Fa'Diel - Oreyndur Forest
The forest of the southeast thins out into a large clearing, filled
with high grass and wildflowers. A path seems to arise from the grassy
ocean as it stretches out to the northeast. Either or, whoever may have
been traveling from the northeast would be pleased that there are no more
trees here - clearly a thick forest is evident if one was to look at it.

Crossroads sat in the grass just a little off the path staring at the
monastery. She had been meaning to talk to Ambience right after she
had sent Lorastine off, but so far she had not worked up the courage
to do so. She was simply staying outside standing guard in the event
the witch would return soon.

And it WOULD return. With her powers, Crossroads had just finished
looking into that possibility. She would be facing it alone it seemed
and that worried her. She still didn't know if she would be strong
enough to take it on all alone. But then, she hadn't felt the future
shift any, had she? As far as she was aware, Ambience was still going
to be the one to kill her.

She chewed on her lip. She had to talk to him, and she had to do it
before the witch showed up, and before help arrived. Crossroads stood
up and gathered up her courage. If she didn't do this now there might
not be a chance to later.

There is a bit of bustle just a bit north of here, toward where the
Monastery actually lies. Several people seem to be talking and
congregating, no less Agrias, Ovelia, and Ambience himself. After a
short duration, Agrias seems to show most of the other folk off, and
turns to speak to Ovelia. They can't be heard from here, but the lot
of them seem rather distressed, as is obvious from their expressions.

Not too long into this conversation, Agrias gestures toward the door,
and Ovelia nods with a smile, hustling inside as Agrias and Ambience
look on. After seeing the princess safely indoors, Agrias turns and
confides in something to Ambience, who stands steadfastly at
attention. To this, Agrias gives a short laugh, before pointing down
he path and away from the Monastery.

More word are exchanged, and Ambience goes into a kneel, holding his
stance for a moment before rising again and giving an obvious
affirmation. Agrias nods in turn, and heads inside the Monastery as
Ambience turns opposite, starting down the path toward where
Crossroads is apparently residing.

Crossroads upon seeing the group gathered there suddenly felt her
earlier courage drain away. She stood where she was, looking on but
not approaching. She felt her stomach knot a little when Agrias
pointed to the path, not knowing if he was pointing out her location
or if he was just sending Ambience on an errand that happened to be in
her direction.

She looked about her surroundings, debating whether she should stay or
run away and hope to have the chance to speak with him later. This
conversation wasn't going to be an easy one for Crossroads, but she
knew she couldn't keep running away from the boy if she wanted to have
it.

Ambience heads down the path away from the Monastery, sheathed weapon
hanging at his hip and dressed in just his simple kid's clothes, a mix
of expressions on his face. He walks for awhile, a good distance from
the building, then stops, something showing up in his face. He frowns
softly, looking slightly above himself for a moment, as if reading
something unseen.

After another moment, he sighs, dropping his head into a decline, and
calls out, "Crossroads? If that's you, please come out. I don't
wanna be surprised by anyone. If it isn't you, I suggest ya' leave
right now, 'cause I'm not in the best of moods."

Crossroads steps forward, looking a little guilty as she does. She
swallows and takes a deep breath. So this was it. Time to have the
conversation she has been dreading since she got here. "Ambience," Her
voice was a little more quiet than she had intended it to be, "I've
been meaning to talk to you about something so if you have the time?"


Ambience eyes Crossroads silently for a moment, varying expressions
flickering in his red irises, before something else akin to extreme
apprehension takes over, and he backs up a couple of steps..!

With Crossroads at its center, a warped black cube begins to take
shape in the space surrounding her, filling its interior with dark
mist as it gradually takes a full shape. The distant sound of female
laughter can be heard immediately in and around it, and reality within
the space quickly becomes warped and twisted; A labyrinth is forming
right on top of Crossroads!

Crossroads eyes widen as she sees Ambience back away and for a moment
she thinks it might be because of her. But then she realizes just what
the problem is, and had she not let her guard down she might have
noticed that her gem had been reacting. For a moment she stares
horrified as the labyrinth forms all around her, then she remembers
that Ambience is there, "Run!" She yells to him, "Get as far away from
here as you can!"

Ambience does not run, but also doesn't advance. He's out of range of
the forming cube at the moment, but he seems solidified in his
attempts to determine whether to run or whether to help. At the last
moment, however, his decision comes too late; he tries to bolt forward
and reach for Crossroads, but only as the side of the cube facing him
becomes completely black and obscured to Crossroads' vision.

Within mere moments of each other, all sides of the cube follow suit,
forming a three-dimensional black square of emptiness. Only
Crossroads' breathing and the bright glow of her Soul Gem provides any
indication that the area is still occupied with anything at all.

--------------

Nightmare Labyrinth - Heart of Despair
The inky blackness spreads about in this space within spaces. Tiny motes
of light appear and dissolve in the blinks of an eye, casting subtle shadows
around a room that defines the color 'black'. Occasionally, a speck of
light will illuminate a piece of what seems like a glass wall, or broad
glass screen against the wall, its reflection glinting against itself before
it, too, vanishes and leaves the room in darkness, once again.

----------------

Crossroads stands still for a moment, staring in the direction that
she last saw Ambience and seeing nothing but the darkness ahead of
her. She thinks she catches the sound of something and her hand
nervously goes for her soul gem. If something was there she needed to
transform and quickly. Her body becomes awash in a blue light, and in
a moment dissipates and she is left standing in her robes, bow in hand
and a quiver of arrows at her back.

After only a few moments of tormenting silence, there is a little
giggle from a further end of the room; a few motes of light flicker
down toward where the giggle was heard, briefly illuminating a young
woman's face, normal-seeming and all of a bright smile, before the
motes flicker out and resume the darkness. Despite the lack of sight,
she speaks. "So good of you to join me, dear Crossroads. I've been
waiting quite awhile to meet you in person." Even her voice sounds
normal; nothing demonic
about this one, so far.

Taken by surprise by the woman's sudden appearance Crossroads gives
out a small and awkward cry, stumbling back a few steps as her hand
quickly reaches for an arrow. But she stops as she sees the face
disappear into the darkness.

The voice that followed confused her for a moment though. She had just
heard it only moments before Ambience had shown up so it had been
still clear enough in her mind to remember. It was the witch’s voice,
"I'm surprised." Crossroads says, eyes and ears straining to locate
the voices source as she took hold of an arrow just to be on the safe
side, "I didn't think witches could talk."

"Ignorant fool. Not all of us lose our sentience when the corruption
takes hold." The witch's voice seems to float, but remains more or
less centralized where her face was shown moments ago. "I would like
to think that some of us become ever stronger than we were before,
when this happens to be the case." She giggles again, a mote of light
igniting above her head to show a clear image of her face, and its
ever-present smile.

The woman's face is indeed young; late teens, at best. Raven-black
hair flows down her shoulders into the dark where the light does not
emit, and she grins menacingly at Crossroads. "Are you going to kill
me, then? Such brutality from one so like myself."

Crossroads tries to follow the sound of the voice, readying her arrow.
When the face appears again, this time she draws but doesn't fire.
"What do you mean like yourself?"

"What? You mean to tell me you don't know? Oh, the irony! How
delightful!" She giggles again, and throws up one suddenly-clawed
hand in an overhead gesture; behind her, light falls upon a wide glass
"screen" of some kind, and an image suddenly appears upon it!
The image shows a darkened battlefield; the grass is browned and dead,
and the ruins of a one-majestic building are in a pile at one corner,
coupled with two still bodies laying either near or atop it; one looks
to be a prestigious female knight, and the other an ornately-robed
royal figure. Other bodies litter the area; a man in black is
motionless beside a broken-in-half breaker sword...

...another, winged woman lies crumpled in a heap, one wing severed and
laying mockingly atop her body. And a giganto is face-first in the
dirt, body hideously cut up and beaten beyond recognition.
The witch continues to grin, looking full-facedly at Crossroads.
"Mmm-mmm-mmm! Doesn't THIS look familiar?"

Crossroads has to shield her eyes to the light for a moment, then
stares squinting at the images being played out in front of her.
Familiar images that have been haunting her nightmares for some time
now. She thought back to her last vision, the question 'You think
you're the only one who can see the future?' popping up in her head.
'You... Made the same wish as I did."

The woman claps her hands twice, and the image behind her shrinks
somewhat, growing to a smaller scale but remaining present. "I'm glad
you catch on so quickly. And yet, there's still so much much more! I
took mine a step further, you see." With that, she gestures to the
right of her; alongside the initial image, a second one pops up; this
shows Crossroads from awhile ago, meeting with Kyuubey for the first
time; all the details are there, in their still-image glory.

"Oh, and we can't forget this." She gestures again, to the left; a
third image appears, with Ambience and Crossroads meeting at the
fountain for the first time, as well. A peaceful air seems to
resonate from this image, contrastingly sharply with the rest of the
room.

The woman looks back at Crossroads, still grinning. "Such happy
times, weren't they? Back when you didn't give two shits about anyone
but YOURSELF." Her tone grows malicious and dark in this last
sentence, but she doesn't attack or take the offensive.

Crossroads watches the image as they are presented before her, feeling
a little saddened by them. Things seemed to have changed so much. She
hadn't even faced her first witch yet. Crossroads clenches her bow
tightly, then pulls her gaze away and back to the witch feeling a bit
unsettled by the tone of her voice. "Why the heavy focus on me?"

"Oh, it isn't just you. Help is on the way; they'll see far more than
their share, once they..." She is cut off suddenly as a bright white
light suddenly illuminates the entire room; when it dims, Lorastine is
standing near Crossroads, possibly looking a bit confused.

To this, the witch laughs shortly, clapping her clawed hands again.
"Oh, how delightful. I haven't expected this. But, since you're
here, you might as well have a look, too..!" She spins slightly,
throwing her hands up; above the central image of the dying
battlefield, a new image forms...!

A gruesome image, this one seems to be a shot of the same battlefield
as the image below, except that it depicts a young boy, anguish and
rage obvious on his face, brutally ripping off one of Lorastine's
wings as she lay helpless on the ground; a gleaming, golden sword is
held in his other hand as this act is performed.

The witch spins back around, clasping her hands together in morbid delight.

Lorastine found herself in a dark room, her wings slightly
illuminating the area around them. She blinks with confusion, as one
minute she was flying back here, at speeds faster then before now she
was here with Crossroads. A woman was across from them was laughing
about showing them something.

Watching the image before her, Lorastine watches in almost horror as
she watched herself get her wing torn off. She took a step back with
her hand over her mouth, wincing slightly at the phantom pain she was
feeling just by watching. "Wh-What is this!"

Crossroads's shoulders sag as she watches this new image, half not
believing it. When looking into her own death she had been sure that
everyone had fallen to the yoma. She had thought Ambience had only
killed her to prevent her from turning. "No..."She whispered, shaking
her head slowly. How could she possibly believe what she was seeing?

The woman seems to be thoroughly enjoying this; not in a loud manner,
obviously, but the joy is evident on her face. "It is truly
heart-wrenching, isn't it? To think that you, in all your mightiness,
fighting for good and justice and to protect the weak and helpless.
But look! In the end, you are all slaughtered by a BOY. A miserable
little child! How much more ironic can it get? Hahaha!" She laughs
openly, her voice echoing throughout the room.

"But in the end, it is truly a shame. You'll kill me, of course, and
I won't even get to see it happen. I would've like to have crushed
the child in my own hands, but unfortunately, I'll have to settle for
knowing that he'll be the one skewering you eventually, anyway! It's
almost just as good!" And with that, she gestures one more time, a
sidelong image separate from the rest appearing on a new "screen"..!

This one is the grand finale of them all, apparently; Crossroads is
shown, hurt and beaten, in the same dead battlefield as the other few
images. Only this time, Ambience stands in front of her, grim and
determined; at that moment, the image suddenly begins to "play", an
enactment of things not yet transpired. Within the scene, Ambience
draws his golden blade back, watching the fallen Crossroads with no
remorse...

...as he speaks, words echoing from this image to fill the room: "I
wish I could be sorry for what I'm about to do, Crossroads. But you
leave me no choice. I should have went with my instincts the first
time I met you and your kind, and found a way to get rid of you before
the trouble started. I'll share the burden for my misjudgment. But
now, it all ends. Goodbye, Crossroads." With that, his blade arcs
down, swinging viciously at the image-Crossroads' face...!

...And then the vision blinks out of sight, right before the blade
connects. Completely, leaving only darkness again.

Lorastine looks as if she had seen a ghost. She was utterly speechless
for the time being. Her knees felt weak as she stared at the screen.
She didn't believe it, she didn't want to believe it. Lora fell to her
knees as they gave out from under her. Her wing that was being torn
off in the image she saw twitched. "This can't be real... this can't
be real..."She found herself repeating this quietly to herself as she
watches Crossroad's video.

Crossroads can only stare at the place where the image disappeared.
The memory of her telling Ambience shortly after meeting him that he
should trust his instincts coming back to mock her now. How could she
have been so foolish? She had stayed to protect Ambience when he would
eventually be the one to kill everybody! She was shaking now, and only
vaguely aware of the sound of her arrow falling from her fingers and
clattering to the floor.

The witch grins, folding her arms in front of her. "Is that it? I
expected more than that out of you "heroes." Is this what knowing the
future does to you? Oh, wait, of course it does! Just look at me!
And I couldn't be more pleased!" She laughs again, mockingly hugging
herself with her clawed hands. She seems to have gone a little on the
crazy side, at this particular moment. "And that boy! Oh, I love him
to pieces, I do! But wait..!" She stops her antics, turning to face
them.

"I still have more I could show you, if you'd like...!" Her sinister
grin returns.

Lorastine looks up at the witch. "No More! This isn't real!" She
shouts, more out of desperation. With her bow drawn, she blindly fired
an arrow at the witch. "I won't let anyone die!"

Crossroads hangs her head her voice cracking a little as tears start
to well up in her eyes, "At least..." She reaches for a new arrow,
just as Lora fires. The other girls screams lost to her as she tries
to reassure herself, "I can say I am not going to end up like you!"

The witch grins at Lora's incoming arrow; if she had any inclination
of knowing it was coming, she doesn't show it, as it strikes the side
of her face and wedges itself in place of her ear; no blood flows,
however, and she only gives a quick, short laugh. "Really, now! Such
violence! I almost can't wait for your brute of a friend to get
here!"

Lorastine flinches when her arrow misses the witch when it should have
hit. "Impossible... Try dodging this one you, witch!" She says before
drawing back her bow once more. The arrow was a different from before
as it was thicker. She fires off the arrow and had it split into a
dozen separate arrows. They homed in on the witch, from several
directions.

Crossroads's hands wrap around an arrow and she takes aim at the witch
with her bow, hands shaking and eyes blurring with tears that are
beginning to slip down her cheeks. She knew she couldn't possibly aim
well in this state, or even concentrate well enough to use her powers.
She just simply fired and hoped that her arrow would hit its mark.

The witch opens her arms, extending her clawed hands toward the two
women in apparent welcome of their arrows; with Cross's stray
embedding itself in her lower leg, and Lora's homing shafts burying
themselves in any one of twelve varied locations on her body and face,
her now-pincushion-like form laughs openly and evilly, the shrill
female laughter gaining a decidedly demonic tone to it. The images on
the wall behind her continue to glow and illuminate the room, and
ever-present reminder of what she had shown them. Despite her
arrow-ridden state, she appears neither harmed nor winded, only
swaying lightly on her feet, which by now can seen to be outright
adhered to the ground, as the arrows strike her, seeming to have
little or no effect.

Lorastine watches as all her arrows did nothing to the witch. They
didn't seem to even affect her despite sticking out of her body.
"Im... possible..."She said dropping her bow to only have it dissipate
once it left her hand.

Crossroads doesn't bother with taking another shot. In fact she didn't
even bother to see if her arrow had hit. She simply turns and starts
walking towards the images presented before her feeling sick to her
stomach. She reaches out and places her hand against one of them; the
one where she and Ambience are sitting at the fountain, then shifts
her gaze to the others flickering before her as if she is hoping for
something to change.

Crossroads' touch sends a small ripple across the image, almost like a
droplet of water hitting a larger body. The image glows slightly more
brightly as it connects with her hand, and the witch only grins at her
during this action, her laughter having diminished, but not her
eccentric demeanor. "Maybe I won't even have to wait that long!
Wouldn't it be something if you two joined me here? What fun!"

Crossroads blinks up at the other images, then back to the one with
the fountain. There was warmth there and it seemed to be reaching out
for her attention, telling her that that everything was alright. She
turned back to it and placed her focus solely on the screen, the
peaceful feelings it seemed to be promising her being too good to pass
up.

[-----MEANWHILE...-----]

Fa'Diel - Oreyndur Forest
The forest of the southeast thins out into a large clearing, filled
with high grass and wildflowers. A path seems to arise from the grassy
ocean as it stretches out to the northeast. Either or, whoever may have
been traveling from the northeast would be pleased that there are no more
trees here - clearly a thick forest is evident if one was to look at it.

Heavy footfalls crushing fallen sticks and branches sound to Tyrranis' arrival, the giganto bursting into view of the portal with one hand enclosing his gem, and the other gripping onto the wrapped bundle he pulled from the ground. Tyrranis stops at the precipice of the gate for a moment, chest heaving as he attempts to catch his breath, and make ready for battle.

A glowing white portal hovers in the air a few feet away, set against the backdrop of trees that border the path leading north toward the Monastery. Nearby, and seemingly oblivious to the portal only about a foot or so away, Ambience is knelt in apparent vigil, seeming to be waiting for either someone to return... or a body, perhaps. However, the boy does get to his feet as Tyrranis arrives, uneasy at his presence but concerned for something beyond this apprehension.

Ambience looks toward the spot where Crossroads vanished, then back at Tyrranis, frowning softly. "Are you going to help her? You're one of them, right?"

Only after these words are spoken does Kyrk emerge from the underbrush as well, knocking a few sticks and leaves off his shoulders dismissively.

Grey light drowns out the color in the area around Tyrranis as he enters his magical form, and he hefts the bag. "Our allies shall not fall. If they do, then we will make sure they fall completely. In the event of our failure, round up the memebers of the temple and keep them at a safe distance." With that, Tyrranis steps into the Portal, done talking.

The boy seems to have understood none of that, and only blinks in confusion as Tyrranis leaves him with Kyrk, the latter of whom offers Ambience a nod. "Don't worry, kid. Just wait here for us." With a toss of his cape, Kyrk also jumps toward the portal, disappearing into it shortly behind Tyrranis.

Ambience's frown lightens somewhat, but not completely. "Okay..."

Nightmare Labyrinth - Heart of Despair
The inky blackness spreads about in this space within spaces. Tiny motes
of light appear and dissolve in the blinks of an eye, casting subtle shadows
around a room that defines the color 'black'. Occasionally, a speck of
light will illuminate a piece of what seems like a glass wall, or broad
glass screen against the wall, its reflection glinting against itself before
it, too, vanishes and leaves the room in darkness, once again.

Crossroads continued staring at the screen in front of her, blocking out everything that was going on around her. There was comfort here. Here she was watching the Ambience she knew; the one who was not out to kill her, the one who tried to act far more like an adult than he really was, the one Crossroads had shared an apple with.

Touching the screen had emitted a kind of feeling she needed very much right now. It was like suddenly being pulled into a warm embrace and being assured that everything was alright. A lot of weight seemed to have been lifted off of her shoulders when she came in contact with it. She didn?t know the reason why touching the screen had produced such a sensation but because of it, Crossroads didn?t want to leave it.

Lorastine looks desperate on her knees as she stared back at the witch taking too much joy in her misery and fear. She could still feel her wing tingling at the phantom pain of imagining it being ripped off in the image. She looks over at Crossroads as she watches one of the images involving Cross's past. "Cross? Cross, help me please... I can't do this on my own..." she calls out to her friend hoping she could hear her. Lorastine attempts to stand and draw her bow once more, aiming at her target, the wit

Lorastine attempts to stand and draw her bow once more, aiming at her target, the witch who was making up these nightmares.

The witch, a young woman who merely stands at the far end of the room, centralized underneath the array of images on the wall behind her, is only grinning, but grinning broadly. She seems not of the mind to attack, but only delighting in the misery she is causing. She does, however, notice the newcomes, and squeals in odd delight. "There we are! The gang's all here! It's a shame you didn't take just a little longer, we would've had so much fun together, us three!"

"You passed the boy on the way here, did you not? Or maybe you didn't. Or maybe still you didn't care. Ha ha, like it matters!" She giggles mindlessly.

The witch, for all intents and purposes, is bristling with arrows sticking out of her from every which angle, by the way; she's a tall pincushion at the moment.

Tyrranis takes a stock of the goings on, and sets his wrapped bundle down before opening it with care. He pulls two objects out of the bundle, a simple sword that looks like it's constructed of one piece of iron, and a small dagger with a chitin hand guard. The giganto places both weapons over different spots on his body, and draws blood from scars there, eyes closed. "Lorastine. Fall back. Your place is not the frontline."

Tyrranis further ignores the witch for now, electing to walk to Crossroad's side, and rear back his fist before slamming it into the 'glass' screen before her, seeking to crack it open.

Kyrk scans the area briefly as he appears, his eyes falling upon the witch as something sparks within his expression. Recognition? He shakes it off after a moment, instead falling in to help Lora stand on her feet without unsteadiness. "Lorastine, lower your weapon for now. It's plain to see you're not hurting her. You should conserve your energy for now, lest we lose you to the corruption." Despite his emotionless state, he tries to speak compassionately, for care in her own sake.

Kyrk glances up as Tyrranis cross the room and moves to shatter the monitor, averting his gaze with a subtle wince as his fist connects with the screen, and successfully shatters it into an untold number of pieces.

The image fades as the glass collects on the floor below, tinkling prettily against the solid ground.

And in an instant it was all shattered and gone. The pleasent sensation it had produced was ripped away from her bringing Crossroads back to the room surrounded by the painful future she would have to one day face. "No...please..." She sobbed, reaching out for the glass pieces.

Lorastine looks back at Tyrranis and Kyrk as they appear. A sense of joy fills her mind as she feels a bit safer with these two to give her help. She thanks Kyrk for helping her steady herself and nods, lowering her bow. These conditions weren't healthy for her right now. Last thing she wants is to end up a witch.

The witch, oddly enough, seems unaffected by the shattered image from Tyrranis' brutality. In fact, she gives a mock-remorse sigh. "Oh, poor baby. Did that beefcake take away what little hope you had for a future? I guess that's just what he's good at, isn't it? Ha ha!" She gestures suddenly behind her, and another image is thrown up on a separate "screen"..!

The image this time depicts a foresty-type area with a stream running through it; it might be familiar, and it might not. More specifically, Tyrranis appears in the image, a determined scowl on his face as he hefts his bat, magically-riddled with nails, over his head to deliver a fatal blow to a defenseless Crossroads, who holds up her arms to try and shield herself from the assault she's come under.

The witch twirls in a circle, but remains where she is, laughing in short burst. "Absolutely thrilling!"

Tyrranis stows his knife, and grabs the front of Crossroad's robes, staining them with blood from his glass-cut knuckles. He lifts his fellow wishborn, and glares in her face. His voice is not kind as he barks at her. "I am sorry. I did not know you wished to see other people's images of the future. I thought you wished to see with your own eyes!" The giganto lets go of her, and turns to the witch, advancing upon it and drawing his dagger once more.

Kyrk is silent through all this, apparently keen on keeping Lorastine on her feet. He looks down at her for a moment to make sure she's alright, then back at the witch and the images behind her, almost studiously. It's almost as if he'd seen something like this before, with the look he's giving them all. At that moment, he notices Tyrranis and where he's going, and speaks up. "Tyrranis, I don't think that's going to do any good. Do you see her right now?"

"What can you do that those arrows couldn't?" And yet, Kyrk wondered for a moment if maybe Tyrranis' advancement was a ploy. He didn't move otherwise, waiting to see for himself.

Crossroads falls to her knees once Tyrannis drops her, not understanding what he was saying to her. She had seen these images already, they were from her past and the future she had seen for herself. Her fingers wrapping around the fragments of glass trying to reclaim what she has felt.

Thats when she heard the voice; Ambience's voice repeating something over and over through the glass she was clentching in her hand. 'Crossroads, are you okay..? Please be okay..! You have to come back..!' "Ambience..." She brought herself to her feet, eyes looking at the screen and the visions they held.

They were not Ambience, not right now anyway. This voice she was hearing right now was not the same one she had heard in the vision and it made Crossroads want all the more destroy the images surrounding her.

The Witch seems to welcome Tyrranis as he advances on her, extending two clawed-but-otherwise normal hands in beckoning. "Come on, you oaf! Gimme your best shot!" She rolls her fingers up into fists, rolling them over each other like an exaggerated fistfight. "Hit me with everything you got, you putz! Haha ha!"

Tyrranis turns his head from side to side, examining the woman calmly, to the opposite of the self-inflicted wounds running down his own body. In particular, he examines her feet, and the area around them.

Tyrranis draws back his sword, and sends a strike at the spot of the ground where the Witch's ankles adhere to.

Kyrk looks on as Tyrranis deals a low blow (literally, of course) to the Witch, but with no effect. Tyrranis's weapon rings off the solid ground, apparently of some kind of metallic surface, at the point where the Witch's ankles are adhered. The Witch in question only seems to sway from the blow, with no physical pain, damage, or trauma showing on either the attacked spot or her ever-grinning face.

Kyrk furrows his brow, looking from Tyrranis to the images again, then back at Lora; he wants to help, this much is obvious, but he seems concerned for Lora's well-being at this particular moment.

Crossroads reaches for her gun, eyes flickering across each of the images picking out her first target. She aims at the of Ambience ripping one of Lora's wings from her back and fires twice before moving on to the battle field, then her meeting with kyuubey, then with a slight pause the image of Tyr attacking her. The sound of each gunshot ringing loudly in her ears and the smell of the gunpowder filling her nose. In a way it was liberating for Crossroads trying to destroy both the unwanted memories and the unwanted future.

Crossroads' bullets whizz across the room and find their marks; each monitor is struck by the offending rounds, leaving a single hole for each shot that begins to fissure, cracking around the shots until the glass breaks completely off the wall, taking the image into oblivion with it.

Simultaneous to this, the Witch shrieks disdainfully as her source of misery is dispersed around her, and she attempts to claw angrily at Tyrranis, who just so happens to be nearby. "You worthless piles! You ignorant wretches! You can't hide from fate!"

Tyrranis brings up both of his weapons to block the witches' claws, and snarls into her face regardless of how rediculous she looks. "Something wrong? Your corrupted views of the world around you finally being broken down?"

The Witch grins in response, trying to physically force herself to lean upon Tyrranis as he snarls into her face; she appears to be weakening, given the gaunt stature her face is now showing. "Why don't you ask... that one, over there? She'll tell you what you -really- need to know. Oh, and don't forget... to have a talk with that boy outside, too. Haha! Ha!"

Kyrk leaves Lorastine's side just then, one of his hands moving to suggest withdrawing a weapon from somewhere on his person as he advances toward Tyrranis and the witch, but stops about halfway there, looking toward Crossroads at the mentions of the Witch's words.

Job finished, Crossroads lowers her gun and she turns towards the witch waiting to see if she needed to put a bullet in her too. Her eyes briefly meeting Kyrk's when he looks at her but she says nothing.

Tyrranis steps forwards, attepting to force the Witches' arms apart. "Talk all you wish. I will not award your knowledge a place in my head. Do yourself a favor, and fall now. Before we find new ways to cause you pain."

The Witch still grins, not being able to utilize much in the way of strength at this point; the monitors really seem to have been her source of power, and without them, well... "You talk tough, but I bet you have fears like all the rest of them. Even if you don't fear your own demise... do you fear others'..? Haha, I wonder..." Her last sentence dies prematurely as she suddenly collapses, falling forward atop of Tyrranis' form, limp and silent.

From where she is adhered to the ground, the -tink- of something small hits the floor, glowing softly with a dark light.

Kyrk frowns somewhat, but offers a small shrug, glancing again at Crossroads as he heads back to Lorastine, stopping after a few feet upon a realization; at that moment, rays of light begin to pierce the "walls" of the room, filtering in daylight to the otherwise abyssal room.

Light continues to pour in and pierce the area, until the labyrinth itself gradually becomes no more...

Fa'Diel - Oreyndur Forest0
The forest of the southeast thins out into a large clearing, filled
with high grass and wildflowers. A path seems to arise from the grassy
ocean as it stretches out to the northeast. Either or, whoever may have
been traveling from the northeast would be pleased that there are no more
trees here - clearly a thick forest is evident if one was to look at it.

And once daylight is all that is left, the area becomes familiar again; Ambience is standing nearby, but backs up a step as a whole flock of people suddenly show up. His concern is still present, but a brief grin seems to show up as he notes Crossroads' survival.

Crossroads puts her gun away the moment she spots Ambience, "I heard you in there." She says to him with a small though tired smile. She didn't know how, or if it was all in her head but she had heard him, "Thank you."

Tyrranis stashes his dagger again, and bends over to pick up the seed, examining it slowly. He turns around and advances on Crossroads, still holding his sword in one hand, and the seed in the other. "Crossroads."

Kyrk assesses the situation for a moment, before looking from Tyrranis, to Cross, then to Ambience for a moment. "I'm going to take Lorastine home. I'll take care of her corruption, just do what you need to do here. Your commitment to each other is well-received, and I'm glad to see that nothing happened to anyone."

Kyrk takes the erstwhile-worn-out Lorastine up in his arms, cradle-style, and sets out from the Monastery, heading back northeast towards Truce without waiting for a response or rationale to try and dissuade him.

In the midst of this, Ambience's smile grows somewhat, and he nods. "I know you did. I only could because they trusted you." With that, Ambience himself turns and head back toward the Monastery, at a brisk pace.

Crossroads blinks confusedly, then slowly begins to remember the dryads she had seen playing in Ambience's hair the last time they had met in Truce. "Tell them thank you too!" She says quickly before turning towards Tyrranis.

Tyrranis stows his sword as an afterthought, and holds out his hand. "Your gem. The seed is new, and given the way you looked, I think you might need it."

Crossroads transforms back, then undoes the clasp to her necklace and hands the gem over to Tyrannis noting its darkened color. "But what about Lora and Kyrk? And what about you? I can't seem to remember the last time you've used one."

Tyrranis presses the seed into Crossroad's gem regardless, and as her gem's color clears, he nods. "The rest will be distributed as it needs." He turns the gem back over, and then looks Crossroads up and down. "Are you injured in any other fashion?"

"I see..." Crossroads wasn't sure she liked that answer. Especially since she wasn't sure what Tyr's definition of 'as it needs' was. "I'm fine. Though you should probably get your hand looked at before we leave."

Tyrranis looks at his hand, and shrugs. He returns to the small sack of weapons, and replaces both of them after cutting a small section of cloth to bind his hand with. He stands again, and beckons to Crossroads. "My hand will be fine. It is not the worst I have been through. Shall we go home? I find myself tired after tromping here."