Alynia was now wearing a flowy but short white dress that reached to about mid thigh. Though it fully covered her shapely behind while she was standing up, Alynia had to make a mental not note to bend over in fear of showing more of herself than she planned to. She had been given a clean pair of modest white underwear but had not been supplied with a new bra. The fabric around her chest hugged her bare breasts delightfully, leaving little to the imagination. Though what she was wearing was a bit showier than Alynia was used to, she was glad to feel clean. She had been gazing out the window playing with her hair, which had been left down, thinking about what was to happen to her when the young woman opened the door.

At first Alyna was stunned by her beauty, but she quickly regained her senses."Um, thank you.. very much" Alynia responded very politely but obviously confused. She had not expected to be treated so kindly. "Could you tell me about these festivities? And also where my friend is?" She asked shyly. She also wanted to ask who this woman was, but Alynia couldn't think of a way to ask such an imposing question without sounding rude.

Alynia was now wearing a flowy but short white dress that reached to about mid thigh. Though it fully covered her shapely behind while she was standing up, Alynia had to make a mental not note to bend over in fear of showing more of herself than she planned to. She had been given a clean pair of modest white underwear but had not been supplied with a new bra. The fabric around her chest hugged her bare breasts delightfully, leaving little to the imagination. Though what she was wearing was a bit showier than Alynia was used to, she was glad to feel clean. She had been gazing out the window playing with her hair, which had been left down, thinking about what was to happen to her when the young woman opened the door.

At first Alynia was stunned by her beauty, but she quickly regained her senses."Um, thank you.. very much" Alynia responded very politely but obviously confused. She had not expected to be treated so kindly. "Could you tell me about these festivities? And also where my friend is?" She asked shyly. She also wanted to ask who this woman was, but Alynia couldn't think of a way to ask such an imposing question without sounding rude.

She smiled though the smile did not quiet reach her eyes as she regarded her. Clearly she was aware of who she was or perhaps did not care at all.

"You will find this room your home, act up and you'll be cast back into the dungeon. But you'll be the guest of honor, I suppose in a way you all will for you have the privellage of dying when the planets are aligned sealing my immortality and eternal youth.

"But you'll be reunited with your friend, albeit briefly. A pity, one so young and beautiful but with the life span of a flower I suppose."

She grinned again, already turning to head towards the door.

Alynia's suspicions about who this woman was were comforted as she taunted the poor girl. Alynia clenched her jaw biting back her tounge, her insides were suffering with rage, but since a young age Alynia had always known how to be formal even in the most unfitting of times.

Alynia's tense face turned into a blindingly sweet smile.

"I am so glad to recieve the privilege of being your honored guest." she beamed.

Alynia's smile and voice though never losing its honey sweet appeal, suddenly hardened.

"Thank you for you kind words." she declared with a piercing voice. "Because the thing I love about flowers is that they always grow back much more beautiful than before."

She stopped, glancing back over her shoulder. At first it seemed that she was furious as it appeared that her barbs were having no effect though they clearly were at the utterance of those passing words. She smiled at her words, but said nothing to them as she realized that she had effected the girl in some small wy. Thus she departed leaving Alynina in the small unfurnished room.

It was hard to say what hour it was or how much time had past though it had to be late evening. It was summer and thus the sun took longer to set and while the sky was a swirl of colors it was still light out.

"Wasting away in here," she heard a voice call out from behind her. Looking she saw a little man, well smaller than she being about four feet in height and adorned in silver clothes. His eyes were a violet hue and his hair was long and tied back. His nose was slender, long and pointed.

"Oh, don't worry about answering it was a rhetorical question. My Sable has chosen well this time."

Alynia was feeling more restless as the seconds passed. The monotony of having nothing to do in her empty prison was torturing her. She had been staring out the window for what felt like an eternity warning the sun set at a snail's pace. Her stomach was growling, her mouth was parched. Alynia couldn't remember the last time she had felt this uncomfortable. Sighing dramatically Alynia turned around in surprise to find someone standing there.

Alynia was stunned and didn't know how to respond to such an untimely compliment.

"Thank you.." she answered unsurely. "Is there something I could help you with?" she continued, hoping that if she was polite enough this stranger would provide her with something to eat.

"Oh, not really though I hardly think that you are in a position to assist me. How is the view?" He waved a hand in front of him. "Another rhetorical question. I'm afraid all you can see from her is that damned forest."

He sighed. "To think just a few hundred years ago it was so serene but Sable's twisted it to her will. I am about the only thing that remains from the glory days but I'm as much a prisoner as you. Bond to this place."

He paused, regarded her and seemed to understand as if out of no where he produced an apple in his hand and tossed it to her. By the time she caught it she saw that he held two goblets in one hand and a bottle of wine in another.

"Care to share a drink with me? I must confess Sable takes to killing all the pretty one's quick and if not for this alignment of planets coming up she would probably have killed you tonight too."

Alynia took a grateful bite of the red apple, food always tasted much better when one was hungry. Alynia was almost positive that this might have been the sweetest apple in the world. She chewed thoughtfully while listening to the little man, who was not at all who she thought he was. She had assumed that he was another of Sable's henchmen, but that appeared not to be the case. She swallowed he piece of apple in her mouth before speaking.

"Excuse me for saying so, but I'm glad that theres someone else in a similar situation as me." she said with a sad smile.

Alynia glanced at the wine bottle with an inquisitive expression. She didn't drink much alcohol except for the occasional tradition sake, but at this point Alynia was sure her morals were the least of her problems.

"I'd be delighted to share a drink while I'm still alive." she responded playfully even though Alynia knew she had no intention of submitting to the witch's wishes. There were still two or three days until the actual alignment, until then Alynia was confident she would think of a way to escape.

He nodded and two chairs appeared near the window for them. He walked over two it, set the glasses down and uncorked the wine after looking at the label of the bottle.

"Sadly I didn't bring any of the good stuff, there's little cause to breaking it out these days." He poured them there drinks setting the bottle down on the window sill and taking up both glasses handing her one.

"Our circumstances are only similar in that we are both prisoners. Sable wishes to keep me alive, drawing magical energy from me. As my power wanes the forest out there slowly dies and to think it was so beautiful once, almost as beautiful as present company."

e took a sip of his drink as he turned to gaze out the window. "But for my pride I get to watch as my kingdom slowly corrodes and dies. Now after centuries I have but a few parlor tricks at my disposal so few in fact that Sable hasn't considered me a viable threat in years I might add. Hence she leaves me to my own devices.

"Now I am but a useless old man. In my prime I may have had a chance but alias not now." He snapped his fingers and a small table appeared between them. On it was a basket of bread and a dish of butter. Two butter knifes where there and two saucers. One of the rolls levitated into the air along with a knife and buttered the roll though the little man looked a little strained as he did so.

The roll floated down to rest on the plate before her and he did the same for one that came to rest before him. "Even that took a bit too much energy. And before you even consider it the knives and tools I manifest are quasi real and break apart before long. Once they were more substantial for a little while though now they break apart if used to do much else then the most mundane of things. Oh, it's been decades since I've had steak, no tools I manifest even last long enough to cut through it."

"Please don't strain yourself." she pleaded noticing the man's expression.

She began to take dainty sips from her glass of wine while nibbling on the provided bread, Alynia listened to the man's story attentively. Understanding much of his complicated situation, Alynia felt a rapid boiling feeling of resentment toward the witch most likely increased by her alcohol intake. Even though she had barely drank half of her glass, ahe had never been able to handle her alcohol well.

"That horrible witch must be stopped!" she exclaimed abruptly. "How can go just sit there when you and your kingdom are growing weaker by the day?"

Alynia gasped, shocked at her own words.

"I-I'm sorry, that was not my place." she stuttered looking down at her knees. "But there must be something that can be done. During my journey here, so many people had told me that it was hopeless..." Alynia drew in a breath. "But I refuse to believe that. I came here with the intent to save my friend and to put a stop to Sable's reign." Alynia stopped to take in his expression.

"I will not just lay down and die for someone as horrible as her." she said softly clutching her hands in her lap.

Her body was trembling with both anger and fear. Taking in the reality that she could very well die in two days time was a difficult thing for Alynia to do. Tears welled up in the corner of her eyes, but she quickly wiped them away. She felt silly getting so emotionally work up.

"I'm afraid that my magical aptitude can not hope to compete with hers at present time. Nothing is utterly hopeless either, difficult yes, hopeless no." He flickered a gaze toward her, rubbed his chin then looked back out into the forest.

"I am quiet older than Sable and know of ancient magics that Sable does not, magics that I haven't drawn upon since my youth in fact though I cannot tap into it myself and if Sable knew about it I doubt she would allow me to wander around so freely.

"Tantric magic ..." he paused, gazing at her as if to see if she heard of it. He doubted it if Sable was unaware of it. "I can syphon off the magical auas of others, well a small part at least. She these energies surround all living things to greater or lesser degrees. Usually stronger willed things have greater magical auras but that's not always the case.

"Syphoning off these energies is possible with a great degree of effort. Think of it as recharging a battery from your world. Jumping it with another battery, you take energy from the second to recharge the first without any hindrance to the second. There is a price to doing this, however.

"While psyically you are unharmed emotionally you get drained for a bit growing tired for a little while but the act can only be performed during the exchange of bodily fluids, that is intercourse. Hundreds of years have gone by since I've even dabbled with it. I had little use in it other than experimentation and curiousity at how it worked back then but probably is the only thing to grant me a brief recharge and I doubt that I can regain all my powers but ..."

He paused as he considered something. "There are other rituals to syphon off this aura but they require greater magical power to conduct rituals and the right circumstances."

Alynia's expression was difficult to decipher as she set her wine glass down thinking it best for her not to drink much more. She listened to him biting her lip slightly unsure of what to say.

"Your saying that you want to find a way for you to draw off enough energy for this.. Tantric magic to work?" she wondered blinking in slight confusion. "Intercourse?" Alynia exclaimed furrowing her eyebrows and blushing. She squeezed her knees together self consciously before sighing.

"What other rituals are there?" she asked catching onto the last bit of his words. "And what circumstances do they require?"

"Oh, no, no, no," he waved a hand in front of him. "I don't want you to think that's what I want. Only that it would be possible to bleed off a little power for other magicks. This old man was merely making conversation, after all there's little else to be done at this stage, Sable's power is immense and doubtful that it can be broken at this stage.

"There are several rituals that can be used if one has the knowledge and power to perform them. Such as this sacrifice for example. Sable is using it to attain eternal youth and beauty but there are other applications that it can be used for, even nonlethal ones that strengthen the practioners strength with the arts."

He glanced at her, seeming to draw in her reactions as she colored, using his ages of experience. He set down his roll, took the back of one of her hands and patted it softly. "Not to say that you aren't a beauty and all, I just needed to clarify that to you and get such foolish notions out of your head before they took root."

Alynia ducked her head down wondering if he meant the just the thought of intercourse or her unquenched will power in general. She sighed softly looking out he window where indeed the sun was beginning to set. The beauty of the sky only marred by the twisted black forest below. Alynia tried to imagine what the forest would appear like if the witch hadn't ruled. Even though Alynia was distracting herself small tears were forming in the corner of her eyes. As silly as it sounds the girl simply didn't want to die, but there was no place for her to criticize herself for being cliche. Alynia looked back at the man.

"I'm sorry for interrupting, but its only now I realized you haven't yet told me your name?" she asked politely taking another bit of the disappearing bread. Once he answered Alynia thought about the process of magic he was talking about, the process of magic that was going to, hopefully not, happen to her. "I can't imagine that the process won't still be painful." she inquired. "Is this also how Sable gains magic power? Or is it simply just for youth and beauty and all that nonsense."

"Forgive me, where are my manners. The name is Oberron." He glanced to the dying forest with a heavy heart then nodded slightly as she continued. "Sable has found a way to imprison me here and slowly bled off my power throughout the years. I suspect she uses an artifact for this but before she caused all this she was a fairly capable wizardress in her own right. Young but accomplished hence is the benefit to being human I suppose, being shorter lived you tend to rush through things and acquire the same amount of knowledge it takes the longer lived folks to learn the same thing, we simply don't have to rush through things or devote ourselves to a craft. Eventually, due to our long lives we pick it up.

"What she's doing is for vainity plain and simple. My wife ... ex wife I suppose you'd call her .. Tatiana, was among the first of her victims.

"Things for her ritual are painful in that in her short life there was no inclination to find a better way. As I have said before Sable simply does not know about tantaric magic simply because there are quicker ways to gaining power. She does not know how to make her rituals painless either. I known this though, I am quite old and even the centuries she has 'borrowed' from others is merely a blink of an eye for me."

He waved his hand casually and more rolls appeared in the basket. He started buttering one the old fashioned way with the use of his magic as his words sank in.