Murrey
She seems to sincerely reflect on what you've said. After a moment she speaks. "Does it hurt to move from machine to machine? Do you forget that you are flesh and blood?"

Questers
The hall seems to breathe around you, you feel the subtle caress of warmth and air move over your face.

Moira
As you finish speaking, you feel a hand run up the back of your neck. Threading its fingers into the roots of you hair. At the contact your whole body pulses with heat and longing. You feel dizzy and light headed as the want rushes through you. You feel an urgent whisper in your ear. "Many would make that choice. Do you want me then?" As you turn to look you see no one there and the hand releases you, leaving you feeling spent and wrung out.

"At first, I was afraid of sat thort of thing happening. It was strange, like settling down into a new body, but the trepidation soon gives way to exileration as you feel the vehicle respond. Imagine you've only walked your whole life, then you find a way to settle into the gody of a jungle cat, how would that feel to have the power, speed and ability that you would otherwise never know?"

:: Moira shudders at the touch and spins fully to peer behind her. Logic tells her that this realm is just as wicked and deadly as any they had visited, but for a moment, she lost herself in the contact and the emotions that were triggered. Ashamed, she fights the awakened feeling that died when she lost her family.

:: Since that horrible day, everytime she entertained any physical desire, even with Jess, her closest friend, she find herself overcome with guilt for her lost husband, her one true love. That same guilt hits her now as she mentally berates herself for allowing those well buried feelings to resurface so easily. ::

"Let's.. let's just keep moving."

Questers
You begin walking the long hallway, not certain what lies in wait for you in this realm. The soft everpresent light spills across your features, everything seems softer and yet more real in the light. The sound of your passage echoes softly around you. The hallway seems to meander till you reach a junction of hallways, almost like a cluster.

Murrey
Her face lights up with understanding, your analogy appears to have been the perfect one. "I see, I really do. I had never thought of it that way." She seems fill with a sense of personal accomplishment.

Paladin stops and peers down each of the hallways. "Drek. Any suggestions?"

"If we are in a labyrinth, you may place a hand upon one wall and eventually find your way to all parts of the maze. Otherwise we may want to call out the name of this land's mistress."

"In the last realm, we simply came across the Mistress of the Land by continuing to walk. The same with the first realm we visited. That seems to suggest that as cliche as it may sound, all paths probably lead to our destination. Assuming she's willing to see us, of course..."

Shiver looks at the nexus point created by the junction of so many hallways.

"The realm of Potmos was integrally tied to each of our Fates and our perceptions of our individual future. Aponoia showed herself when we began to despair that nothing could be found except for further loss, compounded by the windows onto other lives. It is possible that Epithumia will respond to your own love or desire? Are you able to conjure an image of a loved one in your mind, such may provide an insight as to which path we should take. In our own land, I would not think to do such, but the metaplanes are bent by true will, it may be enough."

He looks to Paladin to see if he is willing to take a gamble or if the orc will lead on down one of the hallways.

"I'm glad I could help you understand. We should probably see to moving these bodies away from this sacred place."

With that said, the MK-6 moves away and begins to drag the corpses away from the cave.

:: Moira concentrates on the labyrinth, in order to push the thoughts she had been having out of her mind. ::

"It's definitely organic."

:: When she sees the blank looks from those around her she smiles self consciously ::

"The labyrinth. It seems organic, like veins in a body."

:: Thinking another moment, she looks back the way they came, and then forward to the small hub they've found. ::

"It that's true, and I could be wrong, but if it is...this would be like, the arm or the leg. Given the heart that you had to kiss to get is here, Paladin, I would suspect that if we made our way to the heart of this body, we might find the goddess of the realm."

As she entered Epthumia's realm, Angelina found herself overwhelmed in a sea of desires. And not all of them were the innocent ones that she conciously recognized. However, she knew within that they were still a part of her. There were some dark desires indeed. From this other side of her? She wasn't sure. But she knew that she wasn't about to simply give in as she had before.

Moria's comment about the nature of the tunnels gave her something else to focus on. "Yes...it looks like we're somewhere near the forearm. It shouldn't be too hard to reach the heart."

"This would seem plausible. Paladin which path would you like to take?"

Shiver stands with his body taut and resolute, unwilling to bend.

"I'm no expert on how the body works...Angelina, could you join me at the lead and help guide the way?"

"Of course." Angelina responded, joining Paladin in leading the way to the heart.

Bakatare shakes his head, more then a little amused at the somewhat whimsical formation of this realm.

He glances at Shiver, shrugs, and turns to follow the pair.

:: Still feeling unnerved by the realm they have discovered this time, she wraps her arms around herself and brings up the rear. ::

Elsewhere
The sound a door being opened echoes in the dim space. A single warm light fills a room accented with warm wood tones and subtle shades of green. Carvaggio enters, a small leather briefcase in hand and holding a bundle of mail. He sets the bag down and begins to sort the mail. He hair is dishoveled and his tie hand open at his throat.

A sudden blur of moment and his body sails across the room and slams into the far wall. His breath is explosively pushed from his lungs as papers scatter through the air. A slim form stays with Carvaggio and begins to savagely kick his limp form over and over again. Every kick brings another cry from his lips as blood begins to collect around his lips. The figure reaches down and with ease, picks him up from the floor, bringing him eye level.

"You are trespassing and he is not happy about it. Do so again and I will be back."

With two swift movements the sound of breaking bones fills the small foyer. Carvaggio lies with both arms at odd angles, crying and gasping desperately for breath.

Murrey
She nods and begins to help move the bodies away from the site. "Excellent idea."

Questers
The group follows in Angelina's wake as she guides all through the network of passages. You travel what seems to be hours, you begin to lose a sense of time. Everything seems eternal and immovable. You are all startled as you round a corner and find the Dweller standing in the middle of your path. She stands dressed as before with a smile and look of mischief on her face.

Bakatare blinks and pulls up abruptly at spotting the Dweller, glancing around rapidly, already searching for a nastly suprise. Having the Dweller here could be nothing positive, he was sure.

He looks to Paladin. This was his quest and he wouldn't usurp control, but he hoped the man had a cooler head then Shiver during some of their previous encounters with her.

Paladin looked down on the small girl. "Well hello there... Didn't expect to find you here."

Questers
She seems amused by the ordinary greeting offered by the orc. She walks slowly through your number while speaking. "Forms to observe and rules to follow. The way is no longer safe. Something hunts the realms of my Lords and Ladies. It seems to be searching.......' She pauses in front of Angelina "for a lost treasure."

Angelina negotiated the twists and turns with a healer's knowledge. However, after a couple hours, even she was begining to wonder if they were lost. Her concerns were set aside, however, as the Dweller intercepted them, warning them of something that had invaded the realm. "What is...it? And what is it that it is looking for?" she asked.

Questers
Her small and delicate face looks up to Angelina, her eyes seem weary and vacant. "It has names, as many as the drops of blood held in your body. It is what ever it wants to be." Her voice drips with resentment. "It goes where it wills and does what it desires, letting none bar its way." She looks away and begins to walk around the party once again. Like mercury, her voice slips back into the sweet and cloying tone of a young girl. "As to what it looks for, it seeks one amongst you. It's need burns in its eyes and rages through its body. It tried to force its way through the realms of the Endless, as it did me but it soon found their rule was absolute here. It has been delayed for the time, but its smart and clever. It will soon move once again, this time obeying the rules and observing the forms. It will find you if you tarry longer than needed. I was bidden to carry this warning to you from my Lords and Ladies. The way is no longer safe."

"Who does it seek? And why?" she asked, hoping to get further details out of the child.

Questers
The small child begins to walk away from the party, moving around the bend. Her voice carries through the hollow space back towards the group. "It comes for you, to collect what was hidden." She walks around the corner from view.

Shiver whispers softly, "such things it will not have, while there is breath in my body..."

Speaking up for the group to hear, "Come we should not tarry long. Please Paladin lead on."

Bakatare shakes his head, stepping up near Angelina.

"She seemed to be doing a compentent job of leading us before, we might as well let her continue."

Paladin nods. "Angelina, please stay at my side, this realm is a maze beyond me."

When she steps up, he leads next to her, staff in hand.

Elsewhere
The sound of running water echoes hollowly through the space. The sound itself seems flat and cold. The light in the bedroom seems weak and watery. Carvaggio's face seems a roadmap of purples and reds, a blotchy ruin of flesh and dried blood. The small sink has a pink sheen to it as he continues to wash the blood from his face and wring it from a small wash cloth. A door opens in the distance, and his face remains impassive. Stefan's voice carries into the room.

"I've made the changes to your schedule and a doctor should be here in the morning to check you over one last time."

Carvaggio pulls the stopper allowing the water to drain from the sink and tosses the wash cloth into the basin. His speech is slurred and slightly distorted as he speaks. "I'll need to work from home for the next few days as well, make sure the reports I'll need get sent over in the morning and inform the house staff of the change for meals and such." He gingerly moves his way from the master bath towards his bed. Stefan stands at the doorway to the room. Concern on his face but making no attempt to aid his employer. "Follow up with the staff, assure them I am fine and stress that everything is normal. I just have a bit of the stomach flu and that I will be back as soon I feel better." He lets his breath out in a ragged sigh as he reaches the edge of the bed. His face tight with concentration and pain. "That will be all for tonight."

"Certainly sir, sleep well." Stefan departs, drawing the door behind him.

Questers
Once again you find yourself walking for hours maybe even days through the network of hallways. Pausing now and then for Angelina to get her bearings, the time seems to lose meaning. The sounds seem to elongate and distort. The halls begin to began much larger and intersections seem to come less and less. You arrive at what appears to large portal or threshold. The room beyond seems warmer and more inviting than the rest of this place you have seen so far. A warm and sultry voice calls out as you approach.

"Enter and be known to me."

"Right then, lets get on with this..."

Paladin takes a deep breath and steps into the chamber.

Shiver follows Paladin into the room. The aging troll makes sure not to step between his ward and the orc, but places himself close enough to protect Angelina from physical harm.

Bakatare steps through, looking around warily as he crosses the threshold. Any illusion of control goes with the most ancient of traditions. Lines, pentagrams, circles, lodges, thresholds, it didn't matter the physical manifestation...there was power contained within those spaces, and any Awakened in the 6th world understood that.

:: Moira steps into the chamber with trepidation, despite her desire to get this next stage resolved as quickly as possible. The dark threat the Dweller spoke of weights on Moira's mind moreso than any fear of what this warm chamber might hold. ::

Questers
The chamber appears empty save for a chair, like throne in the center. The light seems to focus there, holding all the warmth and attention of the area there. A figure lounges in the throne, a smile playing across its features. "Welcome and be at ease."

Epithumia is of medium height. It is unlikely that any portrait will ever do Epithumia justice, since to see her (or him) is to love him (or her),- passionately, painfully, to the exclusion of all else.

Epithumia smells almost subliminally of summer peaches, and casts two shadows: one black and sharp-edged, the other translucent and forever wavering, like heat haze.

Epithumia smiles in brief flashes, like sunlight glinting from a knife-edge. And there is much else that is knife-like about Epithumia.

Never a possession, always the possessor, with skin as pale as smoke, and eyes tawny and sharp as yellow wine. Epithumia is everything you have ever wanted. Whoever you are. Whatever your are.

Everything.

:: Moira gazes at the figure, intrigued by it's ever changing appearance, like a character in a dream. Pulling her eyes from the mezmerizing vision before her, she looks to Paladin to address the Lord of the Realm. ::

Bakatare takes several steps into the room, apparently oblivious to everything else. He stops a few paces from the throne and the figure on it, and drops to his knees, staff discarded carelessly beside him. His gaze, suffused with awe, is locked on the figure before him, and he begins to murmur softly in Latin, prayers and supplications to his love before him to grace him with a bit of her divine radiance.

Duty to serve. Mynce commanded duty from a history shared and never spoken--debt and obligation. This mistress demanded nothing of him, only his desire.

Shiver takes a step forward.

He looks to Angelina, his ward and the physical reminder of duty to Mynce, as well as, a love that could never be requited.

Another step closer to Epithumia, her warmth promises forgiveness for previous transgressions. She will always hold him close, return his own desire with her need to possess him.

The old troll moves to stand by her right side, the position of a trusted chamberlain or consort.

Murrey
After a few minutes you qiuckly have the bodies stacked and out of the way. Onna appears to perform some sort of ritual over the area where the violence occured. The small white fox has reappeared and takes it's time to look over the bodies as they're stacked.

Now that the corpses are arranged, the MK-6 moves into position and begins undenting the front bumper from the first to fall (and subsequently rammed).

Paladin stumbles foward with the others, dropping to his knees and bowing his head. "Mistress... How may I serve?"

Angelina watched the shifting being with interest. She got flickering images of the past, but they all vanished before she could grab a hold of them. Her intrest turned to confusion as the others moved to take various postions of adoration. Noticing Moria was unaffected as well, she wondered if it was just men that were affected this way... but for the moment she was silent. This was Paladin's task to complete.

:: Moira's expression turns to concern as she watches the men supplicant themselves before the Master of the realm. Turning to look at Angelina, she notices that she is not alone in her resistance to the obvious attraction the being gives off. However, Moira is still surprised that these hardened men, so good at reigning in emotions on all levels have utterly failed to the strange power ebbing from the seated Lord. ::

:: When Paladin addresses the figure, Moira fails to suppress the gasp as she realizes that while under the influence of this power, Paladin will have little chance at securing their release. Love and devotion could be more destructive than an atomic bomb when played correctly and Moira began to fear for the first time the ruler of this realm. She or he could easily turn the powers of the men with them against Angelina and herself and just laugh in that musically perfect way as the pair were torn to shreads. Each of the men already seemed completely enthralled. ::

Questers
It smiles with genuine warmth at Paladin. "Simply love me and be loved in return." It looks to the two woman, a pause as it considers them. "What brings you to my realm? Not many have seen me in the long stretch of years." It's hands reach out to take one of Shiver's. It leans forward to place a tender kiss upon his palm.

:: With a glance towards Angelina, Moira attempts to communicate her fears and concerns before turning her face to the entity. Making every effort to disguise her uneasiness, Moira smiles pleasantly and takes a step forward. ::

"It is a shame that one so beautiful would not have a full audience of adoring courtiers. We are merely travelers in the world beyond the world and have lost our way. We humbly ask nothing more than to pay our respects to you who rules this realm and then make our way to the next, for we each have important needs that requires our return to the mundane plane."

Questers
He moves from the throne and pauses to brush his hand across bakatare's forehead. As he kneels, his features soften and once again the gender of this entity slides to something more feminine as she whispers in his ear. Looking back up, the face slides back to a strong masculine jaw and cheeks, addressing Moira as he rises.

"I am the totality of this place, we are one and the same. As for need, that I understand. Needs drive all we do and don't do. It burns in us, pushes us to act and be. I find it hard to believe you ended up here by accident. The ways to us are dark and deep. Only dusty whispers and old things know of us and our realms."

He pauses, seeming to bask in the waves of adoration from the stricken teammates. His breath quick and urgent, fighting to come back to the moment, his body spasms and he shakes his head to clear his thoughts.

"Speak to me truthfully, how did you come here? By what means did you reach the gallery?"

:: Moira nods, believing that indeed, truth here would be prudent. ::

"We are unaware of what led us astray. Our intended destination was the metaplanes, however the gallery is unlike any description of the metaplanes we have ever been given. When we arrived, the Dweller informed us that each of us must visit a realm connected with us in some way, and request leave from the lord or lady of that realm."

:: Moira nods towards Paladin. ::

"This man was linked to your realm, but I am afriad that your awesome visage may be too much for him to remember the need that brought us to you."

Questers
He turns to Paladin, once again his features softening. "He has his memories but I will agree, everything else will seem less important compared to me." As he walks to the orc, the slide of gender occurs again, even his voice shifts. "He holds someone's heart strings." She kneels to run her tongue along his cheek. "He's soaked in desperate want. The stench is everywhere on him but I doubt this interests you much and the thing that hunts you draws nearer as we speak." She rises and walks back to her throne, sitting in it with a boneless grace.

"No one travels here by accident, if you return look to the magic that brought you here. There are still some things that remember the ways to us perhaps they sent you for some need. As for leaving, he only need recieve my blessing. A simple kiss is all that is required to return to the gallery. A task he is certain to agree to in his current state.' She pauses, as she stares lovingly at Paladin's face. "But be warned, he will lose much to do so. Is this your desire in this?"

:: As the entity mentions the predator stalking their footsteps, Moira's expression darkens, but she holds her tongue while she hears of Paladin's task. She had no trouble believing that the kiss would carry with it an enormous cost, yet she knows that so far, each of her companions had paid dearly for exit from their realms. This relevation makes her chest hurt with trepidation of the toll that will be taken from her. ::

"I cannot speak for Paladin, it will have to be a choice he makes. My heart hurts for the loss he will suffer if he gives you what you desire. However, before such a choice is made, may I ask ask, humbly, if you could share what you know of the being searching for us with hostile intent? Any information offered may offer a great service to our chance of survival."

Questers
He turns to you, a small smile playing across his features. "Knowledge about what seeks you I have but you should know better by now. Nothing is freely given in this place. I would share this with you but I would ask a favor in return from you. Are you willing to barter with me?" His features seem alive with the prospect of a bargain.

:: Moira considers for a moment. ::

"What would you ask in return for the information we seek?"

Questers
"Carry a piece of me beyond here. I wish to glimpse the lower worlds and its been ages since anything has called to me there. That is my price."