The plains of Impossible. Dozens of settlements exist here, mostly along the great river Sjor and in, and around, the patch forest Imbury. Crops and livestock stretch across this land, pocked with boils of dragon fire and worse, but the people are hardy, and there is freedom to be had. A quaint religion exists here, one of powerful morals and restriction, much unlike the pleasure faiths of Evilingus.

---

Wildwood Inn-Sanitorium - the entrance to Impossible.

Evilingus - the capital of Impossible, a fortress city of great mercantile and religious expression.
Dastard - a middle class to poor city outside Evilingus.
Wild Moors - the untamed countryside of Impossible.

---

"Heh..." Ari grins a sheepish grin as they sprint away from Dastard. She doet really want to show Shigoriath her wand advantage yet. "Hopefully it'snot the kind of dragon that eats wyverns on sight."

"She said over and over it's a real dragon," Trenton observes as the ground begins to slope upward. "I'm not sure what that distinction means."

The ground nearby is green, verdant, and the path gentle; a set of stairs curves into the winding mountain passage; it's quite a walk. The mountain is arranged in a roughly-stair-shaped pattern rising more and more steeply as it proceeds.

In the distance, the ground darkens.

"Full form, if I had to guess..." she muses. Ari breathes out, and begins using the wand again...casting and running to lurch through places, finally getting to a point where she can keep stepping when she hits the ground and stackign the jumps one atop the next.

"You're pretty good at this," Trenton notes as they ascend the mountain. "They're good, too." He points to the western sky, into a low cloud bank where the heads of two hissing drakes are just breaking the clouds. On moose-sized wings they flap toward Ari, puffs of fire lighting up their plesiosaur faces.

Ari blinks...and squeaks. "Those are so wyvern-eaters."

Trenton looks around for something useful to possess. He tries to take over one of the spiraling monsters, but it's no use; their skin is life fire against his fingers, which surprises him immensely.

A cavern peeks into the mountain about forty yards to Ariella's left. The drakes circle them in a wide berth, hissing and snapping, testing them.

Ari, somewhat surprising herself considering her personality, hisses right back at it. The wand is cast towards the cavern, though, and she tries to make the leaps that way.

One of the diving drakes' jaws snap shut just after her vanished form fades entirely. The darkness of the cave enfolds her, but the beasts can still see her and wing that way, hissing wildly; she's elusive prey.

The second drake, larger and darker than the first, is first to pass the entrance. It swivels a bit, peering toward the opening as if debaing whether to try and go inside. The cavern is too small for its entire body, and runs deeper into the mountainside; flecks of light along the walls give away the presence of structural supports built every few feet, and the glow of Ari's staff provides plentiful light.

"In or out, I guess, is your choice," Trenton notes, abruptly appearing beside her.

Ari groans softly. "We really need to beat Shigoriath to the top, but...getting eaten is counterproductive. Let's just try to get a feel for how deep this goes and if it will head the right direction..." And she starts off at a quick, cautious trot that way. Her hand lights up as she walks, held before them, too brightly to look at directly and quite enough to illuminate things well.

The farther they go, the more the cavern opens up and glitters with structural support. A few lights twinkle back at her; gemstones buried in the walls.

A set of red glints form an arrow pointing left at a fork in the path.

Trenton peers both ways. "Okay. Two roads diverged in the rock."

"Marked, too." Ari considers this. "So do we listen to the arrow, or not listen to it?"

"I don't know why there'd be a lying arrow in a cave here. It doesn't strike me as a puzzle-test mountain. Hey..." he blinks. "Look here. There's an indention of an arrow on the other side." Trenton peers at it. "Ideas?"

"Well..." Ari shrugs a little. "Nothing but guesswork can tell us which goes where. I say we pick a side, see if it looks like the slope's going upward, and hope nothing eats me." She smiles a bit, and heads down teh fork with the red arrow.

Trenton follows all along.

The path does indeed slope upward, leading into a massive chamber; there's a hole in the top of it, about thirty feet up, in the middle of the ceiling. Strewn about the room are dozens of squared blocks, and no other exits.

At center, front, there is a well of blue light, billowing softly upward. In front of it is a mural, rather like in the sanitorium, this one carved with a picture of someone sticking the butt of a staff into a flame.

Ari breathes out. "All right..." This done, she takes the blue end of her staff and holds it into the light, bracing.

The fiery glow swells, and gathers like fireflies descending to the same leaf. In chaff-like streams the glow dissipates, and the end of the staff retains that aquiline luminescence.

From within the glow, the soft figure of a young man can be seen, shimmering in and out of sight. He's a blond fellow, seventeen or so by sight and almost certainly French. He's wearing journeyman's pants and battered combat boots, but nothing more.

"Hello," he softly greets them. "I'm Olivier. Who are you?"

Ari pauses. She's searching for the face...searching. Where has she seen it first. "Bonjour, I'm...Ariella Chevalier." Pause. Wait. It's a very distinctive face...but belonging to someone else. So many shared features.

"Wait...are you...Olivier Omeaux...?"

The young man gazes at her. His lips twitch up, just a bit.

"Do you know me, then? I'm afraid to say I don't remember your face, however much I wish it."

Ari's taken aback. "Not personally, but of course I know of you. I mean..." Pause. "Wait...if...I may ask...how old are you...?"

"Older than I look," Olivier nods, a spectral, imaging nod. "I don't really know, at this point. So you're a Julen Wyvern, then. I thought the old organization would have folded into clippings by now."

Ari breathes out...and, honestly, looks rather starstruck, something near excited for the first time on this horrible day. "No, not at all! I mean..." she pauses. Wondering what she should disclose, in case of a trick. Public info, but...even that... "Your little brother completely finished what you started. And all of the non-human races were shoved out into the open several years ago...the damage was enormous, but since then, Julen's built its power base immensely, it's one of the most powerful nations on the planet without question. It's...beautiful." And, really...it is. Despite everything, the enthusiasm comes through a little. Even with its recents debts, "wealth" is something Julen does well, but it makes tremendously good use of it for the people who need it.

Olivier's expression mutes. He stares, and falls, as if falling into a chair that isn't there, but instead falls through the floor and re-images back to standing. Trenton tilts his head; that was cool. And weird.

"Revilier did all that...?" Olivier faces her, full front, very military but still, very awestricken. "How? How much blood did he spill?"

Ari trails off at this a moment. She knows. Of course she does. She thinks about her answer. Honest, but...nonspecific. "Never a full war's worth. Separatist groups, terrorist cells, individual militants and enemy spies...Julen's never been engaged in open warfare unless defending itself." Not that it's ever had the strength to openly attack Okarthel, but that's another story.

Olivier nods, as if in full approval.

"I see... and... what is one of Julen doing in this forsaken mountain?'

Another pause, before Ari raises her hand, the back to Olivier. The golden, subtly misshapen rune scripts to the back of it, then. "This. It's killing me, and someone important to me."

Olivier looks at it, studies it. "A falsity," he observes, "but where on earth did you get this? Such a thing is not of your world." He pauses. "You... nevermind. You seek the sun god? To repair the wounded spell?"

"It's counterfeit, yes. It's..." Pause. Shakes her head. "A really long story. Yes, I do." She kind of assumed that was Olivier, but this works too.

But who says he isn't?

For his part, Olivier paces softly before her. Thinking, his hand set to his chin just like Revilier does.

"Something's off about him," Trenton says to Ariella, "I don't think he's a ghost. I think he's still alive."

"I am," Olivier barks, almost proudly. "I've just been trapped here for a long, long time. And I have decided, I would like this beautiful young woman to free me so I can see my brother's kingdom."

Ari blinks. Blushes--Olivier is probably the most beautiful man she's ever seen, and she's flatered--but this is actually further back in her mind and rouging her cheeks from a distance. A pause...and she nods. "All right. How do I do that?"

"The power of the sun dragon holds me here," he intones, but then smiles a sly little smile. "Clever at naming this land is not."

"Dragons chased us into the cave," Trenton notes. "I think we can take them."

"Dragons plural? No." Olivier points to the hole in the ceiling. "Dragon, singular. The creature is just above this cavern."

Ari blinks. "The small ferals who chased us weren't very friendly either," she observes. Thinks. "I'm armed to the teeth but...I'm a yellow wyvern. You're a silver wyvern." There's not much she could do in that regard that he couldn't have. "I assume you're talking about something other than a straight fight?" There's no inflection of fright in her voice, though. Resigned Ari is resigned.

"The dragon is leashed here by an orb, buried inside a shelter of stones. If someone could move the orb, the dragon would move with it, but someone would have to move the stones first." Olivier tips his chin toward the staff. "That device is a tool of Ulalume. It can move the stones now that it has a blue light."

Ariella gazes at it thoughtfully a moment, and then nods. "Got it. Where do I find this 'shelter of stones'? And, will the dragon attack me if I try to touch the orb?"

"Above, and yes."

Ari just nods. "Okay. And what's the quickest way there? Other arrow?"

"The hole," Olivier points again. "You have the staff. Do you know how to use the blue power as well?"

She shakes her head. "No. Do you?"

"Of course. Twist the base of the staff until it clicks. When the butt of the staff glows bright blue, you can swing it to send a blue runic projectile just like the red setting. However, if you flip the staff and strike something with a red bolt, what you hit will transport to the blue location. Living things are unmoved, and you must use more than one bolt to move larger objects."

Ari nods a bit. She really is rather numb right now despite the burst of awe at meeting--possibly--the founder of her nation. It's allowing her to function. She looks over to a rock across the way. Needs to test it...

She breathes out, twists the base instead of front of the staff as directed, and swings it to toss the blue bolt. Then flips it, and tosses the red rune elsewhere. She's getting used to moving the staff...and blinks when the rock suddenly drops to the ground as she had been earlier.

She nods a little to herself. "Okay...that works." Ariella breathes, and holds up her hands, closing her eyes to concentrate as they glow faintly, then a bit more brightly. Finally, suddenly, she drops off into that nifty partial-invisibility trick of hers. "See you soon, Trenton," she notes as she looks up at the hole, preparing to swing the red side of the staff. The staff isn't visible, but the runes are pretty clear.

"Hey, you're not going without me," Trenton nods. 

This as the light from above blacks out for just a second.

Ari smiles faintly at him. She murmurs softly under her breath:

"Oh most merciful Jesus, lover of souls, I beseech Thee, by the agony of Thy most Sacred Heart, and by the sorrows of Thine Immaculate Mother, wash clean in the Thy Blood the sinners of the whole world who are to die this day.

Remember most especially the soul I spiritually adopt with the intention of entrusting him or her to Thy Shepherd's care: I beseech Thee for the grace to move this sinner, who is in danger of going to Hell, to repent. I ask this because of my trust in Thy great mercy."

She pulls back the front of the staff, and flings the red light up into the hole after the shadow's past, still wearing that wavering invisibility herself.

"If it should please Thy Majesty to send me a suffering this day in exchange for the grace I ask for this soul, then, it, too, shall please me very much, and I thank Thee, Most Sweet Jesus, Shepherd and Lover of Souls; I thank Thee for this opportunity to give mercy in thanksgiving for all the mercies Thou hast shown me. Amen.

Heart of Jesus, once in agony, have mercy on the dying...."

A cavern rattling roar rips through the air, sending dust and pebbles raining from the ceiling. Olivier cringes.

If Ariella transports herself up there, she'll appear outside the hole, just on the tail end of a streaming, golden tail. It wings up, only its massively clawed feet and tail visible under the low hanging clouds.

Ari shivers as the unique smell of dragon surrounds her as she appears above, next to the hole. Okay. Big dragon. Her eyes immediately dart for this shelter of stones.

The rocks are much more than Olivier indicated; a soaring pyramid pierces the clouds, composed of solid white blocks that rake the sky with light. Now and again they shimmer, and in their brief translucence the orb can be seen whirling from within.

Trenton, appearing near Ariella, admires it. "Wow," he notes, "That's a fuckin' big triangle."

"I'm afraid to undermine it," Ari admits--whispering to avoid being heard, "so as to not crush this 'orb,' but...I may be able to move enough to get inside and retrieve it that way."

She breathes out and, still bathed in that shimmering demi-invisibility, gazes hard at the structure, looking for a wy to remove them without collapsing what's above. Finally, she sees a formation she thinks will support itself in an arch-like way, and jumps up towards it. The first stone she flings a blue rune at, and tries to toss a red one to the ground below to move it.
The stone winks away, reappearing exactly where Ari had thrown the second rune.

Trenton smiles. "that's a handy stick," he notes. "It can't be more than a few deep."

A shadow passes overhead about then; a drake wings into sight, hissing and screaming its indignation, and swoops around the pyramid, searching for its lost prey.

Ari sucks in her breath, and tosses another rune, and the red one to the ground, and intends to start following with each deeper and deeper block in quick succession. She knows for a fact that dragons have a very nice sense of smell.

The drake sniffs, and screams, but doesn't attack Ariella. it dives, swooping past her, mouth fiery in its approach of something else.

Shigoriath.

The lich in training shambles toward them, surrounded by a flowing green mist of gnats and gases that keep the drake at bay. the orb is only a few blocks from Ariella, now.

Ari's eyes widen, and she pales. Oh no...on no.

She sucks in her breath, and just works faster. Finally, the last block blinks aside, and she reaches hurriedly for the orb without checking for traps or any such.

There are no traps. That is to say, no damaging ones. As soon as her hand touches the grape-fruit sized thing, the mountain trembles with the sun dragon's roar. Clouds part as it wings around, searching for the threat but still hidden in the haze of sky.

Shigoriath plods on. The drake shoots into the sky, screeching all the way up to the gargantuan forepaw's smashing into it, sending the creature spinning out of control tdown the mountainside. The golden paw clenches, and the clouds part.

"God save us," Trenton quivers at the glimmering, armored dragon above. "It's like a goldamn jumbo jet's giant mother."

Flecks of dragon saliva splash to the ground; it is in every sense a traditional western dragon, titanic and evil in construction, its black eyes singing with fire burning deep inside its skull. The long neck whips back and forth, seeking the intruder but finding nothing.

Ari's eyes widen. She breathes out slowly...and a bright, gleaming, illusionary orb materializes just in front of Shigoriath, at about hand level.

And she prays.

The lich sees it. He starts to reach for it, but suddenly draws back, flowing away from the orb as if the ground had lobbed him backward.

The sun dragon's paw smashes into the ground, bursting through to Olivier's cave over where Shigoriath had stood.

"Hurry up," Trenton calls, "let's get that thing and Olivier and get out of here!"

Ari sucks in her breath, and nods. She shoves the real orbe under her shirt and crawls back out through her tunnel through the stones...casts a rune back down the hole to land safely...and is running for the entrance as quickly. Possibly safer inside, though it's not a sure thing.

"Yes. Much of the running now pleasethankyou!"

The dragon's maw lunges for her, blocking out the sunlight, and its front fangs clash together, just missing Ariella as she vanishes and reappears inside the cavern.

Olivier beams at her. "You got it? That was... impressively fast."

"Yes, I'm good." She's mostly joking, but harried and under pressure. Smiles faintly. "What's the best way out of here now?"

Olivier shrugs. "Not the way you came in, I'm sure. I can transport you home, but to give you the light you must take me with you. In days past Ulalume brought a servant with her for me to possess, but you have not. At the same time, someone must continue the work I do in this mountain."

Ari bites her lip, and cringes when a chunk of rock falls from the ceiling. "I don't know who could, though..." she admits, cringing. "I'm the only one here, except Trenton, and he has a family..."

"I could return him to life with the orb's power, but this would consume its strength for a long time. Months. I could not help you, then." Olivier's voice is not without hesitation. He can see trenon, too, and knows what it's like to be the one left behind all too dearly.

Ari's silent. Thinks. "And...that would you trapped here too, right...?"

"Yes, unfortunately." Olivier loops his thumbs into his waistband.

Trenton hangs his head a little.

"Get the spell and go, Ariella," he says to her, and shoulders his instrument.

Ari closes her eyes a few moments. She's thinking. Of her parents. Her friends. Her home...of her patriotism, and the one of her birth. How far away she is now. But...well. She's a soldier. It was always a possibility.

"I...no. No." She opens her eyes. They gleam a little, but evenly. Resolute. "Olivier, I respect you tremendously and...know it's a personal decision for you too and that you've been trapped here, but...my friend new the risks of everything he was involving himself with when he took on the Golden Spell project. And I...I deserve death a thousand times over for my sins. But Trenton...he's the only one who wasn't. He just wanted to help me, only came to keep a near stranger out of danger. Please..."

She closes her eyes. Her tons is a strange fusion of resolute and near-pleading.

"...Please, bring Trenton back."

"Bullshits," Trenton is quick to interrupt. "Bull..."

But the magic is already flowing out of the orb. Trenton's ghost vanishes, and Ariella should begin to feel a swell of light warming her to the core; the golden spell, the real one, a hundred times the power of Rasputin's fake flooding into her every entrance. At the same time, she may realize her body is fading, becoming ghostly like Olivier's... as his own regains substance.

Ari's increasingly ephemeral eyes widen...before they close, softly. A soft, accepting smile has played at the edges of her lips...yeah. Yeah, it's...appropriate. Far more than her death, even. She just stands quietly, waiting.

Olivier, nearly fully substantiated, smiles at her. "Someone will come for you," he assures her, "sooner, rather than later. I will see to it. Until then, I promise to find your friend and restore him. If you have words... you have about fifteen seconds."

She smiles a bit, nods once. "Thank you. My friend is in an Inn in Dublin. He goes by John, or Rasputin. Is Trenton okay? And...don't be too surprised, at Julen's queen..."

Olivier nods, but blinks. "Quee...?"

He's gone, in the next instant, and Ariella is left to teh cavern, and an orb that has lost its light. The dragon, above has gone quiet, apparently having given up the chase.

Shigoriath peers into the cavern below.

Ari just gazes thoughtfully at the used orb. She feels...at peace. Like she's begun to make some atonement. Trenton is safe...she trusts Olivier implicitly. A great man had been freed, Rasputin is safe, she isn't about to...well...die?

She supposes she isn't dead, anyway.

Now she has time to just...mediate, and pray. For forgiveness, and...for her friends. She has time. Olivier had said something about 'his work' here...perhaps she would be helping the people of this realm with the spell as he had been, to work for the good of others. She can make up for her transgressions that way, or begin to.

Yeah. This will work.

She looks up at Shigoriath from where she stands alone...and just smiles. "You missed it. Sorry."

The lich growls a hollow growl. He turns, and shambles off, defeated today.