(Nope. You spoke to the Sword, but Paradox caught up.)

(it's going to shatter soon, anyway.)

A flock of doves flew from the the skies towards the ground, coalescing into the form of the Heroine.

Blade in hand and shield at ready, she strode towards the main dining hall where she expected Dxacku to be.

"Dxay! We have to slay a great evil attacking Alkan and trying let loose the Floods and destroy the tree or something! C'mon, it's an adventure!" She shouted, heading back across the central courtyard and heading to the most secure room of the castle, where her Methodes Gate lay in the form of an elegant pool.

Assuming Dxacku arrives and comes along, she throws a self into the pool, to Alkan.

She would then go the central altar, and place her sword there. She went to her knees.

"Divine Master Sword- the name by which I christened you what may be my last battle approaches. If we are to survive, I must know your full power and how to use it. What must I do?" she said with complete sincerity. With one hand on the blade, she awaited it's reply.
----------------
Why would I lose the sword? why would it clatter to the ground? I had it in my hand, after all. Even if I did make an honest mistake, I should still have the sword. Even moreso because, as you have stated yourself, It's part of my theoelectromagnetic field.

(Consider it punishment for cheating paradox. Extra incentive to get it right, next time. I'll also remind you that it isn't a real punishment at all, since, "With a full action - roughly ten seconds - the God may have it recreated or summoned to his side with ease." Discussion closed.)

Maxillita awoke in her bed, cast back to to her fragmented realm. Sitting up, she dressed in a red silk robe decorated with tigers and left the room, blade in hand as always.

She wondered what had occurred in her absence.

The tables were empty, as was most of Xi. Dxacku - Lord Xakuu - if he survived, hadn't returned. It was quiet and lonely.

Max stumbled a little as she climbed a flight of stairs, feeling a hideous - sudden - pain in her right leg. What was that.. ?

She looked down at her leg, mystified. If nothing important was there, she continued to the mediation chambers. If there was, she removed the source of the pain and healed the wound.

She settled on one of the mats, lit the candles, and began. Snow continued to drift in from outside.. Xi was freezing.

This is a cold world. One of frozen logic.

Life is the bright fire, the defying of the cold,

it is hope and faith in the strength of oneself and of others.

There is no reason to it's existence beyond it fervent desire to be.

With the powers given to me, I create life, a divine action;

not from my womb, from the sancity of my mind.

A goddess of fantasy, I begin the mythcraft.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:22, Fri 21 May 2010.

Eight hours passed before Max felt the world spin about her as a terrible pain reached her spine. She fell back and the one-sixth of a Masterwork Diamond fell to the floor, shattered. It was freezing. Max awoke a small time later, her hair and mouth covered in vomit. The remnants of the Masterwork Diamond had evaporated, returned to Max - power she needed. It was so very cold.

She wiped herself clean, then huddled together on the floor, in pain and freezing, alone.

Tears froze on her cheeks. She closed her eyes and gave up.

Draft
This message was last edited by the player at 04:23, Fri 28 May 2010.

The floor was very cold, the night aggressive in its deep chill. The Temple of Xi was empty, and Max was alone.

As she had always done, she unconsciously channeled fire magic to warm herself. The last time she had done this she had been but a Conjurer, and now as a full-fledged Grand Magus..

Death had lost it's sting. She laid on her back, and then pushed herself up into a sitting position. Drawing in a breath, she calmed herself, then stood. She did not have the luxury of surrender. She was fighting for others, not herself, and such a course of action was selfish.

She left Xi without her customary extravagance, leaving for two realms;

The First, That of the Isles of Perigo;

The Second, that of The Valley.

There were a scattering of doves - a beautiful morning - gunshots in the mist - the laughter -

And Maxilita was in Perigo.

I returned wearily to my home. Had Dxacku returned? If not, I headed up to my chambers, where I fell once more into blissful slumber.

Max could not find Dxakuu the Immortal, but did find his bed. It was warm and he slept for what seemed like hours. He awoke, however, to a feeling of deep unease and anxiety. He could swear that somewhere, just within his field of perception, he could hear whimpering, crying. He felt a moment of cold fear.

A shimmering blade of light materialized in my hand as I woke. I sought out the disturbance. Whom dare intrude upon the ruins of my kingdom?

The weeping continued, and Max hurried on. Through winding tunnels and hallways unseen by the God who held authority over them, past empty treasure rooms and libraries, alchemical labs long gone sterile and sleeping quarters, he came upon a large, wooden chest.

The chest was locked with a silver chain. Inside, the whimpering grew louder. There was something locked in there.

I carefully sliced apart the chain, let it drop to the floor, and threw open the chest.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:46, Wed 28 July 2010.

Inside was a single foxgirl. She had been tied and gagged. Her eyes were open, still, and her supple, pale flesh was covered with bruises. Some bones were damaged - her arm was bent at a strange angle indicative of a break. Her hands had been tied.

She was not breathing.

Every fiber in my being screamed. How could one have survived? How could I have left her here?

I immediately lifted her from the chest, removed the gag and the bonds, and began to perform basic first aid- an aura of life surrounded me, healing her, as my power over the wind helped me restore her breath with standard first-aid techniques. I moved her her bones back into place, healed them, restored her.

I'd already gone through the pain of losing my people so long ago. I wouldn't lose them all over again.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:29, Fri 30 July 2010.

She was dead.

She had been dead for a long while.

Max could not save her.

She whimpered no more; she lay perfectly and utterly still.

She was dead, and had been dead for a long while.

Max could not save her.

I twitched, then shuddered, then shook. Flames leapt from my hands, consuming her. I collected her ashes together, and dispersed them to the four winds, in the traditional manner of Xi.

I returned to my altar room, numb. I passed from there to the armory.

I went to the spot where my sword had lain, and placed there the sheath of the shattered sword.

I fell to my knees, and looked within myself, contacted that ancestral sword that now ran in my veins.

Have I not suffered enough? Will you not grant me the strength to protect them? To avenge them? To end the threat, that no other may lose their loved ones to the Dread Lord? Please.. show me how to wield you, now. Fight beside me at last. What myriad powers hath you hid from me?

Max was consumed with thunder and light, a surge of visions, and he was swept away by them.

In these visions he saw Xakuu fighting against a threat he couldn't understand in the furthest, highest and coldest peaks of the Realm of Anvils. Butterflies, shifting in the wind, their symmetry the doom of any who sight them. He had been reborn, sans Attainments. He could no longer change form - he had sacrificed all for immortality. Not even his Dhaal would speak to him. Consumed by silence and anger, he had become one of the Hakhadhaal, the hidden and holy warriors of the Systemarch.

But his cell.. they were losing. Soon they would be dead.

It was so cold in the Realm of Anvils. So cold.

He saw the Dragon stir. Further layers of intrigue. Deep beneath the coldest mountains of the Realm of Anvils. There was no name.. not for a long time. No function. Hunted. Once a creature of the frost, now.. taken by the thing. Taken. A prisoner. The spider-folk would understand its plight.

The Butterfly Man whispers.

All is washed away in a sea of sound..

And Max awakens, knowing that one of the functions of his mystical blade is that of visions.. perhaps even prophecy.

Before I thought, I was running- like I had run when my realm was under attack.

My mind caught up as I leaped into the portal, just in time to think- Realm of Anvils: where my friend is.

And then I hit the water.

There was a crashing of light - gunfights in the snow - reminds you of the past - chaos from the smallest -

And he was there.