[Quest] The Black City - Part III

Hey, wasn't she supposed to join this communion?

Madhukar had been here for this journey during her time of being disguised. Now she considered that a disguise might not be the wisest thing to take underwater. That was okay now, since her appearance was no unusual surprise at this point.

So they were following Patrick... Patty, an insane servant of Master Farina, underwater? To get "Artio" back from some city far below? Interesting. Interesting as in Madhukar was beginning to regret her decision to participate in this. Ah, well, she had practiced swimming and bathing and a few water-based things for this very purpose. She could paddle around pretty well. Would that be... enough? She knew for a fact that her most of her magic wouldn't be good down there -- storms were based on having an environment, an atmosphere. Lightning may not even travel underwater (she hadn't wanted to test it), and magical wings would be utterly useless when there was no air for flying. But she did have a spell for healing, which would probably be useful.

Still didn't seem like enough to entice Madhukar. She could go down as a one trick pony type healer who only sort of understood underwater combat, or she could stay up here and maybe ask Carja what happened down there. There was no reason to commit! At least, not until "Patty" mentioned the Army of Order. That made Madhukar's whiskers twitch. Coming off the Ursa Raid with such an aggravating end... Tahi-shei might love to know how the City survived. And he wasn't here at the moment. Hm...

Madhukar probably definitely absolutely should've given this another thought, but she didn't! Instead, the felinoid made a B-line for the little creature with the bag of gel balls. A calming gel would be magnificent for Madhukar, and a halluceno... hallucen... the second one offered would be good for throwing any sort of beast off if necessary. Madhukar didn't think they'd have time or patience to wait around for a poison to work.

Next on the (free) shopping list was a water breathing item. Madhukar would pull one out -- a little collar, she chose, just to make sure it wouldn't fall off without her noticing -- and get it on. She would also take a Baubled item, a ring she could secure around one of her stiff fingers.

Now all ready to go, Madhukar would start paying attention to the vast amount of words that were clearly not her own going through her brain. Gah, mental talking could be annoying if it was forced onto you, but at least it was easier to talk through. Madhukar liked the idea of hanging onto someone more equipped for swimming -- she was definitely small enough to. And she did feel ready, in some part, since everything she needed was usually already within herself. And as for awesome... maybe, but Madhukar doubted it. Unfamiliar dangers were not usually what she would classify as "awesome".

Now, what to send? Madhukar supposed if there was any question in her mind, it was who to hold onto and how good the group's protection was. "Like the idea of holding onto someone. Who can be held onto? Also, how many healers, how many fighters?" That should be good.

Oh. Things were moving along with surprising speed. First and most importantly: context! One of the ones who orchestrated "this" was... Nemean? So now whoever that was, Master Farina did not like her. Their guide was alive, and they were all to follow that guide to open the City. The City? And find Master Artio's lost stone if it was there. ...Okay so Kaimana had missed a lot.

Who were these characters in this play? Why were some called "Master" and others not? From what Kaimana could remember about her childhood encounter with all of this, a storm of Fornax had washed up a key, a chain, and a fish. The fish made people sick, the chain... um, and the key! The key was important. They had taken that to Polaris, looking for a door. There was a potent child, and someone had been trapped...? Was that Master Artio? Alright. Okay. So this was, in essence, a rescue mission. There had been a city down there, all this time...

With each piece of information, Kaimana could feel her excitement sharpen further and further. Soon enough her eyes would be twinkling and her smile would be radiant as ever! Levi would miss this... but not completely. I mean, he could certainly stay underwater for a long time. Kaimana was surprised he and Comet hadn't already discovered some kind of city down there.

Kaimana would tell him all about it when she got back. Yes! It was all coming together! There were a lot of memories coming with all of this, memories of her childhood spent collecting shells and building little things and spending time with Orarian, who was here(!), and Glaive, who was not... The nostalgia almost hit a little too hard. Well! Now to get ready to solve this gargantuan mystery!

Kaimana would take from the pile of trinkets a pendant enchanted for water breathing. Oh, she had always wanted to know what it was like to be able to stay down there for as long as was desired! She was pretty darn good at diving and holding her breath, but it was nothing compared to Levi's lurking, and-

Oh! Words in her mind, coming from their guide, Patty. Patty was a fun name ~~that rhymed with smatty~~. Patty seemed really, really enthusiastic about all this... Kaimana liked it! She fed off of such enthusiasm, especially when it related to something cool and ocean-related. More words came; these didn't seem to be Patty's. She couldn't pinpoint a source, but based on the non-sequiturs, it wasn't just one person. Someone suggested holding onto capable swimmers if needed -- that was good, they would all need support and there appeared to be some strong swimmers here. Someone affirmed they would all find Artio. Someone appeared very excited -- didn't seem Patty level of excited, just anticipating kind of excited, which Kaimana could understand. Someone wanted to know who could be held onto and how many fighters and healers there were.

Kaimana didn't really count as... either? She was just a good swimmer. She would probably need help at some point, but she could also help out others. If needed, she could work out a puzzle or talk to somebody, but yeah... Well, she supposed with a regenerative pouch from the kind little puffball over there, she could be a pseudo-healer. Anyway, she didn't really know how this thought-speaking thing worked. Clearly it wasn't picking up everyone's thoughts at once or they all would've heard more by now, so it had to be voluntary... Ah, there wasn't really anything Kaimana could add yet. Verbally, she could offer herself as someone for smaller creatures to hold onto for at least a little while of their journey. It would be better to say that aloud so that people could actually pinpoint who was talking, wouldn't it?

"I am Kaimana! I can be held onto by smaller creatures for a little while if necessary. I've been swimming all my life, I can hold extra weight if needed." Her voice wavered a bit. It had been a long time since she'd used it in front of a crowd. Despite that, all she'd said was true, there was no hiding anything in her words. A little proud of that fact actually.

With that out of the way, Kaimana would pad over to the little fluffball person who reminded her of Mayfal. She would take one regenerative pouch with a smile and a "Thank you." Kaimana realized she had taken two objects now with no plan of payment, but her idea of it was that she would give back the pendant and hopefully use the regenerative pouch for another's sake. Maybe, if she could find their gel supplier again later on, she could prepare them a gift.

Ta-da! Kaimana was set. All that was left to do was wait.

Text. "Speech." Thoughts.

Haven flew alongside Electrum, glad to feel the sea breeze on her scales again. She'd cooped herself up when she'd tried her hardest to put their den back together, but now that it was nearly done, she was comfortable going out.

"The Keystone? The rock that snow leopard was so interested in?", she asked, and then grumbled under her breath, "Oh Telesto... goodness if she'd have told us I would have offered to come! Whatever's going on sounds like fun! But she lied, that's not okay."

Haven swooped down after Electrum and shook her head softly, "Let's do neither. We'll talk to her after all this about lying."

She winced as she felt the static coming off of him, sniffing at him gently before turning to the others, "People are saying we need trinkets to breathe underwater... I'll get us some and a few lights."

She galloped over to the pile and took two trinkets and a bauble, ferrying them back to Electrum. She couldn't remember if Telesto could breathe underwater or not, but hopefully she could.

Indigo hadn't seen so many water-dwelling creatures in one place before, breaching the surface, talking with each other. She hadn't seen so many land-dwelling creatures in one place before, either.

She surfaced slowly, quietly, long after Farina had left. A single, silent nod was passed towards Haven-- who she recognized from childhood --but then her gaze was honing in on Cerilaine.

Emerging from the shore was an ungraceful event. She crawled out of the rolling waves with her hair draped like a curtain over her face. Her upper body went upright and her tail scrambled against the sand like a snake, writhing her way quickly to the leopard.

"I'm here," she said very quietly, in case Cerilaine did not see her. After taking a little look around at the other people dwelling, waiting to go, she said, "wait here."

Anxiety plumed in her gut as she slithered forward to take a flashlight and a bracelet that fit quite neatly on one wrist. She quickly glanced back, then forward, then picked up a second and was quickly moving back towards Cerilaine to hand her one of them.

Considering the existence of beings like Nemean and the other Masters, he shouldn't have been surprised by their designated guide. Nevertheless, the raucous creature took him aback. At first it'd been due to the voice, how it rattled in his brain the closer he squeezed his way to the front of the crowd. Then it was the introductory speech's content, a small degree off-putting in its dissonance to the chipper mood. And to top everything off, this Patty's appearance. If this was an example of what they would encounter below, those sea-dwellers certainly did not fit any beauty standards he knew of on land.

Mind, if they were ugly, what did that mean for someone like him, not of the deep sea but semiaquatic? Fahl did not dare delve into this, too repulsed to entertain the subject further. With a whisk of his tail over the sand, he turned, shuddering, and approached the item pile.

The pendants he decided were too flimsy to risk around his neck, and the collars could not fit on at all, those that could be adjusted having to be loosened to the point of uselessness in order to not crush or be penetrated by his dorsal spines. A pity since something close to the chest seemed the safest option to go with. He rummaged through the selection, casting aside too small rings and a variety of trinkets too large to carry, until a few decently sized armbands were retrieved.

Each he tussled with. The one he finally managed to wear, an unremarkable silver band held in place by a clasp, might not have been his first choice but ultimately was the best.

Water breathing covered, now he acknowledged the fox and the useful pouches that'd been brought. He took his limit, one dark and one light, but grumbled upon realizing the new problem to tackle: where they could be carried. Looking to his armband, he drove a claw beneath it and lifted so that the smallest of spaces could be created. His teeth used to keep the raised side of the armband still, the pouches were crammed into the opening. Everything snapped back into place upon releasing his hold.

To Forgraves he expressed gratitude with a grunt and a respectful nod.

Hopefully that hadn't ruined what was inside. If it had, he'd know soon enough when it was needed.

Finished, Fahl walked to the very edge of the shore and propelled himself into the sea, thoughts fully on the mission. 'This better be worth it. Please be fucking worth it.'

An oil-slicked being as large as Whale herself whispered a warning. She gave them a stubborn look—she didn't know what was going on with the master-servant terminology (and really, she'd thought she'd understand all the words now that she was older, but it seemed to be a recurring pattern that each encounter brought with it odd vocabulary), but she wasn't going to budge on this.

"We are volunteers," she rumbled gently to Labradorite. "Helpers, risking ourselves in a rescue mission because we wish to help Artio and seek justice. I wish she wouldn't see us as servants." The Blacksmith certainly didn't, though, and she was glad about that.

A second sea-creature rose from the depths, shimmering with blues and silvers. Whale was reminded of the pieces of her chrysalis, but the Orarian was so much more graceful than the massive chunks of gemstone sinking into Pisces' lagoon.

Whale turned to it, singing out a greeting that reverberated through the water. "I am Whale! We're not going to war, but on a rescue mission. There's a person named Artio imprisoned below, and we're here to help free her. That crab Farina was her friend. She was imprisoned until recently, too, and she misses Artio a lot."

She might have said more—condemning Nemean for her war crimes, for example—but the Blacksmith and Patty were speaking now. Whale felt a pang of pity for the seahorse, driven mad by its telepathic powers. Yet another victim of the rebels' cruelty, she thought bitterly. But it was hard not to laugh at least a little at its overenthusiastic speech.

I am Whale, and I can carry smaller beings! I can fight, too, she added, though she had no actual experience with fighting. She assumed she wouldn't be terrible, at least, with her great size. Though--maybe everyone was larger underwater. That seemed to be the case with the Orarian, Labradorite, Farina, and the seahorse. At least I will not be smaller than them.

Oh! She'd nearly forgotten. If it was deep and there would be danger, Whale didn't want to waste time by surfacing for breath. "Someone mind tossing me a water-breathing enchantment?" she called.