Crimson Feathers (New Squeak On The Block)

“You know, Egg, not letting you join up is stupid. Like, they should at least let you stay with us at the compound. I haven’t even met Varis yet but he can’t be that scary. If you want, you could come with me when we go back and we’ll talk to him together.”

“Oh! Um. Is that allowed? Sir Grandmaster said I should come back after Midsummer and tell him what I’ve done.”

“Well, it’s nearly midsummer now. Let’s try it, see what he says.”

They don’t even get past the entrance to the compound. The familiar looming figure of Ser Baine is leaning against the red brick, neatly blocking their path as he eats an apple. It looks comically small in his hand.

“Squeak. Egg,” he says cheerfully with his mouth full. “I take it the world was saved?”

Roscoe rolls their eyes so hard they almost pull a muscle.

“We’re all still here ain’t we?”

Baine takes another bite of apple and crunches loudly.

“Yeah, I just can’t ever tell with you ‘cause you look like someone took a shit in your boots no matter the state of current affairs. Ain’t that right, Egg?”

Egg fails to fully stifle a piping laugh but quickly says, “Roscoe was great, sir, they killed two fiends!” He hesitates for a moment, then adds, “Which was half the fiends! And they were big! Sometimes. And they could do magic! Sometimes. Um.”

Roscoe waves a hand vaguely.

“Aye, there were some big fuckers. That sometimes were small fuckers. There was… general fuckery.”

Blaine nods in solemn agreement. “Fey fuckery.”

“But the most important thing was that I couldn’t have taken down any of those fuckers if Egg hadn’t lined them up for me.”

Roscoe sets their jaw firmly and steps closer to Egg’s side.

“It’s almost midsummer. And Egg’s pretty fuckin’ great. So we wanna speak to him.”

Baine takes a final bite of his apple and throws the core into the bushes on the other side of Silver street. He crouches down in front of the two to be eye-level with Egg.

“Is that it?” He asks quietly, almost a little mockingly. “You fucked about in the Feywild for an afternoon and you think you’re ready to join?”

“Well, I…” He stops and turns to Roscoe. “Maybe we should come back at Midsummer. I can help more people before then.”

Roscoe glares back at Baine with equal condescension but it doesn’t quite have the same effect. It’s a little bit like a terrier growling at a mastiff. But they put a hand on Egg’s shoulder and nudge him forward a step, undeterred.

“He’s just bein’ a dick, Egg. A couple of weeks here or there don’t mean a thing - what matters is that you believe you should be ‘ere. So tell ‘im.”

Baine raises an eyebrow, waiting.

“I… want to be one of you, sir. I’ve been trying to fight for justice and truth. I helped someone find out where their post had gone, and I helped find some, er, fraud, and helped a captain get his stolen things back, and we protected the ritual for the Somethings. And Master Conrad says I shoot well.”

A small grin appears in the corner of Baine’s mouth.

“You shoot real fuckin’ well, Egg,” Roscoe says brusquely. “So we’re gonna speak to him. Ser.”

At the sarcastic ‘ser’ Baine’s smile widens and he looks nostalgic, and almost fond. In return, Roscoe looks flustered, and almost repulsed.

“Well said.” Baine stands back up and nods satisfied. “Let’s go then.”

He turns on his heel and walks off without another word. The sea of squeaks in the training yard parts for him immediately and he sets course for the Grandmaster’s quarters. Roscoe punches Egg gently in the shoulder.

“Go on then. After him!”

Egg snaps out of his confused and awed state and hurries after Baine in a series of flutters and hops.

They catch up just as the Master At Arms of the Order of the Crimson Fist opens the door to the Grandmaster’s quarters and cheerfully announces something that would have sounded rather insolent if it weren’t for the earnest and familiar ‘boss’ he tacked on at the end. A voice calls out a response and Baine turns back with a smug look.

“In you go, Squeaks.”

The room is dim, spring sunlight from the open window at the far end rendering it’s only occupant in sharp silhouette. Varis looks up as Egg and Roscoe enter, a slight frown creasing his brow as he returns to the report he is reading.

“A moment, please.”

The silence stretches as the older man finishes his paperwork, the sound of soldiers drilling in the yard faint through the thick stone walls. Finally, he puts aside his papers and stands, gesturing for the two young adventurers to join him beside the empty hearth.

“Egg. Roscoe. What can I help you with?”

“Um,” Egg begins. It seems that he, as much as Varis, is waiting for the rest of the sentence to appear. It doesn’t.

Roscoe opens their mouth, closes it, opens it again, huffs a sigh, crosses their arms and says - slightly too loudly in the quiet room - that, “Egg should be made official.”

They blink twice and then add a much less sarcastic and slightly unsure “..ser?” at the end of an otherwise rather firm statement.

“Official?” The corners of Varis’ mouth twitch as he looks to Roscoe.

“Yeah.” Roscoe nods like they’re trying to convince not just Varis but also themself. “A full Squeak. Like me and the others. He should be allowed to stay here with us.”

“I see. Egg, is this also your wish? To present yourself now to be considered, and let us weigh the services you have done this community against my solemn vow?”

Egg shifts and shuffles.

“Well, sir, I want to join, and – and Roscoe says I’ve done enough, but I can do more, um… I could come back when I’ve done more…”

“You’ve done plenty,” Roscoe interrupts. “You should be here with us.”

Egg makes a quiet chirping sound, still looking nervously at Varis. The older man smiles gently down at him.

“Speak, Egg - tell me what you have done for your people.”

“Um. Well there was a catoblepas attacking some farms and we killed it, and there was another farm with sheep that were getting eaten by wolves and we killed them, and, uh – I mean the wolves, not the sheep, um. And we killed a ghost near New Hillborrow that didn’t have a head, except it really had a lot of heads but they weren’t attached. And there was a huge beetle making problems for some fey people and we killed that. Oh and some decay-monsters in the sewers in Port Ffirst!

And I’ve helped solve some mysteries too! Someone wanted us to find out who was climbing on his roof but it was just his daughter being secret girlfriends with his butler so it was all okay even though he was annoyed about it, and I helped someone find some special grass from the sea, and I helped a tailor find some… well they asked us not to tell people because of artistic process but we found the things, and someone hadn’t got a delivery and I helped find out what happened to do it, and somebody in K’ul Goran was being framed for a crime but we proved he was innocent even though some people tried to stop us!

And there was a captain whose ‘personal effects’ got stolen and we got them back. Oh, and – do you know Seraphina? I helped her find a magic book she was looking for, except someone else took it and I tried to stop them but I… couldn’t… and I tried to help when some weird spider things attacked the baths in Castleside but they did something to my mind and I…” he trails off and doesn’t seem to know what to say next.

“All I did to become a squeak was get arrested.” Roscoe says dryly.

Varis seems to have found something very interesting to look at on the floor, and when he glances up again there is a glint of mirth in his eyes.

“Well, Egg, it sounds as though you have done much to serve your people.” His gaze comes to rest on the empty hearth, and the laughter leaves his face. “Did you ever chance to meet Gretcha Coldiron?”

Egg thinks for a moment - why does the name seem familiar?

“That’s what it says on the door at the Red School!” he exclaims. “Is that a person?”

Varis smiles and nods.

“It is indeed. She was not a particularly nice woman - not gentle, or kind, or warm - but she gave her name to your school, and her life to her people. We are here today, in comfort and relative safety, because of her, and those she rode with at the Sundered Chains. I’m told she tried to order each and every one of them back through the portal, and each and every one refused. It is a hard thing, ordering a soldier to their death. It is a harder thing to place your life in another’s hands, and trust them to spend it wisely. I had wanted the Refuge to be different, to let the youth of Daring grow in peace, choose lives of quiet happiness, away from the blood and the death and the loss that folk like us face every day. I see now that was naive - build a temple, and folk will worship.”

He gives a gentle shake of his head, eyes returning to Egg.

“I made an oath, long ago, that no child of Thea’s would ever serve in the Order. I swore it on my honour, and I have upheld it ever since. But it is your wish to join us, and what is my word against your will to serve your people? The soldier’s life is not an easy one, but if that is truly what you want, Egg, I will not stand in your way.”

“I do, please, sir!” Egg exclaims, but then shifts uneasily on his feet. “But… I can’t ask you to break your oath… it wouldn’t be right…”

“Perhaps it is better not to think of it as breaking an oath, but rather as learning a hard won lesson.” He pauses, smiling down at the young man. “If there is nothing else, Egg…?”

Roscoe claps a heavy hand on Egg’s shoulder, rocking his entire frame.

“I reckon we should quit while we’re ahead, eh, Egg? If you don’t mind, boss, we’ll get out of your hair and I’ll show this one the bunk room.”

With as much solemnity as he can manage while Roscoe's strong hand steers him towards the door, Egg bows to Varis. “Thank you, sir, I promise I won't let you down.”

The older man nods, face unreadable as he watches Roscoe lead the little Aaracokra out of the room. He stays there, eyes distant, for a long, long time.

---

("C'mon. The bunk above mine is free.")