Follow, follow, follow, right to the wickedly accented entrance to Canis. As soon as they'd crossed the threshold, Alpha quietly took a few longer strides to get in front of Vargas and lead him to a particular spot in the chambers - a wide hall rounding off at the end and sharply going off in another direction.

The kaiju plodded towards the wall, kicking bones forwards in its wake by way of a rudimentary ramp against it. Hoisting itself up on this ramp and pressing a forearm against the wall, it started to clear bones off a break in the rock about a foot above it. All that done, Alpha fished around.

Claws grazed cold metal, and it stretched its other arm to grasp it too and drag it out of the hole. Stumbling back with the surprising weight? of it, Alpha wordlessly deposited the chain link at Vargas's feet and took an involuntary step back.

@Vargas

Vargas paced over, staring quizzically at the golden link.

He did not know what it was. A few paces forward, a tentative touch with one hand, and he paused, head tilting.

"It feels magic," he said, at last; "enchanted. It was just this? It appeared, nothing else? The lights went dim, yes?" It wasn't that Vargas could sense magic by some default power; but there was an effect to the chain, a sort of dragging-down that he could feel the moment he touched it. It was meant to do something, he felt--but what, he didn't know.

@Orthoclase-Alpha

Magic, but - Alpha felt uneasy by it. Perhaps it was just its natural dislike of magic that wasn't cast by itself, a distrust bred by everything else.

"There were other things. Gemstones - Delta found a string with a gem at the end - cloth, food," it elaborated, "the light came back. There were a lot of Gembound there, a little one and its - clan? attempted to attack me." No further details about that (because the thread isn't done yet, shh.) "We left after."

Seems like it knew jack shit about the circumstances of this link's appearance.

@Vargas

Vargas looked up, staring directly at Orthoclase-Alpha.

Intently.

"Attacked you?" he demanded, at once. "Well? What happened?" Clearly, he was impatient to get the entire story.

It was very important to know how, and why, his spawn had reacted, and what the outcome had been.

@Orthoclase-Alpha

/time travels around the vagueposting

...

After what was surely a very interesting anecdote involving spears being shaken and exactly two featherless bipeds (behold, a man elf!) and Alpha ultimately concluding it was fine - aside from the thorns still stuck in its rear - it stared back down at the chain link.

"What should I do with this, Overseer?" Didn't seem smart to just leave a mysteriously enchanted item lying around - maybe if they broke... it?

Assuming either of them could bend metal (they probably couldn't.)

@Vargas

Vargas responded to the recounted tale precisely as one might expect him to, and then moved on to other things, after all was said and done.

"Hrmph. Take it to Algol. He will-"

He appeared nearly between them, leaning down to touch the burnished gold.

"Tell you precisely what it is? Gauge its value?" Dark humor laced the tone, and yet, when the clawed hand touched the gold, the Collector froze completely.

When his voice came again, it was cold, distant, thrumming with power he had never before shown; he backed up a pace and stood tall, withdrawing his hand as if burnt. "I do not want it," he snapped, and then, turning to look sharply at Orthoclase-Alpha, and with no sign of fear in his tone of the Vargas-spawn, he demanded--"Where did this come from?"

@Orthoclase-Alpha

Leave it to Algol to scare the orthoclase just about out of its wits. It shuffled back a few steps, involuntarily falling into a defensive crouch - before subtly relaxing and shuffling so its feet were fully back underneath itself.

The Collector hurried away from the link, voice shifting abruptly and taking on a tone - and Alpha was all about tone - of urgent demands, harsh snapping. Instinctively, it smoothed out its quills and lowered its head, hunched its shoulders. Not cowering but shocked submission.

"The tunnel before Polaris - the narrow, green one," it reported quickly, "it was on the floor in the dark."

@Vargas

Even Vargas seemed to tense, taking a sharp step backward and peering, warily, between Collector and golden metal.

It wasn't fear of the Collector, exactly--or even respect of him. It was fear of whatever the hell had just scared Algol. Algol was never... serious. He never displayed any sort of fear. He was sneering oil and leering jokes. He was slimy deals and sickly-sweet promises. His power was always kept hidden, and he always kept the upper hand.

And now-... Vargas knew that Algol demanding information wasn't aggression, not toward Alpha--it was fear.

He was afraid.

"What is it?" he demanded, at once, and his own voice came rough. If this was a threat, they had to deal with it at once. "Is this one of your cursed toys, Algol?" but there was little vehemence in the question--he doubted the Collector would ever make anything that he himself would actively fear.

His figure stood there, motionless, staring not at Orthoclase but at the single golden link.

"No," he said, at length, and that strange, booming quality to his voice, now unsuppressed, seemed to vibrate at the bones. Without explanation, he turned to the pair, staring. "Make no mistake, I don't want this. I don't want what it implies. But I wouldn't leave this loose, Overseer Vargas," he warned; "I can take it away from here..." and he looked back at the golden link, as if wondering.

@Orthoclase-Alpha