It was odd being back at the Sun Temple - it wasn’t quite home, but it was familiar still. The faint scent of incense and oils filled the air, and Tia couldn’t help but breathe in once the men - the prince, Orion, and Willis - had finally left after dropping off her and Eris at the temple. It had been decided that both women had been through an ordeal, and that the best thing for the both of them would be a wash (Tia was still absolutely covered in dried blood) and a long soak in the hot springs. She was too exhausted to try denying it.

Tia turned over her shoulder to look back at Eris. She gave the other woman - the other magic-user, the other trauma patient, the other caretaker - a small smile. She held up the bread Orion had given her in a silent offer.

Eris returned Tia’s smile and broke off a small piece of bread. She gently tapped it against the larger loaf, mimicking a toast, before popping it into her mouth. As she chewed, Eris surveyed the temple, taking in her surroundings. Compared to the grand Sunfire Citadel in Aurelia, this temple was tiny, but it would suffice. Her gaze then landed on the eternal flame at the center of the temple. She approached it, feeling its warmth intensify with each step. Standing before the flame, Eris paused, bowing at a 45-degree angle and closing her eyes. Silently, she gave thanks to Aelios for allowing her and Tia to survive the ordeal with Willis.

Opening her eyes, Eris turned towards Tia. "Are you feeling any better?" she asked, her soft voice echoing through the empty temple. "I’ve never experienced anything like that." she added, recalling how her disrupted magic had rebounded on her like a weapon, impossible to absorb. She had been exhausted before, after pushing her magic too hard during her research studies, but this was entirely new. To Eris, it was more fascinating than concerning. Something new to be studied. Looking at her hands, she saw her fingers tremble, her body still suffering the consequences of trying to protect the Priestess.

Tia took a bite of her bread, a dirty hand held under it to catch the crumbs. She considered Eris’ words, remembering the way Willis had punched through her shield. Swallowing, she paused. Then she held out the bread for Eris to take with an embarrassed bow.

Both hands free, she took out the notebook and charcoal again and wrote a short message before holding it out to show Eris.

I can only heal. Most don’t try to resist that.

Tia looked down the hall to where the bathing chambers were - she’d spent some time exploring the temple before venturing out into Dawnhaven. She held out an open palm towards the hallway, looking back to Eris.

Eris smiled at the note that Tia wrote, though her eyes were drawn to the notebook itself. Was that… Pleiades's? She could’ve sworn she'd seen it before. But why would the Priestess have anything of his? Shaking off the thought, Eris’s gaze followed the direction in which Tia had gestured to. Having been to the temple before, she knew exactly what the Priestess was suggesting.

“We do need a bath, don’t we?” she said with a smile, following Tia down the hallway. Suddenly aware of the dried blood on her face, she felt a pang of embarrassment—especially in front of a Priestess of Aelios. Then again, the Priestess herself was also covered in blood. As Eris looked at Tia’s hands, her smile faltered slightly. “I swear, Dawnhaven isn’t always like this…”

Tia wrote out another note.

At least I know I’ll be of use here.

If her first day was anything to go by, healers would be very necessary for the survival of Dawnhaven. Tia began walking down the hall. She looked down at the notebook to see her page nearly filled with her own handwriting. She turned the page - only to stop in her tracks.

There were drawings. They were intricate and precise, done with a delicate hand. Notes were scrawled beside each diagram, descriptions of color, texture, size…

Pleiades’ face flashed in Tia’s mind. This wasn’t just a notebook - it was his. Tia’s eyes widened. Her cheeks began to burn as blood rushed to them and Tia was filled with a stunning and complete mortification. He had been offering to loan her the book for their conversation, and she’d presumed to steal it. She could only stare down at it, frozen in place.

Eris stopped a few steps ahead when she noticed Tia had paused. “Everything okay?” She asked, her eyes scanning Tia before settling on the notebook she held. Closing the gap between them, Eris peered at what had caught the Priestess's attention. Drawings? She glanced back up at Tia, who looked shocked, and then back at the drawings. A memory flashed in her mind of Pleiades sitting on the roof of the Alchemy Chamber, sketching not too long ago. “Where did you find this?” She asked, assuming Pleiades must have lost it.

Tia jumped when she heard Eris’ voice suddenly so close. She blinked at her. Then back down at the notebook again. Her face was burning.

She flipped back to the previous page filled with her notes - she wouldn’t dream of writing on a page he’d been working on. She found a space to the side that was free, her writing small and slanted.

Pleiades let me borrow it. I should return it soon.

Eris raised an eyebrow at Tia’s note. "Hm… I didn’t know Pleiades could be kind…" she said, beginning to walk down the hallway with Tia once more. Truthfully, she had never given Pleiades much of a chance to show kindness. Whenever he was around, Eris froze up under his gaze and she tried to avoid him as much as she could. Clearly, the Priestess was much braver than she was.

Tia smiled softly. Under the embarrassment, there was warmth - Pleiades had been both the first blight-born and the first kind face she’d encountered in Dawnhaven.

Exiting the interior of the temple, they were greeted by warm steam blanketing the air and the soothing sounds of the waterfall flowing into the larger public bath area. From above, Eris could make out a few figures in the public area, though the steam obscured their identities. "Seems we're not the only ones with this idea." she remarked, her eyes shifting to the private and gender-separated hot springs situated at the top of the cliffs. Turning her gaze back to Tia, she waited to see which direction the Priestess preferred to go.

Tia hesitated. She was used to the expectation that she lead by example, but it never rested comfortably on her shoulders. She dipped her head, the motion more habit than anything else, and began walking towards the secluded pool. She didn’t have the energy to deal with any more people today.

Tia wound her way over the stones, until she found a small pool out of sight of the temple’s back entrance. Steam rose off the water’s surface, billowing into the night air. After a quick look to Eris for approval, Tia turned and made swift, neat work of her robes. She was careful to wrap the notebook deep in the layers of fabric, lest it get exposed to any water before she had the chance to return it. It was already going to be enough of an embarrassing ordeal, she couldn’t also give it back ruined.

Free of her robes, Tia paused when she looked down at her skin. She was positively covered in bruises, rosy marks along her thighs, her waist, her ribs… marks that would only grow deeper and more mottled as the days went on, evidence of the chaos of her first day in Dawnhaven. Tia pressed her lips together. She didn’t have the nerve to look back up at Eris, and see what expression the other woman might have. It was bad enough she’d seen the mass of scars at her throat. She would think… well, Tia didn’t know what. But the marks on her skin seemed like another failure, all the same.

Eris grimaced at the sight of Tia’s body covered in bruises and quickly averted her gaze, focusing on undoing her belt. Guilt washed over her—she should have been able to heal the Priestess more. She wished Tia’s first day here hadn’t been so terrible and longed to change it, even though she had nothing to do with the cause.

Tia stepped a foot into the spring. She gave a short inhale, body adjusting to the change in temperature. Then she gingerly lowered herself until she was submerged up to her collarbones, feeling every ache and bruise as she moved. A long, shaking sigh escaped her as the water’s warmth seeped into her skin.

Much less gracefully, Eris tossed her clothes aside haphazardly and quickly entered the hot spring to shield her bare skin from the brisk air. Lowering herself up to her neck, she closed her eyes, savoring the moment. "This is nice." she mused, opening her eyes and focusing on Tia again as she raised herself so the water level was just above chest. "I'm glad you're here." Tia, who had taken to leaning back against the edge of the spring, head tilted up and eyes closed, opened a dark eye to look at Eris. She offered a small smile, cheeks slightly warming.

Slowly, Eris waded over to the edge of the pool, looking down toward the public bath. "I'm sorry about what happened…" she said, crossing her arms on the edge of the hot spring and leaning on them, trying to figure out who was at the lower level. Upon inspection, she noticed one of the figures had wings.

Not wanting to grab Pleiades attention, Eris turned back toward Tia and leaned against the edge of the pool. "So..." she began, about to ask Tia in-depth questions about herself, but then realized that she would be forcing the Priestess to try to answer without her notebook. Instead, she opted for yes or no questions that Tia could nod to. "Did you train at the Sunfire Citadel?"

The priestess gave a small nod. She paused, before wading over towards the edge beside Eris. The snow, pale and feather-light as it fell, had formed small piles all around the edge of the spring. Tia reached out a hand and with a finger drew out a loose rectangle, with two large dots in opposite corners - the capitals of Aurelia and Lunaris. She dotted a small grouping outside the bottom left corner, and tapped it twice, looking over her shoulder at Eris. Then she dragged a smooth line through the snow to the Aurelian capital.

“I was there for a few months, training with a healer. It’s a magnificent place.” Eris said, watching as Tia drew something in the snow. She studied it for a moment, trying to decipher what Tia was communicating with her. “The Ember Isles?” She asked, looking to Tia for confirmation. “Is that where you’re from?”

Tia nodded, still looking down at her makeshift map. The look in her eyes was distant, as she smiled sadly down at the small dots that had been home - for a short time, at least. Few Aurelians knew much about the Ember Isles. Most had baseline assumptions: they were impoverished, isolated, with a vastly different culture from the mainland. She hadn’t been there since she was a child.

Blinking away the memories, Tia looked back up to Eris. She held an open palm up to her, and then back down to the map, head tilted in a question.

Looking at the makeshift map in the snow, Eris pointed to the large dot that Tia had drawn a line to from the Ember Isles. "I’m from the capital," she confirmed, turning her blue eyes back to the Priestess. "I’ve never been to the Isles... I’d love to hear ab—" She hesitated, suddenly realizing the difficulty of what she was asking. The Priestess couldn't easily share information about the Ember Isles, especially without a notebook. Tia couldn’t help but flinch. "Er— I’m sorry. They sound extraordinary from what I’ve read." she offered with a smile, sinking a little lower in the water, unsure if it was from embarrassment or from the cold nipping at her shoulders.

As Eris sank, so did Tia’s spirits. She looked back down at the thin layer of snow, her slender hand resting beside it. There was still a fine line of blood under her nails. Heavy emotions weighed her down like ballast in the shallow pool - a thick mix of guilt, shame, grief, even though she couldn’t put a name to what exactly she’d lost. She felt Eris’ own emotions filling the space beside her, threatening to drag her down like the current of a sinking ship.

A hand went up to trace the scars of her ruined throat.

Then Tia’s other hand began tapping a slow, steady rhythm against the stone. She whistled, high and bird like over a lilting melody - an old folk song from the Ember Isles. If Tia concentrated, she could just make out the memory of her mother’s voice singing to her, even if she couldn’t make out the words. It was a light tune, drifting like the wind, if a bit melancholic. It filled the air just as the snow did, falling around them before the flakes melted away to nothing in the clouds of steam.

Shifting towards the center of the pool and sinking deeper until the water came up just above her nose, Eris watched and listened as Tia began to whistle. She closed her eyes, relishing the warmth enveloping her aching body and the melody of Tia’s song bouncing off the surrounding forest trees. She had never heard whatever it was that Tia was whistling, but it was comforting.

As the Priestess continued her tune, Eris submerged herself completely for a few seconds before resurfacing to shoulder level. She pushed wet strands of hair out of her face and began to scrub the dried blood from her hands and then her face, memories of the day flashing in her mind's eye.

As Tia’s song came to an end, Eris looked up at the Priestess and smiled. “That was beautiful,” she said, glancing at the map Tia had drawn. “Is it from home? It doesn’t sound like anything I’ve heard in the capital.”

The corner of Tia’s mouth quirked up, though she still didn't look up to Eris. She listened to the light waves she made, the water lapping gently against the stone. She nodded. Words seemed to catch in her throat. She could’ve said them, she knew. Her voice was weak, but not completely gone. I was young. I miss them. But Tia couldn’t seem to make the words real, couldn’t give them to Dawnhaven.

She wiped away the map in the snow with a sweep of her hand. Tia pulled the long needles from her hair so it fell in a pail river down her back, floating across the surface of the spring. Then she took a deep breath and dipped herself underwater. Emerging, she took Eris’ lead and started cleaning the day off of her body.

“I’m Eris, by the way.” the brunette said softly, suddenly realizing that she had never even introduced herself to the Priestess. “I lead the research operations.”

Tia looked up at her as things clicked into place. A researcher. She remembered her earlier assumption that Eris worked with the prince - that would explain it. Dawnhaven wasn't just a settlement, it was a laboratory as the prince searched for a way to defy his fate — the one that ended with Tia driving a ceremonial dagger into his heart — and find another way to stop the blight. And Eris was heading that search.

She must’ve been brilliant.

Tia’s lips parted. Her mind was suddenly spinning with warring thoughts. Her orders from the Queen, her duties to the High Priest, the dread and overwhelming thought of carrying them out or worse, failing them — Seek the violet flow…

“Willis.” She couldn’t stop the word if she’d tried. Above her mess of thoughts, the words she’d dreamt floated to the top like bubbles on the surface of roiling water.
Tia pulled back, like she could retreat in on herself, lips pressed closed. Her eyes darted around as she tried to get control of her thoughts. She looked back up to Eris, her dark eyes suddenly clear and direct, where before they’d been distant. There was urgency in her gaze. Tia swallowed, focusing on her throat, on controlling the sound.

“His blood.”

“His blood?” Eris questioned, furrowing her brows in confusion as she sensed the immediate shift in Tia’s demeanor. Her mind flashed back to their earlier encounter with Willis, but she didn’t recall seeing any blood on him. It was Tia and Eris who had been covered in it. “What about it?”

Frustration buzzed under Tia’s skin - in her throat, in place of words. She darted her eyes around, looking for some way to communicate. Her skin was too wet for paper, the snow drift had melted away, and –

Tia looked back to Eris, an idea forming. She took a step forward.Reaching for her hand, slowly so she could understand what was happening, Tia held Eris’s palm up between them and traced out letters on her skin.

S T U D Y I T.

Tia’s dark eyes met Eris’ blue ones, urgency thrumming through her. Tia didn’t know why Willis’ blood was important, but clearly Aelios did, and now she was with the one person in town who might be smart enough to figure it out. It couldn’t be a coincidence.

Eris watched carefully as Tia traced the letters on her palm, trying her best to focus despite her hands still trembling from exhaustion. “Study…” she murmured, glancing up at Tia inquisitively. She was puzzled as to why Tia wanted her to investigate the blood of this new blight-born. “Um… Okay, I will see what I can do.” She nodded, trusting that there had to be a reason. The Priestess wouldn’t ask her to do something without purpose… right?

Though she did not wish to see Willis again any time soon, it seemed Tia had other plans for her. “Maybe he’s… willing to make a donation?” She cringed at the thought of asking the blight-born man for a sample of his blood and how he might react. She’d have to talk to Flynn and Orion about it first. The idea of doing this alone with Willis was terrifying. “Have you seen his blood?” she asked, wondering why Tia would even bring it up. Perhaps she had noticed something during their first encounter?

Tia hesitated, before nodding. Suddenly, she felt self-conscious about this. It wasn’t exactly widely known that she had the capacity for prophecies. The High Priest knew of course, and the Queen, but when she’d been training under him he’d instructed her not to tell anyone else. He’d said the attention would overwhelm her, and until her ability could be properly relied upon it would be best to not give anyone the false impression that her visions were to be trusted. He was right, of course - the vision of Willis was only the second prophecy she had ever been shown, and could she even tell if it was real? Two instances was not a reliable pattern, and who knew if this wasn’t just a nightmare fueled by stress and overexertion? But still…

_...Tin…

She felt the weight of those golden eyes…

_...Ga…

...Even now.

_...Ra…

Tia’s eyebrows pulled together as she looked at Eris. She couldn’t give her nothing to go off of, especially if Tia was asking her to go face Willis again. And… the High Priest would understand, wouldn’t he? This wasn’t Tia, this was the goddess demanding action. She forced a long breath in, like it would steady her. Looking down at Eris’ palm, she traced out another word.

P U R P L E.

She didn’t have it in her to defy the High Priest, nerves holding her back. Fear was vice-like around her heart at the thought of disappointing him yet again. When she was sure Eris had the word, she wrote again.

L I K E B L I G H T.

Eris locked eyes with Tia, searching for the truth as if she could pull it out with a mere look. From what she could tell, Tia was being honest. She didn’t know the Priestess well, but what reason would she have to lie?

Purple blood was intriguing, though it wasn’t the strangest transformation Eris had seen. Still, it seemed odd enough to warrant investigation. “Interesting…” Eris said aloud, her mind racing. “I’ll look into it,” she affirmed, taking the hand Tia had been drawing in and gently squeezing Tia’s hand reassuringly. “Thank you for letting me know.” She wasn’t sure if Willis’s blood would lead to any breakthroughs, but it was more of a lead than they had come across in the last two months. So far, nothing new had emerged.

A sudden splash in the water below made Eris jump, and she squeezed Tia’s hand a bit harder for a moment, clearly skittish from the day’s events. Releasing Tia’s hand, she looked over the edge of their pool at the public bath beneath. “Seems Pleiades is having fun…” she remarked, relieved that the Priestess hadn’t chosen to subject their naked bodies to the likes of him.

Tia looked down at her now empty hands. There was a chill in the absence of Eris’ warmth. She didn’t believe her, not fully. The Priestess could tell. But she’d been kind.

Tia clenched and unclenched her fingers, guilt and nerves swirling in her - she should’ve told her the truth. She shouldn’t have said anything at all. Why should Eris believe her? Tia wasn’t even sure she believed herself, but something had to be done, right? She glanced up at the back of Eris’ head, her hair inky and dark from the water. Pleiades’ name sent another wave of anxiety through her body - she’d stolen from him because she was an idiot who couldn’t tell when someone was just being polite and she was a liar and she’d been sent to spy on the town and she couldn’t be trusted with anything, she was a disappointment, she was a failure, she was going to be sent away again –

The splash of water was gentle against the stone as Tia emerged from the spring, reaching down to grab her robes. Her fingers were too quick as they fumbled to keep the hard shape of the notebook wrapped in her dirty outer robe, separating out the relatively clean inner layer. The winter air was a shock against her body that immediately had her shaking - at least, she told herself it was because of the cold. It took too long before her arms were through the holes, and she couldn’t even stop to bother tying it shut. Her long, sodden hair stuck to her back, soaking through the cloth. She clenched the two sides closed together, the silken bundle held in front of her.

Tia spun on her heel to face the spring again. She couldn’t even manage to look at Eris before bowing deeply. Shame and fear and guilt were a frenetic mix in her blood as she squeezed her eyes shut.

Then Tia straightened and walked as quickly as she could away from the pool, fighting with her own quick, short breaths that rattled in her lungs.

Eris frowned as Tia swiftly took her leave, a weight of anxiety suddenly pressing upon her chest. Had she said something wrong again? The Priestess had left without warning, just as Sunni had earlier that day. Eris was starting to notice a pattern of her own terrible social skills. Clearly, it was her problem, so she didn’t try to object when Tia left.

Spotting something glinting in the moonlight, she noticed that Tia had left her hairpins on the ground next to where her robes had been. Picking them up, Eris twirled them around in her fingers, watching how the moon's light reflected off of them. Sighing, she glanced up at the moon, listening to the distant chatter in the public bath area. It was so much easier for others to make friends, even Pleiades, it seemed. Why was she so inept at simple human interaction yet so skilled in almost everything else she put her mind to?

Reaching outside of the hot spring, Eris tucked the hairpins safely into her skirt pocket. She’d make sure to return them to the Priestess at some point, though it seemed that Tia had reached her limit with Eris for the night. Feeling defeated, Eris sank further into the pool. She figured she should leave as well, but the comfort of the water felt more needed for now. She’d go home... in due time.

---

_{Collaboration with @c3p-0h}

The moisture suspended in the air hovering above the hot spring water made it diffiult to see any further than Wenyr's big hand could reach, but another method of propagating information proved to work rather well as the waves caused by Pleiades' involuntary splash dive reached the blacksmith. The unexpected commotion in the water almost made him spill the wine still left in his glass. A solid liquor much too tasteful to let it fall victim to such an event without remorse, but still not nearly pleasureable enough to completely distract its consumer from what was going on around him.

"Be careful! The pool's not very deep!" he shouted out into the haze, hoping that whoever had decided to go in so flamboyantly had been wise enough not to do so head first. The noise from the waves hitting the wall and enduring a mix of sploshing over and reflection cancelled out his chances to hear any of the words spoken, but a scream would have overpowered this acousting shielding he deemed. So... nobody was hurt apparently.

Little did Wenyr know about the enemy approaching him from below. A lot of things tended to be more soluble in very warm water than in cold water and the silent attack onto the contents of Pleiades' pockets had already begun. The man's own actions had also contributed to some tiny chunks directly falling into the water and now following the almost unnoticeable current towards the spring's drain. Wenyr sat in this stream, he could see the foreign bodies drift along almost next to him, and his relaxation that had just started regenerating was disrupted yet again by the sight of this unidentified debris. He had never held any opium in his hand before, let alone wet and disintegrating opium, and thus had no idea just how genius his decision not to taste, but only to inhale the smell of this piece of dirt actually was.

Couldn't people at least remove the roughest shit of their skin before going into the pool ? What if this now increasingly soft, goo-y stuff in reality was some kind of bird poop or the like ? The blacksmith was quite disgusted and heaved his not so tall, but all the more broad self out of the water in an instant. Having wrapped a large piece of cloth about himself, he took a slightly angered stroll around the water's edge in order to investigate. Soon, Pleiades and Lena came into his blurred sight.

"Hello! Did you notice that some significant dirt is..."

Wait! What ?

He spotted what looked like an odd discoloration on a rock first, then couldn't help but find it to be some substance with an eerie similarity to what he had just picked from the water.

"Is this yours ?" he asked rather sternly without addressing any of the two individuals in particular. His index finger pointed towards the opium to make clear what he was referring to. Somehow he started to feel a tiny bit odd now... Maybe he had risen out of the hot water and right into the cold air a tad too quickly for his circulation ?

---

_{Interacting with Pleiades (@The Savant) and Lena (@AliceInRedHeels)}

Why could she not stay dead?

Desya’s thoughts echoed in Kira’s mind endlessly. Her psychic connection to him had not been broken when the thought had entered his mind, and now it tormented her. Though he had spared her, his thought felt like he had driven a dagger straight through her heart. For two years she had not been aware that her heart could still feel the things that humans did so frivolously, but now it was painfully clear. Her heart ached as she watched him leave, as if he had ripped it from her chest and walked away with it, squeezing as hard as he could.

She stayed there for a while after the sound of the carriage faded into the distance, sitting on her knees where he had left her. She listened to the nearby chirping of crickets and the rustling of leaves in the wind, gazing up at the full moon above while her mind replayed his words in her mind. Why hadn’t he just killed her?

Finally, refusing to let herself cry, Kira stood up and tried to steel her heart against the pain. Her former lover had clearly moved on, and she needed to do the same. She was no longer the person he had known, and he was no longer the person she had known either.

Forcing her legs to move, Kira walked aimlessly deeper into the forest. Thoughts of hunger had dissipated, overshadowed by the ache in her heart. Her mind raced with questions she had tried to ignore for two years. What had become of Desya’s life after she had turned? Did he look for her when her death was announced? Did he find someone new? Start a family? Did he ever think about her at all? The life she had tried to let go of was suddenly right back in her face. Why?

“Why, Seluna?” she whispered aloud, stopping in the middle of a small forest clearing and sitting on the ground, her back resting against a fallen log. She gazed up at the moon again, feeling too emotionally exhausted to keep moving. Perhaps she would stay here for a while. It was cold, but not cold enough to kill a blight-born. Not yet.

Pulling her knees up to her chest, Kira hugged her legs and rested her forehead on them. Closing her eyes, she tried to focus on the sounds of the forest instead of the disdain in Desya’s thoughts. He hated her. Her eyes began to well with tears.

Before she could start sobbing, Kira heard the crunching of snow and a low, happy voice singing something in the distance. Snapping her head up toward the sound, she quickly wiped her eyes and pulled her cloak hood over her head. From the tone of the voice and the slight trembling of the ground as he drew nearer, she knew it was Ivor approaching.

Rising to her feet, Kira dusted herself off and began walking toward the road that led to Dawnhaven, where she had found Desya. She wasn’t eager to talk, though she was certain Ivor would have noticed her by now as well.

Ivor found himself once again outside of Dawnhaven’s walls and only so soon after arriving. It was only fair that given the damages and distress that he caused earlier in the day that he procure materials to fix the Beholder’s front door. Despite the agreement he made with Sya to give her the stag kill, along with several rabbits, the compensation didn’t sit right with the giant. So here he was on this magical winter night,hatchet in hand and a song in his heart, Ivor the wild made his way deeper and deeper into the woods. He’d seen the several light sources of what appeared to be a traveling caravan off in the distance, but paid it no mind as he had other priorities that warranted his attention; namely a new door.

Not long after passing the caravan he found a spot where some kind of scuffle occurred. There was no visible blood and nothing metallic hung in the air, just signs of movement, two sets of footprints side by side in front of a large space; had someone fallen? To their knees perhaps… Those same footprints turned back towards the main road; the caravan that passed by? A third set seemed to haphazardly meander deeper into the woods. Regardless of anything that he could discern, the strangest was how everything seemed to almost appear and originate in this spot, almost as if it poofed into existence. Either way, the unknown set of footprints was a mystery Ivor couldn’t help but be curious about, and if luck would have it, he might even find the right tree for Sya’s door.

The entire time he tracked Ivor didn’t let up on his song, the gravelly tune of his people, spoken in his native tongue, reverberated through the tree trunks. Whoever was out here, he wanted them to know he was coming and that, ideally he was friendly. If they didn’t want to be found, they could obviously flee, but it didn’t take long for him to find the source of the footprints. Despite her cloaked appearance, fiery shades of her hair and the piercing crimson gaze that accompanied it gave way to the familiar blightborn underneath. Even if the physical features weren’t apparent, an odd benefit about becoming a blight born, was that it made him acutely more aware of other blightborn. A small smile crept on Ivor’s lips as he hefted the hatchet over his shoulder. “Hello, Ms. Kira! Good to see you! What brings you out into these neck of the woods so late?” The giant asked, delighted to use a reference so accurately, even if the question came off somewhat inquisitorial.

“Evening, Ivor.” She greeted, pausing in her path to Dawnhaven as she tried to push her thoughts of Desya to the recesses of her mind. “Hunting.” She answered his question, which was true, until she had tried to hunt the Priest of Seluna. She almost turned to walk away again, but a nagging thought reminded her that she needed to eat—lest someone in Dawnhaven wake up with her fangs in their neck.

“What about you?” she asked, her orange eyes finding the hatchet he held over his shoulder. Not a typical hunting weapon.

The giant followed her gaze to his hatchet before returning back to her with a sheepish grin. “Logging, er…I broke Miss Sya’s door…I believe Miss Eris said it was not..subtle.” he nodded remembering the word right, “I wish to right the wrongs I have done, but hunting, ahhh…” he trailed off as his gaze wandered the woods, sharp and stoic. “Hunting..has been difficult, the coming cold is making it harder and the blight does not make it any easier.” As he scanned the horizon his eyes burned like fire, a remembrance of the hardships his village faced, the famine and disease, the pyres filled with starved corpses. Ivor hadn’t gotten a chance to tell the prince yet just how little he had found or how there soon may be nothing left. Dragging himself back to reality, he turned his eyes down towards the smaller blightborn, a small reassuring smile on his lips; an offer, “Allow me to assist you, they say after all two eyes are better than one, yes?” He hesitated slightly afterwards, counting off his fingers before shaking his head; better to worry about filling his companions belly than proper colloquialisms.

Kira nodded in agreement as Ivor commented on hunting. He wasn’t wrong—even she had noticed the animals becoming scarcer as the days grew colder. It worried her about the harshest winter temperatures ahead. How would she sustain herself when all that was left were the humans in Dawnhaven?

“And four eyes are even better.” she said with a half-smile, endeared by his struggle with the common tongue. “I’d like that, thank you.” She decided to abandon her retreat back to Dawnhaven for now. It was better to hunt while she still could, and Ivor was providing a necessary distraction for her. She did not want to see Desya in the village again—not so soon, anyway.

“You’ve gotten much better with your language since we met.” She commented, recalling barely understanding him when she first came to Dawnhaven. “The sage must be a good teacher.”

Moving closer to Ivor to begin their hunt together, Kira wondered how he managed to hunt so well. The man was monstrous in size, and his very steps would alert creatures to his presence. Her method of hunting relied on stealth, but he clearly had other talents.

“Hah! Very good, jabool,” Ivor didn’t mask his emotion, however he knew well enough to keep his voice low, lest he scare whatever potential wildlife there may be. Now with a new purpose, Ivor’s footfalls almost seemed to lighten in the snow as his eyes sharpened into a hawk-like gaze. Though he wasn’t nearly as quiet as the crimson wraith beside him, the earth rumbled less in his wake.

“You think so?” He smiled at the compliment, “it was…is, difficult to learn, but Miss Eris, she has been very patient with me, she takes all the time in the world to explaining everything.” He remembered first coming to her at the Prince’s request, how most everything for the first two weeks was just pointing. “She was scared at first, of me I think, but we have become good friends, this I feel.”

As they walked and spoke quietly amongst one another, a familiar marking caught Ivor’s attention. The two found themselves in front of a particularly tall pine tree, Ivor approached it’s base, scraping off a brown substance from the bark with his fingers. Pressing the rancorous filth to his nose, the scent was all too familiar as he inhaled deeply. “There is boar in these woods,” a smile as he wiped the excrement on his clothing. “This is good find, he was not here before.” Ivor’s eyes scanned the environment, looking for any signs of the creature, “There,” he pointed, “the trees will show the way, see the scratch markings? This will not be only way, hoof tracks, crushed plants and grass; all lead to boar.”

Kira followed Ivor’s lead, studying the way he observed things. She had been a hunter all her life, but her prey had always been humans, not animals. Admittedly, she had not attempted to hone her animal hunting skills much in the last two years since becoming blight-born. However, as the days grew colder and distant military patrols became scarcer, this skill was becoming more necessary. “Impressive. I should always come to you when I need a bite to eat…” She whispered back to him playfully, though it was only half a joke. He was already much more successful at this than she had been earlier in the day. If they managed to catch it, the boar would be able to satiate her for an entire day.

Gesturing toward the path that the boar was leaving, Kira nodded to Ivor to continue leading the way. Grabbing the dagger strapped to her side, she prepared to seize any opportunity the boar might give them for a fatal blow.

Ivor smiled sincerely at his compatriot, “Come anytime at all, Miss Kira.” The two moved forwards through the underbrush, searching for any signs for the position of their quarry. It was amazing what just the environment itself could tell one about their prey. A broken twig meant something stepped there, parted grass showing the path it cut through, even the birds changed their tune to subtle disturbances.

Some half a kilometer or so, the boar presented itself. Haggard and starved it was pawing at the ground for what could have been the very last truffle of the forest. Regardless it was distracted, but outside of his hatchet, Ivor didn’t bring anything with him, not expecting the impromptu hunt. As the light of the moon glinted off Kira’s dagger, however, he was reminded of her speed and strength.

“If you are quick enough,” Ivor spoke in hushed tones, “aim just behind its shoulders, you will be able to pierce both the heart and the lung.”

Kira’s eyes met Ivor’s for a brief moment as he instructed her, a smirk slowly rising on her lips. If she were fast enough. Ha!

In an instant, Kira ran from the brush and pounced on the boar before it could react.The kill was swift, her dagger striking precisely where Ivor had directed. The boar barely had time to squeal before its life ebbed away, and Kira held it until its legs buckled beneath it. Carefully, she guided it to the ground. She grinned at Ivor, proud of her accomplishment. It wasn't as exhilarating as hunting humans, but the prospect of a substantial meal tonight excited her nonetheless. That, and she realized that she missed being instructed to kill something, which was regrettable.

“Thank you for the help.” she said to him, holding the smile on her lips triumphantly. Ivor had helped her in more ways than he knew. “You’re quite the tracker.”

Kneeling beside the boar, Kira withdrew her dagger from the animal. Blood began to flow from its wound, causing her eyes to dilate. She glanced up at Ivor, a slight pang of embarrassment hitting her at that moment. She had not fed in front of someone like this before. Having someone witness her doing this made her feel like a feral beast. Just as Desya had called her. Though Ivor was a blight-born, it still felt odd. He did not share the same type of affliction that she did.

“If you don’t mind, I…” she glanced at the blood, her fangs aching to sink into the boar. “I haven’t eaten all day.”

As if Ivor had loosed an arrow, Kira was upon the boar, a clean kill if he ever saw one and instantly the volume went up, “Yes! Very good!” The pride he felt in that moment very nearly mirrored hers. Yet as he approached her and the creature, the blood spilling from its wound, there was hesitation, doubt, maybe even fear in her gaze. “Why is this? Was this not reason we hunt together?” The man lowered himself in front of her and the boar, legs criss crossed, his behind reverberating the ground as he plopped in place.

“We are friends, no? Friends, eat together,” he looked at the boar, its life fading rapidly and began inhaling. Soon a white mist emerged and found its way into Ivor’s gaping maw. Though it appeared he was breathing in air, it didn’t look as though his chest expanded until the mist entered his body, as if he finally caught his breath. Exhaling both a relief and a satisfaction, he extended his hand towards the boar in a gesture, “please, eat.”

Kira studied Ivor in silence for a moment, stunned by his comradery. He wanted to feed with her? This felt intimate in a way she hadn't experienced since her turning, perhaps even longer. Friends? She pondered the notion, feeling an emotion stir within her that she could not yet recognize. Whatever it was, it made her heart ache—differently from the way Desya had.

“Friends.” she affirmed, a faint smile returning to her lips as she observed the mist seemingly drawn out of the boar and into Ivor’s body. It was fascinating to watch another type of blight-born feed, though her primal instincts quickly refocused her attention on the boar.

Leaning in, Kira’s fangs sunk into the animal's neck as easily as a hot knife through butter. Closing her eyes, she savored the taste and the rush of endorphins that surged through her body along with it.

As Ivor sat and watched Kira feast on the boar, he was reminded of his tribe. Some of the men from his village believed that eating the raw heart of a strong animal would lend them its strength. Ivor wondered how they would feel if they could consume an animal's soul. In essence there was no true power to be gained, just the strength to carry on and the memories housed within the meal consumed. “I wonder something, Miss Kira…Do you…feel as I do?” The words were a bit difficult, that wasn’t quite what he wanted to say, but it was close. “When I eat something, I feel…what they felt,” he nodded towards the boar, “in its last moments of life, it felt..scared…I have been feeling this in many animals, everything is scared.”

For a second, Kira almost ignored his question, her primal instincts urging her to continue feeding. Fighting against that urge, she forcefully pulled herself away from the boar and sat upright. Her eyes were fixed on Ivor again, her lips now stained crimson with fresh blood dripping down her face.

Kira furrowed her brow sympathetically as Ivor spoke, though she couldn't fully understand his perspective. She shook her head, wiping a drip of blood from her chin. “No, I don’t feel anything from the animal…” She glanced at the creature, pondering why it had been frightened. It hadn't sensed their presence or known it was being hunted, as far as she could tell. “It’s usually the opposite for me,” she explained, turning her gaze back to Ivor. “I...” She hesitated, unsure of how to simplify her condition. “I make them feel.” she gestured to her fangs, “Poison. It makes people feel... happy.” she downplayed it slightly. The poison she could inject from her fangs made people elated and euphoric, but it could be lethal.

She looked back at the boar, licking her lips clean of any remaining blood. “Do you know why it was scared?”

“I see,” the response was somewhat deadpan, though Ivor wasn’t really sure what he was expecting for an answer. While blightborn were becoming more numerous, those who shared similar abilities were few and far between, especially those with abilities like his. “If I had to be guessing, it is probably the blight,” he looked upon the animal’s remains, “the cold makes food hard to find already, but if the blight poisons the only good soil around, it forces the animals to move outside of the normal hunting grounds.”

Ivor moved towards the boar, running his hand along the side of it, feeling its ribs poking through its hide. “A scared animal is a dangerous animal, it is best you put it down, otherwise it could have hurt someone.” Ivor sighed, “I cannot blame them for being scared, I was too once; how could you not be afraid of something you do not understand?”

Kira frowned as Ivor explained, her eyes looking over the creature. It was certainly skinnier than what a healthy boar should weigh, which was seeming more common in most of the animals Kira had been hunting down over the last two months. She suddenly felt guilty for stealing the life it had left.

How could you not be afraid of something you do not understand?

His words lingered in her mind, tugging at her heartstrings. She no longer understood herself. Was she the scared animal that needed to be put down? She was dangerous and could hurt someone—that much was certain. She had nearly taken the life of their moon Priest and her former lover. She had been inches away from making one of the biggest mistakes of her life.

Snapping back to reality, Kira gently placed a hand on the boar and closed her eyes. "Thank you for providing us with this meal. May the moon goddess guide you in the afterlife." she whispered, echoing a ritual she had seen small tribes perform during her missions.

Opening her eyes, Kira met Ivor’s gaze again. “That must be difficult, to always feel what your meal felt right before death.” Her thoughts drifted to the humans she had hunted over the years—the terror they felt in their final moments. If she had been afflicted with Ivor’s condition, she likely would’ve preferred to starve.

Ivor smiled, appreciating her respect for the boar and concern for his well-being, “It is not all so bad, sometimes taking on the bad helps us grow to be better.” He thought for a moment, “It is not always easy, but life was already hard, how could I not expect new life to be just as hard!” Ivor laughed strong and hard, the sound echoing through the woods. “I thank you, Miss Kira,” the giant gazed into her crimson eyes, “we blightborn, may not be easy to understand, but I like to think, on nights like these, that we are all not monsters, that life here is possible, together.”

Kira took a deep breath as Ivor spoke, trying to steady her fragile emotions that threatened to burst from her chest. She had already been in a vulnerable state when Ivor found her. The barrier she had worked so hard to build had been broken down, and he had caught her off guard. Of all the people she thought she’d allow herself to cry in front of, she never imagined it would be Ivor. Yet, tears began to well.

Feeling like something was caught in her throat, Kira remained silent for a few moments, averting her gaze to the frozen ground beneath them. She tried to think of anything but what he had said, but her mind had turned against her tonight.

we are all not monsters

Did he truly believe that?

YOU ARE DANGER!

The memory of Desya screaming at her with fiery hatred in his eyes flashed through her mind.

You do not belong in civilization. You belong to a class of undead that need to be eradicated.

Kira closed her eyes tightly, as if she could shut off the torturous memories. Tears began to roll down her cheeks, silently she cursed herself and clenched her fists. Not here!

She took a trembling breath, overwhelmed by emotions she had tried to bury long ago. “I- I’m sorry, Ivor.” She wiped her eyes, refusing to make eye contact with him until she could get ahold of herself.

She chuckled then, somewhat of a nervous habit from embarrassment. “We are certainly not easy to understand, are we?”

Ivor wasn’t sure if he had said something wrong or something right at that moment. From tearful to composed, Ivor wasn’t sure what to do other than to continue on with the conversation as if nothing happened; No, that wasn’t right. Perhaps to continue was to draw attention away from something that was clearly painful to Kira, something that Ivor wasn’t meant to know or understand, at least not now. So, he smiled and replied, “No, we are not. The village elders, they had this saying ehhh…if I had to translate it would be… ‘Ignorance begets strife, understanding begets fellowship’. I like to think, Dawnhaven is the first step to fellowship.”

Ivor then stretched before hefting himself up and offering a hand to his friend, “We must do this again sometime,” quoting directly from one of Eris’ tales as he lifted Kira with ease, “but in all un-jesting, if you need anything Miss Kira, you come to Ivor, he will help or listen.”

Finally able to meet Ivor's gaze again, Kira steadied her breathing and looked at the massive hand he offered. Gently, she took it, her hand completely dwarfed in his. Though her hands had known labor in the past, his were rougher, the callouses along his palms telling their own story. She allowed him to haul her to her feet, a faint smile on her lips as she ignored the ache in her chest. "Thank you," she replied softly.

The giant then looked around spotting a solid wide trunked pine, “I think I have found my tree, I would ask if you will be alright on your way back, but I has a feeling you will be okay on your own.” Ivor’s gaze turned to the now evaporated boar before returning to Kira, “Eh, is the meat..safe to eat now?” He used an index finger to point towards an incisor, “The poison, I mean. I could bring it back and make jerky?” Would salt even counteract a poison?

Her fiery orange eyes found the boar once more, her smile growing in amusement before she returned her gaze to Ivor. “Yes, it’s fine. There’s no poison in it,” she assured him, gesturing to her fangs for a moment. “I can control it.” It was one of the few aspects of her transformation she was able to control, luckily.

“Thank you again, Ivor.” She gave him one last glance as she started towards the road to Dawnhaven once more. “I’ll see you around.”

_{Interactions: Octavia-@The Savant}

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The start of every drunk’s protest that they weren’t drunk died in her throat as she realized just how close he ended up next to her, okay perhaps she was a little drunk after all how else did she end up pulling a stranger, a half dressed man into the water with her close enough that she could touch the feathers around his neck. Did they go all the way around and extend into his hair she wondered, noticing that they were different shades of black and blue that blended well against the paler tones of his skin. He wasn’t bulky or covered in muscles but there was a pleasant litheness to his frame, in the pale moonlight covered in water he almost looked like a statue. Once again the thought of how pretty he was crossed her mind; quickly looking away realizing that she had been staring, the blush now seemed to permanently reside on her face as she busied herself by ringing out the excess water that had gotten to her hair.

Soft ringlets and loose curls now plastered to her skin, she was sure she looked a mess, but why should she care how she looked. The thought puzzled her as bit her lip as if to chew on it trying to figure out why she cared how she looked in front of this man who was now emptying his pockets almost frantically. The mention of opium caused both of her eyebrows to raise, [color= #A059FA]”Do drugs even work for blight born?”[/color] her tone genuinely curious as she settled back down against the rocks.

The man shrugged his shoulders when asked such a silly question then he thought about it — drugs didn’t work the same way they did for him like they did for humans. At first he found it silly but the more he thought about it caused his head to shake in the negative, “i have no clue,” He spoke out honestly.

“It might be different for different blight-borns though my experience with taking opium is similar to drinking a cup of coffee when I was human,” That was a surreal thought. He couldn’t have coffee anymore. Without knowing what or who he was after the blight cursed him, he had a cup, and barely sipped anything from it and he was dry heaving to throw his guts up. Coffee was something he couldn’t handle. He remembered how awful it made him feel though opium gave him a similar effect on how he could remember the feeling of coffee giving him.

[color= #A059FA] “Like a cup of coffee?” [/color] She mused in reply, trying to remember the last time she had one. The warm smoke wafting off the cup as it sat at her mothers table, a small spread of breakfast, it felt like forever ago. Granted now it hardly effect her, not as it did when she first stole a cup as a child and spent the entire day running around the town square ecstatic and carefree searching for anything that could keep her attention. It made sense that it wouldn’t be the same for each blight born, it was hardly the same for each human. “That actually makes a lot of sense..”
She wouldn’t admit it but the addition of someone else made her realize how lonely she had become here. She had few people to talk to and helping provide for the town kept her far busier than she thought to be able to build lasting connections. She knew a few names and faces which is why she wasn’t offended when this strange man from the sky didn’t know her. She missed being around people, hearing them laugh. His laugh was nice, she wondered how she could hear it again.

[color= #A059FA]”I suppose my manners might not be much better than yours then.”[/color] Lena replied playfully sticking her tongue right back out at him. Well she had pulled the man down to her level but now what, unsure of what to talk about she ran her fingers through her hair trying to separate the curls back into some type of form. She usually wasn’t this bad while drinking, it must be the spring she lied to herself. A part of her was glad the bottle was empty, she already felt she was acting like a fool; she needed nothing else to add to it. So far it had been fine though, she hadn’t offended him yet, a few complaints but she didn’t truly believe that he was that upset by her actions. A pleased smile and a look of smugness as he settled into the water facing her.

The thought of the opium spilling into the water never occurred to her even though he had mentioned it, surely if he was carrying it around he would have taken the precautions to secure it properly, right? The soft powder dissolving and leaving a slight film across the water’s surface as it settled back down after all the splashing around, a slight sweet scent mixing in with the spring’s steam filled air. She didn’t have much experience with the drug, or any beyond seeing it a few times at it traded hands in the lower wards. Simple rumors of its effects and stern warnings not to touch the stuff. A pity it was too late now for such warning.
A playful roll of his eyes could be seen from their close proximity and he shook his head, “Manners? What are those?” He sounded genuinely interested and unaware of the word. He grew up in a middle class household so he knew what people expected of others. He didn’t care. Manners were lost when the blight took him. Most didn’t care to have manners for his kind but he still found himself being polite and respectful to others.
”Oh you know, saying please and thank you, don’t punch strangers, ah probably shouldn’t pull strangers into the springs with you either. Should add that to the list. Mmm..” Lena paused trying to recall her mothers lectures, even growing up in a smaller city her mother insisted that they have class and grace. Being less of was no excuse for bad behavior and acting ugly. Her eyes unfocusing as she tried to recall what else there was to having manners. [color=#A059FA]”Oh, being helpful, that’s one. Well maybe not helpful but not going out of your way to be rude either…or things like that. Common decency really, they just like to use fancy words for it.” She giggled shrugging before looking back at his wings tilting her head the other way mimicking his actions from earlier.
[color= #A059FA]”You said you flew down here right? What’s it like? Did it take you a while to get the hang of it?” [/color] Of course he flew down here, who wouldn’t, berating herself for being so slow with her own thoughts.

Then she asked about his flying and he looked at his wings, thinking, and shrugged his shoulders. “It took me a little bit, I guess?” Pleiades was unsure how long it took him. His memory was fuzzy but he could recall a few dangerously close situations that the learning curve made him experience. “I love it though…” He spoke softly. “Flying is my favorite thing to do."

Opium did not affect the bird-like man in a way similar to humans. People would assume that he would be careful while carrying it around though it was in a snatch pouch that looked similar to how people carried currency. There were loose areas and smaller openings though it could clearly let the ground opium leak out. ’t cross his mind that the product would be slipping into the hot springs and affecting everyone.
“You seem so graceful, I can’t imagine you running into anything. Just up in the sky, it sounds freeing.” A soft smile as she repositioned drawing her knees up to rest her head comfortably on it, the quiet ambiance was peaceful and his voice was soft and low adding to the pleasant hum running through her body, it almost sound like she could hear the soft tone of a whistled song. “What made you come down from it to talk to me?” Another thought spoken out loud, a curious tone lingering behind it. If she could fly she wasn’t sure she would ever leave the sky, just be free of everything and fly away from all of her worries. A soft wistful sigh escaped her as she continued to watch the man near her. Perhaps it was because of how long she had been out in the woods for but it was nice to just talk to someone. ”Not that I mind, of course. I didn’t realize how much I wanted company.

A smile appeared on his expression when she spoke about him seeming graceful and that it must be freeing to fly around up in the sky. It was. “I’ve had years of practice,” The man confessed since he understood that he was of the original group of blight-born. His transformation happened a little less than a decade ago and that gave him years to develop a finesse for flying.

“I haven’t seen your face around Dawnhaven and I became curious,” That was the honest truth from the man. He had never met Lena before. New people made him curious and he somewhat wondered if she interviewed with Flynn or not as a human. This was not a topic he would share. He didn’t want to offend the Aurelian prince in any way.

His eyes seemed to sharpen slightly when she spoke to him and a smirk appeared on his lips, “[color=479ca9]If you wanted company, why didn’t you go searching for it?{/color]” Pleiades inquired with almost a child-like curiosity and purr to his tone.

“So you were like a baby bird once, flopping around?” A skeptical look on her face at the idea before breaking out into giggles as she imagined it. The tall feathered man flopping around awkwardly as he got used to having wings and learning how to catch the upward drafts only to fall. Truthfully it was little wonder to her that they hadn't met before, she could barely keep up with who the guards were and only knew most people by name in passing. [color=#A059FA] “Do you know every face in Dawnhaven, Mr. Porter.?” She teased slightly, he didn’t seem like someone who went by proper titles but since he called her a proper conversationalist she would play along.

The question of why she hadn’t sought out others was met with a furrowed look, the haze in mind had worsened. There was a reason. Why did she think she didn’t deserve to be around others. The thought was for a second foreign to her before she remember the small smile she was wearing slipped for a second into a look of sadness before the haze slipped back and she shook her head to banish the negative feelings tugging at her mind like claws, all the eager to punish the woman. “Penance”. The word was barely audible as if she said it loud enough she would admit to herself that she was the cause of her own loneliness. A more forced smile reappeared, not wanting to dwell on such things, “I’m sure there are far more interesting things I could offer.”

Mister Porter, seemed to get his face to twist and turn with uncertainty. Did he enjoy being called the title that his father was called so frequently? Unsurely, he had no answer to that. Did he enjoy people being more casual with him? Indeed. “Mister Porter was my father,” He huffed lightly at the differentiation that he was trying to create. “And no,” His moonlit eyes looked over to her when he spoke. “I do not know every face in Dawnhaven but I try to,” There were so many different people showing up. Dawnhaven was becoming popular and soon enough, maybe, it would be like the cities. Faces being blurred by inconvenience and not enough time to stop and say hello.

“Penance?” Pleiades spoke out in confusion and surprise. He noticed the force in her smile and the fakeness of genuinity. It was disappointing and his own expression started to neutralize.

Then the conversation seemed to shift in a way that he didn’t know how to respond to that statement. Her words kept processing in his mind as he stared at her. “What do you mean by that, Miss Lena?” He asked with a spark of curiosity that lingered into something of sultry tones and mystery.

She laughed slightly watching him wrestle with the notion of being called like his father. She liked that he wore his thoughts on his face. “Does that mean that I can use you as reference the next time I talk to someone?” Another teasing question that faltered when he repeated the word, so he had heard it. Part of her had hoped it had gotten lost in the water’s sound, a chance to come up with a better answer. She looked down away from him as she toyed with one of her curls.
“We all have ghosts, Pleiades. Sometimes when you dig them up it’s very hard to put them back.” This time Lena’s smile was less forced when she looked back up, an apologetic answer to him questioning the word, a tiny pang of guilt as she knew it wasn’t the answer he was looking for. But who tells a stranger that they’re the reason all of their friends died.

It was only when he had asked her what she meant that she realized exactly what she had said to escape answering his probing. Blue eyes widened slightly, she briefly wondered if she could hide under the water to escape her own foolery; as if the one misspoken innuendo wasn’t enough to create a misunderstanding. “O-oh, I meant that we could talk about something more interesting than my loneliness. Like what I do, or what you do, do you like it here, we could talk about wine, do you drink?, do you travel a lot or if you’ve seen anything strange in the lake,” She was rambling, she knew she was rambling, trying to figure out herself what she had meant by that as his own words rang in her head in that sultry tone. ” if you want since I did soak your pants, I could dry your wings for you while you wait for them? They are very pretty, they look soft.” Lena lost count of the amount of times she let her mouth get ahead of her thoughts. Burying her head into her knees to try and hide from her own embarrassment, she changed her mind. She definitely needed more wine now. “I really should find a way to stop talking.” she groaned to herself before peering back up at the man hoping she hadn’t offended him.

“I doubt you would want to do that,” Pleiades sounded distasteful with his response to the woman about using him as a reference. The man wasn’t horrible and he didn’t think anyone in Dawnhaven had negative opinions about him yet or they did if they were prejudiced about blight-born; something he could understand. Not all of the cursed individuals or the majority were friendly or safe to be around. He wasn’t to a point. “Indeed, Miss Lena, everyone has skeletons in their closet.”

Seeing her sky blue eyes caused him to smirk since he knew his inquiry caught her off guard. Lena was in a state of becoming stupor but he enjoyed teasing her anyways. Her reactions were lovely to witness, “Mhm…” He waved a hand in response to her rambling.

Pleiades was about to make a comment about her multiple questions before she brought up his wings. This seemed to get him to sit up and look at her, focus, and glance at his dark feathers. “People say that they are soft,” He agreed that they were and looked soft. “Though how would you dry my wings?” He chuckled at that thought. The blight-born didn’t believe he needed help getting them dry though he had been letting them soak — first with Taru now with Lena.

A slight frown appeared on his face when she commented about her talking, “Lena,” He sounded serious while looking into her eyes. Pleiades came closer to the woman, very close, and he looked into those bright blues with a smile. Grabbing her chin so she would look at him, “Did I say anything about your rambling? I don’t think I did so don’t worry about it. If I didn’t care for it. I would tell you,” Pleiades let go of her chin after that statement though he didn’t move from his position. He was close enough to observe the specks of silver that brightened her eyes up. “You have very pretty eyes, Miss Lena,” He complimented her as his head tilted out of curiosity. Their noses only a few inches apart from each other.

Lena was too absorbed in her own thoughts to really hear his reply and ask about how she intended to dry his wings. She was entirely too grateful no one else was around to see the state of folly she had placed herself into. The sharpness of her name caught her attention, and then in what seemed like an instant he was in front of her. He was saying something about her rambling and how he didn’t mind it but she was more focused on how cool his fingers had felt against her flushed skin and how mesmerizing his own eyes were. As if she could
drown in the moon itself by staring into them. “Yours are far more beautiful.” A whispered reply, keenly aware of how close his face was to hers, the same boldness that saw her pull him into the water nudged her forward as she closed the gap kissing him.

She wasn’t sure how long it lasted, but hearing a loud begrudging voice and the sloshing of water announcing the sound of someone else approaching she quickly pulled away. ”What just happened, did I just kiss him, I just meet him?!’ Her internal thoughts matching the external panic as she looked over toward where the voice came from hoping that the redness in her face would just be mistaken from being in the hot spring for too long. The approaching man seemed more occupied with the spilled contents of Pleiades pouch, her eyes following to where he pointed just now noticing the drug itself had trickled down into the water. The realization of what was happening almost made her burst out into laughter, feeling slightly like a kid caught drinking with their friends by a parent, as she shook her head. “I’m not sure where that came from, Sir…?” The question lingered hoping that the man would at least introduce himself before continuing his questioning.

Pleiades' breath hitched the connection between him and the woman after her compliment. Anyone would be able to read his body language as shocked and surprised by what was happening. He was bewildered by her actions. [i][color=479ca9]Why is she kissing me?[/i][/color] — that thought raced through his mind as reality began to pull him back down. She was drunk. She had drunk at least a bottle by herself so she wasn’t thinking properly.

I’m not sure where that came from, Sir…? Those words rang through his head since he was so focused on Lena. Was she that confused about why she kissed him? That caused him to step back and run two hands through his feathery hair before he realized that there was someone else with them — Wenyr. Someone he hadn’t officially met but he knew by name.

As he began to question them on the mysterious substance, Pleiades’s eyes widened, and he smiled awkwardly. “Oh, Wenyr, please do not touch that,” The blight-born stated as he moved towards the rocks with his pants and items on them. A smaller leather pouch bag that would be cinched shut was not so shut at all. Dirt-like contents were coming out of the little sack.

“That’s opiu —” He stopped himself while his eyes focused on the contents that were swirling in the hot spring. Heating up. Steaming up into everyone’s faces. “Shite…” The man whispered out while he tried scooping up the pilled contents and putting it on the rock and trying to clean the rest of it up quickly. “It’s opium. You two should step out of the hot springs and I should find the keeper… Tia. I should find TIa and maybe Flynn? I don’t… I don’t know if any of you should be in the hot springs right now with this in it… I think it can last up to ten hours,” Pleiades was more afraid of overdosing someone and killing them than it was causing everyone to have some fun.

if any of you should be in the hot springs. He was right, it was probably safer not to be in the springs, Lena had little idea how long or how much has been dosed into the water and herself. Truthfully it was just an excellent excuse to move herself farther away from the current source of her confusion. She knew she had always been bold, brash even but this was a new one even for her. Sure she had kissed a few men here or there on a whim while drunk but a stranger, a strange man who only an handful of minutes ago flew down from the sky to talk. What would her mother think? A soft bark of a laugh escaping her lips as she shook her head. At first taken back by the presence of someone else it provided a much need moment of clarity as she followed Pleiades advice lifting herself from the pool, still somehow graceful in her current stupor as she found her clothing wasting no time putting them back on. The dry cloth clinging to her damp skin was a welcome barrier to the cold air, all too eager to welcome her as she left the warmth. Finding the rock he was perched on earlier, she sat down, the irony that their original positions had been swapped was not lost on her.. “That might be best. I’m sure it’ll be fine tomorrow but better safe then sorry.” Her tone more neutral now, all too eager to focus on the problem at hand. This was something she could handle, what just happened she could not. Idle hands toying with the fraying hem of her shirt as she looked between the two, sure they didn’t need her here to help, right? Maybe she could just leave? Hide? Go find a very deep hole to hide in?

Wenyr blinked his eyes briefly out of disbelief, then reiterated both Pleiades' and Lena's words in front of his inner ear to make sure he really had understood them correctly. Opium ? While never having seen any, he had heard of it. But wasn't this something chronically bored denizens of large cities were much more prone to than some villagers ? He looked down onto his breast to check whether any of it had gotten entangled in his skin's hair, then turned towards the two apparent lovebirds with even a tad less relaxed of an attitude than before:

"Look, I don't care what you are carrying around with you. It is not my business, but my health is very much and I'm feeling dizzy now. Please get this problem solved, rapidly." While using the word 'please', the tone Wenyr deliberately put into his speech told a story of urgent demand instead.

Getting away from the hot springs was the best advice to be given at this point, but the blacksmith remained where he was for a few moments longer still to watch how Pleiades tried to remove the continued trace of self-betrayal behind and around him. It definitely had some amusing qualities to it.

"I hope Flynn and Tia are in a good mood or they might not take this in so well." Wenyr put up a slight grin and patted bird-man's shoulder firmly before he also cast a glance towards his female company. By the time the prince and the priestess arrived here, magic might be the only way to avoid the immediate effects of the drug, he deemed. And of course he was completely unaware just how much of a disaster zone both of their moods were right now for other reasons!

"Maybe there's a dip net around somewhere ? Could be for leaves and other dirt falling in here. I'll start looking." The search effort would also get him away from the immediate vicinity of the now effectively poisonous water while still remaining in acoustic reach of the two now not so happy individuals.

Pleiades’s expression seem to twist and turn at Wenyr’s words, “I am trying to get it under control,” Those words were almost growled out but it was a problem that took time. It was in the mist and steam, affecting people, and could last for hours.

The blight born glared at Wenyr as he commented about Flynn and Tia’s moods, “It was an accident. If I wasn’t pulled into the hot springs, this would have never happened,” Which was true. Pleiades was careful about taking all the contents of his skin before stepping into the hot springs. Early with Taru, he took everything off and set it on a small tree growing up on the rocks so it couldn’t just fall into the springs.

He shook his head while hearing Wenyr comment about a dip net, “I doubt that will help,” He mumbled those words more than anything before climbing up on the rocks himself and putting his pants on. The bird-like man tried his best to seal the pouch before putting it into his pants pocket which was damp. “I’m going to find Tia, since I think the priestess of the temple was in control of this.”

The small amount of amusement watching both of them try to solve the issue washed away as Lena heard Pleiades snapback about it wouldn’t have happened if he wasn’t pulled in. Was he trying to blame her? A brief internal debate whether to reply in kind that how was she to know what he carried in his pockets before shaking her head, that was just her pride talking. She wasn’t allowed to be prideful.. “It definitely wasn’t intentional, but I don’t think there’s much we can do. Or at least that I can do.” She could potentially at least summon enough wind to clear the immediate steam but that wouldn’t solve the underlying issue of the substance still dissolving into the water, it would just be replaced in a matter of minutes. “You do that: I’m going to go home.”

Her emotions were everywhere, she was now both high and felt the tell tale signs of a headache from the wine coming on. Sighing she pushed her hair back out of her face before saying goodbye to the two men and making her way back toward the entrance, stumbling slightly but not to the point she wouldn’t be able to make it home on her own.

Wenyr watched how Lena left the scene, him realizing that she probably tried to get away before the insight of her being the ultimate culprit would have settled in too deeply. Yet on the other hand... Wenyr shrugged his shoulders and commented: "Well she probably didn't know you had that shit on you. How about me trying to find the priestess ?" He felt like there was nothing he really could do here anymore.

Pleiades felt a pang in his chest while watching Lena leave — Shite… I fucked up… — those words bounced around his head while he stood on the rock and stroked both hands through his hair in a stressed stance. “No, I wasn’t meaning to try to throw the blame all on her but it’s true. If she didn’t FUCKING pull me in here this wouldn’t have happened,” The man felt his temper rising because he honestly meant for none of this to happen. If he wasn’t pulled in, none of his things would be wet, and the opium he carried around wouldn’t have gone anywhere or out of his pocket.

Growling with thought, he held his hair with his hands, “It’s quicker if I find Tia, Wenyr. Go home. Stay out of the pools of water,” Pleiades commented before making sure he had everything and letting his wings extend. They fluttered a bit to shake the water off before he began to go up into the air before trying to search for Tia.

Sya had enough as she looked over and did the maths a 3rd time… it took 3 attempts to total it up meaning she had enough. Her eye was hurting a little and she was tired. It has been a day of…well a crazy day. She reached her hand back feeling the French braid and smiled. She might not even be alone tonight, it was stupidly fast but when it felt right…it was right.

Purring the book away under the counter to work on in the morning, maybe lunch and capped her ink carefully with a small stopper. “I'm closing up, anything else?” She called out to no requests so walked her way over and flipped the wooden board next to the door to “Closed for business” and barred the back door with a thick wooden bar. She felt safer and Sunni if he returned could use the main door still.

“Goodnight” She said with a small yawn making way up the stairs, it got darker and cooler the higher she climbed till she found her sanctuary. The knight gave her a nod but barely replied too intent on his drawings, she did not expect Lunarians to be overly fond of her anyway.

Ahh.. she thought embracing the low light, only the moon's light came in and she had a window propped open to let the cool night air in. The cold never bothered her, the darkness felt homely, her eye ached but she felt better here. Her room had a lack of things, she did not arrive with much but it was hers, a trinket or so that caught her eye in market, a small pile of books, and such. her status at Mistress did mean she had a rather large bed at the end of the room, a pair of surfaces either side, heavy iron candle holders and such. She rarely used those or needed to. The coals Basin for heat she never needed.

“Ahh” dipping her face partly into water felt good as her eye soothed into the cool liquid, long dagger forged by her father dropped onto the side table, she just dropped her clothing neatly into the drawer and climbed into her bed, the warm covers not needed but kept the soft materials and the luxury of it all. Sya smiled and closed her big eye, shutting out the light, the noise, the chaos and having her own safe spot where she could sleep in peace was priceless. A quick tug and her brown hair was loose all over the pillow massaging her scalp and enjoying letting it free. It did not take her long to be content and I'd anyone wanted to bother her for no important reason they would find themselves thrown down the stairs.

That was not a hollow threat either with how her eye started to feel later on. Flashes of colours, pain and so. Sya just needed a rest, perhaps a cuddle and a good “night's” sleep. She traced one of her scars, an old wound near her heart, an attempt to kill her thinking she was a vampire of all things. Vampire no, it would have probably worked though. Above that though was a rather more pleasantly gained mark on her skin.

Her singing to self died away as sleep took her and she lay half covered, breathing slowly letting the cool night air help her forget and soothe her body lit only by the slice of moonlight making her seem even paler than she was.

Sya was at peace.

@amorphical

Flynn, feeling the exhaustion of the day weighing heavier on his shoulders with every step, led the way to the Alchemy Chambers after asking a squire to find a room for Willis at the Inn and dropping Tia and Eris off at the Temple of Aelios. Anxiety gripped his chest as he reflected on the day's events: Lunarian guards showing up unannounced, the Queen of Lunaris was dead, his wife was understandably distraught, and a blight-born nearly killed a child and the Priestess of Aelios all in one day. And now, with Willis walking beside him, Flynn knew he had to show compassion. Many of the blight-born he had taken into Dawnhaven had proven themselves useful and capable of civility. He couldn't let one incident sour his view of all of them.

Orion walked beside Flynn, his eyes constantly scanning the dimly lit areas of Dawnhaven. The flickering torches cast long shadows, and the scent of herbs and potions from the Alchemy Chambers ahead of them wafted through the air. Orion’s gaze occasionally flicked to Willis, who shuffled along with them, trying to discern his emotions from his facial features. Was he apprehensive? Surely he must be given the day’s events. But who was to really say with this one?

"Through here," Flynn directed, unlocking and holding open the door to the building where all their research was being done. It was cold, quiet, and dark, as all the sages had left for the day—and Eris was recovering at the temple. Once Orion and Willis stepped inside, Flynn headed toward Eris’s study, where he and Orion had been conducting their interviews.

Orion’s gaze lingered on the shelves, lined with an array of alchemical tools and potions. Glass vials filled with vibrant liquids, mortar and pestles stained with the residue of countless herbs, and intricate apparatuses for distillation and extraction caught his eye. His mind drifted to the research they had been conducting, the countless hours spent poring over ancient texts and experimenting with new compounds. The search for a cure was a constant, driving force behind their work. Every new blight-born that arrived in Dawnhaven brought with them a glimmer of hope, a potential key to unlocking the mysteries of the blight. His eyes flicked the blight-born beside him then.
Could this be it? Their potential breakthrough?

“Take a seat," Flynn instructed, gesturing to a wooden chair across from a desk. "The questions I will ask are for research purposes, as we are trying to find a cure. And, it will decide whether I allow you to live here or not." Flynn took a seat at the desk and grabbed the leather-bound journal and ink pen lying there. Opening the journal, Flynn flipped through dozens of previous notes to find a blank page. "What is your full name?" he began, leaving no room for small talk.

“My name is Willis Philips, but you can call me Willy.”

“How long have you been blight-born?”

“For 4 months now.”

A tinge of sympathy hit Flynn then, realizing that Willis was new to this. No wonder he had been causing such destruction recently. Nonetheless, Flynn wrote down his answer and moved on. “Are you fed by blood, energy, emotions, sex, psyche, souls, or magic?”

“I drink blood.”

Orion’s eyes narrowed slightly as he considered the situation. Blood drinkers were notoriously difficult to manage, their unpredictable nature and insatiable thirst posing constant challenges despite the protocols in place.

“How were you turned?”

“I was turned after I got caught in a blight-fog.”

“What abilities did you inherit?”

“I can fly by turning into a bat, and I can heal really fast.”

“And what of weaknesses?”

“Bright lights and loud sounds really hurt my eyes and ears. I can’t taste my meals, besides the salty taste of blood, and if I eat a normal meal from a tavern I get really bad stomach cramps.”

“And what brings you to Dawnhaven?”

“I’m hiding from Lunarian persecution, bounty hunters, and mercenaries sent to kill me. I came to Dawnhaven because I heard people like me are safe here.”

“Are you willing to abide by the laws and customs of our village?” Flynn looked up from the journal this time, his eyes narrowing on Willis. His story was not unlike many of the other blight-born here, but he had already broken their laws. Yet, in the back of his mind, he was reminded that Tia wanted this man to live.

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“Can you co-exist peacefully with the humans and other blight-born here? In Dawnhaven, you are not allowed to feed on anyone here. This is a sanctuary, and I expect you to treat it as such. Do as you will with the people outside of Dawnhaven, but if you are caught, there is nothing I can do to help you. You will be at the whim of the King of Lunaris. I advise you find other means of sustenance, not humans.”

“Well yeah, but if they are attacking me I will defend myself!”

Flynn nodded in understanding. “Just don’t attack anyone here.” He stated, looking back at his journal notes. Flynn had not forbid anyone from defending themselves outside of Dawnhaven, he knew he could not stop anyone from hunting the creatures outside of his domain. “What was your profession before you died?” He asked, moving the interview forward.

“I was first sergeant of the 13th Special Forces Group belonging to the 3rd Ranger Battalion serving under the Royal Army of Lunaris.”

“To live here, you must contribute to the wellbeing of Dawnhaven. As with all people here, you will have a job and commit to helping the community. Are you willing to do so?”

“Yes, Your Majesty. In fact, I will gladly obey you if you wish great harm to befall on anyone.”

Flynn looked up from his notes, almost allowing a smile at Willis’s offer. “I appreciate that, though I do not wish harm on anyone.” He resisted adding “yet” to his statement, though he would be sure to keep Willy’s offer in mind if it came to it. “I have Orion for that, anyway.” He glanced over to his advisor with a hint of a playful smile before turning his attention back to Willis.

Orion met Flynn’s gaze with a slight nod and a small smirk of his own, his eyes reflecting a quiet understanding. He knew his role here well, so there was nothing more to be said, his expression and presence conveying all that was needed.

“You said you can transform into a bat.” Flynn began, looking over his notes. “Can we trust you to assist with courier services? We have another blight-born, Pleiades, who has done the brunt of the work for some time now. I am sure he could use some help with the smaller objects that you could transfer on your own.” In the back of Flynn’s mind, he noted that he would only trust Pleiades with his most important of letters. Willis would need to earn that level of trust. Still, he could be useful for the average citizen in Dawnhaven.

“Sure can!” Willis bursts into a puff of smoke. As it dissipates, a brown bat hops onto the desk, extending their wingspan in front of Flynn as if to take flight. “I can deliver anything as a bat as long as they fit on my human body!” Bat Willis raises his head, speaking to Flynn. “Orion can tell you just how fast I can be!”

Flynn arched an eyebrow when Willis vanished, only to be replaced by a small talking bat. It was unlike anything he had ever seen, though it was hard to surprise him these days. He jotted down a few additional notes on this peculiar transformation before shifting his focus to his advisor, anticipating his input.

Orion watched the transformation keenly, noting the fluidity and precision of the man’s movements. He had seen this agility before and knew well the positive and negative potential it held. As Willis completed his demonstration, Orion nodded in agreement with the assessment.

“He’s right, Your Majesty,” Orion said, his voice steady and confident. “He’s fast and efficient. With proper, and perhaps heavy guidance in the early stages, he could be a valuable asset to our courier services.”

Orion, always perceptive and thorough, considered additional questions that might provide further insight into Willis’s character, capabilities, and potential integration into Dawnhaven. He cleared his throat slightly, signaling that he had more inquiries.

“Are there any specific triggers that cause you to lose control or act aggressively?” Orion asked, his tone measured and calm. His eyes remained steady on Willis, observing every nuance of his reaction. “We need to identify any potential risks.”

Flynn redirected his focus to Willis, feeling reassured by Orion's presence, knowing Orion could catch any details Flynn might have overlooked. The day had been extraordinarily long, and Flynn found solace in having Orion's sharp mind to rely on throughout this arduous process.

“Uhm, a trigger…” The bat pivots on the table to face Orion. “I guess, yeah! The sight or smell of blood when I’m really hungry. Or when my life is under threat.”

Orion nodded thoughtfully, absorbing every nuance of Willis’s response. His eyes flickered briefly to Flynn, a silent signal to ensure he was noting the potential risks. Then, with a calm yet probing demeanour, the prince’s advisor continued his line of questioning.

“Can you recall any specific incidents, especially recently, where you lost control due to hunger or feeling threatened? It’s crucial we understand the extent of your control,” Orion explained, his tone still measured but now carrying a hint of urgency. His eyes bore into Willis’s, searching for any flicker of hesitation or truth. If there was any, he would know, bat form or not.

“Hmm… I will tell you what I remember, but please don’t judge me harshly.” Willis says anxiously. “A blight-born is most vulnerable at the moment when they are reborn, and I’m no different. I have a memory of uncontrollably ripping into my dead comrades, when the blight-mist turned me, to drain them of blood. That was 4 months ago. The first thought I had after coming to my senses was not guilt or shame for killing my friends, but a chilling voice in my mind telling me to go find and slaughter the rest to cover my tracks, and a dark urge in the pit of my stomach to drink all of their lifeblood. I knew my life as a human was over but… I made the mistake of going back to say goodbye to my family…” Willis suddenly averts his gaze from Orion, and says in a trembling voice, “I-I didn’t do it, I swear! I was compelled!”

Flynn frowned as Willis recounted his past. Many of the blight-born he'd encountered had committed unspeakable acts upon their transformation—Willis was not alone in this. Flynn sympathized with them, though their unpredictable behavior remained a cause for concern.

He took a few sharp breaths, to regain composure. “The urges, they come and go, but it was never as bad as that 1st time. Because I never let myself starve. Then about 2 weeks ago I… got in trouble with the Baron whose land borders Dawnhaven. I was chased relentlessly and got badly injured in many ambushes he set for me. So yesterday, when his men cornered me at the mountain pass, I decided to end things there. I killed a big number of them, and felt thoroughly refreshed, and I let the rest go. But it was a controlled frenzy, you get me?” He paused. “Oh! Also, the kid I injured today at the marketplace was an accident. That’s an oopsy daisy on my part, sorry!”

After jotting down a few more notes, Flynn glanced up from his journal. “The voice you said was telling you to kill people. Does that still happen?”

“Ehh… I don’t think so.” Willis replies.

Flynn shot a quick glance at Orion, concern evident in his eyes. “Please inform us if you feel that urge again,” he said, turning his attention back to his notebook and then to Willis. “We are here to help yo—” Suddenly, a frantic knock at the door interrupted him.

“Come in,” Flynn called, closing his journal and tossing it into a drawer. Nervously, the squire Flynn had summoned earlier entered the room. “Sire.” He bowed respectfully to the Prince and Orion. “A message—from someone new in Dawnhaven. She claims to be the Lady of Durnatel and requests an audience.” He handed a note to Flynn, who couldn’t help but let out a sigh as he took it. Yet another task on his very long to-do list.

“Thank you,” Flynn replied, opening the note to see the woman's name written by the guard who received her message. He closed the note and stuffed it into his pocket, then returned his attention to the squire. “And what of the Inn?”

“The Beholder is full, my lord. Sya said she cannot house anyone else until the new addition is finished.” the blonde squire reported, casting a nervous glance at Willis.

Flynn leaned forward on the desk, pinching the bridge of his nose and closing his eyes tightly. He sighed, his mind racing with ideas on what to do with Willis. He considered taking Willis himself, putting him in one of the spare bedrooms. But then a vision of Willis attacking Octavia or Elara in the night flashed through his mind. No, that idea wouldn't work. He couldn't put them in danger.

Opening his eyes, Flynn leaned back in his chair for a moment. “Very well, thank you. You're dismissed,” he said to the squire, then turned his attention to Orion as an idea formed. “Orion…” he glanced at Willis. “Do you mind?” He frowned, knowing he was asking a lot from his advisor. “Can you put him in your spare room? It's only temporary. I'll find a house for him in the morning; I believe we have one that hasn't been assigned yet, but I need to speak to the builders.”

Orion gave a curt nod, his jaw tightening slightly as he processed the prince’s request. The weight of responsibility for Dawnhaven’s safety and the delicate task of integrating Willis into their community loomed large in his mind. This decision was not just a step, but a gigantic leap out of his comfort zone, right into uncharted territory. The man in question had already been a source of significant trouble, a thorn in his side that he had to manage carefully. Yet, voicing these concerns to his prince was not an option. He had to maintain his composure and focus on the greater good, even if it meant swallowing his reservations and pushing his boundaries further than ever before.

“Of course,” Orion replied instead, his voice steady and reassuring despite the flicker of uncertainty in his eyes. “I will make sure he is settled in and monitor him closely.” Very closely, this time around.

Orion turned to Willis, his expression stern and unyielding, a clear signal that there would be no room for negotiation. “We’ll get you situated for the night. Follow my rules and there won’t be any issues.”

“Thanks for taking me in, Orion!” Willis, in batform, does a happy little victory lap around the table, shaking his butt. “And you too, Flynn!” He stops in his tracks. “Is there a blacksmith in town though? I need to repair my equipment that was damaged from my last fights.”

“First, let's get you back to my place. We'll discuss the details of your equipment repair in the morning,” Orion replied, his tone once again making it known he was not about to be flexible on this.

Flynn stood and moved towards the door, gesturing for everyone to leave ahead of him as he held it open. “Thank you, Orion,” he said, watching as they each exited the room. Locking the door behind him, Flynn led the way out of the Alchemy Chambers, noting that Eris still hadn’t arrived. Perhaps she was staying at the temple for the night; the women had endured a rather traumatic ordeal.

Leaving the chambers, Flynn locked that door behind him as well and glanced back at Willis and Orion. “I’ll see you in the morning,” he nodded to Orion, silently wishing him luck with the new blight-born man. Flynn at least had faith that if anyone could handle Willis, it would be Orion. “Goodnight.”

With that, Flynn took his leave and headed back towards his home, where his distraught wife awaited. He hoped she had gone to sleep; she would need her rest for tomorrow when he broke the news of the late Queen to the town. Sighing, Flynn ran a hand through his hair and carried on in silence, his mind racing while listening to the rustle of leaves in the wind as he made his way home.

---

_{Collaboration with @Qia & @BOOM}

_{Interactions: Sunni-@The Savant}

---

As he flew up above the hot springs to distance himself from the individuals and the thickness that didn’t allow him to see as well. He stopped a familiar face below him, Eris, but he wasn’t looking for it at the moment. A part of him wanted to take a moment to say hello or bother her, but he decided against it — for the better. Hopefully.

Making his way to the Sun temple, Pleiades found his feet touching the ground outside of the front doors, and he looked around. He wondered if the guards with sharp weapons were still running around or not. Was he allowed to even enter such a holy place? His joke flamed in his mind with a morbid curiosity — What if I start smoking and burst into flames when I enter this building?

Pleiades decided to start with a very non-invasive step as he found himself close to the front doors. His knuckles wracked onto the wood, “Tia!” he shouted loudly in hopes that she would hear him. “Sun priestess!”

From within the temple, Tia jumped. She was sitting in the main hall in one of the pews, hair still damp and heavy down her back, though she’d at least been able to change into a fresh set of sleeping robes. There were bags under her eyes after the exhaustion of the day. But at least the fire burned in the center of the hall, warming her now that she’d hidden away from the Winter chill. In her lap, she held a thin board, a sheet of parchment atop it. It was filled with her elegant scrawl, though words were crossed out and additions were scrawled in the margins - the first draft of a letter she intended to send in the morning.

Tia looked up at the closed doors of the main entrance, alarmed. That voice - she knew it, even if she couldn’t place it just this moment. It filled the air with urgency, and Tia hurried to her feet. She placed the paper carefully on the seat, but held fast to the board, a fresh sheet, and the charcoal she’d been using. She spared a moment to look down at herself - her hair was a soggy mess, her neck bare, her sleeping robes –

But someone needed her. What if someone was hurt again? Tia’s magic hadn’t yet recovered. She was still nearly hollow, her magic’s absence an aching void in the marrow of her bones. Pressing her lips together, Tia hurried to the door. She pulled it open – and blinked up in surprise. Her lips parted.

Pleiades.

Tia’s eyebrows pulled together as she took a step back to better angle her head. She blinked again as her mind reoriented herself. Her gaze darted over his body (why was he soaking wet?) as she looked for evidence of an injury. She looked back up again to meet his eyes.

Upon the door opening, he noticed Tia’s state, and chuckled slightly. It broke the intensity of the situation for him but he couldn’t help notice how wet her hair was and how undone she looked compared to earlier that day. She looked surprised to see him and that made him remember the situation he was in — he fucked up. Like usual.

“Tia…” He spoke out hesitantly since he didn’t know how to break this news to her. “I messed up,” The confession came out with a shrug of his shoulders and talking with his hands. They moved in a way that might have been meant to physically say, I don’t know or I am unsure. Tia’s eyebrows only drew further together. Whatever first impression she’d had of the blight-born, this certainly seemed out of character. At least it was easier to be less intimidated like this.

Then he thought about it a little more, “I was down in the CO-ED hot springs area. The big pool and I decided to talk to someone and they pulled me into the hot springs and one thing led to another and my bag of opium, its contents spilled into the hot springs, and I am pretty sure everyone is out of that area, but I think it should be shut down for the night just so people don’t get high, pass out, and drown in the pool of water,” Pleiades found himself rambling more than anything. At least he was able to get it off his chest and explain it to someone that might be able to shut the hot springs down or at least the affected area.

Tia was fairly certain that her brain had actually stopped working. She could only stare at him blankly, frozen in place, the words opium and springs and drown repeating themselves over and over again in her mind. She shivered – in her shock she hadn’t noticed the chill blowing into the warmth of the temple. The cold snapped her back to the present and Tia opened her mouth. She closed it again.

Well, she supposed she should’ve been thankful that no one was dying this time.

With one last troubled look at Pleiades, she stepped back and to the side, arm held out to invite him in. Then she hurried deeper inside to look for supplies to make something that could work as a sign.

Pleiades was unsure if he should say anything else or not with the priestess’s reaction. She seemed to freeze with his words and stare at him. It made him feel as transparent as glass. Taking a step back when she snapped back to reality, the man’s eyes were sharp, and his brows were furrowed with uncertainty. There was a twitch to his wings, a light movement, but one that might have been made out of anxiety.

“Oh?” The man seemed confused when she was inviting him in. His jokes earlier popped up in his head as he stared inside of the temple of the sun goddess. What if he actually burst into flames upon stepping in? It was an uncomforting thought but he knew it was an irrational one.

A deep breath could be heard as he stepped in while his eyes shut hard. Once he was in, a few seconds passed, and he opened his eyes and relaxed his body under the realization of not going up in flames. “I don’t burn when entering holy areas,” His tone of voice sounded relieved and surprised. Almost a decade into being a blight-born, he felt like he would, and he heard enough statements of it going to happen to him.

Pleiades caught up to Tia to see what she was doing, “Do you have any plans?” He inquired. “I didn’t mean to fuck up so badly… I’m sorry. I know the temple means a lot to you, you being religious and holy and all, and the hot springs are apart of it,” He wanted to apologize to her for a variety of reasons but the main one was because he felt like the area was important to her because of her being a follower of the Goddess and the lead priestess of the temple.

Tia glanced over her shoulder at him, hands sifting through the freshly-filled supply cabinet. The soldiers and attendants she’d traveled with had taken most of the tools and goods with them that morning to present to the prince, but they’d left some essentials with the temple. Pleiades’ words washed over her. The assumptions he made didn’t quite sit on her shoulders – she didn’t feel very holy, and she was too new to the temple to have developed an emotional connection… but it was familiar. Nostalgic, almost. In this new town, with its crises and chaos, the temple was like an old melody that she didn’t have to think of to sing along to.

But most of all, it was her responsibility. And she’d failed it by shirking her duties and not being more vigilant. And now look what’d happened. The tight ball of anxiety, threaded with guilt, with failure, was ever heavy in her chest. She gave Pleiades a weak smile – she’d tried for comforting, but she was too tired and distressed to put any proper feeling in it. Her eyes widened though when she remembered why she’d dreaded seeing him again.

The hammer she’d pulled from the closet was ill-fitting in her hand as Tia turned and raised an open palm to him in a rushed motion to wait. Then she hurried back towards her bedroom.

Watching as she rummaged through a cabinet that didn’t seem to have too much variety in tools and essentials, he seemed a little curious, but he didn’t know what she was doing. Maybe she was trying to find something to write with, he went to reach for his pocket, and he forgot… he didn’t stop by his house and get a new notebook or writing utensil. Tia had his but he really didn’t want it back.

Seeing the weak smile caused him to force an awkward one — she is not happy at all with me — crossed his mind as he blinked and looked away at the same time. His smile fading into a neutral expression of pursed lips. “I can carry —” The man was going to comment about the hammer and carrying it for her though he stopped when she turned around. As she gestured for him to stop? Wait? Something along the lines, he seemed to stand there in curiosity and confusion as he watched her walk away — What is she doing? Was I talking too much?

The man let his hands meet each other and his fingers began to fiddle with each other. His one finger going over his other finger's nail and realizing it was dulled down. Octavia shaved his fingernails down but it was surprising since he almost forgot she had done it. He began to play with the filed down curve tip to feel the slight pressure and scratching against his other fingertips to bring some kind of soothing action.

It wasn’t long before Tia returned, slightly out of breath. Her pale hair was slowly turning frizzy as it dried in the warmth of the temple’s fire. She’d haphazardly secured the hammer in the tie of her robe, the handle bumping against her thigh - dangerously close to the bruise Willis had given her when he’d been holding her captive. In her hands, she held something else - Pleiades’ notebook and charcoal. Tia stopped in front of him, looking up at his eyes. Her eyes flicked to his wings - then back to his face. Then she bent at the waist to bow low, both hands holding his stolen belongings out to him. Her balance swayed for a moment at the sudden change in position, the exhaustion of the day still weighing her down. The notebook was open to the same page she’d been writing on all day, now crammed with words. A collection of words was circled with an arrow pointing at it, to single it out from the rest of her script.

Please accept my deepest apologies for my presumptuous nature and thank you very much for the kind gesture of lending me your belongings. I’m sorry it was for longer than intended.

Pleiades noticed his notebook and charcoal in her hand though he was taken away by how she was scanning him. Was she looking for something? Was he muddy? He thought he cleaned off but he could have gotten dirty by flying up to the temple. Watching as she bowed out and offered him his notebook and charcoal again, he waved his hand in declination, and then he realized she wasn’t looking at him. “No, you can have those,” He spoke up without missing a beat. “I have a ton more back at my house.”

His hand seemed to come out naturally to catch her if she was going to fall over but he didn’t dare touch her. When he realized that she could catch herself, his hand was brought back to his body, and he looked at the collection of words she had written in the notebook. He was glad that it found a better use than his pathetic sketches and wispy markings. At least he found them pathetic in his eyes and not worthwhile. Others might assume he went to art school. Tomato tomahto.

A chuckle left his lips while a grin appeared on his face, showing his pearly whites and longer canines, “There is nothing to forgive, Tia. You can have it. I have plenty more so I don’t need that one back,” He reassured her or at least tried to, but he wasn’t grabbing his notebook at all. It was hers now. He would start using a new one and filling it with little writings and sketches.

Still bowing low, Tia blinked down at the floorboards. Warmth rushed up her neck and into her face. When she’d rehearsed this moment in her head, it hadn’t included Pleiades refusing to take his things back.

Was he upset? She replayed the moment from this morning in her mind, the way he’d looked at her as she’d thanked him. Did he think he needed to be polite so as not to embarrass her? If that was the case, task failed, because Tia thought that the floorboards opening up and swallowing her whole was the greatest mercy Aelios could show her in this moment.

Still bent at the waist, arms outstretched, Tia tilted her head up to look at him with wide eyes. She blinked at him. Then she squeezed her eyes shut, tilted her head back down to the floor, and thrusted the notebook emphatically at him.

Pleiades stood there with a bit of confusion as he noticed Tia focusing on the floorboards so gravely. Did he miss something? Was he not supposed to just let her have the notebook? Was she not allowed materialistic items? The bird-like man stood there and stared in their shared silence. It grew heavy between them and his eyes and expression became more serious with every passing second.

Their eyes met and he seemed to not be reading her at all. Just staring. Not knowing how to take this situation at all. She thrusted the notebook which caused him to take a step back out of reaction. “Tia, I really mean it…” He put his hands up in between them. His palms facing her in a sense of a stop or putting that wall up between them. “You need it more than I do. The notebook is really not that big of a deal. I do not want it back,”

“Also, please stop doing that. Bowing? Whatever you are doing. It’s making me uncomfortable,” People might find it weird but it was making him uncomfortable because he didn’t know how to react to it. Giving a notebook back surely didn’t require a bow, did it? Pleiades took another step back to increase the distance between them.

Tia’s grip around the notebook tightened as her face heated up even more. Slowly, she rose back to her full height, though her gaze was still lowered. She chewed the inside of her lip. She pulled the notebook back into her chest, still not looking up at him. Then her eyes flicked up to his, cheeks pink, and she gave a quick dip of her head - only to freeze and widen her eyes as she realized that was another bow.

How had the opium contamination become the least stressful part of this interaction?

Pleiades observed the woman with a silent patience since he didn’t know how she would react to him rejecting the items that once were his. A deep inhale could be heard from him as he watched her attempt to adjust herself and evaluate the situation. As he watched her, a slight chuckle could be heard from him as she went to bow. The man found it funny and realized that she was doing it out of habit more than anything.

Tia carefully stepped around him, feeling his presence like a weight at her back as she went back to the supply closet to grab a few more items - three iron nails, and a push-broom. Tia turned the broom in her hand so the bristles were pointing up and paused as she considered it. Her eyebrows drew together, wondering how much trouble she would get in for her line of thought. Then she leaned it against the wall and opened up the notebook (hesitating only briefly, she was proud to note) and wrote on an empty page.

She picked up the broom again and held out both it and the notebook to show Pleiades, still carefully not meeting his eyes.

As she turned back to the supply closet, he stood where he was at, and considered what she was doing. He had no clue. His eyes seemed to follow all the items she was grabbing at and he looked puzzled when she brought out a broom. Why do we need a broom? He thought while watching her write in the notebook. He knew it was going to be useful for her. A reason he didn’t take it back.

Could you please remove the end of the broom? It’s alright if it breaks. We need a stake to make the sign.

Looking at the notebook when it was held out, he nodded, “I can do that,” Pleiades confirmed while taking the broom. Taking the broom, the man put his one hand on its base and a few inches away his other hand was placed. Without issue, he cracked the broom handle over his knee and smiled as if he was helpful or did something good.

“Here you go,” he said while handing the broken handle back to her.

Tia jumped slightly at the sound of the wood snapping, but tried to cover it as urgency as she reached out to take it back. She placed the bristled half back into the closet. Her head dipped again in thanks (Stop bowing.) and glanced around briefly trying to figure out the next best step. Her gaze darted back up to his, before looking back towards where she’d been seated when he’d first brought this problem to her door. Tia looked back up again to Pleiades before turning and walking over.

His moonlit eyes caught Tia’s as she glanced up to him. “Why didn’t we grab a stick or something from outside?” He asked out loud which sounded more like an unregistered thought to himself more than anything. Breaking the broom when there is a whole forest around the town didn’t make sense now that he thought about it. Tia nearly tripped over herself at the question.

Seating herself beside her small stack of parchment, she pulled out a fresh sheet from beneath her drafted letter and started writing out a simple Temporarily Closed sign. She finished it with a small drawing of a sun in the upper corner. She looked back up to Pleiades for approval.

When she moved over to the stack of parchment and began doodling, Pleiades stepped over to her, and leaned over the woman to see what she was doing. “Oh, you are making a closed sign,” He didn’t sound surprised but reassured. “The hot springs should be good by tomorrow morning. It just needs to air out…” He explained as he looked at the Temporality Closed sign. “You have nice handwriting by the way.”

He smiled when noticing the little sun that she sketched in the corner of the sign, “I like the little addition as well.”

Tia very proudly did not bow as she offered him a small smile. Placing the parchment on the writing board, Tia held them together. She twisted in her seat to place the broom handle on the pew, and aligned the top of the board with the rounded end of the improvised stake. It tilted this way and that, either end of the board tapping against the pew as she tried to hold it all steady with one hand. With the other, she grabbed the first nail and held the point against the parchment, just where it would align through all three layers of the sign. Tia paused as she realized she was out of hands to use.

Looking up at Pleiades she glanced down at the hammer still hanging at her waist, trying to not appear as awkward as she felt. Her eyes were beseeching as she looked back up at him.

Seeing her faint smile made him smile even more, showing his teeth, and he watched the woman as she began the next steps in the process of making a sign. The religious woman seemed to be struggling and he didn’t know if he was supposed to help or not. He glanced at her while she fiddled with the many different components of the sign before she looked up at him. “You want me to help?” He knew she couldn’t vocally say much but he asked that while he went to help.

Reaching out for the hammer, he thought about it, “How about, I hold the items and you hammer? If you accidentally hit my hands. It’ll hurt way less than if I accidentally hit yours,” Pleiades decided to align his hands by hers on how she was holding the materials for the sign so she could grab the hammer instead.

Nerves spiked through Tia at his suggestion, because accidentally hitting his hand with the hammer was a definite possibility, and she didn’t think she had the energy to survive embarrassing herself any more today. But still, she forced her hands to move away from the materials, leaving them in Pleiades’ care. When she grabbed the hammer, it suddenly seemed much heavier in her grasp. Was her hand shaking still? Probably. Was her balance still suffering after the exhaustion of the day? Yes. Was she at all qualified to swing a hammer? Absolutely not. She could heal though - at least if she hurt him she could fix whatever she damaged? And then what, pass out again because she was still nearly out of magic? He’d think she was utterly incompetent and frail and a failure.

These thoughts spun through her mind like a hurricane as she lined the hammer up with the top of the nail. She gave one last, panicked look up at Pleiades. Then she raised the hammer up and brought it down with as much force as she dared. She pulled the hammer away, checking to make sure Pleiades’ fingers were all still in tact.

It felt like too many seconds in between them as their hands switched placement and she grabbed the hammer. That caused a little bit of nervous anxiety to run up his spine. Was she not confident in swinging a hammer? Maybe he should have just grabbed the hammer and nailed the sign into the broken broom handle. A dry swallow could be lightly heard as he stared at Tia.

With how she swung the hammer, it caused him to tense, and close his eyes. Hearing the echo from metal against metal and no pain in his fingers. He sighed out in relief as he opened his eyes to make sure, “See…” The man mentioned as he looked at what she did. She got the nail through the board and into the broom handle, “You did good.” There was silent relief of not feeling weight crushing at his fingers. He had enough trauma done to them today — his nails being shaved down.

Tia let out a breath as she looked down at his non-destroyed fingers, long nails and all. In the warm firelight of the temple, it was almost easy to imagine his skin tone as something… well, human, despite his nails. But then she looked up at him again, and the image of something other was unmistakable. She paused, briefly transfixed. Tia had seen a number of blight-born today, all of them commanding and inhuman in their way. She wondered if she’d ever grow accustomed to them, living here in Dawnhaven.

A connection flushed within Pleiades and it was shameful — shame and guilt stirred into him. Tia staring up at him and into his eyes caused him to look away because he felt like she could see through him. She was a leader of Aelios, a holy individual, and the elongated stare made him feel like he was being silently judged more than anything else. It caused him to look back to the sign.

Tia looked back down at the sign, self-conscious at having stared for so long. Brushing her blonde hair behind her ear, Tia refocused. The hammer raised again - and when it hit the nail, the world didn’t end.

He focused on where his hands were as Tia began to tap on the nails again. Each time. It caused his body to tense, move, or shake lightly. The unknowing possibility of pain was what caused these reactions. He trusted her or at least he was telling himself that he did. Then the sign seemed to be done, not by any professional, but it was good enough. Closing the hot springs for the night and making sure no one would be high on opium and accidentally drown.

Hesitant tap after tap, the nail drove deeper into the parchment, to the board, to the broom handle, until finally they had something resembling a sign. Tia couldn’t help the proud smile that curved along her face. The nail was slightly askew, and it wasn’t quite flush with the sign, but it was something she’d made. Forgetting her own nerves, Tia looked up to Pleiades and grinned.

Pleiades grinned back at the woman, “Perfect,” He stated as he grabbed onto the sign more securely and stood up. Making sure he didn’t hit or bump Tia at all. “Let’s go shove this into the ground at the top of the stairs,” He took a few steps before looking back at Tia, not knowing if she wanted to come along or not.

Hammer in hand, along with the notebook and charcoal, Tia followed Pleiades. She allowed him to lead her outside, to the steps above the hot springs. Her shoulders tensed as she left the warmth and safety of the temple, but she buried her fists in the loose fabric of her robe. Her eyes were glued to Pleiades’ back as they walked — to his wings. They were enormous, even folded neatly as they were. She was transfixed as the moonlight rippled over the cloak of feathers, swaying gently with each step.

He could not help but attempt to crack a joke while they made their way to the top of the hot springs steps. “With how you were looking at me. I would actually think you care about my fingers,” A teasing tone could be heard from him as his grip tightened on the sigh as he walked. A part of him wanted to know that the woman wasn’t judging him like he felt she was. Why was he feeling judged? He had no idea. Being in the temple made him feel bad in a way that he didn’t think he could. Maybe that was the reason he always hid from religious buildings, organizations, and the like after turning into a blight-born.

The pair arrived at their destination. Tia paused, looking for an appropriate space for the sign. The area around the springs was mostly wood and stone, but — there. There was a crook of space that looked to be a patch of dirt with a shrub growing out of it, just between the temple and the landing. Tia gestured to it with her hammer, looking up at Pleiades.

Stopping near the natural stone steps of the hot springs, he realized that the majority of the area was stone and rock and he sighed. Looking around. Where was a good place to put this sign? Especially where people would see it? That was when he noticed movement out of the corner of his eye and he glanced over to Tia who was motioning him to look at something. His eyes followed her motions as he looked at what seemed to be a patch of dirt, “Third times the charm, this is when you get my fingers,” Pleiades jokes while going over there. Tia cast him a look that was almost affronted, though there was humor in her eyes.

With his hands repositioning on the sign, Pleiades lifted it up, and forced his weight down. It stuck the broken broom handle into the earth with ease, not too deep, but deep enough where it would stand slightly on its own and he could turn it. Pleiades played with the angle while looking over his shoulders to see where people would be standing on the walkway while approaching before nodding to himself. “I think this is good. Hammer away, priestess,” He held the broom handle, lightly, so it could get wedged into the ground a little more.

At his signal, Tia moved forward. Her technique was more sure this time, aided by the fact that there was now some distance between his fingers and the point of impact. The sharp thwack of the hammer echoed through the air. Before long, the sign was secure in the ground. Tia let out a breath as she stepped back looking at it — it was straight, at least. It was still a bit out of the way, but hopefully it was visible enough. Tia looked around, finding one of the small rectangular lanterns that dotted the springs and placed it directly in front of the sign. She stepped back, head tilted as she examined it. It would have to do, she supposed. Hopefully it wouldn’t be necessary in a few hours. Tia looked up at Pleiades. Then she wrote out another message in his — her — notebook.

Thank you for all your help. Please no more drugs in the hot springs.

The sign was finally placed for people to see so he hoped no one would get hurt from the mistake that happened in the hot springs. Placing his hands on his hips, he watched while the woman wandered around and grabbed a lantern. She placed it in front of the sign, “That should do it. No one should miss that.”

When she began to write in the notebook, he seemed to take interest before she was done, and leaned towards her. Seeing what she wrote, he chuckled and smiled, “It was an accident. I’ll try to make sure I do not have any drugs on me when I am near the hot springs in the future, I promise,” The man sounded sincere. Putting up his hands while taking the small defeat.

“Well…” Pleiades sighed while looking around and up to the stars. Seeing how the snow gradually fell from the sky and how it would continue to do so. “You must be freezing cold,” He stated with thought and consideration while looking at Tia. Her hair was clearly wet and it still looked damp. “Get inside before you catch a cold and have sweet dreams for the both of us, alright?” The man teased slightly as he began to step away. Tia’s smile faltered at the mention of dreams. Then her eyes widened. Pleiades stopped, looking at her to make sure she was going to go into the temple and make it there safely before flying off to his house.

Tia’s hand shot up in a motion to wait. She scribbled something else in the notebook.

Tomorrow morning could you please deliver a letter to Aurelia? It’s very important.

Looking surprised at the gesture, he was curious, and he chuckled. Why was he surprised that she wanted him to deliver something? Maybe because of the current time, it was late, and most people didn't think about sending letters at this time and making him aware of it. “Do you have the letter?” He asked her while taking a step closer.

Tia shook her head.

Still writing. I can give it to you tomorrow. What is your rate?

Glancing at the paper, he nodded his head, and then he seemed to shift his weight when she asked him his rate. “I do not have a rate. Flynn pays me for the courier services, so show up to the post office tomorrow morning and I'll deliver for you,” Usually people would ask about his rate outside of Dawnhaven and he's never had a religious leader ask him. Ashamed. He usually would say sex. His food source but he couldn't let Tia hear that.

Tia blinked at the explanation, but it made sense, she supposed, for him to choose to fund the necessary services in the settlement he was creating. Was she expected to report this sort of thing to the queen? Surely she knew already.

Taking a step away, Pleiades shrugged, “I do accept personal rates but I doubt you would want to spend time with me. I hate being alone. Maybe we could have tea together, bake cookies, or something? When I get back from delivering that letter for you.”

Tia stilled. Was he joking? This seemed like an odd joke to make… but he made odd jokes with a flat tone fairly often, as she was discovering. She offered him a somewhat perplexed smile. But it was warm, still. With one last look at the sign they’d made together, Tia gave one more dip of her chin towards Pleiades in thanks.

Pleiades' smile wavered when he realized that the woman wasn't taking him seriously, at all, and he took a few more steps away. He made sure she was in no danger of his wings before glancing at her and recognizing pride in her expression. She was so proud of that sign. With his wings extended and a large flap, he was gone.

---

_{Collab between: Pleiades @The Savant and Tia @c3p-0h}

"Have them placed on everyone's doors and at the Inn by morning. Spread the word." Flynn instructed the blonde squire who was standing guard at the town center for the night. The young man, in his early twenties, nodded and assured the Prince that the task would be completed swiftly. Earlier, Flynn had informed him about the need to create flyers to announce a morning meeting regarding news from Lunaris. "Thank you." Flynn said, giving the squire a tired smile before continuing on his path home.

As Flynn walked home, he contemplated what he would say during the meeting he and Octavia needed to hold. He could do the talking if she preferred not to—he had been built and bred to feel comfortable speaking in front of audiences—but she still needed to attend to break the news. He felt bad for her, knowing a sea of condolences would swarm her afterward, but the people needed to know, especially those from Lunaris. He wondered if she had told Elara yet. "Tomorrow will be another long day…" he muttered to himself, tilting his head to the left to crack his neck and release some of the growing tension.

As Flynn neared the house, he saw a shadowy figure in the glow of the torch lights slowly creeping out and attempting to quietly close the door. Narrowing his eyes as he approached, his hand instinctively moved towards the sword strapped to his side. Who was this person, and why were they sneaking around? “Who goe—” Flynn paused mid-sentence as the person turned and the light illuminated their face, causing his body to relax with relief. “Sunni.” He smiled, genuinely relieved to see his friend, though it was still odd to find him sneaking out of the house. Flynn immediately assumed Octavia must be asleep and Sunni was trying not to disturb her. “Just the person I’d want to see right now,” he said, stopping just outside the front door. “Have a drink with me?” he gestured towards the inside of the home Sunni had just been leaving. “I’ve had a hell of a day…”

The voice was familiar though it did not mean he jumped out of his skin any less. “Gah!” His whole body tensed up. “Flynn, why are you sneaking up on people!?” Sunni’s voice was louder than he wanted it to be. His current train of emotions were overwhelming and shocking his system. Mainly due to his own internally ragging. Flynn popping out of nowhere startled him out of it.

With habit, he smoothed out his shirt, and his eyes became less wide from the initial scare, “Tell me about it,” Sunni joked when his best friend told im that he had a hell of a day — he honestly did too. Dawnhaven was exhausting at times. Too exhausting for his liking though it was less of a beat down than what his father would give him on a daily basis.

“I was actually looking for you but you weren’t home,” The man mentioned since he was. He wanted to know if it was okay to sleep on a couch or something so he didn’t have to be at the inn though he knew that might be asking too much. For now, he would keep his mouth closed and try not to think about the mess he created with Elara or how she was getting him blankets so he could sleep on the couch.

"It seems I have impeccable timing, as always, then" Flynn said playfully, opening the door to his home and allowing Sunni to re-enter first. Once inside, Flynn headed straight for the kitchen. Although it had been hours, he could still smell the faint warm scent of the chai tea that Octavia had made earlier in the day and he wondered if he could ask her to make it for him again some day.

"What was up with you earlier, by the way?" he asked, opening a cabinet to grab a bottle of red wine. "When I came to find you earlier in the day with Octavia at the Inn," he reminded his friend, setting the wine bottle down on the counter and raising a brow as he locked eyes with Sunni. "And don't try to lie—I know something was off."

The playfulness in his friends voice was refreshing, it allowed his shoulders to ease their tension, and a smile to appear on his face. Why does he have to ask that!? That question triggered the anxiousness that was in his system, that he was trying to suppress, though he knew he couldn’t. Elara was inside the building they were standing in front of. Shaking his head, waving his friend off, “It was nothing…” he chimed in almost speaking over Flynn when he told him not to lie.

Sunni allowed a hand to stroke through his ginger locks, “I…” That was when he looked over his shoulder at the door and quieted down. Looking at Flynn, “Eris… Elara. I… Well…” How was he supposed to get this out of his system? He was beginning to talk with his hands and play with his shirt, necklace, and other fabric on his body. Listening with an amused smile on his face, Flynn began to pour the alcohol into two wine cups for them.

“So… today has been rough. Eris was following me back to my room since she ordered something and I had it. Then she told Elara, you know, the girl I think it’s really cute, and she said something about going to my room for something and not anything else. She made it awkward so I didn’t want her anywhere near my room because I don’t want Elara thinking I am a manwhore or getting with anyone else,” The man kept talking with his hands as he was explaining this. His eyes wandering around and checking back with his friends every so often. “AND I might have just told Elara a few minutes ago she was as pretty as a rock because I like rocks. Then I figured out she doesn’t care for rocks so I guess I was calling her ugly. I don’t know? Then I compared her to dead people because I said the moon was pale and then I realized I couldn't shut the hell up, so I tried fixing it and told her that she is exactly what I thought the moon goddess looked like and I am so glad I didn’t give her that shiny rock I found earlier because she hates rocks…” Sunni put a hand on his hip while rubbing the back of his neck with the other. “And that’s why I am stressed.”

Stopping mid-pour, Flynn looked up at his friend as he spoke about comparing Elara to a rock, dead people, and a goddess. Flynn tilted the wine bottle up, his brows furrowed, and eyes wide in shock as Sunni explained. “You…” He set the bottle down, trying to process what Sunni had just told him. “You compared her to a dead person?” Flynn's smile grew until he let out a laugh. “Hah! And then a goddess?!” He shook his head, thoroughly amused by his friend's predicament. “And I thought you were supposed to be the one with all the charisma.” He chuckled, recalling how Sunni used to show him the ropes when it came to talking to women in Aurelia. Flynn had been so sheltered for most of his life that he only knew how to talk to high born women; talking to the commoners was a completely different ball game. “She’s going to think you’re a necrophiliac.” He teased, sliding a wine glass over to his friend with a smirk.

His eyes glanced toward the kitchen entrance, realizing in that moment that Elara could very well be overhearing them if she hadn’t retreated to her room to avoid the odd Aurelian man. “I’m sure it’ll be fine. Elara is understanding,” he shrugged, recalling his interactions with the Princess’s handmaiden over the last two months. “She… probably gets compared to a corpse all the time.” He couldn’t help but make the joke, making himself laugh again. “I’m sorry... No, I’m sure it’ll be fine,” he tried to recover, raising his glass to tap it against Sunni’s in a “cheers” fashion. “I don’t think I’ve seen you so flustered over a woman before.” he said in a more hushed tone, taking a sip of his wine and keeping eye contact with Sunni mischievously. It was nice to have this brief respite from the weight of the day—talking about women again. It almost felt like old times.

“Shut up,” Sunni growled playfully. “It’s so difficult to talk to her. I don’t know why…” He sighed while standing there by the counter and leaning against it. It honestly sucked. The man never had so many issues with speaking to people even people he liked in the past or had one night stands with. Elara made him nervous, maybe it was because she was Lunarian? Who knew.

The side glance with intense amber eyes said it all when his friend mentioned she will think he is a necrophile, “I clarified that I did not find dead people attractive or actually think she was a dead person. She is just very fair skinned. I was trying to compare her to the moon,” The man clarified while speaking with his hands again, pointing them down at the ground, as he thought about all the stupid ramblings and things he said to that poor woman.

Grabbing the glass and cheering with Flynn, he sighed, “I shouldn’t have this much of an issue. Maybe it’s because she’s higher class than me and out of my league. I know I am failing before I even start,” Sunni joked but he honestly felt like there was truth in his statement. Most women that were higher on the social ladder didn’t care to look down at the likes of a lesser person even if they had a pretty face.

“Also…” His voice changed tones with inquiry and curiosity. “What happened between you and Octavia? The kitchen was ruined when I came in. I cleaned it up but dishes were everywhere, it looked like one broke, and the bread box was on the floor,” Sunni brought up how he found the state of the kitchen. “I didn’t think you two would get into such a fight already,” Sunni chuckled a little while taking a sip of the wine.

Flynn pulled the glass away from his lips, concern replacing the amusement on his face. “What?” he questioned, looking behind him toward the kitchen to survey the area, even though Sunni had mentioned cleaning up whatever mess he had encountered. “Nothing happened.” he said, looking back at Sunni, confused. The last moment he had had with Octavia had actually been rather pleasant, aside from her leaving abruptly, but she had opened up to him a bit, and he had been happy with that.

When his friend began to clarify that nothing happened between him and Octavia, Sunni’s expression spoke more than words, since a look of not fully believing the man came to his face. “Are you trying to say a squirrel or racoon did it?” He teased the man with a chuckle. Setting down his own wine on the counter. Was Flynn trying to hide something that he didn’t know about? Was his best friends marriage worse than he thought it was going? It honestly made him feel a little sick inside and conflicted since he didn’t know how to take it. Flynn rolled his eyes at the notion, shaking his head and taking another sip of his drink.

“Well—” he paused, rethinking his statement. Something did happen, though no dishes were thrown while he was there. “I wonder if Octavia…” He lowered his voice more, his eyes glancing toward the kitchen entrance again. “Maybe she… was emotional after I left?” He thought aloud, trying to explain even to himself why the kitchen would be such a mess. After the news she had received, he wouldn’t have blamed her for needing to let off some steam. Although, he would have preferred it if she didn’t ruin their limited supply of dishes. “That’s part of why the day has been so long, actually.”

“So you got into a fight and left?” Sunni’s mind was stuck on Flynn and Octavia being in an argument of some kind since that was what made sense in his head. The small confession of his friend leaving and Octavia becoming emotional after he left confused him even more. What were they even fighting about?

A mirrored frown came onto Sunni’s face when hearing his friend acknowledge why the day had been so long. “I’m sorry to hear that…” He was honestly surprised that Flynn and Octavia were having so many issues though he wouldn’t consider the princess of Lunaris an easy task at all. She was quite fiery but she seemed to be weird or off or however you wanted to say it while being around Flynn. Not natural.

“Tsk.” Flynn rolled his eyes again, slightly annoyed that his friend seemingly didn’t believe him. “Shut up. You know I wouldn’t be throwing dishes around.” However, he did feel a tinge of guilt for leaving Octavia in such a vulnerable state. But she had wanted him to leave… hadn’t she? “The Queen of Lunaris… she’s dead.”

Sunni’s amber eyes seemed to lock onto his friends green orbs when the news was put on the table, “The Queen of Lunaris is dead? Octavia’s mother is dead?” Sunni sounded shocked and in disbelief. That was horrible news. What happened to her? She wasn’t that old, was she? A landslide of questions began to build up internally with those few words — ...she’s dead.

Flynn nodded, letting the heaviness of the information linger between them for a few breaths. “Yes, Octavia’s mother.” he confirmed, frowning as the weight he had been feeling all day returned. “We have to announce it to the town tomorrow.” He sighed, not wanting to dwell on that now. “I had to take care of some things after we found out, and… maybe she got angry and threw things?” He glanced back toward the kitchen again, looking for any lingering glass shards. A tinge of anxiety gripped him—was Octavia mad at him for leaving? Shit.

Taking a large gulp of his drink, Flynn pondered the Queen’s untimely fate. “I don’t know what happened…” He set his wine glass down and began to unclasp the emerald green cloak around his shoulders before tossing it onto the countertop. “Octavia seemed shocked. I hadn’t heard of the Queen having an illness or anything…” He shook his head and shrugged. “I don’t know…” He picked up his wine glass again and swirled it a few times in his hand. “I don’t trust the King of Lunaris… that’s what I do know.” He looked at Sunni then, firm in that belief, though it made him question whether or not he should trust his wife, but he dared not speak that out loud here.

“That… She must not be taking this well at all,” Sunni could not imagine losing a mother even though he started life without one. He never knew his mother so it was different — Octavia had gone a little over two decades with her mother. That must be hard. Difficult for anyone. “Maybe she was mad that you wanted to announce it so soon? It sounds like it just got to the both of you,” Sunni was trying to think of why Octavia would be so angry and throw dishes around. It didn’t make sense yet emotions were not rational. Not all the time.

Flynn considered Sunni’s thoughts for a moment, realizing that he hadn’t even mentioned the announcement to Octavia yet. He had planned to tell her tonight or in the morning. Suddenly, his decision without her input felt wrong, but he knew the people had to know. It had already been some time since the Queen had passed, and people would begin to talk soon, if they hadn’t already. It was better to be the first to break the news rather than let rumors start. Dread formed in his chest—Octavia was going to hate him for this, wasn’t she? Nervously, he finished off what was left in his wine glass.

Watching his friend undo his cape and get into a more casual and stressed position, Sunni sat up on the counter to test his limits. “With how people speak about the king, especially ones close to him. I wouldn’t trust him either. With the little bit of information that Octavia has told me, he sounds too much like my own father but worse,” Sunni joked trying to keep the mood light but he knew that might be impossible.

Picking up his wine and taking a sip, he thought about it, “The dishes weren’t thrown around like… I don’t know. You know how you throw things, especially breakables? And they break. The dishes looked like they were scattered around the whole kitchen but set and stacked nicely. Just odd. Only one looked to be broken,” Sunni mentioned while taking a sip of his wine.

Flynn gave Sunni a bewildered look as he explained the scene he had encountered, which sounded even stranger than Flynn had originally envisioned. “Stacked?” he asked, trying to wrap his mind around why they would be organized that way. “Maybe…” He tried to form an idea for an explanation but came up short. “I have no idea… that is odd.” He frowned, leaning against the kitchen counter and pouring more wine into his glass. I don’t understand these Lunarians. Who knows what she could’ve been up to.” He half-joked, though he was serious; understanding Octavia had felt like an impossible task.

Sunni laughed when he thought about it, “Lunarians are a little odd, aren’t they?” If they were saying that about the Lunarians, what did the Lunarians think of them? Aurelians. He knew that one, Lunarian, Elara probably thought he was out of his mind. Hopefully, he wasn’t ruining the idea of Aurelians in general for her. That was somewhat of an upsetting thought that crossed his mind.

“The Priestess of Aelios arrived today, too,” he continued, setting the wine bottle down as he recalled the day’s events. “She nearly died.” He glanced up at the ceiling as if seeking answers for why he was in this position. “My mother will surely hear about that.” He groaned, looking back at his friend. “We have a new blight-born in town, and he nearly killed a child. She healed the kid, but it almost killed her.” At that moment, Flynn realized he felt completely responsible. The only reason blight-born were coming here was because of him and his research. “And Eris got involved…” he waved his hand in the air, signaling it was a long story he didn’t want to relive. “It was a mess… But Orion is housing him right now. The guy seems to want to do better, but…” He let out a heavy sigh again, clearly stressed out by the whole ordeal. “I just don’t know…”

“How!?” Sunni was flabbergasted when Flynn confessed that the priestess of Aelios arrived and almost died. He thought that Dawnhaven was pretty safe — guess not. “So…” The man started in thought. “We have dangerous blight survivors in Dawnhaven?” A huff of air could be heard from him as he took that in. That was not reassuring at all.

Flynn nodded regretfully. “I would have sent him away, but…” He remembered the way the Priestess had mouthed to him that she wanted Willis to stay alive. “The Priestess wanted him to live, for some reason.” He shook his head, confused by it all.

Sunni seemed almost conflicted when his friend spoke about the Sun priestess Tia wanting the blight born, Willis to stay alive. “I would have agreed with your stance. We don’t need people causing such severe issues that it could cost somewhere their life,” He sighed at the thought. “However, I do believe in second chances. Let’s have faith he’ll do good from here on out?” He sounded so uncertain about that. Blight-born were a little nerve wracking.

Taking another sip of his drink, he shrugged, “Hopefully, tomorrow is way better,” No reason to dwell on the past when you could look to the future. The Queen's death was going to be announced tomorrow by the sounds of it. It would make quite a few people sad. They had a decent amount of Lunarians in Dawnhaven and by the sounds of it, the queen was very loved.

“Let’s try to relax tonight, shall we? Want to play cards?” Sunni brought out a pack of cards from his pocket. He always carried a deck around so he could pass the time playing solitaire or other card games, depending if he was alone or not.

Flynn smiled at the sight of the deck of cards Sunni brought out, feeling a nostalgic comfort from them. “I’d love to.” he replied, grabbing the bottle of wine and heading to the kitchen table so they could sit and play. Although the wine wasn’t helping his headache, and he felt completely exhausted, taking time to play cards with his friend sounded like just what he needed. At this rate, who knew when he would next get a chance to relax with someone he genuinely enjoyed being around?

Sunni hopped off the counter top while following Flynn over to the kitchen table. “Oh, I forgot. I am staying the night. I tried leaving after I embarrassed myself in front of Elara but I am back in here, so I guess I’ll stay. I’ll be taking over the couch tonight, so do you want jokers in or not?” The redheaded man asked while setting the wine down on the table and beginning to organize the deck to get ready to shuffle it.

“Good, I think I may need you to protect me from Octavia’s wrath.” Flynn joked, pulling out a chair and sitting down across from Sunni. “Joker’s in.”

Keeping the jokers in as he shuffled, he chuckled at being told he needed to protect him from his wife, “War it is. Jokers are high spades, like always,” He sat down and began to deal the cards out.

---

_{Collaboration with @The Savant}

Sya eye crept open, the "morning” was dark, same as every other morning and this had caused great distress and confusion at first until people found a rhythm of a sort, people went to bed, there was a morning though everyone had their own perception and version of the perceived time. This morning was different to others as she was entangled in another person, no, woman as they felt too light and curved to be male. Olivia, Oliva had joined her in the night and she smiled, waking up to another person next to you willingly was not a pleasure she had in over a year.

sleep came at her again… Sya fell back to sleep and snuggled back up deciding to get a few more minutes rest, she closed her eye and pressed herself into Olivia drawing comfort.

She finally woke up properly the next time she found wakefulness moving on her, unsure how much time had passed and looked around realising it was not a dream with somewhat of a giggle and content sigh. She had no desire to disentangle herself and did with regret and without hurry, placing slow lingering kiss on her bed partner's lips as a good morning before she pulled away regretfully looking around for where her clothes were kept and the comforting weight of her long dagger on the bed side table.

Stretching as she sat, she was a little sore from the prior day and an idea came to mind. “I'm gonna go to the hot springs, I can be open for late morning to lunch, one day I can hire someone, Becky. I need to talk about a potential job. I'll see you tonight if not before.” Sya said softly with a smile at the end, even if they were busy it seemed they would have time at least at night.

“No rest for the emberkin” She said with more humour than it deserved, her local Birth term for a blightborn, two she knew out of…how many ... .and she was the only one of those two alive she knew existed.

Sya moved to get dressed, first braiding her hair into a French style deliberately choosing the one that showed her more as a woman than a worker. she had more to her life now, more to show the world that she was more than the one who kept them fed and drunk.

Clothes she had less choice, her wardrobe was somewhat limited but of good quality for her place, if a bit boring and dull. Bright beautiful colours and styles and material others wore she was yet to be able to afford. One day, just not today.

She paused in the bedroom. door, her more sensitive hearing picked up the signs that people were beginning to wake up and start their day, people were moving and she would have to too. She had to put a note on the door, check on Becky, the kitchen before she could go to the hot springs …

Sya however left her hooded robe behind, she felt not the cold and had no need of its warmth, but its concealment and she decided that she no longer wanted to do that all the time. Her hair ran down her back in looser branded curls and eye glittered a bright blue with her pale ear tips poking visible against the brown.

She paused at the door handle in her small pale hand and took 30 seconds to compose herself before she faced the outside world.

@amorphical