Episode 40

Episode 40: The Ancient’s Respite

Gemevieve and her party are off to Lah’Tekai, the crystal mountain overlooking her home town of Leshtah. Xavier and his party, with Ras, Simica, Eliyra, start making their way on their own adventure while the Shepherd heads for the mountain island of Lah’Tekai. As they round away from Mount Marack, the mountain glitters ahead of them, even while shrouded by fog. The fog gets denser as they approach, until something resonates within Gemevieve and makes the fog thin. The mountain is looming, made entirely of an orange crystal. Railund drops off Gem, Callisto, Ganymede, Scrungus, Toraleth and Analai at the island, and then turns to go pick up Dae from their journey in Felldrift. As they land, they can see the city of Leshtah in the distance, the former home of Gemevieve and the Polaris twins. The three take a minute to take it in, all having different feelings about their former hometown. Gemevieve realizes that Ganymede also hasn’t seen Leshtah in about ten years, wondering what it’s like now. Callisto has almost a bitter feeling seeing the city again, but tries to keep that hidden. A thought about his parents enters his head, but he tries to push it out in favor of staying positive. Gemevieve has a bit of defeat in her voice as she turns away from Leshtah.

As she turns, she is met by the flapping of massive wings as Benoa, the last crystal dragon alive, greets them. Gemevieve introduces Benoa to her friends, to their shock and borderline fear. Benoa explains that while the rest of the dragons are gone, he remains, and was kept safe within Lah’Tekai in an egg and brought to the Carrion Flame to be born after the rest were wiped out. Lah’Tekai is the home to all crystal dragons, and has been living here since the circus was destroyed. Gemevieve explains she is here for her Divine Weapon, a crystal weapon by the name of Cryactum. Benoa explains that while Cryactum is certainly within the mountain, Gemevieve must prove herself to the mountain with a series of trials and puzzles without his help. Benoa guides them to the beginning of the trials before flying away, promising to see her at the end.

The party moves forward, encountering some of the wildlife of Lah’Tekai before the trials begin. They find crystal frogs littered throughout the mountain, which have a strange ability of going into the crystal walls and swimming through them. Analai, upon seeing this, comments on how everything in Lah’Tekai is one, having known about creatures similar to these frogs from her childhood. Gem’s crystal has a strange reaction to the crystal walls as well, but doesn’t go through the walls like the frogs do. She considers that maybe it’s so she cannot cheat at the trials. The crystal frogs hop around the ground as the party comes to a fork in the road. They decide to go right, and come to a large, deep chasm, with only a few stone pillars providing a way over. Gem takes some careful jumps on them, followed by Toraleth, beginning to make their way over the pit. Panicked, Analai says jumping isn’t her strong suit and decides to scout the other way where the fork was, Scrungus begrudgingly following her. Callisto tries to jump, but ends up plummeting downwards. He appears again just outside of the trial, but it still makes Gem and the others fearful. Gem still tries to make her way over the chasm, seeing that the pillars get spaced farther and farther apart the closer to the other side she gets. Callisto catches back up with everyone, and tells them all that he wasn’t hurt or anything and just ended up back at the beginning of the trials. As he says this, Toraleth tries to make a large jump across the chasm and ends up meeting the same fate as Callisto: falling down into the darkness of the pit and appearing back at the beginning. Frustrated, he decides to skip the chasm and just go along with Scrungus and Analai instead.

At the chasm, Gem, Callisto and Ganymede figure out what to do. Gemevieve taps into her crystalline abilities in order to get them across. She creates three crystal pillars to fill the void in the chasm, and gets everyone safely to the other side. She explains that she will need some rest before she can do it again, but it may prove to be useful later on.

Meanwhile, Scrungus, Toraleth and Analai scout the other direction, finding themselves in a room with fast moving rivers. Judging by the crystal frogs leaping in and being rushed away by the current, the water is moving way too fast for any of them to just simply walk over safely. Scrungus, using his alarming strength, knocks over crystal pillars to make bridges. With a little bit of teamwork, the three of them make it over the currents and safely to the other side.

The paths of the two parties lead back to one another, and, unfortunately, another chasm. Gemevieve says she can get everyone across after a bit of a break, so the party rests for a dinner break. Scrungus is agitated the whole time, clearly impatient and angry as he punches the walls. Gemevieve attempts to scold him for it, saying that the mountain is a sacred place and shouldn’t be destroyed because of his temper. Scrungus challenges her, but she stands her ground to him, testing his patience. The two fake each other out until Gem tells everyone that her power comes back. She makes the three spiars across the pit, and decides to scout ahead just to be safe. There’s two paths, one to the left, one to the right, and one directly at the other end of the pit. Gem goes to the other end and is met with a large, metal door blocking the path with the seal of the Goddess of crystals, To’shani on it. The door is immovable at the moment, so Gem decides to scout out one of the other paths. This hall is also a deadend, but has a crystal mechanism on its wall. There’s an indent in the center of it that looks almost like a keyhole that Gem could put her crystal arm into. When she does, instead of unlocking anything, it instead locks her arm inside, getting her stuck. She cries for help, and Callisto attempts to pull her out to no avail. Ganymede notices that the last, unscouted path also has a similar mechanism at the end of it. She uses an old sword to put in the keyhole, having that lock in. When she does, the large door on the other side lifts open, and Gem is set free from the mechanism. The party all crosses the door, going through the metal door, and come to another room.

This room they come into is decorated with crystal furniture, carved from the mountain itself, and seems to serve as a resting spot. On the other side of the room is another door, this time with a symbol of a sun on it. There is a small window right near it that would shine light on it if it were daytime, so the party decides to set up camp here and rest for the night. Gemevieve talks with Ganymede and Callisto, and reminisces about Leshtah again, wondering if she’ll ever go back there. Callisto almost immediately shoots down this idea, but then corrects himself saying that it’s up to her. Gem explains that this idea of divinity and getting her weapon is what’s holding her back. Ganymede tries to reassure her, saying that all people from Leshtah will go back one day and become one with it in death. Gem begins to open up, saying she never wanted this in the first place and how hard it is to think she could have a normal life again but can’t actually return. Ganymede explains that even if she did go back, no one there would remember Gemevieve, Callisto, or herself as the memories of them have been completely wiped from the city. Gem and Callisto are enraged and shocked by this, both beginning to cry and break down. Callsito knew that Methandi wiped his and his parents’ memory of Ganymede after she was taken, but was never told that Methandi wiped the memory of him, after he left, from the entire city; Gem had no idea of any of this at all. Ganymede explains that Methandi did it to make sure they were not followed, to keep them safe after they had left. Besides, she remarks that maybe they weren’t ones to be missed anyways, given both the Polaris and Amberstone family dynamics. Gemevieve breaks down sobbing while Callisto storms away, enraged, gripping Sunspot in his hand. Ganymede attempts to console Gemevieve, saying that her destiny is ahead, and divinity can give her everything she wants. Gem tells her that after being bought into a life that she never asked for, that the only thing that made it bearable was her friends, even Ganymede herself. Ganymede tells her that once they achieve Godhood, they can lead normal lives and give everyone the lives they want. Gemevieve never wanted to be a martyr, and asks if they can just be a little selfish instead of constantly trying to achieve Godhood for the good of everyone. Ganymede gets a bit dark, explaining that nothing will stop her from becoming a God. She wants to help people and live her life that way, spending the past ten years training for it. Her life on the boat has been the only time she’s felt she’s had a choice in her life, whereas Gemevieve feels the boat has only restricted her to a certain path.

While Gemevieve wants freedom, she also wants to help Ganymede achieve her goal as well, seeing how much she wants this. Ganymede lets her know that even as a God, Gemevieve can still one day settle down and have that life she always wanted, with no one stopping her. The ends justify the means in Ganymede’s eyes, it seems. She remarks that history is always recorded, and that their happiness and heroism will be written down somewhere someday. She uses Analai as an example, stating that so many of the Shepherd crew came from nothing and are destined for greatness. Analai was alone until Methandi found her and promised her greatness, and she is so much better off because of it. They are all destined for greatness, and Ganymede is going to make sure of that heroic outcome no matter what. Even though Gemevieve just wanted a little house and a family, she can still achieve that one day, as a God. Ganymede’s vision includes the Gods they all become walking the earth, and interacting directly with Velstrana instead of abandoning it like the old Gods did. Afterall, who can stop them when they are Gods? She promises a new life for them one day, disconnected from their families and bonds. Gemevieve gets very close to Ganymede, making sure that no one is around when she talks to her. Gemevieve takes Ganymede’s hands and confesses her feelings, saying she would like to give herself to her. Ganymede is a bit shocked, but agrees, pulling Gem into a very tight hug. The two embrace before they rest to prepare for more trials the next morning.