[The Elements Sanctum]Questions and Answers [Mirage]

[Annalisa Marin]

81st of Fall, 513 AV

If there was one good thing about Apprenticeship that Anna could point to, it was the relative freedom to travel about the Citadel. When she had been a mere visitor, she had been restricted from many areas on Sahova. Now, thanks to the apprenticeship offered by Amaryllis Anna possessed much more flexibility in terms of exploration. Of course, she was still limited from certain areas as letting mere apprentices where they pleased was to invite disaster.

Anna walked the dark halls of The Caverns with purpose in her strides, her direction clear as well as her purpose. It hadn't exactly been overly difficult to find directions to her destination, the glowing arrows pointing it out seemed to glow brighter than any other lab. Whether that was a good or a bad thing was still open to interpretation, it was unlike Amaryllis would intentionally send her into serious danger but with Sahova danger in general was difficult to avoid.

The young apprentice was well equipped, more so than most apprentices, to deal with danger. Her abilities in reimancy were considerable, enough to where in Zeltiva there were few that could match her. Sahova possessed many more skilled wizards than Zeltiva, but still the wizard knew that if she encountered overt danger she could deal with it. Nonetheless, a quick trip to the common labs had been her first stop before departing for the Caverns, glyphs adorning her arms for precautionary reasons.

Anna had reviewed her notes after waking up, coming to the same tired set of revelations she had come to previously. Daren Marlow, a man she thought quite fondly of was in fact a very powerful and dangerous hypnotist that could alter memories. From the notes she'd written Amaryllis was her only real ally here against the hypnotist, along with being her new master. However, the Embalmer had provided information that could possibly change that fact. Roknus Maelstrom apparently knew of Daren and likely had either information or assistance to offer.

After the revelations had sunk in the wizard had opted to act on this knowledge immediately, seeking out the so called Elements Sanctum. With a name like that in a place like Sahova Anna suspected reimancy was the lab's primary magic. As such it was likely she'd fit right in, given her advanced grasp on the art. Of course, that also made this place likely to be very dangerous. Reimancers tended to be a rather unstable and destructively minded lot, rivaled only by Voiders in Anna's opinion. Thus the need to prepare for self defense.

Anna rounded another corner, going through what to ask the this Roknus when she arrived. She'd be polite of course, officially she was still a mere apprentice. Despite Amaryllis' insistence that it was just a formality Anna knew that it was best to simply keep up appearances, so unless the situation called for otherwise it would be 'yes master', 'no master' 'as you say master'.

The thought of debasing herself naturally caused her pride to flare up, but it couldn't be helped. No good could come from alienating a potential ally or source of information. The façade was unpleasant sometimes, but it was vital to uphold.

Finally Anna came to a large pair of unguarded iron doors, isolated and away from other labs she had passed on the way here. She felt more than a little suspicious at the sight, moving towards to door to test and pull on them. They were heavy, but otherwise unlocked as Anna soon discovered which put her on very high alert. It was all she could do to avoid drawing res into her hands just to be careful.

Still, it wasn't like she could just walk away. She needed whatever information or assistance this Roknus could provide her. So she carefully pushed one door open, noting that the doors here only opened inward and not out. Anna poked her head into the large open space of the lab, looking around carefully before stepping inside.

"Hello? Excuse me, I was told by my Master Amaryllis that I could find Master Roknus Maelstrom here." She called out, feeling rather exposed now that she was actually inside the Sanctum.

[Mirage]

A flaming projectile rocketed past Anna's head, crashing against the wall in a shower or molten rock and sparks. The room was utter chaos. Men and women danced around, throwing the elements from their finger tips in explosive discharges to disarm, or utterly destroy, one opponent or another. There was no clear divide between combatants. For all intensive purposes it seemed to be a free for all, yet somehow in the chaos there was a form or order to it. Elements seemed to pair up with their opposites, people joining forces against opponents of opposing elements in the hopes of overpowering them.

In the center of it all stood a man, robes of his office marking him clearly as the master of this lab. His eyes fell on Anna, and a grin broke across his lips. With a flick of his wrist the door slammed shut behind Anna, a wall of stone blocking it as well. A hush fell over the room as everyone stopped their own combat to look at Anna as well. Then, as if silently commanded, they moved to stand against the walls, backing as far away from the middle of the room as possible, making themselves as small as they could. Some even erected barricades before them, hiding behind great stone pillars or icy walls.

Maelstrom cracked his neck, flexing his fingers, and his grin widened. Stomping his foot he slid into a strange stance, extending both hands which expelled res at an alarming rate, shaping themselves until they ignited. Anna faced down two wolves made of blue flame, their fangs bared and tales whipping aggressively. With a snap of his fingers the wolves charged, leaving scorches on the ground where their paws touched. One circled to the right, the other to the left, both leaping toward Anna at the same time as they quickly closed the distance.

[Annalisa Marin]

Anna's eyes widened as the chaos of the lab became very apparent, the blast of heat striking the wall as it whizzed past her. The atmosphere was rather euphoric if the wizard was being entirely honest with herself, a mishmash of destruction and chaos that she could very much appreciate. It was beautiful in its own way, though the danger apparent was enough for her to draw a small bit of res into her palms in preparation for any potential misdirected attacks. If she didn't have business to attend to the apprentice wouldn't have minded joining in, demonstrating to the amateurs what power really was.

Anna's grey eyes fell upon the man in the center of the whole affair, his robes catching her notice as belonging to a master. That was probably Maelstrom, powerful indeed to risk standing in the midst of such an affair. His attention fell upon her and somehow Anna got a very uncomfortable feeling just from being the target of that attention. His smile was what really set off that something was wrong.

The doors slammed shut behind her, causing her eyes to widen in surprise as she whirled around to see a wall of stone preventing any possible escape. A displeased snarl fell over her face as she whirled around to face the master of this lab, grey eyes flashing. Any decorum of false politeness was gone, the pride and arrogance were all that remained. She noted that the other combatants were moving off, good, they would get to see what happened to fools that dared to grossly cross her. Starting with this master of theirs.

She adopted a ready stance as he did, her mind falling into self defense mode at this point. Anna, even were she in a rational mindset, doubted he was going to just let her explain why she was here. If he wanted to cross spells with her, then so be it. Her feet were spread out, one pointing behind her and the other in front of her.

It wasn't until she saw him actually draw res that she realized how very outmatched she was here, even in her angered mindset. His res was out and ignited before Anna's was even sheathed around her extremities. She'd even glyphed her arms and she was still no where near that level of speed and effortless control. Two wolves of blue flames took shape, the amount of control demonstrated here was so great that the monsters almost seemed to made of flesh.

He directed them to charge her with a snap of his fingers, one flanking to her right and the other to her left. As they moved she realized there was no petching way she was going to get off a proper spell before they hit her. She needed to use earth to block the attacks, otherwise she'd be a very dead woman.

Her heart was pounding in her skull as she directed the generated res sheathing her arms and legs to either side of her body, pulling both upwards to form protective shields against the flames. She made an effort to transmute the outer layer facing the wolves to stone, to minimize as much blowback as possible. The speedy casting was sending waves of pleasure that took some of the edge off of the fear. Gaseous res was already in production from her mouth and moving outward, her mind swept up in the thrilling joy of res generation and casting. She needed to follow up with an attack. Lightning was always a good option. It was likely he'd block it, but she needed to force him to back off long enough to try and explain why she was actually here.

In a more rational mind set she would have realized exactly how suicidal and ridiculous this whole affair was. She was powerful, but this Maelstrom was clearly in a whole different league. That she was crossing spells with him was hardly wise. Idly she wondered if Amaryllis had expected something like this to happen, if so Anna had a big petching curse with the Embalmer's name on it.

[Mirage]

The wolves smashed into the barriers Anna produced with enough force to rocket her backwards into the wall, almost winding her. Her stone shields cracked and crumbled to dust, and in the lull Maelstrom's voice rang out, "Welcome to the Element's Sanctum! It's always such a pleasure to have guests here, even one's from that bitch Embalmer." Cackling laughter rang out, and the dust cloud that blocked the Master from view was suddenly swept away. Malestrom stood at the center of a storm of revolving ice shards, lazily floating around him and his raised hands. He smiled, "For what reason am I given such an honor to be graced by MISTRESS Amaryllis' own apprentice?"

His finger twitched and the shards all flew at Anna at once, "Oh, and do be careful. I would hate to return you in little tiny boxes to your master. She hates it when I do that." He laughed, eyes wild as he stamped his foot, 3 arm sized spikes of rock shooting up from the ground and aiming for Anna before they too were let loose to hurtle at the Wizard to be.

[Annalisa Marin]

Among the obscenities to escape her lips as she was blown back against the wall, "Holy petching shyke", was the most tame. The wind was very nearly ripped from her lungs as her barriers were destroyed with such force as to physically knock her back. Her head smacked into the stone behind her with a audible crack, she was certain there would be bruises resulting from this whole affair at the very least. The blow disoriented her for a moment, disrupting the res generation she had been facilitating in both liquid and gaseous form. Black ink dribbled down her arms and hands, the remnants of the spent glyphs on her limbs.

She shook her head slightly and registered Maelstrom's words, if this was his idea of a warm welcome she would have hated to see his idea of open hostilities. The apprentice's eyes widened when the dust from her destroyed barriers vanished, revealing the master standing in the midst of a storm of gleaming icy shards. His next attack had been ready so quickly it was almost unbelievable, another detractor for her current odds.

The apprentice flinched at his words, clearly Maelstrom was not a fan of her mistress. Her odds were diminishing more and more as the ticks went by, so Anna took initiative and placed any remaining liquid res generated from her body on the ground a good distance away from her body while willing the small cloud of gaseous res to be kept on standby in case he was ready with a follow up attack. It took a moment for her to register his question regarding her reason her, as the instant he was done with the question the storm of ice flew towards her.

Anna turned her hands upwards, closing her eyes to try and keep some semblance of focus on res and her own casting. The liquid res on the floor started to shift and transmute as the shards drew ever closer, growing to a high intensity of heat rarely seen on the face of Mizahar. The outer layer of the clear translucent liquid burned to and angry crimson and was abruptly brought upwards in an eruption like state towards the oncoming shards. It was no massive eruption of lava but it would hopefully force the Master back a little, at the very least it would deal with his shards. That was the hope anyway.

She felt more alive now than she had previously since arriving at Sahova, Djed and res flowing freely from her body and at her will. The sheer pleasure was overriding much of her previous fear as adrenaline pumped through her veins. As the pleasure washed away the previous pain she couldn't resist the small moan of bliss escaping her lips. The primal joy of manipulating the power of the elements was starting to override her common sense.

The intensity of the heat rising from the lava felt blistering even from where she stood, Ivak's lifeblood was quite powerful. Her grey eyes caught notice of the large earthen spike sailing straight towards her right behind the shards, drawing a smile to her face. The cloud hovering near her was quickly sent out towards the spikes, splitting off into three smaller sections. Anna's fingers curled upwards and then outwards as she willed the res to transmute as quickly as she could to intercept the spikes. As she started casting she answered the master's question, her voice alight with both fear and excitement of the purest kind.

"I had initially come down here to ask if you knew anything regarding Daren Marlow, I didn't expect the honor of sparring with one so skilled as yourself though Master Maelstrom!" The wizard replied, the res already crackling malevolently.

The urge was pounding at her skull at all of the speedy casting, however Anna was finding that she was caring less and less about that. It had been far, far too long since she had last really let lose to chaos within her soul. For once, she was more than happy to feed her increasing hunger for more and more casting. It was oh so very dangerous to do, but against a master like Maelstrom it was the only way she could hope to actually survive.

With the outward motion of her hands the gaseous res fully transmuted and three small bolts of lightning arced out towards the on coming spikes. Anna wasn't about to just sit idly by though, as further gaseous res was breathed out in increasingly heavy breaths. She needed to prepare for the next attack if Maelstrom chose to keep going, the practical side of her wished to simply get to actual business but the repressed chaotic side wanted more.

[Mirage]

The shards of ice melted instantly when faced with the wall of lava, and even Maelstrom had to take a step back from the heat. Around the room some sounds of astonishment arose, and a few even applauded at the crackle of lighting as it tore through the earthen spike.

"Oh, your good... But can't say I'm surprised. She always has a way of getting her hands on the talent around here. Always hogging them for herself." As he spoke he clapped slowly, a mocking applause as he strolled to the side, his eyes never leaving Anna, "Daren Marlow you say? What do you have to do with him? But it doesn't matter. You will be dead soon anyway, either by his hands," He smiled, "Or mine. Tell ya what though wench, if you survive my next spell I will let you talk, and ask whatever you like. Doesn't mean I'll answer of course, but at least you wont be dead."

He chuckled, and no matter what her answer was he would begin to collect his res. Maelstrom obviously intended to release his magic whether she agreed to his wager or not. Res poured from every pour of his body, like black smoke that enveloped him like a cloak. It twisted around his body, over his arms and spread out to either side, "Say, do you know why reimancy is by far the greatest of all the magics?" He would allow Anna a moment to answer, but he would sneer no matter what she said, "Because it can give even a nuit, with as frail and weak a body as me, the power to crush anyone and anything. Shyke, if you cut off both my arms and legs, I could STILL kill just about anyone you put in front of me. Thats what reimancy is. Utter power, in its purest form. It is magic's destructive nature, magic's true nature, the world's true nature. Reimancy is the magic of conquerors."

Raising his hands out to either side, his res responded without a single gesture, without a whisper of incantation. It whipped about him frantically, twisitng and shaping, until finally it ignited.

"Face of Zulrav..."

Electricity crackled and vibrated the air, and a shape loomed over Roknus. A creature bent over the master's body, like a great cat, one paw pressing on the ground as it raised its angular head toward Anna. Its entire body was like a lightning bolt, crackling and heating the air and causing dust to shutter in the air. Within it was a cloud of res that made up it's body, electricity forming its fur, and two red points of flame for eyes. Opening its mouth wide a sound like thunder boomed out as it roard. Maelstrom smiled, "Now then, live or die. Let's see how good you are."

OOCSOrry the description is really bad but I was rushed. Its like a big cat made of electricity, Maelstroms' black res makes up its 'body' and fuels the spell. Its big enough that it can stand over Roknus easily. Good luck!

[Annalisa Marin]

Anna grinned at the sounds of astonishment at having halted Maelstroms attacks, it felt good to get some recognition for her actions thus far. Just surviving the onslaught leveled at her by the master reimancer seemed worthy of some praise, he was certainly not one to hold back. She found that she was given a reprieve as Maelstrom gave her some mocking applause, taking the opportunity to gather some of her scattered senses and ensure that she had enough res to bring up a defensive spell if the need was great enough. His wild eyes never left her, so she responded in kind by leveling a stare of her own at him. He grey eyes were alight with the gifts of chaos and a trace of madness even, well contained beneath the guise of cordiality.

Anna felt another thrill of fear course through her as he challenged her to survive one final spell, death or overgiving a very high likelihood at this point. She had some reserves left, but depending on the size of his spell it was becoming increasingly likely that she'd need to go beyond her normal limits. Still, if- when she managed to best his spell he said he'd allow questions. Even if she learned nothing, it was better than ending up dead after coming so far against a true master of reimancy.

"Challenge accepted, Master." She answered simply, noting he was already beginning to gather res in great quantities.

Anna responded in kind by generating as much res as she felt she still could safely expel, willing Djed to gather everywhere she could manage and push outwards. Gods it hurt but it also felt glorious, liberating even. Truly there were few motivators greater than if one's life was on the line. She ordered the newly formed res to take the form of a liquid, willing the gaseous res she had generated earlier to phase change to join the pool of liquid.

He was talking throughout it, asking her what reimancy was the greatest of all magic's. Of course she had her own answer and responded with it.

"Because of its sheer destructive power, of course." The woman responded, finding a sneer her reply from the master.

Anna heard his explanation and it actually made a fair deal of sense to one such as her. If her wound from earlier had gotten infected and she'd lost her hand, she would still be a potent reimancer. She could still easily sweep aside groups of armed men with an errant wave of her hand, it was perhaps not the most satisfying observation but it was accurate, no mistaking it.

The tall woman spread her legs so that her feet were parallel to each other, her hand clenched into fists at her sides. She prepared herself mentally as she watched his spell take form, noting another animal design. He sure seemed to like them, perhaps it was something worth looking into at a later date. It was a massive crackling being forged of lightning, eyes alighted by flames. The roar it unleashed was as loud as booming thunder from the sky, so much so that she nearly missed Maelstroms next words.

Her mind was working desperately to figure out exactly how the petch she could counter such a massive construct, settling on the earth itself as her tool. A single barrier would be nothing against the construct, but multiple ones raised against it held promise. A dome like personal shield being her final line of defense, it would take ever bit of res currently out to accomplish and would likely place her into overgiving territory but at least she might actually live through the whole affair.

She'd wait until the very moment it was sent out against her before making her move, waiting to act after Maelstrom made his move. Anna struck outwards with her fist at the pool of res, near her willing most the substance upwards and willing it to form a barrier of large rectangular dominos placed three in a column before transmuting their outer surfaces to stone. The waves of exhaustion were slamming into her now but she was far from done.

Anna strafed out from behind the barriers so her view was not obscured and punched outwards again, deciding it best to switch up her tactics to account for a mobile opponent. The first domino would be sent out as a whole towards the construct as it charged her, the hope was that it would attempted to dodge. From there Anna would section off parts of the middle domino, shooting off smaller rectangular shapes with each outward punch in quick succession at the creature in the hopes of hitting it and disrupt the stability of the construct. As it was she could taste iron on her tongue and the urge was roaring in her mind, threatening to consume Anna entirely. She almost wanted to give in, she almost allowed herself to tip over that tempting edge. She pulled herself back, barely, affirming that she was the master of her own magic.

Blood dribbled freely down her nose as she half stumbled half fell back behind the last domino, willing the final domino to fall backwards towards her, using the wall Maelstrom had previously erected as a prop for it to keep from smashing her into paste. It was only one barrier, so if the construct managed to have escaped her earlier gambit it would mean she was very dead for she doubted this one barrier would withstand its full might.

Anna was doubled over on the ground now, completely spent by her exertions. Her legs were like jelly, refusing to heed her commands no matter how much she wanted to try and run. Her eyes were cracked and bloodshot, sweat covering every single inch of her body. They were there though, whispering sweet desires into her mind. They were always there, always the first to welcome her. They promised more of that earlier pleasure she'd longed for earlier, Anna was find it difficult to resist. Though if her gambit failed, she would need to worry about that much longer.

OOCNot to worry, I understood every frightening potentially deadly detail. Here's hoping I don't die horribly.

[Mirage]

With a flick of his wrist the Master sent this creation of stormy rage bounding forward, where it's pause hit the stone sharp cracks were heard as bits of rock were thrown into the air by the impact of lighting upon them. It streaked toward Anna, blindingly fast just like the element it embodied.

Maelstrom's eyes widened slightly at the complex weaves cast by the young apprentice, and a muscle twitched in the corner of his mouth. The first barrier shattered in an instant upon touching the thunder cat, the streaks of electricity reducing the particles to dust as it continued forward. The next volley struck at various points, dissolving the beasts legs and parts of its shoulder and head. It slowed for just a fraction of a second, but then the black res within became alight as streaks of lighting quickly replaced the limbs and filled the gaps made by the stones. Though slowed slightly it lost little momentum, and the spell was approaching fast. The closer it got the more Anna could feel it. The hair's on her head stood on end, static filling the air to shoot tingles up and down her body until finally there was an impact on the barrier that protected her. The force of the blow would vibrate through her body, pressing her back against the wall and forcing the wind from her lungs, and before her eyes the last of her barriers dissolved to dust and her vision was filled with a white light and her ears with a loud ringing noise.

Slowly the light would clear and the ringing fade, but her vision would be blurry. Her body was completely numb, and she could not seem to move at all, not even to turn her head. As her vision came to focus she would see Maelstrom standing over her, his brow furrowed in either rage, or concentration. His arms were crossed over his chest, and he seemed to be saying something. His lips moved but she could only hear muffled words, like her ears were stuffed with cotton. It seemed like he was saying, 'so much like her...'

Shaking his head Maelstrom walked out of Anna's line of vision, and tingles began to spread from the tips of her fingers moving inward. Slowly she was starting to get feeling again, and it was not so difficult to see and hear. She would feel herself lifted, and from the corners of her eyes she would see two Pulser apprentices carrying her. They rounded a corner and then set her with her back against a wall. She found herself in a smaller sized cavern, more of a cave, and here was a table that served as a desk of sorts along with a single chair. In this chair Maelstrom sat, arms crossed over his chest and legs spread out in a relaxed posture.

"Well you survived. Go ahead, start talking, ask what ya want."

More and more feeling was starting to return, but it was like waking a limb after it had fallen asleep. Needles of pain racked her body as her senses returned, and after a chime she would find the use of her voice once more.

[Annalisa Marin]

Anna felt rather than saw the beast approaching, tingles shooting up her body and her hair standing on end. It had obviously managed to get through both of her attacks, meaning that if the final barrier didn't stop it nothing would. No matter how much she could have braced herself, nothing prepared her for the actual impact of the lightning construct. Rather like a rag doll she found herself slammed into the wall behind her, her barrier completely destroyed by the master reimancer's spell. The pain wasn't the worst part, nor was the loss of her breath it was the blinding light and her loss of hearing.

She was rather unfocused for a little while after the blow, her lungs struggling to regain their breathing patterns and her senses thrown out off. Her body was quickly numbed to the point where she felt literally nothing, in a way that was worse than the initial pain. Anna had never really wanted to be on the receiving end of a lightning bolt, let alone one with such power as to rip through her best defenses. Now that she knew what one felt like she most certainly didn't want to experience it again.

Her blurry vision made out the rough form of Maelstrom standing over her, a thought that he'd decided instead to finish her off briefly crossing her mind. The words she could make out through her muffled hearing confused her, who was the master comparing her to? His expression looked odd as well, Anna was unaware what he meant by anything at this point. His mind seemed rather volatile at best, so it could very well have been the musings of a mad man.

She started to regain feeling after the master left her line of sight, her senses starting to recover and her mind starting to feel less muggy. The tall woman offered a grunt as she was hauled by two Pulsars into a small cavern, being set against a wall. Her gaze searched slightly, catching sight of the only thing of interest in the room which was the table, chair and its occupant. She noted that he appeared to be no worse for wear for the impressive casting, once more proving how very much out of her league he currently was.

The apprentice heard his prompt, unfortunately her body was taking a bit of time to wake up. Her body itself was wracked with sharp pain all over, the damage becoming quickly very apparent as she also felt how exhausted she was. There was no way she'd be able to do anything for the next day or so, too much exhaustion mixed with physical wear and tear from the fight. Still, he was right, she was alive. She'd survived going head to head with a master of reimancy, that could only be favorable towards her. If building a reputation was part of gaining favorable attention from on high, then this most certainly would be up there.

She took a chime to catch her breath after she felt confident enough to use her voice, trying to make certain that she was actually going to live. With that she turned her full attention to Maelstrom, running through the questions she had for him. Initially she of course wanted to broach upon the subject of Daren and Qiao, but there was quite bit more she wanted to discuss with such a powerful reimancer. She opted for business first of course.

"I-I asked Amaryllis about Daren's relationship to Master Qiao. I wanted to know if there are any opponents or rivals of Master Qiao's that would like to see the hypnotist eliminated, she directed me to see you but would not elaborate on why, only saying that you had a great deal to say on Daren. Being that I want to kill the petching worm I decided to follow through, bringing me here. So I'll ask you, Master Maelstrom, why would she send me to you?" Anna asked, not bothering to hide her intensions.

The older reimancer might very well have the key to helping her here, though whether he would or not was still up in the air. He hadn't promised to answer the questions she might have after all, only listen. The problem here was that she was desperate for any information to use against Daren, he was powerful and unless her situation changed quickly he was going to kill her. The master knew much about reimancy obviously, just by fighting him she had learned quite a bit more about her own magic. Whatever else he knew was unknown, though he had seemed sure of her demise at his hands in the ring. Hopefully that was not the case in actuality.

OOCBwahaha! Thundercats... OMG you made my night, Mirage! Now I'll never be able to take Maelstrom seriously, like ever.

[Mirage]

Maelstrom scratched his chin, picking off a bit of rotting flesh and flicking it away before answering, "Is that really the first thing you want to ask? What a stupid question. Don't you want to ask me how I did it? Learn my secrets? Master my reimancy techniques?" His eyes rolled in his sockets as he leaned his head back, sighing long and loud, "Your becoming just like that bitch. Cold and to the point, never have time to knowledge my magical prowess. Good reddens to her. She wasn't my type anyway."

He chuckled, more of a cackle than a laugh, before his eyes turned down to look at Anna, "I'm no rival of Qiao's, I rather like the fellow in fact, but I hate that bastard Daren. Little gutter shyke tried to play with my thoughts, but ohhh he had no idea..." Rather suddenly he jumped to his feet, nearly running to lean over Anna, pressing his palms on either side of her head as he leaned in to whisper, "My voices are louder than his... He laughed, leaning back so he could look the Apprentice in the eye, "He tried to take things from me, mess with my memories but he couldn't. He couldn't do it, and now I'm going to kill him to take my revenge!"

The nuit paused, looking confused a second before his brow furrowed in irritation, "No, wait... Qiao doesn't want him dead just yet so I can't kill him... Little shit! Ohhhh How I want to make him a smudge on my wall."

He threw himself back and away from Anna, stumbling back to his feet and turning his back to her. He walked slowly back to his chair, resting his hand on the back of it as he mused to himself, forgetting about Anna for the moment, "I hate that laughing one... Little bitch thing cackling loud and obnoxious... thinks its SO funny, but no I'm much funnier... Much much funnier!" With a sudden motion he grasped the chair and hurled it against the wail, the noise overly loud in the small space as he rounded on Anna, "You see! Funny! Little shyke can't tell a joke worth a petch! If I could shoot it with a firebolt I would!"

The Wizard laughed, holding his sides as he shook his head, looking at Anna, "But you can't shoot a voice Annalisa Marin. It will just go right through!" He chuckled to himself for a few moments more, amused with his own wit before his face sobered and he looked back at Anna, "But what was your question again? You could do it, you could kill him though... Yes yes you could. Kill him and his voices, and let me and mine be the only quartet in Sahova again!" He nodded vigorously, looking at Anna expectantly.