Trying to figure things out.

[Keaira O'Connell]

Keaira sat on her bed, and dismissed her house elf, Hermes hesitated, but bowed, and with a pop was gone. Her head was swirling with all that had happened in the past week. Battling shadow creatures, watching a student die, seeing another kidnapped, finding out she was a shadow warrior, discovering she had an elemental master, mentally crossing the boundaries of the material plan in to the realm of shadows, feeling the horrible torture that D’rorah had experienced, the depression and the despair, almost being hit with the Crucio curse, apparating with another person, finding herself in a strange location, and then realizing that she had failed to save D’rorah, and that now she was likely to be tortured even worse than before. Her mind felt a little overwhelmed.

She was about to just give in to the despair and the weary feeling in her body, and allow herself to be forced in to sleep, when she heard the familiar voice of Dien Serlaen. He had gotten her message.

[glow=red,2,300]“Keaira? Dee's gone? I'm outside the common rooms. Come here, you can tell me all about it...”[/glow]

She got up, barely making a sound as she did, and crept down to the common room, when she got there she noticed that Dien was just outside the door. Not really thinking strait she opened the door for him even though he could easily just pass through it.

“Professor, it’s bad. Really bad. I think the Shadow Mage probably already has her again. I mean I can’t really see any way around it.”

She shook her head as she spoke, walking over to one to the leather couches that were gathered around the fireplace. She felt so drained after the past few days. Like her energy was going to just completely go out.

[doppelganger]

Dien walked in and sat on the arm of the leather couch, hand on her shoulder."Well... you were there, right? What happened? I mean, exactly, what happened. Every detail. Anything we could do." He looked around the dungeon. It felt a bit uncomfortable. He remembered it, and what those kids had done to him... Ah, well, they got theirs.

He looked at Keaira. "This house isn't deserving of you."

[Keaira O'Connell]

Keaira felt a little relieved at his touch. He had a way of making her feel a bit more comfortable, it was as if the hand that touched her shoulder was real, and almost warm, not that of a ghosts, but of a live human. She sighed a breath of relief, knowing that if she was to tell any one, she was glad that it was him.

“Well I know I’m not supposed to be out this late, but I felt like I needed to talk to D’rorah, after all she probably has the answers I need to hear, this whole shadow warrior thing is still very confusing to me. So I snuck out and headed to the hospital wing, but as I got there I noticed that I wasn’t the only one out sneaking around. To my surprise Gat Soldier was there too. He had just unlocked the door, and was casting a spell; I think it was a full body bind curse, at D’rorah when I came in behind him. Naturally I tried to stop him, thinking that he needed to be disarmed I tried my best, but his stupid house elf jumped in front of him taking the spell instead.”She stopped to take a breath ready to continue her recap of the nights events. Things just seemed to look bleaker and bleaker the longer she took to tell the tale.

“By that point he was of course, alerted to my presence, and his response to that was to use an unforgivable curse on me, or at least try to. If I hadn’t been mentally alert I would have been hit full on with the spell, luckily I heard him think it first, and could move. So I ran and tumbled on the ground, closing some of the distance between us, as the spell went over my head. Then as his elf disapperated, I grabbed on to him, and went for the ride, but when we stopped I lost my grip and he apperated again and got away taking D’rorah with him. The only clue I have is that he was thinking of the forest here, but I don’t know where, and by now, if D’rorah was still locked in the body bind, he’s gotten her back to the Mage…”

Keaira felt out of breath as she finished the night’s events, looking at Dien hoping that he might have any idea as to what they could do to try and find D’rorah again. But something in her made her feel like as of right now, there was nothing they could do, except maybe alert Professor Kade to the fact that D’rorah was gone.

[doppelganger]

Dien listened intently. "Keaira, we're lucky that Mister Soldier took her. If it was someone more.." he coughed, "able, we might be in trouble. But D'rorah, I'm sure, could easily defeat him even whilst in a body bind curse... perhaps by doing that thing where she melds to shadow form. I understand you don't know what being a Shadow Warrior is about... I'll make sure that D'rorah gets here long enough for you to ask her. I think it's quite odd that we discovered you were right as she left, and then when she came back, she was taken away again... and she doesn't know who to trust." Dien sighed and lit the fire in the fireplace.

[Keaira O'Connell]

[glow=red,2,300]"This house isn't deserving of you."[/glow]

She let the words sink in, maybe he was right, but then again, even though Slytherin was known to produce some of the worst characters, like …voldemort…there were still others from there that had much more merit to themselves. Like professor Snape, a great man and master potions maker. Or Professor Slughorn, or even Mr. Malfoy, she had heard her father talk about some of the great changes he had helped make since the time of Voldemort. She shook her head.

“No this is where I belong. Although I am smart I know that my knowledge is gleamed only through my ambition. My grandfather taught me many things, but the one thing I always remember is that, I must first want the things I seek whole heartedly, otherwise I will fail. My desire to succeed keeps me going; I am what Salazar prized most out of his students. Pure blood, cunning, and ambitious, this is my home, no matter how many evil witches, and wizards it produces..."

Keaira sighed again; she found that now a day she sighed so often. It was like every other thing that happened caused her some type of despair. “I hope you’re right, Professor… actually, as long as we’re alone, am I allowed to call you Dien, or would you prefer Professor Serlaen. I feel so, confused now. Why is she so important to the shadow mage anyway?”

Keaira wasn’t sure if that was a question that Dien had an answer to, and in fact she meant it more as a rhetorical one that a real one, but who knows, maybe he did have that iformation.

[doppelganger]

Dien contemplated her latter question. "You can call me Dien any time except for among those who wouldn't call me by that name," he said. "D'rorah is important to the Shadow Mage because.. she has studied so much about being a Shadow Warrior.. and.." he shook his head, a bit confused, himself. He clenched her shoulder. "I don't know. I'm going to see my wife tomorrow," he casually stated, hoping that she wouldn't actually notice it.

[Keaira O'Connell]

Keaira let his words full meaning hit her. She knew why but, now she may even understand more than just that. If D’rorah was turned against them, they would have no hope. She knows all the secrets, and they had such a pitiful amount of knowledge on the subject. As she contemplated this another thing hit her. Dien was leaving the school tomorrow to visit his wife. She knew that it was her idea but hearing that he was actually going thought with it was another thing entirely.

“Dien,” She said the name tentatively, as if testing how it felt, “Just be careful when you go to see her, things aren’t safe outside these walls, or even with in them. Tonight was proof enough of that.” She sat back with her brow furrowed in thought. There was something else that bothered her about D’rorah’s disappearances. Comprehension dawned on her as she realized that she was completely in the dark about what a shadow warrior was. D’rorah had the answers she needed to understand her new developments. Keaira felt a small wave of depression flow over her as she thought that she had let the one person that had all the information she needed fall in to the hands of some one evil.

“Dien you contacted D’rorah while she was in the shadow realms right? Do you think that if we worked together we would be able to contact her again? After all you could amplify my telepathy, and we may be able to reach her. Tonight might not be the best time, I know I’m exhausted, and tomorrow you’re visiting your wife… so maybe after you return to the castle, we could try.”

[doppelganger]

Dien nodded. "Yes, maybe... but I don't trust our headmistress. If she calls you to her office, tell her nothing." he smiled at her. "This place is much nicer than it was in my years here. It was just all stone, and had an utterly terrible stench..."
Dien smiled, "Go to sleep. I'll see you here tomorrow night.." If I'm not with my wife, that is, he thought.

[Keaira O'Connell]

Keaira nodded thinking about the warm bed that awaited her. The velvet black curtains and the silver satin sheets, her bed sounded like a heaven at this time. She gave Dien a smile, and stood up from her seat. The place, even with out its windows had a very warm feel to it. “You’re right I could use the sleep, its been a long day, and an even longer night. Send me a message when you’re back from seeing your wife, and We can try and see if we can find Dee.”

She turned around and headed for the doorway that would lead to her bedroom, it was so quiet at this time. Most of the other students already slept, so she knew that when she got up there it would only take a few moments for the silence to creep in to her mind and let her fall in to a deep slumber. “Good Night, and Good luck tomorrow.” She let the words linger as she headed to her room, and then in to her bed, she didn’t bother changing out of her clothes, mostly because she was so tired. Instead she just curled up in her blankets, robes and all, and let sleep slowly over come her.