Ryleh waits until Jim and Aananda are safely through the portal and Enre has teleported away before heading back to the portal herself, shifting back to her human form as she stepped through.
"Well," she said dryly, "that went better than it could have."
She stepped out of the way while Aananda started shutting off the equipment that powered the portal.
"Sorry about the little...hiccough...there at the end. I did not like what I saw." he says to Ryleh.
Enre looks at the elementals for a moment before heading towards the portal when in the lab he changes his armor back to normal clothes. He than listens to see how well the plan went.
"Sorry about the little...hiccough...there at the end. I did not like what I saw." he says to Ryleh.
"I certainly don't blame you. It looked suspicious at best. And where Destruction is concerned it is generally best to be cautious."
"I felt that if some other power had contributed to make Khoda the way he was, as powerful as he was, they didn't deserve to get that investment back. I don't think we've heard the last of whatever that was, unfortunately."
Nasima looks owlishly up at Phaez, then around at everyone else.
"I feel...strong I...I...everything is so clear, this is...wow."
Anyone who looks closely can clearly see that Nasima has grown height and weight; she's about 5'9" now and much more muscular than before. Her hair is run through with bright electric blue streaks, and her eyes have become heterochromatic; her right eye is her normal pale grey, but the left eye -- the one that had to be rebuilt -- is a shocking electric blue. Those with sight that pierces the veil of reality, those who can see auras and magic traceries almost have to wince at the blazing blue-white aura the sylph is now emitting. It's still growing at the moment, but will level out soon.
"You guys...this is so amazing...what happened. I remember Keme being a jerk, then he was nice and it was super weird, then I was...I was in a sky. There was something on my head. Some...body on my head. Then I was lying here again. It was all so foggy and unreal. What did you do? Did you...did you...kill...him?!"
Euphoria and relief and confusion all fight for space in Nasima's mind as she looks hopefully around at all of you, and she tears up a bit, but only in her right eye. In the left eye, the tears evaporate instantly with little *ZRK*s of electricity...
"Nice to know that my being nice is right up there in weirdness factor with having your mind invaded. Don't expect either to happen again," he said, laughing.
"I don't know if Khoda is dead per se, but I am quite certain he will never be any threat to you again."
"Wow. 'Sima....you got tall....also a little blinding at the moment..."
Putting the finishing touches on his reply to Lady Denulia's wish for a Council meeting, Ryo checks the time and sends Ruji out to find his children so they can clean up for dinner. He sends his reply as Ruji wings out of the door.
"This is all awesome and I'm glad you're okay, 'Sima. But can you guys help me get Sleeping Beauty here to the infirmary?" she asked, pointing at the unconscious Jiminy. "Based on past incidents he's gonna be out for a day or two. I mean, we could leave him here in the lab, but that's probably not the responsible thing. Then again, neither is letting Dennis and Pan write on his face with permanant marker and I totally let that happen last time...."
"I can help you with Jim." He gives Ephebe a kiss, mentaly telling her ::I'll be right back:: then says to Nasima "It's good to see you looking like your old self again." He then scoops up Jiminy, and waits for Fieri before heading to the infirmary.
"Thanks, Krays. I appreciate the help."
"It's what family is for, right?"
Ruji lands on Ephebe's shoulder gracefully and keeps his wings open a bit for imaging.
"You wouldn't happen to know where your cousins are, would you?"
Ephebe looks confused. "Aren't they with Lysander? I haven't seen them recently, no."
"Lysander thought they were in one of the gyms pretending to be heroes, but I followed their scent to the library. I do not think they are still in the school."
With everyone safe and sound, Vai finally reverts to half-elf form, releasing Keme from her tail's grip as she shrinks. With the adrenaline now flooding out of her, she stumbles, the strain of the fight catching up with her. Champion or no, she was still not used to fighting. Seeing Nasima open her eyes makes it all worth it though, and Vai tries her best not to crowd her roommate, simply beaming at her from the behind all the other people.
"Lysander thought they were in one of the gyms pretending to be heroes, but I followed their scent to the library. I do not think they are still in the school."
Ephebe frowned. "Grandma, there's a chance that Ryo's kids have left the school grounds. Can you track them down?"
"Yes, presuming they haven't gone too far. But I don't have dedicated crystals for them so it will be challenging if they've gone through a portal or some such. Remind me to make dedicated crystals for them after this. I should be able to keep track of all of my grandchildren."
Ryleh manifests locate person, looking for the three Antairus children.
Even with her expertise, Ryleh can't locate the children with her spell. It's entirely possible they are out of it's range.
She shook her head. "Without a dedicated crystal to amplify it, I can't locate them. They may be out of range."
"Ruji, you said they were in the library....what were they looking at there? Maybe that will tell us where they went."
"Technically, they weren't in the school's library. You are aware the library spans several planets and planes, correct? They were in a section dedicated to intersteller maps when their scents disappeared."
"My apologies, Nasima, for not congratulating you sooner on your release from that creature."
Phaezeriel flies over to Keme and manifests Heal Injuries.
"Interstellar maps?" she squeaked, going pale. "Okay, umm.....I'll be right back. I'm going to search for my cousins in the reflecting pool. That'll let me see where they went," she said and disappeared.
She reappeared in the center of the maze next to the fountain that let her observe the past. "I need to see where my cousins went," she said as she looked into the water.
She reappeared in the center of the maze next to the fountain that let her observe the past. "I need to see where my cousins went," she said as she looked into the water.
The pool ripples for a moment before showing the three little children joining back up, map in hand.
"Matthias, we found a map." Gwenne rolls the big piece of paper out in front of them. "You're the best at reading Common. Where's Jegareth?"
"Uh..." Matthias stalls as he searches the map. "Oh, there is is. Can you two find him when we get there?"
"Yep!" Taal says eagerly. "Let's go!"
The three hold hands and, with a burst of harmless energy, vanish from the library.
Ephebe steps away from the pool and back into time.
"Excuse me," she said, politely. "I need to go find Lysander right this second. I know where the children went. He needs to go and fetch them at once."
She teleported to Lysander's location. "Jegerath," she said without explanation. "Can you teleport there yourself or do you need to borrow the power?"
"Jegareth? That planet is ruled by a black with a hatred of magic users. Why would I want to go there?"
"Because that's where our cousins went," she said impatiently. "And I very much doubt it's a good idea for them to be there on their own. I'm not supposed to jump into danger or I'd already be there."
"WHAT!?" Lysander roars. "Anyone with magical ability on Jegareth gets hunted down and taken to one of any number of laboratories! How in the world did they even get there!?"
"There's nowhere you can keep them away from, Lysander. I thought you knew that! The three of them share the Championship of Dreams. I have no idea why they decided to go to Jegareth, but we have to bring them home now. Do you need help getting there or not?"
"I'm not a Champion, how could I know any of that?" Lysander hisses as he closes his eyes to think. "It makes sense now... they said they were going to go save people who were being captured by a monster as black as shadow. Does Ryo know? Ugh, it doesn't matter, he's a spellcaster too. We need someone who doesn't use magic if we want this done without anymore trouble from the locals than we can avoid."
"What about your mother?"
"I'm sorry. I don't know what you can and can't do or see. The amulet I gave you let's you share some of my powers as Champion. But I didn't know which ones exactly. I would have told you if I thought you didn't already know. Ryo doesn't know yet. I'm going to speak to him next. But we need to get help to them as quickly as possible."
She paused to consider it. "Yes, that's an excellent suggestion. Nothing she does uses magic in the slightest and I doubt they have defenses against earthbending. Plus the starcasters allow near instantaneous travel. She can bring extra for the children in case they aren't conscious." She reached out and grabbed Lysander's wrist and he can feel heat radiating from the amulet around his neck as she teleports them both back to the lab.
"Mom, you need to go get the kids from a place called Jegareth right now. The coordinates are here," she said, telepathically fixing the location. "Bring extra starcasters in case. Lysander will explain the rest of the details. I have to go explain things to Uncle Ryo."
"That was... unsettling."
"Ephebe tends to become....difficult to understand when she's stressed. Could you please explain what's going on while I get my things together. I did pick up that this is going to be one of those non-approved we'll explain things afterwards trips into the Empire."
"Oh, don't mind these guys. We just finished a fight with a lightning god. Lots of chaos."