The strange magick still clung to the spider like wisps of silk, even as she trekked non-stop across the caverns and into the fierce mouth of Canis. She felt as if it became a part of her, like she could harness it. Thothaga still had yet to test it out, but the creature's spell of consuming shadows, the dreamscape it used, this Thothaga did not know. She did not remember falling asleep in the Tunnel, and certainly not next to strangers.

Canis was her least favortite place in the whole cave. It was far from the Spire's embrace, the magick here was thin and she could not help but feel something awful had transpired, but the Collector was here. She knew Giggle could not answer her question, and the Fungal Stag might not want too, but the robed creature might have come across it and would be willing to share.

Thothaga approached the West Wall, where they broke the Collector free, its carvings no longer a mystery to her. Thothaga stared at the carvings for a moment, then called out."Oh, Collector! Collector-dear, I must speak with you!" "Dear" was a word she reserved for friends, though Giggle's uneasiness about him did make Thothaga think. Was he friend, or a "friend"? Perhaps time would tell. She trusted Giggle's judgment, but at the same time, felt to be in no danger from the Collector. However, the spider had more a important matters on her mind. Thothaga could not shake the feeling that something sinister was looming over the caves, and her curiosity was getting the better of her.

"Thothaga speaking."
Thothaga thinking.

Ah, there he was.

The spider turned around and tilted her body upwards in attention. She shuffled her fangs as he greeted her. "No, no it hasn't." She replied bluntly. Thothaga stared blankly at him as if expecting him to understand. "Because I haven't used it yet-- anyway, that's not what I'm here for." She turned and crawled towards the carvings. "Can you not feel it? Something sinister is afoot." The spider maiden looked back the Collector, hunger glinting on her beady, black eyes. "Something... I cannot fathom, and it has left its mark on me." She paused, then approached him. "I and a few others had a.. rather peculiar encounter in a Polaris tunnel," She began.

Thothaga retold the events of their battle with Kra'raum, of the eerie darkened tunnel, the gift that trapped two gembounds in an unbreakable cage, impervious to spell. She told of him of the beast's icy tendrils of shadow, and how they consumed, and when they finally defeated the creature, they woke up in the tunnel as if from a dream--or rather a nightmare. "Ever since, this.. presence follows me, it curses my mind. " She shifted to the side, as if she saw shadows dancing in the dark. "What magick is this? What spell can do all that? What is coming?" Thothaga stalked towards the Collector, like a hungry lion ready to strike. "You are far older than me, and you are a collector. You must know!"


"Thothaga speaking."
Thothaga thinking.

He is annoyed. Thothaga observed. Interesting...
"Chaos?" The spider witch let out a hearty chuckle. "Why, you say that like its a bad thing!" She loved chaos, she reveled in it. The Spire was chaos through-and-through and if whoever this thing was aimed to make the caves more chaotic than they are now, then, they couldn't be that bad. "Though, the mind tampering does sound... concerning." That explained the shadows following her. Thothaga stroked her fangs."I will be weary." She wasn't quite sure what he meant by "overthrowing them all from within". Other than the few factions that recently popped up, she wasn't aware that the caves had a hierarchy. Thothaga bowed to no one, except the Spire, and her Crystal-Father had made no demands of her so far.

She stretched out a leg toward him, as if to gesture "wait.". "Collecter," Thothaga rasped. "Who is this.. "he", and does it threaten the Spire?"Then, she paused. Eagerness twinkled in her coal black eyes. "...And, can I learn this.. foreign magick?"

"Thothaga speaking."
Thothaga thinking.

Thothaga had a sneaking suspicion that the Collector was withholding something from her, much like the Stag. Yes, it was either that, or the mere thought of this being reeeaaally annoyed him. Call it a hunch, but Thothaga guessed it was the former. "Disappointing." She said flatly. The spider witch waved him off with a leg. "Fine, keep your secrets, my friend." Maybe, with the right words, she could get him to crack. "Just like the Fungal Stag, tsk tsk, what am I, a lesser?" Thothaga mutter to herself as she turned away (but just loud enough to for the Collector to hear.)

"Well, carry on with your.. collecting, I won't waste anymore of our time." She spied a low hanging stalactite, spun around, and spat a cord of white silk towards it from her abdomen and grabbed ahold with her back legs. Thothaga faced the Collector, and in a voice as smooth and sultry as she could muster, said. "But, next time we meet, remember, you help me, and I... will help you... eight-fold." If she could wink at that reference, she would have. The spider witch lifted the rest of her legs of the ground and methodically reeled herself upwards, melting into ceiling shadows.

Despite Giggle's warnings, Thothaga fully mean what she had offered, regardless of the end goal. In the end, it did not matter if she persuaded him to share the identity of this being or the magick he possessed. To have someone with as much magickal prowess as the Collector as an ally, she found that to be... quite delicious. It was something for him to think about, should he choose too.

Now, all she had to do was not lose her mind.

-Exit Thothaga, unless she is stopped.-
"Thothaga speaking."
Thothaga thinking.