Legend of Ransera

When Hilana awoke, she would find herself alone. Looking around would reveal a world that was dark, desolate and empty, filled with sand and stone, darkened from clouds. Before her stood a city of stone and spires, with sprawling villages lying in ruin and decay extending out around it. There appeared to be no life of any kind around, no insects, no lizards, no plants, no other people. No wind blew, no warmth was found, nothing but an exhausted landscape of seemingly a civilization lost. Hilana would feel her aether was in a chaotic flux, a panic of sorts, and she'd be able to feel the aching wound of where her Rune of Elementalism had once been. Any attempts to reach for that rune would result in blindingly white pain.

BOOM!

Thunder rocked through the world, and a massive portal opened up above the city. A massive figure of swirling elements floated through, turning towards HIlana as it balanced atop the tallest spire. A hand was raised and the world flashed red, and the desolate landscape around Hilana flared into life around her. There were people now, screaming in pain, stumbling in blind panic as flames of crimson and onyx burned at their skin. The dead sands were replaced by the charred remains of grasslands and shrubbery, burnt skeletons of creatures and ashy shells of dead tress extended seemingly infinitely. There were buildings, thousands of them, of every architectural style known to mortals and many more, all of them awash in flame and in various states of being consumed.

An elvish man, face half burnt off, his torso covered in blackened skin, lurched forward, grabbing at Hilana's arm, gasping out words, "Please! Please make it stop! Plea..." before he collapsed at her feet, the fire continuing to spread over him, his smoke and stench dominating the air around Hilana. A pair of desert foxes screeched and howled by, trying to outrun the flames spreading over their fur, and the temperature of the air around was rising rapidly, and breathing would begin growing difficult.

And the figure in the distance hovered there over this burning hellscape, watching Hilana with her dark eyes.

!	Message from: Aegis
	Hilana's Elementalism rune has been removed from her, leaving a painful void upon her soul and applying several strains of personal magic upon her person (for you to show as you see fit), lessened by her Journeyman resistance.

Hilana stared at the monolith, her big brown eyes near ready to pop out of their sockets as she saw herself and the kaleidoscope of colours pouring out of her. Was this some sort of trick? Was it actually happening? That soon answered itself, because she felt like she was gut-hooked in that one moment of agonized clarity before the burning sensation of her Elementalism Rune that had been gifted to her by Avaerys Himself, was yanked away from her, and her doppelganger swallowed it. Not unlike one of her serpentine pets, she realized, as it all went black.

When she woke up, she was alone, and she pushed herself into a seated position from the sand. One hand went to her head, recognizing the throbbing, aching headache that came from doing too much with her Runes. There was a fatigue there that was fighting with her own innate wildness, and normally the strain was a contented calmness. This was very much not normal, and she needed it to level out and work through it. And as she opened her eyes, she saw the nasty-looking scar that covered her right palm where her elaborate, golden, floral sun-like rune had been. Faex, faex, faex! She had done it again, hadn’t she? Gotten her friends into trouble, and this time... she was separated from them. Even without her Elementalism, she had her other skills, and now, well, she couldn’t use them to help them. They weren’t here; she couldn’t give them restoratives like the ones she had in her bag. Her rucksack was at least firmly on her back, and she lowered her hand, taking stock of her surroundings.

If you don’t know where you are, that’s the first thing to do. Figure it out. Make a note of what you were looking at. Her tongue pressed over her teeth, and she shifted her skirts to get her legs under her and push herself into a standing position. Her bones hurt. Her lungs hurt. This wasn’t as bad as it had been when she had first gone through threshold sickness, but the throbbing headache began to pound and flash spots across her vision. She braced herself and closed her eyes, willing it to calm down before she had to shift her rucksack to one shoulder and open an eye again once the bag was open. From the different compartments, she sorted through her elixirs, pulling out a vial of the pale lavender liquid that was her mountain star thistle draught, opening it and downing the contents before capping it and putting it back in the rucksack. She also took two Magma Bloom petals from the waxed bag and stuck them in her mouth to start chewing. Her senses still felt off, because the petals didn’t taste like they should have, and that told her that If need be, if it didn’t go away in time, then she was going to need her Mask. She didn’t think her Volumen would show her much at that moment, so she left it in its scroll case where it was tucked away.

She didn’t need her fledgling Semblance to know that that Rune was gone, permanently or otherwise. Her reflection had swallowed it, and until it was back on her Palm... she wasn’t about to try to use it. There was no call of the elements, none of the friendly whispers and murmurs she had gotten used to being accompanied by. She had gone where the lost ones go. Thunder cracked, and that reverberating boom woke her sluggish Wildness up. Hilana turned her head sharply towards the sound, taking in the portal and the changing scene. As people screamed and spilled from everywhere and nowhere, all of them panicking and in stages of suffering and dying, she realized that she couldn’t help them. She couldn’t save them, not the way she normally would have. There were too many, and her supplies were finite. But when the elvish man grasped her arm, Hilana’s hand held his elbow, helping support him as her eyes searched his face. But with the fire spreading and he collapsed, she had to let go of him, stepping back and away, looking at the figure that was balanced on the spire.

So much damage. So much death and destruction. So much that she realized she could have done, if only she was of a mind to do so. The aridity and stench in the air made her cough, bringing up a bare arm to cover her nose and mouth for a moment before she pulled her brightly-coloured scarf from her bag. At least one thing from her aunt-turned-stepmother was useful, because Hilana folded it thrice into a longer rectangle and tied it at the nape of her neck before adjusting it to make sure the bottom half of her face was covered. And as she and the figure looked at each other, Hilana exhaled. “If you run, they’ll never let you stop. You’ll only die tired,” she quoted her maternal grandfather grimly, and while everything and everyone else was trying to flee the figure, the Vastiana gathered her skirts and started towards the epicenter of the firestorm, a slow walk starting into one that was more purposeful.

As Hilana walked toward the center, Void Hilana watched on with amusement and wonder. A connection between her and Hilana opened up, a sharing of emotions, but not thoughts or speech. Elation, hunger for power, the wonder of discovery, pure joy at being challenged and surprised. Her Elementalism was stronger than it had ever been. This other rune... Traversion, was interesting. She attuned with Fire here and found that she could summon forth everything that been touched by flame and sent to the Void. A snide chuckle passed through the empathetic bridge with Hilana. The Gods threw away so many fun toys.

What a waste.

As Hilana traveled, a nearby hut blast a flame out, launching the door halfway across her walking path where it exploded in coals and ash. A woman stepped out of the hut, the flames circling around her in a lithe dance, her fierce gaze locked on Hilana. The nomad would recognize her sister Athalia anywhere, even if there was something different about her garb, her gaze, her demeanor. Minor differences really, but enough that it was obvious it was not the same Athalia she knew.



She made a beeline for Hilana, the flames between the two of them leaping out of the way, forming a ring encapsulating the two of them, closing in tighter as she came closer and closer. Once in striking reach, a smirk grew on her face, and a gust of wind pushed Hilana forward, and Void Athalia caught her in a warm embrace. Whispering lovingly in her ear as she squeezed tight, "The winds always bring your scent to me, dear sister mine."

She leaned back but still held Hilana close, smiling at her sister, before cocking her head to the side, "Where's your earth? Your fire?" A flit of the hand, and she cast her gaze toward Void Hilana, a sneer crossing her face, "Who dares steal my sister's visage and power?" She stepped back, sniffing at the flames, "Fire is scared of her, her power is greater than what she stole. And twisted. Fire is in pain. They..." she winced, "They're screaming so loud."

Athalia looked to her sister, "Like old times?"

!	Message from: Aegis
	Void Athalia has joined Hilana and may be utilized by you. She's mastery in Elementalism, with an Arch of fire, with expert in six relevant skills, not magic, of your choice. You must choose those in your next post, either directly or in an OOC note.

She felt that strange connection between the two as she looked at her Void-self, her head up and brown eyes looking on. If they’d been closer, brown would have met black, and Hilana was trying to figure out some sort of strategy. This had to stop, and she had to get her Rune back from her. Until a few seasons ago, Hilana had spent her life without any such Rune, but since it had been gifted to her in Ash, the Vastiana had embraced it. It had become a very real and tangible part of her life, deepening her connection to the world around her, and she was going to need it back. There was much to do, and His Divine Radiance Himself had said she was well-built for it.

That snide chuckle, though... That was certainly not her own. “Snideness does not suit us,” Hilana muttered to herself behind the scarf that helped with the breathing, and she bunched her skirts and twisted up a handful of the fabric near the waist to bundle it into her belt in order to give her some more freedom of movement as she made her way forward. She wanted a challenge, she was going to have to find a way to give her one. She didn’t have her Elementalism, and she understood well the chaos and destruction that an Elementalist mage hell-bent on such could cause. It was the usual cautionary tale and warning that was told often enough when Arcana was discussed.

The Vastiana considered as she walked. She could try to push her into overgiving and then do something. She’d swallowed that Rune. Maybe Hilana had to gut her Void-self like she was butchering an animal to get it out. While she was not squeamish... She knew she was not going to be so hardy as to be able to outlast this kind of battle and damage while trying to push her Void-self into too much. On the other hand, if she killed her Void-self, did that leave her taking her place in it, in this land of the lost, discarded, and forgotten? This was her turf, and Hilana was at a severe disadvantage that way. The Mask might help her get close, but with this... empathic connection they had... chances were, she might get some ideas of what she was planning.

She pivoted and danced back as a door burst off of a hut and turned into flames and burned away, preparing herself for what was going to come out of it. More children burning to death? And it was to her surprise that it was the youngest of her three elder sisters. “Athalia?” This was almost certainly another trick, but her Void-sister was coming right to her, and with that urgency, Hilana’s steps picked up to help close the gap. "Athalia!" The wind from behind her pushed her, and the two enveloped each other. This was far more of a hug than Hilana thought she’d ever had from her, considering the superficiality of their own relationship outside of the Void, and she hugged her tightly, lowering the scarf that covered the bottom half of her face. Her forehead rested against her sister’s, and at her questions, the younger Vastiana raised her right hand, showing her the ugly scar that occupied the place the molten-gold Rune had previously graced, and indicated the figure in the distance with her finger.

She listened as Athalia spoke, looking at the flames around them. “She’s not balanced,” Hilana realized. “Because she is off-kilter, the Elements are. Fire is afraid of that, isn’t it? Being out of balance.” Her eyes searched Athalia’s, and she looked on up at her Void-self. “Air, Earth, Fire... Mother’s Water,” she looked on. “‘Remember you are Fire. Burn, tame, adapt, ignite.’” She quoted their maternal grandmother, Amina. “We will find a way to fix it and soothe them,” she found her sister’s hand and squeezed it. In her waking reality, there were no old times. They had grown up as apart as possible, grudges that left chasms between the eldest three and the youngest girl, but had been papered over for appearances. But had things been different... Wildness recognized its own, and it did now. “Like old times,” she promised her. “The balance needs to be restored... and I need that Rune back.”

“Let’s go, then,” Athalia squeezed her hand, and the two sisters started for the epicentre of the firestorm. With the older sister’s mastery of Fire, she was gathering the errant flames that whirled and whorled past them. They burned, they had to adapt, and they tamed and he had to tame. Only by helping to calm the fire could they hopefully use it against the Void-Hilana that was waiting for them. And now that she had her sister... she smiled sidelong at her. This could give her a fighting chance. If she could get Athalia into a good position... then she knew the one with her had serious firepower. The faint scar of a handprint on her arm was proof. While it had faded, it hadn’t vanished all the way. Hilana could have with any number of herbal remedies... but she had kept it.

“Trial by fire might burn, but the scars are neat reminders,” the younger sister remarked, her eyes on their target. There was someone there that they were going to have to meet, and either take care of, situate, or solve. But one way or another, Hilana needed her Rune back, and Semblance was not going to get her very far on its own right now. The growing fire that danced around the two of them could hopefully start to calm, as Athalia gathered it, and kept it ready in preparation. For two girls who had lived in the heat of the desert all their lives, this was less of an issue, but the way the Element deferred to the Master kept them from getting soaked to the skin with sweat. “Out of the frying pan--”

“--and into the fire,” Athalia finished for her.

Void Hilana laughed loudly, to be heard across the land, and the flames outside of Athalia's control quaked in fear, "HE'S DEAD!!!" Her laughter was boisterous and genuine, her cackle dark and thunderous. A portal opened up, roughly half the distance between the two Hilanas, just above the smoldering corpse of what appeared to be a gigantic creature, a tortoise perhaps, far greater in size than any had a right to be.

Through the portal, two brightly glowing orbs, similar to that which Void Hilana had pulled out of Hilana and swallowed. The two orbs were floating lazily in the direction of Void Hilana. No... not lazily. Pulled. Some force was drawing them toward her, while they tried to pull back.

The fires around Athalia grew and grew greater, but strain was starting to show on her face. "She... her touch is.. she could rip all this from me as easily as plucking a Hava fruit..." A wince, "We need more than this... we need something she doesn't have control over." The flames grew and swirled around them, protective of the two that did not seek to wield them in the way the other woman was.

A chuckle, "My little troublemaking sister always has a plan."

Looking around, as flames were pulled from people, their wounds began to heal. No, not heal. Reverse maybe. Unmade. They began to wake up, confused, scared, panicking. Some approached the sisters, begging to be saved, getting in the way. A boom cracked across the land, and a portal opened up just meters from them all, and the growing crowd ran past Hilana and Athalia. From the portal, it stepped out. It stood only a head or two taller than HIlana, wicked horns, body covered in fiery and glowing cracks. It wielded a whip of fiery chains, that it cracked now, and in doing so, unleashed a torrent of flame that leveled a building nearby.

And it took a step toward the sisters.

At the shade’s demented laughter, Hilana’s heart pounded so loudly she thought she could hear it in her ears. Who? Was it Æros? Rickter? Had she gotten her friends injured again, or worse, killed? But when the portal opened and she realized what it was... well, there was some blasphemous relief that it was only the Great Tortoise of Gel’Grandel instead of her companions. But that relief was followed by succor that she had to push back down as she took a steady breath. The Void-self wanted reactions. It wanted her off-balance. She couldn’t allow that, not with these stakes. This one was demented, but she couldn’t afford to let her get her goat. If she did, further mistakes were bound to happen. But as she looked at the smouldering corpse of the Tortoise, she was beginning to get something of an idea.

At Athalia’s words, Hilana glanced at her. The stress on her face was clear, and the girl pulled out one of her lavender-coloured thistle draughts for her. “Drink. You’re going to need it before we get closer,” she warned her. As she saw those orbs, she recognized them and realized. Her Rune. Perhaps one of---... she couldn’t allow herself to think of that, not right now. They were very much out of time, if they were coming to her. Inasmuch as Hilana would have loved an opportunity to make some time to figure a way out... the longer this went on, the stronger her Void-self got and the more stress her sister was going to be under.

But at her words, Hilana smiled grimly, and let out an almost-mirthless chuckle. “You know me well, soror mea. We’re going to need something beyond your fire, Athalia... we’re going to use it all. What did we learn in the Sands? Everything is a resource if you look at it from the right angle. But we’re out of time. She cannot get those orbs, those glowing ones, or she’s going to get stronger still,” she explained. “Those are Runes. She stole my Elementalism, somehow she has Traversion, with these portals, and those two... those have to belong to the others, so we have to intercept those, or take her down before she can swallow them.”

People were coming alive again, swelling and forming a mob. “You have to go!” Hilana told them urgently. “Go! Scatter!” The portal opened meters away from them, and the Vastiana exhaled, her jaw tight as she surveyed the beast stepping out. “Athalia... we need that tortoise shell,” she indicated the discarded horror that was still smouldering, adding to the horrific stench in the air. Her sister followed her gaze. “Fast,” she advised her. “Proper speed and leverage.”

“Everything is a resource if you look at it from the right angle,” Athalia repeated as she realized what her sister wanted. “Founders forgive us!” The earth around the tortoise tipped it onto its belly, and the howling wind was utilized to cut off the extraneous limbs that still stuck out. As the earth tilted, the wind pushed. With the unencumbered shell on its set path, it barreled down from the space between the sisters and the Void-self and headed straight for the spiked demon that was wielding a whip. “We must keep it there, Hilana,” her elder sister told her, “because its course is set. Too much more...”

“Back up, back up,” Hilana grabbed Athalia’s hand and moved her, and by extension, the protective flames that were still trying to keep a protective ring around them, as she pulled her sister away, veering off towards the creature’s left side. “This way!” They went left because with the whip being wielded in its right hand, crossing over theoretically shortened that chain-like whip and decreased its control over the weapon. Further, if it shifted its weight and path... And if they got closer... the girls could feel the earth itself quaking as the shell’s velocity continued to grow with the angle. She pulled Athalia along with her, keeping herself between her sister and the spiked monster. She couldn’t go too far; she needed to keep it distracted, its attention on them so that it didn’t realize the trick the girls were playing on it. And as it raised its whip, Hilana pushed them on, knowing they were going to need distance, as the once-jewel encrusted shell of the Tortoise smashed into the red-skinned monster.

Both of the Vastianas stumbled from the impact, and when Hilana got to her feet and helped Athalia up, she checked the results of their handiwork. “Enmesh it,” she urged Athalia, pulling the scarf off from around her neck to wrap it around her hand before reaching for the handle of the whip. “As light as we can for as long as we can. Let the fires go, let them stay if they want, but don’t stress your aether anymore. They will follow us. They are coming. They know that you are safe, that we are safe,” she hefted the creature’s weapon, looking back at her Void-self and the orbs that were trying to get away from her before Hilana raised the weapon and tried to crack it in the direction. She knew how to crack a towel, so how much harder could a chain whip be? In any event, the sisters were on the move once more.

“We need to get her down from that spire,” Athalia told her. “If you want her away from the orbs. Can you see any weaknesses in it? You’ll need a target. It doesn’t have to be something that brings it all down... but if you take away part of it, Hilana... it can be destabilized.”

“She cannot be allowed to devour those, or we’re finished for good,” Hilana shook her head. “I don’t know what Runes they are, but they’re likely ones we do not have,” she focused on the spire as they were approaching it, activating her Semblance to start scouring the rocky structure, trying to find a weakness that they could pinpoint and act on - either with Athalia’s Elementalism, or with their new trophy.

Much harder than snapping a towel, it seemed. The amount of force in a whip of chains wielded by a fiery demon was substantial, even if in untrained hands. The whip was snapped and the force multiplied as it traveled along the links. Fire erupted out the end of the weapon, shooting off errantly into the sky, as the pull of the chain yanked Hilana's shoulder and elbow out of socket.

Athalia gasped, feeling the flames that had allied with her shirk in fear away from the weapon. "It... enslaves them. That's what she's doing. She's enslaving the elements, to go against their very nature."''

As Hilana cast her Sembled gaze about, her eyes landed upon something so bright, she wouldn't be able to hold it for long without severe damage. Void Hilana was no longer hovering over the peak of the distant tower. She had snapped through a silent portal so fast that her presence wasn't known until it began to burn the aether in Hilana's eyes.

She cocked her head at Hilana though. "Who was looking through you...?" Athalia threw a column of fire at the woman, but it sailed harmlessly through her, as though it hadn't even noticed she was there. She continued to stare and study and scrutinize HIlana's eyes, "Oh, is that where he's been all this time...? I do owe him for last time..."

She leaned back, crossing her arms, smirking at Hilana, a side eye on Athalia, freezing her in her tracks, "Let's make a deal. Let me look through you, as he has done, and you can leave here, alive." She looked over at Athalia, "Both of you."

She held up both of her hands, palm upwards, and the two floating runes snapped over to her, covering the distance in an instant. "You can't beat me by yourselves. Two little sand rats, one discarded by the other?" A hearty laugh, "At least Aeros was amusing before his last drop fell from his gaping throat."

Her hands brought the two orbs out in front of her, just in arm's reach of each woman, "Let me look through you, Hilana, and you can both leave here, with these runes. Your runes, empowered beyond anything you've ever known."

Athalia paused. "I.... I can leave?" She looked at Hilana, "I don't have to be stuck here in this endless eternity? I can..." A tear fell, "I can feel the world again?"

Hilana gasped and grunted when she felt the way her elbow and then her shoulder dislocated, and she hissed her next breath as a curse. “Faex, faex, faex.” She had to let go of the whip, because her fingers were starting to twitch as pain raced up and down her side. Her free hand felt over her injured limb that was already starting to discolour. She could feel the dislocations. Full. Not good, but could at least be worked out. She was going to be in for a world of hurt later, but the Vastiana was a stubborn girl. It wasn’t her first rodeo with dislocated limbs, and her breathing was ragged for a moment as she sought to get herself under control. She didn’t have time for this. “Athalia, my forearm,” she told her, showing her elder sister where to hold, and as if she was visualizing it, Hilana’s eyes closed for a brief moment, before settling her own palm where she needed it. “Hold tight,” she warned, taking in a breath, relaxing, before twisting and pushing. The kinetic force between the two girls meant her elbow had motion again, even though it caused new flashes of pain throughout her entire nervous system.

She didn’t have time for this, she reminded herself. She didn’t have time for this. She needed to get back, and then they could fight or deal with whatever the hell this thing was. She had to get back to her friends, they had to get back home. They had to... She breathed again. “Hold up here now,” Hilana guided her sister’s hands to her biceps. “Both hands now, I can’t use this one for it.” She felt Athalia’s touch, touch that had burned her once, but was now a warm embrace of its own. Faex, when she got out of here she was going to find her and hug her and apologize for being such a horrible sister. With that bitter fact in mind and Athalia anchoring herself, Hilana’s fingers probed the dislocated shoulder joint and forced herself backwards. The manipulation of the bones meant the joint returned to the socket, and at Hilana’s nod, Athalia released her hold. “Faex,” she breathed out, rubbing her face with her other forearm. She could live with this. She didn’t want to take another draught, and she would just have to leave it for now until she could understand and beat this Voidspawn or get out of here.

“She’s what? It doesn’t work that way, it should never work that way. They’re going to fight back, and when they do...” When she used her Semblance and the brightness was too much, Hilana blinked and let it go, blinking her eyes repeatedly to clear the light spot from her vision. That was different. That... that was something she definitely wasn’t supposed to be looking at, so what...? Who?

She raised her head, looking to the top of the spire. Where did that simulacrum get to? Faex, she needed--oh. She felt the burning in front of her, taking a step back with Athalia, holding tight to her sister once again, and keeping herself between her and her Void-self. With their enemy in front of them, Hilana listened to her words, trying to sense along the empathic bridge for what the other was feeling, not just what she was saying. She looked at her, at the orbs, at her sister, and then back to the Void-self.

Dominus Æros died? His throat was cut? Hilana’s guts twisted. This had to be a story. This had to be a trick of some sort. A lie, meant to distract and discourage her. “Who is he? What did he do to you last time?” the girl asked instead. She didn’t reach for the orbs that she held. Both of them leaving... that was when Hilana knew that this was a trick. She already knew that this was not Athalia. This was a version of her, something discarded... but perhaps she could find a way to bring her beyond this twisted, caramel poison apple being dangled in front of her.

The void was for that which was discarded and lost.

One discarded by the other.

An Athalia that she got along with.

The relationship that had been burned over a decade ago. The superficial, papered-over-the-yawning-chasm relationship was all that there was. Hilana had little to do with them, they had little to do with her. And as far as she had known, that was what was preferred. Was this what could have been? Had things been different? Then when she got out... “You’re going to get out of here,” Hilana told her sister quietly. “I promise you. You will feel the sun again. I will find a way,” Even if the Athalia that was there now was not this one... perhaps by trying to restore that relationship... this Athalia who had helped her so much could be made whole.

Void Hilana could only grin, "You're always so curious... Can't resist that which is just out of your reach. Always searching for the answers, can't keep your thoughts," a sly grin, "Or hands, to yourself."

The woman turned, taking the two runes with her, tossing them about nonchalantly, a juggler of powers impossible, "Oh, he didn't manage to do that much in the end. He took our beautiful ending and made it take a little bit longer." Through the bond between them, HIlana would feel overwhelming smugness at her giving a nonanswer such as that.

She paused, a strange look upon his face, the corner of her lips turning into a slight smiling sneer, "Oh, he's a bold one." She laughed loudly, "And here he comes, doing my job for me!" Her laughter slowly built, "Yet again! He comes along and just ruins everything!!" The laughter grew shrill and psychotic, Void Hilana's face stretching and contorting in rage, "It matters not! He cannot be stopped, not again! Never again!"

The highly empowered shields that Rickter built were sent through his connection with Hilana. They anchored to her soul, and expanded out around her. The two runic orbs were sent scattering into the fiery ruins, and Void Hilana summoned her aether to burn Hilana til not a single ash remained. But that Aether was ejected from within the shields, cast back into the void. Her eyes were enraged as she lunged towards Hilana, her nails dripping as she sought the throat of the curious lass.

There was a fwoosh. A flash. A plume of flames raced in through the shield, not hindered in the slightest for there was no aether controlling them. They rushed through and around Void Hilana, but no longer feared her now that her control was severed. The element itself exacted its own vengeance upon that who dared come into this realm and take not what belonged to them. There wasn't even time for her to scream as every single flame in the realm raced through her.

There wasn't an ash left.

The flames shot upward and dissipated, seeking to return to a balance here.

Those smug little words of hers... she was right, though. If Hilana had just kept her hands to herself and not jumped in, then maybe she wouldn’t be in this mess. Maybe none of them would be in this mess, and they would still be together and figuring out what in the world was going on. When she got out of this... not if, when, she reminded herself, she was going to need to keep training her Sembling ability. There were times when decisiveness paid off and handsomely... but this was not one of them. She had been in over her head, and rather than let those more educated and experienced than her take the lead... she had thrown herself and her friends into danger. And at least one of them, if this Void-version of herself was to be believed, was dead.

Her answers made no sense to Hilana, but it was buying her time to try to Semble the runic spheres that she held in her hands to figure out which one was which. Elementalism and Traversion. That made sense, what with the portals. At the same time, her innate curiosity was trying to process her words, but they were hints and cues and fragments of a larger picture that Hilana did not have, nor did she have the background education to have it, either. And just like that, the razor-sharp trigger snapped, and something in her opponent went from deranged to positively unhinged. Yet again, he just comes along and ruins everything. He cannot be stopped, not again. Never again?

Brightness indicated power to Semblance, sometimes, Domina Clelia had told her. Was this a God? And Winter had been welcomed back... Dominus Æros was winter-blooded Fae through his father, true, and Rick had said he was still getting used to the powers... Was he Winter? Was her dream-friend a God? What that who, or what, had been the cause of such brilliance on her Sembling sight?

That was when she felt it.

She felt the shields, felt that connection that reached beyond dimensions where they were separated. She had felt something similar before seasons ago, back when they had talked and he had offered to find a way to protect her. Hilana, in that pocket of Void, and Rick...wherever he was. Was he still in the real world? Was he in the Void as well? She was going to need to find a way to find him. Her mind was whirling, but she was used to sharp reactions, and now as her Void-shade lunged for her with those unnatural nails, Hilana forced Athalia back, even as the fire freed itself from Void-shade’s control... only to consume her. “Remember you are fire... Burn, tame, adapt, ignite,” Hilana whispered as the shade was annihilated, the shield having done everything that Rickter surely could have imagined it would. She only hoped that he was okay, too. “Rick!” she shouted, looking around them. She didn’t know if he could hear her. “Rick!?”

She couldn’t linger here. She activated her Semblance, darting towards the golden spheres and pulling Athalia along with her. “We need to get out now,” she told her. “We need to get back to Rick and find him and fix this. Fix it all,” she told her. She did have her Ring of Traversion that had been given to her by Daemon earlier in the season, and while she had been practicing... she needed to try to take the Rune back to Rick. That had to have been his, the way her Elementalism had been ripped from her. Æros hadn’t had that Rune, either. She found the first sphere, releasing Athalia’s hand to pick it up, and then the second. For something the size of a grapefruit, she had expected it to have some weight, especially with her arm injury, but it weighed nothing. It was as light as the air without breeze, and yet it burned her in a way that went past the skin to something else. Like aether. Soul.

When her Void-shade had taken her Rune, she had swallowed it. Hilana was no Animus to be able to unhinge her jaw in such a fashion, and she squeezed the glowing golden orb against the scarred palm of her right hand, trying to will it back into her soul, where His Divine Radiance had gifted it the first time as she beheld the Traversion sphere with her left hand.