Shadow Slayers

Zerah sat outside of the castle doorway, unsure of what was to come. This guild was so disfunctional, so irritable, and everyone seemed to have secrets they'd rather keep to themselves, Zerah being no different. He stared outward toward the grassy field, a wave of tranquility briefly washing over him.

"At least, when I'm gone, nature won't be." He whispered to himself

Run. A voice entered the imp's head. Run away. It's what you always do. Zerah looked down at the floor, not trying to fight with the voice in his head. They won't forgive you. They'll just kill you and be done with it! You were a fool to enter this guild! Zerah remained silent, and continued to stare off into space.

"Yeah. You're right." He finally spoke up. What?? The mask seemed confused "You're absolutely right. They will probably kill me. I should run away like the coward I've always been. But you know what? Who cares.." The mask stayed silent as the imp continued on. "If they don't kill me, something else out there will. Whether it's you, whether it's the fearen, whether it's my own idiocy. Eventually, something will kill me, so why try and avoid it? Might as well get it over with now, right? No use trying to run away from this inevitability anymore." Zerah's voice was riddled with sadness. "Once I do die, you get what you want. You get my body."

The mask remained silent, as did Zerah. ...What do we do now..? The mask finally spoke up again. "Nothing." Is all Zerah could say.

He barely payed any mind to Luair's statements earlier, but seeing her condition made him reconsider his actions. He reached into her bag, pulling out a glowing silver stone, and placed it in Luair's hand, clasping it to prevent it from falling off. He pushed a chair over to the bed to monitor her condition, praying she would make it. She had sweets and other good morsels to wake up to, and someone to talk to.
Then again, seeing her peaceful face was a nice change of pace from the frantic events that transpired. Nothing would hurt her in this state, and he would defend her to his last breath to protect that. It was an incredibly odd feeling to experience, but it wasn't entirely unwelcome.
Maybe this feeling was the reason his dad stayed with his mother despite everything against him... love.

"Rezza?!" Manasa's attention snapped back towards the healer. she knelt down in front on him, moving to hold him before stopping. Her hands hovered by his shoulders. She was afraid to touch him, afraid that he would take such an action as an attack or that it would only make matters worse. Comforting people was not her strong suit, back in the forest with Rylan all she could do was hug him to try and console the priest but now that was not an option. "Rezza, shhh..." Manasa looked around at the rest of the guild members in the room, half looking for help and half trying to gauge their reactions. She turned back towards the small man and spoke again, trying to make her voice as calming as possible. "We're trying to work things out... so that we can all trust each other. Um..." Manasa lowered her hands and shifted into a more comfortable position, gathering the courage to lightly touch Rezza on the top of his hand. "I'll protect you. It must be horrible not feeling like you can defend yourself, it isn't fair."

After the meeting in the dungeon (which she had stayed completely silent during) and wen everyone had begun to spread out and do their own thing, Galystris decided to do hers too. 
Alone.
This was becoming to be too much.
Galystris was rather adept at keeping her mind clear and knowing what and how she felt most of the time, but the situation with Celty, Oxy, and Zerah. Had her mind completely occupied.
She thought back to all the things Zerah had said to her.
It hurt a lot, sure, but it's not like it was the first time she'd heard those things.
She would deny it was her fault and continue on with little thought of what the person had said normally, but she was just tipped over the edge.
Galystris had no clue as to why this left her so emotionally vulnerable, and she hated every second of it, as she would be weakened if a pack of fearen were to show up.
She knew she had to clear her head.
She headed back to the table and poured herself a glass of wine--a rather strong one at that.
She knew it wasn't the 'right way' but she had to cope with this somehow.
She made her way outside and stood against the side of the castle, not too far from the front.
She placed the glass to her lips and sighed.
Was this really what she was doing?
She took a drink and pushed all guilt away.
She'd be better in no time, right?

Enoch stared over at the healer in surprise, trying to comprehend his words. He honestly couldn't blame him for getting so worn down at this point. Hell, most of the guild members were probably well on their way to their breaking point after all this. But he couldn't fathom why Rezza would think he's dead weight after saving several of their lives, including his own. Not only that but... the ability to use healing magic was all the priest could possibly wish for. The ability to actually help others and save lives, like his mother could, like some of the other priests could. It seemed so wonderful to him.

"Rezza," Enoch replied calmly. "If you had not been there with us, several of us would most likely dead." A chill ran down his spine. "I don't understand how you could even be considered deadweight when many of us owe our well-being to you. Your specialty may not be fighting, but that doesn't make you any less valuable." Alroth's words echoed in his head,


She was right.

The small healer's body shook as he heard another voice echo his name. His eyes darted to find the source, stopping on the elf as he delivered his response. The reactions he had received so far only seeming confusing and uncharacteristic to him. How could others not find his overwhelming weakness as disgusting as they should be? How could they be so supportive? Why weren't things like this then? Why couldn't they have been like this? Sobs began to overtake his body, causing him to convulse, as tears continued pouring from his eyes.
'Why couldn't it have been like this?' For a moment he was speechless unable to understand the reason that he was being treated like this. The reason that he was never treated this way by others he had known from the outside.
"Wh-A- All that matters is being strong..." His voice stumbled back out of his mouth, more broken than before. "Resilience." Rezza paused on that word for a second. To think he really believed he finally had what others said he was missing. As he huddled into the wall in hysterics, his weakness on display for anyone to see, he felt truly foolish for ever thinking that. With the next sentence he uttered he could feel his stomach turn, the very thought stung him. "Only the strong can really live..."
'So I might as well give up. All the weak can do is just survive.' His gaze fell to his knees as he continued to shake.

"This isn't about the guild." Alroth said, taking the collars in both hands and raising them close to his helmet. Pinky stepped out through the facemask where she could reach, carrying two large seeds with her. "This isn't about feelings, nor cruelty..." she continued to speak, holding one seed up to the first collar and silently casting the enchantment. "This is about the entire world." Once the first was finished, the pixie continued on to enchanting the second collar. "Another slip like this - at the wrong moment - could decide whether or not we succeed." she said firmly. By now, both enchantments were finished. "We can't take any chances." she concluded, promptly ducking back inside of her massive armor.

Alroth stepped forward and held out the collars to the mother and child, offering them the chance to put them on themselves. It was a much more civil method than what Pinky would have preferred, but she regrettably had to consider human feelings a variable in this situation, and needed to be as kind - though stern - as possible. No matter how sickening.

What Pinky neglected to mention was the exact nature of the enchantment she had used. While it did indeed serve the purpose that Kama had intended, there was another aspect to the collars that the pixie didn't intend to tell anyone about. The spell was designed in a way that it would restrict the target almost completely, but the more the affected resisted the spell, the more it would restrict them. If the two complied with the spell's paralysis (when it was activated) there would be no problems, but if they fought against it too much, the holding effect could become life-threatening. An additional spell was attached to each collar that affected how they fit. The binds would be snug, but not tight, and always maintain that principal no matter what. This meant that they would always fit just right, and the shapeshifters would only have been able to get out of them with severe changes to body constitution.

A strong enough magic user could have dissipated these spells, but doing so successfully - because of the nature of Pinky's handiwork - was akin to solving a very difficult puzzle. Removing the spells required a sort of magic cipher that only Pinky had, and would be difficult to replicate without making mistakes - mistakes which would cause the paralysis spell to activate. These enchantments clearly had not been made spontaneously, but surely had been planned ever since Pinky had suggested them the night before. She wasn't cutting any corners.