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

Thothaga had dug, found dirt, and alerted Dragon to come to meet her at the Divine, now, all she had to do was wait.

The spider sat nested between the protective roots of the Divine. In her mind, there was no safer place to talk about Nemean. By the way Astraea made it sound, the evil little sprite could be watching from the shadows. Who knew what other tricks she had up her preverbal "Collector's sleeve".

Placing a paw on of Her root's, Thothaga reached out to the Divine. The Goddess of Cetus turned tree deserved to know. Either Nemean had wiped the Divine's memory, or it been so long ago that She forgot, but for eternity, Divine suffered in this living hell, not knowing why this was done to Her.

Once her mind felt connected, she told Her. Nemean did this to you-- your children-- because, you were more beautiful than she... Thothaga mental voice was sympathetic and sorrowful. I cannot tell you how I came by this, but truth was insured. I'm sorry... The spider stroked Her root softly like a friend trying to console another. She have lived within the tree's branches more many cycles now, tending to Her, caring for Her, and keeping Her company, it was impossible to not to feel some sort of kinship towards the Divine. Especially since She shared a mother's tragic memories.

"Thothaga speaking."
Thothaga thinking.
@Dragon

Dragon wandered over slowly. He didn't spread magical wings and flip-flap there; there was no real need to strut and flaunt. Instead he hauled his slow, scarred, heavy body through the swamp. The risen waters were only really a boon for him--they made travel, hunting, and hiding for ambush all the easier--but the constant downpour made it harder to see where he was going, to pinpoint prey.

He used his magic to help him navigate, at times--his night vision was already fantastic, but he'd enhance that with magic, or use his innate magical ability to sense heat and life nearby. The scurrying of rats, mice, even fish told him where to find land and water--and prey.

His arrival, though not with draconic wings and horns and flashing red eyes, was still monstrous enough: a sixteen-foot black behemoth emerging from the swamp waters, barely-visible beneath the rain, his permanent grin, dark eyes and scarred bulk matte and dull-dark in the half-light of Cetus.

Of course, Thothaga was arguably more monstrous, though Dragon had always thought with an ethereal beauty. Her iridescent blue, here and there, and her jagged stones were pleasant to look upon--and her curiosity, her fire, was admirable. But it had yet to be tempered with sense or with tact. Perhaps she does not care for tact, he thought, hauling himself toward the roots of the Divine. But she will need to learn humility, then, or she will be rejected and live without ever finding that wisdom she so desperately pretends to have. Or perhaps she thought she'd achieved it already. Youth tended to bring arrogance with it, tempered only, and eventually, by time. This, Dragon knew well--he wryly remembered having attacked Aquarian himself upon hatching, certain he could "take him."

Ahh, well, she would learn; he just hoped it wasn't before a hard lesson taught it to her more cruelly.

Dragon grunted at the rain, pausing to peer up at the darkness of the Divine towering above the other trees. "THOTHAGA?" he bellowed, and then settled down to wait. High above, half-lost to the thick mist and the spray of rain, he could see what looked like gossamer web-strands; but he was unsure if this were Thothaga's doing, a cave spider's, or perhaps just the glint of rain and mist on tangles of moss and leaves.

His magic still burned strongly, and he soon pinpointed her form--delicate where it perched, larger than he remembered. "And how do spiders like the rain?" he called up, with humor in his rumbling voice.

@Thothaga

It was unclear whether the Divine received Thothaga's message. Certaintly, it would be easy to imagine that she had; there was a certain melancholy about her dark and twisted shape, streaked as it was by rain, and it was, too, all too easy to imagine a protective nature to the embrace of her branches.

But whether that would be truth, or imagination, was impossible to discern.

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

Thothaga cringed at the alligator's booming voice. "Shhhh! Stop being loud!" She hissed. Thothaga crawled on top of her root-perch just as the rain began to pick up, her blue-form silhouetted against the dreariness, and beckoned to Dragon with a pedipalp. "Not very much," She put plainly. It was hard to tell if she found it funny, but the spider's fur was dripping wet and she didn't seemed to pleased about that. Thothaga had shelter under the boughs of the Divine, but her little trip to alert the big log-head took longer than she'd like. Now, she was literally soaked the bone and freezing.

She waved for Dragon one more time. "Come." Thothaga slipped behind the root and waited for Dragon to catch up before continuing. "You were not followed, yes?" She asked him as she crawled toward what appeared to be a hidden cavern made from the Divine's arching roots and low hanging moss. Then the spider stopped and glanced at the alligator, studying him with dark, beady eyes.

Like with Algol, she wove a spell around his mind to gather his thoughts. Not that she didn't trust Dragon, she just wanted to make sure they were on the same side and that he atleast told the truth about coming alone, or if he somehow knew about the "price" she had to pay to obtain this knowledge. Thothaga knew what they were doing was dangerous. The Masters would surely walk them into the Spire like Khloros, or worse, if they were found out, and shuttered to think what Nemean would do.

She did want to take any chances.


"Thothaga speaking."
Thothaga thinking.

@Dragon

Good-natured amusement at Thothaga's predicament. Attentiveness; a keen intelligence beneath the weathered hide. There was no ulterior motive, bar Dragon's coming to meet, by Thothaga's request, to discuss whatever it was she was here to talk about. Faint scoffing at her hushing him, but at the same time acknowledgement--though he clarified further in speech. His thoughts, when they came, would also be clear to her--but mostly were aligned with his words.

"Bah, I will not shout throughout our entire conversation," he responded, hauling himself closer. He couldn't see the hollow between the roots, yet, nor how shallow or deep it might be. "Do you have reason, besides wise caution, to think we might be eavesdropped on?" Attentiveness, again, curiosity, though Dragon was a self-confident creature; it was in no way fawning. He offered respect, not submission.

Once he was closer, he settled in. He called upon his magicka--he was oblivious to Thothaga's cold, but a little fire to warm himself up was on his mind. If it benefited the spider, it would be purely incidental. Not that it was very powerful, anyway. The smoke that twisted up from his extremities was thin and wispy; the rain and muck beneath hissed against his skin, and only a few degrees of warmth rose from him. "This meeting has been a long time in coming," he observed. "Why put it off for so long?"

@Thothaga

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

Thothaga lifted the mossy veil, allowing Dragon to slide in ahead of her. "I wanted to be sure." She said, crawling in after him. She settled down across from the bull alligator, but gradually shifted closer as he started to heat up. Good. He does not know. For as miffed at him as she was before, Thothaga held respect for the Children of Rot's leader. Not only was he physically dangerous, but Dragon's actions hinted at magickal prowess. He even managed to gather a covert, rag-tag group of gembounds intent on discovering secrets. Not even she knew much about them. It was by shear luck that she foresaw their meeting through arcane eyes.

Thothaga did not think she told Algol anything that would undermine them--and by extension, herself-- but the alligator seemed to be the kind who would take offense to something like that. Now, she had peered into his mind and saw that he was, indeed, smarter than he looked, or..well, perhaps wiser would be more accurate. If Thothaga would be anything to Dragon, she hoped to, atleast, not be his enemy.

So, here she was, extending an olive branch.

Thothaga huddled, combing the water from her fur. Her dark eyes were hard to see in the low lighting, but by the clicking of her fangs, the spider's mind was churning. In a hushed tone, she answered Dragon "Astraea said something.. disturbing to me." Well, actually, Astraea said lots of disturbing things but this one in particular stood out.

Her magick touched the alligator's mind once more, but this time, to deliver a message. Her mind's voice came quiet, like breeze rattling bare branches, foretelling an omen.

Nemean might eavesdrop.

"Do not trust the shadows." She warned cryptically, then said louder, as if changing the subject."You can call on her anytime, she loves the attention." If Thothaga could wink, she would have right then and there. Her fangs still clicked. She hoped Dragon heard her message and caught on. "What I wanted to say at the meeting was, Astraea is a Master and so is Nemean. Maybe your Aquarian is one too?" She tilted her body to the side. "Tell me, why does he call her a betrayer?" Her tone conveyed nothing but curiosity. She was just trying to gather all the pieces to this puzzle. Thothaga had a guess, but she wanted to see what Dragon thought. He was, after all closer to him.



"Thothaga speaking."
Thothaga thinking.

@Dragon

Dragon listened quietly, startling only slightly at the message imparted directly into his mind. This message told him many things--things beyond what Thothaga wanted to impart--and he fell silent, contemplating, for a moment.

Nemean could be listening; she could be called on at any time, so might hear everything in the caves. Was that possible? And Thothaga held the magic to speak--and thus, potentially, to read--minds. Dragon was careful not to dwell on this last bit, instead turning his mind to the rest.

He let out a low, amused laughter at the idea of Aquarian being a "master." "I do not know exactly what a 'master' is, do you..? I have heard it used as a word, and never defined. Perhaps Aquarian is a 'master,' and perhaps he isn't. He does not strike me as aligned with strong authority," the alligator went on, thinking of Aquarian's screeching tantrum. "He was also not clear on why Nemean was a betrayer. But it was clear that she led others to him, and he made it clear that he had been abandoned. He called out to some Creator, and to Nemean, and claimed that he had been abandoned, betrayed," Dragon said thoughtfully. He hoped he was remembering it clearly enough; he'd been but a day-old hatchling the first time he'd encountered Aquarian and heard all of this screamed. Had he been a mewling mammal instead of a fully-formed reptile upon his hatching, he might not have remembered it at all.

"He has also been reluctant to speak of the caves, and he buries himself beneath the swamp. It is clear that knowledge is dangerous. Perhaps he fears--I know he fears--but I cannot say how far that fear goes. His warning to us was to keep low and to survive, in order to learn. Though..."

Dragon paused, eyeing Thothaga. "I have not told this to anyone, but with the news of this Hydra, and of Astraea and the rest, their behavior in there," he went on, and now his voice dropped conspiratorially low--"I fear the meaning of his words. He said to survive, and we would learn. But what if he meant not that we must lay low and gather secrets, but that if we lived long enough, we would be confronted with whatever hell these 'masters' intend to inflict upon us? What if it is a cycle..?" he added, and there was an intensity to his gaze.

Their very survival might be at stake, even now, and Dragon did not know.

@Thothaga