Ursali

"He has a weird way of showing it, then..." Alriana huffed, but continued to listen to her sister's theories. "Is love what my feelings for Grelbiria are? Is that what she felt for me, too, then? Is that the love that's different than lovers? Or is that what lovers are?" She didn't understand and she was starting to go into thinking loops about love and lovers. She shook her head, as if that would help her clear her head. Maybe if she focused on something else... "I don't think about anyone a lot, Sixteen. Remember what I said back in the wagon? Those thoughts stop me from thinking about anyone for too long. But even if I didn't have them, I don't think about him a lot. Maybe sometimes, but not a lot." She sighed and leaned back in her tail chair, sitting at an angle with her head just barely out of the water. "Why would he be thinking about me a lot for, anyway? I don't understand him..."

"Mhhm... Sorry too." Alriana apologized as she slowly sat back down in the water, resuming her position in her tail chair. She didn't know why she apologized, but it felt like it was the right thing to do even if she was yet to understand it. Sixteen took the opportunity to change the subject to something less sensitive and far more annoying, the half-elf, actually he wasn't even that apparently, in the men's side of the baths. "He's annoying." Came her swift, almost ingrained, answer. Then a sigh, and a huff. "He's not terrible to be around when he's being genuine, but that's not often. He at least respects boundaries I set, even if he keeps saying weird things all the time." Another huff and a shake of her head. She didn't understand him, nor his aims. "Romance? Love? What are those?" Sixteen had made quite the assumption about her sister and what she knew, though she wasn't incorrect about the Tigers. "The Tigers are my home, at least until this mission is done. Maybe longer."

She couldn't answer her sister's questioning of her lack of chest size. Not for lack of want, but for lack of any meaningful knowledge. Maybe whoever created her, this Del, didn't think Sixteen having a chest more in line with typical females was important? But that was but one possible solution to the question and Alriana didn't want to open up the possibility to discuss all of them over something she didn't really think was important. So instead she remained silent, though not for long. "Don't say that." The reply was instant, Alriana rising to her feet in one swift motion to protest the claim. There was an unusual intensity behind her stoic voice, but she wasn't quite snapping at her sister. The suddenness of the surge in emotion surprised her, blinking once, then twice. She didn't have any excuses to why what Sixteen said shouldn't be true, nor was she about to try to make any, but she still didn't want to hear any, nor do any of her own, speculation of whether or not Grelbiria was still alive.

"What's not healthy?" She asked with a head tilt, not understanding her sister. "My tail can support me just fine." She could only guess that she had been talking about her positioning in the water. As her sister sat up straight she rolled herself so that she was sitting upright as well, though still being suspended by her tail. Sixteen didn't give her a chance to interject with an answer to any of her questions until the very end, now pouting about an issue the lizard didn't understand. "Prettier? What do you mean?" Things like physical attraction and being physically appealing were not things the lizard knew; Grelbiria hadn't taught her nor had her reading ever touched upon the topics. "And my feet aren't normal, either. Never seen someone with feet like mine." She let out a small huff, raising a foot out of the water to show off its unique structure. "Though, I don't know what you mean by pointing at my chest. It's just my chest. The other girls' chests look like this too." She leaned back some and stared up at the sky again, thinking. "Grelbiria was supposed to being me to the Tiger, but she was gone on the day of. Just a note telling me to take my armor and go on without her, so I've been here since. I haven't thought about doing anything else really. But we're supposed to be paid a lot of money for this mission, enough to do whatever we want." She turned her gaze back towards her sister, a resolute look on her face. "I was going to use it to try to find Grelbiria. I want to see her again."

Xetketh held back a growl, eyestalks glaring back at Asami as she moved into the throne room proper. What the fox had said was true, but she refused to believe anything until she was able actually see and talk with Miz. Though, moving into the throne room presented it's own problem as her many eyes saw past the medusa and the beastman to see a familiar someone on the throne. Her fists clenched, glaring death at the different yet unmistakably same woman. "You have quite some nerve to still be alive, Hecate! It wasn't enough to seal us, but you had to follow us into the future as well!?" The only thing stopping the beholder from throwing herself at the woman was her complete lack of spellcasting ability. All she could do was glower at the woman in her helplessness. Xetketh to 24,17, mald. Sollowy continued to follow after Nisha and Ren, letting out a small gasp at the sight of the destruction that had been wrought against the prison. Others were around, but no sigh of Thesephine anywhere. All she could do was hope that she hadn't been anywhere near where the blasts had hit. Sollowy to 6,28. Tundyssa had, to be entirely honest, been ignoring the unknown human that had come down the hall; however, with both the beings now dead and Tenna on her way to the north, she couldn't completely ignore what was said. "The ruler of Ishtaria?" She asked as she caught up with the woman and Tenna. "Is that where we are? Ishtaria?" Had the dragon not still had Requiem in her hand, and the situation more relaxed, she would've scratched her chin in thought. "Anyway, even if the ruler's about, my sister's still here somewhere and I'm not leaving until I find her. Even if I have to cross the ruler to do so." Tundyssa to 5,7. Still shaken by her experience with the red terror, Ember holds.

"Mhhm..." Alriana still didn't have much of her energy, responding to her somehow still hyper sister with agreeing noises as she washed herself off. Wonder what she wants to ask, she's the knowledgeable one... True to the promise her agreeable grunts had made the lizard joined her sister in the main bath shortly. She shivered as went straight to total submersion, only surfacing once she felt adequately cooled from the water. She laid on her back, floating on the surface of the water. Or, at least, it appeared that way. Actually floating would've meant her limbs weren't slack, but they were; the true thing keeping her up was her tail. She took a moment to just chill, staring up at the sky. Somehow, in this context, it was truly relaxing rather than mind-numbing. She turned her head to look at her sister after a moment. "What was it you wanted to ask?"

Alriana didn't even give Ingverd a verbal response, instead just huffing and walking just a tad faster. Maybe if you stopped being smug forever I'd be willing to indulge these weird requests... While Ingverd chatted with the new bunny, Alriana watched Sixteen grow increasingly uncomfortable under the sun, even moreso than she was. She could've probably stopped her before she rushed in, but the heat had left her with zero motivation to exert herself in anyway. Speaking of, watching the bunny communicate with Ingverd was giving her ideas on how she could do away with the curse of this cumbersome language entirely... Hmm... No. That's too inconvenient for something so petty. "I'm joining her... Don't follow." She knew Ingverd need not be told that, but after his weird comment she felt the need to poke at him a little. Entering the baths herself Sixteen was already undressed and washing off before entering the bath, something she was surprised her sister knew to do. She joined her after disrobing herself, even if their bodies didn't really get that dirty. "Mhmm. Even just this much better than outside..."

"He does that a lot," Alriana answered her sister with no regard for subtlety. "I don't know why he does it, but it's annoying when he does because being smug is annoying." What little filter Alriana had in the first place had been turned off by the heat, as well her caring about committing to one of low or high effort speaking. As Ingverd switched back to genuine she raised her eyebrows slightly, surprised that he was so self-conscious about being exposed. Maybe she should do that whenever he got on her nerves... "Either you or me... He's more tolerable like this though." As the innkeeper explained where the baths were the lizard attention was suddenly rapt, nearly moving for the door before the bunny girl got her last question out. She paused and took a moment to think before she answered. "From Glacies. Mercenaries." That was where the Tiger's home base was, and, at least currently, the Tiger's were the lizard's home. Question answered she moved back to stand by the door, ready to leave and clearly impatient.

"Oh, deciding to help me? I assure you, I'm not the one you need to assuage~" Xetketh to 33,16.

Sollowy to 4,20, trade the iron bow back for the greatbow.

After the Helhound had regained her senses she was immediately met with a pair of golden eyes glaring at her through the mist. She had frozen in place, the magic coming off the woman, the magic she'd just tossed so effortlessly out of the room... Ember wasn't that magically proficient, but even she knew that she was a drop of rain compared to the ocean of this woman. Even as the unknown woman screamed at her, another fireball aimed at her, Ember remained static, mouth agape, fear plastered on her expression. "I, I...--" Thankfully Nessraya had been there to answer in her stead, drawing the red woman's attention from her and out of the room. She slumped against the backwall, still utterly terrified of the woman. As her magic swelled again and she blasted a hole through the walls Ember could only watch, legs still not cooperating enough to let her stand. "I can't just force myself to change at the drop of a hat," she complained at the princess before launching herself at the repaired being. She hit it, but she was unable to dodge the blast of magic. "Die already!" Tundyssa reeled from the magic slamming into her, thrusting Requiem into the construct's body as she fought to stay standing after the blast of magic nearly knocked her onto her ass. As she leaned on Requiem for support it's voice was suddenly back in her head after being dormant for so long. It demanded more of the magic of this place, of the beings that repaired themselves and grew stronger. It's rant of demands ended without her getting a chance to respond in kind, but just incase the sword could still hear her... My name's Tundyssa now, Requiem. If you want your meals, you'll address me as such. "Hahh, hahhh... I, I think, it's dead now." She huffed out as she caught her breath. "I think Requiem can kill them, even if they're not alive... I'm gonna try it one the other one." However, as the dragon moved to coup de grace the repairing construct she felt a distant rumbling and an unreal amount of magic suddenly manifest to the north. Her arms shook but she wouldn't be-- "What!?" That second blast had actually shook the whole damn place! What was happening to the north!? Was Thesephine okay? There wasn't any time to sit around and try to find out,, it was time to move! "I don't know what the Hel that was, but that means there isn't any time to lose! Get moving Tenna, I'll catch up after I make sure this thing won't be following us!" Xalrei to 14,8 and try to kill the repairing construct. "Shut up!" Xetketh snapped at the beastman, her fists shaking with rage as she was on the verge of grabbing Asami's less than modest coverings and hoisting her like she'd done to Agni. She finally realized what it was that had felt so off about this place: it was the utter lack of magic in the world. Or was it? A sudden burst of magic to the northwest... No, wait-- "Ahahahaha!~ So that's where she was! Who cares what's happened to me so long as she's still like this? Out of my way!" Though her worry about her own magic was still very much at the forefront of her mind, Miz being unsealed with this much magic at her disposal was enough to assuage her concerns for the time being. A solution to her own issues could be found later, she was confident that she'd be able to solve this mystery so long as Miz was still as powerful. Xetketh to 34, 9. Coming around the corner she saw the destruction Miz had wrought on their prison, only made more giddy as her many eyes took in the sight. "Huh, what--" Before Sollowy had much time to even process Nisha's request the woman had slipped her own bow from her hands and replaced it with the wraith's much heavier greatbow. She nearly dropped the heavy thing on the ground, barely able to get a proper grip on it in time. The construct crumbled from Nisha's shot, so at least it wasn't for nothing. "Well, it worked out at least." Sollowy moved to take her bow back when the wall to their north suddenly shook, a terrible sounding explosion assaulting her ears. Then another a few seconds later, worry sinking into the fairy. "Wh, What's happening up there?" The oppressive magic coming from there only heightened her concern. Please be okay Thessy, please...

"Mrrh..." Alriana gave a low effort grumble at Miria, too put off by the heat. She'd never liked the rise and decrease in temperature associated with the passage of the seasons, but she most certainly disliked the host summers more than the cold winters. "Need, cool off more." Was all she was going to give Miria. Talking moved her body, and moving her body moved the sweat she'd managed to collect. As the cart came to a stop the sweat Alriana had worked so hard to keep on her body rolled off her body and onto the floor of the wagon, creating her own small puddle; had the sisters been together, it might've been somewhat of a nuisance. She let out a disgruntled grunt as she sat up in response to Sixteen's poking, huffing a breath up towards her own hair only to feel minimal relief with her sweat gone. Ingverd popped his head in next, calling for her and her sister. "Friend, certainly word." Something needed to be done about this infernal heat, before anything else. Even the lizard was aware of how vastly her patience had been shortened because of it, though the knowledge this was just the beginning certainly didn't help matters. "Ingverd." Her voice was unusually firm, demanding in nature. "Show us to baths. Consider see more, after." She rose all at once, moving towards the front of the wagon with her tail dragging on the floor. "Come on, Sixteen."

The helhound turned to look back as Nessraya called her name, just in time for the dust kicked up by the doors she had bravely felled to settle. "There's just a sword and a staff in here, it looks like." She waited for the general to at least reach the entrance before she herself moved inside, she could take care of this while she was handling the thing that Jade had downed, which, on second thought, looked like it had been preparing itself. Well, at least Nessraya was here now. Entering the room, she moved towards the back; she was far more interested in the sword than whatever magical contraption was on display. However, as she went to pick up the sword she nearly dropped it in surprise of what it felt like. Like she wasn't really holding it at all even if her eyes told her she was. "...That's weird. Found a magic sword... Probably." She called out to Nessraya as she turned her attention to the staff like object. Wary as she was, she still reached out to try and take it; to her relief it was solid, unlike the sword, however it was also clearly stuck to the floor. "Hmmmm... Maybe if I try this..." Rather than try to take the entire staff, she instead moved her claw up to try and remove the orb from the staff. There was clearly something inside it. Ember moves to 10, 43 and interacts with the staff.

Alriana watched as her sister had instantly become more popular than her within the span of a few hours, the mild feeling of... Hmm. She couldn't actually place the feeling. This is another new emotion... I wonder what it's called? The mild annoyance with her sister had spread to include everyone in the wagon even as Syndra's magic began to cool everyone off, so it wasn't the heat. Why is she the only one getting attention...? New 'me' comes along without a scary mouth and suddenly everyone wants to talk... A small huff left the lizard as she remained sprawled in her spot, a few beads of sweat slipping off her body and down to the wagon's floor from her slight bit of audible annoyance. At least she was really cooling down now that Syndra's magic was reaching her.

Alriana was, for whatever reason, fairing even worse than her sister, sprawled along the floor of the wagon as she fanned herself with one of her hands. "Cause, it summer..." The tone of her voice lacked even her usual neutral tone and now just sounded miserable. Sixteen's whining wasn't helping, Alriana's eyes slightly narrowed at her sister. "And no... Can't take off clothes. Not decent. Sit still, like me, and water won't run off..." If she had to suffer through wearing her clothes, then so did her sister; even if it was mainly women in their group Ingverd was still at the helm one of their wagons, not to mention Cinaed was in their wagon as well. As their second newest pickup, Tanya, began talking to Sixteen, Alriana herself stayed silent. She wasn't going to talk if she didn't have to until she got a chance to cool off.

"A, Ah, okay-- Wait, who are you?" Sollowy paused for moment before deciding that it didn't really matter who this woman was at the moment so long as she was on their side. Her instructions were sound enough that there wasn't a point in questioning them, either. Sollowy to 2-11, iron bow construct. "Hahh, hahh... And stay down you--" Before Tundyssa could even finish her taunt the construct that she'd previously beaten down was now back on it's feet, with some worrying information coming from it's loose tongue. "I'm doing fine, Tenna, but I think we have a problem here! I can't fight forever and it sounds like these things are just going to keep getting back up! After I take it down again, we need to escape!" As she ran back to the other construct she felt the need to draw Requiem over using her gauntlets. The construct had said it was better at functioning so it wouldn't hurt to bring out her trump card! Xalrei to 12,11 attack Contruct 8 with Requiem. Ember didn't pay much attention to the construct Jade had left in the corner, a mistake, as she approached the door. "Well, there isn't going to be a key around here, so--!" Ember to 10,38 punch door. Hhmm. The human is at least somewhat competent... Xetketh noted to herself as she watched Agni violently cut into, and then down, the construct with his dagger. "If it's going to repair itself why not just destroy it?" She asked as she moved up to the beaten construct. "It's well within my capabilities to do so. You stand in the presence of Dark Magic's founder, after all! Allow me to demonstrate, though I'll make no promises about your safety~" Xetketh began to cast her spell, arms going through the motions with ease. "O Darkness, heed my command! Surge forth, grow and devour! Render unto me the power to reduce this world to dust! Gespenst!" However, for Agni and Asami, nothing seemed to happen. The ground did not tremble, nor did any magic manifest. For Xetketh, her magic had swelled as it should, but as it moved through her core it fell flat, stopped, and died. "Wh-What..." A rare look of mortification and bewilderment was plastered on the Beholder's face, her stalks going through the various stages of grief; the majority of them currently on anger. "What's happened to me!? My magic, what happened to my magic!?" With a glare she turned to Asami. "Explain what's going on this instant!" Xetketh to 29,4 have an existential crisis.

Alriana crawled out of the wagon shortly after her sister, stoic face in full force. Everyone seemed to have either dispersed or moved onto different conversation. Natalya was still outside, standing guard like she said she would. Though there hadn't been any chiming in from their leader during their talks, Alriana had to be certain. "You did not overhear anything, did you Natalya?" Perhaps her speech was a surprise to the tiger, but Alriana was too busy thinking about what Sixteen had told her to uphold her usual butchering of the common tongue.

"In the wagon should be fine. Natalya said she would keep people away for us." Alriana gestured to Tasha as she moved back towards the wagon she'd been tackled away from, hoping Sixteen would be able to start learning names. Though, perhaps a bit more important than that in the moment, Alriana finally realized the state of dress her sister was in, rags hardly fit to be called clothing. "Do you not have proper clothing, Sixteen?" She asked as she climbed into the wagon, a somewhat more difficult task with Sixteen on her arm. "I can give you some of mine if you want."

Alriana watched as Sixteen's enthusiasm slowly drained out of her sister and subsequently crawled behind her, shivering in fear. her eyebrows raised, perplexed at how her mood could shift so suddenly. There's, a lot going on here. For now... "I think it would be best if we had complete privacy, at least to start. Maybe once she calms down you can join us." More so than anything else, she wanted a chance to ask her questions without any listeners in. Her sister knew much more than she apparently did, she'd need at least a little time to process whatever she was going to say. "Will do, maybe..." She answered Ingverd as she stood, turning around to offer Sixteen a claw. "Shall we go?"

This being, her sister, was laying out quite a lot of heavy information. I... What is she talking about? Some of it makes sense, but, what does the rest mean? Things that Alriana knew, but that she purposefully kept at the back of her mind. Years of living with Grelbiria had convinced her that those thoughts and details weren't important to warrant serious consideration. However, with the being that called her sister... Her, sister as well then? With her sister in front of her, talking so freely about those thoughts, it took her back thirteen years to the facility. Underground, little to no natural light, a room that was painfully bland. Days spent with Grelbiria, learning many things... "Ah?" She snapped out of the impromtu delve into her memories at Ingverd's voice, shaking her head to clear her thoughts. "I, I'm fine, yes. Not that I know entirely what's going on." Slowly, she was piecing it together. Another like her had appeared, called her sister, knew too much to not be from the same place. Did that mean there were more of them? More family out there? She turned to Sixteen to finally answer her. "Grelbiria was always with me, yes. But, what do you mean attacked? Grelbiria took me to Glacies one night... Is that why?" There was more she wanted to ask, much more, but in preferably more private company. However, somehow in the midst of things, Gean invitation to do as such with Tasha was lost in everything else.

"Wha..." The beings attention was suddenly on her, Alriana staring back at her as the being came more into view as she scrambled across the crates. There wasn't any doubt anymore, save for the coloration of the girl, and her golden scaled claws and tail, she was definitely another of whatever Monster Alriana herself was. She didn't know how to take the sudden realization, still as stone until the being collided with her and sent her tumbling and rolling across the ground. When they finally stopped Alriana herself was completely immobilized by the being that had just called her sister. "Wh, What do you mean, sister?" Her mind was going too many places at once to even consider trying to escape.

Out came Renais, but not whoever had screamed. Alriana's curiosity got the better of her, raising herself up on her tail over Tanya and Renais to peak inside while the tiny tiger asked Renais about what was going on inside. She couldn't believe what she saw inside, doing a double take in mid-air. Although she could only see the head of what Gean was talking to, and something that might've been a golden colored tail, she immediately noticed the similarity between whatever this being was and herself. The beings hair might've been pink and silver, but its skin looked the same as her own. "What's going on?" She asked without meaning to, staring straight at the other being.

What was that? Alriana's gaze was swiftly on the wagons after a scream seemed to have come from one of them. Perhaps it was because the wagon had muffled it, but the lizard didn't recognize the voice. A non-tiger in one of the wagons? How long have they been there...? She dropped from her perch and rolled with the momentum before rising to stand. She made her way over to the wagon that the scream seemed to have originated from, the one that now had the recent addition of Tanya standing out in front of. "Everything okay?" She posed the question with a head tilt, waiting for either something to happen or a response from Tanya or whomever had screamed.

The others seemed content to move on and be done with this place, but Ember couldn't help be curious about the double door that they'd all but abandoned behind them. Whatever had attacked Jade seemed to be dealt with for the moment at least; surely she would have time to investigate the door... Ember to 8,36.

Alriana had perched herself in a tree on the edge of the clearing, coincidentally the same tree that Cinaed was sat at on the ground. She watched him work for a while, unsure what exactly he was doing, before shifting her gaze to the other members of their mercenary group. She'd watch someone, switch to a new person, repeat until she cycled back to Cinaed, and then do it all over again. It was nice to be out in nature, even if all she'd known was the city for the majority of her life. A whole new world, much like Islexia was to Glacies. That's probably how it is everywhere. Everywhere is so different when compared to everywhere else. Maybe if there's money left after finding Grelbiria we can travel... She internally mused, shifting her position on the branch some.