The fortress's first line of defense defines the entire landscape for twenty miles in any direction. The work crews here have taken controlled brushfires to an art, and the entire area is kept completely free of any large plant life. There's no cover, nothing to hide behind, only scorched soil. The fortress itself is huge, expanded many times over the course of an entire empire being built from this one stronghold...layers of defense. It's only been attacked perhaps three times, but in those three times, it proved practically untouchable, having an untarnished skin below each one damaged.

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Lord Vayen's Fortress Archive
Lord Vayen's Fortress Archive II

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Therian's in Vayen's throne room right now. She doesn't really know or care why. Almost certainly just to intimidate the sorceror's visitors in a small conference that had just concluded, and for potential protection. The second would be unlikely, though. She's just a gross-out factor.

The sorceror, for his part, simply finishes writing up some notes now that the assorted commanders are gone. Well, there's one alliance he can exploit until it gets tiresome.

The opening of a temporal gate is an interesting thing, for sure. It is rather like a meteorite the size of an island crashing into a space the size of a thimble, throwing blue sparks everywhere and cracking a hole into space. It's got nothing in the way of concussive force, or anything, but does make one hell of a boom.

When Ai steps through the portal, she is all business. Her hair is pulled tightly back, lips and eyes set in an almost neutral scowl. She's dressed in tight, black pants and shirt under a dark gray duster with blood red trim. All of it - the clothes, the expression - are her father's.

"Hello."

It's hard to startle the slave....but a jerk later, the creature's half on her feet and in an extremely defendible position, trying to figure out what in all hell is going on. Things she can't identify dont' happen often, and this is unhappy.

Vayen, for his part, looks up as suddenly, an eyebrow cocked. "Well," he notes after a few moments. "This is much more interesting than those buffoons I just finished with. So tell me...." here he turns completely towards Ai to lean on a knee, "What brings a goddess to my humble Keep?"

Ai glances at Therian just long enough to pass her a comforting smile blended with daddy's malicious smirk.

"If you are Vayen, then your presence is requested elsewhere. A lovely universal cataclysm is brewing and you are one of many my peers and I need to acquire." She notes the casual position he's sitting in, but remains standing.  "I will need you to come with me. You may bring your friend, if you like." Looks to Therian.

"This creature? I have no need of it. Tell me, goddess, what is it that you and your peers are hoping to gain from me, and what could possibly motivate me to be there rather than here in the center of my own comfortable little empire?" Yeah, his ego just got its nourishment for the next decade at a hint of universal importance.

"I haven't the slightest idea why you might be useful," Ai answers him honestly. "By the by. You may use my name, Ai. As for your motivation..." here the goddess clasps her hands in front of her navel, looking oddly cute in an evil sort of way, "... understand that unlimited knowledge and power are at the disposal of myself and my peers. We might be tempted to part with some of it. Or you can refuse, and I can shred your innards in your body and feed your liquid guts to my fish." Beams, and closes her eyes. "Others will come after me, and they will not be so merciful."

One of the sorcerer's eyebrows is slightly cocked, and an amused smirk has begun to set across his face. Yes. Today is interesting. "I see. And what sort of timeframes are you looking at, Miss Ai?"

"You will be away from your world for a few weeks at least. The battle lines contain some nasty elements, though. It could well be years before this place sees you again." Ai is nothing if not forthright. Her eyes settle on the drow sorcerer, an absolute force of nature to this world. Her generous lips turn up a bit. "You know that there's nothing left for you to conquer here. I can sense deeply enough to tell that. There are no challenges left for you." Looks at Therian. "You've become a nitpicking despot, haven't you? Tormenting and abusing those weaker than you because you've nothing better to do."

"Everyone needs a healthy hobby," the sorceror assures, hiding his own building annoyance. "What does this all concern? What's the nature of this cataclysm of yours?"

"Four separate factions have been building power over millenia. Mortals, divine, infernal, and the undead. Everything was to lead up to a glorious bloodbath between them, and the last faction standing would claim existence for itself. A fifth faction sprang up and ruined the plans of the others by luring away their officers and murdering some of their key players." Ai is relying pretty heavily on Felina's mental notes here, but she is embellishing a bit as well. "There are powers involved in this that I would never dare to cross. Some are my friends, some my enemies. I know that you are to be my ally." She smirks a little. "Either my ally, my enemy, or dead, and the last two are the same."

"I see." The drow lord stands. "Well, I will need several days to get affairs here in order. A continent losing its bored tyrant without announcement does tend to fall into disorder, you know, goddess." Also, it will give him some time to consider and scry the matter for himself.

Therian grumbles inwardly. Come on. Come on. Club the bastard and drag him out by the hair, appropriately bitchy lady.

Ai tilts her head over, smiling her sweetest, Dewei-trouser-bulge inspiring smile.

"That won't do. If I give you several days, someone else might come for you. They'll kill you on the spot if you don't agree."

"I see. Do you really expect me to simply throw my life's work to the wind because a pretty face told me that I should? That one used to be fairly attractive for a human, if it shows how deeply I covet pretty faces."

Ai looks at Therian. Her smirk fades. Eyes soften. "You... did that to her?"

Vayen couldn't be more non-commital. He doesn't really care enough even shrug. "She's a valuable assassin for it. Besides, I only deserve indirect credit for all but a few details. That's what underlings are for."

Ai can't stop herself. Just as a tiny, only just discernable tear forms in her left eye, her teeth grind together. No way.

"I..." she chokes back her sorrow at the thought of what must have been done to this woman. "I'll give you one chance. Come with me now, or I'll take you with me."

Therian remains quiet, absorbing Ai's reaction and trying to make sense of it.

Vayen's sorcery is building very quietly at this point. "Neither, thank you."

"I'll kill you myself, I swear to you..." Ai's lips quiver, trembling rapidly. "Please don't make me do that. Please."

"Then leave my throne room and come back in the three days I've so nicely requested. I will take my chances with your adversaries." Not to mention see if they offer something nicer, but this he doesn't indicate.

Her eyes close. She sniffles, but when they open again the weakness is gone, replaced by hard, unflinching steel.

"I'm going to take you with me, now. Please don't struggle enough that I have to kill you." Her hand lifts a bit. Rune light flickers at her fingertips - if he has sense, he's already prepared an attack or defense. But she wants to warn him one last time.

Of course he does. This is why, the moment the light at her fingers flickers to life, a highly concussive fireburst of an attack springs from the floor beneath her feet.

The goddess's reaction is less than immediate, slow enough that she's knocked off her feet. She catches herself in the air, and this time, there's no warning. Gleaming, opalescent tendrils flicker out to slap and snap at Vayen, her father's old standby. Her left hand, however, is busily writing a petrification spell, one she'd stolen from Radivishe Moorn's library years ago.

The sorceror growls, not thrilled with the prospect of having to put down a goddess. A shield quickly snaps into being around him, while a stone from the wall snaps loose and hurtles towards the goddess's head, followed by others.

Tendrils flash and snap against the debris, shattering chunks while a Felina-style force wall forms in front of her to catch the shards. Ai can feel something black boiling in her heart, something full of elation when she fires the petrification spell at the sorcerer. Her smirk is back.

This he wasn't prepared for. Moorn's spell is too intricate and too well-executed at his daughter's hand to just throw aside, especially when he hadn't expected it. The startled sorcerer grunts, struggles gamely and holds it back for a few moments, before he's suddenly and completely immobilized, swaying backwards in falling over in the least dignified of ways, smacking his head on his throne on the way down. Shakes it off. Figuratively of course. "Well, do stop her, cowardly bitch, I armed you for a reason!" he manages, still struggling to unwravel the paralysis.

When the stones and magic had started flying, Therian had taken cover behind a pillar. Sighs inwardly. She hopes to hell the bitchy lady will win, and she stands a good chance if Vayen's actually entreating help when he wants to posture. But she can't risk that she doesn't, the consequences would be dire if Vayen, as he always has, manages a win. Listens carefully. If the goddess is there, then...

The speed is obscene considering that it's natural. A dagger goes flying towards Ai's throat from a very suddenly moving streak. Therian springs off a planted foot two steps later to change direction, a shortsword flashing towards the arm she thinks Ai had cast with.

Poor thing... Ai's shield catches the dagger, of course, but Therian is awfully quick and manages a deep, slashing gash on the edge of her arm. She keeps herself from squeaking, but reacts before her conscience can stop her. Her tendrils strike together and flare. Iridescent waves of light sing across the room, attempting to separate her from Therian while she thinks.

It works, of course. Therian isn't magical and has no defense against it. She can take down mages on sheer strategy, but nothing as powerful as Ai. Thus, the effect is dramatic. She's slammed to her back a solid five feet away, though the tumble ends a few feet later with her on a hand, a foot, and a knee, gathering her singed senses a moment. She resets her grip on the sword, tries to figure out what the hell the burning smell and occasional crackle might entail. It's wrong for lightning, but she hasn't a bloody clue.

Listens to a few of the silent tendrils' paths by the faint hiss and acrid smell of the singed stone below. Times her way between them and springs again, her last remaining dagger flying straight at Ai's eyes for distraction while the sword goes for the collarbone.

Ai's had about enough of this. She doesn't want to hurt Therian, but that blackness in her heart certainly does.  The tendrils snap together all at once, the fire dying out as Ai makes a slight change to her spell - filling them with healing energy that should - should - leave Therian a euphoric, high-as-a-kite mess.

And this...actually works. Except that the "mess" part is probably amplified a thousand times over, considering Therian's deeply screwed up psychology. Her sword, of course, simply chinks off of Ai's shield, and the assassin recovers well, skidding to a stop but...just stops, shaking her head. Actually drops her sword. Confused as all bloody hell, experiencing things she doesn't experience and not reacting well. Either way...Ai doesn't seem likely to experience much more problem from this end.

The goddess quickly turns those healing spells onto her wounded arm, and then, heart swelling with pity for Therian, turns her attention back to Vayen.

"Are you sure you won't just... come with me?" Looks at him, her fingertips dancing with scintillating runelight. "I can do good things for you or I can hurt you in ways you can't even imagine. I'll make what you did to her look like a night of blissful massage." Pillars of flame shoot from the glowing symbols, not to burn but to constrain Vayen.

Vayen is busily scowling at his attack dog's failure, although interested in the goddess's methods. Finally smirks, closing his eyes. "Well, it seems an interesting proposition, anyway. I need to first give several orders to my generals. Then I'll accompany you."

Ai smiles a little bit. "Good choice. By the way." Looks at Therian. "She's mine, now. You understand, I trust. I-"

The goddess's eyes snap wide and she leaps back, just in time to evade a dark green blast of something that boils and bubbles on the floor. She turns her attention that way, and every drop of blood drains from her face.

Shigoriath gazes hungrily at her, half-cloaked in the smoke that brought him here.

Therian, for her part, smells undead stink. Heh...it's hilarious at the moment, too, to a wheezing laugh that sounds more like a strangled cough.

Dewei, for his part, is only a few more moments in appearing beside his beloved's side, mostly between her and Shigoriath. He's startled, but instantly serious, features darkening and sword out. No words.

The lich lord glares at Dewei, tilting his barely attached head to one side. He gestures to Vayen with his living staff.

"Mine."

"Like hell."

Vayen, for his part, is listening to these proceedings with interest...and still struggling against that spell, finally finding teh centers of it and beginning to claw it open.

Shigoriath's staff opens its eye. He is no mood for games, not this time. A pulse of putrifying energy boils forth, aimed not for Dewei, but for Ai behind him.

Dewei has had quite enough of his beloved being in danger for one day. "Ai, watch it!" And leaps back into her, trying to teleport them both to another part of the room. Meanwhile, the runes of an intensely powerful light-based attack scripts itself onto the floor around the lich lord. Dewei's learned a whole damned lot since last facing him. It bursts.

Ai moves, impressed with Dewei's quick thinking. She'd been too terrified to lift her feet, but now lands fairly close to Vayen and points a glowing fingertip at his face. "Stay."

Shigoriath's body dissolves in the blast of light. The head of the staff clatters to the floor, but as soon as it strikes the ground the entire lich begins to regrow. Sections of the floor are already starting to transmute, and vile tendrils reach up to slash at Dewei with barbed tips. He shields Ai, growling in the back of his throat, and slashes at the ones attacking him with sword and light-enchanted claws. Ai, grab Vayen and get back to the maze. I'll follow as soon as you get there safely.

Dewei, no... please let me fight him... Despite her fear, Ai's rune spell flashes all around Vayen, to ensnare him for teleporting purposes. Looks to Therian. Can't help her now.

To what end? We don't know where his phylactery is. A light-based shield, its interior filled entirely with its element, finishing scripting across the tops of the walls and tries to burn to life.

Therian's just listening vacantly to all the various things happening on the floor. And yes, they're all damned amusing.

The shield works, and the tendrils flop to the floor, bursting in showers of wriggling, crawling centipedes and scorpions. Ai bites back a scream and tries to teleport back to maze, with Vayen in tow.

Dewei, please, please be careful...!

Shigoriath, meanwhile sprays a mist of rotten gas in Ai's direction which, if someting is not done, will strike her and Vayen both cleanly before she can get away.

I will be...hurry! A strictly physical shield that extends to every wall to seal off Ai and Vayen manifests, although Dewei's concentration is getting dangerously divided. "Mmmf..!" Bites back a startled cry when a scorpion stings one of his legs just before being swatted off with his sword.

Ai and Vayen vanish just as a touch of the mist strikes her face. Most of it misses, thanks to the shield.

The lich lord, furious that they've escaped, redoubles his efforts against Dewei. From the drops of Ai's blood on the floor a number of fanged, bipedal horrors leap out, all shredded muscle and bone. They've no arms, and are mostly mouth. Two of them leap for Dewei, frog like, intent on consuming him.

Geesh... the extra shields except the room-wide one vanish as soon as Ai does to give him that part of his concentration back. A burning psionic attack sweeps across the floor. He springs backward to grab Therian and get the hell out of here.

One of the horrible things leaps over the attack, while the others are swept away, its fearsome jaws slamming towards shut against Dewei's upper arm. Shigoriath, irritated at his failure, vanishes in a torrent of black smoke and centipedes.

It gets a solid bite in before Dewei grabs its jaws telekinetically. Snarls. With Shigoriath gone, he razes what's left of the undead lord's workings. Looks to Therian, undecided. Sighs, unsure what's wrong with her--but mostly because Ai seemed to have some vested interest in her. Lifts the thoroughly loopy assassin from the floor--she tries to stab him, but isn't actually holding a dagger--and then is gone for the millenium maze.