The plague vector had left the strange bat-like creature in Polaris, and now she decided to return home with her spoils. From her wings, strands of crystal-like saliva hung, loosely bound about them. The stickiness was still there, but less so. To a newcomer, Diánysma could be described as looking like a goddess. Well... she was one, wasn't she? 'I am returning, Panoúkla.' The vector had also gathered quite a few specimens of bacteria and pathogens while in Polaris. Perhaps... even enough to brew her own disease.

Curious to test that, she stopped in the center of the mossy tunnel, pulling at her magicka.

Nothing. Nothing came. Not even a glimmer or shimmer of the toxic stone which she was bound to. Diánysma clacked her beak and hopped onto a gimmering clump of moss, as if that would increase her chances of success. With her movement, a plume of spores would be sent up, sticking to her silken strands of glowworm saliva. Once more, she pulled at the magicka and prokaryotic creatures in the cavern.

It went horribly wrong.

The raven's world went black, darkness enveloping her. She shuddered. Rubies gazed up, seeing so little light. Diánysma had just plagued herself with a terrible disease... one akin to a constant nightmare. Shadows danced before her, only the dim outlines of objects about her visible.

The corvid shrieked internally, her physical form collapsed atop the stone, spores drifting down to land atop her shaking form. Diánysma's eyes looked everywhere... but she couldn't see anything. She felt so numb and cold... and she felt as if she couldn't move. Then she thought about it, past all of her delusions and fears brought upon this disease.

Her disease.

She'd created this.

Her gemstone glowed slowly, and the raven's world gained a peculiar red tint to it... but as quickly as it came, it disappeared.

The avian stirred, feathers ruffling and smoothing. She couldn't fall to this disease yet. No... she had to spread it. For Panoúkla. For herself. For the caves. For death. A red tint appeared again, as her stone glowed, trembling in her chest.

The tint grew stronger... stronger... stronger! She gasped for breath. Diánysma's head shot up, and she blinked. The world was still quite dark... but she could move. She could breathe. She didn't feel like she was suffocating anymore.

The corvid blinked once or twice before staring down at her chest, now coated in moss spores. Diánysma plucked a few out, but tired of the act. Instead, she focused on curing herself of the disease... then spreading it. She could do it. Just... cleanse herself once more.

Yes...

It worked.

She could see once again.

And now... it was time to incubate that disease once more.

She had created that disease, that plague... Efiáltis. A nightmare. It wasn't quite pestilence... but would surely bring about suffering to those who contracted it. Now... Diánysma just had to recreate it. The crimson heart upon her breast shimmered and crackled with prokaryotic magicks, a subtle red glow filling her form.

But no success. The glow fizzled out.

She just didn't gather enough bacteria, that was it!

Diánysma knew that she must try again. Try and try until she succeeded! So she grasped the magical forces and reached. She reached for the bacteria in the room and hoped to coax it into a shell, so that she may plague some unfortunate and poor sod with it.

But it failed.

You can do it, my disease. Keep trying.

A whisper resounded in the back of her head, undeniably the voice of her god. As she pulled at her magicka one more time, it obeyed. Beautifully, bacteria began to coalesce into Efiáltis. Excellent. The raven smiled as she safely kept the plague upon her tongue, the disease incubating upon it. She only had to deposit it onto a victim. Diánysma heard faint footsteps, and she skittered into hiding, watching and observing from behind a stone.

@Penelope

The growing child wanted to try and see what was outside one of the tunnels that day, having no adult supervision, she kept to looking out for herself. Not a problem since she was always so careful but maybe today she should have stayed home in Polaris? The spots on her body were slowly fading away, showing she was growing up. And that meant she had to look out for herself. Little did she know, there were dangers.

Dangers she would never understand.

Almost in a gallant attempt, she jogged down the tunnel and stared at all the moss that grew on the walls. So pretty. Coming to a halt upon noticing someone not to far away. ". . . Hello. What is your name?" Coming closer to the pale bird. "My name is Penelope."

"Speech"

@Diánysma