- THE LEVIATHAN -

Vargas was busy.

As he always was, now. He kept himself busy, and he had an entire list of things to do.

First on that list was creating a second creature from the antelope known as Scout; he gauged that the chrysalis was strong enough now to spare a tiny piece. The idea that the creature might come out somehow deformed had weighed on him heavily--and that worry had spiked afresh each time he'd looked at Khavur, or at V-Chaos-Two.

A backup, then. He'd chip a tiny piece of the chrysalis off--hopefully not enough to harm the neonate developing within--and create a second choice for Lord Dhracia. They'd be a cycle apart in age, but she'd at least have her choice of creature. If one came out more deformed than another, she could pick whichever she preferred.

Though Vargas doubted she'd accept any deformity at all. She might, he knew, just kill them both and take another of his spawn. Which brought him to point two: V-Chaos-One. The damned serpent had scurried off at some point--he didn't know when--and nobody knew where the little shit had gone. He'd have to track it down and drag it back, find out why it had left. He wasn't sure if it had been deliberate desertion, so to speak, or if the stupid creature had simply gotten lost.

I might as well just offer her that one, too. Perhaps I will train it myself, if Orthoclase hasn't gotten to it, he reasoned. He expected his Overseer to have done so, but it was difficult to train a creature that simply wasn't there.

Point three was to finish inventorying what he had to work with: the stones and bones of the abandoned dead. He'd made his rounds of the best of them, the strongest and fiercest-looking skeletons, but he intended to make a second pass today.

First, however: this 'Scout.'

He came up on the chrysalis--its dull red agate already stained oily and pulsing with the Black Spire's corruption. Vargas studied it, gauging where it might best be scored with his claws without truly causing harm: and then he chipped a piece away, scratching and picking until it landed warm and dry atop his palm.

A glance at the chrysalis reassured him that he hadn't truly damaged it, and then he stepped back, examining what he had. Best not postpone it, or it might lose its power, he thought, concentrating.

- THE LEVIATHAN -

He wasn't sure it had worked. The spark was barely there, and he eyed it uncertainly. He turned it in his hand, then shrugged; it felt like there was the faintest magic, so he had to hope that it would take. If not, he'd create another.

He lurched up, pacing a few yards off to set the little chip down a bit away from the first chrysalis. He waited for it to set, watching the stone begin to gradually reach out and fuse to the rock below.

Then he turned back, and stalked to the first of the open alcoves.

Jupiter had shot them--all of them--shattering gemstone with harder rocks that she had gathered. It seemed the Creator's oilstone wasn't as tough as Vargas would've liked: the tiny arrowheads had shattered the ancient wombs. This first had been something large--not gigantic, not like he or Draconua, but at the limits of what these Gembound creatures tended to spawn on their own. But it wasn't heavy, by the looks; it had been slender, the bones thin and full of spines and points and thorns that would've made it hard to fight without harming one's own body.

The Master had already rearranged the bones, here, gathering them up and reassembling them in the best approximation he could manage of what the creature would have been. This one had been near mature, almost ready to break free, and perhaps as a result of this its magic still lingered in the shattered shards of chrysalis. Vargas picked up the piece that sang with it most strongly, and set it atop the skull there before moving on.

That was one potential creature for revival, and he knew that he himself wouldn't have the energy to reform them all. Either Totum could do this, or he could assign stones to suitable Chaos Forge to revive--the matchmaking might be interesting of its own accord, he knew.

- THE LEVIATHAN -

Vargas paced to the next. Smaller, thickly-built, but beyond that he could see little--many of the bones were missing, either unformed as yet (unlikely, he thought, given the nearly fully-formed state of the other ones) or fallen away, perhaps eaten by Lessers in the time that had passed since the shattering of the gemstone.

He couldn't tell if the creature had even been full-sized, yet, or if it was a growing embryo when it had been slain.

There was lingering power, here, too--but weaker than the last. Half-formed, then--maybe, Vargas guessed, and again he picked the shard that still hummed with energy, laying it atop the bones.

- THE LEVIATHAN -

This one had been slender, with strangely-shaped vertebrae--something, he thought, built for speed or perhaps for stealth. He couldn't be sure, not without bearing some form of magic to try and peer into its past. (Did any of the Forge have that, he wondered-?)

Six-thumbed clawed pressed to shattered oilstone, and the Leviathan focused his mind again.

This one was stronger than he'd expected, and after a few moments he settled the prime piece of shard atop the bones. He was realizing he'd need to keep close watch, to make sure none of these were stolen, but that itself (he thought) ought to be simple enough.

He moved on to the next--and looked down the row of remaining, broken chrysalids. He'd found two prior, and these were three more; was this all that might remain of the prior Masters' work-?

- THE LEVIATHAN -

Vargas' six eyes narrowed and he concentrated, quills prickling slightly as he felt the shimmering flow of magic struggling to perform at such a distance.

...Nothing.

There was nothing--at least not now, not from this distance. Perhaps someone with more powerful magic--and more diligence--could find weak pieces with the faintest touch of magic, but right now he had all that he deemed useful.

He categorized the remaining shards, filed them away in his mind, and stalked off--already pairing off Forge members with their potential best matches among the dusty bones.

exit