Ruin's Dawn: Conquering Hive

[Elisabeth Black]

Arc 721, 35 Saun

The fires took a bit to calm, and it took the young mage several bits to figure out why. Fire, in her experience, wished to just happily burn. The fire she was dealing with, perhaps tainted by its connection to Faldrun, was passionate about that desire. It fought her, almost the entire way, making it difficult for one as young in her skill as she was. Dealing with one stack at a time helped tremendously, and after a bit, things appeared to be more or less contained.

The conversation taking place was interesting, but the few things Elisabeth had said was everything she was prepared to reveal. She wasn’t in any position to know if the being that had brought them there was Raskalarn or not and, in her opinion, it was pointless to speculate. They had a situation in front of them and it needed to be handled. Anyone that knew her, knew that not doing anything wasn’t in her nature.

Ralgar was on defense for them and for that, she had gratitude. Elisabeth kept her eyes open for anything that stood out or struck her in any way out of place but for the moment, they had their hands full.

The man’s information was interesting. It was information they needed, surely, and as such, the young woman began mulling it over. The Labyrinth, apparently, was one giant test to help someone discover who they were. Huh. While the overarching concept was intriguing, she knew enough about Idalos to know that something like the Labyrinth always had a downside. That was just the way of life, and the last two seasons had already been spent doing some deep introspection.

It was then that a moan came from the corridor, causing an arched eyebrow from the young mage.

Nir’wei spoke of sending five into the skull corridor. What could be done in the room was being done and as such, she thought perhaps she could be more useful elsewhere. Nodding to him, Elisabeth rose from where she was, laying a soft hand on Balthazar’s shoulder. “I’ll go and check things out. Be careful, please," she said, spoke to the entire group.

Moving to the edge of the room, Elisabeth noticed the other woman already there, nodding to her as she moved into the corridor, taking a deep breath.

As always, Elisabeth’s eyes were alert, feeling just a little uneasy about the skulls watching her. Recalling the man, Jon he had said, telling legend of island of Rynmere was the remains of a giant, and that the Labyrinth was the intestines. That was not a pleasant thought, at all. Like, nothing in any of that information was remotely comforting, and yet she continued down the passageway – slow and purposeful. If she went too quickly, she might miss a clue that could help them. Feeling as though she was reining in every ounce of discipline she had not to run forth, she was very conscious about her movements down the hall.

Truth be told, Elisabeth was not a fan of splitting the group, especially in light of what the man had said, but she understood the value of such. Her concern came from a logistical and tactical standpoint, but those were things she was still learning.

OOC Note about Elisabeth's Necklace

Elisabeth is wearing her heirloom necklace. This necklace has its own moderator (Basilisk). Please check in with him as the necklace has been known to have odd reactions to things like magic...

[Balthazar Black]

35 Saun, 721

For his part, Balthazar focused on getting the stranger healed. He kept his hands hovering over the man, moving along a circular pattern slowly while the flames did their work. He could feel the sweat building on his brow but he was too focused in maintaining his ability to wipe it away until finally there was nothing more he could do for the man. Ralgar had told Balthazar that his people did not worship the Immortals or follow them which made Balthazar curious exactly who Ralgar's people were. Was he from Melrath? People in Melrath hadn't been the most fond of the Immortals either but Balthazar didn't think it was critically important to figure that out given the things going on around them. He was glad that, in the end, Ralgar seemed to agree. The path out was forward.

Nir'wei input about the Immortals was helpful in some ways and in others it only worked to worsen Balthazar's curiosity about things that did not matter. Any time someone told them they'd been killed and they seemed to be standing there perfectly alive, Balthazar wanted to know more, but now was not the time to ask about it and given his own experiences with death he was sure it was not something Nir'wei would want to discuss. The bottom line, as Balthazar understood it, was that they could waste a lot of time trying to figure out the motivations of beings who moved mortals like chess pieces or they could get back to what they'd been summoned to do and the latter was Balthazar's preference. The group had asked the formerly burned man a lot of questions and so Balthazar did not include any new ones until those that had been asked were answered.

Nir'wei suggested the group split up and while Balthazar was in the process of healing the man, it was clear which part of the team Balthazar would end up in. For that reason alone he thought to protest but he waited and focused on the healing. His memory would be useful in storing whatever information they found but Elisabeth was a better researcher than him and he was a better fighter than her... in some regards. The way the man spoke about the labyrinth and the legends surrounding its creation made Balthazar wonder if they'd wasted their time fixing a madman. The labyrinth was the intestines of a giant? That seemed unlikely. The revelation that his mistress was the labyrinth itself didn't assuage Balthazar's doubt either. The man continued speaking and Balthazar continued listening. The end of the healing session came and the purple flames flowing from Balthazar's hands to encase the wounded man dissipated entirely. Balthazar slumped backwards slightly and took a few deeps breaths before looking towards Nir'wei. "I've done all I can for him." He reported.

The group had a lot to think about but time still worked against them. The stranger, the Explorer, Jon, whatever it was that they wanted to call the man, he had given them useful guidance to get through the labyrinth. Balthazar couldn't help but think back to Tio taking him and a few others onto the mountain and the introspective trap they walked confidently into. Elisabeth had gone ahead already and begun moving down the path with the other woman in their group and Balthazar looked towards Nir'wei for a moment as if he meant to ask him something before looking back down the path. Fuego, follow Elisabeth and keep me updated. He sent the silent command to his diri who nodded and waddled into the labyrinth behind Elisabeth while Balthazar turned back to Nir'wei. Having done all he could to heal the man, Balthazar wanted to move down the path with the rest of the group. "I think we should stay together, if we don't enter with them and we go in later we'll become three groups going into the labyrinth at the same time and if what he said is true, that could cause problems." Balthazar said as he stood up and seemed to get another idea. "Explorer, if we bring you through the labyrinth with us, do you think you could help guide us to the center before the flame lovers?" He spoke quickly, but mostly because he wanted to get an answer before Elisabeth and the woman went too far into the labyrinth. He had a really bad feeling about splitting up while he didn't know exactly what was waiting for them at the center of the labyrinth.

► Show Spoiler

Actions:
- Have Fuego follow Elisabeth's group into the labyrinth
- Propose group stays together
- Question Jon

[Nir'wei]

Was the man mad? Almost certainly. He had that look about him, the way he talked, the way he acted. Did that mean he was wrong, though? In his opinion, no. While he talked of truly mad and strange things like the caverns being the intestines of a giant creature... there were indeed bones making up much of the corridors. Bones fresh with marrow, as far as his wolves could tell as they ventured deeper. There was undoubtedly something 'other' luring them deeper, from the smells, from the sights; whether this truly was the Labrynth itself, his 'Mistress', or something else entirely, there was no longer any certainty. But one way or another, he was not mad. Not entirely, anyway.

He still couldn't answer their questions for shit, though. "That's all very good and all that, but I hope you've got more to tell than just that." He also should have told them the warning about entering the Labyrinth separated... well, before they'd already gone ahead and done exactly that. "Come on then. I suppose we'll be leaving before she gets too far." It wasn't exactly difficult to see that Balthazar was loathe to be away from Elisabeth for even a few seconds. He could even see the man's diri wobbling away after her. "Wallace-- Jon-- Engleberg, whatever your name was again, tell us if you can't walk. One way or another, you're coming with us." Just in case he had some hidden kernels of wisdom to offer as they faced his Mistress' trials and all.

The ones already being faced by the first group. Flurries of... wait, what. "So... there's snow up ahead," he called to Elisabeth, Balthazar and Tor'ree, listening to the words of Grey. "Snow. Right... after... a room filled with fire." His eyes narrowed sharply. "And no corridors leading out. Just... what seems to be a very long way... what. Down? Like, straight down." At that, he ordered Grey, Cold, Myrth, Squeak and Kin to wait. The rest of his spirits followed behind as he walked down the corridor right after Elisabeth. "Only one route, all others are distractions, trust yourself, doubts make new paths." Except there wasn't a door, just a room filled with deep snow. "... Unless there is a door, and the whole point is to just keep walking straight and don't doubt it." He'd have to wait for the others, of course. They'd need to reunite as a single group with the old man Engleberg in tow before they made a single step, now that they knew it was very much against the status quo. No no. If they were going to do this, they were going to do it right.

"If the Labyrinth is only as dangerous as our minds, then the easiest answer is just... not to think about these things." It'd been a weird thing to detach from, given their cautious beginnings. "Don't doubt anything we do, don't think about it. Just do it and let things happen as they may." He looked to the others. "Its the quickest way to self-discovery. Just... let it happen. Right?" So the best way to move from then on was just to completely ignore the flurry of snow, or the distinct lack of a door. Their best bet was to walk straight in, face whatever happened head-on, and continue until they reached the center. "Unless, as Balthazar said, you have any other ways through. You realise every moment spent waiting here, more of your books are being destroyed, your Mistress is being tortured, and who knows what else is happening to this place, yes? The faster we move, the more pieces you have left to pick up."

[Tor'ree]

Tor’ree reached up to touch one of the skulls curiously while waiting on the rest. As they continued to try and talk with the crazy man, she shook her head inside her head just soft enough that it would not move too much. Last thing that she wanted to deal with was all of them being against her simply because of her general disposition. Turning the Sev’ryn watched the two men behind her as the woman came up with the intentions of going into the doorway. Finally, someone was wanting to move on with their journey or adventure as some would call it.

“If you would not mind, I will join you going forward. The light from the fires have made it hard for my eyes to focus. The sooner I am in a dark area the easier it will be for me to see,” Tor’ree explained to her since she seemed to have a head on her shoulders.

Whether the woman openly accepted her offer, the Sev’ryn let her go through first before following after her quickly. If they would be separated by entering without everyone with them, it would do better for both women to be right beside each other and sent to the same place. They would have to make sure of each and every choice they made was without a doubt in anyone’s mind. If there was indeed doubt then it was possible that the labrynith would separate them all so that they had to face themselves alone.

That was not a truly scary idea for her, but at the same time if it were physical there was a chance, she could lose her life there. Staying behind the woman as much as she Tor’ree reached up and ran her fingers over the area that housed the mark from her patron Immortal. Taking a deep breath, the woman calmed her mind and looked as the one called Nir’wei confirmed that they need to move as a singular group. He was still insisting on bringing the crazy old man, but that was his decision. She could not stop him but doubted the sanity of the one he wished to lead them. He could very well have been planning on leading them into a trap. However there was nothing else she could do.

[Ralgar Warborn]

As they healed the man Ralgar stood back, watching closely around as people commented on his thoughts of Raskalarn. At Nir's words, he nodded, though he still felt uneasy. It wasn't that he knew her and thought it was not her, it was something unexpected to him, something more than that. It was that he wished it was not her, that his first meeting with her would be better. Not some task he was given by an Immortal, one who happened to be his parent, before she disappeared with no words or acknowledgment. Ralgar didn't know why he cared much, but he did. Perhaps having no mother to raise him was more of an impact than he thought it would be.

Then they made plans to move, Ralgar listening as the crazed man spoke, though few of the words sunk in. His head was in other places now, and there wasn't much the man had to say that drew his attention too close. If anything, Ralgar was simply grateful that Elisabeth had let the flames die out, the tribal man turning to her and nodding. "However you did that, thank you" he said with a low tone. There wasn't much socializing to be done here, the man growing more cautious with each second they spent inside this damned labyrinth. At least when him and Nir had met prior he had been at home, in Scaltoth. Now, he thought, he was far from home. If something went wrong, one thing happened that he could not account for, it was dangerous in ways the Scaltoth journey hadn't been.

At the talk of splitting up, Ralgar had to admit he was closer to Balthazar's feelings on it, though he wasn't in a position to argue. Whatever they decided to do he would do, however they decided to do it. As he walked with Nir and looked at the skulls watching them, his feelings of dread only grew. Even as a worshipper of Death spirits, and one that accepted death readily, this place was abnormal to him. Perhaps being out of the thick trees and cover of the jungles was too much for him. Especially, it seemed, when a room full of snow appeared.

Nir'wei shared his thoughts then, on how to get through. To detach himself from the Labyrinth and make it through easier. It was a sound enough argument, but easier said than done. Ignoring things they were seeing sounded like a risk, if the place turned out to be real and magical in some way. Then again, it had worked for them in Scaltoth. Pushing through the dream to find reality. "Then we go, unless we have better choices" Ralgar replied simply, not wanting to keep them delayed any longer, club in his hand. "If we have no other options, I'll go. To see if you're right."

If the man gave no better paths, Ralgar would be the first to step in to the snow if he could, holding on to the thought that this place was not real and that he was walking to an exit.

~~Haltunga~~ Common~~

[Fate]

Ambience

Elisabeth’s efforts brought the fires down and put them out as she did so she could see that they in some of the piles furniture had been thrown into the piles as well as the books papers. All in the room could feel the heat in the place begin to slowly drop. A look around the piles showed that it would take a lot of work to see what could salvaged.

The group after an expression of views ended up going together into the Labyrinth. Most of the group seemed feel that they needed to stay together. Some of them wanted to have the Explorer come with them and in the case of Nir’Wei he did ask but demanded. The man could now walk and found himself being hauled up. Even as he did so Tor’ree touched him be of the skulls. There seemed to be something about the skull that sent a tingle down her hand.

Nir’Wei wolves responded that the chamber did go down but more like a slop and not a straight drop but that they would wait for him and others to come along.

Elisa just lead the way followed by Tor’ree and the others. The Explorer blinked at Nir’wei weird name for him but he came along. He looked at them and said. “If I knew another way I would tell you. You might have better luck appealing to the Labyrinth itself.” The man said and his eyes twinkled. “I don’t think she has ever faced danger before at least not to herself.” He admitted with the mad glint of excitement as he was actually being brought along.

The tunnel itself continued and seemed to stretch into the distance, though if anyone focused to much on that distance and the dimensions, they would feel they were off. All along the way they could see the layers of bones, neatly orders and the skulls looking out at them. All of those empty eyes sockets watching each and ever party member. There was a strange artistry to the way the walls were crafted.

Despite the distance it had seemed they soon found Elisa soon came to an open room. As she looked around she and all of the others found themselves facing a prison cell. Elisa and Balthazar would recognize it as a unnervingly similar design to the place that they occupied for many trials. It was dark and unfriendly with just enough life to give shadows. The wolf Alpha Nir’Wie also saw the prison cell, but he could sense his wolves and he felt they should be close. Even at that moment he received communication that they could smell but not see him. They told him that they though they could detect someone walking through their snowy world farther ahead.

While in the main groups Labyrinth with its prison walls, though lacking any of the skulls of the hall they had passed. The began to hear the meows begin to echo through the chamber, and slowly other meows began to echo with the first.

This room appeared to have cells farther a few feet farther in, but it was hard to tell. As they would look longer they would find a door at the other end two possible doors, with a dying tourch spluttering between them.

Info & Rules

• Due to the time-sensitive nature of this, I can not hold out for people to post. If you miss a round, there will (I'm afraid) be consequences. Please Communicate with me if something comes up for the week. There will still be consequence but different. Please post by Tuesday July 27 by 7:00 am Mountain Standard Time.
• This style of event moderation - with objectives etc - was created by a wonderful moderator named Crimson.

[Elisabeth Black]

Arc 721, 35 Saun

Ralgar offered his thanks to her in assisting with the fires. Elisabeth gently smiled, laying a soft hand on his arm and inclining her head in return before moving to the entrance of the corridor.

The other young woman with the group asked if she could go with her, to which Elisabeth nodded and smiled. She surmised similarly that if the group got split, at least a few of them together would be better than any one of them alone. While Elisabeth didn’t relish being in the place on her own, she also wasn’t going to be fearful about doing what needed to be done to protect the others. Nir’wei and Balthazar had been attending to other matters, and she had skills that would keep her relatively safe. Well, she hoped at least.

The young mage’s hand remained against the pommel of her sword, just in case, as they entered the hallways of skulls. She didn’t like it, at all, but pushed on. At least until she heard Nir’wei’s voice calling after them, stopping to see what was happening. Unaware that Fuego – Balthazar’s Diri – was next to her, she looked back down the hallway, noting all three men and the one they had found catching up quickly to them, casting a questioning look before Nir’wei began to explain.

Don’t think about things? Oh dear. That was asking a lot of the young mage, who thought about things…and thought about them some more, and then again just to make sure she had thought about them enough the dozen times before. Huh. Well, she supposed that she would just have to figure it out as she went.

The corridor was...weird, but not distractedly so. It always felt like things were just a little off, but focusing wasn't difficult in that moment. It was just a corridor.

Confused, Elisabeth thought Nir’wei said that snow was supposed to be up ahead, but they didn’t encounter snow. As she walked through the door, Elisabeth heart stopped. She stepped to the side, to allow the others in, but her feet wouldn’t go any further. A prison cell, eerily similar to the one she had spent thirty trials separated from Balthazar in, not knowing what had happened to him, cut off from magic, presented itself before them.

“Balthazar…”

That was all she could force herself to say. Her mind knew it couldn’t be the same place, and as such, her feet kept moving. They kept moving even when she heard the cats. Snow. Jail. Cats. What the…? It was almost as if the room knew….

NO! Stop it Elisabeth. Stop. Stop thinking. Stop trying to figure it out. React. Move. Go…

Her mind commanded, but she was still fearful of what the room represented. It had ripped a scenario out of her mind so provoking that it was a wonder she was still moving at all. An idea, however, occurred to her. The man they found had said to trust her friends, meaning the group. Instead of thinking, she needed to trust them to help her through.

That meant verbalizing the problem. If she verbalized it, it wasn’t locked her mind. The young mage meant to set the memory free, to save the group from whatever the Labyrinth wished to do with the information. Her hands were shaking, trembling just a bit as she did what she needed to do.

“This room looks…like the cell I was held in for a long period of time, not so long ago. Like, almost exact. Impossibly exact.” Elisabeth was going to mention Balthazar as well, but being the person he was, she felt it best to focus on the experience and how it was currently affecting her. If he wanted to tell people he had been held too, that was his information to impart. Nir’wei would know regardless per his position on the Council.

"And I have a cat...." While that detail didn't seem as significant, if the room had imprinted or targeted her, it could give the group vital clues on what to expect as they moved through the labrynith. She had been the first to the room, after all.

She could ignore the cat meowing, but the prison cell? That was taking more energy to dismiss, but she kept her eyes straight ahead, focused on the far end of the room where two doors lay. Elisabeth had considered closing her eyes and asking someone to lead her through but that wasn’t the point. Something was trying to distract her with an image of a room where she had gone through deep, profound emotions of all sorts, most of which Balthazar was still unaware of. She had to be the one to get through, using her own power and discipline to focus or what was the point?

OOC Note about Elisabeth's Necklace

Elisabeth is wearing her heirloom necklace. This necklace has its own moderator (Basilisk). Please check in with him as the necklace has been known to have odd reactions to things like magic...

[Balthazar Black]

35 Saun, 721

As they proceeded into the first chamber Balthazar couldn't help but look at the skulls lining the walls and wonder a great many different things. Who's skulls were they? How had they come to this place? Why? Balthazar did not believe the story about the giant but it was easier to think that than to think someone had moved the dead there to build it in this morbid way. It did not feel like the proper way to dispose of the dead but he had learned that every culture had a different idea of what was 'proper' when it came to funeral rites. Scalvoris tended to lean on the longer side in their process whereas Quacia hadn't seemed to care all that much. Then again the dead in Quacia were piling up by the break so it might simply have been that the war there was too dramatic for the rites to be observed. When the Explorer proposed that they'd have better luck appealing to the Labyrinth itself Balthazar gave him an odd look. That was not the first time the man had referred to the Labyrinth as if it were living but they kept chalking it up to madness. What if it wasn't?

Spirits, Immortals, Emeyans, Mages, and Marked all had a variety of unique abilities- many of which Balthazar still did not know details about despite having heard rumors of what they could do. From personal experience he knew a single spirit could throw a room full of people into individual, specific visions, so the further in they went, the more it seemed a good idea to get the Labyrinth on their side if they could. He looked to Nir'wei and then Elisabeth because he knew them the best and he expected the most judgement from them if he started talking to the walls. Then he looked at Ralgar and Tor'ree and considered that his first impression on the strangers would be that of a man willing to talk to walls to try and make things happen. There had to be a better way than speaking into the void... so Balthazar looked at the Explorer.

"Explorer, she is your mistress and you yourself mistook us for the enemy. Why would the Labyrinth trust us? In fact, who would she trust more than you?" Balthazar said, hoping the fact he'd healed the man would earn him some favor or at least consideration. "If you can not provide us a shortcut, perhaps you could appeal to your mistress for us? The faster we reach the center, the less damage the... interlopers will be able to do." He did not know how to begin persuading a Labyrinth but maybe the 'madman' did. However shortly after he made his request the group found themselves passing out of the chamber of bones into something... familiar. It was not exactly the same as it had been but it was certainly familiar enough for Balthazar to recall what he was seeing.

He heard his name and his gaze shifted towards Elisabeth who seemed to be having a... more difficult time. If rooms were tailored to them, he felt this one was hers. It would have been theirs or even his but the cat gave it away. He liked cats but they were not his animal of choice. Balthazar took a step towards Elisabeth and put a hand on her arm but he said nothing as she spoke to the group about her experiences. He didn't entirely agree that they needed to be voiced but he wasn't going to admonish about it in the middle of a supposedly time sensitive mission. She liked to express how she felt and why she felt it, so he would let her do that while he looked for a way out of the room. He found one, or he thought he found one when he saw a dying light between two doors. Balthazar squeezed Elisabeth's arm gently and he pointed towards the doors.

"That might be a way forward. If what the Explorer said is true, it shouldn't really matter which door we go through as long as keep moving together." That was simplifying the issue a little. The Explorer warned that there was only one true path to the heart of the Labyrinth and that the others were just paths of the mind that could be equally as dangerous. So one door took them the right direction and the other would take them into some form of mental torment... if it was that simple. "I'm not sure there is a better way to do this other than to keep moving forward and through until we catch up."

[Nir'wei]

He knew the room was filled with snow. He could see it clearly through eyes that both were and were not his own. However, the room that he arrived in was most definitely not snowy at all, but a prison, all stone and iron. He couldn't feel the cold, yet could at the same time through his wolves. He was most definitely in the same place as them, they could smell him and he could smell them, yet reaching out to the place where they should have been found nothing but empty air. "It would seem," he said slowly, "that I am now in two places at once." Now he was beginning to understand what Eustice had been saying. Enter at different times and they'd be trapped in different realities, of some sort. Illusions, or more likely intense tricks of the mind intended to deceive them.

He decided, in that moment, that he absolutely hated the Labyrinth, and whatever Mistress was responsible for creating and controlling it.

"Appeal to it?" Balthazar was right. It was already trying to churn them all like butter in its intestines, or whatever the hell this place was really meant to it. "No. We've played fair. For you, and for your Mistress." He was in half a mind to simply grab one of the skulls and take the information he wanted... but even knowing that, he doubted it would give him what he needed to know. "If she wants to play this game then we will play it, all the way through," he replied, "but our reason for being here is nothing to do with her. Whatever happens to your Mistress is of no concern, as long as those that torture her do not get what they need. If there is an opportunity to destroy this whole Labyrinth and your Mistress has proved herself no friend of ours, then what reason do we have to spare her?" It was a genuine question. A final reach for rational thought from the madman, an attempt to appeal to something in those crazy, sparkling eyes. "If you have any wish to keep her, you should be the one to reach out to her." She'd likely listen to him more than any of them.

Plus, they had a long walk ahead of them, and he didn't fancy hanging back any longer and wasting time being cautious, as he had before. "The door on the left, then." He didn't think about why, he just walked.

At the same time, the five wolves in the snow began treading softly in the same direction. The figure they could smell was another distraction, since Nir'wei smelled nothing in the prison chamber. The only thing that mattered was moving forwards.

Perpetually moving forwards, completely heedless of what visions and imagery was created around them.

[Tor'ree]

Tor’ree looked over when the others soon followed her. They were very clearly not where the man thought they should be based on his face. That did not bode well for the rest of the adventure before them. The sev’ryn looked over as the darkness did not seem to phase, her ability to see thanks to the mark from her immortal. It was one of the abilities she had gained. The woman listened closely turning to face the others as two of them seemed to be physically shaken by the appearance of the room. So, they had been arrested once before, that was sure to put anyone in a bad mood.

When Nir stepped up and took charge of the situation dealing with the crazy man still going on about his “mistress” and trying to reach out to her the woman felt her lips curl up on one side showing her teeth. She would not go begging to someone to keep her alive. It was her own job to do that, and she would complete that task no matter what. Moving, Tor’ree was careful not to bump into anyone if she did it could startle them and cause someone to become injured. A smile appeared on her face when he talked about destroying the labyrinth and his mistress as well. It would make her so happy to see the place in flames after all the crap they had already been through.

Tor’ree did not actually know what else they would face, but she could already tell that she would not enjoy it. The woman moved with Nir when he picked which way to go, there was nothing that she could see that would require them to go down a different path. So, until there was something that told her differently the woman would follow along hopefully towards either this “mistress” or the cult members hidden within this strange place. The sooner the fight was over the sooner she could go back to her home.