A place not located on any map, or in any book at all. This maze exists between the streams of time, and was created by Ansendul as a home base for his return to the world. It is thick with passageways and corridors of pure magic, where just about anything is possible. In most of the common areas, where folks live here, time passes normally. The bulk of the maze, as well as a few common rooms, experiences time in a hyper-exaggerated state: entrants may spend days inside these areas, only to come back out a few minutes later. For lifespan purposes none who enter age. The maze is meant to be a game, after all.



First Millenium
Second Millenium
Third Millenium


Felina is all business when they get back to the maze. "The gauntlet's been thrown," she crisply informs Orrin, who happens to be the first person she sees. "We need everyone mobilized in no more than fifteen minutes."

The dumen nods. "It'll be ten." And starts off the other way at a run. War isn't for "I'm so bloody casual" posturing, after all.

Felina looks to Ai, also nearby. "Are Mara and Yoru back? And what was she screaming about Meir'cillus?"

Ai shakes hre head. "Not yet. But Meir'cillus is in his room with Rey'deyono."

"I see." Nods a bit. "Mara, where are you?"

"I'm coming, I'm coming, Fel, I'm trying but he's not making it easy! Yoru should be there any second, though."

Ai blinks. Steps to her left, just in time to catch a poof-appear-and-falling-armless Yoru. Or rather, catch a bubble of water containing said Yoru, half-asleep and boiling in her own healing magic.

"Hang on, Mara...and help me out." Felina's fingertips press together, expression far away. A teleportation spell is trying to link she and Mara...Mara's the only one who can activate it, and it won't effect someone she's touching. A ribbonlike waver on the psychic spectrum dangles flows near the nether serinian...she needs to grab it and apply her own power to activate it.

"Fel... he got me..."

Still, Mara's signature flows, her energy spiking to activate the spell. A dash of wisps and the scent of absolute nothingness floods over the throne room for a second, and only a second.

Mara appears in a wink, lying on the floor, convulsing in a growing puddle of blood. Ai covers her mouth with her hands, unable to look. 

Mara's hand rests over an aperture in her midsection, still smoldering.

Felina's at her side nearly as quickly. Her face remains more or less impassive aside from a slight softening, though people who know her well could read something different. "It's all right, Mara, you're okay now," she observes, hands pressing gently to either side of the wound, alight with healing magic. "You with me...?"

"Yup," Mara nods, eyes glassy, but her smile present as usual. "Meir'cillus fucking shot me."

"According to Ai, Meir'cillus is still here...we've got something royally weird going on here." Pause. Looks over to Yin and Revilier. "You two, with your spell. Come over here, please."

Revilier looks at Yin. He can't remember the last time he really felt subservient, but this is the latest. He heads toward Mara, who's tremors indicate the onset of shock, and holds out his hand, lit with gold.

Ai just watches, looking at Mara-kuru. She's barely paid a bit of attention to Yin, yet.

Felina smiles just a bit at them as they approach--Yin is just a step behind her lover, bows her head slightly, and steps back. Unless she misses her mark, that spell of theirs is far more potent than anything she could manage without draining herself pretty badly, which they can't afford right now.

Not that she wouldn't, if it meant Mara's life. "Thank you." "Meir'cillus, I need to talk to you immediately. We're in the blue corridor."

The drow doesn't answer at first. He, and presumably Rey'deyono, are nearby thanks to Orrin's shouting.

Mara's wound begins to seal over beneath Yin and Revilier's combined spell, and the redheaded Serinian closes her eyes. 

"Just gonna sleep now," Mara purrs, "gonna wake up tomorrow."

This as Meir'cillus half-jogs into the room. "What's so blasted important?"

"Next room," Felina nods. Smiles a bit at Revilier and Yin. "Thank you both, so much." Stands, and heads back to the door Meir'cillus is nearest too, to head away from the others. The last thing they need is conspiracy theory circulating around.

The drow lets her walk past. Heaven help him, but she's got to be kidding. Off to the principal's office? Still, he follows along, unwilling to cause trouble. Yet.

"Two things. First, we likely get to go to war now. Will get to that in a moment. Second, I didn't want to start in front of the others, to avoid circulating a conspiracy rumor I don't think has merit, exactly." She turns to look at him. "You saw Mara twitching on the floor, I'm sure. And and armless Yoru. According to Mara, you did that."

Meir'cillus considers this. "Well. You see me standing here. Decide for yourself if I could have accomplished that." He's not as annoyed as he might be, considering. But Felina ought to know better than to think he could have hurt Mara that badly without getting pasted to something.

She nods. Believes him. "Do you have any inkling at all as to why whatever assaulted her and Yoru took that appearance?"

"Not in the slightest. I imagine they know just as well as you how limited my powers are compared to the rest of the people here." And it chafes the hell out of him, too. "They would not be so foolish as to try a double and then expose it so easily."

She nods thoughtfully, gazing at the ceiling a few moments, before looking back to the drow. "In other news, Lilith's people got Alouette, whatever that will mean. Ran into Shigoriath. He called me out on whether I was going to 'break my promises.' I made it clear that with all the shit they've pulled, they're already broken. So, the truce is shattered on all official channels. We need intelligence on this mystery 'you' of theirs, which Shigoriath cited as more powerful than me and I'm inclined to believe, to quickly finalize preparation for offensive assault, and to be ready to repulse the same. I'm going to open channels with Pretender and Stasiel immediately and see where alliances and troop support are possible, and also quit dancing with Mi'ehna and hers. They need to make a decision, now, on how they're goign to react to Moorn coming back, because that is going to happen within a few hours. My gut tells me that we won't win otherwise."

So Meir'cillus is officially out as commander. He wondered how long it would take. Fine, then. This Moorn could be capable, or an idiot. Or both, Meir'cillus could not care less.

"Lovely. You had best decide how you plan on cutting out their heart, then. Morale cannot be so high that all of their soldiers will fight after the leader is killed."

Felina nods. "Top priority, for sure. Is there anything you need from me?"

"Me? Why in the world are you asking me?" Meir'cillus glances down the hall. "Killing Lilith is a job for someone with the power to do so. The rest of us are better off as decoys for her forces."

"Not for that, specifically. With all that needs to be done, offense and defense preparation, I need to know if there's anything you need from me before I run off pursing the Moorn, divine/infernal, and intel things."

"This place is impregnable. We'll be fine." Meir'cillus fights to keep from tapping his foot.

Felina nods. "Keep me posted, then." Turns, and heads off towards where Mi'ehna, her father, and Quava are staying. It's not like they don't have a damned good reason to kill something at the mention of the phrase 'dream thief.'

Meanwhile, Yin finally finds a makeup cloth to wipe her bloody hands on. Is just a touch somber. Okay. So...this really is a war. This is shaken off neatly, though. A war, but...she is career military, and in one nasty-ass corner of it at that. Looks over to the goddess present. Appraises her up and down once with ice blue eyes. Sure enough, in terms of facial structure sans the horns, they could be twins. "So. You must be Ai."

"I am," the goddess answers back. Even their voices, sans inflection, are quite similar. "And you are Yin. I wish we oculd have met under better circumstances." Ai holds out her hand, something she would normally not consider doing for anyone she would call 'mere'.

She takes it, of course. "Likewise. A pleasure."

Dewei, at this point, walks in, sipping some tea to try to wake up. Stops. Blinks. Looks at Yin, then Ai, then Yin, then back again. "Um. Ai. This is another one of those 'definitely not in the boyfriend manual' things. Am I allowed to think she's hot?"

In perfect, unplanned unison, Ai and Revilier snap "hell no!" They look at each other. Revilier looks at Dewei.

"Well, maybe we can compromise."

The mutt snickers. "Just checking. Also, hadn't been in enough trouble yet for the day." Sips his tea, looking between the virtual twins. "So. Does anyone know just why you ladies look so similar? It reeks of more than coincidence...even your signatures are similar."

Yin's palms upturn. "No one tells me anything. Lately I answer 'okay' when someone says 'hey, here comes some freaky-ass, logic-bending, science-breaking scary fun time!'"

"I couldn't say," Ai shrugs her shoulders. "She is from a different time than I, though. Perhaps we are related somehow."

"Hell of a set of in-laws," Revilier notes.

"And to think you're choosing to be associated with this," the dragoon smirks back at him.

Dewei, meanwhile, has set his tea aside and is heading over to check on his aunt. Ting has been busily helping Yoru fix herself since the blue-eyed serinian's return.

Mara's eyes have closed, but she sleeps peacefully on the floor of the throne room. The golden spell has absolutely done the trick. Ai has been wondering about it, actually.

"That spell you two cast," she asks, going to join Dewei by Mara's side. "What is it?"

"A healing spell. Very useful on the road." Yin glances to Revilier. She still pretty much always follows his calls on what to say or do about the spell's specifics, considering how closely it's safeguarded.

Reviliier nods. That's about right.

Ai considers it. "I wonder how it works exactly, but I should ask about all of that later." She looks away. "Where did Felina get to?"

"I think," Ting purrs, finally patting Yoru's head through the water and rocking back and forth in her squatting position, "she went to go round up Quava and Mi'ehna and Drianis and talk to them about bringing your dad back 'cause it can't wait anymore and she needs to know where they think they should be for it so we don't all blow up."

"Oh." Ai nods, smiling closed-eyed, Ting style. "You two will enjoy my father. I don't think you've ever met anyone like him before."

"Considering how far we're probably in over our heads, I'm sure not," Yin acknowledges. No idea, really, where to go or what, if anything, they should be doing.

Ting, meanwhile, wiggles behind a certain zombie, and pounces him solidly. Magic cushions the fall enough for nothing to break off, and she pins him amusedly. "You," she informes crusty-ears, "are a serianian. I've never met a serinian zombie before, nope! What's your name?"

Menayen goes down, of course.

"Menayen," he nods, covering his mouth if he can. "And I am in no shape to be this close to hotness."

"Aww...so you weren't a zombie before you ran into the creepy crawlie bastard of doom, huh?" She grins and fluffs his hair. "Cheer up, fluffy. It's not so bad! Mom can fix you up when she thinks she can spare the energy or Dewei and I can when we can." Titters, taking a little bit to carfully think through a spell that will restore the surface of his face and body. It's a much simpler matter than actually bringing him back.

Jumps off him, pushes him up and back to a sitting position--Ting's a little forward, after all--and sets to this. It's a much simpler process than actually restoring him to full life. Beams. "Besides! My best friend's a zombie and we're all freaks here anyway."

Menayen just closes his eyes. He's so lost right now, he can't even comment on the fact that he is where he is.

Yoru's water bubbles evaporates quite abruptly in the midst of all this, and a fully-functional third-persona speaking Serinian falls to her feet.

"Yoru," she announces, "has returned."

"We're very pleased for this!" Ting giggles. "Hi, Yoru! Also, help me! See, he's got pretty skin now but no hearbeat so we need to put the color back in it without the blood?"

"Hm?" Yoru glances that way, only after giving Yin and Revilier a bright Yoru smile. "Oh. Well, bring him here. Yoru has the medicine." She rolls up imaginary sleeves and holds out her hands, drawing another bubble of crystal clear water between her palms.

Ting beams, bounces to her feet, gets behind Kaz, and gently lifts him up to there too under the arms. "Upsy-daisy, Menayen! Seriously, it's not that big a deal. Temporary, and kinda cool!" Purrs--for his sake, Spot isn't as callous or stupid as either of these fronts--and wanders over to Yoru with him.

Yin's just shaking her head a little. Can't help it. These people are unreal.

Menayen doesn't really react. Just hangs kind of limp in Ting's hands, even when Yoru surrounds him in the bubble of water.

Yoru snickers a bit. "You can do things with ice, Yoru thinks. Why does girl-who-looks-like-I find it so odd that she shakes her head?"

Yin smirks sheepishly. "Out of my element. Ice or not, we're quite a bit more accustomed to technology. It's bizarre as all hell to see everyone running around with this, that, and the other magic-thing like it's nothing."

Ting giggles, and beams at her. "You get used to it! It's kind of weird to have a dragon tied to your mindscape, too, you know."

"Touche."

"Gesundheit," Yoru smiles. "Ooh." She sets Menayen, suddenly fast asleep in the bubble, on the ground and lets him bounces a bit. "Yoru must talk to everyone about Meir'cillus, Tingy."

"Everyone us-everyone or everyone 'see you in a bit' everyone?"

"Everyone us-everyone," Yoru nods. "Meir'cillus cut his hair and then shot Mara-kuru and Yoru-kuru. Yoru was looking at the water planet for Meir'cillus's birds, and found them, and him, and he was wearing this black scale armor that sort of reverse-glowed you know? And he had a bow."

"A bow? Scale armor?" Ting blinks. "That doesn't sound so much like our Meir'cillus. And I just saw him! What do you think was up with that guy? And if he wasn't Purpley, why did he look like him?"

"Yoru has no idea, but she knows that Meir'cillus was strong. Strong strong. Felina strong." She nods again. "Also, he said his name was Xen'tal, but he looked like Meir'cillus."

"That sounds familiar, but I can't think of why." Ting ponders this. Actually, though this doesn't occur to her, she'd probably accidentally picked up on the idle thought from Meir'cillus at some point. "We should ask him, yus! Or maybe Rey she's usually got time for everyone?"

"Er...is Menayen okay stuck in a water bubble?" Yin interrupts, concerned.

"Yoru knows Meir'cillus has a temper temper. She..." pauses. Looks at Yin. "Why wouldn't he be?" she asks, as if the physics of it never really occurred to her.

Blink. "Um. Breathing-related reasons?"

Yoru looks at Menayen, whose body occasionally jerks from the healing energies.

"Breathing is fun, but only in moderation," she notes.

Blink. "Just for clarification. He's not currently dying, right? Er. Or whatever zombies do."

"No. He is undying! Although he will not be undead when he un-dies. Perhaps he is re-dying, and then re-lifing." Yoru looks at Ting, confusion entering her enigmatic eyes. "Something."

"Ah. Right then. Thanks?"

"Oh, cool! You're actually fixing fixing him? Thankya, Yoru!" This calls for a pounce. So, Ting pounces.

Yoru, having learned something about pouncing from Mara, quite abruptly surrounds herself in water before tumbling with a hopefully-soaked Ting.

Eep! And the wide-eyed, thwarted half-feline lands on the floor with a pose, expression, and dripping, flattened hair that make her look remarkably like a kitten who just discovered the meaning of the word "sprinkler." "Ah...right then!" Giggles. "Let's go find Rey." And she scampers off, actually starting out on all fours a couple steps before fully rising and hopping along normally.

... and she very nearly runs into a somewhat rattled Meir'cillus.

"Watch where you go!" he snaps.

Ting blinks. "Can't! Eyes only cover maybe 130 degrees? 140? Or so? But I have a question for you! I was going to ask Rey 'cause she's nicer but does name 'Xen'tal' sound familiar at all?"

"That is my given name. How do you know it?" She has Meir'cillus's scowling, narrow-eyed attention.

"Oh! Yoru says that the guy who looked like you and attacked her and Mara and he carried a bow and creepy armor and was stronger than my mom? He said his name was Xen'tal, and...hey, wait a sec. You talked to him then, right Yoru?" She looks back to the technically-youngest construct. "What all did he say, anyway?"

"Oh. He said, 'Tell your army to abandon the fruitless pursuit of a life to which mortals have no entitlement," Yoru reports, voice deepening into a hardened, regretful clone of Meir'cillus's. "This is the only warning I will allow. Tell them Xen'tal Yerosyn will be the only name they will ever remember if they do not stand down. This is to be this existence's anagnorisis." Yoru beams.

Ting blinks. "What the fluff is an anagnorwhosis?"

Meir'cillus groans. "It is a dramatic convention. It means tragic enlightenment, read a play."

"Plays don't usually have pictures," Ting informs. Nods. "Wait wait. So." Blinks. "Is he saying he...likes mortals, or doesn't like them? Cause I thought Lilith reeeally didn't care so much for them especially humans?"

"Yoru did not understand either. He was very cryptic. Short. But cryptic." Yoru smiles again.

Ting giggles. Short jokes are always funny. "Soo...uh. Uh." Nods. "Either he said...stop pursuing life for mortals 'cause they don't deserve it? Or he said stop pursuing a universal order where mortals get the short straw and I'm a zealot." Looks at Meir'cillus. "Dude! Get inside your head! Which one was it?"

Meir looks at her. "I'm a mortal, you bone head. I would not imagine I would want to destroy myself."

"Just 'cause you are," Ting points out, waggling a finger, "dunnit mean that he is! If he's that powerful, he could have been physiologically changed too. Ai hasn't always been full-blooded goddess, didja know that?" Blinks. "But if he does like mortals, why's he workin' for Lilith? All of the mortal commanders are on this side."

Okay, so she meanders a bit. To get something useful out of Ting's head, you need to keep a chart.

"Then it would make sense that he agrees with her."

Yoru looks at Meir'cillus, pondering him. "You," she smiles, "have a point. Yoru does not really know, though. He's a problem."

"Wait so it would...gah. Nevermind. I'm not the strategist. I hit stuff! Speaking of which is there anythign I'm s'posed to be doing about now?" Most of her orders come from her mother, but she gets them from the drow, too.

"Ask your mother," Meir almost barks.

Ting blinks. "Someone needs some whiiiskey." Snickers, and trots off in search of Yue.

"So. Phased by centipede creeps and nothing else. Also, I think we could solve the energy crisis by hooking her up to a generator," Yin observes softly to her lover, amused.

"If we got her a giant hamster wheel, she might even enjoy it," Revilier thinks out loud.

Yin snickers at the mental picture...mostly because of the earlier "soaked kitten" mental picture. "Where do you suppose we should go next? I've never been in a situation like this where I didn't have a specific job. I'm not the kind of military who ever has to cooperate with anyone else."

"I can't say. It feels like we were invited just in time to miss the briefing."

Meir'cillus marches towards them, looking perturbed as usual. 

"Who in hell are you?"

"Lost," the dragoon observes. "I'm Yin. This is Revilier."

"Meaningless. But then, you have arrived at a dangerous time. I hear we are about to go to war." The drow shoulders past Revilier, who tries hard not to stuff the little bastard and slug him.

"Fair enough." She very consciously avoids smirking at the large wyvern trying not to squish the tiny little purple-grey thing. "Overt warfare would be almost refreshing compared to the vague and varried prods and manipulations we've been dealing with. Though we're still trying to figure out why we're here."

"Best we know," Ai interrupts, ignoring Meir'cillus, "is that you have a role to play. So far that has meant stealing people of consequence away from our enemy, Lilith, who is the mother of monsters. Nothing like you have ever seen, I would wager." And she's aware of what happened in grimoire. She won't consider them anything more than newbies until they've truly fought with something at least as horrifying as Shal'ahn Min's golden gargoyle Aurlamet. Ai only just lost the limp from their last encounter.

"I believe it. So. Anyone have any idea what that role is, or am I understanding right to say 'no one has any idea, just here so you're not there for her side'?" Yin brushes back her hair idly. Wonders, really, why she's not getting a virtual interrogation trying to figure out just what skills she might have.

"No idea. So far, things just seem to work out for the best when we do that for a person." Ai lifts her head, gazing down the hall. "I'm sure you'll get a more thorough explanation later. For now, meet another one of us." She nods to Yin's rear, where the Malufel is lumbering towards the throne in search of something to do.

Yin stiffens. It's that overseer thing? ...No. But damned close. Bigger, too. "Lovely to make the acquaintence, I'm sure." Cognac.

"Yin. Revilier. This is the Malufel." Ai feels sort of special to announce the monster, somehow. "The genuine article, too. This is no pup."

Revilier finds himself moving in front of Yin a little bit. Force of habit, even if she has a better fights to ass kickings ratio.

"'Pup?' Referring to the one we crossed paths with?" She's grateful, she is. She loves that Revilier is protective of her, to just the right extent.

"So I have been lead to believe. This handsome fellow," here Ai, who has long since lost her fear of the monster, pats the Malufel's enormous shoulder, "is the hand of god. Aren't you?"

The Malufel's head opens, and it sniffs Ai. Sniffs Yin and Revilier, too.

"You two can find facilities and food if you need it, down that hall," Ai points. "You may get on better with Leilia than with the strange folks inhabiting this area."

"Er...nice to meet you," she repeats when sniffed. Still apprehensive as hell, and damned that the thing probably smells it. "Leilia? Why's that?"

"Oh." Ai pats the monster's arm again. "She's human. You like humans, right?" As if she's talking about a cat or dog.

"Sure." Yin smiles, fangs glinting. "They're delectable." She can't help herself. Smartass to the end.

Revilier chuckles, too. Ai smiles, but it's a thoughtful smile.

"No biting her. Unless she asks." She waggles a finger at them. "Or else I bite you both." Smiles sweetly.

Revilier whistles.

Yin elbows him. "Clean, pure thoughts, else soprano." Smirks up at the wyvern, then looks back to Ai. "Nah, humans are okay. I have enough blood on me to last weeks, anyway."

Ai's smiles sweetens a little, becoming almost Yue-esque.

"Do tell," she purrs. "Anyway. Please do not go 'round opening doors here. You're quite likely to end up a thousand years from now if you do."

Blinks. "We'll...nevermind. I'm not even going to try. No wandering where we're not supposed to, check. Anything else for the moment? Protocols, signals to know, whatever?" It is military, after all.

"Be polite, avoid Meir'cillus, get to the point with Felina, prepare for tangents with Mara-kuru and Ting, my Dewei hands off, if you chat with Yoru be prepared to be listened very intently to, Yue you've met of course, Orrin is perfectly polite and a lovely dream himself, Ansendul will pay you no attention, Ichenrei will... love you, actually, Mi'ehna will study you and then go absolutely bonkers, Quava will paint you, sometimes on a canvas, Drianis will say something stoic and good guy ish, Tel-tiono will listen but won't answer unless you directly ask a question, as will Rey'deyono. Leilia will sleep. I think that does it." Ai smiles some. "Maybe."

"I think that's plenty to get started," Yin assures. "It sounds like an...ecclectic" crazy as fuck "crew around here."

"We are quite varied. We have nothing in the way of rank and file here, save for Felina lording over everyone whether they like it or they do."

"She's pretty disliked, then?"

Ai leans against her fist, thinking about that. "I would not say that. She's resented in ways by a few of us. Business Felina is universally disliked, while everyday Felina is practically adored. I think the feeling toward her is good, though."

"I see." Yin nods a bit, considering this. "Well, thank you, Ai. Nice meeting you, I'm sure we'll be seeing plenty of one another."

"Yes indeed," Ai flutters. "I hope so." She takes the Malufel's arm and leads it back down the hall to play, probably with cards or something. It's actually damned good at gin.

And slap, but that goes without saying.

Dewei, meanwhile has just finished gathering his aunt out of a mess of blood to get her back to her room at get her cleaned up. After all, anyone who's known Mara for more than three hours has seen her naked.


Yin, meanwhile, takes Revilier's arm quietly, and heads off in the general direction Ai had indicated when mentioning this Leilia person, for lack of anything better to do.


Revilier walks with her. Everything's just so busy right now, it's hard to keep up.

Down twisted, rocky corridors they go. it's a reasonable walk to the first door, but Revilier stops Yin just before they enter.

"Listen," he pauses. "Someone's singing."

The sound of boiling water and frying fails to cover a soft, sprightly and still tortured singing voice, a churchy alto that whistles clear, if amateur.

"A flash, then freeze,
a drawing's dance in motion
pushing hips,
to lips,
a pearl-pink blending
in sight, and sound,
you're leaping from the page
to take my hand,
my hips,
and blend your mouth
to my kiss..."

Revilier listens. "Wanna interrupt?"

She nods a bit. "Yeah." It sounds like she could use it, really.

Revilier nods. Pokes his head into the kitchen to a squeak of surprise in the middle of the word 'bristled'. 

"Who are you? I'm armed, stay back!" Leilia, inside, instinctively reaches for a gun she no longer has.

"We're new," Yin notes, peeking from behind him. Pauses. Evalutes quickly. "...did you just try to draw a gun? I thought everyone was into medieval weaponry around here."

Leilia relaxes a little. Oh good. More freaks. "I don't have powers like everyone else, so. Sorry. I'm Leilia Bairen." She doesn't approach. "Former starship captain, sniper, and current, um... cook."

"Nice to meet you. Honestly, I thought it was nice. Guns I can deal with. I'm weirded out as all hell by all of this, honestly. Magic and demons and...well. Give me something with a trigger or an off-switch any day."

Leilia looks her over. Looks at Revilier. "But you're not human, either," she observes.

"Nope. There are four races where we're from. Mostly humans, but minorities of others. He's a wyvern, I'm an ice dragoon." Smirks a little. "Most dragons can do a bit with a given element, but it's mostly bout technology these days. I Specialize in hard infiltration, thank you. Security systems I can deal with. We dont' have space trvel, though. That's kind of trippy."

"I won't hold it against you," Leilia smiles as she says. "I don't have an arm teddy." Looks at Revilier. "He's military, too."

He nods. "That obvious?"

"On anyone else, that haircut would look queer."

Yin smirks. "What, it doesn't?" Grins at Revilier. She thinks his hair's hot.

"Perhaps a bit. Hungry?" Leilia glances at her pots. "All I do here is cook. So I'm improving." There's a hint of regret in that statement.

"I'm not. Revilier probably is, though. Right?" She looks to the wyvern.

"Not life-alteringly so. I could eat, though." Looks at the pots. "What have you got?"

"Soup," Leilia says. "Look."

"It smells very good," The vampiress observes. "And...I wouldn't worry about it too much, Cap. It sounds like combat's coming, I'm sure you'll have your fill soon." Smiles, and seats herself delicately at the table.

"uh huh, with monsters that could kill me with a breath. Looking forward to it." Leilia sits, but not too close to Yin. "Sorry. I have no idea what I'm doing here."

"Join the club. I have a backpack full of ammunition, but that only goes so far against the kind of people I've been running into lately. Hopefully there's some rhyme or reason to it. I'm Yin, by the way."

"Sorry. Leilia." She smiles just a little bit. Watches Revilier serve himself a bowl of soup. "Sorry. I told you that. The only solace I'm taking in all of this is we'll probably all die fast."

"What makes you say that?" Yin inquires. She's already feeling bad about their chances after talking to Ai, actually, but wants all the information they can get.

Retrieves a flask from her bag and uncaps it...mostly because Revilier understandably feels awkward eating with her just sitting there staring, so she's gotten into the habit of having just a little bit whenever he does.

"They don't have world wars where you're from?" Leilia ignores the flask. She's seen it all, by this point, and being female is all that's prevented her from calling herself a grizzled veteran. She does occasionally, anyway.

"We've had two. Well...two, one point five under the surface, and quite a few narrowly averted." Of course she knows about all of them. One courtesy of Millarca, of course.

"This is what this is, only cosmic. And some of the weapons in it go way past the nuclear bombs of what your clothes suggest were the greatest weapons of your time. Go far beyond the anti matter cannons of mine."

"Time's right." She nods affirmation. Kinda. "So...you're thinking that more or less everyone on every side of this is going to suffer and/or croak."

"Basically." Leilia glances again at Revilier. "Although. His clothes suggest a fear of sandstorms and genies. They have a genie, by the way."

Yin snickers, and smirks at the wyvern. "I love the view of the chest. But other than that, the clothes are a fluke and long story." Pauses, sipping her blood. "For the record, I should be more weirded out to hear the phrase 'they have a genie' than I am."

"Not if you've been here more than a few minutes. They have demons, undead monstrosities, a lich, a smoke monster, a golden gargoyle, a creepy-ass assassin fish monster, the genie, a woman that claims to be the matriarch of every sick ass monster in existence, and a fortress in hell."

"And we have...?" Sips, still smiling faintly.

"Sorcerers, clerics, monsters, gods, cat-people, an incubus, me, and this fucked up palace."

The vampiress smiles. "Lithium carbonates all around?"

"Children," a somewhat rattled Yoru calls from the hall, "we have a situation. You may want to come with Yoru and see in the throne room."

Uh-oh. Expression fades a bit. Glances to Revilier as she stands. She's wondering whether, in their desire for answers, they put themselves in a situation where they're going to die.

Leilia rises, too. Turns off her burners.

"Don't worry," she assures them. "There's always a situation.  Come on." And she strides ahead, leaving Revilier to quickly finish his food and be done with the bowl.

"You heard the blue haired weirdo."

She smirks. "Doesn't a word like 'weirdo' kind of lose all its power in a place like this?"

"Touche."

---

Minutes later, once Yoru feels she has successfully bothered everyone, she sits primly on the stairs near the throne. Ansendul sits there, of course, straight and tall. Yue is nowhere to be seen, of course.

"The enemy," Ansendul booms when he feels all are gathered, "is moving. The forces of Pretender and Stasiel have come under fire in the last fifteen minutes, being attacked on their own home ground. As of right now, Lilith's forces have been modest-- almost entirely composed of Shigoriath's monstrosities."

Felina listens quietly nearby, face serious and bemused. This lovely detail had been uncovered, of course, when she'd tried to contact the two parties in question about alliance and three-way organized maneuvering against Lilith.

Ting has grudgingly removed herself from Yue's presence again. She helps him sleep, she knows it, so she's been hanging out near the incubus. Everyone else, at least the ones who are an active part of the military aspects of this group, is accounted for.

"For some reason, Shigoriath has placed himself at the forefront of the assault. This of course means his phylactery has been spirited someplace safe. However, I fear Asiba Ganorn's been busy with the thing, weaving spells into it. Right now, Shigoriath is not threat to the most powerful of us. In time, he will be. Even so, we have a more pressing matter at hand." Ansendul looks to his side, at a glowing wisp of light.

"At Felina's assertion I dispatched spies to a water planet nearby," the faerie explains. "There is a drow there, or he was. He calls himself Xen'tal Yerosyn and is identical to Meir'cillus in most superficial aspects."

Yoru smiles, despite herself. "Yoru feels that this Meir'cillus is another dimension's Meir'cillus."

"His nether double is accounted for and not nearly as powerful," Felina notes. "This looks far more like a parallel universe situation. A fairly distant one as characterized by some different life choices, different opportunities, and a different timeframe. From Yoru's memories, this fellow isn't simply powerful, he controls a solid percentage of it. That almost certainly indicates greater age."

"I have peered into his past," Ansendul adds. "Your lives were identical up to a point in his parallel," this he says to an impatient and annoyed Meir'cillus. "When you attempted to kill Vayen but ended up hampered by a threat to Rey'deyono's life. In this timeframe, Vayen pulled the trigger instead of using her for leverage. Xen'tal killed him for it."

A pause, and Rey glances aside thoughtfully. This is hard to discern without knowing her well, of course. She makes no comment.

Vayen, meanwhile, is feeling justified in being smarter than his parallel.

Meir'cillus takes her arm over her cloth sleeve. Just looks at Ansendul, though.

"Without her influence in his life, Xen'tal took over Vayen's empire instead of disarming it. Expanded it until it touched every corner of the globe. And then he drained his empire dry along with a creature named Felara, searching for ways to empower and perfect their forms. Xen'tal has lived in that way for eighteen centuries."

"Does he have this Felara woman with him now?" Dewei inquires.

"He did not when he assaulted Yoru. But that is not necessarily the last of it."

Felina folds her hands behind her. "One of the big problems that we're facing right now is a total inability to gauge exactly how powerful he is, what the nature of his power is, and so on. He has to have physiologically changed to support as much power as he does, though I'm loosely theorizing that a deal of it's tied to his weapons or armor as well. Iscovis tried get get a closer look, but was forced back by an unexpected guard. There's even a break in his timeline, a short period where he's unaccounted for and after which the nature of his power changed markedly and after which he began building it far more rapidly. We need recon on him, somehow, whether investigation into his past or a physical infiltration now. He strikes me as energy sensitive but not fully psychic, so it's theoretically possible but despicably dangerous."

"My first thought would be to send Rey'deyono, protected, to him. But from his actions I am afraid he would destroy her out of spite for himself and for a past he can't seem to let go." Ansendul glances at Vayen. "How would you handle him?" He knows it's unusual to ask, but these are unusual times.

Felina listens quietly. Rey...no. Rey'deyono is a valuable wildcard with this fellow, but possibly only at a knee-jerk reaction. Giving him proper time to process his thoughts, she could be in real danger. Also, Meir'cillus would likely finally declare mutiny.

Vayen considers this blandly as he examines his nails. He has a strange fixation with his nails...always clean, always trimmed, always filed. Probably the result of the "bored dictator" thing. "He's new to this alliance with Lilith. Find out why, drive a wedge, and provoke them into fighting each other." Couldn't sound more bored with affairs, really.

"What we risk there," Ai points out, "is assuming how loyal Xen'tal is or isn't. If he's become some kind of mindless killer like Calay, driving a wedge might be next to impossible."

"It is possible, but it seems unlikely," Dewei muses. He's about to observe that Meir'cillus is headstrong...but, since the drow happens to be solidly in an arm's reach, decides against it. "Brainwashed or otherwise misled is possible, but what Yoru described seems intelligent and reasoning. Ai's right. We need to figure out the extent of the loyalty...why he's working for Lilith."

"Any volunteers, though?" Ansendul asks, looking around. Anyone suicidal much?

The drow sorceror flicks a piece of dirt discovered on one pinky nail. "He's already delivered the message he wants heard. Diplomacy won't work. Covert action. He's sensitive to energy, we know that. So send someone who can be hidden entirely, someone without too much power. I believe the new girl was blabbering something about an infiltration specialty."

White eyebrow up. Fuck no.

"Yoru is not sure about that, Vayen," the black-haired Serinian answers. "Yin is awfully strong for a mortal type, but Xen'tal kicked Yoru's and Mara's backsides, yup."

"Of course not. She's one of the weakest people here, he could murder her with a pebble. No one here, as far as we know, is going to 'kick his backside.' So. The new question isn't who can fight him, the new question is who stands the best chance of not being seen to have to. The less powerful the person, the better chance there is of fully concealing them."

"I have reservations about that," Ai puts in. "It's just too dangerous for her."

"As opposed to what? Not getting badly needed information so that all of us die instead?"

Ai lowers her eyes. "I just don't want to sacrifice someone innocent in all of this."

"If you want to play the 'sacrificing innocents' card, then consider what happens if this faction fails." The sorceror shrugs. Not that the idea bothers him. "If Lilith is triumphant, how many 'innocent' humans do you suppose will bleed and die for it? The best chances of success are the most merciful, no matter what they look like from our side."

"Now wait a damn minute," Revilier cuts in, "aren't you all being a little quick to throw her at this guy? It's not as if you've exhausted any other measures."

"He is right," Felina observes finally, referring to the wyvern. "It's one of the better strategies available. However, the chance of success is middling, and that only if Yinxirziji is very good. Our trouble is with the contemporary Xen'tal's power. My suggestion would be not to look into moving against him today, persay, but to head back to that break in his timeline and figure out just what the source and nature of his power is. It won't likely answer why he's aligned with Lilith now, but it will give us the information needed to formulate strategies against him directly. There must be a nick in his proverbial armor."

"'Course," Ting observes, rocking where she sits in an odd mixture of tired and restless, "that doesn't rilly help Pretender and Stasiel right now. Do we help them? Pretender's kind of the reason we're here and she's kind of the person who would hold it against us if we didn't...and we can kinda kiss any alliance stuff on its ass on the way out with both her and Stasiel if we just sit, right?"

"So maybe we split up and handle the threats. But doesn't this smack of a diversion?" This is Yoru speaking again, head down, looking at a comic book.

"A diversion from what?" Felina inquires. She's mostly keeping quiet and letting people talk, or trying to, but knows Yoru well enough to know that you need to ask her to expound if she doesn't immediately. Otherwise there's a lot of awkward waiting and staring.

"Oh. Well. Ansendul said the forces attacking Pretender and Stasiel are Shigoriath's zombies. Yes?"

Ansendul nods.

"And Ansendul is sure about this?"

Another nod.

"Well. Shigoriath can create monsters and losing them does not cost Lilith anything. But they probably have no chance of breaking in and winning a fight with either Pretender or Stasiel." Yoru flips a page. "So obviously it is a feint. Yoru thinks something else will happen. Maybe a surprise attack on them, or us. Or someone else important."

Felina just nods thoughtfully. She has her skills, yes. But the greater strength is being surrounded by people each brilliant in their way. "It raises the question...what all might Lilith want? People are certainly a possibility. Mi'ehna, Malufel, and Ansendul are all supremely desireable from their side...though all but unattainable in the maze. My death, possibly. What other possibilities are there?"

"I don't think she wants death," a quiet Mara-kuru observes. " I think she wants us to join her. Didn't you know? Lenocinant and Shigoriath had a couple of opportunities to kill Revilier over there, if not Yin too. Dinnit."

"Overall, yes, I agree absolutely." Felina smiles a bit. "Pragmatically, though, a few people," her, mostly, "would be far too cumbersome and unlikely to be trustworthy even if observed, while putting them out of commission in some way would be beneficial to her. You're right, that overall she doesn't seem to be going for fatal strikes." Ponders. "Mara, you were hurt quite badly earlier...were you struck in the gut because you started to dodge, or did he aim away from your heart?"

"Hm. I don't really remember too clearly. But I dont' remember dodging!" Mara smiles sheepishly. "I remember thinking he was too fast to dodge much."

Felina nods thoughtfully. Is quiet a few moment. "He was trying to capture you. A non-fatal but thoroughly disabling hit, and his energy was leaving you unable to transport away from your side."

Yin leans on Revilier. Non-fatal. That injury...right. Over their heads.

He puts an arm around her. Even if he doesn't understand either, he's getting there.

"Yoru thinks there must be something worthwhile in Lilith's plans. Otherwise people would not follow her."

"There's always something worthwhile an army's fighting for. Every side. Otherwise no one would fight."

"That's not true," Yoru counters. "Sometimes people fight because they have to. Sometimes they are forced to. Sometimes they do not know better. But these are powerful, smart creatures in Lilith's employ. Yoru thinks they would be able to decide for themselves."

"Your infiltration lasted quite awhile," Felina observes. "Do you have any idea what that something could be?"

Yoru closes her comic book.

"Everything Lilith says is true."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because it is," Yoru nods. She does sort of need to be directed. Mara rolls her eyes.

"What does she say, Yoru?"

"Well," the resident Serinian librarian wannabe pushes a pair of imaginary bifocals up the bridge of her nose, "Lilith says mortals are undeserving of everything they have been given. That is true, they squander. Even elf types squander. She says she was mistreated by mortals. Also true. She was made for a man who scorned her immediately. She says her children are monsters, hated and outcast. That is true too. She says making a new start of things will give her children a chance to be free from mortal influence."

Felina considers this quietly. Ting beats her to it, though. The halfbreed yawns. "Weeell...most of the mortals working for her are like, more than mortal? Like, mixed up, or trying to become gods or whatever, or undead, or whatever. Like how she wanted Yin over there instead of Revilier even though Revilier's hot and has the same spell and is prolly stronger! If this Xen'tal guy is so much stronger than he naturally should be, he's prolly looking to go even higher so feels okay throwing his lot in with Lilith or even if he can't rilly stop being mortal then he's in her good graces if she wins anyway and he gets all his enemies squished and gets spared himself and allies with all the powerful creepy chicks left in the universe which is almost as good?" Breathes. "I gotta remember to breathe."

Yoru considers Ting. "Well," she begins as she often does, "Yoru thinks Lilith has a chance. Lilith is gathering places where she can put marker-things. Like the water planet Yoru visited. Yoru thinks Lilith wants to make a whole new existence, separate but equal. Yoru thinks she is gathering a pantheon."

"It's a possibility...if so, the new concern," Felina observes dryly, "is where the energy for this is going to come from. The power it would take to form an entirely new universe could very well collapse this one." Pause. Looks up. "Or. The majority could be blown off in a cataclysmic battle. Or a repetitive, enormous war." Looks over to the maze's master. "Ansendul, after each of the previous three Armageddons, I don't suppose there was an odd discrepancy, involving most of the latent energy that should have been blown off in attacks or released by the dead, being unaccounted for? Going by the wayside with very few of the complications that should have arisen?"

"The previous battles ended in stalemate," Ansendul responds. "Some lived, many died. You might liken it to a cosmic reset key."

Felina nods. Disturbing concept. "I'm looking at one specific aspect. If I fling a psionic attack at someone, they don't absorb that power, or it would only strengthen them. It connects, and then the latent energy dissipates. There are almost unfathomable number of those attacks and dissipations in every one of these wars...there should be a tremendous amount of latent energy just blanketing everything and waiting for whatever comes next, like the ash after a volcanic eruption. Unless someone were gathering and storing it somehow...for a tremendous project. Like a universe creation. There were marked energy drops in creation after every great war, weren't there? Like, today's deities are just people with bloodlines tracing to before the first or second war, dragons and stronger, highly magical humans are traceable to before the third, and most modern, non-magical human families rose after that. Those, for lack of a better word, 'generational' power differences could be attributed to there being less energy for the rising races to absorb. Because someone's already gathered it all."

"Yue would know," the faerie god answers. "His spirit was someone else's once. His energy sensitivity is far sharper than mine, even. But it is a sickeningly valid point."

"As far as I have seen, such energy recycles. You'll find that creating a sentient from nothing requires far more energy than say, a human mother can produce when birthing a child. There is a hand supplying the extra strength she needs from the offals of the dead."

Revilier just blinks. "That's fucking sick."

Felina nods slowly, considering. "So, what we need now is intelligence. To see whether this is really her plan, before acting on it." Trails off again. Just thinking.

It's actually Rey'deyono who finally speaks again to break a heavy pause, as soft and deliberately spoken as always. "If this is the case, this may cast more concern upon Abyss's decision to assume neutrality against his mother's ends. Abyss is a being unlikely to concern himself overly with still another of these wars, which it will almost certainly transcend ande endure beyond if it so chooses? If Abyss refuses to aid Lilith in her venture, perhaps it has been struck with a bout of conscience, or perhaps Miss Felina's concern about danger to our own existence's well-being is correct."

"Oh," Yoru answers, "Yoru is pretty certain Lilith would sooner kill us all then NOT recruit us, you know. Lilith has a beautiful mind, but it has sharp edges."

"No doubt of that." Felina shakes her head a little. "So, we have a working theory. Either way, our main concerns right now are new strikes against us now that they have the power to try it without certain rebuff, and on gaining recon on both the 'all this is for universe creation' theory and on this Xen'tal fellow. We need to figure out to unwravel him, and we need to know fast. The easiest way to look into his power is likely to look into his past, to head back to the timeline break and see just what it was that let his power shoot up. Lilith's plans are trickier. That almost requires an inside contact or direct infiltration. Any ideas and/or volunteers for each?"

"Bonehead is still at Lilith's," Yoru chirps. She hasn't given up on Makyon just yet.

Felina's expression darkens a touch. She's undecided on whether she has. "It's a possibility," she admits. "Though it still leaves the issue of getting to him. Meeting him somewhere would raise suspicion, and the psychic wards around the area far too dangerous for me to ask anyone to attempt to breach." She's gotten near them and backed off...and her general rule of thumb is that if Iscovis says it can't be done with any ease or speed, don't try it.

Yin is just very quiet through all of this. Finally..."What's this fortress like architecturally?"

Felina looks over to her. "To be truly cliche, surrounded by a lava-filled chasm. Passage to it is over one of three bridges or by air. The structure itself is old-fashioned, so...solid stone, none of the hallowness found in more modern structure."

"Inside is labyrinthine to a point," Yoru adds. "The inner sanctum is very big, yes, but well laid out. Yoru found her way around easily inside. The walls are another story. Thick and honeycombish."

The vampiress considers this quietly, well aware of eyes on her. Still, though, she asks it. "So what kind of danger does all of this pose to our own time and place, anyway?"

"By our own," Meir'cillus barks, "do you mean this place, or your world?"

"Our world." Yin's concerns are very cut-and-dried, really.

"The consensus," Mara nods, "is maybe. Depends on what Lilith's really doing. Earth is so far out of the way and meaningless in the cosmic scale of things right now that it might not get touched! Or it might get incinerated. Dunno! Wanna remove the possibility."

Yin considers quietly. Glances to Revilier's gaze a few moments, down. Looks to Felina. "It was suggested that someone less powerful than the rest of you might stand the best chance of getting in, right? I may be willing to give it a try, though I need to see more information on the establishment first." Hey, she's a pro.

"It won't be like your average infiltration," Mara notes. "You can't fight if you get caught. Well. Maybe against some of them. But if someone like Calay happened on ya, you'd be jerky in a hurry."

Yin shrugs a little. She is more intimidated by the statement than she shows, but... "Wouldn't anyone be, if the eyes of that entire place turned onto you?"

"Nah," Mara shakes her head, sitting crisply on her bottom and feet, kitty-ish. "Me n' Fel and Tel and Malufel would be alright. Hee!"

"Ah. So one of you would be better suited, then, check." Yin leans back against the wyvern. She likes leaning on him, he's always reliable on it.

He, of course, wraps an arm around her and listens.

"Not necessarily," Yoru counters. "Yoru feels Yin would not be noticed if she went in during a Felina's-team-led distraction effort. Lilith is distracting us. If we distract her, we might have a bit of an advantage, for example."

"I," Felina notes after a few moments' reflection. "Am very fond of this idea. We need a cover objective, though. Something we appear to be trying to attain or accomplish, else the ruse may be suspected. Does anyone have suggestions?"

"Lilith's forces have taken a number of positions already. She cannot adequately defend them all at the same time. A small strike force," Meir'cillus suggests, "at each point might get their attention."

Felina nods slowly. "We can pursue as many as three without presenting obscene risk to ourselves, I think...two, depending on the locations. Which would you say are the best targets?"

"We must first find out which places are least defended. If my apparent other is present, we must avoid that place at all costs," Meir explains.

Felina nods. "And any sign of him should prompt a hasty retreat until we have more intel. No casualties for a ruse." Looks to the others. "Dewei, you remotely scry the elemental worlds discussed earlier. Ting, that misty world. Yes, the purple-ish one. Mara...you feeling up to taking Tiberni? Strong enough?"

"Mara," the redhead smiles, "is ready and willing to fuck the dragon!"

Meir blinks.

"To take the risk, honey honey."

"Oh."

Felina smirks.

Yin is actually just a little red. Oh.

"Sounds good. Yoru, if you're comfortable, can you take the Fire world from Dewei? My senses are poking me about its being more valuable. I'll take a look at Ish. We should be able to come up with three good targets between those...preferably, quickly, quick scrying sessions please. We'll reconvene to discuss the decisions shortly. Meanwhile..." Looks to the two newcomers. "You two are tired. Ting will show you to a room and get you settled before her session, and you two will have all the time you need to properly refresh your bodies." Due to a maze quirk. Looks to her daughter. "Do you mind?"

Ting warms a bit at being asked instead of told. Mom instead of commander...for at least a brief moment. "Yup." Gets up to her feet, and wanders over to the Earthicans. "Right this way, scalies!"