#hierichc

above prometheus, the sky cracks into a green wound.

the anchor listens to the inquisitor. the hot fire burning his nerves alive is a relief as it rarely is, knowing that this power is still at his disposal (that he can't get rid of it, not if he wants to help).

it is weaker, something he'd expected. with only the imitation of an axe, the inquisitor moves in to grab the demon instead. he shouts, getting a hold of his arm, heaves the body over his own shoulder to slam him into the ground.

Now had she not met Fiyero before, Andrale could have confused the other before her for a demon This realm has proven it's not Thedas time and time again.

Besides, if they were a demon, they would have already taken advantage of her weakened state. Andrale has a hand pressed tight to her abdomen, aware of the blood still seeping through her clothes. That last weapon got her good.

This was a strange place indeed, this Spirale. A city built in a spiral around a great crater. A demiplane that seemed to pull people in from worlds that were familiar to him, and several that were not. This place was a new puzzle to the Oerdian Archmage, and Mordenkainen could not abide a puzzle unsolved.

He'd purchased a journal and sketchbook for this very purpose. Notes crammed in with comments and records of interviews from the inhabitants of this place. Sketches and underpaintings of the creatures that he had seen, and of people he had met. Eventually, he'd go over them in a new pass of color when he'd arranged the space in his new lodgings to allow for oils-

Or experiment with acrylics, at the suggestion of the art store clerk.

Tonight, he'd camped out towards the forests to escape city lights, and turn his attention to the skies.

The first thing he noticed, was that the skyline did not appear to be affected by light pollution. The Archmage could make out constellations regardless of the city lights from the other wards.

The second- that there was a singular moon in the sky, and its position hadn't changed much at all in the days spent.

He held out his palm to the sky, and curled his fingers into a loose fist, pulling on arcane strands to capture within his grasp. A mote of light radiates from within his fist, casting amber light through his skin. Then, he pulls his hand down and opens his palm to let the mote float around him, as if having pulled a star down from the sky to join him.

The light of Light rests at his side, and illuminates the pages of his journal for him to write.

I arrived here at the end of an eclipse. Are eclipses common here? Only time will tell. There is only one moon in the sky here -

The archmage pauses, glancing over to another presence that had joined him, also looking up at the single moon. Another tiefling, by the looks, with ashen skin and fine antlers.

"Ooh!"

While Susie was supposedly here to decorate trees like everyone else, she couldn't help but notice the tall, dark stranger, who reached closer to the top of the trees than Susie did to him.

"Out of curiosity, have you ever decorated your horns with these?"

“It turns out that horns are less like bones an’ more like nails— or, uh... claws, I guess,” he adds, gesturing to the other’s hands. “Once they grow out past a certain point, the part that hurts when ya cut ‘em isn’t there anymore. For your antlers, you could comfortably pierce anything further up than the first couple inches if yours are anything like a deer's. And if your curly horns work anything like a ram’s, the last two-thirds starting from the tips should be fine,” Till explains, pointing to the different parts of horns on his sketches with a focused expression.

“That is... if ya still want to. I wouldn’t blame ya if you wanted to bail. Seriously. No hard feelings.”

Sephiroth stayed in the shadows as he stalked the creature. This wasn't the usual monster that Hojo would throw at him. It was too humanoid. it stood on its hind legs like a person. Was this supposed to be another test or was it meant to apprehend him? Sephiroth knew leaving the labs was prohibited, but it wasn't his fault. He had no idea where he was!

He took a deep breath and tried to steel his nerves. He was a SOLDIER. He told to tell himself he fought worse. He gripped his knife tightly and rushed towards the monster.

"Owch!!" He cried out when he tripped over his bare feet on the ground and fell over. He felt the knife tumble from his hand, jolting up as he looked around for it in a panic. He grabbed a nearby rock and tossed it at the monster in desperation to scare it off.