*As pepper continued her treatment, Takari's belly deflated to a more reasonable size but it seemed to be slowly swelling, at one time the Sage burped up a very comical stream of silver bubbles then sneezed them into a spinning funnel of popping mist-bubbles*. "The offender was cloaked in Grey... it stopped for a moment right after I swallowed lady Yukiokai, that was the only time I saw them", the Ceadeus explained much calmer now*, "As for removing the goddess from my stomach, asside from cutting me open which she could've done herself, the only option is to return her mirror to her...without it you see, she takes on her physical form, but if she had it in her possession she could return to her spiritual form, which is smaller and more pleasant, as shes less tempted to toy with uuUUS-",<br/><br/>*Takari was interupted as a very large face like a cross between a rabbit and a wolf imprinted itself on Takaris belly looking down at the group with a glaring look about it and pointed a burly finger down at the Sage then cracking its knuckles*, "A-as you can see, shes quite violent...I'm gonna shut up now before she decides to cut me open...if you'd be kind enough to spare me that fate, please find the Mirror, I think the Assailant lost it in the commotion, Lady Yukiokai said she felt its power towards the south, there are ruins out that way. Ask the keepers of the ancient tunnels about the mirror...if they give you trouble, just bring them some fresh meat, there much more reasonable on a full belly."<br/><br/>*With that last bit of advice the white leviathan closed her eyes and fell into slumber, pushing pepper away with prim and polite words of gratitude, she seemed quite elogant even in this state of misery. Pepper responded with "happy to oblige" then stated that the Kho empire trained their troops to combat many types of enemies, foreign forces were but one opponent she could take down, belly aches and sickness could fell their allies just as effectively as an arrow. Then she pulled Springlatch away for a private conversation saying "I want to get this off my chest before we go somewhere dangerous".<br/><br/>[Pepper to Latch]<br/><div style="padding: 3px; background-color: #FFFFFF; border: 1px solid #d8d8d8; font-size: 1em;"><div style="text-transform: uppercase; border-bottom: 1px solid #CCCCCC; margin-bottom: 3px; font-size: 0.8em; font-weight: bold; display: block;"><span onclick="if (this.parentNode.parentNode.getElementsByTagName('div')[1].getElementsByTagName('div')[0].style.display != '') {  this.parentNode.parentNode.getElementsByTagName('div')[1].getElementsByTagName('div')[0].style.display = ''; this.innerHTML = '&lt;b&gt;Spoiler: &lt;/b&gt;&lt;a href=\'#\' onClick=\'return false;\'&gt;hide&lt;/a&gt;'; } else { this.parentNode.parentNode.getElementsByTagName('div')[1].getElementsByTagName('div')[0].style.display = 'none'; this.innerHTML = '&lt;b&gt;Spoiler: &lt;/b&gt;&lt;a href=\'#\' onClick=\'return false;\'&gt;show&lt;/a&gt;'; }"><b>Spoiler: </b><a href="#" onclick="return false;">show</a></span></div><div class="quotecontent"><div style="display: none;">"I'm so angry with you I might spit fire so 'listen up' latch. 'The Way of Power' is far more complicated than "The strongest should rule the weakest". Power is not the same as strength, though strength is a part of it...", *She paused for a moment composing herself*, "The Strength to defend the undefendable, the Wisdom to teach the unteachable, and the Spirit to heal the unhealable...one who posesses these posesses power and only one who has power deserves to rule...ONLY one...This is the way of power...a way for people to find their leader. If you have one the Kho dont have to conquer you but if you dont, you need to submit...otherwise the people become corrupt...otherwise they are vulnerable to the evils within the heart...Also...insult my Khan in front of me again, and I'ma-smack-you...wit-da-tail...I've knocked guys out with this thing...", *After her chinese accented speech and flashing a deadly look at latch, Pepper turned and headed towards the ruins to the south.</div></div></div><br/><br/>*Once Pepper was finished with their conversation(it was more like a one sided explosion of "you damn wrong") she turned from Latch and trotted towards the temples in a much better mood with a loud sigh muttering, "glad to get that off of my chest" in her chinese accented lingo.*