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Calus: A once-glorious monument, now little more than a sunken head. All things decay and change. It is the nature of the universe. Entropy knows no master, walking hand in hand with the phantom of time. All things that exist are doomed to crumble. Only that which does not exist — which has never existed — is truly free. Contemplate this, my friend.
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The Crow: Looks like Calus has seen better days.
Calus: There is an unplanned truth in the monument's depiction of my form. Just as I have let this statue crumble, so have I allowed myself to. This withered flesh is an inefficient vessel by which to explore the limits of sensation the universe allows. I wish for something new.
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Calus: I imagine this is how Caiatl must see me. A crumbling monument to indulgence, long forgotten. It matters not. I gave my daughter everything she needed to succeed, and she returned the favor with a knife in my back. And yet, I continue to give her chance after chance. Hoping that, perhaps, she will see reason. That I only want what is best for her.
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The Crow: Huh. Cabal really do love their war beasts. I wonder if this was a specific one.
Calus: Milos, Caiatl's first war beast. I gifted it to her when she was just a girl. She was so very attached to it. Too attached. I had it butchered. It felt insulting for her to love an animal more than her father.
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Calus: War beasts are celebrated part of Cabal culture. They were native to our homeworld, Torobatl... when such a world still existed. In my era, each war beast was bred to serve a specific handler from birth. The bond between war beast and soldier was profound. I assume Ghaul saw fit to change that, turning them into something that is a military asset and not a partner. A shame.
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The Crow: War beast statue. Gold-plated and... can't tell what the material beneath is. Definitely radioactive, though. I wonder if Saladin has a war beast of his own, now that he's working with Caiatl? It's probably best that he's not here, though. With his history? [chuckles ruefully] I'd hate to see what Nightmare the Leviathan would create for him.
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Calus: They are majestic, are they not? These fungi are not unlike your world's mushrooms in how they live, how they breathe, how they grow. Their mycelial networks do not proliferate in soil, but rather spread like ethereal conduits between dimensions of space.
The Crow: This... sounds a lot like the Ley Lines in the Dreaming City. Is that possible?
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Calus: Do you know these fungi are drawn to the unique psychological phenomena of death? The moment of true terror before life ends… the death of sentient beings fosters the growth of these fungi. Normally it takes centuries for them to spread like this, but…
The Crow: But Calus sacrificed countless lives to feed his pet project. This is horrifying.
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Calus: I have become quite attached to this fungus since I discovered it on a world far from yours. It grew in great forests across the planet. Even here, infinitely far from where the first spore was harvested, they remain connected. Darkness is many things, Guardian. Many things.
The Crow: I'm sure Eris might find this information... insightful. But I'm a bit nervous about intelligent fungus that can think across the void of space.