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

Thothaga had just arrived right before Hydra's barrier fell away. There were screams of pain and surge of black energy that made the hairs on her legs tingle. The Masked Merchant's doing? She focused on it, attempting to identify the magic this impossible being held.

The participants had been forced into chrysalises, but why? Others had the same questions too. For a moment, she was glad she didn't enter.

She listened carefully, stroking her fangs with intrigue. There was another creature with him- he ferociously magnificent. He was attempting to scare the others, but Thothaga was too amazed to feel much fear. Where had this purple titan been? He was beautiful!

"A delicious nightmare." She chimed in. The spider shuffled her large fangs playfully. Her beady black eyes were almost as emotionless as the Merchant's, except for a glint depraved hunger and... admiration? "Hmm.. Overseer? I don't think we have those here." She said in a somewhat distracted manner. The giant spider cocked her body to the side, showing intrigue as she crawled around him, marveling at his mighty form like an art piece on display.

"Thothaga speaking."
Thothaga thinking.

@Vargas

Wilder opened her mouth to protest again, but then paused. She did know about damage needed to put a creature back in their chrysalis, but now that she thought about it, that all made sense. They were screaming because the Merchant was damaging them. Their reward was a mutation? Wilder thought back to her vision and her eyes went wide with understanding. She'd seen herself standing with black feathered wings. Perhaps there were others to choose from as well, or others that were simply given, but if she had gone through the trials, and succeeded, she would have gone through the same - a short, burst of pain, into the chrysalis, and an emergence with wings.

Her fear and anger died away quite quickly as she pieced this together and her fur smoothed over. She still felt a little nervous around this large creature, considering how strange and different he was, but she felt considerably better now. She didn't trust them, not really, but at least they weren't a threat. "Okay. I get it. I'm sorry for getting angry!" Apologizing always cleared things up! Usually.

She was a little surprised when Vargas leaned into smell her. A friendly gesture? Curiously, she stepped forward and stretched out her neck, her nose twitching to get a whiff of him as well. A very strange, mildly unpleasant scent, at least compared to other people she knew. "I'm a cat, silly!" she meowed, a bit confused that he did not know. Cats were pretty common, as far as she could tell. "I'm Wilder! And I was curious about all of them," she jerked her head, motioning towards the rows of chrysalis. She tilted her head, tail waving behind her. "Overseer? What is THAT? Do you have one?" Was an Overseer someone who looked over everyone, like, protected them? Or maybe someone that looked ahead, maybe into the future!

A small smile spread onto her face. "Huh? I'm, uh..." Her eyes looked up, as if the numbers were up there, and she counted, her mouth making small movements before she looked back at Vargas. "7 cycles! How about you? If you're one of the first, you must be really really old! Like...like...100 cycles! At least!" Everyone else she knew was around half that age, so 100 sounded like a pretty good guess.

The sudden whispers that filled the gave gave her a small fright and she jumped about a foot in the air, which was quite a leap, considering her size, but then, all of a sudden, she burst out laughing. "You don't look like you're from a nightmare! I think you look pretty cool!" She was reaching a bit, considering that she'd been quivering with fear only moments earlier, but she took the whispers as an almost friendly tease. She laughed, and in the same spirit as Vargas, or so she believed, bright laughter began to fill the tunnel around them, whispering around the walls as the word nightmare had done only moments ago. She saw the spider a moment later and brightened up even more (how had she become so positive so quickly?!). "Thothaga!" and the word whispered through the tunnel, replacing the laughter that had been chiming just a few seconds before.

@Pallas

P A L L A S
the man who sleeps with a knife
is a fool every night but one

Pallas was a bit taken aback by the Merchant's movements. His eyes glued to the creature as his head tilted ever so slightly in confusion, a paw stepping forward curiously. What an odd being. However, he nodded at his words- he understood now. They were being forced to mutate.

However, the gaze struck him. Something was... Odd about it. Something was wrong. Upon closer look, he noticed the complete lack of eyes, a shiver running down his spine. That was not natural. Not at all. Was that eye on his hand his eye? His gem? Something about the whole thing was so, very wrong.

Blinking quickly, Pallas shook his head as the Merchant turned to exit the cave mouth. It wasn't soon after that the beast spoke, calling Pallas's attention to him. His voice startled the linsang. He dipped his head submissively, eyes glancing up. "I didn't realize, my apologies," he spoke clearly. Something compelled him to be oddly formal about this creature- its looming presence pressed down on his fur, skin prickling under his spotted coat.

His words only raised questions, though. Overseer? Overseeing what? Did he assume they were all on trials? "No one," Pallas offered to answer before the conversation moved on.

His ears flattened and his gaze lost its fearfulness as the creature's voice echoed in an unsettling way across the cave. It drew his fur to stand on end and his spine to curl defensively. Magic. Of course. This guy just had everything, huh? Despite his defiant look on his face, Pallas's heart hammered in his chest and up his long neck. Magic always felt nearly wrong to the little Gembound, and with it coming from this creature it downright felt otherworldly.

Pallas had no qualms about stopping the Merchant or Black, offering a nod to the canine as he passed.

Another voice caught Pallas's attention, and he swung his head to face it. What he saw unnerved him. A giant Lesser Gembound? But it spoke. No- it must be a Greater, but it still left an odd feeling washing over him. Introduced as Thotaga, Pallas dipped his head to her and offered his name like he did with Wilder. "I'm Pallas."

Though, finally, Pallas's attention was given to Wilder. She echoed some of his questions, though was quick to move on to her age. Seven? That must be how old he was; in truth, he thought the feline would be younger than him, but she knew many of the creatures of the caves.

So why didn't she know this one? Pallas's pelt twitched as he returned his thoughts to the titan before them, the spider pacing around him. He took in a deep breath. "Who are you?" He questioned. Hopefully they wouldn't be bombarding him, but Pallas wanted answers. "Were you or the Merchant the Overseer, as you uh, mentioned, for what they went through, then?" The word Overseer felt like it had some importance, and the answer may get him closer to understanding the full picture a little better.

@Vargas

Vargas leaned back, laughing heartily--a churning sound like tumbling rocks--at Wilder's replication of his magic. It was good-natured enough, or so it seemed, at least.

Thothaga's slinking... weirdness earned her a glance over. Vargas wondered vaguely if she, at least--with her size--were higher-ranking.

"Ahhh, formed of the Spire Spiders, are you? I have never seen one made so large," he observed. "Though call me delicious again and you will be my meal." Whatever her rank, sometimes others had to be put in their place before they overstepped--and Thothaga's first action had been to do exactly that. Absently he prepared his own venom, just in case she stepped further out of line.

Though... her comment gave him pause. It doesn't think we have those here..? His lip curled. "OF COURSE you have those here!" His severe gaze then shifted down to Pallas. For all his great size and menacing appearance, Vargas seemed to be in no rush to mysteriously stalk off into the shadows, or anything like that. If anything, he seemed almost patient--and a little worried, and a little stern, like a schoolmaster who's just found children who had no idea what "school" even was.

"I am an Overseer! I am VERY old, but I do not know how long we have slept," he told Wilder. "Many thousands of cycles, at the least. You may address me as Overseer Vargas," he added, and this sounded more a command than granted permission. "And yes, I was Overseer for this test, though I did not arrange this one. They did well! Only two of them died. --Are you so young that you have not been told how things work..?"

Genuine worry flickered through him, now. Astraea had mentioned a change in how the cave functioned--in how the Spire worked--but this... This was unfathomable. No, this was irresponsible. 'I am a cat?!' By the Creator, these creatures have no idea what purpose they even serve.

@Thothaga @Wilder

Spire spiders? Wilder glanced at Thothaga, wondering if there really were others like her, just smaller. With dark blue hairs and big crystals and a love for magic. Perhaps they lived in Hydra, since she certainly hadn't seen anything except tiny little spiders in the crevices of the caves and the lesser gembounds that didn't really look much like Thothaga. She tilted her head at Vargas - did he really mean he'd eat her? That seemed a little...much. Maybe he was kidding! Probably. He was, after all, very very large.

Wilder shook her head. "Nope! No Overseers! I've never heard of them either! I think you're the only one!" She smiled, as if this was great news! Vargas was special and had a very very special job, apparently! Her eyes widened with wonder. "W-ow really? What was it like back then? Were there more friends? More Overseers? That's really cool!" She bounched happily around Vargas's feet. "Okay! I can call you Overseer Vargas, if that makes you happy!"

At the mention of death, though, she stopped. Her head turned back up, ears pulling back a little. "Died? Who died?" She glanced towards the opening to Hydra. "Did they all go in there, knowing they could die? Did they all accept that?" She couldn't read the expression on Vargas's face - he, after all, did not have a face she could recognize in the slightest. But the bafflement in his voice was clear, which made Wilder all the more confused. If he was old, surely he'd know what was going on! "How what works? What do you mean?"

@Pallas

P A L L A S
the man who sleeps with a knife
is a fool every night but one

Pallas could feel his ears slide back over his skull as the offer of meals were made, looking between each speaker. His fur was beginning to prickle again; just being in the presence of this beast was starting to feel wrong, as if his body refused to get used to- Overseer Vargas? That was his name. At the look he only pushed back like a scolded dog. His confidence was fading fast.

The idea of living thousands of cycles unsettled Pallas. He'd only lived a meager few with not much to do- imagine what he could do with thousands of them. This Overseer was, to all accounts, ancient.

"Er- I haven't encountered an Overseer," his voice spoke at a low level, masking the sense of foreboding in him. At least, in the folks he'd encountered, he'd never found one. If they were so important, they'd probably be around more often, wouldn't they? "Or anyone near a thousand cycles." Granted, he hadn't really met most of anyone. It wasn't a habit of his to go around asking how old people were.

"I'm... Guessing we're young?" A nervous glance was offered to Wilder as Pallas mentally calculated his age. "I think I'm about uhm... Seven or eight cycles," he spoke clearer.

A pause was offered at 'only two' died. Wouldn't it be best if nobody died? The linsang's tail flicked uncomfortably as Wilder continued, bombarding Vargas with questions. His nerves coursed with electricity, concern taking over his face. This creature wasn't one to be bothered, and the feline was certainly running her mouth a bit much. He wanted to leave, to evaporate from the situation before the Overseer decided to turn the confusion into frustration out on himself.

It didn't help that Pallas was almost confused just as much. He'd been told by how things worked by living with them. Why should he care how things worked in the past?

@Vargas

Of all Wilder's babble--and whatever the linsang said afterward--Vargas really only picked up on one thing. One thing that stood out. Did they all accept that? Vargas, of course, had awoken as the Trial had begun. He knew only the old ways: that creatures were dragged in, tested, and died. There was no acceptance of this. He had no way of knowing that the start of this trial had been different.

"ACCEPTED?" he boomed, shifting to face the cat, eyes narrowing. "It was not up to them to ACCEPT. You are hatched; you are trained, and you are TESTED! And the weak die!"

It shocked him that they did not know this, of all things. He did pause, though, thinking over her question of which had died. He was not entirely callous, and he knew that some of them formed attachments--were he in a great hurry he'd have ignored all of it, but he had no reason not to answer now.

"A small bird," he said, slowly, "and a large snake. They have been reclaimed."

Vargas eyed Pallas, briefly considering his words, too. Likely, the youth simply didn't know the ages of the Masters--or, at least, Vargas hoped as much. He was itching to be gone, now, hunger starting to gnaw at him, and so his reply to this was somewhat curt. "You have met them, and you do not know--or you are very young. GROW STRONG," he demanded of them both--apparently by way of farewell, as he then turned and strode quickly down the tunnel without a look behind him.

exit Vargas
@Wilder

Wilder was shut down immediately upon Vargas's booming voice and his glowing eyes turning to glare at her. She shrunk before him, wide-eyed and a little frightened. What did he mean it wasn't up to them to accept? "B-but...I declined to go in...and nobody forced me!" She was confused, so confused, and was once again off-put by his behavior and attitude towards everything.

She stared after him as he left, shocked still for a moment, glancing at Pallas. But she had no idea what to say or do. After a moment, she decided - she needed answers from him. He hadn't given her enough. She'd thought that everything was fine, under control, but this had very much thrown her off. "Wait!" she called down the tunnel, taking off after Vargas, but her tiny legs wouldn't be able to keep up with him - he'd be long gone before she'd catch up.

*exit

@Pallas

P A L L A S
the man who sleeps with a knife
is a fool every night but one

Pallas’s faint eyebrows came together as his neck retracted even further, drawing his head closer to his spine. Vargas’s voice boomed around them. Though, despite his meek posturing, his brain continued to respond. Trained? Tested? He’d never had either of those things occur to him. He barely even had a purpose- was his purpose to be tested? Then why didn’t he want to be tested?

Thoughts swirled in Pallas’s mind as attention was shifted towards him. Meeting Overseers already? He’d barely met anyone in the empty caves. Yeah, maybe he was very young? Or- maybe the merchant was an Overseer, then? Slitted eyes glanced to his right as Vargas passed along.

After he left, though, Pallas turned his head towards Wilder, curious to see her reaction. Their eyes met for a brief moment- dark brown met with brilliant pink. His muscles twitched in tandem with the feline’s. He could feel his lips pulling from his teeth as he spoke, Wilder already beginning to race down the tunnel. “He’s-” He stopped himself with a sigh. The linsang shook his head, eyes closed- he wasn’t going to wait around for those chrysalises to hatch. After a moment of respite, Pallas methodically lowered himself to the ground and began to pace away from the colored stones and their protector, tail hovering off the ground behind him.

He had more important things to do than to chase after monsters.

Exit Pallas