Induul’s expression drops as if he’d just been slapped in the face, before a begrudging acknowledgment shows up in a grim draw of his jaw when he grits his teeth. Teuila beams pride my way, Farzhis feigns indifference, and Veril says smugly towards Induul, “See, told you.”
I raise an eyebrow at Veril who goes on to explain, “Well, not exactly, I said anyone smart around here would probably realize to fear our vanguard most of all. Same thing, kinda. Illy’s the brains, Farzee knows it, and Indy knows it too.”
Induul retorts with an indignant hiss, “Don’t call me that!”
I flash a wry smile towards Veril, surprised at the acknowledgment and lightheartedness of his boast. My smile spreads wide and becomes genuine as the effeminate man returns my smile, beaming as widely as Teuila. Induul glares at Veril out of the corner of his eye as if to convey, “Suck-up.”
I ask Farzhis, “May I use the nickname Veril used for you? I don’t intend any disrespect, I have some difficulty pronouncing your name, and I’d like to not offend you if possible.”
Farzhis shrugs and says, “Tha’s fine, no’ a lo’ of talking goes on with me aroun’ usually.”
I raise my left eyebrow in curiosity at Farzhis’s remark, and she pulls away from Induul to very pointedly, firmly cup her large bosom, and then motions down to the rest of her curves beneath the tight scalesilk tunic and fashionably-fit scaleleather bodice. I offer a, “Huh, hadn’t noticed. You are a handsome couple of course. Anyway, pleased to meet you Farzee, Induul, Veril, Illy, may I call you Illy as well, for the same reason?”
Iylynila responds with a smile and a do as you will gesture while she bows slightly in my direction. Wait, my brain didn’t make a big deal out of noticing Farzee’s physical appearance, and by all counts, she’s an incredibly attractive, beautiful woman. Woohoo, no more whammy-brain! So now I can think about Spymaster Errissa without thinking about the sleek slender curves beneath her taught leather clothes, and the way her silver, startlingly alluring eyes find mine even when shrouded by the hood of her cloak and—. Gorramitall Teuila. I think this is permanent. Crap crap crap crap crap. Despite Farzee, the by all accounts, stunning, less than humble, well-endowed human form of a dragon right in front of me, now that I’ve thought of Errissa, I can’t keep my mind off of her, the grace of her motions, the piqued curiosity, the firmness of her--. Damnitall Teuila.
Teuila giggles like a madbeast telepathically, and I struggle to return my attention to meatspace. Iylynila is actually remarkably similar to Kinzul in beauty, her features and posture are regal in nature now that she isn’t hidden in shadow. Her skin a sculpted matte-midnight-black that portrays any flickering light like stars in the dark of a cloudless sky. Her tresses are similarly glorious as well, and it makes me wonder if Iylinila is also one of Kinzul’s direct biological descendants. I flash a glance at Illy, and look over my shoulder back towards Lady Kinzul, then return my glance to level my gaze at Illy who nods, comprehending my meaning. Illy is incredibly observant, and certainly has a fierce intellect. I agree with Veril’s assessment in calling her the brains of the group.
Teuila interjects suddenly, playfully demanding, “Tell Reggie the one about the— hehehe.”
Veril groans, while Induul and Illy smirk. Induul begins to start, but Iylynila cuts him off and starts the short tale, “So, one thing you’ll need to understand is we are far, far older than we appear, and some of us have been in human lands enough to understand some euphamisms that might not make sense around dragons. Like, I’ve known Veril here since he was in diapers. Never such a thing, never wore them, we don’t have them. But you get it, right?”
Veril groans again and slaps his palm to his forehead, bringing it down over his eyes. I bite my lips to attempt to keep a straight face and accidentally snort a single laugh as I nod ever so slightly.
Illy’s smirk spreads wider up the left half of her face as she continues, “Indy,” she very pointedly says before continuing, it earns a disgruntled frown and an actual grunt while Illy continues, “as well. Farzee and I are closer in age, maybe about the same clutching time, too long ago to remember. Anyway, I’m doing my duty around the nursery, and some little red whelp is sitting shivering in front of the fireplace, fully stocked, just not lit. I motion to the fireplace, and he looks at me like I’m the stupid one. I get out some firesticks, and he blows them out. No fire, just blows ‘em out before I can get ‘em in the fireplace. I motion to the firepit, and he looks at me like I’ve got three heads. This same punk decides to eat the dragonsbane that we use as a kind of fence to keep the kids in when they’re younger. Not lethal, just smells bad, tastes worse, but also, a laxative.”
I pucker my cheeks as I bit down on the inside of my mouth to try to keep a straight face as I shoot a glance over Veril the Red. I’m hoping this is going a different direction than it sounds, and thankfully, Illy continues, “So, because I don’t want to have to deal with the kind of mess that I know is coming, I pick up the little whelp, transform, and take to the air. Little red here bursts into tears and starts wailing, screaming like a banshee, and digs his claws into me for dear life, I nearly lose my glide in surprise. A Red who gets cold and refuses to light a fire! Afraid of flying! Eats dragonsbane! Anyway, had to set down, take him back, wait on Mother. I said to mother when she arrived, ‘I think we got a broke one.’ So if you ever hear someone call him Veril the broke one, that’s why, not because of wealth, but that too, penniless. Heh.”
At first I flash a sympathetic, semi-sorrowful half-smile at Veril, not wanting to poke fun at him for a fear of heights, but combined, all told, it is pretty funny. I can’t help loosing a half chuckle and smiling. I flash Illy a look with just a hint of disappointment, and she waves it off, grinning. It’s obvious they’re close, which makes me glad about their team’s camaraderie.
I’m surprised at how expressive Illy was during the tale. Earlier she’d stood mostly stock still, and she still stands behind her group, slightly aloof, but she emphasized everything with her hands animatedly, playfully. I like her a lot already. I’ve also got a soft spot for poor Veril here, having to put up with decades, maybe centuries of such a nickname. Farzee, eh, she’s extremely attractive, sure, but she’s incredibly into Induul, who appears to be incredibly into himself.
While I’m thinking about my friendship compatibility, Illy remarks, “So, every time over the years that Veril gets lonely, I take him under wing, to make up for it, no harm, but every time he brings up getting together in another way, like today, well, I’ve gotta remind him that I was the one who saw the things that got him his nickname. He’ll always be that doofy, broke whelp to me”
Veril’s already reddened cheeks color even more fiercely with blush as Illy gives him a playful shove along his right shoulder and she adds, “Sorry not sorry.”
At that, I chuckle wholeheartedly for a short moment while Teuila titters. After a round of mixed expressions, a grimace from Veril, a grin from Illy, a smirk from Induul and Farzee, I ask, “Illy, since you’ve been around a while, and seem an amicable conversationalist, could you tell me a bit about the rest of the Order? I apparently know the names of the most powerful, and well known amongst us, and which ones are whom, but I don’t really know anything about them, if you get my drift. Like The Paradox Vivant just over there.”
Illy holds up a hand at the end of my request and offers up, “Don’t bother with the Vivvies, they’ll snub you and make a game out of it. If you think Indy is bad, they’re worse. Except Prinrin, but the others are full of themselves. Prinrin’s a fun time if you can catch them alone, chatty, helpful, loves to lend a hand, loves to complain about the other three, and ah, let’s just say a fun time.”
I try not to wear any facial expressions as I try to parse just exactly what Illy is hinting at in calling Prinrin a fun time. Illy continues, “I saw you met the Queens. Better than most on their first interaction. Queens’re both grumpy, short tempered, short-sighted in their goals, and vindictive if they’re crossed. Takes ‘em a while to warm up, but notice they weren’t hostile to any of the old guard, anyone they’ve known for a while. They’re true blue, uh, gold, once you get their trust.”
I flash a half smile and chuckle at Illy’s word choice, and she responds with a cheeky grin that reminds me of Teuila’s. Illy then points to the two I know to be the Dark and the Quick, stating, “Revvy and Greggy are a package deal for good reason, you could probably tell Gresog is blind. Revvy may look laid back, but his mind is always on, always calculating, always strategizing, he looks out for Gresog that way, puts Greggy to use sometimes. Makes him seem lazy, but he’s looking out for his pal, for sure.”
I smile warmly at Illy as she shares snippets of information on members of our Order, and her smile is equally as warm in return. Teuila nudges me while waggling her eyebrows, but I just roll my eyes at my beloved Te. The goon is worse than I am about wanting everyone who is even remotely a decent person in our affection circle, or at least teasing me about wanting me to try to get people into the circle. More the latter than the former for the most part. I’ve been teased far, far more often than we’ve added new partners. Illy picks up on the incredibly unsubtle waggling of Teuila’s brows during one of those moments, and she has the tiniest snicker to herself. Like I said, remarkably observant, quick witted, fiercely intelligent. All that on top of being amicable, kind, and a tad playful. Someone I can definitely admire.
Kinzul comments telepathically, teasing, I hope, “I’ll be sure to tell my daughter exactly so.”
That was far more effective at teasing me, as my face reaches record temperatures for the room, while sitting next to a blushing red dragon. I sense the amusement and chuckle beneath Kinzul’s telepathic wavelength. See what I mean? Observant, intelligent, amicable, a tad playful. It runs in the family.
Illy pauses her description of the others to ask, “Cat got your tongue?” very pointedly drawing the attention to me when I’d suddenly started blushing after Teuila’s nudging and brow waggling.
Dangit, she’s going to think Teuila’s teasing got me thinking about her in that way. I fight through the blush, and the painful smile on my face to say, “Just something your mother mentioned across our telepathic bond.”
It’s like a record just scratched as it goes silent around me in a wide radius. Gulping, aware of the attention of at least thirty pairs of eyes, I begin to hunch in on myself, not quite as badly as Xayla, but still. The fear, the anxiety of the attention must be plain on my face, but even Illy appears to be at a loss for words. Trying to explain myself, I hesitantly, nervously chuckle as I state, “Did I mention, heh, that I was an archmage, and master enchanter?”
When no one responds, I shrink further in on myself and mumble, “Maybe I should see myself out.”
Illy breaks the uncomfortable silence first, with a sharp inhalation before asking, “Really?”
It almost seemed directed over my head, towards Kinzul, perhaps it was, but I nod hesitantly all the same. Illy whistles a low note of appreciation before commenting, “I take it, you’re going to spread that around when you have the time?”
I nod emphatically, and the silence is broken, and the stares no longer linger directly on me. The chatter around me resumes, so I drop the tension in my shoulders and heave a sigh of relief. Holy crap that was tense. I’m a little pouty that Kinzul left me to stew in the intensely uncomfortable situation, but I know that there isn’t much she could have done that wouldn’t have caused even more of a scene. It’s probably for the best that she didn’t walk over in my defense to escort me out of the crowd or something. That would have given people some ideas for sure. Yikes. Kinzul’s laughing at my thought train, so that’s good at least. I guess.
Kinzul comments, “I’m certain you’re well enough equipped to handle your own social situations Schism, I will not be coming to your rescue, for precisely the reasons you’d guessed.” With a hint of almost malicious mischievousness, she adds, “And if something were to develop romantically between myself and any individual, I would prefer to remain at least somewhat discrete about it.”
I fluster once more, blushing heatedly, because I can tell Kinzul is teasing me by hinting at there even being the remotest possibility of romance. Lil’s attention suddenly snaps telepathically my way to share his distaste for my line of thought. Relax Lil, I know it’ll never happen. Kinzul has been inside my head for over a day, while I was whammied by Te, there’s no friggin’ way. Err, I mean, I’m not pursuing your mother bud. I blush that my immediate response was to play down my chances, rather than to confirm a lack of interest in pursuit.
Crap on a cracker, the people in my head. Right Reggie? I know Reggie, right! I should probably not play up the fractured psyche bit while being observed by the leader of the Order. Mirth along the telepathic wavelength indicates Kinzul is taking it good-naturedly at least.
Thankfully, Illy continues where she left off, “You might have met Pawn, cute kid, much younger than Prinrin, but really similar, absolutely loves to help, enjoys her job, craves praise, loves her Alias. Be nice to her. Let’s see. Hm, who else? Oh, you’ll probably never meet her, but our Spymaster Errissa, well.”
As Illy lets the note hang in the air, I barely catch myself from drooling as my jaw hangs slightly slack. I swallow, then mumble, almost entirely unwillingly speaking aloud my thoughts directly, “She’s really nice, wonderful silver eyes, sleek, plenty of mystique, silent, scar on the left brow down to her left cheek, slate-grey, smoothe-scaled fit, lithe, acrobatic, flexible, sen—, koff uh. We’ve met.”
Did another record scratch? The silence is deafening because my tinnitus is ratcheting up to full in response to the sudden lack of noise. Oh hell how many eyes are on me now? Way to go making waves Reggie. You told Nala you would, or someone. Can’t remember who. Gulping, I try to glance around without moving.
Illy, parsing just exactly what my description was going to start alluding to, almost-excitedly whispers, “Get out of here!”
I almost mistake that for a cue to literally flee, before Iylynila leans over to give me a playful shove at the very edge of her reach to be able to make contact. She flashes me a very knowing smirk, and I wilt inward on myself for the miscommunication and its implication that Illy is now running away with mentally. I think everyone around me might be running away with the implication mentally. Gods, why did I have to say flexible, and be about to say sensual. Everyone can tell what word I was about to say when I cut myself off. Should I maybe repeat the line, but fill in the blank with a different word? Sentry-like? Ugh, that wouldn’t make sense, and would be an obvious cover-up.
I need to find Errissa to apologize immediately. Coughing, I bluster in protest, “What, no, of course not, not whatever you’re thinking.”
There’s some sly snickering, some whispering, some subtle, incredibly low notes of whistles of appreciation, and murmurs of, “Doth protest too much.”
I flash a glare at Teuila, blaming her for this, but she just grins cheekily at me and shrugs helplessly. I plead with Illy, “Please, do continue.”
Illy jokes, “Nuh uh, next you’re going to tell me you were naked in bed with Nala.”
My eye twitch gives away that she’s almost correct, and her eyes fly wide as her brow raises fit to fly off her head. I quickly explain, “No, no, just, just used her bed. Had a migraine while learning in the library. Just, just yeah. Very pleasant woman when absorbed in teaching, but I’d been up for twenty five hours at that point, I get migraines, she brewed some willow for us, um, me, herself.”
I’m digging myself a hole and I need to stop. Illy shakes her head, disbelieving, her mind running away with the idea of our Librarian, The Curator, Nala, and me, naked in bed together. I can’t exactly deny it either, because I still don’t know who I mooned the other night. I heard the approach as someone stood just outside my sensory ranges while I was naked, bent over, searching for some kind of love charm, or any sort of proof of why I was going completely gaga every time I saw Errissa. I obviously found no such proof, since it turned out to have been Te that whammied me with her Latent, and so I simply leaned my face into the bed, threw the blanket over me, and slept in an incredibly stupid position to avoid the embarrassment of finding out whoever was standing behind me.
I honestly don’t know if it would be worse if it was Nala, or if it was Errissa that I mooned, since Spymaster kept appearing to check on me in the bedroom. I need not remind you Reggie, that you do not have biological facilities, you do not have a butt, yet you’re still this embarrassed about it, because of your weird Fakeworld social-cue memories. Teuila telepathically giggles like a madbeast at my explanation, having not yet heard about my accidental mooning of someone.
Illy coughs, then teases while asking, “Anyone else? Maybe you and Farzee have plans later?”
The dirty look and the daggers glared at both Illy and me for that comment chill me to my core while my face is simultaneously on fire. I cough and clarify, “No, never met her before, the only other friend I’ve made was Xayla, they’re very nice, we ate together—. I’m going to stop there before you get any ideas. As far as plans later, I have to head back to the library, Nala and I have plans to— damnit. No matter what I say the plans are, you’re going to think I’m covering up. I’m an archmage, I’m going to the library for spellbook resources, and I was going to help Nala sort to be given quicker access to them.”
Illy teases with a long, drawn out, “Mmmhmmmm, suuure.”
Teuila and Illy exchange the most knowing of glances, and can barely hide their inner mirth. I can see why Teuila was hanging out with this particular crowd. Like minds and all that.
Finding it difficult to fight the unwitting smile that sits upon my face, I grump, “Could you maybe fill me in on anyone else? Please?”
Illy teases, “I dunno who else catches your eye, Shaylon maybe? Or Shrulniz? If you’ve got a thing for slender and gray. Burshis, Nietru, and Geskae are all pretty monogamously spoken for, ‘ish, between Prent and Aaront. Akti’s a bit of a loner. Boetah doesn’t strike me as your type, from the three or four or five or more you’ve given me so far.”
I fluster and plead, “I— wasn’t asking who to date, I meant my original question.”
Illy takes the teasing just one more step, “So you admit it, you are dating them.”
I wilt under the scrutiny from those around me again. What is this, highschool on Fakeworld? These are people who live hundreds of years, and they’ve got nothing better to do than to, to, to, to try to, ack, I don’t even know how to describe this, let alone handle it!
Illy finally relents and returns the topic towards the direction I’d originally asked, “Well, if you’re suuuure, I’m just sayin’ is all. Anyway, yeah, Boetah and Shaylon, rock dragons, Shield and Aegis, tough as nails, good to have between you and a breath weapon.”
I mutter, “I’m already immune to three of them, four if you count surviving with incredible pain as immunity.”
Crap. Why did you have to let that slip Reggie? Illy asks, “No shit?”
I haven’t heard a lot of cursing in most of my lives, so I blink in surprise. I try to take it back, “What, no, of course not, sorry, making stuff up, of course. To feel better, about the teasing, about the many people that I definitely didn’t do the things with that people were inferring.”
I facepalm at how badly I lied, and how it made the previous implications sound more true. Illy shakes her head in disbelief, completely catching on to me, and probably assuming the worst implications. Teuila can not stop laughing over our telepathic wavelength, and it’s contagious, so I’m having a hard time not having a fit of the giggles. I’m not sure if it would help or hurt my case if I started giggling like a goon.
I groan, realizing I need to clear the air on at least that one, because our tactics will depend on knowing each other’s abilities. I hold up a hand between us for a second to catch my breath before stating, “Okay, no, I lied about making it up. You’ll need to know which of you can safely breathe on me. Thermal fluctuations don’t bother me, at all. It takes something like lava an extended period for me to need to worry about heat. I’ve never met anything colder than what I can produce. Poison won’t make its way into my lungs, and I’m living with a lightning-storm inside my body, so lightning will hurt, but mostly just charge me up, because I’m using it to operate because my nervous system was hollowed out and damaged while battling the Felgre horde at Autumn Brook.”
At the mention of the Felgre horde, the entire room drops silent. This was one of the things Kinzul was kind enough to not press me for details on when I was heartbroken, relaying the tale of our Rayileklian journey.
Trying to shun the spotlight, I mutter grumpily, “Teuila was there too!”
Te, despite loving the spotlight, sends it back to me as she cheekily, chirps, “Not as long as you were there solo Airhead.” Her voice has a lilting, singsong cadence to it.
Illy asks the obvious question, “How long did you face them alone?”
Grousing, I respond as best I can, “I dunno, it was something like half of August thirteenth, maybe up to fourteen hours’ish, before we opened a hole in the sky to get the sun to come down over The Brook, to buy time to evacuate.”
How does it keep getting even quieter? I think I can hear the burbling of the spring in the larder from how silent it is in here after that last revelation. Kinzul telepathically asks, “You removed the clouds over Autumn Brook?”
I respond telepathically, “Well, Tiktik did most of the heavy lifting there, I provided a weather control spell. I think the spell was mostly destroyed because neither of us had mastered it before we used a ritual to cast it. I’d have liked to have been able to add it to my repertoire, but it’s gone now.”
I don’t add that there’s the slimmest possibility that I could reconstruct exact knowledge of the runes that made up the spell with my retrocognition ability. Retrocognition works better with things that are either current in short-term memory, or have been brought up by a sensory response from long-term memory. Kinzul’s emotional turbulence indicates she’s assessing the information I’ve given her. She speaks no more on the subject for the moment, thankfully.
I ring my collar as I glance around now that people are starting to murmur again. This is not how I wanted to forge my relationship with my fellow Order members. I drop my head into my hands and fight to keep myself from unleashing any telling noises.
Iylynila takes pity on me, offering, “Hey, that, that must have been rough. I forget that you’re already an adventurer, been through stuff. I’m sorry about the teasing. If you want, later, we can talk, and straighten things out. Also, I stand by what I said earlier. After seeing your honoris causa, and even moreso hearing about that, you.”
I wordlessly nod my head, desperately wanting to do the catching up and straightening things out later. For some reason, I care with Iylynila thinks of me, and I’d rather that thought not be that I’m trying to sleep with every attractive androgynous, or femme presenting member of the order. I attempt to stand to my full height, trying to avoid hunching in on myself, though I’d very much like to. I still need to learn bits about the eight or so untitled, un-Aliased prominent members of the Order, and hopefully a bit more about Boetah and Shaylon’s personalities. For now though, I’m heading to the library to help Nala curate. I begin walking silently away. Teuila stays seated with her new friends.
Illy, her voice friendly, curious, not teasing, asks, “Hey, where ya going?”
Cheekily, I joke, “Got to go see a gal about a book.”