Caio lets out a sigh of annoyance and snaps the book closed. As the pages shut, Caio vanishes. “Can I help you?” he snarls as he emerges from the shadows behind ‘Alaris’.

Alaris spins on the spot to face Caio when he appears behind them. As the aasimar moves, their features shift and blur, their clothing darkens and they seem to stretch until Caio is faced with a perfect copy of himself, matching his every move and mannerism.

“Charming. Now, do you care to tell me who or what you are before I end you, or do I get the treat of figuring that out after?” As Caio speaks, Ghoul swoops from the rafters and flies upstairs where he begins scratching and pecking furiously at the groups’ door.

Shiva had headed to the caravan's shared room much earlier in the night, feeling a touch crestfallen. She learned from the evening's fiddle player that she wouldn't be able to find a place to buy an instrument until the group reached Paragon or Five Towers. Staring up at the low ceiling of the dark room, she considered; she'd never before turned her attention to more creative pastimes. The closest she'd ever come to the arts is her joy and indulgence in carnal affairs. As she drifted to sleep, she wondered what she may have picked up had she been given the opportunity as a child. 

 She dreamt of her cell. Formlessly, her perception floated around the confines that made up most of her world for over 8 cycles. The random assortment of books stacked beneath her cot, the flourishes on the spine of a title near the bottom of the pile catching her eye: L'eau du néant. Her vision then rises, passing the frail, wooden desk covered in the only other things that she could call hers. They were rubbish mostly; wooden carvings of animals, withered flowers that had ceased to inspire hope, and scribblings on scraps of paper that she'd ripped from her books or received from the castle's servants. She wrote little things. Sad, wrathful things. And occasionally, reflections on the beauty, sincerity, and contentment she'd read about in some of her books. Her vision continues to rise, passing the dark stone to look out through the cell's small window. But something is different. The bars that normally obscure her view of the scenic countryside are gone, and the landscape before her breaths freedom into her lungs. She floats forw-Tock Tock Tock Tock Tock Tock Tock. 

Startling awake, she jolts upright. The incessant knocking at the door continues, and Shiva looks over to see that all the others were still sleeping. Grunting and cursing, she gets up and opens the door to meet Ghoul's expectant gaze. Registering what this must mean, she walks over to Alaris and Astrid. Gently shaking them awake, she whispers as they open their eyes. "Hey, something's going on. Ghoul woke me up." Once they're both up, she begins quietly making her way out into the inn. 

As Shiva emerges into the common room she sees two Caios standing besides one another. The elf's eyes glimmer momentarily as he assesses the aura of his doppelgänger - a moment too long. By the time he has recognised the creature's echo in the aether as fey, it is lunging at him, sharp teeth and long claws extending from its mouth and hands.

Caio is ready as the monster surges towards him, grabbing the creatures’ forearms and turning with the momentum. For a moment it’s as if the inquisitor is dancing with himself, but then the creatures’ jaws snap hungrily around the elf’s shoulder. Thankfully the fine elven chain and thick hide cloak soften the bite, and Caio turns his head to Shiva with a nonchalant glance. “Oh sorry, did we wake you?”

Caio's nonchalance accompanied by the strangeness of the scene before her gives Shiva pause, lightly trying to shake sleep from her head. But the claws and teeth trying to find their way past the shadar-kai's guard snap her into action. Calling upon the strength that she's becoming increasingly familiar with, Shiva feels the skin all across her body heat and tighten, forming into protective scales as her talons emerge from her fingertips. Thinking back to the recent trainings with Alaris, she invokes her lightning, concentrating it into her right hand. As the power mounts, quiet pops ring out from the shimmering blue currents building between her fingers.

She rushes towards the entangled pair, but is stopped dead in her tracks as the creature turns its gaze towards her. The flow of strength from the demon is instantly interrupted, surging out in a primordial wave that stimulates alien feelings within her body. She can feel her organs begin to swim and shift in ways she'd never experienced before, and panic rockets through her mind. Taking a few unsteady steps back, she inhales deeply through her nose then out through her mouth, focusing on the heart of the change, the center that was still part of her and her alone. Guiding the errant flow of energy within her, she steers it back into its proper place. The pain is like searing water being poured onto her lungs, stomach, and intestines, but the involuntary internal shifting ceases. 

Focusing back onto the creature, she sprints forward and sinks her claws into the flesh at its back. She feels a powerful pulse of energy run from her arm and into the entity, and the air immediately begins to smell of burnt ozone. BZZZZACK. As the creature is racked with immobilizing pain, Shiva looks past it and into the true Caio's eyes with a sadistic smirk. "Yeah, you did." 

Alaris' silvery eyes flash open the instant before Shiva shakes their shoulder. Hope's Edge thrums in the back of their thoughts, and the bogatyr grabs Shiva's arm to pull themselves up to grab the glaive and rush through the door.

The lanky aasimar freezes for a moment as they see the two Caio-forms facing off against one another. From deep within their being, a radiance grows and glows, reaching across the shadowy room. The light from their soul shimmers and caresses everything it touches with the deep, invigorating warmth of Arden's sun. "Lady, let your light show me the truth..." Alaris murmurs as Shiva's blast tears into the clawed-and-fanged Caio, and the bogatyr moves closer, ready to pull the fanged attacker down.

The Lady's light emanates from Alaris and Caio's attacker grows soft and amorphous as it loses its grip on the form that it has taken. Soon it seems to be nothing more than a strange fleshy mass in a vaguely humanoid shape.

     Astrid is hard to rouse but finally comes to. "What's everyone have against a good night's sleep!" she says rather crankily and grabs her shield before following the others down to see what the commotion is. 

     The sleepy dwarf is slow to react, but finally realizes the need for action as the one of the Caio's has been revealed to be some otherworldly creature. "Let go of him!" The cleric's hand shoots out and clutches at something in the air. As she does, the creature's muscles seize up and hold it in its place.

"Now it's a party." Caio remarks dryly as he watches his companions stun, de-glamour and halt the doppelganger in turn. With the creature paralyzed, the slayer steps in to take the killing blow. He reaches his hand out in the direction of his sword, still propped against the table next to where he'd been reading, then swipes his hand gracefully through the air. Shadows trail from his outstretched fingers as the sword is pulled through the gloom in the same fashion that the shadar-kai so often teleports. By the time he finishes the gesture the hilt of the greatsword has appeared in his grip, the magical ruby affixed to it gleaming out of the darkness first. The blade, however, now rests snugly in the middle of the fey creature's torso. It's hard to tell whether or not the blow is fatal, there is no change in the creature's expression, no burst of blood or cry of pain. Not intending to take any chances with the thing, Caio tightens his grip on the hilt and begins to twist the sword clockwise. The ranger's already dour expression curls into an even deeper sneer as he watches the doppelganger's stringy flesh get wrenched apart by the flat of the blade. With just one rotation, Caio has cored the creature. He removes the blade now and is happy to find that all of the pulp remains still within the  gory aperture, leaving his sword pristine. 

Even after Caio's devastating strike, the creature remains unmoving, frozen in time by Astrid.

Shiva steps away from the true, grotesque form of the creature as Caio tears through it. "Merde! C'est le truc le plus dégueulasse que je voyais en des cycles."  Wrinkling her nose in complete disgust, she backs up to stand beside Alaris. She continues to hold her right hand out towards the creature, the lightning now jumping all the way up to her shoulder and back down again. "What the **** is that thing, Ari?"

Quote from ZeeOfIstus >>

Shiva steps away from the true, grotesque form of the creature as Caio tears through it. "Merde! C'est le truc le plus dégueulasse que je voyais en des cycles."  Wrinkling her nose in complete disgust, she backs up to stand beside Alaris. She continues to hold her right hand out towards the creature, the lightning now jumping all the way up to her shoulder and back down again. "What the **** is that thing, Ari?"

"Something ugly..." Alaris retorts, their face aghast as the aura reveals the creature's true form. "Why isn't it moving? What's happening?"

     "Oh! Sorry about that." With a flick of her wrist, Astrid releases the impaled creature from her spell and it falls to the floor in a pile. 

     "Why did that thing look like you, Caio?"

“Tricksy fey magic.” he spits. “It looked like Alaris as it failed to sneak up on me. That woman I noticed earlier smelled of faerie as well, perhaps this was a gift of her. Or… perhaps it was her.” The ranger kneels to the ruined corpse and begins sifting through the viscera to see if there is any information to be gleaned from the mess.

Rather than collapsing as a solid (albeit impaled) corpse, the creature plummets to the ground with a wet SPLAT, hitting the floorboards as a puddle of grey and pink goop. The fleshy mass quickly begins to seep away, down between the floorboards and out of Caio's reach.

Continuing to hold a charge of lightning in her arm, Shiva tentatively inches forward. "It tried to do something to me. When I brought out my claws and went to strike it, it looked at me and I nearly lost control. It felt like my insides were trying to wriggle their way out. The pain was horrible, but I fought off the change."

As the creature falls into a semisolid mass and begins to slink away, she sends a small, precise bolt at it in an attempt to once again immobilize it. The small arch reaches the horrid puddle of sentience, but it is unimpeded as it continues to slink through the floor. She rears back to put more force into the blast, but catches the glint of the ring on her left hand in the corner of her eye. She pauses, hearing Nikolai's voice in her head. "Not so forceful, dear!"  She allows the bolt to fade away, instead looking to the others for a plan of action. 

“The cellar.” he says without much more explanation before bolting into action, trying to find a way down beneath the inn.

Alaris follows close by Caio, a glow like warm sunshine beginning to emanate from their hands as well as Hope's Edge as the two stalk the fleeing blob. "Everyone stay close," Alaris commands. "Don't want it replicating one of us again."