In regrets own state of clouded mind, she did not notice the disapperance of Andarta. The fog was so thick she coould barely make out any image that did not seem misplaced or nightmarish. The place simply gave Regret the creeps, even its sadness engulfed her heart and for one of the goddess, it was a sense of negativity she did not like to be surrounded in. No matter which way she looked there was no real sense of direction, like every path led them to the same fate of death and gloom. Her nostrils were thick with the stench, snuffing her soul and demanding it to do horrible, sinister things to those traveling behind her.
For hours they had been walking in circles, it felt like circles and she was sure they had passed the same tormented, twisted oak more than a few times. It did not strike her as odd to get lost in dire circumstances for she was mortal and only had those mortal senses to go by. The other man and woman however, it was not hard to see they were not mortal and never had been mortal for she knew the look of the fey without having to be slapped up the side of the head with one. The fey had that distinctive aura of mistrust about them, the way they flittered and gittered in riddles and hidden tongues, for all Regret knew, this was just their way of finding amusement in mortals. It wouldn't be the first time that had been done.
And then there was a force pressing her on, even when she turned as if to travel back only to find herself facing forward and walking in the same direction. Or was she? It had gotten past normal perception and sense, this place lacked them and there was no way anyone could fight against something that wasn't there or had any reason or purpose to it. This was pure and absolute chaos and she did not like it one bit. With Andarta gone, she was now the one who led the party through the swamps and echoes of the ghostly and damned.
Maybe whatever was picking them off was starting with the weakest and working their way up to a challenge, then again, maybe the one who had bought them had something else this dark deity wanted. And with his newfound female companion dawdling along beside him, the treat was even tastier. Regret knew some thing hungry waited beyond that fog, in the darkness. Regret knew that hungry feeling before the strike, it was the same pressure that loomed over her village before it had perished at the hands of its enemies and the wolfs picked off theit scraps of flesh. She also knew that feeling of stillness, knowing some thing was in the darkness and every time you turn around, nothing is there only that darkness and creeping silence. Regret felt it then just as she did now.
Some thing was waiting, waiting to pick them off one at a time or even two. She felt, that in no way was this ancient darkness at all shy or fearful of them, it feared nothing. It was this sense of intuition that caused the tiny hairs to stand up all over her body and the slither of coldness creeping up along the center of Regret's spine to the top of her head. In all naked glory never had she ever felt as exposued, so vulnerable. Not even in the times of the trails, or during auctions where she was left naked in full display of all those prying eyes. Reget felt like an insect one about to stumble into a web and left to die. Maybe then again death woould not be as bad in comparison to this and whatever evil thing lay await ahead of them in the swarming fod and darkness.
Even as it cloaked around her, the usual ghostly touch of it seemed solid, more sinister in its origin that just a thing of nature between condensation and warmth. This was cold, the coldness of death as it kissed you farewell to the body and greeted the soul to an eternity of suffering and purgatory. Did the others feel this? They should of and being fey they should be more senstive to it, an unnerved by its presence, far more than she. At this point there was no sense in words or speaking, it would only give away their location to whatever lurked, if they had some kind of advantage may be it was the fact this thing was blind except by sound and movement. Then again, it coulc be playing some sick and twisted game with them, able to take them one by one without means to hide or ambush.
Who knew? Certainly Regret did not and had no means of knowing not to mention any defense she could think of against it.