Aran was quickly getting tired of not being able to see. Finding his way back to Cetus had been a chore and he would never admit it. A lot of trial and error, listening for signs he'd made it to the place. At first, there was nothing, but then the vaguest sound of water. As he moved forward, something clattered against his hoof and got sent across the cave floor. Okay. Well. This sounded like the right place at least.

Following rumors wasn't something the barasinga often did, but this one sounded appealing to at least investigate. It wasn't often one could hear whispers about some strange being that always hid their face. Rumors that the someone gave gembounds things if asked, sometimes special things that didn't get spoken about much. He wondered how much of a cost it had - things like that always did. Aran was a trader, he knew how trades worked - trading things himself.

What was it that they called the being again? Oh. Right.

"Collector?" He called out half-absentmindedly.

The barasingha didn't expect this to work at all - but if the rumor was true, he wondered how things would work out. It was too bad that Aran would not get to see if the being actually hid their form or not - but they wouldn't have to seeing as the deer couldn't actually see anything. His own body had betrayed him. The one thing that kept his body living betrayed him. Aran distantly wondered if he got himself chrysalized again would it heal the strange thing going on with his sight, but he didn't want to risk actually dying.

Listening to see if anyone would appear, Aran almost hoped the rumor wasn't true.

"That would be I; and who do I have the pleasure of greeting..?" came the crooning voice, from somewhere off to Aran's left.

The cloaked figure seemed to be waiting--perhaps only a vague shape in the deer's vision but there nonetheless. And for his part, the Collector thought that he remembered this one--chasing the sled 'Last Legs,' pulling free a scroll... which one had this deer gotten? Milk and butter, hadn't it been?

It had seemed distinctly less... blind, though, back then.

@Aran

Aran got an answer from... Some direction on his left side. At least he could locate things, but the barasingha had always been able to do such things with his hearing. Aran did not have much knowledge of the Collector. One could call him kenless - was that a word? Knowledgeless? It didn't matter much, anyway. The barasingha turned his form in the direction the other being stood, dissappointed that he couldn't see enough to even get the basic look of the being. He could see a general shape, though, but it didn't give him much a description.

"My name is Aran Alabaster." He replied formally to the vague form of the Collector. "Yours?"

Perhaps the being wouldn't even answer, or maybe Collector was simply his name - if it was the name was an odd one. Though titles did make things feel... More powerful, he supposed. Just like the titles in the Edenfolk - it gave them names and made their jobs seem more important than they actually were. Aran couldn't be much a protector with his sight gone like it was. Foolish a man he was. Aran had come here to ask for things, but being polite and answering questions while offering his own would be the better choice to start a trade. Alliances don't come from demands. They come from cooperation.

Aran was a trader himself, he knew as much. At least this Collector guy seemed nice enough - Aran still didn't want to get on the guy's bad side, just in case there was something more to it. Surely there was, too. With a title like that.

Another deer with a surname.

The Collector suppressed a sigh. At least the last one was proving tormented enough; maybe this one would be the same? Its question gave him pause, and for a beat he was silent before flowing back into motion: hands spreading as if to offer a friendly greeting, a smile in his words. "Ahhh, but perhaps you've misunderstood; but that is my name, or as good as it. A title, yes; but a very description of my being, of, one might say, my purpose. In any case it is a pleasure to meet you, Aran Alabaster," he crooned, and swept into a low bow.

"Now, if you are seeking me, as so many do: I presume you are here with some form of trade in mind? I aim to please," he added, with a deep incline of his head.

@Aran

Aran wondered what the other being was thinking when the silence came after he spoke. His suspicions were true, though, when the he mentioned that his name was indeed the collector. Having a title for a name, it made the title less important in Aran's eyes. Did the Collector become the Collector because of his name? A name making someone's fate for them.... it sounded sad. Or maybe he was unnamed until he became the Collector - that one was more understandable in nature, perhaps Aran would come back at another time to ask questions. He wanted information but he was here for a reason today.

"A pleasure to meet you as well." He replied back.

His intentions seemed to be made known by the Collector himself, so it saved Aran a lot of time explaining that he wanted a trade rather than to just make small talk. Distantly, Aran wondered if the collector traded information - but there was something more important on his mind now.

"Yes." A pause, blind foggy eyes shifting a bit though not seeing much besides the basic form of the other being in front of him. "I wanted to know if there was a way to trade and get my sight back. Or something that could at least help me with the issue." Aran made what he wanted clear. Trades were better done when you knew what you wanted most of all.

There was a hum of thought, and the Collector swept closer--inspecting Aran's eyes from a still-polite distance. "Well, I suppose that depends; tell me, Aran Alabaster, how precisely did you lose your vision-? Can you see at all?"

Blind since hatching and blind from accident, blinded by light--all were different, and the Collector's methods, of course, would need to fit the situation.

@Aran

Aran could see the shape of the Collector get closer, he squinted the slightest bit, trying to make out the shapes of the other being. It didn't work of course, not even the Collector being close to his face allowed him to see. Aran was pitiful - so pitiful. It made him feel like a weakling, that he couldn't see. He needed that to use his magic too, which was his only form of protection. Aran didn't use his antlers or his legs, his legs were too fragile anyway, seeing how easily they were shattered by the hold of the Alligator.

"I lost a fight and got chrysalized. I came out and just couln't see." Aran answered honestly - no point in lying here. "I can only see simple shapes, nothing else."

The Collector offered a gentle sigh.

"Well, this is a shame. You see, the item I know that offers sight... of a sort... I have already promised to a creature not too dissimilar from yourself: one known as Tahi-shei." Another sigh; ahh, well, he couldn't have two of the same item, after all.

"I do have something that might still work. However, it is-... Its sight, I should say, is at times not precisely accurate. Still, it would be better than what you have now, hmm? But then, I do not give things away for free, of course. I mean no offense, but--what have you to bargain with, in turn? If this interests you-?"

@Aran

The name drop surprised the deer, but their previous conversation about needing a body came to mind. Surely that couldn't be it, right? Granted... Aran didn't know of any gembounds looking for a dead body. The gruesome sight from when Aran was fighting with that alligator came to mind next, and Aran quickly blinked the thoughts away and shook his head once. Welll... it didn't matter much anyway.

"I vaguely remember him mentioning he needed a body for something, hm?" Aran questioned. Even if thats what this was for, it didn't matter to the deer. He would have traded someone else's life for something important if he needed it. Aran wasn't an idiot.

This being in front of him was really the only logical explination for Tahi wanting a body, the other deer was far too soft to want to kill anyone, and it really showed. Especially in how he asked someone else to do his dirty work, in turn being the one in fault for Aran's blindness - though Aran was the one to agree to it, and he would stand by saying he knew what the risks were when he agreed. If it meant he was forever crippled because of it, so be it.

The bag that hung from one of Aran's antlers was dropped to the ground softly, almost no sound eminating from the thing as it was placed there.

"It does interest me. And no, no offence. A trade is a trade after all." He replied. "Those things are what I have with me right now, however I would be willing to bring something back if you so wished it." The item being not as good as the one the Collector had didn't matter much, really. As long as it helped at all it would be good enough. if not, Aran could just figure it out.

Inside the bag, lay the three scrolls, the small cup of sugar, a few stones with magic inside, and the strange photo he really could never make sense of. All of those things Aran did want to keep, but he wasn't going to potentially lose this trade if it meant the Collector wanted one of them. It would be too bad, but the Deer had memorised the things on the scrolls already anyway. If he had to go searching instead, so be it. He would do it, depending on what was asked of him.

The Collector perked a brow in some surprise. "Ahh, you know of his deal-?" It seemed that Algol wasn't as omniscient as he sometimes appeared--or perhaps he was pretending.

In any case, a glimpse into Aran's bag set him into laughter--not mocking, but it seemed good-natured, amused. "Ahh, are my gifts worth so little-? Or so much, perhaps, that you find them worth trade?" Clawed fingers teased the edge of a scroll. "These were my presents, Aran Alabaster--freely given--an attempt to aid your people into a new age. An age, perhaps, where they could fend for themselves... even defend themselves... but it seems that you have all chosen to hoard such knowledge for yourselves." A thoughtful pause, as crimson eyes regarded the scrolls. "It seems you were not ready for them. But I will not take them back; no, keep them. Share them. Share this information, Alabaster."

The photograph, though, seemed to draw his eye. Claws lightly touched the edges, tilting it so he could get a better look. "Interesting," he murmured. He glanced up, to Aran. "And where did you get this-?" His voice was carefully neutral.

A moment later, however, he straightened.

"I am here, as should be obvious from these scrolls," (one hand loosely gestured down at the bag) "to do nothing but aid those within the caves. Therefore, I will offer you this deal. Bring me a Lesser Gembound--something with eyes, something that can see. And I will fashion for you vision. I warn you, however, that magic is intrinsic to this world, and through such an enchantment, another's eyes may show you more than you intended. Still--you would no longer be blind, and I am certain that you are strong enough to handle a few minor blips in your vision, hm?"

"For this I would ask nothing, bar that you share the knowledge I have been so generous as to grant you." Here, the Collector offered a low and sweeping bow--and at the lowest point, his head lifted, crimson eyes aglitter. "...Do we have a deal?"

@Aran