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

A jolt of fear ran through the spider's nerves. He is?

Thothaga watched Wilder rise to her paws, somewhat annoyed that Dragon dismissed it as a strange quirk. She had the worse eyesight out of everyone here and even she could see there was more to the little black cat. Thothaga gave a nod to her words. "Hm, perhaps so." She resigned. They're not ready to trust me yet. So be it.

"I think I will go with you." She told the cat. "I'd like to hear more about Him." She had to make sure. She had to know.

Thothaga turned back to Dragon and stroked her fangs. "Very well," She sighed. "I will leave this place." Thothaga didn't make an attempt to hide how vexed she was. He said it wasn't a snub to her, but it sure felt like one.

Meet me among the Divine's roots, alone. We need to talk. Her mind rasped to Dragon, rough and demanding.

And with that, the giant spider scurried off into shadows.

*Exit Thothaga

"Thothaga speaking."
Thothaga thinking.

@Dragon @Wilder

Pride's surprised response made Envy briefly reconsider, spluttering a little, quills trembling awkwardly. "Well, I just... thought this was supposed to be a dignified meeting, of Kings and Rulers. But it seems more a disorganised rabble..." they muttered into his ear before straightening up.

The weasel let out a breath, though, noticeably relieved as the gator lead parts of the group away further into the cave, away from the rabble. Then, each one was speaking. The weasel, for once, listened intently, their paws slightly kneading against Pride's forehead beneath them, quills softly rattling.

It was interesting, they bet. All of it pretty wild. They bet that Pride was having a field day. But by the Caves, it was long. Their attention wavered more than once. They flicked their ears. When it finally came to their turn, they found themselves quite stumped. With all eyes-- or so they assumed-- turned to them, they felt their skin growing hot, straightened up, brushed themselves off, and cleared their throat.

"I went with Dragon when I was very, very young, on the same mission where the Kings gave us our wings. There was a big, blue bird who rose out of the pool in Pisces... and the architect-snake was at first just a skeleton in the woods. But... Pride and I visited the kings once again more recently. They said their magic wasn't meant for us, whatever that means. They spoke of... things called 'planets' and 'sky', a place where there were other worlds. They said they got stuck during research, but..."

They glanced down at Pride despite knowing he couldn't see them, hoping that he appreciated their explanation. They shifted their weight, a little awkwardly. "...I think that's it."

Speech. Thought.

@Pride

Pride was briefly disappointed in Envy, in their arrogance, intolerance. As always, though, he phrased it as delicately as possible. "We cannot expect everyone to be as civilized as we are, and it would not do to turn away all allies," he murmured, very quietly indeed.

He listened, then, to the rest--and raptly. He was indeed having a "field day," as Envy imagined; his keen mind took all that he heard and turned it over and over, trying to pick exaggeration from reality, and to find motives and meaning behind it all.

At length, when Envy had spoken, he gave a little nod. "It is as my King says; and the Three Kings spoke, even then, of this trick, and of being trapped." For a moment, he concentrated on his magicka; it occurred to him that making a magical mimicry of the 'sky' that they had shown would be a lovely thing. But he was hesitant; this magic often failed him. As it turned out, however, this fear was baseless. After a moment of focus, a shimmering blue-purple aurora, seemingly ribbons of light studded with stars, rose up and danced over the gathering. "When they spoke of teaching the sky to dance, they showed us something like this."

He paused, thinking. What more could he even share..? He'd mentioned the Spire, though perhaps he could flesh that out, a bit. "I have little more left to add, though I will say that when I linked my mind to the Spire--which I absolutely do not recommend, incidentally--I had the impression of a... a force, there. A being, even, perhaps. There was emptiness--yet my mind seemed full of all that was. Matter--stone and water, bone--and a deep blank nothing, chaotic. It seemed to last for a timeless period... seconds, or eras, I could not tell. And there was a coalescing, in the nothing, in the everything, as if fragmented shards of crystal that had fallen away were... falling back together. If that makes sense-... and I know that it does not. It had a deep sense of not having... 'been enough.' Emotionally. Like--regret. Wistfulness. And that phrase, over and over; 'death is a lie, pain is eternal.' It was unending." Pride paused, for a moment, and then finished with--"I fear I know little more than that--and I do not know what it meant. I wonder, Dragon; or any of the rest of you--have you tried to uncover the source of magic, or life? We know how to reproduce, in a sense--how to create magic, too. To call upon it, to form and to shape it. But we know nothing of truly how it works, or why. Learning these things may teach us more of our own origins, or so I've always thought."

Dragon listened to all of the information raptly. The permanent grin on his face matched his emotion, for once; this was a great deal of knowledge, and it pleased him. That being said, not all of it was particularly useful. He had trouble making sense of some of it, and he wasn't sure yet how to piece it together; as a result he was struggling to keep up, to commit it all to memory without forgetting bits and pieces. He didn't know what might be important, and what might not, and so he fought to remember each detail.

"This is good," he rumbled, as Pride finished the last of his story. He looked to Aure, considering the shadow-cat; he'd never met Senka himself, but he'd heard distant stories. This one, though--this one was fairly new. "I had not heard much of that! Thank you. Nor had I heard of this--sky. Nor of the Spire--but I know that it harms those who draw too close, those who climb on it," he added, with a distinct memory of having shocked himself quite badly and taken a tumble from one of its crystals.

...There's no need to mention that.

"It is a good idea, to look into magic," Dragon went on. He'd not thought of that, himself--primarily because his magic was somehow intrinsic to him. He was Dragon, therefore he breathed fire. He'd never really considered it beyond that. But it made sense, really, to seek the deeper natures of things. "It is not something I would be good at, I think. But I will watch. And that buzzing--in your story. That was Nemean!" he added, swinging his head toward Giggle, certainty in his voice. "No matter what else we all do, I urge you to never trust the sprite. She is called the Betrayer, and she leads us to our deaths--nothing more! She is a terrible thing."

The alligator rumbled in thought. "I think that is all. Thothaga is angry that I asked her to go and asks me to speak with her, and so I will go and so that. She must learn to temper her arrogance," he added thoughtfully. "As for you all agreeing to gather here--I thank you! I will share with you anything more that I learn! If you ever require the Children of Rot, you can find me in the swamp room--in Cetus--by the black lake. Perhaps now, sharing knowledge, we will not be isolated, and ignorant. Perhaps we have a chance to uncover our truths, and to survive!"

With this he turned, and bellowed toward Wilder. "WILDER. You may ride back to Cetus on my back if you wish, or go with the others."

@Eve @Aure

Once the Bone King (in representation, not actual title, he thought) had spoken and told of what he knew, he simply sat and acted as a sponge. Aure was always far better at listening and absorbing information than he was at offering things; it came with a lack of proper exploration. His first few cycles had been uneventful, but he had originally chalked it up to a lack of activity in the caves. He was, of course, incorrect in that assumption.

He just never really looked outside of Polaris.

His mother spoke further, then the representatives of the Seven. Aure pressed gently against his mother, ears flicking forth as Dragon seemed to bring the meeting to a conclusion with a promise to speak to the giant spider. It was over that quickly? The alligator had already turned away to Wilder, rumbling loudly. Waiting his turn, he offered gently to his fellow leaders, "you are welcome to come to Canis and look into the bones. Just pay them some mind, please --- and, Wilder, I could carry you, if you need?"

Bright eyes shifted to his mother. "Are you ready to leave?" If she was, and Wilder wanted a lift, Aure would provide, flying lazily away from the meeting lest he and Giggle be called back.

;exit Aure unless stopped?
@Giggle

Giggle glanced at Aure, blinking. Her mind had been gone--taken by Pride's description, and imagery, of dancing aurora-lights. Something about it resonated with her, captured her imagination, and she couldn't quite say why--but she felt that they were important. That a sky was... important.

"Hrm--yes. I'd like to go speak with the bones," she answered roughly--not in tone, but in the rasps of her voice--then pushed up, turning. She gave Aure a brief nuzzle.

"Bones are open to anyone," she agreed, confirming her son's words--"Thanks for having us. You need readings, come to me--in Canis."

She turned, giving Aure a bob of her head in acknowledgement, before making her way out.

________________

ROLL THE BONES

exit Giggle; @Wilder

Wilder watched the spider scurry away and was about to exit the meeting herself when a loud voice bellowed loudly for her. She paused and looked over at Dragon before turning towards Aure, who was talking to her too. Her ears swiveled and her tail flicked a bit nervously. Wait, who should she go with?

She'd come here as a member of the Children of Rot but she hung out in Canis more. She wanted to come back, though, take a look at the rock that was hissing at her. If she went with Aure, she'd be way too far. And...she couldn't help but feel a little bad for never hanging out with the Children of Rot.

So her face broke into a confident grin and she bounded over towards Dragon, turning back towards Aure. "I'll go with Dragon for now! I'll see you back in Canis soon!"

At Dragon's offer, she happily bounced up and landed on his back, settling down with a purr. She kept her paws out from under her in case she needed to grab a hold of something but she was set for the ride back to Cetus.

*exit

@Livius