<b><span style="font-size: 18px">DIARAH</span></b><br/><br/>There was no sensation at first as she touched the small, whirling matrix of darkness, it was like touching air, and yet it seemed somehow even less substantial than air. For a moment the thing showed little reaction, merely howering around her hand, the tendrils of shadow flitting about her fingers, as if it waited, perceived, judged. Then, cold unlike anything she had ever felt before as the flux of dark energy lept into her skin, freezing cold, colder than death itself, racing up her arm as her veins turned black with corruption. Upwards through her arm the darkness spread, the cold turning her flesh so numb that even though she could not feel the limb, pain still trickled. Upwards it climbed rapidly, wrapping itself across her shoulder and slithering up her neck, and then her vision was hit by pure blackness as a glacier of entropic energy impacted on her mind.<br/><br/>Darkness spun before her eyes in patterns both obscene and enticing. Gone was the world around her, swallowed up by the midnight black. Though she could not sense her own body through the numbing chill of oblivion, she sensed keenly as the shadow invaded her mind. Like worms it burrowed through her brain, leaving inky blackness in its wake, bringing with it knowledge and horrors, a tapestry of pain and enlightment, tying knots of madness and understanding from the strands of her mind. Visions danced before her sight as she watched the death of reality. The walls of the room around her rotted and fell away in clumbs, the roof above her turning to a shower of splinters and putrescense as it collapsed, stones crumbling and splitting untill only dust remained. The world putrified, the earth rotting away beneath her feet, the air thinning to vacuum. Life withered and died, leaving nothing behind by empty, decaying shells that in time fell to nothing but so much dust. The planet fell into itself, its core dark and dead, all warmth having left the dessicated corpse that was once a world. Outland crumbled to a belt of cinders, then scattered into the void, the winds of the nether itself grew still and stale, then faded, world beyond counting fell dark and dead. The universe ended, not in a bang or a whimper, but in dead silence. She  saw the forces of entropy move through the darkness, breaking down even the principles of their own existence, paradox reigning untill it too decayed. She saw behind it the dark, implacable shadow, resting on a throne built from the death of realities and the suffering of untold billions. She saw... too much.<br/><br/>The room was cold and dark as she awoke, but it was the comforting cold of a living reality, sharp and invigorating against the utter desolation she had witnessed. The place she found herself in bore only the most basic resemblance to the lavishly decorated quarters where she had treated with Mathias. There was no trace of the finery and luxurious furniture, the trinkets or trappings of decadent nobility. The fireplace was dark and cold, the thin layer of ash within it days old at least. Sparse furniture in the traditional vrykul style greeted her, and yet despite all the differences, something in her mind told her that she had not been moved, that this was the same room. As she began to stir, she would feel a new strength, a new understanding, making itself known within her. A glimpse of the power to bend reality to her will, to tear it asunder and spill its life into the void, to feed the never-ending hunger of oblivion, it bubbled in the back of her mind. It was there, though she could not yet grasp it firmly, though its potency was obvious. Even so, beneath it all, there was a startling sensation that she was no longer alone in her own mind, and perhaps never would be again...<br/><br/>Outside the room, a cold hand suddenly clasped Grizel's shoulder from behind. There had been no warning whatsoever, no creaking of floor-boards, no sound of fabric or metal, no scent of a living body or even that strange, 6th sense of proximity. A breath of frost hit his ear as a tall, slim figure in a black robe bent over Grizel's back, whispering to the demon. It's face was like a mask of marble, white as snow and smooth as polished stone, set around hollow eyes the color of midnight. Teeth as white as bone shone in the darkness as it smiled.<br/><br/>"Most cultures consider it quite rude to eaves-drop, little demon. I am afraid this breach of manners must be punished."<br/><br/>Sparks of shadow dripped from its fingertips as its hands swiftly and gingerly placed themselves against grizel's temples.<br/><br/>"I've always wondered what nightmare's demon's fear."<br/><br/>Though he would not remember it, the demon would be grateful that the horrors would be left forgotten when unconsciousness finally took him, though that was hours and eternities later...<div class="messageTextEndMarker"> </div>