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Marigold      THE SOUTHERN TAIGA, ILIA
     Near the southern mountain range.

     Slushy snow from a nighttime cold snap still clings to the rocky, uneven ground here a couple inches deep, but the air isn't cold enough to sting. When you emerge from the warpgate in the shadow of a few tenacious pines, a trail already stretches away through the slush; you'll have to hustle uphill to catch up with the group.

     This isn't, fortunately, really the 'pitons and ropes' kind of mountain-climbing. You can scrabble and scramble up the occasional clean face of granite or loose scree of gravel as a shortcut if you're adventurous, but the snow-slush trail usually leads to a gentler switchback that arcs around the mountain's contours like a spiral staircase.

     If there's anywhere like this on Earth, most folks aren't photogenically familiar with where: the surrounding mountains are gently-rolling but sparsely-forested, harsh weathering both grinding them down into little more than great hills and scraping the soil from their rock wherever it can't catch a niche.

     Further to the south the mountains get drier, gradually more jagged and less weathered- that way might be Sacae. This one's a little steeper, but something's odd about it: looking uphill, it cuts off abruptly, like something had ground off its top long ago.

     An old lady's tooth, they said.


     Fifteen minutes of double-timing it up the slush-carved winding trail, or five with some brave shortcuts, gets you in earshot of the scouting group:

     "I just... don't want you to disappoint Fae. That's all, Shanna. You shouldn't let kids down."
     "Shouldn't kids live in a magical world? I never said there was *definitely* a dragon, anyway."
     "The point of childhood isn't to be a good kid. It's to become a good adult."
     "You're always saying that kind of stuff... Fae, do you feel another dragon nearby?"
     "Fae does!"
     "Huh?! You do??"
     "Mmm! Fae can feel Sophia!"
     "Wha-- but--!"
     "What's wrong, Shanna? Kids should live in a magical world~."
     "But... darn..."


     When they notice you catching up from behind, the group slows and turns: Sophia in her robes and Fae who looks practically-rotund in a tiny fur jacket, waving as cheerily as her stubby limbs can; Thea and Shanna temporarily horseless but dressed no warmer, using their spears like walking sticks; and maybe-surprisingly, Niime hobbling along with Marcus chivalrously supporting her with a quilt over her shoulders.

     Roy (still underdressed) forms the connective tissue between the sub-groups, although Niime and Sophia are already gravitated together- they practically look like young and old versions of each other, save for their pupils in the snow-glare.

     "Ah! Niime. These are the fine Otherworlders who've been helping us..." "I've met them already, young man!" she says not-harshly to a guy who's at least fifty. "Except the green one. What's wrong with her?" "Er, I think it's rude to ask. Sometimes Otherworlders are just like this." "Hmph." Still, she waddles forward and puts out a knobbly hand.

     "We're looking for a cave, as I understand it. That is, if there's any truth to all this at all. But if it's true dragons can sense each other..." Niime, the old witch, looks down at the round Fae-bundle with a little misgiving, which Fae seems completely oblivious too.

     Mustering even that much mistrust for the dragonlet is almost superhuman. Truly this old woman is powerful.
Flamel Parsons     Flamel Parsons is here! What does an agent of a vague yet ominous government agency wear to a hike? Same thing he usually does, generally! Albeit, a slightly warmer jacket -- didn't take Petra's advice -- and some decent boots. He's even got a fancy backpack with the Psychonauts logo on it, and all his recon gear strapped to it! "Love a good hike!" He says, brightly, the picture of banal small-talk. "And no ghosts and skeletons this time." Hmm.

    "I wonder what *kind* of dragon we'll find. If the stories are this consistent, we're sure gonna find something!" He rambles. "That's something I've learned from *years* of camp counseling. If all the kids are talking about an alien, there might be a monster! If all the kids are talking about a monster, there might be a big hairless bear! If all the kids are talking about a big hairless bear, then they're talking about Linda down at the lake." He rambles, near Thea, Shana, and Fae. And for the intel they have? "Once we start getting around caves, I'll turn up my psychometry -- gotta go out to get stuff to eat sometimes, so I should be able to pick up psychic traces! As long as it's not another dark-magic dragon... Even then, I might be able to tune something in!"

    When they set off, he'll keep a good pace. He's got spare boots clattering off the side of the backpack, he's got scanning gear to deploy every few miles, and he's got a bright smile! This hike will surely be intolerable.
Nobunaga     As a measure of lightening the mood and keeping spirits up, a few moments after arriving through the gate and starting up the trail, Oda Nobunaga called forth a handful of her little soldiers. Six in all, knee-high caricatures of the warlord trailing behind her in pairs. Rigidly, they hold rifles in one arm, cradled and aimed skyward. One of the leading pair instead carries a little flag with the golden chrysanthemum of Oda on it. The other of the lead pair plays a cheery marching tune on a shinobue; a wooden Japanese flute with a rich sound.

    And Nobunaga herself is in the frontmost position, swinging her arms a bit more than necessary with each step. The air is crisp and cool, there's just a touch of mist to her breath. It's clear the diminutive warlord is in a good mood today.

    "The air is good today!"

> "I wonder what *kind* of dragon we'll find/"
> "But if it's true dragons can sense each other..."
> "Fae can feel Sophia!"

    "Mmm, you're quite convinced that part of the story is the true part?" Nobunaga lifts her hands up, folding them behind her head and glancing skyward, "Kinds of dragons..." The psychically sensitive sorts might pick up a handful of different creatures flitting across her mind. Great beasts, wise sages, cute little mascots. Eventually she settles on the image of a great green and yellow creature, lacking wings, but with a long snakelike body that stretches out into seemingly endless coils throughout the clouds.

    "If we're lucky, the wish-granting sort! But I don't think anyone's been collecting orbs here in Elibe, so maybe not."
Madeleine Cadrasteia     Madeleine, once again in her cold-weather attire, continues to find the Ilian climate rather to her liking. She tromps through the slush with gusto, eager to meet up with the locals. After waving a greeting to Roy, the huntress peers at the trail ahead and cliffs above. If there *is* something living atop this mountain, it will have left signs beyond the confines of its cave.

    As the group makes its winding ascent, Madeleine keeps her eyes and ears peeled for signs of life - both of something large enough to count, mythologically, as a 'dragon', and of sufficient foliage or wildlife to offer a suitable diet for a creature of that size.

    Eventually, however, she falls back to walk with Marcus, Niime, and Sophia. "Ms Niime," she says, "We haven't had the chance to get acquainted. I'm Madeleine. I've been meaning to ask - what's different about dark magic? I'd expect Bern has no shortage of skilled anima mages to influence the weather without your help."
Petra Soroka . . . if you're adventurous . . .

    Petra is *so* prepared to scrabble and scramble. Naturally, since the local fliers aren't able to take the easy way up themselves, Petra must also relegate herself to the climb manually-- but, following the same path as the rest of the scouting group doesn't mean following the *exact* same path as them. She's practically structured her everyday life and physical routine around going up slopes that she probably shouldn't, including vertical ones, and so this is a walk in the park for her.

    She's even pretty familiar with the terrain! Oddly, she's gravitated towards the Canadian territories whenever the urge or necessity to retreat to the wilderness strikes her, so a sparse rocky forest and a passive chill, with opportunities to climb up cliffs, is effectively her favored terrain. She does end up switching out her typical Elibe outfit for someone *less* warm, actually-- predicting the same temperatures as last time, and significantly more running-around, Petra forgoes her fancy shirt for a short sleeved compression top, though she diligently keeps the cloak Sophia chose for her on so the aesthetic isn't totally ruined.

"The point of childhood isn't to be a good kid. It's to become a good adult."

    Petra pops her head up from the side of a rocky incline right besides the group, having beelined through every risky shortcut possible. Her palms are textured with imprints of the surfaces of rocks she grabbed onto, with tiny flakes of pebbles coming off of her skin when she smacks them together. "I mean, I don't really agree with *that*. I feel like most kids' beliefs are better than most adults' beliefs. Anyways, hi! Everyone else is coming behind, I think."

"Except the green one. What's wrong with her?"

    Petra gives Fae a double hi-five of greeting, since her arms are upraised for waving, and then she looks down at herself to double check that she isn't wearing green, and then up at Niime. "Who? Oh, wait-- her." Whatever her name is. "There's a lot wrong with her, I think."

    Now that Petra's caught her breath from the fast-paced climbing to get here, she immediately gravitates towards the front of the group, energized enough to wander ahead and then circle back around just to burn extra energy, or clambering up tiny shortcuts in the path and sitting at the top kicking her feet while the others double-back on the path.

    "I'm *so* ready to find a cave. I mean, we've had so many super improbable miracles already on this campaign; it kind of seems like the time for it. If there is a dragon, or was a dragon, or something else people mistook for a dragon, then this is the arc where we'd find it."
Odette Raskins Talking about what clothes to wear for this hike through the mountains near Ilia turned out to help Odette a lot. Sure, she's wearing the same exact thing she's been wearing the past couple of times on this continent, but it's actually cool enough and just brisk enough of a hike that she's looking quite comfortable following the slushy trail.

She has no qualms about following the trail, of course, but she could just as easily be peer pressured into taking those shortcuts if anyone else is around to take them while engaging her in conversation. It'd be rude for her not to keep up!

Hearing and seeing the scouting group ahead, the EMT picks up the pace a bit to hurry over and join everyone. "Hello! Sorry I'm late. Had to pack some extraaaaa?" She calls out in greeting, trailing off when she sees the Fae-ball with a slight gleam in her eyes. "Oh...! Oh, that's adorable. Oh gosh. Mm!"

Slapping her cheeks lightly to stay perked up, Odette hurries over to start offering little bags of trail mix. Fae gets the one that has a slightly higher concentration of candy in it, but they're otherwise identical with a good ratio of assorted nuts, raisins, chocolate candy bits, and tiny fruit-hinted cubes.

"I just hope whatever dragons we find up here are friendly like Miss Sophia and Fae here. I wouldn't mind finding nothing if they turn out not to be alike, though..." She comments after Flamel, shivering briefly despite sweating a bit from all the hiking. "Or at least something we can bribe with snacks... Oh. Uh. Does anyone need any a little pick me up? Or water? It might not be safe to..."

She pauses, glancing over at the snow. "Well.. Hm. No, no, there's still all sorts of bacteria in there that might wreck our stomachs." A quick shake of her head later, and Odette turns to Niime with a concerned eye. "How're you feeling, Missus Niime? Any dizziness, lingering aches, light-headedness? I've got some extra-oh. I've got extra air in here if you need it, too." She offers while tapping on her glasses to get the scanning function going, giving the elder a quick once over to make sure she's healthy after their prior encounter.
Desire Stars      "Hi, Ms. Niime!"
    "Yo."

    Ace and Neon are here in winterwear versions of the DGP windbreakers, as before. The hoods are even fur lined. Between the two of them, Neon hurries more to catch up, while Ace lags behind until they're with the rest of the group.

We're looking for a cave, as I understand it.

     "Okay," says Neon, head bobbing with enthusiasm despite the cold. "If we're not worried about being seen out here, I could do a flyover and take a look..." The idea immediately reminds her to check on Shanna.

     "Hey," she says, a little breathily from the effort of catching up a few minutes ago. "How are you?"

     Ace pats Fae on the head. "Hey, squirt. Have you gotten a little taller?" Of course she probably hasn't, given the scale that dragons age, but he likes to tease. "Or maybe it's the shoes. Have you been good?"
Echolalia Echolalia is new! Well she's been around, helping out, since before today but she certainly hasn't met Niime before though, by the time that she arrives, she's kind of giving looks between Niime and Sophia with silent curiousity but she isn't going to ask about it. Someone once said that better to be assumed a fool than to open your mouth and prove it. Echolalia isn't sure who said that but she heard the phrase a lot and, frankly, she's not really against proving yourself an idiot because she much prefers to open her mouth than be smart and silent but she is a little worried it'd be rude to bring up the resemblance.

''Except the green one. What's wrong with her.''

"I'm an alien. Aliens are green." Echolalia says automatically, placing her hands together and bowing her head before remembering that everyone is basically an alien here. "Well, actually, it's a little complicated but I'm not sick."

She is happy to shake her head, bowing her head about as respectfully as she can manage while letting her mouth run ahead of her brain.

She looks to the Faebundle, reaches out, ruffles her hair, and then looks back to the witch. "Well ... one way to find out again. If it's a myth we can bust it and if it's not, maybe we can make a new buddy."
Audrey Basque     Fifteen minutes of double-timing uphill is approximately enough to kill .5 Audreys, and that number used to be bigger. It's a small mercy she's in better shape than she's ever been in, but she's still, definitely, not in *good enough* shape. Work in progress, and all that.

    Since the weather is quote unquote gentle, she's dressed as usual for Elibe, but if things get too bad she's got a coat stashed away in the folds of her cloak to adjust. The only thing different about her is her demeanor; she's keeping a bit closer to Petra than she normally is, not suspiciously, but noticeably; if she falls behind, she accelerates to catch up, and if she ever ends up ahead (somehow), she doubles back, rather than just wait. And when Petra takes more adventurous routes, Audrey sighs, and triple-paces to keep up.

    But she doesn't look skittish. Serene might be more like it. Not particularly chatty though, at least until Flamel mentions ghosts and skeletons. "Is that common? On hikes here, I mean."

    When they finally catch up to the scouting party, Audrey takes five seconds, hands on her knees, to pant and catch her breath, before heading on over towards them. "Shanna, Thea! And Roy!" She knows the others less-- she'd barely talked to Niime, when they saved her, because she was busy helping rob the camp blind, and Fae... she seems familiar? Petra's definitely described her before, but it was a while back.

    -- and on cue, Petra's headed right for her.

    Audrey trails along, curious.
    "Ah, is that the one you were telling me about that one time?" she asks her, while bending down to look at the little one-- and Petra runs off again, Audrey evidently at a limit for keeping up.

    She gives Fae an awkward hello, while she waits for Petra to scamper on back after burning her energy.
Lilian Rook     The aggravating late start, the slushy snow-goop, the mountain trail, and present company combined; every last bit of it is still worth it just to see Fae in an itty bity puffball winter coat. Lilian upon catching up, forgets the topic of Shanna and Thea's argument entirely, stricken by almost tearful majesty at the sight of her favourite little comma in the whole wide world waving back.

    Three seconds later, Lilian blurts out "Niime?!"

    Lilian, wearing a puffy-sleeved white wool jumper, thick black stockings, knee high waterproof leather boots, and a double layered dark blue skirt, wearing her fur-lined variant cloak over it, suddenly remembers that she's not wearing armour and wielding a sword here, and thus this situation contains the potential for her to look kind of stupid if she doesn't move fast.

    'Except the green one. What's wrong with her?'

    "How much time do you have?" Nailed it.

    Falling in with the crowd, more out of the opportunity to both reassure Roy and Sophia and also to bask in the glorious Faediance of the moment. "Whoever Linda is, I think she must be well within her rights to slap you for that one, Parsons." is followed by "That's just the thing though Petra; it'd be absurd if all of them were true; then it's just being lead along by the nose from miracle to miracle without any sense of how mysterious they're actually supposed to be." and is further followed by "Never describe 'busting' a myth again, oh my god."

    After a while, though, (specifically after sliding her way into giving puffball Fae a hug), Lilian lets her pace slacken just enough to get within quiet conversational distance of Niime, and clearly regarding the object of her misgiving, says, "I wonder if you looked like that with little Raigh. I'd keep a closer eye on a boy who managed to walk from Ostia to Ilia to find me than even a middle-sized dragon."
Flamel Parsons     "Is that common? On hikes here, I mean."
    "Oh, not here. Just where I come from!" The psychonaut says, brightly explaining. "Technically *I'm* part skeleton! On my inside's side." He points Audrey at Odette for a pick-me-up. "You look beat. And we've barely started! Better hustle!" He advises her on her hiking technique the whole time, horribly upbeat, and with techniques that are surely agitating in their efficacy.

    "Does anyone need any a little pick me up? Or water?"
    "Trail-mix swap!" Flamel declares, quickly exchanging with Odette. He takes a handful of whatever she's got, and offers her (and anyone else who wants a snack) some of a bag of Otto's Own(tm) Outdoorsman's Dreams, made with Real Dreams (75% Real Dream, 25% Lucid Substitute). One can feel the mental health in every bite, as well as trace flavors of a lifestyle defined by thirty years of regular hiking with one's father, mother, mentor, or similar figure.

    "But I don't think anyone's been collecting orbs here in Elibe."

    "Weren't able to find any! Trust me, I looked. Most of what they've got is Divine Weapons." Flamel explains. "And because of all the historical magical drift... I don't even know if any wish-granting orbs would still work, if dragons made them!"

    "...then this is the arc where we'd find it."

    "See, I can't tell," Flamel rambles a bit to Petra. "If you're actually engaging with the concepts I've been exploring about Eliberian pseudo-narrativized structure and its utility in recovering regional stability. Or if you're just," He makes a vague gesture. "En-hikened."

    "I could do a flyover and take a look..."
    Flamel waves Neon down. "Prefer not! We've gotta stay under the radar with Bern, let them have the air for a while. Otherwise I bet these pegasus knights could have covered it! Though, I'm expecting to have plenty of chances to do it in short bursts."

    
Flamel Parsons     "Whoever Linda is, I think she must be well within her rights to slap you for that one, Parsons."
    "What?! I'm being serious! Mikhail spent weeks trying to track her down. He wanted to wrestle her, said she was a giant hairless bear. But he didn't realize," Flamel waggles his index finger at Lilian. "That she's actually a giant *lungfish*. Common mistake."
Echolalia ''How much time do you have?'')]

"Hey!" Echolalia says. "Lay off! I've done nothing to you but you keep laying into me. Geeze!"

She crosses her arms, irritated, cuttting herself from adding anything else as she steps away, intending to put some distance between herself and Lilian. It's starting to wear on her, pushing forward ahead to put some distance between her and the others.
Flamel Parsons     "I'm an alien. Aliens are green."
    "There's a strong contingent of Grays." Flamel rambles as he walks. "Plenty of green obviously, that's just common sense, but we shouldn't be insensitive to topics of representation! Really, I almost expected you to have some Gray heritage, given how good you were with that spacecraft." Flamel microaggresses in ways that would require Fox Mulder and five seasons just to figure out.
Odette Raskins "You look beat. And we've barely started!"

With Flamel directing, Odette finds her way right over to Audrey with a bottle in one hand, a little baggie of trail mix in the other, and an oxygen mask hanging off that bottle. "Pace yourself, Miss Audrey. We'll be counting on your powers if things really do end up... Um. Awful, and..."

She pauses, putting a few things together in her head after seeing Audrey adjust her pace to match Petra's a few times over the course of this hike. The EMT stares at her for a moment as she also recalls that other time they had traversed a mountain, then holds the stuff out to Audrey. "I think you're doing a great job. Just don't go overboard, okay?"

She offers a pocket-sized oxygen tank afterwards. It has a tube that fits right into the mask!

"Trail-mix swap!"

"Trail-mix swap!" Odette shouts in return, giggling briefly while forking over a baggie of her more mundane trail mix with the fruit-esque cubes in it (now with real fruit-flavored juice concentrate!). She can't quite comprehend what she's getting from Flamel just by looking at it, but that doesn't stop her from eating it up anyway.

"Oh, this is different... It doesn't feel like.. Taste the..." She's at a loss for words, but she does breathe a little more deeply of that fresh mountain air after she gives up on trying to work through whatever it is she's tasting... No, feeling. It reminds her of home, even though she never got to actually breathe like this outside.  The long days of working at the bakery, though, and helping around the mines before leaving for the Company...

"... I should call them."
Echolalia ''There's a strong contingent of Grays''

Echolalia's storming off results in a comical stumble as Flamel unexpectedly responds to her earlier nonsense. "Wait, really? There's--I... Uh..." She trails off. "Sorry...? I didn't...know?" Flamel has successfully hacked her. Echolalia hopes there weren't any Grays in the army here or she'll feel REALLY bad.
Lilian Rook     Lilian, hearing 'trail mix swap', actually thinks weirdly little of it, and presses the metaphorical trade button with a handful of something mostly involved walnuts and chestnuts, mulberries and cranberries, and something like little boba pearls filled with toothsome jelly; altogether rather rich and earthy with a lot of tart for its sweetness for hiking mix. Whatever sci-fi electrolyte-protein jelly thing is going on, it's nearly indistinguishable from firm berries, and is mild-sweet and salty. She put in a lot of them. It is maybe too salty for some. Do military marches really make you sweat that much?

    She doesn't even look at whatever godforsaken product of the hokey backwoods nineties Flamel hands her. She expects that, either way, it's going to be a gimmick product sold near 'authentic facsimiles' of the loch ness monster. This is a mistake, as the Taste of Mental Health:tm: makes her stop chewing in abject confusion for entirely too long, and she looks around unnecessarily before finding the bravery to swallow. Her reward is an ephemeral sort of half-remembered mental montage of hiking around the woods near her house at night-- as usual-- but with Aobheil in all the shots, giving her sage life advice and patient comfort. This is sufficiently sad to think about that Lilian doesn't take a second one.

    'Lay off! I've done nothing to you but you keep laying into me. Geeze!'

    "Weren't you the one that Phreak kept screaming--" Lilian glances around for half a second, reaffirms that Roy and Fae exist, and jacknifes into "--at?" in a way that doesn't at all disguise what she was originally going to say from anyone who knows. Even then, her tone radiates such 'This you?' that some implication is unquestionable; that the substance of her complaint need not even be addressed, so far beneath her is she.

    Like a joint popping unexpectedly, Lilian suddenly feels much more grounded and normal. Much better!
Petra Soroka "Ah, is that the one you were telling me about that one time?"

    "Yeah!!" Petra nods, expression bright at the topic of Fae. She pats Fae on the head with one hand, and points over to Audrey with the other. "Fae, that's Audrey. Audrey, this is Fae. I think the picture you saw of her was with her bigness out, but this is what she looks like when it's put away."

    Petra's position relative to the group changes with each conversation, whether she's circling around ahead of the group, hanging her legs off a rocky overlook that she scrambled up, halfway up a tree that she's scaling to skip a chunk of the path, or rarely, walking with them normal-style. But even though more of her attention is on Lilian when she talks, her orbiting keeps absentmindedly taking her back nearby Audrey before cycling off on her next path.

"That's just the thing though Petra; it'd be absurd if all of them were true; then it's just being lead along by the nose from miracle to miracle without any sense of how mysterious they're actually supposed to be."

    "That's true..." Petra says thoughtfully from above, while visibly calculating her route from one cluster of pine tree branches to another. "But also, we're not meeting the 'average' people who are making up rumors and stuff. We just met an old lady who-- studies dragons and stuff, and that's already kind of really serendipitious, right? Probably not *everything's* going to be true, but we're also not just randomly listening to some guy's bullshit in a tavern or anything. If there's some 'earning' that we have to do for mysteries, then we have a pretty significant head start."

    Petra lets go of the branch she was holding for support, runs down the wobbly length of another, and then jumps across the gap between the trees, landing on the next one's branches with a 'woah-!' as she catches her balance. Then, just to reiterate that Lilian is right rather than disagreeing her, she concludes, "But there won't be something cool every time."

"If you're actually engaging with the concepts I've been exploring about Eliberian pseudo-narrativized structure and its utility in recovering regional stability."

    Petra squints down at Flamel from a gravel cliffside, sitting cross-legged on a shelf of rock. "Huh? Who do you think I am? Have I not literally been talking about, like, the narrative and emotional arc and shit this whole time? What does enhikened even mean?"

"I've done nothing to you but you keep laying into me. Geeze!"

    "Isn't being a loser enough? And you're, like, that stalker freak aren't you?" Now she's standing on the side of a nearly vertical rock like a goat, arms out to either side. "And Lilian wasn't even *mean* to you, anyways. You were shouting all your issues to everyone before. There's nothing wrong with just pointing that out."
Marigold      "I feel like most kids' beliefs are better than most adults' beliefs."

     "Then I guess most kids grow up into bad adults," is Thea's pragmatic answer, while she tries to offer Petra a hand up. "I wouldn't say *most*, but... childhood is childhood because it has an end, right?" Roy murmurs.

     Whether or not Petra takes it, she dusts her hands off, and opines while eyeing Shanna: "Lilian's right, though. Things going well so far means they're less likely to keep going well."

     Hang on, that's not how probability works either.

     Madeleine can't find a trace of dragons (besides one claw-mark in stone that might be pre-Scouring), and mountains this rocky probably can't support a multi-ton predator... but it could support a human. Fae doesn't have a much bigger appetite than most kids as long as she's in humanoid form, after all! If someone foraged wisely, hunted well, and salted their meat, it'd be hard but not impossible to subsist alone.

     "Madeleine. That's a pretty name," Niime says as she starts to toddle off drag Marcus along by the blanket, which is nice of her to say, because she'd totally tell you if she thought it was an ugly one. "Ha! I'd like to see an anima mage do that."

     "It's simple. 'Light' spells draw on the power of your soul. 'Anima' spells draw on the magic of the world. And 'Dark' spells... well, that's the great mystery, isn't it? The books that dumb it down would say dark magic is the 'power of sacrifice'. Hmph."

     She clucks her tongue, shaking her head. "All that to say, the world's only got so much magic in it! Oh, I'm sure the great sage Athos did some wonderful things with anima-- but in the end, anima's a tool for artful killing, like a sword. You'd never see a swordsman slice away the clouds, would you?" Well... maybe you would, but...

     She winds down by grumping at everyone trying to offer her concern or care (except for her brave silver fox knight Marcus). "I'm not an invalid you know. They don't call me the hermit of the mountains for nothing." She still shakes hands though, with her cold knobbly fingers.

     Flamel might be intolerable, but Shanna finds him a perfect match for her own intolerability! To him, and Nobunaga's musings about kinds of dragons: "The stories said it blended right in with the snow! So I bet it's an ice dragon, like Marcus said Roy's dead mom was." "Shanna..." Marcus prods. "um, sorry!" "No. It's... alright. I'm not fragile."

     "Well, anyway! If Fae can't detect it--" "Them," Marcus corrects again. "--them! Then it's, uh, they're probably just gone north for the summer, after all. The stories said they only show up in blizzards! But at least we could leave them a letter about Arcadia, right? I bet they'll be so happy to find out!"

     Flamel's preliminary psychometrics aren't turning up anything as recent as the last six months, though.
Marigold      "And what about you, little one? Do you grant wishes?" Niime says to Fae, a little too seriously to sound like she's talking to a child. "Mmmm. Fae can't do very much, but she can try!" "Hmmm..."

     "I'm fine," Shanna tells Neon, in a way that'd sound perky for everyone else but is just a little droopy by her standards. "Thanks for the rescue. My arm's still sore, but Father Lucius fixed up my leg and the pegasus. ... It's only gotten Thea to be harder on me, though."

     Puffball Fae is petted, high-fived, and hugged! Her little yellow-downy wings flap as she sponges up affection. (Aww, there's little tailored slits in the jacket.) "Lilian! Petra! Ace! Lalia!" she says, cherubically enthusiastic. "Fae missed you!! She knew you'd come back, though. It's a promise!"

     Fae waves back at Audrey- like Sophia, she doesn't look human, but here it runs deeper to pointed ears, a forehead-mark, and those wings. She does her best to hop-skip-alongside her favored people, but occasionally her stubby legs fall behind, and she's got to concentratedly flap to keep up. She's a bit like a chicken. The ongoing discussion about 'the green one', though, gets her a little down:

     "Lalia isn't an 'alien'! She belongs here. And Fae likes her. She plays fun games, and she's keeping a promise. So please don't say mean things to her, okay?" Pouty-bossy, just the slightest bit.

     "I wonder if you looked like that with little Raigh."
     "Pshaw," Niime says to Lilian, a bit defensively. "That boy's reckless, but I know his type. I don't know hers," she says, looking at Fae who looks back with confusion. "I've had the talk. I know about your 'Arcadia', now. But everything I've ever seen says dragons are destruction given flesh. You'll have to forgive an old woman for not warming up faster."

     Sophia droops a little, but doesn't speak.

     Eventually the trail leads up to the mountain's flat-ish top, which is really a bit like a very shallow crater or caldera. Largely above the snow, it cradles thicker soil with more, shorter trees and a small green meadow. Boulders occasionally interrupt the sight-lines, and veins of whatever eroded away here have left pockmarks like lakes. If there really is a cave here, it'd probably be somewhere around the crater's inner cusp- if it weren't set into a horizontal surface, it'd be flooded.

     The view, of course, is beautiful, if presently mostly white. "Hmph. Let's hope your dragon isn't rained-in," Niime murmurs, cresting onto the grassy plateau herself. "I think I'll start drawing that map. Shanna, lend me your eyes."
Audrey Basque "Technically *I'm* part skeleton! On my inside's side."

    Audrey stares in a mix of disbelieve and slow realization, until she manages: "I... y... yes... I think... me too, then? I'm-- I'm sorry, is having a skeleton uncommon enough to be worth including in your genealogy tree?" Or is Flame just weird? Well, whatever his mannerisms may be, hiking techniques are definitely more than welcome, for the sake of her surviving this trip. She'd *cheat*, normally, you see, but Petra said no.

"Does anyone need any a little pick me up? Or water?"

    And at Flamel's advice, Audrey makes sure to go for some water. She thanks Odette, proper and polite-like, and then blinks at her comment. "H-Huh? My... powers? I think I missed that part of the plan. Sorry, should I be preparing something in advance?" No, if it came down to dragonslaying, surely it'd be more up other people's alley? She looks towards Lilian, just in time for...

"How much time do you have?"
"Hey!"

    Well she's staying out of *that* one.

"I think the picture you saw of her was with her bigness out,"

    "I'm sorry her what?"

    Oh. Dragon. Right!!

    Audrey is all too happy to wave back at Fae when Petra introduces them. She's cute! She can see why Petra is so attached.

"'Light' spells draw on the power of your soul. 'Anima' spells draw on the magic of the world. And 'Dark' spells..."

    "Sacrifice is such a vague term, isn't it?" Of course magic talk would attract her attention, to take her mind off her feet and legs aching. "You can sacrifice a lot of things. You can even get around it by sacrificing *others*, sometimes. You called it dumbing it down though-- so how would you describe it, broadly, if that's inaccurate?"

Mountaintop.

    By now Audrey's wrapped her cloak around herself, not freezing, but making sure to benefit from wearing it at all up here. She can appreciate the view from a mountaintop, even though it's not a massively tall one. Trying to keep up with Petra is definitely starting to take its toll, but it looks like they get some respite here.

    "Do you suppose the dragon made this crater?" she asks of no one in particular, mostly out of curiosity.
Echolalia "Yeah well I'm sorry Phreak screamed at me." Echolalia says. "Sorry for being too honest but it didn't hurt you." She thinks that's a fine enough way to sidestep her determination about not jacking off at Phreak's command.

''And Lilian wasn't even *mean* to you--''

"That doesn't read as mean to you?" Echolalia is shocked, then sympathetic. "Gosh. I'm sorry." She's taking it completely at face value but seems to have a completely alien (green) read on the situation.

''And Fae likes her. She plays fun games--''

Echolalia feels guilty rather than triumphant over being defended by Fae. It feels a little bit like being hounded by debt collectors only for a kid to step out with their arms wide to protect her, just like in the movies she's so fond of.

"Ah, sorry, I shouldn't have said anything."

She mimes zipping up her mouth and then tossing a key away.

''You'll have to forgive an old woman for not warming up faster.''

"That's okay it's actually really cold up here, so it makes sense it'd take time." Echolalia adds, apparently considering her mouth unzipped on that topic at least. She's pretty confident in Fae's ability to melt a heart. Niime is just, like, the final boss. Fae and Sophia probably just need to work through three health bars of heart warming first.

They make their way up to the top, looking at the crater and then just--like--around.

She crouches down and rests a hand down, trying to get a sense through the tremors of the earth for the cave--or even, perhaps, something they might be missing moving around in the area.
Audrey Basque     <J-IC-Scene> (NPC) Sophia struggles to find the words. "... This isn't a place where good things happen. I think..."

    Snapping out of her pointless idle chatter daze, Audrey actually opens her senses to the place's energies, trying to perceive its boundaries and lines. Is it sacred? Cursed? Are the ley lines here weird? Is there an unusual font of power in the mountain? Whatever it is, if there's anything to Sophia's worries, she should be able to figure it out-- if the area really is unusual or special in that way. Or any way, really!
Nobunaga     The Nobbu March reaches the summit! Standing on the ledge, Nobunaga gestures and her little soldiers scatter down into the crater-like depression that comprises the mountaintop itself; time for a little recon. She glances aside at the old woman recruiting Shanna for the purposes of drawing a map. Her head cants thoughtfully, chewing on an idea or two.

    After a moment, she joins the mountain witch and the Pegasus knight where they're examining the scenery.

    "It must feel nice to be free again," she comments towards Niime, though her eyes are on the gorgeous mountaintop view spread out before her. The high-altitude wind catches her cape, drawing it out behind her. With one hand on the saya of her sword, the other resting at her side, she at least tries to cut the profile of a samurai hero.

<J-IC-Scene> Flamel Parsons says, "I'm not picking up any psychometrics going back... six months at least!"

    "How long did Bern have you in their care, anyway?" She can't help but offer an apologetic little smile, "Our forces had only just moved into the area and heard about your situation, we don't really have much intel on Ilia's more recent events. The local villages have been less than helpful."
Odette Raskins Lilian's boba jelly bits get some curious noises out of Odette when she tries those, too. Unlike Flamel's mental health mix-ins, the EMT's even able to vocalize her thoughts in actual words! "Oh, these are interesting... Kind of tastes like the rehydration mixes we've got, but more... What is that flavor? It's super different, but I feel like I've had it before..."

Not being able to identify that specific flavor is going to bother her for a little while, but not as much as hearing the exchange between Lilian, Echolalia, and Petra. Biting back an uncomfortable noise, she hems and haws on whether to actually say anything about that as opposed to just glancing over and struggling to come up with what to even say about all that. Before Odette can figure it out, though, Fae's in her pouty-bossy mode, and dshe both feels an intense sense of relief and shame at the same time.

Good thing Audrey's there to help Odette take her mind off that! "Preparing...? Oh, no, no.  I mean, I don't think so? I was just thinking that if something happened and we needed to get away from here fast, we'd need you in... You know. Good enough breathing shape to get out safely, right?" She half-asks, chuckling awkwardly a moment later while patting her medical case. "I don't think I've got anything here that could handle a dragon attack unless they politely decided to drink all my.. Um. My entire supply at once."

Niime's grumping brings Odette quite a bit of relief, too, and the EMT chuckles again while nodding at the old hermit. "Hehe... Alright, Missus Niime. Just don't be afraid to speak up if you see anyone struggling, okay? We're not all that tough yet."

On the way up, Odette actually tries some of the shortcuts Petra reveals. She's not bad at moving around, either, although she does seem distracted most of the time keeping an eye on the group. She has to be ready to Leap to anyone's aid, and that distraction does lead to a few close calls with jumps leading to a bruise or three from a botched landing.

At the top of the mountain, she takes a moment to breathe in all that air and relish the feeling of having reached the top of a walkable mountain, then takes a look at the strange indentation at the top. "What a strange shape... I guess it must've rained here a lot, yes. This kind of shape-" She pauses to touch the edge of the crater, peering off into the distant shortly afterwards to just admire the view.

"... Oh. Um. This kind of shape doesn't feel like it would've formed if something big just bit into it. So... I guess that's a good sign? O-or a safe one, anyway." She concludes, taking a slow walk along the edge to see what the view looks like from other sides of this mountain top. "At least it's nice and quiet up here... We would've ran into anything dangerous by now, right?"
Madeleine Cadrasteia     Madeleine smiles a little over Niime's comment on her name, and lets out an "Mmm" of interest as the mountain witch explains the basics of magic theory. "The self, the world... not an obvious alternative to those. Do you think..."

    A pause as she pokes at her cheek in contemplation. "Where I'm from, the world you or I would see is like a skin, and there's something underneath. Reaching through to that something can grant a lot of power, but there has to be a door, or a wound, in that skin for anything to come through. The easiest place to put that wound, if you want to always have it with you, is in yourself. I wonder if dark magic works like that, where it's reaching to something on the other side of what's 'real'. Almost makes me wish I were a better philosopher, so I could put the pieces together on this."

    Madeleine chuckles. "Course, I'm not going to crack the secrets of dark magic just by having a new perspective when you've been at it for decades. But I'm wondering now... how do you find out if someone's suitable as a dark mage? Sophia's said a mage would have to be... missing something. Is there a way to 'see' that, or does someone just have to try and learn the stuff and see if it clicks?"

    Sophia: "... This isn't a place where good things happen. I think..."

    "I'll do a round about the crater, see if I can find anything. Do you want to come along, Sophia? You might get a better sense of what's wrong if you're closer to it."

    "I... y-yes, I... might as well."

    Madeleine gently beckons for Sophia to follow her, and sets off around the permieter of the crater. "Step where I step," she says, "and whistle if your feeling about this place changes or gets worse." She moves at a walking pace, placing her feet carefully, utterly silent to normal ears despite the rocks and gravel all around and quickly vanishing from sight too as she takes cover among the foliage and boulders. At some point her spear found its way into her hands.
Lilian Rook     'Then I guess most kids grow up into bad adults,'

    Lilian sighs, then half-murmurs, "I wasn't going to say it."

    'I wouldn't say *most*, but... childhood is childhood because it has an end, right?'

    "People tend to use the trueism that everything must end eventually, for the alternative is infinity, all the time, for all sorts of things where it's convenient to limit and simplify access to the truth." Lilian says, with the kind of forward-staring tone of methodical airiness that usually accompanies her thinking about something for a while; not on the spot like this. "You've read plenty of books, haven't you? Every chapter within the book ends, but also, the book as a whole ends. When you finish reading, you say that you've 'finished the book', not 'finished reading up to the end of the last chapter', don't you?"

    "When I was your age, I could hardly stop reading. That distinction, merely semantic to everyone else, would often keep me up at night. That chapter one ends, only for chapter two to contain all of chapter one within itself anyways; that just the words 'chapter two', on their own, silently promise that everything which happened before was real and true." She cuts off with a little puff. "Beg pardon; I'll spare you my belabouring."

    'Lilian's right, though. Things going well so far means they're less likely to keep going well.'

    Despite the cringe embarrassment of sharing slightly more than the intended amount of her innermost thoughts and feelings a moment ago, Lilian preens a little. Petra already has the art of carefully reframing anything that might sound like a disagreement well in hand, so she isn't smug at Petra; just generally energy positive at being agreed with. Petra is even being a meangirl Heatherlet at Echolalia; just as it should be! Thea is thus promoted to honourary Heatherlet B, and Lilian unconsciously moves to something like V formation between them. "While that's true, Petra, it's because we're consistently pursuing sources of excellent information, with many talented scouts and scholars at our disposal."

    'It's simple. 'Light' spells draw on the power of your soul. 'Anima' spells draw on the magic of the world. And'

    Lilian quietly startles, as if struck by something. Her steps hitch-halt just long enough for Niime to nearly catch up, then pick back up again at marching pace.

    "If light magic draws from your soul, the soul is a radiant thing that casts light. And dark is 'the lack of' light. Isn't it? So . . ." Lilian quietly chews on her lip for a moment. "Dark magic draws on where there is no light of the soul anymore, doesn't it? If 'the self', itself, is light, you can only create darkness by being rid of it. That's why people . . . that's why they'd gain power from sacrifice, I suppose."

    Lilian trails off uneasily. As if Niime's snooty dismissal of the layman's description were actually something revelatory and disturbing.

    "Missed you too, Fae." Lilian smiles, warming herself back up again from the cold. "It's a promise. And I've never broken a promise in my life."

    'You'll have to forgive an old woman for not warming up faster.'

    "I think it's more understandable for an old one than a young one." Lilian says, cryptically. "Being young means it's your duty to give everything the world a chance, or a try. Being old means it's your duty to remind people that the world won't change its ways just for them."
Petra Soroka "Then I guess most kids grow up into bad adults,"

    "Yeah..." Petra's agreement is subdued as she accepts Thea's hand up the cliffside. "I'm always saying this. I mean, if most adults are bad, that's the only thing that *can* be true. But I don't think it's unavoidable."

"I'm sorry her what?"

    "Her--" Petra waves her hand at Fae, gesturing towards the dragonstone. It feels weird to say 'she transforms into a dragon', because, of course, she already *is* one! Petra won't risk a racially insensitive remark to a child (today), so instead she points at her compact mirror. The term 'bigness' has kind of caught on for how she thinks about the Beauty of Ash, too. "You know, like mine."

"But at least we could leave them a letter about Arcadia, right? I bet they'll be so happy to find out!"

    Petra thinks the suggestion of 'just leaving a letter somewhere and hoping' through with more consideration than is probably necessary. "You know... Bern already knows about Arcadia. The average person doesn't, but when the end of the war comes around, it's only a matter of time until they do already. Someone living alone might just *never* hear about it without being specifically told. So it seems like it has more upsides than risks, to do that?"

"That doesn't read as mean to you?"

    "Hahh? No?" Petra's automatic aggro-stance towards Echolalia is thrown off a little bit by the unexpected response. She's rearing up to go on another tirade, probably about how Echolalia is such a loser normie for thinking everything Lilian says is mean and also for being a freak so Lilian is justified in being mean to her, but then...

"Lalia isn't an 'alien'! She belongs here. And Fae likes her."

    Petra sighs and droops, immediately cut down by Fae and helpless to protest. "You're right, Fae. Sorry for being mean to your friend."

"While that's true, Petra, it's because we're consistently pursuing sources of excellent information, with many talented scouts and scholars at our disposal."

    She brightens up again at being engaged with by Lilian, even being lasso'd in to stick nearby the group by her constant attention. Her excess of energy still has to go somewhere, though, and if she isn't clambering and running, she might get cold, so she ends up venting it by adding half-skips to her walk cycle.

    "That's right, that's right. And this isn't really something we were pursuing 'on purpose', so it's a 'rumor' instead of a 'mystery'."

"But everything I've ever seen says dragons are destruction given flesh."

    "I think it's so cool to be destruction given flesh. I'd love to be destruction given flesh," Petra confesses, probably unhelpfully. "And Fae and Sophia are, like, two of the sweetest people ever, anyways. Have you seen Fae transformed yet? She's, like, a big feathery bean. Give it time; you'll love her."
Desire Stars It's only gotten Thea to be harder on me, though.

    That starts a complex mix of emotions on Neon's face. It starts at an understanding, empathetic smile, then a deer-in-the-headlights kind of dread, and finally darkens into a resigned frown which she doesn't bother hiding. "She only has one of you," Neon says with a sigh. "And now that she's almost lost you, she's going to be more protective."

    "I've been in that position--as a 'family treasure'--for... most of my life now. My feelings are telling me that you need to be patient with her and understand it's because she loves you," she says. And then, the reason for the resigned frown: "But my... lived experience tells me that there are times where that's going to be really hard, because she'll look at you and see her little sister instead of a pegasus knight."

    "I wish I could take those two things and give you some advice. But... I haven't even really figured it out myself. All I can do is offer to listen to you," she admits. "Whenever it gets hard to put on that brave face."

Shanna, lend me your eyes.

    Neon gives Shanna an encouraging thumbs-up and a gentle pat on the shoulder.
Flamel Parsons     "You'd never see a swordsman slice away the clouds, would you?"
    "You've *gotta* meet Rutger." Flamel mutters as he stops for a quick sippy.

    "The stories said they only show up in blizzards!"
    Flamel... squints at that. "Huh... Maybe there's something more to *that*, though. Something with the weather... that could be important, maybe." He considers that as he continues his wandering.

    Eventually, he finally wanders to the edge of the caldera, and looks down. "Huhhh... Here, I bet, we could do just a little flight." Flamel advises. "Stay mostly below the rim and you probably can't be seen well. I'll try psychic surveying, but someone else is probably gonna have better luck finding the cave!" He's setting up gear on fancy tripods, spinny dishes and elaborate antennae all bleeping and pinging and sweeping their sensors over the whole of the crater. But if there's not much in the way of minds moving through here recently, significantly, or regularly, then there won't be much to find. He'll have to depend on the others!

    "Do you suppose the dragon made this crater?"
    "I sure can't imagine the wind and the rain doing it." Flamel says to Audrey, thoughtfully. "Though maybe something with underground magma. Something in the far past, though -- modern magic doesn't do that, or even modern dragons."

    "At least it's nice and quiet up here... We would've ran into anything dangerous by now, right?"
    "Oh, no, if we go into a cave that's the biggest danger zone. Nobody's meant to be underground, that's not where people belong." Flamel says, in a cheery tone. "*Very* deadly there. This is the much less risky part!"

    "...Silently promise that everything which happened before was real and true."
    "She's actually right! I go in there sometimes," Flamel pipes up from one of his machines. "And every time I've had any reason to look, I've been able to find an inner child, a construct of the inner rings of the tree of the mind. And in fact, a *lot* of psychological processes are handled by that guy! Did you know? Pretty much any of your moods after 11 PM or before 9 AM are directly made by the inner child."

    "I think it's so cool to be destruction given flesh. I'd love to be destruction given flesh."
    "Four and a half hours. And you were using your phone for at least fifteen minutes before it." Flamel mutters in a cheery tone, inexplicably, not even turning to Petra.
Petra Soroka "Nobody's meant to be underground, that's not where people belong."

    Can Petra think of any counterexamples? Angela was underground most of her life, but that was very notably bad for her. Does Petra have a particular attachment to going in caves? Not really! They're kind of scary!

    Petra concludes, "That's probably true. If someone finds the cave on their own, they shouldn't go in until other people are with them."

"Four and a half hours. And you were using your phone for at least fifteen minutes before it."

    "Huh? What? Four and a half hours of what??" Petra narrows her eyes at Flamel, feeling inexplicably insulted even though she has no clue what he's referring to.
Lilian Rook     "Sleep." Lilian says, automatically, at Petra. A moment later, she follows it with "I presume." in an unsure-hesitant way, then turns to look at her, startled-suspicious.

    'And in fact, a *lot* of psychological processes are handled by that guy! Did you know? Pretty much any of your moods after 11 PM or before 9 AM are directly made by the inner child.'

    "God that explains so much . . ." Lilian murmurs.

    'I've been in that position--as a 'family treasure'--for... most of my life now. My feelings are telling me that you need to be patient with her and understand it's because she loves you'

    Lilian opens her mouth, breathes in harshly, then shuts it.
Audrey Basque "I mean, I don't think so? I was just thinking that if something happened and we needed to get away from here fast, we'd need you in... You know. Good enough breathing shape to get out safely, right?"

    "Oh! I see. I'll endeavor not to be disabled first if something happens, then," Audrey answers Odette, which is about the best she can promise. She can't imagine this crowd wanting to *escape*, though, so it doesn't seem like it's much of a real concern to have.

"You know, like mine."

    Audrey mhms, grasping the meaning perfectly. It's not like it's a complex thing to explain-- but her words are crystal clear right now anyway.

"I sure can't imagine the wind and the rain doing it."

    "I guess I'd rather it be a volcano or a meteor than the dragon we're actively looking for," she says, "But now that I've said that..."

"Four and a half hours."

    Audrey blinks, looking between Flamel and Petra like she's missing out on an important anecdote about some kind of Petra rampage.
Petra Soroka "Sleep. I presume."

    Petra opens her mouth and then hesitates and averts her eyes. "Uh-- I mean, I guess, I didn't get to bed *early* last night. But he can't tell that. I didn't-- I don't think I used my phone right before sleeping."
Marigold      "... how would you describe it, broadly, if that's inaccurate?"
     "the world you or I would see is like a skin, and there's something underneath."
     "And dark is 'the lack of' light. Isn't it? So . . ."
     "Hah! You're all smarter than you look," Niime says. "I think. These old eyes don't work so well."

     But she clears her throat while toddling over to a comfy-looking mossy rock, near the plateau's northern edge. "That's quite right. Dark magic isn't about sacrifice, girl; it's about absence. Me, I've always fancied I can see that gap in someone's eyes. When God, or Mother Earth and Father Sky, or whoever-you-like made the human soul- what do you think they made it from? Where do you think they made it?"

     "If human souls don't touch," she adds with emphasis, "what do you think the space between them is?"

     "That- ahh-" Marcus wordlessly steadies her back as she sits down, and she sighs her appreciation. "That, now, is an infinite well of power. But how to understand it when you are the 'light'? How to channel it through yourself?"

     She clucks her tongue, and her eyes twinkle. "Humans have found a hundred answers. Bramimond's is still the best. 'Extinguish yourself, and become an almighty nothing'. Now, isn't that tempting?"

     It's hard to tell if she's being sarcastic or not.
Marigold      Fae goes from seeing Petra as a center of agitation to a friend in need of comfort in an eyeblink, and trundles her round self over to wrap her arms around Petra's waist and smoosh her face into Petra's side. "Mmmm! Fae likes it when you use your 'bigness' for games too! Sparkly and pretty. This is a good place for playing. Fae thinks we should get everyone for it, later?"

     Then she's hustle-waddling back over to give Echolalia company, too.

     "Have you seen Fae transformed yet? She's, like, a big feathery bean."
     "Hmph. I've seen it," Niime says in Petra's direction, failing to deny the cuteness. "But she's a child. What do you think she'll be like when she's grown? You said it yourself. Plenty of good kids become bad adults."

     Sophia is content to let her 'elder' (ver. half her age) do the dark magic expositing, but startles a little and shakes her head at Audrey: "No, um... mountains are big even for dragons... and the texture's wrong. When dragons built things, a long time ago... the elder says they made the rock soft, and sculpted it... but this granite's smooth."

     Sophia nod-nods for Madeleine, concern making her unusually emphatic, and follows along. That leaves Roy standing at the perimeter still, with Shanna hesitating to follow the witch and Thea in formation behind Lilian.

     "You've read plenty of books, haven't you? Every chapter within the book ends..."
     Roy puts a finger to his lips and looks down, chewing on this in silence until Lilian cuts herself off. "No-- no, you weren't 'belaboring' anything. What you mean to say is..."

     He struggles for a second, but then looks up with a searching half-confidence. "... childhood never really ends, because 'who we were' is always with us. Is that it?" His face scrunches a little. "That sounds right, but I'm not sure whether I like it or not."

     "Why not? I'd like an excuse for my childish moments," Thea says earnestly, while Shanna slips away. "No, that's not quite what I mean. I'm sorry." "Hmmm." "I mean... when I was little, I was dumb and irresponsible. My mother couldn't even trust me with- well, with anything. I don't want to still be that at all."

     Shanna wanders far enough towards the witch to be out of earshot while Thea's talking to Roy, and gives Neon a lips-pressed-reservedly nod while doodling at the ground with her spear.

     "A 'family treasure'... I'm really sorry, Neon. *I* think you're really cool. I thought that even before you saved my life, too," she weakly jokes. "I just... I know Thea loves me, but why can't she respect me? She got to mess up without someone breathing down her back. Can't I?"

     She deflates with a steadied, warmed sigh when Neon pets her shoulder, makes herself brighten back up, and then hustles to Niime. "Sorry, granny! Coming!" "What was that?? "Uh, sorry, Niime!!"
Marigold      Niime by now has settled in with a piece of paper and a pen, sketching out the terrain. "Good. Now, eyes over there. Is that a river?" "It is! Oh, and there's one more past it, too." "Drat." "Niime, can't I draw the map?" "Nonsense. I've handled more ink than you ever will."

     While Shanna tries to bum binoculars-or-something off of Odette, Niime lets out a sharp little laugh at Nobunaga's posing. "Hah! My! Look at you strut, girlie. I hope you don't think I'll be drawing a portrait of you. You seem like the sort of person who's got enough."

     About her imprisonment, she shakes her head and clucks her tongue. "Oh, I was with Bern for a couple of months. Not long enough. I'd have liked to stay undercover as 'one of them' longer to do more research... ah, but I can't complain for your rescue. They were starting to press me to make myself useful; there's nothing I hate more."

     Echolalia's geo-sensing- if she can keep it up with Fae trying to hang off her shoulders like a garland- turns up no movement, but she does find just one un-flooded cave that could conceivably house something Fae's size or bigger, almost exactly opposite them along the rim. Flamel's psychic equipment detects nothing for a while; then abruptly squeals with negative feeling... near where Sophia went with Madeleine.

     "Worse... worse... better?... worse," she murmurs, following along in Maddie's footsteps. "Bett-- bad. Really, really ba--!!"

     You wouldn't see it until you're almost on top of it. Nearly hidden behind a boulder, there's a dark cave along the rim, nearly ten feet high. Light doesn't penetrate far into it.

     Just visible inside is the gleaming of a pile of great bones.
Madeleine Cadrasteia     Madeleine stops short at the cave entrance, Sophia in tow. There's a long moment where she just stares straight ahead, taking in the sight as her eyes adjust to the darkness. How long have these remains lain here, picked clean by birds and sheltered from wind and rain? She looks to Sophia, murmurs something along the lines of "What should we say?", and slowly reaches for her radio. Then, a little more confidently, but still in a tone that's like she's trying to convince herself, "They'll want to know exactly what we found."

    Clicking onto the local channel, she reports the find as delicately as she can manage: "Something used to live here. It's just bones now."

    Then, placing the radio back on her belt, she looks to Sophia. "Do you think we should go inside? There- maybe they left something for people to find." A pause. Then, slowly building the case for curiosity: "The more we know about the Scouring, the better. And dragons this far east would have a different picture of it than Arcadia." She motions halfheartedly toward the cave, unsure how affected Sophia might be by the sight.
Nobunaga > "I hope you don't think I'll be drawing a portrait of you."

    Nobunaga doesn't miss the sharp reaction to 'Granny'. Immediately she tables her own habit of nicknames before she had a chance to use it. Instead, when complimented, she laughs. "It comes naturally to me; I've been at this for a long time." Turning slightly, she casts a look across the crater at the bumbling of some of the Nobbu. One's fallen into the water and another struggles to fish it out using their rifle.

    "The quality of my troops was a bit more consistent back then, though." She lets out a little sigh, "No, I had no expectation of pictures. You've got work to do, after all."

> "Oh, I was with Bern for a couple of months. Not long enough."

    "Ah ha," Closing her eyes, Nobunaga cradles her chin with her free hand in a thoughtful pose, "I was wondering if this mountaintop might have been yours, but it seems my intuition led me astray this time. I appreciate getting the story straight, thank you."

    She pauses, glancing back across the crater, blinking several times. Each time she blinks, the attentive might notice the big white circle eyes of the various Nobbu flickering to red one at a time, only lasting until she blinks again.

--

    Out where Madeleine and Sophia explore, one of the remaining Nobbu has joined them. It's pulled the bayonet off its rifle and, with the gun slung, uses the sword to blaze a trail (such as it's not really necessary). The little trooper doesn't notice the hidden cave at all until it's literally fallen inside with a surprised Nobu--!

    After a moment in the dark, the big white eyes become visible. There's some rustling, the strike of a match and a little flare of firelight. Before long, the Nobbu now holds up a little iron lantern, glancing back up at the entrance right when the eyes flicker-flick to red. Only then does it turn around, holding the lantern up.

    Hooh~?
Echolalia ''What do you think she'll be like when she's grown? You said it yourself==''

"Well if you act like it's prophecy, then you can't complain when they return to take your sign." Echolalia murmurs. "I hope you help her become a good adult."

She's murmuring because it DOES take a lot of focus from her to do this, especially since looking for a 'cave' is a bit different from what she's accustomed to and she's doing her best to not indicate that Fae IS pretty distracting in that regard, but she smiles all the same as she comes over, hanging off of her.

"Ahhh, you're a sweetheart, Fae, always seeking to heal those around you." Echolalia says. "That's the Way. I shouldn't have lost my temper. All the best martial artists only lose their temper at cruel acts towards others, not because they're feeling grumpy and lonely. That's how you know they're strong."

She brightens. "Ah! Found something--maybe a new buddy is hanging out over there, but let's not rush--we wouldn't want to spook anyone hiding out here, we're a pretty big crowd!"

She starts leading Fae to the cave, oblivious.

"Anyway, not everyone is always gonna be nice. And maybe it's not always easy to see what ''nice'' is--but I hope you always believe in your own strong heart so that even if people are mean, you can stretch up, dust yourself off, and continue doing your own thing."

She squints towards the dark cave and--just as she sees what's just visible in there she stops suddenly and shifts a little to grab Fae's hands.

"Ah...Sorry, Fae. Maybe we should stay back here."
Lilian Rook     'Me, I've always fancied I can see that gap in someone's eyes.'

    Lilian absentmindedly looks away.

    'what do you think the space between them is?'

    "The world. Not any of the things in it, but the . . . substrate of it. The thing that decides that everything outside of you doesn't work the same as what's inside your head and your heart. And it's very, very big, while humans are very small."

    Lilian chances a very sideways look at Marcus to smile and silently appreciate his effort.

    "I see now, why Dark Magic is so rare." she says to Niime. "More than because of its reputation, or because people hate 'sacrifice'-- rather, I have to imagine that sacrifice is the most popular way to try and cast it, if you must." She ends her sentence there, a complete though on its own, before finding herself inexorably dragged back to it.

    "Because otherwise you'd need a part of you to not be 'yourself' any longer. You can't just be hurt, because pain is part of ourselves too; we learn lessons and draw strength from it all the time. Suffering to earn it would be a paradox. It'd have to be . . ." Lilian exhales slowly, letting her shoulders slump under her cloak, and changing her answer to something that grazes it on purpose. "Something that no one who has it wants, and that everyone who wants it shouldn't."

    'Now, isn't that tempting?'

    "Perhaps once in a while."

    Fortunately, it's impossible for Lilian to stay in a moody-reflective state for very long with Fae around. She is simply filled with too much joy and hope for the future. The subject of her full-grown nature causes Lilian to wave her hand, and say "Does it matter? Practically everyone here will be dead by then; and all the more reason to give her as much love as we can now."

    'That sounds right, but I'm not sure whether I like it or not.'
    'I don't want to still be that at all.'

    "You're very much on the right track." Lilian says to Roy, in that approving mentorly way. "But chapters and book-ends are different. Once you reach the back cover, the text is locked in stone. Everything that happened, happened. But until then, each new chapter allows the writer to reframe, recontextualize, or even reveal new information about a previous chapter. The last one ended, to give you a complete and clear understanding of 'how things were at that time', but it's not the kind of ending 'everything must have'. It's the sort of ending where it becomes something you have to keep, but that you're allowed to use as you wish."

    "That's why I'm not very fond of 'it has to end' as a point of view. People who try too hard to close the back cover on their past, including their childhood, lose a lot just to gain a weak explanation for why they feel hollowed out by it. I think that your childhood is like the first two chapters of someone else's work. You're stuck with it now, because it's over, but you can still continue the rest of the book from it; and it should be your goal to do so, rather than throw them out and try to start a new book from chapter three."

    This, too, is almost about Dark Magic. Just a little bit.

    'They were starting to press me to make myself useful; there's nothing I hate more.'

    "I see. So you're the type who prefers the purity of the artform, and aren't so enthusiastic about the materialist applications." Lilian says, one-fifth joking about it, and overall warm. "No wonder."
Flamel Parsons     Flamel briefly stops in his descent down into the crater. He pauses, about to take an order for someone to keep Fae company. But then his mind sparks, and he turns to see -- "Thanks, 'Lalia." He mutters, briefly. "Need to do something important." Then he dashes off, running as fast as he can. There's something *important* to do...

    He skids levitatingly against the snow when he gets to the boulder, and then hard-turns into the cave. His answer to Madeline is quick and eager. "There's *always* something left to find." He explains, and he moves in. He holds back, of course, long enough for others to feel their somber moment, their minute of respect for a corpse found in the wilderness. But he's *very* focused, even while being awestruck. "Wait. Before we go, or give up..." He moves inside, planting two fingers on his temple and brandishing two towards the bones, trying to trace lightly along their surface.

    Psychometry. "A dragon of this size was likely killed during the Scouring, when they could maintain this size constantly. And they had a statistical probability of having been killed by a Divine Weapon, likely a *regionally-specific* Divine Weapon." His skull gleams with forceful psychic analytics. "And in that, encoding the psychic signatures of that weapon into the bones." He explains as he goes. "If I can find a trace... there *might* be something useful here. A clue to find the current state of a Divine Weapon in this area, if there are any! This can't *all* be a waste..."
Audrey Basque "No, um... mountains are big even for dragons... and the texture's wrong. When dragons built things, a long time ago... the elder says they made the rock soft, and sculpted it... but this granite's smooth."

    "Oh. That actually sounds kind of cool to watch, actually. Was that just something all dragons could do, or did they have dedicated builders and architects like we do?"

'Extinguish yourself, and become an almighty nothing'.

    Audrey listens to Niime and Lilian talk souls and light; it's hardly her field, but it's still interesting. "I guess it depends what 'becoming nothing' means. No longer being 'me' in exchange for more magic doesn't seem like a fantastic trade, unless there's something I could only, exclusively, do through this magic." Narrow-minded, though.

    Audrey either lacks imagination or breadth.

    "But I have to admit curiosity. And more often than not lately there might be times I'd be tempted."

    She stops, rubbing her face. "No, sorry. That's..." Honesty, clarity, or desperation? She decides to back off, towards Fae and Petra instead.

<J-IC-Scene> (NPC) Sophia says, "... Someone keep Fae company."
<J-IC-Scene> (NPC) Sophia says, "Please."
<J-IC-Scene> Petra Soroka sighs. "I'll stay with her, yup."

    Between the discovery of the dead dragon and the area not being immediately and threateningly cursed, Audrey has a brief hush hush with Petra, but then elects to do nothing for now. Later, maybe, once they're back down, or if Fae wants to play after all, she'll have something to contribute, but it seems for now she's at a loss--

"A clue to find the current state of a Divine Weapon in this area, if there are any! This can't *all* be a waste..."

    Until Flamel seems extremely excited about signatures and tracing and--

    "... I'll be right back," she tells Petra and Fae, before she disappears in a crackling mess of mirror shards and refractions, to stepping out of the same effect by Flamel.

    "You might be a genius. Let me help. It's not much, but I can perform divination. On its own it might not be enough information to go off of but with multiple different kinds of readings..."

    Her divinations are frequently too vague, but this is basically like triangulation. She sits down, by the dragon's skull, taking her cloak off to lay it down on the ground and consult it like a star chart (which the inside is!).
Odette Raskins "*Very* deadly there. This is the much less risky part!"

Odette's smile actually holds steady, but in that cracking dreading-behind-the-eyes sort of way. ""Ah... I-I see. Well, then it won't... Ruin the view up here, at least." She tries to force a chuckle, but it just sounds incredibly forced as the dread starts to build once again.

"I'll endeavor not to be disabled first if something happens, then,"

"Thanks, Miss Audrey... Hhh. At least that'll be a good fallback if the cave really is as dangerous as Mister Flamel said." Odette flashes Audrey another one of those uneasy smiles while still grasping at straws to try and keep her mood in check.

Watching Fae shuffle about does help with that quite a bit, but only for a little while. What really takes her attention off that lingering fear of getting fried, though, is overhearing Shanna's flub while addressing Niime. She inhales sharply like she's just choked on something, turning away quickly to recompose herself and try not to look at Shanna immediately afterwards.

She's still a little giggly by the time Shanna comes over to borrow the binoculars that Odette conveniently remembered to bring for once. "Just gotta roll that bit up top to change how much it zooms in... Oh. You can twist the front a little to adjust the focus, too." She explains, taking in a dep breath to compose herself again. She's curious to see where Shanna's looking with those, and she squats as needed so she doesn't get in the way!

"It's a real nice view up here. Almost has me wishing the gravity was low enough to float around. Oh, but then everyone would definitely need their own air tanks, and proper suits and helmets..."  Odette muses while looking over at Shanna again, eyes widening after a moment. "Ah. Miss Shanna? When we get back to everyone else, do you think I could take notes on how you and your sisters practice?"

"Ah! Found something--maybe a new buddy is hanging out over there, but let's not rush"

Hearing Echolalia report on her findings has Odette forgetting to breathe for several seconds, clearly not sharing her enthusiasm. "I-is that so..? Um. Yeah, let's-yes. Let's be careful, everyone." She forces out anxiously, straining just to get full sentences out. Another swallow, and she remembers to actually start moving her feet to join the group heading into the cave!

Even Sophia's murmuring can't stop her from advancing, although Odette's knees are certainly shaking while she shuffles along. She keeps one hand free in case she needs to pull anyone back, but seeing the bones drains plenty of the color from the EMT's face once she realizes what she's looking at.

She looks back at Echolalia with Fae, back to the bones, then doubles back to join them and keep her word to Sophia. She's not sure what to say, though, to try and take Fae's mind off what she may or may not have already seen and heard. The best she can do is at least stand conveniently between Fae's line of sight and further in, to prevent accidental viewing if nothing else.

"It's... Um. It's not great in there. I don't know if you want to see it, no... Um. Do you want to head out, Fae? Miss Echolalia? Or..." She swallows lightly as she glances back once, then turns back to the two. "It's up you."
Petra Soroka "This is a good place for playing."

    "You're *so* right. I was thinking it too." It's hard to tell whether Petra is just saying that to vibe with Fae, or legitimately because she was already thinking about running around in the big flat caldera, but it could be either with her. She rubs the side of Fae's head affectionately when hugged, and only sighs a little bit about the indignity of keeping the peace for Fae's sake when she goes waddling off to someone Petra finds mildly annoying.

"No, um... mountains are big even for dragons... and the texture's wrong."

    Petra puts a hand on her hip and surveys the landscape. "Yeah, I mean, I know I was kind of, mythology and mystery posting just a minute ago, but... it kind of just seems like some old eroded volcano or some weird geological thing. I dunno."

"I mean... when I was little, I was dumb and irresponsible. My mother couldn't even trust me with- well, with anything. I don't want to still be that at all."

    "It's... yeah. Sorry." Petra, of all people, certainly can't be a source of reassurance on this for Roy. "I don't think growth is as, uh, easy or convenient as just replacing the bad things you were with the better things you are. I think, even if you work on yourself and even if you forget about the way you were, you're still kind of on the hook for it, since it exists inside you somewhere."

    "I mean, it's sort of the-- the thing Lilian and Niime were talking about with the, dark magic and stuff. Your soul is 'substance', and everything that makes up you goes into it, whether you want it to or not, whether that means your childhood, or your mistakes, or the world around you. The only opposite to it is 'absence'. Every choice you make on purpose after childhood is because of your childhood, I think, and one of the ways that's true is that you have to work twice as hard for every mistake you've ever made in order to drown them out. I mean, look at Zephiel."

    Petra isn't particularly skilled at cave-searching, so when they crest to the plateau, Petra peacefully wanders around where Niime is making her map and Fae is tottering between her targets. Her thoughts are cloudily empty with pleasant thoughts of running around and exploring, and she gravitates back towards Audrey by unconscious habit. Eventually the radio buzzes, and Petra's interpretation of Sophia's premonition is proven correct.

<J-IC-Scene> (NPC) Sophia says, "... Someone keep Fae company."
<J-IC-Scene> Petra Soroka sighs. "I'll stay with her, yup."

    With Fae especially, among all children and dragons, this requires a really delicate hand. Fae has... probably never known a dragon to die in her entire life, unless there was maybe a half dragon born a few centuries before her, and with how many *humans* she's known to 'leave her', this is maybe the most sensitive topic of the entire campaign. And so, given what led Fae to flee Arcadia and follow in the first place, Petra knows she can't lie or gloss over what Sophia found.

    Petra walks over to where Fae is and settles down in front of her, legs crossed on the granite. This would be a perfect time to bring up Wildfire again, but when she tries to say so, her voice catches in her throat and fails to make any sound, so she moves on without mentioning it.

    "... Hey, Fae. There's something sad over in that cave, and I don't really want to look, so it'd make me happy if we stayed away from it together. But you're smart, so I'm not gonna lie to you. There *was* a dragon here, a long, long time ago, maybe even before *you* were born. But it looks like they went away, to the place where all the humans and everyone else goes when they're all done in the world. It's nothing scary, but it's a little sad, and I'll stay here with you, alright?"
Marigold      Roy, for the moment blissfully oblivious to what's happening by the cave, follows Lilian over to Niime. "It doesn't feel very good," he says, chewing on her words, "to have 'lost time'. It feels like everyone else is ahead of me, and I'm still... filling a hole. Do you ever feel like that? ... But you're right. There's nothing for it but to keep trying, even if I hate it."

     Niime gives him A Look, and gives Lilian one too. "Hahaaa. You've at least halfway got it, girlie. Believe it or not, when I was younger, I used to be a lot like Sophia! Or maybe like you. That's how I've got the knack."

    Audrey asks what 'sacrificing yourself' means, and Niime makes a fake-thinking shrug before going back to her drawing. "Almost any hole will do, child. Drill out your memories. Cut away your feelings. Scrub out that inconvenient thing they call an 'identity'. But you won't know what you had until it's gone; and then you won't care. See? Like doing surgery blind; and with every cut a little blinder. The only hard part is not to end up crazy and dead."

     She says it so casually. Unspoken is 'and that's why I don't touch the stuff'. Offhanded, for Lilian again: "Healing's just about the only use of magic I respect. Everything else is chest-thumping or a crutch. You can tell anyone I said that."

     The old knight Marcus, after returning Lilian's nod, watches the little soldiers drowning with an air of... professional concern. "Their quality is, ah... pardon me. I'll be right back," he says. Niime scoffs sympathetically, and then corner-eyes Nobunaga with a glint: "Of course this isn't my mountain. Mine's the most beautiful and regal mountain in all Ilia. There'd be no mistaking it, if you saw it."

     It'd be exactly like any other mountain, Nobunaga can tell. Old people just say things like this.
Marigold      "'The Way'... Fae's a 'martial artist' now? Thanks, Lalia!" Oh, no. "And a healer..."

     Fae, like all children, is drawn to commotion and excitement- so of course she toddle-hustles over towards the cave with Echolalia. When Echo stops, she obliviously tugs on her hand to keep pulling her along; then when Petra intercedes, she starts to weave around her without waiting for her faltering words; then Odette... well, three's a pattern.

     Finally, she looks up at the three adults around her with foggy building concern.

     "Is Petra okay? Fae's worried. Did Fae do something wrong?" she says, evidently associating that pained gentleness with being a little in trouble. She looks at Echolalia with confusion- "Why stay? Fae wants to see what they're seeing!"- and then back to Petra with a fretful tenderness. Her little wings draw in, defensively.

     Her little face goes through exactly the cascade of feelings you'd hope it wouldn't, as Petra explains. "A dragon... there was a dragon here? A nice one? But they...?" Left her. Left her before they could even know her. "It's... that's not... fai-ir. To get done with the world... without... but, dragons aren't supposed to..."

     Hot, wet, messy feelings slosh around inside her tiny heart for a little while. Her face is downturned with her hands balled up now, but it's still easy to see her eyes watering, never quite spilling over.

     "... b-but you want Fae to be brave, right? And okay? Even if dragons leave me... there's people who never, ever will. So I'll be okay." She reaches up and hugs as many people as she can with her stubby arms, which is maybe two.

     "So... don't be sad, Petra. Don't be sad, Lalia. I'm strong, too."
Marigold      As Flamel crouches by the skeleton with psychic apparati gleaming in his head, and Audrey lays out her cloak, Sophia- paling, hand over her mouth to hold in a gag- steps forward and crouches down too. She's not far from a healer after all.

     The bones aren't clean. It'd be easier if they were. Half the skin is mummified gray-brown, stretched tautly over bones like a ragged cobweb. The thinning scales have lost their shine. Enough ligaments remain to lash it together into shape, once the size of a small house.

     Sophia puts her hand reverently on the upper jaw, like she's laying it to sleep.

     "The front left leg is broken. I don't see other wounds." Where did she get this tone?
*Hungry. Hot-cold. Aching,* Flamel senses.
(Ænir. Their name was Ænir,) Audrey reads.
"Full-blooded adult dragon of the Ice Tribe. Probably a woman."
*My children. Where are my...?*
(This is a star-crossed love story.)
"From the bones and teeth, I think three-thousand or five-thousand years old."
*That's right. They stayed in the Otherworld. I...*
(She had a gentle life. Perhaps a cowardly one.)
"No old fractures or scars. I don't think she fought in the Scouring."
*Regret. Regret. It's so pointless.*
(But loving someone so different from you is brave, isn't it?)
"Cause of death... probably infection or starvation."
*I shouldn't have come back.*
(A love like that is always ill-fated. She still chose it.)
"If there was a fight, she wouldn't have stayed in the cave."
*The humans here are kind, but...*
(She just didn't expect to be the one to leave a human grieving.)
"It'd take a lot to break her leg. Maybe a boulder fell... or in human-form, she..."
*There's nothing in this world for us anymore.*
(Fate killed her.)
"... but I just don't know. I'm sorry. Maybe... it doesn't matter."
*Don't follow me. Please...*
(In a way, it's pointless. Senseless.)
"Maybe she did help travelers. If she'd known about Arcadia, then..."
*Nothing at all.*
(But in another, isn't this exactly what she was braced for?)

     Sophia is quiet for a little while after that, with her back to everyone else. Her fingers avoid the cobweb of freezedried skin, but they brush bone tenderly.

     "I'm sorry..." she says, to no-one at all.
Audrey Basque "Almost any hole will do, child."

    Don't make it more tempting than it already is, Niime. Audrey'd give almost anything to be able to obliterate the parts of her that are rotten, and the feeling only grows stronger the closer she stands to Petra.

    Which makes it quite convenient she walked off, for now, to tend to an old dragon's remains and try to get something out of it.

Ænir.

    Audrey relays her findings as she can; the first is the hardest, by far.

    "It's been... such a long time since I've seen that symbol. Hoenir? No, that's wrong... Haenir? A bit off. I think... Aenir? I see... life, mostly peaceful. There's love, but it's... fated, and like a knife. It hurt her, in the end, but I don't think it was betrayal. Pointlessness, but also... acceptance? No, no, that's-- more like resignation?"

    She fidgets with the cloak quite a bit.

    "This is hard. I guess missing stars don't help."

    One detail that bugs her; irregularities, a pair of binary stars that aren't alike one another at all, centered in patterns of fate and love.

    "She was in love with a human, maybe."

    She relaxes her stance, slumping back a bit.

    "That's most of what I can glean. I guess... it confirms your analysis, Sophia. This... really isn't a place where good things happen," she echoes her and Lilian. "Sorry. At least... we know a bit more."