Closed Skittering Shadows (Dex)

[Yisanareysin]

Rey flashed Dex a normal, human grin as the spider made his request. "Iss hardly my fault your kind are sso limitted in sshape. We Dhani sshift naturally, a gift from our mother and Goddesss But no. Chancce iss that you will not ssee it again." The symenestra should be honoured, really. Not many who'd had the chance to see a Dhani shift had survived to tell of it.

"Have met sseveral of your kind here." Rey told Dex, his eyes searching out the flowers he'd kept passed on his way in. "Lasst one wass a friend." For a certain value of the word friend, at any rate. "Otherss, only in passing."

He listened as Dex spoke, considering the spider's explanation thoughtfully. Words of honour, conveying... what? Tone? Private relationships? A curious notion. Did they have different words for strangers, friends, sisters or lovers? What if two people had a different idea of their relationship? It was one way of keeping things straightforward, he supposed. Removed some of the ambiguity from personal relationships. Though that opened up a whole new basket of questions, all of which Rey filed away for later.

The existence of an upper class in Symenestra society was less surprising to him. Every city and society he'd encountered had them, from Ahnatep to Sunberth. Even Alvadas had a stratified society, though it hardly mattered in most respects. Why not the spiders as well?

At Dex's jibe at his height, Rey rolled his eyes. Squashing the swell of indignant irritation, he smirked at the spider. "Little one? Brave wordsss, from one who hass sseen my other sshapess."

"Ass for what I wass doing, well. I wass ssimply following the path that Lady Ionu had... laid..." Rey trailed off, and stopped dead in his tracks, eyes fixed on the path ahead of him.

The sun had not quite set yet, but hung low in the sky, on the verge of disappearing, leaving just enough light to see by. Rey could see, ahead of them, a smooth stone wall, and projected on it, a distorted shadow.

The shadow shifted, and the shape of it grew clearer, a bulbous mass surrounded by sharp lines, no, legs, those were legs, twitching and stretching.

Was it Rey's imagination, or was that a whiff of... decay in the air? Unbidden, the memory of the winter war flashed in his mind, the whispers of undead showing up once more suddenly striking him as a lot less ridiculous than they had.

Absurdly, Rey laughed, a little shakily. Without taking his eyes from the shadow, he nudged the spider beside him. "Long dead uncle of yourss? "

Snake Tongue | Common | Arumenic

[Dexius]

The Symenestra nodded at the snakes mention of his goddess. It reminded him to be thankful for Viratas' teachings. Do not waste good blood, he was thankful Reysin's blood would not have to be shed, for now at least. "My god gives no gifts from birth except the unity of blood and family. Strength must be earned by reducing the needless loss of blood. But I can see the merit of being born with a goddess' blessing."

Dex was relieved to hear from his reptilian companion that he was unlikely to see the disturbing transformation once again. At least he could keep what little pigment he had from escaping his face once more.

After thinking about the snakes words for a few moment Dex resolved to contact the other Symenestra in the city at some point. Just because he left his family behind didn't mean he had to give up on meeting any other wayward souls outside of Kalinor.

Dex couldn't help but chuckle at Reysin's response to the small punch he threw at his new and shorter frame. "Humorous and brave words often go hand in hand to a man who is out to see the world. It's a grim place and brave only takes you so far I would guess."

The swordsman was about to ask about the deity of illusions himself after the snake's words cut off slightly. But the spider quickly realized the reason why. Dex had the unfortunate pleasure of smelling death in the past and it was unmistakable as a hint of it permeated the air.

He was curious about the source of the smell until Reysin laughed in a seemingly out of character fashion and bumped him slightly. Dex looked down at the snake after he asked him what seemed a silly question at the time.

Reysin was peering forward. Dex followed his gaze until he noticed what had caught the snake's attention and prompted the small joke. The shape of a spider's abdomen on the stone wall was almost unmistakable even as a shadow but this was a little bigger than your average arachnid.

The legs of the spider spread in and out as if they were stretching before skittering the mass of shadow off of the stone wall. Dex stopped and thought about the snake's words of warning about dangerous illusions in the maze.

He wasn't exactly about to drop dead to something that isn't real. Dex drew his blade in mock confidence to hopefully bring back the serious attitude the snake had just moments before. "Perhaps he belongs on my mother's side, they were always a bit strange. But regardless, i'll see it dead before myself."

Dex smirked in the direction of the snake, hopefully he was a combat capable person.

[Yisanareysin]

The spider spoke, something witty and humorous and entirely inappropriate. Rey didn't hear a word of it. His breathing had gone shallow as he stared at the shadow shift and stretch. The smell of death and decay had left their own scars in his mind, and he found his hands shaking ever so slightly, his vision narrowing down to the danger at hand Then the shadow twisted, revealing more legs, and Rey went even whiter.

Don't have twelve don't have twelve don't

He counted, despite himself, to a dozen legs exactly. A scrapping noise from ahead, and Rey knew what was coming just before it happened. Surging up, the spider's shadow revealed itself to be the head of some great slithering beast, a grotesque parody of a snake. He'd heard rumours of this creature, crushing through the forces on the eastern front, caught a glimpse of it once.

Rey turned away, caught sight of the spider drawing his sword. In that instant, Rey wasn't in the Garden with a spider he didn't know or care about. He was back on the battlefield, with an allied combatant preparing to rush to his death. Rey did the only thing that made sense to him in his panicked brain.

He ran.

Rushing past the spider, he grabbed Dex by the sword arm and dragged him along. "Move!" He barked, and went tearing down the maze with the desperation only the hunted knew.

How long he ran, dodging through the hedges, dragging the spider along, he didn't know, only that, miraculously, they eventually burst into a clearing that was, if not the one they had met in, was nearly identical. The familiar sight was enough to pull Rey from his panicked state, and he dropped the spiders arm, panting frantically.

Petch.

Closing his eyes, Rey took in a deep breath, held it for a tick, then released it. He repeated this several times, trying to calm his racing heart. When he felt adequately composed, he turned back to the spider, trying to figure out what to say.

"Be glad I wass here." He settled on. "Thosse who challenge Ionu'ss darker illusionss end up dead, ass often ass not." It wasn't exactly true, but it was as good an excuse as any. "Especially those left over from the winter war."

Snake Tongue | Common | Arumenic

[Dexius]

Looking back towards the shadow of whatever creature was about to be upon them Dex started to feel a bit uneasy about everything. The form of the thing seemed never ending as more legs appeared to claw their way onto the stone wall just a few short feet away from the duo. But then another part revealed itself to them, a part that was distinctly reptilian. In that moment it almost seemed appropriate that the two of them would lay their eyes on a creature like this.

Dex looked back to Reysin and hoped the snake would have some kind of explanation or another witty retort to lighten up the mood. Unfortunately, his companion seemed more or less in a panic. The snake man was shaking here and there to the point where it looked like he might collapse before anything even happened.

He was about to get a word out to his companion when suddenly and rather quickly Reysin rushed passed Dex and grabbed his sword arm. Dex barely had time to blink before the snake yelled at him and then was dragging him through the maze's ever winding and ever changing pathways. The spider considered himself to be agile, at least compared to the humans in the city but the snake appeared to be his better in this regard. Struggling to keep up with the tug on his arm Dex almost couldn't move his legs fast enough to keep his body in the same location as his arm.

Finally the two came to a stop in another clearing which Dex was fairly certain looked a lot like the previous one. Reysin finally released the grip on his arm and for a moment everything was silent save for the breathing of the two men. Dex moved to re-sheath his rapier and then stretched his right arm, rotating it in small motions to make sure everything was alright after soaring through the maze.

The silence in the clearing was a rather eerie one considering the sudden panic just moments before. Dex resigned himself to looking around a for a few ticks but before he got too far away his companion began to mention something about dark illusions and some sort of war.

The spider ran his hands down his face and let out a more then audible yet wordless complaint. "What kind of war involves things like that? You can't be serious, right?"

[Yisanareysin]

Rey laughed shakily when the spider spoke again. Belatedly, he realized he was still shaking. Taking a deep breath, he tried to imagine the sun on his face, the sand beneath his scales, the dry heat of the desert whisked away by a cool breeze. When he finally stopped trembling, he turned to face the spider once more.

"A war of illusionss, of coursse. Winter brought ssome of the darkesst illussionss we've ever sseen." He shook his head. "Assk any who were here two sseassonss ago. "

Rey glanced around, trying to orient himself. "Come. Iss time we left thiss maze." Turning away from the spider, Rey focused on his eyes, drawing djed from his core and funnelling it into them. His eyes ached for a moment, and Rey ducked his head away from the spider to hide when they started to glow.

Faded paths pulsed on the ground, two Rey's own light blue, two a deep purplish colour that led straight to the spider. Rey's own path had led them to the undead horror. Hopefully Dex's path would prove safer. Without looking at the spider, Rey gestured for him to follow, and began to follow the duller of the two purple paths.

It'd probably be best if he didn't have to explain why his eyes were glowing, Rey decided. Solution: Distract the spider. How? Rey mulled on that for a few moments. In his experience, people were most distracted when talking about themselves. He should redirect the conversation.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, Rey was aware that he was distancing himself from his terror and panic. He couldn't help it if that meant distancing himself from his emotions in general. Easier to fall back into the patterns of hiding and learning. He could deal with his terror and trauma later. Or maybe never.

"Ionu can be a cruel goddess, at timess, though you could never call her boring. What of your own god, the one of your kind?"

Never dealing with his emotions sounded like a really good idea.

Snake Tongue | Common | Arumenic

[Dexius]

A war of illusions? That was not exactly what Dex had expected to hear as the answer to his question but as he passed the days away in Alvadas the answer did not seem too far fetched. "Two seasons ago? I guess I lucked out then. I'm new to the city as of this season so it looks like I missed whatever catastrophe happened."

Dex took a look around the grassy area once more just to make sure the thing that had followed them was doing so no longer. It appeared as Reysin was doing the same before beckoning him to leave.

"Well let's get going then." The Spider said to The Snake as he joined by his side. "I would prefer to leave then to run into whatever that creature was again. I have no interest in learning if it is a meat eater or not."

He tried to seem like he wasn't frazzled after the near encounter with the creature but now every little shadow seemed to move in Dex's eyes. Attempting to remain calm looking was not something Dex was used to. While his face could be kept straight his eyes would betray this facade. Finally, The Snake beckoned him and the two headed off back into the winding passages of the maze.

Not much was said between the two until Reysin went on about gods and goddesses. "Ionu does indeed seem to be two sides of one coin that is for sure. Viratas on the other hand is much more straight forward. He believes in the connection of all things through life and blood. Do not shed needless blood but do not let yours be taken in kind. My people have a strong belief in the closeness of family through Viratas' teachings."

Dex let out a deep sigh for a moment before kicking a small piece of hedge that had grown away from the maze proper. "Other who follow Viratas do so in a much more dark manner though. Needlessly taking life in sacrifice to please him. But who am I to know which is right or wrong? Recently I feel as though my faith is misguided in a way. But I will follow what I feel is right in my mind and protect my friends and family, those I have left that is."

He looked over at Reysin who appeared to be using every opportunity to avoid looking in his direction while he spoke. "What about your people's deity? Ionu is not your first i'm sure." The Snake was so dodgy, he wondered what there was to learn about strange man.

[Yisanareysin]

Rey frowned at the faded, patchy path, annoyed at how quickly it had faded. This new magic was different from his sense, leaving rapidly fading impressions instead of seeing the here and now. It was, would be useful, for certain. But he'd forgotten how irritating the early days of learning a new magic were, how the skill frequently slipped from his grasp.

His attention, therefore, was divided, between keeping his Iraso vision on, and listening to Dex, and he hesitated before responding, something which the spider would be easily able to pick up. "Curiouss. Connection and blood? Would not have thought them linked. Ssiku is simple enough. Is the goddess of all sserpents, dhani or other. Iss the mother of our kind, and and teaches us to protect ourselves, and each other, different though our nessts may be."

He sighed. "My faith in Ssiku may not be misguided, but it iss not sso simple. Perhaps no faith iss." Perhaps it was the shock of confronting his nightmare of last winter that made him want to confide in the spider. Perhaps that was merely an excuse "Wass taught Ssiku sshould be my highest goddess. Perhapss your kind are the same way. To find my.. faith, my focuss now on" Akajia "Ionu, is...."

Rey shook his head. This was a dangerous state of mind for Rey to be in. Who knew what else he might spill. "Iss no matter. " He hissed, reaching for his hypnotism instinctively to change the subject.

"Why you think you are 'misguided?'"

Snake Tongue | Common | Arumenic