Dragon had worried about the descent. His memory of it was that it had been deep, dark: a very long swim. But he had forgotten that they'd come up again, afterward: that they'd swam nearly into Fornax proper before slipping into Farina's room. It was still a deep dive--dangerously deep, so much so that he hoped that the water-breathing band he'd given Imp to wear would let him safely make the journey.

He'd bid Imp follow him close: "Bite down on my tail if you have to, use your magic to find me if you lose me. If you do, hold still, and I will come and get you," he'd instructed. But Imp had been more than willing to clamp down on the tip of Dragon's tail, and while that hindered the big alligator's swimming, it did mean that they were descending relatively safely.

Descending down from the thrashing waves. Descending down into the dark, the cold, down beneath the rock... toward Farina's room. When at last Dragon erupted into the air, there, his jaws gaped and he took a massive breath. The new gills worked, but they were... disconcerting. He couldn't help the feeling that he was just this side of drowning.

Well-... here they were. He came up blinking, hauling Imp into open air, hoping Fahl hadn't fallen far behind. This was it: the room of coral and of water, where sea lapped at Farina's giant throne.

With luck, the other two would be ready, too, to face her.

@Fahl
(I don't think this thread will be very long! but it should lead to more plot)

Fahl wished he could say this second trip into the depths of Fornax was an easier one. It should have been, the first having well prepared him for the route and its perils. No ignorance to the creatures lurking in the darkness. No guardians they would presumably have to appease with mentions of their Master, now that the way to the City had been opened. But greater knowledge and less obstacles lowered the bar only so much; physical limitations still had to be taken into account, and though a diver through and through, travelling to the Black City drained his stamina to the very last drop.

At the beginning, he'd followed directly behind Imp while his teacher had been at Dragon's tail, near enough to almost be another chain link in their closely bound procession. Midway, the blue of the water long bled into black, a gap long enough to fit another iguana began to form. By the time they'd finally passed into the chamber, the main reason he hadn't lost his way miles ago was due to the flash of bioluminescence in the aquatic void.

In the wake of the others' emergence, the stir of bubbles that came after might've been swallowed by the ripples before. A few seconds more passed. Then, gasping, a broad face broke the surface. Strain was etched into his features in the form of thick pigment-leeched stripes on his hide. Eyes were blown wide, terrified, before relaxing as cool air rushed in to soothe a throat that burned though a fire never been sparked within it.

Despite possessing a water-breathing trinket himself, the silver band clad around his forelimb, nerves had prevented him from eschewing preliminary measures lest the magic not last for the entire journey. He'd held his breath until it'd been nearly spent, and as a result, he now floated in Farina's throne room, replenishing lost oxygen.

Light-headed and loose-limbed, Fahl washed upon the coral resting at the back section of the chamber more so than stepping there. Rose red seeped into his stripes while he lay, wheezing. No longer submerged, the brightness surrounding him was familiar but also overwhelming, so that when he spoke, it was with a touch of delirium.

"We're... we're here." Shoving down, he tried to propel himself to a standing position. All he succeeded in was launching himself back into collapse, body thudding into a boneless sprawl. "Dra... sssir... Imp?"

Feathers and scutes danced at the corner of his eye, far away enough that an awkward neck swivel could not keep them in view. A squint was directed at where they might be in vain.

"Y'there? Ah, gimme... gimme a moment."

Hopefully, it'd not be more than a second for him to recover. His embarrassment would be furthered with each additional one's passage.

@Imp

For Imp, the journey had also been fucking terrible. He kept gasping, wide-'eyed,' throughout the swim down. It was a panic reaction, automatic, and it took him a few moments to get used to the sense of water flooding his skin with oxygen, keeping him from drowning. And the gasping didn't help: water in the lungs hurt, even though his Dad had warned him not to do that.

Despite all that, he managed to stay focused enough to keep a strong hold on Dragon's tail, his own alligator jaws clamped hard on the end of it. The gasps, through the open corners of his mouth, didn't alleviate his death grip in the slightest, and he was pretty sure he might've crunched a couple leathery scales, back there.

It was even scarier blind.

He didn't know he was in the pitch black, but he knew it was cold, and he knew that if he lost his grip now, he might spin away into the nothing and--eventually, when the magic had faded from the enchanted armlet--drown.

But at last, Imp was hauled up, and out, and spent the next few moments hunched over, hacking all the water up from in his chest. Somewhere off to one side, he could hear Fahl wheezing, and he turned his head that way. He spoke between ragged coughs, trembling where he crouched on the stone.

"Fahl-... Buddy--you okay?" he managed.

If Fahl was okay, Imp was sure as hell going to bitch and moan about his own state, because man, he felt half-drowned!

Click. Click. Click.

The sound echoed through the enormous cavern. It cascaded over the massive living corals that lined the walls, steeped in the water that lapped along their roots. It filled the space between the glowing orbs on the roof above, and the bitter cold ripples below. And it came from the immense throne, twisted stone and coral, that perched at the far end of the room. From Farina, sprawled across it.

One claw snapped open, shut. Open, shut. The idle movement was all that she offered as a call to attention, her toxic eyes fixed on these intruders.

Intruders-... yes; but she recognized two of them. Her claw came up, waving off the massive eel that had begun to surge forward to evict them from her presence. "DO NOT KILL THEM YET," she ordered. "You. I remember your presence here. But that does not mean my domain is open for visitors..." Or had it been? She couldn't remember if, in her turmoil, she'd invited them back. Or not. It didn't matter. It wasn't open now.

But Farina's previous fury had been alleviated, just a little, by the return of Artio to her side. Well-... figuratively speaking. The dryad woman was not here now. (Alas.) So when she spoke again, it was a little more measured than it had been prior, if still seething with thousands of years' worth of rage. "YOU HAVE REASON TO BE HERE?" she finished.

She assumed yes. Her throne room was not a tourist shop.

Dragon watched over Imp, and Fahl--he sort of considered them his charges, for the moment. The sudden sharp clicking up ahead drew his gaze upward, and he obeyed Farina's bellows.

He'd dealt with enough Masters to know how.

Hauling himself forward, from the shallows up onto wet but solid ground, he dipped his head in respectful greeting. But his was not a subservient demeanor; he was polite, but direct.

"Thank you! We are here to ask a favor," he began, well aware this was not a good start, but amused by it nonetheless. He turned his hefty body to nod toward Imp, speaking quickly to hopefully forestall any protest. "Nemean had my child's eyes torn out for defying her." If that wouldn't get Farina's attention... and perhaps sympathy? No, he thought; likely not. But it might buy me a few more seconds to explain. "He wants new eyes! We do not know if you are capable of that. We will pay: I offer my services and Imp's own, if there is a task we can perform as payment." His phrasing was deliberate. "A task," not "an eternity of servitude."

"His name is Imp. We have met--I thank you for your prior gifts... I am Dragon. This is Fahl," he went on, looking back at the poor iguana--though he was careful not to include the other reptile in his free offering of "a task," whatever it might be.

@Fahl

"Mm... ffine. I'm... fine."

The assurance was directed to himself as much as it was to Imp, a mantra that, if the words were hammered enough into his consciousness, might force a wish into reality. And it would work—could work, as no fault or weakness prevented his recovery. Lungs, though enfeebled, strengthened with every breath taken. Color continued to flush his scales red, banishing the paleness that'd spread over him in the choking depths. Disoriented but relatively healthy, he'd bounce back in time, the length this would require unknown.

Fahl might've mumbled more if not for Farina's announced presence. Two words that he struggled to push from his throat might have eventually advanced to sentences of three or more, all devoted to brushing away concern and insisting on his wellness. But her clicks commanded attention. The next utterance of how "fine" he was dissipated before it could even be formed into proper speech. Eyes lifted as far as they could; his chin limited their range, having been slammed into the ground by his sprawl. Nevertheless, plenty was seen: the eel that'd turned so soon as it'd advanced that it could have been slithering in a circle and not charging straight for them, the shadow cast from the throne by the Master reposed upon it.

Dragon proved to be good fortune in a gator's shape. Without him to take the lead in addressing Farina, they might have been expelled due to the blathering mess of unorganized thought threatening to spill out of Fahl's mouth. That he'd been able to respond to her inquiries at all the last time he'd treaded these waters was miraculous. Other than Nemean, whom he despised and feared in equal parts, and Aquarian, an awe-inspiring and dramatic figure, she intimidated him to an extent nobody else could.

Slayer of the Kraken. One far above him. She could squish him in a single pincer if he ever were to overstep undefined boundaries.

The world swayed beneath him as he attempted scrabbling to his feet again. A wave of nausea hit, the speed at which he rose too fast, but he clenched eyes shut, inhaled deeply through his nose, and rode it out. Then blinking, limbs shaky, he slid forward into a bow. His head inclined by the slightest of degrees, trying to appear respectful while keeping Farina in his sight.

"Yes, your... gifts. We thank you." He remained uncertain whether this was the proper term to refer to them. Weren't gifts, well, useful? Fish finding his fins alluring and gnawable annoyed him more than helped. "They're of great use, just as eyes crafted by a true Master would be."

"Imp is... one of the most capable of my kind I know. A real survivor. A fighter. His convictions... burn as strong as his magic. Nemean sought to destroy this... yet they persist. If you assign him a task, he'll prove his worth well."

@Imp

"Yeah, FUCK NEMEAN!" was Imp's first and HIGHLY questionable contribution to this conversation. He had no idea how large Farina was. It didn't occur to him that she might snap him in half as easily as Aquarian had offered to eat him, or as easily as Nemean had ordered his eyes ripped out.

He was enthusiastic, at least.

"I'll do whatever you want, even if--ESPECIALLY if!--it means fucking over that-" At this point, Dragon--the wiser of the two by far--had managed to sidle close enough to sort of elbow Imp.

Hard.

In the ribs.

"Ow-! I mean, uh. I'll do whatever, I really want my eyes back. And I hate Nemean," he added, for good measure--in case that hadn't already been quite clear. Then inspiration struck, and Imp puffed himself out and declared--despite being blind, not very powerful and already on Nemean's long shit list: "I'll be really, REALLY good at fighting her."

Somehow, it seemed almost convincing.

A favor.

If the eyes atop her stalks could have narrowed... No, this wasn't a good way to start a meeting with the Master. But she listened, nonetheless. The mention of Nemean slammed both her massive claws shut with a resounding gunshot CLACK, one that rang across the walls of the water-pooled chamber.

When Dragon had finished, Farina tilted her eyes to Fahl. He thanked her, and she seemed a little soothed by this, drawing back and almost preening with a relaxing of those claws.

And last, she examined Imp. His hatred of Nemean left her clicking her claws thoughtfully, and when he'd finished, she blew a few little bubbles in thought. "YOU HAD BETTER BE, IF YOU MAKE THIS PROMISE TO MY ARTIO, TO MY LEAF, YOU HAD BETTER KEEP IT OR I WILL TAKE YOUR LEGS ALONG WITH YOUR EYES. BUT..." Farina trailed off, studying the trio. One of them--Adenium?--had spoken to Artio cycles ago. Artio had tasked them with gathering Gembound but they never had; they'd never come back.

Perhaps these creatures weren't as useful as she hoped. But perhaps they did deserve... one more chance to prove themselves.

"I WILL GIVE YOU ONE CHANCE TO WIN NEW EYES FROM ME. AND TO GET REVENGE AGAINST NEMEAN ALL AT ONCE! FIND MY LEAF. MY ARTIO! SHE HAS A TASK FOR THOSE OF YOUR KIND. GATHER ALL YOU CAN AND GO TO HER. YOU WILL FIND HER DEEP IN CETUS, IN THE GROVES--DO YOU KNOW THIS PLACE? HAVE YOU EVER BEEN THERE?"

The irony that she was directing them back the way they'd come-... well, she had no way of knowing.

It was hardly her fault.

___________

The Gembounds are being directed to return to Artio in Cetus. A new quest will be put up independently within the next cycle or so, and Fahl, Dragon and Imp will be tagged. In the meantime, they're free to recruit others to the cause, or to speak further with Farina before departing.

Dragon listened in silence, pleased overall. He'd been afraid that Imp's language would anger Master Farina but it didn't--he couldn't tell what it did, really, as it was hard to read expressions in a giant crab. But she seemed willing, at least.

To the Cetus thing he stifled a sigh.

"We know of it," he confirmed. "I live there. We will go-... What does Artio look like?"

It seemed the obvious question, but he turned to Fahl afterward--perhaps the iguana had more.

@Fahl

It bore repeating: without Dragon interceding on his son's behalf, who knew how drastically wrong this meeting could've gone. Whether anyone would've possessed the restraint required to know when zeal stopped furthering a cause and instead became annoying.

Not the bastion of wisdom himself, despite previous interaction with this Master, Fahl made no effort to temper Imp's words. Why would he, when every bit he agreed with? Certainly it could do with being less vulgar, but if Farina had no problems with Nemean being referred to as a shit, then fucker seemed like a far more acceptable term to use than usual. As if listening to a preacher proclaiming the gospel truth, an emphatic nod accompanied every statement said. His head was kept bent in reverence throughout—though intended for Farina, now it could've also been meant for his teacher.

Judgment passed, and a chance was given. His legs remained unsteady, but elation spurred Fahl to rise from his bow. The emotion shone in dark eyes and displayed itself in the orange and yellow that tore across flanks like wildfire. Decorum abandoned for the moment in favor of premature celebration, he flung the gaze at Imp and Dragon, mouth agape in a smile.

Whereas the eldest Gembound had questions of the task, the youngest had only more promises to heap on top of that which already was owed.

"Yes, how would we recognize her? We will bring all... the greatest, brightest, strongest especially. The best that can be found."

@Imp