Hell on Earth

[Jackson ''Doc'' Ellison]

"It's like a light switch," I said. "I can turn them on or off. I've been able to for a while. Now, however, I can use teh technique to it's full advantage. don't worry. I'll be back to normal. Once we've rescued Mai."

[Jessy Jackson]

"And then we can open the christmas pressies. We never did you know." I replied.

[Jackson ''Doc'' Ellison]

"Rgith," I said as we walked towards a graveyard. "Now, how do we get it's attention?"

[Jessy Jackson]

"Offer it powerful live bait?" I suggested. "Like, I don't know, shifting powers?"

[Jackson ''Doc'' Ellison]

"No," I said instantly. "It won't come to that. Del, you know about this thing. Did elves trap it the first time?"

[Jessy Jackson]

"It might," I said quietly.

[Jackson ''Doc'' Ellison]

"jessy," I said. She looked up at me. "It will not come to that. I will loose no one else to this. I have a plan. But I need to know some details on how this thing was captured into that stone in the first place."

[Jessy Jackson]

"I'll go to the library then." It had been a long time since I'd gone to the training centre.

[Jackson ''Doc'' Ellison]

"Check the Dojop's collection too," I suggested. "But stay away from Maya, okay Jess?"

[Jessy Jackson]

I nodded vaguely. But I didn't promise. I couldn't promise. As I flew towards the Training centre I thought about what supplies I had there. Would it be enough?

["Rogue" Annie Amina Cross]

I followed and watched. Unfortunatly I had never really encountered a possesion before.

[Aredhel]

((oooook... Maya, I REALLY hope I'm not stepping on your toes here, since this is YOUR stone thing, so I'm gonna try and be as vauge as possible... lemme know if I do anything that REALLY goes against what you got going))

I sighed, looking at my sister. She nodded her agreement; the others could be told. I spoke my first words in teh common tongue.

"I Ondo Morgûlo," I began slowly. "Literally means the stone of dark magic. The stone itself is harmless, just a means of containing the evil within."

"So it's like glorified tupperware?" the man questioned.

I shot a quick glare his way. "I'm sorry, did you miss the death threat?" He shut up. "As I was saying, it's a container."

"So what's really in that stone?" Doc questioned nervously.

I didn't answer. This was bigger than they realized. This needed some backstory.

"In the beginning of Arda, back when the elves were first born, an evil lord, kin to the Valar themselves, devised a plan. He hated the elves with all his black heart, he wanted them to suffer. So he called forth the spirit of the stone. We have no name for that spirit, we call him only i fëamor, the dark spirit. It travelled from host to host, posessing their bodies. When it finished, it moved on, always chosing the strongest being it could find."

"So, if all else fails, we can wait this out?" Murray questioned.

I looked to Aralin, unable to answer.

"When my sister says 'finished'," Aralin began gently. She didn't finish the sentence, thinking of the gentlest way to put this. "The spirit does not simply leave a host. Every second we lose, Maya will die a little bit more. Eventually, her spirit will become part of i fëamor; she will be dead. And then the spirit will move on."

"So then how do we defeat it?" Doc questioned.

I sighed. "One cannot simply defeat a spirit of pure darkness and evil. The elves realized this, so we chose the next best thing: containment. The last time, it took two-score elves to banish the spirit into the stone, and Varda herself hallowed the stone to contain the evil. This is not something that will be easy to replicate, especially now that it knows what we can do. It will protect itself, no doubt what it is doing right now. I fëamor is cunning, and more powerful than any of us individually. If we want any hope at all of banishing it back into the stone, it will take a lot more than we're prepared to give right now."

"Well we can't just wait around!" Murray yelled. I didn't even bother lifting my sword; he was right.

"No," Aralin agreed, sounding pained. "We cannot. I fëamor was known to change hosts in two days, and those were elves. Slayer or not, Maya has no hope of lasting more than three days."

I watched Doc as he took this all in. I knew he cared, everyone knew. We knew that this hurt him to hear. But he was far too calm.

"Balance," I muttered to myself. "Cálë ómornië," I whispered to myself. Aralin looked over sharply. This would indeed turn into a night of elven explanations.

"Mana quetëccë?" Aralin demanded of me.

"Cálë ómornië," I repeated quietly. "Nás tirno."

Aralin nodded, looking at Doc. "Ná," she said, almost smiling. "Nás tirno."

"Look, whatever you're saying, we have the right to know!" Murray burst in. Humans.

"No!" I shot back. "You don't! This requires far too much explanation, which we've already agreed can wait until after. So just shut up and keep walking, because Maya's still in trouble whether we tell you or not!"

I turned back to Aralin as we continued on our way. "Istas?"

"Lá istan," she replied.

"Whatever you're talking about, I'm sure it can wait," Murray muttered darkly.

I sent another glare his way. "Murray," I said sweetly, "á nacë ni."

"That wasn't very lady-like," Doc replied, smirking.

I looked at him for a long time. I had seen this before, this balance he held within him; it was rare, very hard to achieve. If he knew, really knew, what this meant, he was the most powerful human here. If he didn't, he was in for a huge surprise. These beings, these guardians, were respected by all who recognized them. Doc would be no different.

I could not snap at him, not at i tirno. I only nodded and returned to silence beside my sisiter, who, for her part, would not stop watching him. I knew that now, I would not be the only one she watched out for. Doc should consider himself lucky to be taken under her wing.

((you know they're coming...
cálë ómornië: light with dark
mana quetëccë?: what did you say?
nás tirno: he is a guard.
ná, nás tirno: yes, he is a guard.
istas?: does he know?
lá istan: I don't know
á nacë ni: bite me
i tirno: the guard

there we go... bah. I'm so limited in my choice of words sometimes.))

[Jessy Jackson]

(((Now, I have two ways that I could continue. Both are very cool. Both involve rituals. I must ask Mai which one she prefers but they are cool.)))

I sat in the circle and concentrated. This would be the hardest shift of my life. Every detail had to be perfect. I concentrated, letting my hair lengthen, my body change shape. After a few minutes of deep meditation I had the eyes.

The transformation took me a full half hour at least. But eventually I was satisfied. I opened my eyes.

So, this was Maya.

Now for the tricky part.

(((Basically, the two ways are the two different out comes I thought of for this.)))

[Jackson ''Doc'' Ellison]

Okay, that was the wierdest conversatin I had heard. Referring to me as some sort of guardian... I was going to have to quiz them on that one later. Right now, however, we had work to do.

"Okay, luring it here isn't going to be as easy as I thought," I muttered. "Zeroc, where is you're brother? We need him to figure out what teh heck we're going to do. I hope Jessy finds something. Other than thisi feamor," I looked up at the sky, damn glad I was in my most balanced state right now. "I knew whatever she had was bad, just no this bad. I knew I should have stopped her somehow."

[Jessy Jackson]

"Keora, come. Keora, inhabit. Keora, grant me strength. Keora, Come!"I chanted.
I sat in a circle of sand, waiting.