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Does the fool play his riddling role so well that even he is deceived?

Did the Void Wanderer listen, and realise that he was not silent?

Jvan didn't much care. The world was beyond reason. [i]Vowzra[/i] was beyond reason. The only one left to accept the nails of sin for the sake of others was her.

The unmistakable sound of meddling echoed into the listening-horns of Ovaedis, drowning out the whispers of Galbar's scant thousand Sculptors. It haunted the fractured spaces, split and reformed, the noise itself coming undone in transit, but Jvan no longer saw riddles when she gazed upon the Gap. Its ways were known. Its paths could be mapped. That sound could be triangulated.

With mechanical ears Jvan traced back the echoes, as she had once traced the universe for the echoes of Arcon. For the first time, she could pinpoint the drone of Perfectus where it had been crudely stowed, listening for the undisguised sound of motion. The sound of breaching. Rising into a foreign sky, colliding with its own reflection, and disappearing, for the second time in its troubled history, into a pool of bent space.

As yet, nothing.

Then they tore their way into the world like a rain of caltrops.

Billions of particles of interdimensional flotsam forced into the world that had not been theirs for aeons. The artefacts punctured Galbar's skin and flimsily plugged the wounds they had created, a thin barrier to hold back the blood of the Other. Too thin. Fragile.

A precarious mockery of the creation she had wrought from the far places.

No anger, no hate in Jvan. Only a splay of lines and colours deep inside her whirring core. She had tasted of the cup of hate and drunk it dry. Now there was only regret, and swelling responsibility. The time for recovery was ending, and the time for action was coming. And Jvan was coming for Time itself.

Soon.

Divine sound pulsed over Galbar, and Jvan recognised the scream of birth. This one, it seemed, had come with particular violence. Predictable enough. The Other did not withhold its beauty for the likes of realspace, and the new demigod had been forced to adapt fast.

Would they emerge to be as blessedly peculiar as the rest, as Lifprasil and Amartia? Of course they would. Even the unsafe artwork is art nonetheless.

But the Other was unsafe indeed, and the Riddler was reckless. Time would tell if this erratic scrawl of creation was worth what it destroyed.

Except, of course, He wouldn't. Vowzra would sit in silence, watching the results of his interference, never making any coherent sense of his own actions. No one answered his riddles. No one could. They had no solution. They were dead ends. Like he was.

Like Perfectus had come to, and where it should have stayed until a worthier hand had drawn it out.

From the great portal of Ovaedis streaked a thin wisp of carmine fog, which did not dissipate in Galbar's atmosphere. Instead it nestled in the Caliginous Mangrove, mingling, for a little moment, in with the cloud forest's own veil.

It told Heartworm all it needed to know.

Old Skinstitch was lost to Jvan, she knew. It hid itself well, and their divine link was, until the Engineer found cause enough to repair it, cut. Ultimately, their isolation mattered little. The bonds went deep. Neither needed to hear the other to know what each would say. Neither needed to speak. They were, after all, one and the same.

[color=9e0b0f][i]The Riddler is hiding something beyond the Error. He has carved himself a den in which he lurks with his prize. There is a path between them. A frail barrier through which the Other may yet escape.[/i][/color]

[color=f6989d][i]Open two ways. Whirlpool atop the Mount.[/i][/color]

[color=9e0b0f][i]To leave such a flaw to rust and crack only weakens it. I will not let the Riddler creep in the dark places forever. It must be sealed, or still more harm may be done.[/i][/color]

[color=f6989d][i]Reckless.[/i][/color]

[color=9e0b0f][i]I must take responsibility for the protection of my family. None other will.[/i][/color]

[color=f6989d][i]Retaliation will come. Stand to lose all that has been created.[/i][/color]

[color=9e0b0f][i]I will not leave my work undefended. They must have a guardian.[/i][/color]

[color=f6989d][i]You force my hand.[/i][/color]

It was true. Heartworm, fragile as it was, would come if Lex was threatened. It would come late, and prioritise its own safety, but it would come nonetheless. The All-Beauty knew itself well enough. Knew its own unreliability. Heartworm was a weak contingency to depend on. In the future, better defences would be required for Jvan's expanding portfolio of samples and sculptures.

Shelter. Mobility. Armament.

Yes, a bulwark would be built with which to protect the Engineer's delicate mortal projects. An Ark.

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Ovaedis. Blood-tinted darkness. Churning eldritch tendons. Hot air. Spitting bubbles of liquid. A stream of brilliant, uninterrupted energy from the Core. Jvan at work.

[i][color=9e0b0f]One? No, I think more. One is too much of a risk. Two, then. Any more and their power will be too far diluted. It would take them too long to grow. Still not enough, not entirely secure. A mating pair? Yes, so be it. 

They will be different, of course. Diversity in all things. The entropites can take care of the offspring once they mature. Motherhood is in their veins. And the Arks will take care of them. They'll be able to hold so much, in the end. They can take the change eaters down to commence the counter-genocide. They can carry things up, into orbit. Maybe even Urtelem.

Or other mortals. Explorers. Colonists. A whole settlement, why stop at that? An army. They can be flagships for an empire of the stars. Lifprasil would love that. Oh! Two Arks. Of course. And offspring, besides. Enough to share.

Yes. Lifprasil would like that very much.[/color][/i]

[center]* * *[/center]

[right][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYz2s-45Qis]Agalloch- (Serpens Caput)[/url][/right]

From the great portal of the Divine Engineer's manufactory, two bodies emerged into the dark.

They were wound around one another, a slender form and a sinewy one. The thin entity entwined her brother in intimate embrace, and the four arms of the robust being caressed the loops of his sister with effortless delicacy. Neither resembled the other in the slightest degree, and yet they were twins, born on the same day from the same womb. Each one stared into the eyes of their sibling, and saw that they had no need to be the same. For they were lovers, a union ordained long before their birth, and they knew one another's very soul. They were as lock and key.

Between the stones of Lex, where the noctus fronds drifted thick, the change eaters watched them.

The [url=http://blighted-guanine.deviantart.com/art/Sky-Crawler-299919174]male[/url] was grey, lit white from within. His face was wise and solemn, and his eyes were those of a prayerful judge, a guardian-priest. The chambers of his body beat with no heart, only glowed with a soft, patient authority. His hands were the hands that uplifted, that gave comfort, and brought peace to the violent.

The [url=http://zakforeman.deviantart.com/art/Floating-Worm-rider-4-15-13-365897600?q=favby%3ABlighted-Guanine%2F62859938&qo=7]female[/url] was brown, and streaked with hot metal sparks where her upper and lower sides met. Her smile promised speed, and her eyes denied relent. The fins of her body flicked in anticipation for the frenetic crowd she would lead. Her tail whipped, as if to chide the slow and hesitant into joining the sprint with whatever they had. She was the voice of passion, the shout that held back nothing.

Three winged tails of colour surged to meet them, the only children of Diaphane who had survived long enough to reach Lex. As they flew to meet the newcomers, they could hear the voice of the monolith, the impossibly huge structure floating in the Ring. The source of all life. Big Grandma.

[color=9e0b0f][i]"She is the Mother Suprema,"[/i][/color] spoke Jvan's voice from Ovaedis. In absence of air, the words carried on radiation. [color=9e0b0f][i]"He is the Father Dominus."[/i][/color]

The sisters tittered to hear such names as they flew loops around the colossal Mother, who hissed with pleasure in a voice of hot metal, and curved around them in turn. Father Dominus laughed in his low hum, not saddened to be left alone. 

No, the sisters had had no need of names until the third one had joined them, and a nomer was needed beyond 'you' and 'me'. All three had chosen to be called Diaphane, though they knew not from where that name had come. And so they had taken simple identities. The first was Diaphane Stellar, who had never known a blue sky. The middle sister was Diaphane Wander, who had flown a reckless journey into orbit. The last was Diaphane Whisper, who was quiet, and had been forced from Galbar by evil spirits. Soon, Stellar's eggs would hatch, and her children would take names of their own.

A hushed tone of awe soon overtook the change eaters. [colour=LavenderBlush]"What [i]are[/i] you?"[/colour] came the voice of Wander.

[color=9e0b0f][i]"Mother and Father are still very young. Soon they will grow, and then they will be your protectors. They can carry you onto Galbar, and return you when it is unsafe."[/i][/color]

At this, Ovaedis had the attention of its audience. None of the change eaters had ever seen a living thing so large, even among the longest of nocti or the largest imagen-whale they had ever brought down. The Father alone was more than fifty metres tall, bigger than the biggest Rocks. Mother Suprema stretched longer than double that. To think that they might actually [i]grow[/i]...

[colour=Ivory]"How big?"[/colour] piped Stellar. [colour=Honeydew]"How long until we eat Galbar?"[/colour]

[color=9e0b0f][i]"Huge. Ten times their grandeur now at very least. But,"[/i][/color] and that word came sharply, for the sisters were flapping wildly in excitement, and even Whisper seemed eager. [color=9e0b0f][i]"While they are young, you must take care of them both. Clean them and they will carry you. Guard them and they will guide you. Whisper to them and they will teach you."[/i][/color]

[colour=Aliceblue]"Yes, but answer our question, Grandma,"[/colour] whispered Whisper, impatience foiling her quiet air. [colour=MistyRose]"When can we eat Galbar?"[/colour]

[color=9e0b0f][i]"When you're ready."[/i][/color]

And though the Diaphanes pleaded, Jvan said no more.

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[colour=MintCream]"Hey!"[/colour]

A full turning of the Lex shadow cycle later, Wander came to Stellar as she guided seven children around the lilting currents of planktonic gaia. [colour=GhostWhite]"Come!"[/colour]

Stellar hesitated, but Whisper, who nursed her own clutch of eggs, knew what that word meant.

Together the growing sisterhood clambered under the upper-shell of Mother Suprema. Curiously, an even, hollow space had grown in her, perhaps to serve that exact purpose. With a flick of her tail and speed unimaginable, ten hunters of Lex were ferried into the place where the space glowed blue and was thick with juice, and viscous blue fluid rippled below. Together they explored one little, quiet corner beneath the Fractal Ocean, where water was liquid, and life tasted sweeter than anything to be found in Lex.

And when Father Dominus bade them come, they whined and complained, but come they did. Galbar was dangerous, Whisper had taught them. They were young and few. And, of course, they trusted Father. They trusted Mother even more. They had come to love their wordless guidance, and come to love their caretakers. Something had been given to them, that repaired a piece of their hearts they had not even known was broken.

Never again would the Diaphanes be orphans.

[hider=A BIG HAPPY FAMILY]
Two sections.

[b]First section.[/b] Jvan 'listens' to Vowzra carry off Perfectus into somewhere unknown, calculating its position with her newly claimed portfolio of Geometry, and shortly after detects the Artefacts as they make landfall on Galbar and Lazarus is born. She considers the move dangerous, though she's recovered from hysteria and no longer feels so overwhelmed with rage. That said, Jvan does feel incited to make her own move soon. 

Heartworm is notified of the development and forced to acknowledge that it will have to come out of hiding to defend Lex and Galbar if something worse should happen. Knowing that Heartworm values its own safety pretty highly, Jvan recognises that she needs other ways to keep her designs safe. [b]No points spent. Section is mostly disjointed monologue.[/b]

[b]Second section.[/b] Jvan thinks over her designs as she builds two embryonic Arks, which will, eventually, metamorphose into enormous biological spacecraft with which to send her art to safety should it become necessary. She considers the potential of the constructs, and, recalling Lifprasil's ambition for an interstellar empire, decides to share them with him when they eventually mature. [b]1 Might to create the infant Arks. 1 Free Point to give them that fleshiest of habits, growth and reproduction.[/b]

The Arks are born from Ovaedis, large but far smaller than they'll eventually become. The young change-eaters of Lex investigate them, and the Arks, though themselves newborn, take them on as unruly foster children. The change eaters themselves help maintain the Arks as they begin to grow. After a while, Mother Suprema and Father Dominus start shuttling them to secluded regions of Galbar on practice raids for Galbaric life. [b]Section has music and features some kinda cool characters. Might be relevant to any poor mortal sods unlucky enough to get caught out by eldritch hunting parties from space.[/b]

[b]Jvan
9 Might Ambient
4 Might in Ovaedis
1 Free Point
Level Four[/b][/hider]