The cold

Croissure

Margie smirked, she knew they would come , it was only a matter of time. They were all dancing to her tune , Pilarus was meant to die from the very beginning , a disposable pawn, a power hungry stupid leech that believed her lies and followed her orders to the tee, he wasn't meant to be a part of the future , he was just a pawn whose only purpose was to bring them to the right place at the right time ,which he did do in the end and she really did have to admit, the woman had style, the brazen bull, she didn't really expect her to use it, it was just too bad she missed it. The other one was still in the castle, dutifully waiting to follow her orders , it wasn't like the other one had a choice. He was in her hands for almost a few hundred years, time she had cleverly invested in molding him to what she wanted him to be. It wasn't like she made plans on the spur of the moment, these were plans that were the born the day Morpheus was killed , plans that were perfected over time. She continued her work, she had preparations to do ,people to welcome. The grand finale was awfully close, she could almost smell victory in the air. All would start when the reddest of blood touched the lines, the thirst of two runes quenched and a life willingly gifted. It was all in place, just a matter of time.

Damien sighed , wondering if they could put entering Croissure off to tomorrow. He had a bad feeling about the whole thing , going into a place not having any idea what one would be pitted against didn't exactly sound like the most foolproof of plans. They had left Neil behind of course, he wasn't  really ready to be exposed to any real sort of danger. Croisure looked nothing like how it was a few years ago, the last time Damien had seen the place it had been completely barren, just plain course red mud that stretched for  ages. Now one couldn't really see more than a foot ahead, thick leafless thorny branches  and vines blocking their sight. Moving forward was hard and the journey slow, they had to cut the surprisingly sturdy dead branches that blocked their path. He felt a sudden hatred towards Abbadon, a hatred so thick it made his blood boil. His body moved on its own accord, his hands drawing the ceremonial knife from it's sheath, ready to strike.

Nerezza kicked Damien on his knees, hard enough to send him sprawling to the floor, pulling him out of it or rather shocking him out of the influence. The miasma in the air was thick and dark, drawing out the worst in a person, tempting them to act on it, to do things they would probably  never dream of doing when they were in their right mind. It didn't really work on Nerezza , she was as dark as dark could get,just on the wrong side of the dividing line, not  that she ever wanted to be clubbed with desperate people like Margie or one's like Santa, he was one of those people that crossed the few boundaries even she kept to, someone who had no qualms in killing infants and well, doing things that made even her cringe.

Abbadon wasn't affected much by the miasma either, of course he felt tempted , tempted to slit Hissana's throat for acting up the past few days, tempted to kill Damien, his twin brother who was actually allowed to have a normal childhood merely because he was shoved into the world three minutes after him, but those feelings were nothing new, he had lived with the feelings from the age of five, when he jealously stared at Damien from the window of the room he was locked in,playing happily with the gardener's children. He controlled the urge then and he could control it well enough now and Hissana was back in the palace with Neil and Andrew  , his pompous ass safe from any sort of harm.

They had been going through Croissure for at least a few hours, with no clue as to the direction they took and no way to tell north from west. Damien jumped, turning back immediately ,his knife drawn, only to see nothing. Was it just his imagination, first trying to kill his own brother and now hearing things, was this place messing with his head?

"It's not you, Damien" Nerezza said ,looking around carefully. The branches and thorny vines seemed to be growing thicker , the one she cut just a minute ago almost visibly growing back and this alarmed her. It made the possibility of them moving in circles very real, and if someone could actually will these things to grow, things could be pretty bad for them. She didn't really like the idea of being strangled to death by these thorny wines but it wasn't like they could actually do anything about it now, it was just far too late to turn back. 

She decided to just take a random right, they had been walking in the same direction since they entered the place and it didn't exactly yield results. The vines immediately pooled in front of her , completely blocking her way and stopping her from changing direction. Nerezza sighed, this whole thing screamed "set up",and if "master" actually did try to be naughty and set them up, he wouldn't be doing it any time soon, at least not until his charred remains found a way back from wherever people went to when they dropped dead.

They continued in the same direction , Damien sighed, they were being herded like cattle by a bunch of thick branches and thorny vines, towards wherever  Margie wanted them to go , it was frustrating. They had clearly walked into a trap, played into thinking they were ahead while all along doing just what Margie wanted them to do.

"Well well, I'm glad you could make it muffins" Margie exclaimed, smiling the widest she probably could. She still looked as air headed and mild as she always was, her looks probably the most deceptive thing about her. It took him by surprise that she had actually shown her face, perhaps she was a little dumb, he thought, it was just too bad he thought wrong.