#guild arc

1. Their owner

dazai when forced to recall the mafia: a story told in ? parts + bonus irritated chuuya

However Kurel managed it- he seemed to know exactly the path to follow to take them to the temple.They weren’t alone on the desert’s dunes- Eilithe could feel them following, who it was evaded her.

The heat of the day passed and as the sun set- they were in danger of being caught in the freezing air of night. The oasis was a welcome sight, conveniently placed outside of the shifting temple. Whatever followed them was always nearby. Velerodra’s own looking glass revealed exactly what Eilithe feared. The temple had been right there in front of them and no naked eye could see it, what was more disturbing was the way Velerodra described the temple as vibrating-- the further the sun set the more it looked as though it was getting ready to jump. 

Eilithe worked quickly. 

Five antelope, two jugs of bourbon, and thirty-two gold pieces. Peter, in his mostly-North moral compass, had convinced her to spare human lives for her endeavor. What Eilithe hadn’t told him was that the lower the payment to Saakes, Lord of Deals-- the more the Loa would take from her body.  Alone, Eilithe cut open each antelope, thanked them--- prayed for them. With their blood she painted his brand onto the stone that frames a small spring in the oasis. She took the golden orb from her bag and set it beside her. An object of great power it would fuel the ritual. Focus it. 

“Saakes, hear me-- take this offering and do my will. Hold the temple in place, stop it’s magic. Reveal it to us!” The searing pain shot across the brand in her back and she bowed-- if only because it felt as though there was a boot in her back. The magic was too much-- quite literally crushing her and with no small effort, she reached for the orb and clutched it. 

The light it released was brilliant-- twists of blue and grey, it was just as it was the night the orb had taken her. She prayed this time it would not. 

“Uhh..” Velerodra’s voice crinkled over the communicator, informing everyone that the temple was being literally pulled from inside the illusion it was held. Eilithe couldn’t speak for the longest time. 

There was no real way it could get worse- until those shadows had revealed themselves. Forty men-- and one woman, who’d Velerodra had taken up calling ‘string lady’ -- but who the rest of them knew as Morinthe. 

“Go! Kill all who oppose Lady Moonsong and bring the Eye to me!” she shouted before the men descended upon them. 

“Run..” Eilithe managed to get out before she got herself up and sprinted across the sands. 

Chaos. Slipping and sliding, Bengal almost met a cruel fate when she lost her footing. Eilithe stopped at the peak of a dune and looked around. “VEL! Where is Velerodra?” She lifted her comm, “Velerodra, do you read me? Velerodra!” She counted her men, one by one. All but her--even Kurel had made it up to the gates of the temple. 

More pressing was the locked temple gate-- but it was clear. An offering in blood to pass to safety. Each of them cut their hands and offered, and not a moment too soon had Velerodra’s body materialized from the mists. There was no time to be glad. 

Through the gates, Kurel had all but collapsed. “Kurel!” she said, putting fingers to his neck an ear to his lips. “He’s alive.. I don’t know what’s wrong.” Her hand went over his cheek and across his tattered blindfold where she felt the relic. Hidden up under the fold in the gnarled space that was his eye socket. Kurel An’Diel was clever sometimes. She propped him against a wall-- the gates shut behind them. there was no where but forward. 

As her spell wore itself down, the temple did shake and vibrate before finally it jumped, presumably to an entirely new location

Inside there were two directions one could go, left or right-- though they would come to understand that these paths led to the same place, which looked to be ..nowhere. What was troublesome was the way that walking around one corner seemed to make a person disappear. Sevalysae, then Perie, the Bengal. Peter and Eilithe seemed locked in the physical world and Velerodra passed back and forth between the two tears. 

Eilithe felt Sev and the others, she could still feel them-- and she held out her hand as though to touch them. But as she did, she noticed a hand print against a wall that merely looked like a wall. “Sevalysae?” Eilithe asked and placed her palm across the print. 

When their hands touched the wall because like water and the two women dumped out on the other side of it into a large open area. Across from them in the back wall was a massive stone wall with symbols and golden details all over it. Most interesting though, was the hexagonal keystone that was locked into the wall. 

Inside, there was the smallest little body of water, like a pond that was entirely out of place. Near it was a hut-- a campfire, someone was living inside of this giant room. The walls were tall and sand pushed back in places to reveal the stone floor of the temple. 

Two by two- the others seemed to file in and stare around. In true Dead Sun fashion, they went to looting first. Sev shot her hook up the stone wall and climbed up its face to press on the stone and then wiggle it out of its home in the wall. 

Dread. The feeling that they’d made a grave miscalculation. It was immediate for Eilithe and she searched the room. Nothing until a spear, with a sharp bone tip and metal shaft went soaring passed her head and straight into Peter’s leg. 

They were not alone here.

Large inky hues looked down from atop a tree that towered over the small pirate cove of Daggercape. Thy belonged to a grotesque looking owl, snow white feathers with gnarled horns of jagged bone and massive claws of the same jagged bone. How long had it been sitting there, observing? Hours, really. Far below a human man scrabbled around some buildings, looking desperate, like he was running for his life. Locking to his person, the owl saw what it had been seeking all this time. A badge, white… With a black circle in the middle. Still, the owl sat silently, watching as the man made his escape from the town and to the bridge that led up and out. Once he was far outside of town, the owl lit out, circling high above before folding in wings to dive bomb down. Too relieved to be free of the town, the man foolishly paid no attention to his surroundings. At the last possible moment, the owl suddenly shifted to reveal the kaldorei form of Reveria, armored and cloaked up. Her feet slammed violently into his head, the momentum of her full weight sending his head to smack hard against the ground. He was was out cold in seconds, leaving the druidess to look around to ensure she hadn’t been seen. Once certain, she slung the man over her shoulder and wandered off into the darkness. ------------------------------------

It was cold atop the mountain, far colder than ground level. The man’s eyes eventually fluttered open, groggily looking around. Almost immediately he began to struggle, to feel fear, to yelp and panic. His limbs were tied to massive stones with twine, leaving him immobile aside from the ability to writhe about. From nearby shadows, Reveria emerged, mask lowered, breathing heavily like a predator about to spring upon their prey. As she got closer, his eyes got wider, his shrieks got louder until finally she was close enough to lash out with her clawed hands, leaving his cheeks in tattered ruins and his tongue flopping uselessly in his mouth. The shock of it rendered him silent a moment, before she straddled him. Burbling gurgled cries echoed out as his terrified eyes stared at her.

“Shhhhhh… Shhhhh… “ The druidess cooed out at him. “It’ll be over soon.” Her breathing grew heavier and heavier, muscles tensing, unbridled rage bubbling through to the surface of her being. In a blink, she was a massive bear, white fur, patches of missing flesh and fur, jagged spikes of bone jutting from her body, claws to match and an eerie black flame that rippled over her figure. The man writhed and tried to scream but was already drowning in his own blood. The maw of the bear with enormous fangs opened wide before clamping down to tear into his torso, sprays and jets of gore flying everywhere. Claws flew, teeth gnashed, and eventually the man’s screams were silenced once his body was left in ruin, shredded and flayed to the bone.

One last good rip of fangs through body sent entrails splattering around the bear as it let out a savage roar, a roar that continued even as Reveria returned to her kaldorei form. She sat atop the ruined corpse, roaring as loud and long as she could. Blood covered her from head to foot, and when she finally silenced herself, she was left huffing, fingers coming to her mouth as she licked them clean. Steam boiled off her and the rapidly cooling corpse, as she exulted in her kill. For a long while, long enough for the steam to slowly rise less and less, she sat, catching her breath. The carnage replayed in her mind, over and over, as she was able to do what she’d not been able to with Captain Darby earlier. Even now, she could feel gristle as it slid down her throat, something like a satisfyingly full sensation wandering out from her stomach. Indeed, if someone where to look, there was not nearly enough of the man left for what she’d done.

After gathering herself, she set about finishing what she’d started. Flesh was flayed from bones, bones and flesh were arranged as tribute and offering to the goddess Elune. Some was held back, namely the heart, for another. Reveria chanted for a long time, a prayer to her goddess, a prayer of her gift and offering, asking for her touch to linger in return. When she was finished, a beam of moonlight speared down and incinerated the flesh and blood, leaving only charred bone in its wake.

The heart was then taken and a circle of voodoo ritual was carved into the ground. A clawed finger drug along her palm, the blood splattering in the circle. Inky black smoke began to billow out before the limbs of a massive spider form from within it, clawing from the shadows before eventually revealing the grinning form of Mama Zarenyen.