Takes place shortly after this thread.
The strange moth-like creature, with its many-eyed dog face and broad black-feathered wings, swept down to land neatly before the Throne of Orion. Many blue-banded legs carried it forward, and it looked around quietly.
This was where Wilder had sent it to seek those who had deliberately tormented another Gembound to death.
"Envy. Pride," it called out, knowing only their names, and nothing more.
@Livius
The weasel was--tiny. Aether had somehow expected a massive beast, and this little thing surprised it; but perhaps it was skilled in magicka. Wilder had hinted at as much. Its greeting came across as rude, abrupt, though perhaps Envy hadn't intended it that way.
Slowly, it looked around for the other one, as if only half-registering the idea that only one of the two was presently here. Then Aether looked to Envy, again. Ahh, well; it could handle one at a time, then.
"I come because I was called upon. I am a guardian of the caves. I was told that the Pride and Envy had tormented another Gembound to death, deliberately. Explain." It did not sound demanding, or hostile. It did not sound anything, really, as if simply expecting Envy to be perfectly reasonable in response to its apparent command.
@Envy
The hybrid listened, stoically silent, as Envy responded. And at Pride's arrival it turned to him.
It remembered him; the stag had not been one of his life-givers, no, but it had been present. And he remembered distinctly that it had seemed friendly, at the time, with Wilder--and with the white wolf who had been there, and with the tiny parasite, Squick.
It contemplated all of this, and looked to Envy.
Aether had been given life by a variety of Gembound--with a variety of elements. It itself held innate, if distant and unrefined, knowledge of a number of spells. Though it did not know it, Wilder herself had imparted the same magic that would allow creatures like Pride and Envy to touch it mind-to-mind, and this is what it graced its own magicka over now, considering.
"Show me," it agreed simply, attempting to open its mind toward Envy.
@Envy
Aether observed as Envy first broke down, and then simply vanished. At first it tensed, preparing to give chase. It could take scent, pursue that, assuming there was any fresh scent to follow-... Yet Pride's reaction gave it pause.
Envy, Aether realized, hadn't fled. They were not fleeing justice. They were traumatized, if Pride's words were to be believed--and now its mind received knowledge, emotion, words and images. Patient, it stilled, observing intently what began as a trickle, and became a flood.
The past of Blackberry, her prior actions. The Bloodberries. Huckleberry, sobbing on the ground. Blood across the stone, and a screaming mouse. Elderberry vanishing in a cracking burst of gore. The attack on Eridanus. Actions, images, and most importantly of all, intentions.
It was nearly overwhelming, and through it all, the guardian attempted to pick any lie from the knowledge. It was difficult to tell for certain, but by the end, it felt fairly confident that Pride's story was the truth, at least how the stag viewed it.
Aether was certain that there were different perspectives, but they had not intended to go out and find Blackberry to inflict vengeance and pain, but to stop the threat that she posed to the caves. "You are not a threat," it decided, simply, at last.
It would need to find Wilder, then, and report back. Turning, no more words nor thanks offered--as if it never occured to it--Aether took wing, leaving the Throne behind.
Aether exits.