[crow]

All the while, the field continued, persistently, to make him woozy. It was becoming harder and harder to keep his focus, even with Neo's assistance. Neo, for his part, carried on as if this were merely a walk in a boring, poorly decorated park. In that moment, Aram envied him his god's blood, though he knew full well the attendant consequences of being kin to the gods.

Eventually it dawned on him that their shadows were lengthening. The implications of it didn't immediately sink into his muddled mind, but he groaned involuntarily as it did. "We... We can't be encamped here come nightfall," he said, a little desperately.

[crow]

Neo didn't even bother to look up. Of course he didn't. He must have known the sun's position this whole time... He had once told Aram that it was as natural to him as knowing the presence of one's own arm. He made a thoughtful noise like 'hmm'.

It wasn't what Aram was looking for. With a glance behind him, he asked, "How far are we from the gate?"

"Ah, that won't be where we exit. It's one-way, mostly to prevent break-ins. The gate back is located off-site," Neo supplied cheerfully. Aram repressed the urge to groan.

"Please tell me we aren't staying here overnight," he said. He had been debating whether begging would be beneath him. As it turned out, it wasn't.

[crow]

Neo made another one of his thoughtful noises. Aram stared at him with a mix of exasperation and desperation, eyes wide. Neo sighed, shaking his head. "It was supposed to be a short test run... I hadn't expected things to turn out this way either. But this is an anomaly, and it looks to be demon-related, so we'd better see it out. And we don't want to lose the trail, do we, Jack?"

Jackdaw, of course, gave no reply. He had been walking stoically ahead all this time. If the field affected him, he showed it little, though now that Aram was looking at him, he could see a thin sheen of sweat on the demon's skin.

[crow]

The demon's discomfort was some consolation to Aram. More than the fact that he disliked demons in general, it meant he wasn't the only one suffering in discomfort. Indeed, Jackdaw may well be bearing the brunt of it. He had been utterly impassive since their first meeting, so for him to show such signs was surely an indication that things were dire.

"You know, I really didn't want to be the one to say this, but I don't think he can keep on like this either. Neo, we have to get out of here, or at least find a way to stop this blasted field." He met Neo's look as strongly as he could, despite his growing nausea. It was essential that he impress the importance of this upon him. "All the leads in the world won't do us any good if we keel over."

[crow]

"Well... I guess you do have a point there," said Neo, rubbing at his chin. Aram had to repress the urge to shout that yes, of course he did. At least Neo was listening to him now.

"For gods' sakes, Neo, spare a thought for the poor sods working under you, would ya?" Aram was relieved enough to joke now, even if he did sound exasperated. Neo laughed it off, as he did. "So, what's the plan? How are we going to leave this dump?"

Neo looked around. "Usually we anticipate if there's going to be an extended mission in the area. This... wasn't planned for, so it's a bit tricky."

[crow]

At Aram's darkening expression, Neo waved his hands. "Oh, no! I'm not saying it can't be done, of course--- merely that it will be a little difficult. I suppose we really should have prepared for the worst, coming to a place like this, even if it was supposed to be just a field exercise..." He looked down a moment, lost in thought, then back up again. "I'll file a report, and make the suggestion. In the meantime, I'm afraid I'm going to have to call in a favor."

Aram shot him a quizzical look, but Neo was no longer paying any attention to him. He kept his gaze turned up, scanning the skies for something, and perking up as he saw it. Grinning, he pulled something out of his pocket. "Say, Aram, you don't have a lighter, do you?"

[crow]

Silently, Aram reached into his pocket and pulled out a set of matches. He wasn't a smoker, and he prided himself on being able to start a campfire with just about anything, but he still carried them just in case. Back from before he was a Sentinel, when he was first learning to hunt, this had been the only way he could get the fire going. It was almost a good luck charm, now.

Neo frowned at the packet as he took it. "Hmm, a lighter really would have been better..." Under Aram's glare, however, he added, "But I guess this will do! A flame is a flame." He struck the match, but instead of holding it to the paper he'd pulled out, he lit his finger instead. What was more, it caught flame, at first a normal color, then burning white-hot with an almost opalescent edge.

[crow]

As Aram watched him, wide-eyed, Neo drew the flame along the runes on the paper. Rather than burning, they took on the same radiant glow. Even Jackdaw took notice, though his face was as hard to read as ever. He merely kept his gaze trained on Neo, and there was a slight narrowing of his eyes. What he could have been thinking... No, there was no way for him to have thoughts anymore, was there? Jocasta had to have been thorough, for him to be approved for use.

At any rate, when the runes were all lit, the entire paper glowed briefly, before going up almost unceremoniously in flames itself. As it was consumed, a burst of light shot up out of it, blazing away into the sky. The two of them stared after it, silent for a moment.

[crow]

"Wait... so all that was just... a flare?" Aram couldn't quite believe it. He really didn't want to believe it, actually. Seeing it in action, at first he thought it would be some kind of sun-related magic. Given what he was, Neo wasn't very prone to demonstrations of what he could actually do, even in the field. It would have been a treat--- Aram had been looking forward to seeing how Neo would get them out of here. He hadn't imagined that after all that pomp and ceremony, the scrap of spell paper had been a mere flare.

"Er... well, not quite, but the principle is similar, yes." Neo sounded distracted, as if he was only half there. He had clearly missed the disappointment in Aram's tone entirely. He was scanning the horizon now, as if anticipating something.

[crow]

In all likelihood it was what the flare was supposed to attract, but having been disappointed once, Aram wasn't about to hope for anything interesting. Probably there was a contingent of Sentinels stationed just offsite, and he had given them their location. Sooner or later a rescue party would come for them, hopefully with some kind of vehicle to navigate out of this blasted place.

There was nothing for it but to hunker down and wait, he supposed. Sighing, he picked a flattish looking bit of rubble, and sat himself down. Neo glanced at him. "Aram, are you tired?" he said, surprised.

Aram had to resist the urge to roll his eyes. "I'm about to keel over, Neo," he said. "But that's not the point; we can't move around anyway, since you've fired off our location, right? Nothing to do but wait now, til whoever it is gets here."

[crow]

Neo laughed. "I think you're underestimating the prowess of our would-be escort, Aram. Though I will admit, I doubt they'll be happy to see us." Almost as soon as he said this, there was a glimmer in the sky, in roughly the direction he was looking. There was no sound, but the object on the horizon grew steadily larger--- a pearly white thing. It took Aram a moment to realize that it was the moon, and by then it was careening towards them at a truly alarming pace.

Aram dove for cover, but Neo merely stood there, smiling still. It was only when the inevitable crash did not come that Aram allowed himself to open one eye, gingerly. He was still half convinced that he had just died, and his spirit was lingering; or that this was some kind of bizarre fever-dream.

[crow]

The first thing he noticed was the glaring white. No, that wasn't quite right; as his eyes adjusted, he realized that it wasn't whiteness, but a cold radiance that bathed his surroundings, bleaching everything of color. In the midst of it stood something that, if it were even possible, was even paler than the rest. He could hardly make it out, but from what he could see, he thought the heavier shape at the bottom might have been a vehicle. The smaller, more slender shape at the top might have been a human, or at least a humanoid figure.

Then it spoke. "Neo," it said. No, that was definitely no human. There was scorn in its voice, but it was no human scorn, just as that was no human voice. Aram couldn't have said whether it was beautiful or terrible. "You have some nerve, calling me to a place like this."

[crow]

The arrival of... whatever it was that Neo had called did not, to Aram, seem like an improvement. If anything, there was now a new source of nausea to contend with. Or maybe it wasn't nausea but vertigo. Whatever it was, it was sick-making, and it took all of his resolve not to keel over on the spot. Which might have been useless pride, come to that; at this point it was probably better to just give it up and become unconscious. He wasn't sure he wanted to be lucid for this anymore.

Neo seemed as unfazed as ever, beaming broadly. At least, Aram thought he was beaming. He sounded like he was. "Aunt Liang!" he said, as if he were merely greeting a relative, perhaps one he hadn't had the pleasure of seeing in a while. "Thanks for coming."

[crow]

'Aunt', thought Aram. Well, the voice might have been female, but it wasn't any kind of female that he knew. Still, upon re-evaluation, he thought it might have been more feminine than otherwise. Maybe. It was mostly just headache-inducing.

Neo went on. "Say, would you mind turning it down a bit? I know it's short notice and you're on duty and all that, but I think you're upsetting my friends." His voice grew a little further away, as if he was walking closer to... whatever. To 'Aunt Liang', whoever that was. The aunt in question sniffed its--- her--- derision, but a moment later the overwhelming pressure lessened, as did the blinding light. Aram gasped, despite himself, in relief. He never thought he could miss the sick-making fields of the Grand Saints, but at least it was just that now.

[crow]

Gingerly opening his eyes, he tried for a better look at the... whatever it was that had landed. His guesses back then hadn't been far off. The figure at the top was humanoid, and she may well have been human if not for the strange perfect beauty of her, and the way she glowed. Even after having 'turned it down', as Neo put it, she still exuded radiance. Silver hair fell past her hips, past her feet, trailing off like the sleeves of her ornate robes.

What she was standing on wasn't so much a vehicle as a palanquin, though drawn by what, or whom, was anyone's guess. Aram certainly didn't see anyone else, or anything else that might have been animate. Whether it drew itself... was something he wasn't going to think about.