Samateus woke early, as she normally did due to some strange internal timer that was a remnant of her days as a captive, where she would be expected to be awake and ready to work at dawn most days. Instead, the low crackling of the flaming pyres of the room lulled her back into slumber after a bit of time waiting to see if Pyrus or Blaze would wake. She sensed Flare wake soon after she had, yet he went down into the upper rung to run his usual training circuit before attending to his teaching duties.
Pyrus soon woke and entered his throne room as customary, seeing Samateus lying where he had left her the night before and looking quite happy to sleep curled up on the floor against the Vault door. Instead of making noise or waking her, he withdrew his small handheld data pad from a pocket on his belt and carefully moved to sit cross legged next to her. He scooted back only slightly to gently lean into her side, smirking at the lack of reaction from the deeply asleep Taalrulthian.
Pyrus figured Xerxes would be able to wake Samateus later, when they were ready to reconvene. He brought up the old reports of when his father and Blaze were working together as Igneous guards under Emperor Cinder, a pastime he had not indulged in since the Beast planet had appeared. Losing track of time, the reports having his full attention and making him imagine just how the three, Blaze, Coal and Magmus -denoted easily by his unique four ear-spines-, had fought alongside each other as a force to be reckoned with. Samateus lightly purring made him jump slightly, looking to her, then the doorway as Blaze stood there watching him with a smile.
"Oh, sorry. Must have lost track of time." He realized then that Samateus had her head lying on her left forearm and watched him sleepily. "When did you wake up?"
"Some hours ago, however I must have dozed off again before you did. Good morning Blaze." Samateus yawned widely, raising her head and shaking her furred neck lightly as Pyrus moved to stand, gently resting his hand against her shoulder to steady himself.
"Good morning, I hope you slept well yourself?" Blaze mused, watching as Pyrus stretched the kinks from his back and legs, Samateus rising and arching her back in a stretch herself, appearing almost akin to a feline. Pyrus then returned his small handheld to his belt pocket and smirked at her as she then lifted and spread her wings carefully, the wrists closed but spreading the inner elbow up in a stretch before she closed that and spread the wing wrists open to flare the feathers there up before settling them again and shaking herself completely.
"I did, got some extra too, which I don't normally do. Are you both well enough to get started? Xerxes just let me know they're almost here with something he believes will remedy the illness without doing anything to the existing Battle moon equipment." Samateus purred, Blaze sighing and Pyrus smirking.
"I wonder what he figures the issue is, if it's that simple to fix." Pyrus mused, wry smile on his face as he crossed his arms playfully.
"I'm certain it'll make everyone think themselves fools for overlooking. He has a knack for that." Samateus chuckled, realizing then that the hallways of the Firian palace and the civilian areas were much more narrow than she was accustomed and made a face that wrinkled her muzzle slightly. The expression alerted both Firians to a potential problem, Samateus sighing and nodding to no one in particular. "Shield your eyes a moment, I realized I'm a bit too large as I am so I just asked Xerxes to approve something I don't like doing without confirming first... Just in case." Pyrus raised a hand to cover his eyes as Samateus appeared to be enveloped in light for a long moment, obscuring her form so luminously even Blaze -who had been skeptical of her warning- turning away and shielded his eyes for a moment before the light faded. Instead of her quadrupedal form, Samateus stood bipedally on digitigrade legs, like Xerxes, but was a little bit shorter than Pyrus, though he had notably grown over the last year and likely would gain several more centimeters before his next birthday.
"Sorry Blaze, I did warn you." Samateus laughed lightly, watching Blaze trying to blink the spots from his eyes as Pyrus moved to look over Samateus. Her armour had flowed over to cover her body tightly, leaving very little to the imagination, Pyrus smirking when he thought of how Femur would react. Samateus' grin and wink at his thoughts let him know she would mess with the suggestive Bonean right back. Samateus' ridged crest had shrunk, to be a more decoration on the ridge of her nose up to her forehead, where her horns met the upper edge of the largest crest, and a mane of flowing blue-violet hair trailed over her shoulders to mid-way down her back. Her right ear swivelled forward as her left twitched slightly, her golden gemfire eyes squeezed shut as she stretched.
Blaze blinked comically for a moment, thinking she would look like something else, the smaller bipedal form, with her wings held lightly up and open to keep the feathertips from the floor, completely unexpected. She looked akin to Tibia in build, bust compressed yet still very much there, slightly more round at her waistline showing she was a bit overweight and her tail held slightly off the floor as she placed a hand on one hip and gave him a distasteful look.
"Well if you keep looking at me like that, Femur might have competition." Samateus chided, Pyrus having to cover his mouth to hide his smile as Blaze stiffened, blushed and promptly turned away. Samateus then laughed rather heartily, she knew Xerxes would enjoy that memory later.
The Aurora had to remain alongside the Battle Moon housing the Firian people, so Jade, Graveheart, Cryos, Zera, Zuma -who had appeared after the others had their breakfast and joined them on the bridge earlier after the conversation with Tekla-, Tekla, Capacitor and Xerxes with his floating case were cramped into an Arrowhead that shuttled them to the moon's hangar. They noticed Spine, Femur and Sternum's ship, as they landed and exited their craft, Xerxes cautiously uncurling himself once he was certain the others were clear before he moved out, the hovering case following. Xerxes took a long moment before moving to follow, straightening up to take a good look around the vertical ship dock and smiling widely, spotting Pyrus' retrofitted Bladewing taking up another to the farther side of Spine from them.
"Impressive. Most docking areas are usually Horizontally designed, to make moving cargo easier. That doesn't seem to have affected things here though." Xerxes mused, Jade chuckling as she moved to stand next to him.
"I assume then that your cohort who had been to Rock didn't visit the moons." She moved to stand with him, smiling at the light shake of his head, motioning and explaining a little bit of their current setup while pointing down at the lowest level, which showed the vertical dock to be the shape of an octagon and almost perfectly angled to make the most of each space, the tiers radiating up in a spiral where each level had four platforms to fit two smaller craft each. Their Arrowhead had its own platform, which had been designated as one of three available to planetary leaders, the Bonean Ship Spine on its own to their right. Femur and Sternum, with Pelvus following along, padded onto their platform from the inner corridor beyond.
"Good morning, so what've you brought for the kid?" Femur asked, Xerxes chuckling and shook his head as he and Jade turned around to rejoin Cryos, Graveheart and Zera with Zuma standing nearby. Xerxes gently patted the hovering case and grinned.
"I hope, if memory serves me correctly and my old reports were still accurate to the atmosphere of planet Fire, this will help remedy the illness plaguing the civilian population. I'll tell you no more until we greet Pyrus and Blaze." Xerxes grinned, turning to Graveheart and Jade and motioning for them to lead the way.
Only a few minutes passed, the group entering the inner ring that circled the dock, and through to the second ring, where some smaller haphazardly constructed homes made Xerxes frown deeply, his long pinion feathers held closer to his sides in distaste.
Some of the Firians milling about met his gaze, and quickly turned away and moved aside for the group to pass them, whispers about his appearance and the large silvery object with him arousing suspicion and curiosity in equal measure through the populace. As they walked, Xerxes observed the hall between the inner ring and the second ring were dotted with the crude lean-to homes and belongings, seeing as similar and some more elaborately built ones lined the Second ring on both sides, with two double-rows set up in the center of the inner ring to fit as many as possible there. Xerxes briefly looked to Cryos, who shook his head solemnly that none had expressed any desire to move, and that some would only if they could be assured they would not need to do so again, which raised its own set of issues.
Word spread faster than they could travel through the second ring and into the Outer ring, closer to the palace, and a crowd had gathered, some extravagantly dressed elder Firian males with their mates -who had customarily covered their faces with their head coverings- stood in a group blocking further passage toward the palace. Soon though, as Xerxes grit his teeth and did his best to keep his concerns and opinions to himself, Cryos and Graveheart stepped forward, greeting the males they assumed to be elders of some of the royal families amongst the Firians. Both bowed, which was thankfully returned by the closest male who appeared to speak for them, missing the spines on one ear and appearing to make up for such as seen by the many dangling golden bits of jewelry on the other.
"Apologies for the intrusion, we have a meeting with Prince Pyrus. Though I see our new ally has started quite a stir." Graveheart started, cautiously straightening back up and turned to Xerxes, who offered a curt bow, not the more extravagant one he had offered to the rest before. Cryos could see the distaste in his expression, Graveheart mistaking it at first for the conditions the Firian people were in, then Xerxes stepped forward cautiously. They could tell he ground his teeth slightly by the tensing of the muscles of his jaw beneath the thinner feathers of his face, but he relaxed a bit as he spoke. Cryos had noticed the almost imperceptible licks of flame dancing along Xerxes' head and back with his ire, offering an unspoken warning which Xerxes thanked him for noticing before their attentions were turned to him.
"Greetings, heads of house Blaze. Your Prince had expressed there was an illness I believe I may be able to help with, a gift, in the interim until a better arrangement can be made which will likely see-"
"Enough with your honeyed words, outsider." Snapped the elder male of House Blaze, likely one of Blaze's other cousins who hated the current situation they were in, having been in their own extravagant homes prior to the evacuation and had been living in squalor since. Xerxes' barely audible growl made Cryos stiffen. "Unless it is a new home for our people as a whole, outside of these... abominable conditions-"
"Elder Hest, you do not have authority to make such a loaded comment and are in no position to speak to an alliance leader in that manner." Pyrus' voice carried over the crowd as he had almost yelled to stop the tirade before Hest got any further. All of those assembled there then quickly shuffled aside and bowed as he passed with Blaze behind him and Samateus shadowing both, frowning as he stopped and turned to Hest, scowling angrily.
"Xerxes of the Ahr'aht has offered us a solution to a current problem plaguing our people. You have no authority to speak on my behalf, on anything, as my Father had you cast out of the inner council. Do not assume I would be lenient to you for a mistake your daughter made after my Mother's passing. I remember hearing stories of the females who were loyal to my father, and I know they all abandoned him when he needed them most." Pyrus' tone reminded those who had once interacted with him of the boy's father, Xerxes' expression turning from what could have been argued to be bitter hatred, instead to respectful pride.
This admission garnered more whispers amongst the crowd, some putting together that after the death of Empress Amber, the other wive's of Pyrus' father -as it was often expected of the Emperor to take many wives to give the best chance of a male heir- had all turned away from their husband. Amber had been the only one of nearly a dozen to give Magmus a child, and their Prince just made public that none of her 'sisters' had even offered to help raise him.
"Apologies my Prince." Was all Hest could muster, his hiss at his wife who raised her head slightly and voiced her wish to speak almost unnoticed. Xerxes had a wry smile that Cryos knew exactly why it almost appeared to twitch slightly, Graveheart and Sternum mistaking it for his knowing about the circumstances and having made his own distaste at their abandonment of his friend known in his past, paying dividends and further rewarding that he got to witness it firsthand.
"My Prince, I must apologize for my husband's outburst. We have been so very patient, our living arrangements are... Strained, at best." Xerxes' half-lidded eyes and concerned glance to Cryos was all Graveheart needed to get himself involved. The female turned to meet Xerxes' gaze as he moved slightly, eyes widening and quickly averting hers again quickly.
"We understand, it has been difficult to make this Moon your home, we've not been able to address it as we would have liked as an alliance, not as separate worlds. Xerxes has expressed he wishes to help, and this is what we have available now, to make things at least a bit more comfortable for the majority. Please, we understand you've been patient all this time, but we haven't been complacent." Graveheart spoke, not entirely sure where his words and confidence came from, Xerxes and Samateus -who Graveheart and the others had only now noticed- moved from behind Blaze to walk pointedly between Hest and Pyrus, pausing a brief moment to eye the male who still stood bowed over at the waist like the other family heads. Hest saw the strange armoured paws and titled his head to peer up at her, eyes going wide in shock and quickly averting his gaze again, visibly shuddering and remaining ear spines going completely flat.
Samateus smirked at Pyrus, letting him know quickly that Hest saw Magmus looking down on him before she moved to continue on and greet Zera wordlessly and stood with Xerxes who straightened up a bit, neck curled in a tight S shape, head nearly touching the ceiling above, nearly three meters from the floor. Pyrus smirked himself a moment, simply shaking his head slightly at thinking that would be exactly what Hest would see when meeting Samateus' gaze.
"In fact, as I'm certain the news has reached those here, we encountered your Prince investigating a world that turned out to be a trap laid by the Beast planet. Our World ships have been protecting your home, and the homes of those who have helped you, for over half a day now." This revelation from Xerxes made the gathered Firians all balk and whispers of concern spread through the room. He stepped forward and traced a spiral on the top of the device at his side. Where he had touched began to shimmer and that shimmer continued along the entire pattern on the case, moving only slightly to allow it to unfurl, much as the smaller spherical holo-emitter he had used the evening before did, only this was far more grandiose and appeared almost like a spiraling succulent plant as it spiralled up to a near two metre height. The silvery sheen shimmered rainbows along every petal, and small bulbs sat atop each of the likely hundreds of individual petals.
"This, is what I hope will help." Xerxes grinned, whistling once sharply, and each little bulb came to life, unfurling four long delicate wings from a small seed-shaped body. Each bulb revealed to be a small insectoid machine that rose in a silvery swarm that spread out along the ceilings down the corridors. Each tiny machine found a space to attach to said ceilings and began emitting a soft blue-white light.
The tree remained where it had unfurled, Xerxes chuckling at the awe and slight disgust of some, and emotions from others who varied from concern and skepticism, to almost childlike curiosity. Several of them appeared to relax and almost melt under the new light, Sternum and Jade looking to Xerxes who chuckled and explained further.
"One thing that cannot penetrate the surface of a moon, is starlight, which would still trickle through the heavy ash atmosphere of a volcanic world. Those who are able to travel will still have exposure to it, if in lesser amounts, where any who have been living here, without such, have been showing signs of what I believe to be UV-B deficiency." Tekla almost facepalmed, having completely overlooked that possibility herself when she had first heard of the strange illness afflicting the Firian people. Xerxes' understanding smile helped her and the others calm, Pyrus shaking his head and smirking as he observed the tree-like dock, he assumed, for the small insectoid lights.
"What led you to this conclusion? I also have to say, the royal families are unaffected, but they've been living here almost exclusively also." Pyrus frowned slightly, turning to eye Hest almost pointedly.
"They're living in the areas where there are smallish viewports, which allows for some ultraviolet light to trickle in. It may take some time for all of those affected by the UVB withdrawal to recover completely, and the lights will come and recharge at night, based on the daylight hours of the old capital I had recorded." Xerxes seemed to fluff up with pride at how quickly some nearby who had the strange skin discolouration appeared to recover their strength and showed signs of those patches of dullen ashen skin recovering their proper colouration and health. Graveheart and the others offered knowing and happy smiles, Blaze and Pyrus thanking Xerxes and Samateus for their aid publicly before the royal families solidified their trust in the new aliens, and showed the bigotry of the old families for what it was. Hest remained bitter about it, visibly, his curt bow of thanks and quickly rushing off to disappear amongst the crowd making Xerxes narrow his eyes, the old Ahr'aht turning to Pyrus when he moved to his side.
"Xerxes, I couldn't hope to thank you enough for this... My people are in your debt, this, I hope, will help keep us together as a people, and I am confident in saying that my Father would more than happily thank you for opening the eyes of those of my kin who see other species as being too different to coexist with. We were all brought together for a reason, I can't see the Beast standing a chance." Pyrus and Blaze made a show of bowing to Xerxes, who returned it graciously as he had to the others before, spreading his back arms in a flourish.
While morale amongst the alliance boomed, furthered by the returned enthusiasm to the Firian people on the Battle moon thanks to the quick work of the Ahr'aht Patriarch, Voyd watched and waited. The massive outer shell had become almost a prison to the null-matter being, who had encouraged and gleefully observed as Blokk used some of his own essence, the force behind the null energy that shaped him, to infuse and bolster his own assortment of underlings that would give his drones a much needed edge against the meddling Light-bearer and her allies.
For a long time, Voyd only knew one to fear, and He had been slumbering for over a hundred years, longer even, and had no idea what his creation had wrought on the peoples he left behind. The old serpent had been watching for so long, making sure Voyd had his fill of smaller fare, little did they know that the Beast had known which star his people had called home.
They likely suspected Voyd had destabilized their star to shift their attention, though no retaliation had come, though it was unlikely even the mighty Ahr'aht could really cause him harm now.
Lamprey's defeat this time had been expected, though Voyd gave no sign that he had used her as a way to guage how invested in this little band of misfit worlds the Ahr'aht were. Though surprised that the Light Bearer had put herself in the forefront of their activities and in the middle of the lives he most wished to end, threw more wrenches into his plans than hoped.
The mass packets, while they did hinder him somewhat, and were useless to him as base components, had been an interesting surprise, and almost endeared the hated enemy to what could pass as a heart for this null-matter being. Voyd had not yet mastered use of the teleport engine, and limited its use for now as it took a great deal more ambient energy than would normally be stored within his shell. Soon though, he would test his limits again, as Lamprey had adopted Blokks methods and had begun creating a small force of assassins for her schemes, their prior activities on the worlds of the cluster would show off as being more a win than a loss, as while Blokk may not consciously remember his time on Rock, or Lamprey on Ice and Bone, Voyd certainly did, and even now, could almost taste the alloys of the Maker within each world.