Upon Vestia: Chapter Thirty-Six

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Ellie frowned a little at the question. "Yeah, I've talked to them. They're glad to know I'm okay. It's so strange how much older they are now, though." In the photos she'd seen, they both had a lot of gray hairs she didn't remember from before.

~~
Ethan looked amused. "The library's always open. You can stop by any time you want, as long as you don't get sugar on the books."

Moriah wished she could read Ivor better, he was kind of confusing to her. Then again, she supposed, Ivor probably felt the same way about her, so maybe they were on even ground here.
She followed him, still smiling a little.

Starr nodded and looked to Armin "Thank you, she shouldn't hear this this young." She said agreeably

Tala tilted her head, she didn't see the problem with talking about blood around children. She shrugged and continued eating her breakfast.

Ellie looked disappointed. Aww, she didn't want Luna to go.

~~
(I think maybe this got lost :) )
"He was in one of the lounges when I left him, Tori's keeping an eye on him, but I'm sure she'd be fine with you taking over for a while if you wanted," James told Dawn.

Armin nodded and moved to pick Luna up. "Come along dear one, we shall go to the park. " He glanced to Ellie. "Would you like to come?" Ellie loved the baby dragons, he knew this. It was cute he thought.

Luna let go of the napkin, not hard since she was on her side at that moment, all four feet and her mouth trying to hold it. She turned right side up and ran over to nuzzle Ellie before going to Armin's arms.

Starr smiled softly at the actions of her child, Luna really was a sweetheart despite the harbored thoughts of her birth circumstances or perhaps because of them? Hm.

~~~
Dawn nodded and smiled gently at James. "I will go see him." She said then thought of something else "Has he had breakfast yet?"

Ellie smiled at Armin and Luna. "I gotta finish my breakfast, I'll come visit when I'm done." She added to Luna, "You were totally winning, I could barely hold onto the napkin."

Tala's ears wiggled.

~~
"Yeah, he had some breakfast earlier," James said, remembering the tray of food he'd seen Esk picking at, "I don't think he ate a lot though, so you could probably bother him about it some more."

Armin bowed his head. "We shall look forward to it." He cradled Luna tenderly, he really did adore the little girl.
He bowed his head gracefully to Starr. "Enjoy your breakfast, and company Miss Starr."

He took Luna to the park to play.

---

Ivor paused in his walking, took two steps backward and looked around for an alternate course.
He could sense the thoughts of someone ahead. Or someones.

Too many someones.

Swarm had coalesced into a vuage shape and had managed to corner Jarral in a corridor, where he was far less able to kick them out.

Swarm was a little too excited about having someone on board with access to a god's library and the knowledge of the shadows. So many questions, far too many.
It was giving Jarral a headache.

Moriah looked to Ivor uncertainly, as usual she didn't immediately realize what was bothering him. Telepathy was just a foreign concept to her, okay?
She looked to Swarm and Jarral. "Hey guys, are you okay?" Jarral looked uncomfortable to her. Or maybe that was just his face. She hadn't exactly talked to him much.

Jarrals' pale eyes were slightly narrowed and he'd pinned himself against a wall as Swarm chittered at him.

Ivor was backing away.

Jarral noticed them and turned his head, which got Swarm to look that way too.

Oh, an android and the telepath who screamed if they tried to talk to him. Not so useful for sure.

"You have questions?" Jarral almost sounded like he wanted them to ask questions, just to get swarm to leave him alone.

Ivor shook his head. "no.. no no... "

Moriah frowned. Yep, Jarral definitely looked uncomfortable right now. As did Ivor.
"No questions, except whether you're okay," she told Jarral. She looked to Ivor again, yeah, he didn't look so good.

Jarral hesitated, then nodded, using this as a good excuse to barge past Swarm's unsubstantial form and appoach the android.

Swarm drifted in a lazy cloud. It wasn't the first time Jarral had barged through them today, it hadn't stopped them following him and interrogating him though.

"The insects never cease their endless prattle." He muttered.

Ivor looked wary of the younger man. Jarral was in his oppinion pretty scary looking, a ghoulish looking creature shrouded in shadows who smelled of blood and dust and who's mind was surprisingly well shielded.

"Loud..." He agreed weakly.

Swarm was listening. We appologise, we appologise.

Ivor looked at them worriedly and nodded, wincing. Their many thoughts as one hurt his head, he couldn't get a proper handle on one mind or one thought, it was just a cacophony of noise coming from them. He coiled in on himself, distressed.

"Go away." Jarral told Swarm flatly.

What's wrong with him? Swarm asked. Is he sick? Is he hurt? Is he scared?

Ivor whimpered. "please stop..." He pleaded weakly.

Moriah finally caught on to what was going on with Ivor. Oh. Right. "Ivor's very sensitive to telepathy," she told Swarm apologetically. "I guess you probably can't... tone it down?" She had no idea how this worked, nope.

Swarm chittered, arguing amongst themselves, then bobbed up and down, finally coming to a consensus. Moriah was right, they appeared to be hurting the young man.
They scattered, disappearing.

Ivor let out a sigh of relief.

Jarral was staring at the half shifter with dulled curiosity.

"too.. too many voices..." Ivor explained weakly.

"Which is curious is it not? Swarms are supposed to be of one mind, not many." Jarral mused.

"Thank you, Swarm," Moriah said, in case any of them were still close enough to hear. She looked at Jarral and ivor. "Yes, I've heard this swarm is unusual. They've been separated from the other swarms for too long or something," she said.
She watched Jarral uncertainly, not really sure what to make of his shadows.

Jarral nodded. "It is no longer sane, and it is dying."

Ivor's eyes widened and he moved a little closer to Moriah.

"Dying?" Moriah hadn't heard anything about that before."Why?!" She looked half horrified, half unsure if she should believe Jarral at all.

"There are not enough of them left, they cannot reproduce quickly enough to replace themselves." Jarral explained in a fairly casual tone, he didn't seem like he much cared. "They have years left of course, but eventually their numbers will dwindle completely."

Ivor winced. "Can't... t.. they find new... new insects?"

"They are outcast, unable to return to the hive. The severed link between themselves and their great hive has not only driven them mad, it has made them mortal."

"that's sad..." Ivor remarked, lowering his head.

"Is it?" Jarral replied. He didn't think so. Death was just a fact of life.

"Oh." Moriah found that sad to think about. Sure, everyone aged, her own life had a clear and definite expiration date on it. But there was something different about the idea of the cloud of insects slowly dwindling to nothing. The death of a species as much as it was the death of a person. "How many years?" she asked cautiously.

"I cannot say, it would depend on a great number of factors and I have no interest in doing the equations." Jarral replied cooly.

Ivor edged away a little more.

"Oh. All right then." Moriah looked unhappy. She glanced to Ivor, then back at Jarral, "We'll be going then, I guess," she said. No need to subject Ivor to this guy who clearly terrified him.

Jarral tilted his head at Ivor. "I wonder... what are the odds of two shifters finding their way to Iconi... And why..." He shrugged and wandered off down the corridor.

Ivor looked at Moriah, was he terrifying? He was terrifying right?

Moriah didn't find Jarral especially terrifying, although his shadows were kind of disconcerting. She was an android, and they didn't tend to react strongly to people's appearances. Clearly Ivor was more bothered though. "Are you okay?" she asked him gently. For the moment she didn't ask if Ivor knew what the shifter remark was about. First priority was calming the guy down.

Ivor nodded slowly. "He frightens me..." He admitted.

Moriah nodded at that. "Yeah. I guess... try to remember that there are a lot of people on Vestia who can protect you. You're pretty safe on this ship, even if Jarral is..." she tried to decide on the word to use, "Odd."

Ivor nodded slowly. "th.. thank you.." He was glad Moriah was with him, she made him feel slightly safer.

Moriah smiled slightly at Ivor. After a few moments she asked, "When Jarral mentioned shifters, did you know what he was talking about?"

Ivor frowned. "Sister is a shifter... i'm half shifter... But.. I don't know... " He shook his head. Jarral's mind was weird, even when he got glimpses it was so alien.