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"Boy, this is gonna be a trip." Stretching his white linen gloves tighter over his wrists, the black mage stared down the nebulous cave entrance marred by toothy stalactites at its rim. "Looks like it's just you and me for now."

"Really? And whose fault is that, dare I ask? Oh, no, I shouldn't ask something so trivial to our black mage. Hey, how's that whole 'I can learn Flare' business going along for you?" The crimson-robed red panda sighed as she fiddled with packed flint and tinder to while away the evening. A taciturn bundle of salt and vitriol, she only acknowledged the black mage's existence with a cynical cock of her head.

"Hey, that is seriously high-end and esoteric stuff. You can't blame me for not knowing it yet!" Radiant yellow eyes beneath the brim of his straw hat flared defensively, disappearing into the pool of inky blackness that was his face every time he blinked. "And look at you miss 'jack of all trades'! Your blades tickle and your spells... suck!"

The rugged mountain path they had just crossed was quickly becoming more interesting than the conversation at hand to the red mage. Pebbles dotted the rough and rarely-trodden dirt, clearly eluded by passerby for one reason or another given the pristine condition of the path. Towering pines took root upon the slanted hillsides, completely unfettered by the change in gravity that the duo had never quite gotten used to. Their current location, however, offered a perch of even ground just before their cavern destination.

However, the hike up was the worst they'd faced yet; the monsters and wildlife remained trivial, much to her surprise given their two-man-party makeup. Especially without one crucial element she had more than expected to have access to: a frontliner. Black mages packed a huge offensive punch with their magic, but took hits worse than a stick of butter.

Liera, however, remained a traditional mix-and-match, a goody bag with several talents. Trained in the way of swordplay, and having dabbled in shares of magic of both the black and white variety, her pride rested firmly in her ability to accommodate and fill in for any missing or lacking roles, and when all was accounted for, her general flexibility. Donning a red longcoat over her simple pair of grey trousers punctuated by calf-high black boots, the red panda's complexion was an ever-soft swirl of vanilla fur flanked by patterns that bore a shade of deep crimson similar in hue to her robe-coat hybrid. Her scarlet hair rested atop her shoulders, its true length obfuscated by the prominent collar of her garb that added an air of skillful mystery.

Still, a retort was necessary. The salty and seasoned practitioner of mixed magics wasn't about to let the issue slide. "Oh, reeeeeal smooth. This jack of all trades is your only form of protection, by the way. And sure, Flare's beyond you for now, but I_can_ blame you for scaring off our tank," Liera tsked. Grinding a fistful of flint against a nearby rock with sticks laid about, the red mage sighed and leaned back from her work to right the positioning of her prized feathered cap. "That fighter in Cornelia looked thrice as capable as you and then some. Just goes to show what good your offer of 'mega-mallows' did for us on our journey."

The black mage fiddled with the brim of his hat, tilting it somewhat lower as he meeped softly. Unfortunately and much to the red mage's frustration, such a sound was completely non-indicative of any particular species. On top of that, per the norm for a black mage, the shadow of his clothing prevented any feature from being known, save the glowing shapes amidst the darkness: yellow circles for eyes and a bright pink triangle that feigned as a nose. Black mages sure did love to play geometry with their faces, Liera thought. She would suspect him to be a cat of some kind given a light voice tempered by an age beyond his medium stature, but what sort had a tail as fluffy as that, and with that same shade of black as his hidden face? Was that a spell too?

It was as she constantly said: not worth thinking about.

"Look, that wasn't my fault," Viestras asserted. "My papa told me their power is brought out by grey magic. There's... no such thing as grey magic, so I figured black was what he meant. And hey, that guy in Cornelia was a total asshole. He blackened one of my eyes for that! Some kind of sick and unfunny irony to be found in there."

"Your pop was fucking with you," Liera said dryly. At last, a shower of sparks emitted in the proper direction of the laid-out wood, and her eyes widened--but the ignition shortly faded without success. "Goddamn it! ...In any case, no, grey magic does not exist. Not a practice by any known group of mages, current, past, or future." She paused, thinking on just what kind of spell could possibly bring out the power of a marshmallow without completely destroying it. Temper only worked on weapons as far as she knew, and metal weapons at that. Saber maybe, but that was more of a bodily enchantment to increase fighting prowess. Nothing made sense. "I mean what would you do, cast Fire on it? Although I'll admit that's sounding pretty damn good right now." The slightest groan of Liera's stomach irritated her more than she thought it rightly should.

"I could. Or I could cast Fire on that lack of a fire you seem to be struggling with." Voice curling wryly at its edge, Viestras crossed his arms over his blue-black coat. His smug smirk was detectable even through the shadow cast by his encompassing outfit. His attempt to move away from the marshmallow-related blunder was clear, but humored.

"Hey hey hey? No. Fire is to be used only for combat. Don't waste your energy."

"You seem to be doing a fine enough job of that without my help, really."

The red panda mage finally rolled her magenta eyes to accompany a reluctant clench of her teeth. "Okay sure, but I have to get this now. I brought these materials along for the journey so we wouldn't have to rely on magic for everything, true to a red mage. Just gimme a sec... hah!" With one more precise strike the wood upon the dirt lit up in a spectacular display of licking flames. A true campfire almost immediately roared to life with no signs of dimming anytime soon. "And now we're set up for the night. Hah again!"

"Actually--"

"And you thought I couldn't do it." Liera harrumphed proudly. "You spout fool talk so often that I'm not sure when to believe you." She spread her legs around the carelessly-assembled bonfire to absorb its warmth with every fiber of her being. Kicking off her dark leather boots onto the wayside next to her pack, she motioned her traveling companion to sit by the fire as well--albeit at a reasonable distance.

The black mage hesitated. "Liera..."

"It's been quite the day. I'll admit we pulled through on the trail, what with all manner of goblins, basilisks, and mad horses gone amok. Still dunno what causes that. Poor ranch handling?"

"Liera."

"And besides, I--wait, no. What was your question? I know you're just gonna interrupt me in a sec."

One of Viestras' glowing golden eyes slanted while the other widened, bemused as a whole. "Oh, privy are we?" The mage shook his head, then pointed a gloved hand skyward. A mass of starless night hung heavy above them both. Mysteriously, all stars seemed to completely vanish from the sky at the precise beginning of the next day's 24-hour cycle, reappearing only late in the afternoon--and such was their call to action. It took all of three days of careening through town in a graceless bumrush for information, a record that beat out Viestras' previous hunt for leads by half, to set them on the course for a cavern just off the beaten mountain path. "All I was gonna say is you'd better be putting that fire out because we've just breached the twilight hours. If we're gonna get to clearing out the cavern and claiming our reward, we'd best be sleeping."

"You're kidding." Sighing, Liera hung her head low between her legs, fluffy tan-and-red striped tail flicking to curl around the stump upon which she sat. Halfway veiled disappointment squeezed its way into her voice at her hard work having been for naught. "This is stupid and a waste of time. I hope you understand that."

Nodding, the black mage summoned a tiny Blizzard flurry to smother the flames with ease. He watched amusedly as a certain red-robe took to shivering from the sudden flux in temperature. "I do. But you're just as concerned as I am about the case of missing stars, are you not?"

Huh. Surprisingly mature words, Liera had to admit. "Sure. But a sense of adventure gets me going faster than any reward. You'd best keep that in mind if you plan to keep things bumbling forward at a snail's pace with that carrot on a stick perched in front of me."

****

"I don't see why we need a fighter anyway," Viestras retorted. "We almost had a thief on our hands and you shooed him away, so you're just as much to blame!" He kicked stones beneath his boots as they walked, hiking the final stretch to the cave's mouth. The smell of burnt wood and a lingering pile of smoke in the air signaled their campsite from last night. Was he growing homesick for it?

"He was going to steal our stuff! Call me paranoid, but properly so--he was a thief. Not a rogue, which I could excuse given the vagueness of the name, he was a thief." Liera snooted and snapped her fingers with every mention of the thief moniker. Her eyes practically disappeared in the expanse of red fur markings upon her cheeks as she shut them. "I don't trust that for a second."

"Ugh, semantics. Don't be like that... besides, I know a four-man band is tried and true, but we've managed quite well so far. We'll be fine!" Viestras waved his hand in dismissal.

Again, Liera's gaze shot open. "The problem isn't about what's tried and true and what isn't. It's not about breaking the meta. It's that we're up shit creek without a paddle and we're more like to embarrass ourselves than a pair of mismatched socks!"

Viestras seemed to consider that. "Our composition is odd. But I made it clear when we got here: this is gonna be a bit rough. Well, rougher than it... would be--look, neither you nor I were willing to wait two days for a traveler from Elfheim or Pravoka to show up by boat. That's the only way we could've found anybody else capable."

"More capable than me maybe, but replacing you wouldn't be difficult. Tell me, what spells do you even have?" Halting their trek, the red mage put one hand on her hip, turning to face Viestras with intent aglow in her eyes. Her fingers absently ticked at the hilt of her rapier as if itching to put it to use.

"I could _taste_the salt there. Let's see... Fire, Blizzard--you've seen those--Sleep... hey why the hell am I bothering to tell you this?" The black mage huffed and stamped a foot for emphasis. "You're hardly one to talk given that red magic has no spells of its own! All you do is borrow from everybody else!"

"You know, I'm not even sure why it's called red magic. Why not grey? It's more of a mix of black and white than anything else. Not that I'm about to decry this fancy getup..." Liera pinched the clasp of her crimson cape, then shook her head. Viestras cocked his head thoughtfully. "In any case, I'm just doing what I do best. I'm the only one of us two that can keep us going through a fight if things turn out worse for wear, unless you suddenly sprout white robes and start healing people." Suddenly, her pink irises glinted darkly. "And imagine if we come across a piscodemon."

"A... what?" Childlike wonder and fear was clear in his face--in contrast to Liera's own awe at his ignorance.

"Piscodemon! Magic-using creatures who don't take well to casters like us. They're big and lanky and robed and... tentacle-y! You've never heard of one? How many times have you even done things like this?" Liera sighed. Just her luck to get stuck with an acquaintance novice. "Look, we don't know what we're going to face, but whatever we do, it'll take everything we've got. We are not the warriors of light or fuck all whatever else. If things get worse for wear, we pull out. Understood?"

Viestras sighed heavily, wisely choosing to ignore her pointed accusations. "Yeah, I guess. There's only so much we can do without a third somebody to round out our group."

"Aye. As is, we do make quite the redundant duo..." Liera mused. She stopped to think, tapping a booted paw against the ground at a pleasant rhythm. "Between your magic and my... mostly magic, we aren't exactly the most flexible."

Viestras' eyes glowered beneath his hat. "I thought you were the jack of all trades."

"Shut it, you know what I mean." Shaking her head, Liera pointed her head forward. There was little left of the path, and no more diversions remaining to while away the walk. The last remaining feet of dusty earth, becoming somewhat less and less dry with each passing step, vanished beneath the duo's feet in utter silence.

It was not long before Viestras changed that. "We've made it." Gazing upward, the black mage of unknown origin took note of the sparse luminance within. Five feet inward, darkness consumed everything that was visible. "Well that just figures that it'd be pitch black. This reeks of horror cliché and I ain't having it. Gimme a sec and--" He motioned as if to snap his fingers but Liera was quick to silence him.

"No!" The red mage lashed out with her hands to pap his wrist, leaving him to grumble and sorely rub it. Those tiny red panda fingers slapped more harshly than he'd expect. "Save your fancy-dancy black magic, I've said it once and a thousand more times." The red panda's cape went aflutter on the soft breeze as she stood proud and tall, taking a moment to ponder the insides of the cave. She reached into a pocket at her waist and retrieved a scroll of inked parchment and several sticks laden with pine resin. Humming, Liera unrolled the map with soft crinkles and buried her face in it. "Okay... from what I understand, Gaia's Hem--that's this cave--runs all the way down to sea level, if we're taking the entire network into account. We won't need to explore the whole thing."

"God forbid."

"I don't want to waste time any more than you do," Liera retorted sharply. Liera shook her head and huffed with impatience. "I have five torches on my person; that should last us the entirety of the trip, inside and out. We will camp within if need be, but if we do, we'll have to take turns on the vigil."

"I dunno, getting ambushed by a few cockatrices and waking up to the smell of stone skin sounds pretty fantastic--yes we'll swap turns!" Viestras bent down to fiddle with a bootstrap, glancing up one more time as he spoke. "You say these things as if I don't know them."

Liera finally nodded and rolled up the map, puffing out a sigh that gave way to a smug smile, looking Viestras directly in the eyes. "That's because between your bumble-faffing and your most genuine and sincere lack of preparation and foresight, I'm never sure that you do, Viestras." Forward she marched, almost immediately disappearing into the darkness within. Dirt below her boots turned to damp rock and earth, and with a swipe of her arm she lit a single torch, stuffing the remaining four back upon their holsters along her belt.

The black mage's attention suddenly shot up. "W-wait, don't go without me!" Viestras hobbled his diminutive form over to Liera's side, twiddling his fingers as if ready to shoot off a spell at any moment. His glowing eyes flitted in the darkness, noting every last crevice, crack, drip, and glint upon the damp walls. "And hey that's not fair of you to say! We've known each other for a solid two days, that's it. Hardly enough time to say you know me!"

"I'd say it's good of me to assume we're at least acquaintances by now," the red panda replied. "Plus, we had a test run to see our chemistry during that time. You scored an 'I should have chosen a tougher creature to incinerate than a goblin' out of five."

Viestras merely grunted. The duo returned to a few moments of silence as they scoped out the tunnel; the light of daytime behind them drew farther and farther away. The warm glow of the torch provided enough illumination to note the skittering of insects along the ground, but before them, the cavern seemed to stretch on into an infinite abyss.

The innocuous growling of Liera's tiny stomach suddenly cried out. "Uh... still got those mega-mallows or whatever on you?" Liera started. "Haven't had anything to eat pretty much all day."

Viestras eyed her dryly, reaching for a small bag at his waist and pinching it between two fingers. "You really think that's a good idea?"

"Ah, I'm hungry, and you've got the only rations available. It's not like they've done much for us anyway." The red panda snatched at the bag and untied the string.

"H-hey! Those are my pop's!"

"--That he probably bartered off some cheap two-bit penny-hawk down the road."

Viestras sighed, defeated. "I suppose you're right. And I know I'm not touchin' them."

Continuing her march, Liera popped one white puffy treat between her lips, savoring the taste of a sweet after a day of nothing to eat. The sugar on its surface melted instantly on the tip of her tongue. It was not long before she ravenously devoured the rest, leaving Viestras to grumble at the sudden loss of any food remaining for the trip.

"Hope you're satisfied."

"Believe me I am. Heck, we might just see what kind of power these things contain if luck would have it," Liera taunted.

"Don't bring that whole mess up," defended Viestras.

"Oh no. Sorry kiddo, but I'm taking that to my grave!" Shaking her head at being reminded that they had no fighter to back them up, she pressed forth. Viestras simply sighed in acceptance of his own association with the incident.

Sighing after the final swallow of gooey goodness, the full-tummied red pandage took to glancing about her surroundings. There was little even the red mage herself knew of Gaia's Hem, and less so its insides. Such thoughts and curiosities had her by the neck right then. Adventurers rarely documented their findings--and books with such findings were decidedly expensive.

Perhaps there was a balance in the world. One of literacy and combat capability at hand that strong weapon-users like fighters simply skewed toward one side of. The brainless ones were the most successful ones, it seemed, and almost none of their escapades or quests were documented as a result. She would not hesitate to say she was well-read and decently experienced in the field of monster-fighting, and nor would even Viestras, but even so, the monetary standard for Cornelian small-timers was... not the highest. They were both amateurs at best--hell, it was how they met. To Liera, there was no better sign of a potential partner than one who would sate her hunger for exploration with an ulterior goal in mind.

Two birds with one stone. Efficient, clever, and ultimately bountiful. Just the way she liked it. After all this, there was not a doubt in her mind that she could do so much by righting the scales back into normalcy. Successful questers like herself that could read and write, simplifying the processes of documentation and bookwriting by eliminating the necessity of a middleman? _Perfect._And then after she was done reaping the immediate reward, maybe she could set up a new generation, share her wealth of knowledge. A school in the middle of Cornelia would do the trick... and who would make a better headmistress?

Not that Viestras needed to know any of that. For now, he was mostly a means to an end. If... one that she felt a little responsible for. Maybe a little endeared to.

Liera's thoughts shifted as her gaze permeated the shadows in front of her. She likened the darkness to the ambiguity of Viestras' face, which she had never truly seen--unless what she saw was what she got, which she found difficult to believe. It was an impossible darkness, implacable even under the influence of light. Her eyes darted as they walked, anxiously trying to catch a glimpse of his face, an ear protruding from his hat, any sign at all.

"Say..." Liera began somewhat awkwardly, using her free hand to right the placement of the feather in her cap. "What... are you, exactly?"

Viestras seemed surprised by the question, but coughed and regained composure. "I thought you knew me after only two days? I'm a black mage. You're the jack of all--"

"Shove it." Liera bit her lip, swishing her torch close to the black mage's face as if in urging. He turned his head in refusal. "Like you can blame me for asking. Maybe if you could tell me what you look like under that silly hat I wouldn't be so curious." Again, only two days... and the vexing nature of black mages was already enough to drive Liera mad.

"If I wanted to, I'd tell you. But I don't see it as very important." He laughed to himself. Maybe he could hold it on a stick before her. "Perhaps by the end of all this."

The red panda chuckled, a soft echo perforating the cavern walls. "I suppose. I will hold you to that mind you," she said. Her inquiry would merely have to wait another day. "In any case... I suppose I'll leave you be about it. Your magic's here, and that's all I need to know."

"So... where to?" Viestras threw his arms up. "This place is going to be a maze if it goes all the way to sea level! You've got a map, don't you?"

"I do. Problem with maps is that... well, things change. I don't know how old this one is. For all we know, some bugger's been trying to dig for gold for the past five years and doubled the size of the catacombs."

Viestras' tone went as flat as his expression, clear even though his shadowed visage. "You're shitting me."

"H-hey, how was I supposed to know how old a map is? Cartographers have to make new ones every year--heck, more often than that!" She shook her head. "Anyway. That's not the point. The point is that you aren't supposed to rely on a map to tell you where to go, or on a compass to tell you where the treasure is all the time. I for one came for the pleasure of discovering what we will on our own, and a map won't help with that." Liera paused meaningfully. "In fact, it won't help at all--we don't know what we're looking for."

The nature of their mission suddenly bordered on egregious in the minds of both. Viestras sighed, fingering his pockets wryly. "The stars have gone missing. Leads claim that some sounds and lights can be heard and seen coming from this mountain at the exact moment they disappear each night. What we don't know is where in this god-forsaken place we're supposed to find anything even remotely resembling another clue." He kicked a stone. "The Four Archfiends would be easier to find!"

"Don't you start thinking of quitting," Liera chided as she pressed forward, hunching slightly to prevent her hat from meeting the tip of a wayward stalactite. "If one of us goes home, the other has to follow suit because both ways are dangerous alone. Put it all together and it spells an awkward, silent walk home before we part ways. And that's just bullshit."

"Don't worry. Wouldn't dream of it." Viestras breathed as the tip of his own pointed hat bent at the end of the very same ceiling-spike, almost prying his hat from his head. He hurried to pull it down tight with both of his tiny hands. "I'm dragging you along, remember?"

"I'm here of my own will," Liera insisted with a snoot. The slight lidding of Viestras' expressive eyes mirrored the force of the frown he most certainly possessed. He picked up his pace to keep up with Liera's longer strides, her crimson cloak fluttering like a curtain in an open breeze with hints of a tail at its end; something seemed to catch her attention.

"Hey, hold on a s--oof!"

Tail flicking amidst the darkness as a red-tan breeze, the red panda suddenly paused, forcing her black mage companion to bump into her rear--not the worst thing he'd experienced, he had to admit as he tore his gaze. Out from Liera's loose grip went the torch, flying and spiraling through the air. Gasping, Liera opted out of glowering at the clumsy black mage to make a mad dive for the in-flight torch. Her eyes drooped as her light source suddenly vanished and chin met the sliding punishment of gravely earth, punctuated by a light boop of her nose against a rock. The red panda groaned loudly as she attempted to regain her composure, wiping the dust and pebbles off of her robes.

"Damn. Slip 'n slide supreme," Viestras commented from afar, igniting a tiny flame in his hand to act as a light source. "Now could you tell me why you stopped all of a sudden?"

Liera's dark eyes blinked twice at the sudden resurgence of illumination. "I said don't--oh, forget it. Do what you want. Waste your magic for all I care. But I only have a few more of these; we can't afford to waste them all willy nilly!" she exclaimed, jazzing her hands. She brought a palm to her bruised muzzle, patting the tip of her nose which had become acquaintances with a particularly stubborn stone. "Man, that hurt." She sighed and reached down to feel for the missing lightstick, only for her fingertips to meet with a wet surface, forcing her to recoil from the sudden cold. Another drip upon the tip of her nose signified that a ceiling-induced puddle had smothered the torch. "Criminy... that one's spent for good."

"Did you find it?" Viestras called somewhat tauntingly as he approached.

Liera's voice turned dry enough for sand to replace the saliva in her mouth, "Yes." Reaching for her pouch, she retrieved another resin-laden stick. Then she reached behind her to snatch the arm of a confused Viestras, bending his arm to ignite the torch with the end of his lit palm.

"Well alright then. What are we waiting for?" Viestras jabbed, yanking his arm back impetuously. "Let's get a move on. We won't get anywhere just standing about."

Liera flitted her latest not-drowned torch about against the cavern walls. "Hold on. Let's take a look-see around." The red mage remembered plain as day the third rule in Spelunking: a How-To. "If ever there is a room or clearing larger than the tunnels thus far explored, it may be that way for a reason. What do you think, Viestras?"

Viestras huffed. "While I appreciate you acknowledging my opinion, the idea's a little too meta for my tastes. But... something tells me you're gonna sweep around anyway," he said waving a hand.

The red panda nodded. She wouldn't doubt her books--or her instincts--for a second. She sniffed; the air felt different somehow. Filled with more dust than before, certainly, but that wasn't what had caught her. The chamber was oddly spacious, branching off into two separate paths on the other end. The red panda swished her torch lower and averted her gaze. "I do... huh. Wait--there's something written on the rock right here." The very one she'd come into collision with, no less. She motioned Viestras over, the diminutive mage hobbling over as quickly as he could. "Carved, looks like by knife."

The black mage's glowing yellow eyes hung low over the stone, inspecting it with half-interested gusto. "Lessee. 'Bury discrepancies, for the way of the Grey measures both equally. In the light of white or in the dark of black, it knows balance, and power unmatched.' This isn't important to us."

"But it is--this stone was clearly part of something bigger."

"How the hell would you even know that?" Viestras shook his head for the... well whatever time it was now. He'd lost count. "Should I just chalk that up to red magic and call it a day?"

"I don't think I like your tone," Liera mused aloud. "The edges of this rock were hewn, then broken off, presumably by a blast. The inscription is old and pieces of the writing end abruptly in parts. That's how I can tell." Still, she considered the words. This was the most important clue they'd gotten so far, and success may well have been within close reach, but they'd been walking for at least an hour. Maybe two. "Now's as good a time as any for a break. Though I'd consider ourselves lucky if I were you--we haven't had a single run-in this whole time with any manner of beasty. I expected a good fight after the first couple steps." She muttered something about random encounters being a bitch.

"Pff. Maybe all those cockatrices, zombies, flans and what else have you were intimidated. By red magic, perhaps." He coughed lightly and flumped onto the inscribed stone, using it as a stool.

"Oh and black magic is so much scarier." She rolled her eyes.

A light rippling emanated from above. Viestras immediately started back onto his feet. "What was that?"

"Dunno Mr. Black Mage. Probably a small water canal trapped above us. Happens in big caves like these on occasion." The red mage took to crouching on the other end of the room, flint and tinder once again set out for preparation. "Let's start setting up camp. We--"

More gelatinous rustling--this time followed by a sound that could only be attributed to a semisolid flopping onto solid ground. Or solid black mage, as the case might have been. "Yaaagh!" Liera immediately twisted around, only to find that her companion's hat had been more or less replaced by a mass of green with small, beady eyes. A flicking tongue flitted from a makeshift maw comprised of a perforation in its goopy form as it eyed its prey.

"Viestras?--Oh my." The red mage watched amusedly as the black mage flailed about with gloved hands trying to peel off the liquidy assailant. "Watch what you're doing," she chided. "Those things are toxic to the touch."

"Really? Thanks a bunch! Here's your random encounter that you were hoping for by the way," heaving forth, Viestras hefted up the green slime and sent it careening off his shoulders. The creature of questionable intelligence tumbled along the ground, its eyes sinking through its head only to reemerge at the other end of its body, watching Viestras intently as it slugged forward.

"Fascinating things, these are. Try and hit them with a weapon and it'll bound right off. Best to get rid of it while we can, least if we plan on getting any sleep." The red mage meandered closer to Viestras. "They're immune to electricity too, so don't go trying that either. Let's see..."

"Liera--"

"Some flames ought to do it. Just keep it busy for a quick sec. The poison's already taken affect, further contact won't do jack to you anyway."

"Gee, thanks." The black mage took careful steps backward, eying the slime as it encroached with the dangerous speed of molasses--oh who was he kidding these things were stupid-harmless.

The red mage brought her torch close to her chest and focused into it like a staff. Its fire swelled up as she muttered words of incantation, soon becoming a small flare that illuminated most of the room. She reached forward with the torch, letting its flame spill out like a blowtorch upon the unsuspecting creature.

A cloud of fire utterly engulfed the green slime in gouts of bright orange and sweltering crimson. Light gurgles signified that it was indeed aware of the sudden change in heat--but little else. No steaming pile of melting goo, no insectoid shrieks, nothing of the sort. The green slime remained wholly intact, now keeping a rather cautious vigil on the red mage. It changed its direction, inching toward her feet with all the vigor it was capable of.

"Umm... why didn't that work." The red panda inched backward. "The last thing I want is an implacable slime right before I go to sleep, Viestras."

"Yeah--I was going to tell you, but you didn't listen. Don't you think I tried igniting it when it dropped on my head? T-this thing must be a special breed. But..." His eyes glinted again as he shrugged. The creature remained a challenge rating of one at best. A little experimentation wouldn't hurt. "Just trust me, I have an idea. Ready a Dia spell." In his own palm, Viestras ignited a small vortex of flame, but kept it contained.

Nodding, the red panda planted her boots firmly into the ground. The blobby creature licked the air with its forked tongue and watched soullessly with beady eyes as she reached her arms skyward. A stark rumble emanated from all around--then from above. Scant light trickled to the ground as a portion of the ceiling crumbled, little rocks pelting the cavernous earth and plopping into the goopy body of the slime. It didn't seem to notice any change--until a perforation in the ceiling ripped open. Sunlight, not to be contained when it was summoned, pried apart the stone that separated it from its master and poured delicately inside. Cataclysmic tremors of epic force contrasted the waterfall of heavenly light.

_What now?_Liera mused internally. Dia was a spell that only affected the most vile beasties of the dark, such as undead. A slime, stupid though it might be, was hardly such a caliber of evil. It would be merely annoyed at best.

"Viestras... it was a great plan and all, but--oh wait no it wasn't. Look at that, I don't think these things can even comprehend light."

Viestras ignored her. As the slime unknowingly crawled beneath the beams of light, the black mage lunged into action. He clenched his fist tight, tongues of flame flitting between his knuckles, and released the prepared Fire spell into the magical rays of light. He spun a finger--and the light itself began to ignite. Even the slime seemed to gain a sudden cognition that something was wrong. This was no longer a simple Fire spell that it could shrug off so easily.

Viestras held his palms close to one another in deep, critical focus. Taking a cue, Liera shielded her eyes and kept up the Dia for as long as she could.

The very air around the illuminant beams combusted and seemed to cave in on itself, creating a flux in gravity and force; just as quickly, the stored energy expunged outward with tremendous power in an incredibly display of light and heat. Everything in its grasp was utterly decimated by the blast of a makeshift Flare spell--more so than anything, the simple slime who messed with the wrong pair of adventurers. After one final explosion of magic, its gooey remains lay splattered over the walls and along the ground in steaming piles of dumb. A victory fanfare played note by note in the duo's heads.

Liera lowered her arms. "Holy shit. Did you--was that...?"

"I--hah! I can't believe it worked!" Viestras glanced at his own palms before a self-congratulatory fist pump. "Hoooooo my god that was intense. I just figured since Flare is a burst of light and heat, a small one could be created with two of the composite elements manipulated just so--oh give me a break, that should not have worked!"

Liera felt her cheek, its fur heated by the explosion of magic. "No, it shouldn't have. Hell, if anything, that's a very... red magey tactic of you. Combining magic and manipulating it." She breathed out softly, eying the spattered bits of slime upon the rocks. Some chunks were apparently wholly flammable and remained lit in silence.

"I'll take that as an insult. Shall we finish setting up camp?"

Nodding, the red panda simply moved back to her fire in-progress, crossing her legs about it as she fiddled with the creation of another campfire. The air was cold, dark, and the gust from the blast had put out her torch in an instant. Equally silent, the black mage hobbled to her side, eyed the mass of sticks, then took a seat upon the ground opposite Liera.

With practiced quickness, the red panda successfully brought a spark to life and ignited the wood. The tiniest of fires was born--much to her pride. However, Viestras suddenly hovered a hand over the newborn light, almost as if to smother it; but when his hand retracted, the flame grew ever stronger. A powerful warmth echoed and wrapped the pair in its calming embrace. The red panda eyed him and opened her mouth.

"You didn't have to use... nevermind." Liera nodded knowingly. "Thanks."

A smile could be detected even through the shadow of Viestras' robes. "Anytime." Viestras struggled to find a conversation starter--or ender--before packing away the night. "So, um... you mentioned piscodemons earlier. Should we be wary of anything?"

Liera shrugged, despite clearly appreciating the question. "I don't think so. They're uncommon at most. Here, I can show you what to expect from cavern-dwellers like them. You don't have a bestiary on you, do you?"

Viestras rattled his head wildly. "No ma'am."

Liera nodded with a hum. "I picked one up just a couple months ago. I'm really big on this adventuring business, but I've only gotten to do it every now and then. Not... a lot of people are as keen on adding a red mage to their--anyway, this is the book." She produced a leather-bound tome with the ugly mug of a goblin inscribed onto its cover, letting its wonder sink in under the light of the fire.

"Never gotten a chance to look at a fiend's compendium..." Viestras muttered. "These things are hard to come by in full. Hell, in some places you can only buy them by page!"

"And yet, so token are they for any adventurer." She flipped open the cover and leafed through the pages, the black mage looking at each monster and animal that passed by with the awe of a child with a picture book. From goblin to flan, then to all manner of bizarre and outlandish creatures he'd never even dreamed of did the pages range, and not for a moment did his wonder waver. Liera batted a small smile in his direction, deliberately slowing her turning pace.

"Hey, we fought that earlier. It's really documented as a 'crazy horse'?"

"Looks more like a unicorn but yeah." Liera mentally chided the author of the book for his or her creativity. "Then we can see what we plowed through just a few minutes ago." She pointed to a sketched rendition of a blobby green monster on the right page. "See, grey oozes aren't an issue--it's the green slimes that give trouble. They're toxic to the touch and basic magic won't do the trick half the time. And unlike most others of its ilk, their bodies deflect blades like rubber."

"Right. The one we fought was particularly resilient. Some of the other kinds are called flan, aren't they?"

"Y-yeah. The black ones, specifically." Liera grunted as her stomach began to growl. "...Shoulda packed more food for the road."

"We'll be fine," said Viestras. "A day without is a feast the next. We can treat ourselves nice and plump come tomorrow." He finished with a nod, opening his palms against the campfire. Rubbing her own bare hands together and sighing amidst the chill of cold cave air, Liera couldn't hold back the question any longer. His words of wisdom came too often recently. "Just... if we find another slime, don't go eating it."

Liera brushed aside the jab effortlessly. "...Why did you really decide to take up this job, Viestras?" The line of inquiry was sudden and piercing. "You're not telling me something."

"Heh." The black mage stifled a laugh, a mix of nervousness and pride. "It's... it's nothing. Kinda stupid, I guess. I've always wanted to get better at magic--like those great wizards. Teladra, Matoya, Tellah. They've all made their mark in history and remain some of the most well-known spellcasters all across Gaia and even abroad!" He suddenly shook himself. "Nah, it's stupid. I'm here to do what I came here to do: discover the reason for the missing stars, and solve it. I'm no bigger than that." He stood up.

For the very first time, Liera could swear she could catch a glimpse of wavering fur in the flickering light of the flame. But she couldn't be sure. She reached forward and rested a hand on his shoulder--his confused gaze immediately shot to it. "It's not stupid," she said.

"Huh?" Viestras felt the pressure on his shoulder increase. Following its urging, he sat back down. The red panda stood herself and shuffled over, taking a seat beside her black mage companion. His cheeks went aflush almost immediately in the form of a bright red glow that rivaled his eyes and 'nose' in luminosity. The irony cast by the magic used to stifle his features yet emphasize emotions made him flare up in embarrassment.

"It's... actually kind of heroic, you know. You've got big aspirations and that's nothing to be ashamed of. I mean look at me, I'm here for kind of a similar reason. I'm never gonna say no to more experience and prestige, but I'm also one for thrills. It's a bit selfish on my part." Liera put a finger to her chin. "Plus that makeshift Flare today was badass as shit. You want my honest opinion? You keep doing what you do, and you'll become one of Cornelia's greatest goddamn mages, Vie."

Viestras stumbled over his words that remained unuttered, him twiddling his thumbs desperately. Dammit he was not supposed to be so easy to fluster--he was a wizard of marginable caliber, not a child, he wasn't cute! "Vie...?" He shook himself free... and repeated the assertion, albeit with a shocked tone as he stared up at her. "...V-Vie?"

"Vie," Liera repeated, jabbing a finger into his shoulder. Huh. She remembered that finger being a lot smaller. At least smaller in width than his wrist. "I can call you that. In any case, I'd say it's about time for us to shove off again." She pinched the much-smaller-than-she-thought bestiary between two of her fingers and packed it away in the much-more-spacious-than-she-recalled pocket on her coat. She stood up, digging her toes into the earth and uplifting mounds of cave dirt as she took a few steps backward. "A fine break, and if what that tablet says, we might be close--ouch!"

The cavern rattled with new quakes; Viestras pulled his hat down tight as loose stalactites began to quiver and shake. Thankfully, none fell, at last not completely, as small pebbles and a decently sized rock konked him on the head. He dared look up. "Holy--!"

The red panda struggled to retain her footing as her innocuous fuzzy form now easily broke ten feet in height, her stature having almost doubled from a natural six. The nonplussed ailurid squeaked as rays of silver-grey shimmered in orbit of her being, signifying something mysterious. Another moment and a rumble of her stomach, and the growth picked up in surges again--soon she was at twenty, and her head bumped up hard against the ceiling, causing another few tremors. Or at least twenty was what she surmised. The tip of her red cap brushed against the ceiling, bending its silvery feather downward and forcing a clench of the panda's teeth. Her voice grew a mild mix of tense and inquisitive. "Viestras--something was in those marshmallows."

"Do you think?" The continually growing red mage hunched her back a little as the growth slowed to a mere inching. The black mage meeped as four powerful toes shoved up against him, pinning him to the cavern wall. The fuzzy digits with tiny pinprick claws enveloped him in a vice of flesh and fur.

Liera cocked her head and shrugged. "Um, maybe?" No, no, this was clearly 100% natural. She was just a late bloomer, that was definitely all.

Mumbling odd equations and theories aloud, the black mage counted off things that should or should not have happened on the tips of his stubby gloved fingers. "...Maybe it's the cave, maybe it's the imbiber, maybe--thing is they didn't fucking work before!"

"So these things make you grow, huh?" She pinched the fine hairs of her chin, her magenta eyes darting about her surroundings with brand new curiosity.

"You as in _you_apparently, yes." Viestras paused. "You don't seem very fazed by it. And no, I had no idea what they were supposed to grant other than the ever-specific 'power'."

The red panda took to thinking. She rolled her eyes and retracted her paw, letting Viestras retain freedom. The black mage scurried out and took to her side. There was no denying the rush that came with her sudden change in perspective. Everything was so... small. "We'll see where this change of pace takes us. I sincerely doubt it's permanent. Do you think... holy crap." A marvelous thought struck her. "First of all, this is kinda fucking badass. Second--grey magic. That's what your pop said, isn't it?" she asked giddily, wiggling her toes and bridging her fingers. "D-do you think!"

"That...red magic is_grey magic?" Viestras finished. "I mean... maybe? I--" He was reluctant to finish. Did red mages really have some history to them? Did they have some kind of magic that _he didn't?

"Eee! Oh this is really exciting," Liera exclaimed, wiggling her rump. Her tail flicked about and settled near Viestras before curling around his form like a fluffy, striped python. A rush of wind buffeted the tiny mage as Liera's tail plucked him up to her face level. "And just look at you now, mister. I'd like to imagine black magic doesn't have any growth spells."

It was here he could take in the fullness of her still-growing scale. Her magenta eyes seemed to glow even in the darkness, a pink aura of excitement cast over him as they focused on his tiny form. Like rings of pink wrapped around twin black holes, her eyes poured upon him with the utmost curiousness and wonder. Suddenly she uncoiled her serpentine tail, dropping him into a padded palm with fingers that dwarfed him like pillars curling around him protectively. "P-please don't get carried away," he muttered.

Liera's ears, each now bigger than the diminutive black mage was, twitched. "Yeah, yeah. I'll get only as carried away as I need to. We've got a job to do, don't we?" She nodded, duly pleased. "But think! We've just made a huge discovery--red magic, at some point or another, was called grey magic. I knew I couldn't have been the only one to think it!" she huffed proudly. Suddenly she stood up fully again, setting Viestras down by her paws.

"Y-yes..." Viestras murmured. Her entirety was a challenge to take in; her red and admittedly eye-catching garb remained a perfect mix of detailed showmanship and practicality. Throw in the lady within them who he'd shared the day's adventure with, and he was all in all flabbergasted beyond proper words. "Maybe this is what the tablet meant, too? Maybe..." he paused, attempting to recompose himself and formulate thoughts. "It looks to me like there actually _was_an ancient magic imbedded in those marshmallows. The magic itself was probably to give red--er, grey mages an assist--access to powerful spells that are otherwise extremely esoteric. I mean I'm talking level-8 spells like Flare and Holy. Stuff that I can't use properly--yet." His eyes glinted. His apprenticeship in the ways of the black mage had led him to studying beyond his actual power, such as in the nature of unused magic. It had caused him many pains under tutelage, admittedly. "But over time, magic grows dry, latent--and now, this is the way it's manifesting."

"Makes sense to me, sorta. Question remains of who in the world would put that kind of magic in a soft and sugary camping snack though," Liera said somewhat sourly.

"Someone with... too much time on their hands? I'll definitely have to have a word with pop," Viestras muttered under his breath. "Should we get going then? Kinda looks like we'll have trouble keeping elbow room, let alone room for the rest of you."

Soft rumbles echoed through the cavern as Liera continued her trek, motioning for him to follow. "Yep. We'd better get there soon," the red panda grumbled as her sore neck bumped the ceiling. The tunnels began to narrow the farther in they went. She grunted, eenie-meenie-miney-moing before entering the tunnel on the left, creating perforated prints in the uncanny shape of panda paws in her wake.

"Stay sharp," Viestras said. "You're big, but I have a feeling that tablet wasn't the last bit of history--and I say that loosely--we're going to find. I'd be remiss to walk out of here with anything but the sum of what we can hope to find."

Forward Liera ambled with Viestras struggling to keep pace, more so than before. The black mage novice found difficulty in such simple tasks as not tripping and falling into the indentations caused by his magnified partner. Liera seemed to struggle somewhat, pulling herself forward with grasps of the walls and ceiling. It was becoming clear: large as she was progressing, she couldn't stay in one place for too long. Thankfully her drive never once faltered; perhaps he might say her sixth sense for adventure had hit an apex with her newfound height.

It would certainly explain why she remained unfettered. If it were him, he'd be more than panicking. Hell, it wasn't him and he was still panicking. Admirable and statuesque though she was... when would her growth cease? That was something he wasn't sure he could answer. Those marshmallows didn't exactly have a label he could peel off and read. But... gah. At least she was having her fun--

"Halt!" A new voice suddenly cried out, dashing their thoughts to innumerable shards. The word was garbled somewhat, seemingly by something hanging over its speaker's mouth. "None may interfere. Master Zer would have me smite all intruders upon his work!"

The mammoth firefox simply refused to retrieve her weapon. Instead she laid down flat before the newcomer, deciphering its form. Lanky, robed, and bearing a set of squidlike tentacles draped over its toothy maw, the creature would be quite intimidating--if it weren't doll-sized. "Oh, a piscodemon. Hey Vie, we found one!"

"Found?" The creature shook its head. "It is I who have found you!"

Frowning somewhat, the curious ailurid let her prehensile tail flick from behind her and over her head, drooping from the perch of her hat as it prodded the piscodemon gently. The creature puffed the fuzzy tip away and swatted its clawed fingers to drive away the serpentine assailant, though not with any particularly impressive results. She took to somewhat distracted deliberation. This _would_be a perfect chance to show Viestras some of the old dungeon-crawling ropes, and she did warn him about them before.

But now... was there much of a need? Simply pressing forward before her increasing stature could get out of hand was looking like an attractive choice.

"I don't think I like that thing," Viestras muttered dryly as if in agreement with her unspoken thoughts. "And do we really have time for another battle?"

Liera stood up to her full height once more, no longer able to see the details of the miniboss--only a vaguely squidlike silhouette. "Yeah, no, we don't. Later piscy." She heaved a step forward, bits of dust and dirt crumbling off her pristine, pink-padded sole. Those person-sized toes of hers splayed out in preparation for touchdown. She loomed the sole of her paw ominously overhead before continuing with a casual step with meteoric impact; quakes shook the cavern once more, startling all manner of lowly bats and insects from the roof and away into the darkness. Meeps of newfound terror emitted from the demon as leathery padded flesh slowly pressed down onto it,

"That was... quick," Viestras chimed. The gargantuan paw lifted off the crumpled form of the piscodemon, still quite alive thanks to the softness of the step but more or less unconscious. Liera's foot batted at the limp squid-creature and shoved it against the cavern wall, propping its posture straight using a single deft toe.

Viestras craned his neck up, past the cloak and cap of the enormous red mage, trying to catch her features. It was difficult given her height and the darkness, and left him with an uncomfortable sense of vertigo; so it was that he gave up for the time, eyes resting low upon the ground. Contemplating, the black mage's bright eyes found themselves unable to tear away from the impossibly huge paws that had one-hit KO'd such a powerful creature. In all frankness, that kind of strength was what he was a little afraid of. Yet... perhaps this turn of events would prove lucrative after all.

"Yeah... some midboss. Next time, Zer, you might want to choose a tougher guardian. You know," Liera said, clapping her hands together, "I think I make a pretty good tank. Don't you? Maybe passing up that fighter in Cornelia wasn't so bad after all," Liera teased with a light chuckle. She then paused for but a moment, clacking her teeth shut in thought. "We're probably close to Zer's hideout, whoever he is. Something tells me he's the man behind the piscodemon, so to speak." She wiped her cheek.

Viestras paused as well, apparently thinking about something else the whole time. "So wait. Why did your clothes grow wi--"

"Grey magic."

****

"I hear chanting." Viestras sidled up to the ramshackle wooden door, fitted oh-so surreptitiously into a stone arch created by natural erosion, leading to the chamber just beyond. The penumbra of his shadowy tail quivered with curiosity, its owner listening intently.

Following suit, Liera pressed her rounded, scarlet-tipped ear against the door and the black mage thereof with a soft whuff. The red panda's cream-colored ear fluff trapped her grumbling black mage companion while she attended the chorus of raspy and confident ramblings of what she pictured to be a tall and lanky figure.

"It sounds more like monologuing," came Liera's dry reply. "As if someone's disclosing their grand scheme down to every last nuance to absolutely nobody. Just a guess based on intonations." Her other ear flicked, keeping an eyeless watch for any sign of an ambush. None came; she had to assume the piscodemon had set a rather fine example for other monsters looking to gauge her and Viestras' effective levels.

Their journey had gone along rather smoothly, or so Liera would posit. She could have handled herself quite well without the effects of mega-mallows, of that much she was assured--but how much could they have possibly set her back? She was well beyond aversion toward embracing their effects. There was something so simply satisfying about having a power that literally could not affect anybody but herself--a sense of pride, perhaps. And for once she might say she had a specialized role as a physical attacker. Hah.

"Mmf!"

"Oh, whup. Guess I'm not totally used to this whole 'being thirty feet tall' thing just yet. I mean, not that I care." She retracted her thin neck, leaving a huffy Viestras to brush himself and several fine, him-sized hairs off his clothes.

"I thought it was twenty?"

"Pfff, no. I haven't exactly stopped y'know. These caves ain't gonna hold me for long," Liera said, almost pensive. Suddenly, she shook her head, sending small gusts of dry air buffeting the smaller sorcerer. It was true; while the caverns had thankfully seemed to grow in size as they encroached upon their purported destination, Liera took up well over half the room simply by crouching. Even in their current location, a cloister-sized pseudo-chamber that was furnished with torches at set intervals around its rim, Liera could feel her head continuing to push up against the ceiling. Laying down conserved height, but not width, as her curled form did not prevent her bare paws from shoving against the blackened earthy walls and crumbling bits of their composition, layer by layer, while their small-clawed digits scrunched tensely.

"You're right." The black mage took his hand to his invisible chin, stroking the fine hairs that Liera only assumed were there. "Well then, it has been a lovely trip, but it seems we're nearing its end. Got any ideas on how to approach this?"

Liera felt the edge of her lips twinge in a half-smirk. Was that a hint of... abjection? "You know, you're awfully eager to ask me what we should do wherever there's a roadblock. When we left for the trail up the mountain, you were afraid of getting lost. And I'm not gonna say we wouldn't have," she muttered under her breath, "Then there was just this morning when we left for the cave, and while we were inside, you asked how we were going to proceed. Don't you think you'd like to make a decision for once?"

Viestras cocked his brow. Perhaps. Inferring from tones was only so easy to do for so long. "Is that an open offer?"

"Vie, you've proven a few things to me today." She grunted as another small spurt forced her to crane her neck even lower lest it be sored. "That's probably a pretty cliché way for me to say that you may not always do things 'right', but that doesn't always end up mattering in the long run. The ooze is dead, you blew it up. We're a duo two sizes too small for this dungeon--well maybe not anymore--but we've gotten this far anyway. I could chalk it up to being able to literally and metaphorically carry you on my back thanks to the mega mallows?" Her light voice became a lilt, "Or I could chalk it up to teamwork, and I think I will--because the good majority of this hinged on nothing but that."

"Well... that's very kind of you." Viestras nodded, seeming to think. "It's a wonder that we've made it this far. But look at me--nearly naysaying. And that's not answering your question."

"Forgive me for distracting you," chimed Liera.

"Yeah yeah." Viestras absently ticked at the steel buckle at his belt. He began with a cautious, "Well," which to Liera now meant he had at the very least a cautious suggestion, "I don't think any harm can be done simply by you going out and doing your thing, can it?" He planted his fist into an open palm. "Smash things, trash Zer, figure out what's going on! I hardly think being clandestine is going to work at this point."

Liera nodded, bearing a contriving smirk. "Fair. No point in making things convoluted?" The red panda reared back, then plowed through the shoddy doorway with a lunging fist, using her open palm to cover Viestras from the ensuing debris. A calamitous shockwave of splintered wood and rumbling stone pounded the pair's eardrums. The door was no more, its pieces scattered across the two chambers it had separated. Ducking her head with Viestras grasped tightly, the red mage squeezed through the widened orifice in the cavern wall as boulders from the ceiling pelted upon her back. So massive was she that the boulders, big enough to crush Viestras, simply rolled off her coattails and onto the dusty earth. "There, wonderful. A bit less tactful than I'm used to, but what else is there?"

Liera stepped in, holding her breath while the dust settled. The earth turned to tiled floor in the width of one of her steps--a jarring change with no transition whatsoever. Bookshelves littered the walls of the new chamber, which outclassed the previous in sheer size by half a mountain face. Two desks, each layered with books upon open books seemingly left and forgotten as their user moved on to other aspects of his projects, laid at the far end of the room side by side.

The most prominent aspect of this room, however, was what appeared to be a towering steel tube fitted with an object of magnification at its near end. Growing wider and dilated the farther it went, it breached the outer wall and disappeared into the outside world beyond the mountain. It seemed to be a massive telescope of sorts. Liera cocked an eyebrow, then stood straight before recoiling--but no ceiling was there to stop her head. This room went just as far up as it did out; farther, even, for the vertical axis of the chamber bled out into the chilly night sky, still barren and empty. Breathing a soft sigh of relief, Liera finished her inspection of the room and set Viestras down beside her--only for her gaze to fall on an expectedly tall and lanky figure.

The noise of the pair's intrusion had reasonably disturbed his attention. A middle-aged water basilisk, the reptilian's smooth, thin features stuck out prominently from every edge of his classless robes dyed a deep charcoal. Green crests ran all the way down his spine, flaring up at his forehead and at the center of his back while tapering off along his thin, whiplike tail that dragged upon the ground.

Turned around as if he hadn't heard the catastrophic destruction signaling the mage duo's entry, he softly mumbled to himself. "Damn it all--can I not even rely on a piscodemon_to do the simple job of guard duty? No? How about a magically-protected slime? Nobody even _comes through these caves anyway and there's no practical reason for any simple passerby to do so. Though that does answer the question of just who you both might be. A moment's peace is clearly too much to ask for."

"If your work ends up blotting out the stars at night, somebody's gonna notice eventually, Zer," Liera offered snidely as she settled against the wall. A monologue was sure to follow. She also had no idea piscodemons could be bought.

"And trace it all back here? What are the honest odds? Ugh... it's like doing something even remotely strange makes you a magnet. I bet if I so much as put magic into marshmallows I'd have the local hounds biting at my ankles!" At last he turned around--and his jaw dropped to the floor. Eyes bulging, Zer swallowed hard at the sight of the gigantic red panda who had decided his bookshelves would make a good place for her to rest her back and stretch her legs. Liera, donning a smirk that screamed of insincere apology toward just who comprised the 'hounds', folded one knee in relaxation. Her scarlet cape draped beneath her body like a massive red carpet

"Oops. Looks like I've been outed," Liera said, scooting a bang out of her face with a puff of air.

"Not to address the elephant in the room, of course. I guess being a villain must be hard work," muttered Viestras as he stepped forward. "Not that I'd know. So you _are_responsible for the disappearance of the stars? Seriously man, I have to ask why."

"Who are you two? Who on Gaia would tromp on through here--with an incomplete party I might add--"

"Really wish people would quit pointing that out," Viestras quipped.

"A-and... goddamn it all. Honestly fuck it. Cornelians must be tracking me...." The reptilian sorcerer threw his arms up, sleeves falling down to his shoulders in the process. "This is what I get. Why even bother?"

"Oh, the whole goddamn world is against you--listen, your approach to these things is all wrong. First off, stargazing is kind of a hobby for some people. Who the hell wouldn't notice the sky going blank every night?" The red mage shook her head, rustling tomes and scrolls free from their perches. They fell with papery clatters along the floor. "There is no second of all. Viestras, I kind of want to go home and sleep. Let's just get this done."

Liera stood to her full, incredibly daunting height, having topped off another ten feet at the very least since last Viestras checked. The black mage could be smothered beneath a single digit and there would be room to spare. The red panda's elbows knocked over shelves and stands, research papers and tomes alike falling to ruin, as thunderous claps quaked the room from her uneasy steps to stand. Her tail wished about like an enormous cobweb duster, 'dusting' every last nuance of Zer's research into oblivion with impatience. The panda's magenta eyes lidded, she raised a knee and the paw thereof, hanging it ominously above Zer's head like a mighty crane.

"Wait--Viestras?" The lizard made an odd, guttural rumble. "I know... you're the son of Garm! The little black mage that toddled about the house when I came by for his private classes!"

Viestras cocked his head. "You know my father? I've never seen you."

"Yes! Garm was the one who first told me about the Order of the Grey, a sect of red mages from eons past--they are what led me here to do my research. I--assume that your uh, friend here had similar motives."

Liera suddenly lowered her paw, ears perked. "No." So he knew of the 'way of the Grey' as well. And by extension, so did Garm, Viestras' father. The tablet from earlier had most definitely spoken of something larger--something historic. "I came here to find out why the stars were going incognito. Between that and your apparent knowledge of grey magic, you've got a lot of explaining to do."

"What? I don't need to te--" the reptilian mage meeped as an impatient panda paw flew from the sky with meteoric force and plummeting upon his back, forcing him to splay outward like a struggling cockroach. The soft-padded digits provided just enough pressure for him to fear the integrity of his bones, despite harmlessly sinking him into their lusciously gentle texture.

Liera reached into her pack once again and retrieved her bestiary, whiskers twitching all the while. She flipped through the pages nonchalantly. "Lesseeeee... Poopy Wizard, here you are. Attack is 12, Defense is 10--that's pretty bad--and... ouch! Speed is 9, huh? Resistances: blank. Weaknesses: being smooshed by giant red panda paws." She clapped the book shut with a flat, dispassionate expression. "The odds aren't in your favor you know."

"I thought you had to defeat something for it to get recorded in--er, nevermind."

The red panda twiddled her thick, pink-padded toes and bopped him over the head with one of them. "I think it's close enough to count."

"Gah!" The lizard squelched pathetically beneath the very slight grinding of Liera's paw against the ground beneath him. "Okay okay! Look--I-I didn't know much, Garm was the one who told me about the Order of the Grey! Apparently they made use of the stars to channel their greatest power, s-so I've been trying to look into the matter myself."

"Why? Personal gain?" Liera posited, stuffing her bestiary back into her pack.

"That would be putting it lightly," Viestras said from afar. He corrected his distance, walking up to the telescope and placing a finger on its business end. "This thing is fitted with a magic amplification crystal. Magic cast--and probably absorbed--through it is magnified. Whatever he was doing, it was for the sake of power." The black mage pulled back his finger, noting the inky blackness that was left behind on his glove that trailed off into the air as ebony ribbons of magic. Surely a Fog spell or something similar--such could be used to completely obfuscate the stars in the sky, theoretically allowing one to tend to their astrological work in private. Unfortunately, it was a rather... poorly-conceived theory. "Thankfully he wasn't the one that built it--this thing is positively ancient. Which would imply, of course, that the Order of the Grey derived their immense power from the heavens... such as the spells in the mega-mallows that you ate."

The lizard bit his lip and harrumphed, unwilling to go into further detail. The look in his eyes told Viestras that he certainly did not appreciate having his stories told for him or 'his' observatory tampered with. "Yeah, but...!"

Liera felt a rise in her heart at Viestras' scholarly deduction. "But nothing. I won't scold you because you're a grown man and that would be more embarrassing than this already is for you," Liera began. "I won't inquire any further either--we know just what we need to know. Any small-time would-be bad guy can come up and try to make a power their own. Not gonna lie, kinda sucks to be you right now. It's off to Castle Cornelia with your sorry self; you're a wanted man given the rumors." The red panda noted the struggling that amounted to a pleasant tickling beneath her paw, and sighed. "Calm down; I doubt your sentence will be harsh. But that doesn't mean I won't be keeping an eye on you afterwards."

Though she admittedly had quite the plethora of questions for Viestras' father after this whole fiasco...

Liera skillfully plucked the lizard wizard, since resigned to his fate, from between her toes and brought him to face level. She eyed his defeated expression with little more than pitied contempt before stuffing him away into her breast pocket, the only one that wasn't filled to its brim with ready resources. The red panda eyed the floor for Viestras before nodding and looking up.

The sky was still empty and devoid of its glimmering inhabitants; simply removing the doer wouldn't solve it right away. "Vie, got any way to get those stars back up there?" She spoke hastily, noting that the space in the room was one again decreasing--this time rather rapidly.

The black mage nodded. "It's a Fog spell. These things last for a good couple hours. It'll be over when it's over," he said with a wave of his hand. The black mage turned around and gasped at the swelling form of Liera having picked up its pace. "Eep! Magic must be hitting its apex," he noted breathlessly as her digits crawled across the room with her bolstering shape. Whatever hadn't been knocked over or shattered to pieces previously was no longer exempt from such fates; the remaining furniture squelched and creaked beneath her amassing weight, crumpling into harmless splinters hooked into the thigh of her pants almost instantly.

"This is really digging into my whole flexibility thing," Liera remarked with a grunt. "Time to make an exit then, I'd say." She reared back her enormous leg and thrust her knee to the rocky wall with an earth-shattering crack. Rocks once again crumbled to nothingness and dropped to the mountain trail just below. Out forth she strode and into the night air, and with a grace that Viestras heartily admitted did not fade one bit with her size. In fact, tail shadowing her particularly massive form and swaying hips, he might even say he liked her... just a little more this way. A small breeze wrought by the ever-growing wyrm of a tail threatened to knock his cap right off his noggin, but once again he was prudent to keep it down.

The black mage watched as Liera's massive silhouette seemed to grow to incomprehensible levels. The darkness cast by the empty night sky made it difficult to see her features on top of her goddess-like height, but the flicker of scarlet hair or glow of bright pink eyes were beautiful enough on their own. Perched unevenly on different parts of the path they had taken to begin their journey together, the much-changed red mage breathed in the clean, fresh air from what seemed to be miles above. His own breath was absolutely taken in the process.

_Holy hell,_Viestras thought as he attempted to take in the fullness of her scale. Liera was beyond measuring in double digits with regards to feet. Miles might be far more accurate. Small clouds whorled innocuously around her neck, which Liera brushed away with all the effort required of cobwebs, sending their silky forms into immediate dissolution.

He shook his head. "Y'know, this whole thing was a lot easier than I'd expected it to be," Viestras murmured softly. The red panda had to bring focus to her perked ears simply to hear him. "I get it's our first real quest, but... do you think it was a little anticlimactic?"

"Honestly, I'm going to have to disagree." Liera shook her head, massive scarlet tendrils of hair swishing about and draping the collar of her coat. "The greatest point of adventures like these is the experience alone. And not just the leveling up kind. See Zer? He's small fry. We're bound to find guys like that all the time. That's just how it is."

Viestras looked up to see her face, her massive magenta eyes seeming to project the absent illumination of moonlight. "So, why?"

"Why what? I came along for the reasons I've already given you: adventure."

"What I mean is... well, it wasn't that much of an adventure in the end." It pained him to utter the words, but that was how he felt.

Well, perhaps not entirely. The past couple days were some of the most fun he'd ever had and he was barely able to prevent blabbing as much. It was simply thus: Liera's newfound state had made things so terribly simple. Not that it was necessarily a bad thing. Ugh, what did he want?

"Heh. No, not that. I really have learned a few things today--and not just from me being myself and getting the job done. If me rolling with the effects of those marshmallows is any indication, you've shown me that it's okay to grow beyond roles. So to speak." Liera nodded the mountain-sized head of hers. "I severely undervalued your company earlier. I promise not to make that mistake again. In any case, good night, Vie. I wish you the best in your endeavors." Now gigantic beyond all fathom and reason, the red mage stood straight from her slant against the mountain, her weight already almost having caused it to cave in in places. She seemed to hesitate.

"Wait, w-where are you going? You can't just leave me here! We're a team!" Viestras cried out.

"I'm going home. And... well, we were a team as long as we needed to be. Now, our job is done." The giantess took one enormous, plodding step toward the direction of the red-and-white castle town in the far horizon, crunching a section of the forest's outer rim like broccoli beneath her paw. The thunderous groaning of wood seemed to mirror the sound of Viestras' defeated thoughts. But he couldn't give up. He knew what he wanted.

"Well--I know that our mission's all done and accounted for now, but can I tag along?" The pleading in his voice was impossible to ignore. From the heavens did Liera turn her gaze, her eyes substituting for the stars that were still missing from the night sky. "I... today was really fun, truth be told. All that bickering, deciding who was better? And among it, us working together? Between all that... I really think you're a good friend."

Liera paused, then swung one of her city-crushing paws back to the cavern's entrance, inviting a nearly ear-piercing rush of displaced air to sweep over the flinching black mage. The paw made touchdown mere feet from his position; light tremors knocked him flat on his ass as he looked up vexingly into her features. Her beautiful, graceful, sharp features, with such qualities only exacerbated by her newfound enormity.

"You know, I'm glad you mentioned that; I think so too. I know I've been a little salty with you, but I sure as hell won't lie: today's adventure was a fulfilling one. It went in many more directions than I expected, but surprises are far from unwelcome in my book. I won't get sappy again since I already have, but... hitch a ride if you want." She flexed her gargantuan toes as if inviting him. Nodding, Viestras climbed up the side of her paw using the fur as grips, and made shaky steps to perch upon a single thick digit as if it were a horse's back. A horse whose size rivaled half of Pravoka by itself, of course, and that wasn't taking into account the other remaining toes that comprised the entirety of her gargantuan paw. "To Cornelia, then? Hopefully they won't be too distressed by my, uh... this," she flailed her hands to vaguely encompass her form.

"I'm sure they'll be fine! Just don't step on any taverns, or people, or... y'know. Stuff that matters. We can stop by the Peninsula of Power Leveling up north if you wanna take a detour while the mega-mallows wear off, too, y'know."

Liera seemed to ponder that, offering an echoing hum that offered its song halfway across Gaia. "Nah. I have a feeling we're gonna be winning so many accidental battles that we'll be tried and true veterans by the time we so much as set foot--heh--in Cornelia." Suddenly she balked and shifted to a crouching loom, eying Viestras upon her toe curiously. "So these do wear off?"

"They should! Don't worry, you won't be remaining a gigantastic red mage forever."

"Hmm..." A smile formed upon her lips. "Okay. Though truth be told, this size really does make cleaning up and adventuring quite simple tasks, and I'm not as concerned about it as you think I am. I'll let you come with me on one condition: you show me where we can get more of those delicious things. Sound fair to you?" The smile turned warm and free of salt, as if her words were both true and a tenuous excuse to buddy up again. A glint of starlight showered her shoulders and the fields encompassing the kingdom of Cornelia, the celestial bodies glistening with their trademark silvery glow to signify their return at last. Outlined by milky moonlight, the firefox of incredible size and strength would outright comprise the horizon line if she were to lay down. "When we get back we can dump this sorry sod in the dungeon. And after that... well, we've got some personal grey mage history to sort out back in Gaia's Hem."

"Very well--a fair deal! Just don't go too overboard, even if they are tasty. Now to Cornelia, and away!" He bucked his legs against her toe as if to spur a horse--not that his legs could even come close to breaching their diameter atop the fuzzy crimson forest of fur--prompting a roll of her eyes from the grey mage of unmatched stature.

"Also you're gonna have to not do that."