[Ninorra]

Ninorra followed close behind, but this place was unknown to her. She kept up the pace, eager to see more until they came to the statues. They were all strange and new, but somehow familiar. She caught a glimpse of the succubus as Callus strode past her, and made an audible gasp.

Helnia?

The boy's singing brought her out of the reverie, back to the present. He approached another statue, no, two statues. A male and female. They too seemed familiar, though the female was twisted with strange markings. She was no demon Ninorra had ever seen, bones protruding from her hips and enormous horns sprouting from her forehead.

Callus plunged his staff into the statue's wound.

The fallen angel stands in victory
The final seal was broken

The female's eyes glowed, and a strange liquid poured from her eyes. Ninorra noticed the streaks on her face. Scars from the liquid, burned into the stone? Blood? Something below was filling, and a terrible smell filled the air. The smell was familiar, the faces of the statues all bringing with them a feeling of foreboding.

I do not want my eyes to see,
I never wanted to believe
Take me to the gardens of the sinner

Light blinded the warlock. She covered her eyes with one hand, reaching out toward her companion.

"Callus!" She shouted, waving one hand in the direction she'd seen him in. Ninorra walked blindly to find him. "Callus, what is happening? Where are you?"

[Vicailde]

She grasped at empty air before a firm hand gripped her wrist and pulled her forward blindly. Her feet left the stone and she was met with weightlessness. She was alone with the sound of her heart beat and the grip on her wrist. Her feet met ground again, a wood material, which flexed under her feet slightly. The hand slipped from her wrist. The heat was suffocating and the smell overwhelming. Slowly her eyes began to adjust the bright light.

They were in a small room bathed in vibrant light pouring in from a small horizontal window near the ceiling. Callus was perched by a wooden door, his hand on the door knob peering through a hairline opening. The archway sat open behind Ninorra frozen in time, dust particles suspended in their downward spiral. What appeared to be a rather large scarab scurried from the window to a hole in the floor. Distant screams sounded off from outside the walls mixed with the roaring of flames. This room was familiar to the Sin’Dorei warlock, she had dreamt of it many times.

Before Ninorra could say anything, Callus turned towards her placing a finger on his lips to silence her. He opened the door revealing a spiral, half-decayed stairwell. He beckoned her to follow him. He ascended the stairs in silence a hand on the hilt of the large sword strapped to his back. He held a hand towards her signalling her to halt as they approached an exit to the stairs.

A lumbering fat creature three times the size of a normal man. It’s blubbery mouth slacked as it moved down a large corridor dragging an unconscious naked orcen man. His back completely flayed raw leaving a trail of blood down the length of the hall. Once the monster had passed Callus continued his silent trek up the stairs.

They climbed for what seemed like an eternity before finally reaching a door. Callus carefully opened the door and once Ninorra had entered he closed the door and locked it. The room was moderately furnished with a simple bed and a wooden desk. The rest of the room was cluttered with high stacks of dusty ancient tomes. Dim light bled from behind heavy curtains that covered every inch of the room. Callus pulled back one curtain revealing a tinted window and beyond the origin of the blinding light…

The sky burned.

Beneath stood decaying structures taller than any Ninorra had ever seen, covered completely in windows. The blinding firelight refracted in seas of broken glass. A blur of wings flashed in the distance releasing an object. Blurred by speed it self oriented, a starved troll. It’s limbs scrambled at the air as it plummeted out of sight to it’s doom.

“Welcome to my home.” Callus murmured bitterly as he pulled the curtains closed and turned towards Ninorra. His crimson eyes burned fiercely, his features seemed sharper in this place. Perhaps it was just the light. "Welcome to House Ysmir... or what's left of it."

[Ninorra]

Ninorra could not speak for a long time. She walked back and forth, between the window, the desk, and the book shelf. She had seen this place so many times in her dreams that it almost felt like a second home, though she refused to admit such to herself. There were voices she remembered, male, old, angry.. she willed herself to remember more of them, but all she knew was that they were important.

"House Ysmir.." She repeated quietly, looking at the desk. "There's something about that name that I feel as if I should know, but I don't. It's irritating. This whole place feels like I should know it better."

Carefully she thought back on the statues and their entrance. Outside, the tormented creatures. Screams of pain and sadness. Longing.

"..I do know this place," she said sadly. "This is my home, isn't it? My real home.."

She could feel her hands itch as she touched the desk. They longed for the fire down below, but more so to aid in the torment it caused. Something seductive was calling to her, and for no reason at all, she found herself singing to it.

Silence broken by the whispers of the voices in my head
As they guide me past the light, and I crave to be misled

Ninorra looked at Callus, her eyes flashing red as his. A ripple appeared in her forehead, fel energy building as she sang. Soon the horns would appear, the mad desire for destruction. Fire itched in her palms.

Did you break the sacred seal? Or was it all a dream?
Can I deny the blissful madness coloring the screams?

The warlock turned away from him, gritting her teeth. Something was pulling her toward the outside, toward the deep. She found herself breathing heavily as the words poured out of her mouth, like an old song she'd forgotten, an old answer to an old question.

There's lust, illusion, through the void
The light corrupted and destroyed

Something brought Vicailde her, and she was beginning to worry what that meant. What would a paladin, a knight of such holiness that he gleamed with righteousness possibly be doing here? This was a world void of all that was good, and it was quickly intoxicating her. It would be easy to remain, but that would defeat the purpose. She was here to find her husband.

She looked at Callus again.

Though in passing I can not look at your eyes
When everything you say sounds like a lie

There is truth beyond the faces that they see
Black secrets that you only share with me

Secrets.

The fire left her eyes and she realized the seductive power of this place. Vicailde was holy, but he had shown her many secrets. Now she worried for his soul.

"Where is Vicailde, Callus?" She asked, looking at him carefully. "Why would he be here? He does not belong in this place."

((Black Secrets by A Sound of Thunder))

[Vicailde]

“No. Your husband is not here. I have traveled to your world to stop this...” He motioned towards the window. “...from happening. There is no longer an Azeroth.. Draenor.. this world has consumed all others.” He sighed and sunk onto the bed. He covered his eyes an exhaustion washing over him. He took a moment to collect himself before continuing.

“I brought you here because you wanted the truth and I felt that this was the only way to convince you of my true intentions. You wanted to know who I was… I have spent eons researching histories from various worlds and even longer searching for a world at the right point in time to stop what’s to come. Soon your husband will do something that will usher in the end of all things and we must reach him before this happens to your world and all worlds to come.”

“However, I also brought you here as a warning. Yes, at one point you came from a world like this. In your world it is still in it’s infancy in comparison to this one. Eventually, it will consume you. Even now it’s power calls to you as it does to me.” He took a slow breath his cheeks shrunken to give him a gaunter look, bags appearing under his eyes. A breeze of cold air drift past Ninorra and a wisp of visible breath appeared from Cal’s nostrils.

[Ninorra]

Ninorra let the words sit for a few minutes before responding. So this was a future; a future, not neccesarily the future, and Callus was struggling to find some way to change it.. but Vicailde responsible? That didn't seem to make sense. He was to..

"My husband can't have done something that would lead to this," she reasoned, looking again out of the window. The fel eventually conquering all worlds was a fear many still retained. "He's not like me. Like us. What could he have done that would send this world into such a spiral?"

She looked pointedly at Callus, taking note in the way his appearance seemed to change. More and more, he began to look like Vicailde.

"And more importantly, where is he? If you're supposed to stop him, why did you come to me?"

[Vicailde]

“I have no idea why you think I have any inclination of where you husband is. If I knew I would have gone directly to him.” Callus shook his head.

“I am not a soothsayer, I have only been able to recover the barest of records from different worlds. Your husband is a conduit of time, half mentioned in texts now long burned by the queen of this world.” He raised his hands in frustration. Two points on his forehead bulged, bone pressing forward. He lowered his head, covering his face, composing himself.His form appearing a bit more of his original elfish appearance. “Let us leave this place, find your husband and return him to your time, your Azeroth.”

[Ninorra]

She watched him carefully, his own transformation not so very different than her own. Soon he would likely resemble the same demon that she did when she fought too hard, when the fel transformed her body to match her outward appearance to what was left of her soul.

"Wait, we can't leave yet!" She said with frustration. "If this place has books that mention him, or what he does, then there must be something about where he is when he does it! So what exactly do the texts say?"

Ninorra strode to Callus and grabbed his arm forcefully. "Who is this Queen? Where is she? If she's written about him, then she must know where he is."

[Vicailde]

Callus glanced at her grip but made no motion of breaking her grasp. His gaze shifted upwards from his seated position. As she stood over him with the scornful look, his arm in her hand he was struck with a flash of memories that caused his eyes to well. He turned his head quickly away.

"It's impossible. One look at you and the Queen would know your origin, know that another portal had been open. She would probably lead her army to the past to find Vicailde and then all would be lost." He motioned towards the stacks of tomes.

"What he does is insignificant for many centuries and it took scholars even longer to link this..." He motioned towards the windows. "...to him. The specifics burned with Azeroth, leaving only half truths in their wake."

[Ninorra]

Ninorra exhaled raggedly, unwilling to believe that their journey to this world was for nothing. She released Callus and shook her head.

"If the Queen is Queen, why would she track him down? Is this not her ideal world? Who is this Queen, anyway? None of this make sense.." She rambled, pacing. "If you do not know where he is, why come to me? When I have even less of an idea where he might be? I don't believe you, Callus.."

She pointed a finger at him sternly, eyes flashing.

"You're still keeping something from me, and I think it might help me find Vicailde. So if you're holding any more information back, now is the time to tell it. You can start with who this Queen is, and why she would lead an army to find my husband when we don't even know where he is!"

[Vicailde]

Callus stared at her. His jaw tightened as he contemplated what she said. While it would make things easier to outright tell her what he knew. The truth would change her. All he wanted was a brighter future for Vicailde, for her, for himself. The countless worlds that proceeded this time that he had injected himself into. A better place, at least for a time. He found himself asking why he sought her out but the only reasons that came were selfish. If he was successful he had no place in their world and a remnant of what could have been would cause a burden. He would have to return to this place, this world. All he wanted was to hear her sing one more time before his trials were complete.

Callus opened his mouth to speak. There was a loud crashing noise and the room was filled with shard of shimmering glass. The heat & smell came flooding in to his bedroom. Long snake like tentacles burst in from all sides, knocking the desk and books to the side as they grasped wildly.

Several tentacles quickly wrapped around Callus's throat and torso. His hand was not fast enough as they gripped his wrist preventing him from drawing his sword. His eyes widened before he was pulled out the window behind him, leaving Ninorra in the center of the room surrounded by the swarming mass reaching ever closer.

There came the sound of a swarm of locust and the tentacles retreated, slithering out of the room, dragging half the books and the desk with them. The curtains fluttered in a gentle breeze blocking the outside from Ninorra. A large shadow lowered in front of the curtains and the massive mass pressed forward, parting the curtains.

A spiked carapace was slowly revealed. The sharp edges torn at the curtains and one of them gave, it's rod ripping from the wall. Flooding the room in the firelight. Countless eyes darted through the room, the creature depicted in stone from the cavern. Gave a deep hiss as all of it's eyes locked onto Ninorra. Tentacles began to slither into the room slowly from behind it's form.

A voice echoed around Ninorra from no clear source, as if emanating from the depth of her mind. The hoarse voice purred and as it spoke the sound of locusts trilled sharply. "What a lovely unspoiled morsel... Have you been hiding the Prince from us?"