Zalia ran out of steam after another fourteen?... fifteen? Rituals. The shades also very quickly caught on to what was happening and began staying further and further from the bulb. Very soon she had to focus her entire attention and the power of the ritual onto a single shade to be able to drag it far enough to be caught and even then they moved further.

At this point, she could no longer drag them far enough to be caught in the bulb but that was ok with her. The strain of concentration and mana flowing especially so soon after the initial revival of the dead god was building to be too much.

Boreal had left after Zalia failed to bring a shade for her to eat, going back inside the building to concoct mischief no doubt. Zalia half stumbled half walked back into the temple and downstairs to the god below. She entered finding Boreal innocently sitting next to the god with Delphi standing on its face and Ro-ak looking somewhat annoyed. All three were frozen, staring at her.

“What happened down here?” Zalia asked, looking at Delphi who was suctioned to the half dead god’s face.

“I… was discovering new memories,” Delphi said, a little self consciously.

“You’re meant to be the responsible one,” Zalia reminded them.

Ro cawed once in an annoyed manner.

“And you’re standing on the face of Ro-ak’s god,” Zalia pointed out.

“Boreal said it would be alright and was the one to throw me up here,” Delphi explained, throwing Boreal under the bus.

This caused a mew of outrage from Boreal that was followed by an accusatory croak from Ro. An argument broke out between the two as Zalia stared at Delphi who was trying really hard to be invisible.

She gave him a stare with narrowed eyes that meant “I’m blaming you for this” before walking over and picking up Boreal. The argument stopped as Boreal loudly complained but Zalia just walked over to a corner and set Boreal down, laying next to her. Despite the argument she had noticed the god was looking much better already. A certain sheen had taken to its leafy feathers and it hung in a less… dead manner.

“I’m going to catch a few hours of sleep, refrain from killing each other or something important while I do,” Zalia said, pointedly loud enough for Delphi to hear.

She closed her eyes and the combined exhaustion both mental and physical quickly took her to a deep sleep.

⪼ ⪢ ℋ 𝒶𝓃𝒹 ℋ ⪡ ⪻

Zalia’s eyes opened to see the same room she had fallen asleep in yet none of her companions were present. She rolled over and looked over the rest of the room but nothing seemed out of place.

“Boreal?” she called.

There was no response so she stood up and stretched lightly.

“Delphi?” she called, a bit louder.

No response.

She walked over to the door but stopped as she saw a glint of light in the periphery of her vision.

She looked over her shoulder and saw the god was twitching slightly, an indistinct whisper coming from it.

“Delphi,” Zalia called out mentally.

There was no response so she walked up to the god to hear what it was saying more clearly.

“Find the prison,” it whispered.

“What?” Zalia asked, unsure if she had heard right.

The vines holding up the god began writhing and morphing. Their shape became chain-like, taking on a metallic sheen as the room about her began melting. The god now suspended by chains from the ceiling, wings replaced by arms looked up at her in a sudden flash of movement.

“Find the prison,” it whispered.

She jolted upright in her bed, launching a small shape across the room.

She looked about wildly but all was normal, Boreal looking down at her in concern. The god was the same as it had been when she had fallen asleep.

She shook her head gently, trying to break the confusing visions floating around her mind. She was getting really sick of random powerful creatures whispering for her to find things whether it be in her dreams, mind or through a crow.

She looked across the room to where Delphi had landed after being launched by her jolting awake.

“Were you on my face while I was asleep?” Zalia accused.

“I was trying to wake you,” Delphi explained.

“What for?” Zalia asked.

Boreal mreowed, conveying a sense of concern and an image of Zalia curled into a ball with her entire body tensed.

“Ah, just a… nightmare,” Zalia assured.

“A nightmare? I don’t fully comprehend this word,” Delphi asked.

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“It’s like when you have a dream but it is a bad one,” Zalia explained.

“Ahhh, I sometimes forget that some less established life forms dream,” Delphi said in understanding.

“Less established, what does that mean!?” Zalia asked, a little insulted.

“Your biology has not grown to be the least restrictive version it can be. Many creatures still require things such as breathing, sleep and blood. That kind of thing,” Delphi explained.

Zalia just stared at the tiny frog on the floor that was dictating to her on what the perfection of a life form was.

“And you have reached such a state, I assume,” Zalia said dryly.

“Of course, the collective has had a long time to perfect their form,” Delphi replied.

Zalia narrowed her eyes at the frog and stood up. She walked over and tried to pick Delphi up but the form shimmered and then shattered at her touch. An illusion.

“A good but unsuccessful attempt at proving a valid point,” Delphi said.

Zalia looked around and found the damn frog standing where she had just gotten up from.

“That one weakness is why we usually stay within the strength of the collective,” Delphi added.

Rolling her eyes at the ridiculous and dramatic frog she had befriended, Zalia walked over to the god to inspect its health.

“Are you awake?” she asked.

The body twitched and its head turned to look at her.

“Awake, yes, after so long. Memories… memories return,” it whispered.

She took that as a good sign and left it to its recovery.

“I have a feeling that our friend's recovery may take some time. I believe the god needs either a dramatic increase in true faithful or a long time to sort their memories. Maybe you can help it with that, being all about that kind of thing?” Zalia asked Delphi.

“I have already been in contact with it. I believe a few more members of the collective would be beneficial here,” Delphi replied.

“Alright, we can do that. Anything else you can think of?” Zalia added.

“Not at this moment in time,” Delphi said.

“Let’s go then,” Zalia said.

They left the temple and Zalia gave them all Zephyr wings so that they could fly back to her home island. She wasn’t worried about the god, knowing that it had been protected by the bulb for a long time and would be much better defended by it than she ever could manage.

It took a while for them to arrive at their destination and she was relieved when they did. Flying over the open ground was definitely a freeing activity but the memory of the twisted monster she had seen would linger in the back of her mind forever more.

While Delphi went to talk with the collective, transfer memories and pick some more members to accompany them back to the god, Zalia checked up on her little herb garden. All the plants were looking a little bit wilted but overall doing well. It was nothing a short time of her healing aura couldn’t fix up.

The zones of ice and lava she had made with her rituals were still going strong, unfettered by the corruption or lack of her presence. Encouraged by the success she stayed there for a time, enjoying the refreshingly clean air. Boreal joined, laying calmly next to her, the lack of shenanigans probably her version of an apology for her recent behaviour. Ro-ak wasn’t there, having opted to stay with the god.

“Want to go search some of the rest of the city once we drop Delphi off, just the two of us?” Zalia asked.

That made Boreal perk up.

“Oh, so you’ve been missing just spending time together have you?” Zalia asked teasingly.

Boreal gave a mreow of denial.

“Explains the behaviour,” Zalia said, pretending to think hard about it.

Boreal jumped at Zalia and bawled her over and they went rolling as Zalia let out a laugh. Their mock battle rolled over a Snow-leaf before they came to a stop, Zalia holding Boreal up above her out of reach.

“Oh please, have mercy mighty Boreal,” Zalia cried out in feigned distress.

Boreal gave out a sound that was somewhere between a hiss and a meow yet conveyed the word “never!”.

Zalia pushed Boreal up into the air and used her teleport to blink to the other side of the room, standing and preparing for the next attack. Boreal prowled towards her and got low, giving a little wiggle in preparation to pounce. Using a sneaky tactic, Boreal used her shadow teleport at the last moment to come at Zalia from the side, bowling her over once more and freezing her to the ground.

“Yield, yield!” Zalia called.

Boreal stood on her chest in victory, letting out a tiny, cute roar that would no doubt turn into something much more terrifying once she was fully grown.

Zalia grinned and broke free from the ice with some quick manipulation, standing and brushing the rest off.

“You’re such a little shit sometimes,” Zalia said warmly, scratching Boreal behind the ears.

Boreal gave a little chirp like, “yeah, I know.”

Rolling her eyes, Zalia left the little side cavern to see if Delphi was done yet. She came out of the doorway to find not one but five frogs standing next to the pool staring at her.

“We are ready,” Delphi said.

Zalia could barely tell the difference between them though they each had a slightly varied pattern in their colourings. A little unnerved at the simultaneous stare of the five sets of wide frog eyes, Zalia waved.

“Hello, I can see that yes. Want to leave now?” she asked.

“At the earliest convenience,” Delphi replied.

Before they left, Zalia marked off the entire list from her wall, all the objectives having been completed. She had explored the flying island, found a way to harm, kill or defend from the shades and had investigated the immediate area. Now she just needed a way out of Cormaine.

“Rrright, easy enough. Let’s go then,” She said, quickly leaving the chamber towards the cavern exit.

They quickly made their way to the surface and Zalia picked up all the frogs, with their permission, and placed them on her shoulders.

“It’ll be a little windy so do your best to hold on,” Zalia informed them.

“They have my memories Zalia, they are aware of what is happening,” Delphi reminded her.

“Right, right, collective and all that. Here we go then,” she said before casting Wind wings and taking off. Boreal was close behind on wings of her own.

They travelled back to the god island and Zalia dropped off the frogs in the temple, hoping they would be able to help in some way.

They then flew back to the island containing the ruins of the Bathar city as there were a couple things she wanted to tie up there. Firstly, she wanted to release as many of the Bathar from torment as she could, something she could now do in relative ease from the sky. There was always the fear of attracting the shades above but she thought to have a way around that now. Secondly, there were the buildings they had seen on the map that she wanted to explore, one of them hopefully holding something of interest.

If there was nothing there well, a shame, but if there was it might be useful and worth the time invested. She had to wait for the god to recover either way anyway.