Pride came in at a swift trot, a little worn from his travel and his magical exertion, but too stressed to be weary. His eyes were wide and brow furrowed as he clattered up toward the Throne, his nostrils flaring to take in the scents. There was nothing unusual--no smell of blood, or fire or Bloodberries--so he called out, glancing around and listening for others.

"Envy?" he called, his melodic voice echoing through the crumbled ruins.

It sounded, for the moment, as if he were alone--but that, he knew, was very much not the case.

He tried to reach his mind for the parasite, but nothing answered--no connection was made. It didn't surprise him, given how much he'd been casting, but for now he gritted his teeth and he waited.

@Envy

Envy wasn't far from the throne, and when Pride approached, they heard him coming- they had been tending, briefly, to the ever-growing chrysalis of diamond that they'd stashed safely away. And as they returned, they were greeted by the sound of clattering hoofbeats and Pride's call. They emerged from behind a pile of rubble, lithe body squeezing between a crack in two bricks, and pattered over, whee they quickly re-established themselves on the throne by scampering up the vertical surface and sitting proudly upright.

"Pride!" they twittered gleefully- the deer was just the one they'd been wanting to see. Breathlessly, they continued to speak before Pride could butt in. "It's growing! The piece of gem you gave me has gotten as big as me. I can see something green inside!" They knew as soon as they seated themselves back on the throne that they were growing anxious at the thought of being away from the object for too long; as soon as Pride left, they'd return. What if it hatched whilst they were away? They imagined, briefly, a tiny copy of themselves toddling out and into the waiting, slavering jaws of the Bloodberries.

A look of horror crossed their face, quills shivering upright. It wouldn't be long. They had to get back to it soon.

It took until then for Envy to really look up at their right-hand deer- only then that they caught onto the look on his face. Pride had never looked like that before. The weasel's quills prickled further. What was going on? Their mind jumped at once to a thousand conclusions. Were they under attack? No, no. They couldn't be. What was going on? Were the Seven finally ditching them? Was Reseda trying to take over? Had Gluttony choked? Had Amazon croaked?

The possibilities were too much to bear but Envy tried to keep a straight face despite the nerves growing obviously, tail flicking faster by the moment. "...Pride? What's going on...?"

Speech. Thought.

@Pride

Pride stepped forward, bowing briefly and in an absent, worried fashion.

"My King--I had an-..." Here, he hesitated, his usually-perfect and precision-chosen words faltering as he thought about what the hell to say. 'I ate a worm and it's alive inside of me' sounded horrific and far too simple. He grimaced. "I accidentally consumed a parasite of some kind, in Fornax. I found out quite by accident, however, that it is sentient--and I do not think that it can be removed without killing it. It-... calls itself Squick. It appears to be a very tiny white worm."

He stamped a foot absently, an expression, subconsciously made, of his faint stress. "I do not wish to kill it--it is young, and frightened--but I had to inform you straightaway. Amras--do you know Amras?--suggested that if there is an emergency, I can use magic to remove it, and I think that I can. But hopefully no emergency arises. I do want, though, to potentially find it another host? I do not know what to do with it. About it."

He fidgeted for a moment, uneasily, and then added, "I do not think that this is a risk but I wished to also report--if I begin acting strangely, you might want to assume that the being is affecting my mind, somehow, with magic."

There. Report done-... sort of.

It still didn't explain so many things.

@Envy

Envy's nervousness deepened in response to Pride's hesitation, and they quickly came to assume the worst. The weasel's expression changed, a look of intent nervousness lingering, and they paused, tail curling, but otherwise stock-still. The deer finally continued in his explanation, and at first Envy was relieved. So it wasn't any of the things they'd been afraid of. No-one was under attack. No-one was ditching. It was just...

"...Wait. What?" They took a moment to process what he'd just said, staring, a little bit slack-jawed, at the deer. Perhaps if Envy had been the analytical type, they would have been more intrigued, but they found themselves absolutely stumped. What could they even say to that? "A... A sentient... worm?" They paused, thinking long and hard. They'd seen bugs before. They'd also seen creatures eat bugs. Fairly commonly, actually. But they'd never considered that any of them might be intelligent. It seemed like a stupid idea that the little scuttling and squirming things might have more to them. "Can it talk?"

They paused, then a horrified look crossed their face. "It's... in you now? and... yes, I know Amras." The gryphon had helped to feed them when the caves had been dark, only days after their birth. Or, at least, he'd tried to. Envy had soon realized it was all pointless. The weasel found themselves wanting to meet Amras again; it had been a long time, and they knew that the gryphon was particularly skilled in magic. Envy wished they'd paid more attention to him at the time; but they'd ignored him. At the time, their brain had been fiery with ambition leeched from Imperia and they rarely allowed time for their own emotions.

"Maybe Gluttony would... uh... 'host' it for you? That goat will eat anything."


Speech. Thought.

@Pride

Pride listened, worriedly, then paused to peer at Envy.

For a very long moment, he tried to work out this logic. He likes to eat so much that he'd-... willingly eat a parasite..? he thought to himself, confusedly.

"It-... does not speak. But I can contact it mind-to-mind. I did so quite by accident. It worries me how many of what we perceive as Lessers may in fact be sentient," he added. But he had little time to consider that problem, at the moment--first things had to come first. "If someone else takes it on they will need to be able to communicate with it in such a way, I think. I could perhaps teach Gluttony, but--why him? Surely his love of food does not extend to harboring parasites..?"

He thought about this, for a moment, and how much Squick had also seemed to love the idea of food. "Though if they can communicate, perhaps they can bond over their love of... cuisine," he offered uncertainly.

...This was so messed up.

@Envy

Envy shivered as Pride answered their questions. For some reason, the thought of a worm that couldn't speak sounded like... well... just a worm. And it disgusted them. Like large spiders- imagining them speaking took the edge off of the instinctive fear that Envy felt when thinking about them. The thought of the parasite actually being able to speak to Pride made the whole thing just a little less gross. And now they were thinking about cave spiders and worms.

They didn't like this at all.

The weasel shook themselves from head to tail. "Are you sure it's not some sort of trick?" they asked slowly. Envy wasn't too worried at the idea of sentient lessers. They barely gave the non-greater denizens of the cave half a thought. They didn't eat them, so why should they care...? So, they only grunted a response to that.

Pride's questions on Gluttony as another viable host made them stop for a moment. What else could they do? Their logic had been simply Gluttony likes to eat things. He might not find it as gross as we do. but... As Pride questions on it, the idea quickly fell apart. So they just said exactly what they were thinking. "Gluttony's less of a picky eater, and he has a strong stomach. He might not find it as gross as we do," they offered with a shrug. Nailed it.

At Pride's next question, Envy was unable to suppress a shudder. They found themselves holding back a gag. They looked at Pride's face, hoping to see a sliver of humour there that would imply that he was joking. Finding none, Envy gritted their teeth. "That's disgusting, Pride."

Perhaps it would do good to keep this... incident on the down low for now. Perhaps if something came out it would desecrate Pride's reputation, as it was likely already doing to his namesake.

Speech. Thought.

@Pride

Pride had no idea what Envy found disgusting, exactly. The whole situation, perhaps..? He wholeheartedly agreed.

"It is, but the creature is sentient. And I know--at least, I am fairly confident--that it is not a trick simply because when I connected to it mind-to-mind, I felt, and heard, only earnest hope, innocence and fear, and the like. It seemed very much like a child. Perhaps instinct drives it, and it will become sinister later--I do not know."

A horrid thought then struck him.

What if it was a Lesser Gembound--"just" a parasite--and Pride had accidentally linked to it and granted it sentience..? He had been attempting to do precisely that with the reindeer, at the time, after all. His horror froze him, for a moment, as he stared at Envy. He began, very slowly, to speak.

"...My King, a thought just occurred to me. At the time of the... ahh, contact, post-ingestion, I was attempting to forge a link of some kind with those white caribou currently in the caves." He paused, hesitating.

"It is--a part of what I've been trying to research, with Amras. How stones, and magic, and Lessers all interact--tell me, what do you know about the creatures called 'familiars?'"

@Envy

Envy looked at Pride, lifting their lip slightly in an expression of clear distaste. They didn't know either. They'd never heard of anything like this happening. "Maybe if it is... maybe it only needs you whilst it's a baby? Babies often don't do good on their own." Even Envy had had a mother. Maybe when it grows, it'll be able to live on its own?" Like other bugs, sort of. Envy was fairly certain that maggots usually turned into flies. maybe the worm would grow and change, too. "It might be like a maggot. Uh... and turn into something else."

What did they know? They'd seen the fish Amras had left by the stream gradually rot away, crawling with white bodies when they couldn't eat them. But Envy generally stayed as far away from dead things as they could, and cared little for the lessers of the cave.

They looked up as Pride began to speak again. And with horror, they realized that the deer might be right. Envy had never heard of Familiars before with the exception of the light-summoned kind; they couldn't be sure how they really worked. What if it was just a lesser? Maybe that would make Pride less guilty if he had to kill it. Or perhaps that would make it worse. It would be sort of like giving life to a stone, only to kill the child as soon as it emerged. And that wasn't a good thought. "You might be right,"

"Not much, they admitted after a moment's hesitation. "Amras summoned light-familiars, but I don't think that was the same thing. And... I shared thoughts and feelings with a greater Gembound, once, over a long distance. We could see through each other's eyes and hear each other's thoughts. It was... an accident, though. Like I'd ever have wanted to listen to someone like her all the time. It faded away after a while."

They scoffed. "It was a good thing, too. She was the worst."

Speech. Thought.

@Pride

Pride considered. He hesitated. And then he voiced his concerns.

"I do not know exactly how it works, and I've been trying to find out. To replicate it," he began to explain, worriedly. "I have been trying to forge a link with them. What separates us from the so-called Lessers? There's a thousand deer in these caves, just like me, but they can neither speak nor can they cast magic. When I link to their minds, or try to, I see only blank emotion. I had been trying to strike them with a surge of magicka, a--not an attack, but an empowerment. To see if I could make one both sentient, and capable of magic, with the same infusion we give stones before they grow. I'm unsure if it works; perhaps it needs to be done pre-development. I certainly hadn't had any luck," he added drily.

He began to pace, then, back and forth, brow furrowed. "I was reaching out, when it happened--trying to contact a group of reindeer. It's--what if I empowered it, Envy? What if I made a Lesser, Greater, but it was--a parasite?"

There--his fears were voiced. He came to a stop, turning to stare at Envy, his brow knitted up with worry. He'd hardly heard what they'd said about their link with another--or well, he'd heard it, but he wasn't sure how it might relate. He wasn't sure how any of this related.

What a mess. But then, if Envy had had a link-...

"Are you able to maintain two-way communication with the mind, then? Perhaps you can try to speak with it--see what you think?"

@Envy

This was getting too technical. Envy listened, and tried not to let any sign of exasperation show on their face as they listened, sort-of. Envy barely gave a thought to the lessers of the cave, and the lessers, in turn, barely gave Envy a second glance. They weren't a part of their kingdom, they couldn't offer any interesting conversation, and they couldn't eat them, so why should they care? If anything, Envy was jealous of the blissful ignorance with which they went about their simple, boring lives. "Who knows? Maybe you just haven't found the right method yet," the weasel offered with a shrug.

They had to admit; Pride's theory sounded... plausible. Likely, even. After all, what other possibilities were there? How else could a worm, of all things, learn to think and feel? The thought was unnerving. "Well then... if you did, then... I suppose it just... exists, now. Can you reverse it?" not much else to say. If Pride had given it life, then... well... there wasn't really anything they could do about it. Except kill it, and Pride seemed to have already turned that down. What were they supposed to do about it, in any case?

The weasel's tail curled, spines shivering.

At Pride's suggestion, Envy thought for a second. They'd communicated with Prde through mind-to-mind communication before. It shouldn't be too hard for them to replicate, surely. But part of them still shied away from the idea of trying to communicate with something so... unsavoury. But Envy wouldn't be the one to be caught admitting it. "Perhaps I could. Let me give it a try."

They held their breath for a moment, and reached out. A flow of half-masked emotion; uneasy focus, a mixture of eagerness and dread, and a distinctive itch that manifested in a flick of their tail, spread across the tenuous mental link. Envy's emotions were sharp, and ever-shifting, thoughts always flicking from one to another, interspersed with sudden spikes of fear. It seemed that they had a hard time separating emotion from communication, and every sound, every touch, blended together into an uncomfortable, sensational hubbub.

...Does this work? Pride?

Speech. Thought.

@Pride