'Children of The Shroud' - A Dark Fantasy RP (Interest/Recruitment - CLOSED AND STARTED)

[NinjaDeathSlap]

"Sparrow's got the makings of a protege" Tammy said, sidling up to Darius as the two of them made their way back to the living quarters. For those no longer held by Minerva's shared trance, there wasn't much to see.

"She is." replied Darius proudly "She's getting the hang of it faster than I did, at any rate."

Noticing the lilt of Tammy's smile, his expression took on a mix of confusion and reproach.

"What's that look for?" He asked, warningly.

"She likes you." Tammy answered.

It took a moment, but when Darius had comprehended her meaning, he scoffed.

"She doesn't... How would you even..."

"It's the way she looks at you." Tammy interrupted.

"What about it?" Darius shot back, sceptical.

"It's the same way I used to look at you." She replied plainly, a hint of sadness behind her matter-of-fact manner. Darius, for his part, was silent for a few seconds, before he glared at her. They had stopped walking now, halfway up a spiral stair.

"She's a child!"

Tammy shrugged "So was I once."

"You weren't that young!" Darius retorted defensively "And I was younger too... If you think I'd ever-"

"That's not what I'm worried about." Tammy told him, growing more forceful herself. "I know you well enough to know you're not like that, but all the same... Come on, Darius. You like it when they look up to you. You like being adored, and you encourage it, without always realising what you're encouraging exactly. Just, be aware around her, okay?"

Darius wasn't defensive any more. Instead he was hurt.

"Is that what you..." He began, his voice low. "Do you think I was just stroking my ego, all the time we were... you think so little of me?"

Tammy sighed. Though the look she gave Darius was tender, she stood off from him, her arms folded.

"I think being loved clouds your judgement." She said "I think you'd have forsaken everything and everyone else to make me happy, but not because you loved me, because you thought you owed me for my love. I think you're so hung up on the idea that you'll ever fail someone you care about again that..."

She bit her lip, stopping herself from going any further. Even if it was called for, even if it was the truth, she couldn't quite bring herself to hit him there.

"I told you before..." she resumed "This isn't something we can figure out together. Lay your own ghosts to rest, just... make sure you don't drag Sparrow into it, okay? Because she'll only ever let you."

With that, she left him alone, leaning against the dark column in silence.

====================================================================================================================================

Minerva's formless presence was everywhere. It melted through the mist; it listened, catching every footfall inside each needle; and it burrowed through the senses of all to crept through her domain, wrapping like a silk ribbon around their minds. So delicate, yet just one tug would constrict with sudden ferocity. Starting small, she set to work.

All at once, each acolyte was gripped by vertigo, as a thread of reason running through their consciousness was severed. Nothing of substance changed; no monstrous apparitions swooped down on them through the fog, and no wall of water came to sweep them all away. It was simply impossible for any of them to tell any more the difference between up and down, left or right, forward or back, as coordination was excised from them with surgical efficiency, and the breeze that caressed them seemed to pick up a little, as if excited.

 

[lacktheknack]

Andra watched everyone beginning to teleport from column to column.

She didn't trust any of it. Not one little tiny bit. She shuddered a bit as each of the others seemed to almost effortlessly go from rock to rock.

There was no way that Minerva was going to let it be that simple.

Gingerly, Andra focused on the next pillar and crouched. She still felt weak from her ordeal with the swamp illusion, but she wasn't a slouch at teleportation. She had no doubts she'd make it.

Andra jumped, the minimal distance and height embarrassing her. But, like a gust of wind, she suddenly was over the next pillar, where she landed with a small puff of dust.

Then she fell over, her body pressed against the ceiling.

No, the wall.

No, the ceiling. And floor. At the same time.

What the hell?

She was pressed against the steepest slope imaginable, the lip of which hung over nothingness. No, everything was flat again. No, everything was wrong.

Andra pushed away from the rock wall - ceiling - wall-floor, lifting her head towards the great nothingness under her - no, above her. She had no idea what was happening, only that she was on a rock floating through a cruel void with no rhyme or reason.

"HELP!" She sunk back to the rock face, clinging for her life.

 

[The Funslinger]

"I'd rather you didn't."

"Well, I suppose it worked," Will replied, turning to see his companion sat in the dirt, looking distinctly ruffled with a smirking Sparrow behind him. Will was about to offer his hand to help Langston up when suddenly his vision rocked. Staggering back as his head spun, he fell to one knee with a yell before hitting the dirt. He felt disoriented and helpless. With incredible effort, he managed to flip himself onto his back as his vision spun.

"Denissa's tits," he snarled, watching the other two succumb to something similar. Minerva's work, no doubt. Plunging a hand into one of the inside pockets of his brown coat and rooting around, Will cast out with his other hand and started trying to drag himself over to them. "Just... just give me a minute..."

 

[Rufio's Ghost]

"Well, I suppose it worked"

Langston began to nod in agreement, but instead rocked completely forward, falling onto his hands and knees. He felt disoriented, like he was falling through the ground beneath him. Maybe teleporting took a greater toll on him then he'd anticipated. Making an effort to remain completely still, Langston locked his arms and stared down at the ground as he tried to acclimate.

'You're just light headed. Give it a moment to pass.'

"Denissa's tits"

Langston looked over at Will's writhing form. All it took was a slight tilt of the head and the lanky man was collapsed on his side, overwhelmed by the world spinning around him. Shutting his eyes he tried to remain perfectly still, knowing that the slightest movement would only make things worse. The vertigo would have to pass eventually. Minerva couldn't keep this up forever... right?

 

[Dogmatic99]

Where the hell was she even going? All this springing about the place had gotten Maggy turned around it seemed. Didn't help that all the spires looked the same! She was pretty sure she was going in the right direction. Maybe she just needed to catch her breath and-and get her bearings. Was using all this magic effecting her badly? Because it seemed to Maggy like she was about to be sick and everything was getting blurry.

Oh she needed to sit down. Just close her eyes for a while. It didn't take long, after a moment to steady herself Maggy was more or less ready to go again. Still a little woozy but she could manage, no way could she afford to fall behind.

"HELP!" That came from close by.

She craned her neck a little to see the burned woman hanging from a rock face. Andra, wasn't it? That was the name Maggy had heard her use in passing over the past few days, wasn't as if she'd socialised much with her fellow recruits. She did need them though, that was the rule, if someone dropped out she couldn't get the prize. Besides, this woman had helped her back in the sewers, twice! Maggy couldn't have that hanging over her head for them to use later. She could do it, she could just warp over there and... grab her and jump back to where she was... no problem. This would be her own little test.

The air whipped around her and Maggy suddenly found herself clinging onto the rock with one hand and Andra's ragged clothes with the other. And feeling horribly sick. This may have been a mistake. "J-just hang on- we can- aargh!" Maggy yelped as the two of them were whisked away again her her dizzy haze, victims of her magic's momentum. The two of them rushed down towards the ground, half falling, half teleporting until the two of them reappeared a few feet above the ground and landed in a dusty crumpled mess. With Maggy on the bottom, as was her lot in life.

The young girl groaned and coughed as her head rang like a bell. Everything was spinning.

'This is the last time I ever help anyone.' Maggy thought through her whimpers.

 

[The Funslinger]

After what seemed like an eternity, Will managed to wrestle a small vial of brown glass from his pocket. Despite the change in occupation, he still had a seafarer's habits, and smelling salts were regulation kit in the privateers. If someone got knocked out during a storm, you wanted them back on their feet as soon as possible, after all. Yanking out the stopper with his teeth, Will gagged as the wave of merciless stench hit him. As though someone had grabbed him mid fall, the world jarred to a halt, before continuing to waver feebly. Taking a knee and shaking his head like a dog, Will made his way over to Langston and rammed the bottle under the other man's nose.

"I don't know how long this'll last," he said. "If she keeps making us think we have vertigo, maybe she could put us back to square one at any time."

 

[Terratina.]

If it was one thing Skylar was quickly beginning to hate, it was being thrown into challenges, among other things like being forced to push herself. Well, being pushed to spring around the spires by what appeared to be a very bossy Sparrow clone couldn't be a pleasant experience in any context. Skylar just wanted a break from all of this. Especially as a dizzy spell took hold of her, freezing the girl in place. The disoriention from jumping around the place brought was one thing but this was another.

'Just keep going forward.' Skylar told herself. However, she doubted slowly inching around the rock face counted as making progress. Was it even the rock face? She could've been hanging sideways as far as she could tell. Well, one thing was for sure, this was something that couldn't simply be powered through. At first only a whimper managed to escape her lips but then she called out, "Anyone know which way we're supposed to go, again?"

 

[Daystar Clarion]

Vertigo was one thing, but when several different versions of you, in several different locations have vertigo, it was overwhelming to the senses. Sparrow, all of her, were stopped in her tracks as she fell to her hands and knees. "I... can't" The girl slammed her eyes shut in an effort to quell the debilitating amount of feedback she was experiencing. Maybe if she became one again?

'No, this is a test, I can't go the easy route just because I feel a little dizzy.'

Eyes still closed, all the Sparrows got their feet. One opened her eyes, almost falling back into the dirt as she tried to get her bearings. "Down, this way is down." She muttered through gritted teeth as she stamped on the ground beneath her. "You are down, you are not up, or sideways, or whatever fuckin' way y'think you are, cheeky bastard." As if to confirm that fact, the girl reached into her pocket and pulled out her special coin, dropping it the ground, the sweeping it up, dropping it again, picking it up, dropping it, fixing her eyes on the object as it fell to the dust over and over, despite several instances where she was sure it would go somewhere else.

"Can't fool gravity, Minnie." The girl smile painfully as her dizziness refused to wane, but at least she felt more grounded. Gradually the other Sparrows began the same trick, devoid of the coin of the original, they used whatever they could find, pebbles, dust from the ground.

For now the girl was stable, very aware that down was indeed down, but not confident at all at the premise of moving. She wanted to look at the others, she wanted to see if they were okay, but she couldn't let her focus be pulled away from her continuous confirmation of gravity in action.

"Oi, everyone shout up!" She called out in unison with herself. "I've established that gravity ain't messed up!" She chuckled to herself. "Minnie be messin' with us." As if that much wasn't obvious. "Least it ain't a giant lizard eh?"

 

[Rufio's Ghost]

Langston gasped as he was hit by an unsavory scent. If debilitating vertigo wasn't enough of a problem, then the ungodly stench would be. In what world did a full out assault on the senses mean 'sparring'?

"I don't know how long this'll last. If she keeps making us think we have vertigo, maybe she could put us back to square one at any time."

He opened his eyes to see Will next to him, holding a small vial of smelling salts, just like his mom used to keep. It was a bit odd, Will didn't seem the type to be prone to fainting spells.

Still chocking on the foul smell, Langston replied, "I certainly hope she doesn't." Laughing lightly he added,"That- uh ha, smell is absolutely ghastly." Grabbing Will's extended hand, the wiry man was pulled to his feet. His surroundings still wavered, but it was only slight. Nothing he couldn't deal with.

As Will made his way over to the nearest Sparrow, Langston surveyed the surroundings. There were still three people down on the first pillar and there didn't appear to be any movement on the other spires. No one seemed to be getting anywhere.

Walking up behind his ally, Langston timidly asked, "Do you happen to have an extra vial? I uhh... hate to ask, but I'd like to help an-and I think it may go faster if we both split the... umm?"

He trailed off, feeling generally uncomfortable. Surely Will got the gist of what he was trying to say.

 

[lacktheknack]

Andra was more completely confused than before. One of the young recruits - Maggy, wasn't it? - had heard her call for help and managed to drag her to the next spire. What a strong girl.

Andra rolled off of Maggy, only to be hit with even fresher vertigo than before. Wasn't there something she could do? Her powers were so useless, all they could do at this stage was affect what people saw, not felt!

...wait.

Andra squinted. There wasn't any tilting... all the spires were flat.

They were sideways, but flat.

No, upside down.

No... forget it.

A spire or two away, Andra could see the youngest, Sparrow, picking up and dropping pebbles.

"I've established that gravity ain't messed up!"

That way was down. That way was down. The direction of the spire... that way was down. It certainly didn't feel that way, but it was. Now... if only she could mark it as such-!

Andra had a flash of inspiration. She pushed her head against the ground, establishing a flat and gravitationally correct view of the spires. Yes... they were all about level. Looking at them was bizarre - she felt like she was being pushed against a wall while looking at a painting on the ceiling. Regardless, gravity was still working, even if her perception wasn't.

Andra thought for a moment. What gently falling thing could be easily maintained with almost no effort? Dust was too subtle, rain was too intense, light snow swayed too much. Hmmmm. How about... petals? Andra had seen some beautiful paintings in the halls of Gilliajlia, with pillars of flowers holding beautiful villas of the goddess aloft. Yes, Andra had seen those paintings many times and could almost see the way they shimmered and almost moved on the canvas.

She closed her eyes and imagined the pillars, simplifying them to the most basic form - a simple, falling petal. In seconds, she had a perfect image in her mind of a falling petal. She opened her eyes and focused very hard. Thousands and thousands of identical petals appeared out of thin air, hovering over and around the other Children. Andra let go of her focus, pleased with how easy the image was to maintain once spawned. Soon, she could even blink without any disappearing, and then seconds after, all she had to do was have faith that they were still there and look away and they wouldn't vanish.

"Now... fall."

Slowly, as if in a dream, the petals began to descend. They didn't sway much, they just dropped slowly and forlornly along the line of gravity. As soon as one hit a spire, it phased through and blinked into nothingness. If one fell more than a foot below the rims of the spires, it too would blink out of existence. About fifteen feet above them, new petals would appear out of thin air, fall slowly and silently, and vanish.

It was like the paintings.

Andra didn't move, afraid to break concentration even for a second, but she felt her confidence in gravity improve. Now, using the falling petals as a reference, she didn't feel like she was fighting gravity, she just felt drunk and dizzy, which was an improvement.

"M-Maggy? Do you see the petals?"

 

[The Funslinger]

"Do you happen to have an extra vial? I uhh... hate to ask, but I'd like to help an-and I think it may go faster if we both split the... umm?"

Will patted himself down to make his point. "Sorry, no," he replied. "I suppose Ezrah might, though." Crouching down next to the Sparrow that had accompanied them and ignoring her proclamations as to which way gravity went, he waved the bottle under her nose. "I don't suppose you know which way Ezrah went?" he asked.

 

[EnigmaticSevens]

There it was, faint and insidious one moment, then coiling and constricting like a python the next. Minerva's grip, sinking beneath the wrinkles of the brain and squeezing the soft, mushy core like a vise. A strange sensation to say the least, but Ezrah was ready, he'd been waiting. He didn't know what form the blow would take, his feeble efforts the crawl of an infant compared to Minerva's mind bending ability, but he could gird himself with sure knowledge: whatever happened in the next few seconds, whatever danger, she was the cause, it was but a stone in the path, it could be overcome. He stopped dead in his tracks, risking no more jumps for the time being, hunkering down into a low crouch. His eyes flickered over the route he'd chosen, highlighting the platforms he'd yet to reach. One last, brief vision of sanity, before the world turned upside down. It took a half dozen heartbeats for Ezrah to swallow the panic, and a half dozen more to convince himself he wasn't falling. It wasn't until he closed his eyes that he achieved a measure of stability. Well... that was different, Ezrah had never had an overwhelming fear of heights, but he'd heard enough accounts of disorientation to put two and two together. To turn the body against itself... Minerva's abilities could run far more subtlety than Ezrah imagined, and this particular blow demonstrated a cunning imagination that gave Ezrah paused. It would be a fool thing to underestimate the depths this madwoman and mentalist had to draw upon.

The boy sat back on his haunches and allowed himself a long moment to ponder the way forward. The self-imposed blindness was crippling, but weren't blind men often the wisest? Ezrah still had the last image firms burned into his mind, his path amongst the pillars, the general layout of the canyon, and the general position of his fellow children (assuming they hadn't moved on after Minerva's last blow). Could he risk a jump without active sight? Why not? The gulfs between the the physical universe and the magical one were immense, clearly, and if the rule of momentum held no sway, why should any other? Why let the mind be fettered by the things it thought it knew when in truth it knew so little? These powers, were tied to Mylaviss, were a part of him, and if this motley crew of street urchins turned fledgling assassins really were his children... well... were not the best father's kind. Faith was a hard trick to learn, but in this case, a little faith might prove useful.... Ezrah visualized the point in space he so desired, the next pillar along the path. The struggle to make it real in his mind's eye threatened to flood him with same vertiginous dread he suffered with his eyes open, but here... in this space of the mind, he could let it go. What did direction matter, what did orientation matter? The path might have been a constellation, or a string of gems, or for fuck's sake a chain of sausages, dangling in the ether. All that mattered was the point, and the jump that took him there.

No more thinking, just doing. Ezrah shifted through the nothing one instant, and found himself on solid ground the next, still sitting back on his haunches, almost as though he hadn't moved at all. A quick, giddy exploration with his hands told him otherwise, this pillars boundaries, edges, were different, different shapes. Ezrah started to giggle... an odd noise coming from his throat, one he was unaccustomed to, but this... this was too much... too glorious. The potential of it! Ezrah had always scorned the pure academic, the scholar with no practical end in view, but now, with this heady sureness pounding through is veins, the adrenaline of this headlong charge into the unknown, Ezrah damn near wanted to write one of those ponderous tomes for himself! Snippets of the other conversations amongst the children floated down around Ezrah's ears, and his slight giggle rose in to a brief howl of boyish laughter," Fuck 'up'! Fuck 'down'! Fuck gravity! None of it matters, none of it's real! Don't trust your eyes, your nose, your hands, they belong to Minerva now. Don't trust me! Trust the magic! The ma-"

Ezrah bit off the the rest of his gleeful rant mid thought, aware of a rustling against his mind, something strange. At first, he thought it might be Minerva winding up for another blow... but this touch... was different, not as pronounced, but still there. He risked opening his eyes a touch, slowly at first. Something of the disorientation remained, but its teeth had been pulled... now that petals were raining from the sky all around them, directing the thoughts, directing the minds. Ezrah let loose another wild whoop of laughter," You see! The magic! You! Girl! Andra! Thank you! More! Make us see, make us see the way forward, make us see what is safe, and you fight her! You fight Minerva! You'll lose... probably, but it wont hurt! I don't think... it's all practice anyways, right? Gives us something to work with...."

 

[Dogmatic99]

"M-Maggy? Do you see the petals?"

"Ugh do I See the wh- whoah..."

Maggy had just been rubbing at the back of her head and stiffly trying to right herself after their head spinning tumble. This must have been what drunks felt like when they got totally legless. Maggy was just sitting up when she opened her eyes and saw the brightly coloured shower of petals gently raining down on them. And this was probably what pipe fiends felt like. Maggy held out a hand for a moment but as one of the petals met her open palm it began to fade and break apart until there was nothing left but air.

So this was Andra's personal power.

Either way it made telling which way was up a lot easier. It took some doing but Maggy finally managed to haul herself up to a standing position and after a few minutes more she managed to steady herself, feeling steadier than before. It looked like Andra had helped her again. Damn.

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

They were doing well, but Minerva wasn't out of tricks yet...

The atmosphere thickened for a moment, as Minerva focussed her mind. Then, the stillness of the mist was shattered by a series of loud cracks, as faults began to open up in the rock columns. Webs of cracks in the stone weaved their way all around, until eventually the bases crumbled, leaving jagged platforms suspended in mid-air. Then, the platforms began to spin, and tip, and revolve around each-other like some hellish fairground ride, gradually moving faster and faster.

 

[Rufio's Ghost]

Instead of responding to Will's question the little girl stood up and added her voice to the choir of Sparrows, "Hoooy, got two over 'ere!"

Langston squinted, searching for origin of each shout. The yells echoed back through the canyon walls, making it sound like there were 12 voices instead of four. This was going to be impossible.

'This is... problematic. If we sit here too long Miner-' "Ah- Wha?!"

Letting out a short yell, he jumped back as something large and pink crossed into his field of vision, narrowly missing his nose. "WILL! There's-"

'Flower petals...?'

" You see! The magic! You! Girl! Andra! Thank you! More! Make us see, make us see the way forward, make us see what is safe, and you fight her! You fight Minerva! You'll lose... probably, but it wont hurt! I don't think... it's all practice anyways, right? Gives us something to work with...."

The pale man's cheeks turned beat red. Placing his hand out he let the delicate petals drift down and dissolve in his open palm.

'So all this is Andra.'

A simple yet elegant solution, and ascetically pleasing to boot. Not that he would expect any less from Andra.

After a long pause, he finished, still completely abashed, "-umm, there's Ezrah. Did you- uh... hear him?"

'Splendid cover, a flawless misdirection. Too bad you started your sentence before Ezrah spoke a word. Dolt.'

The ground suddenly lurched forward with a deafening crack. Shaking and creaking, the earth loosened and violently broke away from the spire. This most certainly wasn't Andra's doing.

Without so much as a thought, Langston dropped back to the ground and grabbed hold of whatever he could grasp. When the crumbling sound ceased the land mass jerked forward, moving into it's rotation. He pressed his lean body against the ground and tried to hold on to the shallow divots in the rock's surface, but he knew he couldn't hold out for long. They were gaining momentum too quickly. The rock careened through the air, darting in different directions. It didn't take long. The lanky man felt his fingers slip and he began to bounce, skidding across the stone surface.

After the first bounce his body slide a few inches and stopped. His brow furrowed, he quickly scrambled to his feet and took in his surroundings. Everything was still moving, just much slower, at a manageable pace... or at least it looked that way. In reality he was just moving faster and so was everything else within 6 feet of him. He wasn't sure when he started the manipulation... he hadn't really thought about it, more of a knee jerk reaction- but he did know that he probably couldn't keep this up for very long. Affecting one pebble was one thing, but a 6 foot radius was a completely different story.

"We need to get moving. Can you teleport the two of us at once?" Langston asked, too focused on his task to address anyone specifically.

 

[The Funslinger]

The motion of the careening platforms caught Will horribly off guard, and he went skidding towards the edge, bouncing and whirling until he went over. Fortunately, his hand caught the surface of the rock, and though his shoulder screamed a protest, he held on. Suddenly the platform changed direction and he felt weightless.

Concentrating, he teleported onto safe ground, slamming flat on his back. Swearing like the sailor he was, he pulled out one of his pistols in one hand, and his sword in the other as he struggled to stand. Throwing a forearm over his eyes, he fired a shot into the ground, peppering the unprotected portions of his face with stinging flecks of stone. That done, he jammed his sword into the smoking hole he'd created and put his weight on it. It was a hasty plan, but luckily the tip of the blade wedged in with the shot at the bottom of the hole, and he was able to pull himself fully upright, clamping both hands around the hilt of the sword.

"We need to get moving. Can you teleport the two of us at once?"

"I think so," Will replied, looking around slightly amazed at how slowly everything was happening, all of a sudden. Looking around, he picked the nearest platform, and found a likely candidate just rotating around to some semblance of being what he thought must be horizontal. Glancing at Sparrow, he asked, "you'll follow on, right?" but didn't wait for an answer. He only vaguely understood Langston's power, but he imagined it must be quite a strain.

Straining every muscle as hard as he could, Will extracted his sword, and sheathed it. Setting a hand firmly on Langston's shoulder, he looked the other man in the eye.

"Ready?"

 

[Rufio's Ghost]

Langston simply nodded. Between using his power and attempting to ignore the mounting pressure behind his eyes it was surprising that he could even manage any reply. Langston closed his eyes tight, putting his trust in Will. Whatever the young captain planned to do, he'd better do it quick.

 

[Dogmatic99]

Maggy wailed and flailed as she and Andra were suddenly sent spinning all over the place all over again. It never ended! She didn't even make any recognisable noises at this point, just sounds of shock and irksome pain as she was sent stumbling and rolling all over. It felt like Maggy was about to be sick. The bunch of them all struggled to find some kind of footing when, in a blind moment of panic, Maggy reached out with her fledgling magic and sent herself whisping away from their platform. To where she didn't know.

It turned out she'd gone down, back to safer ground. Crashing down of course, as was her custom now it seemed. This time instead of breaking Andra's fall though she found herself bumping into one of their Sparrows. Maybe this one had been seperated from the others in the spinning madness. Maggy did her best to brush the dust from her dark blue robes and looked at what was happening in dismay.

"How are we supposed to stop that?" She moaned to the world in general. "I can't even tell where we're supposed to be going any more." She slumped down next to the nearby Sparrow and tried to catch her breath. Some assassin she was turning out to be.

 

[EnigmaticSevens]

The way was forward, that's all that mattered, the little trail of stones that led to the canyons end. Ezrah had kept little else in his mind since the few necessary realities clicked into place, his comfort growing with each subsequent teleport. He'd closed his eyes again, blocking out even Andra's benevolent illusions. They weren't necessary, only the path was necessary and the strange quasi-faith that told the boy the queer powers boiling through his veins would take him where he needed to go. If he kept those thoughts in his head and shunt aside all the rest, then he just might see the end of this without having to suffer the psychic shock of falling into some infinite abyss. Yes, that was a good plan, a good goal, quite beyond winning or losing some madman's contest. Ezrah cleared his mind, and stepped forward. In the fleeting instant before the darkness swallowed him, he felt a twinge, a twist in the corner of his mind meant to watch for Minerva's trickery, and swore.

To some extent, the lad's thinking was not incorrect. The thought of the point in time and space, brought him to that point, without fail. The magic didn't fail, and Ezrah would spend a goodly deal of time reaffirming that mantra to himself in the next few hours to come. No, the magic couldn't fail... but the body might. Ezrah had never given physics very much thought before, a subject only rarely touched upon in his former prophet's more esoteric works. That wasn't quite fair, in Ezrah's estimation, after all, physics could be a right important buggering ***** when it wanted to be. Ezrah landed on the platform he'd been aiming for, he just hadn't expected it to be moving. For that matter, he hadn't expected to be falling, screaming like a drowning cat, or throwing himself into a mad, slap dash series of small teleports to heave his body back onto the pillar's stony surface. He lay there, sprawled out like a piece of flotsam, panting, eyes lolling about, and pondering the current location of his stomach. Ah, so the pillars moved now.

"Well fuck all kinds of duck...."

 

[Terratina.]

Skylar held into the cliff face of her pillar for dear life as it cracked and rose. Then the spinning happened. The goddamn spinning tumbled her stomach something fierce, she pressed her forehead on the rock and focussed on not spewing any spittle with a dash of stomach acid up. With a few breaths, she gathered up the confidence to peek at the whirling pillars and noticed something peculiar, some of the pillars were spinning even faster than the rest. While it might've been part of Minerva's trick, it did seem odd. Skylar slowly made her way towards the anomaly (could it even be called that in Minerva's mad mindscape?), each step requiring some measure of willpower in the powers bestowed unto her and a scrabble for roughewn handholds in the cliff faces. Finally, when she was close enough, Skylar noticed some familiar faces peeking out of the whirling chucks of rock.

"You alright?" She managed to bark out to the little group.