Long had the small shard of red cinnabar rested beside the empty throne of Orion, as the Seven's former king rested. The weasel curled and coiled within its stony prison, dreaming fitfully, racked with nightmares. Tail scraped against stone, sometimes audible from the outside world, but usually deathly quiet.

Within the red walls, they shuddered, tightly closed eyes flickering, a tremor rushing over their quills. Paws twitched and spine flexed, curling inwards in sudden and violent discomfort.

The outside world was silent, but they heard the screams and the crunching of bones as the hybrid died to their grasp. The grisly sight replayed before their very eyes, again and again, the emotion of horror raw and primal. In sleep, Livius did not register that the hybrid had been a twisted murderer; all they knew was that they had killed him.

The vision faded, and for a moment, the weasel's body stilled. Then it tightened again, tail curling in a distressed spiral.

"Now, grovel!"the grisly thud of Greed's head echoed throughout the weasel's mind as they drove her dying body to the ground at their feet, forcing her to bow. The fading emptiness in her eyes as the Sinful Seven died and rose again as a new Kingdom. Better now. And without them...

No... the nightmare grew faint, and feelings rose. First and foremost, the weasel felt cold stone pressing in all around them, hugging tight to their bones. And then claustrophobia rose to meet it. They moved, reaching out, struggling to uncurl. Familiarity rose with a sense of panic. What's going on...? Pride...? Lust...? Amazon? Where am I...? Their spines met smooth cinnabar. A lilac eye opened in the dark, and saw nothing.

They tried again.

This time a faint crack echoed in the small space around them, quickly followed by a splintering sound. They kept on pushing, until they finally felt their small world give way. On the outside, the chrysalis split open, and red-coloured fluid gushed out, finally followed by a small, limp form, stained with red. The creature that had emerged hacked and choked, expelling the poison from their lungs and heaving fresh air for the first time in many cycles.

They lay still for a while, their side gradually rising and falling. Finally, Envy... No... Livius raised their head, and then stood. Dripping wet and trembling in the cold and damp, the King had finally returned.

It was Mischief who alerted him--his familiar, a white hare twice or more as large as Livius themselves. Her warning that the little stone he'd watched over was... moving. She was curious, nosing for Livius with bright eyes, and Pride was at her side a moment later, peering down at Livius.

"You're awake," he said, surprise startling him out of any formality.

Behind him, Orion was... changed. Raheerah's fire had devastated it, sweeping vast swathes of flames over the ruins, burning and melting some of the rock and scorching all the rest. A plague of Green Wallcrawlers had come through, eating holes through much of the gemstone in the cave--Pride had stood his ground near Livius' chrysalis as long as he'd dared, until it became clear enough that they hadn't liked the cinnabar.

"Are you all right?" A click of hooves, as he drew a little closer, his slender neck reaching down, a nose offered to the green weasel. Faint magic curled around him as he remembered it, though it didn't take root--a habit made of refreshing a passive defensive magic around him; he didn't expect trouble to assault them out of nowhere, but with Livius one never knew, and it was best to be prepared.

@Livius

Livius blinked, the world around them coming into focus sharply. A familiar form stepped before them out of the haze. The weasel shook their head, a shudder rippling down their spine, rattling their quills. "Pride," they answered, seemingly surprised themselves. "Yes, I'm... awake, I think. Unless..." They paused, catlike eyes glancing around, watching and tensing slightly as Pride approached them.

Livius felt as though they had slept no more than a few hours, but something told them it had been far, far longer. Raising their head, the weasel sniffed the air.

The scent of smoke and ash hit their nostrils, acrid and sudden. They shook their head again, blinking rapidly as they looked past the deer. The blurred world gradually came into focus. Their kingdom... in ruins and ash. Empty apart from the familiar pale form of Pride. "What... happened here?" Livius whispered, voice vaguely trembling. "...How long have I been gone?"

As the deer reached down with his muzzle, Livius sat up on his hind paws and gratefully reciprocated with a small nuzzle. The contact felt more real than anything else so far, distracting them momentarily from the ashes and the silence, piercingly loud. Still soaked with red fluid, Livius took a moment to focus inward, pushing water from their pores until the fluid ran clear and their fur was green and damp once more.

They shook themselves dry, suppressing a shiver, before looking back up at Pride. "I'm alright," they reassured, although their heart still hammered, and their tail was twitching rapidly. They were suddenly struck with the feeling that something was missing, and looked around wildly. "Wait... Where's my crown?"

Pride offered a nudge, then stepped back and folded himself down to lay, the white hare leaping onto his back and curling there in a familiar fashion. It didn't speak--Pride couldn't remember if Livius had even met Mischief, but it was fairly clear, if not, that she was a familiar. A Lesser.

"It hasn't been that long, and things aren't as terrible as they may look, at first glance. Raheerah--the black dragon--returned, and scorched much of Orion but so far as I can tell, he has been disposed of for good. Another being appeared, in Polaris, and... dissolved him," the stag added, tone grim. It hadn't been pleasant to watch. I wonder if that was a spell? -It may be worth learning, he thought, idly, and then continued aloud.

"It has been... Oh, I don't know. At a guess, not more than ten, twelve cycles? There are many of us, actually. We have had... much happen, King Livius. The Masters came, and made demands of us--Nemean, in fact--and punished us in our denial. She swarmed the cave--at least I assume it was her, she was shouting," he went on, tone wry, "with those green wallcrawlers, the bugs that eat gemstone. We had to flee for a time, though they found your chrysalis, quite thankfully, unpalatable. I do not know where your crown is but it's quite possible they ate it," he added, glancing around. "At the risk of overwhelming you with information--we had another cheetah join us, Zothra, but it turned out to be both useless and childish and left us since. Another cheetah, a child, is somewhere near; Luster is close by, I think, and a few others. Nassir--he is a good friend, and one of us. Our magic has changed, too," he added, "it is a shield, now. I was considering gathering the other groups for training again, soon, but if you wish to take your crown back you are of course welcome to it." There seemed to be no ill will, here, or hesitation, and Pride leaned down to touch his nose to the ground.

After a moment another crown--tiny, glittering topaz or the like--formed, and Pride nudged it gently Livius' way. "And no, your kingship is not so easily replaceable; this is but a symbol, hm?"

The hare at his back sat up and scratched herself, and Pride glanced back at her. "Ahh--had you met Mischief? I cannot remember. I think you had-? Perhaps it's been longer than I realized," he admitted. He thought Mischief had been present back for the battle against the -berries, but he couldn't quite remember for sure.

@Livius

"The... black dragon?" echoed Livius, their ears pricking as they listened. nothing exciting like that ever happens when I'm around, they thought briefly, thinking back. They thought back to all of the things they'd seen in their lifetime. Then again... there was the sky-birds. There was the giant that awakened in Eridanus, too. And then... the troublesome Bloodberries and their homemade war, I suppose.

As Pride spoke again, they raised their head, and their blood ran cold. "T... Twelve cycles?" They looked down, quills letting out low rattle as they quivered. They listened, with wide, wet eyes and a twitching nose, as Pride continued on with his explanation. "And the bugs... do they still exist?" they ventured, with a slight curl at the end of their tail. "What about Nemean? What happened to her? Are we safe now?"

They nodded slowly as Pride continued with his explanation of what had changed in the Seven itself. Zothra. The name was vaguely familiar, as was Luster. But Nassir... no, Livius did not remember ever meeting him. And their magic... a shield? Their expression fell further. They had missed so much. So much. Were they even still worthy to lead? they had little clue of the threats that existed now in these caves, and little idea of how to stand up against them. the new members of the Seven likely didn't know them, or what they had accomplished in their former life in the caves.

Even so, as Pride created the small, topaz crown, Livius' expression lifted slightly. They scampered over to the jewel, lifted it in their paws, and ducked their head under it, placing the crown neatly back onto their head.

It felt, for an instant, as though they were home again.

"A symbol...? Yes, yes... of... course it is."

Livius hesitated for a moment, before scampering over to Pride, and slowly pulling themselves up onto his back. Not a moment later, they had reclaimed their position in between his broad antlers, settled just as they had so many cycles before. They smiled slightly, delighting at the feeling of his warm fur beneath their paws, so different to that of cold cinnabar. "Yes, yes, we've met," they murmured absently. "...But it was a long, long time ago."

"They have always existed, though they're usually easy to miss--harmless alone, for the most part, in among the walls. But she sent carpets of htem, flowing through Orion, and our own gemstones were in danger. We killed many but we were forced to retreat until they receded. Nothing happened to Nemean, as far as I'm aware. She never showed herself and in any case, she is, I think, a Master--if not off-limits, then at least difficult to defeat. Allied with Astraea, at least on the surface, and so forth. There was-... ah, another war. And we are in a precarious position-"

Pride paused, and took a breath.

"But perhaps I ought to give you time to wake up, hm? Do you need food; water, perhaps? Is your gemstone placement still the same?" he added, glancing over his shoulder with his near-spherical field of vision, to the green weasel on his back.

@Livius

"Always?" Livius asked, in disbelief. They had never really paid much heed to the wildlife of the cave; never having any need to, with their lack of a need to eat. Spiders and bugs had never really concerned them. Mice and rats were beneath them, too. But they were slightly appalled that they could have missed something like that.

Pride's voice faded to the back of their mind, for the time being at least. But then one thing he said brought a chill to their heart and their spines stiffened from the top of their head to the end of their rump. "Another war?" they hissed. "But who? ...Why? Was it the Berries again? We killed them, didn't we? Or did it never really end?"

As Pride continued, Livius forced their quills to lie flat, and then reluctantly nodded. "Er, yes. P-perhaps it is best to wait a time... I think I need to settle in." They turned. At his questions, their lip quirked slightly upwards. It really had been a while, they thought, if Pride was asking them if they required food, of all things. Their tongue curled in their mouth, feeling the hard, cold gemstone at the back. "It's still there, yes. I think... all I need is time." They glanced away.

Pride snorted bitterly.

"No, not the Berries. Rift took Blackberry hostage and then refused to hold the trial, in the end, and tried to tell us that the Seven were not allowed to join because we refused to, in turn, allow Jayberry to take part without being captured, killed or punished. He wanted to grant her amnesty for the trial, despite all that she's done," and his voice was a low snarl, full of guttural anger, a thing he did not fall to very often. He took a moment to calm himself. "So he kept her captive and then, after all that, she was simply no longer there one day. I could not find Rift to ask what he did, but Rift himself has fled, with the rest of the Kingdom of Eridanus, to Monoceros--don't repeat that. They angered Astraea by refusing to take part in an assassination that would have, supposedly, prevented the next war."

A pause, and a sigh. "There was a fungus. It was called, by those infected by it, 'Mother.' From what I can tell it is white, smells rotten; I am told it links all its members in a sort of shared hive mind, and uses them to feed and protect its... fungus, or the like. Those freed from it describe what essentially sounds like having been brainwashed and controlled. We had to do battle against one of the nests, in Cetus. The Bonebound, the Children of Rot and Dread were all there, and all took part; the nest was destroyed, its members purged. Astraea has warned that it likely still lingers. You-... Ahh, but the rest, I will leave for later. It sounds far worse than it is; at the moment things are... calm, though it may not stay that way, of course. What would you like to do?" he asked.

He was still lying in one place, Livius on his back.

@Livius