What are this?

there are no markings on her country roads no signs that show the way back home salubrious? It wasn't often Otem came across a word (in this language anyways), that she didn't know. Her mother had been an academic and so despite the fact that Otem was still quite young, her education had been vast and positioned as one of her most important past-times. From the context Otem assumed the word had something to do with the viscocity or chemical composition of the wall before her, but she had no idea whether it meant that it was hard or soft, thick or thin. "Mmhmm.." Otem agreed nuetrally, making a mental note to try and find the exact definition later. She couldn't ask him of course. Ignorance was a first class offence in Otem's family (or it was when they were around anyways), and so Otem kept her lips politely closed and nodded along. As Rixen emphasized just how much longer she'd been here than he, Otem felt herself internally bristle at the implication. Did he mean that she should know more, seeing as she'd been here longer? The thought made her want to grind her teeth and lash out, but she kept her composure calm and her flighty emotional responses in-check. "I wonder if it has anything to do with the other Gods ... the wolf, crocodile, and tiger.. Her voice trailed off as she thought of the tales told to her back home, about the Riftian Gods that had come to Helovia and how they had been slain. Hadn't there been black shadows then? Did that perhaps have something to do with this? Staring at her and Rixen's orb, Otem waited. And waited. And waited. Hers hung by her shoulder, as it always had, bobbing on an unseen tide that allowed it to float without compromise in the air. "What're you even for?" Otem asked rhetorically with a sigh of exasperation as the balls of hope continued to have on effect on the wall of darkness before them.

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