Varyssa: No Kain, sorry. I don't remember having any especial problems with Yorda. Have you played Defiance lately, and if so, do you now expect Ico to go into one of Raziel's combos? Maybe I'm just on crack for letting my mind fool me like that.

Brett: Well, of course it is.

RockyShoreline: ICO is a really old game that's still available. (I recently saw it in a hardware store.) People claim that it has no plot; the plot is simple, but it's mainly a giant and beautiful environmental puzzle. Let me know if you need more explanation than that.

Razielim Vampiress: Probably longer than reasonable. ;) I imagine that if it were me, I wouldn't even last as long as the people in Grizz's one-shot collection.

A/N: Thanks to everyone. You've inspired me to go back and continue embellishing the future chapters. It's still not up to my usual standards, but it's gaining a bit more of the details it needed. (I've still got a HUGE bothersome smudge that needs rewriting.) I feel the cement around the base of my writer's block start to crack.

5/29/05 Disclaimer: I don't own Raziel or Ico.

As we trudged through the castle, Raziel commented, "Your words earlier are confusing. You said that it was a while since you played this game. What did you mean?"

"Were I come from, we have things called video games," I started. I wracked my brain for a way to explain it. "Someone creates an illusion of a world and a story to go with it. Then another person can control a character in that illusion. It's an interactive story, the player has to actually do things to see the story progress."

"And we're inside one of those illusory worlds," Raziel mused.

"That's right," I said. "This one is called Ico."

"Who would want to hear a story of a decaying castle filled with soulless creatures?" Raziel asked.

"It's a story about a little boy named Ico who was born with horns; there's one like him every generation. It was considered an ill omen, and his village blamed things like droughts on him. When he turned ten, his village brought him here. They stuck him in a weird coffin and left him to die, but the coffin fell over and he got out."

"What about opening those weird doors?" Raziel questioned.

"Yorda, the princess that was supposed to be in that cage, belongs here. Since I'm in her role, the castle responds to me."

"So you're saying that I'm playing the role of Ico?" Raziel sneered. "I am no sacrifice."

I froze. Tears leapt to my eyes as I remembered the rumors of what would inevitably happen to him. I couldn't bear to tell him; Raziel would discover the truth soon enough.

The ledge we were walking along came to an end. The path continued as a pipe jutting out from the wall. Raziel easily shuffled along the pipe. I tried to follow him, but I could only hang from the pipe for a scant moment.

"Raziel, I can't do it," I yelled.

Raziel grumbled and asked, "Isn't this the right way?"

"Pull that lever," I shouted at him. I could only assume that he did, because a huge crate on a crane came swinging towards my ledge. Reluctantly, I leapt onto it. I lost my footing and landed ungracefully as Raziel pulled the lever again. He then glided down to land beside me.

The next room reminded me of a ballroom, or a huge cathedral. I couldn't think of any reason for the castle to have an empty room this large. There was no floor at this level; a bridge spanned the cavernous space. I stared down at an apparently bottomless chasm that had opened in the floor of the lower level.

I jerked my head up in fright as I realized that Raziel wasn't with me. I breathed a sigh of relief as he appeared in the doorway at the far side of the room.

"That is a dead end," he informed me. "What must we do now?"

I hummed in thought as I struggled to remember how this room worked. Suddenly, the answer clicked for me. I pointed to the chandelier, "Get on top of that."

As Raziel climbed into the rafters, I used the stairs to get down to the floor. Knowing what was about to happen, I waited in the doorway until I heard a resounding series of crashes.

I grabbed one of the convenient bombs. I lit it with a candle that had flown off of the fallen chandelier and cringed as it exploded with a muffled roar. The bridge that had formerly spanned the room now ramped from the top level to the floor on the other side of the chasm.

"Are we supposed to destroy this place in our efforts to escape?" Raziel mocked.

"That was the puzzle," I sighed as I opened the spirit gate that led to the courtyard.

My skin was electrified with all the shades and open portals in the area. "Don't fight them, just run," I ordered as I grabbed Raziel's talon.

It wasn't until we got to the spirit gate on the other side of the courtyard when Raziel bothered to pull his hand out of my grasp. The residual energy from the spirit gate fried all of the shades in the area.

We emerged into the sunshine. A grass-lined path led to the main gates of the castle. They stood open invitingly.

"Freedom," Raziel murmured. Suddenly, the gates began to grind close. He grabbed my arm and began running. We both slammed into the gate just as it shut. Raziel struck his claws against the unyielding surface in frustration.

"I could have told you that wouldn't work," I snapped angrily, rubbing my bruised arms.

"How much longer must I endure this waste of time?" Raziel demanded.

"I'd say that we're about a quarter of the way through this game," I huffed. "The time would pass more pleasantly if you would change your attitude."

"Why should I have a different attitude?" Raziel argued. "I'm trapped in a giant puzzle with a helpless cow of a girl."

"My name is Elizabeth," I growled. "Shorten it to Eliza or Liz if your lack of lips gives you trouble with the 'B,' but you will not compare me to cattle."

Raziel cocked his head towards the gate, as if wondering whether killing me was worth becoming trapped here forever.

"How are you enjoying yourselves so far?" a feminine voice questioned.

I turned to see a woman wreathed in the same inky black smoke as the creatures. Her face was a perfect alabaster white, but her eyes shone an intense purple. I knew this was the Gamester in the form of the Queen.

"Is this your doing?" Raziel demanded. "Release us this instant!"

The Queen pouted regally. "I cannot release you. The only way out is to finish the game."

With an angry growl, Raziel leapt at the Queen. She snapped out a magic word, and a bubble of darkness threw Raziel back. He narrowed his eyes in frustration.

This was not going at all like I had dreamed. Raziel was so anxious to get away from me. I wondered if having something nice happen to him would break his grim outlook.

"Can you make a change?" I asked the Gamester.

The Queen raised her eyebrows curiously. "What did you have in mind?"

"Make Raziel look the way he was before he was thrown into the abyss," I requested.

The Queen nodded and said another word. Blackness engulfed the courtyard momentarily, and she was gone.

Raziel stood in shock. His body and clothing were restored. The handsome vampire ran his talons over his face; I imagined that he barely believed what had happened.

Raziel's wings still hung in lose tatters down his back. He winced slightly as he ran his claws over them. "They're useless," he growled disapprovingly.

I studied the pattern of dried blood clotted along the edge of his wings. "They're not hurting you, are they?"

"It doesn't hurt when I move, but they're sensitive… too sensitive to use for gliding." Raziel sighed. "You should have chosen your words better."

I choked one syllable out of shock and anger. He was handsome again, why was he concerned with one minor detail?

Raziel gave me a self-satisfied smirk "What do we do now?"

I grumbled in irritation as I pointed out the next piece of the puzzle.