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Now settled on a precarious nest of burnt books and desks, well above the rest of the wreckage, Isis pondered the death of her comrade.

"The death was undeniably caused by the burn" she stated, now calmly staring at the burnt and bloody, amethyst corpse. "And yet, the beast has never killed in such a way before. Is it just some new level of animosity? Or was there information here the ghastly creature was trying to hide?"

Hungry for answers, Isis shoveled through her nest, but her claws met no pages, just ashes and the husks of old tomes.

"Kanaloa (@thedragonwithinu)?" She called as she clambered about her perch, "How much of all this did you manage to read? You seem quite experienced in fire magic. Perhaps you found a useful book of spells... Or perhaps you are the beast!".

The wildclaw in Egyptian garb then let out a snicker. "Oh, there's no need to worry, I shan't be accusing you of anything yet, snake. I just want to know. And I'll ferret out your secrets one way... Or another".

"Well, Isis (@Thoth), let me answer your question. First, about my knowledge. When I was younger, the leader of my clan, who's also my adoptive parent, noticed I had control over magic. He decided to teach me, that's why I know how to use stones, cast spells and control elements when the right elemental stones are near" He explained to the wildclaw.

"Now about the burned books... Indeed, I believe there was something the beast didn't want us to see. There was a book that told the story of this place. That central pillar was created to represent the integrity of this place compared to the rest of the lands during a war. This town was hidden from the rest of the world. The binds we are using were created when evil dragons found the place and decided to destroy it, to bind these intruders to this central pillar." He paused, to catch his breath.

"The invaders found a way to infuse the restraints with dark magic, one of them killing their creator. The 14 binds that attached to us are from that time. They're said to only break when the "monster among us is sentenced". They weren't intended to stone the voted out innocents until we could find the beast, but simply lock everyone on the pillar for judgement, without killing. I believe the curse placed upon them caused this, since dark magic is extremely unpredictable" he explained.

"That book also contained information about many other creatures and places from the ancient times. I believe it had something about the beast, so it destroyed it. The altar where the book used to lay was covered in ashes and there was a burned cover resting on it. There was so much information about this particular place I didn't have time to explore the rest of the book" He admitted, disappointed with himself.

The flames finally died down, luckily for Thanatos, as he was blocked by the raging inferno and falling debris on all sides just a few seconds prior. Letting out a sigh, followed by a smoke-induced coughing fit, he began to make his way through the charred halls of the once proud library, covering his mouth with his wing. Arriving on the top level, he arrived just in time to see Nanami's charred body excavated from the ashes. His fears that had started with the fire had been confirmed.

He was wrong.

Thanatos clutched at the stabbing pain in his chest, unsure if it was caused by the smoke and ash clinging to the sides of his lungs or the fact that he had sentenced an innocent dragon to his death the night before. Without a word, he turned around and flew out an open window, even before Isis' (@Thoth) accusation of the other coatl. He flew towards the center of town. He landed silently in front of the pillar. In front of Togami. He coughed some more, then bowed his head and closed his eyes, paying his final respects. While he wasn't the kind of dragon the shadowy coatl would have wanted to work with, or even just be around, the fact remained that he was innocent, and Thanatos was to blame.

Up until this point, he had done relatively well at keeping his emotions out of it. After seeing what exiling dragons did, he felt absolutely appalled by his original vote, aimed at a mere hatchling. But, he kept reminding himself that no one knew who did it, or what would happen after the votes were cast. Now though, there was no excuse. He retrieved the hairs that led him to suspect Togami from a pocket inside his left glove. Twirling them between his clawed index finger and thumb, he sat down. His thoughts returned to what Isis had said the night before.

"So easily, it could have been planted at the scene. Yet we are so quick to cast suspicion on another..."

Thanatos hissed and squeezed his eyes shut; It was a futile last attempt to block those thoughts from entering his mind. He dropped the tufts of green on the ground and laid down, curling himself up into a ball. Back in his old den-back in his old life-the young dragon had prided himself on being an inventor and a thinker. His brain was his pride, and his denmates would boast about him to other clans, saying things like "he can solve any problem, and fix any machine!" But here he was, when his mind could mean the difference between life and death, when he was finally being put to the test, falling for the oldest damn trick in the book. He figured that he would have to return to the group eventually, failure or not. But for now, Thanatos thought it best to rest and gather his thoughts. Perhaps Kanaloa (@TheDragonWithinU), his only friend in this town, knew something that could make some sense out of this whole situation.

(No Vote)

A small fae watched Thanatos (@QuickAttack) have his crisis of faith from above, silently and unnoticed by the preoccupied coatl. She had watched the library burn, knowing that it was all too likely that the fire was started by the beast that was even now hunting them all, picking them off one by one. Or simply allowing suspicions and mistrust to fester within the other dragons, leading them to eliminate the innocent. Twice the beast had succeeded, and who knows how many more times it would continue to thwart their efforts to find and eliminate it.

After the coatl left, she too flew down to pay her respects to the innocent dead. Perhaps we shall catch this killer, but perhaps not. Most likely not, she grimaced as she thought the words, this beast is far too clever. And we are far too concerned with casting blame upon each other than simply finding the killer.

She flew after the coatl, determined that she would not cast blame upon an innocent a third time.

No Vote.

Silverflame watched the fire, unable to do anything. He didn't know any magic and he wasn't a water dragon.
"It's smart", he said quietly. He wasn't even sure if anyone was hearing him. "I wish we were dealing with a mindless beast... A smart hunter..."

Silverflame was afraid. He didn't want to die. He didn't want to be the next victim. He had no friends here. He was alone and he didn't know who he could trust. He was saddened by the dead imperial, even though he didn't know her.

Silverflame turned around and started looking for food. He couldn't remember the last time he had eaten. After some searching and hunting he managed to get all types of food, even seafood and meat. He himself was strictly a vegetarian, but he had learned to find other foods too, thanks to his imperial father.

Silverflame took all the food to a building that seemed to be a mess hall of sorts. He sorted all the food on different tables, going back and forth to get more. Then he walked closer to the others.

"I know most of you probably don't feel like eating, but we need our strength. I have gathered some food in the mess hall. Anyone is welcome to it", he said, still feeling a bit shy. These were all strangers after all.
___________
No vote yet ^^

His head hanging low, Kanaloa exited the building, disgusted with himself.
He knew exatcly how it felt to have everyone accusing and pointing their fingers at you while being completely powerless to stop them. Yet, he did that to another dragon. And because of his blindness two more innocents lost their lives.
He couldn't stand being near himself. Stopping dead on his tracks, he closed his eyes and prayed silently for the fallen. He knew the now stoned imperial wasn't exactly nice to him, but he never wanted that anything like this happened to the dragon. Also, the 2, now dead, dragons didn't deserve these deaths.
When trying to control the flames, he felt it on his skin, literally, what it felt to be burned alive, even though he didn't get damaged for real since it was only a magical link to the fire. Being stoned to death probably wasn't nice either.

There was one thing he could do to at least try to redeem himself. He knew he wouldn't go past the "try" part since he would carry the weight of two deaths on his shoulders until it was his time to meet the eternal rest. He needed to do it anyway. It could save other lives.
But he would need help. The coatl instantly thought of Thanatos. Even though he didn't know the other male, he was the closest he had of a friend, and he was glad of it.

Looking around, he saw a black figure on the ground. As he got closer, he realized it was a dragon by the way its scales reflected the dim light over the town.
Seeing the trademark red goggles, he recognized Thanatos ((@QuickAttack)), who was curled.

Sitting next to the black dragon, he realized he was having a breakdown.
"Hey..." the blue dragon started, not knowing what to say. After moments of deafening silence, he continued.
"Hey, it's okay, I'm here" he whispered, placing a hand/claw on the other dragon's head, like he always wished someone did when he broke down at his home. The other coatl continued in silence, though.
"I know you're blaming yourself. Stop it, please, it's not your fault. It's the monster's fault. It's the one who's forcing everyone to vote each other out" Kanaloa said, gently removing the accessory covering the shadow dragon's eyes, surprisingly without protest.
"Look at me" he said softly, turning the Thanato's head so he was facing him.
"These thoughts... They will haunt you for some time. But I promise you, they will fade away eventually. You need to try to convince yourself to stop it. You're not to blame, it's the beast's fault for even making us need to do this" he explained.

"I know you're having a battle with your own right now but I need your help"
"I think I know what kind of creature we're dealing with. There's something we can do to be certain of it. But first, I need you to understand the story of this city" he told the black coatl. Kanaloa needed about 20 minutes to explain Thanato's the whole story of the city. It's founding, why it was founded, the magic on it and it's destruction.

"Now, remember that the dragons who destroyed the city were specialized in dark magic? When all citizens were dead but one, they created a beast that would be hosted within this last habitant. When this dragon died, the beast found another host, and so on. I believe it latched itself on one of us"
"The host has no control over it, it manifests itself when it wants and forces the poor victim to watch as it takes as many lives as it can"
`
"Now, remember that there is a magical protection on this village? There's a spell we can use to make this protecting energy reveal who was the murderer of another dragon. What's unique about the beast is that it can't be revealed by this spell. This means that if we perform it and get no response, it means we're sure we're dealing with this beast"

"However, I need your help to cast the spell. I've got the first thing we need, hairs/scales of the victim of the murderer. I found some hairs from the deceased imperial next to it's body when we found the corpse" he acknowledged, his face pale as he said the last part.

"We also need a stone from every element, which can be found on the back of the library; a drop of dragon blood, which I can obtain easily with a spike and my finger; and finally, a thunderbolt, which is the hardest"
"There used to be a structure on the top of the library that directed thunder strikes to the top of the pillar, I made a drawing of it based on the one from the book" Kanaloa explained, showing an schematic on his notebook.

"If we can construct that, we can perform the spell. If we can perform it, we can confirm we're dealing with the ancient monster. If we're dealing with it, I can build these special necklaces" he showed Thanato's another drawing on his notebook.

"Everyone's necklaces will glow bright to warn when the beast takes over the host to attack. Also, it's able to finally kill the monster when its host dies. Someone tried to create them before, but was killed by the beast before he could do it" Kanaloa finished his explanation, Thanatos staring at him frozen... Probably processing everything.

---

((No vote))

Thanatos hadn't expected his friend to follow him to his place in front of the pillar, but he was glad to not have been wrong in assuming that Kanaloa truly seemed to care for him. Though he still doubted his ability to help at first, the azure dragon had a plan. A plan that needed someone of Thanatos' expertise to be pulled off. As he was handed the hastily drawn schematics, the clockwork of his mind began to turn once more, and the young dragon was soon hard at work, planning the entire construction process in his mind.

"A lightning rod...I've certainly done more challenging things!" He assured the mage. He was so excited, he could finally be of some help; now there was a way to make up for the past mistakes that plagued his mind until now. He plunged himself into his work, flipping between the pieces of parchment, writing notes in the dirt, and making calculations in his mind. After just a few minutes of scrambling and muttering, Thanatos finally stopped.

"Magic is not my forte, but I'm glad I could be of use," he said to the onlooking Kanaloa. Now, we'll need some materials to get this going, namely metal and cables, but also some supports so the roof won't cave in on us of course...And something to secure it..." The inventor scratched his chin, his mind buzzing and whirring with countless data points and building plans, among other things. "Hmmm...There is one thing though..." he mused, "it will take quite a bit of time to set everything up, and then there's no guarantee that we would ever have a storm to fuel it..."

A thought crossed his mind as he said this, and stuck fast. He hurriedly gathered the plans into a pile and covered them with his body and wings, eyes darting in every which way behind his bronze eye-wear. He whispered to the other coatl, "We can't let the beast know, it could jeopardize our only shot at this." A tinge of fear began to stir in his gut: there was no way to keep the lightning rod a secret forever, but in agreeing to orchestrate its creation, Thanatos might as well plaster a large target on his back at the same time. There was no telling how technically inclined the others were. The success of the lightning rod could very well ride solely on the dragon's back...And he did not want the killer to know that, no matter what.

The other coalt's face was grim. The possibility that the were dragon had already seen them was there, but they had to work fast. "If we get all nine of us involved, then we can probably gather the materials in half a night, and set it up in about the same length of time...if we keep it to ourselves, it could take upwards of a week to finish...What do you think we should do Kanaloa (@TheDragonWithinU)?"

(No vote)

The fae descended from the rooftops where she had been observing the two coatls comfort each other, interested in what they were planning.

"I couldn't help but overhear your conversation, and I believe I may be of assistance," she said, mentally preparing to be accused of spying on them (which was true, but still...) or even accused of being the beast (which she most definitely was not). "I have some mechanical aptitude, and could possibly assist you with your endeavor."

"That is, if you will accept my help."

@QuickAttack
@TheDragonWithinU

"We don't have a week. If 2 of us die everyday, we don't have even 4 days. We need to call the others. I know that you and I are becoming targets, but that's our chance to say alive. Also, the special necklaces need that lightning bolt to be enchanted" he explained.
"Here's how the spell works: I'll make the necklaces with the stones and place them around the necessary items. I'll them find a way to hurt my finger and drop a bit of my own blood on the items, while drawing the necessary symbol around everything. After this is ready, the lightning needs to strike the target"

"When the lightning hits, the magical protection of the city will try to find the murderer. Since the beast can't be located, the energy will attach itself to the stones on the necklaces. The collars will them attach themselves to the group; one for each dragon. They offer protection by shining bright and shaking when the protecting force feels danger. Also, when the beast breaks free from its host when he/she dies, the stones will release their energy against the monster, killing it"

"Don't worry about the roof, according to that book that told the story of this city, the library and the town hall are enchanted to never brea-" The coatl stopped, noticing the Fae that approached them.

Listening to the Fae and feeling quite uncomfortable about the spy, the coatls accepted the help. The trio then found the rest of the group and explained the situation, how it could be rise their chances of survival.
"While you guys decide if you want to help, I'll go grab some stones that are necessary. Since you've already agreed Acapella (@SomeoneOrNot), we need cables. If you find cables somewhere, please let me know". Turning to Thanatos, he continued "Please come with me, I'll need quite a bunch of tablets".

When they reached the deposit, the ocean coatl quickly closed the door, placing a magical lock on it.
Quietly, he stated "Auscultatio Ridiculus".
"What was that?" asked the confused black coatl.
"I need to talk to you. This is a charm that will daze eavesdroppers and make it appear that we're completely quiet to the others" he explained.

"The beast probably noticed I'm the one who came up with this plan. I believe that, if we can't vote the beast out, I'm the next victim" he quaked.
"I trust you, that's why I'm giving you this scroll. Don't worry about hiding it from the others: this piece of paper is enchanted to be invisible to whoever is not meant to read it" Kanaloa told the other dragon.
"It's a letter I wrote that you'll show the others if I'm murdered. It will lose its magical properties if that happens and be visible to everyone. It contains the instructions of how to create the necklaces and cast the spell. This kind of magic doesn't require any sort of magician to cast it. Anyone can do it. The letter also states that you can keep my notebook and use my headband. I placed a charm on this sash that will show whoever wears it everything I ever knew, saw, experienced and felt; even after I pass away."

"I promise you I'll do everything I can to protect you. I came up with this plan and I don't want you to become a victim because of it. Every time you say anything about the plan, ALWAYS mention me and give emphasis to it. This will make the monster target ME, not you. You're too young and too great to pass away." the blue male remarked with a serious tone.
"Now Thanatos (@QuickAttack), you need to do something for me. Promise me you'll not break down if I'm killed. No, don't shake your head like that. You need to be strong! Promise me you can do it! You need to finish the job if I can't! You need to return to your clan and continue your life! Will do t? If we can't finish this together?" Kanaloa begged the shadow dragon in the deposit.