So... it turns out that trying to find a master was harder than it looked, because James had looked up and down and found nothing. He could always find Pride eventually if he left a rock at the Throne, and Comet always came home eventually. Even Khloros had been summoned with a yell (and a wisp that horrifically backfired).

He wanted to know some... things...

Specifically, things that he thought Pride might not appreciate him trying to get him to answer. He'd pestered him enough with the whole Ari thing, anyway. Maybe it was time to seek out a different deer dad.

Now where was the damn guy-

Ever since the meeting, he'd wanted to know more. It had been months and he'd gotten no further than before. He'd talked to the Spire and found a riddle that left him more confused than anything, not to mention Khloros' own vision. And why did Vargas want stones? Why did he want children? Why were there new tunnels opening up?

James had grown up quite a bit since the meeting. He was mature, one could say. Mostly. Not really. But that didn't matter. He'd grown, okay?

And maybe he could ask him if he knew who threw him off the cliff so he could beat their a-

"Astraea!", he called out, voice echoing as his ears perked up.

Maybe it would work? It worked for Mercy and Khloros. And Pride, that one time.

@Game Master CJ

For Astraea :)

There was a lot of annoying things to tend to now that Dhracia seemed to be coming by more often. Their experiments with Bartos had gone slack, and most cycles Astraea did not visit the bespectacled cat. And since the meeting at the forum, he had many more visitors himself. Odd, as it were. They did not seek him out as much before then, but he was comfortable with where they were at. It did no good to keep them in the dark, so he was thankful that many of them received his information without planning a full-on rebellion.

As he rounded a dilapidated building, charred stone marred with gruesome pocks from Raheerah's flame, he heard his name on the crisp Orion air. He wove through several more stones to reach the source, his head lifting in greeting. Ah, had this one mutated? He did not think he remembered such features at the forum.

"Yes?"

@James

James jumped like a cat, feathers poofing up as he turned to face Astraea, "Oh dear- oh um, pun not intended-"

Two seconds in and he'd already completely gotten himself all turned around and flustered. Fantastic.

I should have just asked Pride, he thought, and cleared his throat.


"Th-thank you for uh- for coming, Master Astraea," he said, stumbling all over himself, trying to be as respectful as he could while stumbling over his words.

James slipped the woven pouch from around his neck onto the ground and offered it, "Um- I brought things- fruit, just some from Eridanus. That is if you want any- if you don't that's okay!"

The pegasus flushed hot and shuffled nervously, "S-sorry. Um... I just wanted to ask some questions- things I'd heard or witnessed or the like that I want clarity upon. A-and um... a question about the Golem, and the fight."

He was honored that Astraea had chosen him specifically to be freed (though he'd barely even heard a whisper before Mother's influence had been purged), but the spell he'd very suddenly had in his arsenal was just... strange! How had Astraea even known he had the potential to do such a thing?

"Why me?", he asked, "And how did you know I could do such a thing? I use arcane magic, not... not that kind. Was it because of the Golem that it appeared? Why so suddenly?"

@Game Master CJ

He might not have noticed the pun were it not for James's hasty explanation, and this garnered a rather stern stare. The stag's ruby eyes remained unblinking for the rest of James's greeting, and one slender leg lifted, then set slowly back down.

The offer of fruit, at least, led to a brief dip of his head, and the Master stepped forward. "I will take a piece," he answered simply. The horse's questions led to a long silence from Astraea, as if the stag were thinking. "Though you each have your parent element, you may borrow from others," he explained. Red eyes at last blinked, and he looked away, still thinking. "I can tell when others have borrowed my own magic, as you have."

For a moment he seemed absent, pensive, before looking back to James. "You were needed," he finished. "And your help was welcome."

@James

How interesting! He'd assumed many of his spells were of his element- though his baubling spell was a bit too off, and he knew why, now.

He withered just a bit at Astraea's look, wincing. Yeah, that was dumb.

James inhaled and exhaled slowly, fluffing his feathers before continuing, "I would like to ask some more questions, if you'll have me."

He felt a bit better about being taller than the master, though he'd be stupid if he thought that height was any measure of character or strength. Ants could carry things ten times their size, after all, and he could only guess that Masters were similar, at least in terms of magical strength.

"How did you get your magic? Was there a way you all became masters?", he asked, "Is it like a regular gembounds magic, or is it different? I know that you are more powerful, but I never knew- or wasn't confident enough to ask- how."

Astraea went silent, thinking about James's question. There was no easy answer to this. How much of it would he understand-? How much of it should Astraea reveal; or did it even matter (and that was a slightly bitter thought).

At length, he took a breath, black nostrils flaring ever-so-slightly. "It would be... difficult, to explain. I am not who I was, then. But the magic was... granted to us. For a purpose," he added. "As for Gembounds' magic..."

How could he explain? How to lay categories, labels, specifics and science on something so esoteric and arcane? Particularly when one must, at all costs, avoid mention of a name; avoid drawing attention unwanted. "It is different," was what he settled on. "Yours was unexpected. Yours is a wild magic, attached to stones that belong to us. I suppose with no direction, it was inevitable that it would find a way." Yes, it would find a way. Be that through flashes of its own power, seeking a host in chaotic random iterations, or through deliberate direction.

Astraea considered, ruby eyes ranging over James. "If I asked you how you got your magic--would you know?" he asked. "What do you know? Beyond the search for food and water? Beyond sleep, and dreams?"

@James

Magic could be given? Curious. He'd initially thought the Masters had simply become more powerful, like through a trial like the one Comet had taken.

He looked up at Astraea's question, having been frowning at the ground, lost in thought. He balked at the question for a moment, taken aback.

"... Someone or something put life into my stone," he said, "Whether by accident or not, for stones don't simply pop out of the air. Life was put into my stone and then magic, and I was allowed to nuture that magic and allow it to grow."

James' practicing had granted him with greater understanding of his own magic and how to use it, it's power growing more and more.

"But I know there is love," he said, thinking of Comet, "Love and kindness. I know there is good and evil, well intended or not. Good intentions don't mean bad results, and vice versa."

But he knew love was a solid, stable force in his life. That it drove people to greatness, like how his own love and kindness and nurturing had taught Comet in return to be the same. Yet again he found himself so proud of her.

"What do you know?", he asked in return, "Of the forces that seek to control. And... what lays within the Spire? Why, when I tried to communicate with it, did I see a vision?"

@Astraea