Chapter 2

The blankness faded and their eyes opened. They rose as one, and as the eye focuses on movement, they stared at each other. It was darker than midnight, and piercing cold enough to risk frostbite, but neither was bothered in the least.

Eyes widened as memories clashed with knowledge and selves adjusted, and they spoke nearly as one, "who are you?"

Nervous laughter. Both were standing on empty air, above the smooth wetness of the cave floor. Though they'd not been obvious about it, neither had missed anything worth of note in their field of vision. Both had carefully noted the ivory scroll tube lying on the floor nearby.

The white feather-winged angel was impossibly, inhumanly beautiful, radiating an overwhelming aura of power. Fair and pale, her hair was liquid gold, eyes glittering sapphires. Her physical form was so perfect that it transcended any thought of sexuality, raising awe instead of lust. At less than a meter sixty, she was surprisingly short and slender, almost thin.

She wore a simple white shift, belted in by means of a wide gem-studded golden sash, a cloak of white embroidered with gold threads in abstract sigils and a pair of white slippers. A golden topaz carved into the shape of a rose broached the cloak at her throat, a diadem of platinum and white diamonds crowned her, thin-woven bracelets of gold and glittering silver covered wrists and anklets, and a pair of thin-skinned gold gloves covered her hands fully.

"Dav... no," she shook her head, fluffing white feathered wings, "I'm Lyralis. This is impossible. I should be howling at the moon, if there was a moon to be found. David, lawyer... and now," she bit her lip, "Lyralis. Angel, human, sorceress. What language... ?" she wrung her hands in distress, the mere sound of her voice a balm sweet enough to soothe the most savage beast.

The second floating woman was not so overwhelming, on first impression. Nearly a full head taller than the angel, her skin was so white that she seemed a statue of alabaster, her hair a blond so pale as to be nearly white. Full bodied, if not quite voluptuous, she was so still that she did not even seem to be breathing. Next to the frail looking Lyralis, she looked muscular, if not obtrusively so. Though unusually lovely, she would have gone entirely unnoticed beside the supernatural vision facing her. Only her red glowing eyes and her unnaturally pale skin showed her to be something other than merely human.

White her body may have been, but her clothes were all smooth matte black, wrapped tightly enough to emphasize her feminine attributes and provide not a single spot that might snag on anything. A simple rope belt held a dagger, claws of metal clutching a large uncut ruby at its hilt, a sling made of some sort of grayish material, and a pouch of bullets. A jet and obsidian brooch fastened a dark hooded cloak around her, and she wore high, thick-soled boots. A pair of reinforced gloves, almost cesti or gauntlets, a mesh of silver and black metal, left the tips of her fingers free, displaying sharpened black nails. Her otherwise bare arms were protected by a pair of thin war bracers, and silver made a serpentine coil around her upper left arm. A thin, plain circlet of white crystal kept her long, free flowing tresses away from her face.

"Kim. No I suppose it's Maia now," she frowned, "and I'm a martial artist and... and a vampire lord," she stared challengingly at the angel.

Lyralis spread her wings, and her skin turned alight, as though she had pulled a switch. A globe of golden energy appeared in her hand, as she looked back at Maia, crackling arcs of silver-white energy lifting her golden hair with an effect similar to that of a strong breeze. "I... ," her gaze drifted to her hand, eyes widening with surprise. "Sorry, I didn't even realize I'd done that. It's... Lyralis is filling my head. I can control it. Were you hijacked here? Sent a character sheet, accepted and bang? Do... ," she frowned, wings twitching. "Do you need blood?" she asked bluntly.

"Nope," Maia replied, "thank Buddha. Though the vampire in me," she gave a short snort of a laugh, "is telling me just how tasty you'd be. Don't worry," she raised her open hands, "like you, I can control it. For now, anyway. Yes, same method, wham, bang, no thank you ma'am. Just finished highschool, I'm from Korea. Damnation!" she cursed, and swung a fist at nearest wall. Stone shattered, jagged pieces flying in all directions. Maia's eyes widened in momentary shock, before she withdrew her arm from the cavern wall and brush stonedust from herself. "Were you hurt?" she turned to look at Lyralis, and saw a semi-circular pattern of stone shards on the ground before her. "Forget I asked," she shrugged.

"As for language, I believe you're speaking your native tongue, angel-something, and occasionally you've segued into English. Something about you is translating things automatically. I can do the same," she smiled. "So what's a sex change like, gorgeous?" Kim snickered.

The angel's face hardened, the glow of her aura intensifying. "Very funny, you undead monstrosity. I'm sure we're all paying for our choice of 'dream character'," she said, her voice heavily laden with sarcasm. "I... ," her voice turned softer, and Maia involuntarily leaned towards her. "It's like, there was an integration. Or something like that. I'm still me, David, essentially. But there's all that enormous, heavy weight of power, knowledge, responsibility, instinctive reactions. I feel stretched to the limits inside my own skin," her hands clutched at her breasts for a moment, outlining the nipples against the thin white fabric. "And this!" her voice rose in anger, "the unfamiliar equipment. Except that it is familiar. Thank heavens I don't have any bodily needs. Much like you," David frowned at her. "Lyralis is deeply reluctant to associate with you. That's why I'm glowing like mad. The automatic reaction is see vampire, kill vampire. She's a Buffy-clone, that way."

Maia leaned back and laughed, almost hysterically. Lyralis' lips tightened, but as the gales of laughter kept coming, she smiled, finally succumbing to an attack of the giggles.

"Yes, yes, very funny," the angel conceded, biting back a last giggle. "Now let us see what message is in that scroll tube on the floor. There's no magic on it that I can see. Shall I try to remove any that might be there, regardless?"

Maia, leaning back against the wall, sighed and shook her head. "No need. I'll have you know that this vampire is unkillable. Destroy this body, and I'll return when night falls. Another advantage is, no pain, almost impossible to control or mindbend... you know, the usual. So I'll risk it," she said, and the ivory scroll tube levitated, flying unerringly into her open hand. The clasp was a clever little metal hinge, she noted, hinting at fairly advanced metal working techniques. Or should that be magical fabrication?

Inside was the anticipated sheet of paper. After a minute of concentration, the vampire shook her head, and tossed the sheet at Lyralis. Obligingly, it floated into her gold wrapped fingers. "Can't make heads or tails of it. Just glyphs and runes. You're the sorceress, give it a shot."

Whilst Lyralis, seated on empty air, pored over the document, Maia amused herself by running all over the walls and ceiling like a scuttling spider, occasionally pausing to search for a secret passage or doorway beyond the small cracks that admitted air and a trickle of water. "Anything?" she asked impatiently after nearly an hour had passed, and she'd covered the entirety of the stone hollow, discovering nary an egress.

"Yes," Lyralis nodded, shaking her head to dissipate her trance of concentration. "It's a simple substitution code, but it uses eighteen languages. I wasted an awful lot of power figuring it out, but I have most of it. Give me another fifteen minutes, and I'll have the rest. Please don't interrupt," the angel smiled radiantly, making the order seem more like a gracious request.

Maia couldn't help but smile back, and turned away. Freezing for a moment to consider, she began to practice katas, reveling in the impossible fluidity of her new body and the incredible skill that came to her without thought. It also helped her not think of her parents, and if she'd ever see them again, and hold on to her self. Kim was a nice girl, while Maia... the vampire was as cold and heartless as they got, with not a trace of humanity. Age, darkness and a fixation on domination, seeing everything and everyone as servants to her will or obstacles in her path. Falling into that trap would be too easy. She wondered idly if Lyralis - she just couldn't thinking of the angel as David - would turn all sanctimonious, or try to blast her in the back. Certainly, she wasn't truly trustworthy. At least, not for her.

"I have it," Lyralis announced, standing near her back. Maia smiled slightly before turning. The angel would have to do a lot better if she truly wanted to sneak up on her. A vampire's senses were incredibly acute.

"So? Tell, bitch... oops," Kim put a hand on her mouth. "As I'm sure you've figured out, Maia is definitely not a good girl. Lyralis wants to stake the vamp and the vamp wants to eat her," she licked her lips unconsciously.

"Anyway," she ignored the raised brow that asked for more information, "what does the almighty demon that grabbed us want, anyway? Where are we? What..."

"If you'll allow me to get a word in edgewise," Lyralis cut her off, "I'll simply read it verbatim. As follows:

Brave adventurer! You have entered a world shrouded in night, the world of Kayliss. You, and others like you, are the only spark of hope. To survive and succeed, you must retrieve the burning shard from the heart of the stone dragoloth at Nansheen. Then make your way to the Brazen Portal, where you will find others like yourself and make plans to free the gods of light from the Triune Prison.

The women exchanged glances and sighed. "I have a bad feeling about this," Lyralis quipped, "but we might as well get started. You can move through rock, right?"

At Maia's nod, she stretched out her hand. The two clasped gloved hands and looked up.

"Wait!" Maia pulled away from the angel's hand.

"What is the problem?" Lyralis asked, puzzlement obvious in her tone.

"The problem is you," Maia smiled widely and looked at her companion closely, moving her eyes up and down, looking at sideways at the wings.