The bones were tossed back, scattered apart--and as Asimona opened her jaws, the stream of freezing air sparkling with ice engulfed them.

Slowly, as the ice cracked and hissed around them, they froze to the Throne; the magicka around them seemed to flicker, and fade, though not yet entirely.

It seemed clear that another strike might disperse them altogether, and the magic holding them--though what might happen to the magic after that was unclear...

Pride watched as the bones clattered back, consternation on his face, then flinched a little as Asimona's ice flashed out to surround it.

Frowning, he listened, and his tail gave a thoughtful flick.

"You must be right, on one count or another," he agreed. He could see that the magic was fading; but what sort was it? Was Reseda in there at all, or was this as Asimona suggested--a puppet? But then, why would she go for me? Quiet, he sent out his mind, concentrating deeply on his own magicka, wondering just what the bones were--and willing his magic to unveil the answer.

He felt his own consciousness reaching out, his thoughts like tendrils--almost palpable--probing past Asimona's ice and around the throne, into the bones. But there was-... nothing.

He found nothing.

Puzzled, he looked to the dragon, his body still tense with readiness. "I reached my mind to her, but I feel nothing. It is like-... a ghost. I have neve seen anything like this before," he admitted softly, looking to the bones. "And I think whatever kept a hold is weakening. We can destroy them, perhaps--or the magic may simply fall apart on its own, in a moment; I cannot tell."

Crazy bones. Great, came the casually dismissive, amusedly sarcastic thought lancing through his mind. It wasn't in words, so much, but he glanced a little back to his familiar. He never ceased to be surprised at the bold brashness such a tiny creature could pull off, and he shook the thought away as he looked uneasily back at Reseda's skull. At the skull that stared back from within its coating of ice, its empty eye sockets still dimly glowing, haunting him. ...Indeed, he thought back, grimly.

@Asimona @Garnet Five-Seven-Nine

In the numerous trials it endured, Garnet Five-Seven-Nine had seen a great many of things. Unspeakable horrors, the jaws of a sandworm nearly shredding its shell, eyehooks aiming to smash its shell against the rocks. Nothing, though, held such an uneasy feeling as watching a skeleton seemingly reanimate itself and attack someone.

As usual, though, the champion's concerns did not lie with the lives of others (especially not Asimona's.) No, it was considering that there may be another watching. A puppeteer, perhaps, drawing the strings and gripping with a strange magic. If it could spot them before they spotted it, that meant just enough of a better chance for escape.

So, it hunkered down and skulked further among the rocks, moving as quietly as possible and keeping an eye out. A new vantage point could come of this, if nothing else.

Asimona was panting faintly, more out of the sudden adrenaline rush then anything. She glanced down at Pride, trying to wrap her mind around this. It wasn't that she was stupid, but she wasn't exactly a scholar and didn't put too much thought into what happened after death. Is it even possible to revive yourself from beyond death? Her eyes raked over the bones, luminescent eyes glaring out at her.

She didn't see a gemstone anywhere.

For a second, she thought she saw it twitch against the icy restraint and a sense of paranoia overcame her. She reacted quickly, opening her jaws to blast an even colder wave of ice over the collection of bones, to the point that the whole throne was quickly enveloped in ice and frost.

She realized what she was doing a moment later and snapped her jaws shut, blinking with surprise at what she'd just done. She breathed out a small sigh, a bit of vapor escaping her jaws and she tried to cover up the short break of composure with a stream of words. "I didn't see a gemstone on the body. Does that have something to do with it? Does someone have it? I would think that if it was really Reseda, it would need her gemstone somehow attached to her body. Maybe if we can find it we can destroy it."

"Can you hear their voice?"
"Find the one who'll guide you."
To the limits of your choice.

tags: @Pride
notes:

The bones, locked in a thick casing of ice, slowly lost their glow.

Whatever the skeleton had been trying to do--if it could be said to have been trying anything--seemed to fade. The color faded, and Asimona and Pride--being close--would both be washed by a strange discharge of magicka.

The bones, even after the ice thawed, would remain inactive.

Pride and Asimona can claim their choice of Jack o' Spawn, Vampiric Gaze, or Witch Cackle in the Update Me thread. The discharge of magicka will leave them unable to learn another of these spells this year.

Pride hesitated, his entire body tense, as he studied the bones.

"Her stone was destroyed in death," he answered simply, not about to launch into the entire story. Now was not the time.

He flinched again at the icy blast that curled past him, and for a moment concentrated on his own magicka. Even as he felt the heat thrum and burst out to join Asimona's spell--not a projectile, but a simple burst of white-hot light as a few of the bones were flashed into nothing but plasma--he felt something else: a strange wash of magicka flowing past them.

It was as though whatever animated the bones had given up, before he'd even released his own, though he only felt even remotely reassured after a few of them (melted from the ice by his white-hot blast) seared away into nothingness. At his back, his familiar remained silent, watching.

"...What was that? Did you feel that?" he added, glancing to Asimona with a frown.

@Garnet Five-Seven-Nine @Asimona

The champion rounded the back of the throne, hind legs awkwardly bunched underneath itself as it moved. Yet, ruby-red eyes caught most of the proceedings: the strange bone puppetry was felled by ice (rather simple, it doubted the Overseer could be taken down by such methods, if at all) and promptly incinerated to mere plasma.

Garnet Five-Seven-Nine was a bit wary of the antlered being, least to say. It seemed to be strong and capable of many magics. While the champion could run and run, it knew it could not escape a spell's influence. Case in point, the merchant's rather vile method of forcing the survivor's retreat.

If it had even attempted to run, it may have wound up with worse than a seizure upon waking.

Shaking its head lightly and grinding its teeth, the odd little hybrid continued to shuffle to a better vantage point (allegedly. It was really only moving to the other side of the throne), ears pricked like satellite dishes for any following conversation.

As Asimona watched the bones, the glow began to dissipate, Pride's white-hot magic burning easily through some of her ice, the residual heat beginning to melt the rest, but it was a thick layer - it might take some time for some of it to melt like that. She released a long, sighing breath when she realized that it was probably over. There wasn't a threat anymore. Still, something stuck in her mind. Not only is Reseda dead, but her stone was destroyed. What in the caves had happened with her? She hadn't particularly liked the lizard, but she felt an odd connection with all of the Champions.

Her train of thought was cut short, however, when a wave of sensation passed over her body. It made her whole body tingle and she felt a strange chill at the base of her tail, around the area of her gemstone. She sighed again, shifting in place, carefully shaking out her head to clear the small buzz that had settled over her from the magic.

"Yeah, I felt that." She eyed the remaining bones suspiciously. "I don't...I don't understand what that was. What any of that was. How did her bones come back like that?" Her gaze snapped down to look at Pride and she snaked her head down to stare at him with narrowed eyes. "And how did a lizard like Reseda survive the Hydra trials only to die here?"

"Can you hear their voice?"
"Find the one who'll guide you."
To the limits of your choice.

tags: @Pride
notes:

Pride shivered in the wash of magicka that had passed through him, blinking.

He stared intently at the bones, where he'd changed their state, in places, to plasma; the ice around them still slowly melted, but he saw nothing to make him think that they were coming back to life.

Slowly, his head held low in a cautious, almost stalking posture, he edged forward. Hooves clicked quietly on the rock, and he kept quite tense, ready to leap backward.

And slowly, his voice quiet, he answered Asimona as he moved. "I have no idea--this is new to me, and troubling, as undoubtedly it is to you." He drew somewhat closer, reaching out to try and tug at the skull, to separate it from the rest, testingly. It clattered just a little away, without falling far, but it was enough to show him that nothing else happened, that it was no longer being held up by magic.

Then he half-turned, glancing back over his shoulder (without turning his head much, as only a prey beast could). His tone was solemn as he answered. "I know little of Hydra's trials. What I do know is that she had made enemies of us--the Kingdom of the Seven, here in Orion. It is--a long story, if you wish the entire thing, but the brutal end of it is that she came here with one of our own, an innocent, a small and harmless creature, as a hostage. We killed her," he added simply, still unaware of the role that had been played by Reseda's own backfiring spell.

He shook his head a little, antlers glinting in the dim light reflected by the quartz above, and turned his attention forward. "It wouldn't have been my first choice on how to deal with someone, but she had posed a dangerous threat for a very long time." At last he came near to the throne--not too close, but as close as he yet dared.

The bones didn't move, bar sliding loose here and there from the ice, and he shook his thin mane and stood more upright. "...Whatever this was, I think it's over, for now. I do not know if someone was puppeting her, or if this was some... safeguard she left in death, or if again it is merely a grim joke at our expense..." Pride looked around, somberly, but he could see no sign of any puppeteer.

@Garnet Five-Seven-Nine

It was a shame, the lizard surviving the trials only to be felled by one of the other beasts of the modern era, to have its bones reduced to little but white-hot light. Garnet Five-Seven-Nine felt little to no sympathy for the wretched creature itself --- it was sheer luck that it managed to reach the end, distracted as it was with the prospect of sabotage. The champion had endured such a trial with simple smokey subterfuge. Trophies and accolades were easily acquired when you spun the wire of distraction yourself, as it were.

Its wings rolled at the shoulders, settling into this particular cranny with an air of impatience; being caught unawares by bones and --- perhaps --- their puppeteer was not at the top of its list of things to do. The hybrid was in an oddly hyperaware state, flitting between a stream of consciousness and restraining the urge to simply get the hell out of Dodge.

Red eyes watched disdainfully as the duo drew close, speaking in low, quiet whisper. Keen-eared but not the keenest-minded right this second, Garnet Five-Seven-Nine ground its beak. It most certainly heard words, but not with the clarity it needed. Slowly, persistently, it drew closer, trying to stay out of view for as long as possible and making leaps between shelters quiet and brief.

It took longer than the champion would have liked, but the methodical movement did wonders for quieting its beating heart. The thrum of it was properly smothered against stone as it pressed itself flat, catching the tail-end ("... she had posed a dangerous threat for a very long time.") If only these milquetoast youngsters knew what threats lay in the caves.

@Asimona