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Dissonant Hearts (Degusaurusrex x AndrewS)

Isen glanced down at her out stretched hand. Was she intending for him to take it? He wasn't keen on the idea of letting her syphon any magic from the blade, he knew how volatile it could be and he had seen first hand what it had done when she touched it before. Even with him serving as a conduit, it wasn't going to be easy for her to control it, especially in such a fine manner. One wrong cast alerting a camera or worse yet, one of the guards inside the building, and they could have the entire facility coming down upon them in an instant.

But it was his suggestion in the first place. He needed to learn how to trust her, eventually. Now was as good a time as any.

He took a deep breath, expelling it from his lungs in a sigh and let his hand meet hers, curling around her fingers and squeezing perhaps a little too tight. He wasn't used to doing anything so intimate, it could stand to reason that he wouldn't know his own strength in such a situation. Turning his head slightly to look at her, there was a weary look across his features that basically screamed "don't screw this up" without speaking a word.

"Isen. Isen, what is she doing?" The voice rang out as it began to react to the syphoning. "Stop this at once. Do not allow her to do this. Isen..." The look of consternation on his face likely made her aware that something was happening that she wasn't cogniziant of and he corrected her so she wouldn't worry that the syphon was causing him distress.

"The demon in the sword doesn't want you taking any of it's power. Be quick about it, I would like for him to shut up."
 
The fact that he squeezed her hand so tightly made Adelaide jump in surprise, turning to look at him and returning his expression with an annoyed one of her own. Just because she was inexperienced at drawing energy from some magical blade didn't mean that she was stupid, and she almost rolled her eyes as they made their way down the hall.

"He sounds as annoying as you make him out to be," She muttered under her breath as she concentrated on drawing the magic from the angry blade and walking without stumbling, sucking in a deep breath at the first taste of magic. It was strong, hostile, and clearly didn't want to be under her control in any way. Well, that was too bad, because she needed it to get them out of their alive. Well, get her alive, anyway, the demon clearly couldn't have cared less since it was immortal.

"Just keep walking." She spoke through clenched teeth as she concentrated on slowly, subtly having a camera veer away from them, settling to the side until they had passed it and it resumed its normal swinging view. "This is hard enough to do without him complaining the entire time."
 
Isen could feel the energy flowing through him, passing across his chest and outward through his arm. It almost felt like a relief when that feeling reached his finger tips, it was as though it was being drained out of him. It made him feel a little light headed but otherwise, he was fine to keep walking forward, letting her lead the way while her magic worked on the cameras, forcing them away. While she was occupied, it was Isen's job to be vigilant about what they were walking in to, to veer her away from walking into any guards or unexpecting scientists who could blow their cover just as quickly as some surveillance could.

And then, she said something that caught him off guard, causing him to hold up in the center of a hall. Any step forward she would have made would have tugged on his hand and forced her to recoil backwards when he didn't budge, making no inclination to step along with her. "Wait, what did you just say?" He asked her, pointedly.

"This is hard enough to do without him complaining the entire time."

Surely she didn't mean she could hear the voice too? This seemed to give the demon's voice some pause as well. It stopped talking, suddenly, interrupting the middle of it's sentence, caught off guard by this statement too. This only confirmed that what Isen thought was true. She was able to hear that voice too.

"It's bad enough that you expect me to trust her but now you let her take my magic? MY magic? Not yours, mine. Do you have any idea what you're doing? And you're just going to let h-..."

It must have been a side effect of the connection formed by her syphon but Isen felt such a weight leave his shoulders. He knew he wasn't crazy, the things that happened to him, as abnormal as they were, definitely happened and he was constantly hounded by the voice of another but that didn't stop him from wondering sometimes...this was pure vindication. The fact that another could finally hear a voice that had meant only for him, that had plagued only his thoughts for so long, made him legitimately feel something he hadn't felt in a while. Comfort. For once, he wasn't alone with those destructive thoughts. He didn't like her having to bare it any more than he did but he wasn't alone. The relief on his face must have been palpable, and so out of the ordinary. What could she possibly think when she saw him frozen in such disbelief?

"...Isen. Let go of her hand. Now." The voice barked an order but Isen didn't dare respond or comply. Not now. "Why don't you ever listen to me? This isn't possible. She shouldn't be able to hear me. You need to let go of her immediately."
 
"Don't you fucking dare, Isen. And you," She growled the latter part and tugged at him. "Stop complaining. You sound like a child throwing a tantrum. The sooner we get out of here, the sooner I don't have to listen to you and I'll stop borrowing your magic." Stealing, rather, but it was all the same in the end. She pulled at him again with a noise of frustration, stomping her foot and gesturing toward another camera down the hall.

"Isen, let's go. I can't do this forever, this is exhausting." Despite the fact that she was actively pulling energy from the blade, she was expending it just as quickly in order to keep the cameras off of them so they could escape. "Isen, please." She gripped his hand tightly and continued to pull at him, looking down the hall and then back to him with a desperate expression.

"We need to go, now."
 
"Why you insolent litt-are you actually listening to her? Over me?" It accused Isen who had decided it best to side with Adelaide here or else they'd never make it out of here. "A child. Really? I am not a child. I am a demon. And a damn strong one at that. I will not allow you to make a mockery of me, witch."

"He's always like this, you know." Isen pointed out, sounding remarkably relieved still that someone else had finally heard the demon's voice. "He never shuts up. Especially about you. He hates you."

"I do hate you. You've done nothing but cause trouble for us since you've arrived. The mere thought that you cou-"

"Sorry, this is just a revelation to me. You have no idea how this feels. I've been alone. With that voice. For longer than I'd ever wish to remember. It's strange to know that you can hear it now. It's...well, it doesn't really matter what it is. Take a left here. I think this is where I came in."

Their left turn was not, in fact, the way he had came in. His sense of directions weren't the greatest, it seemed. This place was still new to him and so noisy, so very noisy, between all of the grumbling of the voice in his head and the daily workings of the facilities inside. He couldn't make heads or tails out of this place with his senses and apparently his memory had failed them as well. At the end of the hallway was a large door, one with a security scanner. It seemed shut but the markings above it, flashing on an LCD screen, called this place the "Arcane Archive".

"Or not." He mumbled as they met their dead end. "Arcane Archive." He continued, reading out the letters as they scrolled across the panel.

This seemed to catch the attention of the demon as well. It finally stopped it's complaining and focused on something other than Adelaide for once.

"There's something powerful coming from the other side." It spoke up, sounding giddy at the thought of seeing what it was. "If you're going to let her steal from me, the least you could do is make it up to me before we leave. Let's take a peek, shall we?"

"Absolutely not." Isen responded out loud, since now, Adelaide could hear their conversation, hoping this detour hadn't put too much strain on her concentration. "If there's something back there that has your interest, I want nothing to do with it. Come on, let's keep going. The way out has to be somewhere around here."
 
"Hate me all you want, I don't really care. I don't need you to like me, I just need you to kill for me." Adelaide muttered under her breath. "I wish I couldn't hear him, to be honest. He's more annoying than a drunkard trying to flirt." At least those she could hit or ignore, this one was loud and clear in her head whining every step of the way.

"Left, okay." She took the turn with him, holding tightly onto his hand in case that obnoxious sword tried to tear them apart. "Not, clearly. How did you--Isen, you were supposed to remember which way to go!" She froze upon realizing the demon had stopped complaining, her eyes focused on the sign as she frowned. The silence didn't last for long, sadly.

"If you don't knock off your whining we're never going to get out of here!" She stomped her foot again and snarled, fisting her free hand in Isen's shirt and pulling him down to her level. "You're lucky you don't have a body I can slap like Isen does, but if you don't get the stick out of your ass and shut up, I'll make sure to suck up as much of your power as I can just to piss you off."
 
Isen recoiled from her as she pulled him down to her level. She was staring at him as she spoke directly to the sword. He could feel her anger pouring into him from beyond her glare and it caught him offguard but his expression quickly evened out to return the glare in her direction. "Your problem is with him." Isen reminded her, reaching his free hand up to grip her wrist, pulling it away from his shirt so he could stand back up straight again. His other hand remained in hers and he motioned to remove it, to silence her connection to the voice so it would no longer cause them any more trouble, but the demon suddenly seemed to have changed it's tune.

"Isen, wait! The door." It asserted once again, referring to the door blocking them from this supposed Archive. "If you let me inside, I'll shut up for an entire day. Two, perhaps." It reasoned and Isen couldn't help but think of what she had called it. This was exactly the type of behavior a child would pull. He gave a knowing nod towards Adelaide and shook his head.

"I'll let your little witch friend use as much magic as she needs. Just get. Us. Inside."

"I've never heard him so adamant about anything other than killing before. Whatever's back there really seems to have caught his interest...which is exactly why we're leaving it there." Isen spoke this too out loud and then looked towards Adelaide for confirmation that they were on the same page about this. A supposed archive full of the arcane had to be tempting for her, given her history with her family, and also her ability to actually syphon and control magic, but they needed to go before they were caught and wandering into what was likely to be a highly guarded vault of magic was the exact opposite of that.
 
"Not happening." She tightened her hold on his hand as the demon piped up again, and what he said gave her pause. He was so desperate to get into the room that he was bartering silence for a day, even two? Whatever was inside had to be very, very important.

"I'm not a witch." Her voice had lost the argumentative edge to it as she stared at the door, and she shook her head at Isen without looking his way. "No, he's right." Agreeing with a demon sword who hated her, what had the world come to? "Isen, we need to get inside. We need to get inside right now." She kept staring at the scanner that kept the door between them before she stepped forward, keeping one hand firmly in Isen's as she reached for the scanner with the other.

"I can feel it." The humming coming from inside the room, the throb of magic that was just waiting to be exposed. She could feel it so strongly as she reached for the scanner, her fingers brushing over it for just a moment before it gave a loud ding! and the door slowly opened.

"Welcome, Lancaster." She yanked her hand back as if she had been scalded, her eyes wide as she stared at the door that was still opening. How the hell had it recognized her? As far as she knew she had never been in the building before, had never seen any of the things that were slowly coming into view. It took a moment for everything to hit, but by the time the door was fully open she felt it, a strong force as if someone had reached inside and gripped her insides to squeeze them tightly. The sheer amount of magic inside the room nearly made her legs give out, the hand holding Isen's dropping as she forced herself to walk one, two, and then three steps to get inside the room.

"There is.. So much in here. I could level this entire building with what they have in here." So many things harnessing magic. Different weapons, artifacts, some things she wasn't even sure how to describe! She walked without thinking, her hands tracing over anything she could reach, feeling the magic straining to leave its restraints, just begging to be used. The hand hovering over a glass case trembled as she turned to look at him, shaking her head before she uttered a half strangled laugh.

"As annoying as that sword is, he was right. The amount of magic in here is.. Intoxicating." She closed her eyes for a moment, pressing her hand against the case and humming quietly. "It's almost.. Too much."
 
Isen nodded his head along with Adelaide, expecting her to agree with him, only to freeze mid-nod as she changed her tune immediately. "You can't be serious." He told her while the demon in the blade practically crooned with anticipation. "A moment ago, you were rushing us to get to the exit and now you want to stop and do some window shopping?" Glancing down at his hand, still holding hers, he wondered if the sword had done something with it's dark magic to sway her but it could read Isen's line of thinking and dismissed the thought.

"I would never do such a thing." It told him, though Isen knew that's exactly what it would have done. "But she is a witch. One who draws magic from others and steals it for her own. The thought of an entire archive of such magic...how could she resist? How could I? We must go and we must go now."

"You're going to get yourself killed." He warned Adelaide. "You know I'll be fine but you? You're...huh?" Isen paused as she approached the scanner and it seemed to react to her, curiously allowing access to the chamber. The large, metal door parted at the center like an elevator, revealing the contents inside and offering a path for them to walk in further to investigate.

"Lancaster..." The demon mused, repeating her name, seeming trouble by it until it got a sense of whatever had been calling it from beyond the door and immediately forgot about this conundrum for now. Isen wasn't so easily forgetful but she was tugging him inside and he had to admit, despite how stupid and reckless this was, he was intrigued.

The chamber was circular in design with a large computer set up near the middle. It's wide screen was black but seemed to come to life the closer she got to it, just like the scanner outside. Around them, in every direction, were encased artifacts, weapons, objects of great magical energy. This was like a storage room but it was laid out almost more like a museum. Whoever had arranged this had done so with meticulous care, housing everything carefully and with an apparent sort of organization as well. He would be impressed had he not been so unnerved. Isen could feel the sword at his hip starting to react to the energy around it, shaking slightly in it's sheathe, and he could feel Adelaide becoming overwhelmed by all of the energy. It was like sensory overload for her, he was sure, powerful sources of energy calling from each and every direction.

"Satisfied now?" He asked them, both, knowing the longer they stayed, the more at risk they were of drawing attention. Someone, somewhere had no doubt noticed the door to the Archive had opened and their visit was far from routine or scheduled.

"Isen, you must find it."

"Find what?"

"Find what is calling to me."

"That doesn't exactly help narrow it down." He grumbled. "You really are like a child, aren't you?"

"Silence. Do as I say and find it."

"Find what?" He repeated a second time, annoyed, aware now that he was talking out loud to a voice that was now unheard once more as Adelaide had let go of his hand. "There has to be a thousand different things in here. Have you ever heard the saying 'needle in a haystack'?"

"...the computer. She can use it. I can sense it. Have her search."

"For WHAT?" Isen was nearly at his limit with all of this nonsense. He wanted out, now, but with how frustrated he was getting, he wouldn't have minded cutting down a couple of guards on the way. Considering how against it he was just moments prior, that was a testament to just how annoying this ordeal had become. Patience was a virtue and it was also something he had been running very low on.

He turned towards Adelaide but found her staring in wonder at the Archive. She wasn't going to be reasoned with until she had calmed herself down.

"It's like me, only different. Not a sword. I can't tell what it is but I know it's here. Tell the witch to aid me. Tell her to search for dark magic." Isen could only imagine how Adelaide would respond to be bossed around by the demon and being called 'witch' yet again. He braced himself for the oncoming scolding, recalling the last one he had taken the brunt of by proxy for the sword's rambling. He almost didn't want to relay the message but relented with a sigh.

"He wants you to use the computer to search for dark magic like his." Isen explained, leaving out the 'witch' part this time around in hopes of sparing them both another berating. "I advise against listening to him."
 
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"Will you boys stop arguing?" Adelaide snapped from where she stood, her fingers still splayed across the glass as she exhaled slowly. "Dark magic?" She finally pulled away and turned to look at Isen, almost seeming dazed before she shook her head with a curse.

"Computer. Dark magic. Yeah, I can do that, hopefully." She could only hope the computer would let her in same as the scanner had, and after the brief moment it took to find the computer she bolted over and began frantically tapping keys. "Shit!" Of course it would be password protected. "Shit, shit, shit!" They didn't have time for this, and she desperately needed to find out what object the demon was so adamant to find. She needed to know perhaps more than it did, and she slammed her hands down on the keyboard with another loud curse.

"No good. I'm not a hacker, and we don't have an hour for me to try guessing passwords, either." If she could just get some of them out of their cases, get her hands on some of the weapons... Well, she could definitely put a hole or two in the building before they left. "Just make the stupid demon sniff it out." She stepped back from the computer and looked around again, rubbing at her temples as she analyzed the different items.

"If I were dark magic, where would I hide?"
 
It was strange to Isen that she had been allowed access automatically into the Archive yet the computer seemed to resist her presence. Presuming there to be different levels of security, something which ultimately made sense given the nature of this chamber, he knew that meant the demon from the sword would only become more annoying from here on out but perhaps it was a good thing. Unleashing anything related to dark magic probably wasn't the smartest choice for them to be making, especially after seeing what that kind of magic did to his body any time he suffered a fatal blow.

"Useless!" It spoke with malice though she couldn't hear the voice anymore. "She is useless! I can't just sniff it out, I'm not a dog! There's too much magic here...I'd need to get closer. Isen. Isen, you need to bring me closer."

"He's saying that he appreciates you making the effort." Isen lied, concealing a smirk, knowing that comment would probably pester the both of them. Why should he be the only one getting annoyed?

Reaching down to the handle of the sword, he pulled it from it's sheathe, feeling the blade practically shaking in his hand. Even as he steadied his grip, it continued to move, reacting to the source of the dark magic the demon was looking for. Isen began to understand what the demon meant now when it said to get him closer. He sighed, knowing he'd regret this but also well aware that neither of them was going to let him leave until their curiosity had been satisfied.

In the various containment units around the Archive, there were all sorts of artifacts and weapons, all of which were likely extremely dangerous, but Isen was using his blade like a dowsing rod. Moving it around, outstretched, he could feel it resonate and react when he angled it in certain directions. Using this as a guide, he began to walk, letting the sword will him forward until it stopped him in front of one case in particular that seemed to make his weapon quiver.

"Yes! This is it! You found it."

Peering forward past the protective glass, Isen could see that the object in question was a ring, propped up on display by a stone stand that seemed to have runic markings etched into it's surface. The ring itself seemed to follow suit, a golden body covered in black lines and markings that he could only presume had some sort of meaning in a language he couldn't understand. And the energy it radiated was a near perfect match for the magic inside of his sword, the part which was most concerning.

"I think I found it." He spoke aloud to Adelaide, drawing her attention towards it as well. "You're the 'witch', you ever see anything like this before?"
 
"You're a terrible liar, I don't know why you bother." Adelaide didn't spare him a glance as she continued moving around the room, glancing between the cases and the door constantly. They could not be interrupted until she'd found what the sword had been babbling on about, until she found something worth taking for her own. Both Isen and the bastard who had kidnapped her had their blades, but she was forced to steal and manipulate magic from others, the very thing that had gotten her into this predicament. She needed a constant source of magic on hand, something she could pull from without having to dodge around people grasping at whatever threads of energy she could find.

"You look ridiculous." She snorted at the sight of Isen wandering around with the sword in the air, but the sound quickly faded away when she realized that it was working. At this point all she cared about was finding the damn thing, and if him waving around an angry sword was the key to doing it, so be it.

"Don't call me a witch." The previous snap in her tone was replaced by something more wonderous as she moved in front of him, fixated on the ring inside as she gasp softly. "It's beautiful." Beautiful, and positively brimming with magic she could feel before she even touched the glass. "Time to put that mouthy sword of yours to use."

Sorry not sorry.

She didn't wait for Isen to respond, nor did she listen for the voice of the sword as she wrapped her hands around the hilt beneath his and swung the weapon straight into the glass case. Her hands fell away the moment the glass broke and she jolted back, refusing to listen to the sword's demon as it undoubtedly yelled and scolded over being used to open the case.

"Oh, hell." If there wasn't anyone aware they were here yet, there would be now. What had she been thinking? She hadn't been thinking, that was the issue. The ring had beckoned her just as it had the sword, and she reached through the broken case to grab around for the jewelry before finally grasping it. "It's so beautiful." Her voice was full of awe as she stepped back, brushing the glass from her coat and inspecting the ring.

"Not a chance in hell your buddy is getting this, this is mine." Just staring at it was almost intoxicating, and she traced the marks carefully before turning to look at Isen with a dazed expression. "This is.. Insane. There's so much power in this little thing." She slipped it on her finger and inhaled sharply, holding her breath for several seconds before exhaling slowly.

"Okay, we can go now."
 
Isen couldn't have stopped her when she grabbed the hilt of the sword and threw it into the glass case. With the way the blade was responding, shaking with anticipation, and the demon inside urging him to free the object in question, it was like the weapon itself wanted to free the ring. It probably would have happened even without Adelaide's interference, but it certainly sped things up a little. Isen would have been in awe of the way the ring seemed to react in turn, the markings on it's body beginning to light up with an ethereal purple similar to the magic that came from his weapon, but his only thought was that all of that noise, or simply the destruction of what was meant to be a protective shell for the object, was about to draw a lot of attention their way.

"How dare you let her touch me. I am a sword, not a hammer...Isen...wait...Yes! Do you feel that? That ring...it's..."

"Dark, just like you?" Isen answered the voice's musings, fearful of what exactly that meant. Adelaide's voice offered a different description for the ring, claiming it to be beautiful. That was when he knew they had a problem. "Wait, Adelaide, what are yo-"

She had reached for it and it had accepted her without delay. The markings continued to pulse for a few moments before their glow died down, returning the glyphic writing to a simple black on gold, gold that now wound it's way tightly around her finger. From where he was standing, it seemed as though the ring had tightened. A precaution to assure it couldn't be removed?

"Are you crazy? Have you learned nothing from seeing what this sword has done to me? The magic, the curse, the hatred. And you're just going to take that thing without a second thought?"

Until this point, Isen hadn't really ever gotten angry with Adelaide. Sure, anger was sort of his thing these days, it was a side effect of what dark magic had done to him, but he was mostly even keel when it came to her even if she did annoy him. She was important to him accomplishing what he always wanted, she was his link to freedom, he needed to tolerate her at best to keep things moving forward in the right direction but now? Now he was pissed. What she just did would no doubt jeopardize their entire plan, as well as compromise her own control over her magic. It was clear he was angry, not just to her but to the demon as well. It's voice seemed to share Isen's sentiment.

"You fool! You let her take it? That was supposed to be mine. Mine. Take it from her, immediately."

"Adelaide. You need to put that ring back. Now." He warned her, his voice raising, treating her like a child who had been caught with their fingers in a cookie jar. Not for the demon in the sword but for himself and for her own good. "We don't need to mess with anymore dark magic than we already have. You have no idea what that thing could do to you. Put it back."
 
"What?" She looked taken aback at his command, her brows knitting together in confusion as she shook her head. "No! You have that thing to defend you, I have nothing except for what I can take. Besides," She looked down at it almost dreamily and traced the markings again, "I think it likes me." Had she just referred to the ring like it was a living thing? That snapped her out of it for a moment as she fidgeted with it, intending to take it off and stuff it into her pocket before she realized she couldn't.

"Uh..." That wasn't good. "I can't take it off." Not that she had wanted to anyway, but no matter how she twisted or tugged at the ring, it wouldn't budge more than a tiny bit. "I think it's stuck." She should have been scared, should have been worried, but it felt so good to have the power at her disposal. The things she could do with it, the damage she could cause. Hell, if she was able to take any more of the artifacts or weapons in the room, then they would have a serious advantage.

"Look, just grab whatever you can so we can get out of here, we'll worry about that later."
 
"I think it likes me."

"Listen to yourself. What are you even saying?" This was bad. She probably wasn't wrong, the ring definitely liked her. She was powerful enough as it was, why wouldn't it want a host with that type of potential? But that was also what dark magic did, it corrupted, it changes people. It's what it did to him and he could already feel it's thrall trying to wrap it's way around Adelaide. Thankfully, she seemed to come to her senses a little after saying that and began to work on removing the ring only to find it stubbornly stuck around her finger.

He took a couple of steps towards her, as if he were to help her, but by the look on her face, she didn't seem that distressed about this news.

"The witch seems enamored by the ring. Interesting..."

"Look, just grab whatever you can so we can get out of here, we'll worry about that later."

"You will do no such thing."

The voice of a third party rang out through the chamber. Standing in the opened doorway was the man Isen had been worried about. It was the same general who had fought them back in town, the one who had taken Adelaide here. He was clad in his armor still, his weapon drawn, already activated and ready. Flanked on either side by two other guards in equally heavy duty gear, they blocked the only way out and had caught them rummaging through a place where they did belong. And Adelaide, his supposed prisoner, was caught red-handed, not only out of her containment but in possession of the deadliest object in the entire archive.

"Nice to see you again so soon, Isen. Though, I have to admit I'm growing frustrated with your constant intrusions....Ms. Lancaster, I believe you have something that doesn't belong to you. As much as I would love to repeat our previous encounter, I think we've all had our fill of violence for today, have we not?"

Isen gripped the handle of his sword. This man spoke of being tired of the violence yet walked in with his weapon drawn first.

"I told you that you were a thief." He commented towards Adelaide in particular, an arrogance in his voice as though he had just been proven right. "Return what you've stolen from me and I will grant you mercy. I meant what I said before, I wish to work with you but if you cannot see reason..." He trailed off, lifting his weapon. "...then you are an obstacle. You will not leave this place alive if you decide to fight me. And as for you, Mr. Hiyori, I am aware that death eludes you. Threatening your life means very little but heed my words, carefully. I don't care how many times that sword of yours brings you back to life, I will make you suffer. Again and again. Over and over. I will kill you as many times as it takes to break the cycle."

"That shows how little you actually know about me." Isen fired back, shaking his head. It was his turn to smirk with arrogance. He knew something the general didn't. "I want nothing more than to be rid of this curse. I want to die. You would be doing me a favor. Allow me to return your kindness."

Isen turned his head towards Adelaide, glancing down at the ring. Well, they were here now. They could figure out the rest later. "Think you can use that thing?" He asked her, underneath his breath, punctuating it with a warning. "If you feel it taking hold of you, you need to stop. I don't care how powerful it makes you feel. You've seen what happens to me when the darkness takes control. I will not see it happen to you in return." Was that concern? Now wasn't the time to get soft.

Turning his attention back towards the general, Isen bounded forward to try and carve them a path out of the Archive but he wouldn't lie that part of this was also revenge. He had been bested before, it had led to her being captured, to them being in the mess to begin with. This was his chance to make all of that right. His sword collided with the general's blade, locking them into a battle of strength while the two guards at his side rushed forward towards Adelaide to try and apprehend her.
 
"Not stealing, just borrowing." Adelaide shrugged at the man. "I think it likes me better than you, anyway." He still had the nerve to think she would be willing to work with him? She gave him a look of utter disgust, her gaze hard as she stepped back and shook her head. It seemed he had switched targets for his verbal assault already, making several threats to Isen which clearly did little more than entertain the large man.

"I can try." She looked at the ring uncertainly before back to Isen, seeing that in the instant she had looked away he'd taken off toward the general without waiting for her. How thoughtful of him. It was almost enough to make her roll her eyes at him before she was distracted by the men approaching her. Two on one? Well that just wasn't fair. Life was never fair though, was it?

"Warn a girl next time, won't you?" Now she was supposed to focus on figuring out how the ring worked, while simultaneously evading capture, while simultaneously keeping an eye on Isen to make sure he didn't lose himself and go after her again? "No pressure or anything." He was going to get an earful from her later once they were safe, although at the rate things were going that could take anywhere from a minute to an hour, even--

"Get off of me!" She had gotten so caught up in her racing thoughts she hadn't noticed the men grabbing her, one hand wrapping around her arm while the other tried to pry the ring off her finger. "I said get-- Off?" The hands were gone before she'd even finished repeating herself, but she found herself running face first into Isen's back instead. Hadn't he been across the room just a second ago?

She could hear the confused shouting from the guards as she gripped the back of Isen's clothing and turned her head, seeing them very much where she had just been, but clearly no longer was. Somehow she had gotten across the room without moving, and her stomach flipped as the room around them spun again. Gone were the sounds of blades clanging against each other, gone was the confused and angry shouting from those bastards. Now it was just cold, very cold.

"What the hell?" She hadn't seen this room since before she had been forced to go on the run again. This shouldn't have been possible, but the broken door felt very real under her fingertips. She knew what was behind the broken door, the carnage that decorated the room and how dreadfully cold it was. The bastards had gotten to her friends before they'd even had a chance to turn up the heat to combat the cold, and her breath came out in clouds as the door swung open unassisted.

"Don't look at me like that. You're dead. You're all dead." Was she dead, and that was why she was reliving the scene of the shattered apartment? "Stop.. Stop looking at me like that." She stumbled over the broken table and went down, glass digging into her palms where the top had shattered upon impact and glittered in the dimly lit room. The room was a wreck, the glass and wood table shattered, the television on the floor beside it before the streaks of blood began.

There were so many of them, drag marks and scratches from both desperate clawing and boots resisting against the slaughter that had come down on them. Lifeless eyes staring up from the floor, from the damaged couch, from the face that turned at an unnatural angle from the broken body on the floor.

"Where were you, Ada?"

She gasped loudly as the bloodied hand reached for her and then disappeared entirely, and it was then she realized she was staring up at the sky, and that the reason she was so cold was because she was laying in the snow. Outside. They were outside? Her head was pounding from all the energy she had manipulated teleporting twice in such a short span, and it took a minute for her to be able to sit up and hold it in her hands. What the fuck had just happened?
 
Feeling his blade interlock with the general's weapon, Isen was acutely aware of the the similarities from their previous clash. If his foe drew any of that awful gas again, he wouldn't be able to fight back. This time, Isen made a point to take note of the armor the general was wearing, checking to see if any of those cannisters remained on him. There was one, still hanging from his side; it needed to be taken care of first. Looking forward now, into the eyes of the man who was trying to best him, Isen could see the amusement written all over his opponent's face. He was twisted, he seemed to enjoy this.

"That's it, Isen. Show me how much of a monster you really are." He taunted.

"Just like before, Isen. Give in. Let me take control."

Not this time. He needed to fight smarter, not with brutality. Using his speed, his biggest asset in this fight, he shifted behind the general as quickly as he could with intentions of snatching that gas grenade away. While this had worked, he was interrupted by the sudden force of something colliding against his back. It wasn't sharp, nor painful, ruling out the possibility of it being a weapon. He turned, instinctively, and found Adelaide. The rotation of his body practically drew her into his arms as he reacted to try and hold her steady so that she wouldn't hurt herself post-collision but how exactly did she even get there? She was just on the other side of the room.

This seemed to surprise the general too. As he turned to track Isen, he seemed to hesitate as well upon seeing Adelaide suddenly transmit herself across the Archive and away from the guards who had been just trying to take her into custody. He seemed to figure it out faster than Isen did. It was the ring. She had used it's power. He swung his blade forward, it's edge pointed towards Isen's back but before it could even make contact, the duo who had caused him so much trouble had vanished entirely, leaving just him and his men in the archive chamber.

For Isen, it was a strange sensation, almost like a whirlwind had swept them up from all sides and dropped them somewhere else. He had barely blinked and the metallic walls of the archive had been replaced with the frosted-green of a snow-covered forest. Where were they? What had even happened?

His legs buckled underneath him and he fell to the snow. He noticed that something similar had happened to her, she was laying on her back, eyes skyward as she tried to figure out what had happened as well. Isen rolled over onto his back and joined her in staring upward, catching his breath though unphased by the chill of the snow against his skin. The clouds were swirling, he felt dizzy. When she sat up, he did so as well when the dizziness finally began to fade.

"How did you do that?" He asked her, bluntly. "And where are we now?" He closed his eyes, momentarily, listening. Not far away, he could make out the sound of voices and commotion. It was small town full of Dissonants where they had began but that was miles away from the facility he had infiltrated. He remembered the item that the general had used to teleport him and Adelaide away and then looked down at the ring that remained on her finger, hugging tightly, refusing to even so much as slip a hair's breadth from where it had clung to her skin. She had replicated the spell on her own. Well, not on her own. The ring definitely had something to do with it.

He sighed, letting his gaze move from her hand back to her face, checking in on her. She looked rattled, he couldn't blame her. "...are you alright?" He wondered, the slightest hint of worry in his voice, a worry he suppressed as he began to remember how angry he had been with her for what she had done. "Honestly, Adelaide. You could have gotten us both killed back there. We need to get rid of this thing, immediately."

"I don't think she's listening to you, Isen." The voice chimed in. It was right.

"Adelaide?" He questioned, a second time, speaking her name with a further tone of concern.
 
Adelaide barely heard his words, they sounded so far away and she couldn't tell what he was saying. She was too busy holding her throbbing head in her hands and trying to understand what had happened, and why she had seen that scene of all things. It was only when he said her name a second time that her head snapped toward him, her eyes wide as she struggled to focus on him for a moment. Her hands fell away from her head slowly as she looked down at them, flexing her fingers as the feeling of glass digging into them finally disappeared. It had all been a hallucination. The only glass on her now was from smashing the case to get the ring, there were no shards embedded in her hands, no blood staining her skin like she had thought there to be.

"Where are we?" She shook her head in an attempt to clear it before pushing to her feet, stumbling briefly before righting herself and cursing. "Did I do that?" The facility she'd been taken to was nowhere in sight, and over the drummer's serenade in her head she could distantly hear voices of people. "I don't.. What happened?" They had been inside the room with all the artifacts, she had taken the ring...

It was a blur from there. Men had attacked them, she'd tried to get to Isen, and now they were outside. It was a muddled mess otherwise and she continued to curse, looking uneasily around them before back to him.

"Isen, what did I do?"
 
Did she not remember what she had done? How was that even possible?

"You used the ring. One minute we were fighting and the next, we were here. We're near the town, I can hear them. You some how sent us miles away in an instant." He explained what he had inferred from the situation, continuing to look over at her with a curious concern. She didn't seem herself, this had taken a toll on her. He knew this would happen the minute she put that damn ring on her finger.

In what might have been misconstrued as an attempt at intimacy, Isen reached for her hand, the hand that the ring had latched onto. His fingers curled about the golden band and he tried to move it but, as he suspected, it seemed unwilling to budge. Furthermore, simply touching it filled his body with an intense feeling of dread, like it was warning him to stay away. How could she handle having it against her skin constantly? He pulled his hand away almost as quickly as he had reached it out. It seemed, at least for the now, that ring was going nowhere.

"Are you alright?" He repeated the question a second time now that she seemed more aware and cognizant. Isen wasn't used to her being so quiet, so distant. He almost preferred the version of Adelaide he had been dealing with before. Sure, she was annoying, but at least she felt genuine. This felt hollow.
 
"I did?" How had she done that without even meaning to? "What are you doing?" She jumped when he worked at the ring to try and remove it, pulling her hand back the moment he released her. "I don't.. I don't think it's going to come off." She rubbed at her hand self consciously and adjusted the bag on her back, holding the straps tightly before starting off toward the distant voices.

"I'm fine. We should probably get going so you can get what you need from your place and we can move on. We can't stay here after that." They couldn't, right? "We should probably find something to eat, anyway, if we're going to be on the run so soon." Maybe if she pretended like none of that had just happened, and just focused on them being safe, she could forget about the sickly feeling it had left her with.

"I'm going to guess we're walking anywhere we need to go, anyway. Might as well get started."
 
Isen brought himself back up onto his feet, brushing off the snow that had collected against his clothing. Was she really going to just act like none of that happened? As if she hadn't just stolen a powerful magical object and then used it's power to teleport, not once, but twice? He wasn't going to just forget what she had done nor was he going to give up on his intentions of separating her from that ring, but she did have a point, he supposed. They were too close to the facility they just escaped from, it wouldn't be long until they were hounded by more DSTF guards and they had already brought enough trouble to the people of this village.

"Very well." He simply told her, beginning to walk in the direction he heard the voices, knowing she'd follow. "But take it easy. You need time to recover after what you just did." He knew better than most what it was like to be effected by something so dark, of the drain it put on her body. If she pushed too hard too soon, he'd wind up carrying her home.

"Isen. Ask her a question for me." The demon chimed in once more, trying to start a conversation. "Ask her about her family. The Lancasters." The demon hadn't forgotten the last name she had given and it still seemed as intrigued by it now as it did back then.

"I'm not doing that." He replied. It didn't seem like the right time to bring it up, especially with all that was on her mind already. A painful past was the last thing she needed plaguing her while that ring and it's magic remained a part of her.
 
"I said I'm fine." She didn't even have the energy to snap at him as she kept walking, kicking at the snow but keeping her eyes forward. They would return to his small home, warm up while he got what he needed, and then they would be on their way again. Hopefully they could at least get through the day, or even just a meal, without being interrupted.

"What about my family, demon?" It didn't occur to her that she could hear it without touching Isen or the blade itself, and she walked for another solid ten seconds before the realization clicked and she froze, but only for a brief moment before she kept going.

"My family is dead. There's nothing to talk about."
 
Now she could hear it's voice without touching him? That was new. Another side effect of the ring and the dark magic, no doubt. She paused for a brief moment but continued walking as though it wasn't a big deal. He was inclined to do the same just to keep up with her.

"I figured as much." The demon spoke again, no longer needing to use Isen as a conduit for conversation. "But still, that name. It's familiar."

"It doesn't matter right now." Isen interjected, trying to shield Adelaide from the demon's prodding. "We don't have time to waste on telling each other sad stories right now."

"We are already walking towards our destination. I am not asking her to stop moving, I am simply asking her to talk."

"Why? Why are you so interested in her family, anyways?"

"The Lancasters, from what I can recall, were a powerful family many years ago and she too is a powerful witch. You've seen what she can do. There is nobody else who can manipulate the arcane the way she can. And now, she is in possession of that ring, using it's power without even realizing it. Forgive me for being intrigued but this is the first time since we met her that I feel something towards her that isn't contempt and I demand to know more about her past. I need to know if there is any connection."
 
"Will you please shut up already?" She stuffed her hands into her coat pockets to shield them from the wind, tensing her shoulders as the demon went on and on about her family as if she didn't know who they were. "First of all, I'm not a witch." It wasn't as if she was summoning demons from hell or making pacts with devils, nothing of the sort. She had simply been born with the ability to manipulate magic.

"My family is dead, so you won't have to deal with any of them other than me. The bastards stole and killed my family, and then they killed anyone I cared about when they found me again. I'm all that's left of my family that's still breathing." She shrugged and kept going, picking up the pace until she could begin to see the town and its inhabitants, although it was far busier than she would have thought. They appeared to be.. Packing up? Well, that would make sense.

"Don't know why you care so much about my family anyway. Who cares if they were powerful?"
 
The town was bustling with life but not in a particularly good way. This perfect little paradise had been ruined when they drew attention to it. Now, the Dissonants who remained were mostly looking for a way out. They knew that to stay here would mean eventual capture or oppression. It wouldn't be long before this place was completely abandoned. Who would watch over his sister's grave then?

He heard Adelaide speak about her family, filling in the blanks that he had already pretty much filled in on his own. Her thirst for revenge against the DSTF was personal, after all. It wasn't something she had just decided she wanted to do out of the blue, there had to have been some sort of underlying trauma fueling her choice. Isen felt the urge to apologize for her loss, or for the intrusion of the demon, but it wasn't his place to speak up and offer condolences. It wasn't like it mattered, in the end. It wouldn't fill the whole in her heart, it wouldn't calm her anger or do anything other than make her feel as if he were trying to pacify her.

"No reason." The demon replied but it was an obvious lie. "Hm. No reason at all."

"Good. Then we can move on." Isen mediated the situation, wanting to shift the subject elsewhere. "I give it until sundown before this place is completely empty. We should make sure we're gone by then as well. Gather what supplies you can before we hit the road." He didn't even really know where they were to go, just that they couldn't stay here. He would need to discuss it with her after she had been given some more time to digest all that had happened, she needed a clearer head before any decision could be solidified.

Isen directed himself towards the cabin he had been using. He didn't know if she was going to come with him or go and do her own thing. He didn't have a ton of things, he didn't really have much use for those belongings, but he would gather what he could and say a goodbye to his sister before they left. It would probably be quite some time before he could return here, if ever...her grave was the one thing that kept him grounded to his human side but if all went well, he would be seeing her again before long. Free of his curse and his suffering.
 
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