The Guardians of Light: Second Edition CHAPTER TWO- CLOSED, ACCEPTING CHARS FOR NEXT CHAPTER

[Lord_Ascendant]

The creatures leapt off, hissing and spitting and started running away. Silas took a few potshots, but the creatures disappeared too fast. Silas sighed and said "What ever the hell those were, looks like they left." Genn ruffled up his fur, growling "I smell gunpowder."
"You should, we've been shooting."
"I meant from the train, Silas."
Silas blinked a few times, then said "If the words 'its a bomb' come out of your mouth I will beat my head against yonder wall."
Genn chucked and said "Then I will not say it. I smell no burning fuse though."

Inside the train a small box full of gunpowder was sitting, the fuse unlit. "Either we interrupted them, or they didn't bring a match..." mused Silas. "Get it off the train, come on we are moving. Whatever left the Tomb is starting to spread and we need to go to the source to find out what we are dealing with. First things first, the Tomb. Then, we need to track them to wherever they are hiding. Lastly, we kill the bastards and send the key home. Then we can go home and forget this ever happened. I'm starting to get sick of these vampires."
said Silas, irritated.

 

[Xero Scythe]

Spoiler: OOC-Sorry

Sorry for not posting in a while- I caught something nasty, and it's not letting me go. I'll post later-also, should we message some guys tellin' them to get back in here? So far there are only 2.5 players including myself.

 

[Lord_Ascendant]

Spoiler: OOC

I don't know. I'm thinking of cutting out 90% of the story and just rushing right for the ending. Or just end it here and just tell everyone how its ends.

 

[Lord_Ascendant]

Spoiler: Executive Decision, All Players Read This

This RP is over unless there is a new post in it in the next two weeks. If the RP is ended, the rest of the story will be revealed and the thread will be locked. Read the ending only if you care, because it looks like only Xero Scythe and Hussmann give a damn about this. /rant

Look, this is the bottom line, this isn't just Hussmann and I. We can continue this in PM or in a group. If you care to join another one of my RPs look for Eclipse: A Science Fiction, Space Opera themed RP.

You will all get messages telling you to read this. If not from me then Xero. That is all.

 

[ThreeWords]

Spoiler: You want post?

You want post? Then you can have a post. I may be often absent, but I'll not let an RP die if my powers can prevent it!

Nana dozed. Officially, she was meditating on the fate of the questers, whose company she had left to pursue her own lines of enquiry. Now, her searches completed, she wandered rolling dreamscapes and searched the gaps between the worlds for signs of her allies.

The search had been so far fruitless, and she knew not why, but now one thing shone brightly enough. Silas' rage was growing, and it showed like a flame in the dark. She followed it, homed toward it, and as their fates began to reveal themselves, something loomed before her.

It was terrible not for it's shape, but for it's lack of form; it was not a future full of suffering, but a future without, threatening to consume their fate with it's lethargic presence. If it were not averted, the quest would have no future at all.

One thing was sure; this future that ground to a halt showed no signs of Nana; while she was with them, it would continue to move.

To Silas, she sent a message-thought: Silas Grey, I must speak with you in person, with all urgency. Tell me where you are, that I might join you as soon as possible. Nana Bluesky

 

[Hussmann54]

Spoiler: Mmkay..

Mmkay... might as well keep it alive for ourselves....

"Where to now boss?" Kin mused. He walked through the door of one of the train compartments, having suited back up into his armor. He knelt down as he took off a glove and pressed it to the ground, trying to sense through the stone.
"I cant figure which way they went....they split in multiple directions...."

Spoiler: YYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYY!

YYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYY!1000th post. I have officially "Gone Gonzo"

 

[Lord_Ascendant]

Silas rolled his eyes. "Everyone in the train, lets keep moving. Can't loose any more time dicking about."

Spoiler: OOC

BTw a ~ means time has passed, you can put whatever you want in between leading up to what i've posted. I'm going to bring us to the Castle Dracula next post.

~

The train was en route for another whole day and night, Silas was anxious to reach Castle Dracula. He went to go knock on Maeve's door and found it slightly open. Nudging it with a finger slowly he peeked in to find no one in. Just then she walked in behind him with a cup of tea. She looked ghastly pale, and she was scratching at her neck. "Sick?" he asked her. She shrugged "Feel like the underside of a horse's hoof. Dirty and gross. Swear I can't sleep a wink on this stupid train since Geneva." When she turned her neck, Silas spotted the two red pinprick spots on her neck. Silas peered and them and said "Vampires in your sock drawer?" he asked, jesting. She looked at the marks in the mirror and said "Probably those things in Geneva when they tackled me."

Later, as dusk was turning to night and they were climbing the cold mountains down to Romania, Silas had his feet up on a cushion and was reading a book. Then he heard a high pitched shriek of terror break the silence. He, Genn and Damien leapt up from their seats and rushed through the train. Maeve's door was wide open, a menacing figure in black had her cornered. Silas shouted at it and it took a quick look in the darkened room and leapt out the window. Silas didn't want to let it go and crawled after it without thinking. He clambered on the roof of the train and said "Stop!" the thing turned, and it was almost like looking in a mirror.

"Dorian!" Silas shouted.
"You couldn't keep me away forever, brother!" he shouted back, and grinned to show sharp teeth.
"You're a vampire now? Nothin you can do will make you stronger than me, Dorian."
"Oh? Well, I still have my way with women. By the way, you may want to duck...."
A tunnel was coming up fast, Silas barely had time to slam himself down hard against the roof of the train. When he looked up, Dorian was long gone. He crawled back inside, panted a bit and said "So, funny story. That was my brother just then. Lovely how these family reunions go."
He had to stop and catch his breath, the cold outside had really bit down hard. Silas turned to Damien and said "Give Maeve a look-see, tell me if she's any worse for the wear. My brother doesn't seem to have been here very long, I assume she's fine but I'll leave that to the expert. Just need to lay here for a second and....you know....warm up." then Silas shivered "Chilly outside today."
A slight warbling came though the communicator lapel pin in Silas's breast pocket. It sounded like the old woman Nana's voice but it was muffled by his shirt. He picked it up and tapped it twice for a private channel "Yes?"

 

[Hussmann54]

Kin looked around for a moment, then headed for the door. "Im gonna go find out how he got on and what damage he may have done. Wouldnt be the first time somebody tried to kill us on a train."

Walking through the cars, he ran his hands over seats, along windows, and on the ceiling.
He vocalized his thoughts. "He is lucky..... Cant find a damn thing....."

 

[Lord_Ascendant]

Maeve was huddled in the corner of her bed, shaking a little "You alright?" asked Silas. She shook her head no, so he sat with her for a moment as she buried her face into his shoulder. "When he first walked in, I thought it was you!" she said, her voice scratchy. "We get that a lot, me and Dorian. He's run off for now, but he'll be back."

~

Later on, as the train chugged on through the night Silas sat with the boys playing cards. Genn was up at the head of the train, shoveling coal while his son sat with everyone while they dealt him in. "Hows your old man?" asked Silas, looking at Genn's son. "Alright, s'pose." he said, looking at his card and threw in two shillings. Silas folded, he had cruddy cards, while Kin reaped a modest pile of coins and bills. "Ante up, gentlemen. I'll go for ten..." said Silas, tossing a ten pound note in the middle of the table.

Just then, the train jostled a little and the things on the table slid to one side. "Must've been an imperfection in the steel, nothing to worry about." said Silas, folding his cards again. "I swear, I have terrible luck." The car then gave another shake. "Go see if your dad's fallen asleep. If I know Genn Greymane I know he's always finding an excuse to sleep when he's supposed to be working." Genn's son smiled "Oh yeah, dad's always snoring on the job." then he got up and walked out of the car. The car began to rock back and forth, and the cards and money went sliding off the table completely. "Oh, damn it all..." mumbled Silas, picking up cards. Sneakily, he picked up a pair of twos and two aces and as he was standing up the train gave a lurch. For a few moments, gravity seemed to disappear. Silas panicked, and threw out a field of magnetism as strong as he could make. Electricity sparked from his fingertips and the train began to wrench with stress. There was a terrible screeching noise, like the rivening of metal, and then the world went dark.

The train had been derailed and plummeted hundreds of feet off of a mountain pass and had dived headfirst into the forested valley below. Whatever twisted metal salad that remained had them trapped, and Silas was out cold and most likely so were the rest of the team.

Spoiler: OOC

you want action? you got some!

 

[Hussmann54]

Kin hadnt quite ever experienced what he just did before. It all passed very quickly. The world around him blurred and swirled. He tried to sit up, only to fall back. Lying on his back, starring at what might have been the floor of the train car up above him, he tried to recompose himself in his mind. His eye twitched as his mind worked it out.

Asses.....
Derailment of medium tonnage train.
Cause: ..... undetermined... possible sabotage
Length of fall: undetermined......
Condition of train. Damage beyond repair.....
Physical condition: Trauma and shock. Heart rate: elevated. Vision blurry... temporary deafness.
Bone fractures/breaks/bruises are likely, though as of yet unconfirmed.
Blood loss: most likely....
Estimates chance of survival rate of average passenger: Possibly 62-81 to one.
Realizing everything thats happened in 3.... 2.....1.....

"Mother..... fucker....." he murmured as pain surged through one of his arms, his hip and his head. He tried to roll onto one side. nothing felt broken but..... He felt the back of his head. Then looked at the hand, now covered in blood. "I..... hate.... trains....."

loosing conscience in 4......3.......2.....

"hmmm... came early that time....."

 

[Xero Scythe]

Spoiler: OOC

Sorry, posts will be infrequent until Thursday. The exams have once again reared their ugly heads.
*cocks shotgun*
I'm watching you, Spanish. I see you crawlin' there, hombre.

Damien feverishly flipped through the pages. He prayed it wasn't what he though. Maeve had said she was sick, but Vamprism didn't transfer through the bite- that was only folklore. Damien stopped for a moment, eyes wide as he sat frozen as if encased in ice. The Avalonian medical text slid off the table as the possibilities. "Oh...Shit..." He cursed. The Crellyx didn't transfer Vamprism, but...

Damien pulled out an extremely ancient copy of the Brothers Grimm.'He opened to a page showing the original vampire biting the neck of a human. He translated the language as old as time, for this was the Devil's copy, given for services rendered. "Ynde so thee origynalle Vampyre Byt the Youngge Guardyn Ynde so mayde thee graytyst succysor to thee dymon'ss Lyne offe Pyrdityn." Damien read, his fingers trembling. The mark looked the same as the one on Maeve's neck. The symptoms seemed identical as well- The wound would look green for a day, leaving the victim feeling sick, then would inflame bright red for three days after disappearing for the same amount of time prior, leaving the victim wracked with agony those last three days, after which the bearer would become a killing machine with no sense of restraint. A week to save Maeve! Damien read on. "Howevyrre, thee comradee of thee Guardyn foundde a cure forre he wasse byt ysse welle. Thee cure forre thee byte wasse-" Damien flipped to the next page, and shook his head with disbelief. The page had been torn out! Who could have done- "Dorian." Damien growled, and at that one moment Damien seemed more frightening than all the demons of Hell. He jumped up and switched carts just as the trains jumped the tracks, leaving him grasping at the air as he fell down.Damien prepared a wind spell and waited. A moment before impact, he let loose on the spell and cushioned his landing.

Then the train fell on him.

Damien woke up some time later, gasping for breath. He tried to get up, bit was held back by something in his left shoulder. Through a world of haze, Damien managed to focus in on the metal rebar that pinned histo the ground like some exotic butterfly in a taxidermist's office. Damien wrapped his fingers around the bar, and, exhaling, ripped it out of his shoulder. The Treasure of Erinn, Brionac, sparked around Damien's shoulder, unable to let him die. This was the power that kept him alive after all these years. The World Tree wasn't willing to let him go yet. More tired than he had been in years, Damien hobbled around the wreckage, calling out for his companions.

 

[Lord_Ascendant]

Silas woke, his vision was blurred. There was something narrowing his vision to a tiny slit. Suddenly, he felt a terrible pain on his chest. It was crushing the breath out of him. His magnetic magic was all used up, if he tried to cast he'd probably pass out again. Just then, someone began heaving the heavy metal sheet off of him and Genn stood there, full half-wolf form. "Silas" he barked "You are alright..."

"The...others?" Silas asked, holding his side. "I'm fine..." muttered Silas. Genn caught him as Silas wobbled on his feet. "Your ribs are broken, Silas. Hang on, lets get you outside." then Genn kicked a piece of rebar out of the way and carried Silas over his shoulder down the vertically inclined train.

He was half-conscious when Genn placed him outside the train in a protected cavern. It was cold there and the ground felt mossy. There were others around him, someone them weren't moving or breathing. Silas tried to sit up, but the pain was unbearable. Then Silas noticed the train, it was against the wall of a steep ravine, sloping up it like it was trying to climb but failed.

Silas drifted in and out of consciousness, he felt and heard others being brought out and laid in the cavern to recover. Silas kept hearing distant voices whispering, arguing, before he finally was fully conscious again. Genn was laboring over a pot on a fire, brewing something. Silas noticed his chest was wrapped and several cuts had green stuff smeared over them. Genn had obviously killed something, as a great ram skin hung over a branch on a low-lying tree drying in the pre-dawn darkness.

Silas stood up, though it pained him, and he said "How many died?" Genn sighed but did not turn "Only you, the girl, the old man and the fishbowl faced one survived. The dark haired one, the rash one, I thought he was dead but...in an hour after dragging him out he was gone."
Silas nodded and sat near the fire "Maeve, is she alright?" Genn shook his head and said "She struck her head when we crashed, and those marks on her neck look ready to fester and rot. The longer she goes without cure, the more likely she is to turn. That ugly monster took her blood and replaced it with his own, over time she'll change into whatever blood-drinking variety he was..."
Silas had heard enough, he turned away and sighed.

 

[Hussmann54]

Kin was up and about in his mind. He was standing in the train, time had frozen itself minutes before the derailment. He looked at a projection of himself, reaping a hefty reward from a hand of cards. He clicked his fingers and suddenly everything moved at high speed, but backwards.

This was how he managed to be a "work-a-holic". So long as the mind maintained a consistent pattern of rest, those patterns could contain considerably less rest, meanwhile the body wakes and sleeps on normal time. He would force himself to crash and take a few days off every now and then just to help him keep his sanity.

So now he stood in the blank space of his mind, the concussion caused a meta-splinter to occur. A rare opportunity to replay the event while ti was fresh in his mind in order to investigate it more thoroughly. Of course, he couldnt find anything new, simply review what he had already seen.

"Earlier..." He told himself. "What did you miss?" He watched as his projection scanned the area. He snapped his fingers to freeze everything, then took off his mask and ran a hand through his hair.
"You have all day kin....." He told himself. "You arent waking up anytime soon...."
His projection was looking under tables, feeling for something. The concussion had knocked out part of his memory. Parts of the projection just blotted themselves out.

After a few hours, he gave up. His picture was too incomplete. But one thing bugged him. How did he survive? He speed the projection up to seconds before the derailing. He didnt have his mask on, nor the back plate, so his head was completely vulnerable... but the projection was missing pieces, and the entire crash whited out.

Eventually he came to. He mumbled as he stirred. "What happened? Where are we?"

 

[Lord_Ascendant]

Silas turned, seeing Kin wake. "We've derailed and crashed. On the bright side, theres Castle Dracula." and Silas pointed up to the end of the valley where a forbidding peak was dominated by an ugly looking castle. "We've buried the ones who didn't make it...we'd have waked you but you seemed to be unconscious" said Silas, trying to be funny. His humor had fallen short so Silas just stood gingerly and said "Whoever or whatever derailed us does not want us getting to Castle Dracula, it's our job to go there then. Also..." and Silas kicked over the decapitated eyeless face with a long tongue, sharp fangs and pale skin. Where its eyes HAD been were small burn marks. "I did that, some sort of purplish green energy shot out of my hand and decapitated the ugly bastard. Tell me his brain is still intact, so you can tell me if they derailed the train or not..."

 

[Hussmann54]

Kin sat up and limped over to the head.
"wow... smells......" He picked it up and gently rooted his fingers through the eyes.

"Yeah, you did a real number on his frontal lobes. They are fried." He held up the head as a display. "Fortunately for us, the frontal lobes of vampires function the same as humans. The front section of the brain controls motor function..." He began to push his fingers deeper as he spoke. " Eating, drinking, reflexes etc all done through the front. Now the part I want is the back. Thats where memory takes place....."
He starred for a moment... "Of course I myself am under the influence of a concussion." His rambling seemed almost whimsical. "So while I have brain damage, my perception on the brain itself could be all backwards." He held up the head as if talking to it. "What do you think buddy?...... Ah, he is speechless."
Finally the fingers found what they wanted.
"Yeah..." Kin said, his voice almost like it was reading a book as he closed his eyes to read the memory. "They pulled the train bit. Used some piece of machinery on the rail line. Cut out a section near the bridge. He was left behind to make sure the job was done.....Oh hey." He said as he saw everything that had happened to the face." Theres you Silas.... OH DAMN!....That must have hurt like hell....."

 

[Lord_Ascendant]

Silas chuckled "Yeah, I suppose interacting with some Void energy miscombobulated by magical energies. So sometimes my magnetism comes out as pure energy...at some point it will pass once the energy works its way through my system but until then I guess I have another option for self-defense..." then Silas looked at the mark on his wrist "You know, I'd like to find out who is tracking me. My brother perhaps, but knowing him he'd have to have tried this on a bunch of people to get it right. He was a terrible magic user, time doesn't seem to have sweetened that."

Genn trudged over to them, sweaty and dirty from hiking the perimeter. "From wha' I can see, its a straight shot up the cliff face down there up a small switchback then we climb the mountain up to Castle Dracula." Silas nodded and said "Kin, you need to recover. We all need to, and I sense that the old woman Blue Sky is arriving soon. Perhaps leaving so soon from Geneva wasn't such a good idea since we left her a little bit behind."

Silas looked over the horizon and frowned "Night is falling soon, I'll keep first watch."

Spoiler: OOC

Can you get Xero to post himself waking up here? Thx.

 

[Xero Scythe]

Spoiler: ooc.

Neh. I'm here, and finals are over. Glory be to the highest, I'm free. I'm tired to death, but I'm free.

Damien limped out of the shadows over to the group, a hole still in his shoulder, but even as the company watched, it began to heal up. Under his right arm was The Brothers Grimm. Across his back was Requiem in staff form. Damien looked down at Maeve's neck, then slowly rose out of his crouch, as slow as a glacier but just as inevitable. "We have a problem." He managed to gasp. Damien stumbled and finally fell, bracing himself with his left arm and wincing with the massive pain that arose. He had wounds all over his body- his cloak and the Mantle just hid them. The Mantle somehow conceived to keep spotless, despite all it had gone through.

Damien's shaking fingers opened to the page he saw earlier and stabbed his finger at the Guardian. "That will soon be Maeve. Silas- your brother has become a Dracul. And I think Maeve has at most 3 days before the infection spreads- she will be in extreme pain until she dies, her body unable to handle the curse. That would be the far kinder fate. The other one reduces her to a highly intelligent killing machine with no morals or boundaries whatsoever." Damien passes his hand over Maeve's tortured face. She relaxed with a sigh, now only showing mild discomfort. "I can take away some of the pain. However, I cannot undo the curse. And I think your brother ripped out the page that holds the cure." Damien collapsed onto a blanket, muttering in a language so old as to bring shivers down the backs of those who heard it. Damien shuddered and lay still. "I'm getting to old to get tossed like a ragdoll." He chuckled softly, trying to inject some humor into the situation, as gallows-like as it was.

 

[Lord_Ascendant]

There was a tsk-tsk sound from the shadows. Silas perked up and stood, something came flopping down from the overhang and immediately scurried backwards, away from whatever was out of sight. Silas motioned for quiet. A cloaked figure leapt down, quiet as a mouse. It clicked and made whispering noises before its voice broke out strong. "You are not the one I search for. You have stolen his skin, where is the true Illrian of Grey?" Silas cleared his throat and said "Looking for me, stranger?" the shadowed thing turned to look at him and the one of the ground got up and ran away. Genn ran after him, in full wolf form.

The shadowed thing had no face, it was just six glowing eyes shimmering between blue, green, red, orange and many other colors as it stared. It had cloth gloves on and heavy leather boots so that no inch of flesh showed. It cocked its head and said "The mark?" Silas rolled up his sleeve to show the ugly symbol and the snaking black lines that had spread up his arm. "Then I have found you, I had worried that imposter had slain you."
The creature clicked and whistled as it tried to make noise before saying "I am Mordecai, your Daemon. Here, I will remove the mark.." and the shadowy tendrils leapt off of Silas and into the hand of the creature. "I am a shadow daemon, a Maledictii. Your family has been my charge, and when my last Illrian was overcome I jumped out but alas the Light defends it's own well and I was destroyed. This is all I could save of myself. You must be warned, grave things are coming to pass which if they do not occur will destroy creation itself in another eon. Your world is threatened should you die here and now. You..." but the creature was cut off by a sword sticking through his ribs. The creature whipped around and banged the creature behind it in the stomach and knocked it over. The Maledictii pulled the sword out of him and laid it against the other creatures throat. "Argus wretch, who are you?" spat Mordecai.

Silas walked over and said "You look worse than me, Dorian." Dorian batted the sword away and tried to run. Silas used a small amount of magnetic energy, just enough to disturb the bullet lodged in Dorian's left shoulder. It was lodged there for years, Silas used this to put his brother in his place many times. Dorian stopped, in agony, and pulled out a pistol. Silas reacted, and a green beam of energy sliced out and burned off Dorian's right hand in a diagonal cut. No dismembered piece fell, the hand was just gone. Then Dorian screamed, held up the stump, and collapsed. Genn stalked out of the bushes, while the others approached to circle Dorian, who was going into shock.

Silas stepped up beside Dorian and crossed his arms "If you want someone to keep you from dying, you'll have to tell me how to cure Maeve...and you won't have much time. Once you slip into unconsciousness we may just toss you off a nearby cliff..." Dorian just shook as he held the stump of his right hand and wept "I'll never tell you anything! I hate you!" The same whiny Dorian, being second-best never fit Dorian and he was always throwing tantrums. Silas stepped on Dorian's throat and said "Answer me, or I crush the air out of you!" Genn grabbed Silas and dragged him off, Silas flailed a little but calmed when Genn said "He's beaten. Let it go." A hard look came across Silas's face as he turned and walked back to the cave. The creature, Malachi, was there and was waiting for him. "Your friends, they are all wounded. I seek permision to aid in their recovery. A spell of healing I know by heart, simple and useful. It may not mend them completely but will help mend the bones and knit the flesh faster." Silas nodded and turned to look at Genn who was tending to Dorian. "I shouldn't have gotten angry..." he said, sighing.

 

[Hussmann54]

Kin had slid his mask on when the commotion started. He only watched, then thought about Silas and his comment about Dorian being unconscious.
"Nah, keep him. Once he is asleep, he cant hide anything from me."
He crouched down, his scar ridden mask reflecting Dorians face on what was left of the gold surface.
"And trust me, no amount of luck will save you once Im inside this thing..." He gave a rough poke to Dorians forehead, and a low chuckle from under the mask.

 

[Lord_Ascendant]

Silas stepped back "you sure? you may have taken too big a hit to the head...don't want your own subconscious invading your meta splinter." Malachi was looking at the horizon when Silas approached him and said "You've got a lot of explaining to do..." but Malachi just made a grating sound like sand being poured onto more sand and said "All in due time, Illrian."
"What does that mean?"
"Illrian? When a shadow daemon and a human are joined as one being as dictated by the Maledictum for the general defense f the realm in which they live they are called 'Illrian' or 'one whom is a sentinel' it has come to mean 'gatekeeper' though since they kept the gates to the dimensions clear and open as well as defending their own realms from invasions. Illrians, to a shadow daemon like a Scourge or a Jahi looks like sort of faceless monster with only a bloody run carved where the face must be. It's a defense, to look at your face or speak your name is a vile thing...shadow daemons and the minions of Set all fear Illrians. To them, you are doom incarnate...they fear and loathe you but when in your presence cower and grovel."
"What is the symbol on my face, then?"
"See for yourself..."
Malachi held up a small shard of glass and said "From the Mirror of the Terror King Archanamos, the Mirror of Terrible Truths."
In its reflection, Silas saw a symbol carved on his forehead which was the same as the rune on his hand. "It is the mark of introspection. When an evil shadow daemon looks upon your face they are wrapped in a stupor wherein all the terrible sufferances they've inflicted torment them...for eternity if no one frees them from it. It has no effect on humans or anything else but shadow daemons."
Silas gave the shard of glass back and said "So, I'm one of these gatekeepers. An Illrian..."
Malachi nodded "Lady Eliza Orchid Grey was the last of the Ordus Illiri, the Order of the Illrians, that I served. Your..." and Malachi made a coughing sort of noise "Demon-hunting friend spooked me and I tried to run away. They, once upon a time, hunted our kind...before the insurrection and the turncoat led us to become the Maledictum. I am from that old time, so I felt fear...but I could not form my body fast enough and I was defeated for a long time. I am happy I have found you so that together we may defeat the coming storm."
"And that is?"
"I do not know....your gold masked friend seems ready to enact his Imperiomancy. Go to him, I shall be on guard here."