Tendrils

 This has already been talked about on Kai's blog, but I figure I might as well describe my side of things.

Oh, right, this is Kallaway by the way. Daniel's... recovering, at the moment...

I was accompanying Daniel as he looked over the symbols. Kai, Royce and Jane were in the other room.

"How close do you think you are from making any sense of these?" I asked.

"Oh, I've already figured some things out," he said.

"Oh?" I asked.

"I can't explain how all of this fits together exactly," he said. "But I know one thing for sure. The Newborn and the forest are adversaries. And these symbols are pointing to a possible solution."

"And what might that be?" I asked.

"It was a weapon made from the Bleeding Tree that got us into this mess," he said. "Maybe a weapon made from the Newborn can get us out."

"Yeah, bit of a problem there," I noted. "There's no Newborn left to work with. The tower itself is gone, and if Genome's blog is trustworthy, all the Towerborn are flesh and blood now."

He looked off to the side. His expression was both thoughtful and kind of sad.

"What if a part of the Newborn was kept in containment?" he asked. "Locked away in such a manner that it can't get out. And the forest's influence can't get in..."

It clicked pretty sharply.

"You have the Newborn's power!" I said. "Which means you must also have a sample! Where is it?"

I've seen Daniel's collection of samples. There's nothing among them that resembles anything that could be related to the Newborn.

"The Newborn is a being that tries to assimilate other items," he explained. "Even having it's power Extracted and kept in reinforced, enchanted containment, it's still too risky to keep it anywhere near my other samples. If it tried to absorb any of them, even in their weakened state, there's no telling how bad things could get."

"So you've been keeping it elsewhere?" I asked.

He hesitated for a bit before pulling out his phone and dialing a number. It rang a few times before someone answered.

"Hey, Sera," Daniel said. "Been a while. Yeah. Yeah, I'm doing fine. The kids are safe. Yeah. Listen, I have a favor I need to ask."

He exhaled deeply before continueing.

"I need the Baby," he said.

There was a moment of silence before I heard a muffled reply from her.

"Yeah," he said. "Got it. I'll text you the address. See you soon. I m-"

He hesitated for a second before letting out a sigh.

"You know...," he said.

He hung up and sat down, looking weaker than he had before.

He straightened up a minute later, laser focused on the door going into the other room, where everyone else was hanging out. I immediately realized he was sensing something, and I drew my sword, which was now flickering with blue light.

"A Fear," I said.

"Valravn," Daniel confirmed. "Go on ahead. I need to... psyche myself up. And maybe come up with something cool to say to her..."

I sheathed my sword and walked into the other room, and immediately, a bunch of corvids busted into the room and merged together into a scary, really tall bird woman. Daniel enter the room after she finished up her dramatic entry.

Valravn began addressing Kai, delivering a few taunts regarding Kareena. She then turned to me and Daniel, giving him a look that spelled out how little she thought of him. I drew my sword again, and immediately felt a rush of ir flow past me. I had know idea at the time what had caused it, but I immediately noticed that my sword wasn't glowing right. It was weakly flickering, and when I glanced down at it, I realized why. There were claw marks on the blade, damaging most of the runes giving the sword its power.

"What do you want, Valravn?" Daniel asked.

"Oh, nothing much, little leech," she replied. "Always sticking your nose into things you shouldn't, and suffer so much when you feel the consequences."

She locked eyes with him, smugly.

"Like what happened to Tyler, your leg, and many of your friends," She continued, drawing out a look of pure resentment on his face. "And if you keep making the Keeper draw down the secrets, you'll suffer much worse."

"I can't suffer any worse than this," Daniel said, tapping into the Intrusion's power and morphing his arm. "Maybe you should go back to your nest and clean the bird shit off."

Really? That's the best you could come up with.

A fight quickly broke out between them. I left Daniel to it and went to provide cover for the others. Valravn made an attempt to snatch the book from a nearby table, but it vanished and reappeared in Kai's hands. Valravn went to attack him, but I got in her way, and was promptly flung against a wall.

I didn't catch much of the fight after that, but when my senses cleared up from the shock, Daniel and Valravn were both standing across from each other. Daniel was standing confidently, leaning against his cane, while Valravn had an arm out and  wing outstretched. She then dropped her wing to reveal an emaciated creature with dark eyes and sharp claws extending from its hands.

"The Rake," Daniel muttered.

I can't sense energy the way he could, I immediately new that the creature before me was a Fear, and I suddenly realized where the claw marks on my sword had come from. And if it could move quick enough to do that then...

It rushed at Daniel in a blur of motion, and the next thing I knew, Daniel's sword-cane had been sliced cleanly in two. A look of panic crossed Daniel's face, as he stumbled slightly, and the Rake thing backed off to a safe distance.

Daniel's powerful. He knows it, too. He can carry himself pretty confidently. He stands tall and proud before anyone who challenges him. Take away his ability to stand, though...

The Rake rushed in again, slashing him across the back and slicing off most of his braid, before yet again retreating in the most mocking way it could. I realized what was happening. The Rake was the support party member here. It was smart enough to not get too close for too long, lest Daniel absorb its power, so it was rushing in just long enough to land a blow before backing off.

It ran in for one last attack, getting his bad leg. He fell over on his side, clearly in pain. Valravn began approaching him, and when she spoke, I could hear the suffering of countless voices. But when I focused enough, I could kind of make out what she was saying.

"As much power as you have in that body of yours, you body is still what it is. Human."

He tried to attack her with whatever powers he could, but he lacked his usual level of focus and creativity. He was just hurling elements out at her, but she simply avoided them like they were no threat.

"Weak. Pathetic. Broken."

At that point, she managed o deflect an ice attack that almost hit her, and it caught Royce in the forearm instead (don't worry, he's fine, no permanent damage).

She then started speaking without the weird "voices of the damned" effect. She kicked him a few times, while letting him know that no matter how powerful he got, it wouldn't fix everything he's lost. His leg. His love life. His grandfather. And the more power he gained, the more monsters like Tyler he'd create.

She then slammed his head onto the floor, knocking him out. She turned her attention to Kai, saying something to him about Daniel being a leech while summoning a sword.

As she did, what I can only describe as a nightmare began unfolding. Daniel's blood turned pitch black, and a number of black tentacles began extending from beneath his labcoat, and he began raising up like Dr. Octopus. His body was mostly limp, but as he raised his head slowly, I could see nothing but anger on his face, and his eyes were solid black, like his blood and tentacles.

Now, Daniel has mention before that I should hope I never have to witness the power he Extracted from the Azoth. Well, I was beginning to see why.

The tentacles lashed out, entangling both Valravn and the Rake, lifting them both into the air. He started smashing Valravn against anything he could, all while throwing her taunts right back at her.

"Who's weak now!" Who's pathetic now! Who's broken now!"

With that last one, he tightened his grip on both Valravn and the Rake crushing their... bones? Do Fear have bones? It sure sounded like it. He then turned his attention to the Rake, something sinister spreading across his face.

"I don't have this one yet," he snarled.

He wasn't himself any more. That power was getting to him, drawing out some of his darkest qualities, and making them worse. Including his lust for power.

At this point, Royce stepped forward, trying to talk Daniel down. Daniel just stared back quietly for a minute before a flash of yellow briefly came to the edges of his eyes. He slowly released his grip on the two Fears. The Rake bailed immediately, while Valravn said something cryptic about his greed before vanishing.

Daniel fell unconscious, but HELLFIRE took over, instructing us to go get Elie's medical kit. Elie dropped by not long after, and started tending to Daniel's wounds. Everyone's been pretty shaken up since all that. But Daniel...

I think it hit him the worse. He never wanted to have a reason to use that power. Now that we've all seen that part of him, he's been pretty quiet, and depressed. I don't know how to help him, but I can't stand seeing him like this.

I'll sign off now. I need some rest.