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ABOUT

Mt. Avaluza'ada, standing at two miles high into the air, is the tallest peak in the Suunshiin mountains. Not much is known about it, and it is swallowed in rumors, second only to The Phoenix Lair in fame.

If one manages to scale the steep cliffs to about midway, one will discover a massive labyrinth of ancient, carefully constructed caverns. Some are the size of a human, some are eighth of a mile high. At the entrance, a sign stands firm.

"Al'doer ulu ussta har'olen. Ka dos ph' ghil xuil ussta abbilen, sultha. Ka dos ph' naut ghil xuil foluss vel'uss zhah ussta abbil, qualla sevir."

Below that, a smaller sign.

"Hi. If you have found this location and have not arrived with someone who has referred to me only by my commonly-known name, please leave."

At the back of every cavern there is a tunnel roughly the size of a human head that is swallowed in shadow. No one has yet to map out or memorize the extent of the tunnels. Not even those that live in such an unwelcoming place.

((Hold up, are we just picking up where we left off, or are we starting entirely over again?))

((kk))

Sha'ira walked into the cave along with Olum, hoping that he'd taken her warning about leaving his prejudices behind to heart. He was a very nice phoenix for a Black, even if he was a little young for her tastes. She didn't want to have to kill him. "He's just ahead. Prepare yourself for a shock. Keda can be a bit... strange on the first visit."

Within the cave, something stirred...

Mavalii went ahead of the group. "They're here, Keda!"

Keda opened his eyes. "Good... Show them in."

"I counsel caution once again, Keda. We do not know who Sha'ira has brought back. The last one almost got to you." A shape shifted in the shadows, and a leathery rustling issued from the area.

The sound of stone sliding over metal echoed through the cavern. "Relax, my serpentine friend. No-one short of the Red Phoenix or the very oldest Elder Vampires could possibly stand against us, and not even they could defeat us in this room." The voice had teeth, and also the promise that they would be used at the first opportunity.

Sha'ira ushered Olum into the darkness. Two small candles flanked him in their pedestals. "I apologise in advance. This is necessary." The candles flickered and gave off an unhealthy green light. Olum felt bands constrict around his chest, squeezing until he thought he would burst, then suddenly the sensation was gone and the flames burned orange as always. Sha'ira walked past him and entered the shadows.

The leathery rustling came again. "Do not leave the firelight, Black Phoenix Olum Tuccar. The candles may trust you, but we do not."

Orochimaru slithered in and passed through the candlelight. As he did, flecks of light bounced off his scales and flew around the room. Scales... a red eye... the glint of steel... a ghostly being of more years than could be measured... those were just some of the things that the dancing lights revealed before Orochimaru left the firelight and, presumably, joined his companions.

Keda's voice issued from the darkness. "We got ourselves a lively one, yeah? Wipe the look off yer face, kid. I'm as inhuman as you are." He stepped into the candlelit circle. He was...

...an impossibly large skeleton, spikes at every joint, reaching down to slice Olum's arm to ribbons...

...a dragon of unimaginable size and age, breathing fire so hot that it melted Olum's bones...

...a gigantic vampire with teeth as long as spears, reaching for Olum's neck and enfolding him in wings of leather...

...a horrific demon from the deepest pits of Hell, tentacles and feelers, suckers and mandibles reaching for Olum to dismember him and consume the remains...

...a very, very old Head Hunter, smiling and wiping Olum's eyes with a damp rag. "Sorry, kid. Guess the dust's more potent for you. I like to give people a shock when they see me. Looks like you got several."

Keda shrugged and cackled, the mossy growth that replaced a beard wobbling in a most nauseating fashion. "Who can tell? Maybe the girl wants a mate..." There was a feminine gasp from the shadows, which KEda ignored. "Or maybe she thinks you could help us. You haven't attacked... yet. That makes ye either very smart, very good at sensing power, or very much like Sha'ira."

Dr'aco watched KEda from the shadows. He was not overly-worried about Keda. The old Head Hunter could kill almost anything with a single pinch of the powder from his bag, and if that didn't work for any reason then there was enough combined might in this room to lay waste to any being, except for perhaps the Red Phoenix itself, who was foolish enough to attack them.

Orochimaru prepared a silent spell of death, the Grand Septagram of Atropos, Cerberus, Koschei, Diablo, Satan, Hades, and Set hovering before him, just in case Olum tried something with Keda. It was a powerful spell, capable of killing anything less powerful than the seven gods invoked in its casting, and no mortal being was more powerful than the combined might of seven of the Eight Finalities. Not even Orochimaru, one of the founding High Demons, dared invoke the Low One.

((NOTE: I'm drawing from various mythologies for this Septagram, and the Low One I'm referring to is Bel-Shamharoth, a character from the Discworld novels. Think of him like this: Bel-Shamharoth is the flip side of the coin to which Good and Evil are but one side. He is, by definition, the polar opposite of all things in existence. Invoking him is suicide, but his power alone outstrips the combined might of the other Seven Finalities.))

Keda rolled his eyes. "Oh, boy. Another amateur tries to lecture Orochimaru on magic. Kid, i weep for ye." He stepped to one side, out of the verbal line of fire.

Orochimaru's scales raised in lines like a cat raising it hackles. HE advanced on Olum, prodding a long, thin finger into his chest. "You dare to leacture me on the arts of magic, child? When it was I that developed the very principle that you quote? Azrael is nothing, nothing next to the Eight Finalities. And what do you know of Them, boy? What do you know of the great Beings that govern the great web of magic? Atropos, whose influence ends all mortal things, Cerberus, who guards the souls of the dead after they leave this realm, Koschei, whose fell hand wields the blade of Pity and stabs towards the heart in times of need, Diablo, who battles the hordes of anarchy, Satan, who rules the World of the Damned, Hades, who collects the fallen souls for eternal torment, Set, who takes the bodies of the dead in his own time, and the dread Low One himself? What do you know of them?

Orochimaru's eyes narrowed ever so slightly and he slithered back, his scales smoothing with unnatural grace. "You rather disgust me, child. What do you think will happen if the Old High Ones go up against the Finalities? Or if I decide to bring one of the three Certainties into play? You meddle with magiks beyond your ken, child, and I have had over ten thousand years to perfect them. Perhaps a light demonstration..."

He bit his pinkie finger and traced his hand in an eight-pointed star in the air. His voice was cracked and guttural, spoken in a tongue older than even the High Tongue of the Phoenix. "αιя, ωαтєя, ƒιяє, єαятн, ωιи∂, тнυи∂єя, мєтαℓ, ωσσ∂. ∂αякиєšš αи∂ ℓιğнт, ι šυммσи тнєє вσтн тσ вєαя ωιтиєšš тσ тнє αяяιναℓ σƒ уσυя σρρσšιтє, тнє ∂яєα∂ вєιиğ ωнσšє ρяєšєи¢є ¢σмєš ƒяσм вєƒσяє єνєи тнє вєğιииιиğ. ℓєт тнє нєανєиš αи∂ нєℓℓš вєαя ωιтиєšš тσ тнє ∂яєα∂ ℓσω σиє, вєℓ-šнαмнαя-"

A flash of fire erupted in front of Orochimaru just as the octogram began to glow. "Silence your tongue, Giant Snake. Your hubris would kill all this world if you summoned the Keeper of the Gates."

There was a sense of tension around the circle, within the darkness. Slowly, very slowly, Orochimaru returned to the darkness. A chair issued from the darkness as it cleared.

Sitting at the head of a long stone table was Keda, a moldy but still serviceable blanket over his shoulders.

Sha'ira sat to his immediate right.

Orochimaru was coiling his gigantic tail on the floor to Keda's left.

A gigantic black dragon watched Olum from next to Sha'ira, a lazy flame melting a patch of stones that showed every sign of having been subjected to the same process hundreds of times before. His titanic wings were folding up, letting light in through a crevice that spanned half the roof.

An unassuming man sat next to Orochimaru in a high-backed chair that ended in two pointed wings. When he opened his eyes to stare at Olum they were revealed as cherry red, and the rasping sound of stone-on-metal repeated as he ran a whetstone down a scimtar almost as large as he was.

Mavalii sat in a corner, weaving threads of congealed darkness into thread that she was using to sew up a fresh wound. "Wotcher, Merchant. Guess Dr'aco trusts you enough to let the light in. Good show, that."