RP:Leoxander and Jayde Escape

Note

This is part of the The Obsidian Pool - The First Wave story arc.

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In The Obsidian Pool

Imar sleeps the sleep of the damned and his body twitches convulsively within the dense cocoon of roots and vines which hold him prisoner. His thoughts, dark and terrible and not of his own will are not on Jayde, the druidess who mistakenly entrapped him, but instead they are sent forth to lure the unsuspecting. A multitude of voices echo in his mind. ”Keerawn! Keerawn is close, so very close.” And the images begin to flow to the unsuspecting fae:

• Imar sits on the ground, his back against a wall, and ebon body crusted with blood. Snow white hair falls across his lowered visage, hiding the pain and torment which he strives to master. Leo, his gaze lost to the moment, sits beside the drow, his powerful form, criss-crossed with multitudes of injuries*

A soft voice, as though speaking from a vast distance calls out in pain “We are dying lovely…..” The image fades as unconsciousness seems to slip over Imar.

Leoxander slept for a short while on that first day of entrapment in the pyramid of light that was Renin's creation. Alas, their drow spellblade companion had wandered off, left them behind, and hadn't returned. The surprise came when Leo's cage suddenly flickered, faltered, and released the rogue to the chaotic world they were trapped in once more. Mismatched eyes hadn't closed since, and for the most part, the thief remained curled up in a seat on the ground, his spine hunched and head low, pale wide eyes unfocused on a point beyond the sea or petrified forest that surrounded them on that gods' forsaken island. It was another day without water, food, or shelter and Leoxander seemed to have lost his motivation to continue on. Exhausted, and certainly not all there mentally, he rocked himself in that seated position, lips moving from time to time with unheard whispers to himself, as if having an intense conversation with the air. The gray sky was smoldering as though perpetual flames engulfed other lands in an unseen distance, leaving the oxygen bitter to taste and hard to breathe. He was on a bank in sight of that vast, black water ocean, his gaze lost ahead in the distance. Where was there to go from there?

Jayde had attempted to heal not one person, but two. Both had resulted in the exact opposite.. the creatures, and creation of Nature attempting to bring pain, and death.. instead of sealed wounds, and restored energy. It was as depressing as the island they were trapped upon.. a land that was the farthest thing from Paradise. The normally upbeat female had even grown solemn, body curled up in the sand.. spine hunched to hold her thighs to her chest.. appendages wrapped 'round long legs, keeping them thus, with her cheek touching to the tops of her thighs. Gray eyes were locked upon the form of their fallen Captain, unsure how to be of service to him. It all seemed so impossible to overcome..

Imar awakens from his short sleep, and struggles to remember what happened. He had staggered from the tree line onto the sand and, seeing Jayde, the tall drow had lifted a hand out to her. His body was and still is covered by welts and bleeding wounds caused by the huge squid, and the bones of his ribs seem to grate with every breath. Then all went mad, and Imar's world became a tangle of roots and vines, and conscious thought drifted away. Now, however, his mind is clear and he growls softly, "Jayde, get me the hell out of this."

Leoxander wasn't paying any attention to the two he'd ended up traveling with in that hellish world. Another drow had been there, but sometime during the night the forest had swallowed him up. Some part of sanity wanted to go in and search for Renin, but the unstable part of his mind was the victor that terrible morning, and they hadn't made much progress at all sitting in the sand with a failed healing attempt gone haywire. The Captain had only burst out with some strange laughter at the sight, much as he had the hand, but that day, Leo randomly chuckling at nothing at all wasn't out of the ordinary. Even at that moment his head ducked to smother the sound of a snicker, like he found his own one sided conversation as amusing as words could be. He stretched out on his side in the sand, cheek nuzzling against the texture that wasn't soft and grainy like the coasts of Cenril and Rynvale, but actually cut up his unshaven complexion a bit from the pebbles and nettles mingled in with that terrain. It wasn't the ocean-side comfort he longed for... but his mind drifted to many days spent on the beach in the Cove where the Eternity was harbored. Raspy breath came with the dusting of sand. Leo was... so thirsty.

Jayde, awakening from her momentary lapse from the present, to their return home, jerked her attention to Imar. With a gasp, she scrambled to bare feet that were dirtied, bruised, and cut up on the bottoms; though it didn't seem to bother her much. A detour was made on her way to the drow, to the Captain, haunching down to pat his sides, unless he had any type of sharp knives in plain view. She doubted, with his instability, if she asked him for a knife, he'd know what she was bloody talking about. So why waste her breath, when he hurt too much to allow vocals to grate in her sore, dry throat? If Leoxander fought her off, or didn't relinquish a weapon, then she was explaining the situation. Otherwise, she was turning, and heading back to Imar, likely with one of the two twin daggers.

Imar frowns with disapproval at his immobility, and again he struggles to free himself. He stops suddenly, confusion clouding his mind, and his eyes widen with shock as he realises he no longer hears the familar minds of several companions "Hurry up Jayde, time is short. They are out, and you must go soon"

Leoxander jolted back to the presence as well, when, rested on his side, he felt hands patting down his form in search of weaponry. His head lifted with a confused look toward the female, until she unbuckled the concealing leather that exposed the hilt of one of his cherished blades. Immediately he grasped her wrist with the first sign of suspicion showing in dark blue eyes, glaring hard. Yet at the moment where it seemed he would turn violent and thrust her hand away, that grasp was released, to let her ease the fit of knife from it's casing on his hip. Once Jayde stood, her back turned to him to return to Imar, curiosity got the best of him. He sat up to look to his opposite hip where he'd felt the jab of steel against the outside of his leg. Unlatching it in the same manner, another blade was discovered, and brought into view in his hands slowly. The struggling sanity inside him was somehow reassured that there was, after all, a means of escape from that place. He sat quietly with the dagger in palm, staring toward it's jagged, killing edge while his mind, unknown to anyone, unraveled a little more. Where... were they again..?

Jayde's gray eyes were pleading when they rose to meet blue and red irises, fingers flexing beneath where he grasped her wrist to cease it's withdrawing of the weapon. And when he released her, she slowly slid the weapon from it's leather sheath. Drawing erect, she turned on bare feet, and quickly closed the distance between herself, and Imar. Any bindings across his chest were carefully cut, as well as any at his arms, and legs.. until he either lowered to his feet, and fell to his knees. If such was the case, she was dropping the bladed weapon, and aiding the tall drow to his feet with a shoulder under one of his arms.

Leoxander allowed the business end of the blade to twist and drop in his hold, stabbing it into the sand between his knees idly. With white-knuckled digits wrapped around it's hilt, he began to drag the blade through the sand, ruining it's deadly edge somewhat, but that hardly mattered when it allowed him to draw lines in the beach. Suddenly the rogue was on his hands and knees, one appendage devoted to it's hold on the knife, and soon he was cutting strange curves and lines into the wet, grainy soil. There he was, drawing a large symbol of a boat in the ground, a stick figure version of his desires for getting off that isle, representing something a six year old might come up with on paper with crayons. And that would keep him occupied for awhile.

Imar rises to his feet, and with a frown still creasing his forehead, he looks around at the obsidian waters. He stares for a long moment, and turning his head to the human woman, he offers a tight smile. "Welcome to hell Jayde" The tall drow then studies Leoxander and, seeing the turmoil in his companion's thoughts, and the growing insanity which threatens to overwhelm him, he sends forth a breath of a thought "Peace Leo, be calm, all is well, and Tene is safe."

Jayde had swept downwards, gathering up the fallen blade.. sliding the flat ends lazily across the black of her frayed - hemmed skirt.. torn from the lower use of bandages on the Captain. Her smile was weak, and forced; as if she found humor in Imar's statement. Welcome to hell. A step forward was taken, dropping the blade, once more, to the sand, to slide her arms in a slow circle around the Drow's waist, loosely.. pressing her cheek to the center of his chest.. as if she were a child seeking consolation from a parent. Oh, sure, she hadn't witnessed the horrors that Imar, and Leo had; but she could sense the evil, the change in Leo.. and she had lived predominantly sheltered before this.

Leoxander stopped at the words directed his way, a long curve cut into the sand representing the childlike ship's hull. He'd paused, a slow glance over his shoulder turned toward Imar, considering his words for long moments. Finally he spoke, audible, though barely, his weakened voice hoarse from a parched throat and lack of strength. One of his eyes was near swollen shut, and the various cuts and scratches on his body were getting worse, infected in dark reds, though they were too minor to pose any real life threat. "...Tene?" The name was repeated quietly, fingers curling into handfuls of soil with his weight settling to his knees, a definite calm seeming to take it's toll throughout his posture, as though injected with a muscle relaxer. "...Where is she? Where's Tenebrae..?"

Jayde took a step back from Imar, turning back to the questions from Leo; those that she was unable to answer. Her head bowed, slim fingers sweeping through the length of disheveled black curls, tightening her grip at the back of her skull for a moment.. as if the sting of tugged hair was easier to deal with than the mounting frustration. Bending down again, the knife was lifted.. squaring her shoulders when her spine was drawn erect once again. "I'm going to go see if I can perhaps find something to nourish us." Preferably fresh water.

Tenebrae stepped through the arch of the cavernous room into that unhallowed hall, her footfalls echoing metal on stone as spiked heels carried her toward the dark surface of the obsidian pool. The necromancer's features were composed in a too-pale mask of determination and ire both; lips compressed to a thin line and eyes pinpricked, peridot pupils ringed in ebon seeking only one point of focus. Coming to a halt beside the ominous well she folded her arms each to each, gaze fixating on her own reflection in the inky sheen of what had passed for water.

Long she stood, staring into the darkness, until faint figures appeared therein as though viewed from a distance. Her heart raced not, nor did her mind rejoice, her face still set in a stoic mien. The limp shroud of tattered shadows that had, since her escape, wafted about her form in facsimile of a ragged cloak twitched to sudden life, this pythonic swathe of tendrils the only outward sign of the gathering of the vampiress' will. And once she sensed her will, her desire, focussed enough, she forged it into an arrow of unwavering intent and hurled it toward the pool. The voice that emerged from her slender throat to spill over rose-hued lips was whiplike, barbed almost. And it carried the weight and might of all the darkness in her. "Give them back!" The phrase snapped through the brief atmosphere between herself and the water, that surface rippling with the force of the sound. Then all fell silent, as Tene waited for reply from the creature who'd inspired this horror, in her honour.

Leoxander abandon his own blade when he kept his eyes on the drow, squinted in concern and question, awaiting the answers that had plagued him from the moment he'd been pushed into that well. Where was Tenebrae? Was she really safe? The expression he wore reflected more emotion and care than he really meant to, and Leo remained in that lame position on his knees in the wet sand until Imar's visage curiously and suddenly faded, as though absorbed in the shadows of the backdrop behind him. With his brow knit in frustration, he watched Jayde prepare to leave on her own, just as Renin had... would she come back or leave him there to waste away? Leo's eyes turned to the sea, and the human wore a watery-eyed look of desperation and anger that he rarely, if ever displayed in any sort of company before. Jaw clenched, there was a slight shiver to the lower lip he compressed against upper in attempts to bite back the curse bubbling out of his throat and chest. With his eyes on the black water that stood still as glass, unlike any real ocean, his heart suddenly ached, terribly. An overwhelming sense of loneliness washed through him, as if alone was just how he expected to be in the end. For once, it wasn't what the rogue wanted.

Jayde turned when she was answered with silence. She was still unaccustomed to the lack of verbal response from one that she considered to be opinionated. Her full lips, parched from the lack of moisture that graced plush tiers, compressed in obvious dislike to the situation, and the feminine arch of brows pulled together in a frown that did nothing for her youthful features that usually expressed joy, and gaiety. The distance between the Captain, and herself was closed with quick strides; she couldn't leave him here alone.. not when he wasn't right mentally, and could possibly bring harm upon himself. "You should come with me. It will be fun. An adventure." That was an understatement if she had ever heard one. In an attempt to coax him to comply, to make that heart - wrenching look upon his features vanish, she extended her free hand in offering.. though her slight weight would likely tumble down atop him if he tugged too hard to rise to his feet.

Tenebrae remained unaware of the stranger in her hall, the whole of her attention taken with the task at hand. Nothing sounded, nothing moved; all was silence for a few brief moments, as though the hand of some deity had swept forth to stop time itself. And then in a surge and swell of unnatural animation the waters of the pool tented in the middle, rising in slow deliberation like a sheet of jet-black silk through which the vague outline of a figure could be discerned, the darkness shrinking to its frame as though it were a mysterious and arcane sort of fabric, tightening until it seemed to melt into the form of the figure itself. Tenebrae could not help the widening of her eyes as the angular, slim form of a man emerged, his pallor exceeding her own the way sunlight pales the brightness of the moon. A smile, thin as a garrotte and of a more ruddy hue than its surrounds, spread to that aquiline face and he took a step across the 'liquid' toward her. The vampiress' throat convulsed involuntarily, a jab of near terror forcing that swallow as she stepped back. But, planting her feet firmly to the stone below, her chin to tilt to a defiant angle, she faced the being whose very aspect held a definite and unsettling sense of being very much like her own.

"Wh.. who are you?" This question hurried, the tone less commanding than she'd have preferred. "I've come to get them back. I will not leave without them." This addendum was more stronly voiced, her fear abating, that famous temper finding purchase within her and lending her the courage to do what she must.

The man merely smiled, crooking a spidery forefinger against his chin, a glitter of amusement in eyes that shifted from a brilliant venomous green to deepest ebon, it appeared, at random. "I think not, pet." His voice was the whisper of a dry wind, his cruel smirk broadening.

Leoxander only managed to bow his head slightly to hide the look when she neared, and though her offer for adventure was something the young human normally would have jumped up to, especially with nothing else but hopelessness to count on, he made no move to crawl up to his feet and support his weight on injured legs, this time. Staring down at the sand between leather leggings torn and ripped from injury, his chin touched to his chest, and in despair he shook his head, closing his eyes. The pirate wasn't typically one to sulk, but as mentioned, he was a little unstable, mentally. And by the sharply taken inhales of breath that made his shoulders jump a bit, he appeared on the verge of breaking down into tears. He made no move to stand, not even if she did more than offer a hand, and instead tried to tug him to his feet. It would be an impossible feat without his cooperation and as it were, Leo threatened to crumble even lower. He was definitely losing his optimism and faith that they would ever make it out of there. A name escaped him in a low, sorrowful moan, a sound smothered quiet by the downward tilt of his skull, hiding the hard swallows taken to try to push down the lump constricted in his throat. Fear was building. "...Tenebrae..."

Zuljin gazed at the woman and the figure that manifested itself from the water in awe and confusion. He felt it best not to interfere, but knew not to leave the woman alone; lest something disastrous happen, guilt would overwhelm him. He kept his distance, going unnoticed by both, and began a guilty sneak of a walk toward the two. Keeping to the far of the room, but close enough to be of some use as the male figure didn't seem to be cooperating with the woman's wishes. He stopped close but still far enough away to go unnoticed.

Jayde's bright, expressive gray eyes saddened considerably when he took a breath, and his shoulders quaked. Her throat constricted painfully, and the etch of her brows only became more defined. No, she didn't attempt to tug him to his feet, and instead, lowered to a kneel at his side.. placing down the dagger at his knee, within reach. His voice, normally a deep timbre, only seemed to cause her further ache.. whispering a name he had been repeating in woe for a while, breaking his random silences. "I am sure she is fine, Leo. You must have faith." Her left hand rose, brushing her fingers against the back of his head, gently, before the appendage was re-lowered. She wouldn't leave him. Or perhaps, she feared to go out alone. Settling on her backside at his side, her legs were drawn upwards, crossing at the ankles when her thighs were guided to her chest. Her chin pressed to the upward angling of knees, and limbs were held thus with the wrap of appendages 'round the front of her shins. Things were beginning to look helpless, even to the healer whom attempted to seek out the more optimistic side.

Tenebrae gave no ground as the almost elegant man stepped neatly from the edging of the pool, to stand a mere two feet from her. His proximity was, to say the least, unnerving to her; the crackle and hum of a measure of power she'd only faced once before creeping to the lower edges of her awareness and rising in increments.

"I asked..." Her words were clipped, controlled, that delicate chin still tilted and her arms coming to to her sides. "For your name."

Such sinuous grace of motion, she thought, was something generally reserved for the lithest of women, as he snaked closer. Tene found her eyes unable to hold firm to her sight of him; it just kind of ... slipped away. Only her will brought them forward again, the shock of finding him so near as to almost touch her a catalyst to a gasp. Steeling herself, upper lip twitching in signal to a barely controlled rage, the vampiress remained still as his dry voice washed without stir of breath over her face.

"Joliette..." That name .. how did he...? "I think you know who I am. And what I want." Again, a serpentine shift of body, and he mimed a nuzzle at her throat. Tene could not have moved in that moment, had she wanted to. He continued, his tone softening to a seductive thrum. "Tell you what, sweetness. I'll let your Captain and his companions free, if you'll just come home, like a good little girl."

Any doubt the necromancer might have pretended to hold as to the identity if not the name of this nefarious individual was gone. It was as though pieces of a very large and confusing puzzle were beginning to fall into place, and the picture it revealed only fuelled her rage. "Tell you what." Her own tone held that menace so many had the misfortune to encounter. "You let them go and I ..." Her final words would be punctuated with a lightning-quick thrust of balled fist toward his chest, hard enough to have knocked a gaping wound in the flesh of any mortal man. "Will not take too long in killing you."

Leoxander felt more cold, then, than he had in the seemingly below freezing night before. His stare, still pale and lost with pupils dilated to tiny points from malnourishment and otherwise, remained on the ground, targeting the knife rested near his knee once she had relinquished it. Shoulders hunched in misery, he reached his hand out to curl his fingers around the blade instead of the hilt, as if unaware that the dagger needed to be grasped by handle to avoid injury. Yet he didn't even notice the drops of warm red liquid that settled into the lines and crevices of the rough fingers and knuckles wrapped around thin steel, staining his hand steadily in rivulets of vermilion, which trickled down the underside his tattooed wrist. Liquid glazed eyes that hadn't yet betrayed any tears down his cheeks lifted to aim his dull gaze back out into the black water. Then all of a sudden, Leo pushed to his feet, scattering sand, still clutching the deadly edge of his knife. His walk was slow, his steps limped badly from the wounds at the back of his legs, but it was clear to see his direction, if continued, would take him straight out into the dark sea. Leoxander's fractured mind told him then that Tenebrae was out in those waters. There was no shaking that fact from his mind now that he'd found an answer, even if it wasn't the right one. Was it Eldritch's sway suddenly setting a suicidal path into stride, or Leoxander's own insanity?

Zuljin felt an urge to help the woman as he could smell the fear reek from her pores. He continued to listen and the words he heard were not as expected, the thought that she was more powerful than this being... had not crossed his mind. He felt a sense of relief, as he did not feel like dying today, let alone for a stranger. His eyes and ears were now focused on what would happen next.

Jayde remained silent, even when he inflicted pain he seemed heedless to, by grasping the sharp blade of the weapon in his unprotected hand. She couldn't get through to him, no matter how hard she tried. And she had tried hard. But when he rose abruptly, and began to head forward in what seemed determination.. Jayde bounded to her feet as well. It wasn't until he continued straight that she realized he was heading for those ominous dark waters, where any kind of beast could be lurking, just waiting for a morsel of human flesh to nibble on. The droplets of blood that rolled down his hand would likely be a beckon for large creatures that doubled, if not tripled in their size. "Leo, no! Stop." Quickly, she ran up to catch him, positioning her slight frame before him, with her hands pressed flat to his chest. "Go sit back down.. please."

Imar feels the world close in around him, and a thick, impenetrable veil descend over his thoughts and body. Rage explodes within him as he struggles to penetrate the barrier which separates him from his companions. His lips part in a soundless roar, and crimson eyes blaze with the refuge of insanity. Deep in his mind, a bubble of his consciousness, the sane Imar, shrieks with frustration and fear, as the reverent consciousness attempts to batter down the walls of his castle. He watches the others, his friends, companions, and his only hope for escape from this accursed realm as they fight on, not knowing how close they are to penetrate the borders and return from whence they came. He wonders with despair, feeling himself weaken under the onslaught “Can’t you see me? I am here, don’t leave me! How can I fight the obsidian pool alone?” As the reverent continues to rage, Imar forces himself to relax once more, his thoughts once again calm, and focused on his predicament. He has known for some time that he wasn’t meant to go with these people, the pool has plans for him, and lured him here on purpose. Still, he must think. Danielle, the other illusionist, she is here somewhere, but where? And how do I find her. And what is that other one?

Tenebrae's fist indeed knocked a gaping hole in the chest of the man .. and continued on, right through to the other side. Her jaw dropped, a soft sound marking her incredulity. And another, as the not-quite-solid body of her maker closed around her limb, trapping it tight. The fell Lord took one step backward, and then another, dragging her closer to the pool. Once there, he reached unnaturally long fingers to clasp the silken swathe of ebon hair at the back of her head in a vise-like grip. Drawing her from him, her arm slipping in reverse through the gelatinous mucilage of his body, Eldritch forced her head effortless toward the now-still obsidian waters, words a bitter hiss. "Look! Look at what you've wrought with your defiance!"

She saw them all, all their misery, all their suffering. Every one of the brave souls who'd entered that vile place, for her sake or near enough. "Oh..." Another involuntary sound, the voice of her dismay.

"Yes, and it's all your fault, pet. Best you end their pain, and come with..."

His sentence was cut short, the ancient vampire catching a glimpse of something .. untoward happening in his realm. Something that gave Tene the seed of hope that in turn fed her courage. "Leo!" The vision of him, haggard and stumbling, yet carrying forward with determination toward them. "Leo! Hurry!" Tene could only pray he'd hear her cry, somehow. And she knew then, what to do. Whip-like ribbons of darkness flailed from her, to encase her fore-sire tightly. She had no real hope of containing him for more than a few moments. She hoped it was enough.

"You little bitch!" The foul ancient spat the words at her. "I should have just killed you."

Tene laughed manically as he twisted, his form rupturing into inhuman shapes as Proteus-like he tried to evade her shadow's grasp. And when the laughter stopped, she simply replied: "Yeah. Maybe you should have..."

Leoxander didn't throw Jayde aside, he was still well aware that she was a friend, and her reasons for being there remained stable in a mess of other chaotic memories; she was there to help those in need. He wasn't the one who needed help, and though his eyes still looked to be mourning, and full of sorrow, his expression became more alive with his words. "We have to help her, Jayde. We have to save them." Tenebrae was in those waters. Danielle, too. Maybe he would find Renin and Castellian within as well. But the cries he distinctly heard, even submerged beneath black element, were feminine. 'Leo, hurry!' she called. His hand lifted to grasp Jayde by the shoulder, but instead of pushing her aside, he only latched on to bring the woman stumbling after his limping pace. Refusing to take his wide eyes off the glassy surface of ominous waters, he croaked out his best encouragements in such a damaged voice. "C'mon, I can hear them!" But he'd been hearing voices... all week...

Jayde's head nodded in agree. They did need to help them. But how? He was physically exhausted, his strength drained, his sanity all but absent. She herself was nothing but female, weak and fragile; or so she felt.. lacking the ability she cherished more than her own breath, which helped to preserve the lives of those in agony, and teetering on the brink of death. But before she could question what his plan was, he was given a sudden spurt of motivation, grasping her shoulder to guide her along behind him. She followed, willingly, behind.. trusting the sudden exaltation of his surety. In the sand, she stumbled only a few times, rising with the next stretch of limb when she dropped to a knee from the lack of grace that exhaustion left her with.

Zuljin stood fast, watching the woman in her near triumph. He could taste victory, victory for the woman that he was for some reason thankful for. His eyes did not leave her glow. His legs shivering out of anxiety, "I hope she pulls... whatever she's trying to accomplish, off." He mumbled under his breath. "If not... I fear for whoever she is trying to save."

Tenebrae's struggle was failing, that much was plain. In the pool, she could see the figure of Leo and the woman he dragged behind him approaching rapidly. "Hurry!" It was a shriek, desperate, as the eldred creature thrashed in her darkness' embrace, the tendrils looking more tattered and frail by the second. She hoped fervently the other two were following ...

Tene snapped her head back as the blackness-spewing and needle-fanged maw of Eldritch lunged for her throat, tearing her attention from the scene. His form coiled and recoiled around her own familiar shadows, twisting into a Gordian knot that threatened to fall apart at any moment. The waters of the pool cleared... Possibly, the distraction she'd provided was weakening his hold. That'd been the plan, anyway. As the blackness drained to the clarity of air, and the shape of the well came into view, ropes suspended down its depths, Tene put the last of her fading strength to work. "Hurryhurryhurry..." It had become her mantra.

Leoxander felt icy water against his ankles, before the liquid stung into the open wounds on his calves, and at the backs of his knees. The glassy texture of the water's vast surface suddenly unsettled from it's calm disposition, and obsidian waves began to lap the rough terrain angrily, as if offended by the intrusion. The temperature of those icy depths took his very breath as he continued to drag Jayde to what could be their grave, with him. Panic and instinctive fear had his heart pace quickening, inhales somewhat gasped for by the time that surface buried him to his waist, and because the druidess was shorter, it would reach even higher on her slender frame. Non existent wind carried the water toward the two humanoids in the ocean's last attempt of defense, and the makings of a monstrous wave heading toward shore would be seen at a distance. Oddly enough, as that wave increased in size, and began to curl forward in preparations to engulf anything in it's path, the midnight hue of that liquid seemed to cleanse during it's travels. Momentum brought that thundering water nearer, and the ocean floor beneath their feet shivered violently, and cracked open, removing the stability of terrain. It was just as that wave crashed over their heads with intentions of drowning them that they lost the ground beneath their feet, and for what would seem minutes, a black, fathomless sense of chaos surrounded the pair. Perhaps Leo had taken the willing healer to her death...

Imar struggles to maintain his control over the small but oh so important part of his mind that is still sane, and forces every ounce of his considerable mental power to send a message. Through the layers of darkness and pain he pushes, and a sense of relief he manages a few words "Go Leo! 'Tis time you and Jayde left, Tene awaits. Be well."

Jayde gasped aloud, choking with the brittle texture of her voice, like sandpaper on rough wood, when the water swirled around her feet.. lapping higher the deeper they went at skin that was unprotected, goosebumps prickling.. shivers wracking her slight frame. Her teeth chattered of their own will, chilled down to her very bone. But it was when her head rose from the water that swirled beneath her, that her gaze fell upon the wall. No, that was no wall, fore immobile structures didn't race at them, increasing in height. Instinctively she stepped nearer to the pirate, raising a hand to claw at his bicep, though faithfully, she followed along. The vibrations of the ocean floor shook her petite frame, the wall a luminous presence that had likely drowned villages with it's height. But before it could crash down on them, the wet sand beneath them gave way, like a plug in the bottom of a bath, draining them out. The darkness that enveloped them wasn't only air, but thick water, salty in texture, that entered her mouth when it opened to scream, burning her eyes when they opened to see; filling her lungs painfully.. almost threatening to drown the pair. But soon, the clutches of death released them with the water that lowered, drying up, it seemed, leaving them in an empty hole. The wet, sloped sides were perhaps an impossible obstacle to climb, and if not for the dangling of ropes, that hung over the edges of the shallow, empty pool, they might have found themselves trapped in another cage - like structure. Struggling first to her knees, then her hands, Jayde moved to Leo, tugging hard on his hand, guiding him over to their means of escape. Incase he hadn't already caught on, she gestured for him to grip it, her speech impossible when her shoulders still heaved from the coughing fit; her body's attempt to reject the salt, and water. When he seemed to catch on, figuratively speaking, her own way was made to the second, curling her fingers around it's thickness to give a tug. Biceps tensed, and strained, and her bared feet pressed to the smooth edges of the side of the well.. ascending towards the edge of the somewhat shallow pit. When, with much of a struggle, and grunts of exertion came to a halt, she pressed her stomach to the edge, crawling over the side to land, unceremoniously on her back. She didn't seem to mind that the breath was stolen from her lungs with the landing.. simply that they were no longer trapped on that God Forsaken Island. Thick lashes touched to her pale cheeks, and her chest heaved with an attempt of finding enough breath to sate her lung's desire for oxygen.. panting audibly.

Tenebrae 's teeth ground audibly, delicately shaped jaw clenched hard with the effort of keeping her vampiric progenitor in thrall to her own tensile will. A faintly crimson sheen of sweat beaded the necromancer's brow, sanguine-tinged perspiration almost wholly alien to her body's functioning, the extreme duress she was under causing cartiledge and muscle to strain to the point of tearing as well.

Hurryhurry.... Her mind chanted the word; she could spare the escapees none of her intent, nor the energy for a single spoken word of encouragement. The Chaos Lord writhed, all pretense at elegance and even his anthropoid form gone; the man that had seemed to be, now little more than a malevolent blackness that roiled around her, the twisted mockery of a chalk-white face appearing at intervals to gnash at the vampiress in soundless rage. Tene could not tell whether her feint had worked; inch by inch she'd backed herself, Eldritch in tow, away from the pool to the wider expanse of the main of the hall. Tremors seized her frame; the end of the battle was nigh, and likely the end of Tene as well, were she unable to fend off her maker's rage once her hold on him finally collapsed.

Leoxander had closed his eyes, and prepared to die. He hadn't ever managed to find Jack to say goodbye. The salty water stung his eyes when he squinted into it, but in a final blow of disappointment, even that darkness revealed she wasn't there. He'd heard her, he'd been so close, but he couldn't find her.

And then a clatter of metal brought him back to his senses. His dagger had dropped from his hand, and someone tugging at his arm. Barely able to see through the swell of one eye and the squint of another, he didn't argue with those pulling hands until he remembered to retrieve his fallen blade, and in automatic movement, it joined it's twin in the sheath at his opposite hip. The cold stone of the well wall contacted to his hands and cheek as he stopped himself by colliding against it, but they were obviously in some hurry, even if he couldn't remember why. A glance up didn't show any amazing light of freedom- it was all shadows and stone above them. But Jayde was climbing with all the ability and speed she was capable of, so Leo followed suit. Twice he nearly slipped, and that, if nothing else, was odd; for the thief to lose his usual spider like dexterity...

The taste of blood came with another sting of pain as he bit into the soft muscle of his tongue on a rough landing over the edge of the pool's basin. Water spilled from his mouth, leaving his lungs in a ragged cough that puddled with red taint on the stone floor. Weak fingers curled into that surface, and he fought against the wave of nausea that kept him doubled over on his hands and knees for several moments. He couldn't believe his eyes when those pale irises finally lifted to the dull sound of struggle...

"...Tenebrae!!"

She was there, in the water (well, sort of...), just as he'd known. Just twenty feet away, the woman that had become a goal in his battered mind, though he had expected to find Danielle and Castellian at her side. Where the reserves of strength came from at that point were impossible to know, but Leo didn't stop to wonder. The breath in his lungs grated into a sound of pain as his whole body fought to reject his brain telling it to get up, and he even fell forward on his hands and chest once before managing to crawl to his feet. The young human's eyes reflected the worry and fear created by the scene before him; the two necromancers locked in a battle beyond his defense and comprehension... but his hand went for his blade, anyhow.

For a moment, Jayde could do naught but lay there, her small frame heaving, and shuddering, as if wracked with chills. Her chest rose and fell at a rapid pace, attempting to drag in a sufficient amount of oxygen; though failing miserably. From her back, to her hands and knees she rolled, shoulders quaking when she coughed hard, salt water leaving a foul taste on her tongue when it puddled at the floor, leaving her lungs. She was unaware of the struggle taking place, so relieved was she that the sense of terror that had filled her very being from that living Hell had vanished, that she was un-attuned to her surroundings. A loud yell, and her head jerked upright, immediately assessing her surroundings. There was Lady Tenebrae, alive.. though perhaps not at her best. It didn't appear to be so, with her entangled with another creature. Her head turned, to the source of the loud cry.. falling upon the weakened male.. though he was struggling to rise, fighting the exhaustion, his attention locked upon the pair that danced in battle.

For a moment, she considered him.. the thought flittering through her mind.. 'Is he really stupid enough to go after them, when he can hardly walk straight?' But it seemed he was. Immediately, she was scrambling to her feet, a bare wet foot sliding upon cold stone, sending her hard to her knees.. but she seemed to pay the pain that shot up her leg no attention. "Leo! No! Come on." Jayde wasn't one to leave another to battle on their own; but what good would they be, except in the way? He wouldn't make it out of the fight alive, not in his present, weakened condition. When the human had risen to his full height, her fingers locked tight around his wrists, attempting to drag him to the exit of the heart of the maze. He would have to live today, to fight another day..

Leo's fingers curled around the hilt of his trusty blade, just as digits of more slender and softer make closed down on that wrist. So intent on the scene he'd been, that he hadn't even heard Jayde's use of his name. His frame jerked to a halt when she prevented him from taking another step.

"Let go!" The words roared in outrage were proof the man was out of his mind, he never spoke to the gentle healer in such ways. But a wild look back at the Necromancers revealed his reasons why. Leoxander's friend, the Mistress of his clan, and a woman he obviously cared for was in danger before his very eyes. Again, he was desperately trying to help, if only by screaming her name, which wasn't much help at all. "...Tenebrae!"

There wasn't much fight left in the mortal. Even the petite druidess would manage to keep him from throwing himself in the mass of gathering shadows and magic, but her tugging and insistence was futile. The rogue, who had proclaimed himself guard to the vampiress some time ago, was less than willing to abandon her now, even with the sensation and threat of death in the air.

He was ready to die for the woman he'd never known as Joliette.

However, Miss Ramon Von'Dessia had other plans...

"Let go!"

For a moment, Jayde stared in shock at the human, his roar of words startling her into a moment bit of silence. Soon he was struggling though, attempting to get past her to save Tenebrae. But he would be no use dead! Did he not stop to consider that?

"No!" Her normally soft voice rose, yelling back at him, leaning in, and up onto her toes, as if she desired to push her face to his so he would comprehend just what she had said. "No! I am not going to let anything happen to you!"

The friction in the air was like a crackle of electricity, raising the tiny hairs at the back of her neck. She didn't know how she had done it before, but she tried it now. Her hands rose, gripping his biceps tight to give a tug.. blue light emanating from the center of her palms, to glow bright against his upper arms. Like snakes, beckoned from inside the walls, vines crawled across the floor, roses of various, brilliant shades of colour brightening what would have otherwise been ominous, life - threatening vines. Still, they rose, sliding, indeed like a serpent, up Leo's legs, wrapping around his thighs, traveling higher, up his arms, to bite into his skin.

There weren't many thorns, only those that led to the beautifully bloomed roses. Their soft petals caressed against his flesh, and as if they were human, they even nuzzled against him, as if silently apologizing for the roughness of their counterparts. As if someone had pulled on the vines, like a rope, giving a sharp tug, the pirate Captain was swept off his feet. No matter how hard he twisted, and writhed, their grip would endure. If he went so far as to begin to hack at the thin plants, more would slide across the cold stone flooring, to re-tangle around him. Jayde, with the determined stride of a woman whom had places to go, gave one last saddened look to Tenebrae, knowing they were unable to help against a creature that was, by far, stronger than the two humans. Like obedient dogs, the plants followed along.. trapped in their grip the poor human whom only wanted to save his Mistress.

Leoxander's frantic cursing and screaming was abruptly silenced when a particularly bright blossom of peach and orange colors stuffed itself in his loud mouth.

By the time Leo and Jayde were clear of the interior of the empty pool, Tenebrae was all but defeated. It was by sheer dumb chance she caught sight of the pair, a brief gap in the miasmic struggle revealing them: the healer on her back, and Leo struggling to rise.

"Tenebrae!" His cry cut sharply through the room - the battle largely a silent one, save for the odd grunt of exertion she made - and the faint hiss of darkness struggling with darkness. Tene didn't even pause; indeed, she couldn't, for even the slightest hesitation in her focus would certainly bring her undone. So she made herself deaf to his voice, blind anyway by the resumed turmoil around her, mollifying her dread that he'd fling himself to the fray for her sake by the almost certain knowledge that he'd have the sense not to. She had to put her trust in the notion they'd make it out alive and quickened her attention to the task at hand. Callous? Probably. But Tene had always been practical, even if her definition of what necessitated and even defined practical was generally somewhat skewed to suit her own needs. And just then there was a great need for her to keep the ancient vampire occupied, and for Leo and Jayde to gain time to become absent from that blighted building. The vampiress' grip was weakening, her shadows remnant tatters desperately attempting to coalesce to some useful form, only to be torn asunder by the twisting vortices that comprised the body of Eldritch.

It occurred to her, in a bizarre and near-blinding moment of clarity, that if ever there was a time she was likely to meet true death, this was it. Her mind would not allow to the upper layers of her consciousness the thought that lurked behind that revelation: that it was also well within the elder vampire's power to stop her heart, slowly, let her body die and make her a revenant; one of the true undead, trapped within a corpse that would never have a heartbeat, never cry, and never rot, as long as it was kept fed with stolen life, in perpetuity. And madness was a common lot for such unfortunates. It was all too easy for the body to starve, the decay to begin...

And then she hit the floor, hard; hard enough to knock the breath from her body, to render her numb with shock. The horrid sound of bone snapping under the skin of her ribcage, the pain of it, didn't even register. This was her final moment. Best she think of Caste, and what might have been ...

"Shall I take him from you, too, dear?" Leather-soled footsteps carried loud against the marble floor, that voice inflected with the epitome of reason. The exhausted vampiress lifted her head as best she could, the natty shoes and neatly striped trouser-cuffs of her maker being the only view afforded her, as he continued: "Will that be enough to to make you understand that you're mine?" No romantic notion, his possessiveness; that ability had been lost to Eldritch aeons ago.

"Take .. take Caste?" Why hadn't he, when he'd had the chance...? She quashed the question the moment it was forged in her mind, lest he hear it in her upper thoughts. Still, the death-blow she'd expected hadn't come, and if he was still co-ercing her, it wasn't likely to. Yet. "How...?"

"The same way I've taken everything else from you. With ease." The last word of this was extended, the final sibillant a subtle hiss. "Don't make things any harder for yourself, Joliette - apologies, but I really cannot take to 'Tenebrae', it's so ... tacky. Don't make things harder, than you already have. Harder for others, too. For your friends."

Tene planted her palms to the floor, a soft groan accompanying the push upward that gave her a fuller view of her maker. Her dulled gaze rose to meet brilliant green eyes that had the same obsidian shade as the waters of the pool sliding across them now and then, like secondary eyelids. "Leave Caste alone, leave them all alone." She had to get out of there, before the knowledge she was hiding managed to seep to the fore of her mind and betray her. The man - though the term hardly fit - that stood over her maintained silence."You don't own me, you never did."

Eldritch dropped to a crouch, sweeping the knuckles of long, chalky fingers across her cheek. The necromancer's indignant recoil from that chill touch was met with an almost tender smile. "How wrong you are, pet. But it's that spirit of yours, that indefatigable essence you carry that makes you so .. suitable a project. Pity you waste it on such trivia as you do. You always were the aberration in my little family, the one that desired your mortality again. So you slum it, with the peasantry that is the living, when you could have -power- beyond your reckoning." He stood, his chuckle - Tene presumed it such - was a hoarse rattle in the elder's chest.

"And be like you?" Finally, her eyes could focus. "A deluded relic, bound to a senseless and empty reality, 'til it drives me insane, too?" She struggled to her feet, the soles of her boots slipping against smooth stone briefly. "No thanks." Ever the one to push the envelope, was Tene. Even now, beaten as she was, her pride spurred her to quick and blazing anger. Her gaze, in its involuntary shifting from his shape, came to rest on the vacant stone pool several yards behind him. Vacant. He'd gathered up all he had, to fight her...

The pain of her ribs was felt now, acutely, as lithe legs tensed beneath her, the vampiress' mind deliberately emptied of all thought. She became the huntress, a creature of pure instinct. And with his own power depleted, he never sensed her intent, 'til it was too late. He was solidified, at that moment, all his darknesses employed in lending density, matter, to that elegantly dressed, thin frame. And it took concentration to make shadows solid; she knew that. Legs pumping hard, she sprang to action in a sudden rush toward him, her hands slapping to the smooth fabric of his jacket, Tene -shoved- as hard as she could. The ancient vampire's reaction, if he had time for any, went unnoticed. His neatly shod feet left the ground, the momentum of her blow and the speed of her delivery carrying him with her as she ran that last few feet. It was those crisply shined shoes that hit the edge of the pool first, Eldritch flying backward to tumble, with no elegance at all, into that stone hole. The necromancer almost followed after - gods forbid - to fall into the trap again, only a hasty reach of arm and the strength of her fingers on the pool's side preventing such an accident. Then she was up and through those arches as though the dogs of the lowest hells were at her heels, before the stunned immortal could figure out quite what had happened to him.

And, had such haste not been required, she might have had the chance and motivation to look back, and had she done so, she might have noticed the pool's surface once more glistening under the perpetual candlelight, a perfect mirror in which to glimpse a shining dream.