Eyes glowing of orange peered at Rethys, the whole world around them blanking into obscurity as the Titan studied him intently. He recognized this feeling, this gaze.
Silence hung heavy in the air as Rethys found himself incapable of choosing how to react. He wracked his mind for anything that he and Sevi did to attract this man's attention.
Sevi had said that the Custodians rarely if ever interfered in the affairs of the world and had also said that their attitude of disregard had only intensified, seeing that Antinem, an unskilled but still established mage of Voldren, didn't know of their existence.
Yet no matter what came to mind, it all felt irrelevant. The being before them could do whatever it wanted to them with complete impunity, and no matter how much Rethys complained, he'd still have to comply.
Sevi also remained silent, and the mysterious man across the table saw fit not to start the conversation, simply leaving them to stew in their own ignorance and apprehension.
'This won't do.' Rethys thought.
"What do you want with us?" He voiced.
The Titan looked at him with an amused expression before his demeanor turned stern.
"What do you think, boy?" The Titan asked with a calm voice.
'Again with the boy.' He thought. He didn't appreciate being called that, not even by Sevi.
He thought profusely of how to handle this, eventually arriving at a suitable approach.
"I don't know." He replied, standing his ground, cutting to the chase, and refusing to bend beneath the crushing pressure of mankind's guardian. "You're the one who covered for us after the teleportation, and I've felt you watching over us for a while."
"I have indeed." The Titan nodded. "As for why I've come, it is because of that thing you carry with you." He declared as he pointed at Rethys' chest. "One of the old ones, or what's left of it at least."
"I thought you didn't care what goes on in the world, why step in now?" Rethys asked with a frown.
"I need to make sure that the thing you've brought with you does not threaten the human realms and those living in them. Do you have any idea the implications of that sort of thing running wild among humans? Especially a newborn eldritch like it?"
Rethys didn't like at all what he was hearing, so much so that he was having trouble not letting his anger show on his face. What right did this piece of shit have to condemn either of them?
"The implications..." He repeated. "You know I've seen the mess you've left in Yvtar. The mess that ruined my life and that I've had to suffer through and clean up. You're as much of a monster as the rest of them."
"As if you know a thing..." The Titan sighed. "If you want someone to blame, boy, blame that thing you carry around. Greed and ignorance doomed Yvtar, then that thing and its ilk finished the job."
"She's not some 'thing'." He stated. "She has a name."
"Convinced you, didn't it?" The Titan asked, his voice no longer serene. "Whispered sweet things in your ear? Promised you that you're different, special, and that it'd give you all you'd ever want? Let me guess, power, immortality, knowledge, all that drivel? And 'she'?! What, did it also promise to fuck you or something boy?!"
He stared at the stern-faced man with a blank expression.
His emotions were not at all inhibited, but faced with this man's attempts at intimidation and bullshit claims, his thoughts were not but cold. He didn't feel fear standing before this being of pure might, only irritation.
"Whatever you're selling, we're not having it." He declared coldly. "You could've disposed of us both if you wanted, but you're not doing that. You said you needed to make sure, then there: We're not a threat to the human realms. You can go now."
"Is that so?" The Titan asked as he glared at Rethys.
"That is so." He answered, reactivating his senses and snapping into battle mode.
All at once, the world changed from a canvas of torchlight and dark shadows into a sea of churning blue, rife with information, emotion, and chaotic noise.
Rethys felt a rush of elation overtaking him as the world felt right again. It felt as if time stopped when he last deactivated his Origin senses, and only now did it resume moving.
He took stock of his surroundings, and he didn't at all like what he was seeing.
The poachers' camp he was in right now was under the earth, and all around him was stone in various forms.
Yet no matter how different, every single piece of rock in this place, every pebble, every fold and layer of stone making up the surface of the earth, all of them gravitated toward the Titan, all of them answered to and moved with his ether. It was as if he was the center of Tevohs itself, and it did not withhold any of its powers from him.
The Titan himself was unreadable to Rethys' senses, and completely so. His senses simply told him that there was a blank shadow where the Titan sat, a completely empty spot in an otherwise all-encompassing sea of ether. It was an exception that ran against everything Rethys knew of his element's powers, and it was very concerning.
But that did not deter him for a moment.
He didn't know what he was supposed to do against the Titan, seeing as he was up there as one of the most powerful creatures that do and could exist in the world, and seeing that he was in his element here, beneath the earth. But if Rethys was one thing, he was not one for half-assed measures.
Now was the time for action, now was th-
"Pull your senses back right this instant!" Sevi's voice resounded, breaking her silence.
Rethys tried his hardest not to take his eyes off the Titan, who was regarding him intently, yet it was hard to ignore his partner's panicked and outraged voice.
"Sevi we nee-"
"No! YOU need to keep your mind intact! Do you truly want to end up in that thing's control again?!" She scolded.
Rethys thought of arguing back for a second, in truth, he really wanted to fight back for his right to use his power. Yet somewhere in his mind the voice of reason prevailed, convincing him to turn off his senses once again.
And once more, the world was constrained back into its earthen and wooden frame, complete with orange lights and flimsy shadows.
"Look, it's worried about you." The Titan chuckled. "Why that's just adorable."
Silence followed as the two parties returned to staring at one another. And for a moment afterward, the Titan's eyes softened.
"What it speaks is true, you know. I am no Mind specialist, but your mind is not in the best place. I'd recommend laying off that element of yours for a while."
"I appreciate the concern." Rethys nodded, stubbornly maintaining eye contact.
"You're welcome..." The Titan replied, doing the same.
Silence returned once more, heavier than ever and that much more concerning.
"What should we do?" Rethys whispered.
"Just wait for now. We have the advantage." Sevi whispered back.
"Oh, by all means, don't mind me you two." The man across the table remarked. "You do know I can hear you, right?"
"This is not getting anywhere..." A fourth voice resounded from nowhere and everywhere at once. "Allow me to intervene."
Right then, a strange shimmer appeared in thin air, near the door of the poachers' canteen. It appeared for just a moment, the fabric of reality rustling and swaying before a tall being clad in silken white garb emerged from it.
Its appearance did not have the subdued air that the Titan with his humble black cloak, which Rethys only now noted, had, instead displaying elegance and magnificence. Its whole body was veiled in alabaster vestments, its face included. And even without his senses, Rethys could somewhat tell that there was nothing tangible underneath its clothes.
Its magical aura however was very similar to the Titan's, with Rethys being able to vividly feel it even without his senses. And unlike the Titan's, this being's aura radiated the Mind element.
The towering and slender silhouette of white cloth walked into the room and pulled another chair, joining the table on Rethys' right and the Titan's left.
"Words were never your strong suit, old friend." It noted.
"Words..." The Titan scoffed.
The creature then turned its veiled visage towards Rethys, nodding to him in recognition.
"This encounter seems to have gotten off the wrong foot, hasn't it?" It began. "I understand that my colleague's words and actions have distressed the two of you, and for that we would both like to apologize. We are sorry, Rethys, Sevindris." It said, nodding its face towards the two of them respectively.
"Allow us to introduce ourselves, I am Enokohm, titled the Dreamer, and Custodian of the Shai'ishis, most commonly known to the other peoples of Tevohs as the dragons. With me here is Eoth Nair, dubbed the Titan, and Custodian of humankind. We have come here today to discuss a matter the two of you are inextricably linked, that of Yvtar's summoning of the beings known as the eldritch.
"Do you know of it? Or do I need to give you a cursory explanation?"
Rethys lingered on the feeling of this creature's strange, echoing voice before realizing that it spoke directly into his head, much like Sevi could do. Only this time, everyone could hear it, and so vividly it felt tangible altogether.
It made sense, this creature was just a construct of magic, while the actual dragon was elsewhere entirely.
"We know about it." Rethys answered.
He didn't want to keep getting into long argumentative explanations with these two, rather he wanted them away from here as fast as possible. For though it may sound arrogant, considering the importance of the two before him, he truly had better things to do.
Once upon a time, he would've relished the opportunity to meet a real dragon just like those in the tales, especially the one supposedly the most powerful of them. Yet that was a different time, and this was a different him.
"Very good." Enokohm nodded. "First know that despite what my colleague's previous words have suggested, we will not interfere with you or your business. The summoning of the eldritch was done entirely as the consequence of mortal action, and thus we, the Custodians, are not authorized to act against it. This extends to the existence of Sevindris.
"Then why are we here, you might ask. Well, it is because the unique circumstances of Sevindris warrant extensive investigation and thorough interrogation. That and we would like to know the whereabouts and circumstances of the other old ones in order to be able to take preventative action just in case things boil over faster than even we can respond. And so, we would ask of you to cooperate."
Rethys took a moment to digest the information given to him before moving to voice a simple question.
"But aren't you-"
"Yes, it is as you will say." The veiled figure interrupted. "We are indeed very powerful, enough to squash even the threat of the old ones. Yet that does not allow us to rest on our laurels and rely only on brute might to prevent threats. This too is part of our duty, not just launching grand magics here and there.
"What else did you wish to know?"
Rethys stared at the two Custodians staring back at him, before shrugging and addressing elsewhere. This game was out of his league, he figured, and so he really shouldn't bother.
Ideally he would've just refused to cooperate, but he couldn't make such a choice without consulting Sevi.
"Sevi?" He asked.
"I will speak now." She replied. "I am sorry, great ones, yet I am not what you think me to be. I was merely the human host given to the Mother of Grace, and now, after its death, possess powers far beyond me. Those powers are strange to me, and no knowledge of the being that once was remained after its death."
"That is impossible." Enokohm replied instantly. "There are three possibilities, and three only. The first is that you are the Mother of Grace putting on a pretense of humanity, the second is that the Mother of Grace lost its countenance and identity, regressing into a more primitive form, and the third is that you are a new eldritch creature born of an older one's remains.
"And even then, the second and third possibilities are purely speculative, so you are most surely lying to us by proposing an even more ridiculous explanation. The eldritch of the ether are no sandcastles brought low by the smallest slight, but eternals persisting above all, we would know. I urge you to stop this charade and simply answer honestly, you would not after all benefit much from your siblings' prosperity and so should have no problem cooperating with us."
"I may even add that I would not protest to working alongside someone of your knowledge and merit, and so please understand that you are among peers."
"That is what I am saying, great one. I am not that thing; I am only a human. Please understand that your suspicions are misplaced." Sevi repeated.
"Why do you insist so? Is there something I am overlooking?" The robed figure tilted its head.
"Great one, please heed me, I am not..."
And so, while the two of them, Custodian of the dragons and Sevi, continued arguing, Rethys retreated back into his thoughts.
The conversation thus far hinted that either the Custodian's Mind powers cannot truly read minds, or that Sevi was lying yet again. And unfortunately, one option was clearly more likely than the other.
He could certainly take the Custodian's side and try to push Sevi for more answers, perhaps uncovering whatever it is she still hid from him. It was the most logical choice. For if their history was anything to go by, he was right to mistrust her by convention, and that was not considering his resolve to prioritize his life and safety over hers.
And yet, he felt that by doing that, he would lose whatever trust the two of them had fostered between one another forever, and they'd then still be stuck together for an indefinite future.
And more than anything, he couldn't bring himself to do something like that to her, for he knew that in a contest of who suffered more, the one trapped in a sword in a forgotten crypt for close to a millennium probably took the prize. He knew at some point that beneath the layers of lies that she wove, were layers of mistrust and hurt, and he didn't want to make things worse for her.
And so, backed by what his senses, element, morals and principles told him, Rethys decided to fully take Sevi's side.
"She's human." He chimed in. "She's nothing like you say she is. And for once I don't think she's lying."
"Preposterous." The alabaster figure snapped. "That is simply not-"
"We don't care what you think is possible and what's not." Rethys pressed on. "What I've seen and felt can't be tricked, and she's definitely human, and a victim of the bullshit YOUR ilk leave lying about like it's nothing! So, leave her... leave us alone, we have things to think over and stuff to do."
"Rethys..." Sevi muttered, completely caught off-guard by Rethys' uncharacteristic show of trust.
"How touching." The Titan remarked from the sidelines.
"How absurd!" Enokohm jolted before turning towards his colleague. "Nair, if you will."
"Yeah. Alright. I don't know why we didn't do this from the start and save ourselves the hassle of arguing." The Titan grunted.
"If she turns out to be human like I said, you'd leave us alone, right, guardian of mankind?" Rethys asked, uncaring if his words were taunting.
The gruff man stared intently at Rethys for a while.
"If it... she... is human, then she would fall under my jurisdiction and protection, and we will indeed leave you alone." He nodded as he stood. "Though I don't know why you would place so much trust in that sort of thing, and willingly too."
"Protection..." Rethys scoffed.
The Titan then walked around the table and approached Rethys, extending his hand towards him.
"Your hand." He said.
Rethys then pulled back his chair and stood straight, making it clear that he wouldn't take these two's overbearing bullshit. And though he hesitated to give his hand at first, his fears disappeared when he remembered that they couldn't really do anything to them.
As he gave the Titan his hand, a strange wave of even stranger ether ran through his body, and the Custodian's amused expression disappeared, instead being replaced with wide eyes and then a deep frown.
"Well I'll be damned." He nodded. "You don't see this every day, or millennia for that matter. Inhuman, certainly, but deep down... I see. She's not lying, Kohm, we're wasting our time here."
"Truly?!" The robed figure jolted to its feet. "That is ludicrously outlandish! You mean to tell me that a mere human girl inherited the power of the Mother of Grace." He then peered intently in Sevi's direction. "What of her knowledge? An eldritch's mind is a treasure trove of ethereal, etherical, and magical knowledge."
'Again with the knowledge...' Rethys thought.
"No." Sevi sighed. "I do not possess that being's knowledge; I believe it is lost."
"Oh." The Custodian was taken aback. "Why that's-"
"Don't." Rethys interrupted him.
"What do you..." The robed figure tilted its head for a moment before nodding its head in understanding. "I see. It seems we must apologize again, for we have truly overstepped our boundaries. As promised, we will be going now, we have kept you long enough, and have bored you enough as it is.
"Then I shall excuse myself first. Nair?"
"Right after you." The Titan gestured.
The Custodian of dragons then walked out of the room, presumably leaving through the same method that he manifested in through.
That left the Titan standing before Rethys, studying him thoroughly with his gaze.
"You should leave." Rethys voiced.
He wasn't interested in any apologies or explanations or grand statements of purpose and mortality; he just wanted the guy out as soon as possible.
"Yes, I should." The gruff man nodded, his eyes softening as he rested a hand on Rethys' shoulder. "And you should really stop overusing your element."
"What's it to you?" Rethys asked.
"It'd be a shame to lose you to something so... preventable." He answered before addressing Sevi. "You know better than him. And also, I'm sorry."
"It is no matter, great one." Sevi answered.
"Very well then." The Titan nodded again. "Good day."
The Titan then walked out of the canteen and through the corridor of the poachers' camp. And though Rethys could hear his footsteps for a while, at some point the sound simply vanished along with its source.
Rethys sighed, turning back to the canteen and the food in it. He still hadn't had his breakfast, and he'd be damned if even an encounter with the all-powerful prevented it.