Allegedly, magic was stronger in Polaris--well, not allegedly. Yellow could feel it for themselves, the renewed energy humming through their blood when they entered. They just weren't all that comfortable with it. Yes, they felt alert and refreshed, but this place was so exposed compared to the dense jungles of Eridanus or the winding tunnels of Mother's haven in Ursa.

Still, they supposed they should try to be brave and step out of their comfort zone, for the sake of improving their magic. Their family's united stand against the forces of chaos was fast approaching, and they desperately wanted to be of use. If that meant they'd have to do a few spells out in the open like this to practice... that was fine, then.

A nervous hum filled the air as Yellow reached for an old spell, the first they'd ever learned to cast. It came easily, so perhaps Polaris's charged environment did somehow help. Yellow relaxed slightly, letting the low drone become a comforting backdrop in their mind as they prepared for further magic.

@Wulfsige @Ananke

The white rabbit stayed mostly hidden, crouched behind the stones near the Spire. She didn't like this place--and she let it be known, warning Yellow gently along their shared link.

This place's magic is strong, yes, but it isn't my magic. It isn't ours, she tried to explain--it might have been Yellow's, but it wasn't the Hive's. Aloud, softer--barely audible--her musical voice called out more physically. "My magic is... muted, here. I can't guarantee I'll be much help if I'm needed." Even now, it felt like the Spire was trying to violently tug Order from her very flesh--unpleasant, to say the least.

She shuddered, her unease clear to all of the Hive who might be watching or listening, and settled back against the rock. She was here to perhaps speak to those who might turn up and wish to join them--but also to have a look over potential sites for further Order nests.

Polaris was an impossibility, though. They'd tried. Every time they did, the power of Order crystallized and shattered, dangerous and volatile.

Still, Yellow was here--and she'd keep watch, and help them if needs be. That, after all, was what family was for.

Her magic fluttered out a little, purging and scouring the ground around herself of bacteria. Clean, she thought, with relief. No more disgusting, tiny 'whatevers' roaming around her feet.

He was patrolling Polaris- the center, the heart, the garden of end. He was getting more restless, more tense. He knew something was coming. He knew he must protect them. But he didn't have a 'who' or a 'what.' He did, in his guts, but not the kind he could put into words. Not the kind where he could explain his goals. Make them understand. Recruit them.

This wouldn't be a fight he could win alone, he knew that.

A distance away, he spotted a figure who he pegged as greater gembound. Thinking, speaking, using magic. He would begin to approach- silent, careful, alert- but also reach for their magic. The sight beyond sight. It was habit, almost self-soothing, but at the moment it also felt like a necessity. Something wasn't right.

A crystalline lattice. Perfect order. Nothing Natural. And more than just the one he'd first seen. Another, hidden, he knew- he 'saw'- was completely and utterly Ordered. Down to the spark that which should've lit up with the familiar spark of elemental magic all gembound possessed. The first still held that spark, although sheathed and walled in by layers of delicately woven order. Order rooted too deep to ever be removed. And more, distant specks of crystal swarmed the room. Eyes of order.

His demeanor changed almost imperceptibly, from curious guardian to something cold, sharp, and barely hiding it's teeth. "You are not welcome here." He spoke, both to Yellow and to someone Else. "You were never welcome here."

@Yellow

Ananke's discomfort could be felt clearly over their mental link, sending a stab of worry through Yellow's chest. It's okay, they tried to reassure their sister. She did not have to stay here to accompany them, when the Spire ground against her magic like this. Their elements were different, and they understood if she wanted to leave all this unpleasantness.

But she stayed, and Yellow was unspeakably grateful. It reassured them to know there was family nearby, and they could not convey enough warm gratitude over the link to express just how much they appreciated that Ananke would wait for them here. "I'll do my best to learn quickly," they promised in a murmur, smiling in the rabbit's general direction. "So that we can go home soon!"

But before they could return their focus to their magic, they were interrupted by a large wolf-like Gembound with the twist of a snarl on his lips. "Ah-?" they began, startled and a bit bewildered at the sudden hostility. "Um- sorry, are--" They bit back the word we before it left their lips. It would not do to reveal Ananke when she was hidden and, hopefully, safe. It was all they could do not to crane their head toward her, and they hoped that any inadvertent head-turning would be dismissed as simple nervousness. "Am I intruding on your home? Sorry, I didn't know." They were in a wide-open space, actually, and nothing about it looked much like a personal den, but Yellow did not think it was worth starting a fight about. Especially when the wolfdog was much bigger than them, and Ananke was not feeling well.

Besides, this wolfdog didn't look like a monster of Chaos. He looked like a normal Gembound, like Khloros and Pallas. That meant they didn't have to get in a fight, really, and maybe they could part peacefully if not as friends.

"I can, um--" The lemur scanned the surrounding areas. Dam? No, too many golems. Closer to the Spire? No; that was obviously a public place, but it did unpleasant things to Ananke's magic. "I'll just go over to the river instead, then?" They gestured vaguely toward the bank of the Crystal River, and gave the wolfdog a small, apologetic bow before attempting to retreat. Not too swiftly, though, in case the wolfdog found Ananke and acted hostile to her too. Yellow didn't want to go too far away from her.

@Ananke

She was listening quietly to Yellow's thoughts, finding some comfort in their gentle demeanor, when the other voice came. She had no way of knowing that her gemstone, her very magic, lit her like a beacon in the dark--that her body was behind a rock, but that this stranger's magic could have picked her out half a cave away. That crystalline perfection of it--the unnatural rigidity, the structure inherent in her power--it was an open book, leaving her astonishingly obvious and even vulnerable.

She knew none of this, but she caught Yellow's intent--caution, stealth--and so she crept along in the same direction, keeping low. A spike of fear had jolted metallic adrenaline across her tongue at Wulfsige's voice. She saw him--a brief glimpse--through Yellow's eyes and it stirred every screaming prey-beast impulse she'd ever held to be true terror.

Wolf. Predator. Rabbit-killer.

These things her ancestral memory warned her of, a fear too primal to be sensical, and so she tried to simply creep away--following Yellow's careful, gentle lead.

@Wulfsige

A small frown crept onto his expression at the response. Annoyance? Maybe. Confusion? Slightly.

A different gembound- one born by the spire but not of the spire- might've second guessed themself at this display of humanity. But Wulfsige was crafted of Skystone as many were crafted from Oilstone or Clearstone- inseparable from his Purpose.

He stand watching them leave, just for a moment. His gaze piercing, unyielding and decidedly not friendly. They would not part on good terms. In fact, it was preferable to The Guardian that these two part from this encounter as nothing but meat and bone.

Wulfsige has his own hunter-beast instincts, and those instincts are far more familiar with how to chase down a rabbit than a lemur. His logic agrees with this notion- the rabbit was a far more pure source of order than the lemur. Better to dispatch that one first.

He lunged forward suddenly, teeth snapping towards Ananke. But it was clumsy- he had only instinct, not muscle memory or finer experience with fighting. It would serve, if anything, as a warning- a warning Wulfsige would've been better off without.

ROUND 1/5

ATTEMPT: Grab Ananke
DEFENSE: ..not really
INJURIES: none yet

@Yellow @Ananke

Yellow felt a moment of relief, their tense form relaxing a little, as the wolfdog watched them depart. This would be no more than a minor incident, then; a chance encounter with someone who happened to be a little grumpy. Nothing like what-- the things they'd seen before.

Then the fragile peace shattered as the wolfdog lunged for Ananke. Yellow shouted with surprise, their characteristic sifaka's alarm call ringing across the room. They hadn't even known he knew Ananke was there.

Yellow made a seizing motion with their arm at the wolfdog. The physical motion probably did nothing to help their magic, but it never felt natural to use spells without moving. Their magic slammed down as Wulfsige lunged forward, forcing the air between them to press the wolfdog down and back. But rabbit and wolfdog were so close that they didn't dare increase the pressure too much, for fear of hurting their sibling, too.

"Run quick!" they urged Ananke. My magic is stronger here, but the Spire's hurting yours! They could slow down the wolfdog with their spells and ensure that they could both flee unharmed. The situation was still salvageable. No irreversible damage had occurred yet.

They could do this. They had to. They could not be helpless again.

@Ananke

ROUND 1/5

100%

ATTEMPT: block Wulfsige
DEFENSE: not being a rabbit
INJURIES: none

Well this was terrifying.

Every fear she'd ever had--those vague, primal instincts--were suddenly supercharged and screaming through her mind, rippling out along the Hivemind link. The wolf snapping at the rabbit's heels--was there any more apt metaphor for the fear of hunted prey? Never mind that Wulfsige was wolfdog; Ananke did not know or care. Something struck her behind her rock, sent her skidding outward, scrambling for a grip on the stone.

She bolted, instinct snarling along every nerve, and did not pause to cast her magic out behind her. She practically threw it at Wulfsige, at the idea of him behind her, as she raced for cover, toward an exit--toward escape.

Anywhere but here.

The magic would--if she were very lucky--simply delay him. It would draw his eye to whatever rocks or dirt lay scattered on the ground, and focus a deep compulsion to order them. She couldn't do anything else--nothing more effective, not near this Spire of magic-that-wasn't-hers. RUNNING! RUN! RUN! she thought frantically toward Yellow as she went, her briefest explanation--a vague sense that she'd hopefully slowed him down, too--flying along with the words.

Perhaps between the two of them, they could at least escape.

@Wulfsige

Only fur caught in his teeth. Unsatisfactory, but a start. Pressure slammed into him like some huge beast- but it wasn't a beast. Magic? Their magic. Natural order's magic being used against him by the Enemy. It made rage boil in his gut, a snarling giving it voice. He shoved past the invisible pressuring force to give chance once more.

Then foreign and wholly unwelcome urges infected his brain. It slammed into him harder than the invisible wall, making his muscle go rigid with unease. What instincts were SUPPOSED to be there- the urge to protect, the urge to keep Balance- was overruled by the desire for Order. He stood, perfectly aware of every completely Natural imperfection in the environment. Haphazard scatterings of pebbles that had absolutely no business being in perfectly neat rows, but regardless his brain demanded it be so. He would Not let himself act upon these traitorous thoughts. He would Not help the enemy. But each invading thought of Order stabbed into his side like a perfectly symmetrical shard of glass.

By the time he had come to his senses, the Enemy had gotten a significant lead. He would shake his head with a slight growl, and started loping traitorously in the opposite direction. He could not do that again. He was not prepared for it. He needed.... something more. More strength to defend. That was it.

And he hoped he could find it, because he Must find it.

@Yellow @Ananke [Exit Thread because I doubt either will stop him]

Relief flooded through them as Wulfsige's jaws snapped shut on nothing. They did not stop to watch what would happen next, but immediately turned tail and fled. Ananke's fear shot through their link, urging them to ever wider leaps and bounds as they scrambled to put more distance between themselves and the large predator-with-teeth.

They looked back, once, to find the wolfdog no longer behind them. Ananke, too, was unharmed--they knew, thankfully, thanks to the fungus and magic that linked their minds together. They would not lose a sibling today. They didn't know what had provoked the wolfdog to attack--was he a creature driven by chaos, or was he simply impatient to see them leave? Whatever it was, divining his ambiguous motivations was far less important than this one simple thing: they and their family were safe.

That was all that mattered.

I am sorry I brought you to a dangerous place, they thought, sorrow touching their mind. Not even shining Polaris was safe, it seemed. Soon, hopefully, they could change that--but until then, they would practice their magic close to home. Polaris's energy was not worth the danger that came with it.

@Ananke exit