Vien

Something felt off, but as much as the sensation bugged her, Aislynn was too entrenched in her internal battle to pay much attention to the outside world. She flitted through the crowd with relative ease, pausing occasionally to paw over some stall or another, a small item or two usually finding its way into the loose backpack at her side as she does so. It would not be until she reached the quarter that homed the Harbour, and likely the owners, drivers and workers that manned the great zephyrs themselves that she stopped.

Surveying her surroundings Aislynn chooses one of the more expensive looking restaurants, and is soon within and seated at the bar, her ankles hooked together against the bar of her seat. She can feel the weight of eyes upon her, and with an uneasy certainty she knows that sooner rather than later, someone would attempt to offer her exactly what she needed.

A way out.

She hadn't seen. She didn't know. That made Edward uneasy. He'd been counting on her paranoia to drive her deeper into the crowds flocking to the city's heart. The crowds thinned as they reached the wall circling the harbour, leaving Edward considerably more exposed. The bright colours of his purloined outfit became incongruous amongst the more muted uniforms of dirigible workers and business people moving back towards the business quarter.
He caught sight of Aislynn slip through the gates and made to follow her, but a grey-clad officer barred his way. Spewing an unintelligible diatribe, the policeman jabbed his bayonet under Edward's nose, gesticulating wildly back into the city.

With a mumbled apology Edward stumbled into another alleyway, following the curvature of the wall back into the city. He caught sight of another figure moving along the shadowy passage, dressed in the shapeless jumpsuit of a mechanic. The man didn't give him a second glance, rapping heavily on an iron-bound section of the dusty brick wall.

The wall section swung inward, revealing the concealed sally-port and yet another uniformed policeman behind it. The mechanic flicked a cursory glance over his shoulder, turning back to disappear inside the wall.

The policeman lay sprawled against the passage's back wall, a knife buried to the hilt in his throat. Hands shaking with a sudden rush of adrenaline, the man fumbled for the radio hanging at his hip. Before he could activate the device, a truncated fist smashed clinically into his throat, closing his windpipe and silencing the half-voiced cry of alarm.

Edward left the two corpses in the corridor, one still gasping for breath as his life ebbed away. Dispensing with the voluminous silks he pulled on the mechanic's oil-stained overalls, sliding the radio's small speaker into his ear. With the constant chatter of a highly co-ordinated operation buzzing in his ear he scaled an iron-runged ladder, eventually surfacing on the narrow wall-top.

Ducking behind a protruding radio-mast, he observed the front of the restaurant and the diminutive figure hunched over one of the tables.

The whole district drew a collective breath as they sprung the trap.

There was a jumble of noise, a voice and a tap upon her arm that she tried not to jump away from. A face, open and eager, looked down at her and it took Aislynn only a moment to reach out into the world and grasp the nearest shimmer, sliding it over her mind like a blanket. The language slowly shifted, until she understood it, but listened to each syllable as though it came through water. "you a drink, pretty lady?" She smiles and looks her companion up and down, before shaking her head. "No, thankyou." She keeps the accent broken, and flashes an apologetic smile before she looks around the restaurant again.

There were plenty of targets, men dressed more expensively than most, or bearing the uniform of a zeppelin captain... It is pure luck that she turns her gaze to the window, seeking to use it's reflection to study a few of the clientele more discreately. It is luck that she catches sight of a shape scaling a ladder across the crowded street. For a moment, she was idly curious, but it was only as he ducked out of sight entirely that she grew tense. As her mind began to wind up, she saw more. A face turned in her direction on the street outside, a suit that didn't belong... and then she saw it. A movement of lips, a hand raised to an ear... Her. Them. Here.

She has a moment to act, and she does the best she can. The profound drain that had been Edward's move to hospital, removal and then readmittance had left her with precious little energy to work with, but as two sets of invisible hands seem to strike hard at the large window, it all but explodes out towards the street. People shriek, and she has barely a moment to see that They are moving before she is on her feet. Her pale skirt gets gripped in one hand, bunched tight as she almost hurdles through the window and starts running. The confusion might give her a moment, but she doesnt count on it being long, and so she sprints with all of her ability towards the dock.

Too late.

She feels the red hot bolt of pain hammer into her right leg as she puts it down, sending her tumbling to the ground in an undignified heap. It had been a lucky shot, and although there is no blood, she knows that beneath her skirt her flesh would already be bruising. Her eyes grow wide as she tries to scramble to her feet and search for her attacker at once. Tall, she remembers that much. Man. But her frightened brain can do little more to supply her details and so she can only grab at a passing stranger, using them to haul herself to her feet, turning her plight towards the alleyways on the other side of the wide street. She needs the winding darkness, she secret doors that the whispers will tell her of, but that they might bypass. She was no fighter, but she could hide... A glancing pain traces across the left side of her ribs, and behind her she hears a woman cry out in agony. She can't stop, though, around her there are suits moving, and behind her at least one of Them...

Terror fuels her hurried limp, wasting precious moments before she grits her teeth in a primal grimace and does what she can to power through the feeling of distressed flesh. She can hear orders shouted behind her, but she doesn't care, darting through the last opening in the sprawling crowd and heading into the relative shade between the buildings.

The breaking glass caught the dying sunlight, an explosion of reflective colour writ large across the harbour's flat surfaces. Miniature rainbows and backscattered coronas licked and danced across the courtyard. Dancing shards captured the darting muzzle-flashes, each one magnified a hundred times before the bullets struck their target.

The crimson spray arced across the ochre ground, glistening wetly against the dirt. The girl's cry echoed loudly, the anguish reverberating inside Edward's skull as if enhanced by some force. He sat stunned, immobilized by the scene below him.

He'd done this. He could have intervened. Drawn them off in a wild chase across the city. He should have protected her. He had promised.

Something snapped.

He clambered to his feet, unburdened by injuries that had plagued him for months now. A policeman blocked his path down the wall, face locked in consternation at the figure that had just materialized from the shadows.

Shouting a warning, the officer tried to bring his weapon to bear but Edward was too fast for him. He slashed outwards with the lacquered cane, sending the officer's knee into uncontrollable spasms from the force of the impact. As the man staggered forward, Edward's left fist smashed into his throat, crushing his windpipe.

Below him, atop the curtain wall surrounding the harbour stretched an expanse of warehouses and low-rise office blocks dotted with skeletal radio-masts and antennas. Soldiers swarmed like ants over this landscape, following the progress of the small girl through the maze of alleyways dividing the huge buildings.

With as much grace as a sack of bricks Edward hauled himself over the parapet, landing heavily on the corrugated roof below. The impact of the landing raised an audible crack from something in his leg, a low whine of pain escaping his lips.

A bullet impact raised a shower of sparks from the spot Edward had occupied seconds before, and he careened off over the rooftops in pursuit of his injured quarry.

She'd forgotten the pain.

An odd admission, perhaps... one out of place on a young woman so lean and wild... but she had. The burning, nauseating sensation of the wound in her leg left her head pounding with the effort of ignoring it. Still she pounded on, running on her fear, on her adrenaline, as though that could make up for the sickening pain that lanced through her leg with each step.

She reached out to the whispers, the shades that had passed, and found... nothing. As she ran, there were only screams. Flickers darting away from her eyeline, as though they feared not only her, but the things which followed.

The feeling of abandonment strikes her as solidly as a physical blow. Bad enough to lose Edward, bad enough to be cornered by her own stupidity, but to have even the whispers abandon her? She suddenly feels small, and as she careened round the next corner, there is a sound.... Thunder, perhaps? Part of her brain wonders if it's the noise that the end of the world makes. It's so loud and then pain explodes through her stomach, and she falls forwards, her hands instinctivly reaching for the same body that has just accosted her. In a moment of slow clarity, she watches the muzzle of the pistol pass her face as she falls to her knees, only to see it move away, and then closer at speed. There's another sound... a thud, though if it's her head against the ground, or the butt of the gun to her temple, she would never tell the difference.

In the alleyway below, a lean man holsters his pistol and waves at his companion. They move quickly, and before even Aislynn's pursuers can reach their position, they had Aislynn hoisted between them and set off at a smart pace towards the end of the alley. There's a dark car, a moment of confusion as they bundle a small, limp figure into the back and follow after, leaving nothing more than the smell of burnt rubber, and a trail of Aislynn's blood.

The noise of the car checked Edward's headlong charge just long enough to take an opportunistic rifle-butt to the jaw, sending him sprawling back over the roof's peak. The officer capitalized on his errant strike to jab the serrated bayonet attached to his weapon's muzzle under Edward's chin. From behind the rifle, he barked an angry order at the two surprised looking policemen standing behind the sprawled spy.

One of them reached for a pair of handcuffs, the other one covering the stunned agent with his rifle. Before either could advance, a piercing scream ripped out from the now deserted alleyway amplified by forces no mortal could produce.

The two in front of Edward were lifted bodily off the roof and thrown to the pavement below with a wet thump. The one with his rifle aimed at the spy collapsed as his head exploded like a ripe melon, blood and bone fragments showering Edward.

Bounding to his feet with blood and brain matter dripping off his torso and head, Edward snatched up the rifle, aiming it at the dust cloud left in the wake of the speeding vehicle. A pair of motorcycles, engines roaring as they were pushed to their physical limit raced off into the dust, the odd muzzle-flash spitting noisily into the dust.

Carnage dominated the scene unfolding below Edward. The psychic scream had annihilated those closest to the alley, the frustration of those pursuing physically rendered against fragile bodies. In some cases, only a cloud of atomized blood and a pair of tattered boots remained of the unfortunate policemen.

Slinging the rifle over his shoulder, Edward descended from the roof via a rusted iron ladder. Quickly traversing the carnage, unwilling to focus on any of the yowling piles of flesh left shattered and bleeding by the scream, he ended up standing in the road.

In a gesture of frustrated futility, he raised the rifle and emptied the magazine into the dust cloud, venting his rage with a sequence of improbable curses.

A single Necron Wraith moved though the city its phase shifter rendering it almost invisible to all but the most trained eye. It was here for a simple reason to scout out the city and report back to the tomb. It moved silently hoping to avoid detection as it spied out the city.

The fox had the right idea, and Kun Kuo didn't have to be told twice. He was on his feet, out of the establishment, and yanking his helmet on his head. Their destination was Dalgerei, and it would be a long ride. He swore under his breath, prepping the hover bike for a bit more distance than inner city scrambling.

"Have you ever been to Dalgarei?" He asked Midgra and climbed aboard.

"It's far."

"Of course I have!" Midgra lied defensively. He honestly had no clue where they were going, but since Kun seemed to know and would be driving it didn't seem to much matter. Without asking he hopped on behind Kun as he did last time, wishing he could don a helmet, but wasn't even sure they made helmets to fit things like him. He made sure to get a much better grip than he had last time. Midgra paused for a split second, feeling something in the air. He couldn't shake the feeling that something was watching them, but couldn't see or smell who. His eyes darted around attempting to find the culprit, before simply deciding it didn't matter. They would be gone in a matter of seconds.

"But, just so I know you know where you're going, how far is it?"
Midgra inquired, skin still tightening from the abnormal feeling presence.

Kun Kuo didn't truly have an answer that he wanted to give. He had no idea how far it was. All he knew is that it was far, farther than he had ever gone. Honest had a tendency to win out with this one.

"I have no idea," He responded, kicking the bike into gear as an icky feeling crawled up his spine. They were off to find his sister, through mad and uncharted lands. Barren, dry, cold at night.

Bian Linh Vu descends into Tan Vien Inn.

Bian Linh Vu arrives, coming from Vien.

Fuegaro has arrived, coming from Vintu Western Gate.

Fuegaro has left the area, heading east into Vintu Western Gate.

Suddenly, a swirling vortex appears to the out. You can see something appear in that direction.

Suddenly, a swirling vortex appears to the down. You can see something appear in that direction.

Alchimia arrives from the down.

Alchimia departs, heading out.

"Portal Spell" appears from nothing, through a wrinkle in spacetime.