She holds up her hand, revealing the coiled viper ready to strike. "Mine is a snek."
"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."
James took a closer look at all of their markings as he revealed his, holding his hand out. His looked like a king’s crown, which he assumed to be self explanatory - at least for what it was. As for the meaning, he was still working on that.
“And for you two,” he said, looking at the two girls. “The symbols are significant in some way to you personally?”
"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."
James nodded to them and looked back at his own mark. If the crown meant anything, it held only a cruel and ironic meaning that he would certainly not disclose with these strangers.
"So we can rule out the markings as being random. Clearly they were picked specifically for us. That means that whoever... or whatever did this did it with some intentionality, even though we may perceive it to be random, since we are strangers."
"Could be a spell or something," Auryon points out. "Might be a different kind of entity than a person."
"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."
He shook his head. "Magic doesn't work like that."
In a world constructed of advanced technology, he only came into contact with others of his kind on rare occasions. Still, the Ancients had taught him well. He knew more about how magic affected the universe than any of the people he had met in the past centuries. Magic wouldn't cast a marking onto someone's skin; someone would have to be controlling it. Even if that individual wasn't made of flesh and blood, they would still be a person.
He lifted his hand up and observed the mark on it once more. "Maybe nanobots have been injected into our hands, creating this design. Their signal could correspond to the ones on the door and trigger the door's response." It wouldn't have been the strangest thing he had ever dealt with, though it would certainly be one of the more interesting ones.
"Nanobots?" What kind of nonsense was that? Adamina hated to admit that she had no idea what these strange people in strange clothing even meant. As far as she knew, there was no such thing as magic, either.
"And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:7
"Nano-" he started to repeat, only to come to the horrifying realization that the people here probably had no idea what he was talking about. Even the most advanced societies on Earth only thought of them as little more than science fiction! "They're small electronic devices," he said. "They're so small that you can't see them, and they can do really impressive things when they're put together."
"Sweet, that's like that sci-fi book. Besides, it could be magic - d-"
Don't say it.
She pushes the voice from her mind, struggling to block it out. "-d-demonic."
"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."
His eyes widened. Hand shaking as he shoved it into his pocket, he slowly turned to look at her. Frantic, horrified thoughts ran through his mind as he stared at her. How could she have known-
No, she wasn't looking at him. Her focus was on him, but it wasn't a soul-searching, accusatory look. Her attention was only on him because he had been the last one to speak. Besides, most cultures had some form of demons in their myths. Didn't it make sense for Auryon's to as well?
But, still, he couldn't shake the feeling that there was more to her suggestion than she was letting on.
Her jaw clenches as she slips her hands into her pockets, hiding the searing pain that just flashed through her arm as she spoke the final word despite the voice's bidding to do otherwise. She's a good actor, however; she's practiced for many years.
"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."
James was taken aback by the casual mention of magic, and even more so by the wildly foreign and innacurate deacription of it from both parties. His surprise, however, was masked by his usual neutral expression.
At first, he’d thought perhaps what was going on could be explained by things currently within his realm of knowledge. But it seemed that this situation, along with these new and strange people, was something otherworldly. Was it possible that there were other worlds? Other... universes? What could explain their situation and how they all go here, at this place that, for all he knew, might stand outside of time or exist in a reality he did not know.
The dawning of this realization was terrifying. But he simply continued to look at the three with the same expression and the same general confusion thwy all had.
He noticed the tension between Auryon and Leo. At the moment, in comparison to his existensial crisis, it seemed inconsequential. But in lieu of the prolonged silence, he broke it.
“It may be best - since theorizing will only get us so far - to explore this place as much as is possible. If we’re here for a reason, we may find answers here, and maybe even a way out. But we will not know unless we try.”
"That sounds like a good idea," he agreed. He cast one last look over in Auryon's direction, trying to ignore the chill that had set in. No matter how hard he tried to convince himself that she was talking about something else, he still felt as if it was a veiled comment about him.
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