Forum Thread

Gaze flickering to the candles that the lady mentioned, Leanna took a few deeper breaths, thinking it over. "Black currant," she decided eventually, placing the sweet and slightly floral scent as best she could. Noting the bored tones in Isolde's voice, Leanna wondered how to bring up the unusual fight she'd nearly been caught up in. "I saw something strange today," the young girl settled on, gently setting the formal dress on top of her little clothing pile. Hopefully her story would pique the interest of the lady; after all, it wasn't often that she went through the effort of telling a story. Then again, the brawl had admittedly scared her a tad, and it would be nice to talk about it.

Emmett watched with surprise as the lady in front of him blushed several different shades of pink while stammering out a timid thanks. He hadn't expected to have that much of an effect on her; naturally, he'd assumed that she heard that sort of thing all of the time. Cute, a voice in his brain decided, and to his further surprise, he felt his own face heat up a tad. Well, either way, Emmett was glad she hadn't been thrown off by his quirkiness. "Peregrine," he repeated, making very sure to remember it, as it was quite a lovely name. "I'm sorry if I embarrassed you or anything," he said quickly, realizing that he might have been slightly too forward if in fact she wasn't used to hearing people praise her beauty. The realization did not help the flush now definitely present on his own face, though it was still fairly faint. "I was just..." The connotations of what he'd said were hitting him and he was starting to feel a bit embarrassed himself. Nevertheless, he cleared his throat slightly and pressed on. "I just, well - if I'm being perfectly honest - I was just quite enamored with you," Emmett said as closely to his normal matter-of-fact tone as possible. Maybe it would have been best to just pick up his book and move on. Less confusing, certainly.

Finally, the two of them decided to go in, mostly because Cardinal, who had been holding out on entering the library as a safe place to stay, decided that being out in the open like this was far more dangerous than going inside of a library. The library was, surprisingly, open, though as Escavalier put it, "Best not to question the dumb luck that I bring along." She had, of course, added, "That's not the only dumb thing you bring," but that was beside the point. "What if someone's in here?" Cardinal whispered as they pushed open the doors and stepped inside. "What do we say?" "Let me handle that," Escavalier said. "Honestly I'm not sure if I should let you handle anything."


The General had spent all day touring the city with Sou and was becoming rather impatient. However, he waited it all out behind a charade of his oily smile and smooth words. Eventually, he announced, "It's becoming late, boy. We will head back to the castle." They began the trip back, passing by the library. The General swore he saw something out of the corner of his eye, anger and confusion flashing across his face for a moment, revealing the ugliness beneath, but the charade returned as quickly as it left.

---

Black currant... Isolde mused over that for a moment. A rather interesting take, but she could see it. There was maybe an undertone of something else, though, perhaps orchid. In the response to the girl's statement, she glanced back to her, curiosity raised. "Oh?" The 23 year-old stood, making her way to a dark mahogany ornate dining table with two matching chairs on either side. "If you have the time, would you be interested in recounting it to me?" Sliding out its drawer, she took out a tea box decorated with red leather and a golden latch, as well as two bronze tea cups, then, setting those on the table top, moved towards a bronze kettle on a spindly iron platter-stand beside it. "I do have tea, if you drink it. The water's a bit lukewarm, but it'll suffice."

---

Despite having been completely caught off guard at first, Peregrine's ability to function had somewhat returned to her, though his continued speech, not just the words but the sound of his voice, was drawing her back towards a state of flustered mess. She was trying to keep her wits about her, but this seemed almost like something taken from the fairytales her mother used to tell her before bed when she was little. It was really quite strange to her, unusual; she'd never had any interactions with other people that she could compare to this. She should probably try to respond intelligently something before her own elated and astonished thoughts crashed back down on her.

"Oh, no, no, no worries," she quickly said in response to his apology. She wasn't sure what to say to his latter words, but there was some sort of odd bubbly feeling in her stomach that made her laugh a bit, somewhat awkwardly and a little bit just in surprise; an awkward-surprised-happy laugh.

---

Sou had never before seen the town so quiet. Usually when the boy went out on chores, the courtyard would be bright and lively, with shoppers milling around and merchants hawking their wares. But here Sou could scream at the top of his lungs and the only sound that would reply would be the low clopping of hooves on cobblestone streets and the echo of his own voice. Even the kindly old grandma who would always without fail give Sou a withered and dry yet no less delicious apple each time he came was no where in sight. A deep frown marred the child's usually cheerful face as he leaned to get a better look of his surroundings very nearly falling off the horse. "Where is everyone?" He voiced innocently, not quite understanding why when at such a peak time of the day there would be so little people.

---

Cardinal and Escavalier made their way through the halls of the library, quickly and quietly. This time, it was Cardinal who slowed them down, fascinated by the books around them, nothing like the ones in the libraries that she had seen before. Escavalier had to keep pulling on her arm to stop her from reaching for a book. Somehow, they ended up on the same aisle as Peregrine and Emmet, giving themselves away as Escavalier tripped on Cardinal's cloak, falling and swearing a tad too loudly.

The General laughed. "It's funny, really. The people, in their backward ways, are afraid of the good queen Etheria. They think her Majesty is an evil witch. Witch, maybe, but simply enlightened."

---

"But Her Majesty is the Queen now." He mumbled, confused. "Even if she's a witch, she's still the Queen. Everyone loved the King so why don't they love the Queen? She seems nice enough... And I thought it was really cool when she turned you into a human, sir! Of course you look very pretty as a snake but it was really really impressive of Her Majesty to do that. She's really strong, isn't she, sir." His rambling thoughts were doing figure eights, never really staying on one subject for too long before leaping to another idea. Truly as much of a child mentally as he was physically.

---

The General shook his head, his dark hair shifting so that it masked his eyes. He stared ahead, moving his face so that a little gleam of red could be seen from them. The man sighed. "Not everyone understands things like you do, boy. The Queen gives these people the kindness of her rule, and they spit it back in her face. I thank you for your compliment. My reptilian form is quite easier to manage, but I use this form for her Majesty's sake. King Taurus was kind but soft. Weak. Your queen is strong, my boy. That is what these people need. For Queen Etheria is the strongest being you will ever find, rivaled only by the Serpent King's heir."

---

The young woman, slightly startled, glanced quickly at the two newcomers. Just how many people were out late tonight? There were two, a man and a woman, and the regal and composed way the former carried herself threw Peregrine off for a moment. The man beside her seemed to be in stark contrast, perhaps more clumsy, but she thought it might not be uncommon for people to have one-off moments of non-splendor.

She turned to Emmett, wondering if he knew them, but doing so caused his words to replay in her head; “Beautiful.” Clearly she had yet to get control of herself fully. Though feeling a bit silly, she did want to avoid a situation where she came off as impolite, so she greeted them with a polite yet somewhat perplexed, “Hello.”

---

Although he frowned, Sou accepted what Favonius said to be truth. Certainly all that the general had said made sense to him and some of Sou's own experiences where all the evidence he needed. But those same experiences gave contrary evidence. He knew the people of the town to be nice enough to take pity on a servant boy so why would they reject that kindness of the Queen? People were weird. Shelving that conversation for a latter date to mull over, Sou quickly changed the subject. "Who's the Serpent King's heir?" He asked, never having heard that particular name before

---

Cardinal, who had been in the process of helping Escavalier up, while scolding him for his carelessness, looked up. "Oh, hello," she said stiffly, pulling Escavalier to his feet. She stared them down cooly, trying to figure if they would recognize her or Escavalier, and if so, what they would do about it. Cardinal had spent years away from the people, she didn't know where their loyalties would lie. Could they trust them? Immeadiently, she went into her shell, stepping back, her eyes narrowing and face hardening. Escavalier just looked flustered, but it smoothed over as he grinned. "Hello there. And who might you be?" Cardinal hissed, "Shut. Up."

...
"The Serpent King was an old snake, a powerful being that once ravaged the lands, tearing them apart," he said cooly. "But then, he grew old and tired. He decided to pass on his ability to a human, their kind being evil enough to carry on his legacy. But no one knows the real identity of this heir. Which makes them all the more dangerous."

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