Log:A Prayer for My Daughter

Anakin turns back from the dark side

OOC Date: August 29, 2022
Location: Delaya
Participants: Nora Frayus as GM, Aryn Cortess as co-GM, , Ban Iskender, Ejnar Celchu, Kye Keraz, Corto

Summary

Adni and Corwen Frayus are dead. Lana Panteer has set about to finish off the rest of the Frayus bloodline.

CW: Violence towards children

Log

[ Nora Frayus (Nora)]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"Adni... Adni... you need to wake up, my love." "Mmmmh... was I dreaming?" "I am afraid not, my dear. You're dreaming right now." "Where am I?" "Just open your eyes, my child. You will want to open your eyes one last time."

=-=-=-=-=-=- Countess Adni Frayus opens her eyes. When they snap into focus, they see Little Luci's face, contorted in sadness up above her. Tears stream down pink cheeks, and big blue eyes desperately search her mother's face for something. Anything. When those eyes open, there's a spark and a flicker of hope that reflects deep within them. That spark and flicker breaks Adni's heart all the same.

'Do not cry, my love. Please do not cry.'

Adni tries to get the words out, but the wounds in her lungs stop all air from coming in our pouring out. They don't hurt. Maybe they did at one point, but they don't now. There's some mercy to that, perhaps. And a mercy that she's managed to open her eyes to see her daughter one last time. Adni turns to look for Nora, her eyes finding Corwen, on his hand and knees with a sword piercing through his midsection. No. Don't let that be the last thing she sees. Nora... where is...

Nora.

[ Nora Frayus (Nora)]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

She sees her eldest daughter caught in a melee. A ferocious weapon, but even the sharpest blade will lose to the persistence of stone. With her head turned forward, Adni can see the footfalls of soldiers coming closer. To her baby girl. To Luci Frayus. Pain erupts in her chest now as she turns her head back to look up to the littlest that still desperately tries to shake her mother awake.

"Run," she whispers. The last breath she'll ever take, and the last word she'll ever speak.

But it's not enough.

Those hands grab Luci and drag her to her feet as the girls creams. The sound of drawn steel echoes through the stone corridors, followed by a single commanding voice.

"Enough," the woman says. "Bring them both to me."

A sudden, thunderous sound heralds the crumbling of that doorway separating Nora and Luci Frayus from the rest of the group. Rubble, wood and stone, makes the path treacherous and not immediately accessible.

[ Aryn Cortess (AC)]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

For those who had been in the melee prior to the sudden arrival of the Royal Guard, the setting is the large stone corridor of the Frayus castle leading to a back courtyard where transports allegedly awaited them to escape. Whatever horror visits the Frayus family is divided by the arrival of a second terror that cuts the main group off from reaching the Frayus family, entirely.

Whatever has landed on the roof is massive, as it shook the entire section of the castle to the foundation and unseated dust long settled high up in the rafters. A screeching roar so inhuman it stirs instinctive fear rattles the windows along the corridor until they shatter, and the ceiling begins to cave in spreading stone, dust, and debris.

Aryn Cortess is swallowed up by the fall of debris, her lightsaber deactivating as she's completely buried below, alive to those attuned, but unconscious. The culprit?

An Onderonian Beast Lord riding their fully grown Drexl has cut the group off from Nora Frayus, Count Corwin, and presumably the person responsible for all the violence upon which Delaya was experiencing.

"My beast longs to taste the flesh of sorcerers!" Yells out Beast Lord Taru, who wears a human skull as a mask and wields a small repeater under one arm while holding the reins with the other. "Feed, my beauty, and let them know fear."

The Drexl screams and bears down upon the group, each step thunderous with the chorus of its rider's laughter in the brief pauses.

[ Ban Iskender (ban)]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Ban Iskender recoils from the collapsing stonework with a flash of outrage at the betrayal of Frayus' house guards spiking through his stoicism. A swift thought for Aryn's mastery of healing perhaps preserving the lives of Nora's parents, but he finds her motionless, and some damned edgelord on a dinosaur waving a blaster around. Relighting his sword with an angry snap and thrumming screech, the gentleman demands, "How is the Galaxy so forever FULL of bloody catspaws?" Despite the proper and precise language, there is an undercurrent of outrage permeating the sentiment.

[ Ejnar Celchu (Ejnar)]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

There is something to be said when a giant beast comes crashing down on your head political leader spouting nonsense about eating sorcerers. Anyone, justifiably, would be terrified. Down right spooked. However, when you're an experience fighter Jockey, somethings are just not as shocking anymore.

The Drexel was indeed terrifying, but the large and tall Ejnar, his gauntlets crackling with electricity and his leg VERY much in a log of uncomfortable pain had had just about enough. As Ban makes his comment, Aldera Six responds. "I don't know... all I do know is this interloper is DEAD."

Lord Celchu sets his jaw firm and charges the beast, his right fist hooking hardly, cracking with electricity and it smacks loudly into the jaw of the beat. He attempts to follow up but only puts a large hole in the wall as the beast backs away from his powerful punch.

Note: Pyretta is back with Ulani and Bors, attending them. There may have been a cheek smooch for Ejnar.

[ Kye Keraz (Kye)]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

One supposes that once again Kye finds himself in something that is way over his head. By now he's had time to recharge a gun, get his wounds far less ugly as they'd been when that army of mercenaries had originally landed. But there is a Drexel collapsing the rooftop and then people going to fight it hand-to-hand. It's impressive, to say the least. The soft whine of his gun charging is satisfaction enough for now, while he waits to be something more than a passerby to this unfolding circumstance.

[ Corto (Ct)]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= What a day.

First a garden party goes more sour than a Corellian wine stashed in an Imperial fortress, then assembled mercs get their knickers all twisted trying to shoot them, then a good ol' fashioned Praetorian coup goes off and down goes the head honcho and his lady, and now there's this here big feller just uncorkin' a prime cut grade A slice of ham just straight on their assembled sorcerous hides. The summary in place, we pan now to the Drifter, his party ever-dwindling from the machinations of the queen of the web. No more Cortess, no more Frayus family, no more Thul lineage. Just the Feeorin, the two Alderaanians, and the spacer.

Fantastic.

"BEAST LORD!" was the mighty cry from the Feeorin, pointing his janksaber forward in challenge. "I declare you damned! I damn you! Thrice damned and done! Your crimes gain no lenience! Your honour, ever stained! Today, YOU FALL!"

Corto moved. Well, more accurately, he /flung/. Occasionally one had to discard the ideals of stone walls and perfect defense in favour of ending the fight here and now. So, he opened the game with a flying side slash, sending it back, and then straight down like he was wielding a warhammer instead of a lightsaber. His alien blood boiled. You could take the Feeorin out of Oovo IV, but you couldn't take the Oovo IV out of the Feeorin.

Appropriate: https://youtu.be/WVJdv-s9QWg

Dissonant: https://youtu.be/N4g21EAVQFU

[ Nora Frayus (Nora)]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Luci Frayus can see Lana Panteer seated in her father's chair. Her heeled are boots kicked up onto the surface of the antique wood and smearing its surface with mud. In her hand is a single, beautiful ornate dagger that she twists and twirls with the edge of its blade denting into her thumb. It's the dagger Luci made when she was just a girl. Her first attempt. A failure by her standards, but a beautiful piece of steel by any other measure. House Frayus' royal guard stops their assault in an instant. Their numbers thinned, they are still easily able to overpower both Luci and Nora and drag them in front of the self-appointed heir of Alderaan's throne.

Lana smiles.

"Your father should be proud of you girls," she says. Her feet slide from the surface of that desk and she rises to her feet. "It is not often, after all, that I see to attend to such unpleasantness... personally."

"I am going to kill you," snaps Nora, who is roughly cracked on the back of her head by one of the guards, while two others hold her arms. Lana laughs warmly and looks from Luci to Nora, and then past them to the bodies of their parents just behind. Luci, in a fit of anger and sadness, begins to cry.

[ Nora Frayus (Nora)]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"Now now now, do not cry... no no," Lana says, and moves towards where Luci stands to brush tears away from her eyes.

Lana doesn't look away from Luci. She just gathers the young girl's face up and lifts her gaze to meet her own. "I am afraid your anger is misguided, Lady Frayus..." she calls out to Nora, "Or shall I call you Countess? Mmmh, well. Not for long, I suppose." Lana steps away, her heels clicking as she moves across the floor. She turns to the remaining guards, sighs, and waves her right hand. A potent ripple can be felt through the Force as that dread rider rips through the ceiling of Castle Frayus. Lana begins to laugh. "How pathetic. Some 'royal guard' you were. Aren't you so... ashamed? Embarrassed? Horrified of your treachery? I bet you wish to end your own, miserable little lives."

The remaining guards release the girls and, in a chorus of frantic apology, they do precisely that. Their bodies collapse in a heap on the floor moments later. Lana sighs dramatically, dusts off her hands, and turns to look at Luci. She twirls that knife softly in her hand and waves it back and forth.

"You want to come closer to me, child. Come come, be quick about it.

Luci can feel the voice whisper in her head. Tendrils sink like daggers into her skull. She wants to fight it. By the Mother, she wants to fight it. To her horror, her bare feet begin to carry her across the floor. Right to Lana Panteer.

[ Aryn Cortess (AC)]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

The Beast Lord is not long for the world, and is promptly dispatched to one side, dismantled and out of his element. He is not dead, but when he awakes, IF he awakes, Taru may wish to be.

His beast, the mighty Drexl, maintains its fight regardless the state of its master. Ejnar is pursued, and even chased by its spiky tail, to no avail. The attack batters down another wall as a result of the miss.

Ban is leapt at, and its mouth chomps where the Green Knight used to be, but the soldier is far too nimble for the drexl to track when there are so many enemies. That's when it locks onto Corto and attacks him, roaring before charging with reckless abandon.

After the attack, Corto is cast to one side and a figure moves past him in heavy armor, drawing a long sword and standing between him and the beast. Ser Lars, the First Sword, has joined the team to aid with this monster.

"Foul beast, you were taken from the dust of Onderon, and to the dust you shall return!" The First Sword charges into the beast with his weapon, swinging once as a massive taloned paw swipes toward him. He cuts deep across the beasts arm but is caught by the momentum of the beast and carried to one side. He slides noisily across the stone, his armor sparking; he stops when he hits the opposite wall and is not so quick to rise. His helmet is ruined, and the well known Knight spits out blood.

[ Ban Iskender (ban)]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ban Iskender advances on the beast rider from the opposite side of the Drexl's head, joining the Feeorin in swiftly striking down the Onderan. Never brag, it always backfires. The rampaging beast snaps near him, but Ban escapes the attempted devouring with two long, hasty steps back. The sheer size of the creature creates a number of challenges for the swordsman, so familiar with duels and firefights. The tip of his lightsaber scores the beast once, but his most practical contribution is to place himself between the unconscious Cortess and the Drexl.

[ Ejnar Celchu (Ejnar)]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Ejnar diggs his feet into the debris ridden ground as the now masterless Drexl charges for him. He lets out his own torrid scream as the beast roars, darring it on. He moves just in time, the beast skidding as it attempts to swing its tail. Ejnar jumps and rolls, the wall that was behind him indeed becoming part of the already growing rubble. He is too busy rolling to see Ser Lars injured.

Lord Celchu is quick to his feet, pressing the attack. Ban strikes first, giving an opening for Aldera Six to strike once more with his crackling gauntlets. "This Avalanche Becomes Me!" He shouts, an odd bit of prose before his fists slam into the beast. One and two, smack crackle and pop as hard as an Avalanch is the Mountains that the great and elder house Thul reside over.

[ Kye Keraz (Kye)]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Noticing that his fellow... party-goers-turned-into-survival-fighters are in trouble with the giant, tamed beast, Kye opts to do something that could be, perhaps, considered 'uncanny'. He can't shoot straight at the Drexl without hurting someone in the trajectory, but he does see a reflective and convex surface near the roof that might just help. He shoots once, and the blast bounces, but hits ineffectively at the creature.

The second one, however, finds its way straight into the Drexl's eyes, burning through it so as to blind it, even if temporarily. But hopefully it is a permanent injury instead. The trader has a resolute look on his face as he readies another shot, but now positions himself for a more direct line-of-sight trajectory. Maybe aware that there are other parts this monster could likely be squish and vulnerable at.

[ Corto (Ct)]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Corto hit the wall with all the grace and subtlety of a thrown brick. His poncho was ripped to shreds at the front, his Drifter leathers carved with large gashes and the blue skin underneath oozing a greeny-tealy-yellowy liquid. His hat, knocked off by the impact, wafted down to the ground. Revealed were tentacled dreadlocks and eyes of amber burning with barely-leashed fury.

Keep it down, big feller, heat's best on a simmer when you wanna cook proper.

Okay. Risk assessment. Setting aside the word EXTREME for a minute, the Drifter surveyed the scene. Beast Lord, down like a durasteel lothballoon. Drexl, ripping and tearing. Aryn Cortess, alive but unconscious. Corto mentally flipped a coin and settled on re-entering the fight. They needed help, but the Drifter was no healer, by the time he'd get her back up everyone else would be dead. Popping out of the crater he left in the wall, his procession towards the Drexl could best be described as a 'march', the icy janksaber blade carving a trough out of the floor as he dragged it behind him. "This ends," he outright growled, carving giant chunks of later meals straight out of its flanks.

[ Nora Frayus (Nora)]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Gods, the weight of it. Crushing. Oppressive. Count Corwen Frayus wants nothing more than to just... give up. He's spent his whole life wanting that, really. Since that first streak of green turned his home planet into lifeless rocks. An endless graveyard drifting in cold and empty space. It would be so easy, wouldn't it. To just give up. Some days, he wished he had. But then he remembers Adni Frayus.

Corwen's eyes blink open and he groans at the crushing weight of the rock above him. His head tips and he turns to see her. The love of his life in a pool of her own blood. Lifeless.

No.

Corwen tries to push himself up. A soft, muted grunt washes out of his throat as he pushes and strains and struggles, but the weight of that stone is too much. He collapses back down and turns his chin forward, watching as Luci Frayus steps slowly across the floor towards the tip of Lana Panteer's knife. Nora steps towards her, but Lana is quick, and her sorcery potent. "You are going to stand right there, Nora Frayus."

Luci tries to fight. Each step looks like agony as she steps closer. "No... no no, please," she says.

"Shhh, shhh... it is alright, little one," Corwen hears Lana say. "I'm not going to kill you. Am I, Countess?"

And then Lana waves her hand one more time.

"Your big sister is."

[ Nora Frayus (Nora)]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

No.

Corwen Frayus is helpless to watch Nora's arm twitch and spasm at her side. The pink haired Alderaanian's eyes burn and sting, and she grits her teeth as she begins to lose the war of willpower and attrition. Lana looks into the girl's eyes, lips pulled into a wide smile, and simply offers the handle of that dagger outwards to Nora.

"Nora... Nora, please... listen, you can fight her. You have always been strong. Stronger than me. Please," Luci pleads. Nora's hand continues to move in spite it all, and the eldest sister gazes towards the youngest as her fingertips grasp that blade.

"I am sorry. I cannot. I cannot fight it," Nora says, her voice cracked and choking.

No.

Count Corwen Frayus releases a loud, thunderous boom as he pushes himself up off the floor. Stone and rubble crack and crumble, rolling off of the mountain of a man while blood pours from his open wound. "Karking harpy," he booms, bare hands with fingers splayed as he stomps towards Lana Panteer.

A flick of her wrist sees Count Frayus tossed like a ragdoll across the room, his ribs cracked as the final rush of air is forcibly ripped from his lungs.

Lana laughs.

"Ahhhh, Count Frayus! So good of you to join us! I assume my invitation was lost on the Holonet."

Lana Panteer's smile is wide and beaming until she hears the sound of a dagger fall to the floor.

[ Aryn Cortess (AC)]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

The Drexl sustains a terrible shot to one eye that makes it scream, shattering glass around it as it spins in place, using its tail as a flail. A few of the defending party are struck by the behemoth, who has now begun to rampage around. Its scales thicken, and it grows ten-times more aggressive than before, but the heroic shot made by Kye Keraz really keeps it from being all that accurate. The drexl has to rely on instinct.

Ser Lars is back on his feet in time to fall back over, forcing himself to avoid being smashed by that spiky tail. Grunting, the big man rises back up, and pours every bit of heart he has into another charge, plunging the length of his sword into the beast's side before being yanked and thrown across the room in another direction. He slides across the stone floor and hits another wall, this time without his sword.

[ Ban Iskender (ban)]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Ban Iskender is drawn away from the beast by the torment playing out in the next chamber. Though the Drexl is not yet defeated, the swordsman allows his eyes to go closed, and reaches out to Nora through the Force, an effort to fortify the bereaved lady in his moments of trial, a reminder of strength and endurance.. but it is an imperfect effort, and he has no serenity to share.

[ Kye Keraz (Kye)]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Once he's narrowly avoided the rampaging beast, Kye now has a very rare window of time where he can shoot freely at it and maybe make sure it's put down as efficiently as possible. The crossfire battles from before were very difficult, but this is a whole new dimension. There is something horrible unfolding just behind the creature and all the rubble it caused when it caved the roof in, but he takes two shots at the creature's torso, finding that both blaster shots penetrate its vitals.

With the gun's barrel smoking, he spins it a little before stepping back, letting the people with the lightsabers do their thing. He'll shoot at it again if it moves.

[ Ejnar Celchu (Ejnar)]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Lord Celchu isn't lucky enough to escape the tail this time. He was not expecting the rampage, his eyes wide as he rolled out of the way only to be clipped by the tail on his lower back near his buttock. There was a crack and he felt something pop in and out of place as he rolled across the floor like a sack of fresh tubbers.

Ejnar groaned, his head spinning. He could hear the slithering tong of that Usurper whore Lana Panteer hissing in his ear from beyond the rubble. The beast... they had to get to Nora and her family. He shouted picking himself up with all he had left, spitting blood and thick saliva from his mouth. Dusts and debris from the rubble stuck to his sweaty skin and blood seeped down out of his makeshift armor from where the barbs on the tail had punctured his lower lift side. He huffed and charged again, shouting the entire time and his gauntlets crackled to life, shooting tendrils of stunning electricity across the entirety of the hallways. He jumped up just as Ser Lars was tossed and wrapped his legs around the neck of the beast. He pummeled on either side of its neck, causing it the trample around and rampage even more, eventually being tossed himself into a wall leaving one hell of an indent. Remodeling was going to be needed.

[ Corto (Ct)]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

It's a funny thing, to fall.

A not-uncommon description of the Jedi Path was that of a tightrope, to be balanced endlessly and precariously over a pit of yawning doom. The truth was... well to be perfectly honest the truth of a matter so esoteric is subjective at best. Corto always saw it as a door, best kept closed. He hadn't yet opened that door when he jammed the lightsaber into the flank of the beast once more, using that moment of leverage to fling himself up on to the Drexl's back leg. The saber was jammed into its back and the Feeorin pulled himself into the rider's seat. The next strike was a simple one, a routine top-down lobotomy straight through the Drexl's brainpan and out through the bottom of the chin.

Being sat atop a huge beast gave Corto an excellent vantage point, wherein he spied the deceased Corwin and Adni, the stricken young Luci, and the torn Nora.

The mental door slammed open, and the cry from the Drifter ripped what was left of any serenity to pieces.

"KILL HER!"

[ Nora Frayus (Nora)]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Nora Frayus' eyes remain on her sister's as that dagger trembles in her hand. She remembers the day Luci made it. How fraught she was about its imperfections. How she came to her in her bedroom and lamented everything from the forge's temperature to the quality of the steel. "Well I think it is beautiful. You should give it to father, you know. You know he will love it," Nora had told her.

And so she did.

The sound of rubble shifting and her father booming causes Nora's eyes to snap back. That dagger in her hand stills itself and she strains, screaming alongside him as her fingers relax. Lana's attention must have waned. It must have wilted in that moment she flung Corwen to his death, cracking his ribs around the pillar that holds that ceiling aloft. Or maybe, just maybe, Nora can feel just the tiniest little push of Lord Iskender through the force. Because Nora's fingers open and relax, and that dagger drops loudly to the floor.

And then there comes a sound. A booming voice through the ringing in her ears.

"KILL HER!"

Nora Frayus keeps screaming.

"Aaahhhh, there you are, Countess," Lana says, her eyes widening as she feels it.

Hate.

If some stories are to be believed, the Force is a living thing. It connects all things -- from the smallest rock to the brightest stars in the galaxy. Like a thread that winds its way through every crack between every atom, it binds matter together. And when there is a vibration -- a disturbanc -- in the force, everything is affected. If some stories are to be believed, then Countess Nora Frayus creates a small, single disturbance in the force.

[ Nora Frayus (Nora)]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

A rush of energy presses into Lana, knocking the woman back a half a step as Nora rips herself out of her influence. That high pitched scream has come to an end, replaced with seething, bubbling, boiling rage. Like the Knight of Renn's sword she held on Jedha. Hate. Rage. All consuming and so -easy-.

Luci Frayus collapses to her feet and crawls on her hands and knees towards her mother, trying to shape the still, cold woman awake. "Mommy, mommy..."

"Yes... yes... feel that. Hold onto it, girl. Do you -taste- it?" Lana hisses, watching Nora approach. The young Alderaanian draws steel from her hip and rips it roughly towards Lana, but the sorcerer witch is far too calm and far too prepared to be felled so simply.

-KKSSSSHHH-

The sound of a deep, red saber igniting rips through the air and slices through Nora's ceremonial blade like butter. It stops just inches away from the young Jedi's face. Lana's head tips so that she can peer, serpentine, from around the blade.

"Now is this not far more interesting?" she wonders. And then a rip of her hand sees Nora tossed into a heap, body bumping backwards into her mother's chest. Lucy crawls over Nora, putting herself between her sister and Lana.

But even Lana Panteer's hubris only extends so far. She moves, head cocked and saber drawn, on the far side of that rubble. The harpy's smile spreads wide as she looks to Ban, Ejnar, Corto, and Kye. Her tongued drifts out to wet her lips and she pulls that debris clear. Before the heroes can give chase, however Lana Panteer slips into the shadows, like fog crawling across the floor.

[ Ban Iskender (ban)]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ban Iskender moves into the chamber strewn with bodies dead and some few alive and suffering. Lightsaber still glowing in his hand, as Lana dissolves into smoke and shadow as she has before, this time Ban is able to reach his senses after her, grasping like a vengeful hand to part the obfuscations and reveal the fleeing for ere she escapes.. For a moment he sees her, and he feels a flicker of fear from the darkness- or perhaps that's only his imagination consoling the soldier for another failure as Lana escapes again.

The lightsaber is deactivated, and he steps slowly toward Nora, going to one knee and murmuring, "Come what may, you are not alone."

[ Ejnar Celchu (Ejnar)]=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

As much as Ejnar's head was bounding, body was aching, and blood he was loosing causing him to be a bit more than lightheaded he knew it was not over yet. He was just getting back to his knees as Corto took down the Drexl. He rested there on all fours for a moment, turning his head slowly to look past the rubble just in time to see Lana seep into the shadows like the stick black tar that any swamp creature might reside in. He grunted, spitting out some more blood and spit, and rose to his feet. He slouched, watching Ban move towards Nora. He himself moves to where Aryn had been put under ruble when the Drexl first crashed through and with what energy he had left started to clear the rubble.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-