ChaoZ: A Royal pain in the elves.

(All on the same side. You all got blown in the same direction earlier. And the street is a bit too narrow to surround the beast from all sides since the thing itself is pretty big. You could possibly get around it though and attack from two sides. But you'd have to get pretty close to the beast for that. And the backside is all white glow, so that might be hard to attack. )

Jex breathes in before the "impact", ready to released upon the hit but it never came. Caught a little off guard, he decided quickly.

He let his breath out and attempted to shoot 10 light arrows from his staff while it was within the monster, allowing himself to continue his momentum forward, to the side of the beast.

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

Corvo let Nix go by him, two gold cards in his left hand and 5 steel tipped cards in the other. He saw Jex's swing and... Miss? Confused, he slowed a little bit more, allowing Nix to clear the path for him.

One of the claws tries to block Rol's bullets. But they tear right through the glow leaving bullet sized holes behind. The claw stops moving and suddenly explodes in a flash of light. Leaving only two glowing claws.

--

The beast cringes with pain as light arrows are fired inside it. It groans and falls to one knee.

Jex manages to avoid getting sucked into the darkness and moves past it safely. But then he suddenly feels something pulling at his staff which is still partway inside the beast. At the same time the white glow behind the beast begins to shift and move in an attempt to surround Jex and block all of his escape paths.
--

Nix notices Jex slowly being surrounded by the white glow and rushes forward to help him.

One of the remaining claws tries to block her path but she cuts through it as if it was butter.

But then as she gets close and is about to dig her axe into the white glow, the beast unleashes another blast of air right in her face and sends her flying. She hits the ground hard and rolls back in front of Corvo's feet.

"Ugh." She groans."
--
The last remaining white claw rushes at Corvo.

Rol noted his bullets actually worked on the beast's claws and decided to take priority of shooting at the claws. He saw one go for Corvo quickly, and took a few shots hoping they'd reach in time.

Rol's bullets leave holes in the glowing claw. After the first few bullets the claw retracts and avoids the rest of the bullets. Then when Rol has to reload the claw changes targets, leaving Corvo alone and going after Rol instead.
--

Nix coughs and slowly gets back on her feet. For a moment she almost loses her balance but gets it back and avoids falling back on her ass. She takes a deep breath. "Well, Fuck this shit. I'm out." She turns and makes a run for cover.

Corvo was about to throw his card at the monster's incoming claw but halted himself as Rol started shooting at it. It's attention moved away from him and he focused in on Jex's situation. He chucked his second to last gold card at the white mass that bellowed from behind the creature, hoping it would take some effect, and started running forward to aide his new crewmember.

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

Jex struggled and dug his heels into the ground. He wasn't even aware of the white form slowly wrapping around him until it was too late. He saw a flash of yellow energy streak by. Unsure of what it was he decided it was a fight or flight scenario and he sure as hell wasn't going to let go of his staff to run.


"Sagitta Magica! Pura Lucis!"

An intense amount of light magic attempted to release itself from the inside of the monster. Jex was unsure of what its effect on the beast would be but he could gather the light arrows did some harm to the creature.

Corvo's card hit its mark. Yellow sparks spread around the beast. Jex feels whatever was holding on to his staff inside the beast losing its grip for a split second. This was just before he unleashes his light magic.

There is a moment of complete silence. The beast looks down into Jex his eyes. A crack appears in its dark body. Behind the crack is pure white light.

The beast looks down at itself. Another crack forms.

The beast closes its eyes. Another crack appears, not on the beast but in the wall next to Rol.

And then another in the middle of the air in front of Corvo.

For a moment Jex can hear the sound of the prisons alarm clearly again. Then everything goes white.

And then.. Nothing.
--

Everyone else sees the beast erupt into a bright explosion that envelops Jex. The world around them keeps cracking. Some of the escaped prisoners that are still around now are frozen in fear and confusion.
Fluffy on the other hand doesn't even react.

And when the cracks seem to have spread everywhere.. the world shatters.
--

Jex for a moment feels nothing, sees nothing, hears nothing. All of his senses are gone. There is just an unending dark void.

Then he hears a familiar voice call out to him. "Jex! Are you okay? Jex? Hello?"

He doesn't seem to be able to respond even though he tries.
--

When the shards of the world have all fallen everything is back to normal. The sun is shining brightly again. The beast is gone and the alarm is still blaring.

Rol, Corvo and Nix realize they're still okay. Nix and Corvo still feels some pain from that fight but nothing they can't handle. Rol barely got hurt anyway so he's fine too.

All three of them see in front of them the handful of prison escapees that had been "consumed" by the beast. All of them seem unharmed and are fast asleep. Well unharmed by the beast at least, they still have the wounds they got during their time in prison.

Among them is Jex. Who is wounded and isn't moving. Nix runs over to him to check his pulse. "He's still alive! That explosion did a number on him though."

And in the middle of all this, lying on the ground, is a woman. Dressed in all black, with a mask covering all of her face, only her green eyes are visible. Her hair is pure white and extremely long. It probably almost reaches the ground if she stands up.
Two pointy brown ears are visible too. Their shape is that of a high elf.
She is completely unconscious.
--

Jex is still trying to respond but nothing he does produces sound.

Then he sees a blue energy form just a few meters ahead of him in the dark void. He recognizes it as Mana and he also recognizes who's mana it is.

The mana gathers and starts to form a humanoid shape. After a short while it is fully formed. And in front of Jex she now stands. Looking just like she did when he first saw her at the temple but instead of stone she is now made of Mana.
She also seems a bit taller?

Danielle looks at Jex with a worried expression. "Don't try to talk, it won't work. Just think what you want to say and concentrate hard on it. I'll be able to hear it like that."

Corvo runs up to Jex and kneels down next to him. He double checks his pulse, confirming that he's still alive. He sheaths his last gold card into his pouch and gestures for his people to come near him. Three cards reveal themselves from beneath his sleeves and he meticulously sets it up near both Jex and the woman.

"Someone grab that girl. We're getting out of here asap."

A portal forms once again in the middle of the three cards.

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

I'm fuckin dead


Jex exclaimed to himself. 

Thats it. Fuckin shit. Some rando boss fight I got fucking killed


Jex heard Danielle's voice and calmed down for a second. Okay, he wasn't dead. But, something was definitely wrong. He was aware but unconscious.

Limbo?


He saw the form of Danielle in front of him.

What happened?

"Was that lady the beast? Is that what we're supposed to be picking up from this? Or just another hapless victim?"


Rol approached the high elf lady as Corvo requested, using his shadows to cradle her in a hammock/stretcher like contraption. 

"Anybody wanna help with this?"

Danielle scratches her head. "I don't know the details because my senses were blocked. But from what I can tell your mind got separated from your body."

--
Nix looks over to the woman and frowns. "Looking at her black clothes and long white hair.. She looks suspiciously like the beast. At least in color scheme. It was kinda hard to make out anything else about it. So if she's not the beast that would be a huge ass coincidence, no?"

--
Danielle floats closer to Jex while explaining the situation. "When my senses went dark I panicked. It was pretty terrifying, you just went through a similar situation so you probably know how I was feeling. I tried to break through whatever was blocking them. It didn't work but I could tell there was fighting going on. So I decided it would be better to wait."

Her tail flicks up and down. "I think I heard you say something to me but I couldn't understand it. What did you say?"


"Either way because of that I knew I was probably somewhat safe. So I managed to calm down."
--
Nix stands back up and turns to Rol. "Sure, I'll help. But someone should also carry your friend. Because he isn't gonna wake up any time soon I think."
She points to Jex who seems to be sleeping peacefully. His staff laying right next to him.

She then walks over and helps Rol lift up the woman.

--
Danielle tilts her head and puts her finger to her chin. "After a few minutes of silence I felt a large burst of energy. An explosion or something?" She shrugs.


"Then suddenly I got some of my senses back. Not all of them though. Most of my senses are borrowed from my wielder, you. And you were unconscious so I still couldn't see or hear. But I could at least feel energy things like magic."

She slightly floats up and sits down on a chair that isn't there. "A split second after the explosion I felt some sort of spell being triggered. Then I felt your mind energy floating next to your body. Which is obviously not normal. That stuff is supposed to remain in your head."

She then immediately realizes what she said sounds kinda worth worrying about. "Oh, but don't worry! All magic is temporary after all. As soon as that spell ends your mind will naturally just go back where it belongs."

She suddenly frowns and looks to the side. "Unless of course someone is stupid enough to grab your body and take it far away. That way your mind would not be able to reach you.. Which would mean you would lose every single one of your memories permanently. Which would be very bad obviously."

--
Two of Corvo's men hear Nix say someone should probably carry Jex. So that's exactly what they go and do. However they do not pick up the staff next to him.

--
Danielle jumps up from the non-existing chair. "But don't worry! I've thought of that possibility. So I acted immediately and pulled your mind energy in here with me, in the staff. At least someone will remember to also take your staff, right?"

"Also if I didn't do that you would have gradually lost some mind energy while floating out there. Because I grabbed you so quickly you shouldn't have lost too much. Maybe a pair of small insignificant memories. Like the name of a classmate you never really talked to anyway if you had something like that. Stuff like that."

"As long as you are in here you won't lose anything." She smiles.
--

Fluffy's ears perk up. He turns around and growls.

In the distance Corvo can hear someone yelling. "The alarm's comin' from the prison! We shud go check 't out, see if the guards need sum 'elp!"

This is followed by a large amount of footsteps coming this way.

Jex listens carefully. Bouts of panic hit him but he knows making a fuss about it isn't going to help. He's just glad he's not dead. He frowns at the thought of missing some of his memories and thinks and fast about what he could forget but quickly stops figuring the paradox of trying to remember what he's forgotten. Probably nothing important like Danielle said but he'll definitely be mulling over this for a few nights.

Thanks, Danielle.

He mustered. Or thought, however that may be. He wasn't sure what would have happened had she not been here. He explained to her as much as he could remember from the fight since he figured all he could do at this point was wait and all they had was time.

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

Corvo gestures everyone, in his crew at least, to get into the portal. He waits until everyone is through and at his hideout until he steps in and closes the portal.

"I don't know my guy, that's why I was asking." Rol replied to Nix, then thanked her for assisting him.

"Eh, he'll be fine probably." Rol assumed that going with Corvo was the only call, so he followed the crew.

"I guess. He probably just needs to nap it off. Naps fix everything, at least that's what I always tell the kids." Nix responds to Rol as she helps him carry the woman to the portal. ".. I do hope my kids never have to nap off being hit by an explosion like that." She adds part as a joke and part as a genuine worry she now has.

First Corvo's men step through the portal with the sleeping Jex. They are followed by Nix and Rol, carrying the mystery woman. Fluffy sees Rol go through the portal and starts bouncing after him. He stops midway with a weird frown, almost as if he realizes he's forgetting something.
The manticore shakes his head as if brushing off the feeling and then leaps through the portal.

Corvo's last crew member also walks through and Corvo steps in after them. The portal closes and the street is left empty.

--

Danielle is sitting in mid air and making small talk with Jex when suddenly she goes quiet. Her eyes widen as she looks up at seemingly nothing. Jex can feel a sense of dread emanating off his glowing companion. "..Oh shit." She turns back to Jex. "T-they.. they forgot about us."
--

Back at Corvo's hide out everyone made it back safely. Well not everyone, obviously.

An angry Sarrinae pushed her past a crowd of celebrating crew members. She walked right up to Corvo. "The fuck happened back there?! First the portal opens, our people come through, then it suddenly closes again? Now it opens again and you come waltzing through like it's nothing?!"

She was one of the few who had stayed behind to hold the fort together while Corvo and the others were on their rescue mission. And although she wouldn't admit it she was very worried.

Then her eyes land on the mystery woman that Rol and Nix carried in. "Who in Eli's* name is that?! Let me guess, another fucking outsider?"

*(The high elven god of Light and pretty much their only god.)
--
About fifteen city guards arrive on the prison escape scene a few moments later. What they find is a mostly empty street with the by now very annoying alarm still blaring. The escapees who aren't asleep on the ground are long gone. The guards seem very confused.

Some of them head inside to ask what the Hel happened here.
--

Danielle can't believe what just happened. She's holding her head in her hands and would be pulling her hair if she could physically do that. "I-I.. I sensed some space magic outside. A portal I assume.. They all went in I think because when the portal spell ended the street was empty. I can't sense Rol, Corvo nor that Nix lady. I..I can't..can't sense your body either. They.. took it with them.. and forgot the staff.. they forgot us.."

All the emotions she is feeling right now are messing with her ability to keep her form. The blue succubus slowly starts to burn up and reverts back into a wisp of energy that just floats around.

Jex can feel all of the emotions she's feeling because he's inside the staff.
The panic, the fear, the sadness and a slight tinge of anger. Jex feels them all as if they were his own emotions. Some of them might even be. It's kinda hard to tell at this point.
--

Just outside of the prison we see someone slowly approaching the staff. A grin appears on their face as they bend over and pick up the staff.

Corvo puts a finger on her lips as if to shush her and keeps walking past her. He stretches his arms out, smiles, and lets out a breath. He looks behind him and spreads his arms out.


"Welcome back, my friends."

He grins as he walks towards the white haired woman and twirls his finger in the air, signaling his crew to tie her hands up.


"And welcome, Night Wraith."

He said, in a hushed tone. He looked towards the unconscious form of Jex and sent the people carrying him to the room he was allotted from the previous night.

"Don't worry too much Sarrinae. The world turns, the plates hit each other, mountains form. Absolutely nothing to worry about."

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

Jex closed his eyes, or at least tried to. He tried to focus but Danielle was distracting him. 

"Danielle. Where are we right now?"

He mustered to her. There isn't much use in panicking when they have no control over what happens next. Their best hope is that Rol, Corvo, or anyone really will remember to go back and get them before any permanent damage is done.


"Try to focus and tell me what you can sense around us."

Sarrinae raises an eyebrow and glares at Corvo with a look that says: "Did you just fucking shush me?! You beter have not just shushed or I swear to Eli."

The rest of the crew turns to Corvo. They all cheer in unison for him when he welcomes them back. Except of course Sarrinae, who does not seem amused at all.

Nix and Rol lay the woman down on the ground. Then Corvo's crew follow his order and tie up the mystery woman/Night Wraith's hands. The two others carry Jex to his allotted room.


"That's supposed to mean anything? Because it made no damn sense." Sarrinae huffs and starts walking away.


While watching all of this Nix turns to Rol. "Do you like.. feel we're forgetting something? I have this gnawing feeling that we might be forgetting an important thing?.. I thought I left the stove on or something at first. But I don't think I even have a stove?"
--

Danielle's panic attack last a bit longer and she doesn't respond to Jex. At least not at first. Then after a while she manages to calm down. Knowing she's still not able to fully form herself back to normal she decides it would be easier to form a miniature version of herself. (Imagine a chibi version.)

Once the mini-Danielle is fully formed she seems to take a deep breath and calm down. "Huh, thats odd, I don't need to breathe, so what the fuck was that."
"Alright, sorry.. I'm oka-.. No I'm not okay now but I'm here.. That's something .. I think."

Jex could feel the emotions around him calming down. The mana was settling down again. He knows that since Danielle is literally made out of only mana, controlling emotions would be much harder for her than most people. Because mana is after all nothing more than emotions in the form of energy.
Somewhat similar to how he right now is just thoughts and memories in the form of energy.

The mini-Danielle looks around carefully. "Okay, I'll try to focus." She closes her eyes and concentrates hard. A blue energy pulse shoots out from her and spreads beyond this void.

--
While walking through the narrow streets of Ostea the person carrying the staff is spooked, when a blue light suddenly emanates from it and then dies down again. They are spooked so hard that they drop the staff and it rolls downhill. They chase after the staff.

--
Danielle opens her eyes. "Well, I have good news and bad news."

"Sarrinae, my darling. We have the great Night Wraith in our hands. Bested by the flock, ourselves."

He takes out his last gold card and flips it around his fingers, playing with it. 


"I don't exactly know where to go from here but hey. She's here."

He walks up to her and unsheathes another card from his packet, it glows with a green hue and lets out a low hum. He taps it on her forehead and the green energy attempts to latch onto her.


"And if she tries to get away, this tracking magic will keep her in our sights."

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

Jex would frown if he could but thought to Danielle,


"Well? What have you got for us?"

Rol remembered something. That Fluffy was probably hungry. But he decided that could be dealt with later and listened to Nix suggest their forgetfulness. 

"Oh, I can guarantee we didn't forget anything all and accounted for. But maybe Jex.." He gestured towards the direction his friend was taken. "forgot something or you know couldn't remember anything because unconscious." He shrugged. "We can ask him when he wakes up."

Rol went to ask Corvo, or anyone really about doctor/healers up in here but was distracted but a passing thought.  
"Hey quick question. What do we do if she like.. Wakes up and goes ghost again?"

"Oh, okay. If you say so." Nix shrugs, drops the subject and starts to pet Fluffy.


Sarinnae stops walking and turns to look at the Night Wraith. She stands there in stunned silence for a bit. "You.. you captured what now?!" Her eyes wide, she turns to Corvo again. "You're saying that woman over there is the fucking Night Wraith?!" She points to the still unconscious woman.

The rest of the crew stops their cheering and turns their attention to the bound woman. Many of them are afraid of her because of the stories they've heard. Others are in awe. A few of them are in disbelief, after all isn't the night wraith just some propaganda by the rich to scare the common folk?

The green energy successfully latches on to the woman. Whatever her powers are they do not seem to be active when she's not awake. Which is the case for most people.


"How the fuck would this help us in any w-.. wait a minute. If that is really the Night Wraith.. all that is standing between us uncovering that demon's true identity is that flimsy mask on her face.. If we know who she is.. we can blackmail her into ..almost anything probably. Maybe. Depending how susceptible she would be to that kind of thing." A slightly creepy smile appears on Sarrinae's face.
--

"Well,.." Danielle begins. "Good news first I guess. We still seem to be in Ostae. We aren't that far from the prison. Someone seems to have picked us up. But I don't recognize anything about them. Luckily they seem to be rather.. clumsy. So I doubt they're too dangerous."

The mini-Danielle scratches her horn. "The bad news however is.. well, Clumsy-Pants out there got scared when I scanned the area and dropped us. So currently we are rolling downhill with an idiot chasing us.

Now this doesn't seem too bad right? Well it gets worse.

I'm sensing running water ahead of us. Probably a river. So if Clumsy pants doesn't catch us before we hit the water.." She sighs.


"Who knows where we'll end up if that river flushes us into the ocean."

Corvo, crouched in front of the white-haired woman strokes at the stubble on his chin. He puts his fingers on the mask covering the woman's face and runs it down the mask's cheek. He lets his fingers clasp on to the mask and attempts to take the mask off with his right hand, left hand still fiddling with a gold card.

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

Jex wasn't really sure how to go about this. There wasn't really much they could do besides talk to each other and let the time pass and hopefully, someone would find them. 


"is there any way to cast any magics from inside?"

The woman groans when Corvo touches her mask. She doesn't wake up though.
Corvo slides the mask off, revealing the womans face.

Sarrinae frowns. "I.. I have no idea who that is." She sighs, seeming disappointed.

Corvo however does vaguely recognize the woman. But he doesn't know her name or anything else about her. He just remembers seeing her face in the newspapers a long while ago.
He does get the sense she is probably someone important though. Otherwise she wouldn't have been in the news.
--


"Well.. Normally no. Since I need a wielder to be able to channel spells through. Which is normally you but well.. you know." Mini-Danielle fluttered around trying not to panic.


"..You are kind of here though, just not your body. So .. In theory.." She pauses for a second.


"It would be very hard to pull off though. You'd have to roll pretty damn high We'll have to concentrate and sync up. You will have to really focus on the spell you want to cast. And I in turn would supply the Mana and speak the words to trigger it. But only basic spells would probably work. Spells with two words only."

She zooms closer to Jex. "Also my own supply of mana is not that high. So we only get three attempts. Less if the spell is more complicated. Either way by the time we tried a third spell we will probably be about to fall into the river. So time is an issue too."

She looks away, her expression grows sad. "So think of a spell you want to try. But please keep in mind.. If my mana runs out.. I'll ..cease to exist, forever. Since I'm made out of 100% mana and all."

She flies right up in Jex's face. Her tiny form being close enough that she is eye to eye with him. "And I Really, REALLY, do not want to die. So don't try to like teleport us or something. Please do not kill me."
--
Nix walks up next to Rol and turns to him. "Good question. I don't think he heard you though." She looks down at Corvo who has just taken off the Night Wraith's mask.

''Oh well, must not be that big of a deal then." He shrugged

Rol turned to talk to Sarrinae, as he assumed Corvo was too busy face molesting the night wraith. "Hey, do you guys got like healers or doctors? 'Cause I don't really know how hot my unconscious friendo is doin."

Jex nodded as best as a formless body of magic could and focused. He attempted a projection spell. He focused as much as he could on Roltharus and tried to send a single word to his head:


"Staff"

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

Corvo gestures over to one of the humans that had escaped from the prison with them. 


"Do we have any data on this girl? She looks... Familiar."

"I've got some wounds too so some healing for me would be nice as well." Nix adds to Rol's question.

Sarinnae turns to them and frowns. "Yeah, we've got healers. But I ain't one of them." She then turns away again.

"She does?" She replies to Corvo. "I'm not sure if we have anything on her but I can send some guys to search through the archive room filled with boxes of  random paper files. Anything in particular they should be searching for?" She asks.

"I'd complain about them ignoring us. But compared to being shot at by my own boss this is still an upgrade." Nix shrugs.
--


"Well that's not what I meant by two or less words.. But that could work too." Mini-Danielle nods and concentrates. She tries broadcasting the the word far enough to reach Rol. A pulse of energy spreads out from the rolling staff.
--
Outside the guy is still chasing the staff when the sudden energy wave surprises him again and in his shock he trips over a loose stone and falls on his face.
--

Suddenly Rol is hit by a realization. He is in fact forgetting something. He hasn't had a proper shower in weeks.

Oh and also something stiff in his pants? Or was it some other stuff? Steffanie? No..

"Huh, Why did I suddenly think about a staff?" Nix says suddenly out of nowhere.




"What? Me too, that's strange." Sarinnae adds.

Corvo also sees a flash of the word 'staff' in his mind.

So does pretty much everyone else in the entire city. Most of them have no idea why or what it could possibly mean.

But before Corvo, Rol, Sarinnae or Nix can react to the thought, the night wraith's green eyes open suddenly. She coughs. "I think, it might have something to do with the staff your friend used to attack me. And if my guess is correct you guys fucked up and left it behind." Then she spits a bit of blood out of her mouth onto the ground.
--

"I, I think it worked." Mini-Danielle cheers.

"Now what? We still have two spells." She says, unsure of how that helped them.
As the staff keeps rolling down the hill.
--
On the other side of the city Riaden is purchasing a hot meal. When suddenly the word 'Staff' comes into his mind. "I fucking knew it." He mutters under his breath.

"I don't know dude. Because you're a new staff member of this shady gang business? Have you recently used a staff, maybe seen one? Jex has one, it talks."


Rol went back to thinking about how rude the gang lady was and how else he was gonna get some healing done when the night wraith said something about Jex's staff. "OOooohh nooo. Jex is gonna be so angry. Also, why'd she wake up all sassy like? Seems like a bad decision." 

Jex smiled as best as a body of mana could smile. He wasn't sure what to do next but at least one person in his crew would figure out a way to find them. He heeded Danielle's warning regarding the water and tried casting his second spell.


"Glacie"

He was hoping an ebb of ice would be enough to catch the ground and hopefully freeze them in place.

_______________________________________________

Corvo turned to the woman and kept the gold card behind his back. He approached her and squatted down to meet her eye to eye. He didn't say anything but he took in the detail of her face and any actions she made. The gold card flipped and danced between his fingers behind his back.