You move the spirit from the shard into the... thing, in the center of the chirop's body, which you assume is the schal core.

The chirop body doesn't seem to move in any way, other than regular breathing.


________________________________________


Karina: "Alright.

So, you have a meeting with the lord, right?"


________________________________________


You walk around the dream Venari, asking people who to talk to in order to get some training. They keep redirecting you to different people, who also keep redirecting you, until you finally end up in an old, weather-worn stone dome-house. The inside is lined with animal furs and organically curved wooden furniture, and you take a seat in front of an aged white lupus.

What do you ask him?


________________________________________


As you approach the door, the team of chirop back up away from you, cautiously watching your movements.

The door looks to be steel, with a visible steel frame. Chunks of the frame have been melted off on the left side, exposing the doors four hinges, one of them partially torched torched through.

Balling your armored hands into fists, you launch a mighty punch at each of the hinges, smashing through the tempered steel. After busting the hinges, you make sure your body obstructs the doorway and slowly but forcefully push the door in, breaking internal locks before the door falls in and slams into the stone ground.

The room is almost pitch-black, but a small, bright flame flares up somewhere on your helm and you can barely make out faint glimmers here and there floating in the air. Transparent strings?

The chirop seem to get the hint and after a brief pause and whispering, they back away and fade out of view.


________________________________________


Karina: "Yeah, there's also figuring the whole, y'know, leviathan thing, and witch thing.

Well, go on. You got a continent to save."


________________________________________


White Lupus: "One hundred push ups. One hundred sit ups. One hundred squats. Ten kilometer run. Every day, for three years.

And no air conditioning.

Make sure you eat three meals a day, but you can eat something like a banana for breakfast."


________________________________________


You poke the body. Nothing noteworthy happens.

Miimas: "So, uh. What now."

White Lupus: "The wealthy often have a construct in their homes that regulates the air temperature. They call it Air Conditioning."


________________________________________


You can feel that the spirit is in there, but you don't get a response.

Miimas: "Uh huuuh.

So, all that time, were we talking to Toh or the chirop?"


________________________________________


Getting up, you turn to Lucida an-

A frozen Aucupe is staring back at you, her hands inches away from Lucida's hilt. A couple of the whitehawk members in the room are looking at her as well.

Your eyes are locked with the doll's for several seconds, until she snatches the taller-than-her sword and dashes out of the tent.

You burst out of the tent, where you see Monk and Andrew.

Monk: "So they took me into this giant dome or something with a fancy machine in the center, and were like 'I'm so sorry' like something was gonna happen. Put me in a casket or somethin' and started it up. I was scared. I felt funny. But nothing happened. I was in there for like five hours. AND NOTHING HAPPENED.

Oh hey John did Aucupe steal y- yup she did."

Andrew: "Gotta run, later John."

He sprints north with electric-amped muscles.

Monk: "Formed the armor and flung herself through the air towards the center of the city."

Monk: "Back at the heartstone facility, they took me into a giant dome or something. I think it might've been underground? Giant underground dome cavern. Unless if there was a giant above-ground dome somewhere outside of the facility close by. I was blindfolded for most of the trip.

Some fancy machine in the middle, the bats seemed scared or something. Machine was supposed to do something bad, I sat in it for like five hours and nothing happened. They were all surprised that something magic didn't happen."