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Post by Alessandro Darko on Sept 16, 2007 14:38:58 GMT -5
He was lost in slumber in Ravenclaw tower. The past couple of weeks definitely had taken their toll on Alessandro. The battle in the forest, Mongol's death, D'rorah's kidnapping. It was all very stressful to his mind. He and Wysteria had found the Maleficus Obscurum, which held the chants and incantations of very dark magic that he and Wysteria had used to open up a rift between realms, the very rift that Dee had come crashing down out of. He remembered that image; a worn, and beaten D'rorah Philosophy. That book now was kept under his bed in a magically sealed box. He took it upon himself to protect the book, keep it away from anyone who whished to toil with magic that they had no business with or knack for.
He had been having nightmares ever since that night they opened the portal. Nightmares of horrible visions of darkness. Death and destruction befalling Hogwarts, his friends fallen victim to the shadows, and worse, he himself at the frontlines of darkness.
"No...please..." He murmured as he began to toss and turn. "Please leave me alone....I don't want.....to....STOP IT!" He screamed as he shot upright in his bed. He was breathing heavily and a cold sweat covered his body. He wiped his face with his hands and stepped out of his bed, quickly scanning the room to see if he had awakened any of his dorm-mates. He fumbled for his robes and threw them over his flame pajama bottoms and muggle-shop tee shirt. He pulled his wand out from behind his pillow and pocketed it and descended the stairs to the common room, then finally out into the halls of the school. He knew that he wasn't supposed to be out late, so he was quiet about it. He just needed to put his mind away from those thoughts of doom and gloom so he made his way to his favorite place--The fifth floor corridor.
He slumped down against a wall and buried his face in his hands. It seemed as though no matter where he went, his dreams plagued him. A flash of purple flickered in his mind. The same purple from when he had opened the rift. That stench of death and decay filled his nostrils in memory and he thought he was going to be sick. He wretched over to his left as the vivid memory disturbed his stomach. His dark brown hair touseled over his face, obscuring it's agony. He finally composed himself and resumed his position sitting against the wall. "You can't let this come to pass, Alessandro...you can't let this...." He said softly to himself. He stopped short and tilted his head back as his eyes began to glow a bright white-hot light.
"Darkness dwells behind these walls, bringing about when the darkness falls, chaos of the wildest dream, severing life from light's sparkle and gleam."
He spoke as if in a trance slow and steady and as the light faded from his eyes, his consciousness went with it leaving his limp body against the wall in the darkened corridor.
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Post by Keaira O'Connell on Sept 16, 2007 15:18:38 GMT -5
The shadows crept in everywhere. It was so hard to stay focused lately. Dreams that weren’t hers came to her at night, Memories that she knew belonged to other people, found her when she was thinking about other things. Voices whispered in the back of her mind. Keaira found that since her short excursion in to the shadow realm to find D’rorah had left her a little too exposed to everything around her.
Her mind had been so, stressed lately. There was so much to think about, planning a trip to china for training, planning a good cover story, keeping up with school, and making sure people didn’t get suspicious. All these things plus her every day school work, the danger of being a shadow warrior, and the drama, of Mrs. Serlaen, just kept Keaira frazzled, her mind weakened.
Tonight she woke up to a horrible feeling, as she relived some one else’s nightmare. It wasn’t a pleasant feeling, waking up and not knowing where you are, or even for that matter who you are. After a tentative attempt to go back to sleep, she decided that there was little she could do she would be up for a little bit. A quick stop to grab some tea from the house elves, and she found herself wandering the halls. Her mind worked hard to try and organize her feelings, and memories, and separate them from the whole castles.
As she turned down a stairwell, she noticed that she was walking through a small garden, she had to be on the 5th floor. She smiled at the memory of that day. Wysteria, Alessandro, and even Professor Albion, it was a shame that things had been so crazy since then. She hadn’t had the time to enjoy any of their company. Now, Professor Albion wasn’t here any more, a family emergency pulled him away ((just guessing)) would they all soon suffer a similar fate? Being pulled in separate directions when they needed to be pulled stronger together.
The looming thought of her training plagued her as she turned the corner again, her eyes to the floor, just watching her feet, as she shuffled along. As she heard a voice she looked up, glancing down the hall, it looked like Alessandro, but what was he doing out this late? She was about to say hello when she heard him sawing something strange. He had a weird look to his face as she got closer.
[glow=red,2,300]"Darkness dwells behind these walls, bringing about when the darkness falls, chaos of the wildest dream, severing life from light's sparkle and gleam."[/glow]
As the words slowly registered with her she looked puzzled. However, she didn’t have time to ask what it was all about, because he appeared to faint, slumping back against the wall. Upon seeing this, she rushed forward and kneeled down next to him. She put her hand on his check, and straitened his head, so she could see if he was hurt. “Alessandro?? Are you alright?” She tapped him gently, to see if that would revive, him, hoping that he was just sleeping.
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Post by D'rorah Philosophy on Sept 16, 2007 16:03:20 GMT -5
D'rorah had awakened with the strangest mental energy flowing through her. That night it seemed as thought the darkness itself were growing tangible. She sat up quietly from her bed, trying to slow the swarming of the thoughts in her head. Suddenly, she began to feel a malevolence she recognized, the darkness of the Shadow Realm seemed to feel closer and closer with each passing second.
Grabbing a cloak, she hastily wrapped it around herself and began following the feeling to its source. She was nearly running, her footsteps soundless as ran through the common room and ascended the stairs to the fifth floor. She had made it to the corridor when she saw two familiar figures, one slumped against the wall, another bent close. As she came closer, she could make out the concern on Keaira's face and the slowly fading light from Alessandro's eyes.
"He has found the book," she said quietly. As most texts, there was a corresponding text for the Maleficus Obscurum, but no one was certain if it even existed anymore. "Miss O'Connell, light your wand, as brightly as you can," said D'rorah, praying that the darkness that was slowly gathering wasn't enough to blot it out. "Light may fade but always shines, even in the dark light can blind. Gathering now to come away, we seek the brightness of the day."
Even as she spoke the words, she wasn't entirely certain where they came from. She knew that they were from her research... but poetic verse didn't seem like the sort of thing that would be very helpful at the moment. Indeed, she could feel the temperature begin to slowly drop in the corridor. "We cannot remain here..." she trailed off, the last thing they needed was darkness in the Room of Requirement, affecting the very space where they all met and trained. "No... this is the only place to remain," she concluded after another moment's thought.
"We must find Miss Edwin..." she trailed off. Would three shadow warriors be enough to summon light? Simply closing a rift wouldn't work this time. But they would have to try. "Yes, all three of us... and our Elemental Masters as well... we must find enough of us to summon a light which can counteract this darkness."
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Post by Keaira O'Connell on Sept 16, 2007 16:45:03 GMT -5
As Keaira tried to wake Alessandro she heard footsteps approaching, but didn’t bother to look up, if it was a teacher, good they would help, if not she would be ok anyway. When she recognized D’rorah’s voice she realized that she had hoped it was her, she would probably know something to help.
As D’rorah gave her instructions it dawned on Keaira that even with the cloak she was wearing it was chilly, far colder than it should have been. Her mind swam, with the possibilities, all of them worse then the last. Was this why she had awoken? Why she had been sharing other people nightmares? Was the portal to the shadow realm still open?
Keaira quickly went through her repertoire of spells, selecting the one she knew would work the best. “Lumos Solem.” The corridor brightened considerably, but the light did not stay very long, with in a few moments it had dimmed down so much that it might as well only have been the regular Lumos spell. The corridor darkened, as the three of them huddled.
She nodded to D'rorah, thinking of Dien she sent a quick message out to him, “I need you in the 5th floor corridor, Hurry!” Her mind then switched gears, Wysteria… "Wysteria...Please, wake up, and get to the 5th floor corridor, its Alessandro, trouble.” With the messages sent telepathically, she focused back on her wand, “Lumos Solem” Once again the light was bright, but didn’t last.
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Post by doppelganger on Sept 16, 2007 16:54:37 GMT -5
Dien sighed. Why did something have to happen every night? He sighed, but put down his newspaper and ran up the stairwells to the fifth floor. He wondered why he had not simply floated up through the floors, then realized that he could not float anymore. He at last arrived at the fifth floor, and was greeted by cold. The lights were out. He nearly tripped over D'rorah. He noticed a light in the air, which soon dimmed because of the darkness. He looked around, and felt a chill in the air. Darko was on the floor, Keaira near him. He sighed. As he breathed, his breath turned white, and he realized what this sadly meant. He drew his wand and his dagger, and wrapped his cloak around him. It was a good thing that he had not brought Teresa. He looked around. "Keaira," he said aloud. "Do you feel that there are shadows about?" he asked as he waved his wand and a light came out, then dimming. "It is cold and dark, with the distinctively deathly feel of the realm."
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Post by Wysteria Edwin on Sept 16, 2007 17:17:22 GMT -5
Wysteria was asleep in her comfortably warm bed in the Hufflepuff dormitory, having a wonderful dream involving a lazy day at a park. Suddenly, she was ripped from her dream by a sudden cold sensation. She had no idea why, but a sharp knife of fear ran through her and she sat up in bed, breathing heavily and feeling more scared than she had in recent memory. Something was terribly wrong, her mind as swimming with horrible images that seemed to be just underneath the surface of her consciousness. There was only one thing that could make her feel emotions so strongly that she had no reason to experience.
Alessandro...
A split second later, she heard Keaira's voice ringing in her head.
Wysteria...Please, wake up, and get to the 5th floor corridor, its Alessandro, trouble.
Keaira was nervous...something was very wrong and Wysteria needed to be there right at that moment. She sprung out of bed and put one of her day robes on over her dark blue pajama pants and top as quickly as possible. Storing her wand in her robes, she raced down out of the dormitory and common room, down the corridorrs and up the stairs to the 5th floor. It was a long trek, but she was able to make it in a fairly short amount of time be running at her full stride.
As she placed her feet on the 5th floor landing, she felt an odd chilling sensation sweep through her. Obviously the place Keaira was wanting her to be was near here. Trotting down the hallway, Wysteri looked down each passage to make sure she didn't miss the place the otheres were...although she could feel it before she saw it.
Alessandro was lying on the floor, Drorah, Keiara and Dien standing around him. The corridor was abnormally dark. She swallowed once, regaining composure at the sight of her Elemental Master on the floor, and the cold feeling of penetrating darkness.
"What's wrong? What's wrong with him?" she asked, kneeling next to him and looking up at the others.
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Post by D'rorah Philosophy on Sept 16, 2007 17:28:59 GMT -5
D'rorah listened to Dien as he approached and began questioning her. It registered with her that he had come on foot, which normally would have sparked her interest. But at the moment, she had no attention to spare for the fact. Hearing Wysteria approach, she looked over to her. "Miss Edwin, has Mister Darko located a text recently? I believe it is entitled Maleficus Obscurum? I need to know where it is immediately and I need to find it." She spoke the words with urgency, her eyes burning with intensity.
"I believe that book may be what is causing this trouble. For now, we must dispel the darkness somehow. She looked to Dien, Keaira, and Wysteria, "All of you, join hands with me, repeat my chant. I do not know that three Shadow Warriors will be sufficient... but with the added power of our Elemental Masters," she nodded to Dien, "we may have a chance."
She held her hands out in front of Alessandro, waiting for the others to join hands with her as they began to feel comfortable with the chant. She raised her voice, the voice her mother had spent years training when she was a child, convinced that artistic ability made a person somehow more complete. Never would Shoshana Philosophy have foreseen that her daughter would need her voice for such a thing though. Her voice rose in a steady crescendo as her chant intensified before fading a bit and beginning again.
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Susan Matthews
Gryffindor
[red]5th Year Gryffindor[/red] Shadow Warrior of Earth
goddess, nymph, divine.
Posts: 505
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Post by Susan Matthews on Sept 16, 2007 18:30:37 GMT -5
Susan awoke with a start. A nightmare had wormed its way into her thoughts again. Looking around in the darkness Susan saw it was not quite time to get up. As tired as she was, Susan began to roll over an go back to sleep, to hopefully go back to a more pleasant dreamland. She closed her eyes and was greeted with an even darker black filled with the evils of her previous nightmare. Feeling that she would not be able to get a decent sleep for awhile, Susan chose to stay up for a bit. Susan stepped into a pair of slippers, and slipped on her robe. It was rather cold compared to the nights before. She made sure she had her wand in her hand as she left the Gryffindor dormitory.
"Lumos," Susan used the spell to see her way through the common room. The fire had long since gone out and it was almost impossible to see. Finding nothing better to do, Susan, who knew it was against the rules, left the common room anyway. She thought she might sneak down to the Dungeons where she could persuade a house elf to make her some hot chocolate. With her "Lumos" charm still intact, Susan found a staircase and quickly descended to the sixth floor. She shuffled along until the next staircase came into view. As Susan made her way to the fifth floor she felt an extreme drop in temperature. She shivered as her slippered touched the icy stone floor. She tucked her robe tighter around her and lifted her wand a little higher. The darkness seemed to get thicker, if that was possible. Susan thought she should get on the the fourth floor as soon as possible, but as she made for the next staircase, next to the one she had just got off of, all of the stairs began to move.
"Rats," Susan mumbled as she could no longer make out which stairs to take. Instead she turned to face the the rest of the corridor. She saw a flicker of light at the end. Hoping severely that it was not a teacher, Susan walked toward the light. Susan thought of herself as moth, always following the light. She would have laughed, but she sensed something was wrong. She walked a little faster to see a group of people holding hands. She saw her friend, Alessandro, against the wall. Something was wrong.
"What's going on?" Susan questioned cautiously. She was afraid of interrupting the chant that the group was performing, but she needed to know.
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Post by Keaira O'Connell on Sept 16, 2007 21:31:31 GMT -5
Keaira felt the annoyance to Dien’s mind as she contacted him. It was as if he resented their connection. As he arrived in the corridor she glanced from her wand to his les than see through body. She listened to his words with a slightly dumbstruck look, “If it wasn’t shadows do you think I would have called you? It’s after midnight, and I called you specifically, why else would I bother you. Alessandro is being consumed, light your wands to help repel the darkness, and do as D’rorah says.”
She looked at Wysteria, kneeling on the floor by her and Darko. She felt the pain and worry that was played all about the girl. As D’rorah said to join hands she reached over to Wysteria, offering her hand to her, and then took Dien’s in her other. They needed to do something or else he wouldn’t have a chance.
As the chant D’rorah sang Keaira began to pick up on the words, repeating the one she caught. Hopefully they would be able to keep Alessandro from being consumed by the darkness.
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Post by D'rorah Philosophy on Sept 16, 2007 21:44:46 GMT -5
D'rorah looked up as Susan approached, making certain her chant did not falter or cease. She wondered what chance had brought Susan to them. With recent events, she felt as though discerning friend form foe trumped the individual's right to privacy, even though her conscience fought against the idea, she reached out to Susan's mind even as she continued her chant. It took her only a moment to see that Susan seemed to have wandered into their midst from chance.
Unable to speak, as her voice was occupied with the chant, she spoke into Susan's mind, carefully, so as not to harm or scare her. She wasn't sure it was safe for Susan to stay where she was, but neither was she certain they could simply allow her to leave.
Miss Matthews, follow my directions very carefully. Remain here... light your wand as brightly as you can. We need light, as much as you can manage.
It was a bit of a chore, separating her mental voice from her physical voice and as soon as the thought was communicated, she returned her full attention to Alessandro. The chant didn't seem to be working yet... she began to worry that they needed more Shadow Warriors... cursing herself for not finding all five yet, she continued trying to push the darkness away with her chant.
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Post by Alessandro Darko on Sept 16, 2007 23:53:18 GMT -5
He was running. Running fast from a dark figure and at the end of the tunnel was bright and welcoming light calling out to him. "I'm coming! I'm coming!" He called out to it. He reached out a hand as the light grew brighter and brighter. He looked over his shoulder at the distorted dark shape churning and expanding as it tried to reach him. All of a sudden the dreamscape shifted and ripped apart and Alessandro was plunged into consciousness.
His eyes flickered open and he stared straight ahead of him. He saw Keaira, Wysteria, Susan, D'rorah, and Professor Serlaen. "Its too bright....." He mumbled as he sat up rubbing his head.
He looked from face to face with a very concerned expression on his own face. "I'm in trouble, aren't I....." He started as he got up. "Look, I know we're not supposed to be wandering around the halls at this hour.....but I was having trouble sleeping...." He said as he stared bleakly into D'rorah's face. He hoped she wouldn't deduct points from their own house....again. He appeared to be sleep deprived, dark circles under his eyes, his normally tanned complexion now a bit on the pale side.
He looked at the ground and suddenly caught a mental echo of the prophecy he had spoken in his trance-like state. He cocked his head a little as he only caught faint pieces of it and then it was gone. He furrowed his brow and looked back up at the crowd. "Well...I'm alright now...." He said uneasily as he shifted in place not knowing what exactly was happening.
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Post by D'rorah Philosophy on Sept 17, 2007 0:07:04 GMT -5
D'rorah's normal indiscernible expression was replaced with one of concern. Her eyes had noticed immediately his pale, sleep-deprived look. "No Mister Darko, you are not in trouble. Do you not remember what happened?" she watched him carefully. "You were reciting words from a text... the Maleficus Obscurum... if you have it nearby, I should like to see it immediately." Most people considered books to be fairly innocuous objects, but she had spent enough time among them to know better. She had read enough books to know that certain ones took on a power all their own, some even driving their owners mad... some only performing simple acts of mischief. This text was rumored to have its own dark power.
She looked around at the others briefly. She knew Susan must have many questions by now... and she could see that Alessandro was clearly confused. Satisfied that disaster had been averted for the moment, she turned her attention to Keaira, Wysteria, and Dien. Our chant strengthened a bit with our new arrival, she thought to them. I believe we may have located another Shadow Warrior.
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Susan Matthews
Gryffindor
[red]5th Year Gryffindor[/red] Shadow Warrior of Earth
goddess, nymph, divine.
Posts: 505
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Post by Susan Matthews on Sept 17, 2007 6:48:31 GMT -5
Susan watched as the chant seemed to revive Alessandro. Slowly the corridor became a little warmer, and the extra darkness seemed to dissipate. Her wand still shone bright in the darkness of the hallway. Susan could now make out the faces surrounding her. She recognized Wysteria and Keaira whom she'd first met in Potter Park with Alessandro. She saw that Dein Serlaen was there and so was D'rorah Philosophy. She hadn't personally met the latter of the two. However, Susan recognized Dein as the Arithmancy Professor and remembered D'rorah from some of her classes. It was somewhat unnerving to see a fellow classmate being consumed by . . . was it shadows? Alessandro had seemed to be in a sort of trance or maybe another world?
Susan watched D'rorah, Wysteria, Dein, and Keaira look at each other. They seemed to be communicating without speech. Susan opened her mouth to respond, but she could think of no words to say. The four were clearly discussing her presence. Susan shifted on her feet uncomfortably.
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Post by Keaira O'Connell on Sept 17, 2007 15:59:13 GMT -5
Alessandro’s mind was lost in a very dark place. Keaira could feel the waves of malicious energy coming from him. Her mind was focused on the chant, keeping her rooted to the 5th floor corridor, but she couldn’t help but feel that this nightmare was something she had felt, or seen before. As he pulled out of the dream, she felt the cold begin to subside a little. Her wand shown a little brighter, and the others around her felt the relief of his return.
Keaira looked at the group gathered around Alessandro as he was returned to consciousness, it was quite unnerving to have so many people here, and yet, it took so much out of them to keep bring him back. They truly did need to learn more. And Keaira knew how she could help.
Keaira’s eyes shifted from one person to the next assessing how they were feeling.the chant seemed to have taken a little bit out of each of them, but that could have been do to the fact that they were all somehow woken up at this hour of the night. Her eyes met with D’rorah’s as she told them about her suspicions, and then they fell silently on to Susan Matthews. She had only met her briefly, but nothing bad seemed to come of it.
“Can she be trusted?” She let the thought go strait to D’rorah, knowing the Dien would pick up on it as well, and figuring that Wysteria probably was a bit more concerned with Alessandro’s well being. Keaira looked back to Alessandro, he was so pale, and looked drained. Her mind slipped back to the words he had said, trying not to think about them too much, afraid of what it might do if she did.
“Alessandro,… how do you feel?” Keaira asked him tentatively. With all the things that had been happening she wasn’t sure whether he was truly as well as he said.
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Post by Wysteria Edwin on Sept 17, 2007 20:47:09 GMT -5
Wysteria looked at each of the people assembled in the hallway. Drorah may have been right about Susan; the strength of their chanting appeared to increae with her presence. However Wysteria wasn't ready to sign off on her being a Shadow Warrior just yet; but either way it appeared she was not a harmful addition to their group. Peering down at Alessandro, she was not sure what to say to him. He appeared far too pale for her liking, and she could still feel wves of apprehension coming from him.
"You gave us a bit of a scare," she said to him, laughing dryly.
Alessandro I felt some of what you did while I was asleep, and I'm still shaken. What exactly did you see? If you want to talk about it later that's fine...but you don't seem "alright".
She turned to Drorah and Keaira and gave a sideways glance to Susan.
"I think Susan has just showed her abilities as a Light Fighter. If I'm not mistaken I felt more powerful with her presence."
She then focused her attention and gave her a small smile, "I believe you helped, did you feel anything when we were working?" she asked.
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