Sain inhaled deeply and straightened up, finishing his own drink. He lifted his still numb arm onto the bar and awkwardly leaned on it to turn to the grizzled man beside him.<br/><br/>"This 'Ash' disease sounds horrible. Even with my Necromancy, I know of no spell or substance that could do such a thing. Petrification, perhaps, but not consume magical energy and leave the host as ashes." he paused for a moment, "Donta? Have you heard of it?"<br/><br/>The Moogle leaned against the cabinet behind him, "No, not really. Must be a disease specific to your realm only. There are near limitless realms out there. I'm not surprised there's something out there I've never heard of."<br/><br/>"I wish we could help, but unless we had a sample, we could do nothing." Sain said with a sigh, "Seems like a horrible situation in your realm. We would probably be at risk as well if we went there." Donta nodded.<br/><br/>"A healer might be able to help, if you had one..." Donta muttered, and was met by blank stares by both men, "I mean a magical healer. Wolfcub is all technology. This definitely sounds like a magical disease."<br/><br/>"My home City of Windoria in the clouds had plenty of those, but since I've been banished for learning the dark arts, it's been lost in the skies." Sain said, turning to lean against the bar. He started to feel tingling in his arm and wing, letting him know the anesthetic was starting to wear off, "I mean I learned basic magical healing when I was a child, but my powers have become far too tainted to try it now. What would be convenient, is if one walked through the door right now."<br/><br/>The three turned to look at the door, but it remained quiet and motionless. Wolfcub's voice rang out from the kitchen.<br/><br/>"Were you expecting your timing to be perfect, Sain" she called with a giggle, "Chances are slim that it would happen."<br/><br/>"It was worth a shot." He said with a smile, "Didn't hurt to try." He lifted the newly refilled mug that Donta had poured for him and took a sip, just as the door suddenly lit up and started to shake...<br/><br/>--------------------------------------------------------------------<br/><br/>The old building groaned under her small weight as she inched forward, one of her new friends lagging cautiously behind. Her flashlight focused at about a foot in front of her feet.<br/><br/>"Tanya, I don't think this is such a good idea. It's spooky in here." she said, her voice shaky. Tanya, in front, turned her flashlight on her friends face, showing a frightened expression and worry.'<br/><br/>"Grace, I only asked you where the building was, I didn't mean for you to follow me. You can turn back you know." She advised her roommate. She had been at college for only a week and her only friend turned out to be her assigned roommate in the on campus dorm. Now they were traipsing through a condemned wing of an old school building, not really sure of what they were looking for. No one came in here because it was said it was where the missing students disappeared.<br/><br/>Tanya focused her flashlight back on the dirty hallway before her, "You go back, I'm not leaving until I find something." She lifted her backpack higher on her shoulder and continued on. She could see Grace's flashlight dance back and forth from her to the door where they entered.<br/><br/>"A-Alright, but don't be long. I don't want to worry. Be careful and call me if you need help, okay?" she called.<br/><br/>"Sure. See you soon." she waved and continued on.<br/><br/>Tanya tried random doors as she walked, all seemed to be locked. She cursed silently as more and more doors became inaccessible to her. The last door at the end of the hall had a broken doorknob. It took a few tries, but after a shoulder ram the door popped open and she had to cling to the door frame to prevent herself from falling into a massive hole in the floor. Thanking her luck that her flashlight was attached to her wrist by a strap, she scanned the room after getting her footing and saw a closet on the far end of the room, which seemed to be a science lab of sorts. Carefully making her way around the hole, she reached the door and turned the knob, only to find it locked.<br/><br/>Frustrated, she tried to look through the frosted glass of the door to see inside, but couldn't see anything. She had a feeling about this closet, or whatever it was. Something interesting was inside. She just knew it.<br/><br/>Kneeling at the door, she cursed the fact that she was still wearing shorts to kneel on the dusty, splintered floor and pulled out a small lock picking kit. She was no expert at it, but she bought a kit and watched a few videos online on how to do it. She even successfully picked a few padlocks as well. It only took a few minutes to get this lock to turn and she popped the door open slightly. She quickly stowed her tools and lifted her flashlight once more. Taking a breath she slowly counted to three and yanked open the door.<br/><br/>An old prop skeleton quickly rolled towards her on the uneven floor and startled her enough to jump back. Her grip on the old doorknob failed and she fell backwards, into open air over the hole in the floor...<br/><br/>Tanya closed her eyes and waited for the pain of the landing on the floor below, but a collapsed wall below had tipped the door frame over as well and she landed hard, squarely on the door itself. There was a bright light on impact and the door quickly gave way beneath her as she hit and swung downwards. Still squeezing her eyes shut she oddly felt a shift in gravity as she stopped falling, but yet felt herself skidding across a floor.<br/><br/>She laid motionless for a moment, still holding her head in a defensive position and slowly opened her eyes to see a brightly lit room. She sat up and looked around, her eyes still adjusting to the light but it seemed to be a cafe of sorts, with wooden tables and a clean tiled floor. Confused she shakily stood up and shouldered her bag that thankfully followed her down blinking as she tried to adjust to the light. Once they did, she found herself staring at a large black scythe in a rack, next to a large plaque of what seemed to be rules.<br/><br/>"Where am I?" Tanya muttered. There was a loud creak as the door she had just been flung through slowly swung closed and she turned around.<br/><br/>That's when her jaw dropped...<br/><br/>Sitting at the bar was a large tattooed man, next to a robed man with black wings who looked like death himself. Behind the bar was an odd cat looking man and a young girl with high tech gauntlets on her arms, all staring at her like she was the oddity here.<br/><br/>"W-What?...." Tanya stammered, "Who...?" She then began to visibly shake, "H-How...?"<br/><br/>"Wolfcub dear, we have a fainter. Please try and catch her." Donta said casually.<br/><br/>"She seems fine to m-" she began, but was cut off by the thud of the girl collapsing. Donta smiled as Wolfcub picked up Tanya to carry her to a nearby couch.<br/><br/>"Well, it's getting rather lively in here tonight!" Donta said with a smile, "How lovely!"