Morgana looked over to Neverweather with an expression as cool as ice, to the volcano still churning away nearby, and then to the football sized hunk of rock lying on the floor. Her face showed not a hint of concern about the situation, yet it was that faint shimmer of light in her eyes that betrayed the fact that she found this whole situation incredibly amusing.
"So..." Tio began hesitantly. "Are you going to... you know... help me out any time soon?"
"Oh of course, of course... eventually. Just let me savour this for a while."
Tio would have face-palmed at this point had he been capable of it, but his current circumstance made that impossible. He could not face palm as he currently had no palms, or hands, arms, limbs, or any part of his body beneath the neck. He was currently nothing more than a disembodied head trapped with a smooth orb of glass that shimmered slightly with an inner light, and was rocking back and forth slightly across the ground as he tried in vain to move around.
Morgana picked up his prison and brought it up to her eye level, deliberately holding it upside down so that his head clunked against the roof. "Care to share how this happened?"
"You're enjoying this, aren't you?"
"Maybe a little. Now come on, talk."
Tio sighed in exasperation. "Well, it went a little something like this..."
As Tio's fingers touched the chunk of rock a spark of heat flashed through them and settled in his chest, and the glow previously emanating from the rock faded to nothingness. It was hot and fierce, unlike what he was used to, but Tio definitely recognised the spark as divine power. It was of a different nature to his own, but after settling in his stomach Tio could feel the heat fade as the power was broken down and digested into himself.
So this was the work of one of the other Immortals then? Which one? And more importantly what were they planning to do by keeping all this power cooking up in a volcano? Whatever the case it occurred to Tio that, as the Devout, it was his job to put a stop to godly related issues that could threaten Scalvoris, and therefor he should probably take all this latent divide energy away. And if the only way of doing that just so happened to be absorbing the energy for himself then there was really no helping it right?
Taking his now empty hunk of rock lava back over to the lava stream, Tio touched the tip of the rock against the surface of the stream and watched as the glow from the lava diffused back into the rock, which in turn travelled through his hands and into his chest. It was like water being drained into a sinkhole, and Tio's chest started to heat up as more and more power flooded into him. He started to sweat as a feverish heat overcame him.
Then it started to burn.
Tio winced as the energy flooding into him started to get too hot to handle. There was just too much to digest at once. Quickly he ripped the rock away from the lava stream and staggered back, but the excess of divine energy clearly didn't appreciate the sudden movement and began to, for want of a better word, fizz, causing pins and needles to shoot across his body. The light that he'd seen spilling out across the sky began to coat over his skin, acting without his control.
"Oh shi-..." Tio began to say as a flash of light burst from out of him.
"So you got greedy, tried to eat more power than you could handle, and ended up paying the price? Figures." Morgana deadpanned, giving him a disapproving frown.
"Well... yes... but to be fair to myself I'd never tried this before. I didn't know there was a limit to how much divine energy I could absorb at once before it went out of my control." Tio retorted indignantly. "The other Immortals don't seem to have the same problem, probably because they've grown strong enough to be able to contain that much power. I've got a lot of growing up to do before I can handle that much it seems, otherwise whatever excess energy I take goes a bit nuts and does... well, this sort of thing apparently."
Morgana knelt down and began turning the glass orb back and forth in her hands, examining it whilst completely ignoring Tio's protests. "Why trap you in an orb anyway? Seems like an odd thing to do even for a supposedly random effect."
"Well actually I have a theory on that. One of the other gods filled this volcano with divine energy for a reason. My guess is that they imprisoned something else in a similar container to mine, dropped it into the middle of the volcano, and then supercharged the lava to keep that container strong and refreshed for a long time. Whatever they trapped within the volcano is something they very much want to stay trapped. When I absorbed too much of it, the excess power within me reverted back to performing its original task, and thus wrapped me up in the same kind of prison."
Morgana grimaced and looked cautiously over to the volcano. "Right. And you've just gone and nicked whatever power is keeping this terrible creature locked away."
"Only about half the power."
"The lights in the sky are gone!"
"Yes, but that was only a reflection of the energy in the lava. You mere mortals-..."
Morgana gripped the edges of the orb tighten and shot him a venomous look. "Excuse me?"
"... -Ahem. You lovely, competent, definitely-significant mortals only saw hints of the light because there was so much of it messing with the atmosphere around here. I see the actual lava itself glowing, and while it's about half diminished there's still some left. Whatever is down there has had its sentence considerably reduced, but it wont be breaking free just yet."
That explanation seemed to set Morgana a bit at ease. "That's better than nothing I suppose. How confident are you that your theory is correct."
Tio hummed thoughtfully. "About... Five percent? Maybe six? I don't know what to tell you kiddo, I'm still new to this whole thing. Divine powers make about as much sense as Emea does. I'm just making a guess based off of what I've seen. Now would you mind getting me out of this thing?"
A thoughtful look crossed Morgana's face, and she began drumming her fingers absently on the rim of Tio's orb. Slowly a look of realisation pieced itself together in her eyes, as did a sinking feeling in Tio's gut. "So in order for it to function as a prison within the lava this orb must be completely resistant to heat right?"
"... Yes?"
"And for the sake of Scalvoris' safety it would be best if you knew what was down in the volcano right?"
"I don't like where this is going. At all."
"Just hear me out okay." Morgana continued, starting to get excited as an idea took root in her mind. "You know how to use alchemy to make things resistant to heat-..."
"I think lava classifies as a little bit more than hot."
"- And as long as you're in that orb the lava won't hurt you. I'll go back to the mainland and get a fishing rod, the alchemy ingredients and the equipment needed to make a heat-resistant oil. Then you walk me through how to make the fishing rod lava-proof, and I can use it to lower you down into the volcano and you can take a look at what is hidden inside."
Tio stared at her as if she had suddenly grown three heads. "You want to go fishing in an active volcano using an imprisoned god as bait? That's... brilliant!" He shot her a maniacal grin. "Morgana you're a genius! There's no way that could possible go wrong! Okay, you hurry on back to the mainland. Here's what we're going to need to make this work..."
