It is three in the morning when Braxeus decides he will try what he has not attempted in nearly three hundred years. He is naked from head to toe - why dress at a time like this, when he is alone in his room? He isn't expecting any guests.
His crimson eyes drift to the window, illuminated by moonlight spilling through the curtains that shift with his mere glance their way... and with an arch of his hand as he kneels to do his work, a circular black stone slab, polished on one surface, hovers and moves over the floor, setting down with a thud in front of him. It has several grooves in it, arcs and lines, arranged in a very complex pattern. Just looking at the stone, it seems to murmur secrets.
Braxeus smoothes one hand over his bare scalp and his whiskerless face and smiles, ?Now I shall see who is watching me... and maybe even why.? His aura is shielded; to all but perhaps the most skilled leymaster, he appears to be nothing more than a concentration of magical energy, a stray spark from a ley line or something similar. Even Kairee might not recognize it if trying to detect him from a distance. Shielded thusly, he begins the spell, running a short fingernail the length of his arm and pressing very hard, tearing the skin. He squeezes, pinching the torn skin, and lets the drops fall precisely into the grooves. Of their own accord the blood drops begin to move, joining together, running throughout each line cut into the stone.
Too distracted to bother healing his wound right now, he reaches his arms out, gathering energy to his crossed hands... and spreads them suddenly around the edges of the slab. With a swift thrum and then the gentle humming of magical activity, a little wave shoots out, and the smooth black surface patterned with his own blood becomes a portal, through which he views... many things. Energies, faces, far-off locations linked to Rhy'Din... many carefully warded secrets that he might pick out. But somewhere, in all of it... he sees a fire. Frowning, he leans over the device and concentrates on that flame, wondering what on earth it could be.
Then he hears the voices, the conversations, mottled words and hisses... and names. Ia Corliss... Corliss ia oe daun... E draxsa Kairee... Kairee... A Selien e draxsa Kairee... u... Braxeus...
The last name seems to echo in his ears, and then he realizes the voices are beginning to whisper around him and to him. His eyes widen slowly and steadily... and then he sweeps an arm, the blood spilling out of the grooves, spraying across one of the walls by his will, the slab moved off to the side, and he falls back onto his bottom and his hands, breathing hard, looking... panicked.
Unknown to Braxeus, Kairee wakes suddenly in her own rooms; bolting upright in her bed. Quickly rolling out of bed, Kairee?s senses extending behind her fortress of an apartment. Without hesitation she moves rapidly to the "coffee? table before the fireplace, kneeling by it as she peers through the glass, systematically searching through the inn.
One of his instincts is to call for Kairee... but he fears it. They may still be listening to him right now, and though he feels nothing, he knows his senses are not perfect. To an empath, though, his level of tension is palpable. He half-dresses in a flash and draws his dagger from beneath his pillow, pausing near his headboard... tensed and waiting.
Finally reaching out with his senses, tendrils of his aura lashing out in all directions and finding no one looking for him, no one watching him or Kairee, he calls to her.~Kairee.~
Her response is immeadiate, ~Did you feel that? Are you safe?~
~Come here.~
There is a pause before he feels a teleport in his sitting room; but he doesn?t feel Kairee.
With his auric sense failing him, Braxeus takes a look around, wondering to himself if she's trying to fake any listeners out or suspects a trap.
Kairee is there, fully armored with weapon drawn; spell ready to be cast; recognizing him she holds back. ~Are you alone~
~Yes.~ His own dagger at his side, though his tension has lessened somewhat.
Kairee looks around his sitting room looking for trouble before following him into the bedeoom. ~I felt an opening...a portal within the inn. I thought something had come through.~
Braceus looks up at her as he sits down on the edge of his bed. ?They may as well already be. I opened a portal to see who was watching me, and shielded my aura carefully... and when I looked inside, I saw a demon... whose name I daren't mention, for fear of the consequences you have alluded to.?
? He was already engaged in conversation with others of his kind, although lesser than he, and two other names were mentioned.? His eyes drift down to the stone slab still on the floor. ?Yours, and mine.?
?I don?t think anything came through...I can't sense it if it did..? pausing as his final statement registered with her, ?What?? she asks, finally sheathing her sword; the armor fades from her as well.
?They had not noticed me when they said what they did. They were linked to Rhy'Din, and speaking about us.?
?I have felt watched....? she comments crossing to him, ?Did you hear their plans??
?I am familiar with the words of demons.? Looking down at her hand and taking one of them thoughtfully, before looking back up at her. "Bring Kairee to me." He paused barely a moment before continuing, ?They had began on their plans for me - "as for Braxeus" - when they stopped, and began whispering in my ear.?
Kairee reaches out with her other hand, caressing his cheek, ?I am sorry you have been dragged into this.?
He shakes his head, ?Do not apologize... I have been aware of the threats for some time, and have stayed with you all the same. It is my choice.?
Leaning down Kairee kisses his bald head, ?What did they say to you??
? There were too many voices...? He shakes his head, ?Too many, to discern much. But they threatened things worse than death... typical demon rhetoric.?
"They mean it." said with certainty born of experience as she sinks down on the bed beside him. A hand to her forehead, rubbing gently as Kairee remembers the past and ponders the future.
One arm behind her, resting gently around her frame, ?If they intend to make good on it, they will regret trying.?
Kairee offers him a smile, ?Yes, they will.? her eyes take on a far away look, "They have long memories and live for revenge. However, the Inn is a fortress, Braxeus. I turned it into one to protect the Nexus from those that sought to control it ?.especially after my last run in with demons."
He nods at her words, ?I feel at ease now? referring to the ambient energies surrounding them, any sense of the previous disruptions gone, ?But is it the peace after the storm... or the calm before...?? The moment of his last word, they feel a tingling on the back of their necks, a significant shift in ley energies; it happens almost instantaneously.
Braxeus whirls out in front of Kairee, hands out as a fireball seems to issue from thin air as a being materializes behind it. The flames shoot out but disappate short of him, barely heating his flesh, though the sheets behind him and Kairee's hair all move from it. The being hasn't the time to even really begin his cackle before he is slammed against the ceiling, red sparks and lines of electricity issuing from his flesh.
His skin is black - not the creamy brown of people of many continents, but black as charcoal, and his eyes are fire as Braxeus' are blood. He is dressed only in a loincloth, though his body adorned with blades. Though constrained and threatened with destruction, his eyes glitter maliciously, and they keep on flickering hungrily to Kairee.
Kairee darts out from behind Braxeus; casting ?Ectoplasmic Destruction? as she does, seeking to render his form on this plane and return him to which ever hell he crawled out from.
The demon hisses and curses them as he is unmade in this world, and made again in a deep, distant hell.
?Hopefully, he'll be lost in translation for some time.? Braxeus sinks back onto the bed, sheened with sweat. That thing shot into the Inn like a bullet, using gods knows what to pass all the wards, and it took great energy to stop him so quickly by summoning up enough on short notice to stop the fireball and bind him to the ceiling.
?To my rooms, they are more secure.? Kairee asserts holding out her hand to her lover.
Braxeus summons a shirt and other things that he needs, holding it all bundled in one arm, and then takes her hand.
In a flash they are standing in her living room.
Finally, he looks to his right forearm, fairly covered in blood from the wound he inflicted himself earlier, and passes a hand over it, healing the skin, ?F**king demons.? It may be the first time he's cursed in front of her
?As I was saying,? Kairee crosses to the glass coffee table, ?The Inn is a fortress but it's it also an expression of the Nexus.. There is no power great enough to lock anyone out of the Inn, but I was able to limit what they can do while in the Inn. There effects of anything they cast is muted.? She explains as her attention is absorbed in using the properties of the table to scan every nook and cranny in the inn for other intruders. ?But here in my rooms, though also fashioned from the Inn and part of the Nexus, it isn't the Inn proper. I can prevent any and everyone from entering?
?I am lucky that fireball was so weakened. I was certain it would burn at the very least the one in front.?
Pausing to look to him, ?Thank you.? Kairee softly verbalizes her gratitude.
Braxeus chooses a chair, sinking down into it, and then looks up at her for a silent moment. It hits him what he's done, but being only a minor self-sacrifice and occupied with other more pressing things, he sets the thought aside for now. ?You're welcome, Kairee.? He pauses briefly, ?You know any spell can be undone... any enchantment unraveled, given enough skill.?
?Skill and time or enough power. If they are that powerful, we'll have bigger problems.? She observes as she crossing to him.
?His power was tangible. He knows no restraint, which is his strength and his weakness.?
?Who? The one that got into your room??
?The one in my room?? He shakes his head. ?I felt his name in his blood. It will not hurt to speak it. Xaxelsias. He was a minion, nothing more.?
?He may have been a test to see how prepared we are.? Kairee sitting on the arm of the chair Braxeus occupies.
He frowns, ?Not prepared enough.? Braxeus rests a hand on her thigh, looking up at her again. ?He is linked to Rhy'Din... which means he can come here when he pleases. When he feels the time is right.?
Kairee nods solemnly ?Yes. I could leave but that would only delay the inevitable.?
?He was in a pocket of a peripheral.?
?what do you mean, love??
?He was in a pocket dimension in a peripheral plane - one of the planes "closest" to Rhy'Din.?
?So, he had been moved into position.?
? Had been moved? Someone else did it??
?Metaphorical? she explains unwilling to introduce the possibility that that demon lord?s Prince may also be involved as he was in the past.
?You know what we must do.?
?Take the fight to them.?
?Moreso than that.? Braxeus explains, ?Divide his essence. Destroy his consciousness. He will have no sense of himself, not even his name, unless reunited. The same was done to me... and in more chaotic hells, we can prevent him ever reuniting for billions of years.?
?Yes, but that will take some doing. The power to do that is beyond me and you are not strong enough either.?
It was done to me... but by accident, of sorts...? A thoughtful touch to his jaw.?Kairee... have you ever heard the story of the kamikaze??
?Weren't they suicidal??
?The origin of their name,?Divine wind.? An island nation called Japan in a faraway realm faced invasion from a warrior people called the Mongols. They boarded their ships with enough men to rape and destroy Japan twice over, and the first wave landed. The Japanese fought bravely, and repelled them, but they would not be able to repel the second wave. Then a storm came... and wiped out almost every ship in the sea. Those who survived returned to the mainland.?
?And what does this mean to me??
?You and I are not strong enough ourselves, Kairee. But we can resist... and bring the forces that act against us to a place where circumstance, or other greater forces, may be to our advantage.?
?That was the strategy Gondar and I had......you can see how well that worked.?
Braxeus shakes his head, ?We will not use the fortress on a mountaintop, but the ferocity of the sea. Hell gave birth to them...and Hell can destroy them.?
Kairee watches Braxeus thoughtfull as he rises with energy.
He moves around the room, looking for, and then looking through, her books, ?I spent many long years studying the demonic processes... and although variable from realm to realm, they retain essential similarities.?
?Yes.. but this will take careful planning?.I have more books.. They are not all here....?
And so the rest of the night was spent in research, plotting and planning.
