Dark whispers

=The chambers were dark, only faint light filtering through the deep clouds in the night sky. The stone was uncomfortably cold, and lifeless. Everything about the place seemed dead. Even the breeze did not stir the room, and the sound of the drapes moving was muffled into silence.

The room was alive with death, because the master of this place was a master of death. Standing before a pedestal crafted from human bone, a pale, slender hand deftly turned the pages of a worn book resting upon the aged, bleached bone stand. Lifting a hand and beckoning, a pair of braziers flanking the pedestal lit with a pale, cold fire. The braziers were crafted from bones as well, each one a spinal column twisting upwards, topped by a skull, tilted, mouth open in a morbid scream. The fire came from these mouths, a ghostly flame that seemed to radiate cold.

In the ghostly light, shadows seemed to be thrown across the room in torutred shapes, and for an instant, it seemed as if there was an army of spirits flying around the walls. Touching the pages gently, Damyn turned one slowly, his eyes scanning the pages. Covered by his black robes, he too seemed a shadow of the room, absorbing the light cast upon him, and the heavy shadows thrown by his cowl obscuring his face. His hands traced along the pages of the book, pages of runes and mystic symbols. The book itself was bound in flayed flesh, each page tanned skin, inked with blood that had been prepared by magic. As such, the 'pages' held various tones and colors. gesturing again, the pages continued to slowly turn on their own as Damyn turned away from them, finally settling with the book closed on the back cover. Drifting silently across the room to the balcony, the ghost-flames snuffed out by his will alone, and he gazed out over his kingdom.

Closing his eyes, he reached out with his power, touching upon the energy of the surrounding dead in the necropolis he used for his work. Death itself was around him, from untold centuries of loss and death. Drawing the dark energy within his body, he shuddered, seeming to ripple with the pleasure of the raw power of death seeping into his veins. Such power was his, and after the master's disappearance, he had slowly been absorbing the residual energies left over from the demon's dispersal into darkness. With the Teacher's works and books at his disposal, the demon's energy flowing in his veins, and the knowledge of the dead at his fingertips, he felt ready.

Soon, he would set his plans into motion.=

~Barely a woman, the girl aged to 16 stood amongst the shadows at the far end of the room. She had entered through a portal of shades, and had hoped not to be noticed. Her eyes were downcast, but they fluttered upward the moment Damyn stirred the book. Her ebony hair whisped as she tilted her head to one side, her emerald eyes almost cat like with curiosity. Her mind heard the souls screaming as the tortured shapes danced across the wall. None of it phased her.

She waited until Damyn had left for the balcony and glided into the darkened room. Claudia never said a word, but raised her delicate and pale hands upwards, her long black sleeves falling to her elbows. She raised the spirits of old, the elves of past, and by no choice, their souls were forced into the room. Closing her eyes, she let them dance around her sillouette. The material of her black corset and skirts ruffled, and they groaned in protest. Muttering an incantation under her breath, little Claudia took it further - allowing them to push and levitate her into the air, spinning her form.~

=Damyn turns knowingly towards his prodigy as she begins her spell, having felt her energy in the room long before he saw her. Watching, he nods faintly in approval, reaching out mentally to feel the energy she was using, and how she was using it. She was a student without peer, learning things in half the time it had taken other apprentices. Already she was the best of those under his tutelage. Keeping himself focused, he sent his own energies into the spirits, silencing their protests with a practiced ease and application of spiritual pain, expanding the limits of Claudia's spell so that she was effortlessly lifted off the floor of the vaulted chamber. Stepping into the room, his black robes hiding his features and form in ever present shadow, he watches her carefully, to see how she handles the unexpected change=

~Claudia had no expression, her eyes held a blank stare. Even as she felt her mentors power reach out and silence the souls, her reaction was the same. However, she embraced the magic and dark energies, absorbing his to feed her own powers, using it to raise her even further off the ground. They reached out and grabbed at her legs, effortlessly trying to tug her downwards. She focused, draining their essence so that they didn't have enough energy - causing the souls to become weak and transparent.~

=Damyn nods once again, closing his eyes a moment to draw more energy into his body before suddenly ending his contact with Claudia and pushing energy into the spirits around her, making them more formidable.

"Learn well, young one. It is easy to take the force from the spirits of the dead. Truly formidable though, is learning to channel into them. They will become a reflection of your strength." His voice is soft, low, echoing with the sound of many voices. With a small gesture he chooses one of the old spirits and allows a small trickle of power into it, enough to give her an idea of the application, as well as it increase the difficulty of her struggle.=

~Claudia felt Damyn's power grow, and it increased her own energy until he droped it, losing the contact. Only momentarily did it bother her. Claudia always felt her best when draining from the souls of others. In her head, she heard the constant whispers of the dead, and she reached out, searching for the lost energy, discovering that it had gone back to the souls and had now made them stronger beings.

She concentrated, and instead of trying to take their energy, she worked her own with theirs, reaching down and tugging them from her legs up with her. The one who remained, the stronger one, she used the others to help her pull herself free of it, letting them grab her arms. She did a twirl, and it was rather strange against the whisp of the transparant corpses. She had heard Damyn. Embrace who they are, and they will be a reflection of who she was. Yes, that felt right.~

=Damyn steps back and watches his pupil work, absently drawing energy into him from the room around him, and from the souls interred within the grounds. He moves in a slow circle, testing Claudia and the spirit with small incursions, flickering his energy across theres as a snake would it's tongue, tasting their energies as a snake does the air.

Slowly circling the room, he keeps it shadowed, focusing on the magical struggle in front of him very clinically. He passes tables stacked orderly with tomes and papers, and several on-going experiments, and many tables with corpses in various stages of decay bound to them and dissected. He finishes his circuit of the room in front of the closed book, righting it with his hands and watching, his long, pale, slender fingers tracing the cover and feeling the energy within it.

"You are learning quickly. This is good. Soon, I think, you will be ready to move to the next levels of learning." This was the highest praise he could give, his voice flat and emotionless. Already the children had excelled beyong his expectations.=

//He landed without pause onto the balcony, and crouched. His eyes scanned across the graveyard below, but then the dark energy from the chambers crackled and caught his attention. He narrowed his eyes, on the defensive at first, then he saw, his sister seemingly twirling in mid air, the souls causing a breeze as they circled around her.

Casually, he hopped onto his feet and leaned against the doorway of the balcony, folding his arms in front of him. Damyn had been his mentor for many years, he had grown accustomed to his many teaching methods. Yet, even Ash could see the potential that Claudia held. It impressed him. Lingering by the door, Ash patiently waited for the exercise to be over.//

=Damyn turns his cowled head to Ash as he leans in the doorway, nodding in recognition. Glancing at Claudia, he expected that the current lesson would entertain her for mere moments, and quick calculations put her relative mastery of the subject within her reach in a short number of weeks.

Looking almost restless, a rare thing, Damyn begins to drift through the rows of tables and experiments, stopping here and there to adjust something, or make a delicate cut along a cadaver, or savor an influx of energy into his system, approaching Ash, he reclines his head. "Good evening, Dark one."=

~Absently, Claudia yawned, as if mocking Damyn with his test. She relaxed, her body falling backwards so that she was now horizontical with her arms outstretched. Her obsidian hair floated casually, as if she were underwater. She pushed her energy, forcing the spirits to protect her from the stronger one. It was as if she embraced darkness and death itself. There was no fear, Claudia was confident and in command.

Bringing her wrists in and crossing them over her chest, Claudia heard Damyn speak outloud. Allowing the magic to slowly fade, she brought herself down to her feet and nodded eagerly in agreement. Yes, she too, wanted to learn more. It was then that Claudia noticed Ash - and she paused, staring at him for a few minutes, then turning her attention back to Damyn.~

=Damyn looks to Claudia and her disdain, turning more bodily towards her. "You still have much to learn, little one. These are parlor tricks and childrens toys compared to what lays before you. Please do remember this. Arrogance does not become you." His tone holds no reproach for her, merely informing. "You are learning quickly, but you are still learning."

He gives her a nod, and takes a step that put the three of them facing each other in a rough triangle. "Ash, how do you fare this evening?"=

"Evening." He replied back, his tone respectful. Ash kept his eyes upon the Dark Necromancer, then to Claudia as she joined them. A small smirk pursed his lips "I see my sister has kept you busy." That was all he'd say, since he suspected Damyn had something he might want to address them both with. Again, his eyes cast to Claudia.

ML Damyn: "We have to watch her closely. She is becoming dangerous."

~Claudia turned her head towards Ash, almost as if she had heard his every word. Her eyes bore into him, cold and harsh. Resting her delicate hands in front of her, she answered only Damyn within his mind..~

"No parlor tricks..."

~It almost sounded as if a snake was hissing, the voice itself distorted and echoing.~

~ steps out of the shadows behind Ash, hand on the hilf of his sword, the weapon hanging from his belf semingly made of mirrored glass and radiating cold. His armor plate is of a similar substance, etched through with runes and glyphs in intricate fashion, the sign of his own proficiencies with the energies of this blighted realm. He makes a cursory glance to Claudia as she tends to her studies, having spent the day in the yard under the dubious training of Lord Valmark and his undead soldiers. ~

Lord Damyn, the masons reprot that the temple is well underway to repair, and our young Marcus has alredy begun instructing some of the more lively denizens in the ways of the faith, he hopes to have clerics from them within the month.

=Damyn nods to Ash. "She is talented, though I fear she has not yet learned humility in her talents."

ML Ash: 'I am well aware. Perhaps you'd care to be the one to teach her humility?'

Turning to Claudia, he nods slightly. "No, not mere parlor tricks, a foundation. Still..." he trails off, fixing her pointedly with a stare she would feel. "You will learn respect for the power you are trying to wield, or you will find yourself at a sore disadvantage. Death does not take lightly to those who would impose their arrogance upon her." His movements give the impression of vague amusement. "Still, I believe I will forgive you this outburst."

Turning from her to Xavier, his hands come from the sleeves of his robes, spreading in a welcome. "As always, you bring news worth hearing. His progress is pleasing. As is your own." he looks at those gathered, and nods to himself.

"There has come a time. I do not believe you are ready, nor that you have learned all I have to offer. However, I do believe, that the time for skulking has passed." he allows the ghost-lit braziers to flood the room with light, moving once more to the pedestal housing the magical tome. "I do however, see the greater wisdom in caution. To this end, I have contacted Vladamir Carthallion, for the purposes of finding common ground. I know his penchant for deception, but I also know that he is a man that sees gain, and seeks it where he can. Such gain as we can offer him."

Gesturing towards Xavier and Claudia, he continues. "I wish for you both to accompany me to this meeting, as a gesture of good faith. Ash as well, if he so wishes, though I was hoping he and Marcus would remain here and see to things in our absence, as befits my first pupil and the master of the faith."

"If all goes as planned, I will seek to have him agree to allow you to remain under my tutelage. I still have much to teach you, if you would have the patience to learn. What say you all?"=

~ raises an eyebrow, looking at Damyn with a slight grin~

You will attempt to make a deal with the devil necromancer? Are you certain you have anything our demon of a father will truly want? He is deceptive, yes. But he is also a professional killer, with many more in his employ.

I do so hope you do not intend to use my dear sister and I as leverage in your negotiations. Our father is not exactly a loving parent, nor has he shown much of a famillial tendency.

~ ML Claudia: "We are going home dear sister, I do beleive we should prepare a special gift for our dear father. One that he won't soon forget, or heal from.."~

=Damyn turns his head to Xavier, his voice showing a trace of amusement. "Quite the contrary. I plan no deception, and expect every deception. However, I suspect quite rightly that the children and the father are cut from the same cloth. I have no doubt in your abilities, and no care as to the end outcome as long as my skin is intact."

"The offer is for mutual gain. You are merely an extension of my good faith. To that end, I trust you will handle yourselves...fittingly." He lets the last word hang knowingly in the air.=

~Claudia made her way across the room towards her dearest brother Xavier, and took his hand. Reassuringly, she gave his hand a squeeze and stood by his side.~

ML's Xavier: I don't want to leave this place. I have enjoyed learning here, and feeding from the spirits.

~ nods, the smirk not leaving his face~

Of course sir. It is the least we can do for our gracious host and mentor. To even consider doing anything untoward would be an insult.

~ ML Claudia: " Dear sister, we can not remain here forever. We will of course needs to claim our place on the throne before too much longer. Until then, we will play the games required and you will continue to learn what you can from the necromancer. "~