There was no hum to mark the presence of the rings or the cavern that lay behind it, but it was hard to forget its location. Aure didn't hesitate as he glanced over his shoulder, indicating a sort of we're almost there gesture in the air. Not too far in tow, his daughter had been listening to his confused rambling about this… Place of Ascension, as that Emuh had called it. There was surprisingly little to talk about, given his absence from a part of it — the true gravity behind it poorly-hidden as just checking up on a friend, if the slight sag of his enthusiasm said anything. His explanations were rather circular, but at least Damask was a polite listener. It filled the silence that had fallen between them once two-way conversation lulled.

"Ah, I just remembered — !" the avian hybrid chirped over his shoulder again, tilting down then back, dropping meters of altitude and coming in to land before the dark hall, "Emuh… seems a bit — erm... I'm hoping that he's in a better mood." He had the good grace to say that for only Damask's ears, a soft, teasing smile in his eyes.

Wings fluttering, settling at his sides, he scuffled a few imprecise steps forwards and awaited his companion's descent before continuing, "I wish the rings were still out in the open. They were, um, strange. Some seemed alive, almost." Aure stiffened. Some… had been alive. "But… this is it," he spoke, in that breathless way that someone would seeing a vast canyon after many day's travels. Turning to Damask, he asked her — and himself — "ready, darling?"

A beat, for both of them to prepare.

Aure smoothed down his feathers, and stood as proud as possible — perhaps to make a good second impression — and called, "Emuh? It's Aure, again — I'm here to… prove myself." Am I… supposed to just go in? A choice few hesitating steps, and he paused, ears pricked.

@Damask

damask shadowed her father through the crystalline expanse that was polaris: black-and-white shortwing and sepia broadwing, flying in unison. silver eyes coasted over the sights of the room, but they were already acquainted — it was auré's words that flowed in her head. testing. ascension. transcendence. those were the ones that kept reappearing, like trusty landmarks on a circular trail. she didn't mind the way he meandered, nor did she ever; she only wished he didn't have to repeat himself, that he had more to say. his head swiveled briefly back at her, and the gesture's unspoken meaning invoked a tremor of queasy uncertainty, rocking her in midair.

feel the thrill, not the fear. he asked you to come with him, he gave you that honor — ! wherever you're going, no one else has ever been; something's happening, and you'll be there to see it. don't waste it doing ... whatever it is you do. enjoy it, is that so much to ask? focus, watch, listen, and learn.

she steadied herself, then glided into a slow downward gradient, her descent a more cautious echo of his. right. emuh. damask met the name with a flick of her ears and more than a little trepidation; from what little she'd been told, he was something of a wild card, mercurial, intimidating. with a smooth intake of breath, she angled back and spread her wings, landing neatly to stand beside auré. her gaze hung sidelong on his as he spoke, then shifted to the hallway ahead. there, it remained. "oh," she breathed. myriad lights dazzled her eyes: flickers, rivers, pillars of magic, waiting for them.

"ready, darling?"

with a flutter of excitement in her heart, damask nodded, smiling thinly. her feathers were long since preened, but she modeled perfect posture with ease: still, straight, almost stiff, poised left of and just slightly behind her father's looser stance. his call came in stops and starts, and she nearly winced in secondhand embarrassment. look at him, kid. he's nervous, confused. this is his test, not yours; you've got to be strong for him. fake it if you have to. go.

"you've got this, dad," she whispered his way, stepping up beside him. now, remember: emuh doesn't like it if you skip the introductions. and you've got to make him hear it. with effort, she raised her voice, forcing strength and clarity to muscle out its natural softness. "damask, auré's child. only observing."

A few imprecise steps forward was all that was required.

An enormous thump and the great black owl-beast landed before them, towering over them both, glaring down with flaring green-glowing eyes. It observed Aure for only a split second, ignoring any attempts at introduction, on either front. Predatory gaze, curl-rimmed by ram's horns, snapped to Damask.

"WHO IS THIS? WHO? THIS ONE IS WEAK! UNWORTHY," it hooted, and leapt about four feet sideways to plant itself before her, towering down.

Observe. Ah. Green eyes narrowed. "YOU WILL STAY HERE! YOU MAY WATCH-"

The owl turned, regarding Aure up and down. A faintly frosty aura wreathing the black spined creature suddenly shifted, a pulsing sense of air pressure thudding around it now. "THIS PRES--NO?" Eyes narrowed, and the pressure switched, slowly, smoothly, to something slimy and rotten, a black slickness that began to sprout tiny fruiting bodies. "AHH! WHO YOU ARE--I KNOW WHO YOU ARE. COME."

Emuh turned, and then immediately stopped. Vast wings spread wide, and the cave before him began to... contort. To shift, and change.

The room drew down, low-ceilinged and close, dark: it was catacombed with shadowed, hidden spaces, and fruiting fungus of a hundred colors began to bloom up here and there along the floor. A rank odor rose from its stifling, cloying warmth--and, after Emuh cast a critical glance back at Aure, a second odor joined it.

Like... wet fur. And bad breath. And deep within the cave, they could hear something... breathing.

Emuh waved one wing.

The room went pitch black. He spoke--briefly, and in some ancient, long-forgotten tongue.

The light returned, and Emuh stepped aside.

Ahead of Aure now lay a room perhaps the size of a large gymnasium: but gray, slime-floored, slicked with a variety of fungus. The room was quite dim, with darkened shadows hiding who-knew-what in honeycomb-like corners, the entire room giving off an unpleasantly organic feel. And now, despite there having been nothing prior, a few dead, twisted Windhoppers lay strewn about at the room's entrance, something... strange, something unnatural, about their bodies.

"PROVE YOURSELF. PROVE WHO--WHO! YOU ARE! PROVE YOUR--WORTH!" Emuh's hoots turned into a low and sinister shriek; and the proctor took wing, vanishing into the darkness beyond.

Aure's Rite of Transcendence has begun. It will continue until he has either succeeded, or been returned to his chrysalis. Three failures in a row are likely to cause this to occur. Beyond that, Emuh has provided little guidance...

@Aure

"You've got this, Dad."

Caves, he loved her.

... and here was Emuh, eyes glaring down at him for barely a moment before shifting abruptly and - oh. Aure stiffened preemptively, tried to slacken when the owl-beast admitted that she could watch but... surely, that damage was already done, all that apparent perfectionism and self-doubt Giggle found given fuel.

Bright eyes stared mutely at Damask for a moment, even as the cave churned at Emuh's bidding and wretched - but familiar - scents filled the air. The hybrid's mouth gaped and closed a few times, and he ultimately settled for drawing somewhat into himself - a tuck of the wings, chin tipping down, eyes gently concerned - "are you going to be okay, darling?"

This rite could wait a moment.

@Damask

@Auré

"WEAK! UNWORTHY!"
(correct!)
with a sharp intake of breath, damask backed away, behind the threshold — fighting to maintain her posture, her composure, herself — and, almost entirely, winning. context clues, kid: it's a magical trial, he's a magical bird, he's talking about magic. this is for the champs, you're still in little league. besides, it's nothing you haven't heard before. yeah? she glanced at her father, rigid before her, and then back at emuh's dark, looming shape. stay and watch. that's all you wanted, anyway. you didn't come here thinking you were worthy of anything else. all told, a fair reception. right? "... understood." by the time she managed it, the proctor had already turned away to auré. her eyes followed emuh's elemental flow of auras, then clawed with rising intensity at the shapeshifting room and all it contained: blooming mushrooms — something breathing? — slime, fungus, shadows, and ...

the accipiter averted her eyes, teeth bared in a fleeting flinch, then bit down and shook it off with a toss of her head. even as she looked away, a snapshot of what she'd seen flickered over her vision. the rabbits weren't just dead — there was something wrong with their bodies, something macabre in the haphazard scatter. yeah, yeah, very freaky. suck it up and make it work. by degrees, she turned her attention back to the hallway, adjusting her eyes, calibrating such that she could sort of see past, through, and between the grisly display. there, fine. now she could watch.

"are you going to be okay, darling?"

auré — !! her head snapped towards him, invisible dismay rolling over in waves. has he been staring at me this whole time?! of all the places for him to get fussy ... a quick check confirmed that emuh had vanished, but somehow, she wasn't all that sure he hadn't heard. and auré, he could not afford to be distracted. "don't worry about me," damask said, slowly and with emphasis. not even i'm fine or it's cool or i can take it, (though she'd seriously considered all of the above,) but rather ... it's not about me. this is your day. do not let me drag it down. she lifted her brows and jerked her muzzle into the hallway. "go in there and win."

"Don't worry about me -" Hard not to. "- go in there and win."

Aure let the silence hang a moment longer, bright eyes searching but not quite finding, before he leaned forwards for a brief touch of muzzle and beak. "Talk to you in a bit, darling," he murmured with a smile and turned stiffly towards the stench of carrion and the macabre.

It was dark, a cloying amount of scents clinging to the air and the hefty sound of something breathing further in. Fungus was clogging every conceivable space; the general aura just reminded him of that ring he'd consumed, wretchedly living but not. He hated thinking about what could've been killed to make this - if anything.

Then, right there in the entrance, a bunch of Lessers. The hybrid hesitated over them, swallowing down bile even looking at them. Barely even into the room, and he was faced with this. They looked like they'd died in pain, and it reminded him of Astraea and...

Choking down his disgust at the corpses, he stared at them, trying to block out the copious amounts of mycelial life crowding the room and focus on just these rabbits, to find if it was Mother that'd killed them. A precaution, to soothe his worries.

@Game Master Dark

There was no sign of fungus on the dead Lessers. Aure's sense would pick up fungus throughout the cave, otherwise, however.

@Aure

Nothing but lay in plain sight.

Aure's ears pricked back, and he hesitated for quite a while longer before extending his magic further. To put fungus in there and start consuming the horridly-placed wind hoppers. To chew through the fur and flesh and give him, at least, a fleeting glimpse of what had put them here.

But, to no avail.

@Game Master Dark

The voice echoed from the room--from nowhere... from everywhere, all around.

"Who-hoo! A wise idea, oh yes; but it's coming closer... Hmm. Will he try again? Will he panic-?"

Somewhere in the distance was a loud, slow thump.

@Aure

Aure's head snapped up at the sound, theatrical and almost like an announcer waiting to see what happened next. Bright eyes searched the fungus-ridden cavern, wings shuffling at his sides, ears pricking forwards and back at the immense thump!

There's something in here.

It was... slow? But, of course, he felt a thrum of panic rise. It was something physical, surely, and he had the time to throw on a safety net: inky frills along his neck and back, ready to slick him over at a touch.

@Game Master Dark