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He was a man caled Glare. He was a fairly unimpressive pit fiter for the cabal. There was nothing impresive about his glare, or even his looks for that matter. He had short, unkempt hair, and a 5 o'clock shadow that lasted days at a time. His name was given to him by the cabal, in honor of the creatures he used to fight in the pits. He was the only man brave enough to work with gorgons. Though, looking back, it may be that he was the only man stupid enough to do it.

He had come to the pits with only one of the demonic creatures at his command. It had a stone claw and veiled eyes. He may very well have been stupid, but he wasn't that stupid. He called her Talon, and she called him master, the few times she spoke. Any caballist who spent much time around them noticed a subdued personality to her outside of battle. In battle she was like a snake, calm, quiet and still, until she struck, and then her opponents were dead.

She had a slender frame, and her more fleshy arm was slim and delicate looking, though many had discovered in the pits that it was just as strong as her more intimidating apendage. She did not have the traditional snake-har of her kind, instead it was more like a mass of tentacles, scaly and serpentine, like her snakes were inverted and their tails were sticking out of her head. Her "hairs" were each almsot as long as she was tall, and often served as whips in battle.

Right now her hair was as still as the rest of her, as she stood quietly behind him. Glare was in the middle of a magical ceremony that he said would bring another gorgon to assist them. A massive cauldron was in the middle of the room. A circle was etched in the floor around it, with runes and sigils spreading out from it, and seeming to crawl up the walls. Four braiziers were lit and standing one in each corner. A stone doorway was on one wall with large metal doors sitting in it with runes both engraved and raised on its surface. Across from the massive doorway was another doorway, but rather than the massive doors, a smooth stone slab was within it, and seemed to be part of the wall.

Glare stood facing the stone doorway across his cauldron. He began chanting in a mumbling tone as he reached over the cauldron and closed his eyes. He slowly moved his fingers and what looked like small stone flakes fell from his grip into the cauldron. From the surface of whatever liquid was in it rose a deep purple mist. As he continued to mumble, the mist spread over the floor, swirling around the drawings on the floor and spreading up to ankle height. After a moment, the mist was all sucked toward the impassible doorway as if by a great wind. The mist swirled before the stone arch and rose up, completely overlaying the stone slab within. Then the mist began to fade, but rather than the dark stone standing behind it, there was something even darker. It wasn't a stone and it didn't seem solid. In the doorway a black void now stood, and in that void, something moved.

"Come forth, and serve your new master!" Glare raised his arms as he shouted to the void. Slowly, the purple fog returned, rolling out of the doorway to the void.

Glare stood in silence fore a moment as the room once again filled with mist, then a voice came from the voide. It was like a hiss, taunting him from the darkness, "I have no masster...I do have victimss. You could be one thosse."

Glare's brow began to sweat as he slowly lowered his arms. "I have summoned you. I am your master and you <i>will</i> serve me!"

"You have summoned me. That does not mean you are able to control me," a small strip of tattered cloth flopped into the room from the void, a gray-purple dress followed it, the legs underneath it seemed firm and slim beneath the material. The dress came up to a slick black strapless top that hugged tight against skin the color of granite. The creature that stood across the cauldron from glare looked like a very well defined woman, her nails came to points, and her facial features were sunken and outlined in dark shadows. At first she looked bald, but with one step forward and a whip-crack the serpentine tendrils that extended from her head came clearly into view. The tendrils on her head were thicker than Talon's, and moved with blinding speed as they snaked around her body. One more step and she was right in front of the cauldron. The creature raised a hand and slid one of her claw-like nails along the rim of the cauldron. She closed her eyes and rolled her head back as she inhaled with a sharp hiss. With a mffled "whump" two stone-like wings spread to her sides. She stared at Glare with a devious look in her eyes.

The gorgon closed her hand on the rim of the cauldron. Without so much as a grunt she lifted it about an inch off the ground and flung it into the portal behind her. The portal vanished, leaving the cauldron imbedded in the smashed in, solid stone of the wall. "Talon!" Glare shouted to his pet as he staggered backward, into the closed door. Talon leaped at the other gorgon, her namesake thrust at her opponent's chest. The other gorgon saw her coming and didn't move to counter until it was almost too late. At the last moment, her left hand shot up and clutched the massive claw by the wrist. for a moment neither of them moved.

"You called her Talon. Is that the name you gave her?" The gorgon looked at Glare, he was frozen in place, knowing full well that at any moment she could make him cese to exist, so long as she looked at him. "I am Vissara. Call me anything else and you will die. If you have one of my ssissters in your sservice, i will do as you ask. But do not confuse me with ssome pet." She practically spat the last word at Glare.

"V-very well...m-miss Visara." Glare was on the verge of wetting himself as he put every ounce of his will into pulling his eyes away from Visara's, to no avail.

"Misss Vissara...? Yess, perhapss we may get along after all." The gorgon gave a grin that only made Glare more uncomfortable as she released Talon's claw. She slowly strode across the room and stood over Glare, the greusome grin still on her face. "I've lived in the dark for so long, can't we go somewhere more comfortable?" With that she reached forward and grasped the handle to the cast-iron door. Her muscles tensed and she reeled hard on the barricade. The massive hinges on the door whined as they were wrenched free and the door clattered as it hit the opposite wall, landing right next to the cauldron in the stone.

Visara walked calmly up the long stairway that lead to the small chamber. Talon walked quietly to glare and offered him her more humanoid arm. He stared after Visara, the shock still evident on his face. He noticed Talon's hand and, pushing it away stood up, brushed himself off and followed his new "assistant."