<font color='#728FCE'>Tusum's heart was thudding loudly in her head, a sound she hadn't heard for quite some time. it was like the beating of a drum, loud and hard, it invoked images she would rather were buried. she sighed into his fur, a heated sad sound in her throat. it clamed her, before she had felt like she had almost exploded with the searing pain. she closed her eyes and relaxed in his arms, her heart beat dieing down to a slow and even wisper, sometimes she knew it wasn't there at all. Tusum suddenly realized she had been hugging him back. she moved away quickly, scuttling on the floor like a insect. she moved, empty again. what the hell had happened? a ferice voice in her head animated once again. it was a soft singsong voice, like that of a child...her eyes glazed over, that crule smile hovering on her lips again before, nothing. a strong precense filled the room, it came from the glowing vial and then it disspeared, laughing insanly girl like in her mind. she looked like she was abandoned, her eyes then filling up with tears and she cried, for the first time in her entire life, great wraking sobs that filled the room.</font>
<font color='#32CD32'>OCC: sorry i've been kind of lacks on this one guys... Â Â Cemd had been wondering the halls of this vast cavern for hours. His feet padded softly down the stone floors of the hall. he passed a merror every so often and glanced away from it. He never looked like himself, all the people he had become over the years had melded into one and he hated it. It wasn't him in the merror it was some fool trying to always be someone else. That was really why he had taken this job, to be someone esle for a while was all he wanted when he was younger. Now it seemed it had done more harm then good. Why had he stoped his training to be a mystic. He knew some simple spells but none that could help him here. His heart sank as he passed another merror and turned to the left down another smaller hall. Â Â This hall had more tapestries of 'dragons in history that he couldn't name if he searched all his memory of his short period in school. His stomach churned and grouwled in hunger and he realized that he hadn't eaten for days. His eyes searched desperatly to find a window or opening that he could escape through be he knew that it was a futile search. The sound of sobbing was brought to his ears. The sound seemed to reverberate continusly off the walls away from the being that had voiced it. What the hell, Cemd thought and dispite his better judgement he fallowed the sound to a room with an oak door.</font>
<font color='#348781'>K'uei was startled as she pressed herself into him, her arms wrapping around him as well. Anger and suspicion dissapeared from his dark eyes as he stared down at the sobbing youth...no, woman. Leaning his mouth by her ear, K'uei began to sing a soft song used by mothers to calm children. He felt her pulse slow as she calmed down and a small smile crept up on his face. A sudden shudder ran through her body and she imediatly released herself from his grasp, scooting backwards very quickly. K'uei settled himself on the floor and watched her with understanding orbs. Her sobs echoed throughout the room and K'uei looked away, staring at his tail absentmindedly. He knew she needed to work this out herself. The soft glow of the vial made K'uei glance back at her. That cylinder of liquid confused him greatly. What purprous did it serve? There was a soft padding of footsteps outside the door and K'uei knew it was Cemd.</font>
<font color='#728FCE'>"You, both of you now, I can not stand it any longer, I will tell you what to do for me. Either you will leave alive, or dead whichever you choose." Â Â She sniffed and wiped away a tear that had been rolling down her face. Tusum looked upon the wetness on her hand, feeling only a strange empty feeling that should have been boiling anger. Why had she been crying again? The soft song rang in her head, it was beautiful and it made her angry. Suddenly she felt cold, hollow when in KÂ’ueiÂ’s presence, cold compared to his warmth. "The pain is better, the anger is better, anything is better then the empty feeling." She lifted her self up on all fours then on two, watching their reactions carefully. She brushed off her fur of imaginary dust; it was an almost normal reaction. Then her body went back to being stiff and beautiful, her eyes cold once more, the vial on her neck swinging as it turned a dark blue. The original color. She didn't feel anything, her eyes were dull, no smile had ever touched her lips in so long... She looked to the door, to see Cemd standing there solemnly. Then Tusum looked to K'uei, she was afraid of him, so very afraid she wanted him dead at her feat, blood pooling out behind that magnificent face and features wanting to hear him scream as he she destroyed everything he loved... Growling she moved closer to him, her mouth curving in that smooth cruel smile once again. "Dyn, Dyn is the one I seek, the one in which I will finally get my revenge." her eyes sparkled with malice, a terrifying power glimpsed through those eyes, the windows to her blackened soul. "Pain, Agonizing pain, that is what I feel when I look at you, K'uei, I would let you kill me now it hurts so much, if you wanted to I would let you. Until Death do us part, until death do we meet again" her voice was suddenly softer then she had ever made it, her eyes cold and empty yet filled with tears. "Come, to my study and I will show you what I mean. She stepped forward, waiting for them to follow.</font>
<font color='#348781'>K'uei watched as Tusum rose to her feet, visage contorted in that cruel, souless expression once more. He felt her aura change to a loathing sence as she stared at him. K'uei's eyes flickered back to their stone gaze and traced her movement. It amazed him how Tusum could be crying one moment and the next, telling him how good it would be to die. Bladed silver bangs drifted infront of his face and he didn't bother to move them. Maybe there was a chance that he could change Tusum. She obviously had some spark of hope lost in that cold heart of her's, even if it was only the size of a grain of sand. K'uei didn't flinch nor move as she stepped closer to him. She saw the hate, the loathing radiating from her dark orbs as she gazed at him. His stone set face stared down at her twisted smile and a glitter of anger flashed across his features once more. One small part of him wanted to kill her on the spot, to have her fall at his feet never to move again. He wanted to watch as her body became cold and she decayed away from the face of the planet. Shaking his head, K'uei's eyes softened. He could never do that to Tusum, no matter how bad she tortured him. Years of greif and torment were not enough to take a life. Not with his morals. Dyn? What signifigance does he have with her? From her lips came the icy words that flowed over K'uei's ears. Chocolate orbs narrowed in anger. He was not afraid of her in the least. But he knew the power that Tusum possesed and it well surpassed his own. By far... The odds were definatly not in his favor, not ever. K'uei spoke in a cool monotone. I will never invoke harm upon you Tusum no matter how much you hurt me. I just want you to know that. Following her movement, K'uei paused breifly. What could she possibly show us? He sighed and nodded in her direction before following her.</font>
<font color='#728FCE'>Tusum's eyes flickered constantly in the burning fire light. It glowed around her, illuminated her beauty and youth that seemed to revolve around those haunting eyes. She looked over at Cemd, then K'uei. They were both waiting, waiting for it for three days now. And she felt regret, swift and efficient hit her chest to knock the air out of her lungs. But looking infinitely more mysterious she walked over to the glass orb that levitated in the small oval, cold looking room. It hung underneath a pedestal of red silk, the own metal was platinum and glowed with such ravishing beauty it was painful to look at. Tusum sucked in a breath as she looked into it, it was as black as mid night on the deaths grave stones, but as she neared it the orb swirled with beauty and color. "beautiful, is it not?" she didn't want to reveal it, and its purpose, but she had to, if they would understand. She caressed its smoothness and walked around it as it still hung from the air on its pedestal. "dose it not hold a resemblance to this?" she played softly with the vial around her neck that swirled with mostly the same color. She smiled then, a rather cold and calculating grimace of her pale fragile beauty. "this orb you see here is called Maju't jyta, Nera's rose; it symbolizes all of his love, his forgiveness, his pain. But..." she trailed off and her cold wintry eyes flashed with a hate so strong it scalded, "You see, it was made out of spite and hate. It was a forced tool, a makeshift voodoo spell off sorts" she stopped pacing to stand in front of them both, indicating, implying what she wanted to say, and couldn’t. Eyes glinting she pointed to the glowing vial, “this binds me to that, rose, no mortal hands can destroy it. The Rose demands blood repaid. And so I’m cursed for all eternity to be the keeper of such a monster, an entity that I had never believed in. I am not my self; I have not been for four years that I have lived here. But the rose has found a way, a way to quench its thirst, through me, through what I do, everything I do, but there is another way." And the key lies with my brother…unspoken, but just as clear. “Because of Dyn I am the keeper of Maju't jyta, and so I would like him to take my place, take the place of my own sacrifice. I would have taken my life a long time ago, but the rose will not let me, I have begged others to end my life, but it is not so, for they pity me." her tone was empty, only slightly bitter. I would see him drown in waters as I have drowned, she thought calmly, searing hatred that had become common became a normal occurrence, so it became what drives her. “The rose chose me, and I did not choose it." she smiled, “but this fiasco could all end now, if one of you would sacrifice your self, for my cause, either that, or you both serve me until the rose is sated with my own family curse, until then the life giving contract binds you. Did I not tell you that it runs in my family?" She looked up at them with innocence, “that tale is for another day, don’t you think? So I will leave it at that." she smirked coldly and then looked into the orb; it showed her nothing, as always.</font>
<font color='#32CD32'>Many thoughts passed trough Cemd's mind as Tusum spoke. Who was she really? Was what she was saying true or was she lying again to get what she wanted. Damn why did he sing the contract!? He had known what it said and he knew that he would be her slave, basically, but this was a bit much. This shifting ball of metal fascinated him and he was appraising it in his mind. It shifted into shapes he had never seen before... Or even imagined. Of course he couldn't take it. He had no way of escaping and it seemed to be protected by a spell, very complicated. The strands of magic that had been used to tie its protection spell seemed unique in more then one way although he couldnÂ’t place it. The strands glistened lightly in his view. He had been able to see the strands of magic ever since he could remember and they are beautiful! This made it easier to cast and undo spells witch made it easy for him to become an apprentice, because all of the wizards, warlocks, and magicians wanted to train him to their own trade. When he left the trade seeking fortune all his mentors who had wanted him cast him out off all their cicioties so he could never return to the triad even if he wished. And now he was starting to wish that he could. All this business with theÂ… MÂ’kajsdhgv, or whatever it was, was getting to him. He had to find a way out fastÂ… or die trying. He said nothing but continued to stare at the shifting platinum ball. It had to be worth more then the most perfectly cut diamond ever will. The beauty of it was hypnotizing and he mind went blank with its shifting. He hadnÂ’t noticed that he had even moved his legs to walk over to the pedestal when he finally become aware of his hand moving in-between the strands of the protection spell.</font>
<font color='#728FCE'>Tusum stared with hatred at the orb and its overflowing beauty. She saw the greed in Cemd's eyes; this of course didn't surprise her in the least. She could remember when her own greed had leaded her here, with the promise of... something and nothing. Walking up and around it she dismissed the hated object with a defiant flick of her long neck. "What say you? What will you do?" An unhidden threat hung in the air, as well as an irresistible promise she looked at K'uei, her stomach tightening. His face was shadowed except for the few rays of light flickering across his face from the orb. "What say you...? K'uei?" she walked around the pedestal to stand near him, almost touching, almost. Licking her lips Tusum got up on tip toe to let her maw fall in closer to his. Her eyes flashed, "What do you desire?" Her tone was quiet, almost silent, and husky. Tusum couldnÂ’t help her self, she felt somewhat light headed as her mouth was so close to his. Shaking her head she backed down, this newer feeling surprising her. Growling lowly she backed away then stood proudly waiting for his answer.</font>
