Rularu, much like Solvieg was not exactly looking forward to this meeting. She could hardly believe it when she heard about Dormagoro's sacrifice. She'd never met any of the Goron leaders before, given that both species environments don't exactly mesh well with the other species, but she'd heard many great things about them. From what she had gatheredd, Dormagoro was like a son to Solveig, so she didn't even want to begin to imagine the kind of pain he must be going through; for such a young man's life to be snuffed out in such a manner. It was heartbreaking, to say the least. Her heart also went out to Marianne over her missing mentor. Either way, she was in rough shape, but she needed to go to this council. While she technically wasn't the leader of the expedition she went on, she was the future leader of her people; even if she didn't exactly feel very deserving of that status. Because of her impulsiveness, the actual leader, while not in any danger, was severely injured.

She felt about five inches tall when she came to and learned about what had happened. She was supposed to be leading her people, not getting them hurt with her rash behavior. It served as a serious wake-up call to the young princess, who, until then, had simply been doing whatever she pleased. Despite all of the praise she'd been receiving for her part in the expedition, she still had much to learn about becoming the leader her people needed. It was time to start taking this more seriously, which meant she needed to do some reflecting. To evaluate what was important to her, and figure out how important she was going to be; not just to Zora's Domain, but to Hyrule as a whole. Well, she at least knew of one thing, outside of her people of course, that was very important; now, more than ever, Marianne was a sight for sore eyes. The mood of this meeting made it hard for her to act like her usual lovesick self, and the circumstances weren't exactly pleasant, but it was still nonetheless good to see her.

When she entered the room, the first thing most people would have noticed is that she was wrapped up in some waterproof bandages, and her arm was in a sling. None of her injuries were serious; at least nothing that a few weeks of taking it easy wouldn't fix. Her shoulder was in especially rough shape; she could still move her arm, but doing so was painful, thus the sling. But it was her duty to be there, so she was there. After listening to Solveig recount his expedition into the Goron mines, she nodded and went into hers. "There's not a lot to say that won't essentially be a different version of your recounts. The creatures in the temple were unusually aggressive...a Shell Blade had been devoured by a school of Skullfish, who had gathered in extremely large numbers and were swarming the waters. If neither of you are aware, both of those are extremely unnatural. There were also many Lizalfos in the temple...that in and of itself isn't unusual, but, again, they were gathered in greater numbers than usual. And like Solveig mentioned, many of them were cloaked in darkness as well."

She let out a soft sigh. "To make a somewhat long story short, we eventually found our way to the source of it all, and encountered a Morpheel...I'll spare you the full details, but they're an extremely large aquatic monster that we'd long thought extinct. Phima and I were injured in the fight...had she not come to my rescue when several Bomb Fish detonated at once, I...likely would not still be here. Even then, we still weren't able to completely escape the blast, though...she took the brunt of it. Nevertheless, her injuries were severe, but, thankfully, not life-threatening. Either way, the others were able to vanquish the beast after it was weakened by the same blasts, and we were able to complete the mission." She explained, a grim expression on her face.

She let out a tired and weary sigh, her guilt over Phima's injuries painfully obvious. As she finished her recounting of the events at the Lakebed Temple, she produced the mirror shard they retrieved and placed it onto the table in front of her, encased in a a layer of magical ice to prevent it from spreading its dark influence any further. "Whatever the case, this thing was causing a lot of trouble for our people. Given how it's directly connected to the rest of Hyrule, I don't even want to imagine how bad it could have been if its influence had managed to spread beyond Lake Hylia. To say nothing of the horrors that would have been afflicted on Zora's Domain itself..."

As Rularu listened to Marianne speak, she too started to become curious as to why the monkeys were apparently immune to the mirror shard's influence. Hearing Solvieg's take on things, Rularu felt compelled to weigh in on that matter. "...if I may, I'm beginning to wonder if it's not necessarily plants and animals that the shards influenced, but naturally aggressive monsters. It would explain why the monkeys weren't affected. I've never seen one up close, but from what I hear, they can be mischievous, but are rarely outwardly aggressive. If there's no aggression to amplify, then it would stand to reason that they'd be unaffected by the mirror's dark magic."

"As for this...Aurosh person at the mines, perhaps he had evil intentions that allowed the dark shard to take old of him as well. Though, I admit this is only speculation on my part. As for whether the Shell Blades were under its influence, I'm afraid I can't say for sure, as they were already dead when we got there. Still, the way Skullfish rip and tear into their prey is unmistakable, which is how we knew what had happened. As for the Skullfish themselves...well...everything about what we saw them do was unnatural. Firstly, they tend to swim around in schools of six or seven fish; ten at most. Here, they were swarming the waters in numbers that easily went into the hundreds."

Rularu paused a bit, still trying to wrap her head around it as she continued speaking "Additionally, assuming they don't run into a hapless swimmer or a careless adventurer, they tend to feed on large, slow-moving fish or monsters. Shell Blades are neither of those things, so they normally avoid them. Especially since a Shell Blade would have little trouble clamping down on it with its jagged shell. But here. they were able to overwhelm them with sheer numbers." She shuddered at the implications. Skullfish were annoying to deal with as it was, despite being incredibly weak creatures on their own. Having to face massive swarms of them; the mere thought was the stuff of nightmares.

"Oh...it's worth noting that, ever since the shard was removed from the temple, our scouts have confirmed that the Skullfish have since returned to their normal behavior. It seems that whatever intelligence was granted to them by the dark magic has worn off, so they've gone back to being opportunistic scavengers who travel in small schools. The Lizalfos are likewise back to their normal strength and behavior. As for the Morpheel...I'm not sure which displeases me more, the idea of it laying dormant in the temple for so long, or the possibility that the mirror shard's dark magic may have somehow forced a weaker creature in the Temple to evolve into one. As I mentioned before, Morpheel were thought to be extinct...so actually coming across one was an unpleasant surprise, to say the least..."

Rularu listened closely as Marianne went on to give her account of her interactions with a shady-sounding mask salesman. Clearly not the most trustworthy source of information, yet she couldn't deny that what he said sounded plausible. If what this man said was true, regardless of how dubious it sounded, it would be foolish to ignore it. Of course, that was a very strong "if". Just who was this man? Where did he come from? How does he even know about all of this? Too many questions left unanswered. And that was to say nothing of many risks that would involved in verifying his words.

Nevertheless, Rularu had already decided. If Marianne felt that it was worth the risk to look into what this man had told her, then she would follow her. Though, she did have to address one thing "I'm tempted to agree with Solvieg on this. I'm frankly more worried about who or what is causing the endless sandstorm than any sort of monster it may or may not be keeping at bay. I find it hard to believe that a spell of the magnitude that would be required to create such storm would be able last without someone sustaining it. Especially with how it's been raging nonstop for centuries."

She paused for a moment, then nodded. "That said, I would be honored to go into battle with you. That said...I can't say I'm thrilled by the prospect of going into the desert myself. Zoras don't handle dry places or extreme heat very well, and such a place is plagued with both. Additionally, while I do support your plan, I'd suggest waiting at least a few weeks before executing it. For one, I'm currently in no condition to be running off into battle. Additionally, if the desert is even half as harsh as I've heard, we'll need time to prepare if we want to safely cross it."

She pauses for a moment, before speaking again. Though it sounds more like she's speaking aloud to herself rather than directly addressing Marianne or Solvieg. "I'm going to need to bring a lot of water with me...and find a way to protect myself from the heat...maybe I should consult Father about this...he may know something..."