Adenium had done a lot of exploring recently.

Dad had decided to built a home in Cepheus, which meant a lot of traveling between their new home in Cepheus and their old home in Eridanus. They weren't sure which one they liked more, yet- hence why they constantly traveled between the two. Occasionally, however, they went down a route they had yet to explore- or simply got lost on the way home. In this case, a wrong turn led them to a misty, mysterious room filled with murky water and impossibly tall trees. Intrigued, they had delved deeper into the new cave.

Now, however, they were beginning to regret it. The floor quickly became more mud than dirt, and then more murky water than mud. The edges of the cloak they wore were dirty and wet from swamp water and mud. The whole experience was cold and wet and slightly smelly, and Adenium quickly found the cave had little more to offer than mist, mud, and trees.

They wanted to go back home- to Eridanus- but the problem with that is that they were well, completely and utterly lost. They could barely see anything in front of them, and it didn't help that the entire cave seemed to look the same where ever they went. Same trees, same fog, same mud. Maybe they were just wandering in circles, forever and ever? That wasn't a fate they wanted- to wander this icky room for all of eternity.

Eventually, they came upon a decent landmark in an otherwise completely confusing mess of trees. This was, once again, a tree, but far bigger than the others surrounding it. And the tangled roots that surrounded it looked cool- if a little creepy, like tangled bodies trying to escape. Adenium could appreciate a good tree, being part tree themself. They'd climb onto one of the larger roots, shaking mud off their feet, squeezing water out of the hem of their cloak. A nice breather in an otherwise completely horrible room.

DISCOVERED: ARTIO

THE PLANT MASTER

"Ahhh, my poor dear..."


The voice was sultry: a feminine tone, but aged and well-spoken, each syllable crisp and rich. There was a culture to it, these mere four words promising more class and wisdom than any offered up by of the usual denizens of the caves.

But... this voice was not directed at Adenium; the sad and crooning tones were a distance away, through the mist.

Behind the Divine, if the muffled words were any indication. "I cannot believe she would do this to you..."
Soft grief brushed the tip of each word, and a quiet sigh followed.

A moment later, she appeared: a tall, stately figure--elegance incarnate. She was draped with flowers and ivy; root-like feet scurried slowly beneath the robe of greenery to carry her over the twisted roots of the Divine. Wooden fingers trailed softly across the Divine's scarred bark--and then the stranger paused, her glowing green eyes sweeping to take in Adenium. Her hand lingered on the Divine's trunk, and her lips pursed a little as she looked the tree-elf over.

"What are you doing here?"
she asked, neither a demand nor a warm welcome.

It was spoken with the tone of someone still deciding what they were looking at: aloof, considering, and empty of feeling.

@Adenium

After dealing with the mud on their feet and cloak, Adenium would take out a strip of jerky out of their pack to gnaw on. They'd sit, feet dangling off the root, until suddenly hearing a voice in the distance. Hopping off the root, they'd slowly approach its source.

And find… a tall, pretty tree lady? Adenium only really knew two tree-people in the caves- themself and Titanite. But this gembound seemed to be even more tree than they were, lacking the more alien features like multiple eyes and bioluminescence. They'd stare a moment, not even hiding their curiosity.

Deciding to leave out the part about being hopelessly lost, she'd explain, "I was exploring, and thought this would be a nice spot to rest. It's a very cool tree!" She'd glance at the tree, squinting briefly at its macabre roots and carved bark, "Is this place important to you? I can leave, if you want." She'd take a couple steps back, suddenly feeling intrusive.

And then, a thought almost clumsily blurted out "You kinda look like me! The only other gembound I know who looks like that is Titanite."

ARTIO

THE PLANT MASTER

Artio cast a delicate brush of bark-clad fingers down over ivy robes, as if to cast free any lingering mud, or dust; and then her fingers intertwined before her. She studied Adenium, thoughtful, her eyes casting over their own bark-like form, the multitude of eyes, the spines. Valkhound, these features whispered--and yet it held none of the taint of their Creator's corruption, and no sinister glint of Oilstone at back or limb. In fact--was that twist of Selenite rose their gemstone..?

Artio pondered this, her lips faintly pursed. Whose creation was this..? Farina had spoken of the Gembounds, but this--this was an older design. An old design, in fact.

Her gaze strayed back to its face. A face open, not bothering to hide its staring curiosity. A face belonging to one who had never been taught what was expected of it. The face of one-... exploring? It was true, then; the rebels had won, perhaps interbred down through the generations, soiling each and every corner of the cave with innocently ignorant sparks of ill-bred life.

Interesting. Horrific-... but interesting. Perhaps these descendents had so long forgotten the rebellion and their proper Masters that they could be reined back in without issue-? Regardless, Farina had--however madly, however reluctantly--admitted that the Gembounds were the only reason she had been able to regain Artio's stone, indeed her very life.

She cleared her throat softly, life-filled gaze shifting to look up along the trunk of the Divine. One hand extricated itself from the other, lifted, the palm resting lovingly on its roughened bark. "I mourn for her," came her soft answer. "You... your kind, in this era... you do not even know the history of this place, do you?" she asked, looking toward Adenium.

She blinked, her gaze delicate as crystal threatening to shatter, as if tears might at any moment begin spilling forth. Despite the composure of her voice, there was a tremor of grief that nearly broke its way free. It plunged her words into a hush, controlled, so as not to tumble out in choked sorrow. "You do not even know who she was..?"

Her question held no demand. An offer for a tale, for bittersweet knowledge, but not yet a demand.

@Adenium

Adenium did not know of valkhounds, despite one of their parents being one (or rather, descended from one.) They knew nothing of rebels, and only vaguely of the masters. She was the completely clueless result of cycles upon cycles of life unchecked by masters or overseers or any of the like. And she knew not of Artio's disdain for all this. Of her horror at the state of things.

But hey, ignorance is bliss, right?

She listened to Artio speak. Despite her relative ignorance, she could sense how old this gembound was, probably even older than Attikias, and he was already pretty old. Maybe it was in part the sadness. In her voice, and her gentle hand resting upon the tree's bark. She listened, respectful and curious.

Her kind? What did she mean? Tree-people, like her and Titanite? Or something broader than that? Gembound? And this> era? Adenium rarely spared a thought for the times past, but now that she spared it one (1) thought, she was intrigued. She did in fact, want to know the history of the place, now that she was considering it at all.

I uh, really dont- I havent really been to Cetus before now. Sorry. She answered, somewhat awkward in the face of Artio's obvious mourning. "Who was she? She seems nice. Cautious poking for knowledge- she didn't want to be pushy, especially if it was a sensitive subject. But at this point the curiosity was growing, with few answers to quell it.

ARTIO

THE PLANT MASTER

The hand trailed down the Divine's bark, Artio's gaze turning wistfully toward the tree. "She was... a... friend." She paused, thinking, her hand resting on the rough and beetle-chewed tree--and then she looked sadly at Adenium. "This forest was beautiful, once," she mused softly.

A gentle sweep of her hand, and a small carpet of ivy sprang up: spongy, soft, dry and green. She gestured for Adenium to join her, even as she curled down to sit, her own roots settling against the wet earth of Cetus. She eyed them thoughtfully. Many years ago, she'd not have given creatures like this a second thought. Well--perhaps those of this design; but Gembounds, in general-? At best, they were to be exterminated. But Farina had, however reluctantly, enlisted their aid and found them to be useful, even loyal. Perhaps... she could find aid in them, as well.

Once they were settled--sitting, or not--she began to speak. One graceful hand gestured out at the blackness and the foul mist as she did so.

"The Divine was... the caretaker, of this place. In my time, this was not all foul swamp, and black water, and darkness. It did not..." she looked around, chin tilting gently higher. "...Stink." A soft sigh. Certainly, the decay of organic matter was a part of nature, but this-? This was rot, and nothing more. The long, slow demise of what had once been beautiful. "A forest, full of golden light, and laughter. Full of life and growth." Fists curled quietly into plantwoven robes, and tightened there, eyes squeezing against long memory.

"She," she went on, looking to the Divine, "was my friend. My servant, my handmaiden; my ally. While I worked, she was this place's caretaker. She loved these forests-..." For a moment, Artio trailed off, her eyes studying the black-branched canopy overhead, a darkened skeleton of what had been. "They--she, and all of those who aided her--were betrayed. As was I," she went on.

She looked to Adenium, and now cold hatred stole onto her face like the shadow of a cloud, a sneer threatening to bare unseen teeth. "By that damned sprite." Inhale, exhale, as Artio regained herself, looking out over the marsh again. She was silent for a beat, the sound of the swamp insects loud in the absence of her words. "I do not know what she did to them. I only know I heard her laughter. Her mocking. Her damned buzzing. I know that she did this to her... only to lure me here. For betrayal. It wasn't even clever; a pit, spikes, deep water, but it was enough to get my gemstone to lure Farina to her own death, in turn. Except, Farina didn't die," she added, eyes narrowing with gleaming satisfaction. No; Farina hadn't died. She had stewed, quite literally--waited, for thousands of years, struggling to remain conscious with nothing more than hatred and fury to sustain her. Revenge had kept her awake through all the burning pain and at last, at last, she had finally escaped--to keep her word, to bring Artio, too, back to life.

But Cetus? The Divine, and all her handmaidens, in turn-? The fauns and dryads who had once so loved this place? "She turned it--all of it--into a death trap for her pet," she went on, and did not spit the word but intead lifted her chin again, regal in her cold disdain. "Nemean thinks that our work here should come second to her fun and games, regardless of the cost."

Artio looked again to Adenium, and this time her expression--noble as her bearing was--held a plea. "I tell you all of this... because I feel this may be a sign. Your presence, here, looking as our people did. Your... status, as one of the descendents of the rebels," she went on, oblivious to whether they knew of this. "I tell you this, because my beloved says your people are... good, and useful. Kind." Had it anything to do with kindness?

"I tell you all of this... because I wonder if you can help us. If you can help her," and Artio took a hitched breath, looking up into the Divine's gnarled, agony-contorted branches.

"If I asked you to gather them all... As many as you can, to come to this place and to help me. To keep it from Nemean, if she still lives--and I think she does--would you do this for me? I would promise you any reward that is in my power to give," she went on.

"I would make this place beautiful again."

Silence fell, a story finished and a request laid upon the tree-Gembound's shoulders; and Artio waited, her regard both hopeful and melancholic. Would they offer her their aid? Could they even do anything, even one she had explained her (admittedly vague) plan?

It all hinged on this one's response: and in quiet suspense, aware she had never had to rely on one in such a position, before, Artio waited.

@Adenium

She took a couple steps back as the ivy sprung up along the ground. However, she approached as Artio beckoned for her to sit down. Hands idly toyed with an ivy leaf as Artio began her story. She didn't exactly look all that attentive- her gaze kept drifting to The Divine, or somewhere else in the marsh, before returning to Artio. But she was listening. Or well, the best she could, anyways.

This place not being a giant, nasty swamp felt hard to imagine. Was it once like Eridanus, then? Or maybe closer to Pegasus, with less dense foliage and more light? How would it even turn from that to... this? Disease? Adenium wasn't completely sure if trees could get sick, but it made sense if they could. Still.. an entire CAVE of them all dying? Maybe it was a fire, then, or-

Oh, wait. She should be listening better, shouldn't she?

So that big ol' tree used to be a person? Adenium wasn't aware that could even happen, but it explained all the weird, creepy faces in the roots. Did she knew what was happening, while she was turned into a tree? Or was it like being asleep- but also a tree? Adenium quickly decided they didn't want to ponder the specifics of this. It sounded mildly horrifying.

But not as horrifying as what the 'sprite' had done. Actual murder (though said murder-ee eventually got better, so that was good?), What sounded like torture, and turning a perfectly good forest into a stinky, muddy death trap.

The small chiming in of "Um- rebel?" made it clear that she did not, in fact, know of this little fact. "What do you mean?"

Artio's request was met with open ears, though as much as Adenium wanted to help- it was quite the task. "I can try! I mean, I will try, but that sounds like a lot- turning this place beautiful again, I mean." She poked a bit of mud with her foot, as if to show how far from beautiful the cave currently was. "How many gembound will you need? I can ask my dad, and a some of my siblings will probably wanna help, too. But I'm guessing you'll need a lot more than that."

ARTIO

THE PLANT MASTER

For a moment, her gaze again strayed to the gemstone rose, her lips pursing in thought. Had she misjudged-? Was it not the child of rebels, then; was it a test of a creation, a...

She resolved to ask it how it had been generated, but before she could, its answers were given her freely. Siblings. Children. Ahh.

"Many years ago, there was a rebellion. Betrayers, killers, rose up-..." She did not know all of the specifics; half of it, Farina had explained to her. But then, there'd usually been a few rebels, even before the one big rebellion. "Before this, our nest was a beautiful place. A place of creation and new forms." She glanced around, thinking nothing of spines and many glowing eyes. Those were beautiful, after all. New shapes, new life... It had been glorious.

"There were those that did not agree with our purpose. Those who created... other life, that did not serve our purposes, and kept it hidden. I believe you--and your... father, and... siblings?-" she offered, delicately, with the air of one too polite to comment. "I believe you are all likely to be their descendents. Children of the children of the rebels, or even more generations removed."

That, or randomly generating life; but given the Selenite's form, she had her doubts on that. In fact, it looked rather like one of her own ancient creations--well, a few of them, really. In the days where Oilstone was not universal, when other stones had been tampered with--hadn't there been an Aquamarine like this; and a Titanite? It did mention a Titanite.

Hmm.

Her scrutiny ended with a soft shake of her head, and a sad-voiced epilogue: "It does not matter, now. As for your other question... I do not know. As many as you can, but... I don't know if it is even possible to restore this place. We will need to uncover what Nemean has done to it. To Cetus--to my old friends. And how to reverse it... if we can."

It would mean--though Artio did not say it--a lot of investigation. Spies, perhaps. They would need to gather that information any way they could: eavesdropping, torture, thieves rooting around in Nemean's foul dens. It didn't matter how they did it--but she'd explain that to them all when the time came. For now, she needed as many of them as she could; the more there were, the better chance they would have.

And maybe if Nemean realized that half the remaining caves were searching her out, she'd simply... give up her secrets to keep herself safe. But given the sprite's arrogance, Artio had her doubts. "Any help you can bring me, I would appreciate. Tell me--what is your designation? Or your name?" she asked them, studying them closely now.

@Adenium