Skein had followed their father and their brother silently. They kept a close eye on the echoing grey. They could deal with the suspicious newcomers later. Whatever that rat was, whatever it was leading them to, it was bound to be bad. They slunk among the low ferns of Cetus, a decent ways far off from the group. They kept low to avoid notice, cold mud clinging to their belly fur. Skein wasn't as nimble as they had once been, and they desperately missed being able to easily watch from trees. Everything broke under her weight now. She heard a gurgling, choking sound. She shifted, slinking closer to get a good view. The rat was dying, choking on its own blood.

Skein said nothing, but it made her wary. Tense. Skein said nothing when the woman appeared, though she had to make conscious effort to stifle a warning hiss, to not jump between her and her family. The woman looked odd. Ominous. Untrustworthy. That stone was similar to Sniffles, but its placement...she didn't like it. Skein's eyes darted from the now dead echoing grey to the woman. Skein said something when the woman had the audacity--the gall! to speak to her dad. That was where she drew the line. Her feathers puffed out.

"Uh uh!" Skein barked. She rose, high walking close to her dad. Skein's bright yellow eyes burned into the woman. "I don't trust you! What do you want with my dad, huh? Dad! Dad! Don't trust her!"

It always amazed Dragon how much life the swamp could hide. Out of the still darkness an entire group of creatures had tumbled, blindly following the rat as much as he had.

He studied the strangers, and the one who spoke, and gave the faintest dip of his boat-shaped face in acknowledgement. "We know some things," he answered, with faint humor in his tone. They were more survivors than 'secret keepers,' but he was interested to see where this might go.

Ahh... Skein. He looked at her, and suppressed a snort of laughter. "Wise of you... but you needn't tell everyone you distrust them." That was a free lesson, because family was family, but he honestly felt the same way. His attention fell to the rat.

He ate rats; he wasn't about to go full pearl-clutching righteous paladin about the thing, but that had been brutal, and the way it had been discarded... what was the point? Still--"Are you going to eat that?" he asked the fur-clad figure, and watched her closely for her reaction. He remained wary of those nearby, too, but he didn't expect an ambush, really. He imagined they were all here for the same reason: wanting to know why this talking rat had called them out.

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Wyrm didn't quite share Dragon's confidence. Mostly because she did not share his size. She was a few feet shorter, much lighter weight, plus her mastery of magic left a lot to be desired. She stayed close to him, her forked tongue flicking and eyes combing this sudden crowd with newfound caution.

Skein's outburst still made her laugh, though, and lightened her mood just a little. Man. There was honesty, and then there was honesty!

She looked around at all those gathered--a bird, a snake, a big eel-looking creature--and then at the stranger with the big stick. "You were looking for us?" she asked, some surprise in her voice. Nobody ever came looking for the Children. Not in her whole lifetime! What could they possibly want..?

He had slithered just behind the sickly rat, radiating concern. But he only really knew how to mend cuts and the like, of which the rat had none visible. So all he could really do is follow it and then watch as it coughed up so much blood and keeled over, dead.

"I don't think the rat is safe to eat. It was definitely sick" He told Dragon, partially because it looked really gross and mostly because it'd probably REALLY upset the poor little bird that already seemed on the verge of tears. Wasting food was bad but making little kids cry was worse, probably. He'd slither closer to the rat- already anticipating a squawked warning from Skein- and lean in close to examine it. He handles it delicately, turning it over in his webbed hands. He notes the black veins around the eyes, the way they almost mimic the stranger's similarly colored gemstone. "This was your familiar?" He asks Lilith. He knows there's magic that can link your mind to a lesser gembound, but he can't think of how that'd cause the poor rat to die. "Did you make it sick? Are- are you sick?" He looks at her a little more closely, but she seems fine- maybe just a bit tired and nervous.

The humanoid reminds him vaguely of a couple gembound hes encountered- namely Attikias and Artio. She was also slightly purple. A part of him idly wondered why bipedalness and purpleness seemed to be linked. But there were more pressing matters, so he put that thought to the side, for now. She needs KNOWLEDGE and OPINIONS! PROBLEM SOLVING!!! And Brandle is really REALLY good at that! Or so he hopes. "I can help!" He declares before even knowing what he is supposed to be helping with.

@Dragon @Skein @Larkspur

Many questions came her way from the...many many gembound she had not expected to face. Were the Children of Rot really so large? Hmm...perhaps this was a blessing in disguise. Her fingers thrummed on her staff thoughtfully, interrupted for a moment by Soh-ling's hiss. Her lip curled in disgust and she shot the valkhound a burning glare, but she didn't dignify it with a response. What did they know of her? She may have been stolen by their god, but her lifeblood poured from the mountains of the Vaa. They were just some wretched creature that had only known darkness.

As for the rat, she sighed, and glared at the corpse of the lesser. "It could not hold the influence of my magic for long. It's not sick, and nor am I." (in a way, she thought to herself) "Feel free to eat it if you want. It served its purpose, might as well not let it go to waste." Some part of her felt guilt for killing it, even if it had been an accident, but the majority of her didn't care. It was a tool, fodder. It existed to feed and to be used.

Now, back to the matter at hand.

She returned Dragon's wary gaze with an even once, appreciating his hesitance. Perhaps he could be trusted, then, to not tell his own Master that she'd visited them. "I'd like to know more about who is in charge around here." She gestured a free hand towards the wall, away from the center of Cetus. "As in, the caves as a whole. And what they are like to live under. And I offer, in return, knowledge of one that has escaped. And memories of the surface, if you are interested." For a moment, she could not keep a burning anger out of her expression as she spat, "And if you know the name Tamulus, I'd like to know who you heard it from and in what context."

@Soh-ling (Brandle) @Larkspur (July) @Skein @Dragon (Wyrm)

Dragon listened, and made no move to eat the rat as yet. If someone else did--let them. For now his focus was on her.

Whoever she was.

At length, a low breath escaped him, a long hissing sort of sound, but it was thoughtful. "I will gladly tell you what I know. Everything I know," he went on, his mind flicking back over all the Masters he had known, the tasks Artio and Farina had set them to, the threats Astraea had made. "If, first, you tell me who you are, and what you want with that knowledge."

He was guarded. He had to be. The warning grunt and glance he gave the rest of them--Children and not--held the same. It said, wait. It said, let's find out what we're dealing with, first.

It said, let's be sure we're not signing our own death warrants.

For a moment her eyes blazed with fury. Questioning her already, prying into her motives, how dare he. Perhaps she should rip the knowledge out of him herself - she certainly had that power. But her rational side, what was left of it, calmed the surge of chaos that welled like acid in her gut. There were too many here. And she had not come to start antagonizing everyone. After all, if they were secretive - and trustworthy - she should be glad of the questions, instead of spilling information to anyone that asks.

The fury died as she steadied herself, blinking it away as if it hadn't been there at all. "My name is Lilith. I am a witch from the surface of Let. Misfortune led me to fall into these caves long ago, and I wish only to find contact with that world again." It was not a lie. But her words were guarded, careful. "And Tamulus owes me a debt, but I have no way to reach him. I was hoping one of your Masters may yet know how to find him."

@Dragon

For a moment, Dragon glanced to the others present. He didn't know all of them--Larkspur, or Soh-ling. He introduced himself, then, both to them and to this Lilith. "Hello. I am Dragon. We are the Children of Rot. We survive," he went on. He looked back to Lilith. "And so you did not hear this from me."

Because if it came back to him? Some of the Masters could be... bitchy. And while he had absolutely no idea if Lilith could be trusted, he wasn't about to say anything others didn't already know. Things that only the Children had known were now relatively common knowledge in the caves. She could find out, one way or another; his opinions and his disrespect hadn't gotten him killed yet.

"I know that before we hatched, any of us, there was a rebellion. Jupiter was blamed and is no longer here. I was told that she was killed." He knew that because of Eurydome, who had worked for her, who had come to him seeking her. He'd gone to Vargas on her behalf. And speaking of: "One of the old Overseers was made Master. Perhaps in her stead. I do not know. I get the impression it is an echo of what it was. They are... rebuilding, maybe. You can find that one in Draco. He is overbearing, and he wishes to be called Master Vargas." There was mockery in his tone, and his grin seemed to widen just a little. If Vargas got offed, Dragon wouldn't lose sleep over it.

"Master Astraea seeks to rebuild things, from what I know. Master Tenzin aids us where he can. Master Aquarian is very hungry." Another strange, half-grin flitted across his rigid face. "Masters Farina and Artio seem... fair. If any of them, they would have my loyalty." He named them over Aquarian, and perhaps that would have surprised the other Children, but Aquarian had shown himself greedy and fickle. He was a useful ally, though, when he was fed. "Nemean is considered by some to be a traitor. Aquarian wants nothing to do with her," he added, thinking.

Then he listed those other powers in the caves. Dragon did not know if they were Masters or if they were not. "Raheerah is gone, but I do not know if he was Master. The Collector, the Masked Merchant, the Blacksmith--they are all still here. The Blacksmith aids. The Collector helps... and hinders! At a cost. The Merchant... changes us. If we survive it." He was thinking back to his children, those who had survived the Trials.

"Perhaps the others know more. Tamulus... I do not think I know that name." And he looked to the others for confirmation. If there was more Lilith wanted--details, perhaps, on the things he'd all but glossed over--well, he was still here.

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Her magic made the rat this way? Larkspur looked back down at the poor creature, blood and black veins covering its face, and hugged his wings closer to himself. The magic he'd seen so far had been gentle, beautiful spells. They helped people and invited wonder. It seemed wrong that magic could be twisted to do something so vicious.

Lilith denied being sick, but it didn't seem that way to Larkspur. Maybe she wasn't, but... her magic was. He couldn't think of another way to describe it. And the rat had been sickened by it. He didn't want to stick too close and find out if the magic would somehow reach out and infect him with its influence too, but before stepping back he tried to concentrate his own magic to give the rat a more beautiful resting place, at least.

It didn't work, and the little swallow hunched into himself even more as he hopped away. He'd still stick around to listen, but the failure was like a dark cloud in his head swallowing much of his focus. Why could Lilith work deadly magic, but he couldn't even bring up a few flowers for the rat?

Who is in charge? July hadn't even known there were people in charge! She'd just been living her own life. It rankled her a little to think that someone could just come along and tell her what to do, although from the sound of it they had a wide range of characters. What would happen if two of them gave out different orders? she wondered.

Mostly the new names were too much to keep track of, though Jupiter's brief introduction did draw July's interest. A rebellion. That sounded cool. Awww, she didn't want the cool one to be killed—!

There were others that sounded mysterious, or even dangerous. July found herself drawn to those characters, too, though not with the kind of admiration she'd felt for Jupiter. Instead it was the promise of an adventure that drew her. Danger, costs, changes that put one's life at risk. It was intimidating, yes, and clearly these figures were not to be trusted, but—it was exciting.

She didn't have anything useful to add, though, so she stayed silent and observing.