Void Rift (rp) - Intermission

The water winds up being shallower than it appears, the bricks below only about a meter down.

"Fair enough... what do people even need a dragon for? I mean, horses do things on farms, birds carry messages, and it's easier to get a griffon to fly you around than a dragon."

 

Katie swims down to the bricks, investigating them and looking for underwater passages or caves; even any lost valuables or money.

 

There's bones and frigid corpses trapped under the bricks. There don't seem to be passages, but the occasional crack is home to a small fish or two.
Deeper between the shattered bricks are bits of mantis carapaces, raptor talons along with a crushed beak and half of a face, and other various corpse parts.

 

Katie stops looking under the bricks after finding enough corpses, feeling a little queasy. She instead swims through the moat and looks for anyone nearby; or anything interesting.

 

There's an irrigation path leading from the moat to the farms, but nobody seems to be outside at the moment aside from the raptors near the makeshift watering hole.

Near the farms, however, there's a wooden castle-esque structure with a few mantis standing guard near the two visible entries.

 

Katie emerges from the moat and wanders over to the wooden castle.

 

"I don't know. Ask Ragnyon for that."

 

The mantis look her over before glancing at each other.
"Do you have business with the Matriarch? She's currently preoccupied."

________________________________

"You realize I can't do that, right?"

 

"Um, not really." Katie confesses.

 

The guards glance at each other again before one shrugs.
"Go on in, just be quiet in case she dozed off again."

 

"Thank you." Katie says respectfully, before heading in.

 

"Oh, right."

 

"Death has its downsides."

Inside looks very similar to the old vine structure, just made out of something that isn't withered and is much sturdier. The walls are already coated in the paintings the Matriarch is known for, but only one of them is framed.
The framed painting depicts the Matriarch with a hand resting against what looks like a glass barrier looking out towards forest unaffected by ruin with an unwithered vine structure visible at the center of the piece.

Unsurprisingly, the Matriarch is seated in the middle of the round room in front of an easel, two tables next to her to hold extra palettes as she paints. Her current work looks to be some sort of dark monster dragging two adults towards itself and two other people with darkness leaking from their eyes.

 

Katie quietly looks around some more of the art as she waits for the Matriarch to finish; not wanting to disturb her.

 

"Sorry."

 

After a minute, the Matriarch turns around.
“Oh, hello. I didn’t know anyone came in. Did you come to take the next set of paintings for the shadow gallery?”

“Think on the bright side, I can’t be hurt anymore.”

 

"You still got feelings, right?"

 

"No, I just came to visit. I can if you want me to though!" Katie says positively.

 

"Yeah, I meant physically. Pain is replaced with a numbness... it's bizarre."

"Oh, don't worry about it. I'm sure the shadow beings will let me know when they want the next exhibit. Though, I hope you can forgive me, it's been a while... what's your name again, miss?"

 

"Katie." Katie says cheerily.