Bard’s Note: Here’s my Day 22 of Inktober 2020! This story features @fairyofsomething‘s Mage Artist Fay and my own Bard Em once again. While I didn’t write this with a specific date in mind, after doing the math and comparing my notes about where Fay and Keyes have been, I realized that there’s only one time that this reasonably COULD have taken place; March 9th, 1614, prior to meeting Kat in the library as referenced in this letter.
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Keyes didn’t even bother trying to hold the pages of her journal open as another gust of wind flew over the parapets. Not for the first time, the bard silently wished she had the foresight to bring a weighted object like her companion did.
“Do you often draw up here?” Keyes asked, petulantly eying the steady hand of Mage Artist Fay.
The artist’s eyes never left the page. “Not really.”
“Then why do you always have those paperweights with you?”
“My magic can be… hmm… unpredictable, I guess. I still haven’t honed my focus as much as I’d like. One day I was in the middle of a painting…”
“Ah.”
“Yep.”
Keyes let the conversation drop. Her gaze returned to the true source of her frustrations; the mountains in the distance.
Ever since she started traveling for her job as a bard- maybe even before that- Keyes had been obsessed with maps. There was something about the combination of artistry and information packed into a single image that had grabbed her mind and refused to let go. Cartography became akin to a productive hobby; a personal skill she developed as a resource in her work as a bard, rather than something she contributed directly to The Watch. The process taught her many things: how the terrain of Duilintinn affected travel times, how the various regions of the kingdom are largely defined by their ecosystems, how the cultures and events she writes about are influenced heavily by the geography around them…
And exactly how terrible she was at drawing mountains.
Which is how Keyes found herself on the rooftop of Fort Conchúr, squinting petulantly at the mountains in the distance with Fay by her side.
When Keyes had first asked the artist for help, the pair had started out indoors, where Fay showed her at least a dozen drawings and diagrams explaining how light and shading made mountains look, well, mountainous. It was a start- at least her mountains didn’t look like a bunch of flat triangles anymore? Seemingly pleased with her progress, around midday, Fay had suggested they sit on the rooftop and try to sketch the actual Southern Mountains in the distance.
At the time, it had seemed like a great idea. Now, however…
“I don’t understand!” Keyes finally exclaimed, only barely resisting the urge to throw her charcoal over the parapets as she gesticulated with frustration at the shapeless blob of darkness that covered a large portion of the mountains. “That’s not how the shading is supposed to work!”
At this, Fay glanced up again, turned, and looked at the mountain. Looked back at Keyes. Looked up at the sky. Back at the mountain. Back at Keyes.
“Emily… that’s the shadow of a cloud.”
Keyes decided that she was done drawing for the day after that.
Author’s Note: Here we go again, my character Ivy and @marginmaster87’s Jen in the Western Forest, this time with special guest star Gus Graham! Who is another one of mine… I have a lot of characters for this, I don’t know if even Em’s seen them all! Also timeline readjustments that Em mentioned last time, by brain hurts from it, so, go off what she said. Also Em, don’t worry about the new plants and animals just yet, we won’t come across any new ones this chapter.
Bard’s Note: TOO LATE! I did them all and stuck them in the queue before getting around to reading and proofreading this. Oops! For some reason, timelines don’t make my brain hurt, but googling plant and animal physiology does… Speaking of timelines, this all would have taken place the evening of March 31st. Anyway, shoutout to @theshapeshifter100 once again for writing this, and as always, cut added for length. If you missed them, go check out Part 1 and Part 2!
“I’ve never actually been,” Jen realised out loud as they rode. “Have you?”
Ivy pulled up her mental map, having traveled across the kingdom enough to know roughly where they were.
“It’ll be the Roosts, so yes. We’ll probably bump into my friend Gus while we’re there.”
“Oh that’s cool, what’s he like?”
Ivy let out a long breath,” He’s, er, a bit full of himself to be honest. He’s a nice guy, just, doesn’t always think before he speaks.”
Jen let out a bark of laughter. “That sounds like my brother. I think it’s a guy thing.”
“I suppose,” Ivy thought. “I’d have put it down to a Guard thing honestly. Was you brother in the Guard?”
“That Guard? No, he’s a tinkerer,” she almost chuckled at the thought. “He fixes farm equipment, but I bet he’d forge his ploughshare into a sword if he could.”
“Gus could help him with that!” Ivy laughed. “Born and raised in a forge and joined the Guard once he came of age. So, he’s officially a Knight.”
“That’s so cool!” Jen’s eyes appeared to be shining. “I don’t know much about it, to be honest, but I know Knights are important.”
Ivy let out a sigh, suddenly a bit weary, and began to explain. “Generally new recruits start in June and train for several years at the main Barracks and Training Grounds in House Jackie, then they go out into the world to guard whoever pays them. Almost like mercenaries but they get angry if you call them that, and we have mercenaries anyway. Anyone who completes the full training gets the title of Knight, from there you can continue up to higher Knight ranks, but Gus quit only a couple of years after graduating.”
“Oh, that’s interesting,” Jen nodded to herself. “They don’t tell us stuff like this back home. I thought the Guard and the Watch were both part of one big military.”
“No. The Guard and the Watch are very different things,” Ivy paused before adding. “I prefer the Watch.”
“Cool. If you’re in it, I guess I prefer it too,” Jen smiles.
Ivy blinked at her and stared for a second, brain not quite working and uncertain if there was any subtext behind that. “Um, thank you?”
Jen grinned wider. “I wonder what’s going on up there?” she asked, before seeming to have changed subject. “I mean, what do you do in a watchtower? I love looking at the woods all day, but it’s not for everyone.”
Ivy blinked again and looked further down the path, wondering if she was missing something.
“Well, watchtower duty is fairly dull. I’m not often on it unless someone is ill. Or, if there’s nothing better to do,” she revised.
Jen hummed to herself. “Just remember to look in weird angles. My brother said once that people never look above or below where it’s most comfortable. He said that’s where assassins hide. I don’t know if he’s right though.”
“That sounds about right,” Ivy agreed. “It’s just hard when you’re in full armour to look up. Thankfully, I’m no longer in armour!” she realised what that implied and quickly continued before Jen picked up on it. “Although the best place to be on watching duty is the Spire. You can see the entire kingdom from the top of the Spire.”
“That’s true?!” Jen looked gleefully astonished. “Wow, that’s amazing.”
“It is truly something,” Ivy nodded. “The Spire is beautiful from the ground as well, have you ever been?”
“Only once, when I was a teenager.”
“It’s not something you forget,” Ivy looked ahead down the road. “We must be nearly at the Roosts by now.”
“Yeah, I think I can see it!” Jen lifted herself up in the saddle and craned her neck. “Do we have to say something special to get in, or…?”
“Not usually, but the whole outpost is on edge at the minute. You’re with me, so we should be alright,” Ivy assured.
The two of them rode up to the gates guarding the few ground based buildings of the outpost. Everything was up in the trees in trees houses.
There was some damage on the ground based walls, and high above there were scorch marks, half burned buildings and smashed walkways in the process of being rebuilt and repaired. It could be considered a sorry sight, but it was a lot better than it was when Ivy first arrived two weeks ago*.
Ivy dismounted Firefly and banged her fist against the gate.
A small slot in the gate opened up, then after a second closed again. The gate opened and a Watcher in battered armour looked out.
“Do you have a message Paris?” they asked, not unreasonably.
“No,” she responded, “but my friend and I would like to stop be for the night.”
The Watcher thought about it, then opened the gate for the two of them to come through. The Watcher nodded to the two of them as they came in.
“You know where everything is Paris,” the stated. “Graham’s in the barracks last I saw.”
Ivy nodded in thanks to him, leading Firefly in. Jen saw the burned walls of the ground building and was instantly on edge.
“So,” she started, “were you here when…?”
“No, I wasn’t here for the raids,” Ivy answered the unfinished question. “I just volunteered for the repairs and fortifications. Since, I have a lot of experience fighting off Enemy raids.”
“Oh cool,” the reply seemed like a reflexive response.
“Anyway,” Ivy started once they had stabled their horses, jabbing her thumb towards the ladder leading up into the canopy. “Shall we?”
“Ooo! Yeah!” Jen’s excitement was back.
“Up we go then!” Ivy led the way up the ladder, very familiar with how it swayed and creaked on the way up. It was perfectly stable, just made of flexible wood.
As she climbed she instinctively looked around for Otto, then remembered that he’d gone back to the cart. Instead she looked down at Jen.
“Having fun?!” she called.
Jen nodded back up. She looked out over the forest, and began to speak.
“You didn’t have to say yes you know. If you wanted to stay with Otto I would have let you.”
Ivy shrugged, reaching the top of the ladder and waiting for Jen.
“It was his decision,” he explained, “and frankly, it’s about time he left the nest.”
“Oh, that’s good, then,” Jen reached the top and looked out over the forest from this new height. “Wow!”
“Quite a sight huh?” Ivy followed Jen’s gaze.
From this high up the forest took on a different feel. The trees that had shut out the light were now their protectors, and light glimmered though more freely. Despite the repairs, the charm and almost childlike design of the Roosts (every child wanted a treehouse after all) would lighten even the hardest of hearts.
“I love it!” Jen declared.
Ivy grinned at her enthusiasm before continuing on.
“I’ll introduce you to Gus. The barracks are…” Ivy’s finger roamed as she tried to remember the exact direction. “…this way,” she decided, and began to lead the way across the wood and rope walkways and bridges.
As they walked the wood underneath Jen’s foot bent, sending her toppling forward.
“Woah” she cried out in surprise. With a quick reaction time Ivy grabbed her arm before she fell and hauled her upright.
“Sorry. The walkways are a little finicky right now. Although, they wouldn’t let us on them if they weren’t safe.”
The two walked along a little bit, the walkways swaying gently in the spring evening breeze. Inside the wooden buildings lights flickered as candles were lit. They approached one with the most windows, and several shadows are moving inside.
“Alright, here we are. Gus should be inside,” Ivy declared.
“Thanks,” Jen responded with a slight giggle.
Ivy leaned her head through the door and spotted a familiar figure. A man taller than her, but also younger by about four years. From this angle she could only really see his black hair which was speckled with grey, like soot had settled there.
“Hey, Bellows!” she yelled out to him.
He jerked up in surprise and looked around, blue eyes settling on the Ivy by the door. He got out of his bed nook and came over.
“Couldn’t stay away long enough could you?” he asked, grinning in a way that was deliberately irritating.
Ivy rolled her eyes at him. “I’ll be out again tomorrow. I just wanted to introduce someone I’m working with,” she gestured between Gus and Jen. “Gus, this is Jen. Jen, Gus.”
“Hello!” Jen responded.
“Or as most folks call me, Bellows,” Gus added, still grinning and nodding at Jen.
“Nice to meet you!” Jen offered her hand, and he took it in his warm, calloused hand, covered in old burns, shaking firmly.
“Good to meet you too. Where’d you pick this one up?” he jabbed his thumb at Ivy. “I know full well how hard it is to pin her down!”
“She found me, actually,” Jen informed. “By yelling my name into a crowd,” she added with a laugh.
“Ah, no shame that one,” he winked at Jen, and Ivy sighed loudly.
“Alright Bellows, are you flirting now?”
Jen’s smile dropped a little in surprise at the statement, and Gus was affronted.
“I can’t be nice to someone?!”
“I can’t tell sometimes,” Ivy responded. “Now, are you going to eat, or what?”
“Alright,” Gus rolled his eyes back at Ivy, both of them oblivious to Jen grinning at her own thoughts. “Let’s go eat. I’ve been out repairing bridges all day and I am starving!”
Ivy raised her eyebrows at him. “I thought that was your permanent state of being?”
“Well you do seem good at making connections,” Jen commented.
“We’ve just known each other a long time,” Ivy wasn’t certain if she was missing something again. Gus just winked and clapped Ivy on the back.
“Come on! Let’s get some food. And I won’t flirt,” he promised.
“I will hold you to that.”
The three of them left, with Gus holding most of the conversation. Thanks to Ivy he tried not to be overly familiar with Jen, but he did ask a few things.
“So Jen, what is it you’ve got Ivy helping you with?”
Ivy decided to answer that question. “I’m her bodyguard while she goes through the Western Forest.”
Gus laughed when she said that.
“I thought you left the Guard stuff behind?” he asked, and Ivy shrugged and glared at him.
“I know what I’m good at.”
“Yeah, we’re finding helpful plants and stuff in the woods,” Jen intervened. “Did you know there’s patches of Fire Star out there? And big grasshoppers with magical blood?”
“None of those things mean anything to me,” Gus admitted. “But if you’re excited about it, it must be interesting. How big were these grasshoppers?”
“About the size of locusts,” Jen held out her hands to give an approximate size. “There was only one though. I don’t think the pose a threat,” she then added quickly. “But they are very interesting.”
“If they have magical blood, then I guess they are,” Gus paused in front of a new building. Smoke poured out of the chimneys in the roof and the candle light was bright, with many moving shadows inside.
He held the door open and shot Ivy an annoying grin.
“After you ladies.”
Ivy took full advantage of this, smacking him across the back of the head as she walked past. Jen sent Gus a knowing smirk as she went past and Gus closed the door behind them.
“Well, you two are the siblingist siblings I’ve ever met,” she noted.
“We’re not related. Thankfully,” Ivy glared at Gus, who grinned back.
“Oh?” Jen was surprised.
“No,” Gus’s smile went warm, “I wouldn’t have minded if your were my sister,” he added to Ivy, who’s brain struggled to cope with that.
Jen smiled, thinking she’d figured it out. “Then you’re the best pair of friends I’ve ever met.”
Ivy’s brain caught up and she quickly shook her head as they sat down at a table.
“No, no like that. Definitely friends,” she assured, and Gus was equally adamant.
“No no no nope. No offence, but, no.”
“What?” Jen was honestly confused, “Oh!” Jen went bright pink in embarrassment and laughed out loud.
Gus roared with laughter as well, tilting his head back and slammed his hand on the table. “You actually thought-? By the gods that’s hilarious!”
Ivy meanwhile buried her head in her arms and flipped him the bird.
They got food soon after that, and Ivy decided to turn the conversation to something less awkward, for her.
“How’s the defense building going? Impressed anyone yet?” she wore the annoying grin now, as Gus’s face went a little red.
“Er, maybe? I don’t know yet,” he glanced over to another table and group of people a little older than them were sitting and talking. “I think I’ve made an impression.”
“Then put in a request,” Ivy added like it was the most obvious thing in the world, and Gus went even redder.
“I can’t do that!” he hissed. “It’s too soon!”
He frantically looked around for something to change the subject, and Ivy explained what was happening to Jen.
“The Rúnach Hold sent over forces to help fortifications after the raid. Bellows here wants to transfer, but he’s being shy.”
“Why?” Jen asked, “They’d probably be glad to have you.”
Gus hid his face in his hands. “It’s so stupid,” he groaned. “I know it’s stupid.”
Ivy rolled her eyes, but it’s less irritated and more endearing. “Jen’s right, they’d be glad to have you.”
“What if it turns out to be not what I thought?” he asked a little desperately, and Ivy had a quick answer.
“Then you transfer again.”
“Hey, I try new things that fail all the time,” Jen reassured. “It’s really not that bad.”
Gus nodded, and quickly changed the subject. “So, you two have been in the forest all day. Did you see anything we should know about?”
“Well…” Jen thought, “apparently the weird grasshoppers are desirable to Fae. We met one.”
Gus stared, almost dropping the spoon he was holding. “You WHAT?!”
Jen tried to giggle. “We met a Fae thing. It was about as crazy as it sounds.”
“It was, something,” Ivy agreed.
“What did it look like?” Gus asked.
“Like a big shadow with pearly eyes,” Jen recalled. “It had really long fingers.”
“It was weird,” Ivy finished.
“I bet you wanted to stab it,” Gus teased, his annoying grin back.
“Only if it stabbed us first.”
“She was really brave,” Jen stated, “walked right up to it.”
“I would have been more likely to fight it if it got bad,” Ivy assured. “Not that I think we were in any real danger. Unless we didn’t hand over the grasshopper, but what do we know?”
“Oh yeah,” Gus was thinking out loud. “You and your magic that seems to be able to predict things.”
“I wish!” Ivy snorted. “All I know is if someone’s in immediate danger.”
Gus suddenly jabbed Ivy in the ribs. “Not going to notice that she called you brave?”
Ivy choked and shoved him. “Will you stop it!?”
Jen raised her eyebrows and smiled at them, which didn’t go unnoticed by Gus.
“Are you sure? Because I think you like it.”
“I swear to whatever you deem holy I will kick you in the face Gus Graham.”
“Guys,” Jen intoned.
“What?” Ivy and Gus asked at the same time and looked at Jen.
“Our food’s here.”
A very amused waitstaff member* was looking at them, holding their food.
Ivy coughed and accepted her meal with a word, while Gus smiled at them pleasantly.
“Thank you,” he said, having recovered perfectly.
Jen couldn’t help but smile as she blew over her soup. “How long have you two known each other?”
Ivy raised her eyebrows to the ceiling, trying to recall exactly. “A while, elven years right?”
“On and off,” Gus agreed, “We met when I was thirteen and you were, what, seventeen?”
“I apprenticed with his father for a few months,” Ivy explained. “We lost contact for a while, stuff happened, I came back a couple of years later for a few months. We lost contact again. Didn’t properly meet again until a year after he graduated from the Guard.”
“Hold on,” Gus interrupted. “We were in the Guard at the same time, remember?”
“We were in different years and didn’t talk. It doesn’t count.” Ivy’s voice was hostile, and Gus dropped that topic.
“Yeah, we’ve known each other for ages.”
“That’s really cool,” Jen came in. “Learning about the Guard is my brother’s newest hobby. He keeps talking about it, but I think it’s a temporary interest. We have that in common.”
“Let’s hope it stays temporary,” Ivy muttered bitterly, and Gus winced.
“That was a little blunt there Paris,” he admonished, “But, yeah, the Guard’s not for everyone.”
“Why not?”
“It can be…” Gus blew out his cheeks and looked at Ivy. Ivy seemed disinclined to add to the conversation, so Gus carried on. “It can be a bit elitist. The idea that everyone can be at the same level with the exact same amount of training it nice, but flawed. There, is a favourites system, as much as they would deny it and the atmosphere is a bit more, competitive.”
“Basically,” Ivy decided to chime in. “If you don’t fit then it doesn’t work.”
“But,” Gus was quick to add, “if he really wants to, then the Guard will have him. Just, make sure he knows what he’s getting into.”
“Huh, I’ll be sure to tell him,” Jen noted.
“Enough about the Guard,” Ivy waved off. “What’s the plan for tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow?” Jen thought about it. “Well, we could either go back to where we went today or go deeper? Deeper is more dangerous, but if we go back we may be able to find more of those grasshoppers.”
“And potentially run into more Fae,” Ivy added before shoving a spoonful of food in her mouth.
“Or, if you’re unlucky, Anti,” Gus added, and Ivy turned slowly to face him.
“Then I will kick him in the gonads and run.”
Jen stiffened when they called the Enemy by his nickname. “M-maybe we should just go back to where we went before.”
“That sounds like a good idea,” surprisingly, Ivy was chuckling, a little amused by Jen. “We won’t run into him, at least, it’s ridiculously unlikely. The Western Forest is huge!”
“Back it is,” Jen decided. “We should grab that Fire Star on the way back.”
“We can do that. Hopefully we won’t bump into any more Fae. I don’t know how well stabbing one will go down.”
Jen chuckled nervously.” Yeah, hopefully,” something occurred to Jen. “Actually Gus, have you seen anything weird or glowy on your patrols around here?”
“Glowy?” Gus thought about it, “I saw a purple heather like thing that was glowing on the main road to the Roosts.”
“Cool!” Jen smiled, “We’ll check that out as well.”
Ivy nodded in agreement through a mouthful of bread.
“Mrow” came from under the table, and Gus jumped as the cat wound his way around Gus’s boots.
“Ah!” he yanked his feet back in surprise. Ivy almost spat out her bread from laughing as Gus peered warily under the table. “Where did the cat come from?”
Jen sighed. “Sorry, he’s… like that.”
“Mrrrm,”
“I think his head is itchy,” Jen informed.
Gus looked at Ivy for a second, who shrugged at him. Cautiously he reached down and petted the cat.
The cat was annoyed until Gus started scratching, then he tolerated it.
“I swear that idiot can teleport,” Jen sighed, and Ivy laughed.
“I could almost say the same about Otto!”
“Oh yeah,” Gus realised that he was missing. “Where is that trickster with wings?”
“With her cart,” Ivy nodded to Jen, and Gus frowned.
“Since when did you let him that far out of your sight?”
Ivy just shrugged and ate another spoonful of stew.
Jen could see the cat staring expectantly at her stew. “No,” she said firmly, and Ivy snorted.
“I suppose some things are just universal.”
“Mrrrm,” the cat protested.
“No.”
“Mowrrr”
“The spices are bad for you.”
“Mew.”
“…fine,” Jen hands him a small chunk of chicken.
“At least Otto doesn’t trick me into giving him food,” Ivy noted. “He just steals it out of the bowl.”
“Which is disgusting by the way,” Gus noted, nose wrinkling.
“Snort stew, now with 50% more Raven Beak!” Jen laughed.
“It adds flavour!” Ivy grinned, and Gus made a disgusted face, which makes them laugh harder.
“Well, I’m full,” Jen declared. “Want to head back to the barracks?”
“Sounds good to me,” Ivy finished her stew, and Gus down the last of his pottage. “Let’s go.”
Author’s Note: So, Gáire Roosts, going off of the Outpost Overhaul posts from, a while ago, I think. I assume the ground based building would be stables and a some message receiving/admin for those who don’t have time to go up into the trees to deal with stuff. And Gus has, by now, put in a notice for the Hold, then the Bastion was attacked, poor boy.
Also Em you are too sweet, you’re the one who fleshed out the vague ideas we had, and thank you for coming up with this idea in the first place! I love it so much!
Bard’s Note: Yep, that’s basically how I imagined the Roosts! Although I also figured a smithy or something would also be on the ground, because that’s a lot of heavy metal things to haul into a tree house, and also fire plus trees probably equals BAD. Meanwhile, I feel like poor Gus is going through the existential crisis of choosing a college or something. “I wanna go here, no wait actually I wanna go here, no wait-” XD
And you better watch it or you’re gonna turn these author’s notes into an endless loop of mutual appreciation because this au wouldn’t have gotten anywhere near the state it is now without support from people like you guys so TAKE THE BIG PREESH!
Author’s Note: Second part of the trip in the Western Forest with Ivy and @marginmaster87’s Jen. Also, fair point at the end of the last part from our dear Bard. Didn’t consider that. Now a full two weeks after the Gáire Roosts raid and that time frame will remain the same for the rest of the RP
Bard’s Note: Part 1 can be found here. Thanks again to @theshapeshifter100 for writing these up! You never cease to amaze me with your passion for this little AU I’ve made. Once again, I’ve added a cut for length. I’ve recently been working on puzzling together a few timeline things based on where certain Watchers have been and travel times, so I can tell you that they would have set off from Fort Conchúr on the 29th, stopped for the day at the lake and waited for a boat to take them in the morning (based on how you said that bit took a while), took one day to get across the lake (the boats would drop them off at Monacoil), one day to ride southwest and find a place to cross the the Runach River, and most likely arrived on the forest border on early March 31st! Thankfully, the summer fog doesn’t kick off for another month, otherwise the travel time would have been a LOT worse.
The two of them slept well that night and got ready to go just after dawn. Firefly followed Ivy to Jen’s cart, where she was tightening the straps on Ford.
“Oh hey!” Jen noticed Ivy and co. “Ready to head out?”
“Ready to go!” Ivy agreed. Firefly was in full tack and carrying saddlebags, while Otto was perched on her head. She didn’t seem to mind.
The trip to the Western Forest took a few days, especially with getting a boat across Lake Glas. When they were within a mile of the forest border Jen pulled to the side of the road. Ivy followed her, bringing Firefly alongside the cart.
“I’ll hide the cart here,” Jen explained. “No real way to bring it into the woods, and I don’t want to leave it at the edge.”
“That makes sense,” Ivy commented, “There’s no space for it,” the tracks inside the forest were a lot narrower than the roads.
Jen unhooked Ford from the cart and changed his tack to ride him. “You should get a snack while I do this, it’ll only be a minute.”
Ivy leaned back in her saddle and went through her saddle bags. High above the group Otto was wheeling, but a whistle from Ivy brought him back down.
“Good boy,” she smiled and gave him something red from her bag. He flew up into a nearby tree to eat it, while Firefly lowered her head to graze and Ivy took a swig of water from her skin. “Is your cat coming?” she asked Jen.
“Depends on him, really,” Jen responded, not looking up. As if on cue, the scraggly cat padded out from the cart and looked at Jen expectantly. “Guess that’s a yes.”
“Alright,” Ivy took another drink. “Almost done there?”
“Yep! Let’s head out!” she mounted Ford, and her cat hopped on right behind her, looking as dignified as he possibly could, which wasn’t much.
Ivy called for Otto to come and they all headed off.
The road slowly became narrower and more shaded as the grassland became bushes, then small tress, then finally the trees towered over them. It could almost have been mistaken for night if there wasn’t the occasional dapple of sunlight.
Jen looked at all the trees they pass, eyes adjusted to the gloom.
“Hmmm… apples, oaks, maples…”
“Looking for anything in particular?” Ivy squinted at the trees, recognizing most of them.
“Anything weird. Like… glowing, or an odd colour. Even if it’s a magic thing you recognize, it’s still helpful.”
Ivy nodded, looking around and trusting Firefly to stick to the path. She kept an eye on Otto, since ravens were notoriously intelligent. She figured that he would let her know if he spotted something unusual.
Jen suddenly gasped and yelled. “SOURWOOD!”
“Sourwood?” Ivy asked, confused as Jen rode up to a tree that frankly, looked exactly the same as every tree in the area.
“Oh my gosh! This stuff is nowhere! This is great!”
Confused, Ivy nudged Firefly to catch up with Jen and looked at the tree. It looked, like a tree. She might be missing something in the low light.
“What’s so special about it?” she asked.
Jen picked off a shoot, saving it for a graft later. “The blooms make excellent honey, you make them into a jam too, and the leaves are a laxative. The shoots are used for something too… arrow shafts I think? Anyway the important part is that it grows in mountain climates. This may help people keep bees in House Jameson and Marvin. And the arrows too, I guess. The wood is also pretty good from what I’ve heard.”
Ivy’s head reeled from the dump of information, and one thing stuck out.
“If it’s supposed to be in the mountains, why is it here?” Ivy paused, and remembered where she was. “Never mind. This forest makes no sense, why would it stick to species from its natural habitat?”
“Yeah, I guess the magic helped it grow. I’ll try to find more, but this is a really good sign.”
“So, what? It’s a sign of a healthy forest? Even though it’s in the ‘wrong’ forest?” Ivy felt uncomfortably out of her depth.
“No-well, yes. It means the forest can support non-native, out of season plants and keep them healthy. So there may be really exotic stuff here that’s kept healthy by the magic. If we can grow that stuff outside the danger zone, we’ll really be in business.”
Ivy hummed in though. “Makes you wonder if you can plant plants from outside the kingdom here.”
“Oooo, good point!” Jen looked around excitedly, as though those plants would spring from the ground.
“Maybe for another day,” Ivy intervened before she got too distracted. “We’ve found one thing, shall we keep going?”
“Yep!”
They trudged through the trees a little more. Time seemed somewhat elastic, seeming to stretch forever yet barely passing as they searched. The lack of sunlight did not help, as there was no way to tell how high or low in the sky the sun was.
Above them Otto suddenly croaked and dove for something in the undergrowth. Irritated, Ivy shouted after him.
“We’re not hunting Otto!”
The raven croaked again and didn’t come back up.
“Damn bird. Hold on,” Ivy pulled Firefly to a stop and dismounted. With one hand on her knife she stepped though the undergrowth. Otto, being a raven, had found something shiny, like she had actually hoped he would.
“Jen!” she called back to the track. “I’ve found something!”
She could hear Jen dismounting and she crouched by the flower, poking it with a stick. It was difficult to see exactly what it was at first, but the red flowers were visible, and recognizable.
“I think it’s a Fire Star!” she called over.
“Oh cool!” Jen had made her way over. “I’ve heard of these, what do they do again?”
“Poison mostly. The leaves are bad from what I remember,” Ivy had only read about these under Mage Irnas, who was not known for sticking to one subject for long. “Although I think the petals can be used.”
“Nice!” Jen finished up the quick sketch she’d been drawing while Ivy was talking. “Is it rare?”
“Enough,” Ivy wracked her brain for the faint memory. “It doesn’t grow well outside of forests, something about the soil, I can’t remember.”
Jen hummed and closed her notebook. “Alright, I got a decent drawing. We can leave it for now,” Jen paused, before standing up and looking away.
Ivy had been trying to shoo Otto away from the flower, and looked up when she realised Jen hadn’t left.
“Are you okay over there?”
“Thought I heard something,” Jen responded quietly. “Let’s keep going.”
Otto flew to Ivy’s shoulder as she looked around. So far she couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary, but she kept her hand on her knife hilt as she made her way back to Firefly.
“Could just have been a Fae at worst. I would be surprised if Anti’s forces were this close to the road.”
“Ok,” Jen wasn’t too convinced, but then her cat trotted up from the other direction, clearly proud of himself. “Hmmm?” she hummed questioningly
“Or, it could have been your Fae,” Ivy was a little amused by it, pulling Firefly away from the cat just in case.
The cat spat out a grasshopper by Jen’s feet, much to her joy.
“Hmph, thanks.”
“Mow!”
“Fae my-hey!” Jen bent down and picked it up. “This thing is glowing!”
“We are racking these up,” Ivy commented, “Do you know what this one is?”
Jen turned it over in her hands, inspecting it. “No idea. But look, the blood is silver. Otherwise it looks just like a normal one, except… wow it’s big…”
“Huh. If you don’t know it, and I definitely have never seen it. Then I would guess it’s either rare or not well documented. Silver blooded giant grasshopper,” Ivy proposed, rolling the name around her mouth. “Doesn’t seem too catchy of a name,” she decided. “Do you have anywhere to put it?”
“Yeah, I have a little bag,” Jen wrapped the insect in a piece of buckskin and put it in her saddle bags. “How about Moonblood Grasshopper?”
“That sounds better,” Ivy agreed with the name.
Jen giggled a little self consciously. “Thanks,” she then squinted at something behind Ivy. “Is that… do you see anyone over there?”
The forest had fallen quiet.
Ivy’s hand went for her sword hilt, which hung from Firefly’s saddle, and looked behind her. It was possible, although she wasn’t certain.
“Stay behind me,” she instructed.
“O-okay,” Jen’s cat’s fur was on end, but he didn’t appear ready to attack and Jen shifted behind Ivy.
“You there!” Ivy called out, seeing a shape there the more she looked. “State your business!”
The shape was tall, looking like a humanish shadow in the gloom with creamy coloured eyes. It stood merely yards away from the group, and spoke.
“I wanted to know your business.”
Ivy narrowed her eyes at it, but didn’t drawn her sword. Otto was hovering overhead, but wasn’t being aggressive.
“Just some curious folks,” she responded warily, fully aware of the rumours of the Fae in the forest. “Now, you?”
“As I stated, I wanted to know your business. That is why I appeared. I noticed you… collecting things. It was curious.”
“Okay, we’re both curious. Has your curiosity been sated?”
The creature hummed a high note, and Ivy was almost certain now that it wasn’t human.
“Not quite,” it came closer, but didn’t seem to step. “You,” it looked past Ivy and right at Jen. “Did the cat bring a small creature to you?”
Jen seemed frozen, struggling to answer. “U-uh…”
Ivy moved slightly, angling herself better in front of Jen. “If it did, what’s it to you?”
The creature, most likely Fae, did not answer, and Jen felt the urge to speak.
“Uh… yeah, he… he did. It’s dead though.”
The Fae’s eyes shone. “I would like it back.”
Ivy’s grip on her sword hilt tightened so much her knuckles when white. She looked over at Jen.
“Did you get a sketch of it?” she asked quietly.
“No,” she whispered back,” but… the blood is still on the buckskin.”
Ivy thought about it for a minute. “If we give it back,” she addressed the Fae, “will you leave us alone?”
“If that is the condition,” it responded.
“Ok!” Jen clumsily unwrapped the grasshopper in her hurry to get this over with.
“Alright,” Ivy held her hand out to Jen behind her. “I’ll take it over. Otto, stay here,” the raven croaked in acknowledgement, and Jen handed the grasshopper over.
Ivy let of her sword, moving her hand instead to the hilt of her knife at her waist. With the grasshopper in one hand she walked over to the stranger. Firefly nickered behind her uneasily, but Ivy kept walking.
She reached a point halfway between Jen and the stranger, and placed the grasshopper on the ground before stepping back.
“Here you go.”
It floated forward to it and picked it up with it’s long shadowy fingers, blinking slowly. Then it vanished in a heartbeat, as though it had never been there.
“We… should probably go,” Jen suggested, “It’s getting late.”
The day had indeed vanished, although they hadn’t gotten to the forest until early afternoon.
“We should,” Ivy agreed, feeling some relief. Her magic hadn’t activated during the whole thing though, so she doubted that that they were ever in much danger.
Despite saying they should go however, Ivy crouched down to look at where the Fae had vanished. The grasshopper was still there, but the silver blood had vanished without a trace.
“Okay, time to go,” she stood up rapidly and walked quickly back to Firefly.
“What? What happened?” Jen asked, wondering what had caused Ivy’s alarm.
“The grasshopper is still there, but the blood’s gone,” Ivy explained. “I assume it was needed for, something.”
“Weird. Cool!” Jen switched emotions quickly. “I wonder if he would be upset if I took it again…”
Ivy stared at her in surprise. “How about we not find out? You got a good enough look for a sketch, right?”
“Yeah. Now we have a choice: we could ride back to my cart, or we could make for that Outpost that’s near here.”
“I suppose that depends if you’re comfortable leaving your cart where it is overnight,” Ivy tilted her head to the side in thought. “Duilintinn’s pretty safe, but there are still some bad eggs.”
“True,” Jen had hummed in thought and sighed. “I’d hate to ask, but could Otto watch it? I don’t think I could make this cat do anything.”
“Mow,” the cat responded in what sounded like a definite negative.
“I can’t guarantee it,” Ivy looked at the raven, who tilted his head back at her from his perch. In truth, part of her felt uncomfortable at the idea of him being so far away, but he was an adult bird. “What do you say Otto?”
Otto tilted his head the other way, croaked once, and flew back the way they came. Ivy swallowed and turned to Jen.
“Outpost it is.”
“Nice!”
They quickly set off in the direction of the nearest Outpost.
Author’s Note: Sourwood, Fire Star, and the Moonblood Grasshopper all have profiles that will be far more accurate and comprehensive than what we made up for the RP.
Bard’s Note: The profiles for these plants and animals can be found here. Don’t let these peeps shortchange themselves; they came up with the ideas for them in the first place! There’s also a few more profiles in my drafts for other magical plants and animals that come up later in the RP that I haven’t gotten around to nicely writing up yet. I’ll make sure they get queued up before the next RP write up gets posted ;)
Author’s Note: Part one out of… who knows? Not me, I can tell you. This is another RP write up, this time with my character Ivy and @marginmaster87’s Jen Quillan, with a special guest appearance from @livingemerald’s Katrina Emerald. Also this around March, about a week and a half after the initial Gáire Roosts raid.
Bard’s Note: Everyone shout out @theshapeshifter100 again for writing all of these up for me! I love that you guys on tumblr finally get to see some of the chaos that has been going down on the discord, and heaven knows it would take me forever to finally get around to it if I tried transcribing all these on my own. (Also thanks Shapes for putting the date at the top since I missed that info in plain sight in the last thing you submitted😂)
A young woman put up a flyer on the message board of Fort Conchúr. One identical to ones posted in other Outposts in the Watch. It reads:
‘Wanted. Adventure Help
Assistance needed for three-day journey in the Western Forest (Not including travel time)
Reason for travel: To gather plants and insect specimens for study and documentation
Applicants must have some knowledge of the flora present in the area
Applicants must also be aware of the danger inherent in this journey. Bring own supplies, transport provided. Contact Jen Quillan is interested.’
Below the message is a hand drawn map of the proposed study area, showing a small part of the Western Forest on the other side of Loch Glas.
Once the flyer was firmly pinned into place, the young woman took a step back, assessing it proudly. Now, to wait for a response.
A few days later, a woman with tied back sun bleached blonde hair entered the main hub building of Fort Conchúr. She was dusty and a little weary from travelling from the Gáire Roosts. She wore simple clothing, a shirt, trousers and a cloak, with a knife in a red hilt at her waist. In one hand she gripped a copy of the flyer that had been at the Gáire Roosts.
She rose onto her tiptoes to look around the room, but her short stature didn’t aid her, and she didn’t know what this Jen Quillan even looked like.
She cupped her hands to her mouth and yelled over the din.
“HAS ANYONE SEEN A JEN QUILLAN?!”
A freckled young woman with messy auburn hair awoke with a cry and fell off the chair she had been sitting in, near the entrance.
“I, uh, yes! Well, it’s, me, so…”
“Ah, there you are,” the older walked over and sat opposite. “Are you still looking for help in the Western Forest?”
“Oh! Yes that would be fantastic! Nobody has shown interest yet, seems the last movements really scared everybody,” the young woman dusted herself down and stood up, holding out her hand. “Jen Quillan, professional dabbler. And you?”
The older blonde also stood and went to shake. “Ivy Paris, officially a Messenger, but you could also call me a dabbler. What are your plans for this expedition of sorts?”
“Mostly I just want to start writing a guide to magical plants and insects. The big guys are fairly well documented-everyone likes a griffin- but insects and even some plants tend to be overlooked. What if they’re useful? But I’m getting ahead of myself,” Jen smiled self-consciously and sat down.
“Okay,” Ivy nodded, also sitting down. “I can see where you’re coming from. I know a little from my sister-in-law, but unfortunately my dabbling hasn’t covered much in the way of wild plants. I’m willing to learn though.”
“That’s fine, I mostly just need protection. Do you know how to handle combat?”
Ivy couldn’t help but grin, more to herself than to Jen. “Oh, I can handle combat. No problem.”
“Excellent! We should get started soon,” Jen’s brow then wrinkled in thought. “Though I wonder what I’ll do about the extra flyers everywhere…”
“I can get messages out, but nothing instant except for here and maybe the Roosts,” Ivy offered. “I can send a more direct message to the Roosts and maybe Stiofán. Everything will have to be the usual channels.”
Jen shrugs. “It’s probably fine. Is there anything you need to take care of before we leave?”
“Not that I can think of. My horse has a surprising amount of stamina.”
“Wish I could say the same, poor thing has to lug around my cart.”
“I’d offer Firefly, but I fear she’d pitch a fit,” Ivy shifted awkwardly, suddenly embarrassed. “I may spoil my horse, a bit.”
Jen smiled ruefully and chuckled slightly, “Probably why she’s willing to go so far. Ford is a trooper, but he’s not draft horse.”
“I can understand that,” Ivy nodded to herself. “Is there a deadline for this project, or can we wait for your horse to recover?”
“We can take a day off,” Jen paused and her eyes suddenly began to shine with enthusiasm. “Want to see my cart?”
Around then, a newcomer entered the hub carrying a pile of books. She was a little older than Ivy and like Jen taller than her. The newcomer’s hair was dark brown, half tucked into her dark cloak, and dark eyes were framed by even darker glasses. Despite being taller than Ivy, she stood a little hunched, like she was afraid.
She spotted Ivy and Jen talking, and since she knew Ivy, came over to say hello.
“O-oh hello Ivy,” she started before nodding to Jen. “W-who’s your friend?”
Ivy looked over, taken a little by surprise at her friend’s stealthy approach.
“Hi Katrina!” Ivy gestured between Jen and Katrina. “This is Jen. Jen this is Katrina, our dedicated librarian. We’re just discussing a research trip into the Western Forest.”
“T-the Western Forest?” Katrina was alarmed by this. “You k-know how d-dangerous it is there.”
“Yes,” Ivy nodded with a half smile. “That is why I’m going,” she looked between the other two women. “Shall we all go see Jen’s cart?” she was curious what was so special about it.
“Yeah! Let’s go!” Jen crowed enthusiastically, grinning.
“O-oh okay. Lead the way then.”
“Indeed, let’s see this cart.”
The three of them left the main hub building and exited into the main chaos of Fort Conchúr. The Fort was set into the side of a hill, and the group had to use stairs to get to where the cart was, dodging various other members of the Watch doing every job going.
Once they reached the ground they followed Jen to a small field by the stables, currently not being used to grow anything. A horse, presumably Ford, was tied to nearby tree and was grazing peacefully.
The cart was a bit smaller than a standard covered wagon, with a solid roof, and from a good angle it was possible to see the eclectic collection of just about everything inside. Although it seemed to lack a kitchen sink. If it were possible the inside appeared to be larger than the outside, but that might have been a trick of the light.
Ivy blinked in surprise at the cart. “So travel light do you?” she asked, partially sarcastic.
Jen stood proudly by her cart, beaming from ear to ear. “Nope! Light enough to pull though.”
Katrina looked at Jen. “Um… may I ask what all this equipment is for?”
“It’s all for research. Dye making, fishing, drawing, and of course collection!”
Now that she’s said it, Katrina and Ivy could spot three nets of various sizes on one wall, and a few traps in the corner.
Ivy stands there, suddenly feeling a little inadequate as she mentally compared the cart to her saddlebags.
“Alright, you win,” she threw one hand up in the air.
“Win?” Jen looked at Ivy, confused.
Katrina quickly changed the subject. “W-with all that stuff I-I assume you’ve traveled a f-fair bit of the kingdom.”
“Oh! Yeah, I do,” Jen was successfully distracted. “Go all over!”
“I, er…” Ivy sighed, making movements with her hands, judging the size of the cart. “Never mind. Nice cart.”
Jen smiled, having completely missed what Ivy meant. “Thanks! Mom did the enchantment herself. Her magic is all about organizing and keeping things straight.”
“W-what are you two r-researching anyway?” Katrina asked.
“Magical plants and insects!” Jen responded, broad grin back on her face. “My favourites!”
“And I’m the muscle,” Ivy added. “I was about to say hired, but I doubt I’m going to get paid. Not that I mind,” she added hurriedly.
“No, I’ll pay,” Jen assured
“Ah, I am the hired muscle.”
Katrina pondered to herself for a bit. “W-well there aren’t many records on magical flora.”
Jen suddenly realised something and turned to Ivy. “Sorry, I should have said: You’ll get a portion of the things we find. Any magical medicines, whatever you want! To a point, I still need enough to provide physical specimens to show people.”
Ivy shrugged, unconcerned. “Okay, I can live with that. My brother and sister-in-law will be happy. In fact that might just be their Name Day presents sorted.”
“Ha!” Jen turned to Katrina, “I need more help, if you’re interested Katrina. I don’t know much myself-don’t want to fake new species on accident.”
“I-I suppose I could provide you a c-copy of the r-records in the library,” Katrina thought.
“I’m sure Diaval would like to be out and about as well,” Ivy wheedled.
“Who?” Jen asked.
“M-my familiar,” Katrina responded.
“Oh! That’s so cool, what is he?”
“He’s a wolf, a rather intelligent one.”
“You don’t want to come?” Ivy clarified, getting the feeling that Katrina was avoiding answering directly. “You would be unlikely to be in any danger, especially if I’m there!” Ivy puffed out her chest with pride, however a thought occurred to her and she deflated before muttering. “I’ve been around Gus for too long, I sound just like him,” her old Guard mate had come with her to the Gáire Roosts.
Katrina giggled at Ivy. “Y-ou know I don’t leave t-the library m-much Ivy. Besides t-there isn’t anyone else to g-guard it.”
Ivy shrugs. “Your choice I suppose. We won’t be leaving until, what, tomorrow?” Ivy briefly glances over at Jen for confirmation. “Giving Jen’s horse a chance to recover.”
“Yeah, we’ll leave tomorrow morning,” Jen confirmed.
“Sounds good,” Ivy looked up and scanned the sky. “Enough time to find a certain corvid who I’m worried is causing trouble.”
Katrina tilted her head at Ivy. “Who?”
“A crow?” Jen asked.
“A raven, my raven, Otto,” Ivy clarified. “I haven’t seen him in about fifteen minutes and I’m worried that he’s making a nuisance of himself.”
“W-where did you last s-see him?” Katrina asked.
“Flying away from the stables,” Ivy responded dryly. Then there was a croaking noise, followed by an eerily accurate “Hello!” quickly followed by a horse whinnying in panic. Ford was making a fuss and Ivy sighed as Jen went to calm him.
“There he is.”
The raven looked down at Ford from the tree he had landed in. “Hello!” he called again, and Ivy scowled at him.
“Leave the horse alone.”
The raven laughed, but did as he was told, landing on top of the cart and looking oh so innocent as he preened his wing.
“This is Otto,” Ivy introduced.
“O-oh hello,” Katrina greeted. “Your familiar?”
Ivy opened her mouth to answer and Otto croaked, almost drowning out what she was saying.
“No, he’s not,” she glared at him again. “He just likes to be around and cause trouble, and I’m far too good to him.”
Katrina giggled. “I’m surprised you haven’t made him your official familiar.”
“I don’t want to feel like he has to stay,” Ivy explained. “I hear it’s common with ravens for them to up and disappear to start a family, and I want him to be able to do that. Although it’s been four years now so I don’t know. I think he just stays because he knows I’ll feed him.”
Otto croaked again and flapped his wings, whether in agreement or protest no one was sure.
Jen came back from calming Ford. “Ford’s fine. Nice to meet you Otto!” she called up before continuing to talk. “That’s how Spaz is. He’s… a cat, I almost said my cat…”
“Good,” Ivy had registered the first part of what Jen had said, and glared at Otto. “I know you know how to mimic the words, so say sorry!”
“Four y-years is a long time for a raven to be l-lingering,” Katrina noted.
“Yes, it is,” Ivy looked meaningfully at Otto, who shuffled his feet, opened his beak, and laughed. “OTTO!”
Ivy then realised something, and stared at Jen, wondering what she’d missed. “Your horse is your cat?”
“No no, I mean Spaz is a cat,” Jen clarified, “he seems offended if I call him mine… I’m like 52% certain he’s a fairy.”
“No, he just sounds like a cat,” Ivy disagreed.
“That’s why I’m only 52% certain.”
“Oddly specific, but okay,” Ivy shrugged again.
“What e-evidence do you have t-that makes you think he’s a f-fairy?” Katrina asked.
“He showed up when I left a cup of cream out for good luck. I tried to take it from him, because cream is bad for cats, but he wouldn’t let me. He hasn’t had a problem with it, so I leave a cup out every night. He saved my life once. He’s done other stuff, too, but sidhe usually look different.” Jen shrugged and smiled a little. “So yeah, that’s what I think. A lot of it could be chalked up to cat weirdness, but I’m thinking fairy. Speaking of, where-?”
There was a loud ‘mrrrrm’ and a grumbling purr from the roof of the cart. Up there was a dirty old tabby cat with a crooked tail.
“Ah, so both of our animal companions like high places,” Ivy noted, watching Otto side eye the cat.
“Heh, I guess,” Jen shrugged. “He’s going to be up there a while, it’s a warm day. Oh, do you guys have a place to sleep?” Jen looked around, and found that Katrina had slunk off at some point without either of them noticing. “Or well, just you Ivy. Katrina isn’t coming.”
“I’ll probably sleep in the barracks,” Ivy decided. “There’s usually a few beds set aside for Messengers and, well, no one needs to know that I haven’t delivered anything today.”
“Hey, you technically delivered a message to me,” Jen pointed out.
“That’s true,” Ivy admitted. “And, don’t tell me you sleep in your cart as well?”
Jen grinned in response. “On a pull-out shelf thing, yeah.”
“Wow. That cart is really something.”
“Thanks! It’s my home away from home,” she patted a wheel proudly.
Ivy smiled at her. “Good for you. I usually end up sleeping on the ground when I’m delivering. Which, is not fun in the winter.”
“I guess not,” Jen winced in sympathy.
Ivy rocked awkwardly on her heels, not sure what else to say. “Is there anything we need to do? It seems like we have most things sorted, and once I get Otto to behave I can get him to send some messages about your posters.”
“Oh that would be great, thanks. I… guess we could get dinner, get to know each other a bit.”
“If you want,” Ivy shrugged. “I suppose you’ll want to know the person who’ll be watching your back. I’ll get the messages sent out and meet you by the kitchens?”
“Sure! See you then!”
The two met later in the kitchens. Nearly half the Fort was there, so they had to wait a little bit for food.
“Ah, the Watch special,” Ivy commented when she looked at her meal. “Stew, bread denser than most building materials, and tea.”
Jen blew over her soup. “Yep. Though it’s hard to beat fresh fish no matter who’s cooking.”
“True,” Ivy agreed, “the fish in the stew are particularly good,” as soon as she finished Otto snatched some fish from her bowl. “At least, I think it is.”
Jen watched Otto eat it, but since Ivy didn’t address it she also ignored it. She hummed to herself for a second before changing the subject. “So, why did you get into fighting?”
“Straight into it I see,” Ivy gave her stew a stir as she thought. “I suppose it’s what I’ve always done? When I was younger I was getting into scraps a lot, and I suppose I just went from there.”
“That’s cool,” Jen nodded. “I do research for… a lot of reasons. I wanted to find a way to combine art and science. Guess I did.”
“I really need to introduce you to my brother. I think you’d get along,” Ivy ate a spoonful of stew. “How did you get into all this?”
“Well, I started trying to become a bard. Buuuut my family needed me because of the famines, so I got really into science. They study agriculture,” she added to clarify.
“Huh, I suppose that would be useful, physically resilient plants,” Ivy mused. “Did you get hit by the raids often?”
“…uh, yeah, I mean… not as bad as other places,” Jen picked at her soup.
“That bad huh? I was up there most of the raiding as well. That’s how I got a good chunk of my fighting experience.”
Jen looked up from her soup. “Wow, really? That’s an insane place to learn… Talk about thrown into the deep end.”
“It was!” Ivy laughed. “Great way to figure out how to use combat magic. I wouldn’t trade it though.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Otherwise my magic would have festered. It was activated under controlled conditions and I never found a use for it until then.”
“Huh. Mom helped me with my magic, but I had the opposite problem; I was trying to use it for every interest that grabbed my attention. Once I was super into cooking, so I accidentally heated every meat in the house! Nearly ruined our stock.”
“Ooooh,” Ivy winced then laughed. “The worst I got was accidentally sending an ink pot flying out of the window. A glass window. My mentor at the time was not happy.”
Jen laughed as well. “I bet not. Did he make you clean it up?”
“They did,” Ivy confirmed. “Although they handled the glass bit, since their magic could handle that. I was tasked with cleaning up the ink,” Ivy took a swig of warm tea and put the mug down. “So, based on your cart, you travel around a lot?”
“Yeah, a whole lot. I focus around Lock Glas but I’ve been to most of House Jameson,” Jen laughed at a memory. “I was about twelve when it was founded, begged mom to let me live there… she said I could when I was fifteen like a normal kid,” she smirked to herself. “Caught me trying an aging spell the next day!”
Ivy snorted with laughter before going into her own memories. “I was working my way around the kingdom when it was announced. Messed up my plans a lot! I was in House Marvin at the time, and I was going to go to House Jackie, but then House Jameson got announced and since it was closer it made sense to go there first, doing a loop rather than back and forth. Still a mess, but it worked out.”
“That’s nice,” that’s all that could really be said to that as Jen finished her tea and got more. Her face dropped a little as something occurred to her. “So were you there for… it, then?”
It took a moment for Ivy to realize what Jen meant, and had to fight the urge to laugh, especially at her nervous expression. “No! I was in the House Jackie, fast asleep. I didn’t know anything had happened until the next morning.”
“Oh,” Jen huffed a partially relieved, partially embarrassed laugh. “Yeah what a thing to wake up to, huh?”
“Yeah, we were alright given that we were within riding distance of the Guard training Barracks,” Ivy suddenly went quiet at the mention of the Barracks, before continuing. “Just got on with what I needed to do that day. I didn’t even know people had been affected by it until I was in House Brody.”
“Yeah, it was… a heck of a night,” she stared into her tea before shaking herself off. “So! With all that in mind, why come to the forest? I’m doing it for dumb research reasons, but it’s really dangerous. Why come at all? I mean you’re really brave, obviously, but…”
Ivy shrugged, hiding that she really appreciated the compliment. “Because I can?” she responded to the initial question. “Life’s too short to sit about. You don’t often get a chance to go into the Western Forest, I could go alone, but that’s damn near suicide. No one else would want to go, so it’s a good opportunity. Plus potential tactical information in case for some stupid reason we have to fight the Enemy in there.”
Ivy paused for a second, and added. “So, perfectly sane reasons,” she went to eat from her stew, watching Otto in case he tried to go for the fish again.
“That’s a good point, the place isn’t well mapped. I don’t want to think about the potential guerrilla tactics they could use.”
Ivy shrugged at that. “They’re working on it at the Roosts, given the recent raids. It’s what I was doing when I got your message, but I’ve given them all the information I have and left my friend Gus there to help.”
“That’s cool. Guess we better find out if they have access to novel poisons…” Jen pushes her empty bowl aside, unnerved.
“That is not something I want to think about,” Ivy agreed with the sentiment.
Jen nodded. “Welp, I’m full. Want to go?”
“Give me a moment,” Ivy shooed Otto away to the get to the last of her stew. She picked up the bowl, drained it and put it back down on the table. “Now I’m done, let’s go.”
Author’s Note: Part one down! Next time, into the woods! One thing I find funny is that Katrina and Ivy just, know each other. @livingemerald and I have never RPed them interacting, so, yeah.
Bard’s Note: I mean, Ivy does consistently deliver messages to Watch Garrisons and Outposts, Kat barely leaves the library of Fort Conchúr, and since the library also deals with records and information like messengers do… I’m not surprised that the two are familiar with each other.
A note was on Emily’s desk when she returned from Cordoire, just a few days after the bard had bumped into a traveling citizen while delivering a few reports to the castle. The young woman had seemed interested in joining the civilian part of The Watch, and Emily had gladly pointed her in the direction of the garrison. She hadn’t given the encounter much thought until now. Clearly, the citizen had made it to Fort Stiofán, and with a letter to boot...
Settling herself into the chair at her desk, she began to read:
Hello Bard Emily,
I A few concerned citizens have noted something of interest, and I felt it best to contact you. The theorist community of House Marvin are all but convinced that King Sean has fallen ill to the point of perpetual bedrest. This is nothing new, and has been implied by the sorcerer Robin as being true (I’d need some time to find proof of his involvement).
However, there is a fringe theory starting to gain traction that Lord Brody has been covering for the king, such as during the daily proclamations. It’s in his nature to try to keep up the kingdom’s morale, and would certainly keep him distracted from his… familial stress.
But this would mean that he has somehow escaped the Enemy’s imprisonment. I believe that he, or the other Lords, are strong enough to escape him if enough of them work together. Lord Brody’s escape could explain the magical traces left by the other Lords around the Roost prior to his attack. If this is the case, a lot of the Enemy’s and “King Sean’s” recent activity gains new context.
The Enemy could be mocking us for following an impostor without knowing it. “Devote yourselves further” could be meant to bolster his spies, or to frighten us into believing Lord Brody is a puppet. If he is, the Lord himself could have placed those pamphlets and pages around the Watch’s strongholds and pockets. And everything, everything could come down to weakening the Lord’s resolve.
It is therefore imperative that we provide emotional support to the “King,” and that, no matter what, we Keep the Watch.
Your ally,
Jen Quillan
Sighing, Emily folded the letter neatly and set it in a small pile of documents in the corner of her desk. She’d drop it off at the archives later, but right now, the bard was too exhausted to take another step. Not even The Enemy could get her to move from that chair... and with that, her thoughts returned to the letter’s contents.
The theory wasn’t a new one. Rumors had been spreading about the king’s mysterious illness since Lord Chase and Mage Adviser Robin had each let a few details slip years ago. However, no one has been able to ascertain the severity of what ails King Sean. Do temporary episodes of narcolepsy strike him unconscious for brief periods, still allowing him to perform his duty as king? Or, more concerning, was he truly too ill to rule? And if so, who was leading Duilintinn in his stead?
As for Lord Brody, his current whereabouts were still a mystery. All that The Watch knew for certain was that The Enemy or his minions had accosted him on the road... not what occurred afterwards. News of Lord Brody grew scarce, so most assumed that The Enemy had captured him... but no one knew for certain. Could it have all been a ruse to explain the sudden disappearance of Lord Brody as he returned to the castle at Cordoire to rule on his friend’s behalf? It all seemed rather convoluted, but then again, not even Duilintinn could escape the machinations of political intrigue.
As for the motives behind The Enemy’s recent actions... well, this intrepid civilian’s guess was as good as anyone else’s. She really would make a good Watcher...
The bard resolved herself to ask around the garrison the following day and see if this civilian- Jen- was still in town. If there was one thing Emily could get behind, it was someone who was willing to stand by their king, even in the face of uncertainty. As more people were starting to grow uneasy and lash out against King Sean in exchange for some sense of control or security, it was nice to know that there were people like Jen beyond the halls of The Watch.
With a laugh, it occurred to the bard that she hadn’t really socialized with anyone outside of The Watch for quite some time...
This letter was sent in as a submission by @marginmaster87 and I ended up kinda running with it and turning it into a drabble. I hope that’s okay. If you want to see me write more stuff like this, send me drabble prompts!
I’m please to announce that the rumors are true, and King Sean has confirmed that he is courting Lady Evelien Smolders, better known as Lady Gab by her people. I must confess I know little about her; she rules a small island kingdom to the far northeast, and I have yet to study any of the lands beyond our continent. Regardless, she obviously makes the king very happy, and for that alone, we welcome her to Duilintinn as one of our own.
May The Watch protect this fledgling couple from outsiders who would seek to separate them.
With Celebrations,
Bard Emily Keyes
Written to fellow members of The Watch in the Year One Thousand Six Hundred and Fourteen.
