Cyanic

There was a certain spark in Araha's mind, her depths were trying to freeze back over, but that spark was fighting back. It was a certain emotion, a certain negative one, like frustration but stronger. "Deras?" She began, her voice controlled but hid some anger, as small amounts of angrespren began to bubble up from her feet, not a lot though. The Lifeless turned to her after also seeing the same man rise up from the floor. "Give me the other -reed." She turned to her companions, "we need to wait for a moment." @Gancho Libre @Silva The man complied and gave it to her, he seldom questioned her decisions as she'd already proven herself time and again. She received it and altered the contents before sending it. Afterward, she stood up and went to Damaya, embracing her wordlessly. That must've felt horrible, thinking that you finally dealt with the thing that's been haunting you for years, then seeing the same thing literally rise up again from the ground and mock you. Just killing in itself might have adverse effects on her mental health. She embraced tighter. This was Damaya's nightmare, her friend stuck in this situation, and Araha was frustrated and angry that she couldn't do anything about it. She whispered, despite herself: "Please be okay..." @Sorana After a few moments passed, and Araha let go. Then the ground slightly shook, and another tremor. This kept happening until it stopped. They could hear commotion upstairs, footsteps running in a direction, multiples. And after a while, the footsteps died down, the echoing voices of people and servants in a doppler effect which sounded like they were leaving the vicinity, upstairs it was silence. "I'm thinking those were the servants and guards being evacuated," Araha began, looking up at the footstep sounds, then she looked to Deras, "no more innocents, you're free to destroy the building when we need it."

Cenet saw the beavers enter the main chamber and one of them tried to give him a spike, it pierced through the hood and to his neck... which wasn't there. The spike failed since he didn't have a spirit web for hemalurgy to stick to anyway. He'd already Highcalled what was inside the spikes, so he gladly took the one with him, retrieving it with his invisible hand and walking to the door. That was a nice gift, there were likely different individuals who would pay high for the spike and its contents. "Thank you for the opportunity to be here!" he called out by the door to no one in particular, testing to see if he could use thaumaturgy... which he couldn't, but it would have helped, "if you need information on different topics, just find me, and we'll do business!" he concluded. He wasn't sure if anyone heard him, but that was the best he could do anyway. As he left the door, an angular, geometric thing descended from above and landed onto the courtyard with a roar. It opened a hatch on its side, and Cenet entered. The machine elevated itself, taking a bit of the sound from the surroundings before, in a distorted boom, it disappeared into the sky.

Araha looked on as Damaya started beating the man with her staff. She'd never seen her friend this angry before, maybe not even in general, she could be scared, sad, or even determined, but never angry. Her eyes showed now emotion, but she was worried for Damaya's sake, what would this effect have on her? She had just killed, and not even just some faceless evil person, someone she knew. Maybe someone she hated, but still, she'd killed. An idea sparked in Araha's mind and she reached out, but it was too late, the man was dead, his face bloody and his skull caved in. He could have been interrogated maybe, he was dead now though. she sighed, then the Adhesion zones started fading, one by one. Araha stepped forward, and looked at the corpse. "Deras," she called out without turning to him, "may I borrow your shardblade?" The sword was tossed underhanded toward her and she caught it without looking. She ran the sword in a line over the corpse's neck, severing its head. He was definitely dead. Even if he was still alive somehow, she doubted she could interrogate him and he'd likely only come back as an abomination or something anyway. She dropped the shardblade, the weapon condensing into mist (with Deras resummoning it by his side), then she stepped forward again and pulled her friend into an embrace, Ran separating from her. The frozen over depths thawed which allowed her a bit of emotion, "you did what was necessary, Mai," she whispered, hugging tighter before letting go.

As soon as Araha launched Riathor, she dashed forward herself, inhaling a bit more stormlight that she had on her, but not all of it, not yet. Just in case. As Riathor sailed through the air and into the time bubble, he managed to grab hold of the man as he burned cadmium and burned his opponent's remaining metal reserves away. Which means that he couldn't use Allomancy anymore. He pushed himself against the already smashed candelabra which, while destroyed, was still metal, and slowed his decent, landing on the wall, the stormlight evaporated and gravity for him returned to normal, and with a flip he landed decently on the actual ground. As Araha saw the man's reserves burnt away as evidenced by the time bubble fizzling out, she dashed forward, half-lashing herself upward so that she was lighter and she jumped, avoiding Ran's adhesion zones. Ran was still attacking the man, her swipes not doing much, but the Vulken thing's attacks not connecting either. As he was distracted, she managed to hammer a blow at the man's side, and then she jumped backward with her decreased weight, avoiding a counterattack. "Ran!" As Araha called out, Ran went back and formed herself around her sister again. Araha took a stance, staring straight toward the man, her eyes showing no hint of emotion, reflecting her mind which was still completely empty besides focus and logic. She tapped her foot twice on the ground behind her, making a noise, and with her left hand, she challenged the man, beckoning him to come forward, and if he wasn't careful, right onto the Adhesion zones that Ran had laid out.

@Gancho Libre Araha lashed herself to the side and out of the way of the coins, as Riathor stopped some of them in mid-air, burning his steel. Araha saw Damaya fall to the ground, and a slight worry shook her mind, but it remained focused. "Ran, distract him." Araha said, then immediately dropped prone without waiting for a response. Simultaneously, two things happened: 1) Araha lashed herself toward Damaya on the floor, and under the barrage of coins. While most of the crates were smashed earlier, there was still a few bits of thick wood that could serve as cover. As she slid and fell, she grabbed a thick piece of wood and applied Adhesion to its edge, sticking it into the ground next to where Damaya was, to serve as cover 2) Ran, in her woman form, mimicked dashing forward toward the man, applying adhesion on the ground as she stepped, and pulled back to telegraph a punch at him. As Araha slid, she tumbled into Damaya before cancelling her lashings. They were both on the ground behind the piece of cover, Araha partially covering Damaya. "Stay down," she told her friend, but neither in a concerned way or in a scolding way. Her voice was firm, but without emotion. If her depths weren't frozen over, and it was another situation,, she might've blushed at the prospect of having her face so close to another person's. As Ran distracted the Vulken thing, Araha got up and ran toward Riathor. As she arrived, and with her hand outstretched, she whispered: "Chromium," then she touched his arm and lashed him five times in the direction of the enemy.

"Ah," Cenet said, pleased, "you already likely know of hemalurgy, and are seeking something less detrimental. There are multiple ways to do so outside the Alleyverse, but for convenience and accessibility, I'll limit myself to here. There are certain entities of sufficient power that are capable of manipulating the Spirit Web itself as they can peer and exist inside the Spirit Realm, such as shards, and certain spren like the Nightwatcher, if you can find out for yourself what they can do, you'll be able to modify Spirit Webs."

@Life&Death "That... is unfortunately a dynamic truth, which I cannot gather unless told." Cenet's tone was disappointed, not in the man, just in the question and his own limited information. He decided to guide a bit of the questions, "while it may seem that my skills are not for you, what I can offer would be to explain more static truths, like different ways to manipulate certain aspects of reality. Which I believe you call Investiture in this 'verse."

@Sorana The physical stimulus put a bit more alert into Araha's mind, slowly pushing her back, So did Ran's voice. "We have to save her..." the honorspren spoke, "Araha, please... get up," the spren was nowhere to be seen visibly, likely still coating Araha in that aura. What really reached Araha was the desperation in Ran's voice, no maturity, no control. That was the first she'd heard her sister like that and it nudged at her mind. She got back up, struggling against the thing on her chest. She gritted her teeth, the coin started to bruise her chest. Araha's mind began to repair itself, the depths freezing over, this time much faster than usual, and with it, the anger, the hatred, and everything else. A lake that was exposed to several centuries of non-stop winter. Within moments, her mind was empty. A blank slate with a single component: Focus. She stood up, leaning forward trying to push against the metal that was pushing against her. Her mind needed to work faster, and faster: a frontal attack wouldn't work, the man was mistborn and he was likely anticipating it, especially if he somehow had Atium, he'd see her coming from a mile away, so she needed to do something unexpected, or at least something that couldn't be interpreted even if it could be seen, in the future. She realized, that the man had made two mistakes. The first one was using the coin. She put both hands on the coin pushing against her and struggled to take it out, then she looked at the man, brows furrowed with what looked like pleading eyes.Her lungs were compressing as she was pushing forward, so the next part would be more difficult than normal, but the compressed lungs also provided her with a bit of leverage and control. It was painful. She started slowly breathing in, stormlight flowed slowly into her, then with a forceful inhale, she summoned a huge bout of stormlight and surged everything into the coin, lashing it some fifty times forward right toward the man. The amount of force he was exerting into the coin would send him flying. His second mistake was not taking the opening that she left with her own fault. She intended not to make the same mistake he did.

@Sorana Araha felt her hatred surge, then anger, then digust. The man was staring right into her, into her eyes. and he smirked. She could feel herself shaking in anger, and her breathing quickening, it wasn't like when she was panicking, this time her lungs just had a hard time compensating for her rapidly beating heart. She could hear her own voice growl, she stepped forward, then stepped again, almost breaking into a sprint, then stopped herself. She breathed in, trying to get a semblance of reason back. This wasn't her, she never felt this much negativity toward someone. Something was wrong... something was-- Allomancy! The man had Allomantically manipulated her emotions, she wasn't sure which one, but judging from his bubble earlier, and now his emotional Allomancy, he was either hemalurgically enhanced or was... mistborn. She stepped backward, mind still in a frenzy. She needed to find her center again. Find her calm. Move in the eye of the storm as the storm itself moved. While she didn't dare close her eyes, she averted her gaze from the man's own, still keeping him in peripheral vision, and looking at Damaya. Her friend, her friend needed to be saved, she needed to help her and free her from this abomination of a life. The anger, it wasn't subsiding, but at least she wasn't blindly rushing in, but she still couldn't think straight. Then she had another idea. She took a long, deep breath, and let the ice in her mind melt. Then she dove head first into the depths, reaching low and finding the memory she was looking at. A room just filled with red, her parents... or at least what she knew were her parents, but looked nothing like them. They were covered in it too. In red. Then she saw Damaya, in the same room, coated in the same red. She was suspended in the air by something, and she had a horrific looking blade protruding out of her torso. And her face, her expression, her glare, she was looking straight at Araha, her eyes silently asking Arah why she couldn't save her. That she trusted her. And that she ran. Araha's eyes widened, her world snapping back to reality, her mind almost broken from her dip. She fell to her knees, trying to keep her eyes at Damaya and the man. She'd made a mistake, and she started hyper-ventilating.

@Sorana Araha saw a man come out of the darkness and then the time bubble, she couldn't see or hear what was going on, but, Deras could see with his enhanced senses, but he still wasn't fast enough to take Araha's friend out of the bubble, he heard what they said and comprehended though. The timebubble expired and Deras kept looking. It wasn't fury this time, just anger. Angerspren started pooling below him. Anger at the man. While Araha wasn't sure what just happened, or could understand what they were saying, Damaya made it clear from her stance, and body language. And her eyes. Araha's depths froze over. For a second time. "Pry, colorful man" @Silva @Gancho Libre, she addressed without a hint of emotion, "cover our back, I'll deal with this, Deras, you too." "Can solve problem quickly," "No. Watch our back. Make sure nothing interferes. This is my business." She told him, her voice monotone but firm. He only nodded and backed the others up, his angerspren dissipating. Araha took a stance, Ran enveloping her without a word. Whatever is happening, this was the man's fault, and now that she had good look, she recognized him. He was the man that ruined Damaya's life. The one from her memory that she showed her. Then she felt an intense anger-like emotion from the pits of her heart, all that fire, directed towards the man. It was a foreign feeling, but she guessed what it could be: Hatred. Araha muttered something under her breath, if one paid close enough attention, they could hear this: "I will protect all that I can protect." Nothing. "I will protect even those I hate so long as it is right." Nothing. "I hate nothing and will protect anything." Nothing. "I will protect my enemies, my friends, I will protect everything so long as it is right." She uttered more and more words, but nothing came. What was she missing? Protect people, save people, kill this man. He was evil, if she could kill him, she'd be protecting her friend and saving her. That was part of the Windrunner's oath, right? Killing people who were evil. Her step was unsure, eyes focused on her true enemy: The man named 'Vulken.'

@Life&Death "That's understandable," Cenet nodded, "excuse me for a moment." Experience should be a static truth, so Highcalling Knowledge should work. He Highcalled, tapping the cane quietly on the ground. Didn't work, experience was not a static truth, which made sense, "I apologize, but I cannot gather that information unless it is told to me, and I have not been told yet. Would you like to ask another question, then?" he asked, 'looking' at the other man.

"Practice," Araha replied, a slight smile tugging at the corner of her lips, "turn them into different things, paper, fire, water, whatever you can," The more things they had that they could do, the better, and the more versatile the party would become as a whole. Blood was good practice, since from the fundamentals, Soulcasting apparently had an easier time converting blood.

@Sorana "Damaya..." Araha whispered, her hand still on her friend's. The mouth balls were gathered in a pile of unrecognizable gore to the side, so that it was easy to keep track of. That was likely Deras' doing as he liked putting things in piles apparently. She glanced around at her companions, she first looked to the man in colorful clothing, she didn't get to observe him or what he could do, because she was too busy... not-dying? but he seemed to be fine, so that means he could likely hold his own. @Gancho Libre She addressed him: "check those crates, make sure they're smashed and empty. I'm feeling like there's a perpendicularity in one of those crates and I'd like--," before she could continue speaking, Deras had smashed all the crates inbetween words. "No perpendicularity. No stragglers." She looked to Deras, that was impressive. "Right," she continued, before addressing the colorful man again, "secure the area, I think I saw you use Allomancy earlier, keep burning, check if there's any metal that's moving toward us," she concluded, then turned to Pry. @Silva "Pry, if you get grabbed, tap all store as much heat as possible, then if the grabber reacts, tap all the heat again." She didn't know how good at combat Pry was, but she was a Firesoul, and while the extent of her knowledge of that specific branch was lacking, she knew the basics, and she wanted to see how far those basics could be pushed. "Deras," she looked at the man, who she still wasn't sure if she was attraccted to or not (so she decided on not, at least for the moment) clad in magnificent plating, "your mindscan's almost useless here, but maintain those cognitive shields." "Right." He nodded, taking position a few feet near the hole where they entered, he turned to her, "didn't see what happened," he begun, gesturing at Damaya who still had some tears on her face, "Sorry. Will try better next time," he concluded. It wasn't really his fault, Araha needed to be faster so that this sort of thing never happens again, especially to one of her current companions, she didn't want to argue for now so she just nodded. Then she looked beside her, at Damaya, "either we both leave, or we don't. I refuse to abandon you here," though her words were harsh, her tone was soft, firm but comforting. She looked at the monster blood all around. "Damaya," she begun, looking into her friend's eyes, "can you Soulcast this blood?"

@Sorana @Silva @Gancho Libre @Grey Knight Deras stomped out the last of the balls that were swarming from the crates, before cleaning his self of the things. They were stuck to him mostly because they were piled on top of each other, they didn't really have any purchase because of his armor and his shields. The things finally died and he looked over to his other companions, there were still some stragglers, about a dozen, and he killed six in a blinding flurry. He rushed forward, everything in no-motion, and crushed the few that were trying to gnaw on Damaya, killing them before pulling them off. Araha did the same, smashing their skull-bodies before pulling them off, that was the last of them. *** "I'm alright, Damaya," Araha returned the hug, "I'm alright," she had to be more careful next time, not just for herself, but for her friend as well. She pulled away a bit reluctantly, then looked at the non-moving creatures on a pile on the ground. What was that anyway? What the storms just happened? Did she die? She didn't even really feel anything beyond the first bite and her body intending to fall over. She touched her neck. No injuries. Deras walked over to the pile that was greyed out by the shardblade instead of crushed and started blindingly picking up each ball and crushing them, just in case probably. She walked over to them and kicked the pile out of the way, just to see what was underneath, even if they ate everything, there'd still be some bones as those would be harder to eat and digest. Nothing. There was nothing. When she got to the bottom there was only the room's floor beyond all the dead creatures and self-inflicted gore that the creatures bit into themselves. Storms, there wasn't even any dried blood or bits of flesh that didn't belong to them. That... didn't happen? Like a dream, not even a nightmare, just a dream. She shook it off, helping crush the remaining in-tact monster corpses, and walked to Damaya, glancing at Deras. She put a hand on her friend's shoulder and squeezed gently in a gesture of comfort, "it's not too late to leave,"

@I think I am here.

@I think I am here.

Araha went inside after Pry and saw the swarm of ball-things, as several plans ran through her head. Sparks! she swore in her mind, failing to plan for multiple small enemies. She pulled the one off of Riathor's head and stepped on it @Gancho Libre, finding that they were easily killed, but still, there were too many of them. What was Deras doi-- As she thought that, one of the mouth balls was flung into the swarm, killing it and a few others as it slid along the ground, spilling gore everywhere. When it settled the body of the thing barely looked like a body at all. Another ball flew into the swarm and killed multiples of them, then another, then another. She looked to Deras, who had already activated his outer shielding, and had a singular red, fiery spren on his side, just one this time. He was throwing around ball after ball, scooping them up and throwing them in one quick motion, too fast for the eye to see. That armor was really something. Then she remembered something: @Silva "Pry! Tap all the heat you can!" They should be burnt at the touch." She yelled to one of her allies. As she payed attention again, she caught one of the balls of horror tumbling toward her and lunged, she caught the thing in both hands, slamming it into the ground, and stomping on it, killing it. She looked toward Damaya and realized she might not be able to fight this, so she put herself in-between Damaya and any of the other creatures. One of the creatures bit her shin and it hurt, blood pouring from the wound. She picked it up and stomped on it, killing it, one made to lunge at her, but she batted it away, then another, and she hit that as well. She wasn't killing them with each blow, but they were looking injured even from just that one punch. She inhaled stormlight to heal the shin wounds. She would-- Araha felt one of them leap onto her throat and before she could pull it off, it bit down, blood spraying everywhere. At this moment, she didn't even feel pain. She fell to the ground and the beasts took the opportunity to swarm her body, attacking and biting. In their attempt to eat her, their horrible gnashing teeth also inadvertently bit each other, but that didn't matter. What was the strangest thing was that she felt none of this, no pain, not even the biting, though she knew what was happening, or what was probably happening in that writhing pile of beasts there. She thought of her end and how pathetic it was to die to these small creatures, not even able to protect--. Then she realized she was fine, standing a few feet beside her friend, still in a stance. What was that? An illusion? Mindtricks? But no, there was still a writhing pile of beasts on the ground, that was where she just was, right? What was that-- as she continued thinking, a whirling blade cut through most of the creatures who were gathered in a pile, the blade landed on another creature then disappeared, and another whirling blade shot through the cluster, killing even more. The creatures grouping up allowed Deras to kill a few of them with decisive strikes. Ran darted forward, blurring past the few and made multiple sweeps on the ground, Adhesing large swathes of the ground and sticking the beasts to them. One of the creatures bit at her, but it missed, then she flew into the jaws of another, reemerging completely unharmed. Deras was in the middle of the room, which made the creatures focus their attention on him instead of the other more vulnerable members of the party, but Araha stayed vigilant just in case as there were still a few stragglers that were making it through and she just batted those away, protecting herself and Damaya. She didn't know exactly what just happened before, but she wasn't counting on it to help her if it happened again. Deras was still standing, but he was covered in the things from head to toe as he kept using his shardblade in large sweeps on the ground, killing multiple dozens per sweep, they were clearing the room out. Only a few balls remaining. Araha backed herself onto Damaya's shoulder, head on a swivel as she stayed vigilant against both the swarm and the hole in case anything was trying to get through there. @Sorana @Grey Knight

"Pleased to meet you, Mr. Amber," Cenet bowed, "my name is Cenet," he said as he sat down, taking a piece of chocolate in an invisible hand, which gave the effect of the candy piece just floating up. Cenet had tried to eat before, some 'verses ago. It passed through his self uneventfully, but he was sure the process of eating itself was a variable for him. He'd even Highcalled that and even the variability of it was a variable. He shrugged, not giving it much thought as he shoved the chocolate into his unseen face, the candy disappearing, like being hidden behind a piece of cloth that was invisible but not transparent. There was no taste, nor even any sensation. Well, it didn't matter much anyway. "So, as I said with business," he begun, having just disappeared the chocolate, "I am a ...man?" he paused, "... a sapient, that deals in information. and I'd thought to come to speak with you as you seem interesting and I believe you have much information on various topics that you can trade me, but before that as a sample to entice your patronage, sir, you may ask me any question regarding anything, of yourself, of the world. If I'm unable to answer, you may ask another one," he said all this with a smile in his voice and a polite tone, as his face couldn't be seen.

Cenet heard the commotion die down and he stepped out back into the main chamber. As soon as he step foot, a piece of Awakened rope bound itself to his walking stick and started constricting. Good thing too, if it tried to suffocate him, while he wouldn't sustain any damage, he would look ridiculous with a length of rope being tied onto his unseen head. Looking ridiculous sometimes made people see someone as more relatable or approachable, but other times they'd just stop taking you seriously. So he tried to avoid ridiculous situations as much as possible, which wasn't too hard at the least. He looked around and saw that some other ropes were being dispatched fairly easily, which was good. The nature of the rope-beast looked like Awakening, or BioChroma, whatever people wanted to call it, though that usually didn't happen, that hivemind behaviour. He Highcalled more Knowledge to ascertain the exact nature of the ropes. They were apparently enhanced entities that were capable of passing their own Breaths to others of their cluster, likely even to other things. The exact command was also placed in his mind, though that was also a variable, interestingly. Soon this 'verse was going to create homunculi and artificial intelligences, exciting for someone he was sure, but just mildly interesting for Cenet himself. He thought of asking one of the more combat-ready attendants to rid of the rope around his walking cane but as he looked at it, it seemed an interesting accessory, so he decided to keep it on for now until he decides to keep it more permanently or to clean it later. - @Life&Death He walked over to someone who was also sitting in a chair, a man who looked a bit on the old side, at least for human standards, but was interesting as he was sitting out the commotion. He Highcalled to know what the man's abilities were, since he was particularly interesting. He couldn't Highcall Knowledge to read the man's mind, to know his past, where he was, to know of his plans, or even his name, as those were all dynamic truths, ever-changing. He was a dragon, particularly a dragon from this 'verse, or specifically from the Cosmere section of this 'verse. While their fundamental nature was a slight variable, he did note that his abilities were that of other dragons from other 'verses, give or take some differences. Cenet started making conversation, "good evening," he said, then gestured at the empty spot a chair's space away from the man, "is this seat taken? I'd like to speak with you about business but would prefer to be seated for such," he concluded with a polite chuckle, the singular rope-beast still trying to strangle his walking cane.

@Sorana Araha rushed up, putting a hand on Damaya's, to stop her from opening the door. "Alright," she looked her friend in the eye, "I'm with you." "but if we're going to do this, we'll need to do this hard and fast," she told her friend, then glanced at the 'army' that she said she'd brought, Deras, "we'll have one chance to do this, then the whole place will know we're here if they don't already," she added a bit louder toward her other companions @Gancho Libre @Silva. The fact that Deras didn't feel any presence from here, but Damaya was hearing whispers meant that, whatever was in here, wasn't a civilian. "All yours, Deras." She told the man. With a nod, he walked up to the wall instead of the door, and pulled a fist back, then hesitated. He summoned his shardblade and cut a few swaths from the wall, not quite a hole, but enough so that he wouldn't just pierce the concrete without breaking the wall. And just large enough to fit about three people through. When that was done, he readied a kick and pushed. With a loud crack and a low boom, the chunk of wall burst forward going at high enough speeds that when it hit the other side of the room, the chunk turned into bits and quaked the entire house as well as destroying the other bit of wall on the far side, though it was the basement, so the hole on the far wall opened only to rock and dirt instead of the outside. Deras walked inside, shardblade at the ready as Araha guarded the flanks, waving for everyone to get inside the hole. @Grey Knight

"Correction. Sense close nothing, means multiple presence around." Deras pointed to the rooms, first to the storage, "no presence, possible similar shielding," then to the two blocked out rooms, "rooms obstructed from mindscan. Different. Expecting army." "Not comforting," Araha chimed in. "Leave it to me." Ran said as she began flying toward the storage to scout. "Not this time, Ran," Araha stopped her, "Something tells me that's not gonna be a look in and get out situation," she looked to the team around her, then to Damaya, she approached her friend and spoke in a quiet tone: "Damaya, we can just leave now, I came here to find you and I'm glad that I did and that you weren't harmed. We can just leave now. Deras would be able to shield your mind, no one would be able to find you again." @Sorana She then turned to everyone else, "let's go back upstairs, we'll come back here once we have a good plan," she spoke in a low voice. @Gancho Libre @Silva