Marduk gives a start, sucking in a breath after what felt like an eternity. His eyes snap open and he brings one hand to his chest as if some sort of pain had struck him. Clutching at the front of his dark coat, he frowns deeply. 

"What the hell?" his grip tightens as he tries to remember what he'd been doing. Shaking his head he glances around, vibrant blue eyes scanning the landscape with a calculating gaze. At first his glowing eyes move to rest on the tower, narrowing as his mind works to sort out why he can't remember anything. ...a side effect of leaving the rift? Well, it's not the worst thing he's dealt with. At least he remembers his name this time. Heck, when was the last time he'd actually set foot on solid ground? Of course, with his apparently fractured memory he couldn't say with confidence that it had been forever. But it felt like it so perhaps he could. 

Shoving his hands into the pockets of his black coat he looks around again, frowning once more as he notices that he isn't alone. He doesn't step back, doesn't even take his hands out of his pockets, rather he turns to face this person squarely. If they are a threat then so be it. He lifts his chin, and asks, "Who are you and why are we here?" His voice is low but not deep, and his tone has a slight growl to it. 

The person standing beside him would see a tall young man, human in appearance. He holds himself with an air of authority and confidence, in spite of appearing unarmed. His clothing is made up of dark colors, primarily black and midnight blue. His black, high collared shirt looks to have been finely made, almost like something a noble would wear. This seems a little out of place beneath the trench coat Strangely, his trench coat seems to fade at the edges, pulling away from him in wisps that give glimpses of a starry sky... as if pulling at some alternate reality. His hair is white and wispy, falling in a roguish style that partially covers his eyes. However when he shifts his position or moves his hair seems to float slightly, moving as if underwater... or like gravity takes a moment to fully effect it. Likewise his pale skin shifts between being translucent to appearing solid and normal. His eyes are a royal blue, but seem to glow with a light of their own. They have a rather uncanny appearance, reflecting galaxies as if they were two windows pointed towards two brilliant solar systems. 

A young woman, dressed in chainmail and dark black clothing begins to rise. Her long white hair comes down past her shoulders and frames a narrow face with dark grey eyes.  Once she stands, it is apparent there is a longsword sheathed at her side.  She kneels down to pick up a metal shield, painted black with a symbol of an ankh and a scythe upon it.  Though perhaps looking a bit confused about her situation, she immediately turns to the person near at hand. 

"Who am I?" she responds. "Who are you?"  She hears the growl in his voice and a hand goes to her blade. For a few moments, she studies the young man in the black coat, noting the odd effect along the edges. "You are the one with the shifting countenance and odd attire. I dare say you seem likely the one that has brought us here. But to what end? Where is this? Certainly not the Shadow Realm."  She cooly holds her ground. 

Marduk stares at her for a moment, his expression holding a half-glare. His glowing eyes move from the woman’s face to the sword her hand went to. Still he makes no move to reach for any weapons, as it is likely safe to assume he has something up his sleeve, magic or otherwise, based on his confidence. He studies her for a good moment, expression remaining cold. Then he lowers his head, his glare fading as his expression relaxes, “Tch, fair enough.”

He smiles slightly before holding up an arm, eyeing the shifting fabric of his coat for a moment before shrugging and returning his hand to his pocket. Curious, he doesn’t remember this happening before… but then again, it’s difficult to remember a time when he could actually feel the ground beneath his feet so there’s no surprise there. Not to mention his missing memories… how annoying.

He lets out a breath, tilting his head back and closing his eyes as he says absently, “I assure you, this was not my doing. Perhaps once I had the power to move between worlds at will, but that ability was stripped from me ages ago. And apparently pieces of my memory went with it.” 

He resumes his previous posture, locking eyes with the woman, and his cold expression returns, “In other words no. This was not my doing. But, based on your questions am I right to assume you too have no idea how or why you are here?” 

He pauses, expecting an answer, “As for my name, you may call me Marduk.” He gives a wry smile, extending a hand without stepping towards the woman. 

"Jessa Gumovi," the woman replies, taking the extended hand to briefly shake it. "For the moment, I will have to believe you about not being the cause of whatever it is that has shappened."  She again glances around, spotting the tall tower. "Perhaps there will be someone residing in that tower that can at least tell us where we are at. What do you think?" Her dark grey peer back at Marduk. "And since you are not from here, what plane do you hail from?" 

Marduk grips her hand firmly before releasing it, "Well met, Jessa." After releasing her hand he turns to face the tower in the distance, chuckling bitterly at her statement about having to believe he isn't the cause of what happened. "Trust me. If I could travel between worlds at will I would already be gone." There were so many things he needed to do, half of which he has a feeling he forgot. 

"Yes, the tower seems the most obvious place to start..."

He seems to falter when she asks what plane he'd come from. His eyes going distant as his mind travels through the multiverse. Images flash by, and he remembers being thrust into... nothingness. Floating through the galaxies without shape or form, cursed to drift for all eternity... no... that wasn't right was it? His frown... or glare rather, returns, though this time is directed at the air in front of him. "It... seems that memory was stolen from me."

He stare into the distance for a good long minute before shrugging and saying, "No matter." He begins walking towards the tower, "Best to figure out what's ahead, and worry about what's behind later."

Jessa gives Marduk a strange look at his response about stolen memory but doesn't comment on it. "Then ahead to the tower," she says. And walks swiftly in that direction. 

Sizzle eventually stops his pacing and takes a seat on the floor with his back against the wall. He pulls out his pack and begins tinkering with his wand. Working always helped him to clear his head... and the more he worked on his wand.... the less it looked like a wand. "I don't know how to dispel the magical darkness..." The goblin says aloud.. breaking the silence as he adjusts a bit of metal attached to the base of his wand. "It... should dissipate on its own... and it is probably gone by now... but if we go back up there.... I cannot guarantee we won't run into the same problem...." He adds with a hint of defeat in his voice. 

It isn't a long walk at all for the two new arrivals to make it to the curious stone tower, and with such an open floor plan on the bottom level, it wouldn't be terribly difficult for the others to see the two new figures coming their way. A quick peek up at the second floor would reveal that the magical darkness has indeed evaporated from where it had been before.

Hearing a voice from within the tower, Jessa slows her pace, looking at Marduk. In a hushed voice she asks him, "You suppose we just announce our presence and see if whoever's in there will help us?" 

Marduk looks towards the voices and answers Jessa without looking at her, "May as well." He doesn't bother to talk quietly, eyeing the room nonchalantly before turning back to where the voices were heard. 

"Hey," he says abruptly, his voice rather blunt... similar to how he'd first addressed Jessa. He knocks on the wall nearest to him, "Mind if we come in and chat?" He doesn't move any closer, whether because he's trying to seem un-intimidating, or because they are currently outnumbered and he'd rather stay close to the door... it's unclear. Either way, he doesn't look overly concerned, standing with his hands in his pockets as usual. 

The darkness had lifted, but it brought no relief.

Esta stood just outside the room now, her bow lowered, the string slack in her hand. She hadn’t even realized she’d stopped holding it taut. Her eyes lingered on the doorway they’d left behind—where Halila and Tyriel had fallen. Where they hadn’t come back out.

She didn’t speak. Not at first.

Then a voice called out from below—sharp, unfamiliar. “Hey. Mind if we come in and chat?”

She turned slowly, blinking as if pulled from a fog. Two figures. Strangers. One with a coat that shimmered like the void, the other armored and poised. They hadn’t been here before. They hadn’t seen what happened.

Esta didn’t raise her bow. She didn’t have the energy to.

“No one’s stopping you,” she said quietly, her voice rough around the edges. “But if you’re looking for answers, you’re late. All we’ve got here are questions and bodies.”

She glanced toward the others—Zakhar, Sizzle—then back to the newcomers.

“You’re not with the thing that did this, are you?” Her tone wasn’t accusatory. Just tired. “Because if you are… you’ve got a hell of a lot of nerve showing up now.”

"I do not know about the thing," Jessa, the white-haired woman, replies. "We really don't know where we're at. So unfortunately we do have questions." She does stay back, not quite sure about the mention of bodies.  

Marduk shrugged, “I take it you aren’t the owners of this tower then?” 

He chooses to ignore the question of whether or not they are with ‘the thing’, instead walking forward to inspect the group of strangers. “Bodies? I’m guessing this tower is not a very welcoming place then is it?” 

Sizzle let out a small forced laugh. "Ha, yeah... you could say that." The goblin scoffed before standing up. he had his wand pointing towards the new commers as he looked them up and down... trying to figure out who these strangers were... "We're looking for some kind of construct and got attacked upstairs. They killed two of our group...." He said as he looked them over more carefully from behind his pointed wand..

Marduk stares down the length of Sizzle's wand, "Am I really that intimidating?" His words are blunt, his voice low as he eyes the gnome. Letting out an exasperated sigh, he runs a hand through his hair, which takes a little too long to settle back down as he says, "Construct? Well I can't say I've seen one. How about you Jessa?" He turns to his companion, clearly already knowing the answer since they both woke up out in the middle of nowhere without a clue how they got there. 

Turning his attention back to the group ahead of him he continues, "Who do you mean by 'they'?" He asks Sizzle, "The true owner of this tower? Did you come here by force?" His tone grows harsher, "If so, would it be correct to say that this thing as you call it, was just defending its territory? Or am I mistaken?" Perhaps this was why they were so quick to point weapons and toss accusations. Is this a group of criminals?

 "Nope, no sign of any constructs," Jessa replies. She too looks at Esta and Sizzle with suspicion. "You do seem to be speaking rather vaguely.  Just what is going on here?"  She then turns to Marduk. "I'm not so sure we're going to get any information from this group. Though I'm wondering if there are any local authorities we should be alerting." 

Esta’s eyes flick between the two strangers, her expression unreadable at first—but her silence speaks volumes. She doesn’t rise to meet their suspicion. Doesn’t argue. She just exhales slowly, like someone trying to keep a dam from breaking.

“You think we came here looking for a fight?” she says at last, voice low and brittle. “We were tracking something. A construct. Thought it might be here. We were wrong.”

She gestures vaguely toward the upper floor, though her gaze doesn’t follow. “Whatever lives in this place didn’t ask questions. It just attacked. Halila and Tyriel didn’t even get a chance to defend themselves.”

Her fingers tighten around the bow in her hand, but she doesn’t raise it. Her posture is slouched, not from laziness—but from the weight of loss.

“You want to talk about territory? Fine. Maybe we were trespassers. But that thing didn’t give us a warning. It gave us a massacre.”

She looks at Jessa now, her voice quieter. “You want to alert the authorities? Be my guest. Maybe they’ll care more than the corpses upstairs.”

Then, more to herself than anyone else, she mutters, “We should’ve known better than to come here... we should all just get out while we still can...”

"Ok, ok," Jessa replies after Esta's rant. "Sounds like you all are having a difficult time. But could you at least tell us what this place is? Surely it has a name of some sort?"  As she asks she actually starts to scan around for any sign of any other landmarks around this place. Surely there must be another town here somewhere. Or at least another tower.

If no one else remembers, a brief look around the room finds the name "Laxuelu" etched on the lid of the sarcophagus, but there aren't any other obvious names around. It is a library of some sort.

"There wasn't exactly a "Keep out" sign warning us not to enter..." Sizzle replied as he slowly let his wand dip down towards the floor. a moment passes before he let's our a frustrated growl. "First I get teleported to some strange place when I was on the verge of the scientific breakthrough of my life... then we almost get arrested for breaking a law we didn't know existed... and now we are nearly murdered by some creature in this tower!" 

Sizzle quickly flicks his wrist and unleashes a rapid volley of  fire bolts from the tip of his arcane firearm(wand) towards the sarcophagus. "GAARRHHHH!" He exclaims in frustration once more as his green skinned face turns red with anger