Not all on the team had yet been told of the particulars of what the Navigator had told them, so for some, this would be a potentially uncomfortable revelation. For Marae, it was bringing up fears that had been gnawing at her. It had been many centuries since she felt like she had been in anywhere close to the kind of danger she was in now. For many Rothians, that kind of danger would be something entirely new. The risk of death was something they tended to keep at a healthy distance [i]away[/i] from their daily lives. Marae had been hatched at a time when they did not have the luxury of guaranteed safety, but that did not mean this feeling was anything but an unwelcome one. 

For a moment, Marae lost focus. Her gaze wandered, to the slowly flowing water, to the sky, to the pleasant heat on her scales. It was tempting to get lost in the much more pleasant memories of her and Nirann’s last vacation to Anskaria. The future was no more [i]certain[/i] then than it was now, but there was no reason to be frightened about it. The mysteries she studied at that time were only about expanding knowledge, not staving off disaster. 

Marae soon felt a hand move across her back and rest on her shoulder as Nirann pulled her in close. The new frame he had chosen was substantially taller than her, so he had to lean down somewhat to nestle his head against hers. Out of everyone present, Nirann was likely the hardest to read. Not only did he lack an organic body, but his friendliness, humor, and apparent confidence was something he could always keep up no matter how he really felt. He was not any more immune to fear than any other Rothian, he could just leverage custom programming to hide it…but not from her. She knew him too well, and she knew he needed her. Nirann’s frame was nothing more than thick metal and polymer, and Marae was cold-blooded, but that did not stop both of them from feeling the warmth of the other’s support.

Marae took in a long, slow breath. This was a conversation she knew had been coming, and one that had been on her mind for a while. She could not count how many times she had gone through in her head what she might say, when the time came. Fortunately, she was not alone. Freyr, it seemed, was ready to talk about what lay ahead, and Marae knew she needed to help. For this, all of them needed to be working as a [i]single[/i] team, and they needed to feel like they were one team. But, Marae still knew how to talk to her own people in a way they would respond to, and she expected Freyr would as well for the Humans. As Freyr paused, Marae stepped up alongside her to join her. “She is right. This is something new and…frightening for all of us. We are not unaccustomed to mysteries. Indeed, I think I can speak for most of us here when I say that mystery is something we can all embrace. The challenges of the unknown, the thrill of discovery, I don’t think any of us would be here if that was not something we had a passion to pursue. But this…is different. It isn’t just discovery now, it’s…duty. What we have learned of, potentially, is an entity, exceptionally advanced, and without peaceful intention. Something we have feared for a long time may have now been found: a threat to our future. Maybe even to our Eternity.”

Among the Rothians in particular, her final words brought about a clear and visible reaction. For some fear, some anxiety, some anger. The Rothian idea of Eternity was something that clearly held strong meaning to them, and Marae did not speak about it lightly.