Heaven's Spire

    Rory braced herself as soon as Spica asked aloud about the events at the tree, her entire body tensed up as Freyja's voice boomed across the inn at her. Sparrow too looked like an absolute wreck, and she couldn't help but wonder if he'd seen the same thing.

    Eat the eyes!? Who in their right mind would ever do something like that!? But Freyja seemed to already have some familiarity with... whatever had occurred at the tree, and even though she was probably in deep trouble, that notion brought some sort of comfort to her.

Trembling a little bit, she nodded and started to recount the prior events. Freyja already knew. There was no reason for the chatty harpy to hide anything.

    "I-I... I heard this voice saying they were at the tree and after a new teammate arrived I thought maybe someone else had arrived too, s-so I went to go check." Tears already pricked in her eyes, and the harpy gulped as she tried to keep her voice calm and level. "Well a few others heard it too... and when I touched down in the square the tree opened its eyes and was staring straight at Uldrix. This kid was standing right behind him too, who seemed to be looking for friends."

    "The kid said his name was Vaalzys and that his dad was Zil'Carm. I..." She laughed a little half-heartedly through her sniffles. "It sounds so crazy when I say it now. But..." Her voice grew serious again. "Kyanalurin tried to run away, and he made one of the roots of the tree block her from escaping and he also looked... strange. I believed him. When Uldrix started to get hostile I thought Vaalzys was gonna hurt him, so I was nice to him. He kept asking if we were his friends, so I-I thought maybe he was lonely or bored. Just talking kindly to him seemed to work, at first. He was content until he wanted to play a game..."

    She shivered, and her voice began to waver fearfully, body quaking harder as images of what she'd seen flashed across the mind. " 'Mortals', h-he said that the mortals and immortals play-fight, that he'd go 'easy' on us, and then the world just started... turning into a new one. T-The sky was all purple and red, and the floor was made of skin. I-I've.. never been so scared in my whole life. His dad apparently arrived so he had to leave thank goodness, and everything returned to normal. But, before he left he said,"

    A sick chill ran down her spine when she thought about it, the harpy mimicking the same tone of voice the kid had. " 'We'll play later though! I promise!' He said that and vanished. Freyja..." she swallowed and stared at the ground, the guilt weighing heavily on her. "I-I'm so sorry, I should've listened to you..."

'Freyja, just what exactly is that tree? Or this place even. Nothing is adding up.' She patted Rory on the back, trying to give her comfort. Whatever she saw was pretty bad and she was truly apologetic for it. She wondered what the latest member thought too; this certainly wasn't the welcome she needed.

She wasn't looking to agitate things further, yet Spica wanted answers. And whether that meant getting on her bad side again, she'd have to take the blow.
'You're in charge, whether I like it or not. If there is something you know that we don't know, we need to hear it. If that child truly meant what he said, then we're all going to get it. I wasn't there to see it myself, but I fully believe that Rory is telling the truth. I did see hear her question about a voice before she left. It must have been that child beckoning her, don't you think?'

Sparrow looked at Freyja wide eyed as she quickly connected his entrance with the odd tree in the center of town. He watched on frightened as the rest of the group chattered about said tree, a look of confusion on his face.

"I..." He started before Myrri chimed in. The glimmer meekly closed his mouth and hung his head low, shuffling his feet together. He was easily talked over.

The other members who had encountered the tree eventually gave their say, and the quiet glimmer now had the chance to do the same. "I thought the tree was calling for help. I touched the tree with my hand and saw the frightening world. I ran."

She heard Freyja’s yelling, and simply sighed.
Kyanalurin turned to the leader.
“I attempted to look at it from a safe distance. I heard a voice in my head and I thought someone was calling for help.” she said plainly.
She kept the high pitched voice that she had established was supposedly hers, but adopted a serious tone.
“All I wanted to do was look at it, I was a good 25 meters or so away from it, I’m not enough of an idiot to touch it or try to attack the kid, unlike the avenaudi.”
She cleared her throat.
“I-I mean…I’m sorry, that was mean…what happened back there really shook me up…”
indeed it actually did.
She grinned widely.
“Uldrix, Rory, and Sparrow are fine now, and that’s all I was worried about! I’m really glad you’re all ok~!”
Her voice was shaky, but she wasn't nervous.
Her grin did falter slightly, as she was scared of the events that would follow this day.
She bowed incredibly deeply—something that was probably much too polite for a situation of this kind.
“I-I’m so sorry Ms.Freyja!! I admire you so much, and the last thing I want is for you to hate me!!” she said desperately.
It seemed like she was switching between emotions with the press of a button.
Well, that’s all she could really do to cope with this situation.

   Rock child? At first Robin couldn't recall who, and then it clicked. Sparrow. Out of all the recruits, they seemed to hold no malice in them in comparison to the rest. They were almost... infantile, if anything. It would make sense being that Uldrix claimed he was losing his will to strike down enemies during battle. Their eyes widened at his claim that he would kill the glimmer, until he frantically swiped at his face to drown out the incoming words. They bit their lip under their mask, what could they do to console him?


   The avenaudi had abhorred the fact that he was becoming, what he deemed himself earlier, a coward. Though it made Robin rather confused, being that Uldrix himself told them strength held different meanings. "Listen... I'm not good, at this," they motioned to the beast and back to themself, as though referring to the current situation, "Though you told me the other day that being strong didn't have to be how one was at hurting another. Uh, I mean, I know you're strong, but you failed at sparring earlier because of your instinct. Sparrow might... be able to help you control that, in a way?" Robin's tone carried uncertainty in it, but they were trying their best regardless. "I don't think the little guy would really use you either, unlike some others I've seen. It doesn't have to be all bad, I guess..." they sighed.

   "...Losing yourself feels horrible. Especially to another. I know," for an odd reason, they stressed their last word very seriously, "Though... Sparrow seems okay. You're talking like you used to right now, at least." With that, they reached for their pack and brought out the tiny music box Limarah had just previously bestowed upon them. Their eyes glanced at Uldrix, before cranking the small lever on the contraption for the melody to play. Uldrix liked music, maybe it would calm him in some way. "B-Besides," Robin's eyes lowered, fixating on their legs "I'm... not that strong either."

   Though his words left Robin in a state of puzzlement. At the table, he claimed he wanted wealth- but for what? They had little understanding of how avenaudi valued currency, but surely there must have been some reason besides for sake of want to seek out such a tremendous amount. After all, one was risking their life for it.

Limarah proceeded to shake Kyanalurin's hand. "A pleasure to meet you Kyanalurin. Oh that? haha, I wouldn't call myself admirable, but thanks. I'm really only doing this to help those who need protecting. I'll try make sure to keep as many of you happy as I can. As a strong woman, I'll only cry just a few times, but those few times will be when I howl tears of laughter! Hahaha!" she said wiping a single tear from her face...
...but speaking of the ones who might have not been happy:
The dragon woman had not only spared Limarah, but also seemed disgusted with herself. Although Limarah could have been one of this dragon's prey, she still wanted to reassure the woman's happiness. The dragon didn't seemed dissapointed with being a monster. "Hey now, It's okay. Don't worry, monsters can be nice too you know. They aren't all bad" Limarah told the dragon woman. As a reflex, Limarah lifted her right arm, but then quickly shifted her left arm up to point to her ram horn.
"I'm part monster too!" she said with a kind of goofy face. Limarah's weapon was falling off of her head as she spoke. It wasn't clear if Limarah was nervous or afraid about this, but she continued to talk anyway. "Rams taste absolutely terrible, haha! You wouldn't want to eat one if you came across it!"
but then she stopped goofing around and took a deep breath.
"Look, I understand its difficult to resist hunger, but..." then Limarah gave a big smile, "if it's not too much to ask for: could you use some more table manners please?" Limarah soon after heated up any remaining bits of deer that was lying around the table with small doses of fire magic, rested the venison on a plate, and scooted it towards Vera. As strange as feeding another member a similar species to herself, it was fine as long as if it was properly handled... right?

"enjoy" she said giving one last smirk before darting her attention away again.
A new member of the party joined. Limarah wanted to introduce herself to this new lovely lady as well as some of the others the she hasn't introduced herself to, but a certain tree had been concerning many members. Some of the members trailed off into the center, as Freyja specifically told them not to. Limarah figured the other guild members felt enough guilt and regret about going to the center, so scolding them was most likely unnecessary.
Limarah directed her attention towards Rory, Myrri, Sparrow, and Kyanalurin. "Well, there's no need to dwell on the past. All of you are okay now, right? If we decide to approach any suspicious trees, then lets travel together, okay? Keep trusting the leader, and we can all be safe. Is that fine with all of you?" Limarah gave the group a grin, hoping to reassure their comfort and safety.