Lord Luminous

Without warning, a gargantuan glowing armored body fills the throne.

It is like an eagle, but on its head is the head of a stag, with an array of antlers that form leafy branches. Its feathers appear to be made of glowing plates.

Its eyes are like blazing fires, blinding to stare at for too long. It stares at the travelers gathered by the roost of the Drifting Star.

"Yara, Malephon, Tek, Nipkin, and Leuvitte."

"I am...the Lord Luminous! The Master of the Gossamer City! Destroyer of the Darkness! Defender of the Abyss!"
Its words appear to hang in the air like motes of brilliant light.

"My loyal Drifting Star has told me of your favors done to protect my city. I have even learned of your plights.

There are, oddly enough, bones of a large creature scattered around in the corners of the room

The Rabbit lets out a hoarse choke, and coughs, as things inside it begin to click and churn.

Stuffing escapes through new tears in its body as the bones inside it warp themselves.

"Deliver it to the Waters of Light below, Drifting Star." The Antlered Eagle on the throne orders.

The Drifting Star seizes the Thief in its talons and swiftly departs.
"The transformation will take time. It will not be pleasant." The Antlered Eagle says.

"Before, there was one Yara." Leuvitte says, astonished, his lizard eyes darting. "Now there are two very different ones!"

"Lord Luminous." Masked Yara says. "Thank you for your help.

"This is a just reward indeed.

"My service in this vessel, I offer to you." Masked Yara turns to the Lord, and to the Drifting Star, and to the Swan, and bows to each.

Masked Yara also sheds any clothing and equipment it still wore. "I do not need these now." It says. "My blades carry the force behind them of death itself."

Fine grains of grey dust are depositing themselves in a circle around it.
"Defend my city, Reaper." The Antlered Eagle replies. "Your duty is endless. Your service is eternal."
"Farewell, Tek. Farewell, remnants of Yara." The Reaper says, with Yara's old voice.

"Whatever you do, I shall stay here and perform the bidden of the Lord Luminous. But I am no longer bound to you. Our fates may part ways."

Those behind Leuvitte can see the human features on his wings open their eyes in alarm, and the mouth begin to open in a silent plea.

But a sudden column of light envelops him.

Malephon can see the pointed, wing-like flowers on the walls wilt as luminous secretion inside them is consumed.

"The union is formed. You shall be another bearer of my luminosity." The Antlered Eagle intones.

The wings are sheathed in golden light, with no face visible on them any longer.

A pair of antlers extend from the lizard's head, orbs of light balanced on the points at the end of the prongs.

"Your weakness is purged. The man lies on the floor. The new creation rises."

Indeed, on the floor are a ghastly pale, slightly charred

set of human features - a pair of eyes, a nose, lips and teeth.

Just under the deck, Yara might notice the surface of a small island rise above the lake of secretions.

It appears to be made entirely of bones.
Light-creatures constantly crawl down to the deck or the island to harvest luminous secretions.

Yara can tell that the bones definitely appear to be of the same large animal or animals that he saw in the audience chamber.

They look similar to the bones of the stag skeleton on the portrait - but they are all body bones. Legs, spine, ribs, no head

In addition, there appear to be no necks.

The bones are all visibly ancient and grotesquely yellowed. They look very similar indeed to the bones in the painting that was recovered from the tower.

Yara does also see a small part of what appears to be a centipede of stag bones through gaps in the ceiling above.

He can see neither its end nor its beginning. Ribs are connected to tail with a single unified spine.

The legs of the skeleton are not upright, but arranged in a strange configuration, like insect legs.

The centipede thing is not moving as it stands, filling the halls on the floor above.

Yara can also eventually see another end of the stag skeleton ends under a curtain that hide the skeleton behind a certain point.

A light-creature stands guard at the curtain, playing a kind of solitaire game with marbles, dice, and seven bowls.

"That is where the Luminous Lord terminates." The guard replies to Yara.

"The Lord is quite sensitive about this and prefers that mortal eyes do not gaze upon it."

"Even I have not. The Lord knows all that happens in the proximity of its body, though it often does not respond.

"It is not my wish to be unmade. There are so many iterations of the game yet to play out! I haven't even started with the advanced board yet."

He taps his chin. "Well, no wonder Lord Luminous was so willing to fill Leuvitte with power as he did. He is a champion spearheading a colonization attempt."

"To explain a little, there is little reason to stay here at the edge of the abyss, if your world will be a more productive place to dwell, without having to contend with shadow creatures." The giant owl replies.

"We get all we desire from the Lord. The Forest provides nothing except safety.

"Perhaps? We aren't sure." The Drifting Star replies uncertainly.

"We have quelled the incursions at the edge of reality for...longer than is possible to explain.

"We have had many great victories which only proved to be hollow, fruitless, temporary.

"Most of the denizens of this city are callow youths. They remember naught of the greatest extent of our power, when our bastions formed a ring of bulwarks...

"Now, it is the Lord, the Eldest, and of course the Arid Watcher who are solely left to remember..." The Drifting Star sighs to itself in a series of low hoots.

As the Drifting Owl flies away, leading everyone out (Nipkin cradled in Leuvitte's arms), Malephon can just catch a glimpse of something invisible, detectable only by the large disturbances its spellform makes in the ambient magic fields, scurrying down on many legs from one of the alcoves in the ceiling, moving towards the giant Swan, which looks expectantly in its direction.

In the very back of the room, there is a giant painting of a skeletal stag. Light pours out from its eye sockets.

Spiders crawl over its bones.

The ceiling of the room is undifferentiated shadow.