Matriarch - Strength: Sisters

The three sisters perched in the ceiling of the crystalline cavern. They watched the reoseans move around below them, some with more purpose than others. They noted that streams of vayrons and haedians worked together to free the Matriarch from her crystal and rock prison. Each sister contemplated how they could help, though it was Furor’s idea to help at all, so Cheiro and Kaimana moved their gaze to her as they waited for her ideas. Furor was flustered under their stare as she fiddled with small loose rocks near her. 

“So, what are we doing?” Kaimana dryly asked. 

“Umm…” Furor, the youngest of the three, fiddled with her claws, unsure how to answer. 

“Are we going to dig her out?” Cheiro suggested after a beat of silence, saving Furor from answering. Cheiro flexed her extra limbs to further illustrate why she thought digging was a good idea. 

Kaimana grimaced. The idea of getting dirt on her white pelt was the last thing she wanted after spending so long in the depths of Vitalus. Cheiro and Furor could track Kaimana’s thought process across her face as her expressions shifted. 

“We’ve been down here for months,” Cheiro said, “Don’t get weird about the dirt now.”

Kaimana only huffed in response. 

“Digging is good, we can help with the part of the wall the vayrons can’t reach yet,” Furor added. 

Kaimana huffed again, but didn’t say a word. 

The three sisters flew down closer to the crystals above the Matriarch’s head. They spread out along the wall before they slowly started to dig their claws into the hard surface of the rocks and crystals. They started slowly, unsure of how effective their methods were, especially since they let the free rocks haphazardly tumble to the ground far below them. 

When the first few rocks finally reached the floor, the three sisters started to hear shouting. They ignored the commotion, continuing to roughly pull rocks and crystals off the wall. Cheiro worked at double speed as she anchored her feet into the wall while she mindlessly worked her four arms. Furor and Kaimana weren’t as quick, but they were just as destructive. Dust and debris clouded around them as they worked, unperturbed by the growing noise under them. 

It was only when the crystals around them started to flicker wildly that the three empyrians paused. The cloud of dust around them slowly settled and Furor was the first to look below them. While they had made a dent in the wall up where they clung to the rock surface, all they managed to do was make the rocks someone else’s problem. Furor felt a sliver of guilt, but it evaporated when her two older sisters started to laugh at the mess they created. 

“We should move higher,” Cheiro said, staring at the ceiling when their laughter died down. 

Furor’s guilt eased back to her as she said, “Shouldn’t we help clean up the mess?”

Kaimana barked another laugh, “All these clans have made you soft.”

Furor bristled at the comment, but still watched as the reoseans below them frantically moved back and forth clearing away the rocks and crystals she and her sisters had sent down to them. Cheiro ignored Furor’s guilt and worry as she climbed higher into the shadows above them. There weren’t as many crystals in this area, but that didn’t stop Cheiro’s movements. Kaimana followed closely behind her without seeing if Furor was following them. 

It wasn’t long before Furor dragged her eyes away from the chaos and followed her sisters into the dark ceiling. In the shadows, the three sisters started to try tunneling to the surface. However, Furor managed to get them to dig at the edges, away from the Matriarch and reoseans on the ground. This way, the loose rocks wouldn’t cause as much of a problem, or at least she hoped. 

Kaimana settled on a large spear shaped rock that held her weight while she delicately pawed at the wall. Up in the shadows, she hoped she could get away with minimal effort. She could barely make out her claws as she dragged them along the rocks. 

Furor had three of her limbs anchored into the wall and was only using one arm to carve into it. It was slow, but faster than how Kaimana was doing, if she was paying attention. Furor kept to herself, focusing on how deeply she was digging into the wall. At one point, she pulled back a rock to reveal a bright crystal. The crystal’s light illuminated everything around them as if they had broken through to the sunny top side. 

With the added light, Cheiro could see Kaimana’s lack of effort. She immediately called her out on it, and the pair of older sisters got into an argument. Kaimana argued they had done enough digging, and Cheiro argued they could do more, but ultimately, as they fought, neither was digging. 

“Okay,” Furor shouted, “Let’s take a break. We’ll do something else.”

Kaimana smirked, while Cheiro only scowled at her. 

[841]