ORIGIN

Some of the names and descriptions had been familiar, at least-- she thought she knew Septiezal and Serek, though Nox didn't sound like anyone she knew. Or anything she knew. Perhaps the rotting gembound-corpses that had been in Polaris, once, but that was about it.

"Seems like a good idea," Eve replied on the idea of dragging Serek into it. "Though, if she did what I just did, she might not wake up for a long time. Unless the beetles'll wake her up again by annoying her or something?" She shrugged, thoughtful, glancing between the general direction of the Divine and Dragon's face, settling on his nose for a few uncharacteristically quiet moments.

"What about the other ancients?" She eventually asked. "I mean-- there must be some who are against Astraea, or they're with him and know a lot about him or something. We could try to send one person to each to try to befriend and get to know them." She tilted her head upwards for a moment, then added-- "Or maybe we could go talk to the other leaders. They might know others who've already done exactly that."

A bleak talon lifted to itch the ruffled feather's around Eve's neck, a rapid scritch-scritch-scritch-scritch-scritch emitting from the nails meeting skin, before settling again. "We'd probably need to send somebody, uh, new to Astraea if we did have a spy, though," the little crow concluded. "He already knows us, and might have even been watching us or something-- what if he has spies of his own? But if we send a newly-hatched or somebody young, who's never met him, then he might be inclined to get close with them or something? We'd just need to warn the kid about him first."

But, Dragon was right. If Astraea found out, they were fucked and he'd likely start with murdering the child they sent out to spy on him. Eve grumbled weakly, more to herself. "Or, we could observe him from afar or something. See what he does, and what he says, and things like that. There's magic out there that reads minds, I think, we could find someone who can do that?"

Dragon pondered this deeply.

"Hrm. How do we find those with this ability..?" he asked in a quiet rumble.

Then he eyed Eve. "Long ago I asked you and the owl and the other birds, and Tal'at--all to seek those who could aid us, who would listen. I would ask it again, but you have only just awoken. Perhaps if we find stones, and find one with this magic to bring them to life, then perhaps we can raise children to aid us in this."

He pondered it. It likely sounded a bit "child army" to Eve, but in Dragon's mind, the idea of more children--literal children, not just Children of Rot--was appealing. He enjoyed being a father. And if they could all survive together--all the better, really.

"Could you seek lost stones, perhaps--and those who can create this magic of the mind? Find one willing to bring them back?"

'Literal child army' didn't exactly occur to Eve in her mind, either-- she loved children and the idea of having more, perhaps some of her own, got her excited. She missed Oliver and White, and she missed when they were young and she got to teach them how to make shinies, and hoard them, and when she got to teach White to fly.

"I can find some," Eve said. "I don't think we really need to go scavaging for stones, though-- we could just give 'em bits of our own?"

She supposed it didn't matter that much, though-- she'd find someone anyway. "I can bring someone back," she said, itching her neck with a moonstone talon. "I can find some shiny stones too, if you wanna, but I'm fine with just passing them a coupla shards from my own rock. How many are we gonna need?"

Despite the questions, Eve was already rearing to go and take a flight outside of Cetus, to find an arcane-user. This much was evident by the way she started flitting up to the crown of Dragon's head again, wings unfurling.

Dragon let out a low and rumbling laugh, again--clearly amused. Two laughs in five minutes had to be some new kind of record for the old alligator.

"You have been back but a few minutes and are already ready for adventure. Perhaps you should rest awhile, first? Or have you had enough of that," he went on, humor in his voice. "And I don't know. As many as you can find. Realistically if even one skilled mind-reader survives to adulthood that is all we would need... but the more we have, the better it will be. One in case another fails. Others in other caves. It would be wise."

Some part of him was almost growing excited at this idea. What would it be like, to perhaps have dozens of arcane-users working for the Children, slipping secretly in and out of the caves and spying on the Elders? Could it be done? More importantly, could it be safely done?

"If our people are kept well enough secret," he mused aloud, "perhaps they could even tell us whether any future allies are truly loyal--or who is loyal to the Elders. That would be good to know. --I am glad that you are back, Eve."

Eve had no idea if she'd ever heard Dragon laugh this much-- nevermind that it was just in the span of a few minutes --but she supposed it didn't matter. It was healthy.

She let out a squawk of protest. "I just spent an ass amount of time resting," she said, flapping her wings a few times against Dragon's head. "Adventure's good! I'm ready for excitement, and flying, and shit like that."

Maybe she'd see her children out there.

And, on that note-- Eve didn't quite like the idea that one of the new all-seeing children (potentially her children) might die, but she supposed Dragon was right. That didn't stop her from feeling a little somber at the thought, however.

"Maybe," she said. "I've no idea how that sort of magic works, but I guess we'll find out soon enough." Eve paused, then nodded, bonking her beak against Dragon's head a few times, affectionately.

"I'm glad you're still alive, there's a shocking amount of death in these caves, sometimes. I hope not everything is as bad as it seems, when it comes to the elders."