It's been an hour or two since the presumed Von Horne was driven away, leaving her strangely crafted spear in the hands of the Curator expedition. Nobody in the group was keen to remain in the area, and once again they set off, deeper into the swamps in search of a defensible position should they be forced to weather the night over the dismal bogs.

Nothing really suitable presents itself for the time being, but at the very least nothing springs out of the trees again. The ground becomes increasingly difficult to manage, wet in the best of places, deep mud in dicier spots, and waist deep standing water covering spots they're still barely possible to cross. The Dromodon forge most of this with minimal complaint, but the terrain is definitely getting more problematic.

Anisa leans forward in her saddle, stifling a yawn as her ears half-heartedly scan the forest. "Are we there yet?"

After making sure the confiscated weapon doesn't hold any more surprises, Xander asks, "Based on our adversary's tactics, what sort of shelter should we be looking for?"

"I'm not even totally sure where 'there' is," admits Gibson, though he hurriedly adds, "Not that we're lost, mind you. I could get us back to the Crossroad. But finding anything out here is… ugh." He picks at his black fur, then holds up a leech, twitching his nose in momentary distaste and flicking the bloodsucker off into cattails.

"One with only two entrances so that we are not cornered and have an escape route and yet, is easily defended," Umeko replies as she peers out over the dreary landscape. "A cave, a large hollowed out tree, an old building, or something similar."

"Ugh," Lilac remarks, the woman sitting side-saddle on Gibson's mount. She's taken to sticking close to the group after her close encounter with the hunter, only taking wing when she needs to scout. "I don't miss the mud." She looks up when Xander speaks, and answers, "I think it's safe to say she knows my, um, people well – maybe better than I do, even. She's obviously very clever, and she can out fly me. I'd say somewhere she can't make use of her weird little gadgets, and can't use height to her advantage. Also, I'm not sure she'll attack at night; I think she knows she's at an disadvantage then. But, that's just my guess, Ummy's the military one."

"And something we could seal if needed to keep out any more of her smoke and pepper bombs," Umeko adds.

Midway into another yawn, Anisa's eyes suddenly go wide as her ears spring up. Rising up in her saddle, she pulls the First Stone out from underneath her shirt collar, and stares at it. "I'm thinking… I'm thinking we're near something… "

"Do you think anything I can do or wear could stop that awful pepper, Ummy? A scarf I can pull up, maybe," inquires the bardess, who rubs at her nose reflexively at the mention of the searing spice.

"Is it that Vandringar fellow?" Xander asks quietly.

The little crystal on the end of its setting doesn't look any different than usual, the rhombus calmly waffling between whether it wants to be cyan or pale green. But when it's held still enough, it definitely… moves. It takes a full stop to be sure it's not just dangling on the pendant, but once held perfectly still, it's evident that the rhombus is very, very slowly turning. Spinning like this, it might finish a revolution in 30 seconds or so.

"If it were a wet scarf, it would probably stop most of it," Umeko says to Lilac, "Much as how it works when dealing with a smoky room." Her attention quickly shifts to the rotating pendant and she asks, "Did it do that back in the beast lands when we were near Vandringar or the orb?"

Attention turning with Anisa's comment, Lilac turns to gaze at the woman, then at her pendant. She squints to make out any movement until the party stops and the movement reveals itself to be true, then her ears perk up and she blinks. "Is that good? Didn't it do that before?"

Anisa shakes her head. "No. It sometimes… does things, but that's usually in my head. I've never seen it actually move on its own before… " She looks up from the amulet. "I think we're close to something, I just don't know what."

"Try moving it in a circle around you and see if its rotation rate changes," Umeko suggests. "Perhaps it will spin faster in the direction of whatever it is, is."

"It may be that the Rookery is hidden, or pushed beyond the mortal world by the power of the Orb. Maybe the amulet can feel it," Lilac suggests.

While the others focus on the crystal, Xander decides to listen and look to the surrounding swamp, since they've had to stop in order to really study the crystal. He doesn't want any surprises sneaking up on them.

Lifting up her feet, Anisa swivels around in the saddle – now facing Gibson – to see if the rotation changes.

Lilac tilts her head back and begins to sniff at the air, attempting to see if she can locate anything as well. "Gibson, are we heading for a settlement now, or trying to locate the Rookery itself?" she asks as she scents.

Gibson turns in the saddle to watch, whiskers bristling forward and ears angling toward the stone. As Anisa turns in place, the crystal continues its slow rotation… until she reaches a point at which it stops, then begins turning the other way. The doe finds herself facing roughly southeast, looking at a way off the trail (such as it is) and over some wetland overgrown with long reeds.

The black Lapi answers, "Out here, there's not much of anything. The Rookery would have existed out here, but I doubt the Korv maintained the trails even before the town was lost."

Anisa situates herself in the saddle, looking outward towards the reeds. "I bet this is where the old trail is, then." She points out in the direction the stone seems to be indicating. "Think we should head that way?"

"Vandringar would have gotten the same indication from his crystal, right?" Xander asks.

"I assume so," says Gibson, rubbing his neck uneasily. "But from where I sit, it's the best lead we've got."

"Given a lack of any other options outside of a guess, yes we should," Umeko answers as she nudges her Dromodon to turn towards that direction.

"Wouldn't they have needed a trail for supplies, though?" The bardess turns to follow Anisa's gaze, noting the old trail with a blink. She then points at it. "Like that, actually. I guess we'll find out."

Anisa nods to the buck. "Most likely, yeah. The crystals are identical, so anything mine does, his does too."

"He should be expecting Anisa to follow him this way then," Xander points out. "We need to be wary of traps or ambush."

Gibson urges his mount to follow, and both Dromodon make an ungainly lurch into the water. It comes up to the rider's thighs, but the beasts manage well enough, parting reeds and lily pads as the forge ahead. It's not an easy trail to blaze, forcing the party to move around bent trees with high, aerial roots arching out, some big enough to duck under. And yet, the footing eventually seems to become more solid.

"Whoa!" Xander suddenly says, and points to something practically buried by foliage: stonework nestled in the roots of a tree, overgrown with moss and creepers. It's of a wolf-like creature, not Jupani, but bestial. It looks a lot like Lilac does in her beast form.

Startled by Xander's outburst, Umeko draws the Dromodon to a stop. After a moment peering at the stone he indicated, she says, "I would wager we are on the right path. This may be the town limits, as it were."

Anisa wiggles her nose curiously at the stone, still holding the pendant out like some sort of compass. "Maybe it was some kind of road marker?"

"Wah!" is Lilac's startled response, the woman reflexively throwing her hands up, as if expecting to be bolased any second. When it's clear she's not about to be gadgeted, she lowers her hands and looks where Xander points, blinking. "Hey, it's me! Well, sort of me."

"Does it stir any memories, Lilac?" Xander asks.

"Ummm." The bardess leans forward a bit, extending her wings for balance. She peers at the image, scratching behind an ear absently.

Sure enough, there's the statue. It's definitely been untended, the stone weathered by the elements and the grasping tendrils of the swamp. Gibson clears some of the overgrowth away, leaving a chlorophyll stained statue of a wolfish beast, its head thrust forward alertly, its nose pointing down into the water. The crystal rhombus doesn't seem to react to it in any particularly noticeable way, though it's still turning slowly.

"Funny position," Xander comments. "The nose, I mean. Lilac sticks hers up when hunting for scents."

After a moment of staring, Lilac shakes her head. "No, nothing Xander. Sorry," she admits. Hoping down, Lilac walks over and kneels beside the statue, then puts a hand on it. "It sure is an eerie resemblance, isn't it?"

"Dig where its nose points," Umeko suggests. "There maybe something in the water."

Umeko now dismounts and walks on a bit further. She definitely stays in visual range of the group, as she tries to see if there are any markers further along.

Shrugging, the human woman begins to dig through the flora and soil, trying to locate anything. "Yech," she complains. "This is much less fun as a human."

"Hmmm," Xander muses, after seeing what Gibson has to do to make the statue clearer. "I guess we're the first to find this. Or else the first to find this path after all… "

Anisa's attention momentarily goes back to the pendant. Biting her lip, and while Gibson is out of the saddle, she swivels around in her seat, seeing if she can get the pendant to stop rotating at all.

There don't seem to be any other markers further into the swamp that Umeko can see, though it's difficult to move very far very fast, the water comes up to her ribs when she dismounts. At her suggestion, Gibson begins wading as well, carefully feeling his way along, though he doesn't deign to dunk his head. Anisa stays drier as she experiments with the First Stone. It's difficult to work with, since the turning is so subtle, and anything other than holding completely still makes the pendant swing.

"If there are other markers, they are likely buried in muck," the Kiriga grumbles. The Kiriga stops where she is and looks at the nearby trees, trying to judge if she can climb one and get a better view.

Lilac digs a bit more, then stands up. "Well, I'm not really finding anything. If I had to guess, I'd say maybe the statue was showing difference, that it was bowing and not pointing." She begins back to the Dromodon, locating a cloth to wipe her arms off with.

It takes some supreme control on her part, but it finally happens. Anisa manages to time her movements, and even those of the Dromodon, to hang the First Stone perfectly still but for her swiveling… and it stops once she's pointing east by southeast. She finds herself facing in the same direction as the statue, and her muscle control is fine enough to maintain should she choose to move.

"Hey guys," the doe calls out to the others, "I think that's the direction we need to head in." She points directly in front of herself, holding the stone outward. "The same direction that the statue is sniffing at."

"Really?" Lilac casts the statue a curious glance, then shrugs again. "Well, it's not my nose, but it's close enough! And, you can always trust my nose. Let's go!"

"Ah, so it's pointing and not sniffing," Xander says. "That makes things easier!"

Umeko stops in her search for a tree to climb and starts the slow slog back to her Dromodon. "Well, if we see others we now know to follow the nose," she mutters.

The Fire Mage takes a moment to cast a cantrip to warm up Umeko after her exposure to the swamp water.

"I was really never very good at pointing with my nose," Lilac admits as she mounts up with Gibson.

Gibson hauls himself back into the saddle as well, and nudges the creature in the direction indicated. It's about 20 yards or so into the murk that Anisa's perfectly still pendant starts turning again, and the Dromodon lurches, losing its footing for a moment and drawing back with a snort.

"Thank you," Umeko tells Xander, then pauses to lightly nip his ear. Onward they go, following after Gibson, Anisa, and Lilac.

Anisa flattens her ears, grabbing on to the Dromodon as it lurches downward. "I think we should she what direction it spins in, and then turn that way if we need to. It seems like its trying to show us the exact path."

"Hmm, any way to tell if it's pointing downwards?" Xander asks Anisa.

The area the group is in now could be likened to a small pond, if it weren't in a swamp. For about a space of 30 feet around, the trees bend over it but don't root here.

Anisa shakes her head at Xander. "No, it just spins."

"Or, maybe it's trying to guide us along a hidden path through the swamp? Maybe the statues used to do the same thing, that only following a certain path allows entry to the Rookery. I've heard of stories like that," suggests Lilac.

"I suggest we go around. I have no desire to swim through that," Umeko says. "Turn in the direction it turns until it stops turning, then we walk."

"Something's under the water ahead, that's for sure," Xander notes, pointing to the way the trees bend. "Maybe a stone platform?"

"Do you want me to look, Ummy?" Lilac perks her ears, glancing at Umeko for confirmation.

"Go ahead," Umeko says to Lilac.

"Umeko's got it: go around and see if it points to the pond still or not," Xander agrees. "It could be a trap otherwise."

"If I get any leeches on my tail, please tell me," the bardess insists. She hops off the Drokar into the swamp, then inches towards the submerged pit, where she leans close to the water and searches.

The human's clothes soon become exceptionally heavy and soggy, but at least not much more than they already were. She feels a lot of mud squishing through her fingers, and then a deeper part that she can't reach while still keeping her head above water.

"It's deep, deeper than I can reach. Can someone hand me a stick or something? Maybe there's more statues down here. The last time I dove into a mysterious pool I ended up finding a god," the bardess says, holding a hand back for an instrument to search with.

"We've got the hunter's staff," Xander suggests.

"You could use the spear we took from Von Horne," Umeko notes with a wry look of amusement on her face.

"I guess so," Lilac agrees. "Can you hand me it, Xander? At least it won't explode now, being wet."

Leaning over in the saddle, Xander holds the weapon out to Lilac.

Taking the weapon once used to try and skewer her, Lilac prods around with the business end. "It feel weird just holding this," she comments, ears back.

"That could be the remains of an old communal well for the Rookery," Umeko says. While Lilac explores the pool with the staff, she looks around the immediate area.

At first, the poking finds hard resistance… considerably harder than mud should offer. And then there's a small spot that Lilac can't find the bottom of, even with the reach of the spear.

Lilac pauses, then lifts the spear back and frowns at the water. "I think there's stone down there, and a hole. I can look, but I want something to wash my face off with after," she says.

"Plenty of water here, and I can dry you," Xander offers.

"Good enough I guess! At least I'll smell interesting," says the human. After pulling her wings in, she hunches over, then dips under water, spear in hand.

The water is murky to say the least, but it's not solid soup, at least. Though it stings the eyes, there's a few feet of visibility to be had, at least as far as the square outline Lilac finds. Sure enough, there's an opening here, about eight feet across, surrounded in mud. It's dark.

Swimming as close as she can to the edge of the hole, Lilac perches above the abyss. Using the recovered hunter spear, she pokes around inside the hole while peering in it.

Deep as ever.

Lilac shakes her head, then pushes off from the bottom to surface. Muddy and wet, she calls out, "I can't find the bottom, but there's definitely a hole. It's too dark to see down, though, and the spear won't reach!"

"I can give you a light to drop down," Xander offers, and looks around. "I… uh… need a rock or something that will sink though."

"Here," Lilac says, scooping a slime-coated rock from the pond bottom and wading over to Xander with it.

"Err," Xander says, and tries to shake off some of the slime before casting the glow enchantment.

"The gift of a slimy rock means Lilac loves you," Umeko whispers to Xander.

"Err, how do you figure?" Xander asks Umeko, and then starts chanting.

While the others deal with the pond, Anisa spurs her mount on around the pool, holding the pendant aloft. "Let's see how it spins around the outside."

Waiting, Lilac gives Umeko a suspicious look at all the whispering. She holds her arms, spear between, eying the two as if she suspected no-good.

"Just a suspicion," Umeko says.

Once she gets moving again, and the pendant is held out, Anisa finds it to behave oddly after a few circuits around the clearing. When she faces away from the center of the pool, the stone turns, counter-clockwise when the pool is on her left, and clockwise when the pool is on her right. When she actually faces it, it stops spinning.

Xander gets the stone glowing like it's just come out of a furnace, and holds it out to Lilac. "Here, it should at least let us know how deep the hole goes."

Anisa frowns at the revelation of the pendant, and spurs her mount on to make a complete circle of the pool, keeping it on her left side.

"At least it's warm. This water is cold and slimy." The rock is carried in Lilac's free hand and, after taking a deep breath, the bardess dives in! A splash follows, with the human making a beeline for the hole, where she promptly drops the rock in and watches.

For the whole trip around the clearing, the pendant turns counter-clockwise for as long as Anisa keeps the pond on her left.

As the doe returns near the others, she lowers the pendant. "Well guys, wherever this thing is trying to lead us… I think we're here."

"Oh great, we have to go down the drain?" Xander asks.

The rock's glow doesn't help visibility much near the surface, but as Lilac goes deeper, it pierces the dark some. When she lets go of it, it tumbles away into the deeper water, its glow fading until it's gone completely.

Lilac frowns in the murk, then pushes off to try and follow the rock a few feet down to see if she can relocate it or spot anything new.

Anisa shrugs to Xander. "Maybe so, I guess we'll find out!" Swinging her legs over to one side of the Dromodon, she takes a deep breath, and leaps off of the animal and into the swamp. Considerably smaller than the others, this isn't exactly pleasant for the doe.

"Err, a safety rope would have been nice to put on first," Xander notes.

Umeko slips off the back of her Dromodon as well. "I'm not about to allow Lilac to go drown herself," the Kiriga comments as she sinks into the goo. "If we do not return in ten minutes … either follow us in, or return to Justininople. It is unlikely we would be able to return beyond that time."

"Ten minutes?" Xander asks in alarm. "How long can you hold your breath?"

Gibson crosses his arms in front of himself, peeling his already wet tunic up and shrugging it off. "I'll follow. If the First Stone seems to think this is important, I'm gonna want to see it. You alright with handling the Dromodon, Xander?"

"One," Umeko answers calmly. "I am assuming this is some sort of … well, I suspect magic is involved. You can come too, if you wish."

Gibson glances at Umeko, then at Xander. "We could hitch the Dromodon if you want to dive as well, Xan. You much for swimming?"

Barely keeping her nose and ears above the waterline, Anisa treads water over to the edge of the drop off, and waits for Lilac to resurface.

"If it's magic… then you might not come back!" Xander notes, especially at the idea of staying out here all by himself. "The Dromies would give this place away if we… gah, I'll go hide them and come back!"

"You had best hurry, then," Umeko notes. She draws in a deep breath, then heads into the pool of darkness. "This could be just a trap to kill looters," she thinks.

"Take some rope so you can find your way back out at least!" Xander says, and collects the reins of the other Dromodon.

Umeko halts in her approach of the pool, only to turn around and go get the rope. She ties it to a nearby tree, then draws another deep breath before venturing back towards the pool.

Still bobbing in the swamp, Anisa bobs high, takes another deep breath, and follows Umeko downwards, keeping one of her paws clasped tightly around the First Stone.

While drawing the Dromodons off to a safer location, Xander begins another spell…

With a consensus reached, the three women, followed closely by Gibson, kick down into the murk, and after a few strokes see the glowing stone's light up ahead again. It illuminates a small area where the shaft bends to run horizontally. The passage is fairly wide even with the bottom layered in mud, at least as wide as the shaft leading down.

Anisa corrects her direction and makes a beeline for the shaft, mentally praying to the First Ones that her air doesn't run out. Every once in a while, she glances at the pendant to see if it does anything.

Umeko swims as fast as she can manage, her whole body undulating in a rather Naga fashion as she cuts through the water. The first thing that comes to mind is she hopes there is an air pocket in the horizontal section…

In front, Lilac kicks ahead, the spear in hand. She glances back when she hears the sound of swooshing water from behind, waving to her friends and pointing down the tunnel as she goes.

It's impossible to tell if the pendant is moving with the water swirling around, but it show up as a mote of icy light in the darkness, if dim. Following the bend in the tunnel, the women continue down it. The tunnel seems disconcertingly long, but pushing off from the sides makes for better time than just swimming might have meant, and though their lungs are starting to burn they can see the shimmer of the water's surface ahead, the passage angling upward.

Anisa kicks her oversized feet as hard as she can muster, heading straight for the light.

Thank the ancestors there looks to be an exit. I cannot last much longer," the Kiriga thinks to herself. She pushes onward, trying to drive her body as fast as she can … the allure of a new breath overpowering.

Upon spotting the first shimmer of surface, Lilac directs her friends towards it with a trust of the spear. She then loses no time in heading for the surface – the dim watery tunnel reminding her all too much of the Temple of Being.

Three heads break the surface almost at the same time, and the women find themselves sucking in gulps of cool, slightly stale air. A few seconds later, Gibson's head breaks the water, the buck gasping and sputtering. The first thing that greets their eyes when the water is cleared out of them is faint cyan light in small pools scattered through a rounded chamber. At the back of it, contrasting them, is a pattern of eight red lights clustered together and centered in the middle of a black, jagged shape, alien and yet familiar to Anisa.

"Geh. Too long. Far too long," Umeko complains in between deep gulps of air. Her serpentine eyes blink repeatedly winking away the murky water that infested them. "I think … we have found a gateway to the Rookery. Or … to somewhere, at least. What are these strange lights?"

The doe starts to let out a scream, but quickly slaps her own paw to her mouth, eyes wide as she looks at the pattern. "No… It couldn't be… "

Gibson likewise freezes, instinctively clutching the edge of the pool.

Lilac sputters, the shakes her head out after surfacing, spraying water everywhere. "Why do all these ruins have creepy watery tunnels," she asks no one in particular. After looking around to see her friends are okay, she follows Anisa's gaze and asks, "What is it? Did we find the Rookery, or … Oh! Maybe the place the Raveness found the orb?"

"It's kind of pretty," Lilac adds, head tilting.

"Everyone, stay in the pool, and don't get out until I tell you to. Be ready to swim back if you have to." Slowly, the doe wades to the edge of the pool, and cautiously starts to rise herself out of it. The others can see that she is visibly shaking.

Remembering one of the stories, Umeko asks, "Is that one of the Observers? One of the creatures you said that … " She lets it trail off there.

"Um, is there something wrong, Anisa? You look cold or, um, nervous," inquires the bardess, who swims to the edge of the pool and takes hold of the edge so she needn't keep treading water. At Umeko's comment, the woman blinks, then looks at Gibson questioningly, ears focusing on him.

"S-sis… " Gibson starts, but he can't finish. He doesn't seem to know what advice to offer, and remains where he's told, halfway risen out of the pool. Water spills off Anisa's clothes, the spattering of the droplets echoing in the chamber. As she gets closer, she and the others can see the outline more distinctly now, an impenetrable black tangled into a spiderlike body resting on its thorax near the back, myriad long legs angled and arched, pincer-like palps hanging beneath the cluster of small red lights, along with jumbled mouth parts. It doesn't move as Anisa approaches. With eyes adjusting to the lighting here, details of the chamber become more apparent. There is stonework here, but it seems largely out of place, small statuettes and sculptures of Korv littered the floor like scattered chess pieces. They are a complete mismatch with the featureless black walls, and the small lumps of crystal scattered around the edges.

Reaching up, Anisa smooths her ears back nervously, water slicking from them and plopping onto the floor. Pendant in paw, the doe takes a deep breath, then takes a few more steps forward. "R-resonance… "

After staring at the frozen Gibson a moment, Lilac frowns all the more. Sensing no answer is forthcoming, the woman turns to watch Anisa, inspecting the room as she does. "There are Korv statues here," she observes, a hint of wonder in her voice. "And, that statue was facing this place, facing down, like it knew this was here. But, why would one of the beasts, the ones like me, be watching this place? Is this really where the Raveness found the orb?"

Umeko stares at the statues on the floor from where she bobs in the pool. "Lilac, the statues," she says nervously. "Remember in the dream about sacrifices. What if … the orb sent them here to feed … that? Or … what if those are all the people from the Rookery … and this is how they were protected. Taken out of time itself… "

The First Stone's color cycling becomes slightly more rapid, and she can feel it turning in her hand, more insistently now. The lumps of cyan crystal around the chamber intensify in their glow, the chamber now lit as if by lamplight, revealing a pedestal with a round depression in the crook of one of the Observer's forelegs.

"I-I don't know," Lilac tells Umeko, her ears suddenly laying back. "M-m-maybe we'll find a statue that looks f-familiar, if t-that's the case?" Moving along the edge, Lilac attempts to near one of the statues study it.

"Look for a statue of … you," Umeko suggests as she slowly moves in the water towards the pool's edge.

Anisa keeps her eyes locked on to the Observer, and takes a few more steps towards the creature. "Are you… alive, Observer? Can you h-hear me?"

"I d-don't think I w-want to find a statues of m-me," stammers Lilac, nervousness dripping from her words like water from her ears.

If Lilac will not, Umeko does. She looks over the floor from the pool, trying to find a statue that looks … human.

There's dozens upon dozens of the miniature Korv. Each are subtly different, though in general they look similar to one another. There's no human shape among them. Then Anisa speaks, and after a moment a voice permeates the chamber. It sounds like one voice somehow speaking many languages all at once, a maddening, buzzing overtone to the one language that stands out to each person enough to make itself understood. For Lilac it's Sylvanian. For Umeko, it's Imperial, for Anisa and Gibson Skeek. Even in this language, it's broken, difficult to understand. "… th… link recog… ized. Unit incap… otor function, failure. Prim-… y power, failure. Seco-… er, fail… control samp… containment, failure… "

Umeko freezes, her webbed ears splaying out oddly. "What … ?" she whispers in reply in Imperial.

Lilac's ears shoot up when the babble starts, then go askew when she actually starts to understand it. "T-that's like the Temple of Being, only, it doesn't make any sense," she whispers loudly to Umeko. The human's gaze turns to the so-called Observer, and she begins to studying it carefully now. "It's speaking Sylvanian."

"It sounds Imperial to me," Umeko says to Lilac. "It must … somehow speak to each of us in our primary language."

"Like the Temple," Lilac agrees with Umeko. The bardess swims over to wait beside her reptilian friend, and asks her, "L-look at what's at it's feet, um, claws! It's a pedestal. Remember, the Orb of Being rested on one, t-too? When it came back from where it had g-gone?"

"Its speaking everything – the others did this before" Anisa says with a little bit more confidence now, her previously puffed fur starting to slowly lower down. "I think its safe for you to come out of the pool now, I've created a link with it, so it shouldn't be dangerous. I think its broken." The doe takes a few more steps towards the creature, fear replaced with nose-twitching curiosity. "Observer – what happened here?"

"You guys should probably, um, keep your distance though," Anisa says over her shoulders to the others.

Slowly, Umeko slides from the pool. The water sheets away from her scales. There she crouches on the shore, examining the statues close to her … and trying to see if any remind her of the ones from the dream. And with an odd thought, she even looks for a reptilian one … since in that dream she sacrificed herself…

Lilac nods empathetically to the warning, apparently not in a hurry to get near the glowing eyed monster. She then pulls herself out of the pool on to all fours, taking a moment to shake herself out before standing. Then, she wanders over to one of the glowing pools, dropping down to look into it. "I sure hope there aren't any blue squiggles here."

Gibson cautiously clambers out of the water, his own fur still bristled, the buck unwilling to make any sudden moves, even to shake the water off himself. The eight red lights in the center of the Observer's "face" stare. Its strange babble does seem oddly reminiscent of the Temple of Being, but instead of speaking in one language with many voices, it speaks many languages with one voice, somehow tumbling them together and still making itself understood. The voice is always dispassionate, level and emotionless for all the harshness of it. "Unit re… orts as fol… s. Voi… control samp… reloc… ed. Contai… ment pattern held 3,227.7 cycl… powe… ailure, pattern integr-… oss. Precur… r containm… itute est… " The red eyes are gradually dimming, as if finally delivering this report drains what little reserve the Observer held.

By one of the glowing pools and looking into it, Lilac wraps her arms around herself, though she isn't cold. "It sounds much too much like the Temple of Being did when it was dying," she remarks, quietly.

"Where was the 'control sample' relocated to?" Anisa asks the Observer. "I don't think it's going to last much longer," she says to the others, "I think they get their energy from the orbs." Biting her lip, she experimentally holds the pendant closer to the creature, actually tapping it's head carefully.

"It must have been lonely, waiting down here all this time. It seems like the life the orbs make are lonely ones," the bardess observes, turning to frown at the fading monstrosity. "I can't understand it, but it really sounded like it might have been trying to say 'void.' That makes me wonder, what if there's something like the Temple of Being nearby? A, um, unbeing? A living Temple of Void."

"That would be contradictory. The void by definition is the absence of all, including life," Umeko notes quietly in her search amongst the statues.

The First Stone makes a musical little 'dink!' where it bounces off the observor's carapace. The creature continues, "Tertia-… conta… ment pattern proxy successf… efined sentien… control samp-… thdrawn. Cur-… ation unkno… prima… y ainment p… ern reinit. Transferri… " The crystal rhombus brightens and begins spinning more rapidly now. One by one, the observer's red eyes gutter out and fade to dark rubies. The rhombus stops spinning, and the chamber is quiet but for the lap of water.

Umeko looks up. "Did it perhaps just tell your crystal where to find the orb?" Umeko asks quietly. "Perhaps it gave you a map?"

Lilac's ears wilt when the final light flickers out, and she sighs softly. "Too familiar," she admits, reaching up to rub at her eyes. "We should leave it something, a little memorial. It's not right to let something die alone and forgotten." She straightens and stands from where she had been waiting by the pool, then walks towards the Observer to get a better look at it as she digs through her pockets.

Anisa blinks as the eyes fade out and the crystal goes still. Taking a few steps back from the hulking beast, she looks down to the stone. "It may have, I'm not sure." As if for the first time, the doe looks around the room to take in the surroundings. "Don't feel too bad for it, Lilac. If that thing had been working right, and I didn't have the stone, it probably would have slaughtered us all the second we popped up from the pool." Smoothing her fur out, she lowers herself to the ground, and sits cross legged. "I don't know if this will work or not… "

The inert creature remains motionless when Lilac gets close to examine it. Its thorax is the size of a Dromodon, the abdomen twice again as big, all sheathed in that same black substance, unmarred, completely scratchless. The pincers and mouth parts do indeed look wicked, as sharp-edged as mapped obsidian.

Umeko gives up on her search of the odd little statues and goes to examine the Observer with Lilac. "It does look as if it was designed to kill," Umeko admits when she gets close. "It is good Anisa has that stone."

"Wow, it's way scarier than me," Lilac whispers, leaning forward to peer at the body this way and that. "Almost weirder than the Temple, but, I can't help but feel sorry for it. I know that looking like a monster on the outside doesn't mean you are one on the inside. I know it's probably some horrible guardian beast, but, it's like I can't help but feel for, well, monsters. I'm a monster, and I know I want people to care about me. Maybe I'm too sentimental?" She reaches over and pats the creatures head, then removes one of the (now rather soggy and dirty) toys she bought in Nagai. This she places at the monster's foot, before stepping back.

Once on the ground, Anisa takes hold of the pendant in both paws, and relaxes. Closing her eyes, she concentrates on the stone, slowing her breathing as though she were trying to go to sleep.

The tiny statues offer few answers, all of them seeming to be beaked and feathered. The observer also makes no response when the toy is left by one slender, tapered claw, a soggy little Naga among the Korv figurines.

Umeko lightly pats Lilac's shoulder before saying, "Never apologize for caring, Lilac. It is, perhaps, the only thing that stops any of us from becoming truly evil."

Gibson sits down next to his sister, watching her worriedly. The First Stone turns where it hangs. As the white doe clears her mind, she can feel it being drawn along.

"Do you think these are all offerings, Ummy?" Lilac turns to face her friend, watching her curiously. "And, thanks. Sometimes I wonder if I care about monsters because I want to believe they're more, like maybe I'm selfishly wanting to believe it so I can believe it of myself. But, then I think maybe I just never realized what a lonely lot it is to be a monster, and now I can't help but feel for them, because I know." She shakes her head, and smiles a little at her friend. "Anyway, these statues kind of remind me of the offerings left at your family shrine. Maybe they just wanted to thank it, for the gift of the orb?"

"I do not know," Umeko admits as she crouches back down and nudges a statue with one of her claws. "They may be offerings, or they may be something more. Perhaps the Observer is even what made the Korvs long ago and these are just models of them. With how the Orb of Being shaped flesh, it would not surprise me if it created the Korvs."

"Wow, that'd really be something, wouldn't it?" Lilac peers down at a fallen statue, then kneels to right it. "That would also explain why the Raveness can use it. I've been wondering about that, I think she must either have a amulet like Anisa's, or maybe be some sort of mage, like the one Vamdringar rbought to the Temple of Being."

Anisa's breathing becomes much more relaxed now, almost as if she were asleep. Yet she still sits upright, completely and almost unnervingly motionless. The other can hear her mutter something very, very low under her breath, but whatever it is, its impossible to make out.

"There must be some sort of connection like that, yes," Umeko agrees. "I wonder if we were made? We being the Kiriga, that is. Some sort of experiment on the Naga done long ago. It is a curious thought, but one that ultimately doesn't matter. What has happened, happened. What matters now is what we do."

Lilac glances at Anisa, watching her concernedly as she nods to Umeko. "I think the Raveness was definitely here, but I don't know what the connection is besides that. All these statues and, um, that statue outside. I wonder if the orb made us what we are, or that creature did? And if not, where did our curse come from? The Necromancers?" She shakes her head. "I was really hoping this would bring back some memories, but I don't remember anything. I'm beginning to wonder if the orb ate my memories, maybe even other parts of me, just like the Temple of Being consumed flesh and mind to grant change."

"Only the future can tell us that," Umeko notes as she glances back towards the pool. "And … I am worried. Xander has not yet come and he said he would. Perhaps I should go look for him. There is little I can do here."

"Okay. Maybe he's just afraid of water? He is a Fire Mage, after all. But if you want to go, I can come with you, or wait here and protect Anisa while she, um, does what she's doing." Lilac peers at Anisa, frowning a little more, ears flicking.

As Umeko heads back towards the water, she asks Gibson, "Is Anisa … safe here with what she is doing?"

Anisa's face twitches slightly, her motionless poise suddenly broken as a teeth-gritted look of annoyance crosses her face. Her ears slowly dip back, then return to their resting place.

The annoyed look passes from Anisa's face, replaced once again with the serene one – although her nose starts to twitch now.

Gibson eyes Anisa worriedly, and gives Kin an apologetic look. "I… feel like I should stay with sis. Sorry. If you wanna check back, we'll catch up."

"I'll come with you, Ummy. I'm a little worried myself, and I don't think anyone can get at them down here. Plus, Xander promised me a drying spell!" The bardess looks around once more, then hefts the hunter spear on to her shoulder. She gives Gibson a worried smile as she passes him, then waves a little with her free hand before hurrying after Umeko.

Anisa's body twitches slightly, and her ears suddenly shoot backwards, her nose twitches speeding up. Likewise, her breathing starts to race just slightly as well.

"It is understandable. Since there is little I can do here, I feel I am better put to use outside. I worry now, Xander has taken too long," Umeko says. The Kiriga then dives back into the water and uses the rope to guide her back through the tunnel.

The black buck's ears lay back. "Okay, I don't like this." He takes his sister by the shoulders, shaking her gently. "Anisa. Anisa! Snap out of it!"

Lilac looks about to dive in as well, but pauses at the shoreline to look back. "Will everything be alright, Gibson? Is Anisa okay? Should I stay," she asks nervously.

A deep breath and the guideline takes Kin back down the tunnel, the water slopping along the threshold in her wake.

Umeko moves quickly through tunnel, knowing she cannot remain below the water too long. She also begins to worry Xander encountered trouble, either Vandringar or Von Horne. There may be armed forces waiting for her when she surfaces.

Slowly, Anisa's eyes start to open, and she seems to come around. "Wha- what the… Dagh! Dagh take it all!" The doe jumps to her feet, and stamps a large foot in irritation. "Gibson?! Why did you wake me?"

The black buck startles, looking both relieved and chagrined. "Star! Sorry, you… you started breathing really fast and twitching, I thought you were having some kind of fit. We should probably go anyway, we've been down too long and haven't seen Xander. Kin's going back."

"Erm, well, um … I see you have everything in order I'll just be … " Lilac points towards the water, then vanishes into it with surprising speed and stealthiness. It seems Lilac isn't in a hurry to meet Anisa's wrath, either!

Ears set back, Anisa quickly tucks the pendant back into her shirt. "Well, that was completely pointless, I didn't learn a thing!" Sighing, the doe starts to walk over to the pool's edge. "Oh, and guess who else was there? Dagh blast… " Slipping into the pool, she turns around to face Gibson. "Well? You coming?"

"Coming, coming… " Gibson hurriedly splashes into the pool, takes a gulp of air, an dips under the surface.

Still grumbling, Anisa also takes in a huge breath, and follows the others below.