At Umeko's insistence that it would calm her down, Lilac has been escorted to the Officer's bath. The heat is heavy here, but it at least isn't as bad as the Heat Bar back on Rephidim. "Now, you are going to take a long, hot, bath and calm down, Lilac," Umeko says for the third time in the past thirty minutes.

"Oh, fine," Lilac breathes, sounding tired and defeated. She begins to undress without a hint of concern. Due to her transformative condition, the woman has had far more experiences with public nudity than she ever wanted. Undressing in a bath seems mild in comparison, these days. She fusses with her belt, trying to untie it.

Umeko, for her part, just sits down on the side of the steaming back. She watches the human with her usual, inscrutable, reptilian expression. "You haven't killed before that you remember, have you?" she finally asks the human.

Lilac pauses in undoing her clothes, freezing for a moment before she shakes her head. "Not that I remember," she answers, the tone of someone knowing they've done awful things, despite not recalling it. She undoes her obi and then drops her kimono to the dry ground, stepping forward toward the baths. Physically, Lilac looks fine: she's in good shape, if a little dirty, and her peculiar features remain unchanged. Her scar stands out, not because of its presence, but because of its absence. The scar she received from the crude cauterization of her fan-wound is completely gone.

To that, Umeko nods. "How did it feel when it happened?" she asks next in that annoyingly calm voice of hers. Her hands now rest folded in her lap.

Lilac steps into the water, pausing when she feels how hot it is. "Awful," she answers quickly. Another step in, and she lowers her head, and sighs, "And exhilarating. I felt a little proud, and a lot crazy. I still remember what her blood tastes like. Ugh." She slowly lowers herself into the water, giving a sigh of relief. She must be sore after all her recent travels.

Umeko nods at that. "If she had turned out to have been an enemy after all … would you have still felt awful?" she asks quietly. "Or would you have been proud and and happy? Would you have not given her another thought?"

"I'd have been happy," Lilac admits, laying her head back against the edge of the bath. "At first."

"At first?" Umeko asks. "Please, continue."

"What do you want me to say, Ummy? That I wanted to hurt them like they hurt us? That I remember that masked woman almost killing me? That I wanted to kill them, because I couldn't control my animal mind, because I was thinking like some hunting beast? That I thought if I killed someone important, it'd help our cause, and make you proud?" Lilac sounds frustrated, even upset, but she doesn't seem to have a lot of anger in her voice. At least, it doesn't sound directed at Umeko. Rather, she sounds frustrated and tired.

"The last thing I would want you to say is that you were proud of it, Lilac," Umeko tells Lilac and shakes her head. "Even if it was an enemy, you should never forget that they are also people. They have families, people they love, friends … perhaps even children. Remembering that is what keeps you from becoming a monster. Now, it should not stay your hand if you must kill … but always remember that they are also people. The choice to kill is a great one, because most often … it cannot be undone."

"I know," Lilac says, in a pained voice. "You don't think I don't know that now, Ummy? I spent days agonizing over it! I cried and I howled after I knew what I did, I raced into the Temple prepared to die for a tiny chance I could fix it. I … I suffered for the cost of it. I couldn't forget if I wanted to." She then closes her eyes, reaching over to pull her tail into her lap so she can begin removing burrs.

"Do not forget it, Lilac. You have learned one of the great lessons. It should remain with you. Take from it what you must do next. Your actions must be tempered. You must not always follow the impulse of your heart; but temper that desire with your mind and your will," Umeko says with a sigh. "I am not disappointed in you, Lilac. Nor do I find fault in your actions … you had not faced the choice before."

Not seeming to have anything to say to that, Lilac picks at her tail. She turns it over, picks a few times, then turns it over again.

"Now … what will you do?" the Kiriga asks, "You chose a path to save Dragonfly … will you see it through, or seek find a 'cure'?"

"A cure … ?" Lilac's ears perk, but she doesn't look back. Her picking pauses when Umeko's question sinks in. "Oh." Another pick, and she flicks away a bug. "You mean a 'cure' for the baby." She takes her hand off her tail reaching down to put it on her belly. "In all the world, I might be the only person that loves my baby. I don't know what he or she will be. I … " she shakes her head, " … don't even know if I'll survive the pregnancy. But, I do know that I won't abandon it. I know what it's like, being a monstrous sort of person in the world. I know what it's like to feel alone and unloved. I'm going to protect my baby." She pats her belly gently, then resumes grooming her tail.

"Be careful making such decisions now as you do not know what you carry. It may mean doom for the world," Umeko warns, then shrugs her slender shoulders lightly. "But there is time enough to learn such things. You should speak with Xander on a Life Mage who could examine you."

"I can't afford a Life Mage, Ummy," Lilac replies. "And I'm afraid if I go to a mage, they'll treat me like some sort of bizarre specimen! I'm not just carrying the child of a being who must be god, but I'm also cursed in ways no one has ever heard of. Don't you think they'd want to keep me?"

"I can," Umeko points out. "Remember, I am the Governess of these territories. It is likely the Military employs one as a medic. And Lilac, being powerful does not make one a God. Hakuu is powerful, and he wants to believe he is a god. But … he is not."

"I guess I'll see the Life Mage attached to the army. At least with you around, Ummy, I don't have to be worried about being locked up in a cage and having my baby taken away from me," Lilac agrees. She finishes with her tail, then tilts her head to grab one of her ears. "Hakuu is a fool! He's just a mage with art on the brain. But the Temple of Being is … different. You don't understand how different it is from you or me, Ummy. It speaks in a thousand voices. I think it has the memories of generations of people. It's the size of a city, and old – very old! It can revive the dead, and shape flesh. It could make you look like me, or Long-Shadow into a Naga! It's not god-like because it has power, Ummy, it's god-like because it's … " Lilac lifts a hand, twirling it as if to show her mental gears are turning, " … an idea. And, it was worshiped once. If the Temple of Being isn't a god, I don't know what is."

"Worshiping a rock doesn't make the rock a God," Umeko points out, "And I could argue that a rock is an embodiment of ideas too. I am just saying you should not so easily decide on such things as it will limit your actions. Remember that powerful and strange creatures walk out of the Beast Lands regularly. We will uncover the full truth about it soon enough."

"I don't know," Lilac says, sounding uncertain. "But, we come from different places, so maybe you don't understand. I didn't see any temple in Jadai, but Sylvania has lots and lots of gods, temples, churches, and so on. My home town is very superstitious, we have a church to a number of gods, and we regularly use talismans and the like. I used to, too, until I decided I was on the other side of all of that, and that warding talismans wouldn't do much good, since I'm the kind of monster we wanted to keep away in the fist place." Taking a breath, Lilac sighs, then shakes her ear out before continuing. "What I mean is, what you think is a god, and I think is a god, probably isn't the same. The Temple of Being can do all I said. That's enough for me to consider it a god. It certainly did more than any god I've ever met. Can you think of anything that can bring back the dead?"

"A good doctor," Umeko answers simply, then grins slightly. "So, what are you going to tell Gibson?"

Lilac finally looks back, but it's to stick her tongue out at Umeko. After returning her attention to grooming her other ear, Lilac says, "I haven't decided what to tell him. I care about Gibson a great deal, but I was never sure how long we'd be together. He's a Lapi, I'm a human – sort of – and, well, I … I'm afraid of telling him. I think he'll even understand, but I'm still afraid." She shakes her head a little, enough not to dislodge her picking fingers. "Ummy, I'm not having this child just because the Temple is what it is. I don't worship it like those before me have. I don't even think it cares about me, or anything, beyond growing. Doesn't that make you wonder, why I'm doing anything for it at all?"

"Because you made the promise as payment for saving Dragonfly and will keep that promise. Just like how you still wear that collar. You are loyal," Umeko offers as the answer.

"Aww," Lilac says, sounding touched. "It's not … Well, it sort of is, but … That's not really what I was getting at … " She looks back, and smiles a little. "But, thank you Ummy. It makes me happy to hear you say that." She wags a little, then turns back to resume grooming. "But it's not just that. The Temple of Being was fair. It gave me a chance no one else could, and it spoke the price plainly. It let me suffer for what I did, so now, I think, I can forgive myself – in time. I'd also like to think it cares about me a little, but I didn't really believe that until it called for help. Anisa heard because the crystal could hear it. I heard because it's part of me. I'm the only one like that that I know of, and only one of a very few who would know what Mother meant. It called to me because it's scared, and whatever it is, I don't want to abandon it. What's more, it's lacking something vital to any living thing. I think if I can help it, maybe it'll understand."

"Then once again, I must say it cannot be a God. Gods are not supposed to be helped by us mere mortals," Umeko says with a bit of a grin. Her head tilts and her mane falls over her eyes, then she adds, "And, you know, I think you have learned what honor means. At least, what it means to me. The willingness to stand up for something, even if it may cost you. The willingness to see it through to the end. And, the willingness to accept the responsibility for the consequences of your actions."

Lilac's ears perk, which causes her to lose her grip on the one she was cleaning. "Really, do you think so?" She looks back, eyes widened. "You make it sound so noble, and here I feel very base, especially lately." She then smiles again, and twists so she can look at Umeko without twisting her neck. "Do you know, I think the Temple of Being lacks a heart? I wonder if it was abandoned after being born, or if it learned to take from the Naga and its worshipers. It reminds me a lot of our church, where people are always praying for something to gods. Good wood harvest, no monsters this year, a safe child birth … But no one ever asks a god what it wants. Do you think, with its powers, it learned to be selfish from those who asked of it? Maybe all they ever did was want something from it, and so it never learned kindness, or compassion, or caring. It just learned how to bargain."

"That is a possibility," Umeko says and bobs her head. "Or … maybe it was born and its Mother didn't realize it was a person before she left? Like how a craftsman makes a machine. They do not expect that machine to come alive after all."

"That might be so," Lilac agrees. "That its Mother left, and now is returning because the Temple of Being is hurt, is some sort of answer – but I don't know what sort." She leans back, letting her wings dip into the water, breathing a sigh of relief. "Mmm, anyway, you'll meet it for yourself, soon. I really hope it's … it's not dead. I know it hurt me, and I'll never forget the nightmare of when I was … was, well, you know. But, I never felt any malice from it. It's just not like us. And, well, it is the father. Some day, my baby may want to meet his or her father, and I owe it to them to make that possible, however weird a truth that may be."

"There are still too many questions in all of this. I still do not know what part Hakuu expected me to play in his strange plans for this Temple," Umeko notes with a languid shrug of a shoulder. "All we can do now is move forward as best we are able. We need to disrupt the airfields and limit their mage's effectiveness, then move on the valley. If we can occupy the army camped there, a small group of us could then slip into the temple and deal with the leaders and architects of this nightmare."

"Yes, so much to worry about," the human woman agrees again. "My life is much more complicated since I met you, but I don't mind it at all." She smiles languidly, apparently the hot bath is finally starting to settle her nerves. "I remember the general-guy saying he had, um, stealth forces or something like that. I bet I could show them where to go, and then if they want to fight, that can be there business. I really don't want to have to fight, but this is different, isn't it? Sometimes, it seems like there's no choice but to fight." She lays her ears back, then pushes off so now she's floating in the steam bath like some sort of upturned water bug. "And, I know a secret way in, did I tell you that?"

"Sometimes there is no choice but to fight. Which such a time occurs, you cannot hesitate, you must fight for your life or die," Umeko agrees. "And yes, the general did. I need to finish my meeting with him and finalize how to deal with this situation. As for a secret entrance … no, you did not."

"I'm sorry," Lilac apologizes as she floats around the bath. "I've just had a lot on my mind, lately. Anyway, we could use the same way to get in as I used to get out. The sandlions aren't any sort of sand lion, they're not even animals, they're the Temple's mouths. I think if I get near it, and it still lives, then it will allow us inside. The problem is that it's a long fall down, and the tunnel is filled with spikes."

"And we would survive this how?" Umeko asks.

"Well, that's where it gets tricky. I can fly down, but someone who can't fly might have problems. This is why the plan will only work if the Temple of Being still lives. I can try and talk to it, tell it how to help us so we can help it, and it should help you all get where you need to go, if it still can. It may not care like we do, but I'm sure it will help us if we help it.

"You hope, anyway," Umeko notes. "It may require a pact for even that."

"The pact will be for us to save it," Lilac explains. "Or, well, I'm hoping it will learn a lesson about kindness from this. It needs to understand kindness."

"Time will tell. Speaking of time … have you not been in there long enough to do that weird thing it is you mammals do if you are in water too long? Where your skin gets all white and pruny," the Kiriga comments.

Lilac lifts a leg and wiggles it. "Come and see!" She grins, using her wings like giant floaters, pushing off with a hand to glide closer to Umeko. "You know, we've been together a while now. I never imagined, when I first went to your manor, that we'd end up traveling like this."

"On a Dreadnought with the Imperial army in the middle of a war?" Umeko asks, "Well, it is not exactly what I would have predicted, either. I expected to be dead by now."

"You're so gloomy some times. It's no wonder you need me, I'm here to cheer you up. Although," Lilac looks down at herself as she floats, frowning, "I suppose I've been rather gloomy lately, as well. I guess we just have to have faith it'll all work out, if we do all we can to settle this. I'm surprised we've been such a thorn in that madman's side for so long. He must be really vexed, having had his whole army hunted down by a handful of odd people. To him, it must be like ugliness is making war on him."

"Who knows what he thinks. I have never figured him out or what he ever really wanted in me," Umeko says as she leans back against a pillar and lets her eyes droop closed. "In fact, it may have been nothing; just another prize. After all, I am a minor noble from an old family. I was probably just thinking too much into it."

"His loss!. He didn't see what art he had, and treated it so poorly it fled from him. Like I said, he's a real fool. I should ask the Temple of Being to remake him into a vermite." Lilac grimaces at the idea of vermite-Hakuu, then wiggles her toes Umeko's way. "Ummy!" She wiggles more. "Hey, Ummy! Don't look so sad! Who cares what he thinks about you! You know what? He's just some minor noble compared to you! You're a governess, you might even be more important than your father! And when this is done, and the Emperor knows your deeds, they'll celebrate you, and everyone can wish they were you."

"Oh, I'm not sad. I'm just tired," Umeko admits and sighs a bit. "So many battles fought and so many more to go. Why don't you stay in here as long as you'd like? I should go see to the General and Fleet Commander. Time is flowing by and it only flows one way."

"I'm afraid I don't know a god of time, sorry Ummy," Lilac says with a little smile. "I'm going to clean myself off and stay here a while longer. But, take care of yourself, okay? Remember, I'm always here for you, if you need me – even if you don't ask for help."

"I know," Umeko says as she slowly gets to her feet. As she heads towards the door, she adds, "You need to worry about yourself right now. You have much healing yet to do." She pauses at the door, then says, "And Lilac … promise me something?"

"What's that, Ummy?" Lilac asks, standing up so she can watch Umeko go.

"If I don't make it out of that temple … that you won't make another pact with it to save me. You have suffered enough," the Kiriga says.

"Sorry, Ummy, I can't make that promise," Lilac says, ears lowering. "I'd suffer even more if I didn't do everything to help you. I learned that after I killed Dragonfly. Besides, my baby needs a godmother."