Reina Featherfall.
28th of Quintetas, 1492.
Dorsal Hills, Ventral Wall, Zimysta Falls Basin. Shujen Kingdom Dark Sky. Depth: 299,445 km.
23:49
***
While I still had the various networks networked in my mind, I now had a new gene at my disposal. Psionics, extracted, upgraded, and replanted in the minds of Mala and her brood - now redesigned to be as physically capable as their mental prowess before their evolution. But it was a process that would take time, overseen by the likes of Delilah, protected by Kalrog.
In that way…
"I envy you, Iris," I said through the projections of my new mind, yet that impenetrable skull of hers didn't hear me, so I said. "I envy you, Iris."
She turned away from the hollow of her chosen stalactite, chewed upon and defecated in by Ein, to give me an innocently sorrowful expression that forced me to answer before she could ask.
"Your brood is gestated quickly. Your children thrive in your realm already. You get to witness them spreading across these lands."
"I'm the one who envies you, Reina." She said. "Your children and your followers are born complete, mature, and in a home fit for them. Mine are born unsure of our place in these realms, for we have none we didn't build. We are made to eat, wander, and change our bodies to fit our environments. And then... my family grew large before I knew it." She said solemnly, turning back to the stone-like termites spreading in her hollow. Dutifully, they formed the dough-like stone stool dropped by Ein into a polished wall lined with glowing conduits, wires, and screens that fed her more information than I could hope to process. "I'm grateful I have many friends I grew up with in Eotrom. They aren't meant for places like this, though. Most of them, even the Mycodroids, live at home, in the Cuttleship, working in ICE, or taking care of my domain. The others are waiting above."
She turned back suddenly to step forward with blackened irises; a gaze synonymous with her bardic - and now paladin abilities. "I realized something, with the Mycodroids," she said. "I've been augmenting people because it was what I needed. Granted, they needed to be rescued. But I needed more people like me at heart. The Mycodroids were the first time that wasn't the case. Bringing them into my dominion was the only way I could help them. Yet, I made plans to do the same thing: augment someone because it's what I needed. Destroyers. Mycodroid, Double M's, and Zed Legion's Valkyrie. After her, I'll only augment those who need to be augmented. The few that are undeserving of premature death or those who are trapped in their bodies like I was." She declared, and more to herself than to me.
That was something I admired about her. In a way, though, it also made us mirrors once again. Mala and her family were the one and perhaps the only time I would bring someone into my dominion because they asked, no matter how much they needed it. But I would keep no promises either way.
"Prosthetics are different, though." Iris carelessly shrugged a moment later as her eyes shifted back to blue, much to my amusement. "Anyway, I'll be joining the GM soon. We'll be going to Mii'etus Praesyris to break some Squishies."
"Squishies?" I couldn't help but ask.
"Weaklings." she innocently answered. "They're all squishy."
I erupted in a fit of laughter that lasted until Iris dismissed herself from her communications spire to rendezvous with Amun. Not much later, I received some correspondence of my own.
It came from neither the network nor my mind's eye, but my soul, so tainted. Like Amun's voice, it transcended all methods of perception; the voice rattled in my bones just as an image of umbral scales formed in my mind, giving a face to the silky voice whispering to my soul.
"Your voice is louder than ever, Flesh Mother. In only a few months, it seems we both have become greater. Older."
"Oh… heyy!" I chuckled awkwardly. However, such awkwardness was not born from fear. "Yes. Your… Gloom is all the more… dark, these days."
"We are prepared." Came another whisper, followed by countless more. "We are excited! We cannot wait!"
"As are we…" I muttered, feeling the unease creeping toward me. "I can't wait to leave this place."
"Now, now, Reina. The dusk won't last long. Let's ensure we enjoy it. For there is a long night before dawn."
Taking her words as motivation, I imagined something akin to a water lily while gathering my sorcery and magic within my palms. My Floral Mana manifested as a fat seed of glimmering gold left to float down the abyssal river of darkness, pouring onto the wall from my hands. The wickedness seeped into the stone like an ancient desert gorging on the deluge of a long-awaited rain, corrupting the grains within to become a fertile pocket for this germ of twilight and umbral, fiery draconic miasma - gloom.
It reproduced on its own, that germ, releasing seeds of a dissimilar family into the environment like spores eager to fill the vacant niche left by Iris, embedding themselves in the loosed stone or even spreading their roots through forgotten mycelium channels. Some followed the umbral river rising to the maw of this cavern, hoping to latch onto the petrified husks as the river widened into an abyssal sea spread throughout the Falls, filling the cavern with budding plants and sprawling saplings of violet and gold that selectively illuminated this divine domain of magical darkness. They stretched across the ceiling in all directions, interconnecting their roots to form an incorporeal taproot that carved its way through millions of kilometers of earth to breach the First Sanctuary, so far away, forming trunks and then branches and then flowers that shook spiced pollen and savory fruit into this stale pit that beckoned to the worthy within whilst sustaining the twilit creatures migrating to this subterranean 'hot' spring - this first Twilight Grove.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
{"Getting started already?"}
Though the voice resounded in the necrotic devices implanted in my skull, it came with a visage in my field of view and a sense of the speaker's origin. Not that such a thing was difficult to find. On the contrary, spotting Chako Blude amidst the spreading twilight was easy; just as easy as finding Mani in the skies above, for she glowed with the same divine light. It poured out into the airs around her as if to lift the behemoth of a specimen in her grasp for her.
I watched it and her intently as she swam up to the ceiling, casting a silver-blue bubble with a swipe of the hand as she halted. But where mine turned into an expansive marsh of dusk in the empty air, hers became a magnet of a pond that pulled the at the waters collected at the base of Zimysta. As if the gravity had been inverted, the splattering stream bounced off the basin and ascended, bouncing off and merging into each other before they cascaded into the wall to form a rising river that fed into her lake; and no matter where those waters poured - mine or hers - they nourished.
My vibrant plants were fed and grew into massive statures the same as her lunar lake grew deeper by the moment, thus Sam and Red climbing out of their lake was but a prelude to what was to emerge from my spring.
In the meantime, however, there was conversation to be had.
{"Your average drow isn't as bad as the stories make 'em seem. They're just the right type of crazy, is all; the type of crazy surface people hate."}
{"And extremely pious."} I rolled my eyes.
{"We're pious too."} Blude countered. {"We're as pious as those clerics, priestesses, and Matrons in their temple, even. Everyone in the Legions. The only differences are that our God allowed us into his family. He walks among his followers, and he has a plan for his chosen purpose. Besides their zeal, Drow are militant pragmatists with a penchant for perfectionism. Those are perfect qualities for a legionary. Once they see bluer waters, they can't help but dive in. Even if they have to lie to themselves. Even if it means death. Faith makes one irrational in that way."}
{"Nah."} Iris chimed in. {"It's their Goddess. She's so… coercive. And the things she makes them do... in the grand scheme of things, it's pointless. They're just slaves to her. Worse, they're puppets meant to entertain her while she sits in her divine realm. Even thinking about her wrongly is a sin worthy of death - and she made her cleric's mind readers to point sinners. It's like dad said. Most elves are slaves to the gods."}
{"At any rate, I got who I came here to get. We'll be drowning that eye up there once this is cooked up, and the signal is given."} Blude's voice echoed as she approached to give me a hefty piece of the… water bug she caught.
I absorbed it once, reducing it to little more than nutrients and information. Yet, before I could reply, that serene voice from before rang through the darkness.
"That would do well for us."
I saw Blude's eyes bulge just before I turned to see the largest drow I'd ever seen. Or rather, the same but larger drow I saw once before, in a place far deeper than this. She stepped in ways that made it seem like she was gliding to Blude's carcass, pulling our eyes away from the gilded foliage that bore more of the Owl's feathers.
"It is the highest honor to meet you, Flesh Mother; First Druid of Twilight." I turned to see many faces, both familiar and not. The speaker, a short woman on the verge of being skin and bones, stared up at me with bulbous irises of blackened blood. A feathered hood covered her gaunt face in a heart-shaped frame that resonated with my sorcery, tuning her voice as she continued. "I stand before you as Tava, Contour Feather of Shujen's Dark Sky."
In other words, Tava was the high priestess of a new nest for the Black Plume - a new Twilight Sanctuary. Only four beings were perched above her. The two Rectrices, Perry and Rita, who oversaw the various denominations; and the Remiges, the Owl's first Priestess and Cleric.
"The Twilight Empress will be joining us shortly. The Dusk Maiden sends her regards." Tava smiled, bearing the sharp fangs in her maw before continuing onward.
Trailing her was the Tectrice, Limy of the Beak. A human woman turned undead shadow dressed in a breast band and skirt to expose the many beautiful sea green scars carved into her skin to resemble feathers. Knowing she was in charge of rituals, Blude asked what kind we expected to see. Yet it was Tava who answered without answering.
"We come of our own volition," she said, gesturing to the draconic calamity darkness disguised as a drow, looming over Blude's beast. "Our God's Champion has been taken to be tortured and threatened with corruption. Thus, we are here to take, torture, and corrupt."
"I am here to bring about the evolution of these Falls." Finally answered Limy, followed by the pale one trailing him.
She was a subordinate of an Imperator we've met: Elijah. A deep gnome vampire spawn who ventured into the Shadow Realm to take part in a ritual that made her a denizen of both realms. A Living Shade. Since then, her hair fell out completely and her deep blue skin turned to a light blue-gray. She remained lithe but packed on a fair bit of muscle and a few centimeters, covered in a set of umbral scale male, hooded with dusk feathers and leather chaps. "I am here to serve the-"
"No!" The giant drow snapped in the most serene voice imaginable, yet it manifested as a mere whisper. "In this form, call me… Galendra. Sovereign Galendra."
"As you wish, Sovereign." The inquisitor bowed.
"Go! You have your duties. And do not dawdle, Kele. I grow hungry."
With another bow, Kele produced a cloud of darkness, magical, but with our boons, we could see the lithe dragine dart out the hole just as the fiery and icy claws of the celestial twins carved through space itself, giving us glimpses of the surface and deeper caverns before they stepped through, leading different wolves than before.
Sovereign Galendra manifested in front of them as if she was their shadows. Her cold gaze drilled into their bestial eyes and long snouts before they could turn toward me or Blude, much less notice her and turn with haste.
"Take me to him," was all she said before leisurely starting ahead of them, Tava and Limy drifting close behind.
We all watched the celestial twins exchange an uneasy glance before gesturing to their newest additions to join them. Only I seemed to ask what was on everyone's tongues, however. "Should we… follow them?"
There was an exchange of glances from Blude and her girls. Then, as one, their voices rang in my head.
{"Nah."}
{"Nope."}
{"Fuck that."}