Mr. Feathers' Demise


 * Inner Ring (Ground Level) - 


 * The Inner Ring of Tempest Spire is set apart from the Outer by a circle of black marble pillars, each twice a man's width in diameter and each trimmed along the base with gold plating. What's more peculiar about the pillars is the gold filigree that scrolls about in serpentine form.


 * The Inner Ring would be starkly white and barren if it weren't for the rigorously flowing fountain at its center and the oddity that glows within. The fountain's base is inset into the floor, creating a six-pointed star, each point tipped with a spherical stone the color of six sisterly moons.


 * The fountain water is drawn upward through crystalline spouts and geysers forth from there, jetting from each point towards a center zenith. The ceiling is domed and barely above the arcs of the spray. A faint mist hovers in the air, growing thicker as one nears the fountain.


 * The beauty of the fountain faces ethereal competition from the hovering orb that, despite its position beneath the arching water, is immune to said precipitation. A closer look reveals that the foggy gray orb does not hover, but instead 'floats' just above a crystalline base that has been implanted in the pool. The falling droplets of water give illusion of a himmering shroud around the Aria Song Portal that rests in the middle of the area.


 * Wildlanders and Syladris alike, each clad in scarlet-hued half-plate armor, mull around the area of the Inner Ring, keeping watch over the northern Aria Song Portal to ensure that the various treaties and promises made with the Empire of Fastheld are maintained, and that nothing that shouldn't come or go through the iridescent portal that rests within the ring of he Aria does either those things.

Blackfox is walking in from the outer circle of the spire, eying the aria uneasily, pausing to consider whether or not she truly wishes to make such a journey.

The mists in the room swirl, agitated as the Aria emits one Ziavri Silverdew. Shaking her head to clear the dizzying sensation that usually comes with the trip through the portal, Zia makes her way away from fountain and water as quickly as she can. Water. Mist. Wet and cold. Shivering much like an irritated cat would, she heads for the Outer Ring - on a collision course with Fox, though the bardess doesn't realize it.

Blackfox dances out of the way, frowning with concern, "Are you well?" she asks.

Zia glances up at the Wildlander, and comes to a halt outside the ring of dampness. At least, most of it. Her hair as already gathered a good bit of moisture, and clings to her brow in rat tails. "I'm wet," she says flatly, "but other than that, aye, I'm fine." She takes another step or two away from the water, and decides that she's in a suitable place for conversation. "And now I'm even better. And yourself?"

"I am also well," Fox replies softly with a nod, "I had not expected to run into anyone here."

Zia and Blackfox stand at the edge of the inner ring, Zia looking distinctly dampish and (equally distinctly) displeased with this state of affairs. Blackfox looks like. . . like Blackfox, truthfully.

"Oh?" Zia asks, glancing back at the Aria. "Why not? This -is- a centre of travel, isn't it?" The “isn't it” was tacked on there at the last minute, for good measure. After all, the bardess only knows so much about the Refuge, other than the fact that it's not in Fastheld. A flash of lightning from outside illuminates the room briefly, and a few seconds pass before it's followed up by a distant rumbling of thunder. "Damn," Zia mutters. "Thought maybe it wouldn't be storming here."

"Nay, it is pouring," Blackfox replies, "And the wind cuts like a knife this time of year. Tis why I have been waiting out the storm here and debating whether or not to go through now or wait til morning. And aye, it is a place of travel, but not many come out here."

Zia nods, thoughtfully, and murmurs something that includes the word "strange". "Wait 'til morning," she advises. "Fastheld's no better than here, right now - I'd give it a chance to let up a little."

Into the spire wanders a rather strange sight. A figure in a cloak, certainly, is nothing new. But the fact that both the person and the cloak are, well... /dry/... is quite unusual considering the weather. Windswept, to be certain, but dry. Kallyn lowers her hood and combs through her fiery hair with a hand, revealing another rather odd thing: she's a little blueish. Not a lot, but enough to look unnatural (or perhaps just very, very cold). She continues on her path a though nothing is unusual at all.

"Aye, good advice," Blackfox says, turning then to head off to a niche off to one side. "There is plenty of room here if you wish to rest until morning." So far, she hasn't noticed Kallyn's arrival.

Zia glances around the room, and sighs. "Aye," she agrees. "Which I may do." It wouldn't be the first time she's slept in odd places, not by a far shot. Perhaps she can even find a place un-misted. . . She glances up as Kallyn comes into view, and gives her a light nod. Dry is odd, but who is she to declare that the mage shouldn't be dry?

A smile and a nod is offered to Zia, before a wave and a whispered, "Evening, Fox," are sent the other woman's way. It is loud for a whisper, about normal voice volume, which rules out that she didn't want Zia to hear it. Kallyn then catches sight of her blueish hand and blinks at it, frowning. "Oops," she murmurs, another whisper, before she slowly returns back to her normal coloring. An almost guilty glance to Ziavri and then a sheepish grin, "Lovely weather, isn't it?"

Blackfox turns to see Kallyn's shade changing, frowning a bit at the display, no matter how subtle. "It is good to see you up and about. You are looking far better than when I saw you last." She nods to both women, "Excuse me for a moment, aye? I need to step out a moment."

Blackfox gets a distracted nod; most of Zia's attention is fixed on Kallyn. Bluish, coldish, dryish - sure, the bardess can accept that. But the behavior's a bit peculiar for bluish-coldish-dryish. "Mm," she agrees. "Lovely." There's more than a little sarcasm in her voice - but it fades as lightning flashes again. "Spring's coming, I think."

Kallyn nods to Fox as the huntress leaves, before looking back to Zia. "I recently sustained an injury to my throat," she explains in her whispering, her hand going to her neck and making a gesture as if to crush it, "Talking still hurts. And, erm..." A glance to her hand, "I was already cold, and I figured it would be a really bad idea for me to get wet on top of that." She taps at the Mark around her right eye and then adds, "Please don't tell anyone. Not really supposed to be doing that in public."

Zia lifts an eyebrow, smiling slightly. "Aye, then," she agrees, glancing at the glanced-at hand. "Er . . ." A short hesitation. Questions should be phrased delicately, sometimes. "What exactly -did- you do? To stay dry, and to your throat, I mean?"

"Aligned myself with water," Kallyn replies, "Really handy, that. Keeps me dry, cold doesn't bother me, and I can breathe in water. As for my throat, well... a close encounter with a rather nasty creature in the Wildlands. If it hadn't been for the people who were traveling with me, I'd not have survived." A thoughtful sort of look in the direction Blackfox wandered off to, before the redhead just shrugs, "Such are the dangers of the Wilds."

Zia shudders. "Never been there," she confesses. "But... I've heard some of things, aye?" Suddenly, she smiles, a vague, impish glint in her eye. "Aligned yourself with water? Ai. Peculiar thing to do, no? So you and the water are no friends. Nice to get along with something like that."

The redhead chuckles, and then starts into a mild coughing fit. Clearing her throat, Kallyn shakes her head, wearing a grin. "I happen to be able to befriend all of the elements," she remarks, "Air is the most fun, though. Great sense of humor."

Zia takes a step forward to lend a hand to the coughing Kallyn, and stops as the fit subsides. Does the mage appear damaged? Nope. Deciding that Kallyn's not about to fall over on the spot, Zia makes a show of considering this last remark. "Aye," she says at length. "I can see that. But--"

"Hoo-woo!" Flapping wings and the shrill cry of an owl - one very soggy and bedraggled owl - cut off the bardess' next words. The sounds echo across the ceiling, and then the bird appears in view, beak hanging wide and trailing what looks like the bloody tail of a hapless mouse, eyes crazed as it flaps in on a direct collision course with the back of Kallyn's head.

The mage turns at the sound, her smoky eyes widening in surprise as the owl nears her head. A head that is not longer /there/ when the owl gets to it. Nor is the rest of the girl, as her entire form merely vanishes as though blown away by a breeze. Kallyn's immaterial self hefts a sigh and she whispers, "Like I said, air is the most fun."

Screeching, the owl swerves, talons outstretched and wings splayed as it tries to avoid a mage that suddenly isn't there. The creature rolls in the air, wobbles, gains its balance again and now it's headed directly for Zia. With a surprised yelp, she ducks - and gets a substantial amount of hair snagged in the creature's claws as the owl bowls on past her towards the fountain. Wincing, she straightens again and stares after the crazed bird, blinking. That's when the reason for its behavior becomes apparent: tied securely to its foot is a length of lightweight cotton string.

"Mr. Feathers!" A small girl appears in the doorway, scrambling past Syladris and Wildlanders, Kallyn and Zia after the crazed bird.

Blackfox returns not far behind the owl, pushing back the wet hood of her cloak, "Aye, the weather has gotten no better. Kallyn left then?"

"Kid, you really don't want that bird as a pet," Kallyn remarks, remaining in her invisible form just in case that crazy owl returns. She then says, "No, Fox, I'm here. Just... avoiding getting hit by an owl, is all. You can lecture me later."

Near that invisible form, some of the Spire guards are getting restless. A few of the Syladris guards are even hissing - not angrily, but definitely losing patience.

The girl ignores Kallyn's warning and the glares of several of the Aria's guards, scrambling right on past as the owl soars higher towards the ceiling - over the Aria, through a cloud of mist. Grinning now, and massaging the back of her head where she's certain she's missing a good handful of hair, Zia backs towards the wall. "Not such a bad thing to be invisible," she whispers to Kallyn - or where Kallyn should be, assuming she stayed there.

"Veria!" A woman follows on the girl's heels, a sheet tucked under her arm. "Veria! Get back here!"

Wall = Bad. Mr. Feathers stops, wheels about again just as he's about to crash into it dead-on, heading down again - this time for Blackfox. Her turn.

Blackfox simply watches the bird as it dives, side stepping it at the last minute, "Once they begin their dive, they cannot change direction," she says. "It is why with a bit of bait, most birds of prey are very easy to hunt." She watches the owl swoop by, "Why is there an owl in here?"

"All right, I get it," Kallyn says to the guards, and makes sure neither of the newcomers is looking before she reappears in the same spot, much in the same way she vanished. "The last time I tried to get away from something by merely moving, it tried to tear out my throat. Forgive me for being startled into alternate methods." She rubs her neck absently and watches the spectacle, "Apparently it belongs to the kid chasing it around... But if I had to guess, it really doesn't want to go back to captivity."

Crash! With a sickening, feathery thud, the owl smashes into the wall behind Fox, and slides to the ground. There it sits, wobbling, dazed a minute as Veria and her mother dart towards it. A shake of the feathery head, and a flap of its wings, and it regains enough sensibilities to take off again - up.

"Damned if I know," Zia mutters, watching the proceedings with a peculiar expression somewhere between a frown and a grin - which is an accomplishment, when considered. "I'm guessing it broke the leash."

Then the sheet flies into the air, out of the mother's arms - and it's a direct hit. Effectively blinded, fumbling and tangled in the sheet, the writhing mass that is Mr. Feathers begins to plummet from the vaulted ceiling, while Veria screams at it from below.

"Why.." Blackfox starts, shaking her head, "Never mind."

Zia, Blackfox and Kallyn are taking "shelter", of a sort, near the opening to the Outer Ring. Meanwhile, a young girl allegedly called "Veria" chases, screaming, after a rampant Mr. Feathers - a large owl. Her mother chases after her. Current update on Mr. Feathers: he looks remarkably like someone has thrown a sheet on him, which indeed someone has, and is rather preoccupied at the moment plummeting towards the ground.

Mr. Feathers screeches, infuriated, terrified, and inevitably comical as he drops like a stone towards the Aria. A group of guards at the base give the falling bundle a worried look, shifting, fidgeting, stepping back - a few touching bows in consideration of shooting the crazy missile down.

"Mr. Feathers!" Veria yells out the one line she seems capable of again as she darts towards the Aria and the falling Mr. Feathers, her mother hot on her heels. Zia, for her part, winces in anticipation of the owl's landing and shrinks a little closer against the wall.

"Do you know these people?" Blackfox asks, watching the spectacle in disbelief.

"Nnnope," Kallyn whispers to Blackfox, as loudly as she would if speaking normally.

If one were to ask oneself who would be the worst possible person to throw into this situation, Varal Valoria might be on the short list. And, as irony may have it, said Valoria steps out of the song portal and into the chaos.

Veria stops short as Varal materializes out of the song portal, eyes fixed on the falling bird. The mother shortly behind her squawks agitatedly - in near-perfect imitation of the bird. By this time, Mr. Feathers has managed to nearly run into most everyone in the room - including a fair portion of disgruntled guards. (Those bows really -are- seeming tempting right now). And now, the unfortunate bird is prepared to land atop Varal, if he doesn't get out of the way quickly enough.

Mr. Feathers is making progress with the sheet - one wing has been freed, and now sticks absurdly out of the bundle of sheet, catching the wind and giving it an unfittingly graceful spiral as it flies down. Watching from the edge of the room, Zia blinks in surprise as the nobleman materializes, but doesn't think to call out a warning.

"Look out!" Fox calls out to Varal as the bow fingers get twitchy and a half-sheeted owl plummets downward. It's about all the warning she has time to shout out as she points upwards, hopefully giving Varal time to react.

Kallyn sees Varal materialize, eyes widening. Forgetting about her unhappy throat, the redhead raspily calls, "Milord, above you!" and starts coughing again, brows knitting in a combination of irritation and some pain.

A confused look materializes on Varal's face, which culminates in him looking up dumbly.

If Varal looks up, Mr. Feathers doesn't care. He's busy. Too busy to worry about whether what he lands on happens to be a hapless nobleman, or a hard stone floor. Still struggling violently with the sheet, he lets out another squawk... and lands squarely on Varal's head, if the nobleman doesn't get out of the way. That's one soggy bird-and-sheet surprise, fresh from the rainy outdoors, with a bloody mouse-tail stuck in its beak to boot.

Veria makes some sort of disheartened sound as the creature lands with a sickening thump, and moves forward - only to be caught by her mother and held fast.

Now that the bird has landed somewhere, Zia starts forward from the safety of the wall towards Mr. Feathers and company.

Blackfox just shakes her head and sighs at the chaos, "People should leave wild animals where they belong," she says softly.

The redhead recovers from her coughing fit and covers her mouth, watching the spectacle with wide eyes. While Varal getting a faceful of wet owl might have seemed funny to Kallyn under some other circumstance, she is not laughing. The freelander mage starts towards the Valorian quickly, going back to her loud-enough-to-be-heard whispering, "M-Milord, are you all right?" She actually seems concerned, too!

Varal is taken by surprise as the bird lands on his hand. He scrambles to try to rip it off of him, cursing rather impressively.

Mr. Feathers has landed rather hard, and at an odd angle. Flying through the air again now, flung away from the fluently-swearing nobleman, he no longer struggles, and lands in a pitiful heap at Zia's feet. Presumably, if Varal's cursing, he isn't dead. Coming to a sudden stop as she almost steps on the poor creature, the bardess stares down at it, kneels and begins to peel away the sheet. Picking the owl up gingerly, almost tenderly, she cradles it carefully in one arm while she tries to figure out how to tell if it survived that. It's not hard - a fair amount of the delicate bones snapped in the fall, and from the limp way it moves, it's fairly obvious it isn't. "Dead," she pronounces quietly, to the distress of the Veria who finally breaks free of her mother and snatches the body away from Zia.

Blackfox continues to stand off to one side, shaking her head at the madness.

Kallyn stops mid-step, blinking and looking surprised at just how well Varal can curse. "I'll assume that means 'I'm all right, but that startled me'...," she remarks, now covering her mouth to hide the smirk that threatens to quirk at the corners of her lips. Not at the owl, just the swearing.

The situation is a little hard to parse together. Kallyn and Blackfox stand off to the side, while an irate Varal stands just outside the song portal with a dead bird, being picked over by Ziavri, at his side. "What just happened here," the noble questions. From his tone, it's obvious that he's confused, annoyed, and not sure what is going on.

Zia lets Veria take the bird from her, returning the now slightly-bloodied sheet to the girl's mother with a sheepish sort of sigh. "I'm... er, sorry," she manages, unsure exactly whether she should be reprimanding someone for capturing the late Mr. Feathers in the first place, or apologizing for being involved in the bird's demise. Doesn't matter. Nearly ignoring Zia, the mother takes the sheet in one hand and Veria by the other, leading the girl away.

"The feathers are good for fletching," Blackfox suggests, "Or for ornamentation, and the meat is tasty as well."

From the outer ring, two figures slip in together. Sandrim, his hair slicked back with rain, looks rather soaked as he leads Mareten through. The mage pauses as he glances to Kallyn, raising an eyebrow. "Shouldn't you be recovering?"

"Erm," Kallyn starts, still going on with her loud whisper, "It looks like that girl had the owl as a pet, Milord. Seems to have broken its leash and started flying about like mad, and managed to get in here..." She looks to Sandrim and smiles, "It doesn't hurt if I whisper, but thank you for your concern."

Varal grunts, frowning as he moves away from the dead bird and Ziavri. "Always fun, coming to Crown's Refuge," he mutters.

Mareten wanders in after Sandrim and looks around. He blinks at the sight of Varal and dips into a bow. "Me lord." He murmurs.

Zia watches a moment after the leaving pair, not entirely sorry she can't hear what the mother is saying to Veria at this moment, as the child wanders off sobbing and carrying Mr. Feathers in a less-than-dignified way. Then they're out of sight, and she hears Blackfox's comment, and turns a dirty look on her - just in case the two aren't out of earshot. Then, turning, she gives Mareten a meaningful look, and nods to Varal before retiring to the wall. "Light," she mutters, but anything after that is lost.

Blackfox meets Zia's gaze, "This is the Wildlands," she says quietly, "I would never suggest killing a pet, but I would not waste it either."

Sandrim tilts his head to the side as he catches further sight of the scene, glancing aside to Mareten, before he nods to Kallyn. "Alright," he says uncertainly. "There's a canoness in Light's Reach, by the way. She can dispel the effects."

Varal nods to Mareten. "Master Crashhammer, I hope all is well," he says simply. He looks towards Sandrim. "I believe she is in the Temple of the Dawn rather often, if you are looking for her."

Mareten straightens up and nods his head. "Ayup me lord. Heards wez comin over here so Iz comes ta checks it out me lord." The smith murmurs.

Zia shakes her head at Blackfox. "Ai, no, I don't mean waste it," she clarifies. "But, perhaps a little tact while the girl's listening? I'm sure the mother knows how to handle it." She sighs, and it turns into a yawn. Reaching up, she covers it with her mouth. "It's late, and owls aside, I think I'll search for someplace dry to rest." With that, she murmurs something to the effect of "Light's keep," to anyone who's listening and heads for the Outer Ring.

Return to Season 7 (2008)