[BaalsBaby]

Outside, the moon held high above the empty blanket of the dead forest, trying it's hardest to spread it's luminosity within the Cathedral and failing. Only faint whispers of light danced upon the ancient spectres of dust drifting by, tainted dark reds and blues from the stained and broken windows.

Within the shadows of the lonely Cathedral, a line drew a fresh scar in the air, and from the figure it produced, two figures arrived. The imp hailed as Kree, servant of the dark god Xai're, held the other fiercely by the arm and surveyed the area with shining lights for eyes. Hisses escaped through his teeth as he decided this place was suitable for keeping the human here... Roughly the monster threw the human aimlessly to the side, knowing there was no civilization around for miles in every direction, only hungry, forbidden woods. She had nowhere to run to...

A sour expression upon his face, the imp made his way over to a condemned pew and sat down at the edge. A sigh. Now what would he do here until the dragon arrived? Unless the human resisted, he didn't really feel he should harm her too much...

[Kodai]

With a short cry, the girl stumbled over some stone rubble as she was pushed aside, falling and cutting her hands on some broken shards of red glass, most likely part of a window once... Sucking in her breath through her teeth, Kodai clenched her hands in order to try to stem the bleeding and turned to face her captor. To get to the dragon... that was why she had been spirited away. But who knew how long that would take? Kai would have no notion of where she was... certainly it was not going to be only a few hours. More likely days... or weeks... if not longer. And she only in nightclothes... Shivering, she brought her knees up to her chin and looked over at the imp, inspecting him curiously. A strange little demon creature... almost cute, really. Oh, but what was that glinting in the faint light? Was that...
"...a bell?"

[BaalsBaby]

The servant of Xai're, leaning back against the rotting wood, looked over suddenly at the voice of the human. A bell? She was referring about his bell? The little creature tilted his head some, then hissed again through his teeth. This was the only thing that had been left of his mother and his great lord had allowed him to keep it with him at all times...

"What isss you speaking of, loord?" Kree narrowed his eyes and clenched his claws. Perhaps... Perhaps she wanted to take it from him?

[Kodai]

"Your bell... it's pretty," replied Kodai simply, tilting her head this way and that to see from which angle it reflected the most light from. "Silver is such a nice color... It's shiny, but not glaringly so like gold. It's soft... like moonlight." She tilted her head upwards and found a shaft of light that had managed to travel halfway into the cathedral before being swallowed by the dark. "It complements the dark... instead of competing with it." Suddenly Kodai realized how odd she must sound, speaking with her captor this way, and she fell silent. It was not long, however, before a hint of a melody came to her, and she began to sing very softly...

"Where once was light
Now darkness falls
Where once was love
Love is no more
Don't say goodbye
Don't say I didn't try
These tears we cry
Are falling rain
For all the lies you told us
The hurt, the blame
And we will weep
To be so alone
We are lost
We can never go home...

So in the end
I'll be what I will be
No loyal friend
Was ever there for me
Now we say goodbye
We say you didn't try
These tears you cry
Have come too late
Take back the lies
The hurt, the blame
And you will weep
When you face the end alone
You are lost
You can never go home
You are lost
You can never go home..."

[BaalsBaby]

The voice of the human... It was so calming and sad, though nearly but a whisper, but the little imp could not shake the uneasy calmness it put upon him. He shook his head and made an odd glance at Kodai, for the way she spoke of his bell... It was not afraid at all... Peaceful... Contemplating...

It was then he realized she had cut herself from something laying broken on the cold stone floor. The iron scent of it just now lingering lazily in the still air, it filled his lungs with it's freshness. He'd never really liked the scent of it, unlike his dark lord... It brought back too many memories... "Bleeding... iss.... bleeding..." the imp tried to nonchalantly point it out that the human had injured herself...

[Kodai]

Her song finished, Kodai sat back, silent. It was rather unusual for her to sing before an audience without being asked... it had just seemed appropriate, somehow. At his comment, she looked down at her hands again, still bleeding just as heavily as before. "Yeah... I cut my palms on some glass when I fell... I'll be fine." Not that she knew whether the imp would care if she were all right or not... but certainly a live hostage was more useful than a dead one, yes? Of course, it'd take a while to bleed to death... These didn't feel like very deep cuts, however, so that would be unlikely. They did sting, though, and they would most likely get infected if they weren't covered... Sighing lightly, Kodai tore off the lower half of her nightshirt into two strips and began to wrap her hands in them, humming the tune of the song before as she did so.

[BaalsBaby]

Kree narrowed his eyes at the human as she hummed and began her work bandaging up the wound, kicking his foot slightly out of habit and laying back against the rotting wood. She was still humming... that song... Why? Was she not frightened or overwhelmed? He knew he was not as imposing or large as some of the other creations of his Lord Xai're, but surely being pulled away from the comfort of familiarity in the middle of the night was surely enough to cause immeasurable fear, right?

Still pondering why this human seemed not to budge, the creature ran a small claw along an armrest, carving a trio of slanting grooves into the soft wood. Vaguely he wanted to reach back and inspect his bell... perhaps... to see if it really did compliment the darkness. He shook his head and wrenched his eyes from the figure sitting on the floor, glaring at nothing in particular ahead of him...

[Kodai]

Fear? Oh yes, there was fear... but the girl was trying hard not to show it. Her heart thudded in her chest, possibly loud enough for the sharp ears of Kree to hear if he bothered to listen, but she attempted to hide all other signs. The humming helped comfort her somewhat, and thus she continued, even starting up another song after finishing wrapping her hands.

"No one knows what it's like
To be the bad man
To be the sad man
Behind blue eyes
No one knows what it's like
To be hated
To be fated
To telling only lies
But my dreams,
They aren't as empty
As my conscience seems to be
I have hours
Only lonely
My love is vengeance
That's never free..."

Such sad songs she sang in this desolate and forsaken place...

[BaalsBaby]

He couldn't help but snap his attention back in the direction of the song. The words and the way they echoed loneliness into the vast, forgotten corridors of the place. It struck something deep within himself; it was an odd, silver-point of coldness within his being, and it made him uncomfortable that his soul was not as solid a shield as he'd liked...

Kree once more found himself frustrated at his own softness and stood up, leaving his seat and heading in the direction of the human... "Silence, lord... Iss disturbing me greatly with songs of nonsensssse..." the creature growled and narrowed his glowing eyes, clenching his claws now and then...

[Kodai]

"...Very well," shrugged Kodai, not wishing to upset her captor. He already seemed to be agitated enough... no need to make him resort to action. Silent, she sat back against the soft, decayed wood of what was once a pew, closing her eyes and letting her mind wander. In the quiet darkness, it was quite easy to hear her rapid pulse, betraying the fear that Kodai had wished to hide... So fragile humans were, with their rampant emotions and their glass skin that barely protected the blood that ran underneath. Surely Kree was lucky to have transcended the mortal coil and become a creature of the gods...

[BaalsBaby]

Kree stopped as the human fell silent, once again submitting so easily. From this distance, closer to her than before, the soft throbbings of a heart thrummed wistfully in his ears. Ahh... So the human was afraid? Somehow he didn't feel too proud. After all, she was not the one who had dragged him maddeningly into his own spell of torture. It was... the dragon. And yet she looked so much like any other, those who would laugh or hurt him, bruise his skin and soul... Way back when...

He stopped in his tracks, unsure of what to do now. The thudding in his ears did not cease but he had no intention of stopping it... Still slightly frustrated, the imp now paced back, coming to a halt at the end of the nave, staring up at a dull crimson-soaked shrine. Statues there were worn out and so rounded and simplified... He vaguely wondered if the human worshiped things like these, gave out her prayers even to the one he so willingly served...

[Kodai]

Kodai heard the click of Kree's claws recede, and so she opened her eyes to follow him down the aisle to a small shrine of some sort. Curious, she carefully got up to follow him, making sure to give the imp his space but trailing close enough so that she could see the worn figures in the shrine. Vaguely she thought that it looked like this particular shrine was drenched in blood...
"Do you know... whom this shrine worships?" She could not tell herself, for the statues were too bleak to give any indication of which deity (or deities) they were to represent. Her fear had given way to curiosity now, and she reached out a hand as if to touch... though she would never dare actually lay a hand on the once-holy objects.

[BaalsBaby]

The imp made a face and looked up, only to find the human very near to where he stood. A question escaped her lips, and he focused back on the altar, deciding not the threaten her this time around. Instead, he seemed to sigh inside, for he knew this spot all too well... The priest... He'd... been taken here as a child...

The thoughts seemed to swell and mesh within, but he struggles to keep them tucked away within that area of the mind where you hesitated to remember things at all... Instead, he chose to answer the human. It took his mind away from it... "Iss a shrine... to all three, lord... Isss a false thing..." the imp said quietly...

[Kodai]

"...False?" Kodai blinked down at Kree, then back up at the shrine. "How so?" She had heard tales of the tainted cathedral called Lya Pointa, of how it had once been a grand place of worship for the Holy Triumvirate until it had fallen into the clutches of darkness... Perhaps that was what he was referring to? Now silent, Kodai let her gaze fall to the altar itself, where her eye caught a rather mysterious and disturbing thing...

Stains. Blood stains. Deep and dark, as if the numerous attempts to scrub them out had only ingrained them further... With her outstretched hand, she traced the path of the blood in the air: here was where it had fallen onto the altar, here where it had run down the side, here where it had pooled at the base. Shuddering, she let her hand fall back to her side, a great pity welling up in her for whatever poor soul's blood had been spilt here...

[BaalsBaby]

His eyes shifted once more to the peculiar human. "Isss not following teachingsss at all, lord. Iss being falssse..." He crossed his arms, and shifted onto his other leg. Suddenly the human began to trace the hidden blood stains in the stone altar, and it caught him slightly offguard, for he was told only those who had experienced death once could see these markings of foul deeds past. "Isss can... see them?" the imp could not help but ask... Was this human more than he had expected?