Insidious whispers. A susurrus that pulled at her magic-twisted mind, her overly-sensitive hearing, seeming to drill its way into her brain.

Half-blind eyes sheeted over with emerald turned, the glint of dim light flashing over them. Her beak moved subtly, a twitch of black in the face that looked right over its own back.

She took flight.

It was a silent flap, a glide, low and cautious; she knew this tunnel well, now, but her terrible vision didn't allow the same freedom in the air as a true owl would have claimed. Hers was careful; if she fell it would be only a few feet, if she impacted stone, it would not be too fast.

Talons curled to the stone as she landed, the ring of voices too-close overshadowing the whispers, and she flicked her ear tufts and blinked those stony eyes in annoyance. Be still, she thought, and let me hear.
Without more than a passing, unseeing glance their way, she moved toward the voice, quiet steps clicking claws on rock.

She couldn't see the source, but it fascinated her, held her rapt, a perfect bait; this was a treasure--whatever it was--and she wanted to draw closer to it. "Wonderful," she murmured, an ecstatic half-whisper, as her mind rejected the sounds in their entirety.

Closer...

Greedily her magic grasped, reaching forth to try and fumble in the dark before her, to grip for her blind eyes the source of the voice, to bring it closer so that she could touch it, feel it, learn it completely.

Mephistopheles

The - hilariously enough to call it - chaos from the headless ice-beast gets an eye roll from Messi, and the rest of the Gembound present get a polite blink and a bob of his head, and he responds to Purity quietly and quickly with a, "Yes, I... think? I can hear nothing well. Now that we're closer, though..." and he strides forward, eyeing the cryptic rabbit with a lifted brow and nearly baring his teeth at Hecate at her presumptive nature.

"Now, owl... thing," he addresses her, as he observes her... what. Concentrating? Using her magic, most likely. "You're not the only being in these caves, nor the only with curiosity. Watch your behavior." and he... peers at the item, warping and uncomprehendable in the distance and dark, especially for the one eyed lion.

"Melinoe, right?" he calls out, half glancing back at the other lion to gauge how he feels, how he's acting. "Grand to find another with a grand name. I'm Mephistopheles." with that, he steps to the side- allowing anyone else who could want to do so attempt to approach the thing that makes his one good eye burn.

Deciding to attempt to be useful, he tries to focus his magic, and he can feel the odd humming echo up around his head as the gem in his skull faintly rings with it. Mephisto's gem flickers, and then he bares his teeth to show the full length of his jade fang and allow whatever he can muster to spiral thru a kaleidoscope before it focuses into a soft laser-like beam, into the crevice. He's going to be seeing spots for days, ad the small shard jutting up before his eye is also flickering with the light reflecting through his gem.

There seemed to hardly be any time for introductions as the tunnel began to fill with new passing life. Gembound after gembound gathered and Diot was rather ecstatic. Despite is usual zen and leveled mannerisms he rapidly patted hands together, clapping before himself in excitement and happiness. There were so many others who he hadn't seen but little introductions were made, but still! There were so many!

A new feline had entered, a lion! And then- someone hurt? They were winged and light blue and they spoke even without a head- were they alright!? Did they- need healing? Help? Before he could offer a small hand or even speak up to them another feline had entered- another lion? What odds! And their name Melinoe! He couldn't help but gently wave at each of them, a relaxed and happy smile upon his face.

Although Diot was a bit, confused...as everybody was speaking of a sound?...perhaps he- had gotten so occupied and awestruck from the tunnel and- new arrivals it...slipped his radar so to speak. Perhaps he would try to listen now and focus. There was- something but- before he could pay it much mind the small feline now, one who remained unknown to him in name spoke, asking of the noise.

"Many of us yes! Brightens my hearts to see all of you!" But- I do not know of...what you speak-

Diot's eyes caught movement, another gembound! A hare was making their way through, speaking all the while. Someone a tad bit closer to his size but they continued to hop along. Either way he was pleased to meet another. Happily giving a tiny wave to the newcomer who was making their way.

The injured(?) individual spoke, quite loudly- grabbing his attention. Speaking that ...something was lying? Oh no- was...whatever was whispering- is this what took their face!?

Diot stilled for a moment, and listened; there was something- wrong...and he could not place it but something- his curiosity needed to know. A part of him worried- was the voice in pain? Memories flickered to his run in with an old friend- who attacked unknowingly; afraid and in great pain...

Attention though, once again flickering to another gembound- a bird? An Owl? Was everybody attempting to find- what had ever done that to their large dragon friend? Oh this would not end well- Diot wandered closer to them and Mephistopheles. He needed to know, what was happening; who was in pain and would they cause a great deal to any others. Was this a cry for help- or some insidious lure?

Purity hissed back for a second, standing deathly still as he shoved his ears forward. "It's-- close," he growled, fur fluffing out as he eyed the crevice. 'Another altar?' His ears pinned back as he breathed in for a moment, eyes staying on the deep line.

Suddenly, he shut them. This grasp on him- it was too much. The chaos it held was just like the altar, and he let out a gasp, eyes snapping open as he took a painful step back. To him, this was power permeating from the rock, one he wanted, so desperately.

But Something about that dragon. At her words, the feline whipped his head around and snarled, his pupils slivers of what they normally were. Lies? "It has given me power." His head turned away as he kept his stare directly on the headless abomination. She was oozing, and her blood probably ran blacker than his, he imagined. "You think you want to reject that gift, but you're stuck with it. This. This," and he swept a paw back into the direction of the crevice, "Is not something you can so easily deny to anyone. To me."

He turned his back on her, but his attention still lingered, ears back and ready for an attack. "Everything lies. But these lies carry far more truth than you'd ever dream of, dragon. You are nothing like your kind, nothing like the fire-breathing destruction they have. You're a coward." He spat his words with venom, head turned back as he followed the draw of whispers, aiming to stride confidently into the dark of the crack. He'd push past all the others if Aethereal had nothing else to say, head and tail held high in a false show of control over the entropy that awaited within.

He was not a coward. He was more than that, and so much more than the dragons he feared so long ago.

(Directly @Aethereal !)

They would not be persuaded. More voices chimed in--and one, in particular, addressed her. He was filled with such pride, hunger, and such contempt that it shocked Aethereal. He insults me, because I do not destroy? "Do you want to die?" escaped the incredulous question; did he want her to crush him, to suck the air from his lungs, to shatter his bones in her grip and rip his flesh apart--

Aethereal exhaled shakily. Since the Spire had stabbed its own pain into her mind, she had delayed each visit to the Black one for as long as she could bear it, and it showed. Not just in the leaking Oil, but in her thoughts: dreams, whispers, the thought that it would be so easy to sink her claws into him and make him regret his words!

... he was right, though.

She was a coward. What could she call her actions but cowardice? She should have FOUGHT. She should have destroyed Tahi-shei and his allies (even the child? no, surely not her) for daring to attack her. She should have MURDERED VARGAS THE MOMENT HE THREATENED HER. HOW DARE HE KEEP HER FROM RETURNING?!?! SHE WAS GOING TO GO MURDER HIM THIS INSTANT, AND PROVE THAT SHE WAS NO COWARD!!!

She had whirled toward Polaris and taken several strides in its direction, a fierce growl risen in her chest, before she even realized what she was doing. And she had half a mind to keep going. It wasn't as if Vargas hadn't threatened her first. Anyway, if even Pride was willing, she--

It would be suicide. The rational thought was like cool water in the scorching heat of chaos and anger, and Aethereal stopped in her tracks. Don't let him goad you into it. Fear, now, at what had happened: she was certain that if she'd actually gone through with it, somehow managed to steel her nerves all the way from here to Draco, she would have been utterly annihilated. She had to keep control.

"... chaos isn't good for you. Or anyone," she managed, forcing her voice into a quieter, if strained, tone. "I do want to reject it. I'm not a coward for... what, not killing everyone here?" She probably couldn't. Look how her last fight had turned out--and there were more people here than there'd been then. Not that she would want to, either--why was she considering her ability to commit mass murder like this?! "Do not listen. Please." God, she was really hitting rock bottom, wasn't she? Pleading with a bunch of random Gembound who didn't know any better to reject Chaos? What responsibility did she have toward them anyway? It would be so much easier just to leave. Take her own advice, and go as far away as she could. She was so jealous of Abra, who helped without a second thought, who was so kind despite what she'd done to her. Goodness seemed to Aethereal like second nature to the lemur: I bet she doesn't dream of killing someone ever.

In a rare show of emotion, Anselm's ears pinned. Yet it did nothing to ebb at the sounds now flooding their ears. What was that thing? And why was it...so loud? Anselm paused in his approach. He paid little attention to the argument seeming to form between the cat and the...large dragon Anselm's vocabulary had little words for. It wasn't his business. But his head turned back, focusing on Diot, blank eyes watching them.

"You do not hear it? It's baleful howling taunts and jabs at my ears." Anselm's eyes closed, listening deeper. The words, did they have meaning? It seemed, to almost form words the more he listened. But it grew loud. Too loud. His eyes opened. He stared at the hole in the wall. The object that Purity, Melinoe, and a owl--Anselm froze.

Was it? Anselm, almost reluctantly, hopped forward. No, it wasn't her. It wasn't nearly the right shade. Gathering his courage, Anselm slow hopped up to both the owl and the crack in the wall. What was that? No matter how he squinted at the object as the owl withdrew it, his brain could not parse what he was looking at. Did...did Anselm want to know what it was? Anselm looked towards the ground, searching for something he could use as a light.

A twig lay not far away. Debris tracked in from Eridanus, without a doubt. It would do. Anselm pressed his foot against the twig. Heat and pain both twisted down his leg, settling into a boiling pain in his foot. Slowly it caught. The hare waved his foot to rid it of the burn, and leaned down to pick the twig up in his mouth. Anselm rested his paws against the wall, ears pricked and makeshift torch held in his mouth. Even if he was too short to see it, maybe this would assist in lighting the thing up.

(brief interaction with Diot!)

The headless monster began spouting about how 'it lies' and to not listen to the whispers. Yelling about what it did to her, what it'll do to them. She seemed like a complete polar opposite of the boar he'd encountered but just as crazy. He'd take her words with a grain of salt just as he had Edric's. It'd be up to him to find the middle ground of truth, whatever that may be.

He stepped closer to the argument that had just begun. A nuisance, if any of there were going to make out what the whispers were."I'm sure you only have good intentions, but you should leave us be to investigate this. Tell me, what is more dangerous, ignorance of a threat or full understanding of it?" He gave her a once-over, gaze lingering on the oil-oozing stump where a head should be, "I know this chaos hurt you, but this is an opportunity for more. You don't have to take it but you shou-"

Then Aethereal's magic hit him like a stone to the face, and an abrupt silence followed as what could only be jokingly called a glimpse roared through his mind.

It could only be described as a downpour of sensation. Of feeling, of need. It was everything he'd only caught a tantalizing glimpse of at the altar, and now the strange whispering that plagued this cave. It was a sneak peak, a look of his future down this path. It was amazing. It was terrifying.

It was hard to keep his composure. Extremely hard, actually. He had to, at least somewhat, but it was all too easy to forget his pretend manners as he stalked over to the crack in the wall, the source. It was an incomprehensible mess of whispering wails, and he needed more he needed to listen closer. Until it all resolved into clarity. Shoving aside any who'd dare interfere, he reached a paw into the crevice, desperately reaching for whatever lay within.

@Aethereal @Purity @Mephisto For visibility!

Fire and diffracted light lay the room—just large enough to fit Aethereal once the entrance was squeezed through—bare; and, bare it was. Jagged clefts of stone lined the walls and the floor was uneven. Spiderweb cracks lined every corner, congregating at the center of it all: an ebony skull resembling a boar's with serrated tusks and numerous diminished eye sockets proof of its unnatural nature. Just a few vertebrae accompanied it, disappearing into the floor.


The rainbow light played off the petrified bones's surface, glinting brightest from the gemstone erupting from its crown and any hairline fractures—like some sort of infection left unattended. It had a particular green murkiness to it, but it was not the iridescent Chaos of the Altar, the Black Spire, Aethereal's oilstone; no, some might call it epidote.

Whispers clamored from it, but they were more an endless chant than the compulsions that His influence might offer. They were easy to disobey, but impossible to ignore here—especially as they grew clearer and more intense:

I HAVⓍ BEE᠆N ETགRNAL
aRንESTED, ATTESཋ
I HᣣVE HEA⏁D AND SEEN
ANۍ K⁔OW YOU
BUT ൧E HAVE ୡOT MET
YET
An endless mantra. A symphony never quite finished. Crackling and popping, shattering the ear and mind for the briefest of moments. Any of those who'd moved closer would hear it and, at last, know its sound in some reasonable capacity. It grappled for their conscience, something struggling for closeness and presence. A warbling accompanied it, still—all those prior cries and echoes of a voice.

Hecate and Melinoe, reaching for it where it was embedded into the floor, would be met with an echoing cry for their ears only, resounding in startling clarity:

DON'T LEAVE ME ALONE.

The Gembound have discovered a strange, epidote-infested skull. They are free to continue interacting with it (or each other) and may exit at will. Feel free to GM tag for any further interactions!

@Purity @Diot @Mephisto @Melinoe @Anselm @Aethereal @Hecate

Addressing Mephisto!

Hecate turned, a flash of emerald seeking the speaker who had berated her so. "Are you addressing me?" she demanded, cold cracking like ice through her voice. How dare he? And for doing what--for walking over to the sound they were all listening to..? "You take issue with my investigating these whispers, fool? Or is it arrogance that I did not come and cower at your feet before moving in? You are not important enough to merit my attention," she snapped, her beak clacking at the end of her words, its own punctuation.

The whispers roiled in her mind. DON'T LEAVE ME ALONE. And oh, she wouldn't.

With a fling of her mind she shoved, reaching for the lion to fling him across the room. Let him impact the stones. If his bones would shatter, or if he would land on his feet--she cared not. "Do not approach me again. Do not deign to speak to me," she declared, and crept in to be beside the skull.

She would not leave it... "Tell me more," she murmured, its voice still ringing madly in her head. "I will not leave you."

A skull. A boar's skull. It looked nothing like that boar, but he couldn't help think of the similarities as he drew ever closer, drawn in by it's just barely intelligible siren song. Ignoring the bird as she yelled at the other lion, battering him with magic, he stepped closer and closer until the skull was right at his paws.

'Don't leave me' "I won't." he breathed out, now half curled protectively over the skull. Looking down on it, listening to it, made him realize.. It needed something, didn't it? Needed something, something more than this prison of gem and bone. A spark, pulling in his chest, told him what exactly was needed.

Did it work? The magic, the spark flowing out of him, was weak but it was there. Practically holding his breath, he waited for anything. Anything to show he'd succeeded, that he'd done all that he'd needed to do.