th'shtola rhul

[ zenos had offered them a game. either way, who knew who'd be the viceroy of dalmasca after this? celcus was awoken. celcus was unsafe. all that thancred knew is that he needed to save him from awakening inside garlemald - and y'shtola had come with him.

before the two could set off to rescue celcus, there was a semi-familar clicking. though gaius had begun to live in the shell of the primal alexander, he often used those fully under his will, those in the onemind, to communicate. after all, he couldn't just go out there. he was a monster, bug fused with garlean. he was less willing to be seen then even regula and his tiny sahagin, who could at least pass as au ra (like y'shtola) if he needed to go out there.

but the mechanical gnath let out a few clicks, and began to explain. there were mountains near to garlean territory, with many passages. a few of his men had gone to investigate, to see if he could see the state of the country he died for. a small bit of him wanted to see how he had been remembered. however, a strange machine had greeted them. it looked almost like the dormant omega, but... smaller. and redder. this small omega had destroyed those bugs - squashed them, and absorbed their very aether. if it was eliminated, the path would be a safer one then heading there from the doman side, where men were still fighting and alert. he still was curious about the burn, about areas where aether was drained from the land, but that was not the point of this mission.

they had a loyal soldier to save. primal or not, secret spy or not. though he was loathe to admit it, gaius was on their side now, and was acting as the leader he was. he would lead in that buggy form, hoping that the strange child omega hadn't altered the caverns too much... or that the ascian had not begun to move, playing their games with mortal men.

odder still, lahabrea had wished them luck as they left. it was becoming clear that he was disliked by most of the other ascian, and clearer still that he was slowly adapting to being mortal. adapting to being mateus, and their ally. he had even begun to garden again, though his fingers werent as apt as ascian ones. igeyorhm had also wished them luck, and given them some potions and other drinkable items she'd slipped from a client or two.

it had taken a week for y'shtola, thancred, and gaius to get to the entrance of the cavern. even with y'shtola having a second sense for navigation, and thancred being able to feel the mountains though his very essense, the territory was dangerous. thancred would still be able to sense the caverns, sense how things were - however, there were blind spots, full of queer aether.

(the fact that thancred and y'shtola had sex a few times on the trip also made gaius feel awkward, like he was taking care of teens. their curse still was not cured.) ]

Once you have found and eliminated the puer Omega, there will be nothing preventing us from retrieving and returning your Goe. As long as it patrols these caverns, it may attack when we are carrying the compromised soldier.

[ ah. so thats the rank that gaius thinks celcus is... or deserves? its not clear, as the gnath shakes a little, cutely. ]