She was always here.

Here she was kneeled before the Black Spire, head bowed down low and Oil dripping from between her teeth—cascading from her shuddering flanks. The heat and proximity to the living stone should have been suffocating, but Draconua reveled in it. She held herself steady with it. Freshly awakened from a chaotic vision, her stone throbbed against her skull. Energy was just begging to be released.

Hussaresque wings spread out wide, stabbing points glinting in the light. The Sleepless Chaos got up to her feet and her tail lashed behind her. Her head lifted and turned to the side; her body followed. A gaping void swarmed in her throat, burning, burning—!

Draconua's breath was too quick, and the entropic flame burned out. Flat teeth snapped together with a hollow click. A rattling hiss slipped from between them and she turned to gaze at His spire out the corner of her eyes. "Creator," she urged, "where has my power gone?" It used to be that she could quell existence in a single breath of fire, level an empire with one shattering of the ground. Now, magic slipped from her grasp at every turn.

Only the Womb answered her with its low, steady groaning.

@Esther

The black spire - a strange place that Esther didn't quite understand. It vaguely seemed to breathe, to be sentient. Reminded them of the one they had attacked once, and got attacked back. That had been... Strange. Stressful. Esther still didn't understand why it did that. If it breathed, that meant it was alive. Did it have thoughts? They would have to ask Vargas.

A voice took their attention away. Some kind of... Large creature. It had strange wings, different to the maned wolf's own but the same in some ways. It didn't look like it could fly though- could it? Was this another that worked to purge the caves of 'mother'? A dark ear flicked, and they approached. This place seemed absolutely drenched in large gembounds, so large that they were surprised that the caves could even hold them.

"Hello?"

This one seemed strange. An amalgamate of creatures put into one, but oddly nice to look at, at the same time.

@Draconua

Draconua had begun to speak again when—

"Hello?"

—an intrusion blurred into her periphery.

The Valkhound practically unfurled to her full size. Her head rose, faceplate twisting so that it was silhouetted into an unholy, incomplete halo. Hussaresque wings rose from her flanks, sanguine points thrown into neon relief by the Black Spire's light. A long tail coiled out behind her, lashing. Rattling hisses accompanied every peeling of flesh from teeth, baring in a grimace.

All that was Esther's warning before the shadow nearest to them leapt for their form. It was a wicked limb, urged into being and controlled by Draconua alone. If she had her way, it'd snare the maned wolf and coil tight.

It could be ample restraint while she bellowed her questions, "who are you to disturb me? Miniscule creature." The Hound paused a moment, lips relaxing and leaving only her flat teeth and tusks visible; what was that running from their eyes—what was the darkness lingering in that stone...?

Oh, but it was—"You reek of His power. It clings to you." A growl of consideration. "What power do you believe you hold over me?" She drew herself up to her full height and urged the profaned creature make its grip tighter—if it got one at all.

@Esther

Esther wasn't startled by the other gembound abruptly turning to look at them. The gembound just reminded them of the other Chaos Forge creatures, at least some of them. They weren't as creepy looking, but nothing really genuinely scared the maned wolf, either. So they didn't know if the horse.... thing was trying to be scary or not.

And then a limb went and grasped at the gembound, causing a pain wherever they were touched. It made Esther grind their teeth, and try to get the other to just let go! Damn those spells they had learned. It hurt, it really did.

They ignored the question in favor of trying to get the other gembound to let go, so an answer never came.

@Draconua

A crushing pressure fell around the monstrous Hound. She grit her teeth, pulling her lips back in a thin grimace, then baring it in a wide show of pointed teeth. Fighting back, hm? The profaned tentacle didn't receive a command to relinquish its grasp, though its stability was waning and soon to break apart without further direction.

Draconua didn't urge it to coil tighter—it was already so intense—but she did will her magic to fight against what was crushing the air out her lungs. It was the wind itself, so her own energy swarmed against it and urged it to balloon. Freed from that, she watched the wavering tentacle and the canine struggling inside it. If they moved a certain way, they might find themselves free.

No need to give them any hope of that, though.

Taking a rattling, wheezing breath in for the first time in a minute or so, she grinned wildly and pressed, "answer me, or I'll be lapping up your Oil." Her faceplate was fixed hard on the creature, glinting in the light. "Choose wisely. I can—and will—do so much worse than this."

It was a wicked little promise.

The Sleepless Chaos did not break her promises.

@Esther

The spell didn't work, and that brought disappointment to Esther's mind. How would they do any good if their magic didn't even work? Even when they could only use fire it almost didn't work most of the time. Backfiring or not being strong enough. Esther was strong enough, they helped take down that huge golem for crying out loud! The only thing their magic did was able the other, much larger, gembound to counter with what they was sure was the same spell.

"Why would I hold anything over you?" Esther questioned, confusion clearly lining their face, though their voice was more of a croak than anything else from being squished by the other gembound.

@Draconua

The Sleepless Chaos didn't budge as Esther provided an answer at last. Her body went still; even as the corrupt tentacle's stability wavered, she did not move.

Only after a heady pause did the limb unfurl and dump the canine on the ground. Draconua peeled her lips back in a short grin, rattling, "good answer." She misread their confusion for being rhetorical, but perhaps that was beneficial to them. Her grin faded after a moment, and she padded over to stand between them and the Black Spire. Hussaresque wings were still raised.

"Who are you, then?" she pressed again, "one of the Leviathan's?"

@Esther

The silence went on for some moments, whatever Esther said seemed to satisfy the large thing and they were put down. With a wheeze, they stretched out their wings to stop the pain that went through them upon being squished far too close to their body. Their wings definitely weren't made for that.

Esther so dearly wanted to set that gembound ablaze, but she clearly had the smell of someone like themselves, and the smells of the other Forge members on her. Esther would surely get in trouble for even trying to hurt someone like that - though they were told to get better at their magic, and that only meant actually using it for something.

"I'm Esther." They replied to the question. "I'm not one of his spawn." The maned wolf replied to that.

@Draconua

Draconua narrowed her eyes—despite the satisfaction continuing to reverberate through her being, despite the fact that they were set within pinholes—and found herself frowning. The words weren't met with aggression, yet, but a peculiar sort of half-confusion: "Whose, then?" ... if not one of Vargas's... ?

Other Masters had always existed in her peripherals. The Leviathan had never once claimed to be singular, and had urged her to seek others for the meaning of her being. She'd not yet found (or even sought out) Astraea, but she wondered if this was one of his creatures, perhaps sent with a message or some other directive.

Either way, the feeling of chaotic pressure pushing in on her lungs had been fleeting, but familiar. A form of Chaos made physical, she thought. Spreading His influence to and fro was paramount, no matter the shape it manifested in. There could be kinship there. It was a matter of finding out who this was, first.

She stared, awaiting...

... and grew bored, after a short while, meandering back into her cradle.

exit due to inactivity