Nadia

The massive cavern system that resided underneath the Emperor's Wake was quiet, other then the faint drips of water falling into stagnant pools that echoed rhythmically through the tunnels, tunnels that, as far as Viorica and her group knew, connected to other parts of Sornieth. Being underground was safer than being on the surface, especially due to the fact that the Luminax had recently been growing exceedingly restless and more active as days passed by. This fact had concerned Yuki, the Wildclaw having been in constant communication with outside forces and guards that were posted in the various establishments.

Viorica's frown had deepen the more they though about it, tapping a clawed tip against their muzzle. There were several pieces of the puzzle that slowly fell into place before them. The increased activity of the first Emperor and it's rampages aligned perfectly with the whispers inside the Aion's mind and the frequent pulling and calling to join it above the surface. The pathogen inside Vio was awakening once more, yet the magic that Yuki and Isodora had weaved temporarily subdued the symptoms, allowing them some sense on normalcy for an undetermined amount of time.

This gave the Imperial time to focus on more important matters while their mate and companions worked to provide temporarily countermeasures to combat the lumbering undead fusion of Imperials.

The eggs...

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Their first clutch, healthy and safe, rested in a raised circle directly in the center of the main cavern, the glow of the built-in rows of specially designed lights running along the high rocky ceiling illuminating the glimmering scales of the three large eggs. it was about time for them to hatch, after all. Movement from each of the eggs caught Viorica's attention as the brown scaled Imperial curled around the nest, golden eyes softly watching the way the eggs shuddered and rocked from side to side. So fascinated with the three eggs, Viorica didn’t notice an odd feeling that settled in the area until a horrible smell permeated the vicinity of the nest suddenly.

An alarm went off in their mind, jolting the dragon to their feet. Panicked eyes were drawn down to the center of the nest, which was filling rapidly with an ominous red mist from the very sand they rested within, enveloping each egg completely. On one side, the mist had spilled over the edge, a trail of mist creeping over the ground and disappeared down one of the nearest tunnels. A deep growl rumbled within their throat, fangs snapping the air as their wings spread open to give several flaps to blow the offending aura away and back down the tunnel that the Imperial knew connected the cavern to the Plague Flight. Their guard didn’t lower, drawing a symbol in the air with a single claw to seal that tunnel off completely. Concern swelled within Viorica, the brown dragon considering calling their busy mate back from his expedition into the Wake to gather some materials that they needed. But first, they needed to make sure the eggs were unharmed.

The three eggs were still there, no… wait… not three. Six eggs laid in the now crowded nest, nestled close to each other in a way that it seemed there always had been six in the nest. Where had the three other eggs come from? An odd glowing aura glimmered across each eggs surface, drawing a concerned sound from the Imperial. Viorica didn’t know if the plague aura that had saturated them harmed their children in any way, so to air on the side of caution, the dragon ran a claw every so gently along each egg’s surface, a gentle golden glow wrapping itself around the surface just as cracks appeared.



"Checked out? What do you mean, checked out?!”

Her words came out far louder than she intended, and a chorus of ‘shh!’s immediately followed from various nooks and crannies within the labyrinth of a library. The librarian, an elderly pearlcatcher with particularly bad cataracts, winced sympathetically. How the woman was even able to read the check-out records was a mystery, but Nadia couldn’t care less about that at the moment. There were much more pressing matters to worry about.

“I’m very sorry, my dear. I know you’ve come a very long way to find this book, too, and I understand your disappointment,” The old woman soothed. Disappointment was a vast understatement; the emotions roiling within Nadia now could better be described as apoplectic, with a hearty dash of anguish blended with urgent desperation. As a result, the platitudes had an opposite affect on her, especially because it reminded her of just why she’d come seeking that accursed tome in the first place.

She was running out of time. Every hour, the infection in her spirit grew just a little bit more, tarnishing her soul and corrupting her very essence. Even now, she could feel the shadows creep ever deeper, permeating and darkening the very things that made her her. Even the whispers were louder than normal, taking advantage of her compromised emotions to exploit the opening.

Out of the corner of her eye, Nadia saw the shadow of her head waver and warp, completely independent of her own movement. Frustration immediately gave away to bone-chilling terror. The shadow-head shivered and twisted, growing darker and darker until it was almost completely black. 'Not now,' she prayed, hackles raising, but, as always, her prayers went unanswered, and she watched, helpless, as the shadow-neck began to cleave itself into three parts…

“Perhaps you’d like to put your name down for the waitlist? I could put a hold on it for you, when it’s returned?” The librarian suggested, completely oblivious (and mostly blind) to the eldritch horror show going on right in front of her nose.

“No, thank you!” Nadia choked, watching as the three shade-heads twisted and coiled together like snakes, snapping at each other as they vied for dominance. The sense of wrongness made her head spin, as her brain struggled to reconcile the three writhing shapes upon the wall before her. She knew if she turned to look over her own shoulders, she would find only her own neck attached… but she also knew, with complete certainty, that the other two were there.

The three shade-heads squabbled only a moment longer before their attention shifted. Like bloodhounds on the scent, they turned in unison toward the old woman’s perfectly mundane shadow. Out of time.

Nadia didn’t hesitate: she snatched the check-out records out of gnarled old fingers and bolted. “-Thankyouforyourhelpgoodbye!”

Later, when she’d put as much distance as she could between herself and the Lanternlea Port Archives, and the serpent-like shadows had receded back into her own, Nadia drew the rumpled papers from her satchel. She allowed herself only a moment of bitterness to reflect on her poor luck and wallow in self-pity - after she’d spent months hunting down the only copy in existence, of course someone else had taken the wretched book out mere hours before she’d tried to do the same! - before forcing herself to forge on. There was still work to be done, after all.

She scanned down the column of book titles until she found what she sought: 'The Connexion Betwixt Shade and Emperor’. She followed the row across to the name of the borrower. Her eyes narrowed.

“Lady Neveah of Plague,” Nadia breathed. An elegant name, lofty in title yet completely unassuming. Not much to work with, but then again, Nadia had made due with even less before. She’d come too far to give up now, especially not when the book was just barely out of her grasp. “You’re a lady, which means you’re traveling with a retinue,” she murmured, “And you’re from out of town, which means you have to have lodgings somewhere. You can’t have gone far…”

Hope renewed, the young imperial pulled her cloak tighter around her shoulders, and set out in search of an inn.