Watching. Listening. So many of them, here and then there; things happening, and equally, things not. They were colors to his mind, echoes, voices, feelings, thoughts—busying about far above him, always, always, always. And if it was too loud, there was the waterfall, a roar, a constant. But brightest of them still was his ruby. There were things it had done he did not agree with. They had grown apart. They had argued. It was strange for Tenzin to feel distress. And still, the ruby was brightest in the maze, gleaming like an answer he did not want to reach.
The hidden depth of the lagoon was still his icy retreat, its branch-like spiked defenses having been bloomed by the visiting Blacksmith not very long ago; but such a sight would forever be a mystery, the true depth of the lagoon unknown. It was not common for him to receive summons. In fact, he rarely ever heard his name. The phoenix had not surfaced since the fight with Raheerah, and he had been healing here since; but what could the gembounds need of him, that they would call for him by name? And also "stag"?
His eyes struggled to opened inside the ice-like chrysalis that contained him, cracking the frozen layer that had sealed them. Of what he could sense of the gembounds above, one of them was a child and the other was older. He focused on the older gembound for a moment. Tenzin had met this gembound in the fight with Raheerah, though not on a personal level. The phoenix was ready to sacrifice his being to save Astraea and the children, but he was lucky to survive—though that did not mean he was on good grounds with Nemean.
Why were they calling for him, then? Tenzin did not sense the fiery chaos of Raheerah, but perhaps the 'Brug had found a way to cloak itself against his seeking. Dawa was, indeed, still dead. Was there some other threat? He cracked loose other parts of his body, listening as they called for him again.
And again, for the stag. Was it so urgent? He began to feel anxious.
"I am here," Tenzin told them telepathically. "I must rise from the lagoon. It has been a long time. Give me a moment to break free of my healing shell."
Slowly, the pieces of his ice-chrysalis shattered and broke around him, and eventually he was free of the prison he made for himself. It had been nearly two years since he sunk himself to the bottom of the lagoon, but that time was nothing for one that had lived for ten thousand years.
He was free, but not fully healed. He had taken the full hit of dragon's fire and nearly died, he remembered the claws of Raheerah around his throat—and above, the children were still talking to him, of birds, of a stone, of Nemean.
The water around him crystallized and froze as the chill emanated from his body, his powerful large wings raising and then pushing downward, propelling him toward the distant surface. He did not think to give a warning as the surface of the lagoon swelled and burst, a sudden shower and flood of cold water washing the room and any in it clean off their feet; as the water rolled off of the walls and receded back into the lagoon, a light rain-like drizzle fell from the water that had washed the high ceiling.
Tenzin was suspended momentarily with his wings extended, pieces of the waterfall freezing as it fell onto his body, before his massive wings began to beat cold air into the room as he guided himself to the edge of the lagoon.
One of the last few remaining titans, he was enormous in size, towering over them as he carefully watched for their bodies in the receding water. His light-blue and silver feathers had grown back but his darker blue outer ones had not; the fog of cold air had returned, puffing off of their edges as it used to. It felt great to be topside again, but still, there were remnants of the fire, especially along his back; and claw-like scars were carved into his neck.
"What of this tri-colored stone?" he asked them, his voice light. "If the Kings of Orion are seeking it, it is likely not entirely a trap," Tenzin commented, thinking. "But a bringer of life? Hmm." What did that mean?
"The betrayer indeed is Nemean," he agreed. What did Nemean have to do with the Kings? Has she influenced the change in their leadership? That would not be good.
"You say the Kings have fused? Then they have again changed who leads the way. Do you know which King has the most control?" he asked, looking down to them.