"And if I've never seen them," I told Korr, "How do I know what they are?"
"It never snowed in your home enclave?" Korr asked.
"No, it was very dry. It barely rained, except when the rains came in spring." The spring rains had always been miserable, with fetid, gray rain pouring out of the sky and turning everything into smelly muck. But I knew the scent of snow in the air, and the sensation of a blizzard on the wind, and could see the swirling white, but I did not have memories.
The recesses of my mind yielded nothing else: just vague, distant knowledge but no explanation as to how I had acquired it.
"Perhaps it's knowledge from your before," Korr said.
"Pups know how to eat," Itek came around to my left side and blotted out the sunlight. "But I doubt any of us remember our first meal. But we know what food is, and isn't."
Korr's gaze slide sideways to his brother. "Mostly."
Then what was my being able to see, smell, taste, feel a blizzard and ice but not remember it?
"Perhaps your memory is coming back." Itek traced his fingertips down my scarred upper arm.
What was the memory of a young child worth?
"And with it, perhaps your ability to shift," Itek added. "And your magic."
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves." A cold chill ran down my spine and through my scars.
Asund drew his fingertip down my spine. "Then perhaps we should do something else."
Ethat brp'd in surprise and Korr raised a brow, a smile lurking on his pale lips. "The wolf wastes no time."
I looked over my shoulder at Asund. As much as I would have loved to get lost in him--or any of them--Korr was clearly not well, Ethat was a mess (that was his own fault), and there were two immediate things I needed help with. "Perhaps later, naughty wolf."
"You have no idea how naughty." Asund nipped my shoulder.
"Really? So far you've seemed disappointingly tame." Korr sighed dramatically.
The memory of Asund with the Priestess stabbed my awareness again. I tried to hide the shudder, maybe I succeeded, but I jumped right to the real issues. "I--"
"Were tempted by the Lord-Raven's offer?" Korr inquired.
Ethat made a grim nose and slicked down all his scales with a terrible crackling sound.
"No!" I grabbed a handful of hair and took a deep breath. "After I got back, Deliah was brushing out my hair and we were talking about Marcus and beautiful blood. She was scolding me a bit. Such as it is given I don't know a damn thing about anything. And it just came up in conversation where I was able to ask her if she thought I was a shifter or a human. She thought I was teasing her."
Korr gestured for me to follow him into the main hall. "She was serious."
Ormiss slid between Itek and Asund. "She thinks you're human."
"Both she and Yanice. Except shifters thing I'm a shifter. Someone's wrong. Very wrong."
Itek guided me to the rugs and pillows in front of the hearth, which had a fire going in it even in summer since the structure was cold--usually it was much colder than this because of Korr, but Korr had an aura of heat around him, like being near a warm teapot. Itek pulled me down into the cushions, and positioned himself behind me. He pulled out the combs and pins securing my hair.
Ormiss took time from his magical contemplation to glare at Itek. Asund shifted down into wolf form and laid his head on my lap. Itek pulled his fingers through my hair, separating and parting the braids and coils.
Korr leaned on Ethat's upraised neck with one hand. "Glamors do exist, but I'm not aware of a glamor that can convincingly obfuscate core details of the wearer. Things like age, voice, species. Usually, a long-lasting glamor that doesn't require daily tending can only adjust minor details. I considered the possibility you were the princess in an extraordinary glamor, but not just confusing your shifter species, but your actual nature is beyond what a glamor can do."
Ormiss tore his gaze away from me back to Korr. "That would be more akin to an alchemical transmutation to create a mirror or an invisibility incantation, but I always knew she wasn't glamored. A glamor good enough to confuse a mage like myself--and perhaps an innate weilder like you--would require an extraordinary level of talent and ability, and constant tending. It would be akin to necromancy."
Korr looked at his brother.
Ethat gave him a dragon-smirk.
Itek pulled his fingers through my hair, deft and fine as any comb. Asund closed his eyes and drift as wolves do when they're content with the pack. I leaned back against Itek. He bent forward and kissed the hollow of my throat, lips lingering.
"And did Soir make comment on your species?" Korr asked.
"He thinks I'm a mutt shifter. Not in a bad way, though. He likes the idea that I am so perfectly balanced no species is dominant over the other."
"A fascinating theory, if inaccurate," Itek said.
"And?" Ormiss pressed.
Korr glared at him. "Must your torture her with your jealousy?"
"I am not jealous."
"You just accused her of flitting about with the bird. And do not say you did not." Korr pointed a finger under Ormiss' chin. "If she doesn't want your company, stallion, it's your fault and perhaps this is why."
Ormiss shuddered all over.
"He's charming. And flattering. Although I can hear his song. He was intrigued by that." I wasn't trying to lie, but I also wasn't trying to confess that I'd been intrigued by Soir, and found him... nice. He'd been charming and almost sweet, in a weird way. "And... I swear, his song... it makes my scars... not ache, exactly, but just... they're sensitive."
"You've been picking at them," Itek said.
"They've been bothering me. I don't know why. They never have before. And I think Soir's song... maybe I was just self conscious about them?"
"Interesting. Most can't hear a Raven's song at all, even if they're listening for it," Korr said. "Can you hear it, Ormiss?"
"I sense the magic, but I can't hear it," Ormiss said. "I sense it like vibrations across metal, or walls shaking, but not something I can hear."
"When he's singing loudly. But he is very refined. Cruder songs I can hear, or guess they're being sung. Soir is the Lord-Raven." Korr seemed mildly annoyed.
Itek continued to preen my hair but he said, "I do not approve of this raven singing to our consort."
Ormiss glared at me. "And you showed him your scars."
"Yes, I know you lot were spying. I spotted Itek."
Asund flipped into human form, draped over my leg, and smirked at me. "But you didn't spot me. And neither did nose birds."
"Itek said he touched you," Ormiss added.
"Just a graze of his fingertips," I said, trying not to sound defensive. "I didn't invite him to touch. Just look."
"He should know better," Ormiss snarled. "If he wants to say you're a Hippocamp lady and he wants to marry you, he knows the rules."
"Are you just determined to be angry?" I asked.
"Yes. Yes, I am."
Itek sighed. Asund reached up and coiled a stray lock of my hair around his finger. "The horse-fish has been a rampaging stallion while you were gone."
Ormiss' magic crackled, highlighting the otherwise unnoticeable dark circles around his slightly sunken eyes. "I do not like any of this."
"Will you crush down those protective instincts--like the rest of us do--and behave?" Itek asked impatiently. "Yes, we all want to drag her off and make love to her, but can we focus on what's at hand?"
"Really, because I don't believe you have ever made love to her, just fucked her," Ormiss said coldly.
"Will you quit," I snapped.
Ethat dragged himself forward--shifting supporting Korr to his tail--and extended his neck across the carpet, chittering his teeth and nibbling my dress playfully, giving me that oh so innoncent upward cast glance as he did so.
Korr cocked his head, then shrugged slightly. "Killing Soir will be a bad idea."
Ethat made a little mewling noise.
"You are not hungry," Korr snapped at him.
Ethat chortled, then burped some flies.
"So Soir proposed to you, while humans think you're human, and we know you are a unicorn, and a wolf messenger will undo all of this." Asund ran my ahir through his fingers while Itek put tiny braids into the fine hairs at my temples.
"I will tell Soir tonight I'm taken," I said.
"Alone? Not a chance," Ormiss snapped. Asund growled agreement.
Korr waved a hand. "Focus. This situation is delicate. Ravens don't mind lies when it's part of the game, but this is now outright deception, and the dragons want no part of it."
"The situation is also dangerous and precarious. For her," Ormiss told Korr. "You think I'm not going to make it clear to Soir Theia is not his?"
Korr whirled around on Ormiss in a rustle of robes and hair. He shook one white-jointed fist in Ormiss' direction and frost dripped from his voice. "You idiot! That's the sort of language and attitude that got us here! She isn't a possession, you foolish entitled horse-fish! She isn't a trinket to be worn!"
"No, she's a treasure to be guarded and kept safe!" Ormiss shouted.
"You mean smothered!"
Ethat chittered his teeth anxiously and coiled his neck around his brother, crooning/chittering something. Korr shook with anger and the stone building suddenly seemed its usual frigid cold as frost formed over his clenched fist.
Ormiss inclined his head, giving Korr a disgusted sideways look as obsidian-and-garnet hair swept over his shoulder in a shining fall. "Soir is dangerous."
"You're letting your hatred of Soir cloud your judgement," Korr spat.
"Do you want what happened to my cousin to happen to her?" Ormiss shouted.
Itek got to his feet while Asund rolled onto his sternum. Itek tugged Ormiss by a handful of hair. "Stop and focus on what's important. I don't like the idea of her dealing with Soir alone either, but hear her out."
Korr braced himself on his brother's neck. He sounded breathless as he laid into Ormiss. "The humans think Theia is a human. Shifters think she's a shifter. She can hear Soir's song. Her scars are bothering her. Her memory is coming back. We need to extract ourselves from Soir with minimal damage."
"Ravens are the ones who took her to the realm. Her body likely remembers the song. Soir knows something," Ormiss retorted.
Korr really needed to sit down before his legs did it for him. I told Ormiss, "He admitted quickly that it did appear Ravens had done it, but he didn't know who. I think I mostly believed him."
Asund sighed, rolled up onto his haunches, scratched behind one ear with a hindpaw, and shifted into human form. He rested his elwbos on his bent knees, heedless of how his bound clothing didn't hide everything when he was sitting like that. "Soir's a young Raven. What happened with Theia happened, by her counting, twenty years ago now. Was Soir Lord-Raven then?"
Korr shook his head and had to catch himself on his brother. "No. He came to power fifteen years ago, and it was what drew the dragons out of the mountains. He's young for it. But so was the Princess. My understanding is his selection and elevation was accelerated out of necessity."
"So he wasn't groomed to be Lord-Raven from hatching," I said.
"He was one of a selection of possibilities, not an heir-appraent." Korr grimaced, his expression haunted.
Asund gestured with a hand. "Then whatever happened with Theia did not happen under his watch or command. He might have heard rumors, but I doubt seriously that the Lord-Raven has been burdened with specific knowledge. Rulers get protected so they can deny knowing. It's a dangerous game, but one played all the time. One I've played. Witholding information from rulers is sometimes part of protecting them."
Korr turned back to Ormiss. "Ergo, there might be powerful people who do know, and won't appreciate a young ruler asking questions. So we give Soir a chance at a graceful exit. Although I do not like the idea of you going by yourself, Theia."
"Soir isn't going to hurt me," I said. "I'll tell him tonight. We can't let the messenger get ahead of us."
"Soir might have convinced you he won't hurt you," Korr said, "but you shouldn't be sure you can hear all his song. Soir is very powerful."
"And you telling him won't piss him off?" Soir would take it very badly. Soir didn't mind lies. Soir minded bullshit. If I revealed I'd never been available, but nobody had actively lied to him or humiliated him and he wasn't the last to find out, and he'd just been allowed to make his own (incorrect) assumptions from the puzzle, he wouldn't be mad.
He'd probably laugh at himself and be amused he'd been so neatly outwitted on something so simple. He was already halfway there not believing Korr and Itek were mated.
I sort of liked Soir, and didn't want to hurt or humiliate him. The others had a bad opinion of him, but Soir wasn't what they thought. The Lord-Raven was dangerous, wicked, and up to no good, but he'd never tried to convince me he wasn't either. Or that I was too dumb or naive to understand what he was really about.
And it wasn't like my these five weren't some combination of dangerous, wicked, and up to no good.
Resolved, I repeated, "I'll tell him. Myself."
"And we're going to be nearby," Ormiss said. "We aren't going to send you in there alone."
"I'm sure Itek and As--"
"All of us." His garnet and obsidian eyes narrowed. He leaned down. "All of us."
"I--"
"Soir is a SongBird," Ormiss interrupted me.
Asund straightened and Itek released Ormiss' hair.
Korr's pale lips twisted at this revelation. "You're sure."
Ormiss nodded.
"What?" I asked blankly.
"It's not widely known, and the Ravens will barely discuss SongBirds with outsiders," Korr elaborated. "I had only heard rumors that he was a SongBird. But you're confirming it, horse-fish."
"He was suspected of it, and my aunt wanted to know one way or the other. They tried to deny it until I showed up, and they were forced to admit it. They were denying it on the technicality that he'd never been officially 'initiated' as a SongBird, even though he apparently passed all the trials and just stopped short of whatever formality there is. They want to be able to deny he's a SongBird without lying. And you wonder why I do not trust him? They refused to even clarify the nature of his powers to me, but he agreed to tell my cousin, much to everyone's anger."
"Wait, do you think your cousin was murdered because she knew what a SongBird actually is?" Asund waved a hand.
"That's absurd. Of course she should know, and Hippocamp are excellent at secrets," Itek said.
"I have no idea," Ormiss growled.
"But what is a SongBird?" I asked.
"There are many rumors about what they are," Korr said, "just like there are rumors about the magic of dragons and hippocamp and such. What is generally believed to be true is they are some sort of blend of clergy and mage."
"Which sounds an awful lot like they get magic from demons," Asund said grimly.
"Or other unsavory sources," Ormiss said. "Alchemical, perhaps. Soir is very dangerous. I should turn that bird into a meal."
Chirp chirp belch growl.
Korr sighed. "He says he's hungry."
CHIRRRRP.
"Very hungry," Korr added.
"I have to go, then, " I said. "Korr's the only one I'd trust to take with me, and he's in no shape to do anything but look like glass."
"I abandon feigning I have a mild headache and you think I'm an invalid," Korr almost bristled.
"You're only standing because Ethat is holding you up."
"My legs resent that. I am clearly holding Ethat down."
CHIRP BELCH CHIRP.
"I don't even need a translation for that," I told Ethat, who rolled his one ghoulish eye at me. He did look like a half-rotted zombie dragon. It was hard to feel sorry for him after her ate Maris.
Well, technically, he had eaten Maris' corpse after Ormiss had turned him into gibs.
And they said the Lord-Raven wasn't to be trusted. So far, I hadn't seen Soir turn a demon-touched into dragon snacks in broad daylight in front of the gods and everyone else while leaving a bunch of ravens and wolves to clean up the bits. "I'm going. Tonight. Korr, if you want to give me a script, I'll do my best."
"Fine. I'll make arrangements for all of us--except Korr--to be there." Asund raised a brow at Korr. "You need to stay here. You are not well, you're a liability, and we need someone on the outside if this goes badly. And I am in charge of this. Nobody moves unless I say so. We all just watch."
Ormiss glared. "I--"
"Are you an experienced battlefield commander or ever done close-quarters protection or extraction?" Asund cut him off. "No? I didn't think so. I'm in charge."
I shivered. Nothing like a wolf telling everyone he was in control.
Ethat chittered eagerly and made little mewling noises like he was a hungry dragon pup.
Itek sighed. "Can we leave him behind too?"
"...no," Asund said grimly. "We need him. Theia, my love, go send word to Soir you want to see him tonight
/*************
PEEPS--
So who's gonna tell Soir Theia's taken?
Oh. Wait. Theia is.
:: rubs hands together ::
MUWAHAHHAAHAHAHA.
Except Office Intern would like you to know she is not getting enough tummy rubs. Weirdest cat ever. She likes tummy rubs. She'll make these little "mmmph mmph" purr-mew noises and if you stop rubbing (because other cats have taught you that they will claw the shit out of you for more then 2 tummy rubs), she meows angrily like "MORE." and flops back over and coos at you like "THIS TUMMY IS NOT GOING TO PET ITSELF." SHE decides when she is done with the tummy rubs. But remain available because in 10 minutes she'll want more.
Anyone else have anything interesting they're doing this weekend? I'm going to try to get around to photographing some stuff for IG and to finally update my Ravelry project page with pictures, finish updating & upgrading my website, making some TikToks, and mostly just plan on reading and knitting, probably going to play Warframe and maybe pick up Stray, which I've been meaning to do. Maybe go to Homegoods if I've got time.
And yes, I am channeling that scene from Old School (2003 movie). I was 23 when I saw it, and I distinctly remember laughing at that scene going "that's my parents" while at the same time feeling somewhat uncomfortable that maybe I shouldn't be laughing because it felt like there was some grain of truth to it.
THERE'S NO *GRAIN* OF TRUTH TO IT. YOU WILL LITERALLY FIND YOURSELF SAYING THAT EXACT THING once you are a) over 30 or b) buy a house. My husband and I have both literally said that in casual conversation over the years, and every time, we stop and look at each other like 0_o "IT'S HAPPENING."
It's the cousin of the feeling when you look around because you need an adult and realize somehow YOU are now the adult.
So if you've ever heard your own parents (or someone my age) snickering about "going to Bed Bath & Beyond" or "I DUNNO IF WE'LL HAVE TIME", it's (probably...) NOT some weird code for sex, it's an Old School reference.
~ Merry
(purling pantster)
*************/