The orange and red sunset of Boncly soon began to fade to the violet night sky, with the horizon to Atarah's right, the cardinal east, being the last bulwark of brightness to be seen. However, even with that last fragment of light, one of Edda's most breathtaking aspects was fully visible to the left.

A wide array of glimmering stars, littering the night sky with light and color as they hang in the balance.

"Anything interesting back there?" Alena asked from the driver's seat.

"Nothing dangerous. The sky's really beautiful though." She replied.

"Hmm? Oh, yeah! You can really see the stars shimmering. Never gets old." Alena said with a content sigh.

"Is it really that special?" Valp asked, looking outside from the back, just to make sure there wasn't something she was missing.

"I forgot you're a wild child!" Alena began with a laugh. "It's probably an old friend to you, but to folks like me who live in the mountain, getting the sight of the full sky is always a treat." Alena explained, letting her eyes trace the lines that draw the few constellations she recognized, before a rock caught the wagon's wheels, making it jump a bit, and she returned her focus to the road.

Kage began to complain about the moment, but Valp noticed that Atarah seemed to be distracted. It was a minor tell, but her ears were lower than they had been before the topic was brought up. "How about you, Atarah?" She asked, getting her attention.

"Huh?"

"Do you like stars a lot?"

There was a bit of silence as Atarah seemed to gather her thoughts, and Valp noticed her ears perk back up. "I suppose. I used to live underground, so every time I actually saw them, it was..." Her mind drifted once more to a scene from childhood, and the hazy image of a girl about her age with raven black hair.

"It was a special occasion."

"Speaking of special occasions, look alive!" Alena hollered towards the back. The homestead was entering view, and it wouldn't be more than a couple of minutes before they were there.

"Guess it's game time! Let's go girls~!" Flora said as she stretched her arms.

When they got to the homestead property, the sun had already set, but none of them seemed to have any trouble seeing in the darkness, so they pressed onward, covered by the dark of night.

From the white picket fence that cordoned off the land, it was about 100 feet to the actual house, filled with large garden plots. "How do we want to divvy up the work?" Kage asked.

"How do you mean?" Atarah asked, stopping in her steps.

"Well, it won't do any good for all five of us to look over the same areas at the same time. It's important to stick together when facing the unknown, but there's a reason the phrase is 'divide and conquer' you know." She explained.

"I suppose you've got a point youngin'!" Alena said, appearing beside the two.

"How about this, Atarah and Flora can check the outside of the house first, use those perceptive skills and book smarts! Meanwhile, the rest of us can check out the house, and we all meet back up in, let's say, 15 minutes? Sound good?" She asked.

"Can't complain," Atarah responded.

"Let's get to it! Adventure ho~!" Flora cheered.

"Come on fashion model, let's get analyzing," Alena said with a chuckle, waving Kage to the direction of the house.

Atarah and Flora quickly made their way around the perimeter of the house, while Kage, Alena, and Valp made their way inside.

Entering the house, the first thing that Kage noticed was the chill that ran down her spine. "Gods above, the sun just set, it shouldn't be this cold yet!" She noted, shivering.

"You're not wrong," Valp said, as she let out a puff of breath, showing that it was cold enough to be visible. "There's nothing in here to block the chill." She pointed to the large room to their left. The bookshelves along the wall implied that it would be a reading room, or perhaps a living room, but the only thing there was the bookshelves, and nothing on them either.

"This place was lived in for a while, right? Should be more decorated than this." Alena noted. "Unless they were, ugh, minimalists," Kage remarked, before looking to the right. "However, even people with tacky taste need to eat, yes?" Walking to the right of the first floor, she entered what looked to be a combination kitchen and dining room, a cute open-floor concept in her mind, but without a dining table, chairs, or any food to speak of.

Rummaging through the cupboards, she saw they were moderately stocked, some food had gone bad, but no utensils to speak of, and still lacking furniture.

"Do you think the disappearance could've been more mundane? Maybe they were in debt, sold off furniture and the like, but couldn't make their payments and got snatched." Kage theorized. "Doesn't sound impossible, but not likely if you ask me. Farming may be a high-risk profession at times, but it's also high-reward in the right markets, and according to what the Mayor detailed, they were on top of a goldmine level of fertile soil. Even if they had debts, I can't imagine they'd be so in the gutter that they'd get trafficked." Alena retorted, the two of them meeting up in the middle of the first floor.

"The furniture hasn't been gone long, either. A day or two at most." Valp said, still in the potential living room. "You sure? They've been gone for a month." Alena asked. "Maybe a couple of thieves got here before us. Wouldn't be easy work though, stealing furniture." Kage noted under her breath.

They entered the room and saw Valp carefully crouched, millimeters from the floor. "There's clean spots in the dust. No drag marks or footprints, other than ours. It's like the furniture vanished." She marked, drawing a theoretical placement of the furniture in her mind.

"That would match up with the presence of that weird planar energy, but why would it have been taken recently if this has been going on for about a month?" Alena asked herself.

They investigated the rest of the first floor, finding that there were two bathrooms and what seemed to be an empty guest bedroom, still containing its furniture. The three of them then turned their eyes to the staircase that was in the middle of the first floor, opposite the door.

"Well, that's downstairs, going up!" Alena said, before stopping in her tracks. "What's wrong?" Valp asked, but Alena merely signed to be quiet. The three of them listened closely. They heard Atarah and Flora talking about something outside, but couldn't make out the words.

Then, they heard a strange creaking coming from upstairs. They couldn't make out exactly where it came from, as the empty house echoed, but it sounded vaguely like slow, dragging footsteps.

"Let's move carefully from here." She said, smiling although nervous, and grabbed the mace that hanged from her side. Valp got her large hammer ready, and Kage charged up a small amount of magic before they stepped further.

A few minutes before that, Atarah and Flora made their way around the perimeter of the house, checking for any signs of escape. 

"I'm not seeing any tracks, human or otherwise. All in all, it seems pretty pristine." Atarah noted.

"What do you think we're dealing with here, Atarah?" Flora asked, keeping her eye more towards the horizons.

"Don't you think it's too early to say? We did just get here after all." She responded, eyes still stuck to the ground.

"You're not wrong, but I'm sure that brain of yours has already been ticking away at ideas, I just wanna pick it a bit~!" She said with a giggle. Atarah let out a sigh and pondered for a second.

"If we're dealing with planar energy readings, along with the family suddenly disappearing, and if Booth wasn't being hyperbolic, several of their possessions vanishing as well, then it wouldn't be hard to estimate that they went into another plane."

"Like falling into a sinkhole?" Flora asked. "I suppose, or maybe they were taken for whatever reason. Either way, I'm sure more options will present themselves as we investigate." She replied.

The two of them made their way to what would be the backyard of the manor. It was rather calm, with a small natural stream coming through the area, and children's toys scattered about. "Seemed to be a happy family," Atarah said.

"Mhmm! A father, a mother, two sons, and two daughters! An idyllic life for simple folk. The only thing missing is a pet, but I suppose they have farm animals for that." Flora recounted. "Well, had."

"Did all of the family still live here?" Atarah asked, checking the backside of the house. "Well, from this paper I snagged off of Booth's desk after I grabbed some extra cocoa, nope! The parents were here, obviously, but their eldest son, Richard Bunker, actually moved away not long ago. Runs a general goods cart and travels apparently~!" Flora recited.

Atarah couldn't help but giggle, surprising Flora. "You're quite the trickster, I'll have to keep my guard up around you." She said. "Well, keep it up more than I already have." She thought afterward before something stole her attention.

"Not to worry Atarah~ I wouldn't be so mean to my partner in rational thinking! I'll only mess with ya!" Flora said, skipping next to Atarah, who quickly kneeled to the ground.

"This flower..." She said, staring intently at a strange five-leaved flower. "Black and white, with heart-shaped patterns on its leaves, what kind of flower is it?" Flora asked.

"I don't know. Or rather," Atarah carefully plucked the flower, which had seemingly been growing out of the back wall of the house. "I know enough to know it's not a normal flower."

"Flora, do you have any Druidic magic?" She asked. "Nope~! All my magic is Arcane, Wizardry to be specific. If it's a magic item of sorts I have the Identify spell, but that's all." She responded.

"No matter, I have my own methods just in case," Atarah said, pulling out a small glass bottle containing clear liquid, stopped by cork and an orange thread.

At that moment, the Detect Magic spell that Flora had been subtly casting for the last 10 minutes finished, and she could see that nothing about the flower was innately magical but could see the energy of her teammates, and a minute spot of something akin to Conjuration Magic in the house. 

Atarah, meanwhile, took two petals of the strange flower and dropped them in the liquid, before replacing the cork and swirling around the mixture in her hand. "Dear Atarah, you were keeping something interesting from me?" Flora asked with a comedic gasp.

"Actually, where'd she get that? She left her travel gear in the cart, and only had a handful of pouches on her belt, none big enough for that bottle." She asked herself mentally.

"It's simple Alchemy, Chemistry more like it. I don't have as much magic as trained casters, so I've learned a handful of these tricks to help me out. This one distills the natural mana from something and gives me a rudimentary reading of it." She recounted.

"Oh? I hate to burst your bubble, but I'm not getting any kind of magic reading off that flower." Flora said. "It's more than just active magic, it also discerns what effects you could get from the plant in more advanced alchemy. It's a potion maker 101 skill. But I have a different intention for this."

The water soon turned a dusty gray, as the petals were fully dissolved. "I knew it. This flower isn't from the material plane. Although, my handbook doesn't mention this color." She said, flipping through a small notebook.

As she flipped through, Flora noticed the other three heading up the staircase through a window, before pausing. "So what do you think that means?" She asked, turning her attention to Atarah once more.

"Color oddity aside, it means that this isn't just a case of a portal, and it's more than the family being taken. If that were the case, then nothing from another plane would be here on the material, it'd be just the other way around." Atarah said.

"And we aren't seeing more of those flowers, so I don't think it's a side effect of a spell or the presence of a creature," Flora added on, scanning the backyard. "So a possibility that I can think of..."

"Is that this is a case of planes intersecting. For some reason, the Veil between this plane and another is thin here, and something has broken through, enough for a piece of extra-planar wildlife to take hold!" Flora said with a snap.

"Right. We should get back with the others, see if they've found anything indoors." Atarah said, pocketing the rest of the flower.

"Right-O!" Flora said as the two of them returned to the front of the house. 

However, they suddenly heard a crashing sound and hurried their pace. As they entered the front door, Flora paused to look towards the possible living room and was surprised to see the small spot of magic had grown larger.

Not only that, but matching the growth of the magic presence, the small amount of color that had been present in the night was whisked away, and a wave of monochromatic colors was weaving its way across the room. 

"W-What the-"

"Flora! Down!" Atarah yelled.

Flora turned in time to see a rotted face flying towards her, rows of sharp teeth bared and eyes full of hollow hate.

A moment of panic froze Flora, but Atarah pushed her out of the way in the nick of time and blocked the fangs with her blade.

"You three! Are you alright up there!?" Atarah shouted.

"We got this! Worry about yourselves!" Kage shouted back, muffled by distance.

Just a few minutes earlier the three ascended the stairs, taking care to stay quiet as they moved along. It seemed that the second floor consisted of four bedrooms and another bathroom, but they couldn't tell which one the sound was coming from.

Carefully, they let Valp open the doors and prepared to take action just in case, but after checking three of the bedrooms and the bathroom, all that jumped out at them was the presence of furniture and total silence, with even that singular footstep fading away.

Finally, they were in the last location possible, what they assumed was the master bedroom. "Let me take the lead here," Alena said. "That way you can be ready to swing, this is the last room possible." She gave Valp a thumbs up, and the stern warrior nodded.

As she opened the door, she prepared for the worst, but there was just more silence. Extremely suspicious, Alena moved carefully into the room, judging from the furniture it did seem to be the master bedroom, frantically looking all around for any sign of movement.

That was when she felt it, a small drip of liquid against her hand.

It was clear and dropped right off to the ground. As she looked up, she saw its source.

Hanging from the ceiling was a humanoid, male-seeming figure, with gray gaunt skin, pure black eyes, and rows of sharp teeth, drooling above her. As they locked eyes, the figure readied himself to pounce on Alena, but Valps timely movement got the better of him, and he got slammed out of the air and into the wall.

"Hallway, more room!" Valp shouted, quickly dragging Alena into the hall. As she did, Kage took point behind them and saw two of the bedroom doors that they had closed begin to open, as a wave of monochromatic colors bled into the world. "What the hell is that!?" She shouted.

As they gathered, they found two more of the same monstrous figures at the end of the hallway and heard Atarah shouting downstairs as well.

"You three! Are you alright up there!?" Atarah shouted, muffled by distance.

"We got this! Worry about yourselves!" Kage shouted back, hiding her own panic.

As Alena regained her composure, she pointed the tip of her mace at the monster that had tried to strike her, preparing to come out of the master bedroom, and focused her divine energy into the dragon-bone core of her weapon. "By the grace of the Mother Dragons, begone!"

A blast of radiant energy rocketed from her mace and struck the monster through the heart, and made its form illuminate. It was still moving, but Alena noticed that it seemed to already have spots of its body that were injured and deteriorated from something.

"Valp, take care of that one!" She shouted, spinning around and looking towards the end of the hallway, where a spectral axe appeared out of thin air and attacked one of the two monsters that had come from the other room.

The first monster jumped at Alena, who had taken her eyes off of him and pinned her against the wall with a slam. Kage was prepared to blast him off of her, but the monsters down the hall quickly closed the distance, claws flying rapidly, one of them attacking her and Valp each.

She dodged the first swipe, but the second was faster than she thought it would be and grazed her arm. Valp meanwhile took two slashes straight onto her back, but barely even flinched, as her brow furrowed. An aura of primal strength surrounded her, and her glare was cold as ice at that moment. 

As Valp began her assault, she decided to finish off the first monster. With the help of Alena's spell, she swung her hammer at the weak muscle, exposed through open wounds, at the back of the monster's neck, and decapitated him with an upswing of her weapon. In the same motion, she brought the hammer back down on the monster that had attacked her. The hammer bashed against the monster's skull, but it didn't pierce it as easily, and the wound, full of black ichor, began to close up.

"Unless you've got a magic weapon, they'll shrug off most attacks." Kage explained. "Guess I'll have to hit them harder then." Valp replied.

Kage rolled her eyes and released a chaotic burst of energy that soon turned moisture into the air into a stream of ice shards that rained against the monster that had swung at her. In the chaos of it, she was able to dash past and behind the monster, to give herself some more space.

The monster soon turned to retaliate against her, but before she could, Alena appeared behind it and held the tip of her mace against its head.

"Be at peace."

Radiant light burst from her mace, burning the flesh of the monster as well as blinding it. While it flailed from the pain, she directed her spectral axe closer, and it flew through the air, using the imaginary momentum to swing at the monster as well. With the flesh burned from the spell, the axe had no problem using its magically manifested edge to bisect the head, stopping the creature's pain.

Seeing this, the remaining monster howled in rage and launched itself at Alena, earning it an attack from Valp while it was distracted. However its sudden speed caught her off guard, causing her to miss, and it continued to slam into Alena. Or rather, slam into the shield she had raised in time, causing its claw slashes to hit mere air or pure steel.

In quick succession, Valp swung her hammer down at the monster, making it bounce off of the ground. Kage aimed while it was in midair and blasted it with bursts of flame, burning its flesh, and Alena gave one final burst of energy to destroy the necrotic energy within it, leaving it at peace.

There was a moment of silence as they caught their breath, and Valp could hear Alena muttering a prayer for the fallen. "Come on, the others might need our help!" Kage said, beginning to rush downstairs.

As the fight had begun upstairs, downstairs Atarah kicked off the monster that she had blocked before, and unleashed an almost impossibly fast flurry of sword slashes, making ichor burst from shallow wounds on the monster, forcing it back a few feet out of shock. However, those wounds began to close up quickly. "Regenerators, fantastic."

"Flora, work on the-" Atarah began to say, before another monster came rocketing from the living room ceiling, slashing downward on the Dark Elf, catching her off guard. 

"Hands off my mind-buddy, hag!" Flora said as a spellbook materialized in the air and began flipping through pages. With a swipe of her index finger, shimmering spikes of energy came from the head of the latest monster and faded quickly, racking its mind with pain.

"Flora! I can handle the monsters, see if you can stop whatever that is!" Atarah shouted. "You sure?" Flora asked.

Atarah gave a cocky smile and nodded. With that, Flora nervously moved to the wall that was turning monochrome.

The first monster moved to attack Flora, but Atarah got in the way, earning herself a full swipe from its black claws. "You two aren't going to make this easy for me, are you?" She asked as both monsters turned their eyes onto Atarah.

"That's fine, I wasn't going to make it easy for you, either."

Atarah quickly tossed a small glass vial of cobalt liquid with a silver cap between the two monsters, before suddenly breaking it with her sword. The contents of the bottle splashed onto both of the monsters, and she had directed the sword swing in a way that allowed her to wound the first monster as well.

As the ichor leaked from the new wound, it suddenly stopped regenerating, and the liquid spilled on the two monsters began to sizzle and burn as they screeched. "Lapis's Lover, mixed with Elderwrought Root and Moon-Tears, kept in a consecrated vial with a silver cap. A fast-acting but devastating version of Holy Water." She explained, before continuing her offensive.

Atarah launched herself at the first monster, using her sickle-like sword to slash down on the monster's shoulder, which mixed with the acid-like effects of the holy water rendered the limb unusable, and a quicker, typically less lethal, stab to the nape of the monsters neck was enough to stop it from moving long enough to let the mixture finish it off.

Before she could pick herself up, Atarah was tackled by the remaining monster, who sank its claws into her shoulder as she was pinned to the ground. She was prepared to attack it, still, but found that right afterward, the body slumped to the side and fell, the mixture burning through its energy as well.

"Atarah, Flora, you two alright?" Alena asked as the others came downstairs. "She's fine, and I'll live. Flora! How's the magic?" Atarah asked, running into the living room.

"It's, uh, to be honest not going well!" Flora said as she attempted to dispel the ongoing magic affecting the house. "Whatever it is, it's seeping from underneath the house! I'm trying to stop it, but it's like trying to use a bucket against a Tsunami!" The strain of it was evident from her voice.

"I'm not so good at this, but let me try and help!" Atarah said, rushing to her side. "You know Dispel Magic!?" Flora asked. "Kinda, it's a Dark Elf thing!"

As the two of them tried to push their energy together for the magic, Valp looked outside. "Uh...guys." She said pointing out the window.

"Oh, shit, uh, magic duo!" Alena said.

"Kinda busy here!" Flora shouted.

"Look outside you dunces!!" Kage shouted back.

Turning their mutual attention to the window, the pair saw that the sky outside had gone entirely black, without a star in the sky, replaced with only one, large, blood-red moon.

"What the actual fu-" the two said in unison, before they got forced out of the magic struggle they had been taking part in, and the wave of monochromatic energy washed over all of them, and the sensation that came after could only be described as a worldwide shift.