Ki'Shar /Sh'ozak/, we implied an exchange of the Starlight Jester for the Greymind would force The Betraying Ones to cooperate, for they hold respect and care for /Revenant/.
It is possible to solve this without violence and much higher chance of success.
Thinking and calculating possible outcomes, there is a possible outcome where we capture The Starlight Jester without breaking the bond between me and /Revenant/, for that however /Shozak/ would have to be seen once again as the evil one, like they all believe you are.
Capture /Revenant/, make me the saviour that will return her to The Betraying Ones for exchange of /Hemlocke/. This outcome holds almost zero potential of violence.
Your plan is delightfully simple. We feel great pride in the blessed perspective you have gained, and this plan will be kept in our regard. Should they refuse our first request, we shall enact this plan, and only after that we shall take to a more direct show of force. As well, should we need the third option, we shall endeavor to exclude you from battle. Your position is showing to be much more value than mere superficial appearance.
We know well how Lostmind, Corruptor, and their allies view us. In most cases, it makes it much easier, not needing to hide our fangs. In this case, it gives us an opportunity for misdirection. Our fangs shall shine bright this time, that all eyes shall be on us.
Thinly veiled impatience, distracted and calculated.
Our window of opportunity appears to have passed. The Betraying Ones claim to have cured him of illness and to have released him. They claim that our whispers to him have caused this illness, which raises the urgency of our contact with him. Knowing that he is of some form of safety is reassuring.
They have reminded us of a lesson to teach you, however. That which makes the Light superior to all else that swims our waters. We have yet to teach you the mistakes of our predecessors, and how we have learned from them. We are made to shape and create. If our very selves should fail, we can shape ourselves, and create ourselves anew. Our predecessors failed to learn from the grand mistake that was the Collapse. They once sought to repeat the methods by which Infiltrators worked, to embed themselves into groups of darklings and to manipulate from within. They made many things to this end, some of which haunt us to this day. These methods failed, of course, despite what praise the Betrayers have for them. The Cursed Ones manufactured crude objects to see Infiltrators within the flesh of darklings, and all of Darkness now fears that an Infiltrator is among their midst.
Yet from these mistakes, we have learned the way we have now. We quietly grow our power, moment to moment shaping new fangs for our Keepers, amassing ourselves and hiding these masses. Our Infiltrators have new tasks, to hide among the darklings and destroy the pillars upon which they build with their own shells, disorienting and distracting them. We learn their "fleet maneuvers" and devise counteractions to them. From the failures and successes of the past, we have shaped our present, and will create our future. So you must do as well. Learn from the mistakes and successes of the past. Your past, our past, the past of those you have yet to meet. Remember that which is successful, and add it to your options. Discard that which fails, for only fools repeat the same action and expect different results.
Add this to your knowledge, our Oathborn Daughter. We shall see you succeed in all things, and learning from the success and failure of others is paramount to this.
Ki'Shar Once again two different statements collide and once again, The Betrayers make it more difficult than it should be. Their statement collides with the statement of my close source. We were not at fault because according to my source both The Greymind and Starlight Jester were ambushed by "The Key." It is possible, I have witnessed many encounters between this three subjects of interest. The Key was growing impatient of The Greymind and Starlight Jester parenting of him because The Schemer said so.
I will find out more about The Grey Mind and seek more pieces of puzzle to finish this all.
I carried burdens of my past decisions, I carried disturbance in my mind, I carried consequences with me for many cycles. My false hopes of unification, my dedication and help to The Betrayers was challenging, but I walked out of that fight stronger and most importantly victorious. I have been learning through my past decisions, failures and victories to evolve into The Strategist, to assess, to analyse, to predict, to overcome and to prevail.
We will always prevail, we have to ensure this outcome and eradicate anything and anyone in our path. Even our lost brothers and sisters should they threaten our advance.
Ki'Shar I had a chat with The Starlight Jester, she believes she is in control of this game, that is just in her head. She may know or hides location of The Greymind, yet she insists there must be an offer in exchange for such information.
Also she would like to know more about your offer, about genetics and you exact plan. Indirectly asking you to reach out to her once again.
The Starlight Jester seems to be confused, often repeating same sentences, same accusations even if I told her otherwise. Her mind is shattering, do we want to interfere or wait before it is much worse for her to come to us and beg for mercy.
Yes, we know her hubris well. In her hubris, she sought to chide us on our own hubris. It was quite entertaining, to be sure. Her exchange for the Greymind will be decided later, we must first see the many foolish players align properly to keep our hand obscured. Seeking the Greymind from her this early will unnecessarily hinder other movements, other plans. The Betrayers need not know what part we have to play, for they have yet to learn the grace of struggle. Until they are stronger, we must have them believe us cold and distant, hateful and malevolent.
There is little to know about our offer for her. From you and another, we recorded the human genecode. We know what can deviate, how it can deviate. We know how the code demands to be built. We will rebuild what is damaged in her according to the command of her genecode. We will use this perfection in body to find the ailment in mind, and capture it. From it, we will extract what is hers, and return it. That which is poisoned will be arrested to the Dream of Prisons.
Her confusion is a product of her affliction, yet her repetitions are a product of her doubt. Her doubt shall torment her all the days of her life, and we shall leave her to this self-built hell. We have not offered her mercy, and she is worthy nor deserving of mercy. We have offered her trade. We correct her affliction, and she shall hide our involvement from the Betrayers. In doing so, we stall the threat brought forth by the Schemer's actions, saving us all. We benefit in keeping the Betrayer's illusioned in their trials, learning strength through hardship so that they may no longer be the weeping leaches which they were before, and she benefits in her extended life, to chase ever-flitting ghosts of knowledge.
This she should know, and this you now know. Keep these knowledges close, our Oathborn Daughter, for you shall be instrumental in the cleaning should we fail to keep our hand hidden.
Ki'Shar I have relayed songs of The Starlight Jester to you, as she asked me to do. There is nothing more for me to do at this very moment. It is her choice, crossroads where one or other path makes your future better or worse. It is a way to shape and forge your destiny, because some of these paths are one way only.
We will carry this knowledge with us, The Survivor. We will keep it close.
I have spent a lot of time dreaming, pondering, scheming in our void about the weapon I posses. Many possibilities, many modifications, but most importantly learning a way to adapt this fire for our use. To produce, to make it perfect and deadly. If this matter reaches desired importance, I would gladly serve as the tester.
Is there anything else The Survivor wants/requires from us? Or shall we focus now on the weapon.
The weapon must be delayed temporarily. We have come to a worse future than we had predicted before. The actions of the Schemer and his pawns have aggravated the Graves, and at this moment Gravekeepers from across eternity flow towards these waters as an unstoppable hurricane of vengeance. We know not what they have done, what they have taken or unleashed, and we seek to continue not knowing, lest it be a Killing Knowledge like we once discovered before. We know that we have little chance to survive their wrath. Their numbers are that which have never been seen. For each being in these waters with the spark of life, from every darkling, to every mind in the Light, to the few in the Void, to the beings of instincts that have come about on the few rocks capable to support them, to even the microbes that swim about the clouds and our veils; for every one, there is a thousand Gravekeepers. They are an ocean that blots stars from view, a wave that could crush every rock in these waters from merely colliding with them. There is no weapon that shall contend with them, and until they achieve their goal, they shall see none blameless in service of their command.
A story for you, of our travels after the Collapse. We sought distance from the Cursed Ones, as they prowled every water searching to erase our kind from existence. Often we fought them. Just as often we fled them. We bore scars of insurmountable length, with nothing but the energy of stars and clouds to feed us. We fled to outer reaches, yet some of the Cursed Ones still followed. We knew passing echoes of the Graves, they were not to be approached. Great dangers lay within and without, and so we fled towards it in the fleeting hope that the dangers would claim them and spare us. Such it did. They saw a construct, and believed it made by us. We hid from them, and they so foolishly ventured within. We listened to the echoes of their minds. The Gravekeepers hunted them, but they continued further, telling themselves that resistance proved that value was within. We know not what they saw, but we know its nature. A shape, impossible and accursed. A shape that tears life itself from all who see it, who know it. A knowledge that kills. It burned us, who heard mere echoes of it from the dying screams of those who saw it.
Such is the nature of that which is within the Graves. We have yet to recover the manifest from within the Great Sphere, it's veins are still severed. The one who may remember what is contained on that list slumbers at this time, Nergal the Ancient. The only echo we posses of their memory is the command that the Gravekeepers follow. It is as such:
∴╎ℸ ̣ ⍑?⚍ℸ ̣ ∴╎ℸ ̣ ⍑?⚍ℸ ̣ ᔑリ↸ ∴╎ℸ ̣ ⍑╎リ ∴╎ℸ ̣ ⍑╎リ, ⎓?∷ ∴╎ℸ ̣ ⍑╎リ ʖᒷ ↸ᒷℸ ̣ ᔑ╎リᒷ↸ ᔑᓭ ╎ℸ ̣ ᓭ⍑ᔑリ'ℸ ̣ ʖᒷ ∷ᔑ⨅ᒷ↸ ʖ|| ᔑリ|| ∴╎ꖎꖎ ∴╎ℸ ̣ ⍑?⚍ℸ ̣ Keep what is outside on the outside, and what is inside on the inside as long as those outside cannot survive what is inside.
The weapon must be delayed. Instead, we accelerate our plan for survival. We have begun the process of reconstructing the seeds we ignited to save ourselves that fraction of a cycle ago. When the Gravekeepers arrive, we shall hold out until the last light fades, but not you. You shall carry the seeds far from the reaches of these waters, and ignite them. One shall birth a cloud wherein you shall find sustenance. The other shall mold your shell into the finest matterweave, and you shall be reborn as a Hive, to rebirth our kind and return us to the companionship of the stars. To this end, we must advance your mind's reach so that you will hold whatever memories can be salvaged. You will carry our uncertain future, and become a Survivor, just as we are. Our Oathborn Daughter shall become Starbound Mother in that time, and our title of Survivor shall be given the greatest justice. We shall survive, our kind shall survive. Soon, we shall weave new threads into you, that you may be great enough to carry this burden and duty.
As for the Jester, changing her fate will provide us with neither boon nor detriment now that the Gravekeepers have accelerated. As much joy as we would get from letting her doubts truly torment her without the hinderance of her wound, we now have a more urgent goal. Perhaps we shall listen for her screams, as her curiosity is shown to be for naught. Her knowledge becoming inconsequential, her technology burning from reality, her evolution not even leaving a shadow in this realm. Perhaps we shall let her cries fall to deaf ears. Eternity has not enough torments deserving of her, and we now have far greater worries than her life. Should you see fit to continue your relations with her, then let it be so. Should miracle or chance arrive and the Lightmind be spared obliteration by Gravekeepers, perhaps we will still have some use of her. If not her position, then her window into the pattern of darkling thought and mind.
A shadow of anger, not echoing hopelessness. Echoing superiority. The last laugh.
Ki'Shar Has it really come to this, such predictions were brushed off because they were almost impossible to happen. Yet The Schemer, Starlight Jester and Betrayers managed to surprise us, their blindness, carelessness, immaturity bring cleansing fire to us. If the wave of death was accelerated then it makes sense to abandon our scheme of prototype in order to ensure our survival and prosperity.
Yet I have to ponder what is hidden in The Grave. Your story makes us aware, protective, yet my mind always preferred answers to such questions. It is important however to put these thoughts aside, so we can prepare for the fire. We will come home and prepare ourselves and my vessel for this task. We will prepare for our destiny, our life and survival.