermaids. 

It's a pretty long way. The hallway leading from the hill is enormous, stretching off into the distance before turning. A line of monstrous lizards marches down the hall, plainly uninterested in Skye. A single lizard flicks its tongue at him, then crawls up the wall and disappears into a distinctly door-shaped hole.

Thankful, and for once not insulted that he doesn't seem worth attacking, Skye watches the lizard disappear into the wall with interest, wondering where that opening leads to. Another part of the temple, perhaps?

The distinct scent of fire looms from that little door. A moment later the lizard reappears with a mouthful of a spider it had caught inside, and goes to join its compatriots as they march down the hill. 

Skye walks on, keeping a steady hand on Silence even though he seems to be safe here.

The earth temple is very calm, very serene... sort of like the water temple when there's not two hundred tons of squid actively seeing to bash things. The rock creature from before slowly catches up to him, just lumbering along with its huge strides, but not trying to get his attention. That thing is actually the caretaker of this temple, but... it doesn't like to initiate conversations.

Skye seems to sense this, and loosens his grip slightly on Silence in hopes that the creature will see he means no harm. The walls along the path, he sees, are firm earth and stone, inlaid with sand roses and minute rivers of mineral. At last, the turning point in the path is near.

Just beyond the turning point, a gate easily three times the height of the already hu-freaking-mongous rock creature stands in front of them, emblazoned with a massive fire symbol. The Elemental looks at the door, then looks at Skye. It rumbles quietly. 

Skye looks at the creature. You're probably saying I'm stupid for wating to go on, aren't you? And maybe I am. The door is far to big for Skye to open alone, at any rate. "I want to go through, please."

The elemental reaches up, tapping on the fire symbol. It rumbles again. 

Skye tilts his head to one side, running a hand through unruly mud brown hair. "You can't open it because you're not Fire, is that it?" It seemed to make sense. The kraken couldn't get past the rock.

The elemental nods... well, nods as best it can without a neck.  It reaches down, picking up two large stones, and slams them together abruptly. Sparks rain down, some smoldering, some dying out. The elemental points to a smoldering spot.

Skye reaches down and rips a piece of cloth from the hem of his pant leg, rolling a knot into one end, and catches one of the smoldering sparks until it begins to smoke and slowly eat up the cloth.

The elemental nods again, and points to the door, grumbling. It's mind literally says 'Good boy. Now put it against the door. Dumb human.' But it's not telapathic, so... that would be private.

The knot is coming undone as a weak flame pulls at it, the smoke enough to sting Skye's eyes as he sets in down, right under the symbol.

Slowly, and with significant volume, the door roars open. The heat that hisses out is to send a few small lizards scuttling away, though of course the elemental doesn't feel it.

Inside, the obvious entrance of the flame temple looks, by all descriptions, like the classic mold of hell. Dozens of skittering imps run back and forth, in and out of its honey comb walls, and flames lick at the ceiling from jets scattered here and there.

Skye hesitates a moment, the heat piercing him to the blood. He bows his head slightly to the rock creature and steps through, looking about wildly for traps and being careful not to stumble onto the jets spewing flame into the air.

An imp carrying a large tinkle bell steps immediately in front of him... about a foot tall, with long ears, and red skin. "Who the hell goes there?!"

"Just a Trigon," Skye replies. "Just a Trigon on his way to the Air Temple." There is that vibration from Silence again, but Skye doesn't address it, keeping his eyes on the imp.

"A Trigon. Like... a rectagon? Same thing?" The imp blinks. "Fraid I don't know what you're talking about. Tell me, do you want to escape these temples today? Where are you going? Do you like dragons? Who's your daddy?"

Skye grins. "Trigon is my name, imp. My father is dead, and I like dragons when they're not trying to roast me." He pauses a moment. "I don't care about escaping the temples. I care about freeing Mi'ehna." His impatience is building up again, and the surges of light inside him are reacting to the flames within the place.

The imp looks him over, nods. "Mi'ehna. Yeah. Bad business. But you should cool off, bitch. Always remeber that you are crunchy and good with ketchup. Don't piss off the dragon. I mean it. He's asleep, and he will eat you if you wake him up. And then you'll emerge from his hindquarters some time tomorrow. Got me? Go up, left, then right, then up, then left. Don't screw it up, unless you wanna be jerky. Say hi to Mi'ehna for me," the imp grins, "and tell her I'll pay her back next week."

Skye favors the imp with a slight bow of the head and goes on, following its instructions and trying not to be distracted by the horrible beauty of the fire and molten walls.

Before long, it becomes readily apparent that he's being followed. Into and out of various holes in the wall, a bright red serpent is tailing him, its long tongue flicking out to check his progress now and agan.

The way quickly opens up into a tall shaft, with a spiral staircase leading hundreds of feet up into the air, a room with black energy pouring forth just in front of him, and a dragon, who makes the earth elemental look like a little kid, sleeping just in front of it. Its snores sound like timpanis rolling down stairs.

Skye watches the serpent with increasing trepidation, but it's the dragon he's more concerned about. Cautiously, he starts to move around the terrible sleeping creature in a wide arch, measuring his steps and keeping his breathing as quiet as Silence.

The dragon yawns abruptly, its gaping maw emitting hot, stinky breath in Skye's general direction. The serpent stops at the gate, obviously unnerved by the dragon.

Skye has to hold his breath a moment, the dragon's breath making him feel faint for a breif moment. But still he continues with cautious footfalls. The dark energy of the room beyond is unsettling, though, and he isn't sure what to make of it yet.

The snake, meanwhile, lifts upon its gathering coils. It smiles a snake's smile. Opens its mouth, and hisses.

The dragon's eyes snap open.

Skye halts abrubtly, very aware of the dragon's light, glowing red as dying coals. His hand is quivering over Fairfight's hilt, and Silence is steady in his hand. He's pretty sure he's no match for this magnificent fire worm, but it's awake now, and it might find Skye to be a perfect snack after a nap.

The dragon lifts its great head, its long tongue lickings its chops. It looks at Skye. Then at the snake, then lets loose with a mighty, wall-quaking roar. The snake flees like an intelligent creature, but the dragon doesn't seem too mobile at the moment. 

"Hey you," a soft echo of a voice sounds from the blackness chamber. "Come this way." A woman's voice, not unlike Mi'ehna's, but older, a little bit more casual. "Come see me. Don't take the stairs. I'm pretty sure the dragon has ketchup."

At the mention of ketchup, Skye follows the voice, still measuring his steps with caution until he's sure he's out of the dragon's sight.
"Who's there?" he says, quietly.

"Shhh... just keep coming. I shut off the traps," the voice echoes again, this time ementating from an open gate down the way.

Behind, the dragon realizes what's going on, and blasts a hallway-sized fireball after Skye.

"Run!"

Skye doesn't have time to wonder weather or not he should trust the voice. But some stroke of good fortune, he manages to dodge the fireball. Barely. He runs toward the open gate, Fairfight beating against his thigh.

At the end of the hallway, a woman stands alone, waiting for him. Her eyes sparkle with prismatic light, but in the darkness, that's about the only detail that can be seen. "Go in this door.  My name is Aliema, I've been waiting for you." 

Inside the door is a long, verdant garden stretching as far as the eye can see. High above, in the tops of immense trees, there is a bridgework village where fairies and sprites are playing absently. 

Recognizing the name, Skye enters the garden. It really is a lovely place, and he can't believe that just a moment ago he was in that place of fire. Lord of Light...

Aliema follows, dragging the heavy metal door closed with a flick of her hand. She stands in front of him, apparently comfortable with the fact that her only clothing is the mist that flows from her skin at key points.

"Skye Gabriel Sands. Welcome to my temple," Aliema bows her head a bit. "Would you come a little closer, let me see your face?"

He steps forward, lifting his chin to show her his father's fine features and his mother's eyes. His light settles finally, the surge of rage calming.

"Pretty," she notes, her features shifting just before she swings a vicious open-hand slap for his cheek.

He hadn't expected an attack from her, and the blow sends him staggering back a step. A strand of light sparks off of his fingertips like electricity.
"What do you want from me?" It's hard to keep the impatience out of his voice now.

Aliema smiles prettily at him. "Forgive me. But you earned that. Leading Mi'ehna along like that. And now that she's paying for it, you want to play hero. Sorry. But you earned it. Now. I am the caretaker of this temple, the wind elemental Aliema. What can I do for you?"

"What do you mean, 'leading her along'? I love her." Another strand of light sparkes off of his fingertips. "And I want to find her and free her." As soon as he says it, he feels childish again. Idiot Dalhar...

Aliema regards him curiously, shaking her head. "Love after two days? Well. It's either true, or you're a lunatic." She sighs, softly. "So sweet... this way." She turns and struts her way across the field, becknoning for him to follow. "This is the Mad Holly Meadow. The pollen will make you hallucinate, so don't breathe more than you have to. And don't check me out. You love Mi'ehna, keep your eyes up."

No sooner does she say this than Skye finds his eyes wandering, the scent of the pollen filling his senses. He forces his gaze up, though, focusing on the dull, stinging pain from Aliema's hand on his cheek.

Aliema leads him on across the long meadow, and stoops to lift a heavy-looking steel door up from the grass at one point. "Here we go," she softly says, "this leads down into the original components of the temple... the starship Genesis."

Skye blinks. "Starship Genesis? Will this eventually lead me to the nexus?"

"What's wrong, Skye? You don't trust naked women?" Well. Naked except for the thick mist. "Of course it will. The nexus is the defunct starship's gravity drive. Throw someone inside, fire it up... it feels like you're being crushed, but you aren't. The pressure is unreal, and it's hard to breathe. Staying inside too long will collapse your lungs."

And Mi'ehna is in there... Skye thinks, tightening his grip on Silence. "Right. I'm going then," he says firmly.

Aliema chuckles at him, in a good-natured sort of way. "You are such a male. Why don't you just turn off the gravity drive instead of going inside? You won't be able to help her if you're being smushed."

Skye cocks his head to one side, regarding her with his cerulean stare. "How do I do that?"

"You would have to disable the ship's engines. It isn't going to be as easy as flipping a switch, though... the security system is dangerous, and the mechanism is complicated. There's also a chance that whoever put Mi'ehna there, you-know-who, will notice if you go in there. He's probably watching like a freaky-eyed girly-faced hawk." Aliema gazes down into the hole, lip curling slightly with amusement. "I hope you're as dedicated to her as you say you are."

He grins. "Believe me, I am." The hole doesn't look welcoming, but then, it doesn't exactly lead to a pleasant place. "Thank you, Aliema," he says, and with that, steps through.

The door drops shut behind him, and Aliema trots off. "I guess he didn't want to know the shutdown codes after all." She shrugs, and trots off to lay in the Mad Holly Meadow for a bit. 

The innards of the ship Genesis are like nothing else in the temple. Beeping lights, keypads, electrical wiring... and dark. It's obvious that this vessel has been in a state of disrepair for quite some time.

Skye walks carefully, not liking the total lack of light in the place. He wonders how something as complex as a gravity drive could function when the whole rest of the ship seems to be so obsolete.

There are only a few paths, each one clearly marked with LCD displays. The most obvious are "Main Deck: Left" and "Machine Area: Right". If one listened closely, one could hear the sound of a woman wailing from the machine room. Sentry cameras, unlike the rest of the ship, seem to functioning perfectly, and each one is keeping a close eye on Skye.

Bearing in mind that he has to disable the ship's engines, Skye rules out the Main Deck. It's very faint, but he's sure he can see Mi'ehna's light. He isn't, of course, concious of the fact that he might be being watched.

The cameras move to follow him, whirring softly. There are no traps inside the Genesis, though the way is sometimes cluttered with refuse. The wailing grows louder as he proceeds, peakiing just in front of a massive plexiglass wall. Inside of the wall, suspended in the center of a black void, is Mi'ehna.

It takes all of the self control Skye might posess to keep from exploding. This is all my fault, Mi. Strands of light are breaking off of his fingertips and exploding as he looks frantically around for a way to shut off the severe pressure she must be feeling.

"What are you looking for so angrily?" A decidedly mechanical voice floats over the ship's intercom system. "Please state your problem."

Skye isn't sure how to answer that without letting his rage loose. "Disable all engines," he says.

"The engines are disabled. Do you see this ship going anywhere? Who are you? On whose authority are you giving me commands?" The voice is calm, and patient, obviously indifferent to the unreal pain that Mi'ehna is suffering behind that wall.

That pretty much does it. "I don't give a damn about authority! I want that - " he points to the void around Mi'ehna " - turned off. Killed, shut down, stopped." He's not too fond of dealing with machines and bodiless voices.

"You don't have authorization for that command. Scanning your monkey ass now."

Beams of translucent light fire from the walls, enveloping him for a split second.

"I don't have data on you. That means you're a stowaway. Prepare to be perforated." The sound of wall panels sliding open and laser weapons emerging fills the room.

Skye does what normally does in situations such as these. He panics. And when he panics, all surges of light within him project out and form a strangely solid sheild of light around him. It is, by far, his greatest strength. Even if he has little or no control over when it happens.

The guns all fire at once... well, a third of them. The rest of them just spark and smolder, burnt out from long periods of disuse. 

The other beams deflect from the shield, burning holes in the walls and bouncing from the plexiglass. Sparks shoot out from all directions.

"Well. That's a neat trick. Okay, okay. I'll help you. But I don't know why you want me to shut down that girl." The void around Mi'ehna intensifies, and she screams until her voice crackles and is lost.

"Not Mi'ehna," Skye pleads, slightly dizzy from the light taken from him almost without warning. "The thing hurting her."

"... oh. Initiating gravity drive shutdown. Please supply shutdown codes." A pause. "You do know them, right?"

Skye blinks. Codes? "If I haven't any authority to make commands, what makes you think I know that?" He's not sure he wants to know what will happen now. Idiot.

Another pause. "Then you will have to initiate manual shutdown of the gravity drive. Please proceed to the main deck and turn it off from there."

He gives Mi'ehna one last, lingering glance before hurrying off into the darkness of the hallway, retracing his steps until he finds the path leading to the main deck.

It's a short one. A set of stairs, and two doors, are all that stand in his way. The deck itself is full of computers, complicated keypads, lights, deactivated robots... none of it written in Common.

Skye is, of course, daunted for a moment by the technology. Not to be outdone, he goes to the nearest computer and pushes a button at random.

A nearby screen lights up, a blinking cursor shaped strangely like an eye looking at him. "Well, you've managed to turn on the system. Press that green button all the way to your right, then pull the level right above it. Then, you'll have to say the ship's password... but I'm not allowed to tell you. My program forbids it. You'll have to guess."

Glad that he managed to do something right, he performs the indicated manual operations. Now... a password? He thinks on it. There are easily a wide range of possibilities. "Dammit..." he mutters. Then, hazarding a guess, "Life."

The ship rocks in place, lights beeping and alarms buzzing. The display in front of Skye reads "Drive Shutdown in Progress. Estimated time for shutdown two minutes, twenty seconds."

"You're good! How did you know that would be the password?"

Skye allows himself a sigh of relief. "A guess." He watches the screen for a moment, then thanks the blinking eye icon and heads back to the room where Mi'ehna is.

"Who would have thought you'd guess 'dammit' though?"

In the machine room, Mi'ehna is no longer suspended behind the plexiglass wall. Instead she lies on the floor, arms and legs askew, motionless.

Relieved that she is no longer prisoner to the pressure of gravity but not at all comforted by the sight of her motionless form, Skye sits on the floor and gathers her in his arms. Her light is faint. "Oh, Mi..." I have to get you away from here.

There's no response from her. Her pulse is still present, though, which is quite the good sign. 

"I just want to know how you knew that 'Life' was the self-destruct password, too."

Skye has no response to this but to tuck Silence beside Fairfight, lift Mi'ehna from the floor, and run. Run. Run!

"Hey buddy, I'm releasing the locks to the upper level. You know, I'm glad I'm controlling this thing by remote. You could have blown me the fugg up."

Just as the intercom voice says that, the hatch to the air temple pops open, and a blast of fire and smoke sounds from the main deck.

Skye is startled by the sound, but doesn't stop until he finds the door where he came in, whereupon he has to let go of Mi'ehna for a moment to lift the door.

Light pours into the vessel, the scent of holly wafting down and clashing harshly with the iron scent of machinery. Aliema is there, not too far from the entrance, dancing and twirling about in the Mad Holly Meadow as if she had not a care in the entire world.

Below, fire and smoke have overtaken the Genesis.

He carries Mi out and regards the ship with a look of regret. "Aliema," he calls. "It's going to self-destruct."

She looks at him, through cloudy, delusional eyes. "Oh. Then let me kiss it better." Yeah. She's high as a kite in a tornado.

Skye blinks. The pollen. "Right. You do that." He starts to make his way back the way he came originally, but then remembers the dragon and the ketchup and the lizards and the kraken. "Aliema," he says carefully, "Is there a way out of the Air Temple without going back through the other elements?"

Aliema is still dancing, plumes of mist rolling this way and that. 

"Maybe. How much do you want it?" She snickers, and floats up the hill in front of him. "C'mon. Tell me!"

Skye groans inwardly. Patience. "I need to get Mi'ehna to a safer place. Please, Aliema."

"Is that her?" Aliema looks down, tilts her head at the limp form in Skye's arms. "She's cute. Okay. Let's see... go up, and to the end of the hill. Where all the machines are! The door is there."

"Thank you Aliema." A pause. "Is the door open?" he asks.

"Oh, now that is the perfect question to ask! Of course not!" She trots up the hill, waving for him to follow. "I have the key. You just have to come with me."

Skye follows, holding Mi'ehna close and quietly singing a string of song.

At the sound of his voice, Mi'ehna twitches a little bit, but no more.

Aliema leads Skye to a smallish door in the side of the air temple, its circular form protected by vicious, swirling winds. Aliema lifts her hands and parts them neatly, turning to wink at Skye. 

"Here is the door. Let me see your hand, and I will give you the key," she purrs.

Skye shifts Mi'ehna's weight a bit and holds out his hand.

Aliema takes his hand, holds it gently to her lips, and kisses it. An aura of soft green forms around his fingertips, cool with wind magic. Mi'ehna's hair blows around a bit next to it.

"There. Now you can touch this door, anytime, and open it." Aliema smiles prettily.

He smiles, feeling the wind on his skin. "Thank you, Aliema. This is... I am honored by this gift." He holds Mi'ehna close and goes through the door.

Aliema just grins as he goes, and goes back to dancing.