Lance and Wake climbed their way through the lower vestibules of Grashmog as they heard the sound of the catapult being launched from the top of the citadel - it seemed the others had reached their destination. The brothers had been worn down, the guards that they'd lured towards them following a different path than what they'd planned for, throwing the two of them into multiple fights that they didn't have the time - or energy - to handle. They were still both slightly shaken from earlier, the entire operation nearly in jeopardy from their carelessness several times in the span of a couple seconds. They couldn't afford any more errors - they needed to meet up with the others.
As they made for the top of the citadel, they could see goblins and hobgoblins alike fleeing, a shadowy figure running behind them that clawed both at their body and their mind. It was one of Zaelynir's creations, one they'd seen several times in the past. Usually the incubus kept it in check, but this time it seemed to be free and fully capable of its own destructive rampage. The brothers hid as it stalked past them, slaughtering the targets in its sight as quickly as it could reach them. Once the coast was clear, they pressed forward, the ladder to the top level of the citadel just around the corner.
Up above, the other four turned about, ready to start the next phase of their mission - leaving. The plan for this half was far more hazy...but they'd gotten in, so they could get out.
As they waited for Lance and Wake to return, however, a silvery portal filled with utter blackness erupted from the corner of the tower, not twenty feet from the group. From within it, they could hear the undeniable voice of Gruumsh. "You have served me well. Return now, and I will reward you."
Maul immediately started walking towards the portal, not wishing to keep the orc god waiting. To his surprise, Zaelynir quickly flew and interposed herself between him and the portal. "We must wait for the others. We can't afford to leave them here."
Shavvir tried to push past the incubus. "What do they matter? I'm not here for them, and if you all look within yourselves, neither are you."
As the Shadar-kai pushed past Zaelynir, Phyrra lashed out her arm, a strand of holy light tightly wrapping around Shavvir's wrist, anchoring her to the drow. "Even if you do believe that to be true, Wake is the only one able to help us leave this plane, be it through the River Styx or through his knowledge of portals. Leaving him is abandoning yourself to an eternity here."
Maul cared about both of the brothers - Wake, for being the only other member of the group he trusted to make competent decisions, and Lance, for being named so atypically. Despite both of those truths however, he still knew that Gruumsh was on the other side of the portal, and that his patience needn't be tested. "Temporal urgency established. Translocation advisable."
Phyrra threw out her other arm, the whip of light wrapping around herself and streaming towards Maul as she latched onto the warforged as well. "We are leaving. As a team."
Maul looked down at the band around his arm - it felt real as ever. However, he had paid attention to the multiple discussions the group had had on the intricacies of spellcasting - nothing Phyrra knew matched this description. As he focused on it, the light faded from his mind - it was merely an illusion. As soon as he broke free, so did Shavvir, quickly seeing the illusion for what it was. "Obstruction ineffectual."
Phyrra looked back towards where they'd come from, still not hearing the sound of the brothers. When she looked back, both Maul and Shavvir had cast aside Zaelynir's meager attempts to stop them, nearly at the portal. "Well then...we do that which must be done. No matter the cost."
Rather than the simple illusion she'd conjured before, Phyrra poured magical energy from Lolth through her, focusing it directly on the warforged in front of her. As more and more power flooded what functioned as his mind, he became more and more of Phyrra's puppet. By the time she was done, he was wholly under her control...at least, for a short period of time. He reached out his hand, the vice-like grasp strangling Shavvir's wrist due to his potent strength.
"We wait." Phyrra commanded the warforged's mouth to move, Shavvir looking at him oddly - they were words that she did not expect him to say.
"We wait." This time, Phyrra spoke at the same time as Maul, Shavvir quickly piecing the puzzle together. "Your insubordination shall be tolerated no longer."
Shavvir looked back and forth between the two of them, Zaelynir long having gotten out of the way - this was far more than he ever intended to do. "You'd stoop so low as to bend the mind of your ally? And what happens when you set him free? He's in there." She pointed at Maul, the warforged remaining motionless. "He knows what's happening to him, and can't stop it. Do you think he'll be friendly when you're done being the puppeteer?"
"My concern is not with him. When Wake and Lance are here, we will leave. As one."
"Since when have you been concerned about another?" Shavvir circled her like prey, Everlife dangerously close to the drow. "What do you need the half-elves for? What interest have you with them?"
Phyrra kept quiet - the answer was not one she wanted Shavvir to know. In truth, she was simply intrigued by them, Wake specifically. In many aspects, they were polar opposites...and yet, it was undeniable that he was successful when given control over an operation. Would she do it differently? Very...but perhaps both methods had their merits. Phyrra wished to see what would happen if those two methods were joined - when planning and spontaneity worked seamlessly together.
Instead, Phyrra gave Shavvir a blowoff response - one that was true, but not her real reason. "When I sent Lance to return the Font of Knowledge, I found him on the brink of death. I promised that I would protect him and fight for him - I am upholding that promise."
"Thank you, Phyrra...thank you." Wake and Lance had finally returned to them, instantly noticing the shimmering portal in the corner. It had grown notably weaker since it had first appeared, and time truly was of the essence.
Phyrra's words had registered with the Shadar-kai - she spoke of promises and of upholding them, something she would never have expected from one of Lolth's devouts. Lolth was a creature of disorder, and oftentimes so were here disciples - perhaps Phyrra was different. "Well...you've arrived. Let's make haste, before we encounter any more problems."
Phyrra commanded Maul forward, trying to issue a command that might come from the warforged...his manner of speaking was so foreign to her. Her time as his master was running thin - and she didn't want to be on the same side of the portal as him when it snapped. "Affirmative. Movement...uh...necessary."
Lance and Wake both looked at Maul oddly but said nothing, Phyrra guiding Maul through the portal. As soon as he was on the other side, she set him free...hopefully he would not cause a scene, however deserved it was, in front of Gruumsh. The other five traversed through the portal in turn, leaving behind Grashmog and the goblins.
As soon as Phyrra passed through the portal, she could feel Maul's cold eyes boring into her, the twin red orbs piercing straight through her body and soul. The warforged was incapable of truly expressing emotion, the mechanisms on his face simply not designed to do so, but in this moment...she could tell what pure rage looked like when worn by Maul. Despite this, however, he remained silent, keeping his dead-eye glare for a couple seconds before returning it to Gruumsh. The deity collapsed the portal behind Phyrra, addressing the group.
"You have served well - Maglubiyet doesn't control Grashmog anymore, and I have sent a group of my elites that followed your trail to claim it for myself. You have earned your reward. I will show you the way to Thuldanin."
Thunderous footsteps rattled the halls as he turned around, the Syndicate following behind him. Wake could still feel the presence of a portal - that meant it was no coincidence. Gruumsh was likely leading them to a portal, one that he'd somehow captured and contained...and it almost certainly took them to Thuldanin.
And indeed, that was true - Gruumsh took them deeper into his capital citadel, delving down a winding series of stairs that eventually deposited them in a barren room, save for a portal in the center of it. Unlike all of the others they'd noticed during their travels, this one flickered blue with hints of gray within it, a clear sign that it was different from all the others they'd come across in the months on Avalas.
"Go."
Before anyone had a chance to move, Wake asked the question that was burning on his mind - one he needed an answer to. "How did you lock the portal here? All the others we've seen have - "
Gruumsh responded harshly, his tone clearly denoting annoyance. "That is not your concern, elf. When you have lived here for millenia, you learn to tame even the slight chaos in this place. We have captured it, and you wish to go through it. Our agreement did not include asking questions."
Wake nodded. "I...I apologize. We will be on our way."
"And we have your word Thuldanin is on the other side? That this isn't going to throw us into the Nine Hells or Mechanus?"
Gruumsh glared at Wake earnestly, his anger rising a miniscule amount. "I have seen what you did to Maglubiyet's army. It is not in my interest to anger you. Besides that...the portal goes two ways."
"March imminently." Maul was done - he could see that his companion's questions only angered the orc god, and further inquiries might lose them of the reward they'd already been delivered. Without any further waiting he stepped through the portal, the silvery-blue swallowing him up as it thrust him out into Thuldanin.
The second layer of Acheron was new to Maul - he'd failed to reach it with the rest of the army. What he saw, however, was horrifying - wreckage, of all shapes and sizes. It surrounded him, the portal having deposited him inside some other structure. Tunnels had been formed in the wreckage that gave him a path to the surface...or so he hoped. Patiently, Maul waited for Phyrra to move through the portal...they had unfinished business to settle.
As expected, she was the last to finally appear, the drow hiding behind the brothers as the three of them went through in quick succession. That mattered little to him, however, Maul brusquely pushing past the others of their group and wrapping his metal fist around her neck in a stranglehold, holding her up for a few seconds before slamming her back against a wall of the wreckage.
He said no words - he didn't need to. He glared into her soul, eyes burning with rage while she struggled limply against his grasp, both of her hands halfheartedly pawing at one of his.
"Maul, what's gotten into you?" Wake bashed his bow against the warforged's shoulder, Maul not even flinching as he held Phyrra within his grasp.
Maul slowly craned his head towards the brothers, both of them with weapons ready while Shavvir and Zaelynir simply watched with curiosity from beyond. "Cerebral domination performed. Behavior unacceptable. Behavior punished thoroughly." As he started to feel Phyrra truly go limp within his grasp he let her go, the drow dropping to the ground as she desperately filled her lungs with fresh air, gasping harshly as she clawed at her throat.
"I...I did it...for them." Phyrra hacked out the words before falling back onto the ground, gasping.
Wake looked at both of them, holstering his bow once again. "Maul...you're saying she controlled your mind?"
"Affirmative."
"Phyrra...is this true?"
The drow nodded, still struggling to make words.
Wake continued looking at her. "I thank you for standing with us, but we are here, and we must operate as a team if we wish to survive the trials we have put in front of us. Save your magic for the enemy, unless you intend to use it to aid. And Maul." He looked back at the warforged's cold, red eyes. "Reacting in such a manner only causes more conflict. Now both of you, move. We've no idea where we are, or how we're to escape."
"Understood." Maul turned his attention towards Phyrra, the drow still sprawled on the ground, the only movements of her frame the rise and fall as she tried to steady her breathing. "Reaction designated unacceptable. Apology constructed. Amends offered." Maul held out a hand to Phyrra.
Phyrra looked up, the warforged's words little more than a ring in her ears - she was still very much disoriented from the near-death experience. Her vision was only just now returning, having gone utterly black from the lack of oxygen. However, she saw his hand outstretched towards her - with the others watching, she could only assume it was not out of anger. She held a limp hand up as she locked with his cool metal, Maul hoisting her to her feet. "Thank you." As soon as she was on her feet, however, she limped over towards Wake, the archer extending an arm as she collapsed onto his shoulder.
The group rallied, Maul striding towards the head of the group as the others followed, Wake and Phyrra taking up the back as the drow got back to her usual state. Maul followed one of several tunnels out, seeing more and more wreckage around them, no sign of the typical steel of the cubes of Avalas. All they saw was just endless junk - most of it seemingly useless, but Maul could spot the occasional contraption that perhaps could have been used in a war on Avalas.
That was what Thuldanin was - or so he'd heard. The scrapheap of the planes, a place where refuse of all origins, shapes, sizes, and destinations could gather once its use had been met. Everything around the Syndicate wasn't of its original nature, however - they had all turned to a metallic stone, another feature of the plane. Everything, both living and nonliving, petrified into the substance all around them in some matter of time. From his understanding, the warforged were interestingly immune to this principle, bordering the realm between living and nonliving themselves. That was why they'd taken the fight with the Modron army here, in an attempt to slowly wear down Mechanus' forces through the power of Thuldanin.
However, that petrification did leave them with a time constraint - even if he was immune, the others certainly weren't. He didn't know how long they had before they'd start to feel the plane's effects - it was simply best to find the warforged, to find Bulwark, and to be done with this place. At this point, their time in Acheron had stretched to an obscene amount of time. Depending on the timescale of how long they'd been here, it was possible that they'd find their homeland destroyed, Empyria's reach growing untenable in the years they'd been gone. The better hope was for the timescale to have grown even larger - for Empyria to have risen, expanded, and fallen, their time on Acheron spanning decades, or even millenia, of time on the Material plane. Perhaps then, there would be a home to return to.
Maul continued climbing to the surface of the cube that they were on, eventually clambering out of the twisted tunnels of wreckage and into the vast void of Thuldanin. They could finally see the steel that made up the surfaces of Thuldanin's cubes - it was softer than Avalas', allowing for the tunnels and pockmarks to form naturally over time. In the sky up above was even more refuse - petrified ships that had long-since lost their crew sailed the endless void of a sky, catapults and ballista drifted aimlessly, and intricate contraptions had rusted and stoned over to the point of obsolescence. Worst of all, however - the creatures. The Syndicate could see faces wearing all manner of expressions upon all manner of creatures, both sentient and not.
"Maul...what happened here? And will it happen to us?"
The warforged looked at Lance, clearly seeing horror on the boy's face. "Universal material petrification. Warforged resistant. Flesh-bearers vulnerable."
"So what you're saying is you've sent us to die here?" Shavvir leveled Everlife at Maul, her eyes steady and cold. "That's not like you."
The warforged was quick to shake his head. "Primary mission: extraction. Translocation pertinent. Surveillance pertinent."
"Well, I have no intention of dying here. Maul's right. It's best we keep moving and be wary of the time. If we start seeing any ill effects though, we're taking the first portal that we can find. I hope you understand that, Maul. If the warforged are the only creatures that can survive here, however, I hope it won't be too hard to spot."
"Caution understood. Travel initiated." The group started following Maul as he made way across the fist cube of Thuldanin. Unlike Avalas, the cubes here were far more cluttered, collisions happening every hour or so rather than once a month. It made searching the plane far easier - except that they had no clue where they were going. In Avalas, the skies were deafened by the sound of countless warriors' boots stomping on the steel surfaces. In Thuldanin, however...eerie silence. The only sounds they heard besides themselves were from the ever-shifting tides of petrified junk clattering into each other. Compared to where they'd come from, however, it was almost indistinguishably soft.
After searching for what felt like half a day, jumping across several cubes and inspecting tunnels that were as empty as the rest, Wake called everyone to a stop. "We're not making any progress like this...we can't just keep wandering aimlessly like this. Maul...you said you've never been here before?"
"Affirmative."
"But you said you are of the understanding that warforged are one of the few, if not the only, thing that won't be petrified on this plane?"
Again, Maul nodded. "Affirmative."
Wake sat down, burying his head in his hands. "Then we need to find a way to search based on that. Visual or audio I don't know, but anything beats our current method."
"I can locate either them, or an item of import to them, if they are near us. It's not a limitless range, and I cannot hold it for more than a few minutes...but it would potentially save us the time of searching the centers of each cube." Phyrra thought for a little while longer. "Actually...I should only search for an object. I would need to separate myself from Maul to get the desired reading when searching for a warforged."
"Proposal acceptable." Despite his earlier kindness earlier, Maul still remembered being Phyrra's puppet...seeing his body move and act while still trapped within it, unable to fight back. It was not something he ever wished to see happen again...and if it did, he would not be so quick to find kindness within his core.
Wake saw the situation stiffening, jumping in between the two of them as he continued. "Okay...so we can find them if we're close, that's good. Maul, is there anything on Bulwark that might be of note? Something only he would carry, and that Phyrra could find?" He looked over towards the drow. "Can you find something based on a name and description?" When she nodded, he looked back at Maul expectantly.
"Phalanx. Greatshield." He looked down at his own, Aegis. "Larger. Sturdier." Phalanx was a grand weapon befitting the commander of the warforged. It could link with other warforged shields, so long as their central cog was not too damaged, creating a barrier of force that was capable of spanning the entire front line of the army. Much like Maul, it was his most precious tool, more precious than even Bulwark's sword or mount. Where they found Phalanx, they would find Bulwark.
Wake turned back to Phyrra, but she had already begun casting the spell. As soon as she was done, her eyes shifted from white to black, and within her mind she felt a compass form within her, one that would point them to Phalanx. Right now, it sat dormant...they would have to get closer before she could give a more accurate reading. "Move swiftly. This does not last long."
The group picked up the pace as they passed over the center of the cube, Phyrra's spell mentally sifting through the piles and piles of refuse that had filtered into this plane, eventually coming up empty. They repeated this process for the next several cubes that they came across, pausing as they neared the center of it as Phyrra recast the spell, searching for Phalanx within its depths.
After several attempts of no results, Wake called the group to another pause. "We're still going in a random direction, we're just saving time in doing so. Is there nothing else we can do? Like we said earlier...time is rather important here."
"If we rest overnight...give me time to commune with Lolth, there is a power of hers that I've called upon in the past that may help...and I do mean 'may'. I'm not even sure the spell will work here, or what its effects will be. If it works, it can potentially take us to a fixed location, one we don't even have to have seen before or know exactly where it is."
"And where are you thinking of pointing to?"
"The cube the warforged first set foot on. Give us a starting point, if nothing else. Again, I don't know if it will work - the spell doesn't like moving targets, and...well, everything here moves. It's a gamble, and it's time. I'm willing to take that chance, Wake...but I know you might not."
The archer huffed, looking around at the sea of rubbage around them. They'd been wandering for the greater part of a day at this point with no clear distinction of progress. Still, it was an entire night that they'd be spending and waiting, only for the hope that the spell might work. And even then...it could only get them to the warforged's starting point, not where they were now. With as often as the cubes of Thuldanin clanged together and bounced around, that cube could have no correlation with where they were now. Despite all of the odds stacked against them, however...he knew that the gamble was their best shot.
"I'm willing to wait. Does anyone object?"
Shavvir was the first to step forward, planting Everlife's point into the steel below. "You, Wake, would rather wait and risk your life on chance? You might never rise from your slumber...the petrification may take us all while we sleep."
"I know." Wake sighed solemnly, continuing. "Our entire time here has been chance. We're in the most organized of the lower planes, and yet we've resorted to little more than aimless wandering. Structured chaos, at best. At least with this, we have a chance, a better chance, of finding something useful."
The shadar-kai shook her head. "No...you're delusional. This isn't the Wake I've been working with. He wouldn't resort to such chaos - especially not chaos proposed by one of Lolth's wenches." Shavvir glared daggers at Phyrra as she enunciated the final words, the drow's head turning sharply as she processed them.
"Wench? Listen, filth, there is only one person here that's been actively working against the rest of us...you. You run your own agenda and then blame everything on your precious Queen. The rest of us are more than ready for you to stop acting like a petulant child and work as a group. So if you have a better idea...I'm listening." As Phyrra spoke her teeth bared, knuckles turning white as she nearly bent her holy symbol in anger.
Shavvir remained stone-faced, her movements nigh-imperceptible as she looked at the heated drow. "Oh, I don't have a better idea...but I'm assuming you do. Tell me, Phyrra...what happened to the Warforged of Thuldanin?"
Phyrra cocked her head in confusion for a few seconds before the Font took over, Phyrra's eyes glowing brightly as her lips moved on their own. "The Warforged Legion escaped into Acheron in an attempt to divert and destroy the armies of Mechanus that battled with them. However, they soon began losing forces to the effects of the layer, and made a retreat back to Acheron's first layer, Avalas."
Shavvir stood triumphantly in front of Phyrra, a confident stare bearing down on her. "I would never be so foolish as to ignore a gift given to me by the Raven Queen. You would be wise to learn that lesson...wench." Shavvir turned around, continuing on to the rest of the group. "We aren't going to find the warforged here because they aren't here. Our best option is to simply return, and keep searching for them there."
"And just how do you propose we return, darling?" Zaelynir crossed his arms, watching the two women's quarrel with passive interest, trying not to get too involved. "You've made your point, truly, but don't stop quite so soon."
"We go back the way we…" Shavvir looked around, seeing the cubes clattering and clanging against each other. Retracing their steps wouldn't be easy, if possible at all. There was one way that they could do it with confidence...but it was the very method that she was fighting against.
"Exactly." Wake continued on, grabbing the Shadar-kai's attention once more. "Gruumsh is powerful, but he can't create portals. If all portals in Thuldanin are fixed to certain cubes, which it seems like they are from the few we've seen, then finding the warforged entered through might give us the greatest means of finding them. That requires resting for the night."
Shavvir shook her head, throwing up her arms. "Fine...fine. I've issued my warning. If we die, I'll hunt you down and slay you in whatever realm you end up in."
"Can we...can everyone just calm down?" Lance finally stepped in after having been quiet for so long, watching everyone else bicker and quarrel around him. "We know what we need to do, we know what we have to do to get there. Let's just all settle in and get some rest, and that way we can get going earlier tomorrow. We haven't seen anyone here...so we don't need a full watch. Maul, do you think you can stay up? If any of us start turning to stone, we're finding the closest way out of here. Shavvir's right...at least in that regard. I've risked my life for all of you once. I'm not doing it again until it's clear it's worth it."
The rogue's words seemed to shut everyone up, the group standing in uncomfortable silence for a few minutes as livid eyes glared at other members of the Syndicate. As tempers cooled, bedrolls were drug out as five members of the group took their rest. Maul was the only one to stay awake, not requiring the rest and willing to watch out should Lance's fear be true.
The Warforged...had left. It hurt Maul to accept that, to learn that their greatest weapon against the Modron was equally a weapon against themselves...against himself. He hadn't seen any signs of Warforged life amidst the wreckage they'd passed today...he'd hoped that he wouldn't, but now he knew that they were out there, somewhere. He didn't know, didn't want to know, how many of them had turned to stone before they were able to retreat...how many allies and companions he'd have to walk past on their way to the portal. He didn't even know if Bulwark had made it out alive - he could only hope so. Bulwark was the best leader he'd ever fought alongside. To lose him would likely mean that they'd lose the war.
Maul stood guard the entire night, Phyrra being the first to rise the following morning, if such a term was even applicable in Acheron. As soon as the cleric woke up she simply closed her eyes, focusing her attention solely towards Lolth, even in this cold and empty place where her deity had never once tread. Phyrra pulled from the vast swathe of divine powers that Lolth had given her access to...so many. This time, however, she only needed one - the one she'd made everyone wait for. She drew it down into herself, casting aside one of the other blessings she'd pulled from Lolth...it would serve its time in the future. For now, she wanted to verify that her decision had been worth it - that they hadn't just wasted their time based on her beliefs.
Once Phyrra finished she turned to face Maul, speaking softly as the others were still resting. "If all goes well...we will find your people again. I pray that it does...I do not see much of an alternative." Her words caught in her throat as she was only faced by the cold and uncaring eyes of Maul eating at her psyche. "I...I truly am sorry for what I did to you on Grashmog. I - I rarely make promises. I find little benefit in them, tying oneself to another for the future. However, if I must make one, I will carry it through to its completion. I could not leave them there, Wake or Lance. I know you are angry - you have every right to be. I only wish that you see my side of it."
"Request parsed. Response...agreeable." Maul's insidious aura softened - she was willing to aid him and the warforged. While the grudge was not something he ever intended to let die, he was willing to ignore it for the time being so long as she was of active use to him. She was in his mind - and he knew she could do it again. No honeyed words could fix that...he had no way to know whether or not his mind was laced with her influence even now, making him more receptive to her pleas. He could not fully trust her, and potentially never would again...but for the time being, he could cast that aside.
Phyrra looked at Maul intently. "I do need some aid with this spell, if possible...something to aid in its location. Anything in your possession linked to the army...or even to Bulwark. Whatever you have will help."
Maul nodded, reaching into a compartment within his chest and pulling out a small sliver of stone - it looked to be a tiny gear. "Previous statements...erroneous. Thuldanin observed. Arm, head entered Thuldanin. Artifact acquired. Thuldanin portal lost."
Phyrra took the cog...it was the same shade of stone as what they'd passed. "You mean you've entered Thuldanin before? Then why - "
Maul cut her off, one hand sliding across his body from one shoulder to the middle of his chest. "Half entered Thuldanin. Portal lost."
"I see." It made sense to Phyrra now - he'd been in Thuldanin, but only for a split second. The portal must not have been in his reach for long enough to fully pass through it - only enough to grab this gear, something that he'd kept hidden for all this time. "I'm...I'm sorry to hear that. I won't tell a soul."
Maul waited for those final two words - I promise. However, she never spoke them. He knew she wouldn't...she'd just explained why. She had her reasons - he would avoid holding them against her for the time being. "Response appreciated. Requesting offering analysis."
Phyrra turned her attention back to the sky, her hands rising up to the void above her as she held the cog in her grasp. "It should be just what we need. Now...your people." She focused on the phantasmal image in her head - from conversations she'd had with Maul in the past, and from her own experiences in Avalas and Thuldanin, a shadowy image in her mind formed, her understanding of what the Warforged's entry point was. All she needed was a shadow, something in the realm of concrete that the spell could work with.
"Show me the way." Phyrra whispered it in a hushed tone, careful not to wake the others that still rested. As she spoke the words, the image in her head began shifting, details coming into focus that hadn't been there before, variabilities between her image and the true one coming into focus. In her mind, she saw it...a face of the cube, every minute detail about it as clear as the sky on a cloudless night. Beyond that, however, she knew exactly where it was - direction, distance, even rotation from their current position.
"I have it. I know where they came from, Maul...and hopefully where we can come back."
Maul wasn't paying attention to her, however...while she'd been performing the spell, Maul had looked down at Lance...he could see something was wrong. The tip of the half-elf's ear was usually pallid, the race as a whole rarely dark-skinned due to their elven heritage. However, right now, the tip of it was even more discolored...gray even. Maul knelt down in the midst of Phyrra's wondrous news, extending his hand out to assess the situation.
"Petrification commenced." Maul looked back up in frustration, the words repeating themselves in his mind several times. He did a quick scan of the others, not seeing any immediate problems with them.
Phyrra trained her eyes on Lance, immediately noticing the same blemish Maul had. She locked eyes with the warforged, speaking quickly. "I know the way. We must go at once."
Maul nodded, standing up as he violently bashed his weapon against his shield. "Arise! Arise!" The harsh noise roused the other four, the group stirring uncomfortably as they each looked around in a hazy confusion.
Phyrra followed Maul's lead. "It's starting. I know where we must go...it is the most direct route. Wake, if your assumption is correct, we will find the portal on that cube. Let us go."
Bedrolls were quickly packed, each person assessing themselves to find their state. Lance was not the only one affected thus far - the tip of Zaelynir's wing had gone cold, as had Shavvir's thumb. As soon as they were set, the group set out on their journey.
They moved in complete silence, the only sounds being the sifting of refuse all around them and the occasional boom of two cubes colliding. Phyrra served as their trailblazer, pushing ahead, waiting for cubes to collide so that they could cross over and get further to their destination. As they moved, more petrified areas began to claw their way into the Syndicate - Wake's foot soon started to suffer the effects, as did Phyrra's shoulder. The only one unaffected was Maul, the warforged's unique construction staving off the effects for the time being.
Phyrra could sense their destination growing closer - she could only hope that it happened in time. The petrification was staining multiple areas of each person's body at this point, each area slowly succumbing more and more to a lack of movement. Wake soon struggled to move forward, stumbling forward as he lost the ability to control his ankle. Half of Lance's face had gone rigid, his eye closed and mouth slightly agape. Phyrra began struggling to breathe, the petrification swelling to encompass part of her neck, upper arm, and chest, her breathing ragged as she lost control of the muscles in the area. Zaelynir's wing was stuck collapsed inwards, unable to use them for balance as he was so accustomed to doing as he had to reteach himself to walk. Shavvir was the most fortunate of those affected by the petrification, the Shadar-kai's arm having gone rigid up to the elbow, but no other problematic effects as of yet.
Maul, despite all of this, remained unscathed - he didn't know when or how quickly the petrification would take him...all he could do was look after the others, and guide them to their destination - his people. "Requesting direction and location."
Phyrra choked out the words, the inexorable advance making every breath she took harder than the previous. "Forward - not far. Two...blocks." She gasped for air, keeping the breath for as long as she could hold it.
Maul continued on the path, the group soon reaching the end of this block. Spellcasting had become out of the question a while ago due to a lack of capability to perform them amongst the spellcasters, the Syndicate's fate decided solely by the luck of the cubes and whether or not they would collide in an hour or a day. They'd been relatively fortunate so far, Phyrra's spell redirecting them if a shorter path opened up. However, even that spell had its limits, from Maul's understanding...and he doubted the drow could perform it again in her current state.
This time, however, fortune was not on their side. The wait felt like hours until a cube didn't collide, but simply brushed past them. Phyrra made the hop, each breath she took potentially her last as her strained breathing grew even more ragger. It was a wonder Lance was even alive anymore, his head almost entirely petrified...he held a hand on his brother for guidance due to a lack of vision. Wake hobbled along as always, his entire leg stolen from him. Zaelynir's wing was entirely petrified, the blight starting to spread across his back and other wing. Shavvir as well had lost her entire arm and shoulder, glancing over at Phyrra as she watched what could potentially be her fate as well.
"That...one." Phyrra pointed forward to a cube - they were travelling in roughly the right direction to get there, though it was too early to tell how the geometry would line up. "Go...there."
Maul looked onwards to the cube growing ever-larger on the horizon - despite only having had a glimpse of it before...he could tell that it was right. That this was where he'd lost them.
An hour passed, slowly drawing closer, potentially halfway to the two cube's closest point. The group stood on the corner, ready and waiting to cross at a moment's notice...if they still could. The initial spots of petrification had continued growing, the secondary occurrences now also becoming a major hindrance. Each of the others was somewhere between fifty to seventy percent stone, a metric that would only get worse as they went. Maul wondered if any of them would be alive...if he would be the only one to cross.
With that knowledge came a new understanding, one he'd never anticipated - loss. He'd lost countless soldiers on the battlefield before, and yet something was different about the five allies beside him - despite their differences, both physical and mental, he couldn't afford to let any of them go. It wasn't out of necessity - he was rather confident they could secure enough allies with only four of them. No...Maul felt loss, a loss unlike the less he experienced on a battlefield.
The warforged stood solemnly as the two cubes drew ever-closer together. As he waited, his companions were all high-consumed by the curse of Thuldanin - there was only a spot or two on each of them that was untouched now, something that would soon change in the coming minutes. They couldn't move...and Maul was certainly not fast enough to save all of them. He...he'd fail -
"Maul!"
The warforged snapped his head to the voice, his ocular sensors swelling - it was a warforged. In fact, it was one that he knew - Rubble. Rubble had been transferred to his squadron just as they were about to enter Thuldanin. The two knew each other, but not well...their relationship didn't stretch past soldier and captain. Still, to see anyone here, especially one of his own kind...it was a miracle.
"Rubble?"
The younger warforged ran to the corner closest to Maul, the two drifting closer to each other. The cubes were just barely going to miss each other - or so Maul thought. Rubble carried with him a gun of warforged make, one that they'd used multiple times. He planted it into the ground and fired, a massive harpoon skewering the cube Maul currently stood on. As Rubble began to turn the crank of the gun, Maul shuddered as the entire cube groaned, slowly altering its trajectory to collide with its neighbor. The warforged had used these plenty of times on Acheron - it helped in getting around immensely, a fact that remained true on Thuldanin.
As the two cubes soon came to dock, Rubble came running over. "Maul! You're...you're back!"
"Affirmative. Assistance requested. Avalas transportation necessity. Bulwark attention required."
Instantly Rubble responded to his commander's order - the commanders were the only ones to talk with Maul's terse manner. The higher your rank, the more succinct you became. It aided in issuing commands, giving the leaders more time to assess the situation. Even when he was separated from the army, with no soldiers to lead - Maul never outgrew his training. Only when speaking to a superior would one break - and Maul only had one. The speech created a system where the soldiers asked the questions and the leaders answered them, giving both parties a better understanding of problems and expectations.
"Bulwark's been looking for you. He's always kept someone here, keeping watch should you return. Follow me."
As Rubble turned towards one of the tunnels, Maul repeated his command. "Ally transportation required. Assistance requested."
Maul hefted up Lance and Wake, struggling to grab Shavvir as Rubble turned around. "Allies. Yes." Rubble lifted Zaelynir and Phyrra, the two of them turning as Maul followed Rubble. He could only hope that they would be fast enough...but if they weren't, Maul at least held Solace in the fact that he would be with his people again.
"The war hasn't changed - nothing changes here. We haven't found a means of escape yet, but we keep trying. The portals in Avalas are too hard to pin down, but we're getting closer. Now come on...I want to see Bulwark's face when he spots you."
The two continued through the rubbage of Thuldanin as they hauled Maul's companions, Rubble eventually reaching the portal. It shimmered and flickered with the blues and grays of the one they'd stepped through before - it must have signalled that this one went to Avalas, as opposed to the third layer of Acheron.
Maul stepped through the portal...and finally, he was home.
