• Graded • Gods Only Know

[Faith Augustin]

It would be entirely inappropriate of her to admit that yes, she would have found it funny had he bumped his nose. He was free and she, very much was not. For all that she felt relaxed with him, no matter that her current owner allowed her more freedom than she had ever had, Faith never once forgot what she was. So, she looked at her hands and did not respond to his completely true suggestion. It was not the time or the place for the sort of teasing of each other they had fallen into since they met, so they continued onward.

Faith concentrated for the next few moments on putting one foot in front of the other, keeping herself or Mister Padraig from bumping into anything and getting control of her emotions, putting herself back into an appropriate and proper frame of mind.

"Indeed," was her only response when he said it was like it was alive. When he stumbled, though, she tried to grab him and then gave a somewhat ironic smile at herself. "It is quite the conundrum, you know." Faith spoke with an almost conversational tone. It was a million miles away from what she felt. "To be trained to meet a free person's wishes and needs then to meet one who wishes for me not to do that." She could not help the smile she gave him. "I am sure that a more educated brain would find it less taxing."

Doing her best not to stumble, which she was sure would be a nuisance, she mostly succeeded although her feet slid around more than she thought appropriate. At least, she considered, she was wearing armour and sensible shoes.

They spoke about what it was, and what it might be and she put forward a theory. His question was incredulous and Faith looked at him with a calm and impassive gaze. "No, that would be ludicrous. It would be beyond the boundaries of comprehension and would clearly be the most unusual thing to happen to either of us in our lifetime." It wouldn't, in fact and they both knew it. It wouldn't even be the most unusual thing to happen to them this trial or in the last three breaks. Her silver eyes regarded him with a practiced solemnity as he said that she should lead the way and she bent her knee in a well practiced curtsy which was accompanied by a tense but still somewhat wicked smile.

Just as they got to another mirrored intersection, though, Faith stopped. "Are you seeing that funny light too, Mister Padraig? And why is that water melting and flowing in the wrong direction?" Faith pursed her lips and looked at the wall somewhat disapprovingly. "I fear that science abandoned us at the same time as common sense." Not that there was a hope in Idalos that she was going back, not a chance. She looked at him to suggest that he did, but as she turned to look at him he was looking at her and she recognised the stubborn determination on his face. Rather than use her breath to suggest he do the sensible thing, Faith gave an inward sigh.

"Well. Those are bones. This is the ribcage and I think those flying lights are the pieces of his heart when they flew apart. Could that be the case? Is that even possible?" Faith frowned a deep frown as she considered that and then her expression turned into a beaming smile. "Bet you they don't teach this at the University where they don't let me study. Shall we?" Forward was the only thing to do, she very firmly believed and she suggested with a more serious tone. "Whichever direction that light is moving, we should follow it. It's going to where the action is, and that appears to be where we want to be. Would you agree?"

[Padraig]

"What was that?" Padraig uttered, barely a whisper when, as he happened to slide a hand across the wall, the faintest of vibrations seemed to arise as an unlikely response. Or had he imagined it? "Did you feel that?" he asked Faith.

But no, there it was, growing stronger. Too present for it to have been a figment of his imagination. None of this had seemed to bode well. That vibration definitely didn't and he reached out to brace himself and thought to get closer to Faith, just in case.

But then the floor grew slicker as the passageway rocked and he slid back against the wall. And then was sent stumbling into the other one as he tried to right himself, and ended up briefly on his backside instead. "Hang on to something," he called to her. How he'd held on to his torch was anyone's guess. But in order to stop himself flailing about helplessly, he'd at least had the presence of mind to sheath his sword. Better to grab hold of Faith, if he could.

That was when the left hand wall fell away, just as he was flung towards it. In hopes of stopping himself sailing through, he dropped his torch and grabbed for anything he could find. Instinct caused him to try and stop himself falling, but every conscious thought was on Faith, and his determination to stop her from suffering a similar fate. But as fate would have it and he shouldn't have been surprised, she had a different idea.

"Faith, no! Get back!" he shouted. She didn't of course, and desperate to stop her he sacrificed whatever extent of the hold he already had to diminish it by half, and with one hand reached out to grab her arm in the hopes of flinging her away to safety when she reached him.

[Maltruism]

Faith did not have a chance to answer, regarding her plans upon reaching the heart. Padraig's ongoing comments covered the subtle sliding noises that began the moment he slid his gloved fingers along the wall. They had both touched the sides of the passages numerous times as they'd progressed through the icy underground.

Up until now, contact with the walls of any of the passages had caused no reaction. But for some reason, perhaps coinciding with the influx of shards and the strobing effect of the ambient light, the touch of Padraig's gloved hand sent a barely perceptible shudder through the icy matter several layers beneath their feet.

It grew slowly in intensity; becoming noticeable in mere ticks. But it was more than simple vibration. The walls began to undulate as the floor started to tip slowly to the left. The floor was slick enough to bring them slipping into the wall, as it then started to tip back the other way. The entire passage rocked back and forth like a boat, taking them with it. The effect on the lighting from the torches in their swinging hands made it impossible to notice the shifting shades of whitish-blue through the semi-translucent walls.

One more tip to the left brought the significance of this unnoticed shifting drastically to importance as that left side wall opened up with a wet squelch right as Padraig's hand braced his body weight against it. Faith's unbalanced trajectory allowed her the good fortune of avoiding the same fall Padraig was facing. However, if either of them were going to avoid this tumble into a different tunnel, one also going through upheavals of shifting floors and walls, they would be needing both hands.

Faith would be able to maintain her location if she made no attempt to grab Padraig, but the feelings she was developing for the man made this flash decision difficult. That would also allow her to keep hold of her torch. If they both let go of their torches, they could prevent separation. But their torches would be instantly extinguished in the flow of melt by their feet.

Torches in hand, but separated; or plunged into a blind passage in complete darkness together. The only other choice was for Faith to willingly fall into the same unknown along with Padraig. All she could see by looking past Padraig was that a wall was shifting to close off the open space beyond. That open space had the appearance of a slope leading down to a shelf along the face of what may be a long drop. It was impossible to tell if the shelf became a path, or was just an isolated spot to sit and wait to freeze to death. The only other feature was unending darkness.

There was no time to weigh options; they had to act now.

[Faith Augustin]

His command was that she indulge her own wishes? "As you say," was her only reply, but her frown deepened for a moment as she considered that. It seemed like such a simple thing for him to say. That was what Jamal had used to do as a punishment to her, give her a task to undertake which was not possible so that she would struggle to do it and then he would punish her again for not succeeding. She did not think for one moment that Padraig was doing that, but the only thing that she knew without a doubt that she wanted to do was to tell him what she was feeling. Yet, she knew, Tristan would not allow that and what Tristan wanted trumped everything except Famula. So she could not do as he told her, which meant that she was not doing what Tristan had told her, either, because she was supposed to obey the commands given to her by free born.

Faith pinched the bridge of her nose and then looked down at her hands for a few trill, pushing the confusion into them even as his hands touched the wall. They had both done so more than once on this journey and she paid it no mind. "I do not believe so, no," she replied with quiet words. In truth,she was not entirely sure what an aurora actually was, she thought it was some kind of light.

He was being his usual acerbic self when he suggested wandering closer to danger and impending doom and Faith did her best to smile at him in her usual manner. The last few trials were getting to her, she knew. She was tired and anxious and trying to work out what to say to a very confusing man. That was not good enough, there was a job to be done in Famula's name, so she had to get herself together. So, she opened her mouth to answer with a calm and controlled response appropriate to who and what she was when the whole place lurched.

In that trill, every thought went out of Faith's mind and she reacted on instinct.

She saw what was happening and she saw that Padraig was about to fall down into a passageway. He was about to drop down a hole, effectively and that was not something which she could allow. Faith did not consider her own predicament, she acted entirely without thought.

To her mind, it was not a case of he fell or they did. She did not accept either of those things as appropriate options. In the split trill it took her to decide to act she decided that it would be her or neither of them tumbling to their possible doom.

Her flash decision was not to grab him, not at all. Faith leaped forward at him, with the simple and sole intention of pushing him out of the way so that he was not in danger of falling. If she could do that and not fall down there herself, that would be fine, but that was a very secondary concern to the young slave. So, that was what she did ~ she ran and jumped if she had to, either way her aim was that she shoved him, shoulder-charging him out of danger if she could.

[Padraig]

"What was that?" Padraig uttered, barely a whisper when, as he happened to slide a hand across the wall, the faintest of vibrations seemed to arise as an unlikely response. Or had he imagined it? "Did you feel that?" he asked Faith.

But no, there it was, growing stronger. Too present for it to have been a figment of his imagination. None of this had seemed to bode well. That vibration definitely didn't and he reached out to brace himself and thought to get closer to Faith, just in case.

But then the floor grew slicker as the passageway rocked and he slid back against the wall. And then was sent stumbling into the other one as he tried to right himself, and ended up briefly on his backside instead. "Hang on to something," he called to her. How he'd held on to his torch was anyone's guess. But in order to stop himself flailing about helplessly, he'd at least had the presence of mind to sheath his sword. Better to grab hold of Faith, if he could.

That was when the left hand wall fell away, just as he was flung towards it. In hopes of stopping himself sailing through, he dropped his torch and grabbed for anything he could find. Instinct caused him to try and stop himself falling, but every conscious thought was on Faith, and his determination to stop her from suffering a similar fate. But as fate would have it and he shouldn't have been surprised, she had a different idea.

"Faith, no! Get back!" he shouted. She didn't of course, and desperate to stop her he sacrificed whatever extent of the hold he already had to diminish it by half, and with one hand reached out to grab her arm in the hopes of flinging her away to safety when she reached him.

[Maltruism]

If not for the sporadic lurching of the passages, it might have worked. But a sudden change in the tunnel's lean countered the inertia Padraig tried to generate, allowing him only to reach Faith and grab hold as they both tumbled through the narrowing gap.

It was fortunate that the lean that sent them through the gap was countered back to prevent them from tumbling off the edge into the emptiness beyond. It would not have turned out to be a lethal plunge, but the second torch was snuffed by the melt of water before that could be accurately discerned.

Strangely, they were able to see that the torches had been doused. It would be decided by their ability to stay focused, as well as any grim sense of humor they might have possessed, if they chose to remark on the incongruity of this detail or simply make silent use of it to scout out their new situation. Light was coming from somewhere other than their now-soaked torches.

There was a vast cavern, easily beyond the size of any city's arena, before them. They appeared to be situated on what would correspond to a left collarbone position, looking down across an immense rib cage. The structural patterns they'd seen before, which resembled these ribs, were not so extensive to necessarily imply a full skeletal base, but still seemed supported by huge strata of oddly bleached ice that looked as if they were awaiting some trigger to take that form.

Only a small percentage of these bands of white opaque coloring had actually achieved the curved and textured quality of bone. There were areas of this massive hollow that were largely filled with building masses of matter that was taking on a look partially resembling organ tissue. Each time one of the streaks of light flashed through this area, the dazzling effect on the eyes would wane to leave the impression that a slight increase in the detail of one of these appearances had occurred.

It was difficult to follow the path and direction of these streaks, as they moved faster than the eye could follow. But at the end of this cavern that was positioned to the pair's lower right, the light remained consistent. It was the source of those shadows that remained when the flashes of light winked out. It came from a tunnel that extended further to the right, at the base of the concave wall that defined that end of the cavern.

There was still some occasional heaves of the tunnel network. It did cause some swishing and swashing of the matter within the cavern, but not so much as to create a threat of a cave-in or landslide. Easing to the edge of the shelf they sat upon, the pair could see that there were jutting masses of ice that served as shelves to make their way down the wall to the "floor" of the cavern.

If they chose to go that way, they would note the formation of tissue planes that had the tactile look of muscle tissue, as well as an occasional tendon or ligament. There was still a huge majority of what the eye could take in that still held only the appearance of plain ice.

Of course, the two researchers could move in the direction of what would have to be said to correspond to the lower abdominal portion of the cavern. But the darkness in that direction was absolute, where the collarbone area where they stood now was near the source of the dim light. The only other choice was to await the hope of an upheaval that would reopen the gap they'd fallen through, to try to go back the way they'd come in.

[Faith Augustin]

It was a glorious victory of simple physics and, as she felt Padraig grab her and the pair of them fell, Faith clung to him. Pure instinct drove that movement as it had her attempt to push him out of the way; she held on to him and closed her eyes. It was not the vast drop into the darkness which she had feared, though, and as they tumbled down together, Faith prayed her thanks to Famula that Padraig was safe and that she was able to continue her service.

Of course, once they had landed, and righted themselves Faith looked at Padraig with undisguised irritation, albeit only for a very brief few trills. "Are you uninjured? You are a confusing man who gives me contradictory orders." One bit he told her to follow her own wishes, which she just had and he had shouted at her not to. As her fear abated, though, she got herself calm again and sighed. "Which is entirely your right to do. My apologies." Looking down into the emptiness beneath them, Faith shook her head and pursed her lips. There was no point to arguing with him, it was done now.

Looking around the cavern they were in, Faith frowned and then shrugged sightly. There were options, as far as she could tell, but sitting around and hoping they'd drop back out was not a good one. In these conditions, they might be just as likely to lurch off into the darkness and there was no telling whether where they had come from was closer to where they wanted to be than this place. Come to that, she considered with a slight uplifting of her lips, they had no idea where they wanted to be. "I'm sorry. It is a little unnerving and I am concerned that you will get hurt because of my actions. I mean no disrespect." It was the last thing she meant, in fairness, but now wasn't the time for meaningful chats.

"I am not sure whether our situation has improved or worsened." Faith said with a gesture. "On the plus side, we can see." Which was a good thing, as far as the young slave was concerned. "However, there's a lot of places to fall. I suggest that we go towards the light, perhaps staying within arms reach of each other." Really, she considered, she was very bad at this. Only with him though, normally she considered herself to be a very functional slave. Yet, since the first time she had met him, she had argued with Padraig. So, she added, with as serious and straight a face as she could. "Or, I would suggest that if it was at all appropriate that I do so, of course. "

She kept her eye on the spot ahead and figured that they could make their way there, staying close to the wall and making their way slowly and carefully. Descending into icy darkness which also appeared to be the gut of this massive place did not seem to be either the most appealing or sensible thing to do. She thought that he would agree that moving to the light was the sensible thing to do, but she waited to see what he thought and would go with that. It occurred to her that, if they had just fallen through the body part she thought, then they could well be heading to the heart this way.

So, whichever way they went, Faith did her best to make sure that they were both safe, since that seemed to be the way that he was more content with keeping himself out of harm. She listened, also, for sounds of breathing, the pumping of the heart or any other noises which might attribute life to this place they were in. "My concern is that the lurching is the feeling of this place waking up, for want of a better word." Movement, after all, implied consciousness, usually. "I think we should try to hurry."

[Padraig]

Padraig's attempt to prevent Faith from falling with him, hadn't exactly gone to plan. But when did anything, when she was involved? As they fell together then, the best he could do was hold tight to her in hopes of taking the brunt of the landing himself for the most part. Once they found themselves alive and unbroken, and not as deep in it as he'd feared they would be, after making sure she was unhurt, he climbed carefully to his feet and dusted himself off.

"They weren't orders," he muttered irritably when Faith voiced her confusion. "They were a suggestion and it should have been apparent that as you please, didn't mean throw yourself into an abyss to save me from falling." But she'd acted on impulse. So had he and so here they were. Their torches were gone but as she said, at least they could see where they were, and more importantly where the pitfalls were placed.

Anatomy wasn't his field of expertise. But having already come to the conclusion, albeit it a strange and fantastical one, that they were inside some sort of body, then what he saw round them must be the interior of the chest. Had their situation improved or worsened? "If my novice's understanding of the body is anything to go by," he grumbled. "Then it looks like we've just discovered and fallen through Treid's armpit." Never in a hundred trials would he ever have thought he'd say that.

One direction however would inevitably lead to the gut, and the other? He agreed with Faith. Towards the light and the quicker the better. If the place was waking up? If all else was equal then waking up could lead to standing up and he'd had quite enough tumbling around for one trial. "After you," he said, though he'd be as close behind her as the environment would allow, treading carefully as he went.

[Maltruism]

Having decided to press on toward the source of what little ambient light there was, several things became apparent:

The first was that, as they looked over the large cavernous "torso", the spot where the heart would be was entirely empty, dark, and void of any tactile impression of muscle, sinew, blood or bone. They could not know whether this was to be taken as some sort of confirmation of the long-accepted lore regarding Audrae's betrayal of Treid, or if some upcoming streak of light was going to affect some alteration to it. If they chose, they could wait and see.

The second was that there was clearly the beginnings of an existing symmetrical "right side" collarbone across from them. There was no mirror-image of a pair of 'Faith-and-Padriag-adventurers' working their way down that side of the torso.

Next was the fact that very little of the icy fill within this "torso" had actually been affected with the tactile appearance of organ or body tissue of any kind. However much it seemed that this whole region was undergoing a transformation into an actual body, most of it was still just plain ice. Of course, that being one of Treid's chief domains, it was possible that this was irrelevant. Perhaps the next streak of light would reveal something in that regard as well. It was another thing to consider waiting around to see.

In addition, this ice fill obscured any proof of whether the back side of the rib cage had been formed yet, or if it was still just bedrock and ice. In and of itself, it may not have been very important, but the skeletal-like connections to what had a developing vertebral appearance may have strongly suggested that the light was coming from a throat-like tunnel.

Lastly, was the well-timed arrival of another streak of light that disappeared into this tunnel. If Faith and Padraig followed this route, everything indicated that they'd be heading for whatever there was within this odd geography that corresponded to a brain. They needed to make a choice though, as the arrival of this last streak of light set the "body" to shivering once again.

[Faith Augustin]

Blessed Famula, give me strength, Faith prayed as she and Padraig extricated themselves one from the other and then, in response to her in fairness, he told her that he wasn't giving her orders but suggestions. A half dozen answers jumped into her mind. They ranged from 'Oh, a suggestion? Silly me, they didn't teach about those in slave school. Maybe I missed that trial', to 'well, I'm only supposed to obey orders, maybe you could prefix the suggestions for my poor uneducated brain next time' or of course, her personal favourite, 'doing as I please will always mean I throw myself into the abyss for you, you idiot.' Faith did not, of course, say any of those things, although she could not deny the pleasure she got from thinking them, and instead simply lowered her head and spoke in a soft tone. "As you say. My apologies."

Odd though it was, she nodded her head at his assessment of where they'd fallen through. Treid's armpit, indeed. Looking around, she could only come to one, apparently inescapable conclusion. "His left one. If we survive this, you will be able to prefix sentences with such things as 'When I fell through Treid's left armpit, I...' and other such fantastical absurdities." However, she agreed, that was where they were and she pointed to where the heart would be, pointing out to him that the organ would be there.

"The way I see it," Faith said softly, her voice calm, "we have options. We could stay and see if the light illuminates anything specific. Is the heart reforming? Is the spine growing? That kind of thing. There are plus points to finding that out." She considered that, frowning slightly and then she looked at him with a slight smile, but a more honest one than she'd managed for a while. "Mostly, because then we'll know. But knowing might be an advantage, I am not sure. The lights are coming from the throat and we are heading to the brain."

She had given him the 'facts' as she saw them, although she recognised that when one was standing in the icy still-forming corpse of a long dead Immortal with a man you were in love with but could not admit to such because of being a slave owned by another man who might be dead for all you knew, 'fact' was a pretty strong word.

"I am unsure which is best, mister Padraig. To stay and observe briefly or head towards the brain." She looked at him with a calm gaze and if there was a hint of challenge in her eyes, well, there was and she knew it but she would never say as much. "Perhaps you would like to make another suggestion?" Whatever his decision was, she would comply and however he preferred to couch it, in whatever terms, that was fine.

Fundamentally, if he wanted to stay and observe, they did. If he wanted to move, they moved.