The Prism of light refracted a rainbow directly into the dark ring. It vibrated, humming and resonating powerfully with the impressive cast of magic!-... Yet something wasn't right. Likewise the humming melody seemed to resonate, and yet... it was wrong, somehow; a key that didn't fit.

A moment later the seals rejected both spells.

The melody--mercifully, a weak cast--crashed out in a brief, discordant echo, roaring past their ears, in a way that would deafen all nearby Gembound for a few moments--temporarily.

But the prism: that flashed back, a bright and blinding reflection straight into Qisziux's eyes!

Qisziux will be blinded for two days before the powerful, backfired spell's effects wear off.

@Qisziux @Pip

And oh, she quickly wasn't alone.

Others came, large others, and she burrowed, or tried to, into her rose. But it remained small and closed, leaving her to hunch down, feeling painfully exposed against a grey-red bud.

But then, oh, she was shoved off her flower with a gasped yell, "Oh!" by a shove of magic, scurrying off and trying to find something to hide on, something, anything, and then she was deaf, too, clambering up onto something feathery in a panic, unaware or, perhaps, unknowing, that it was a gembound, so much larger that it was.

@Aure

Wilder, at first, quietly considered the images she was seeing but then she stumbled back with alarm as pain bolted through her head. She let out a loud yelp as she stumbled back, the magic doing funny things to her head. For a second, she felt a dip in her consciousness but she regained control only a moment later, standing up with her fur puffed out. "Ow," she hissed, shaking out her head.

A familiar voice suddenly touched her ears and she froze. Oh no. Not right now. She looked up just a little and saw Aure there, looking away from her and she felt a crack ripple across her heart. She couldn't do this right now, she was about as ready as Aure to have this conversation. And, besides, there was something else right now to worry about - the rings. And probably the fact that there were a lot others around. They couldn't just start talking about matters like that in front of everyone.

And it didn't seem like Aure was ready for that conversation either.

She glanced at the cat that had stepped up to her, a little surprised by their sudden appearance, breaking through her dark thoughts and she nodded. "Y-yeah! We're both cats!" It was a bit of a lame excuse for her usual peppiness but it was the best she could do right now.

She stepped forward to touch the wall again, trying to activate her magic to reveal what was going to be happening in the future, but the magic lashed back at her, ripping through her head and, instead of seeing the possible futures, she watched her worst fears become reality.

Aure, standing over her, crying. "You betrayed us," he whispered. "I can't stand to be near you. I can't stand to even look at you. All you do is hurt me and my family." She pleaded and begged back, saying that she could fix this, that she could do better, that all she wanted was to have a place in the Bonebound and to help them. She promised that she'd get to know everyone better and contribute to them, to really be a part of his family but he shook his head. "Go away, Wilder. We don't want you. All you do is bring misery."

She was frozen in front of the door, eyes wide and glimmering with tears as she came out of her own vision, not realizing that any time had passed at all.

@Aure

Seshat moved the crystal around, trying to get a good view of the creatures off to the side, trying to see what they were doing, when there was a tiny voice nearby. She blinked, looking around for it, to see where it was coming from, but she couldn't see anything. She could feel something, crawling slowly up her face and she assumed it was just an itch - she got a lot of those and was learning to just deal with it.

Until, of course, a bug just appeared in front of her eyes and hung down in front of her face.

Seshat screamed, the crystal dropping to the ground as magic lashed out to try and get the thing off of her face, to fling it away, but she was too busy being shocked to focus enough for it to actually work. So she was forced to just stare at it and pray that it didn't try to do anything funny. Absolutely trembling out of control scared because she was so helpless and there was a bug on her.

When she realized that it was the once talking, and it occurred to her that it might have some intelligence, she didn't really feel any better, not until it dropped off of her could she breath easily again, trying to follow it with her eyes but to no luck as it quickly scuttled out of her line of sight.

Poco pranced in place excitedly, purring loudly, "I've never met another cat before!" but then the other cat was stepping forward, and she could only watch, tilting her head, wondering what she was doing, what all was happening, startling when the cat froze, scent going sour and eyes widening and glimmering, and Poco wasn't good with emotion so she trotted up and butted her head against her shoulder, wound against Wilder and began to purr, hoping it would help, not sure what to say.

@Wilder

Aure stared down, mild confusion in the furrow of his brow - "right there. All of these rings on the wall." His gaze traveled up their upper half, tracing them until black started to come into his periphery. He stilled abruptly, ears pinning back as a deafening drone came from the rock's surface. Screwing his eyes shut to keep such an obnoxious sound out (as if that'd work) he grimaced.

Ringing punctuated the return of his hearing, and he shook himself off.

"Hold - hold on, guys," his voice twittered out, gaze flicking to and fro - ears still making his voice ring and muffle inside his head. (Thank the bones there's another cat - to keep Wilder distracted away from me.) "Let's think... how does it feel when you - cast at it?"

The wyvern focused, again, on the bone-interspersed wheel, ears flicking back. Aure stared long and hard at the sixth ring. It called, and -

His magicka felt out, tentative and hesitant compared to the full-throttle casts being lobbed at it, fully prepared to withdraw the moment some noisy or blinding repercussion danced his way.

Aure's spell almost seemed to take root, at first: a faint crumbling, the wet sound of consumption--and then it fell away.

There was no backlash, but the outer rings--one through five--briefly hummed, and faintly glowed, before going dim and mostly-still once more.

@Aure @Seshat @Soumak @Pip

That big crystal with wet eyes had screamed, and it hurt Pips ears. She could still feel the ringing. She thought that atleast the chiming of her crystals would be soothing. Nice for Pip to hear! But the chiming attacked Pip's ears too. It ruined her sense of balance. She tried and failed to cover her tympanum, but everything was so loud. Disoriented, Pip lost her balance and fell.

Pip's balance was back almost immediately as the ringing ended. She landed on her feet gracefully, balanced upon pebbles at the base of the wall. "That hurt." Pip piped up.

Pip thought they'd got off lucky, though. Another gembound--small with pebbly skin--their spell reflected right into their eyes. Pip would've grimaced if she had lips. "Are you okay pebble tree?"

Pip thought about going back to Seshat--but what if Seshat screamed again? They didn't want that again, not so soon after the wall screamed at Pip too. But the big tree covered in orange and white leaves got a good reaction. The ring thingy glowed. No screeching. Pip flicked her abdomen in thought.

"How'd you do that orange tree?" She said. Pip wanted to do that! Maybe Pip did it wrong. Cautiously, Pip began to scale the wall once more. She settled on the bone ring, and tapped it with her feet. Nibbled it.

The feeling of pride at his success only lasted a moment.

The beam of light he'd cast so easily and perfectly went flying right back at him, right into his eyes. This combined with the deafening echo that rushed past completely disoriented him. He stumbled back, blinking rapidly, trying to clear his vision.

His eyesight wouldn't clear, no matter how hard he blinked. Of course this happened. He thought bitterly, Even when I succeed at a spell, it backfires.

He was reminded he wasn't alone when someone spoke to him, "I'm.. Fine." He replied, very poorly masking the fact he was not, in fact, fine. "I uh, Have to go.." He said hastily, before quickly walking away. Despite his newfound blindness, he managed to not run into anything.

"Spoken Words."
Thoughts

tags: ---
notes: Leaving Unless Stopped

coding by wulf for template purposes

His magic took hold for but a moment, the crawl of fungus impeded by something before removing itself entirely. The sixth ring looked entirely intact as all of those encircling it hummed, glowing. Aure did his own "hm," as the sound and color faded.

It works but - his gaze drifted up - those first? From the outside in...

The wyvern looked around as a tiny voice continued to chirp - almost pitchy. He had trouble finding it, except - that insect crawling up that ring? "You?" Bright eyes furrowed slightly and he chanced those few steps towards the wall (alarm bells went off in his head, like some sort of proximity alert) and chirped again, "I cast at it, but I think -" Tilting his head, he extended a wing, the primaries barely touching the bone ring and offering a perch for the little bug (assuming that was... the one talking to him.)

Aure stepped to the left, regardless of if Pip took him up on that or not. He stared at the first ring, sniffed at it - and called to the rest, "I think we're meant to - use magic on this from the outside in. One at a time..."

He swallowed, considering, and allowed himself to take the lead, initiative. But that involved -

Another gulp, a glance to his periphery. The first ring was wood - that he was certain of - and what better to burn it away than with fire? Wilder'd burned bones before, set them aflame in a misery after all of that with Pride.

Were he human, he would've rubbed at his temples. Instead, all he could do was shift weight from foot to foot, working his beak with voiceless words until he finally, finally bit the bullet: "Wild - der?" The name felt awful on his tongue, now. Aure's resolve melted immediately, and he sidestepped further away, only barely able to indicate towards the first ring until he had to turn away, go back to acting like she wasn't there, like he wasn't going to keel over in panic here and now.

(Everyone here's so young, his thoughts warned, what if she -)

@Wilder