"......then after that, Sha'uri moved like lightning. She had her two swords up through the sides this direction here and here.... and" she pointed it out. "Looks like they pierced her heart. And then that other sword, this one here... it was a blur... a blip of a blur.."

He snapped his fingers and D'Shara's corpse, the sword, and Cadence and Bixly were transported to another room. D'Shara was on a marble table, a funerary shroud covering her and her wounds cosmetically repaired. Her hands were folded across her chest and she held the sword. Cadence and Bixly were on a pew nearby. it appeared they were in a chapel of some sort.

"....and it was shoved ...er... Whoa...What the.."
She blinked as the marble piece was in her face. "Mr.Bixly?"

She had been sitting on the ground with Bixly talking about what had just happened when suddenly they weren't on the ground anymore.. they were sitting on a floor looking at a marble table that just appeared out of nowhere in between them.

"I think I'm on the other side." he stood up.

She stood up too, seeing the body on the table. "I think the headmaster found us."

Bixly grinned. "Too bad... I mean... I can tell."

The Headmaster and his Assistant entered the private chapel and approached the marble altar. He moved aside the shroud. "My dear D'Shara...what happened to you? How did Sha'uri do this?"


"I was just telling Mr.Bixly about that. Sha'uri did it rather swiftly.. with swords....three to be exact. One of them was yours, the one she gave you. it went up through her skull after the other two went through her sides at an angle to pierce the heart. Are you okay Headmaster?"

It was strange to be telling the obvious cause of death to a necromancer.

"Oh, I didn't see it happen, sir." Bixly replied.

"I was in getting breakfast when the comotion occured outside. I came up after the children came running in, buzzing about some murder. I moved to check, of course, but some of the other children had done so already and were laughing or sputtering about Cadence having made the whole thing up as an illusion or something because there was no body."

He frowned at this point. "I'll tell you, Sir, some of those children are very rude to her. They keep giving her a hard time and well.. I know this isn't the right time for this, but it needs to stop." He nodded firmly after saying his piece.

"So as it was, when I arrived, I saw Cadence kneeling by the body, holding the hand. It was pretty gruesome but I could tell the other children wheren't seeing it. they were walking right by without a thought. I thought she covered it up so they would think she was just messing with them."

Well, it was his account of the whole thing. "Perhaps I should go back to attending them..."

He moved to take his leave...

"Tomorrow then." Errol nodded and turned to leave.

Before he could get two steps, Cadence stopped him, her little hand coming to rest on his arm while pretty blues gazed up. "Mr. Bixly? Thank yous again.. and for your support."

"Anytime, Cadence." he replied, and the Mr. Bixly was off.. finding his way out.

Cadence turned to the Headmaster. She caught part of what he was saying to the dead D'Shara.

"....I only hope I can figure this out in time to help your daughter."

With several slight and acute gestures, the Headmaster brought up all sorts of arcane and divine energies to determine exactly what took the life of his wife. As he worked, he spoke.

"Cadence, Errol is absolutely correct. I will make certain that we find a good way to improve your image with the students. Although you may seem peculiar to them, you are no more peculiar than some of the things they will experience here in RhyDin. Tolerance is an important lesson."

Tolerance to Cadence was something people did with unruly children while they are learning to behave. The word felt.. degrading to her, perhaps condescending... much like the children would do whenever they messed up the bathrooms uncaringly and said things like who cares and cadence will clean it up. Was sHe an unruly child? Sigh.

"Headmaster, I ... I just wanna be accepted for me and not downsized cause of my job. maybe I just wanna be respected."

She moved closer to watch.

"So..Are you so sure this one here is gone beyond gone? What about Lyndra? I get confused on what's what with all that and why those two look so much alike. Maybe you should go see her. She didn't look so well when she left earlier. Oh! I didn't tell you. Did you know she was pregnant? She looked all in pain and everything. I wonder if she was having the baby."

Of course, Cadence didn't know that Lyndra wasn't just having a baby, but a clutch of eggs....

"As I thought..."

The Headmaster harnessed some divine power to repair the damage that had been done, making the body as good as new.

"Cadence, only with tolerance comes understanding and with understanding comes respect. ...and I, in fact, have a new method for dealing with this."

He waved his hands over the body of D'Shara and it vanished, leaving only the sword behind. In a grand flash of arcane, psionic, divine, Force, and every other type of energy that any sentient being could harness, a crackling shell of pure energy surrounded the sword. Nothing would be getting to it without the Headmaster's permission.

"Now, as far as Lyndra goes, she will not be giving birth due to her draconic apotheosis. She will be laying eggs. ...but I suppose that doesn't matter much as far as pain levels are involved, huh?"

He smiled at his joke.

"Lyndra is dealing with a lot right now and will be contacted when it is more safe for her and her family. I think I have two courses of action right now, and one is this..."

He pulled on the lingering arcane aura of the sword to determine it's still intact enchantments. Perhaps he could repair the connection if it had been severed.

Briarius doubled the energy shell making it so noone would get to the sword and nothing would escape the sword. He turned and walked towards the door.

"Huh?"

Caught in some mirthful reverie over the headmaster's joke, and magical weaving, she snapped out of it at the sound of her name. Pretty blues searched for his new location by the door. A bit startled, she grinned sheepishly wiht a bit of a blush and headed on after him.

"Oh, no.. I'm with you!"

Had he ever called her that before? Maybe it just never sounded quite like that to her before. Pretty blues looked up to his azure hues.

"Are you hungry? I don't know from experience, but the whole being dead part has gotta play havoc on your body. I mean... well, you know what I mean. I think. Right?"

She followed him out into the hallway, pausing beside him as he gave Melody instructions. She was going to say something to her, but the assistant was gone before Cadence could take a breath. Pretty blues shifted and followed the headmaster as he moved down the hallway. She followed him and paused beside him as he looked at himself in the mirror. He really was perfect.

She, however, was not. Having been woken up her hair was quite unkempt and she still had circles under her eyes, though not as dark as they'd been. She also had a few sprinkles of various things, blood being one of them as well. Lifting her finger to her mouth, she licked it and then used the finger to smear some of the blood on it. Then she tasted it, making strange faces while rolling her tongue around inside her mouth to get a better angle on it. Eyebrows quirked one way then the other. Then she took a vial out of a pocket and scraped some of the blood into it, replacing it back into her pocket.

A quick cantrip had the rest cleaned and her hair combed, her body was freshened. A traveling cloak appeared on her and she quickly moved to catch up with the headmaster again.

"Exodii? I haven't been there since the class took a field trip there with Sha'uri. Which place are we going to?" she asked.

Blink. She gave him a sidelong look.

"I thought you had something in mind already. You said you knew of a place that we should definitely eat at. What place were you thinking of?"

He looked about the defunct portal seeing how much was technological, magickal, psionic, divine, etc etc... The Exodiians were very adept at using any of those in combination and he needed to be certain.

They were also very adept at covering their secrets. Without the connection, it was even hard for him to say... except technology was not on this side, and neither was anything else except the old signs explaining how to use it. It obviously wasn't working, and wasn't gonna be.

"Cadence, you should never doubt your cognitive abilities. Exactly why I am studying this portal. It seems that all of the working parts of the portal are actually in Exodii City and although I can order this one closed, it essentially is only a receiver. That actually works for my purposes just fine. Care for some entertainment?"

Briarius pulled forth some powerful divination energy and used the portal like a movie screen. He wanted to see what was going on in Exodii City before he strolled over to the other portal. For all he knew, Sha'uri had turned the city into a haven for demons and Alec and Lyndra were hiding somewhere.

...and then there was Jalek...

Regardless, looked at his scrying and saw what he could see.

She watched all this for a moment.

"Well, that looks okay. Kinda thought so. I hadn't heard anything about their other portal in town here having any problems or anything bad come through. Ready for a walk?"

Pretty blues peered up at him.

"Or do you think maybe I should stay behind and kinda do something in case she comes here... what if she's just waiting for you to leave?"

Shrug. "Maybe I'm just paranoid."

Or was she? Cadence lifted a hand to him, as if to hold hands. She smiled a bit as if reassuring .. maybe just herself.. that it would be okay.

"Come on, let's go.."

There was something odd about the bridge. A scent.... and the dogs gathering beneath on the south end. Wild fights broke out that couldn't be seen until Bri and Cadence got to the northern side. However, they heard them every step of the way. When they got to the other side, then they could see the dogs gathering in a pac beneath that side of the bridge.

Also, it seemed Bri and Cadence were being followed but not by the living. If Bri was still sensitive to it.. he'd notice the girl around the bridge. Her eyes held fear and shame, her clothes were ripped and torn. She seemed to be following them as they moved across the bridge.

There was Sha'uri's beach house near to the portal and on the other side of the street was Exodii Enterprises. The portal was in between them in the road.

Of course the guard would check them for weapons and such, magical items etc... notes were made of the finds. The guard would ask the question of, "State yer business in Exodii... or pleasure. How long ye be visiting?"

Nodding to the answer, the guard made his final notes and stepped aside to let them pass. "Good luck to ye. May the Lady shine her favor upon ye."

As the guard stepped aside, the ghostly girl stepped to stand in the way. Horror filled eyes looked at Bri she tried to talk but no sound came out as she mouthed the words - 'she ate his soul.' - and repeated them seeming to suddenly step closer each time, freakish movements and the anger increased until she was in his face, eyes over wide with fear. It was obvious her throat had bee slit from ear to ear. Her voice was raspy but she did speak to him. "She'll eat yours too." Blink, she was gone! Yet a look back to the bridge would find her there, walking towards the other side...

He had nothing to declare and did note the ghost. When it tried to contact him, he made note of it. As they were about to be put in the line to cross through, he acted surprise.

"My lucky hat!"

He pretended to look around his person.

"It must have fell on the road. We have to go back for it."

He politely excused himself and went back to the bridge, Bright cobalt orbs scanned the area, looking to see if the ghost was attached to something that it was haunting. He suspected that was what the dogs were interested in. If his suspicion was confirmed, he would cast a simple fear charm to get the dogs to flee the area.

The Headmaster's clothes morphed as he walked back into his normal robes.

"I apologize if I overdid the fear charm, I only wished to clear the area of the canines. Is there anything I can do to aid you, officers? Headmaster Briarius Ravensheart, at your service."

"Of course, officer."

Bri cast a simple spell to detect where all of the bodies was strewn and pointed that out to the officers, helped them with sorting them out, then turned his attention to the ghost.

"Little one, I want to help put you to rest. Show me what happened."

Cadence had shed the bulky cloak, letting her wings stretch before she took flight. She had been hovering over the dogs, but not below the bridge so when the spell scared them away, she hadn't been caught in it. After the wave of chaos had errupted, leaving the ground below clear, she landed and pretty much stayed there, looking at the ripped arm.

She was careful not to touch anything and pretty much didn't move except when the police officer squawked about finding the head. It made her flap up into the air a few feet until she realized it wasn't attacking the man.

Curious about that, she flew slowly over to look at it. She'd seen some pretty gruesome things in the dump when she lived there but this seemed to effect her more. A delicate hand was lifted to cover her mouth and she flew back away. She glanced to Bri but he seemed preoccupied, no doubt talking to the deceased. She got a really strange foreboding sense and decided to move back atop the bridge.

Black wings stretched, beating gently they lifted her up into the air. She landed softly on the edge of the bridge, dangling spiffy legs over the side to sway gently in the wind. If her wings weren't visible, she might've looked like someone that was about to jump. She folded her wings and tucked them as close to her as she could. The wind seemed to be picking up, the scent of rain was in the air. A storm front was moving in from the sea. There was a few more minutes yet before it would let loose. She stayed there and waited for Bri to be done.

The ghostly figure looked back to the Headmaster. "There's nothing to fix. I have been avenged. My body will be burried, not torn and broken. I can go now.. away from my avenger. You should be worried for you. She'll eat yours too." She stayed long enough for the forensics team to take her body away. Then she was gone.

The Headmaster was able to get the name of the girl. Molly Thatcher. She
lived only two blocks away.

"Make duplicates of this and post them all over the more run down areas. It will be your criminal element you need to protect. If any of your officers see her, apprehension may be impossible. I will work on something to stop her, but it will take time."

The officer he was talking to just stared at the Headmaster. He seemed a bit dumbfounded.
"This is yer ..er.. was yer Asisstant Headmaster? Possessed, hm.. That's something I wouldn't have ever believed to happen. I already know there won't be any bringing her in the old fashioned way. So I hope you can come up with something. But. um.... protecting the criminal element?"

He shook his head and tried not to grin. It looked more like a smirk.

"Sorry, sir... that'll get a laugh down at the station. We try to protect the innocent, and if we protect the criminals within our jails on account of trials and all, you know that whole accountability factor with that. I appreciate your help and gaining some information we might otherwise take more time to do... But to protect criminals while they do things like that?"

He pointed back to where the girl's body was at. His gaze hardened.

"Yer talkin to the wrong man, sir. As far as I'm concerned, I don't have enough evidence to do that. This is just one man who was caught in the act and a vigilante tried to stop it and got carried away. Okay, maybe overkill. The rest is heresay to her intent with other criminals. It might not be just other criminals. It might not be anyone else at all. We don't have evidence one way or the other, nothing to back it up. We are not plastering anything anywhere at this time. Besides, shouldn't you worry what that'll do to your Academy's rep? Ya might wanna try to put a lid on it Sir. Word gets out that someone there of that status is possessed, crazed or some kind of a high strung killer... it won't be good for your business. Parents will be pulling their students out left and right. They won't care about reassurances. So keep your pictures, Headmaster. That's my savey advice. If you'll excuse me, I have to wrap this up."

The officer left Bri standing there and went about wrapping up the site.

Sha'uri was not in RhyDin. She was not in Exodii City. She was not anywhere in Exodii System, though she had been on the planet after being at the Academy. The exact location was clouded but somewhere on the other side of the planet from Exodii City. She had come back to RhyDin after that. But then from there it gets confusing. Where she was at now would remain a mystery. Something exceptionally powerful blocked that information. She was alive, but to know her whereabouts was a dead end trail.

She nodded and followed him, though something bothered her about the whole thing. When they got off the bridge and were halfway to the gate, she tugged on his arm a bit and tried to get him to stop.

"Wait.. wait. Maybe we both shouldn't go. What if she comes back? What if there are more bodies to follow and more information to be gained from them? We might cover more ground seperately. If it was her, why do you think she did this? Why did she try to kill that woman... wasn't that her mother? What do you really think is going on with her?"

This made sense to her. She sighed too and took hold of his hand again.

"I don't think it's gonna matter if we try to hide ourselves or not. If she wants to find us, then she will. I don't know that I can handle her alone. I know I can get away from her to a place she can't go.. cause I won't let her in. It's always with me. You're right, we should try to find Alex. We should find Lyndra too. After Breakfast. Maybe by then we'll learn something new."


She was trying to be optimistic as pretty blues looked up at him again with a smile on her face.

"That's just it.. you can't always be certain. You can't control her especially when you're not there. Even if yous are, you can't. After what she did I don't think she can control herself. She's not the same..."

As easily as that smile had come, it was lost again. She looked down at the ground as they moved and became silent. She struggled to keep herself from crying again and just took comfort holding Bri's hand while he dealt with getting them through the jumpgate.

Standing next to Bri, Cadence couldn't help but overhear. Pretty blues widened. She coudln't help it. She'd get excited about something and she would react to it. However, she did manage to keep her voice down to a whisper.

"Not there? But we are looking for Sha'uri. How's we gonna find her if it's not there? Did Alex take it? Or Lyndra? We need to find them."

She covered her mouth, realizing she probably should've kept her mouth shut... and yet at the same time she wondered why she should've kept her mouth shut.

Briarius looked up at the jumpgate as this exchange went on. He drew a deep breath and passed through when given the go ahead.