Igni stared up at the white column before him, its base and top were wrapped in gold polished to a mirror sheen. Mortals he was beginning to believe had an odd fondness for shiny things.

However, that wasn’t what he found so interesting. Rather it was the pillar’s carvings. Scenes spiralled up the broad pillars’ base.

It depicted all manner of beasts, snakes deer, fish, crocodiles and more shedding blood into a pool. From which a dragon then rose to coil around and dominate the column’s upper half.

He stared at the scaled beast, the slit depressions it had for eyes stared dismissively at him and the crowd. He blinked at it. It did not respond.

He felt there was a story behind the art. Though not one he recognized.

“Good evening emissary, are you enjoying the evening, I see you are quite interested in the art.” Igni turned to look at the voice but found no one, A light cough directed his gaze downward. A short squirrelly man with a large squirrelly tail was smiling amicably at him.

“Apologies, I didn’t see you there.” Igni said after a beat.

The man continued to smile and waved him off. “No harm done, I imagine it happens quite often given your…” they half gesticulated at Igni then thought better of it. “Proportions.”

Igni nodded. That had been one of tonight’s many challenges. While the man was atypically short, only reaching his waist, it wasn’t that different from the majority that failed to reach his chest.

Igni exited his contemplations to find the man staring at him in much the same way he’d stared at the pillar. Igni shook his head and turned away.

He’d been having this problem all evening.

People would approach him, only for conversation to fall away after a few exchanges. Most didn’t even get that far.

People loitered around him in a fuzzy circle. It was peculiar, even stranger was how some of them jolted to a start when his gaze crossed their.

He’d quired on of the few who approached and the woman had flushed so heavily he thought she might faint.

Given the dearth of conversation, Igni had been forced to sate his curiosity with his surroundings. Igni let his gaze wander.

The floor was a single slab of polished painted stone. Though blocked his view from the staircase had hinted at a dizzying array of intricate forms. Denoting animals of all kinds, beneath his feet, a butterfly fluttered on crystal blue wings.

The ceiling was no lesser in complexity. Differing only in what it depicted.

Humans. Their forms were indistinct and melted into the background of the scene. The colours of a painted sky spilled into their skin They stared down at the crowd assembled below. Watching over the race that was their succorer.

Amongst them, a woman with kind eyes danced amongst beasts of old. Igni smiled, he knew how that story went.

“Excuse me gentlemen am I interrupting you?” Igni turned to the voice, taking care to lower his gaze. A woman clad in deep black clothes trimmed with silver thread stared up at him. A thick tuft of feathers nearly as dark as her clothes sprouted from her head and chest, light brown skin and focused eyes completed her image.

Stolen story; please report.

Igni took a slow blink as he considered her. She was not the first feathered person to approach him today, she was however the first with that specific arrangement.

Questions burbled in his thoughts but he quieted them as he had all such quandaries about the topic. Guardian Curio had specifically told him anatomy was not a topic for polite conversation.

Lux had smiled upon hearing the warning levied at Igni. Until Curio had levelled him with a far more specific warning.

Igni glanced at his brother. His white-winged form was surrounded by a sea of bobbing heads and laughter. People gravitated towards Lux and unlike with Igni, they did more than vacantly stare. Lux had always been the more sociable of the pair but he hadn’t thought that would apply to the mortals as well.

Igni shook his head, perhaps Curio’s warning would see some use.

The thought brought a smile to his face. Igni returned his wandering attention to the woman. Her focus shattered upon introduction to his smile, and Igni mourned the opportunity for an interesting conversation wasted.

Perhaps he should leave smiling to Lux for now.

Before the thought could settle the woman snapped back to attention. Igni smiled and her focus wavered until he settled into a more managed expression. “ “Not at all Ma’am, I don’t mind company.” He glanced at the squirrelly man, “Do you?”

The question snapped him awake, his eyes widened as he remembered himself then further as he saw the woman. “Uh, not all! Not at all lady Leandra.” He bowed slightly, “If you’d excuse me, I have matters to attend to, please enjoy your evening.”

Igni watched the man flee, his bushy tail bounced as he scrambled away. Then because staring was impolite he turned away, though curiosity urged to see if the man did have something to attend to.

His gaze settled on the woman.

“Ah, Where are my manners, My name is Leandra Salen of the Ducal clan by the same name.” She nodded her head at him.” Then smiled broadly. “Emissary Ignis Perdita I’m not familiar with your customs, is there any way you’d prefer”

Igni tilted his head ever so slightly, and the smile on his face threatened to spill into a grin. “There is, I prefer Igni.”

“So Igni what do you find so fascinating about our venue’s supports.”

Igni spared a glance at the pillar as he considered the question. “It feels like part of a story, one I’ve not heard before. Yet given its position, it’s an important one.”

Leandra turned to look up at the coiling dragon. She hummed faintly ruefully. “You would be right on both those points and be happy to tell you if someone hasn’t already beaten me to the punch.”

Igni’s curiosity peaked, but he refrained from shifting his wings on account of his suit. “I’d be happy to listen.”

Leandra smiled all the brighter and she puffed her feather like a hatching. It was an odd compassion considering the woman was likely years if not decades his senior.

“And I’d be happy to inform, but before I begin I must ask what you know of our people, the Posteri. It would help me give the best account I can.” her tone remained light but Igni had been taught enough to recognize the intent. He supposed it shouldn’t be a surprise he wondered about them, they in turn were curious about his people. Yet there was much he couldn’t say. Despite that awareness, the reminder dampened his mood.

He glanced at Lux, presently chatting happily in a dozen different conversations, he couldn’t fathom how they managed.

Igni needed to balance what he knew with what he could share. He spoke slowly, considering the words as he spoke. “I know how you came to be. Your Mater,” he gestured at the painting of the indistinct woman on the ceiling. ”a human woman formed, a pact with the great beasts to end a long war between their kinds. That pact was written in blood.” He glanced at the feathers adorning her head. ‘Though written might be too light a word. The result was the birth of the Posteri and your many lines.”

Igni thought he did rather well in his telling, and her smile supported that fact. He paused as he considered the frequency of unsolicited smiles cast at him this evening. Perhaps her smile was in favor of his face or his feathers, there’d been many glances at his feather.

“Beyond that, I cannot claim to have any, real knowledge of your history since then, besides a few anecdotes recorded over the millennium.”

“Even that’s more than enough” they assured then gave him a long look. “Truthfully, there isn’t much to the story when you strip all the messy politics away. This.” She said in a matter of fact tone and waved, encompassing the pillar and the hall as a whole. “Is how the imperial line came to be.” It was the tone of someone willfully detaching from a topic to conceal how they feel.

Igni’s gaze roamed down from the dragon’s eyes. “By mixing blood in a pool?”

Her laughter bubbled up joining the ballroom’s festive mood. “No Igni,” she said after her brush with laughter. “Their progenitor took the blood of many other lines and joined them in himself to become the first of his line. Now we have the dragons our imperial majesties.”

It was a simple story one stripped of nuance and emotions. It his as much as it told, much like Igni had. At the very least it proved he’d always have some questions to ask during his time on the ground.

He was inclined to believe Leandra didn’t like the imperial line, or at the very least had strong opinions about the story. He wanted to know why, he wanted to know what the people staring at him thought. Where their views differed if at all. His first proper conversation with a mortal and he was already filled with bounding curiosity. He’d have to thank Lux for convincing him to come.

“Thank you for the tale Leandra it’s quite interesting.” She wordlessly stared at his face, Igni pulled his smile down. He’d also have to ask his sibling for advice on how to avoid that.

Leandra returned to herself. “I’m happy to help emissary Igni, but onto another topic.” Thin lines of essence rose about them until they stood alone in a cage wrought from essence. No sound was allowed entry, silence pervaded the space.

Ever so slowly Igni tilted his head as he met her eyes.

“You see my family has records of your kind and every one of them, speaks to your noble character.” Till now she maintained a casually confident smile, but with the closing of the invincible wire net, she revealed it to be a facade. Worry entered her voice, worry -and incredible fury. “And I find myself in desperate need of help tonight.”

Igni stared into her determined eyes, but Lux’s smiling face was what stood out in his mind. Truly the land was all he hoped for.