(( OOC: mood music - https://vimeo.com/48543663 ))

There was a blinding flash, a wave of divine anguish, and the sizzling grace of an unseen moment. The spot where the star fell was already rich with ancient sacrifice, its energy fertile where its land was barren. The air around it burned and rippled amid the ebbing curse of a long dead god and the boiling intensity of a new one, consuming the land in terrible, sun-scorched power.  A pedestal of sorts had risen from the union between the astral body and the churning sands, liquefied earth that glowed and steamed as it slowly congealed again. The site’s aura pulsed eagerly toward any creature that dared to sense it, awaiting a hand to harness its power.

It was the perfect place for a blood sacrifice.

Seconds later, a small tear was revealed in the fabric of space. A shred of a shadow, easy to spot in the stark whiteness of the desert, grew until it was large enough to fit a person through. Cool air rushed through the arcane gate, followed a young human woman, her hair matted and her clothes plain. She appeared to have been rained on, though that moisture quickly evaporated in the new world she stepped into. More notably, a series of runes was freshly carved on her arms and face. The blood that spilled forth glowed with dark magic, beading strangely as it fell onto the sand.

A smaller woman quickly followed, stepping through the gate just as it began to seam itself back out of existence. Though she was not carved or bleeding, Chae's dead skin quickly began to flake in the dry heat, blackish cracks spidering at the corners of her mouth and eyes. She did not seem concerned with the other woman at first. Instead her attention fell on the pedestal, the glittering quartz-like structure that still stank of its fiery creation. It was really quite beautiful, shining at odd angles with pale blues and pinks. Chae reached out to touch it, clasping her fingers around a peripheral splash of crystal.

Suddenly the other woman shrieked, clutching the wrist of her own hand as it blistered with a fresh burn. The blood oath between them inflicted all of Chae’s injuries on her victim, though this was the first harm that the halfling had not anticipated. She pulled her hand away as the girl dropped to her knees, bringing her to Chae’s eye level. The lich placed a gentle hand on her sobbing shoulder.

“Climb on,” she commanded, and did not seem entirely surprised when her sacrifice summoned the last her courage to shake her head in a weeping refusal. There was no life left for her to live, and yet she remained stubborn; Chae could only expect as much from a human. The lich managed to avoid rolling her eyes as she argued, “Sweet child, your soul is destined for a purpose greater than you could know. Rejoice, for you are devoted to a great power.”

With that, her hand ignited. A fireball sprouted on the cotton of the human’s clothes and bloomed over her back. Her long limbs struggled against Chae as the lich summoned a pulse of transient strength to lift her onto the low pedestal. She rolled helplessly to its center, the flames only stoked by the energy of the fallen star. The bright sky was filled with fresh smoke and red screams as Chae stepped back, chanting under her breath. And even as the flesh blackened and the screams subsided, a horrible orange glow illuminated the runes.

Chae would wait until the body was burned to bones before she released the soul from its corporeal cage. At least, that was what she told herself as she repeated the rites over and over again. Truly, she hungered for the same; such a soul would do more to save the distant goddess than it would to sate the lich, and still it would take Chae many more moments to decide whether she wanted to give it up. Until then, she chanted in solitude, basking in the raw power of the ritual.

as Bealcrest flew threw the sky heading to an old hunting ground that is and still protected by a magical barrier set by his ancestors he noticed something and then it hit him the smell of human blood and the cooking of flesh. he flew twords the area he thought it was coming from and as he did and immense source of power hit him some one was doing a sacrifice he drew his bow and knocked a poison tipped arrow not knowing what was waiting for him if he neared the area as he did he saw a small undead necromancer short and very power full where did she come from and how did she break the barrier.  
< how were u abel to break the barrier that surrounds this land were you once a vampire that is the only way to cross the barrier>

Her concentration broke. Her chanting stopped, her contact was severed, and the cursed soul was sent to seek out Rhylana, the resurrected goddess. Chae licked her dry lips as she watched its energy dissipate into the ether, twice hungry for the essence she had not consumed. Only after a long pause did she turn to this Bealcrest, the vampire who had brought with him the night. Chae looked up. She had been chanting for a long time.

She glared at him, at first not understanding his words. “I am not a bloodsucker, the glorified leeches. I belong to a higher class of undead.” A brief look at his appearance told her he was one of them. “I arrived through an arcane gate, a portal from far away. I know nothing of your little barrier.”

Stepping closer, Chae noticed his weapon. She sensed a strange odor on it, but could not place the nature of it. Still she got as close as she could to inspect it. The little lich had never been shot by an arrow before. “What is the nature of the barrier?” She asked, staring curiously down the shaft of his arrow.

<the barrier was created to keep those who hunted us out and to keep pochers away> he said watching her inspect the arrow. she was little but seemed to pocess large amounts of arcane power he had only seen during the last great war. he but the arrow in his quiver.
<so you are also one of the undead no wonder i could not smell your blood>he said landing next to her.

Chae scoffed at the mention of blood. It was true that hers was congealed on rotting bones, but there was still unholy power in it. Such was the nature of the blood oath between herself and the smoking husk of the woman behind her. The dead human’s blood stil lay where it had fallen before she climbed onto her pyre, dotting the hot sand beneath their feet. The lich looked down at it, considered it, and summoned it from the ground.

It rose up into the air above her outsretched hand, hovering there in the form of a sticky red bead the size of her little halfling heart. It was, of course, poisoned with the last of the runic curse she had bestowed on the human. Chae wondered what the vampire thought of it, if he thirsted for that tiny taste. Looking at it idly, like a flower to be admired, she spoke of other things.

“There is another place of refuge now,” she said impatiently, hiding her curiosity behind a thick veil of contempt. “The city of Kurayo is far from here, but it stands in eternal night and is called home by vampires and other outcasts.”

Then she manipulated the sphere of blood so that it neared Bealcrest, hovering in the air before his eyes. “Do you want it?”

<it is nice to know of a place of darkness for once but i prefer to be out in the open. and no i do not want that poisoned blood of yours i prefer a certian kind.> he said lighting his pipe, and smirking at the young girl. <anything Else you'd like to know i can tell you'd like to know more>

Chae’s brow furrowed at his offer, unsure of what it meant. But there was no one around; the deed was done and there was nothing else to do except for leave—and talk. There had been so much power here, so much preparation, that to sit down and share a proverbial table with a well-intentioned stranger was just too… well, easy.

The rising night was cold and calm. If she had muscles, she would have shivered.

Ultimately she lowered her guard, attention shifting from the sheathed arrow to the lit pipe and the dark eyes it illuminated. She raised a finger to pick idly at the peeling flesh on her face, itchy in the dry desert air. “The goddess,” she said, gesturing limply toward the majestic spray of melted sand that had turned to glass in the heat of a fallen star. “Rhylana. She was weak and dying, and the only thing that could sustain her were the souls of the living, of humans. I killed one, burned it alive to help the goddess heal.”

The details were spoken without regret or disdain. They were just facts. If only to spark a conversation, Chae inquired, “Do you think the human deserved to die? Do you think the goddess deserved to live?”

<The human deserved what she got and the goddess got what she wanted as long as some one is happy i do not care as long as i am not the one un happy> he said takeing a drag from his pipe.< u know ive seen one linch mostly bone though you are much prettier than most would asume an undead to be.> he was looking in to her eyes they were shimmering like her arua.

Chae's eyebrows bobbed on her withered forehead, fingers curling. "You flatter me," she observed, and there was something of a question in her voice. In her living days, the halfling's short stature prevented her from earning any such flirtation; now that she was dead, the lich was caught off guard by the concept that her appearance would appeal to anyone.

"Deserving." She repeated thoughtfully, quickly changing the subject. "She was selected because she was easy to subdue, and she died screaming. There was no happiness in her fate."

Her attention was drawn to the starry heavens, where the soul had escaped to. "You vampires have it easy. Sever the skin, drink the blood. I must pry out the soul. And how it likes to stick to the body."

She sighed, looking at him again. There wasn't much of a difference between the height of the sky and of the man before her, but her neck was used to stretching. The hungry glow in her eyes persisted as she looked over him, but of course he was no mortal; he had no soul to feed her. And she had no blood to drink. They were shadows of humanity, leeches and outcasts presuming to judge the world they did not belong it. The thought brought a different sort of twinkle to Chae's eye, and she laughed.

<the blood is from my enemies and the soul is the best part love.> he said admiring the twinkle in her eyes< i was once a king you know the lord of the vampires. hmm and what were you before your incident my dear.> he said lifting up her chin and looking in to her eyes. and kneeling infront of her.< would you like to be my companion?>