Sudden Changes

Sudden Changes Time himself took a moment to step back and look upon all that had recently aspired. Thus, time seemed to slow to a halt as the bullet, and the sudden horrid surprise struck the Mystrans watching. Silence dropped upon the scene like a blanket of snow…. A snow too thick for even Toc to move fast enough in, despite the fact he stood right next to Camille. Camille face was less a mask of pain than that of confusion. She began to fall backwards as the force of the bullet riveted her slight frame… pulling her away from Toc as he attempted to grab her. In that moment everything vanished for the Ice Mage. His world became only two things: Camille and her Wound. Without really feeling he felt her pain. He felt the small piece of metal pierce her heart like a spear impaling a hapless animal. Disrupting it's natural existence in a bout of violent and bloody, sadistic lethality. Yet she still lived. Barely… but…

"Move back, Toc!"

Toc's tunnel vision world was broken by the voice… He looked up to see a tall man with dark hair, blue eyes, and a distinctive trench coat on.

"I said Move. Now, or we'll never be able to save her!" Grishum repeated, glaring at Toc sternly. Toc scrambled back very reluctantly…

Seku Grishum, self proclaimed Master of the Dark Arts removed a small silver knife from a pocket on his trench coat and proceeded to slice his palm open, making a fist he squeezed out a few drops of blood… while reciting a bit of what would have appeared to been verse…

"Blood of Mine
Blood of Other
Time and Order now Ripped Asunder.
Chaos reign and Chaos plunder.
Stasis now and Stasis under."

As soon as a last, binding syllable from a language definitely not of human tongue was spoken a gray bubble formed around Camille… and she was suddenly no longer a part of this Timestream.

"Now then…" Grishum said, looking around and raising his arms. "Home."

Before Toc could even speak to ask what the Dark Master had done a dark-green ring of fire appeared and engulfed them all.

---------- It would seem that while Toc was preoccupied the others had gathered rather closely. When the Ring was gone Toc found that they now were right in front of a rather large and eerily familiar building.

"The New Mystran Palace." Grishum said, voicing his very thoughts. "Just finished this morning. The last Ward placed upon the doorframe an hour ago."

"W… what…" Toc said standing, looking from the palace… then to Grishum… then to Camille. "What in the Frozen Hells did you do to Camille you Bastard!?"

Toc lunged unthinking at Grishum. Hatred welling within him as never before… the wind suddenly went from crisp to arctic… and billowed about the group as were a tempest headed in from the sea. Grishum merely sidestepped. "Calm yourself Toc. She's merely frozen in time. You should appreciate the Irony."

Toc stumbled and fell to the ground. RavenAngel was soon by his side and helped him pick himself up. "But… how did you…"

"Get there so fast? I was prepared. Raven informed me of the attack and I teleported myself over to the Station as soon as I could. Unfortunately for Camille I was delayed mere moments by a slight… well… It's unimportant. Gladly we're all safe…"

"Safe!?" Toc said, straightening again. "You call That safe?"

"No. It was an unfortunate occurrence. Until we can assess the damage inflicted it is all we can do to keep her from slipping away." Ravenna said, walking from the Palace out to the group.

"And where were You?" Toc said, snapping at Ravenna.

"There is no need to bite. I was preoccupied with the same occurrence that delayed Grishum." She said in a voice that rivaled the current air temperature. "Whereas he left to help, I saw to it's solution."

"I see." Toc said, in an even colder tone. A final glance to Camille fallen form and he spun in place and stormed off to the Palace. Taking with him the frigid atmosphere.

Grishum feared he would be having a few air conditioning problems in the palace for the next few days. He turned to the others. "Go on inside. I'll see to Camille. Hopefully I arrived in time… " He then turned and looked at RavenAngel. "If you wouldn't terribly mind…"

"Speak to Toc." She finished and nodded solemnly.

---------- Toc Sat alone in the 'fifth floor study'…. the fact being that there was no fifth floor of the Mystran palace… there were technically only supposed to be three. That didn't matter a bit to the dimensional magics at work within the large manse. All the same this was where he was… and this was where Baal found him.

Baal Tocard: Foebock, Emotion Elemental, Prime Urge Spirit, Master of Hatred, Fear, and Pride. Banished of the Void. Once Un-Chosen. Holder of a million Vengeance's. All around not someone you want to get mixed up with. Unfortunately Toc was.

Good evening, Toc. I see we've been crying. I don't particularly think that self pity is in my realm of expertise… please describe it to me. Haahaha

The voice echoed in his head and around the room as a dark, partially opaque, and not quite human figure appeared sitting across from him.

"I don't need you here. Not now. Especially not your 'wit'…" Toc replied, never once looking up from the book he still hadn't opened. "Go away."

I think not. We really do need to talk. I've gotten a few… I've received some information concerning that friend of mine…

"That concerns me… how?"

I won't be around for a while.

Toc looked up now. "Really then?"

Don't look at me like that.

"Do you have any earthly Idea what…"

Yes. Why?

"Do you have Any Earthly Idea how I am Feeling right now?" Toc said, standing up. The Temperature drop could be physically seen… as frost suddenly frosted the entire room.

Told you. Self Pity isn’t me. Go talk to one of the Angasti.

Toc was ready to burst. The walls crawled with writhing forms of half-living ice. The air swirled. Toc's breath came in short, ragged bursts… clearly visible.

There was a short rap at the door.

Tell them to go away.

Toc looked at Baal. "Who's there?"

"RavenAngel. Seku wanted me to… Talk to you." Came a soft voice from the other side of the door.

Toc didn't take his eye off of Baal. "Come in."

Baal glared at Toc with eyes that weren't quite eyes and began to fade. You won't see me again… any time soon at least.

Good riddance, thought Toc. He then turned to face Raven, who closed the door as quietly as she had opened it behind her.

She looked around at the frost-covered room. "Seku said you might be in a mood." She ran a finger across a bookshelf. "I didn't, however, expect this."

Toc sat back down and averted his eyes from Raven’s.

"Were you talking with someone."

"Not really." Toc replied. He then looked back up at her. "How…"

"She is fine for now. As long as she is in the Time Lock she won't loose any blood. Unfortunately if we take the field down to attempt to heal her… she may well bleed to death before we can do any good."

"Like a damned life support machine." Toc said in a grating, disgusted tone.

"Something like that… The only thing we can do right now is… wait and see, I guess."

"Wait and see what? If Seku's little charm fails or not!?"

"No. It won't. Not any time soon at least… I…"

"I'm sorry for snapping. I just…"

"It's ok." She said with a nod and a smile.

"I'm… going out for a bit. I might not be back tonight. There's…" Toc looked down at the book he never opened. "Something I want to do."

With that Toc stood, and before RavenAngel could even speak a word he was out the door. She looked at the book, which was covered in frost. She wiped away the frozen material from the cover of the book to better read what it said…

"Old Debts?" She looked back to the open door in bewilderment…