“After that day, they constantly butted heads against each other in the city council. My sister would propose to use her power further to intimidate neighboring countries vying to annex the city or reinforce the city’s defense. Sappho, on the other hand, would reject her proposals stating that inciting the wrath of those countries and lowering the city’s chance at successful peace negotiations are the opposite of what they should do. Basically, my sister would want to go out of the city to do things, and Sappho would say no. I don’t know enough about politics to say if Sappho had a legitimate point or not, but it definitely frustrated my sister and worsened their relationship.

It also didn’t help that Attis had very public displays of love for my sister. Despite his towering and intimidating appearance, he was a very tender man that would drop anything he’s doing if Cybele needed something from him. He never forced her to do anything she didn’t want, and even when they had arguments, it always ended peacefully. My sister would tell me that there was no one else she loved more in this world than him. There truly wasn’t any indication that she would curse him at all.”

“Then why? Why would she do it?” Ryder blurted.

“I wondered why myself too, even though there is one possible explanation that may explain her decision. For now, I'll continue on with the next turning point: the plague. When it arrived, both Sappho and my sister did their best to help the city. They even started working together instead of going against each other, but people died regardless, and my mother was among the first. Right as Sappho proposed to send Attis and his guards into the jungle to slay the monster responsible for the plague, the mayor surprised everyone by introducing a wise mage he had hired. He assured that the mage came from a place where our region’s politics didn’t reach them, and asked everyone to trust what the mage has to say.

The mage first explained what Cybele really is. She is an entity known as The Lady of The Wild. The Lady would be randomly born into a humanoid tribe that lives near or inside a dangerous habitat. In our case, it’s the jungle at our doorstep. She was a gift from one of the great gods that became our sun to provide humanoid tribes a chance at survival at the dawn of creation. However, one of the other great gods found this to be unfair, so they created a counterpart called The Pestilence. They would be born in those same habitats if they were on the verge of destruction. It would annihilate any tribes that posed a threat to the habitat it was born into. Unlike The Lady, there was only one way to eliminate it, and that is by killing The Lady in a ritual. This way, equilibrium will be restored, where neither the tribes nor the habitats can lord over the other, and both have a chance to co-exist instead.” Syrinx paused and took a few sips from the cup.

“So that’s why she had to die. I was wondering what kind of creature requires this kind of ritual to kill. Do you know about this, Brown? Wait, there’s no way Purple doesn’t know about this, right? Did he not say anything about it on purpose?” Ryder turned to his dragon.

“I had my suspicions, and I believe he did, too. I do not know his reasoning, but I refrained from jumping to conclusions because we didn’t have enough information,” Brown replied.

“So, there really is no other way to kill a Pestilence?”

“There are, but unless they are as powerful as The Four Great Powers, that is the only way. I know what you’re going to ask, but the answer is no, and I suspect the mayor had likely tried it, too. As benevolent as Purple’s sister is, this is unfortunately below the scope of responsibility she had taken on.”

“I see…” The human then noticed the two Felmiers were staring at both of them in a puzzled yet intrigued way. “Uh, please continue with your story, Ms. Miuzika.”

“Sounds like I’m going to have a good time listening to your stories, young man.” Syrinx chuckled. “So, everyone rejected the idea of killing my sister, but they had to go along with it because there were no other solutions. Cybele went to Sappho first for help, but since the majority of the council sided with the mayor, it was a dead end there. Then she and I went to the mage to question him about all relevant details that might lead to an alternate solution, but he insisted that there were none. Even though our effort seemed fruitless, my sister noted something odd. Sure, the city had expanded, but the jungle was mostly unaffected. She wasn’t growing a ludicrous amount of crops around the city either, so why did the Pestilence show up?

So, one night, my sister sneaked out of the city to investigate the Pestilence. It was then she noticed there was someone in a hood communing with the creature in an obscure spot at the edge of the jungle. Just as my sister was about to confront the figure, they teleported away, and the Pestilence vanished into the jungle. There was only one thing she could identify on the figure - an amber-colored wooden left arm, the same one that Sappho had.”

“So she really was a spy?” Findir spoke up.

“That’s what we thought, so we confronted her the next day. She, of course, denies it, stating that she wasn’t the only one in the region with that same arm. Furthermore, we didn’t have any evidence, and she had an alibi, so there was nothing we could do. Then, we went to the mayor and the mage to tell them that the Pestilence was controlled by Sappho. My sister also listed out her reasoning as to why a Pestilence shouldn’t have showed up in the first place. Neither of them were convinced, no matter what we said. Even worse, they immediately put anti-magic cuffs on my sister and imprisoned her in the dungeon because they thought she was going to escape.

Out of desperation, I started rallying people for support. But, again, it didn’t work, because other people were as desperate as me to keep their family members alive. Attis did his best too, but he was always a bit of a meathead. He wasn’t willing to betray the people he swore to protect either, so all he could do was to stay by my sister’s side whenever possible.”

“It must’ve broken all yer hearts for not bein' able to help her.” Findir patted the old woman’s wrinkly hand.

Syrinx closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “After all these years, sometimes I still can’t help but blame myself for not doing absolutely everything I could to save her, even if it meant I had to hurt someone else.” Her eyes opened as a sigh slipped through her lips. “Maybe I didn’t because I believed Attis would’ve broken his vow as the captain of the city guard to escape the city with her. I thought that was going to happen when he visited her during the night before the ritual, after I saw Sappho meet him and give him the key to unlock the dungeon’s cell.”