ORIGIN

It held itself inside the body of the canine, the largest body, but not a familiar body. The dog—Black—claimed to be darkness, the void, and the energy knew this was not true. Something it knew was this and Black was not what he claimed to be. But maybe the Gembound was a guardian, it did not care about what titles they gave themselves.

The wolf pup was speaking, and the canine's hearing was a strange sensation. "Vat-rah-heen!" it barked back to her, unable to fully communicate what it wanted. And it wasn't trying to hit things! Perhaps her body was correct? It bubbled within the canine, gathering itself together in preparation to make another jump.

Mixed with images of Black's memories, Winter sees flashes of ice and snow—Tunnel M if she has been there and recognizes it—and a snow leopard kitten crawling from a diamond chrysalis. Sister. It has a chunk of diamond between its shoulders. Cycles pass between flashes. Glimpses of the viewer can be seen passing icy walls: it is a king cheetah. Flashes. "Vahi!" a voice calls—the snow leopard has baubled something for you and is displaying visuals with Lightplay on an iced over wall, but the memory fades as a voice says, "Beautiful, isn't it?" Flashes. Snow leopard gazing into Orion. Flashes. Snow leopard stopped creating light. Flashes. Darkness. Orion. Flashes. Darkness. Sister? Flashes. Monoceros. Sister? Pain. Darkness.

The energy sensed the use of magic from the cobra and with a crackling discharge, thundered from the canine's body and into the snake's. It only pulsed uncomfortably inside this small, young body for a moment before finding it unsatisfactory. With another crackling discharge, it jumped to the young wolf next, a shrieking cry piercing the air. Static charged the empty space around them. But the wolf's body was not right either.

"Vat-rah-ha—" it began to growl from Kera's throat, but a new voice interrupted it.

"Vathrahi." It was firm, solemn. Despite the lights having been returned to normal, a thick shadow had pooled nearby. A large, naked wildcat-like body stepped up and out of it, eyeless and shimmering with a coat of shadow-like miasma. A single eye formed in the center of her head.

The energy was stilled in Kera's body for a moment, silent. Lightning began crackling along her back, as if it were thinking, but began to grow more and more dense until the energy collected itself and shot skyward and into the storm's eye with a deafening kreeack! The storm condensed itself before fixating on Senka, then chose her body next, shooting down and into the shadow-void creature with a boom.

It was a strange mix of light and shadow, but at least this body was most familiar.

"He did this on purpose," Senka said softly. "You have to figure your body out." She remembered the terrible eternity she spent in darkness, and she paid for it. She did not learn in time. Now her sister was going through the same thing and it was her fault—or, something close to the same thing. Senka had not been this... energy, this magicka without a home.

After some time, the storm stepped out of Senka's body, trying to maintain an unstable quadrupedal shape. Lightning raced across its features wildly, clouds rumbling within its form. It was staring at its shadow counterpart, as if trying to mimic the shape it had worn.

"Sissterr.." the thunder rolled, lightning arcing across the storm-cat's body.

"I'm here, Vahi," Senka confirmed, though she was unsure what kind of senses Vahi had. She primarily seemed to just be unstable lightning, energy, magicka—life that did not a place. But Senka had the gem still. Could Vahi house within it and use it as a vessel? Maybe something to experiment with Bartos later. Right now, Senka was oblivious to the others, trying to calm the unstable force that was the botched rebirth of her sister.

As the snake approached and asked what was happening and who they were, the unstable lightning body of the other feline shifted and arced erratically, as if trying to dissipate but hold firm at the same time—unsure of what it wanted, it expressed this as a rumble of thunder.

Senka stepped forward toward it—toward her—and lashed her naked tail upward. "Ho, Vahi; we will return home." She searched desperately for any sign that her sister might be able to see her, but even Senka had to manipulate magic to see. The storm body calmed at the mention of home.

The void creature turned her head toward the others, the eye in the middle of her face flicking between them. She did not feel the need to be particularly friendly toward them, but she was grateful that they tried to help her sister even if they did not know that is what they had done. Her shadows curled around her body as he considered what to say, regarding them and their questions neutrally.

"I am Senka, and this is my sister, Vathrahi," she introduced with a firm voice. "I was foolish in His name and she suffers for it now." Her answer to the snake was vague at best. "We do not need any further aid. We will be heading home. Whether you realize you have helped her or not... thank you."

Shadows consumed her as she melted into the ground, slipping into the scenery and disappearing into Polaris; the storm body of the other vibrated and sparked before shooting after her sister like a bolt of lightning, and just as fast, with a boom of thunder echoing in her wake.

The clouds overhead swirled and dissipated, clearing away.