The magicka storms rolled and thundered through the caves. Among them surged a small incarnation, riding on wings of a yet unknown cosmos. They beat with untameable purpose, violently battering through the unruly air.

"MASTER VARGAS!"

She called out—startling and abrupt—from the Aperture. Her voice was tense, hoarse, and ever so slightly off key somehow. Maw could be intense, but to this magnitude and without any obvious trigger... were anyone familiar with her still around, they might have found it off-putting, if not simply frightening. She abdicated her throne in the sky, landing delicately on her feet; the standard for her kind. And there, rising only about 3 feet from the ground, her chrysoberyl gaze aimed preemptively upward and onward, she awaited the purple monstrosity with bated and impatient breath. Her tail tapped—tick! tick! tick!—against the floor.

And for whatever reason—be it this haze of excess energy latent in the air, in her mind, or perhaps the need to be certain he met her summons with a level of urgency similar to her own—she also attempted to call part of that storm outside to the ceiling above her.

KABOOM!

The shockwave of sound generated by small (by design) thunderclap clattering against the walls of Draco. That should do it—or something, at least.

@Vargas (maw was loud, so CF members are allowed to join! maw personally will not change her plan if they do or don't. vwagas may quickly try to make it private depending though, idk. will be an IC thing i presume)

- THE LEVIATHAN -

Vargas's head had already swivelled, predator's senses honing in at once on the distant call with clear perfection. Eyes locked toward it, hearing sharp.

He was striding toward the Aperture when the thunderclap closely followed, a shuddering roar that vibrated the rock underfoot and had him briefly flinching as his reflexes warned of sudden attack. Attack it was not; only emphasis, punctuation for the call, and with an internal frown (of concern, rather than disapproval) he straightened and quickened his pace.

Ahh--he knew this one. Recognized her, as he came in sight, his towering form sweeping toward her. He could see, too, the Sentinel already close by: lingering, lurking as was his wont, halberd high and eyes on their visitor from the shadows. He was not hiding. Maw would have seen him, most likely. But it was good to know that, were this an attack, it would not have gone without retaliation.

But--it was not. Still, the almost frantic nature of her voice (or was it hostility-?)... no, the urgency of it, combined with the storm roar, had Vargas stalk straight for her, responding even before he'd come to a halt. "Yes? What is it?"

An attack? he wondered. Another incursion of Order-? Or something other? Chartreuse eyes searched her, looking for any sign.

@Maw

Maw supposed his pace shouldn't have startled her. She was decidedly quite loud, and he was objectively quite big. Still, upon seeing his mountainous silhouette emerge, sweep, and loom, she stood slightly more rigid than before, her pulse threatening to quicken further. Still, her adamantine gaze remained on his, her paws held firm to the ground by a maddening need to find answers—and, equally important, to say the name that had been throbbing and bounding throughout her skull.

She was brief: "Hume," Hume. Hume Hume Hume. Like honey on her tongue it felt, and she was craving the taste. "why'd you make Her here?" She stood like a kitten up at him; innocent, engaged solely in curiosity, and fully unaware what subject she might be broaching or whether he even knew the answers or not. If he didn't, she'd go elsewhere. But she recognized him. She had to start somewhere, and given her context, the question might have been apt; what business did a monster maker have in making Hume? That was... well, far beyond a monster if you asked Maw.

Indeed she noted the other figure to the side, with weapon raised. That was fair, and she did not know how evenly matched they were; but lightning made an even match with many. There was no true danger here, however, as far as Maw could tell. What she noticed more was the stature—bipedal, like her own—and the noticing made something itch, buzz in the back of her brain. She'd get to that. She would. But first...

@Vargas

- THE LEVIATHAN -

Vargas stared down, and at the sound of that name from these tiny lips, felt as though the thunderclap had not come alone. Felt, indeed, as if the cold winds of a storm swept in from behind Maw, buffeting him powerfully.

It was surprise, to hear that name spoken. Concern--for indeed, the secrets tied so closely to her were legion. And, potentially, deadly. But he turned his mind from this, and next came the confusion.

Why did I make her here..?

He thought, at first, that Maw must have missed a word. Perhaps she'd meant to ask, 'why did you make her come here,' but even that, Vargas could parse little sense of.

Hume was not within these caves. Not to his knowledge, anyway.

He stifled an irritated sigh, glaring down with glowing eyes. "What," he asked bluntly, "are you talking about?"

Thus far, no one else had turned up. No need, then, for secrecy--nor did merely the name truly demand it. But his bafflement at what Maw could possibly mean definitely kept him guarded.

@Maw

"The human," she began, and then her eyes darted to her surroundings, in search of some visual assistance. No dice. "from Earth..." That felt redundant, and quite possibly untrue, simultaneously. Weren't all humans from Earth? ...Were they? She pressed on: "brought here, and then... the small... fuzzy one." She put her hand low to the ground to indicate 'small', although that also felt rather ridiculous because realistically that one was likely taller than Maw. "Then the third, Hume..." Hume Hume Hume; and to complete her interpretive dance, she raised her hand high over her head: "taken by the tall one. To Earth, again. Why?"

Maw was less confused about why She had been taken back to Earth, and more confused about the roundabout process in getting her there, and most importantly, why it involved him. Hopefully that would come across. Hopefully Master Vargas would remember, since Maw wasn't actually certain how long ago this might have been for him. Did he forget things? ...Did he even know?

@Vargas

- THE LEVIATHAN -

Vargas stared, for a moment, his bafflement only rising. "Where did you hear of this?" he asked, but it was more puzzled than demanding. He wanted a response, of course. But it was hardly a secret, and he pushed on, nonetheless. "Our Lord Dhracia--Valkhand of these caves--requests special creatures, frome time to time. I do not know how you learned of this 'Hume'--you will tell me-" (matter-of-fact, authoritarian, yet tit-for tat; it was only fair) "but the creature she wished designed was not... that."

Truly, he had no idea what any connection could be, aside from one specific, vague link. But he knew what he had created, and it was most certainly not a god. In fact, though he could not peel back his rigid lips, his jaws parted in a way that suggested a grin; and humor laced his words. "Though it is kind of you to assume I am powerful enough to create a god."

Moving on, he explained: "Perhaps there is some confusion. Why do you wish to know-? I think I might know what it is. But tell me, first: how did you come to know this name? And this--connection?" ...Tenuous as it was.

It was, at best, the vaguest metaphor. But he could explain that after he had Maw's answer.

@Maw

"I wished to know. Hume told me Herself—all of it." Maw felt the gap where further context belonged. A pause. Um... "Many of us went to 'Paradise'," air quotes, "Hume saved us." Any more expositing and this would get far too taxing. But, she did need him to understand. Except that now there was a great confusion; splitting facts. Well, Maw trusted a god's information more than a Master's—especially this god's. So he doesn''t know after all. Then that begged the question: "What'd she—Lord Dhracia ask for?"

She waived his taking of her "compliment" entirely. She hadn't intended that interpretation but it didn't matter to her one way or another. His question to her—"Why do you wish to know-?"—confused her somewhat. Was she supposed to answer that now? Why did she wish to know... about why this request had been fulfilled here? She decided to step forward with that interpretation of the question, albeit with some hesitation. "Wanna know because it's a loop—Cycle." She made a circle in the air with her pointer finger; her eyes followed her tracing. "Hume always ends up on Earth." She restarted the circle at the beginning point: the rightmost point on the circumference, coordinates (0, 1). "She gets here somehow, I was shown." Her finger wheels to the leftmost point, coordinates (0, -1). "Then," Maw's finger completes its voyage back to point (0, 1). She uses that as her sentence stopper, assuming the Master would follow. She then drew (in the air) a line across the circle, straight through its origin (haha) to land back at point (0, -1). She "taps" the point. "Why here? Why involve you?"

If he didn't understand and he didn't know by now, that would be a shame but ultimately fine. Maw had already begun to feel the well of relief from having finally brought this up with someone. If he were inspired to ask further questions for himself, that would be enough to justify this interactions. Although she hoped she wouldn't have to also answer those questions. At least, not all in one sitting. She had gotten much better at talking stamina after mutating but conversations in general—especially confusing ones with all sorts of semantics—could get real agitating real fast. If it weren't for the maddening wealth of knowledge rattling the bars of its cage like a scorned zoo monkey in her head, Maw wouldn't even consider trying.

@Vargas

- THE LEVIATHAN -

Ahh.

This was-... well, it was still uncertain territory. He did not know who had told Maw these things. If it might be, even, some form of test, and he also did not know from whom, be it Hume or a Valkhand or someone else entirely. Vargas had begun, since Maw had started speaking, to shift from confident and overbearing Leviathan to "walking on eggshells"-... well, it didn't do to think too hard about the what, nor why.

He took a moment, eyes tracking the finger drawing a circle--no. Circles. Coils-?--in the air. His eyes, when she finished speaking, cut to her; and there was a danger in them, if she could read it. He was on eggshells.

So was she. Thin ice, as it were. Realistically: he should kill her now. Her life was of no importance. But this was, too, not her fault; and there was doubt, too. If Hume has reached out to her-...

A slow exhale, his rank breath soft in the air. Then he spoke, low and thrumming, his words full of a power he rarely bothered with using. "Be still, and listen." His voice was so soft that it would have been easy to misconstrue it as gentle. But it was not gentle. It was warning. A warning that Maw stood on the precipice, that her next step could plummet her into the abyss. And the words, too, were imbued with that command: a power that tugged at her gemstone, that took control, that forced obedience--at least for the moment.

"The child was not Hume." A fact, still uttered softly, his words measured. He did not want anyone overhearing. "Perhaps the link is that she was human. A species rarely seen, here. Lord Dhracia wanted a Valkhound in human form, to infiltrate. The purpose of this nest is to create and nurture the monsters of our Creator's army; she often makes specific requests for certain tasks." That out of the way, he leaned in.

One overly long arm extended, and he attempted to keep that paralysis locking Maw in place. He had to be clear, because he was trying--trying--to spare Maw's life. To save it. He tipped his hand palm-up, and tried to press one claw lightly to the underside of her jaw. His voice dropped lower, empty of inflection but rumbling deep. "I strongly suggest," he growled, "that if you want to stay alive, you never mention these... cycles... to anyone else, ever again. That is all I will say of those."

His heart thudded, pumping that toxic blood throughout his body, and he felt the danger pressing in all around them. She had no way of knowing--and he could not tell her--how much that knowledge could threaten them all. He was unsure, of course. Perhaps nothing would have come of it. But it was a risk that, in his mind, was a horrific one.

And Maw's life, at the very least, was likely to be forfeit.

Vargas withdrew the claw. He withdrew, too, the command, sliding his magic back into himself. No real harm done, but he hoped that his emphasis had been strong enough. Whether she took it as warning or threat did not matter... so long as she understood.

Stiff, towering, he went on. "Of the other topics... you are free to ask any other questions you may have."

@Maw