"It is," Azizos furrowed his brow and stated, for lack of a better word, "odd. Something endless, without stone in the way."

"The mystery of it is what's so alluring," the lion-stag stated, blinking as he considered it. Perhaps that was where the appeal came from. "They're far older than most of us who walk these caves. Powerful, too --- which, I suppose, comes from age, itself."

For a moment the hybrid only stared across at Azizos, her brow crumpling quietly. The sky sounded, entirely fake. And the elders being far older than most of the gembounds similarly sounded entirely fake.

Kai shook her head gently, specifically at the last part. "I don't think so. Young gembound can be powerful and old gembound can be very weak. I don't think age has anything to do with it."

She paused, a hoof clattering against the cave floor. "The elders sound like made-up stories."

Azizos flicked his ears back, similarly furrowing his brow. The theory that age had nothing to do with power was plausible, but the hybrid was sticking to his proverbial guns --- they were proverbial because, of course, guns weren't real, and the lion-stag had no concept of them.

"Perhaps," he began, not entirely dismissively, "but wouldn't age provide quite a bit of time for the ancients to amass magicka, from the Spire or somewhere else?" Azizos glanced side-long toward the glowing precipice, tail flicking. Where could it be deriving magicka, if it was not generating it itself? After attempting escape, he decided, he would study the Spire next.

"My father has encountered these ancients, before. There's a brown stag covered in mushrooms named --- ah, Astraea, I believe? Another of them is this small feline creature with insect-like wings. I can't remember her name, presently." The knowledge of the latter was purely from rumors and whispers he had heard through the Caves.

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, "I would like to investigate these matters, like my father is. Would you like to come?" The more, the merrier. Right?

Similarly, Kai did not know what a gun was. Not that it mattered in this situation.

"It might," she offered absent-mindedly, frowning if a bird-beak could do such a thing. "But it seems pretty presumptuous to me. I'm very old and I only know one spell." Not that Kai had tried casting any other spell, of course.

"But have you seen these ancients for yourself?" Kai asked. "That's only how you know if they're real or not."

Regardless, to Azizos' question, she nodded. "Alright. How do we get out, then?"

"You don't look old," Azizos returned rather childishly, a slight bit of humor at the edge of his voice. "I actually don't know what the physical difference between old and new Gembound is," he admitted after a moment, head lowering slightly.

A pause, and he continued, "and no, I have never seen these ancients for myself, but I trust my father." That was hopefully a good enough reason to believe in the ancients for this yet unnamed stranger.

"I was considering finding a hole in the ceiling and --- for lack of a better word --- throwing energy at it until it became big enough to go through; but," Azizos stopped, hestitating, "that may not the wisest course of action to pursue."

Kai offered a strange sound that was somewhere between a snort and a hoot. Likely, because, Kai is a hybrid. ”Well I don’t think we’re supposed to. My mom never looked old either, but she was.”

Maybe Isi was an ancient.

... hm.

Kai turned her gaze up to the ceiling idly. It didn’t seem like a bad idea at all in her eyes. But she didn’t entirely think it through. ”No, I’d say do it?” she peered across at the other hybrid idly. ”Why not?”

Gembound must be ageless, as this stranger seemed to apparently prove. Hell, Mercurius was probably as good as any indicator for the factor of being unable to die of old age.

As if that were such a thing.

Azizos stared at the ceiling, wondering why he instinctively felt like it was a terrible idea to just willy-nilly fire a supernova at the roof. "Wouldn't it just... implode? This cave, I mean? The stones hold one another up and to remove some would be to remove all of that support."

Kai followed the hybrid’s gaze up towards the ceiling, mulling this sentiment out for a few moments. It might implode. Sure. That was a fair judgement, but— ”well, wouldn’t that be someone else’s problem?” she asked. ”Like an elder, or something. We would be free.”

This much was enough for Kai to justify blowing up Polaris. She wanted to see the sky, after all.

As much as Azizos childishly wanted to leave the consequences of his actions to himself, the lion-stag knew that wasn't very morally... white, he supposed. Besides--- "perhaps, but what if a rock falls upon some unsuspecting Gembound? They would not be free if they were dead."

It was a simple, but undeniably true statement.

Aha! Something Kai knee more about than Azizos. The hybrid pulled herself up a little bit before explaining. ”We could revive them. My mother said the two if another grmbound dies you can revive them back again.”

“She said I used to be someone else, but then past-me died. I don’t know how. But my mom revived me, so now I’m here. Hi.” She did not, however, really have any further knowledge then that.

”I dunno how to do it, though,” she added.