who told you what was down here

I'll drown eventually so don't save me

When the skyship dropped them off at what was swiftly becoming a regular stop, Maea had expected them to linger on the surface for a while. But thought the volcanic nature of the Climb made it warm enough, that didn't keep the weather from turning unpleasant. The hailstorm that descended upon them was of a vengeful nature and chased them underground with shards of ice nearly the size of fists.

Wiping water from her face and catching her breath, Maea glowered at the faint light of the entrance. "So much for taking it easy. I guess there won't be any birds underground, at least." Adjusting her coat and righting the skirts, she gave Asta a bleak smile. "Just so you know, I'm not... great, with tight places. Are you sure there's something down here worth seeing? I've already been to the room with all the obsidian." Though that was also the extent of her knowledge of the Climb, and a large part of the reason why she'd asked him along. Getting lost under ground was not something she wanted to experience if at all avoidable.

Maea

// with our one foot in the grave //

“Ah, if only it was true.” Astaroth offers, running his hands through his hair to push away the dark locks, now soaked in water. “They tend to enjoy the caverns here as well.” At least they had back in his day, but was often pushed out from how bustling the Climb had been back then. Now, he supposes they have taken over, free reign over the entirety of the Climb. So far, though, they’re in the clear, and unless something happens Astaroth is more than content acting as if they don’t exist.

He's just finishing adjusting his coat when the cane clicks on the floor of the cavern, leaving little hollow echoes as they start to walk and he notices her bleak smile. “I had last seen them around Frey’s Breath, but it has been quite some time so perhaps they have moved..?” Expanded, grown in secrecy elsewhere within the confines of the hellish heat the Climb had to offer.

Not that the hellish heat was bad. If anything, Astaroth seems positively limber from it, content and comfortable within the heat as if born from the fires himself. “At the very least, we shall see, mm?” He asks, flashing her that sharp toothed grin as his tall stature starts to take the lead, deeper and deeper until the barrows start to open into wider caverns, with lava leaks illuminating their surfaces in crimson.

Astaroth

// while the other one's kicking its way right down to hell //

I'll drown eventually so don't save me

Pulling the wet mess of hair over to one side of the head, she sighed. "I suppose we will." Falling in behind Asta the followed him deeper into the bedrock. The heat was no issue as far as she was concerned either. It helped her hair and clothes dry up and after a while she even unbuttoned the coat to let the warmth really soak in. If anything it was easier to breathe now, and for the first time in a what felt like ages Maea began to feel properly warmed up.
Unfortunately the good parts stopped there. The tunnel was narrow and winding, and the darkness made her jumpy. She hugged so close to the seams of magma they occasionally encountered that the skirts nearly caught on fire, and at one point she actually walked right into Asta's back.

"Sorry," she mumbled, rubbing her smarting nose. "Have you, uh, been up to anything lately? How's your shoulder?" Maybe talking would keep her mind off the weight of rock pressing down over their heads or the echoes of churning, groaning, dripping and crumbling stone.

Maea

// with our one foot in the grave //

Luckily, the first cavern that illuminates doesn’t harbor any of those beasts. Instead, a few rOUS scamper about, disappearing into offshoots of the clearing the second they make their presence known. It’s what has Asta standing still for a moment, waiting for them to vanish, when Maea runs into his back. He moves, then, stepping aside in the cavern to scan the veins of magma that brighten the space, before he looks back to her with a sharp grin. “It’s alright.” He offers with a soft rumble.

As for what he’s been up to lately? Well. Not much, really. “Mm, well, some awful people I threw out of the Dusklight returned and attempted to freeze me into stone. Thankfully I survived the encounter.” And while the rest of them had returned from whence they came, the ringleader that had been jailed had… Gone missing. Chalked up to a jailbreak where he would not be returning to. “My shoulder is perfectly fine now, though. Thank you for the concern.” He dips his head toward her, before he scans the caverns and picks the one on the righthand side to follow.

“How have you been? I heard about what occurred during the conference.” He figures it was better than to beat around the bush about it.

Astaroth

// while the other one's kicking its way right down to hell //

I'll drown eventually so don't save me

Seeing the tails of the oversized rodets disappear into a crevice as the peered around her tall friend, she huffed an awkward laugh. Only rous. Hardly anything climbing the walls over, even if she did dislike them as a general principle. The opening beyond didn't have much in the way of vegetation, though she scanned the ground and walls anyway, just in case there was a sign of the plants they were here for. Rae's lilies or Vi's roses - it would be a miracle to find either, but there was no harm in trying.

"Poor bastards, they clearly didn't know who they were messing with," she replied, in a poor attempt at hiding concern behind a joke. "Did they survive?" Perhaps it might surprise him how little she cared about the lives of anyone who threatened people she cared about. If idiots started a fight, they should be ready to face the consequences.

Pleased to hear that the injury was tended to at last, his return question made her wince. "Ah. That was quick. Danta, I suppose? Yeah, it... it was a disaster. How much did he say?" Better to know what had been said before she said too much. Apparently she was really bad at knowing when to shut up.

Maea

// with our one foot in the grave //

“Most of them.” Astaroth shrugs, leaving it as such. Because that was the truth of the matter, and nobody had investigated further to find out what happened once they’d split and gone their separate ways. Hopefully back to whatever godforsaken place they’d departed from.

Either way, the rOUS vanish and Astaroth admires the cavern briefly before picking the next path, diving them deeper. This tunnel is tall and a smidge wider, enough that they can nearly walk side by side, and amongst the walls with the flickering veins of lava, Astaroth casts quite the spidery shadow.

Humming confirmation that it was Danta that had told him, he turns partially toward her with a sharp partially amused smile, the waggling of his finger, and a teasing little “ah, ah, ah. I want to hear what you witnessed.” Unaltered from what Danta had told him. Once he’s sure the point has come across, he continues to delve deeper through the winding caves, dark eyes peeled for anything of interest.

Astaroth

// while the other one's kicking its way right down to hell //

I'll drown eventually so don't save me

Most of them was better than all of them, she supposed. If his vague reply made her cast a suspicious glance in his direction, they both knew what she might worry about. But as Maea kept her thoughts to herself, he didn't have to either confirm nor deny anything. The less she knew, the happier they both would be.

More pressing concerns distracted her away from that line of thought anyway. His refusal to give anything up earned him a glare and a curse more fitting of a Torchline sailor, but she didn't insist. Only sighed, and kicked a loose pebble ahead of them. It rattled off and sent echoes bounding against the walls, turning the tunnel into a grand instrument of doom.
"Well. As you probably know I asked for and got permission from Danta to host the ball and the meeting. My thought was to talk about some way to make communication smoother between the regions, because Starfall was a mess and the letter storm could definitely be improved upon. And while everyone was gathered anyway, it seemed like a good time to discuss what to do about the Family, and the invasion of void creatures. So I asked the leaders to attend. Not Stormbreak, obviously, but all the others." Scowling at the path ahead, Maea didn't see much of it. Stepping over magma streams and rounding bends in the path on instinct, her focus was back in the cool darkness of her study, where a feast had been laid out to welcome the guest.

"I knew some probably wouldn't be happy about it, since they hate the Grounds, but they still came. Before I could close the doors though, a man showed up and announced fucking Dahlia. And somewhere there I lost my senses and told her she wasn't invited, and please leave." Her tone was dry, and factual, with a bite of irony that spoke of wariness. Her argument was Danta was fresh in mind and she had no illusions that Asta would react any differently to the Maverick being placed in harm's way.

But she still didn't regret her actions. Not all of them, at least.

Maea

// with our one foot in the grave //

He knows it gets under her skin – but he isn’t in the business of playing nice all of the time. And truthfully, he prefers to get his information unaltered from other opinions to create the biases around it. So, without giving her anything and letting her kick the stone, he continues to wander through the cavern, searching for plants of any sort in the deep crevices of the Climb, when her voice starts to echo through it.

He's a great listener, at least, because he waits to offer anything until she’s done – folding and fitting the information against what Dantalion had said, before he clicks his tongue and exhales a slow sigh. “Of course she would show. Regardless of whether or not she was not invited, the notice board posts were posted within the other regions, were they not?” He cocks his head this way and that, horns casting a long shadow as he calculates everything he’s figuring out.

But he does glance back down and over toward her with a raised brow. “You didn’t simply play along to keep the peace?” And instead, instigated it.

Astaroth

// while the other one's kicking its way right down to hell //

I'll drown eventually so don't save me

Maea shook her head. "No. Invitations to the ball, those were public. If she'd shown up there I would have understood. But the meeting was by personal invitation only. So either she intercepted a letter somewhere, or someone tipped her off about it. The meeting was never spoken loudly about - that was half the point of the ball. To give the leaders an excuse to be in the Grounds." She'd never said as much to anyone, but that had been her reasoning.

Again her head moved from side to side, the salt white hair swaying in the gusts of hot air. Firelight cast a reddish glow over her pale skin, and gave her eyes a crimson, feral look as she looked up at Asta. "No, I did not. For one, it would have been strange if no one protested her presence. So I did, as the host and as the least important person present. And for another, I didn't want to. I hate bullies, and I hate people who simply take what they want with no consideration for others. That woman - she's an outlander and an invader, and she was not invited. If I'd said nothing..." Drawing a deep breath only to let it out in a heated huff of breath - just thinking about it made her riled up all over again - "If I just stood by and did nothing, I couldn't live with myself."

It really was that simple, in the end. Between the choice of doing nothing, and doing something, even if that something turned everyone she knew against her - it seemed she'd learned something about herself from this.

Maea

// with our one foot in the grave //

“Mm.” Asta starts to say, neither confirming or denying her suspicions. “I suppose it would not be too out of the realm of arrival before the ball to get prepared and spot the leaders heading toward the Atheneum, no?” Perhaps it had been happenstance. Coincidence. “Perhaps she can read minds.” He titters off after, lifting a hand and waving it off. Nobody knew what this Dahlia was capable of, and that was part of the fear that everyone harbored. But one thing was for certain, everyone knew that they couldn’t hold a candle to her.

So instead, he focuses on the other conversation she harbors, over bullies and standing up, and Astaroth – typically quite well mannered and put together, scoffs a fraction at the audacity of it. “If you had said nothing, no one would have been subjected to danger.” He shrugs casually, cane clicking as they delve further into the dark tunnels, coming across another cavern – jeweled and glimmering in the veins of the magma through the tunnels here. “It is not weak to be silent in the face of a larger threat. Regardless of invitation or not, she was there. Perchance you may consider swallowing down your stubbornness for the safety of those around you?” It’s put bluntly, casting his gaze back over toward her as he pauses in the cavern to pluck a particularly glimmering diamond from the wall, slipping it into a pocket.

Astaroth

// while the other one's kicking its way right down to hell //

I'll drown eventually so don't save me

"The danger would have been the same whether I spoke up or not," she countered as heat began to rise within. "If it was so obvious that she would show up, why did they all come? Why didn't anyone write to tell me fucking no? The only one in that room who didn't have a choice in being there was the fucking baby. What's astounding to me is that out of everyone there, only one other person stood up to her."

Stopping dead in her track, Maea spun to face Astaroth. A scowl darkened her brow and it was clear she was not interested in apologizing anymore. "It is weak," she insisted, teeth flashing with every word. "It's cowardly and weak, and I'm not doing it. I'm done lowering myself just to survive - no matter what anyone says this life is not so fucking precious that it's worth that. Not to me. Not anymore. I won't live in a cage at the sufferance of another. If everyone else is fine with being trampled on, so be it - good riddance. I'm going to fight them every step of the way, even if I have to do it alone."

Maea

// with our one foot in the grave //

“You are incorrect.” Astaroth says bluntly, shrugging a shoulder as they stand within the cavern with further offshoots of tunnels to burrow beneath. “If you had not spoken up and instead played the part, there would have been no reason for her to make a threat.” Because he had heard, gossip spread fast within these parts. Her presence was a threat, sure, but one could work with threatening appearances versus the actual argument. It’s how Astaroth had been so great at his job in the past. “I don’t believe it was obvious, per say, but I cannot imagine trying to do something subtly without the potential chance she may appear.” Given the awful vox static that had blared through his head like alarms in the past, something seems to suggest that they can do quite a good amount of things.

And besides, who else is part of this Family that static ear sore had so kindly mentioned?

Either way, he ticks a nerve with her and he stands as she turns to face him, his dark gaze scanning her pale face, watching the fury that flares beneath it. “Then you will die.” He says casually, shrugging lightly again. “You think so little of knowing a time and place to have an even playing ground to fight on that you will take the first opportunity you receive to make a last stand?” He tsks, folding both of his hands on his cane. “As far as I have experienced, lay in wait, play the part, until you have your pieces in place.” He pauses, trying to think of the phrase that had ran through his head time and time again from his transformation into the gentleman he became. “I show you the stone in my hand, you miss the knife at your throat.” It isn’t giving up. It’s distraction.

Astaroth

// while the other one's kicking its way right down to hell //

I'll drown eventually so don't save me

Unlike in her argument with Danta, the steady calm in face of her heated arguments actually reached past her ire. Something troubled came into her eyes, though she quickly shook her head against the doubt Asta was sowing in her mind. "I don't play games," she retorted, slightly less heated. "I don't know how, and even if I did I'm not sure that I would. You think I don't know it was dangerous? That's not the point. It's about doing the right thing, despite it being dangerous. If no one ever faced threats at the risk to their lives, the Grounds would still be covered in a barrier, and I'd be dead three times over." The memory of the attack against the Spire Demon was clear as a painting in her mind. The fierce battle, the brave sacrifices, and the path that had been opened that would eventually lead them all out - it had lived in her mind for all these years as a shining beacon that showed her what an alternative to resignation might look like.

"I won't mind dying if it serves a purpose," she shot back, probably more honestly than intended. "And if I thought there was a plan I would follow it. But so far all I've seen from our illustrious leaders is a bunch of nothing, and I Will. Not. Do. Nothing." Could not, because that was the same as giving up and going back to the weak, powerless cripple she'd been born as. She couldn't imagine a worse way to spend the rest of her existence. It would be no different from swallowing poison - just as sure to kill her, only slower and more unsightly.

Maea

// with our one foot in the grave //

The fury starts to lessen and Astaroth continues his curious watch of her body language as she speaks, trying to seek out the bits and pieces here of what she says, trying to figure out the underlying words she isn’t saying. “The right thing and reckless thing can often cross into becoming one and the same.” He starts to say, clearing his throat as he flashes her a smile. “I believe you are misunderstanding me regarding the situation. The truth of the matter is that while you may be fine with martyring yourself for the greater good on coming into contact with the largest threat thus far, that does not mean that others in that room do not have anything to live for either to make that stand.” Raising his dark brow.

“And perhaps you misunderstand your own importance, Maea, darling. What makes you believe that you are above so many others that the leaders of other regions will tell you what their plans are? As far as I have seen, plenty of regions have started quests to prevent the void from infiltrating pieces of it, our own included.” He pauses with a heavy sigh that edges on the air of a laugh at the insanity of it all. “I am content not knowing because it is none of my business. I will do my due diligence with the Grounds and help whomever else requires it to prevent the threat, but until we know more? That is all we can do.” Shrugging in a way that has the cane clicking against the ground easily, Astaroth cocks his head. “I do not expect other leaders or even Danta to inform me of what is being done. I trust my ruler to do what needs to be done when it must be done. Because at the end of the day, it gets done.”

Shaking off a bit of the stillness of their conversation and the tension in his shoulders, Astaroth moves again to pluck an emerald from the wall before he peers down the two separate tunnels to try and decide which way to start walking. “You will get nowhere by rushing through to the answer.”

Astaroth

// while the other one's kicking its way right down to hell //