The Kytean Order: Dancing with the shadows

"Where are those men from the order?! they should have been here by now, the astenian forces are advancing far too fast." Came a muffled voice from the hallway.
"Sire please, you aggreed to their terms, they should come to our aid... this is their base of operations as well, they cannot afford to loose the capital to the astenai.." came another voice as they seemed to get louder, getting closer.
The king thew his hands up into the air in defeat and placed an armored hand on the door to his quarters "Hell if i know, their intentions are as clear as mud!" he said in a frustrated tone before flinging teh doors to his room open, only to reel back as if he had been struck as he caught sight of a pertucularly charming, toothy grin. "Sup kingy, youre late." The astenai grinned breadly as he leaned forward with his face practically half into the hallway. "Two minuts and thirty seconds to be exact." he said as his grin stayed in place as he observed the utter fear, shock and horror on the other men's faces.
"c....call the guar-" The king was innterupted as the astenai casually walked forward and placed a finger on his lips. "Now now. Thats no way to treet a guest..."
"Chaos, that is quie enough, i let you have your fun, now let me talk to the nice man would you hmn?" came another voice from within the room, the tone was eerily calm, perhaps even somewhat bored.
"But!?" The Astenai turned around quickly facing the room, folding its arms stubbornly with a small, but obviously sarcastic pout.
A figure walked out from the shadows and waved his hand dismissively at the astenai, to which it responded with a sigh and walked off to the side, leaning against a dresser in the corner of the room.
"You have so little faith Sire." Said the man with the whiter hair as he looked at the king and his assistant.
The king blinked and stared at the men, turning back to the one that had spoken before after he had regained his composure. "You... The one from before."
The man clapped sarcasticly "Inteligent and sharp. Come now sire, you have questions and i have answers, i was just a bit pre-occupied before so i could not talk in detail about who you had so redily sought out. But, i'll have to ask that it be only you in this discussion, your.... 'friend' there would have to leave."
"You think the king an utter idiot?? leaving himself in a room with an assassin -and- a demon!! who do you think we a-"
"Leave us Cylus." The king innterupted
"W... what??!"
"That is an order."
With a reluctant sigh the assistant spun on his heel and walked off down the hallway, leaving the king alone with the two other figures.
"After you Sire." The one at the door said in a calm tone, extending his arm to the side in a guesture that clearly told the king to enter. Once he had done so he closed the doors behind them before leaning back on them casually, a sign that no one was leaving the room until the business had been concluded.
"First things first." The king moved over to his bed and sat down on it, eyeing the two figures. "I'll need some names."
"Ah, a rather apt question to start with, you may call me Whisper, and the Astenian over there, rifling through your drawers is Chaos."
Chaos looked up from his 'investigation' to peer at the two before letting off a shrug and closing the drawer. "What? i was half expecting to find the poles they shove up their asses every day in here."
Whisper let out a sigh and shook his head before looking back at the king. "Your second question?"
The king seemed to pause for a moment, ignoring Chaos's remark, turning his attention back to whisper. "who -are- the order..... what do all of you stand for and why are you all so secritive."
Whisper barely seemed to crack a smile. "Good question. We are a large group of skilled persons loyal to the Order and a woman named Pandemonium. As for our purpose, we exist to keep the balance."
The king blinked for a moment, "Balance?? balance of what??"
"The balance of power," He lifted his hands to resemble a scale, tipping them every now and then, "Good, evil, right, wrong, you get the picture. We exist to make sure neither side gains too much influence, and that no races gain knowladge from beyond their time. We exist to prevent chaos and keep balance, that is all. That is why we exist, and why we do what we do."

On the lower levels of teh castle, a pair of palace guards were walking along a large stone hallway. At one point one of them turned to the other.

"You hear something?"

The other guard listened.

"What is that?"
"It sounds like a rumbling or somethin'..."

They both unsheathed their weapons and tried to hear where the noise was comming from. The rumbling had came from another hallway that crossed this one. The two men quickly ran towards the source of the noise.
As soon as they went around the corner , before them was a large cyan colored vortex.

"Please tell me that swirling thing-a-ma-jig is just my imagination" said one guard in a paniced tone
"I wish could..." said the other one with a similar tone

The two men took several steps back before turning around and running as fast as they could. THe vortex began to shift and become more out of control. Suddelny a fogure stepped through the portal as it closed behind him. The person was wearing dark robes with red trimms. In one hand he held a staff made made of bones and had a skull as a headpiece. The hood was hiding the robed man's face. He took a quick look around and scratched his head.

"This is the last time I volunteer for one of Midas' teleportation experiements." he sighed. "Well on the bright side I'm not in that astral void again." he cringed and glanced at his staff. "Hmm...I wonder if can summon them from here..."

The robed man raised his staff and it the headpiece's eye sockets began to emit a red glow, coupled with the thin red essence surrounding the staff. A modest pile of bones feel from the celing and began to move towards each other, slowly forming a small brigade of humanoid skeletons and an unidentifiable bone abomination as well.

"Excelent! Come, my minions. Let's go find some 'friends'. "

The king defiently folded his arms, glancing over to the astenai every now and then. "I would gather then that you only appeared because this balance was disrupted, or will be, not because the city itself would be destroyed is that it?"
Whisper almost seemed to smile. "You catch on quickly sire. The only reason why we will assist with this battle is becaause it is currently upsetting teh balance. once it is restored, we will withdraw and ultimately go back to being nothing but shadows, and to some, nightmares."
Choas chuckled madly, picking up on the Kings nerviousness. "Relaaaxxx..... when last did the order do too much to upset the apple cart. you know kingy..." He moved his hand in front of his face and inspected his claws for a moment "You havn't seen -anything- yet. all i'm gonna say? is that this is going to be one hell of a fun experi-" His words cut off as he turned his head sharply to the side, staring past whisper and at the door, a smirk affixing itself to his face, growing wider as he continued to stare forward.
Whisper cocked his head to Chaos for a moment, looking at the king for a while, who, seemed to be completely oblivious as to why the astenai was grinning. "Chaos?"
He grinned and clapped his hands together once. "Hmn? oh yes right, eheheh. Nothing... nothing at all. just i think we're about to have some company? or playmates." He shrugged "Its not vein magics sooo i can't tell all that well."
Whisper nodded, showing no change in his demenour before bowing slightly to the king "Well i believe we should be off then. i have much to do and not all that much time to do it in. and so i bid you farewell Sire, with luck, you shouldn't have to see me again." he seemed to smirk ever so slightly, hinting at a possible hidden meaning to his words before he turned around and opned the doors to the hallway, stepping out into the hallway and making his way through the halls and starting down the stairs, Chaos not being all too far behind him.

As they left the kings assistant appeared round the corner and slipped into the kings quarters, letting out a sigh of relief when he noticed he was still breathing. Regaining his composure he cleared his throat and heald a small board with some papers piled on it close to his chest. "S.. sire?.... what did they have to say?"
The king shook his head and got to his feet "Just that its begun..." He said in a quiet tone before moving off into the depths of the castle

Just then from the side of the hallway, opposite of where the king was heading, a small group of people and a guard ran by, with some of them screaming. The King stopped the guard and asking him what was going on.

"There's an insane mage with a band of undead minions going all over the castle and spreading mayhem. A small brigade of us attacked him but he killed them, I was the lone survivor and only because I ran!"

"Damn this place is huge. Did anyone ask for directions?" - a voice echoed from the end of the hallway the guard came from. In the distance, a dark robed man was slowly approaching , surrounded by a bone brigade, some of which were wearing palace uniforms. The figure turned his head and noticed the people coming out of what seemed to be sleeping quarters. The necromancer focused his sight on the white haired man and the humanoid next to him.
"This should be interesting.." Said the robed figure as he started walking in the duo's direction. As he was appoaching them, he began to enter the mind of the humanoid, in search for some information as to who they are, and perhaps an answer as to why the white haired fellow emits a aura of great power.
"Heh this 'astenai' or whatever he is, has a very interesting mindset, but his friend is even more intriguing...Whisper..."

As the necromancer approached Whisper and the others, the undead minions readied their weapons. Their master quickly made a gesture with his hands, ordering them to halt, as he walked right up to Whisper. The robed man slowly pulled down his hood, revealing his skeletal head and faint red glow from his eye sockets. He the proceeded to remove his right glove.

"Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Kyran. As you may have already noticed I'm a necromancer. I take it you are Whisper, right hand of the Kytean order's leader? A pleasure to meet you." said kyran as he exstended his right arm for a handshake.

Whisper lethargically turned his head in the direction of the newcomer, not even bothering to completely turn around, his tone as he spoke was calm, and perhaps could have been mistaken as bored. "Kyran hmn?" He paused, seeming to study the man's appearance and the small army behind him. Whisper slowly turned around, placing his hands in his pockets as he studied them calmly. He looked to Chaos for a moment who still seemed to be grinning like a silly maniac, this time obviously eyeing kyran and his army. Whisper turned his attention back to kyran " I won't bother asking where you got this information, nor will I even bother denying it as I am sure from your general expression you are quite confident of the source of information." He paused before bowing slightly, however ignoring Kyran's hand. Chaos on the other hand instantly picked up on this and smirked, "sorry there buddy. He dosn't like the whole physical contact thing." He let off a short sinister chuckle, " well aside from the contact right before-" His sentence was kut off short as he doubled over slightly from an invisible jab to the stomache. Whisper smirked ever so slightly as he kept his gaze on Kyran, his blow had been too fast for most normal beings to see. "Well then, Kyran was it? Since you obviously know so much about me, I think it only fare you chat about youself for a while." He streightned himself but kept his general eeri calm demenour. "Its quite obvious you are not from around here. Or, I would already know who you were."
"Sneaky shot whisper." Chaos murmored as he streightned himself as well before casually cracking his neck.
Whisper merely ignored him, casually waiting for an answer from Kyran.

Out of respect for Whisper's wishes, kyran retracts his hannd and puts his glove back on without question.

"But ofcourse, how rude of me not to properly introduce myself. While I do that, would you show me around this place, perhaps. I feel like the realm of Oblivion - everything looks the same..."

As they walked around the castle, Kyran kept occasionally looking out of a random window, hoping to familiarize himself with this new world.

"So anyway, I come from the Empire of Cyrodil. Our world is called Nirn, and there's one majior landmass by the name of Tamriel, and the empire i comefrom is smack dead in the middle of it. I myself am a Mystic Elf. I'm not sure if elves exsist in this dimention, but who knows. Don't let my *look* fool you though, I'm quite alive. It's just a magical Illusion i keep up for show.

I specialize in Necromancy as you've already seen. infact back home, I hold the tittle of King of Worms, which is the high ruler of the necromancer guild. But since I'm not technically evil like necromancers are, so i disbanded the guild, but kept the power to myself. I enjoy quite a bit.

Anyway, back at home, there's an order similar to yours...to a much lesser exstent, but like yours they're secretive. Pehaps you may know them since your order is not limited to this dimention only? They're called The Dark Brotherhood, they serve a deity known as Sithis, the Dark Father, and also the Night Mother."

Whisper nodded politely as Kyran talked, showing he waws in fact listening rather than standing there with his usual unreadable expression. When he was given enough pause to speak he decided to do so. “The dark brotherhood eh?” He waved a hand dismissively as if he was not impressed “They are but a band of unorganised assassins, deluded into the belief that killing will appease their ‘dread father’. They are as unstable and ..” he paused, giving off a very slight scowl “Unbalanced as a rope bridge being held together by two strands of fate and whim.” He folded his arms as he walked and closed his eyes, his feet taking him exactly where he wished to go as if he had walked the castles expanse thousands of times. “As you can probably tell I hold no love for them. They are but an annoyance and not even worthy of being called a thorn in my side” He smirked, the expression seeming unnatural on his usually calm face, “Perhaps we should ‘educate’ them on what real assassins should act like.”
“OH OH OH!! If we’re going back there can I go into one of those gates again?” Chaos shouted up with excitement before thrusting his hands in his pockets, “Maaaaaan that was fun.” He let out a manic cackle “you should have seen the guards faces when I came out whisper… it was –priceless-… they all thought I was one of those pathetic little demons. Admittedly they were kinda cute.. trying to kill an astenai.“ He said whilst removing one hand from his pocket and examining his claws closely
Whisper merely shook his head and adapted his older demeanour. “Excuse Chaos he is quite… excitable.”He paused as they reached the gates and opned his eyes, giving one of the guards in the way such a sudden and intence glare that the guard literally jumped out of the way, allowing the others to pass though. “So then Kyran, what brings you here? As you may or may not have figured out by now we are in the middle of a war. With them” He made a motion towards chaos who now had his armd folded behind his head and was whistling a merry tune.
He let out a small sigh “Granted the others are far more serious and bloodthirsty. I half considered going to the other realm and dragging both of the Desa'de boys back here myself” He said the last in a bored tone, almost as if he had been talking to himself.
Chaos muttered under his breath in a clearly annoyed tone "Don't you bloody dare...."
"Hmn? Is there an issue Chaos?" Whisper said, trying hard to surpress a smirk
"Don't play stupid. youbring Omis here we're effed. you hear me? Effed"

The necromancer replies with a slightly annoyed tone.

"A friend of mine, Midas, who is known to be one of the most powerful sorcerors on Nirn, often experiments with new types of magic, some which he invented himself. It's quite enjoyable really, easpecialy when he needs a test subject. THe reason I'm here is a small failiure on his side when he was trying out some kinda of cross dimentional portal."

Kyran sighed for a moment, looking the other way, before continuing on.

"...And I'm afraid I have no way to either contact him, nor go back on my own. But to be honest I need a *vacation*, so to speak. It used to be unbelivably fun, but recently it's been peaceful. Now don't get me wrong I'm happy that the people me and my fellow 'crew' members protect, are safe, but...it just gets boring y'know. So... this may be an overshot, but I'd like to assist you and your order in this war. I'd love so action and perhaps adventure along the way. I have a respect for authority so I'm very loyal to those who are my superiors.... or are deadly as hell, like you are, Whisper."

it was as almost like if kyran smiled at that last line, even though he has no actual face.

"Bootlicker...." Chaos mumbled at an annoyed aside to no one in perticular.
Whisper almost smirked at the combined reaction of chaos and Kyran before placing a thoughtful hand to his chin, stopping for a moment before continuing onwards for some time, thinking to himself. "Its quite the interesting Tale you tell Kyran. The order has many such resources you could utilise, such as, persons who are -very- capable with inter dimensional magics, or," He tilted his hand over as he spoke, "Technology. And if all you would want in return for this is to have a little fun then i believe we could strike up some sort of a deal between you and I for the duration of the battle, perhaps if you prove your worth and you so wish it you could even perhaps stay."
Chaos stopped in his tracks and looked at them noth. "Waaaait wait wait. he just walks in here, and asks to get in, and you basically just say, sure why the hell not? feh. youre going soft whisper. a little while ago you wouln't even have asked any questions and just slaughtered the guy."
Whisper let out a sigh, his tone of voice nor expression not giving him away, but in the depths of his eyes there was a flicker, a slight change, a warning that he was growing tired of Chaos's antics. "I am not going soft. if you would use your eyes and head for once you might be able to see that a skilled indevidual has found us and wishes to be brought into the order, and quite willing i might add. As for you, you are too blind to even see what stands right in front of you chaos."
"The hell is that supposed to mean." he looked directly to Kyran after this and folded his arms "And how the hell did you know about us in the first place hmn??"
whisper let out an exsasperated sigh and looked to Kyran "Rather an obvious question don't you think Chaos." He shook his head and walked on, motioning for them to follow "Well Kyran i believe there would be place for someone as obviously skilled as yourself, however first i must hold council with the one higher ranking member than myself, in the mean time however you may come with us and act as a member until i can solidify this with that member i was talking about." As he spoke he walked them down into the city from the castle and started down the main roads before turning off to the sideroads and allyways as the streets became more populated, leading them into the very depths of the city.

As the trio were walking through the alleys, Kyran kept gazing left and right with both hands behind his back as he were a little kid. At one point he turned to Whisper.

"Y'know, the omniousness-ness of this part of town is the perfect setting for some kind of ambush, don't you think? Infact I th-"

"A'right you three clowns, y'know the drill, hand over all yer valuables!" - Kyran was cut off by a pair of thugs that were hiding in the shadows and were holding up cutlasses.

Just as Chaos was about to attack, Kyran gestured him to halt.

"Allow me." - said the necromancer in a slightly excited tone.

Kyran slowly made his way to the first thug, without saying a single word. The bandit raised his blade and pointed it towards Kyran's neck. But without warning Kyran grabbed the thug by the back of his head with both of his hands as a bright violet light emitted from them, as well as the empty void that are his eyes. The armed man quickly fell to his knees while screaming at the top of his lungs out of pain as he hepllessly tried to force Kyran's hands off. No less than several secconds later, Kyran released the thug's head, followed by a heavy thud as he fell to the ground, motionless and with a bleeding nose and ears.. The bandit's partner who had been a few feet away, paralyzed with fear, suddenly 'woke up' and started running away. Kyran, obviously unimpresed, stood up calmly and raised his hand towards the bandit's direction. A black bolt of energy formed at his palm and launched towards the running thug. When it hit him, it magical bolt engulffed him in a cloud of dark mist. As the mist cleared up, pile of bones fell from it. Kyran finnished off by simply pointing his finger at the bones and wiggling it in the air as the bones started to move and rearange, fomring a skeleton. The undead creature stood up from the ground and walked towards the necomancer who raised him and stopped few feet away from him.

"I shall name you, Steve! You will now serve me for eternity! Wear your name with pride!"

Kyran then again turned to Whisper.

"Shall we move on, Whisper...er....sir..or......*sigh*.I beg your pardon Whisper, but since I'm currently a temp member, how should I adress you?"

Whisper Almost seemed to smirk slightly at the scene but then turned to Kyran as the small scene ended, waving a hand dismissively, “Merely call me Whisper. That is all the title I need and it is quite explanatory.” He paused for a slight moment, “And by the by Kyran,” He said as he walked past the necromancer exposing his back for a few slight seconds before an arrow sped past the group, aiming at what would have seemed the perfect opportunity. Whisper whipped round at a speed that would have been invisible to most eyes before he grabbed the arrow and with a quick motion of his wrist returned the momentum, literally throwing it back at the assailant, catching him right between the eyes before the body dropped down to the ground motionless and unmoving. “You missed one.” He said calmly, moving fluidly into a walk from the previous stance as if nothing had ever happened. He exhaled quickly, obviously showing he was unimpressed “Foolish thugs have no idea who’s territory they are on. Suuuch a pity so many go –missing- in these areas.” His mouth edged into a disturbing smirk.
“Whoa there now easy whisper. Don’t feel like getting in to a tangle with you today alright?” he said before muttering to himself “I’m still recovering from your last outburst.”
“Hmn… point. Be that as it may we are rather close and I would not want to give the place a considerable dent.”
“Again.” Chaos scoffed
Whisper waved a hand dismissively as the group walked right down into what would seem to be a dead end, the lighting in the alleyway scarce at best.
“Stand and present yourselves…” came a feminine voice out of nowhere at all, the source impossible to locate.
“We stand here as a whisper in the mist, shadows in the dark and chaos on the earth, battle on the lands.”
“And?”
“A promise.”
“Damn. I was hoping on having some fun this time around. Sure whatever go in.”
As the female voice stopped talking runes etched themselves in the ground beneath the group, the ground below opening up into what would look to be stylized after a wolf’s maw.
“Home sweet home.” Chaos said with a wide grin, gesturing for the other two to go in first. “It be a long way down new-guy.” He said with a broad grin

Kyran turned his head towards Chaos.

"I can have Steve here carry me if I get tired, but that's unlikely. I tend to walk quite a lot. I rarey use horses, magic or those mennacing mechanical mysteries the dwemer make for transportation." - said the elf in an unimpressed tone, hoping to annoy Chaos.

Kyran then looked down on the stairwell, taking note of how long it actualy is. Although the stairwell had the occasinal torch on the wall, it was quite dark. The elf reached into his robe and took out a small crystal. As he held it, Kyran opened the palm of his hand with the uncut gem in the middle of it. The crystal proceeded to hover over his hand and emit bright red light and eluminating the path.

"So Whisper, while I do know some things about your order, I'm not quite familiar with the history of it. I'd like to know how the order came to be, how it grew, and all that stuff."

Whisper calmly placed his hands inside his pockets as he walked, even going as far as to close his eyes, showing teh group that he was comfortable in his current surroundings, to some, this may have been even more unnerving that him being fully alert. After a moment of thought he decided to speak, "The founding hmn? well, the order has been around for melinia, for a long as anyone can remember in fact. However there are a few tales of the first pandemonium, in fact, i believe the first was male instead of teh usual female. Thats besides the point however" He said as he moved to the side, seeping to step in to a previously invisible doorway to side, beginning to navigate a small maze of corridoors, most of which sloped downwards. "The first founder was said to be a man named Darshea, a man who believed there was need for such an order to keep the balance of this chaotic world. However after the founding we believe he decided it was no longer what he had wished it to be, so he left it, hoping it would die out. However, as you can clearly see, the opposite occured, a new pandemonium was chosen and the order spread its influence, disspearing into the shadows, all at the same time, pulling at the outer world like a puppetmaster and his toy. Granted, we have allways had our challanges. old enemies, older factions, or simply those who pose a great threat to the balance."
As whisper continued talking and leading the group further in to the sanctuary Chaos had taken to randomly making shadow puppets with his hands, using Kyrans light to achieve this he woud move teh shadows around to help illustrate the story, albeit with some.... minor... additions.

Kyran adds his own little shadow puppets to Chaos' , for a quick chuckle.

"Interesting...very interesting. I assume the original founder left due to the way the order was achieving balance. If so, that would be foolish. One cannot create Order without chaos, or vice versa..."

Kyran trailed off as he and Chaos were having a little shadow pupper fight.

"...By the way, Whisper. As a necromancer, I require deceased bodies to make the most out of my abilities. I do hope it's not too much trouble to ask if i may be delivered bodies, in the event that i get my own chamber or something. If i don't thought, i guess i can find an old house up in the city. WHich reminds me. You need not wonder what to do with your enemies' remains any longer. I can put them to excelent use. Oh and do you have a library in your sanctuary? I certanly wouldn't mind reading up on whatever information i can gather from this or other realms..."

Kyran again trailed off as he 'punched' Chaos's shadow puppet with his own, out of boredom. Chaos proceeded to help his shadow self off the floor...

As they turned a corner in the sanctuary Talburt stood mere inches away from them with a very dry look on his face. "Oooooh glorious leader." He said voice full of sarcasm as he bowed. "Do tell what exciting new venture waits for us hmm? Are we once again lackeys to some dim witted king who would piss himself if he knew how a light bulb worked? Or can i get a little more.. creative this time around and build some sort of.. robotic army to terrorize the peasants? Please tell me quick as i do not think i can bear the anticipation much longer." He said in a very dry tone as a robotic spider looking device crawled up onto his shoulder. "Although." He said perking up slightly. "If i could engage in a little bio warfare that.. would break up the monotony just a taad." He said still looking bored out of his mind. He then looked over at Kyran and snorted. "Oh gee.... We picked up a dead guy. Well at least this one can walk by himself." He said with disdain.

a smirk crawled across whispers face for only a mere second as he glanced towards Talburt. Not waiting for him to properly finish he had already started guesturing towards Kyran. "Talburt, this is Kyran, Necromancer. Kyran, this is Talburt, the resident happy cheerleader." he said patting Talburt on the shoulder. Around the sanctuary it was no secret that the two often made sport of each other, either in the ways of biting words, or the more... uh.. lethal type 'practical joke'.
Chaos bit his lip as he tried to keep back a wave of mirth, watching the two with his usual wide grin.
Whisper smirked for a second before turning to Kyran, "You'll find we have anything and everything in here." he glanced back to Talburt "Be a good sport and show him around will you hmn? there's a good lad." He let off a small snicker before beginning to walk off towards the inner chambers, not bothering to glance back towards them "To answer the question Talburt. we're up against the astenai this time round. get creative."
He said before vanishing into the shadows of the sanctuary.

Chaos folded his arms and glanced to the other two. "Guess that means i'm with you guys then." *he looked towards Talburt with a snicker, muttering to himself, "Cheerleader, thats a new one."