Azuri

[Siranae]

Hm? Mano'kai heard a loud rumble coming from the chamber where the others had gone to. This was followed by much shouting, which she realized was coming from Evrona.
...Odd.
She placed the apple she was holding on the rim of the pool, to the side of Elli, then slinging her pack over her shoulder. After taking another bite of her own apple, she lightly tossed it into its opening, then closed it. Looking at the water, she threw a few handfuls into her face, as she felt it would calm her if something were to happen.
Once all this was done, she looked once more at Elli, then turned back towards the chamber, curious as to what would appear.

[Saber Knight]

((Haha, thanks, Mandi :D I really do wanna be an author some day... but getting an editor and crap is all ridicuously hard and stuff >.<

It was intended to be a major plot twist, so it works out :P ))

"You honestly think your little sword stands a chance against the power of the gods?" Once again, Evrona's laugher resounded through the chamber.

"Look, I really don't see being locked in here for an eternity as a nice option, so I'll just fix that now..." Upon saying this, Evrona held out one of her hands, and then brought it down rapidly. There was a rumbling, and then the top of the entrance tumbled in, though no one was injured. "Besides, the original seal was created by two master sages... I doubt that anyone less would be able to re-create the seal... It's much eaiser to open a seal than create one, or so I've been told."

The feeling tingling through Evrona's body was incredible. She felt as she was finally awake for the first time in her nearly three hundred years of life. Every sense was on alert, she was aware of everything going on around her. Though she was still not entirely sure how to use her new power, she knew it was great, and the fact that she finally had it after searching for so long filled her with a euphoria beyond comprehension.

The fact that she had finally found the power she'd been searching for for so long was the only thought in her mind. The fact that she wasn't sure how she was preceisly going to go about her revenge wasn't the most imporant thing right now. She turned down to Iah. "I will make those responsible pay," she replied, "And then I will ensure that we are returned to our rightful place! That will have to hide no more!"

Though Gilantias was also terrified, he couldn't help but be filled with a scholarly fascination. His mind was racing. This is the power that was being hinted at... he thought to himself. Though he hadn't known exactly what he was looking for, he had found it, and this excited him. His excitement paled in comparison to Evrona's, but his mind was still buzzing nonetheless.

--

Arielli cringed at the sounds that were coming from the tunnel. "W-w-w-what's happening?" she stuttered, her voice filled with fear.

--

"As tempting as your offer sounds," Evrona said to Gareth, mockingly. "I'm afraid I have better things to do than sit around and crush you." Evrona looked up at the opening in the roof. Ordinarly, it would have been protected by magic, but Martris, Gilantias and Iah's opening of the seal had removed the magic there as well. "As miserable as it's been tagging along with you lot, I really ought to thank you for your help." With a slight wave of her hand, Evrona jumped off the dais, then pounded her fist upwards upon landing, causing the earth beneath her to launch her into the air. She held a pocket of air for a moment to guide her, then caused a rock to come from the side, bouncing off that and repeating the process until she reached the skylight. With a final wave and the casting down of a few rocks, she vanished from sight.

Gilantias was dumbfounded. Everything had happened in such rapid succession. "We have to do something to stop her," he said, flatly. "What that is I..." he trailed off as his eyes were again drawn to the markings on the wall. The scholarly instinct in him was drawing him to the markings. "Hmmmm..." he muttered as he walked over, studying them.

((I am probably gonna give you guys a sample of the runes to see if you can decipher... it might be rather helpful, and also quite familiar... ))

[Eclectric]

"....!" Gareth ran to the center of the room and looked up to the skylight,and without a moment's hesitation he slashed his sword at it with all his might, sending a destructive wave through the air, but not far enough to intercept Evrona. "I bet she's heading to the nearest town. If that's the case... we should head there immediately." Gareth sheathed his sword on his back. "We may be too late though, and if she gets there first, she could easily get away again. So, we may need to chance a guess at which town she'll be destroying second. If we head directly there, we can surely beat her there and trap her."

[Siranae]

"W-w-w-what's happening?" Arielli stuttered, her voice filled with fear.

Mano'kai only shrugged in response. After a moment of thinking, she fell backward, submerging her head in the water and then leaning back up to a sitting position. She stood up and began to walk toward the chamber, but remembering Arielli, stopped after a few steps. She turned her head to look at the angel.

Wanna come? She asked nonchalantly. No problem if you don't.

[Saber Knight]

By now, Gilantias was in his own little world observing the runes. They seemd to hold a message...

As follows is a section he found on a part of a wall:

((Shoot for it. I will give hints as time progresses... But I'd appriciate it if you gave it a try.

My only hint right now should be obvious... it's written in a real language.

I'm not sending you on a wild goose chase... this information will help. Apolgies for my crappy handwriting, wrote it really quickly. More rune messages will be to follow, if I feel like it.))

Edit: A magical line appeared in one of the letters. Fixed.

[Doodleshark]

(( Just gonna get my characters out of the way for now so I can take my official leave of absence... ))

"Finally! The power that we were born to obtain! The power that caused us to be persecuted and destroyed... THE POWER THAT WILL ALLOW ME TO HAVE REVENGE FOR THE SLAUGHTER OF MY PEOPLE!"


"Oh, s**t..."

Martris watched in horror as Evrona continued her display of mad power. His mind, which had briefly shut down due to shock from the situation, came to the conclusion that it would be in his best interest to put as much distance between him and the crazy lady as possible.

"Run-" He began to shout to Izumi before realizing she was already several meters down the tunnel and picking up speed. Cursing at the top of his lungs, Martris sprinted after her. Neither of them stopped until they were outside the cavern.

Exhausted, the elf took several deep breaths "What the f-... Did she just..."

"Yes... Yes she did." Izumi, unlike her companion, didn't appear tired at all. She removed a throwing knife from its sheath and proceeded to toss it in the air and catch it repeatedly.

"Oh crap... Oh bloody crap... I just contributed to the end of the world." Martris began to shake uncontrollably. "We are screwed. We are completely and utterly screwed."

Izumi slid her knife back into its sheath and placed a comforting arm around her partner. "It's alright, Tris. You couldn't have known that she would become and all-powerful vengeance-obsessed deity. Besides, you're probably not the first person to accidentally release a horrible evil upon the world."

Martris nodded miserably. "Thanks, Izzy." he muttered as he gripped Izumi tightly in a hug. Her words had failed to comfort him, but the mere presence of his friend was enough to help ease the ominous feeling in his gut. "By the way, when we get back to town, I want to get so drunk that I can't remember my own name."

"That's the spirit!" Izumi patted Martris on the back. "When all else fails, get cockeyed." The two companions then set off on a new quest to find the nearest pub.

(( Aaaaaand done. I'll probably be back in a few weeks depending on what happens next. ))

[BionicleMandi121]

(Yay, finished translating the runes ~ That was fun. XD Thanks for including a bit of puzzle solving, SK. :P )

Wodahny resheathed her sword, green eyes gazing broodingly at the cavern's new skylight. She didn't speak. Likewise silent, Iah raised both hands to shoulder level, then dropped them to his sides. His air wall collapsed with a faint sighing sound, dispersing instantly. Tucking his hands back into his sleeves, the angel also looked up at the opening above him.

Kauka looked between the two of them, then glanced at Gareth, then looked behind her at Akaku, who hadn't visibly moved, but somehow managed to return his bag to its former position behind him. The mermaid sighed, looked wistfully after the two that had fled, and walked over to Gilantias. "What're you looking at, Mr. Gilantias?" she asked. Then she noticed the runes. "Oh wow! Hey guys!" she called excitedly to her 'friends.' "Come look at this!"

"What is it now?" Wodahny wanted to know, lowering her gaze and scowling at her. "Find something else to make friends with?"

"No, no, not that!" The mermaid bobbed up and down. "The wall, look at the wall!" That got her attention, as Kauka didn't seem to be the type of person who usually got excited about walls. Grudgingly, the merc trudged over, followed by Iah. When she saw the runes, she stopped short.

"What're these?" she wondered out loud. "They're different from the runes on the sealed door just now..." Noticing Iah had drawn level with her, she asked him, "Can you read it?"

"No," he replied, gazing attentively at the ornate symbols. "They are not in a script I know of."

"Great." Wodahny's scowl returned. "We might have a clue here on how we can stop Miss Berserk, and no one can read it. What a lot of good that does us."

"I can read it."

"And he says he can read it. Splendid. Just wonderful. What should we do now that we can't-" She stopped talking and spun around. "You?"

The Selkie-boy ignored her. "'If a Balanced wishes to relinquish Aether, and restore balance,'" he read, "'it must lose power like obtained. Four elements give Aether, four elements take it." Kauka was gazing at her friend in awe.

"Where did you learn to read that?" she wanted to know. He made no reply.

"Maybe there's a lot of ruins or something where he lives," muttered Wodahny, not wanting to admit she was also somewhat impressed.

[Eclectric]

"Hmmph, I don't understand that even in commonspeak."

[Saber Knight]

((I'll leave you guys to figuring out what the runes meant if you don't already get it... wouldn't be fair to just have Gil explain :P If you still don't get it, I'll write some more rune messages. Nice job figuring it out, Mandi :D ))

Arielli gasped as she saw the two newcomers from earlier (she believed their names to be Izumi and Martris) exit the path. Wordlessly, she watched as the two left into the darkness.

Blinking, she got to her feet, looking over at the way the duo had come from. What had happened back there? She glanced over to Mano'kai. "M-M-M-Mano'kai?" she stuttered, "Uhm... wanna... wanna g-go take a look and see what h-h-happened? I-I mean... if you don't wanna, I mean..." Secretly, Elli was rather hoping Mano'kai wouldn't want to go, then she'd have an excuse to stay... but she was worried about Gilantias, and she felt she had to go, regardless.

--

Gilantias' eyes widened in shock at hearing the selkie's words. "How can you..." Gil trailed off with a shake of his head. There would be time for questions later, and it seemed as if Akaku was going to remain elusive. Obviously, he would also have to ask how to read the runes later as well, but that wasn't the most pressing thing at the moment.

[Siranae]

Mano'kai raised an eyebrow. Um, I am going. I asked you if you wanted to. It's no problem if you don't.

((It's in my previous post.))

[Saber Knight]

((*facepalm* How did I miss that... I read the post... and... eh, I guess Arielli was kind of spacing out :P ))

Arielli's face colored slightly. "O-oh," she muttered, embarassed, "U-uhm, yeah, in that case... why don't we... go take a look?"

[Siranae]

Alright then. Mano'kai said. She turned her head to face forward again and began walking.

She came to the area where the cavern was. But rather than an entrance, she was met with a pile of rocks. Must've been what the noise was. She thought.
Bending down, she grabbed a rock the size of a watermelon. At first she tried to pick it up, but it required more energy than she was willing to exhert. So instead she settled for rolling it to the side. The missing rock caused an imbalance in the pile, and a few more tumbled down to the ground, causing Mano'kai to jump back a bit. She began looking back and forth between the rocks at her feet and those still in the wall. After a moment of thought. She went for an equally sized rock in at chest-height, grabbing it and rolling it out of the wall, sidestepping so as to not get in the way of it's fall. As before, more rocks tumbled down with it. This time, however, an opening was created. Mano'kai looked through to see the rest of their group, noting that Evrona was missing. Without another word, she continued her work at the wall.

((She's a very boring person :P))

[BionicleMandi121]

(LET THERE BE LIFE!!)

Wodahny snorted. "I can't quite make heads or tails of this either," she grumbled. "What, are we supposed to hit her with all four elements at once or something?" The mercenary looked around. "I'd say we'd have air and water covered, then. But who do we have for fire? Who for earth? I'm of no use here." She made a disgusted sound. "We need to find at least one of each of those. Preferably strong ones to counterbalance against all the...representatives from the other two elements."

"So that means we can make more friends?" Kauka asked eagerly.

"...You would put it that way, wouldn't you..."

Iah, hearing movement from the cavern entrance, drifted over. Upon seeing what Mano'kai was attempting to do, he removed his hands from his sleeves and made a beckoning gesture at the skylight above him. A small breeze picked up, twining unseen tendrils around a rock somewhat larger in size than the ones the mermaid was attempting to shift. With a small sideways movement of one arm, the angel directed his breeze to lift the stone and set it aside. He continued in this fashion, slowly removing the barrier from the inside while Mano'kai worked on it from the outside.

(Akaku...isn't gonna do or say anything. Yeah, he's antisocial.)

[Siranae]

(Yes! Live!)

Once Iah began using his powers, the rest of the work went swiftly. It wasn't long before there was enough of an opening that Mano'kai could go through. She stepped inside and looked around at the others.
...Evrona's gone. Wonder where.
She then directed her attention to the markings on the wall, sweeping her gaze over them for a little.
Ah, okay. She said to herself. Mano'kai then proceeded to space out.

[Saber Knight]

((Hey guys. Basically... same thing as I said for the SKS. Read it if you feel like and you're not in both RP's, it's basically just an apology of lack of posts by me. Especially here... I really just haven't been feelin' the Azuri inspiration after I finished Evrona's dramtic-ish reveal and the whole Aether thing. Rawr. I think we just need to get out of the cave and the story can get back to flowing, because not too much can happen right now since we've already read the runes.))

When they had finished uncovering the wall, Arielli looked in the room to see Gil still staring at runes, looking puzzled. She quickly dashed over to him and gave him a big hug.

"Ah! Elli!" he exclaimed in surprise.

"Y-you're alright!"

"Of course I am! I told you not to worry about me," he said kindly, attempting to comfort the trembling girl. "Look, we should get out of this cave. People of the sky aren't meant to be beneath the earth, I'm sure it's not good for our health." He smiled reassuringly at her before he turned over to the rest of the group.

"We need to get out of this place and... well, come up with a plan to stop Evrona. Wodahny's conjecture is where we should start I believe... it seemes entirely logical to me." As he said this, he placed his notebook in his bag silently. Several pages were now filled with copies of the runes, which he planned to look at later to examine. Of course, he would also visit the Angellic library sometime to see if these runes were on record anywhere before.

"Us of us that aren't ground bound could easily escape through the roof," he remarked, pointing upwards, "But for those who aren't, we should probably head back and get out of here as soon as possible... this place gives me the creeps."