Post by Orianna Èirigh on May 8, 2024 11:44:31 GMT
On a clear and quiet night, one of many in Daring Heights, an owl floats across the town. Its eyes are inky black, the light of stars and moon glinting off of them almost as if mirroring the night sky above. The owl descends on a particular roof and with a roll and a twinkle of stardust the form of Ilthuryn takes shape in its place. With a smirk he places his hand on the roof softly and calls out to the small crow perched nearby. With a smile and a whistle the crow hops towards him and as he strokes its feathers the glint in his eyes transfers to the calm bird. After a few moments it takes flight, wheeling around the building and landing on the windowsill of the ground floor, its beak tapping on the window softly.
Orianna looks up from the journal she was writing in, eyes instantly finding the black bird outside. Tilting her head to the side, she carefully puts the quill and book to the side without looking at the table, gets up, and unlatches the window. Cool false spring air lifts the small hairs on her brow up as she holds her hand out near the crows’ taloned feet.
Its eyes flash with starlight as it trills a strangely humanoid whistle. The meaning is immediately apparent to Orianna despite its lack of actual words.
‘Good evening sister, I didn’t want to wake the rest of the house.’
She smiles. As the starlight leaves its eyes, Orianna reaches into a pocket and takes out a small glass bead — one she had been meaning to repair on her outfit but had yet found the time to do so.
“Thank you, dark winged sky-child. Have this gift,” she says, holding it in the middle of her flat palm.
The crow looks at her, looks at the bead, looks at her, looks at the bead, grabs it with a quick jerk of its head, and then flies off. Orianna relatches the window, quickly tidies up her writing, bringing ink, quill, and book up to her and Gerahrd’s room. Her love lays on their bed, face softened by the embrace of sleep. She gives him a feather-light kiss on the brow before going to the small observatory room just off their bedroom and closing the door.
Orianna begins to open the skylight-like window just wide enough for her to get through as she changes her form into a small bird with feathers that shimmer in the night’s dim light. She flits up, sees Ilthuryn waiting for her on the roof, gives a single series of trills, zipping around him once, twice, thrice, then dissolving into her own form once again, arms already around his shoulders in a hug.
“Hi.”
Ilthuryn, startled, falls back as Orianna hugs him but responds in kind. After a few moments he quickly writes words with his finger on her back.
‘Hi! I’m happy to see you too but I do need to breathe eventually.’
“Oh! Yes, sorry,” she says, letting go and laughing a little. “It’s good to see you. How are you?”
Ilthuryn pulls himself back up to a sitting position and quickly begins signing.
‘Surprisingly busy and not busy at the same time. But I’m happy as I can be so all is well. I’ve met some new people, some amazing, some… interesting. But how have you been?’ His face drops ever so slightly. ‘How has your… patron business been?’
“‘Patron business?’” Orianna asks, confused. Then she understands. “Oh! Herald business. It is… going okay. Florian and Frigus — have you met them? — took their vows as Heralds, like me. It has been wonderful seeing them come into their inheritance, in their own ways. I am very happy for them both. We found out recently that Calla is a Herald as well. She is… handling it. The reveal came as a bit of a surprise.” She breathes a laugh and shakes her head. “I don’t know what she will do but I have a feeling she’ll make the best choice for herself. But it is good you have been meeting some new friends. Anyone I would know?”
Ilthuryn perks up. ‘Florian? I have not met them in so long! It is… interesting there are so many of these heralds here in Kantas, every time we meet I hear of a new one. But Kantas does seem to attract the weird and wonderful in this world, after all me, you and Gerhard all seemed to have found the right place and the right time. How is he by the way? I rarely speak to him much these days…’
“Gerhard is well. I will let him know you asked, and I’m sure he wishes you well too. But you know… you don’t have to only be on our roof. You’re welcome inside as well. We could all have dinner some time?” she offers.
‘Dinner? Perhaps. I wouldn’t want to intrude but… perhaps that would be nice. Yes.’
Ilthuryn takes a moment to watch the stars before turning back to Orianna. ‘In terms of new people? Keros and Rae, both fascinating in their own ways. I hope to speak to Keros some more but I will let him find me in his own time, our last few meetings were… tense. Raine too, she was wonderful Orianna, although her energy was a little overbearing at times it was a joy to watch her work. Oh! And I have spent a few brief but wonderful times with one of the new senators in Kul’Goran, Amala Lovesong.’
“Oh! Wow. Meeting dignitaries from afar…” Her expression softens as she sees the way Ilthuryn’s hands move and sweep as he signs Lovesong’s name. She nods. “I’m really glad you are finding your people outside of those we have in common. It is good.”
Ilthuryn stretches out and lies down, watching the sky but continuing to sign.
‘It’s so rare that I get to see you these days. Well, I know you say I’m always welcome but… you’re an important person now Orianna, I’m impressed and if you don’t mind me saying I’m proud in a way. I’m sure the stars are too.’
There’s a moment of silence after he’s finished signing. It stretches on for a moment longer than usual. When Ilthuryn looks at her, Orianna is also looking up at the stars but her brow is pinched and she is absently worrying at her lip.
“It is a lot. All of it. I… I’m doing the best that I can but…” She sighs. “I don’t know what I’m saying. Sorry. Thank you, I mean- Yes, thank you, Ilthuryn. But you should know me by now that I am never too busy to spend time with you. Especially for moments like this.”
Ilthuryn rises back to sitting and stares for a long moment at Orianna. His hands are very careful now.
‘I have made no secret that I do not trust or even like these… heralds. I never will. But I care about you and making sure that you’re ok. Let me help you Orianna, please. I don’t know what that means right now and maybe you don’t either but I can’t let the only people you surround yourself with be… other heralds, no matter how wonderful and helpful they may be.’
She studies his face, her own inner starlight shining a little brighter as Orianna clearly debates what she wants to say.
“I do not regret my choice to be who I am.” As she says it, Ilthuryn knows that she means it with her whole heart. “You say you want to help, but you also say you do not like or trust what it means to be a Herald. Being a Herald is part of who I am.” She pauses and her eyes glow briefly brighter before dimming down, almost becoming tiny black holes consuming the light that was there a moment before. “I do not want to be a burden to you, Ilthuryn. If speaking of what is on my mind is not something you really want to hear, then I will not do that to you.”
Ilthuryn’s face freezes, almost panicked. ‘Orianna I. I trust you, I’m sorry I didn’t mean-’ His hands shake for a moment.
‘I never stopped trusting you, and I trust that being a herald is exactly what the stars want for you, what they want for all your companions. I just- the woman, the dragon with starry wings. What she spoke to me about, what she told me. I can’t trust them, Orianna. I can’t, if I do I lose every sense of what the stars mean to me, what they wanted from me ever since choosing me. Speak to me of whatever you wish you will never be a burden I just…’ He stops and seems to think for a long moment.
‘I just wanted to remind you that you are more than a herald to me, and to Gerhard doubly so I’m sure. It is a part of you of course but you cannot let it consume you and with how much you surround yourself with other heralds I worry is all.’
She saw everything Ilthuryn was signing but her mind had snagged on one particular thing. “You spoke to Stellarum? When? What did she tell you?”
‘A couple months ago, when I… left a conversation you were all having together, after your father had been returned to you. I spoke to her alone. We spoke of the stars, of her, of you. I… said some regretful things I admit.’
“What kind of things?” Orianna asks, concerned.
Ilthuryn simply shakes his head, his eyes dim and inky. Orianna does not pursue the matter, choosing instead to look away as she thinks. She was curious to know but it wasn’t necessarily her place to know. She hoped that was the case, at least.
‘I’m sure she can tell you,’ he signs.
She draws her legs up underneath her a little more, tail wrapping around them and tucking in. “Hmm,” she says distractedly. She was now thinking about the rest of what he had signed.
“I have been taking my responsibilities as Stellarum’s Herald seriously. The situation- if you can even simplify it into one word- has not gotten any easier to resolve. If anything… things might get worse before an answer can present itself to me- to us.”
Ilthuryn lifts his arms almost to reach out and console her but stops himself and slowly signs. ‘Then tell me about it and I will do what I can to help.’
She looks over at him and another long moment stretches out before she says, “Alright.”
Orianna speaks for a long time. So much has happened, is still happening, is unresolved or without solution. She tells Ilthuryn about meeting Frigus and his companion and draconic child, Waffles. How the simple task of helping them find a new home resulted in the eventual revelation that he is part of her ever growing family. She tells her star-brother how she lost six years of her life, the price paid for the knowledge of the battle between the Archwryms and the Primordial Behemoths, as well as the retrieval of Throdrazz’s key. Orianna goes into great detail the meeting of the two sides and the tenuous alliance between those Primordials who do not wish to follow Magdara, how she and Stellarum also freed the Primordials of Life and Death at the same time. On and on she speaks, and the stars spin overhead, listening, watching, waiting.
“It seems that, with the restoration and return of the First Mountain, something lifted from Calla, thus allowing Kessarax to finally know she is her Herald… should Calla wish it. I-… I don’t know what she will choose…”
Ilthuryn watches with great attention, nodding along with the conversation as he takes this all in, smiling as Orianna describes her victories and frowning as she describes her problems. As she grows quiet again he looks up at the stars, almost questioningly.
But not for long, soon his hands are carefully signing.
‘That decision is hers, I doubt even the stars will tell either of us what she chooses in the end. Although I feel that all these heralds have already made their decision, even before they knew they were heralds. You included. I have watched this group grow and grow with you as it’s… guiding star shall we say, and you want to know what I have come to notice? All of you are heroes, maybe not in the same way as noble knights or righteous clerics but you all have skills and you all use them to help others. And I think that’s what makes you all heralds.’
He leans back and breathes, watching, listening to the stars before looking back at Orianna.
‘Calla is the same I think. She may be a little more… self interested to an outside observer but you and I both know that of my very few skills one is the ability to read people. She may not be like you or me or Matches or the others but I feel she is a herald. She does what she believes is the correct thing to do.’
“She does…” A slight smile relaxed her brow as Orianna turned her face up towards the stars. “She has a perspective none of the others do. Each of them do. That’s why… I love them. I pray nothing happens to them.” Her throat tightens at the sudden emotions and she tries to breathe through it. “I don’t know what I would do if I did…”
Ilthuryn tries his best to smile reassuringly, he’s not doing a good job of it.
‘Mourn, grieve, remember. But it’s the way of things. They will all die someday, at different times I’m sure but the universe gave us life and the stars gave us purpose, both are temporary and fleeting, and both will disappear one day.’
He pauses for a long time.
‘The universe gave us life, the stars gave us purpose, the gods gave us faith and our fellow creatures gave us community. But there is one thing we create for ourselves that will outlive all the others. Memories, stories. There are many arcane ways to prolong life but no one is ever truly immortal in body or soul. But you can make memories whilst you still have everything else. Do not fear for their death, fear for the memories they will never create if they simply stay safe and quiet.’
“Hmm,” Orianna intones as she wraps her arms around her middle, gaze falling from the stars to some middle distance. She knows everything Ilthuryn is signing is true. Well, nearly all of it, bar one part. Her mind spins towards those thoughts, the longer term happenings if they all manage to make it through this, where things will eventually lead for those tied to the Staircase.
She did not realise she was crying until the tears fell on her arms. “Ah.” She sits up and wipes her eyes. “It is getting late…”
Ilthuryn nods, he notices of course but he would never say so.
‘Do you want me to stay and keep watch? Or do you need some time alone?’
“You’re always welcome to stay. Even inside,” she gestures to the skylight she came up from, “if you like.”
‘Thank you but you know me. The only thing more sacred than the stars in this life is my hammock.’
“Of course. Well, good night, Ilthuryn.” Orianna shifts into a crouch, giving him a hug.
He accepts the hug, carefully trying to comfort his friend. As she heads back down he lets out a silent sigh and continues his watch of the stars for a few moments. Then with a run he leaps from the roof, a trickle of stardust transforming him into the shape of a falcon.