Inside the Cube...

A pale blue light washes across the room. The walls are smooth and black and seem to absorb all the light. Once Jessica is a few feet away from the corridor if she turns around she will notice that it blends perfectly with the dark walls. If she is not careful, she may not be able to find it again. Every sound she makes echoes eerily through the cavern.

If Jessica looks to the center of the room, she will see a small pool of water. Above the pool of water floats a bamboo handled paint brush. Paint drips off of the bristles and into the water and with each drop the water changes a different color. Blue, lavender, golden rod, blood red, emerald green - each shade is beautiful.

The brush hangs suspended about four feet above the water. The pool is wide enough that Jessica will not be able to reach it from the shore should she consider trying to get it.

The dragging sound behind her seems to have stopped but she may find herself thinking that she heard the rustle of wings coming from a different end of the cavern.

((Kay, I'm confused about the layout of this place... It started in a long corridor, but then I thought there was an actual ROOM at the end, with like a door and stuff. And that's where this marvelous paintbrush thing is at.... But now it sounds like it's like an open cave area? Can you clear this up for me? Haha. Is it a room? Is there a door that separates it from the corridor where this super scarey dragging noise is coming from? kthx. :p

I made a doodle:

http://www.slimber.com/index.php?image=cube-map.g13754

The rectangle at the bottom is the door, moving upwards to the hallway then to the room (it's probably more like a cavern than a room. Paintbrush is in the middle with the lake. Nothing in this picture is to scale ha ha.

I forgot to include a picture of the paintbrush!

Jessica stared at the paintbrush in awe. Yeah, that looks like a cool weapon for someone like me, she thought, as she approached the pool. She tried reaching for the brush, though she thought that would be much too easy. As predicted, she couldn't reach it. She looked around the cavern, looking for inspiration as to how to reach the brush. She wondered how deep the pool was...

Taking out her sharpie, she drew a rock with a string tied around it. She made sure the string was exxxxxtra long. If the rockand string come out, she will lower the rock to see how deep the pool is... If it's not too deep, maybe she could draw something to pile up in the center, and use that the reach the brush..

((sorry this is super fast I really have no time!! D:))

The string and rock emerge from the floor (assuming that's where Jessica had drawn them). The rock seems fine but the string is fine and she will likely wonder if it will support the weight. The rock is heavy but Jessica manages to get it into the pool. It sinks rapidly and then the string breaks before the rock hits the bottom. If Jessica pulls the string back out, she will have nearly 17 feet of string but will be unsure how much more was attached to the rock before it sank. The pool turns the same shade as the rock momentarily and then resumes it's color change.

If Jessica tries to draw anything to fill the pool, she will be unable to. Anything she places in the pool will sink and then the pool will change briefly to the color of the object placed into it.

Before Jessica can try anything else, she will hear again the rustle of feathers and a loud cawing that echoes throughout the cavern. A large black crow circles the paintbrush and then lands opposite Jessica. It transforms into a man with feathery hair dressed in a white ruffled shirt and short trousers. He grins wickedly at Jessica with a mouth too big for his face - lined with sharp teeth- and stares at her with two large eyes.

"Hello Jessica of the Four," he croons in a soft dangerous voice.

((Guh. I shouldn't post when I don't have time; I'm not as specific as I intend to be with what I draw!! haha))

Jessica pulled the string back up. She still didn't know how deep it was, but she knew it was too deep to wade in. She thought again. A boomerang? No, that really only worked in Zelda games. First of all, she had no idea how to THROW a boomerang. Second of all, it made no logical sense for something to come to you because you threw something at all. Besides, her magic was irritatingly lame. Nothing she drew came out right.

After a bit, she decided she could try to make a bridge, of a sort. She drew on the floor (near to the pool) a long rectangle, several feet longer than the width of the pond at the center. She made it three-dimensional, making sure it was not too thick, but also not too thin. she made it about two inches thick. Then, she added swirly grain marks to the picture, making a wooden board. As she drew, she concentrated very hard on the board being strong, but not very heavy, just in case thinking about it would help. (I had no intention of trying to fill the pond with anything, so these actions would take place in the time frame trying to fill the pond with something would have taken)

Assuming the board pops into existence, Jessica attempts to heave it over the pond. If the board is heavy, she will be unable to lift it very high, and will therefore scootch it. If it is lighter, she will raise it up as much as she can. It was in this position that the... thing... appeared. It was horrifying. And it felt very, very bad. Besides, she had come to be suspicious of crows. The scary crow-lady... well... she and crows seemed to be connected. Especially crows that turned into really creepy creatures.

"Who the hell are you?" she said, taking a leaf out of Reyna's book and using some somewhat colorful vocabulary. She felt distinctly that this creature had only bad intentions concerning her. Also, she realized again that she still did not know the source of the rustling sound she'd heard in the corridor. Vaguely, she hoped that creature would be on her side...

The creature grinned wickedly, "I am Nemesio but that is of no import for you. You won't be around long enough to use my name!"

The creature sprouted large black feathered wings and flew at Jessica. As he was only a few paces away, Jessica is unable to dodge. Her feet are lifted from the ground and she is thrown against the wall. She hits the wall hard enough that it's very painful but nothing breaks.

The crow-man steps back to look at her with a cocked head. "Where is the opal? You cannot hide it from Tamesis!"

Jessica let out a cry of fear, which quickly turned to one of pain and she was thrown roughly against the wall. Her head smacks the surface especially hard, and her vision goes black for several seconds searing pain shooting across her skull. He mind works frantically, trying to digest the words of this attacker and the sudden onset of pain and looking for some escape.

"What? I-I don't know what you're talking about!" She sputtered, terror griping at her chest like acid, and throat tight from the tears filling her eyes.

She was helpless. The sharpie lay abandoned on the floor, too far away to reach quickly, as did the sword. The board was too heavy to wield as a weapon...

Nemesio ran his tongue across pointed teeth and hissed, "Don't waste my time with your lies! You will tell me what I want to know and then I will kill you. Depending how much you cooperate, I can speed up the event or draw it out."

"Now, where is the opal where you stored your power the last time you were here in Gnale?"

Jessica stared at this crazy creature. He was mad. Simply mad. No matter WHAT I say he's going to kill me? That's wonderful, she thought. She couldn't lie 'cause then she'd die anyway. Her eyes moved towards the Sharpie and the sword, abandoned next to each other, while still watching This N-named bird thing. "I'm not lying!" she pleaded, "I don't remember anything about when we left. I have no idea what this opal-thing is...!"

The corvus cracked his neck, "I was hoping you'd say that."

Nemesio drew a long knife out of his belt and ran his tongue along the side of it, "This should be fun."

He smiled gleefully as if there was nothing else that he'd rather be doing and began to walk towards Jessica.

He had only taken about three steps when BANG! A blast of green light hit the corvus and sent him careening into the wall. The knife skittered across the floor and fell into the pool which turned silver and then green.

The corvus picked itself out of the rubble with a scream of rage. He turned towards Jessica and then realized it was not her who had made the attack. His large eyes flitted around the room until they found what they were looking for. Nemesio's gaze rested on the hallway Jessica had just come through.

A figure in a brown hooded cloak stood in the entrance to the cavern. The figure met Nemesio's gaze.



"You!?" Nemesio said surprised.

He turned then to Jessica, "I guess you and I will have to conclude our business another time."

Nemesio's form sprouted black feathers and grew smaller as he returned to his crow form. He took flight towards the ceiling. Martin made as if to attack again but then lowered his hand. Nemesio vanished through the ceiling of the cube (and can now be found here).

Martin smiled wearily at Jessica and began limping towards her. As he walked, he leaned against the wall for support and had to slide one foot across the floor, wincing as he did so. He was obviously in bad shape.

It was slow going but he finally managed to reach Jessica and asked, "Are you alright?"

Jessica's eyes widened in fear as the thing took out the knife. 'hoh crap. She was about to make a made dash for the Sharpie and sword, her only hope of fighting this thing, when help arrived from a very unexpected source. She let out a small yelp or surprise at the green light (Jessica is very easily startled), and turned to the source. Recognized the figure about the same time as the Corvus.

After the Corvus flew off, Jessica ran towards Martin. "お前！" (you!!) she said instinctively, still teary-eyed and terrified. When she reached him, she stopped awkwardly for a moment, then punched him in the shoulder (in a friendly-type way!) and hugged him. "I'm so sorry! Valeri gave me back most of my memories..." She pulled away, looking at the ex-monk worriedly. "Are you okay? What happened? What can I do?"

Martin returned Jessica's hug but winced as he did so.

"I'm so sorry! Valeri gave me back most of my memories..." She pulled away, looking at the ex-monk worriedly. "Are you okay? What happened? What can I do?"

"Don't worry about me. I'll be alright." He told her with a broad grin. "I'm so happy to see you and I'm so glad your alright. I'm sorry I didn't stop him sooner. I walk a little slower now a days. Tamesis gave me quite a run around when she sent me away and I've had her corvi hounding me for days."

He paused and looked up at the suspended paintbrush, "So that's the All Brush. Some of our allies in the war made it for you but you never had the chance to use it before- before you left."

He glanced down at the sharpie, the sword and the board near the paint pond, "That's a tricky spell. No one can take the brush out of the air by simply grabbing it. It took me three days to set it up. We wanted to make sure it would still be here when you came back. You have to get in the pool to get the brush."

He turned back to Jessica and placed his hand lightly on the small of her back, "Go on and take it. It's been waiting six years for you to use it."

Jessica listened, her hand unconsciously remaining on Martin's elbow as she did. She grimaced at the part about Tamesis and the Corvi. "At least you have magical green light," she said, half-joking, "This sharpie makes everything pretty much useless..."

She then looked to the brush as Martin explained what it was. " 'No one can take it out of the air'?" She repeated. "Does that mean me, too?" she questioned, looking back at the monk.

Martin nodded, "Yes, no one can take it out of the air. It a bit of reverse logic really. Because you can see it above the pool, it seems like you should be able to reach it if you can get up just a little higher. That one's just an illusion. You can't take what's not really there. The real brush is below the surface of the water."

"What makes the spell so complex is that the brush has its own magic. I created the cube and hid the brush underground and made the illusion of the brush but the pool and the way to obtain the brush, the brush did that on its own. You have to walk into the pool to get the brush.

Jessica listened, a gave a teasing smile. "You genius, you!" She then took off her shoes (and socks, if she has them) and set them aside. She looked from the floating brush-- apparently an illusion-- to the surface of the water. Everything that had fallen into it had disappeared entirely. She looked back at Martin. "And this pool... it's not going to like... you know, hurt me or anything?" she asked. She may have regained many of her memories, and therefore many memories of magic, but she still didn't feel entirely comfortable trusting magic.... all the time.

If Martin gives a satisfactory remark that the water is safe, Jessica will attempt to enter the pool. First, she will slowly put in on foot. If it reaches a bottom, she will wade in, and swim if/when the water gets deep (Hey, it's magic! maybe it has a bottom for people or something haha)

If her foot does not touch a bottom, Jessica will sit on the edge of the pool and lower herself in, swimming underneath the floating brush. When she reaches the spot under the illusion, she'll begin to search for some kind of sign as to where the real brush is, and how she might obtain it.

"And this pool... it's not going to like... you know, hurt me or anything?" she asked.

"No, it won't hurt you." Martin told her still using the wall to hold himself up, "There were traps set up to dissuade others from attempting to take the All Brush but it's yours. You're the only one that's, we could say, immune to the traps."

As Jessica places a foot in the water she will experience a strange sensation. She can see the water and it ripples out from the place where her foot entered the water but she will be unable to feel the water. The water shifts to the color of her skin. If she pulls her foot back out it will not even be wet but feels the same as if she had just moved it through empty air. It is the same temperature as the rest of the room.

If she continues, she will be unable to feel a bottom to the pool. If she lowers herself in, she will find that the "water" supports her but she still can't feel it. As she swims underneath the brush the water will change from her skin color to the colors of her clothes, her eyelashes, her teeth etc.

When she reaches the middle of the pool Martin calls, "You'll have to go underneath. You don't have to dive necessarily just get your head underneath at least a foot or so. Just so as your whole body is submerged."

The water's an illusion, too, Jessica found herself thinking, intrigued. It felt so weird- like she was floating on air, which, she supposed, she probably was. She nodded at Martin's instructions, though she wasn't sure how else to get her head "underwater" except for to dive, so that's what she did, swishing her arms through the air-water to go beneath...!

As Jessica submerges herself, the room above her vanishes (should she choose to look back up). Surprisingly, the air underneath is not shifting from one color to the next. Instead, Jessica's eyes are filled with color. Every imaginable color in the spectrum dances before her but somehow she is still able to see things clearly.





Jessica hangs suspended in the air about 80 feet above the "bottom" of the pool. She will find that her suspicion about being in air instead of water proves true and she has no difficulty breathing. Small droplets of colored water also hang in the air with her. She will find that by thinking about where she wants to go, she will slowly drift to that location. Moving her body to move around will have no effect.

If she looks below her, she will see that the floor is also made up color. It curls and shifts almost as if it were a living entity. Directly below her, a mirror to the scene above, is the All Brush. Underneath it, is a black spot. It is still dripping color like above but the droplets do not form a pool, they merely hang suspended in the air.


(The brush should be there in the center above the black)

Jessica holds her breath for a while, just in case the air-water really is water, but it doesn't take long for her to decide that if it looks like air, feels like air, then it just might be air. She carefully inhaled a little, and was glad to find that it was, indeed air.

And what a crazy awesome air place it was...! The colors all around her were breath-taking. She hovered in the same space for at least a minute, simply taking in everything around her. It was stunning. Magic is so cool, she thought, smiling. She located the real All Brush, and tried to move towards it. She moved her arms through the air, in swimming strokes, but to no avail. She kicked her legs, still nothing. She flailed and waved them around quite undignified-like, but still, she remained suspended where she was. Gah! Go. There! she thought, irritatedly, and surprising started moving.

Oh. Well. Okay then. She reach the brush, hovering beside it but not touching the multi-colored floor. She was fascinated by the droplets of color floating from where they dripped off the brush, and curiously touched a purple one suspended near her. Then, she looked back to the All Brush, hesitating a moment, and reached out to take it...

When Jessica touches the purple droplet, it breaks into smaller droplets of water and turns the tip of her finger purple. This time it feels wet and really is water.

Jessica will find that she cannot take the All Brush. There seems to be some type of force field on the top and sides of the brush.

She hears a voice in her mind that is not her own, "You must take it from beneath..."

And now I'm going crazy, she thought, but obeyed the voice. She thought about floating beneath the brush, and when she arrived, she once again reached out to take it...

As Jessica's feet hit the ground, the colors rose up and began to swirl gently around her in a cyclone of sorts. Jessica is now able to take the brush. When she takes the All Brush, it will cease its dripping.

As she does so, the voice enters her mind once more, "Jessica, I am Iris. It is I who created the All Brush for you the last time that you were here. It was created to suit your particular powers. The All Brush can paint with any colors your mind can conceive. It produces the color all on its own. It can also paint on the air itself. You will no longer need an inkwell or a paper to use your power."

"However, your powers presently are incomplete. Before you left Gnale, you sealed a part of your power in an opal and hid it somewhere in Gnale. You will need to retrieve it to complete your power. The All Brush will help you to control your powers some but it still will not be perfect."

"I'm sorry that I cannot remain long with you. Tamesis influence is strong now in my city and I durst not be long. I can only offer you one other means of assistance."

The colors drifted away from Jessica and formed a woman.



Her skin glistened rainbows.

http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2010/265/6/9/bleeding_rainbow_by_ih8m0r0nz-d2xpwu7.png

She lifted an arm and another drop (clear this time as if it were merely water) fell from the All Brush and became a small lynx kitten who shook a few water droplets out of it's fur. Several smaller drops fell onto the kitten and tinted its spots various colors.



"This is Kiri," Iris said aloud for the first time "She will be able to locate and opal if you are near to one."

"I'm sorry but I must go! I hope we can meet again in more favorable circumstances."



Iris became the shifting colors again and the colors slowly faded away leaving the space black, now devoid of the colored air. There is still light coming from above her and she can still float freely through space though there seems to be nothing more to see down here.

((OMG SHE IS GORGEOUS I WANT HER HAAAAAAIR))

Jessica stared wide-eyed at Iris. When she spoke her name, a few memories came flooding back, but only a few. She remembered meeting Iris a few times, but that was it. They hadn't interacted much when she had been here six years ago.

"Thank you!" She called out, hoping her thanks would reach the lady before she disappeared. She remained standing, amidst floating colors, for a few moments, digesting everything. She looked at the brush in her hand, then at the lynx kitten. " 'Kiri...' " she repeated, then smiled widely. "You are simply adorable!" She kneeled, extending one hand to the small animal, as she did with her cats at home, waiting for them to sniff it and then accept a pet or scratch. "Should we go up and take care of Martin now?"

(Now you understand why I was so disappointed when I lost this post the first time. I had to go back and find the awesome pictures and stuff. Luckily I got it all back!)

The lynx responded to her name and approached Jessica wary at first. Kiri sniffs Jessica's hand and then, deciding that she's a friend, rubs up against her leg purring loudly.

Assuming that Jessica decides to go up: Jessica and Kiri float back to the top and are able to climb out of the lip of the "pool". Once out, she will see that where the pool was is now a large black void (as the colors had vanished with Iris).

Martin has sat down to wait for Jessica with his back against the wall of the cavern.

"You got it?" he asked excited for her "And a new friend too by the looks of it! Are you ready to get out of here? You can probably just paint a way out."