CAUTION: Spoils aspects of Innocent Hopes, Twisted Realities, When Nothing Remains, and Usurpation of the Darkness.

Seriously, major spoilers here.

Assuming you wish to continue, read on…

Lily was impressed by the size of the Twisted Corridors pack; the first three light wings she randomly struck up conversation with had never heard of Galen, Howl, Linara, Opal, or Jet. Six names, and not a single one recognized. They didn't notice that she wasn't a member of their pack, either, because apparently there were enough light wings here that one could not expect to know everyone by sight or name. Everyone seemed to know of Sola, but none of those she asked could tell her where Sola might be.

This was new to her, and it presented a small, easily surmountable obstacle. This pack might be twice the size of her old one, but that only meant that she had to ask more people. The fourth light wing she spoke to – an older male who looked to be waiting for someone at the bottom of the vertical cavern – was able to point her toward one of her targets.

"Galen? He and his mate live up there," the male told her, gesturing with his wing. "Three openings down from the top. He and I used to patrol the same areas. Say hello to his sons for me!"

'Three tunnels down from the top' was a vague direction, and Lily wasn't sure which of two potential openings he meant when she got there. Choosing one at random, she quickly discovered that it led to a truly stench-filled pit. That was not the worst thing in the world to find, though the unexpected smell made her gag.

Despite her nose's lingering discomfort, she was feeling good about her progress as she went into the other tunnel. The scents that wafted at the mouth of the tunnel, here away from the pit, were odd. Cressa was her closest comparison, as she was Risa's actual daughter, and Galen was related to Risa. Galen's family did not smell like Cressa, though; it was more that Cressa's scent had once smelled ever so faintly of something they had in common. She couldn't discern much beyond that.

Smells were an imprecise thing, all in all. Hinting, but never exact. Lily was thankful for that; if anyone could actually tell relation beyond 'kind of similar', her ruse as Risa's daughter instead of her daughter's daughter would have already fallen apart. Here and now, her nose did little more than confirm what her ears had already heard, these were the light wings she was looking for. Or, rather, this was where they slept. She didn't know if anyone was home.

"Hello?" she warbled, hoping that if anyone was within they would hear her. If not, she would have to go in and hope they wouldn't be bothered by her intrusion.

"I will sleep as long as I want, Sire," someone, a young male by the sound of him, barked.

"Rock head, that is not Sire," someone else growled.

"You are the rock head, with a bunch of little gravel bits for brains," the first retorted with a languid, playful growl.

"Take that back!"

"Make me."

Lily listened, somewhat bemused, to the sounds of a scuffle just out of sight. A decidedly one-sided scuffle, as she could only hear one set of claws and growls. "Just move!" the more energetic male barked.

Rather than wait for them to finish, she placed a paw over the boundary of their little cave, and then continued forward. Though she could see in, she had no idea where they were; there were a lot of natural nooks and crannies, and the same stone that blocked her view also bounced the sounds of their tussle all over the place.

She did notice, coming in, that many natural stone features, including a few minor stalagmites, had been blasted and scratched away wherever they might have been blocking somewhere a light wing could otherwise stand. Even so, she doubted she could fit three light wings where she stood, not comfortably, and what she had thought to be a switchback at the end of the part she could see was a complete dead end. She heard a grunt as one of the males smacked the ground somewhere. Where were they? She turned around–

Up in the roof of the cave, there was a switchback, a vertical one; a lip of stone that didn't look very stable, upon which an oval outcropping doubled back a ways, more up than forward. The two wrestling light wings were up there, and she immediately stepped back into the corner, worried the one moving toward her was about to fall off the lip and onto her head. He didn't, but it was a close thing and he smacked his tail on the wall in the process of hurling himself back up at the other.

The other light wing, the target of the louder one's irritation, stood like a rock on the shore during high tide, mostly immune to the assault of the waves, an impression further heightened by the deep blue glints they both possessed, reflected in the held flickering flame at the back of both their maws. Purely for show – any shot would hurt them both equally, they were so close together – but it did make them look intimidating, even so. She wasn't used to light wings displaying their flame so casually.

One of them was going to hurt himself if she let this continue for much longer. She had seen it before; two adolescent males smacking each other around until one smacked too hard and a play fight ended in a real, minor injury. They never seemed to care – not once the bruise or sprained limb had healed, anyway – but Lily was working with limited time, and she didn't want her first impression on Galen's family to be one of them coming away injured, so she barked. Loudly. Repeatedly, when her first bark didn't get through their thick skulls and even thicker ears. Finally, she switched to a short roar.

The two males finally fell apart, and much to her annoyance one actually did fall off the lip of the ledge, twisting midair to land heavily on his paws. The one who fell was the smaller one, as the larger had successfully defended his position without ever truly moving from it.

"You look not at all like our Sire," the smaller one said loudly. "And you do not sound like him to me, either, but there must be some resemblance-"

"Shut up," the larger grumbled. He turned in a circle, collapsed on his belly, and lifted one paw out in front of himself to start licking a large, developing bruise.

"I was right," the smaller one retorted. "I do not need to say anything, it is still true. But I will, because I was right."

They did not look like fledglings, both were larger than Lily herself, but she was forced to consider that perhaps they were just that big while still not being more than four season-cycles or so of age. They did not act like adults, so she was unsure.

"I am looking for your Sire," she began, then decided to change her approach mid-statement, "but I suppose either of you will do as well, if you live here. Who are you?" Galen might not matter so much if she could get his family on her side first. She would have preferred to meet his mate if that was going to be her tactic but his sons would work, too. If that was who these two were.

"I am Agate," the smaller one said. "That lump back there is Shell. Sire will be out for at least another six cycles, he just left for his patrol."

"I missed him," Lily noted.

"By, like, thirty wingbeats," Agate said. "Him and our Dam, but you are not looking for her."

So these two were the only ones present. Lily wished Peat had told her that Galen was about to leave for a significant amount of time, she would have rushed a little more in locating him. Then again, Peat didn't know she was doing this, so she couldn't blame him for withholding, to him, completely irrelevant information. "I suppose I should speak to you two," she said, putting her annoyance away for later. This was still important.

"You will have to make do with just me." Agate flicked his wings out and squinted at her. "But you should not be sorry about that."

Was he… Yes, he was. "You don't know me, but I am your Sire's sister's daughter," she said promptly. He could infer from that how likely she was to be attracted to his admittedly impressive physique. "My name is Lily. I only arrived here yesterday."

Agate tilted his head, then slowly and casually brought his wings back in. "Oh. You must be why Peat was talking to Sire." He almost managed to hide his disappointment, with only a petty little smack of his tail on the ground giving it away. That little motion, though, spoke volumes. If he was a day over five season-cycles she would eat a rotten fish.

"I would assume so," she agreed. "But I have not come about that." An outright lie, but not one that could ever be proven as such. Even if the conversation drifted back around to that very topic, who was to say that she had come intending for such to happen? It could be chance, or due to a lack of other common ground, or their own inner guilt at not allowing her a place to stay… "Rather, I wanted to meet my Dam's relatives."

"Well… our Dam met Risa a few times, but you really want our Sire or possibly Howl for that," Agate said doubtfully. "But Sire and Dam are away, and Howl is… Where was Howl last time Sire looked?" he asked, turning to look up at Shell.

"With Quartz, growling about everything," Shell grumbled.

"Better Quartz than us," Agate grumbled, before turning back to Lily. "So… Come back later?"

That was not how she wanted this to go. "I will, but maybe I could get to know you two now," she offered.

This did not appeal to Agate; his ears drooped before she had even finished her sentence. "Well, you could," he said reluctantly, "I was going to go… um… see some friends. And they do not know you. It would be boring for you."

Shell let out a very loud, probably fake snore.

Lily did not feel very welcome here. The question now was whether it would be better to press the matter, give in, or come from another angle? What did Agate want that she could provide? Female attention, which wouldn't count coming from her… But which she could theoretically help him get. "I do not know, I get along well with most people," she said casually. "Some of my friends back home have me to thank for getting them in with their mates in the first place, too." If he thought she was some sort of match maker, what she had once heard Gold refer to as a 'wingmate', maybe he would be more amiable to her tagging along.

This was all getting further and further from her actual goal, though. In absolute terms, she would still be making progress, but she was supposed to be finding somewhere to stay today.

Agate perked up at that. "Really?" he hummed. "Well… I could show you around, I guess. Not today, though. Tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow is fine," though it wasn't, "but why not today?"

"Better you do not know," Agate said mysteriously.

"He and his friends are going to go bother one of the alpha's advisors because she told them off five cycles ago," Shell grumbled.

"This is why I never invite you along," Agate barked at his brother. "Just… do not tell anyone, and we will be good," he told Lily.

"Okay." It wasn't what she wanted, but a future paw in the cave with one of Galen's sons, and a little bit of information to hold over his head? Good enough as a fallback plan. Agate turned around to leave the cave, and she followed. "It was good meeting you," she told him.

"Yeah. Sure. Tomorrow!" he leaped into the air and immediately flamed himself, disappearing in a quickly-lost haze in the busy cavern. Lily tracked him by the disturbances and annoyed barks that followed his hard-to-see presence, but lost him soon enough.

That was… disappointing. But not a total loss. Their cave was rather small, anyway. If four light wings slept there, the remaining empty space would be minimal. She could find something better today.

O-O-O-O-O

Finding Sola was easier than finding Galen, the first light wing she asked after speaking to Agate and Shell knew Sola by name, as well as where she could be found at this time of day. He said 'cycle', but that was the same thing. According to him, it would be easy to pick her out of a crowd, too. She would be the only light wing who always kept one eye closed.

Lily could have asked him why that was, but she figured she could turn her genuine curiosity into a good conversation starter if need be, so she left it at that. Sola had some sort of lesson she taught on the shore of the underground lake, and if Lily wanted to find her, she would probably be there. Light wings of this pack did not spend much time in their sleeping spaces, as a general rule. Given how cramped they were, Lily thought that this made total sense.

Instead, the central cavern was a hive of activity. She narrowly avoided a collision on her way down, spinning at the last moment to tuck her wings in so that a trio of younger fledglings could fly by without hitting her or the light wing passing her at that moment. "Watch where you are going!" the other light wing barked. Lily assumed he was talking to the fledglings, not her.

The shore, when she got there, was also very busy. Between those returning from, and flying out to, the depths of the lake, there were also more fledglings playing and many other light wings lying about in clusters near the water. Then there were a few standing around watching, possibly guards or sentries, and a trio winging in from the far side of the shoreline, where not many other light wings were sitting around.

Lily's attention was first drawn to the fledglings, who made their presence impossible to ignore with their shrieking. She was not looking for them, though. Of the adults the most likely prospects were the trio flying in, since they were the only ones who looked to be doing something. Sure enough, one of the light wings had one eye closed. Her other eye was a brilliant pink, which contrasted against a very dull yellow hue, and she was very fit, her wings and legs especially well-defined compared to some of the chunkier young adults flying behind her.

Lily watched for a moment, unwilling to insert herself into whatever they were doing; she wanted Sola alone, not to bother her in the middle of something she considered important. But the lesson must have ended just before she arrived, because one of Sola's group split away from her, going back out over the water, while the other flew ahead, over Lily, to return to the vertical cavern. Sola herself looked at first like she was going to follow the latter light wing, but as her eye glanced down at the shore, she abruptly flared her wings and dropped back, then circled around.

It looked like she might have noticed Lily, as unlikely as that seemed. Lily rose into the air and flew generally toward Sola, but off to one side, and was surprised to see that Sola corrected her path so that they would meet. "Hello!" Lily barked as they fell into a loose formation, with herself slightly ahead and to the right of the other female. "I was looking for you."

"And I, you," Sola said. Her voice was notably deep, though still feminine, and Lily wondered at the deep breaths the other light wing was taking as they flew. If she wanted, she could probably roar for longer than any light wing Lily had ever met. The difference between her and someone like Lily could be seen in her breathing just as easily as it could be heard in her voice.

That was perhaps not the most relevant thing for Lily to be focusing on at the moment, but she kept it in mind for future use. "I suppose Peat told you of me," Lily said. "I know that is how I found out about you. I did not think my Dam," she did not trip over the word at all, "had a younger sister."

"I only exist because she left, so that is understandable," Sola said briefly. "I wished to meet you, but you were not with him."

Lily purred to herself before she answered. This was why Peat was an idiot! This and many other things; he was like a puddle with a few extremely narrow holes giving it some depth in specific places. Impressively deep in those spots, but shallow everywhere else. "Yes, I would have been there if he had told me before he went to see you, instead of after," she agreed. She angled back out over the underground lake, since there was plenty of airspace there for them to glide through as they spoke. There was also what looked to be a long, narrow ledge along one side of the cavern, just above where the water met the stone wall, which was interesting but not immediately relevant.

Their course set, she drifted back so she could look at Sola properly – and then realized she had flown to the wrong side, the one with the closed eye, and corrected by awkwardly maneuvering herself under and around to Sola's other side. Sola definitely noticed, but didn't comment on it.

Opening with a question about the very eye that had caused the awkwardness was not a good idea, so Lily decided to start by solidifying her origin. "I have to confess that if you want stories about your sister, she died when I was very young. I hope Peat told you that much at least." He might not have.

"I am sorry for your loss," Sola said. "He did mention it. We may share family, but neither of us know that shared link. I will not hold it against you."

"Thank you. And I will not hold it against you. Though I did not know you existed until now." Lily was struck by the reflection of their situations. On either side, neither knew the other existed, and neither had ever met the common link between them.

Sola chuffed out a low laugh. "Same. It is good that you are here. I am sorry that I could not offer you a place to stay. I would have, even if it were just Peat asking, but I have no space for you."

Lily's heart dropped a little, but that was not the only thing she was here for; she wanted to get to know Sola a little, too. An immediate no was not the same as an absolute no. Perhaps there was space Sola wasn't thinking about. "How so?" she asked. "Where do you sleep, do you mind me asking? I am still getting used to how this pack works. Where I grew up, space was not limited, so it is very different here."

"Not limited?" Sola hummed. "That sounds too good to be true. And you are here, so perhaps it was."

"The location was not the problem," Lily said vaguely. "But for you?" she prompted.

"I am an unmated light wing who has no living siblings, and whose Sire and Dam have no intent of having another egg," Sola said briskly. "That means that when I reached adulthood, my Sire and Dam moved to one of the caves set aside for mated pairs who have no need of space for a fledgling, and I to one of the little nooks for those who live on their own. I must back into it, curl my tail up, and tuck my head between my paws to avoid my face being stepped on, as it pokes into the corridor even then."

Lily shuddered, her wings cramping at the very thought of such confined quarters. "So no room at all then," she remarked.

"No, and it is not very enjoyable for me," Sola admitted. "But I only sleep there. Between my teaching and the occasional patrol, I keep busy. More patrol than teaching as of late," she mused. Lily detected a hint of bitterness in that, but decided not to poke at it. She might learn more, but she could learn without evoking negative thoughts in the middle of the first impression she was making.

"What do you teach?" she asked instead.

"Aim," Sola said proudly.

Aim. The thing Lily could do without even trying. In fact, she had never heard of any light wing failing to hit what they fired at. Part of that was how rarely they used their fire, but also… it just wasn't a problem. "For young fledglings?" she guessed. "The ones who have trouble?"

Sola snorted indelicately. "No, for any who are willing to accept that 'I just do it without thinking and it works' is not the peak ability they should aspire to. Most light wings never use the upper limit of our fire's range, and wait too long to fire at all when they could have fired sooner if they knew how to ensure they would hit beyond what we are all capable of doing out of the egg. Precious few care to improve on 'good enough', though. Some are fledglings, some are not."

Lily was of two minds about that herself; 'good enough' often was good enough, and she had never had an issue with her fire. On the other paw, if she knew that she could be better, if only she tried, why would she not try? Sola was saying it was so.

"I would like to see a demonstration," she decided. "Whenever you can."

"Come when I meet with the others three cycles from now," Sola offered. "It is the absolute least I can do, since I cannot help you with your real problem. If there is anything else…"

She looked over at Lily, her pink eye wide with sincere emotion. "If I had a place for you, I would let you have it in a heartbeat. If there is anything else I can do for you that I can actually do, tell me and I will do it."

"Thank you," Lily purred. It was not a solution to her problem, but it was something. Much more than Galen or his family had offered of their own volition, that was for sure.

O-O-O-O-O

Lily had spent a little more time with Sola, telling her about herself and getting to know her in very, very basic terms. Sola was brisk, direct, and reluctant to talk about herself in any real detail, which Lily could not very well point out when she was doing the exact same thing. They exchanged some vague anecdotes, likes and dislikes, and that was, somehow, enough that Lily felt comfortable with her. Even though, objectively speaking, nothing of actual importance had been learned.

Everyone had their secrets. She did, and Sola definitely did. But Sola's did not feel like the kind that Lily needed to fear. They were the kind that Lily could nose out on her own time, later, and that would inevitably turn out to be personal things Lily probably didn't need to know in the first place. She was a good enough judge of other light wings to be confident in that much. Sola was a normal light wing. Nothing special, and therefore nothing unsafe or unexpected.

But Sola could not solve her problem of needing a place to sleep, so Lily promised to come learn when she next taught, and said goodbye not long after. She had one more named lead to track down, or rather a trio of them. Jet and Opal, Pyre's parents, along with Jet's Dam, Linara.

Those names, and knowing that she was soon to meet the faces behind them, made Lily retrospectively suspicious. Pyre was keeping something from her, as looking back she realized that he had told her almost nothing about his parents. The same extended to most of his life down here below the ground, though, so she could not necessarily deduce anything from that lack of information. Besides, it could have been sadness that held his tongue, not secrets.

He couldn't tell her anything now, either way.

She might have flown aimlessly in the central cavern for a while before seeking out a random light wing to begin her search, but if so, it was only because she needed the time to compose herself. Being here did not remind her of him, because this was not a place she associated with him, but looking for his relatives, and Risa's relatives by extension, did when she stopped to think about it.

He should have been here with her. If he was willing to send her here as a last resort, why not walk her here season-cycles earlier? It would have been hard, and a very long trip solely by paw, and he would have had to swim out to the island she flew to in order to enter the underground, but… It was not impossible. Simply extremely difficult, given those conditions.

Though Claw and Cressa would not have sat back on their tails when she disappeared, and walking was much slower than flying.

No, he could not have taken her here. Having him now would have made it all much easier, though, and much less bitter. Even if she did find a place to stay, it would be for her, and her alone.

What was done was done, and she could not bring him back. He would have wanted her to look after herself, and wasting time moping was not doing that. Instead, she would speak to his parents. Opal and Jet, two stone-based names. She had yet to puzzle out whether there were any patterns in the names down here.

For that matter, she was unsure as to whether there were any larger patterns to how names were given above the surface. Such a thing had never become relevant to her life, so she had thought little of it. She was named for a flower, she did not know what Cressa was named for except perhaps the crest of a wave, and Claw was of course obvious. Crystal was named for things that Lily had now seen for herself, these massive crystals that could be found all over the underground. Honey was for a product of insects rarely seen or cared about in the valley. Bone was named for bones. Gold after a color, and also a very rare stone, according to Pyre. Something else she might find down here, along with such things as Opal and Jet and Galen – Galena being the stone.

At least she now fully understood why Pyre had known so many different names for varieties of stone off the top of his head.

"Excuse me," she interrupted two older light wings as they argued on the edge of the underground shore. They looked like they could use a distraction, and the male of the duo knew it from the way he immediately turned to her with a relieved look on his face. "This is a long shot, but do either of you know Opal, Jet, or Linara, and where I could find any of them right now?"

It truly was a long shot; the only discerning factor she had used in picking someone to ask was choosing older light wings this time, as she was looking for what were technically her great grand-Sire and Dam. Three generations removed… Back in the valley, the oldest she had ever seen was two generations removed, Pyre to her. Here it was different – those insanely long and interconnected scratch and blood collections on the walls said so – but still. Opal and Jet were old.

"Why yes, I do," the male said. "Unlike some people, I can be helpful." He glanced back at the female he had been arguing with. While Lily had won some appreciation from him by interrupting, she had lost at least as much standing in the eyes of said female, who was glaring figurative firebolts at Lily. "Opal and Jet will be with our honored elderly, down in the warm pools below us."

Well, they were old. If there was a place for the oldest of the pack – another thing the valley did not have – then it would make sense she could find them there. "I can go see them there, though?" she asked. It sounded like a nice place, and she was learning that nice spaces in this pack's territory were either crowded, like the shoreline, or exclusive like wherever it was that the alpha lived. She had yet to see the latter, but according to Peat he had plenty of space that nobody else had been allowed to use.

"Visitors?" the male chuffed. "No, you misunderstand. They are there every day taking care of Linara and the other elderly, they are not very old themselves. What do you need them for, if you do not even know that much?"

Lily let the rudeness slide off her back, like water over scales. "Thank you for helping me locate them," she said, quickly taking to the air… and thus abandoning him to the argument that, judging by the noises which rose behind her, was instantly resumed by the female. She left his question unanswered too, but she was getting sick of explaining herself today so she had jumped at the chance to avoid doing so for him.

No matter the pack, people were people. If she were less adept at maneuvering around them, this might have frustrated her.

Over the course of this long day with no sun, Lily had worked out a gradual understanding of the layout of the pack's territory. At the moment, she circled aimlessly in the main vertical cavern, which was the first place she had been introduced to. Down on the open stone floor was a sort of general meeting place. Light wings gathered and dispersed there, more than anywhere else in the cavern. The passage to the underground shore was down there, too, reachable by paw. Up along all sides of the cave, many semi-uniform circular tunnels led long and winding paths, the dead ends taken up by smaller families and individuals, the bulk of the pack. People like Sandstone.

Further up, the natural caves dotted the walls. Places for larger families. People of influence, as the two were related. She only knew Galen and his family lived there, but there were more. Higher still were a few tunnel openings with guards, as well as some without. At the top, a dimly glowing red crystal, an unremarkable capstone to the area.

There was a sense to things here, to the environment. That some of it had been adjusted to, while other parts had been adjusted themselves, by uniform tunnels and other means. Everything was where it had to be, for the pack to function.

As such, she thought she could puzzle out where she needed to go next with little difficulty. The elderly were in 'warm pools' somewhere. This meant standing water. The underground lake was as cold as water deep below the ground should be. There were, furthermore, no passages leading anywhere from the shore, and she expected the elderly would not be asked to fly any great distance.

Water only ever flowed down or lapped at shorelines. Thus, she needed to go below the lake, but remain within this pack's territory. There were a few other tunnels leading away from the base of the vertical cavern. One of those would lead her to where she needed to be.

O-O-O-O-O

The warm pools were something to behold. Lily had the presence of mind to step out of the way of the narrow tunnel entrance, but that was all she could do.

She had never seen something so beautiful, put to such a saddening use.

The cave itself was an odd one, lumpy and pitted. The stone of the walls and floor blended, from the strong, nondescript gray of the cavern above to a crumbly, porous near-yellow that reminded her of an unusual pocked bit of sea debris Pyre had once returned from a fishing dive with. Water pooled in all of these holes, and lingered in the air itself. A singular dim off-white crystal jutted out in the middle of a large pool of this water, itself central to the near-circular cave, casting a soft glow on those who moved around it. There were many larger pools, none much deeper than her tail was long, and most not even deep enough for her to fully submerge herself in.

The air was warm, and she did wonder at the source of the heat, because there was no sun, no sign of fire, and no heat from the crystals, and she knew of nothing else that could cause such a thing. But, more importantly, that warm air carried with it a sickly odor, and the light wings who lingered here were pitiable in the worst way.

None were injured as Pyre had been; she did not see a single set of marred skeletal wings. The debilities she did see were of a different sort altogether. She could see scales pocked and falling off, yellowed in some cases but simply dull in others. Light wings who were missing entire patches of scale and skin, whose bodies instead showed raw, coarse flesh in some places. And then there was the coughing; it never stopped. Dry, despite the moisture in the air. Shallow, so painfully shallow.

A dozen or more light wings lay in and alongside the water, tended to by perhaps a third of their number in more able-bodied individuals, and not a single one of them was only suffering from advanced age. Some did not look that old at all, though a few looked truly ancient.

This was not a place for the elderly, it was a place for the infirm. Age was simply a correlation.

How had this happened? Were these light wings an exception, or were they simply the worst of the worst? Sola kept one eye closed at all times. Were there others with injuries Lily had not noticed? Could some of this ill health spread, or was it all inflicted somehow?

She stood there for longer than she really should have, trying to wrap her head around this sight. It was… unexpected. As was fast becoming a recurring thought, the valley didn't have anything like this. For the better, or for the worse.

Some of the light wings she was looking at had noticed her, both among the infirm and among their carers. One of the latter walked over to her, beads of built-up vapor rolling down his bright, unmarred scales. "Are you here to see someone?" he asked. "Because if you are only planning on gawking, that is a poor repayment of what many here sacrificed in part for your safety."

"I am from another pack," Lily said bluntly, unwilling to let him think badly of her. "This is all new to me. What happened to them?"

"That is new," the male huffed. "Another pack. But you asked what happened? The Noxious Fumes pack happened. Gasses, clinging flames, acid. The consequences of these weapons do not go away just because the war ended. Though usually…" he hesitated, looking back at one of the more visibly injured light wings being tended to. "Usually those things do not leave survivors for long," he continued in a hushed voice, turning back to her. "Those you see here are the ones lucky enough to survive, but unlucky enough to do so on the very edge of what their bodies can withstand."

"I understand now," Lily assured him. "Thank you for explaining." And she owed him her thanks twice over for the unintended warning that the Noxious Fumes pack was not like her kind. Nobody had seen fit to tell her that incredibly valuable piece of information. In her head she had thought of them as a third pack of light wings, but now she knew better. "I originally came here looking for Opal or Jet, but is there anything I can do to help out first?" She would prefer if there were not, but if there was, it would go toward fixing whatever minor damage she had done to her reputation with this subset of the pack. She could guess now that this was not the first time someone had come down just to stare, the previous offenders probably being fledglings, and she did not want to be lumped in with them in the minds of these light wings.

Oddly, the male snorted at that. "You know, I think you will best help the rest of us by distracting those two. Just keep them occupied and away from here for a while."

"For what reason?" Lily asked.

The male tossed his head and turned away from her. "I suppose it would be unfair to ask you to deceive them without knowing why," he conceded. "Look there, to the light wing Opal and Jet are with right now. The one with the acid-bitten tail and chest."

Lily didn't know Opal or Jet by sight, but there were not that many wounded light wings here, and only one sported injuries in only the places she had been told to look for. 'Acid-bitten' was a succinct way of describing the missing patches of scale and flesh that she had seen on many of the injured here. Instead of scales in those places, what looked like scarred-over bare flesh glistened in the dim light.

"That is Linara, and she needs her old injuries rubbed with a certain plant we keep on paw for this," the male explained. "Out of the water. If they stay immersed for too long, bad things start happening. We are not water-gliders," he snorted. "Applied dry it will relieve her pain in the long term, but in the short term it stings, and she hates that. We can convince her to cooperate if she is on her own, but she is Jet's Dam and he will not hear of her in any pain at all, not even to avoid greater pain later."

Lily knew that plant. Pyre had told her about one that had that effect on bare flesh, or the throat which she had thought much more relevant at the time. "So you would like it if I took them away to let you do that," she summarized.

"It is a constant struggle we should not have to deal with," the male grumbled. "They only volunteer because she is here. I do not know what you need them for, but I hope for your sake it does not rely on their better nature. I have only ever seen that apply to his Dam."

That did not fill Lily with confidence. Then again, she did not need to rely on anyone's better nature. She was well versed in getting what she wanted through other means. This just meant that she was forewarned.

That in mind, she approached Opal and Jet. They were rather nondescript as far as light wings went, having glints that were too pale for Lily to make out in the dim light and rather average builds. Jet was in the paw-deep water with his Dam, nosing water up on her back while she lay on her stomach, eyes closed. Opal stood out of the water in front of them, looking around, obviously bored.

How was she meant to convince these two light wings to give her a place to sleep? She had already been given a hint as to the way to their guarded hearts… and a request that she do exactly the opposite for Linara's own good. Which, once they realized what she had done, would anger them.

If they realized it was her doing. The real trick would be getting both of them out of the way for long enough instead of just one, but she again took note of how bored Opal looked, and how completely oblivious – or possibly uncaring – Jet was of the former fact.

Move Jet, and Opal would follow if she had the chance. She would rather not be here.

What would move just Jet, since Opal did not need much motivation, only to be pulled along? His Dam. Not Lily, not as presented by Peat and possibly not represented by herself either.

What, following that thought, did Lily have that Linara could want, that could not be had here and would require Jet fetch it? Food, which Lily had to assume was already being taken care of. Comfort, beyond the pool and whatever other useful plants she had made use of. Entertainment perhaps, though she was either asleep or trying to get there right now.

It was a good line of thought, but it wasn't leading anywhere immediately useful. Lily casually detoured around Opal and Jet and continued walking around the edge of the cavern, still plotting. She kept an eye on her targets, though, and was rewarded for her vigilance when Jet said something to Opal, and Opal left him to go make her way out of the cave, walking fast. Now it was just Jet and Linara.

Something occurred to Lily then. She was going about this wrong. If Jet and Opal had a reputation for not caring much about anyone but Linara, and she needed to get Linara alone for her own good… Why was she not thinking about influencing Linara's opinion on her own situation?

Put like that, her plans became much less complex. She waited for a few moments, long enough for Opal to put a little distance between herself and her mate, and then walked over to Jet.

"She did not seem eager to be here," Lily remarked as she stepped into the water, which was warm and made her paws tingle rather pleasantly.

Linara stirred a little, and Jet looked up from his monotonous task, his face twisting into a dawning scowl–

Which Lily swiftly undercut by copying the motion he had been using to gently direct water onto his Dam's back from her side. The warm water was decidedly less pleasant in her nostrils, but that was her own fault for forgetting to breathe out.

"The heat does not agree with her," Jet said suspiciously. "You are new here."

"I saw this place, knew I had to help," Lily said, timing her words to not be broken up too badly by her work. "Perhaps you should go to her. I can continue here until the two of you return."

Here was the one weak point of her plan; if Jet really did not care about his mate's mood, he might ignore her offer. But while Lily had just been told it looked from the outside like Jet and Opal only cared about Linara… that was 'Jet and Opal'. Not just Jet.

Besides, she did not want to think too badly of Pyre's Sire and Dam.

Jet looked from her, to the exit, then back to her, and finally to Linara.

Linara's ears twitched once, flicking backward.

"Yes. Do not stop," Jet ordered. He stepped out of the pool shook himself, and bent down to hum in his Dam's ears. "I will be back soon," he told her.

And… there he went. So much easier than speaking to him and his mate away from Linara; things would be a lot more awkward if she had to contrive a reason for him to leave his Dam alone.

"He is a good son," Lily remarked for Linara's benefit. "I am glad to see my Sire's Sire is kind."

Linara twitched, and Lily abandoned her water-moving to look over at the old female's face as those saggy eyelids dragged themselves up.

Linara's gaze was dull, but her blue eye fixed on Lily easily enough. She was aware.

"I was hoping to talk to him," until a moment ago when she figured out where her best approach would be, "and I suppose I still can, but… My Sire is dead, and I need somewhere to stay. It feels ungrateful to appear out of the blue and ask for such a thing."

No acknowledgement. Lily kept talking, her tone somewhere between talking to herself and confiding in a friend. "Perhaps it is pointless. But I think I will keep visiting you regardless. A new face would be welcome, right?"

Nothing still. That was… not ideal. It was hard to get an idea of how someone thought if they did not speak or react, and Lily didn't know anything about them to begin with.

"How did you get these injuries, anyway?" she asked, taking a shot in the dark. "It must have been something heroic." Any fight with an enemy of her pack could be construed as heroic with enough twisting, and if anyone wanted to think such a fight meant something–

Linara huffed quietly, her ears going up.

– It would be the one stuck dealing with the unpleasant consequences. Better to feel she did something worth doing.

"I will have to ask your son," Lily concluded. She could see the attending light wings on the other side of the cavern bringing a plant toward her, meaning she did not have much time to talk one on one. She decided to quit while she was hopefully ahead. "Now, I've been told that some of the people who help you and the others want to make your wounds hurt less with a plant… You know how it works better than I. Should I let them? I would if I were you, but I am not you." She could not imagine living with such terrible injuries, day in and day out.

Linara huffed again and twisted around in the water, rolling partly onto her side. Her chest was a mass of toughened flesh that really did no good for Lily to see, and she had to work at not showing her discomfort.

"Thank you," one of the attending light wings murmured as they converged on Linara. They moved like thieves in the night, though they were gentle. Linara grunted a little as they applied a chewed-up wad of green to her chest, and then helped her out of the water so they could do the same for her tail.

It was at that point, annoyingly, that someone roared right behind her and startled her halfway out of her scales.

"You!" She turned to see Jet, his eyes narrow slits of thinly veiled anger. "You said you would watch her!"

"They said she needed this!" Lily protested, falling back on ignorance as her shield. She had really hoped he would come back to find it a done deal.

"Out!" Jet barked. "Out!"

Lily saw Linara's ears twitching, and decided that she had better make herself scarce for the time being. She fled the cave, her wings and ears drooping dramatically, showing off much more dismay than she really felt.

It was not an instant success, not even close, but another seed planted. With any luck, Linara was capable of giving her son a piece of her mind. And if not, well, Lily could visit again when Jet was not around. She had an in.

Though it was still a failure.

O-O-O-O-O

After taking some time to ponder the events of the day, down at the bottom of the vertical cavern, Lily was feeling unsatisfied. Two long-term plots and one failure with the consolation prize of a new acquaintance was not the success she needed. A start, but she wasn't supposed to be starting, she was supposed to be finished.

Oh well. She could keep working on Galen through Agate, and Jet through Linara, though the former was absent and the latter wasn't happy with her right now. There was more that could be done, and neither of those tunnels had caved in yet.

That said, she was feeling tired, and the lack of a sun was not helping her figure out how long it had been since she woke up in Sandstone's side-cavern. There were fewer light wings around now, but she didn't know what that meant, if anything. She wished she had asked Sandstone's mate about how they kept track of time when she had the chance.

Figuring out how that worked could wait. She, personally, needed to sleep. This looped back around to her original problem though, the one she needed in order to sleep before continuing to try and solve.

Finding somewhere for just one night was different to finding somewhere permanent, though, and she had already spotted a place that might work for her. When she was flying with Sola, she had noticed an ignored little ledge by the water. That would do nicely for the moment, even if it was probably too cold, too loud, or too out in the open to be a permanent solution.

Alternatively, she could impose herself on Shell and Agate. Whether or not their parents would be willing to give her a place on an ongoing basis, neither were home or expected to be back soon, and that meant there was somewhere open for her to sleep now.

But she was pretty sure doing that would set back her efforts to get in their good graces. Whether they easily agreed or were reluctant, their parents would hear about it, and it would poke holes in the appearance she was trying to maintain, of someone who wanted to get to know them for altruistic reasons first. Not selfish reasons.

The underground lake's edge was still sparsely populated when she flew out to reach her prospective ledge, choosing a spot far enough away that, while she could still see the rocky edge of the shore, could not be easily noticed from it in return. One white blob on a wall of gray might stand out, but there were sporadic crystals of various hues speckling said wall, and she found a place right by a nicely dim gray one. It was bright enough that the stone around it would be discolored from afar by its light, but not so bright that it would disrupt her sleep or reveal her by reflecting off her glint. A patch of white would be much less obvious within a patch of lesser light, than on otherwise dark stone.

She flew out to the ledge and, with a tired sigh, landed lightly on the thickest part. Her wings stayed up for a few moments as she waited to see whether the ledge's reason for being unoccupied involved instability, but nothing happened. A glance back at the shore proved that nobody had noticed her landing. Or perhaps some saw and did not care. They weren't coming out to stop her.

While it might not be unstable, the ledge was narrow and too unevenly-sloped to be comfortable. She understood why nobody would want to sleep here, if they had anywhere better to go. As she tried to tuck herself into a small crevice in the wall, ideally gaining enough space to not feel so precariously placed, she noticed that a few light wings were returning from further out over the water, along with all of the ones fishing closer to home.

At the same time, four light wings were flying out, leaving the shore at the same time, but at different angles. Two went over roughly the middle of the underground lake, while the other two stuck close to the cavern walls. Their behavior did not fit a group of light wings out for a late night snack. They paid far too much attention to the walls, ceiling, and distant gloom for that. Rather, they were patrolling – Lily had heard that term enough times over the course of the day for it to spring to mind when she needed a word for this behavior – the underground lake, moving out from their territory to check for anything dangerous.

She tracked the one closest to her with her eyes, while the rest of her perched on the stone, unmoving. Best-case scenario, they didn't notice her at all. Well, best-case for her right now. Worst-case for her peace of mind in the future, as these were presumably the same light wings responsible for noticing threats to this pack, and thus her in the future. More likely, they would notice her and address her in some way. Maybe they would ask if she had seen anything suspicious, or what she was doing.

It was too bad she had not thought to flame herself. They definitely would not have seen her if she did it before they began patrolling, but if she did it now they would catch her in the act anyway. Her only hope of avoiding all notice was to remain still.

He got surprisingly close before his eyes stopped passing over her and instead focused on her, but the light wing covering her wall of the cavern did notice her. He barked, loudly, as he banked to carefully land on the narrow ledge a short distance in front of her. "You are not supposed to be out here," he said sternly. "You should know that."

"I lost track of time," Lily responded, dismayed but not too surprised. She hadn't known about the guards sweeping this area when she came out here. Now that she knew, it was obvious in retrospect that they would have an issue with her staying all the way out here, theoretically more vulnerable than the rest of the pack. Her best bet was to play the contrite, unaware light wing and not argue the point. "I'll go home now."

The other guards continued their search, but annoyingly, the one who had stopped to chastise her didn't immediately go back to doing the same. Instead, he narrowed his eyes. "What are your roots?" he demanded. "Why were you out here?"

She could lie, tell the truth nonchalantly, deflect and hope he didn't notice, or tell the truth and make a big deal out of it. The latter just might get him to back off; he was talking to her from a position of authority right now, so if she could appeal to a higher authority believably enough he would change his tune. "I am the daughter of Blaze and Risa, and I am out here because I have just reached your pack yesterday after journeying far from my former pack, and the alpha has allowed me to stay here. So I do not appreciate that tone, as I am allowed to be here just like you." If someone who knew better ever called her on that, she could simply explain that she meant 'here' as in the pack as a whole, not this specific spot. But if she was lucky, this guard would take her at her word and assume 'here' meant this ledge, which it very well could with the incomplete context he had.

Or he could come to a completely different conclusion independent of the false dichotomy she was thinking of. She shifted on her paws as his expression lightened, but he waved the other guards over with his wing. "Lily, then," he said neutrally.

"You have heard of me," she said. How, though? And in what context? What did he know? She had been feeling good about her grasp on this whole situation, but once again she had been knocked on her hind paws by something she didn't expect. Why did that keep happening to her, and how was she supposed to stop it from happening?

"We are meant to be keeping an eye out for you," he replied. "The alpha needs to speak to you, but nobody knows where you are. Where you were, as you are here."

Rose probably did need to speak to her, yes. But she hadn't wanted to so much as see him again until she had arranged for an alternative to Peat's terrible plan. Still… There were four of them and one of her, and Rose wasn't like Claw. Not that she knew. There was no harm in following along until she could talk her way out of this.

It was not as if she was in trouble. The light wings fell into formation around her as she took off from the tiny ledge, yes, but not in a way that made her feel trapped. They spaced themselves out, one on each side with the other two leading the way back to the shore. If she wanted to turn tail and flee, she would have a completely avoidable head-start. They did not expect her to run, and thus they did not think she was in trouble.

All of the logic in the world could not stop her stomach from churning uneasily as she was escorted up through the main cavern, and to one of the smaller tunnel entrances just below the vertical cavern's red crystal ceiling. It was a narrow, circular opening, and sloped up. One of the guards, not the one who had spoken to her, waited for her to enter, which she did without complaint, and then followed her tail. The other three, based on the clicking of claws on stone, did not follow.

The tunnel was long and twisting, doubling back on itself in a tight upward spiral that made Lily's paws slip on occasion, before leveling off somewhere above the top of the vertical cavern and routing back. There were no branches of offshoot paths; it only led one place. A high-ceiling dome of a cave, centered on a familiar, partly transparent red crystal shelf. Beneath it…

Lily had not spent any time looking up at the glowing red capstone to the vertical cavern. Now she wished she had, because she might have noticed something off about it if she watched for long enough. This chamber was atop it, and below she could see the surprisingly clear shapes of light wings flying around, going about their lives, tinted red but each distinct shape mostly recognizable nonetheless.

This was the home of an alpha. She was not surprised at all when Rose came out of a small opening on the other side of the dome. If this was not the place he slept, then it was definitely adjacent to it. A place for meeting his advisors, maybe, or just to have so he could show off the wealth of space the alpha had, compared to his subjects.

Compared to this show of power, Rose was somewhat unassuming. He still drew her attention far more effectively than the view beneath her paws, especially when the first thing out of his mouth was, "thank you. You may return to your duties."

"Yes, alpha," the guard said, retreating through the same passage he had walked Lily through. Leaving her alone with Rose. She was grateful for the crystal floor for another reason, now. If anything untoward happened, someone below would see it. If they happened to be looking. She and Rose were not truly hidden from prying eyes, though she could not say they were out in the open, either. It was an unusual middle ground.

"I apologize for Peat," Rose began.

"Why?" Lily asked. She knew what Rose probably meant by it, but playing dumb might throw him off.

"He does not tend to take such small things as personal feelings into account when he gets an idea in his head," Rose replied, unperturbed by the question. He stepped to the side, keeping three body-lengths between them as he moved while looking down through the crystal at something on the wall opposite him. "That lack of caring extends to everyone. It has caused problems before, but he is very good at what he does. Also, he does not have anyone to keep him in check. His last assistant quit after Peat made too much of a fool of himself trying to solve said assistant's personal problems."

"What kind of problems?" Lily asked. She was somewhat interested, despite herself.

"Something involving a prospective mate, a mysterious rash, and a former prospective mate," Rose said dryly. "The right application of plant paste solved the rash, but Peat attempting to apply himself to the other two thirds of the problem had exactly the opposite effect. As it turns out, most light wings do not appreciate his meddling in their love lives."

And so they were back around to what Peat had not-so-subtly implied with his solution. "As he is doing mine, regardless of the fact that it does not and will not exist?" Lily asked bitterly. She would make no secret of how she felt about that idea. Obfuscating her opinion on this subject could only come back to bite her. As she already knew from experience, though what Claw had done… No, whether or not she was clear from the start, he wanted what he wanted.

"As he is doing mine," Rose corrected with a small snarl. "I think I do not need to soften my words here. It is my advisor's opinion that I urgently need a mate, any mate, to have eggs and secure the pack's next alpha. This is not my opinion. You have been dragged into an ongoing argument that should not, does not, and will not, involve you in any way. Ignore Peat's scheming, because I would not have him taint an otherwise fine solution."

So close, but he fumbled it at the end there. Lily was not reassured. "And if something were to just 'grow' out of us living in close proximity, alone, it would only be natural," she said sarcastically. "I am wise to that trick."

"As was Peat, to propose this," Rose huffed back at her. He did genuinely seem frustrated with the situation. "But again. Not my intention. Not going to happen. Neither my desire nor my aim. You need somewhere to live, and nowhere is suitable."

"Actually, I have high hopes for Galen changing his mind once I am actually able to meet him," Lily corrected him. "I am already on good terms with his sons, and they could squeeze me in if they wanted to."

"Really?" Rose looked taken aback for a moment. Then his entire body, from his posture to his ears, relaxed. "Then that makes this much simpler. How long will you need?"

How long? She did not think badly of Rose – though for some reason she kept having to remind herself of that fact – and this backed up that opinion. He was not Claw, if he was actively encouraging her to find somewhere else. "Some days, after he returns from patrolling," she said. "I cannot put a number on it… but low." It would have to be. Even though she did not actually think Galen's family had space for her.

"Days, cycles, yes," Rose said. "I understand. That does not solve the issue for right now, though. Sandstone… but I cannot order him to host you, not when I know his mate does not like it." He met her gaze. "Do you have any suggestions as to how this can work in the meantime? I heard your story, the bare bones of it, and I can imagine the meat that would be around those bones if you were willing to tell all. I would not have you be uncomfortable. At all. But I do not see any real alternative to you sleeping here for now, at the very least." He gestured to the dome they stood in. "My sleeping cave is over there," he indicated where he had come from, "so we would not be in the same place. And there is always someone below who might look up, if you fear… anything happening."

"I do not, not really," Lily told him, feeling ever so slightly guilty that she was speaking a lie. "I am just wary. Peat did not make me feel good about this situation."

"And if it would get through his thick skull, I would roar at him for it," Rose told her. "But I know it will not, because again, this is not the first time. He needs to find and teach a new assistant soon, so that someone else can handle these parts of his responsibilities."

"As for what you asked…" What would make her feel safer, sleeping here until she could secure another place? Not guards; the people who Rose would choose to guard for him would be the ones most likely to side with him if he wanted something she was opposed to. He would not, but it was the principle of the thing.

What would make her feel safe? Someone she trusted being there with her. But Pyre was dead, Crystal had been left behind, and Lily did not know anyone else she genuinely trusted. But she did know someone she would like to be able to trust. Someone who felt that she owed Lily already.

O-O-O-O-O

Rose came with her, and two guards came with him. "It is for my own protection," he told Lily as they flew down through the vertical cavern. "The Noxious Fumes pack is not as skilled at going unseen as we are, but they have other abilities suited to sneaking into places they do not belong, if adequate measures are not taken to block them out. They would not do so for a large attack, but to kill the alpha or someone else they see as a particular threat? Attempts were made, before my time, and may be made again some cycle. They might know when we sleep, and think us especially vulnerable."

So it was that their night excursion – not that she would be able to tell this time of the cycle apart from any other, as the crystals were as bright as ever – involved four light wings instead of just two. Lily did not know where they were going, exactly, but Rose had assured her that it would be easy to find the light wing they were looking for. He knew where to go in general, and all they had to do after that was look around.

The tunnel in which unmated adults lived was… cramped. Lily drew her wings in close to her body and placed her paws carefully. Neither she nor Rose spoke as she led the way down the circular tunnel, past many little nooks in the wall that held sleeping light wings. If one were to wake and so much as yawn, thirty or more would hear it. Most of the little holes in the wall were filled, and the ones that were not smelled strongly of their owners.

"Why could I not share a space with someone, and sleep when they are awake?" Lily hissed to Rose. Surely this obvious idea would not only solve her problem, but make more room for his pack as a whole.

"That causes problems," Rose muttered as they gingerly pressed forward. "It has been tried. We do not sleep as long as we spend awake, so it is imbalanced."

"A rotating system…" If she slept for roughly half as long as she spent awake, then she could arrange something with two other light wings. Or three, or whatever number worked best. Just because it would be more complex did not mean it was impossible.

"It is not allowed, and I remember being told that it was disallowed long ago for a specific reason," Rose replied. "You will have to ask Sulfa, she was the one who told me about it."

One more thing to follow up on, though Lily didn't feel nearly as pressured now that she and Rose had worked out a temporary arrangement.

Sola's scent reached her before she recognized Sola herself by sight; in fact, she almost walked past her. Without the distinguishing feature of holding one eye closed, Sola looked just like the others.

She was a heavy sleeper, too. Lily pawed at her face, gently and then with more force. "Sola," she hissed.

"Hmm," Sola murmured. To Lily's surprise, both of her eyes opened, blinking heavily. She didn't see anything grievously wrong with the one Sola always kept closed. That same eyelid snapped down with some force once Sola woke up more fully, quickly followed by her hissing tiredly. "Lily? What is it?"

"You said you would do anything you could to help me," Lily said. "Does sleeping in the alpha's chamber to make sure I feel safe count toward that?"

Sola blinked with one eye. She tilted her head to look behind Lily. At Rose. Said single eye widened dramatically. "What?"

"I can explain more on the way. But I would really appreciate it." Some of the light wings to either side of Sola, separated by less than a wing's width of stone, would likely appreciate it too. Even a low hiss carried in a stone tunnel.

"I am a heavy sleeper," Sola told her.

"That's fine." It would not be quiet, if she needed Sola's help. And she would sleep close, not on the other side of the cave. Lily felt slightly bad about asking this of Sola now, when she had neither the time nor the presence of mind to fully think through the reasoning and possible problems with what Lily was asking of her… but it was just a precaution. They could talk more about it in the morning.

"Okay, then," Sola said with a cavernous yawn. "Lead the way."