(12:18:29 AM) Ikiryo: The war has started...rebels and defensive forces clashing, civilians running or joining in and massive titans of metal and demonic flesh towering over the city as they duke it out...
(12:25:40 AM) Khaira: Khaira walks with a foot in both worlds, the unique nature of her spirit straddling the divide, with one eye upon the real and one upon the waters of Death. For all the chaos around, there's only so much one person can do... A word of warning or a blast of spirit-fire here, a blessing to send a soul swiftly on its way there... Khaira does what she can.
(12:26:19 AM) Ikiryo: ...and then she feels an ice spreading in the river, a black cold ice.
(12:27:47 AM) Khaira: Eyes widen... More horror and heresy against the Raven Queen, against the Order of things. She turns, looking for its source, in one world or the other...
(12:28:43 AM) Ikiryo: And spots a familiar figure heading towards her. Maraluelohr-Truubuhm-Balxiabahl...and she's crying, the feathers of her wings turning black as she walks. Where her foot touches the water, ice spreads and spirits are halted...
(12:29:10 AM) Khaira: "...Mara?!" Khaira heads towards her, confused. "Mara, what is-"
(12:30:18 AM) Ikiryo: ...and a blast of rainbow warpfire blasts past Khaira's head, only missing because she jerked her hand aside at the last moment.
(12:31:26 AM) Khaira: Khaira just stares in horror... Stance wary now, ready to evade any more attacks. "Mara, why? What are you doing?!"
(12:32:54 AM) Ikiryo: "I...I'm sorry." The words are clearly hard for her to say, forcing them out of her throat as all the colour fades from her wings. "The head of Change...he has the children..."
(12:33:57 AM) Khaira: "...No. I won't allow that... Where is he?"
(12:35:02 AM) Ikiryo: "He..." Her voice catches and her mouth opens and closes silently a few times. "I'm sorry...if I don't stop you, he'll..."
(12:36:04 AM) Khaira: Khaira clenches her teeth. "Maraluelohr-Truubuhm-Balxiabahl... You Will tell me, and I Will save them... Even if I have to make you."
(12:38:05 AM) Ikiryo: "I...can't...I had to swear on my true name to not just have him..." Even her tears have turned black at this point.
(12:39:17 AM) Khaira: Khaira nods solemnly... Bell and dagger in her hands. "Then I'll beat you... And by the time you come back, this will all be over."
(12:44:38 AM) Ikiryo: "Sorry...I have to stop you." Black fire appears around her hands.
(12:45:34 AM) Khaira: Khaira's on pale white ghostfire mirrors it, a moment of tension drawing out...
(12:45:43 AM) Khaira: *own
(12:47:25 AM) Khaira: And then lashes out, pure power and the cold of the river streaking towards her- Even as Khaira breaks into strange, stuttering motion, flickering amidst the waters of the river... Subtly working her own power against Mara's, the waters of the river starting to reject her, despite her mixed nature...
(12:52:38 AM) Ikiryo: She raises a hand, chanting dark spells as black hellfire blasts at Khaira...
(12:53:12 AM) Khaira: Khaira only narrowly avoids it... The heats of its passing scorching her hair, leaving faint burns on her pale skin.
(12:55:57 AM) Ikiryo: She brings her foot down in a slow footstep...as ice continues to spread, damming up the flow of souls into death...
(12:59:34 AM) Khaira: Khaira flings the knife again, wreathed in ghostly flame, but it's almost an afterthought... Her will turning to the river, shattering the ice and freeing the waters... And turning the power unleashed back upon Mara. The river washes away all things... Perhaps even the power upon her...
(1:01:11 AM) Ikiryo: A wave rises up...flowing over her...and as she surfaces again there is hints of her normal rainbow colours in her hair and plumage...
(1:03:58 AM) Ikiryo: She rises up again, weaving binding spells as fire rains down around Khaira...
(1:06:38 AM) Khaira: And Khaira lets Saraneth ring out- The strength of its will stilling the flame in the air and shattering the bindings, her own power too great to be restrained in such a way... Eyes bright and fierce. "I won't let you do this to yourself, Mara!"
(1:07:35 AM) Ikiryo: "I can't stop it...they matter more than I do..."
(1:09:35 AM) Khaira: With the black fire fraying at the edges, Khaira extends her senses towards it... Looking for the subtle signs of influence or connection, for the black threads through the misty air or beneath the surface of the dark waters... Hoping to find a clue...
(1:16:55 AM) Ikiryo: ...and a torrent of hellfire flows at her, focused and channelled by chaotic runes...
(1:17:38 AM) Khaira: With her focus elsewhere, she exerts her will too late... Screaming as the flames hurt her, but also from the defilement... Burning Chaos defiling the cool, calm River...
(1:18:54 AM) Ikiryo: Boiling the black water of the river, putting it in flux...even as Khaira finds a black thread...one plunged deep into Mara's soul and flowing out into life. It could be torn out with work...but the person on the other end would know and it would take a lot of Mara with it.
(1:23:04 AM) Khaira: Khaira grits her teeth... Sounding the bell again, focusing on it, turning her will against Mara's...
(1:28:07 AM) Ikiryo: Her own will...slipping aside, letting Khaira strike's through...however it is heavily blunted by another will slowing through the black thread.
(1:29:50 AM) Khaira: The sound doesn't sink into her mind or her body... But into her wings, a subtle resonance not yet noticeable... But it should slow her down. Khaira smiles.
(1:31:40 AM) Ikiryo: She grits her teeth...and rainbow tears flow down her face again...
(1:33:49 AM) Khaira: "...I'll save them." She speaks with a quiet certainty, despite the lingering burns across her body, giving Mara a smile... Then turning and launching herself past her, following the line of the thread... Even as she calls the River up to greater tumult, to restrict and slow the woman should she try to follow.
(1:35:38 AM) Ikiryo: She finds herself standing in a summoning chamber in Change...demons, ones that were in pictures at Mara's in runic circles...being branded. She thinks she's found the other people in Mara's committee.
(1:36:41 AM) Ikiryo: People in the prismatic robes of Sorcerers of Change are hard at work. Half a dozen children...the ones she saw at the party...are in another circle. The tau girl who's birthday party it was looks very pale, like she's lost a lot of blood. But then, that's what the circles are written in.
(1:46:38 AM) Khaira: Khaira's eyes widen as she sees the room... Fixing her gaze upon the man at the other end of the room, the one the thread leads her too. Her figure starts to grow hazey again, losing its semblance of life... Pale mistlike substance her only flesh, unnerving shadows flowing out from behind her in the form of wings... Eyes pits of white fire, blazing amidst the mist, as she rings Saraneth again,
(1:46:38 AM) Khaira: the bell the only solid part of her form.
(1:47:23 AM) Khaira: The screaming power of her will grips the souls of the lesser sorcerers, dragging them screaming from their bodies in an instant, as the monstrous shadow of Death stalks towards the only survivor, pure hatred in its inhuman eyes.
(1:49:45 AM) Ikiryo: The head sorcerer...smiles as a rainbow shield flashes up around him. "I would be careful there, you wouldn't want to have the children be hurt~"
(1:51:41 AM) Khaira: "You-" Her voice resounds like the bellow of ocean waves beneath a storm. "-will not harm them."
(1:52:56 AM) Ikiryo: "You cannot stop me." He taps the air...and a series of runes spring up around the circle they are trapped in. "If I am harmed in any way, they will die. Did you really think I didn't have a plan? Where do you think you are?"
(1:54:19 AM) Khaira: "Plans change." She takes another flowing step towards him, mist pooling over the bodies in the room.
(1:56:35 AM) Ikiryo: "Then act, strike me down. How will that pathetic excuse for a demon treat you when she hears that you are the reason all her beloved younglings are dead?" He smiles at her.
(2:09:23 AM) Khaira: Saraneth comes to her hand again... Sounding out as she stares hotly at him, intoning her words alongside the power of the bell, attempting to force her will upon him. "Release the spell!"
(2:12:45 AM) Ikiryo: The bell rings over him...and then he raises a hand...and the bell distorts in her hand, the magic distorting with it and being ruined. "I think you havn't understood the stakes, spirit." A dagger rises from a sheath by his side and slips into the circle, hovering above the tau girl...and then it glows red hot and shatters.
(2:15:11 AM) Ikiryo: Khaira can see the black thread...starting to glow red, pouring heat into the sorcerer's soul...
(2:19:11 AM) Ikiryo: He screams in agony, skin starting to charr...but he's not falling.
(2:25:27 AM) Ikiryo: He raises a hand despite the agony he's in...and warp lightning crackles from his hand. "You fool, you cannot understand the unlimited power of Tzeench!"
(2:32:34 AM) Khaira: The misty shape recoils from the lightning, exposing its wounds- Areas of its formlessness charred, remnants of its prior battle. Still... As the room fills with mist Khaira's actions are harder to follow, white ghostfire lancing from one direction... Creeping tendrils of shadow twining from others, beneath his notice...
(2:41:58 AM) Ikiryo: ...the red glowing thead starting ti dim...but still burning hot.
(2:43:47 AM) Khaira: And Khaira launches herself at him, desperation and pain driving her... Forcing cold through the burned mist, soothing it with the chill even as she rushes it towards the sorcerer... Her other extremity burning black with final flames.
(2:47:13 AM) Ikiryo: He shudders, ice filling his soul as lightning lashes out at Khaira...
(2:47:42 AM) Khaira: Whose form parts, mistborn face smiling wickedly... Although she only feels fear for the fate of her friend, at the far end of the line. This was taking too long...
(2:55:56 AM) Khaira: She lashes out again in desperation, feeling hope slipping away from her... Clinging to it tightly even as ice and ghostly fire strike out again and again-
(2:56:47 AM) Ikiryo: ...a strange wind blows through...and a single raven's feather flutters down over the area. Where it touches his sheild, it reveals a weak point.
(2:59:11 AM) Khaira: Following it takes no effort at all- A clean, straight strike of pure ice and final death, meeting his eyes... Her dryad form returning as ice flows over his body... And then shatters, a powerful supernatural cold breaking his body to nothing... Khaira hopes against hope it might go back down the line, help slow the burning... She spares only a momentary glance for the children before turning
(2:59:12 AM) Khaira: to rush back to Mara...
(3:01:08 AM) Ikiryo: ...the results when she arrives is horrific. Mara's feathers are gone, all the flesh on the wings sloughed off and nothing but ragged bone. Her features are almost unrecognisable, burned black where it isn't falling off the bone in large chunks.
(3:02:58 AM) Khaira: Khaira nearly screams upon seeing her... Falling to her knees, wrapping her arms around her, resting her head in her lap... Tears falling as a wail of pure sorrow passes her lips, shaking sobs all that she can expression for a few moments...
(3:04:06 AM) Ikiryo: She tries to raise a hand to pat Khaira on the back, clearly trying to comfort her...but she can't do it, the tendons for her hand all burned away as her arm sloughs apart.
(3:13:58 AM) Khaira: "No... No, I won't Let you..." Khaira closes her eyes, breathes deeply... Letting go of herself again. Not in the wild, uncontrolled way of the battle with the sorcerer... Letting herself feel the very essence of herself, the power and will that makes up her very existence... Letting some of it flow into Mara. Trying to stem the loss of the demons own essence, to complete them enough to let
(3:13:58 AM) Khaira: her heal... Shuddering at the existential pain, crying out alongside her emotions. "Please... Please..."
(3:16:01 AM) Khaira: She takes a deep breath, eyes falling shut... Speaking a name that almost burns on her tongue. "Tzeentch. Over these long years, I have changed... From mortal girl to lost ghost to guardian spirit, I have grown and adapted, shaping and being shaped by events, from one form and name to another. Falconseed, Summerholme, Saraneth... I have kept hope in my heart and not let this change slow my
(3:16:01 AM) Khaira: down. Here, now... I beg you..."
(3:17:01 AM) Khaira: She looks down at the burned face of the demoness. "Maraluelohr-Truubuhm-Balxiabahl is a true servant. True to Change, true to Hope, willing to adapt to a very new world, to work her hardest even when her duties were unfamiliar or the world itself was uncertain... She never abandoned hope, never stopped trying to change... Please... Let her change again... Whatever might be made of her, do
(3:17:01 AM) Khaira: not let her end here... Please..."
(3:18:41 AM) Ikiryo: ...the water about her is off...no longer black but glimmering rainbows...
(3:19:56 AM) Khaira: Khaira's eyes widen at that... Such iridescent splendour alien to the monochrome world of the River.
(3:21:01 AM) Ikiryo: Even as Mara finishes dissolving, joining the shining rainbow all about her. Prismatic light shines through the river, the water flowing in new and impossible ways about her.
(3:22:50 AM) Ikiryo: ...and then it is gone, leaving a single card floating in the river. Light from some unknown source plays over it, it's picture glittering. The picture that of an ever-shifting pool of rainbow water. The title of the card reads 'Hope' with it's only text being 'Endless possibilities'.
(3:24:29 AM) Khaira: Khaira plus the card from the water, staring at it in amazement and confusion...
(3:25:36 AM) Ikiryo: Looking in the prismatic picture she sees...everything, anything. Raw change, able to take any form with the right prompting.
(3:26:44 AM) Khaira: She gasps at that... And then clutches the card to her chest for a moment, shuddering... Gasping out. "Thank you..."