“It worked!” Kida exclaimed as the green key opened the door. Nin-Nin pushed it open and peered inside. There was a winding, wooden staircase that led down into what seemed to be a basement. The moans, and groans of the monsters below welcomed them. Azlyn stepped forward.

“Let me make up for my mistakes. I promise to do better this time around.” She grinned up to Nin-Nin as she passed. “If I screw up a third time, just let the undead gnaw on my bones.”

Richiro Wichiro gasped in horror at the thought, while Nin-Nin shook his head. He merely pulled out his daggers and followed right behind her.

Kida skipped, “Are those skeletons I see! This is like a haunted mansion!”

Richiro Wichiro stammered in between their close-knit group. “D-Don’t make this sound like a f-field trip.”

“But it’s less scary when you think it’s something else.” Kida explained, as Azlyn brought the first set of bones into a crumbled pile of ash and dust. Nin-Nin worked alongside her, giving her pointers in between the fights. He watched her perform, and then immediately appeared by her side to suggest better ways to approach the situation. His experience and years of working as—whatever he did—made him quite the mentor to someone green around the horns as she. By the time they cleared the staircase and room below, they entered what seemed to be a dungeon. There was a door leading into the middle of the structure, but it was locked. The yellow knob indicated that it may require a specific key.

Since one side was barricaded with broken furniture, they were forced to go to the other area—clearing the cells and checking inside each room. It wasn’t until they cleared the last cell that they found a yellow key attached to a set of other keys on a skeleton’s frame. Azlyn plucked the keys from his person.

“Let’s go back to that locked door with the yellow knob.” Since the room was close by, they reached it with no time lost. Azlyn placed the key into the lock this time, turning it until a soft click informed them that the key worked. She pushed the door inward, the hinges creaked as the rusted bolts groaned in place. Inside they could see two voidsent waiting for them—and imp was dressed in a strange jester outfit, and the other, a skeleton was dressed in a servant’s garb. They were eerily patrolling the dungeon space, and Azlyn could see the brick and mortar of the place had been stained with some unknown origin. Torture-like devices were strewn across the room and the only light source happened to be the torches on the side walls.

Nin-Nin grabbed Azlyn by her shoulder, and directed her attention back to his hands. He was telling her that if she wanted to prove herself, prove it now. Use the skills he just spoke with her previously to tackle this fight. Or else he’d leave and leave the three of them to the devices of this manor.

She swallowed her nerves. “U-understood. I won’t let you down.”

Kida quirked her head to Azlyn, wondering what happened. “Everything alright?”

Nin-Nin merely gave the girl a thumb’s up and drew his daggers. Azlyn looked to Kida with a nonchalant expression. “Discussing strategies. I’ll take care of the jester imp—Kida I’ll need your support with him. Richiro, since the skeleton won’t take much damage from physical melee, I’ll need you to start blasting him with any offensive spells you have at your arsenal. Nin-Nin if you could assist Richiro and keep the skeleton at bay until the imp is taken care of.”

Richiro Wichiro shakily nodded his head, bringing out his staff. “O-okay.”

Nin-Nin went over to the Lalafell’s side, and knelt. He poked him in his chest, before he tapped back to himself. He signed to him, and then gestured for Azlyn to explain.

“He says to be confident in your abilities. He’ll watch out for you—Is what he said.” She rolled her neck. “Alright, Kida you ready?”

Her pink eyes popped even in this darkened space. “On your cue Captain!”

“Go.” Azlyn spoke true, dashing in and taking the attention of the jester imp. The Skeleton had tried to attack her on her way in, but she deflected his sword with her shield, and shoved it further away from her. She then began to hack at the imp. She saw Kida already beginning her set up, lining her arrows with different bursts of aetherial energy. First was a poison set, then a wind bite, followed by a hookshot that dealt extra damage when it impacted. “Aim for it’s wing!”

Azlyn checked over to Nin-Nin and Richiro. The conjurer had blasted a chunk of the skeleton’s skull off with a concentrated aero spell, and the rogue had disabled the monster’s ability to move as one of its bony legs crumbled at his attacks. They were taken care of, so she decided to slam her shield into the imp’s face, bashing it with some force. The imp cursed in guttural tongues, something that she didn’t quite understand but felt it had something to do with dying a painful death.

She remembered one of the attacking stances Nin-Nin went over with her, by using the force of her body the same way Nin-Nin did when fighting with his daggers. She did her best lunge, sprinting with as much force as she could, she lowered her body to get more of a driving force. She ran her blade deep into the imps protruding stomach, and felt the collapse of it’s innards as it writhe. It had expected an attack from Kida from up above so the imp had fluttered down to the ground—and in front of where she lunged.

“I’m not failing this test because you want me to die!” Azlyn yelled back at it.

She hadn’t expected her voice to echo as loudly as it had, which prompted Kida to give her the strangest of looks. When she noticed the imp burst into smoke, she turned her attention to the skeleton, where Richiro’s continual aero bursts and stone blasts finally crushed the bones into dust.

Nin-Nin nodded in approval and sheathed his daggers.

“Did you hit your head earlier or something?” Kida asked her, running up to her side with a curious look. “What was that about failing a test?”

Azlyn shook her head, taking slow, deep breaths. “Just got a bit heated I guess. Reminded me of the Studiem.” She hoped this simple explanation would be enough to keep Kida from asking further questions. Turning to Nin-Nin, she signed to him her question. She was telling him that he wasn’t going to leave, even if she didn’t do well. He merely shrugged to her, and then went to help Richiro. 

Kida narrowed her eyes at their silent conversation. “You’re just acting weird is all—oh hey! Look there,” She ran over to find a parchment with a bloody scrawl of a magic circle on it. “Doesn’t this sigil match the barrier’s magic circle back in the main hall?”

The rest of the party joined her, staring at the piece of paper. Azlyn immediately recognized the similar patterns and glyphs. “You’re right, maybe we can use this paper to disarm the barrier.”

Richiro Wichiro wiped the sweat from his brow. “C-Couldn’t hurt to t-try.”

The group made there way back up through the staircase they found beyond the green door. It took a bit of time wandering through the western wing back to the main hall, but with time they arrived with nothing short of a break.

“D-Do you think the L-Lady of the H-House will be upstairs?” Richiro Wichiro asked nervously, as they trekked up the carpeted staircase. Azlyn led them holding out the piece of bloody parchment, and hoped that the paper would dispel the barrier. Or she’d wind up bursting into flames.

“She wasn’t down below, or on the main floor that we could get to.” Kida replied her arms casually behind her head. “We’ll have to search the entire premise first to make sure.”

The bloody parchment in her hand lit in flames, and as it did Azlyn took a step away. The barrier, glyph and all, burst into a dark smoke and disappeared. As if to make sure it was truly gone, Azlyn reached back to a decorative vase on the rail of the staircase and tossed it. The jar flew through without resistance, and to their great joy did not spark or turn to cinders. They all breathed a sigh of relief.

Up on the upper landing, drawn to the sound of the vase breaking was a winged, one eyed voidsent. It spotted them, shrieked, and then retreated. The four darted up the stairs, chasing after it and into a large master bedroom.

Azlyn could tell the dark energy that swept up in this room, how the walls and carpet were tattered and bloodied—there was a large four-poster bed that was positioned at the front of the grand room, with four lit lamps at each corner of the space. Thick purple mist swirled out from within, and they watched as the sentry with one eye floated over to a woman resting on the bed.

She looked like the other Succubus that resided within Haukke Manor, but she had different colored horns, and her outfit matched the torn portrait of a woman in the far corner. The face had been scratched off the oil canvass, and only the high neck of the dress could be seen.

“Lady Amandine of House Dartancours.” Azlyn called to her, and grimaced. It was too late to save this woman—after all—she sold her soul to become a creature of the void itself. A beautiful, horrific, terrifying voidsent.

Nin-Nin drew his daggers once more, edging himself closer to Azlyn as she brought her shield and sword to her side.

Kida lifted her bow and fired an arrow straight into the sentry flying above her. The creature cried out in agony, before profusely leaking eye fluid upon the dirtied carpet. It rolled around, before the woman shrieked at it’s wailing. She slammed the creature into the ground with a powerful spell, and they watched as the sentry turned into black smoke.

It then turned to the four of them, cackling in anger. Her long claws beckoned them within her chamber, a powerful magic pulled them inside, and the doors shut closed behind them. They jumped into the assault. Nin-Nin was the first to reach her, his daggers clashing up against a barrier she called around herself. Azlyn attempted to break the barrier with her own sword and shield attacks, but she wasn’t having much luck either. She chuckled darkly at their attempts and brought out a large wooden staff with a purple flowing orb seeping with dark magic.

Her laughter echoed within the room as they whittled the barrier down. A burst of flames engulfed the room, sparking everyone with spades of ember. It happened several more times before Azlyn finally figured out where it was coming from.

“Nin! Take out the lamps in each corner of the room! Quickly!” Richiro Wichiro was doing the best he could to mass heal them, but he wasn’t quite able to keep it up. Kida had been bogged down by the summoned succubi that appeared from the ground, waiting for the opportunity to overrun them.

He looked to each corner, seeing the energy spark up and expand out. Then he was gone in a flash, he moved fast on his feet as he sprinted to each corner of the room, cutting the candles down and eliminating the fires.

The aether dispersed, and the barrier around the Lady of the Household faltered. Azlyn charged forward when the opportunity presented itself, a bright light shined from the tip of her sword and watched as the metal sunk deep into the abdomen of the woman. She mimicked the same attack she used against the imp earlier, and felt the woman slump over her. Lady Amandine cried in agony, weeping over her, however Azlyn pushed more; sinking her sword until she felt the sword exit through her back. “I’m sorry.” 

She disappeared in a burst of energy, blasting her, Kida, and Richiro backwards from their current positions. Azlyn’s back slammed into the poster bed frame, tumbling back onto the mattress. Kida hit the wall, while Richiro skidded back into a dresser. Nin-Nin was the only one who guarded against the blow back, digging his heels down. His body moved a few centimeters back, but he remained the only one standing.

Nin-Nin had been closest to Azlyn, so he went to check on her first. He reached down with his hand, and she clamped onto his forearm with a bit of soreness.

“Ouch, that’s smarts.” He pulled her off the bed, and she regained her footing. Kida and Richiro pulled themselves off the ground with as much difficulty as Azlyn had, and sorely they walked over to them at the foot of the bed.

“Nice work.” Kida reached down to rub the top of Richiru’s hood. The Lalafellin shook of her hand off. They were celebrating in their own way, taking the victories as they came. Azlyn could sense that the heavy presence of dark magic had lifted off this place—for a time at least. It didn’t change the fact that the magicks still lingered. However the feeling that they were being watched still lingered. It was something she felt even when they first entered the Manor—when her hand was shocked by the knob of the front door. 

She looked down at her hand, remembering the tingling in her palm when it discharged. Something wasn’t right. The door didn’t discharge on Nin-Nin when he examined it—only reacted to her. The bad feeling left a sour taste in her mouth. 

The other didn’t seem to notice her qualms. Nin-Nin reached out to ruffle Kida’s head, and then knelt to shake Richiro’s hand. 

Azlyn turned around and spoke resolutely into the empty room. 

“I’m not stupid enough to think you’re not there. Come out Ascian.” Her group stopped their pleasantries, as the room erupted in a set of chuckles. Dark and cynical in nature, and a voice spoke in twisted tongues. A strange language that she did not know, however she could still comprehend it.

Darkness has taken root in these halls…Sprung from the most unlikely of seeds.

One cannot help but admire the irrepressible spirit that quickened it to life...

Nin-Nin drew his daggers from his sheathes, stepping in front of Richiro Wichiro and Kida. Azlyn moved ahead of their group, and stopped shy of the stairs by the bed. Two dark portals erupted ten feet ahead of her, and she watched as two Ascians with black masks and, dark black clad robes with strange markings of eld stitched and weaved into the cloaks. 

The one of the left bowed to them, and looked up to Azlyn. “It is a pleasure to meet you at last, Azlyn. You are every bit as intriguing as our master gave us to believe.” 

Their counterpart smirked at her, ignoring the people in her party. The pair seemed keenly interested in only her. “It is no ordinary mortal who can acquire one Crystal of Light—much less three.” They chuckled. “The Crystals make you strong, and it is to that strength that the Light is drawn.” 

“Hydaelyn chose well.” The Ascian on the left spoke. Then they turned their attention to the three standing at the ready behind the Au Ra. “And is surrounded by those chosen by her gift.” 

“A pity that your existence is irreconcilable with our own. We cannot well allow you to continue upon your present course.” 

Azlyn narrowed her eyes to the pair. She’d deal with the other statement later when they weren’t facing two Ascians. “And so you’re going to kill me? You used a poor woman’s soul as compensate to entrap me...” She flared in anger to them.  

The Scion on the left shrugged to her, mocking her with a bow. “Alas, we came here not to play, but to take the measure of your strength for Master Lahabrea. That task now accomplished, we take our leave of you.” The dark portals erupted behind them, just as Azlyn summoned her arcanima book and tried to blast them both with ruin spells. 

There was a massive explosion where the magic collided—however the Ascians were not in the room. Azlyn clicked her tongue as a voice spoke calmly to them. 

“Fare you well, Bringer of Light.” And the cackling that followed soon erupted into a cacophonous noise until it faded to nothing. Kida ran over to Azlyn’s side, grabbing her by the forearm with a worried look. 

Azlyn shook her head, then turned to stare at the ruined portrait of the woman that used to be the lady of the house. Richiro Wichiro silently approached, and Nin-Nin put his daggers away. The Au Ra clenched both of her fists in anger, her arms shaking. 

“We should quit this place.” Kida spoke at last, looking to Richiro and Nin-Nin. “Get some fresh air, and back in the safety of the Twelveswood.” 

The Lalafellin nodded, being the one to lead them out from the room. Kida released Azlyn’s arm, giving the girl a reassuring pat on the arm before following after. Azlyn sighed, and started to leave the Manor with them. 

Behind her Nin-Nin walked silently, she could tell that he was watching her more closely than usual. Perhaps he was worried about her—she wouldn’t know. After all she wasn’t a mind reader.