The living, breathing castle created by Radivishe Moorn. It exists within a subspace dimension, neither nether nor ether. It has suffered a few disastrous incidents in its time, and only a small portion of the castle remains, but within it lies a condensed, truly massive version of the castle's full power.

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Wu Yuan

Moren Aiga I

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Felina's senses are alert when she steps into the ruins of this dimension. She hasn't been here in a good many centuries...still, she doesn't fear the trawlers here. Respects that they're dangerous and knows their habits better than she knows her own, always careful to be wary of them, but doesn't fear them. Scans mentally for another presence here.

The trawlers are there, circling in wide patterns around the derelict old castle. The castle gate lies in bits on the ground, and the signature of of a decidedly nonhuman presence wafts from just inside the gate. A hint of a cooking fire trickles through that gate, carrying a sticky-sweet scent along with it.

Felina's presence is quite masked as she approaches the castle and attempts quick entrance the same way it's always been possible in the past. Not hidden from the woman, but from the trawlers.

It works just fine. Inside the castle, Quava sits cross-legged in front of the cooking fire. A pile of pale something sits on the ground, bits of what look like gigantic crab legs from which Quava takes an occasional piece. She's cooking and eating trawler legs.

Heh..that works. Felina almost has to smirk as she approaches. That's just scrumptious. "Excuse me, Miss?" she inquires as she approaches.

Quava looks up at her abruptly, head snapping that way. Her eyes dart to Felina, consumed with a feral, warning expression. She scrambles to her feet, putting herself between Felina and the legs.

Felina raises her hands...kind of a gesture of defense, but mostly showing that they're empty. "Hey, they're all yours. I won't take them."

Quava glares at her, and rips another bite from the leg. She looks pretty ragged, actually. Scratched and beaten up, with one of her much larger than usual horns cracked down the center, she looks like she's been here for quite a long, rough while.

Felina sits quietly nearby, solidly away from the food, to nullify hint of threat from herself. She's wary of Quava, certainly...wonders absently how precisely the trawler was taken out. There are only a few ways that wouldnt' result in complete disintigration of the beast. Considers, the air lacing with a calming influence. She tries catiously to get a look into Quava's mind as she speaks. "We were very surprised to see someone staying at Moren Aiga. As far as we knew, this place was deserted."

Her mind is almost entirely blanketed with pain and hunger. She's eating the legs, but apparently they aren't substantial enough to nourish her body in the least. At least two severe wounds on her body were inflicted by the monsters, too.

"I... was looking for someone." She bites the leg again, teeth bared, wrenching at it.

Felina knows all too well that she can only treat this woman's wounds, not heal them by conventional means. "I see." She nods. She has some of her usual emergency rations...small, nourishing cubes without much taste whatsoever, and quietly shifts one of these into a fruity sort of creation of her husband's. Puts this on a small cloth, and shifts to set it on the ground near Quava, then backing off, herself. "Here. I can't say I've ever tasted trawler, but this is certainly more nourishing. In any case...who were you looking for? Maybe I can help?"

Quava looks at the fruity thing. Looks at Felina. Is it a trap? Does she care? In a moment of pouncing Quava attacks the fruity stuff, devouring it without even stopping to taste it. She looks up at Felina, her expression that of a hungry cat asking for more. "Ale," she quietly answers, still staring.

Felina blinks. "Ale? Short for Delalenei, perchance? Angel?" Starts shifting two more of the nourishing things into various other foods. Not really looking for bribery, just...the poor thing. Her 'protector' instinct hates how hungry she is.

Quava doesn't answer until she's attacked the new food. It occurs to her that it could be poison again. She doesn't really care.

"Yes," she answers, mouth full of food. Swallows, gazing at Felina. "An angel. I was summoned, but got ambushed. Thrown here, when I refused to go with them." She eats a little more, still looking to Felina. She wonders if they've met. And how cat tastes.

"Ambushed? Same story with a lot of people, these last few days. Can you describe your attackers, Miss, by any chance? Also, I have more food if you're still hungry about ffiteen minutes from now, but each one of the little things I used has the nutrition of a full meal, so you may regret having any more now in not very long."

Quava sits back then, nodding a little. Her hunger has ebbed, but the pain still blankets much of her mind. Only part of it, though, seems to be trawler-damage. "Only one. A thing, all made of gray gas. Smelled burnt."

Felina wrinkles her nose, and nods. "Cali. She's gone after my sister, my son's girlfriend, and a couple of dear friends as well. At least it confirms a lot."

The wraith-woman nods a bit. "But why are you here at all?"

"Heh..." Felina smiles wrly. "To keep the same thing from happening to you, though I seem to be a bit late. I'm part of resistance against Cali's group and methods. I guess now I can just offer to get you out of here, whether to join us or to somewhere of your choice. I can't promise Asiba's forces--the smoke creature is one--won't attack you again with the latter, though."

Quava shakes her head. Cringes a little. The enamel's worn off of her horns - no. It's been ground off, and the slight breeze in the halls of the castle is damn near excruciating.

"I am not sure I could trust you any more than them," she admits, "food aside. Thank you for the food, but it could just as well be a bribe."

Felina nods. "I can't offer you proof of anything, really, except to ask for your trust in the matter. And, really, it's just somewhat nice to know that you aren't working for Asiba. Moren Aiga's sturdy enough, anyway, I suppose...at least let me tend your injuries before I go?"

Quava can almost smell the ultimatum buried in that. Still, urgent terror shoves her eyelids open, and she ends up prostrate in front of Felina just a second later.

"No, please don't leave me here. I will help you, I promise," she begs, forehead to the uneven ground. "Please...!"

Felina's a bit taken aback, eyes softening with sympathy after a moment. "Miss...you don't have to do that." Her hands are laced with powerful healing magics when she kneels to gently take Quava's wrists and help her up. "I meant what I said before. If you don't wish to help us and don't fear the inevitable next attack by Asiba, I would be happy to send you elsewhere." Smiles, maybe a little maternally. Her protective instincts have really kicked in with this poor girl. "Not that I wouldn't be thrilled with your alliance. I would be. But it isn't necessary to me removing you from this wasteland if you wish."

The wraith smiles a little at her through a light screen of green hair. "Can you show me what you want me to do...?" Her voice is actually hampered by the cracking sound of her enamel flowing and hardening around her horns again. They'll need polished later, but for now, the mind-numbing pain of their bare surface being exposed is gone.

Felina has to smile at that. "Really, I'm not sure yet. There are a number of people fated to be involved...you're one, which is why you were attacked. So far, this has been about sequestering all of the various others before they come to harm. You're the last...so now it's time to figure out why everyone was one the list and, in the process, determine what we're capable of as a whole."

"Fated...?" Quava blinks. "H... hold on." She pulls away from Felina and returns to her pile of trawler legs. She moves her hand, directing a pale jade glow over them until an enchantment signature springs into sight and dissolves. The legs follow suit, then, just as any normal trawler bits would. 

Quava's eyes display a certain sadness at their loss. What a waste. She picks up a piece of parchment from where the pile was, blows it off, and hands it to Felina. "This?"

The paper is the same paper Felina had gotten from Pretender.

Felina blinks, taking it gingerly and scanning quickly for discrepancies. "Yes, exactly," she nods after a moment. "Where did you get this, Miss?"

"Ale sent it to me. I never understood why my name would be on the list, with this place next to it." Her eyes search the walls, and windows. "The trawlers are approaching," she points out, quietly, unafraid.

Felina nods. "Will you be coming with me, then, Miss Quava?"

The wraith just nods.

Felina nods once in return. "Thank you. We need to slip out of the castle, though, to get back to the temporal gait I used. Let's hurry before we have to deal with those things." And starts off towards the entrance, step quick...though pausing to see that Quava's moving okay.

The wraith woman follows at a constant pace, if not a swift one. Her legs seem to wobble a little when she tries to run, and she ends up hop-stumbling after the Serinian matriarch.

The trawlers squeal, finally. After Quava killed one they kept their distance, expecting to wait out her body to get at her soul. It will be meaningless if she escapes. Several of them rocket towards the gate, mandibles spread wide.

Felina's expression doesn't change. She grabs Quava and springs for the gate, making sure she's between the revenant and the trawler.

The beasts doesn't care who is who. It dives for Felina, mandible snapping towards shut around her upper torso.

Felina's reaction is smooth and instant. Her senses scan ahead of them just before throwing Quava along towards the gate, aided by levitation, as the rest of her body whips around like a swordswoman's should, black sword shinging out of its sheath and flashing towards the trawler's head.

The charging beast, driven by instinct, doesn't have time to turn. It never even touches the blade, its body cleaving into halves at the edge of the sword's aura. Others are following it, attacking what's left, but for now the way is clear.

The sword sheaths at the end of that one movement. Felina blinks out of existance, back into it in time to catch and steady Quava, and then they're bound for The Millenium Maze.