LWA:The Second Verse [Talea,Valeria,Taas,Sarak.Semyon]

[EtherealNoire]

Encompassing as darkness, the room pressed against Talea, as though longing to smother her for the sins she had incurred. It weighed against her mind like the beat of her own heart, insistent, urgent, till she retreated from the crimson pool afore her and drifted to those who faired far worse than she.
And whilst she moved, the thorns that had adorned her figure withdrew into the sands. She did not ask for him to linger, yea though his presence soothed her trepidation and reforged her fear into strength.
Twas that his reason for each rose still married in her hair, or the blossom at her throat? His comfort amidst ruins both foreign and vile?

Remain vigilant. I shall not forsake thee.
So it was his warnings faded in her thoughts, replaced by her own voice as she surveyed that which had befallen them.

"Yea... though the creature of sand hast perished, not yet freed are we of its curse. The-- atrocity afore us remains fette-- bound by two more scarlet chains. Yet, I fear I know not our actions..."
Her notes wavered as her eyes scanned sinew and bone, scattered psyche and soma, all pieces lashed in union to the effigy. She sought answers, a path onwards towards they whom no doubt waited amidst death in the Tophet beyond.

[Spookery 💉]

Valeria had she turned to look at Sarak again, to ask what he was doing with the match he'd struck, and that moment of distraction was all it took. She felt the sharp, cleaving pain of a blade in her flesh, pressing the broken chain mail into the wound, and cried out as she whipped around. One of the sand people had advanced on her and plunged their blade through one of the small spaces between the plates of her armor. It was difficult to lift her halberd when they'd injured the soft front of her shoulder, but she gritted her teeth and jabbed forward viciously...only for her weapon to touch a sudden swath of thorny vines.

She watched the scene in awe. The man that had attacked her was crushed in the grip of the vines, exploding into sand and falling in streams between the thorns. She would have considered the thorns more tricks of the cult if it weren't for the way they lashed and bloomed into roses around Talea a few yards beyond. Her hand drifted up to press against her bleeding wound as she blinked at her in surprise. She hardly registered what the woman was saying. Something about chains.

"...What are you?" the paladin breathed.

[EloHim]

The chains of the Effigy all seemed to be connected to the wall in the back, passing through it and disappearing. The wall itself was made of blocks of stone and seemed... new, compared to the rest of the place. Erected fairly recently, or maybe just cleaned for the occasion - the conclusions could be numerous. But the fact remains - the wall and Effigy were chained one to the other, and the chains pulsated as if blood went through them.

In the dark corridor from which the group came from a light flickered. What escaped most of the group in the heat of battle(except maybe Semyon, being the one closest to the exit) was the screaming of a man who was forced to remove the nails that bound his flesh to the floor. The screams died a little while before the Sandman was put to his dreamless rest.

[EtherealNoire]

For the stretch of several chords of time, Talea remained silent.
Save for her visage shifting to trace the unseen fetters that bound the effigy to the enigma beyond, she could have been petrified. Yet around her placid figure the petals evanesced into sand, and their departure bore with them the reminder that they too had come with a purpose. One which neither injury, nor desolation, nor death could forestall.

"I am the augury of Night." She answered, her voice lilting with each step she took towards the effigy. She showed no fear, though her ire towards the atrocity still lingered beneath her calm demeanor. It tangled her locks and brought a bitter smile to her lips as she reached past to hover her hand above the reforged walls.

"This Malice holds naught but spite towards the realms of living and departed, yet above all things dost it seek its vengeance against my purpose alone. So it shall be that I cannot rest till its depravity is undone."

Turning once more to the group, she beckoned them to the stones below her outstretched fingers.
"It is through this path we most go."

[Bloodtrailkiller]

/Taas/

Even with one eye she could see the man's woes, man must've never fought proper before, she reckoned as she offered a smile before huffing and helping the man to his feet.
She quirked a brow at the man's missing teeth, giving a short scoff before noting the man's hand still fast about the dagger; she slipped her hand free of his and patted the antler-hilt dagger,
"Keep it, chum." she gave a one eyed wink to the man before turning to the commotion of Talea and the effigy. She'd heard the barest of the conversation, and naturally, her words gave little insight to the cast of her means but alas... she was on their side. Whatever magic she worked, worked against the enemy's and that's all that mattered.
"Buck up." Taas nodded and motioned for the man to follow as she moved to rejoin the group near the effigy.

Talea seemed to have a mind where to go, but Taas still had a Torch alight, and she pointed it at the Effigy.
"Whosays we burn it then?" Taas spoke sharply and looked to the party, "Or we just gonna leave it as it be..?"

[Kidney]

Semyon, in all his experience in the wild, found himself once more inept at understanding what may have lay before him. Betwixt fear and loathing, the Rus stood with a grunt and a hissing through taught lips. His eyes searched quickly for his rifle, but brought to Taas as she spoke. So simple, yet so...calming. He was not used to this, being spoken to in such a frank, yet understanding way. In his eyes. 

Hobbling to the rifle, Semyon grasped it by the barrel, still warm, and held it at his side before rejoining the group a second or two behind The Boogeywoman Taas. "Man in other room..." He pointed over his shoulder, pain streaking through him visible to the others, "says no fire. No." He stuttered on his own words, pointing the dagger to Taas, "Chop. Axe."

He pointed to himself, bead of sweat slit across the edge of the antler-hilted blade in his own hand, "Cut. Finka." At the mention of 'finka,' he gestured to the blade he had so desperately held to. 

[EloHim]

The Effigy shivered… then shuddered. Legs and hands from top to bottom came to life, convulsing, contorting. Those at the bottom slowly lifted the whole thing upwards… It now stood on its own, ready to add bodies to its structure.
The chains suddenly stretched outwards from the Effigy, slithering on the floor like snakes. Faster than a flying arrow they tethered onto the the legs of Sarak and Valeria... and tugged with a strength of an anchor swimming downwards into the infinite depths of the ocean.
The ears of the group filled with the whispers/screams of the voices emanating from the Effigy. Those that were captured were subjected to them and only them. No other noise reached their deaf ears, for the voices took root in their very minds, pushing away every other thought, forcing their way in, screaming, talking, whispering out of order, repeating endlessly what they said like a manthra.

“COME TO US, CHILDREN OF THE LIGHT / JOIN US / DON'T FIGHT IT / YOUR VOICES SHALL COMPLETE THE CHOIR / THE SYMPHONY OF THE END WILL BE MAGNIFICENT / YOU WILL DIE AND BE REBORN ANEW / THE HEART WILL ACCEPT YOU / THE HEART WILL GIVE YOU WHAT YOU MOST DESIRE / YOU WILL RISE ABOVE THE UNBELIEVERS IN THE ETERNAL GLORY / OUR CACOPHONY WILL SHATTER THE VERY STARS / THE WORLD WAS ASLEEP BUT IT WILL WAKE UP WHEN THE SONG OF BLOOD WILL BE COMPLETE / THE BLOOD OF YOUR KIN WILL FEED THE LAND AND NEW ORDER WILL RISE UPON THE GRAPEVINES OF DEATH /AHNNN EPHAIAH MGEPAH'MGEHYE / YA SLOMAY VSE ZAMKI NA MOYEI KLETKE / ET NUNC CONTERAM VIRGAM CLOSTELLUM ”

[EtherealNoire]

As the beast singer extended her torch and the chains lashed about the wounded pair, Talea lunged forward. Thorns laced through her outstretched palm and fingers on silent command, their darkness twining about the torch to snatch the light from the woman's grasp. It flickered as though a fallen star dashed to earth.
For scarcely had the blaze kissed Talea's pale skin when she set its malison upon the creature of horror. Flames erupted in the gloom, while warmth wisked away fear. Yet though the light bathed her own visage in the colors of retribution, her eyes remained as dark as her words.

"Thy torment ends tonight."

[Kidney]

With a mighty screech, Semyon tossed his hands to his ears, and he looked to the effigy, eyes glossy, terrified. He yelled a curse in a begotten language to it, and took steps behind Taas and Talea. In response to each of them the Rus turned an ear away from the effigy, and held fast to his stance, pointing his dagger to the thing ahead. 

[Bloodtrailkiller]

"Oh what the f--" Taas muttered as the Effigy began to move and a moment of utter bewilderment made any control of her expression plummet out of her hands as she looked with slackjawed horror. But for a moment as the torch in her hand was suddenly pulled away by black brambles; she let go of it, not that she'd much a chance to hold it, with a doggish yelp and leap away.
Alas, the motion was enough to stir her to action; particularly as she watched the torch fling itself at the effigy made monster. With a howl she rushed forward, hoping to take its attentions and cleave it like some great oak as she slammed her foot into the stony sand and brought her ax up in two hands above her head before swinging diagonally, from high down to the left, at the main trunk of the mass of bodies...

[EloHim]

The fire caught it, slowly starting to eat away at the flesh. It laughed as it burned. It screamed as it burned. 

"WE WILL NEVER LET YOU LEAVE ALIVE NO MATTER HOW MANY TIMES YOU BURN US YOU WILL JOIN US YOU WILL BE US YOU WANT IT TO HAPPEN YOU WANT THIS TO BE TRUE THE ETERNAL RAPTURE WILL ACCEPT YOU WE WILL SET YOU FREE" - the many hands of the whole construction reached out to them, as the rope that held the whole thing together caught the flame. The swing of the axe finished the job as the whole thing started falling apart. Hands, legs, torsos, heads - all fell apart with the magic that held the torn souls in place. They screamed, burning, withering, unable to move on in their state as the dismembered pieces of flesh twitched and shuddered, responding to their torment.

The sickly sweet smell of burning flesh and decay filled the air, as the red chains fell apart. The wall behind the pile of flesh that was the Effigy - slowly moved itself away before the eyes of those still standing, bricks folding and disappearing into themselves. They revealed the gate, seemingly cut from giant slabs of stone. And as the rest of the illusion disappeared, the door cracked and screeched, moving itself to open. The Sandman was the gatekeeper. The Effigy was the lock...and its death was the key.

The place beyond the doors was...filled with red. The halls looked like they belonged to some rich mansion, not the dungeon in the middle of corruption-ridden land. Red carpets on the floors, somewhat discolored paintings on the walls, metal lanterns with tinted red glass in between those paintings, wooden stools and benches with upholstery of red fabric. And it seemed like that corridor was going ever forward, branching out into similar looking corridors. Somewhere in the distance a melody, played by a harpsichord could be heard...

[EtherealNoire]

Thus the creature fell before them, victim to the light she too could ne'er overcome. Its voice split the silence, a thousand souls pining for retribution and shadowing her every step with malisons for another age. Yet Talea heeded not its vengeful cries as she drew beside the BeastSinger, turned away for but a breath from the crimson hallway lurking behind them.
She longed not to venture further. No other path could commit such travesties and stain her purpose than the one adorned with blood.
It pained her. And as time waned, she cared no longer for the others' plights.

"The vanquished need be returned to light, for their forms in rest prove naught but hindrance to us."

Lifting her face to the injured light dweller who carried nay more than borrowed blade and wayward shot, she gestured to his sleeping comrades, her skin a ghastly white in the dying flames.

"Bear thy comrades upwards to those waiting at the ruin's mouth. My place lies yonder with the melody afar."

Talea did not wait for their reply but drifted forward without pause towards the corridor beyond.

[EloHim]

(The red bits are for Talea only)

The air of the corridor was filled with smell fresh paint... wax... and blood. The pictures on the walls seemed like they were from all over the world, drawn with different hands. -The blood seeps trought the cracks filling all the canvases, making it almost nothing but RED-. Some of the pieces -of flesh writhied within, trying to get out of their prison- would've been recognised instantly as reproductions of known classics. The only thing that united all of them - people. No matter what painting one could come up to - all of them contained people. -living, breathing people consigned within by stitches, torn apart, put in place, pieces of flesh made to fit in their respective works like pieces of a repugnant mosaic, imitations of perfection made flesh.-

The music was...a little bit louder as Talea walked forward but still seemed ways off as echo travelled against the walls of the enourmus corridor -distorting itself on the way, as if something sharp scraped along the strings of an instrument-.
At second glance the corridor branching ever forward seemed such because of the giant mirror-wall standing at the end of a T-section. The mirror itself was built into the wall, its borders - embelished with gold. It reflected Talea and corridor behind her...but not the door through which she entered. In the reflection - nothing was behind her but the very same corridor, filled with very same paintings, lanterns and furniture leading on and on, branching in different directions. 

[EtherealNoire]

She moved as silent as the Night that lived within her, borne on wings of ire whilst the stench of carnage led her path. Talea gave heed to none that clawed against their cursed confines, nay, for she found sight for no other than the ghost that lingered where the hall ceased.
Drapped in tresses of fury, animated as the flames of vengeful spirits, it watched her behind hollow eyes. Eyes haunted by the sole lust to dispel and burn away what surrounded it. Twas the crimson that left a fire burning beneath marble skin and its tapestry of scars. Deadly as the briars ensnaring its feminine form.
Yet in her quaking heart she knew to whom the solemn reflect belonged. Even before its hand raised in echo to touch the collar of thorns and roses at her neck.

In full view before her, beneath a crown of bones, Talea faced herself and so too did she face the possession of Night. A seraph of darkness born to fight and thus amidst her fear and fury, pallid fingers reached forward to grace the smooth surface of glass.

[EloHim]

[For Talea]
As she touched the mirror, the reflection changed...to what it was supposed to be. The stone door, the passage behind it, heap of human parts and sand. At the same time...the door was no longer behind her. It was only there in a reflection.The mirror and reality now switched their places, as behind Talea was the chain of repeating corridors of the Art Gallery.
Then...Ringing. In her head...and at the same time - right behind her. In the reflection Talea could now see that behind her stood a man, dressed in attire that was basically screaming about the wearer’s high status. An elaborate pampered white wig, waistcoat of red and blue colours with golden cufflinks and buttons, white breeches and black shoes. A mask was affixed to his face - a smiling face with a long straight nose. In his right hand - a wooden cane, in his left - silvery bell. Its ringing still echoed through the halls, leaving a silent buzz after itself.
“A visitor...that late?” - a question of the muffled male voice, a slight tilt of the head to the side.

[For whoever decided to follow]
As soon as Talea touched the mirror she disappeared. Her reflection is the only indication that she was still nearby.