[Stomoxys]

When I asked if there was anything we could do to help, Odon proclaimed that the most important anyone could do was strengthen the sibling serpents. However, they did not know where their siblings were keeping the aspect, only that it corresponded to a physical location. As far as they knew, the areas east of Amaya and south of the wetlands were controlled by their siblings. I wondered how many siblings they had, and they said they did not know, but when I asked for at least the order of magnitude, they thought there were at least a hundred. Because they spend most of their time plotting and scheming against each other, they are less dangerous than they could have been, but they were now working more or less in concert to break the gates.

The talk of Amaya reminded me of something Krull had said and I asked them why there were so many more females than males in the eastern jungle. They responded that most of the males are sent to their siblings in some kind of arrangement. Presumably their spirits are stolen, but for some bizarre apeoid reason, the siblings despise females and only take male spirits. Pakk and Gromann had asked if we had seen any birdlike creatures in the crater and I asked Odon about them The referred to them as beaked creatures and they had fallen from The Heavens. They did not recommend dancing with them, as I had done in my vision, but did not elaborate, instead saying that I seemed to be connected to both The Heavens, The Earth, and The Underworld. The first two are obvious and I suppose the last is the result of my connection with Ashtar. During meltdowns, the barriers between the tree worlds are weakened and starts seeping into each other.

Odon seems to know a lot about The Underworld, so I asked if they knew if there was a connection between Vaxo and Ashtar, but they claimed Vaxo is much closer to us. In a sense, that is obvious since Vaxoan is right here, but with the snakes guarding the island and the split tongue of the priest, I had assumed there was a connection. They also said they believed I would go to the realm of the dead, but I got the distinct feeling that People do not belong there in the Ashtarite temple at The Evening Fortress, so I believe they were wrong.

The demon prisons must also have components of all three worlds and I asked about them. Odon said the prison were connected to the earth and thus could be controlled by entities from The Underworld, but they were created using energy from The Heavens. That was why they were placed near the Star Circles and they remembered that there had been a contiguous chain of Azura priests within sight of each other from the circle to the crypt. I wondered if they had been in there when the demons were imprisoned, but they were unsure if it was their own or someone else's memory. Tivito had designed the the ritual, but the Azura priests were the ones performing it. The amount of energy drained from the skies had been noticed by the Azura priests in The Cities of the Prince, who had stopped the last two rituals, but there must have been much confusion when they found their own participating in the rituals.

Wolfram wondered if the aspect could be trapped in the sky. Odon hoped this would be impossible, as this would do horrible things to a god of The Underworld. They feared that some of their siblings still controlled priests of Azura. To find out more, we should go to the ruined city. However, none of us could read any language that would be useful there, so we should bring someone who could. The obvious choice would be Pakk and Gromann, who had already made plans to go there, but we did not have any way to reach them as they were presumably somewhere in the wetlands. Odon also warned that the ruined city would be at least as dangerous as this crypt and they were a bit surprised that we had not killed each other under the influence of the demon. While I would not be affected by the hysterical powers of a demon, Odon implied that most apeoids would be tearing each other to pieces. Perhaps the others gain some protection from their respective deities.

I asked Odon if they could leave us for a while so we could discuss in private what to do. Nuur-Karif was happy that Wolfram was suspicious of Odon, taking it as a sign they were not manipulating us, while Wolfram was still suspicious and Grogg was happy to have met someone who had heard of Orga. Going to the ruined city sounded like the best way to proceed, but we would have to get hold of Pakk and Gromann. Kra could perhaps send a letter, but they probably could not bring a response back so it would be difficult to coordinate. Wolfram wanted to send Kra to Isa, reasoning that Pakk and Gromann had probably returned to The Evening Fortress by now. I doubt that they would have leave The Crypt of Kings before they had dug up the whole place and studied every text they could find, but even if they had, I failed to see why we should send the message to Isa and not to Pakk and Gromann directly. There was also the obvious solution of asking Odon to take a message when going to the crypt.

Nuur-Karif left to find Odon, but soon returned and told us they were busy. However, Odon entered the tent soon after and asked if we were willing to do two things to help them. The first was to collaborate with Azura if they still only admitted females into their ranks. Niffi said that Azura had expelled all the male priests after the disaster in The Brown Forest and Odon implied this was because the greys only wanted male followers. Considering their sheer incompetence, I am not thrilled to be working with Azura. They handed one mirror shard to Krupik and Lunari who spent most of their time fighting over money and Lunari tried to sell it to a criminal organization and another shard to an agent of Tivito who promptly used it to power a demonic ritual. However, if the greys used star energy to capture the aspect of the sibling serpents, the Azura might be able to tell us where it happened, as I imagine it would take enormous amounts of energy. I would of course trust such information a lot more if it came from you, but I do not see any way to reach The Homeland in a reasonable amount of time.

Wolfram and Grogg managed to reveal we had a broken mirror shard. Odon had heard of these things, but did not know how to make or repair one. They thought it sounded like a very dangerous thing to carry around. They did react when I mentioned the name Krull, but did not say anything. So far, I have assumed that the mirror shard is an ancient artifact the Azura priests have had in their vaults, but Odon seemed to think it was created recently. Azura denied they knew how to make one, so I wonder who could have done so.

The other thing Odon wanted us to do was to exterminate Tivito, which immediately got Wolfram's attention. Because Tivito is a competitor to their own sect, Wolfram is very eager to smite them. I wonder if Tivito can imprison the greys like the demons. If so, it would be very convenient for Odon if someone else wiped them out.

Odon suggested that Grogg and Wolfram could help with the digging. The sooner they dug through the ash and reached the crypt, the sooner they could lure the demon into the prison and be on their way. They did not dare use magic to do the digging in case it would disturb the demon. While Odon and their followers got their nourishment by lying in the ditches, they had food and water for Nyra and they could spare enough to share for a few days. Wolfram and Grogg agreed to this, but Nuur-Karif wanted to go back to Yana. I agreed to come along and we started to prepare for the walk back. We should make it out of the most strongly affected area before nightfall, but would have to spend the night and come back the day after. I asked Nuur-Karif if it was a good idea to drag Yana and Hylda in here if it was as dangerous as Odon claimed, but they did not seem to care. It will be interesting to see how Nuur-Karif reacts if Yana goes berserk and tries to beat them to death.

On our way out, I remembered the green bottle I had been carrying around since the crater and showed it to Odon. They asked for it back and said it was bottled accidents. This prompted Wolfram to ask about the Saplurp and Odo answered they had left it away from the demon. Saplurps can gather the energies released by magical accidents, reducing the danger, but if they might release the energy if they are exposed to external influences, such as an arrow. If they had brought the Saplurp to the crypt, it would have absorbed too much demonic energy and would have become unstable.

We walked out of the camp together with the lieutenant, who's name was Paulon. Wolfram and Grogg disappeared down a mine shaft while Nuur-Karif and I walked into the mists and the sounds of digging soon faded behind us. We walked efficiently and talked about what we had learned and the connection between Ashtar and Vaxo. Unfortunately, their indoctrination is quite narrow and they knew even less than me.

The cart had made clear tracks that were easy to follow and judging from the tracks, Yana and Hylda had met with the two riders and then traveled together northwards to a small cottage. We reached it as Ajaw disappeared under the horizon and could see the cart and two horses outside, while Hylda was sitting in a window keeping watch. We sneaked up to the cottage and Nuur-Karif barged straight in, while I remained outside. It would be preferable if the night riders did not see me.