Hunters reunite

"Venus! Are you alright? Did they hurt you? I swear, I'll chop up every one of those scaly bastards if they even touched you..." Ace said frantically, as he ran towards her. His eyes were wide in shock when he noticed how battered she was.

"M'fine. I'm fine, Ace." The young woman muttered, trying to brush him aside. She clutched Jillia's cloak tighter around her chest and scowled, more at herself than at anyone else. She had made amateur mistakes, fighting the lizardmen, and it nearly costed her everything. She didn't want to admit it, but it felt like she had been slipping lately. Being too complacent, not utilizing all her skills. First the Vampire LaSalle, and now these beasts. She needed to be sharper if she was really going to investigate the mysterious hunter, 'Cassandra', and if there really was a conspiracy happening.

Ace looked even more dejected, giving her a pitful look. "I'm sorry, Venus. I should have been there to protect you. You asked me to come with you to Regis to watch your back, but I haven't been doing that at all, have I? I was too busy chatting up a pretty wench in a low dress. I was so stupid-"

"Stop it, Ace." Venus cut in, not wanting to listen to her friend's self-loathing speech. "You did the best you could and I'm still alive aren't I? Let's just speak to Master Yorin already."

"And 'lo the Beast Tracker does speak, so this one agrees!" Jillia piped in, stepping in between the two of them non-confrontationally. "Can we speak to the Master Hunter soon, if you please?"

Ace nodded quickly, eager to be off that uncomfortable topic, and turned away from the two women, making a beeline for the Hunters guildhouse. He only made it a few steps before it hit him and he whirled back around to stare at Jillia. The Shadow Hunters known as the Magic Blade and the Dancing Dagger blinked at each other, one in confusion, the other in laid-back innocence. "Jillia? What the hell?! W-what, what are you doing here? I thought you were performing in Namina?!"

The Dancing Dagger gave him a quizzical look, and tilted her head to one side. Resting one arm beneath her breasts, she held the elbow of her other arm and pointed at Ace and Venus. "You...you two truly don't know what's happening?" She said.

Venus was too tired and sore to respond, so she let Ace reply that they did not, in fact, know what is going on. The young woman expected her to respond with her usual singsong voice, but nothing could have prepared her for what happened next.

Jillia's irises suddenly changed color, from smoky grey to a vibrant violet hue, and her face hardened. Gone was the relaxed, almost comical, look on the girl's face and instead there seemed to be a possessed woman in front of them, staring outwards into eternity, seeing something vast and incomprehensible to human minds. Her breathing quickened, her chest rising and falling in an increasing tempo, and she began to hyperventilate. Her entire body went rigid and she stood up straight, her neck straining like she was hanging from a noose. Her jaw went slack and her mouth was left agape.

"Dark shadows rise as light shadows fall,
Hunters become hunted in its deathly pall.
Through fur and fang and scale and steel,
Do the lurkers of the night become real.
As they draw to the Lusting One's Hall,
So they are brought to unreason's heel.
And as He comes to reign over them all,
So they are brought to unreason's heel."

As Jillia ceased to speak, her eyes fluttered, changing back to their original color, and the young woman collapsed. Both Ace and Venus rushed forward to catch her, taking Jillia in their arms and softly bearing her to the ground. She was asleep now, or comatose. Neither of them were certain, but at least she was breathing regularly now. Looking up from their friend's unconsicous form, they stared at each other and spoke as one, each reflecting what the other was thinking.

"What the hell was that?"