Strenght - Taha, Elise, Lillie

Their claws scraped against the rough stone under their paws as they travelled downwards, deeper under the surface of Vitalus, where sunlight had not hit for decades, where nobody but the caregivers had stepped foot in a long time. The silence was eerie, only filled with the occasional drip of water from the stalactite-like crystals hanging above their heads.
One drop or two had fallen on their bodies, and Haldor had scoffed in disgust at the thought of the dirty water falling in his face.

Taha, wings tucked near her body, led the way. She was a haedian, and while she had never stepped foot in these tunnels, her clan kept away by the categivers, she had keen eyes and an innate sense of direction, born from living in these caves all her life.

Elise, Lillie and Haldor weren't completely in the dark, as the crystals embedded in the walls became more frequent, so did the light they emitted, making the tunnels easy to see in. They could probably find the way to the Matriarch by themselves, just following the ever growing crystals, but would probably get lost on the way back.

They, Elise and Lillie, had heard the Elder's prayer for help, a selfless request for help towards a long lost lineage, towards reos who had been wronged by life in such a hard way while they had been blessed, allowed to reborn, and they knew that they would not be able to leave it alone.

Elise was first, as she knew Haldor, and spotted him talking to Taha in a corner after the Elder's meeting. She stepped towards Haldor, making Taha uncomfortable and irritated in the process, and just listened passively. Taha snapped, but Haldor kept talking like nobody was there, so she let it go and kept discussing coordinating the mission to go to the Matriatch's chamber. "Bingo", Elise thought, as she offered herself to be part of the team. Taha sized her up, a nasty look on her face, a disgust for the empyrian form that she held so clear that it could have been read from the moon, but not by Lillie, who hopped in the frame and smiled sweetly, enthusiastic, asking to help as well. The other three reos looked at her, as she spawned from nowhere and was unknown to all of them, but she smiled reassuringly, her eyes full of life even if one was clearly blind, and explained who she was.

So here they were, on a mission to free the Matriarch like many other groups. They had kept the group small, as Haldor and Taha were dealing with diplomacy, and they were aware that a large group, especially if more empyrian were to join, had the potential to agitate the Matriarch and make her resist their effort.

As they breached the chamber in which the Matriarch resided, they all stopped walking. They had heard rumors, in passing, from other groups that had started their descent in the earlier days and had come back to the surface to dump crystals, about the Matriarch. A tyrian larger than any beast ever encountered in the world, larger than Zataros, larger than the elder, larger than the chamber itself, as if it made sense as a phrase to say.

That is, nothing could prepare them for what they would see, and their breath hitched as they looked at the sight before them. There, trapped under and within layers of crystals and wall, laid the Matriarch. She loomed over the vayrons that were near her like a forgotten deity, her form fused with the cave, the visible parts of her probably accounting for 5000 reos in area. She was massive, and crystals jutted from her body, as if they grew from within her and spread outwards, trapping her in a jagged prison of red, blues, purples. Her eyes were open, glowing with the same intensity of the crystals, reflecting all the colors around her, but they were tired, inattentive, bored by the situation.

That is, until the four reos stepped towards her. They hadn't noticed, but the only reos present at this time were vayrons, with some haedians at the corners, but no empyrians whatsoever. They wouldn't have cared about who was lending a hand, not before not after, if it weren't for the Matriarch's deep growl as her eyes snapped to Elise and Lillie, holding their gaze in clear fury. The growl resonated in the cave, and it shook the ground under their paws, as many of the vayrons that were near the Matriarch started backing away. "Not this again" said one voice from far away, but it was soon drowned by the sound of creaking, the Matriarch moving her head and parting her jaws, revealing massing fangs as she screamed at them, a pain-ridden sound that echoed through the whole chamber, a sound so high that many loose crystals started falling, from her body, from the ceiling, from the walls. The sound was unbearable, and they all tried to cover their ears as much as they could to prevent it from entering their ears.

When the sound stopped, she was looking at Elise and Lillie with fury in her eyes, her intent to snap and attack them so clear that Elise stepped back, her wings flaring instinctively, but Taha’s voice rang clear. “And this, is why i did not want them to join the mission”

Haldor and Elise exchanged glances, but Taha pressed on, stepping towards the Matriarch’s belly, uncaring and unaffected. Haldor followed, and Elise did too, even if the Matriarch was looking at her. Lillie followed too, slower and more concerned than the others, while Taha started speaking again "Stay away from her face, circle her as wide as you can, i'm not sure if she can move her neck yet or not but it's better to be safe. Stay as out of reach as you can."
Lillie stepped even further away, and they all beelined for an area that could be considered the Matriarch's belly, where the thickest clusters of crystal imprisoned her. They knew what had to be done, no matter what emotions the Matriarch was conveying.

"She hates you empyrians, she has all the rights to do so. To her, you are nothing but traitors. You left us to rot in the underground while you thrived up above. Seeing your form disgusts her. Angers her. Pains her, dare i say." Taha continued.

Lillie looked towards Elise for reassurance, and they both shared a pained look. They didn't know each other, but the knowledge that someone hated you, for no reason at all other than being born this way, it would crush the spirit of any empyrian, battle-forged like Elise or soft like Lillie's.

Haldor approached the side of the Matriarch anyway, uncaring of what was going on behind him. "We have to start breaking these off, let's not lose time"

Elise nodded, the look in her eyes one of understanding. She would process this feeling later, alone or with Haldor if we cared to join, where the time was right and there wasn't a duty to fulfill. She took the first bite, her fangs sinking into the edge of a thick crystal, and she clenched her jaw as she tried to pry it from his position. The crystal resisted, slipping from her fangs, and then cracked a little when she closed them harder. She yanked to the side, and as spurt of thick, dark blood started oozing from where the crystal left a hole. This shouldn't have happened, as they were far away from where the body of the matriarch should be, and this was a small crystal, thick but smaller than the ones closer to her body.

They all got closer at Lillie's gasp at the sight of blood, and a shudder ran through the Matriarch's body. It was then that they all realized what was happening. The crystals hadn't surrounded her and trapped her here, below the surface. No, the crystals were growing from her. They were growing like any body part, like nails, like hair, with a blood supply to every single crystal in this cave.

This would not be a freeing mission. This would not be a easy construction work, with teams breaking and teams transporting the crystals until there were none to imprison the Matriarch. This would be a mission where dozen of reos would need to be involved, where medical teams and reos with healing magic would be needed to stop the bleeding, They would need to carve the crystals out of her flesh, until none of the roots of them remained, until none of them could regrow. They would need to dig through the flesh of this ancient haedian, torture her, bring her excruciable pain over and over again, for days, until she was free.

Taha looked around, looked at them, and nodded. She had realized that the reos that were hanging in the cave already knew about this. Had found out just like them, and were all doing their best to continue without causing long lasting damage to the Matriarch.

All four of them, then, started gripping crystals and ripping them out of the Matriarch. They were ripping small ones, crystals that would stop bleeding after a few seconds of applied pressure, but the Matriarch still made this pained sound, this low hum that would not be noticed if not for how it ramped up every time one of them twisted a crystal wrong.

The crystals were slowly accumulating at their back, and some other vayrons, of whose names they did not know, started collecting them and moving them to the piles to be taken outside of the chamber.

The four reos worked tirelessly, pulling, biting, tearing away at the crystals. Their jaws ached from the strain. Their paws slipped in the blood that was pooling beneath them. Their muscles burned, exhaustion creeping into their limbs with every passing moment. Their fur stained dark, their noses full of metallic smell.

Haldor paused for breath, panting heavily. His vision swam for a moment, his body rebelling against the endless exertion. “This is going to take forever,” he growled, shaking shards of crystal from his fur.

Lillie, taking Haldor's phrase as a ok for a much needed pause, slumped and left her jaw rest closed for a couple minutes. "It's going to take more than the reos in this cave” she was a civilian, she was one of the few that had joined spontaneously, out of the good of her heart.

Elise swallowed hard, staring at the growing pile of shattered crystals beside them, those that broke into small pieces when biting them, who cut her tongue over and over again. And yet, it barely made a difference. The Matriarch was still ensnared, still bleeding, still suffering.

Taha turned to face the others “We keep going until we can’t anymore.”

The Matriarch’s eyes, out of the view of the four reos, still filled with untold pain and fury, focused ahead. She would not thank them. She would not forgive the empyrians. She would handle the pain.

She understood.
They were helping.
It still hurt and nothing would change that.