The splash some distance behind him had Pride's head swivel sharply, the whites of his eyes visible as they rolled about in fear. He was still seeing those he knew, those he cared for, ghostlike in the darkness--and thus the sight of the black kitten flailing in the water behind him did not seem unusual.

Unlike them, however, she did not drown--instead she paddled right past him, as if unseeing. Her splashing and thrashing remained oblivious to him as she went by, and he hesitated before struggling to catch up.

--Is she real? Are any of them real? Would not the real thing acknowledge me--or perhaps she is as lost in her own th--OH! The stag started back with a surprised fluting snort, nearly submerging as he tried to rear back from the suddenly-surfacing bloated body of a blue gryphon in the water. Quickly he caught himself, swimming fearfully around it, ignoring the hammering of his heart as best he could. His wisp floated off ahead, still illuminating the black kitten, and he struck out after her as quickly as he could.

He did his best, too, to ignore the small, green thing with quills that floated past just beneath the black surface, lifelessly limp.

It seemed that he had spent an eternity swimming down here--in truth it was only a few minutes, ten perhaps, but they felt impossibly long. It felt as though all he had ever done was swim down here, through the pitch black, dodging ghosts and bodies, terrified that this was forever.

When at last his legs struck dry land he trembled as he emerged, struggling to stand before collapsing onto knees and hocks, trembling and panting through an open mouth. His eyes remained too-wide, and he could see, in his wisplight, the crumpled form of Wilder as she trembled, too, and muttered to herself. Over his shoulder, with a glance, Pride could still see the unearthly shapes of others in the dark, and--a little frantic that they might not have much time--he gave Wilder a nudge with his snout.

"Kitten. Cat. Are you still alive? Wake up--wake up! Pay attention, wake up. We need to get out of here." Though where here was, he was still very uncertain. He peered down below, but all he could see was blackness. He tried to summon up a second wisp, to send it down to scout below--but his magicka flickered out, and even his existing one dimmed dangerously. He quickly retracted his magicka, leaving the single wisp to stabilize, and lay there panting and shaking in fear.

Shango stared after the fallen kitten. An impulse--brief--urged him to give chase, but he knew he'd never get up here again. He could not truly fly.

Turning, he moved with a sort of horselike strut forward. There was a flicker of light before him, his own phosphorescent wisp sputtering into being and rising high, striking out ahead. The hybrid followed, neck arched and head tilted. He glanced sidelong at Thothaga as he went, his voice almost childlike in question--though why he chose the spider to ask was unclear.

"Will they come back?" He didn't really have a tone--he was curious, maybe a little concerned, but not truly afraid for them. He didn't have the depth of experience or the familiarity with Wilder or Pride to truly feel empathy for either. Still, the question was there, which was... something.

He scrambled over the third, crumbled ledge, his hind legs briefly scrabbling over loose stone for purchase, until his scale-feathered wings batted him upright and onto the walkway ahead. He glanced back only briefly before heading forward, his wisp leading the way.

He only stopped upon reaching the sheer dropoff. His wisp floated out before him, revealing only a depth of black so deep it was impossible to see the bottom. "I can check--down," he said doubtfully "but. Can't fly up. Maybe more--" and here he turned, gesturing with one clawed forelimb toward Thothaga. He meant her nifty spiderwebbing ladder, but he did not know the word for what it was.

as a maiden she tiptoes shy with her light...

Thothaga turned towards the winged gembound, surprised that he could form sentences- perhaps she had underestimated him. She paused for a moment, considering his question. "I- I do not know." She finally admitted. "But they are not gone." The spider then turned and continued onward, giving no further context.

Though she had freed herself from the mind-web, Thothaga still felt unsettled by what she experienced in her visions. Never did she want to go through that again. The others also seemed to be understandably rattled too, especially the dog, who was pleading with them to not leave him. "Calm yourselves, He is testing us." She hissed at them. "Don't you see? These are mind-games! He is trying to use our fears against us, so do not trust what see, hear, or feel. Understand?" For a moment, she was almost unsure of her own words, but she trusted the caves, and she certainly trusted The Collector more than this masked creature and his labyrinth.

After squeezing through the winding stair-case, Thothaga came upon a steep drop off. She peered down, and saw nothing but a dark oblivion. The winged gembound then spoke to her again, and offered to descend, though he seemed unsure and appeared to suggest that she make more web. She could not do that, it would take up too much time and silk, but she had an idea. "No need." Thothaga said. "I will descend and see if there is a bottom- I can climb back up and tell you, after all." It was hard to tell if her last were cheeky or a matter-of-fact and her expressionless face was no help at all.

If Thothaga had the advanced lungs of vertebrate, she would have drawn in a deep breath to calm her nerves as she moved closer to the ledge. She peered down once more, attaching a cord of stark-white silk to its edge. Thothaga shifted her fangs nervously. She knew she shouldn't be, this would be like descending down any rockface, But this is no normal rockface, and I can't see.

As the spider slipped over the edge, she attempted to summon her wisp for a little light. Thothaga legs attempted to find some purchase along the wall, if there was any, if not, she would have only her silken cord to propel her downwards into the gloom.

"Thothaga speaking."
Thothaga thinking.

@Miru @Yoosung

The small fox traveled alongside the other survivors as they continued on, leaving the second ledge behind even as their individual ghosts still haunted them. The flying beast and the spider seemed to be handling their fears with expertise; a result of living with it before perhaps? The eyes of tongue and mind, however, seemed to be the most affected of the group, falling into a panic as they had rushed to the others and uttered apologies for imagined wrongs.

Her own fears were not so simple to try to confront. She dared not close her eyes lest they fail upon reopening, and dread hung over her with every blink that the sight before would be her last. She could take deep breaths to try to calm the terror of the infinite abyss but the numbness of air flowing through her body without feeling only made the fear worse. How long would it take for it to fully take hold? How long until this half of her mind stuck in oblivion could be released?

The third wall, thank the paths, had crumbled before they arrived allowing them to scale it easily. Sign of powerful victims who had come before and lashed out in anger or sign of how long this trial had been in place? No way of knowing, she simply had to traverse it and make sure not to step on any sharp ledges lest she bleed without knowing.

Would that be beneficial in case there was no escape from the enclosing nothingness?

A single note burst from Miru's normally silent throat, falling upon her own ears and breaking her thoughts from the dark turn they were beginning to take. Hope was not lost yet. This was a puzzle and puzzles had a solution.

This was a puzzle, right? Had the eye of strength been truthful in at least that part?

Their travels continued on past a staircase until stopping quite suddenly with a drop off. Nothing ahead. No hope... at least there might not be any hope if it weren't for the great wall climber who traveled with them.

"Were my trial so simple as to ignore my senses I would count it a blessing." she spoke softly in response to the spider's words, her heartbeat intensifying as the blackness before her mirrored the emptiness of her entombed psyche. "My ears are stolen and my sight runs dark. The grasp of chilless cold reaches across my skin as the anchor of the known world rusts away."

A quick breath this time in an attempt to fortify herself. Naming her demons would do no good. "Still, it is upon you that our hopes lie. May it be that there is an end to this road that leads us out of the depths of purgatory."

As she spoke her blue flame came back into being, summoned by a fraction of her will. With it she might light the area directly before them in case the path was there but hidden in the sides of the wall or as a bridge cutting through the air unseen.

---

Though my thoughts are my own
"This is my greatest tool to hone"
Tags:

The dog shivered, looking at the spider as she spoke. He understood, yes - it was all a test, a mindgame. But still, there was some truth wasn't there? The hybrid could fly (well, not fly, but glide which was still quite useful), and the spider could make those webs. And he was, well, just a dog. Four legs, no wings, and unable to make anything other than the Will o' the Wisps, which the others could make just as well.

If they lost him, there wouldn't be any great lost. But all the same, he stuttered a "S-sorry,", and trotted after the spider, ears flat and tail low. They walked for quite a while in the darkness, the dog's head on a swivel, squinting to attempt to see in the dark. The light that came off the Will o' the Wisps weren't terribly strong, and so he stayed close to Thothaga for fear of being seperated.

He stepped carefully on the stairs, the edges crumbling beneath unsteady paws, not liking the feeling beneath his pawpads. The dog had never walked on stairs, and was quick to decide that he didn't like them.

The drop-off they found was sheer, and he stayed well away from it for fear of falling like the cat and the stag. The hybrid offered to glide down but, no, he would be trapped, and so the spider decided to climb down. The dog shivered, and said "Be safe," approaching the edge hesitantly and peering after her, a weak Will o' the Wisp flickering into existance near his head.

I've been on a lonely tripdragging along a lonely shadow

INTO THE DARK HEART

It Goes On Forever...

As they explore, the situation becomes clearer. Miru's light finds no walkways left or right: there is no salvation hidden in the darkness, only sheer and desperate fall. The great spider descends on her thread to find a surprise: a hovering wisp illuminating Pride and Wilder far below, huddled on a second ledge.

They are all, it seems, in a very tall and narrow canyon: the stag and kitten in the slender ribbon of black river at its bottom, the rest following the narrow path high above, carved of dead black stone. Yet even for they, the way shears down, straight into the darkness. Should Thothaga descend further--past Pride and Wilder, deeper into the black--she will find a vast pool of deep, black water.

It is likely safe to jump into, even from the greatest heights: but no way out is immediately visible. A spider could, perhaps, crawl the walls: the canyon emerges into a great cylinder-shaped opening, it seems, with the pool filling its base.



On the off-chance Thothaga glances at the slate she carries, it is now emitting a soft glow.

@Shango @Pride @Yoosung @Miru @Wilder @Thothaga

At the sound of Pride's musical voice, Wilder lifted her tiny head, her eyes bloodshot and dull with fear. She didn't want to be in here anymore. She wanted to leave. She wanted to go back to her friends or her home and curl up and forget this terrible, dark place. She didn't care about whatever gift the Masked Merchant had for her anymore. It wasn't worth her life. "I wanna go home," she mewled pitifully before stumbling to her feet.

If she wanted to go home they'd have to go forward. She would not swim against the tide in that dark water.

She could barely see the water beneath them and she felt bile rise to her throat. She didn't want to go into that again, but there was no other way forward. But still...there might be a different path or a better idea then just...hopping right into the waves.

Her desperation to know, her need to be certain about her path ahead broke through that magic barrier she could not pass before. She reached forward, beyond matter, beyond minds, and into possibility. As if she were looking into the past, she glanced into the future, a future of jumping into the river. If it would leave to salvation...or the doom of them all.

@Pride

Miru waited uneasily before the pit into the unknown. She was still scared, terrified in fact, but emotional fatigue was beginning to take its toll. The thought of living an unknown eternity in total sensorial isolation and the reality of experiencing it first hand with a portion of her being was taking deep root. Just as her senses were fading so too was her ability to feel troubled by it. Numbness of skin begat numbness of mind, so much so that the absence of any visible way out barely prompted any reaction from her.

They were all going to perish here. Each haunted by their own nightmares. Had this fate been avoidable? Unlike the stalker of dreams the one who offered this trial had given them a choice... but had it only been an illusion of choice? If she had turned it down would she have woken up the next morning blind and deaf and devoid of feeling all the same?

A voice below as though from a thousand miles away reached the hopeless fox. The voice of the fated one, eyes of a great unknown destiny, and the one individual Miru had pledged friendship to. The youth cried out in pain and longing, their internal light fading as quickly as her own.

This couldn't happen. She couldn't allow this to happen. Wilder was a friend. Wilder had a future that must not be cut off by even a holder of strength. Was the master of the trial trying to tear the kitten's future away? Were they trying to corrupt their destiny into a twisted form?

No. This could never be allowed.

"Eyes of the infinite to whom I have pledged friendship." she called out below as her forepaws tread lightly upon the cliff's edge, "Gaze ahead to the unlit path; it may be the way home. I will go ahead and see to it that the way is clear."

Even if my eyes fail me I still have my light. Even if my senses are numbed I still have physical form. If this is the end of the path then all hope is lost. By failing to act we may all fall prey to the demons. May it be that the eyes of reality do not turn away from me, or at least may it be that my life can be a torch to light the way for the others."

With that the fox leaned forward and slipped off the cliff toward the abyss below. She knew the wind was rushing through her fur but she could not feel it. She knew the second cliff was passing by but she could barely see it. She knew that the blue light from within was filtering through her fur but all she could do was hope that it would provide guidance. Was this to be end of a life? The beginning of eternal isolation? Perhaps, even, the gateway into the next world?

The water below was approaching fast; surely the answers would lie within...

---

Though my thoughts are my own
"This is my greatest tool to hone"
Tags:

Shango stared down.

The spider had descended, and lights had gone down there; he could see other lights farther below, and the distant but distinct shimmer of water below that.

The fox had jumped, and it couldn't fly; Shango could glide, at least.

Well, why not?

Off the edge he leapt, scalefeathered wings spreading to slow his descent. Down he glided, a leaf on the wind, gently spiralling down into the black.

Pride stared warily down. He wasn't quite sure what to do about all of this--but now there were figures plunging past him down into the black.

Once he heard their splashes, he realized that it wasn't too far down.

"Get on my back, if you want--but I think we need to jump. Stay close. I can swim well enough, if you ride on my back." Thank the caves he hadn't worn his armor here. He'd have likely sunk like a stone--or it'd have been harder, at least, to stay afloat.

He waited a moment, in case Wilder wished to climb on. Then he took a breath, and tensed himself, his eyes closing.

Leap of faith, then-... come on. He gathered himself and leapt, gathering his magicka about him as he did so. His stomach fell away with the pitch of the fall, yet as he tipped forward, plunging into blackness, lights sprang up around him. Glittering aurora-trails of bright white and gold, of blue and green--all faint but trailing, swirling around and arcing up behind him--so that his fall was clearly visible to those above, a beacon in the darkness.

When he landed in the black water, he felt it close over him--cold, choking--but he rose up again, bobbing there and gasping for breath as he paddled with sharp hooves. The lights glowed around him, orbiting him in the dark water, illuminating the black--and providing a source for those who could see. A focal point, perhaps, to which they could gather.

"More water--" he choked, coughed, and tried again. "There is more water down here! But it seems safe--for now."