Kuoh Town

[Apollymi]

As she searched her soul for the answers to all the problems created by her previous interaction with one member of her Peerage, Eira came to a couple of conclusions about how she should proceed. The words of her elder brother during her last visit reminded her that a certain amount of contact was always going to be necessary. She couldn't completely avoid Takumi even as she continued being friendly with everyone else, or she'd risk weakening them all, perhaps there was something to be done about this indirectly, as she also didn't want to order him to spend time with her as it seemed just as pushy as she thought her projected feelings were. "Hmm..." she said as her thought was finally interrupted as she came upon the house she was supposed to be going to. This walk had taken her a solid thirty minutes and even given how far out their school was, that put this place on the very outskirts of the town. Beyond that, this building was a bit ominous, perhaps this was why she was called for this place. She reached out her hand to touch the front door and the entirety of the building felt powerful. Her eyes widened as she closed her fist and knocked upon the door only to have it open. "Hello?!" she questioned firmly as she looked in on candle lit darkness.

[Bloodedge]

The half-open eyes of the man in this building opened fully when he felt another presence at last. It wasn't quite the one he was looking for here, but it was the one he'd been waiting for. "Yoshiku," he said when this presence called out for acknowledgement. Though this house was large, its center was not very far away. However, when his call reached Eira, it would sound as if it came from many, many meters farther. This was what the nature of this building had become. Not only had darkness enveloped all but the greatest concentrations of light in the area, and even diminished those, but it also managed to keep this man - and many others before him - from exiting once they entered. It was as if time and space in this building were separate from the outside world. As such, even if Eira had attempted to come here via magic, she would not have found herself capable of doing so. "I am at the center. If you can navigate the darkness, come to me."

[Apollymi]

Eira stood in this doorway and looked into the darkness. Soon she was called out to, by what she assumed was the voice of the person who wished for her to come here. This call let her know that there was indeed someone in here besides whatever was possessing the house. 'Yare yare, it's so dark. I wonder what has control over this place to make it so...' she mused. Still she was called upon to do this, and this was exactly the sort of job she took just to take it. Perhaps a job like this would help her on her way. As such she held out her right hand in front of her, creating a tiny fire ball within her palm to light the space in front of her among the oppressive darkness. "Hai, I'm coming in... sorry for the intrusion," she said. Strangely that last bit wasn't for the person that had called her, but instead for whatever created this darkness.

She'd found that most times, things such as these were likely just misunderstandings between the kinds of creatures who would like a space like this, and those who wished to live in a place like this. And with this logic she walked inside, she let her empty hand trace the wall, and thus feel the magic in this area. She thought of a way to use her magic to actively navigate this area, by tapping wall repeatedly with her Succubus energy she figured she'd have the ability to stop the flow of the dark spreading energy in this hall. This would give her the ability to easily stumble upon the center of this house, without getting lost on the way and thus to the man who was waiting for her. "Ufufufufu!~ This place is pretty dark, did you lose the door from back here?" she asked teasingly of the elven looking mage she found surrounded by light while holding her own bright flame type magic ball in the center of her palm near her face.

[Bloodedge]

A short while later, the female devil who entered this building joined the man who waited. He stood then, rotating himself to set his gaze on her. Her question, while asked in jest, would be answered as his eyes continued to scan the darkness around them. Even as her abilities nullified the shadows, they crept back into place starting the moment she passed each space. "There is no outside. Once you enter this place, it is no different to entering another dimension. Look where the darkness doesn't reach: the windows. People that were walking in the streets, cars that were passing by when I first stepped through that door... They are all still where they were once I stepped through the frame," he explained, gesturing toward a window at the end of another hall to Eira's left. The outside world was strange from this perspective. The things frozen in time were only affected within a certain radius of the building, and this effect seemed to flip itself in another direction entirely within the house itself. "You are Eira of Gremory, correct? What say you to my theory? I believe there is a magical time paradox spread across this entire property. Those outside are frozen, and we inside are locked in an even deeper way to them, hence our inability to witness them moving as we do."

[Apollymi]

"Yare yare..." the girl said in response to her joke being answered as if it was meant in seriousness. She noted before stepping into this place the amount of power contained within the space, she wasn't sure of its exact nature at all, but she did know it was far beyond what one would consider normal for a spirit haunting a place. Still as her attention was drawn towards the windows she looked outside to find that what she saw there, didn't match what she'd seen in approaching this place. Instead the windows seemed to be locked to whatever was seen when this mage had entered previously. "Sou na, before I entered there was no sign of this sort of disturbance. The walls of this place just vibrate with power, enough to make my skin tingle..." she mentioned of this place. His theory that this place was some sort of paradoxical dimension was a rather solid one, she couldn't really argue against it. "It does seem to be a space unto itself. I wonder if they are lonely..." she mused thoughtfully. "And yes, I am Eira Gremory, Yoroshiku onegaishimasu~" she introduced herself the best way she knew how. As they stood in this room. "Are you the one who called for me?" she asked of this mage. She'd never laid eyes on him before this moment and had no idea what he wanted from her, but it wasn't the first time she'd entered a haunted place and she knew it likely wouldn't be the last.

[Bloodedge]

The man's theory seemed to be something this devil could agree with. More importantly, she was capable enough to sense how much of a disturbance was occurring within this building, and furthermore deduce that this was the fault of some conscious being. This was impressive enough to justify the male's summons, and true enough, she was the very Eira Gremory he sought. When asked if he was the one who called upon her, he nodded. "I am your summoner, yes. My name is Mahad, and you... You are the young devil who has climbed the ranks of the Magician's Council faster than any other to be observed this generation. I do not have the means to deal with the mystery of this building, so I seek a pact with none other than you, that I might extend my knowledge to the Devil Magic wielded by one such as yourself. Knowing my name, you should find that my status as a magician will lift your name in the underworld, just as yours will mine in this world. But first, we must be made capable of leaving this place."

[Apollymi]

This man seemed impressed by nothing at all by Eira's standards. Even so, he introduced himself properly and it was her turn to be impressed. "Mahad?!" she seemed thoroughly surprised, even as the man continued in his explanation of what he wanted, which was apparently to leave this place and enter into a pact with her, that he might be able to learn the kind of Magic that Devils could use. "The Ebon High Magician wants to create a pact with me?" she asked this question to the universe at large because she could hardly believe it. To be fair, this man was just as much of an up and comer as she was. Beyond that, he was said to be a mage the likes of which hadn't been seen in generations, maybe even one to rival one like Cinder Fall. With a man like this at her side in addition to her chosen Peerage, Eira Gremory could easily become the most popular Devil on her name alone. "Sugoi! Well then, I guess we should figure out how to get out of here, huh Mahad?" she questioned the man, but in keeping with the preferences of one with such high esteem she smiled and asked for the sake of politeness. "You don't mind if I call you that, right?"

Her question had already been put forward and in conjunction with the idea that they should be finding a way out of their present predicament, Eira walked towards the sephirot held up in the middle of this man's little sanctuary. She found the slab to contain a single stone and studied it strangely. "Hm, what is this for?" she asked of him as she continued to study the surface of this new thing. Whatever she thought of the potential of their current situation, she needed to know what all had been done before she arrived to make a proper suggestion.

[Bloodedge]

"Yes, of course," he said regarding his desire to form a pact with this woman. "The council believes you will accomplish great things, and in keeping with my own legacy, I absolutely must have such a devil in my company." It seemed Eira was just as willing to form this pact as Mahad himself was, though the latter's lack of affectation spoke wonders to the contrary. The first order of business was escaping this timeless house, and Eira was completely on-board with this, but she stopped for such a reason as asking if she could refer to him by his given name. "It is my name," he said as if it were not possible for him to answer to another handle. One would actually find that this man's strange ways were entirely due to the forms of magic in his repertoire, such as an interesting Lost Art which placed a very high importance on something's name. That wasn't something he found to be necessary information to share though, assuming Eira wasn't already 'in the know' so to speak.

His eyes followed the woman as she moved onto the sephirot in this room. As an interesting fact, he judged the quality of her mind by her ability to even take note of its existence as something special. Indeed, she had to be the one he learned the Devil Arts from. "You realize it is special? That stone is the very reason I am here, but I cannot claim it. Whatever force exists here, its hold on the stone is mightier than anywhere else in this area."

[Apollymi]

Mahad soon made his reasons behind wanting to form his pact known. The information and reasoning he had was rather solid and though it lacked the feeling one would normally expect one like Eira to look for, she respected cool headed magicians and as such had no problem with his lack of affect. "Hm, sounds like I have a lot more to live up to than I thought..." the girl mused. Even so it seemed that the man's lack of affect spread beyond this to the politeness of conversation. Stating he would be called by his name because it was his... Eira's brows came together and it made her wonder what kind of magic this man used. Many people went by many different things and what they were called and what they answered to could sometimes be very important. Perhaps, after they were no longer time locked in a strange house, she'd pick his brain for more information, for now she let it go with a smile and a nod of her understanding. "Mahad it is."

Speaking of their potential escape, her attention to this sephirot was praised by the magician, in so much as her notice of it, seemed to please him. His next bit of questioning was rather academic in nature, and beyond that his own observations of this stone were very important. As Eira stared at this gem her head tilted just a bit. "Well it's in the middle of the room, relative importance is clear. And since you didn't bring it here, it means that I was right to assume it's connected to this space..." she mentioned of her own thoughts. His words about the connection to this stone and his inability to claim it made her wonder one other thing. She reached out with a single finger to touch it, while whispering an apology. "Sumimasen... bear with it for just a second," she said as she tapped the gem with her finger and her power wondering if it would have the same momentary reaction that the rest of the darkness had when she'd used her power on it before. "Do you know the layout of the rest of the house?" she asked of him while she studied the reaction of her little test.

[Bloodedge]

"So then, you believe it to be of great importance to this phenomenal occurrence? Wonderful. This stone and the other ten like it are of great importance to magicians of the current era. They are all said to wield nigh-unrivaled power when connected to one whose soul is a match. The greatest magicians seek these stones, hoping they might gain that sort of power for themselves," said Mahad. The explanation he gave was also an explanation for his presence in this place, and Kuoh as a whole. Everything was for furthering his research into the mystic arts. "If only one could claim a single stone and bond with it, legend says they will have infinite knowledge and ability in whatever field the stone has an affinity for. At least, that is the story," he continued.

Eira's apology and request to bear with something for a bit were strange things to hear as she reached for the stone. In touching it though, she would find that exposure to skin caused the stone to make a great attempt at pulling one's blood into it, though its success against a devil of Eira's caliber would likely be nothing more than a potentially-noticeable tug at what flowed within her veins. Mahad felt she wasn't speaking with him, but whether she was or not didn't really matter so long as their goals were met. A direct question soon came from her, in the form of curiosity involving the layout of the building. "I know it is far younger than the sephirot we see now. Otherwise, it is a standard house for its placement. Three bedrooms, two bathrooms, ample living space, attic, cellar..."

[Apollymi]

Mahad began to explain the importance of the stones such as the one currently found within the sephirot, even as Eira examined it. It seemed that he was excited by the prospect that she also saw the potential use of such a thing. With the information she was given she could make a couple of assumptions based on the feel of the magic in this space alone. "Sou ka," she said in a moment of understanding, both of Mahad's situation and a bit about the stone and the sephirot. If the stones actually did what magicians thought she could understand them wanting to possess them so badly, that it moved the generation of current mages. That being said, if the stones actually needed to bond with someone of a specific affinity, then it was likely if any random magician came across one, they wouldn't be the right match for any stone they found. There was also no mention of the potential criteria the stones were looking for in their matches. "That is an amazing thought, but in my experience, such things don't come without cost. It is nice to know that you came here to learn more," she mentioned as she felt the pull of this stone against her skin. That tug was strange and it made her continue to stare at the stone even after she pulled her finger away. "Do you need something from me, I wonder... I'll help if I can," this was another statement not aimed at Mahad but instead at the consciousness she was sure was directly connected to this stone and this house.

A strange combination would lead the girl into trying to put together a strange picture. A picture which seemed broken like a jigsaw puzzle even as Mahad added potentially more information to it. "This house is younger than this stone, and it has both a cellar and an attic," she said calmly deciding something in this moment which would likely seem strange. "Hm, would you be disappointed if you couldn't have this stone, it is a distinct possibility that you might not be able to claim it and leave this dimension," she said as she rubbed the tip of her index finger against her thumb as she considered the idea that what they might be looking for could potentially be dangerous to them.

[Bloodedge]

Once again, Eira spoke words that didn't seem to be meant for Mahad. The man walked closer to this devil as she processed the events around her and addressed whatever entity was in or connected to the stone. "Magicians of this age are willing to pay the highest costs for knowledge. If the stone required me to sacrifice my flesh and blood, I would have given both," he said about the potential negatives to such a device. "You speak of helping, but these words do not reach to me. You would not destroy whatever entity keeps us bound to this place? Interesting..."

As Eira dealt with the strange sensation she received from making contact with he stone, she offered an interesting concept in the form of a question. It was apparently quite possible that his ability to leave was directly connected to an equal inability to claim the stone he'd come for. None of this mattered, for if he could not free himself, he would cease to learn in the world of magic; there was only so much he could teach himself, and he had done much of that since arriving in this building and becoming trapped. "It is no longer of consequence to me. If abandoning the stone is required for me to return to the world, it was never to be mine. Do what you must, Eira Gremory."

[Apollymi]

Mahad's words explained that he would have been willing to give whatever was necessary for the ability to possess the stone. This apparently included but was not limited to flesh and blood, the thought of this alone made Eira's eyes widen because she realized what the pull against her flesh had been in the moments prior to his speaking on it. "Blood, darkness and old magic..." she mused, there was a type of creature she knew possessed these sorts of powers, but that didn't explain the extra dimension nor the time based paradox which surrounded the house. As for his question about her destroying whatever entity possessed the house, she looked to Mahad with light in her eyes and visage. "Iie, I wouldn't destroy someone just for existing. It's probably just a misunderstanding and beings shouldn't be destroyed over those," she stated. Of course, if she cared to think about it, such idealism would help her with her own problems but perhaps she could make that connection later.

Beyond all this, it seemed that her new mage friend was willing to abandon his quest to possess this stone if it meant they could be free of this place. She looked up at the man and smiled, this was exactly what she needed to hear. If he was too greedy in this moment, it might make their working relationship a bit strained especially given what Eira thought about the connection between this stone and whatever entity locked them into this place. "Hai, alright then. I think we'll find whatever is connected to this stone in the cellar. And I have a pretty good idea of what that being is... but I can't be sure because this time based paradox falls outside of my understanding of what is normal. Perhaps we'll learn something new, or maybe we'll die. I can't be sure, but I want to help whoever or whatever is down there, will you come with me?" she asked of this mage as she turned re-summoning the ball of fire within her hand to light her way as she aimed to get her barrings. She fully intended to use the same strategy she'd previously used to reach this room, to navigate the house until she found the entrance to the cellar. If she was right, as they progressed it would be obvious what they were looking for.

[Bloodedge]

"Then we are kindred," Mahad replied, finding Eira's resolve to not kill needlessly relatable. He was of a mind that elimination of something which didn't have to be a threat was simply the abandonment of potential gained knowledge. After all, one could only learn so much from a corpse, while infinite knowledge could be gained from another living being. Speaking of knowledge, Eira seemed to have some regarding the source of the paradox they were in. Following up on her idea and plan, Mahad nodded. He wouldn't have suggested this pact with the devil unless he was willing to accept her guidance, and now was such a moment of him doing exactly that.

"I shall follow your judgment, and your guidance," he said while literally trailing behind this woman. How she would go about solving this mystery was a mystery of its own to Mahad, but he was excited to know what the true cause of events was. Within the cellar they sought, one would find the room virtually empty, bar many bats filling the ceiling, and a single coffin at the center point of the floor space. The coffin had a strange slot on its lid, which seemed to be a perfect fit for the stone in the sephirot. One might find that any attempt to physically open this coffin would be in vain, if such a thing were even attempted at all.

[Apollymi]

A good secondary point was reached, when it was made obvious by Mahad that he also did not like the idea of senseless death. Even acknowledging that they likely had very different reasons for this, Eira was content knowing this. She likely couldn't have seen herself bound to a murderer nor someone who would kill for knowledge nor power, it simply didn't align with her own ideals. Mahad even showed he was willing to follow her, by making his way with her to the cellar. Upon reaching it, the found a mostly empty space, as confirmation of one of her thoughts, Eira looked up to find a mass of bats collected upon the ceiling. A devious smirk spread across her face, "Sou ka, so you are down here... I guess I expected that. Again, sorry for the intrusion," the girl apologized for their presence within this place, but it didn't stop her from moving forward and inspecting the coffin found in the center.

"A being of blood, darkness and old magic surrounded by bats..." she explained as she held her glowing light orb over the center of the coffin and examined it directly. She looked at the hole within the front and found it to be if her memory was serving her correctly the same shape as the gem found in the sephirot upstairs. She ran a single finger along this space while studying it and speaking both for herself and the mage in her presence. "Sou na, this coffin has the same slot as that sephirot upstairs. I get the feeling we can't force it open, but you also couldn't remove it from the sephirot," she said to Mahad. "How do I let you out, if I can't get the stone?" she asked strangely of the coffin itself, as her single finger traced the opening for the gem. She didn't know if she expected an answer or not she simply wished to find whoever was inside.