Two weeks had passed since the incident in Tunnel B, and Tahi-shei had finally gotten the courage to explore the new quadrants. After making his way through Ursa, he'd decided to continue to the right, and so now he was here -- and he was confused. Something about the sprawling architecture and flawless gardens, they-- unnerved him. "I've only just come here and I already have questions," he said idly, starting to cautiously approach its entrance. He eyed the feline creature guarding it as he approached, and considered them.
Tahi stopped a couple of yards away and called out. "Hello there! Do you live here? Perhaps you wouldn't mind answering my questions? My name is Tahi-shei; you may call me Tahi, if you prefer. What is your name?"
The earthquake had been an annoyance, but the structure of the Palace was built to withstand many things, including the shifting of plates. It had survived worse earthquakes. The janitorial creatures got to work tidying up any speck of debris that might have shifted loose, and Isra made her way to the entrance to observe the rest of Cepheus. So far, it all looked as it should: the deer were properly back to grazing, after a brief bit of shock from the initial rumbles; the swans were back to drifting about, patrolling as they did the various water features; and the tree in the distance still stood, ever-flowering.
When a stray lesser caught her blue-flame eye, her head immediately snapped to view it. Strange. It wasn't one of hers. The snakes behind her whipped up into a chattering frenzy, whispering hisses between themselves at such a strange sight—
but then the lesser called out to her.
The flaming crest on her head flickered and her head raised slightly.
Oh? Was it intelligent?
She stepped forward smoothly, eyeing the deer with dangerous judgement. A sound between a hiss and a purr rattled through her teeth, before her jaw tilted slightly to the side as she considered the animal before her.
It even had a name. How unique.
"Isra," rumbled her voice, airy and regal. The snakes behind her arched over her back to view the intruder, and each sounded off,
"Ba! Si! Ra! — Have you come for a bite? — Come to taste death? — Are you here for the sacrifice!?" She did not seem to mind their excited hissing, and instead continued to inspect the deer before her, blue-flame eyes flickering gently in the sockets of her skull.
"I grow bored of questions very quickly," she warned,
"but you may ask as many as you'd like to risk." She inhaled carefully, noting the sharp bite of winter latent on the deer's scent. Suspicious. Had it just come from Ursa? Was it exposed?
He made a friendly gesture with his ears, antlers popping up with the rest of his head just a bit in a friendly nod. "Isra!" and then, "Oh! Your tails, they talk!" His eyes grew wide. "Are those your names? Ba, Si, and Ra?" They were strange little characters, but they fascinated him. And then, because it was important to start interrogations with a compliment -- "Oh, and I love your, um... tusks, I suppose? They're like horns, but on the bottom. Very impressive indeed!"
The young stag cleared his throat at the clear warning in her tone, but he was not exactly deterred. "Well, I will try to be brief, then." He compiled his massive list into a few short ones, beginning with, "I've seen ruins that look sort of like this in Orion, but nothing so elegant. How has this place managed to stay so pristine? Do you maintain it?" And then, a beat -- "Who lives here? It looks sort of like a house, though... much larger than it seems that it might need to be." And then, a question he hadn't known he'd had until the snakes had spoken -- "And what did the last one -- Ra, I believe? -- mean when they said 'sacrifice'?"
This creature offered compliments--but a compliment from one such as this was almost an insult. "Thank you," she answered, prim, polite and cold as ice. And the snake-tails hissed.
"Does it think itself equal? — Does it think it isn't food? — Is it not here to be eaten?" Isra spoke as though they had not, though she patiently waited for each head to finish. "Maintain it-? I do not do the cleaning," and a lip curled, eyes flashing dangerously—had that been his implication..? Surely not. "I do ensure that it is kept pristine." Woe betide the cleaner that found itself out of place, dust and dirt unattended.
"Lives..? Child, do you not know where you are?" Hilarity in her tone, now. Where had this one come from—and how was it so ignorant? She shook her flaming head. "As for the sacrifice," and a lip curled again, this time in amusement, "Perhaps you'd like to come with me and see..?" The way she half-turned, invitingly, her tusks bared in a cold smile over her shoulder: the way the snakes began to chitter, and hiss, and laugh, suggested that perhaps this path would not be wise.
@Tahi-shei
He frowned at the snakes, but decided against chastising them for being rude. Isra was a strange character, and did not seem exactly friendly. "No, I don't," he admitted, dipping his head. "I was born in Orion, the Room of Stars -- it was only recently that the paths out of Canis and Polaris into the new quadrants were opened. I came here seeking knowledge, and information. I wish to enlighten myself, and I have been seeking those who are kind enough to guide me down that path."
A beat, and then, "I do not think many Gembound where I am from know much. As far as I can tell, the oldest of us are sixty or so cycles. A creature I met called the Collector implied to me that we were young and inexperienced; from what I have seen of these ancient caves, I am inclined to agree." He squinted at Isra's offer, and was inclined to agree, just to be able to see what was happening... but decided against it. Something about her general demeanor implied to him that he ought to not get too close to her.
She listened, as he spoke, in silence, still half-turned away and waiting.
Or at least she appeared to listen. By the end, one foot was slowly tapping, and the snakes were hissing softly amongst themselves.
She took a breath, then: deep, expansive, filling her lungs. And her one-word response was long, drawn out, and dourly dry as burnt wood. "Fascinating," she said, and stared at him over her shoulder.
He'd never answered her last question, either. That was no fun.
@Tahi-shei
Tahi-shei paused. Apparently, he had to be more clear with what he wanted from Isra -- or maybe she was waiting for him to answer his question? He would have been. "Er, and I'll have to politely decline your offer." He quite liked having all his bits and pieces intact. He took a deep breath and looked around. Alright, it seemed as though he was taking his chances here -- but he really wanted his questions answered, and Tahi-shei was easily motivated by learning new things. "If nobody lives here," he said, looking around at the beautiful architecture, "what was it built for?"
He had a second question, too, and it was perhaps the most important. "And who, if anyone, could -- should -- I go to, who would have the knowledge and willingness to answer all my questions about these caves?" Isra seemed to be the type around whom he needed to carefully word his statements, but Tahi-shei had been practicing that for a while now.
"I am not a library, child, nor am I a list of everyone in the caves and what they will, and will not do--or how much patience they have for children." Disgust was in her tone. Where had this young then even come from-?
A pause, as the snakes hissed. "To the locked rooms! -- A guest, a guest... -- Fed and cared for and fed again!" And here they chittered, their serpent cackling perhaps unsettling to hear.
Isra smirked dourly. "I'm here for my tasks, and you have told me you want nothing to do with those."
@Tahi-Shei
Tahi-shei had more questions. Of course he had more questions. He probably had hundreds, bouncing around inside his skull, and he was desperate to find the answers to them -- but he also had a suspicion that he had overstayed his welcome, and Isra's warning at the beginning of the conversation returned to him. He dipped his head lightly to her, and pulled together kind enough words for a parting -- mindful of the snakes, too, who seemed to be revealing more than Isra was inclined to but speaking in riddles rather than clear words. "If I might ask a parting question, and then I will be on my way," he began, dipping his head as though he were bowing, "what sort of creature are you? Most Gembound I know have a very clear answer -- dogs, cats, birds, deer -- the like. Being able to catalogue the various species of the caves, mundane and monstrous, is a precious gift like any other."
"You may." Imperious and cold; and then she waited.
Could skull-faces smile? It seemed, it sounded, as though her answer to Tahi-shei held a smile, though a distinctly unpleasant one, at that. "Dogs, cats, birds, and deer--those are what we call food. I am a valkhound," she went on--and then stared at Tahi-shei, regarding him with the empty flicker of her flaming eyes.
@Tahi-shei