Blaise

I hoped I covered how nervous I felt. The annoyance on Mari’s face never changed so I had no idea what she was thinking. As we entered the Council room my heart sank, any hope I had of keeping this civil shattered seeing the Council all in phoenix skin.

“Blaise, what is the meaning of this? We hear reports of a human without Skin, who speaks a tongue we’ve never heard before, and that you brought her here,” Inga, Councilor of Magic and my patron, flicked her feathers and stared down her beak at me. I cleared my throat—one would think after two lifetimes on the same perch I wouldn’t be so intimidated by it.

“Did you create a portal to another world?” The Council and Clan leader, Eth, stared down his majestic golden beak at me.

“Yes, Council leaders.”

Deadly silence greeted my words.

“And you brought a human with you,” Eth continued.

I swallowed, my triumph tasting bitter now, “Yes.”

“You aim for a Council seat and this is how you show it?” Inga screeched, her wings expanding their full breadth, almost knocking the Councilmen on either side of her on their heads.

I cleared my throat again, hoping to keep my voice steady, “I aim to be the voice of all magic in the nation and I performed the greatest feat of magic for it.” Yes, that sounded strong, I mentally patted myself on the back.

“I for one think it is a monumental discovery,” Councilor of National Affairs, representing the interests of the nation, Agoun, said.

All beaks turned towards him.

“What was your plan exactly?” Solaire, the Judge, spoke into the silence.

A plan. Yes, surely I had one. I frowned—I must have had one.

“I planned…I…” to show you how awesome I am at magic! But even I knew that was the wrong answer.

“So you were showing off with no thought to consequences,” Inga screeched again.

“Either way, now we have a guest and need to decide what to do with her,” Eth said with a soothing coo.

“The girl herself did nothing wrong, the best we can do is detain her until she can be sent home,” Solaire spoke again, his dark blue and gold plumage impeccably groomed to match the stoic sound of his voice.

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“Exposure should be kept at a minimum, while we have no intentions to act on this knowledge, the same cannot be said for the other clans,” Voron, Councilor of International Relations added.

“The girl should be allowed to see some of the beauty she came to see,” Agoun, again came unexpectedly to Mari’s rescue.

“No one has to know she is Skinless,” I added quickly. The last thing I wanted was for Mari to be treated like a prisoner.

“Blaise, however, can be charged with several misdemeanors.” Solaire stared down his beak at her.

“It wouldn’t be the worst idea to leave a good impression with a possible new market,” the Councilor of Trade, Lumina, positively blazed in her red, yellow and orange feathers like the savior she was.

“Well we certainly can’t leave Blaise in charge of her,” Inga said quickly, “I say we leave Kenna to show her our city.”

Ugh, Kenna? Blaise hoped someone would intervene. Kenna couldn’t leave a good impression on a puppy.

No one said anything, Blaise said, “Um, Mari doesn’t know anyone else here and Kenna…didn’t leave the best impression—you know—attacking her.”

“Fine, Blaise and Kenna will share responsibility of the Skinless.” Eth declared.

“And you will receive your punishment once the girl has gone back home safely,” Inga added.

Great! But I kept my mouth shut and ushered Mari out of the room.

Mari

I understood nothing that happened in that room. Faced with birds screeching at one another and only hearing Blaise’s side of the conversation, which was uninformative, we finally came out to a waiting Kenna.

“What happened in there?” I yelled at Blaise.

“We got permission to go sightseeing we just have to take Kenna with us,” Blaise smiled wide like everything went according to plan.

“That’s not everything—" I started to be rudely interrupted.

“Mari, all you have to worry about is having fun on your one day here. Let me worry about the rest,” Blaise’s smile never wavered, “Now let’s go.”

“Wait,” Kenna blocked our way, “We should show her important monuments like the Memorial at the Gate, the Museum of Clan History—" she was also rudely interrupted.

“Kenna, you’re so grounded.”

Grounded?

I must have made a face because Blaise turned to me and explained, “It means boring,” before turning back to Kenna, “she’s here to have fun not for a history lesson, we should go to Skinship.”

“If her opinion matters so much to you, why don’t you ask her what she wants to see,” Kenna took a menacing step forward.

Ask me? But I have no idea what they ha—a thought struck me, “I want to see magic. Real magic.”

“Magic is used for everything from medicine to construction, what exactly do you want to see?” Kenna snapped.

“That’s a great idea,” Blaise said at the same time, “Let’s head to the shopping district.”

Kenna made to argue, but Blaise interrupted again, “Her world has no magic, any version of magic is singularly unique to our world and thus a perfect way to exemplify what makes our world different and special.”

How did this idiot sometimes say something so perfect? The expression on Kenna’s face reflected my own; at least we will have something in common.

Turning a corner in the hallway we entered a sprawling lobby. Our footsteps resonated until all I could hear was the out-of-sync sound. A fountain in the shape of a rising phoenix stood in the middle of the room, water jetted out of the tips of its golden wings.

The doors to the outside were nine-foot, carved double doors in silver. Blaise pushed one side open and once again the brightness of the sun took away my sight for a moment.