Tremors that shook the earth throughout the night could not be ignored. Their strength practically forced all animals into hiding until dawn. Not that earthquakes had never happened before, but there was a sort of foreboding aura that came with these ones that spelled danger. She waited for the sun to come. Sleep refused to greet her. The tremors were too great for her to ignore. Laying there for hours, hunkered in an old, hollowed out tree as she stared into the too dark night. Where had the moon and the stars gone? And now as the sun rose, why was it red? Not just the sun, but whole sky too. Where was this light coming from? Questions plagued Lumine as her brilliantly gold eyes scanned the landscape. Now that the tremors had stopped enough that she felt safe to come out, she didn't waste anytime. Picking up speed, her paws covered ground until the spires loomed in the near distance. What were those and where had they come from? Her recent adventures told her that they hadn't been there recently. Were those things creating the blanket of red across the skies? Both recklessness and curiosity filters through her as she allows the adrenaline to surge her forward. Breathless by the time she stops, only feet from the nearest spire, Lumine looks upward. Her mouth agape, both in awe and trying to catch her breath, she is now frozen. Drawn to the rusted metal, she steps closer, intent on figuring out what it was. Lumine Trygg

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Red skies and earthquakes, it's all very strange. There's a certain reverence with which he examines the sky, and the world around him. Drenched in something rosy... not even rosy. Blood red, the sky seeming to open up with it. Like moving through one of the scary stories they told at night, trying to spook little kids, or teach them lessons about straying too far. Horrifying and brilliant... hell, it reflected how he felt, much of the time.

Drawn like a moth to flame, Dominus moves from home and out into it. Exploring the world on his own is new, exciting, something he won't push back on in the slightest. Drawn south, and then pulled west, careful gaze on the world around him. That is, until a familiar scent catches him off guard.

It doesn't take him long to track her, standing breathless among the spires. "Lumi?" That has to be her, unless it's a trick of the light. Weaving carefully across the scarred earth, gaze gentle as it rests on her face. "What do you make of it?" Tone gentle... pleasantries would be set aside for the circumstances, but he's happy to see her.

"Dominus"

His voice was the last she imagined to hear. It had been far too long since she'd heard those rumbles that often soothed her emotional turmoil. Figuring it was just a trick of the wind, Lumine twirls around, wide eyed and breathless as she takes in Dominus. Instantly, her heart softens and a smile lengthens her lips. "Oh, Dom," she says softly, ears flickering backward for a moment before she closes the space between them to wrap him in a hug. There was so much she wanted to say, but now wasn't the time. They had other things to deal with. Pulling away from Dom and swiveling back to the spire, she looks up toward the pointed peak and then back down to the earth at its base. Unlike the steppe or the crypt, this was much different. Metal in creation with intricate carvings that she couldn't quite make out. "It wasn't here yesterday so I can only imagine the tremors are what brought them up," she says thoughtfully to Dom as she steps forward to paw at the ground. Lumine Trygg

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Wrapping the girl close to his chest, holding her there for a long moment... Dominus wouldn't be the first one to break the hug. He wouldn't pull away, instead keeping close to the girl. Holding here there, like he doesn't want to let go. Gentle but stolid, taking care of her in the only way he knows how, for the moment. Too many unsaid things hanging between them, but the task at hand was more pressing.

As she looks to the spire, his gaze follows. Carefully pacing around it, never more than reaching distance from Lumine. The carvings were intricate, twisted faces... scary looking, if he had to be honest. A horrifying visage, if he looked at them for too long. Pulse rising in his chest, an unsettled, sour feeling in the back of his throat.

Though no breeze picked up, a sound seemed to echo from the spires themselves. It's not unlike wind whipping through trees, but it's so much more sinister. The hairs on the back of his neck standing up straight, a chill ripping down his spine. Dominus needed to keep her safe, through this. "They look like... faces?" Examining the carvings, trying to push down the strange feelings brought forward by the shrieking sound.

"Between these and the sky, it feels like something... bad is going on." Puzzling his way through it, trying to think through the teachings lingering from his family. There's no source material for this, only the young man trying to sort out exactly what's happening as his paws grind into the stony ground beneath them. Hovering close to Lumi, and always looking over their shoulder... ready to throw himself in the face of whatever came for them, because it certainly felt like there was something out here.

"Dominus"

Lumine was glad to stay close to Dom. His presence was comforting and helped give her courage to explore deeper. Approaching the spire was no longer terrifying. Stepping closer to it, she was able to lower her face nearer to the surface of the cool, rusted metal. Indeed, as Dom pointed out, there were carvings closer to the bottom beneath the holes that spotted the areas higher up. What had made these? None of it seemed natural. "This part definitely looks like a face," Lumine mentioned, lifting a paw to gently brush it over the part of the horrified face. It's then that the howling wails of the spires seem to pick up, growing louder in their haunting symphony. "Bad is an understatement," she murmurs, pulling away from the spire, ears flattening and lips turning downward into a frown. "Is there something else carved here?" Lumi questions, her eyes narrowing as she leans back in to try and get a closer look beneath the facial carvings. Lumine Trygg

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Unnatural, though it had been revealed by something of a natural event. Earthquakes... they happen. The reasonable and rational part of his brain knows they happen, and they're natural phenomenon. Whatever put the spires here originally? Unnatural. Their metal nature, and the rust that had formed on their surface were the first clue. The carvings, they're the next.

Leaning into the same spot Lumi is examining, close enough to brush his cheek to hers, the boy wipes away some of the rust and dirt with a paw. It's a careful touch, the contact chilling him in ways he doesn't know how to articulate. Not just the cool surface, but like... like it's wrong to be touching them in this way. Withdrawing his paw as if he's been bitten, but there's interest. Too much interest. "An inscription, I think... maybe?" Scowling at it, the symbols don't mean anything to him, but given the way they're shaped, it seems to make sense.

Another scream ripples through the forest of not-trees. Protectively placing his chin over Lumi's back, it's on instinct. "We could try to figure out where the shrieking is coming from, maybe that's got more answers?" Bringing her into danger wasn't on his to-do list, but then, he wasn't leaving her behind either. Dom wants answers.
"Dominus"

Being here with her friend, no her best friend, made everything easier. Even with the high pierced wails shifting through the stiff air around them, her heart beat slower and her nerves didn't feel as if they were on fire. Leaning in toward Dom until her cheek lightly rests upon his, the contact sizzles between them. Her eyes stay upon the spire in front of them as he dusts off the carving. Other than the horrified facial image, the other markings made no sense to her either. No matter which way she would look at it, she couldn't read what it said. The thought that it was something terrible sent a shiver down her spine. "Let's hope its not a curse," she whispers after Dom suggests that they're looking at inscriptions. This was something straight from her father's fairytales. Gods had temples like this. Great, glorious, illuminating buildings carved from stone and gems so others had a place to worship them. Lumine's eyes flit around. Was this just a giant temple for a god? Still waiting to be unburied by the earthquakes? Lumine is pulled from her thoughts at the next high pitched wail that lights the sky. Were they getting louder? Her brow furrows as her body attempts to shift closer to Dom where he rests his chin over her shoulders. Protection. Just like her brothers would, but different. Butterflies flutter in her stomach, nearly making her nauseous. Had Dom being this close always made her feel so light? "Good idea," Lumine's voice is a bit too high for her normal tone. Clearing her throat, she gives the thoughts of different a shake from herself as she looks around. The shrieking... Where was it coming from? Her eyes wander up the not-trees to the varying holes in them. Surely not those. "Only time I've ever heard wind similar to this was up high on the mountain or through trees," she mentions, wondering how the wind could be so piercing in such an open land. Lumine Trygg

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Exploring is supposed to be fun, being with his best friend is supposed to be fun, but this? This is... a lot. The scar that had opened up within the land, and the splinters that pierced it, drawing them in without answers. Screaming into the void with no reprieve, now. And then there's Lumi, close and real and solid by his side. It gives Dom purpose, even if that purpose is keeping her safe. Protecting her from whatever was in here, and whatever they'd find as they ventured deeper. A magnetism that he can't set aside, even if he's supposed to.

"What do you know about curses?" Truthfully, Dominus has no idea. Maybe he should have paid more attention during lessons, the days when he'd been too busy daydreaming and stretching out in the sun.

With the strange red skies, he misses the sun. He's got as much warmth and light, stretching over his shoulders and settling in, now that he's with Lumi. It's all he needs, drawing him deeper into the Prominence in search of answers.

Weaving through the spires, trying to shake the unsettling feelings the shrieking brought about, Dominus mulls over her words. "When the storms are really bad, it sounds like this through the caves on Alias, toward the top of our mountain too." As they move, Dom sticks close to her side. Ready to throw himself in front of anything that got too sketchy, somewhere between protective and possessive. "You know, when the clouds aren't too bad, I can see your mountain from mine, in the distance. I was sick for a while, but I kept looking out, thinking about you." The admission is quiet, words chosen thoughtfully. Not the best time for admissions, but was there ever going to be one better?

"Dominus Mendacium"

Lumine realizes that if she had come alone, she probably wouldn’t have had the bravery to continue. Yet, with Dom at her side, being close enough to protect her, to feel ever hair on the parts of him that brushed her, it settled whatever nervousness she felt. As long as he was by her side, they could face anything. Well, almost anything.

“What I do know about them is if this is a curse, whoever caused it did something really, really bad,” her lips quiver, teeth glinting in the red light of the sun as a shiver rolls down her spine. She really, truly hoped that this had nothing to do with gods and curses. If it did, they were doomed.

Trying to keep herself calm, Lumine follows Dom further into the spire filled land. Her eyes flick back and forth, sweeping from rusted metal pillar to the next, noticing how similar they all were. What wasn’t similar was what way they faced and the angles they leaned in. Unusual, but perhaps there was a purpose?

She listens to his words, a frown lacing her lips. Is that why he had stopped coming to visit along the border? Not that she had really kept trying. It was mostly her fault surely. She’d gone through some dark moments. A sigh leaves her as she smiles at Dom, her eyes crinkling at the corner. “How could would it have been if we could see each other from our mountains?” Her voice is soft as she admits it. Admits that she would have liked that even if she despised that mountain.