Sidus' touch along her mane was gentle and soothing as he spoke again, "I am not meaning to scold you, Ashterra. This is something none of us knew to expect. Now that we do, you must take precautions in the future, that is all," he stood and walked forward, his magic wrapping the tree once the token was found and removed.
He took the water including that on the floor with it and the bubble of power that contained them disappeared before he stepped back towards Ash once more, "The first precaution is taking your time, Ashterra. You cannot force growth and while you did have the ability for this, you were not prepared for the mana expenditure. You must take things at a slower pace, allow yourself time to master how you cast here and for your mana and control over it to grow before facing such a challenge again."
He backed off again, eyes on Lucrum as he waited for the other god to remove the sanctions he'd placed upon Ashterra. Lucrum moved to her side, his touch along her mane gentle and moved as if to help her stand.
She felt the magic of the shift run through her, aided in its swiftness by Lucrum's own. His arm wrapped around her waist gently as he made certain she was steady on her feet before stepping away slightly. He had a sad look to him, no doubt afraid he'd doomed the only connection between them to be animosity with his actions.
Fel, either being entirely clueless to the situation in its whole or emboldened by getting away with speaking to Lucrum as she had earlier, piped up once more, "So, there something going on between the two of you?"
Ash shrugged her shoulders slightly, though Fel thought she saw a slight darkening of her cheeks in the shadows the hood cast on her face. The shift had clearly deactivated the magic on it that hid her expression entirely.
Lucrum, rather than speaking an answer immediately, moved to catch hold of Ash's hand and bring it to his lips before kissing it gently, "It would be my dearest wish for things to be so," he said gently, "And it would honor me more than any that have said my name in worship since my waking as a god," with those words he disappeared, leaving Ash's face so very deeply flushed that the hood's shadows were unable to conceal it in the slightest.
Having been largely raised by Sidus, Ash knew well the weight of the words he'd just spoken. It was not something he'd say in jest. Even putting aside his youth, comparative to the age of the other gods, the words held incredible weight. After a moment of silence Ash started a tirade, though she used a very old dialect of their language to do so.
Fel grinned when her tirade finally came to an end, "Creative use of colorful language," she said, drawing Ash's confused gaze, "Though my teacher would likely dock you points for diction."
Sidus' voice was a little droll as he responded, "Her diction was perfect, your teacher's recollection is what has faded. I could swear I never taught you such phrases, though," Ash lowered her head with an apology for her language but he only chuckled ever so slightly and moved to rest his hand on her head, "Take care, Ashterra. He is young and often impertinent, he will be a constant trial to keep pace with and I am not certain that is what you seek."
Before Ash could argue one way or another, Sidus was gone, leaving her in the bottom of the dungeon with her party. She glanced at all of them, flushing once more and almost launching into another tirade of insults for the god of connections considering the various levels of curiosity and entertainment in their expressions.
"Rude child barely away from his mother's breast, huh?" Yarrow stated, showing that he had also understood some of her tirade.
Gardenia shook her head slightly, "I fear you missed some key points in pronunciation," her smile held a bit of humor, "She called him fatherless, in a way."
Fi was the one to restore order, using only two simple words, "Stop teasing."
Each of them glanced away, looking guilty, and Yarrow took the lead as they headed for the exit, "We shouldn't linger here too long anyway. I doubt Lord Lucrum wants to keep this place connected any longer than he must. He's likely spending a fair amount of power keeping it from crumbling even now."
They stepped back into the main room and all made their way towards the door in the chamber that had also contained their loot chest. Ash reactivated the magic on the hood to hide her face, not wanting to chance that she was still even slightly flushed and would draw questions. Opening the exit door revealed the back of the Blazewing from before, Ailanthus. He moved out of their way and watched impartially as it swung shut behind them and crumbled to dust.
"Out of courtesy that the guardians of the new dungeon might also know what was going on, Lord Lucrum left us an orb with which to watch your progress," the large orb that had been floating above the door disappeared, falling into golden dust that blew away in the light breeze, he said in explanation before lowering his head slightly in Ash's direction, "I would challenge you in the future. After you have had time to cultivate your strength properly to do so."
One of the others that had guarded the door alongside him stepped forward, "I would challenge you now as I believe our skill levels are a good match. Never before have I seen someone that could dual-cast."
None of her party members so much as twitched at his words or tried to correct him that she had been casting more than two spells simultaneously. The shielding spells were, after all, harder to see than the attack spells she'd been using when in her storage. It was also much easier to give credit for such things to Fi, a known master in the art of shielding magic.
Ash, not really in the mood, barely glanced at him, "Challenge denied."
He responded, his tone scathing and his tone lowered as he spoke what he knew was the kind of thing that could get him in a great deal of trouble, "I'd always heard that the horses Sidus made were cowards."
"I revise my decision," her voice was perfectly steady, laced with a dangerous anger as she glanced towards Ailanthus, "Will you witness this duel?"