Knights' Roleplay - A New Day

[Vyt: Down, but Not Out]

Not minding the presence of a canine, SILE comfortably approached another newcomer in the form of Emma. "Greetings, fine girl!" she welcomed her as if forgetting the case with Bacon. "I cling on the name of SILE, and I have been titled the Pink Knight. Will I be of great help to you if I escort you towards the stables?"

[Dice]

Pyro, returning to her desk after being assured that Holly posed no threat to the Knights, caught the flight of the kestrel over the Castle, and took a step back from the window as the skies became dark for a moment. She frowned deeply, staring out at the grounds, where a small amount of people seemed to be congregating--she could hear fragments of their conversation, borne up to her on the wind, but nothing that seemed like it warranted any concern. The kestrel, though, bothered her. Pyro was not superstitious--not a magic user, either, and certainly no seer--but that kestrel seemed to be some kind of omen, combined with the mysteries lurking in the missing memories of the Knights.

And she was fairly sure that day turning to night meant something ominous. She dragged herself away from her books and went to find the king. He, along with most of the other Knights, had some kind of magic, and it made sense that if anything supernatural was afoot they would have noticed, even if she did not. Magic rarely chose the non-magical, but even she could feel the change in the air.

There seemed to be a newcomer creating quite a ruckus at the front door, but Pyro ignored the noise, choosing instead to stand around the corner from the group gathered in the front hall. The stranger seemed well-meaning enough, of course. Pyro watched as he was pointed towards the stables and as another Knight--who introduced herself as Emma--greeted the other Knights, among whom was a strange pink feline.

"Excuse me," she said, raising her voice a little so as to be heard over the conversation. "Have any of you, perchance, seen Lord Wolf?"

[zarikrahia]

Zari nodded. 'He's right here.' She moved three steps to the right so Pyro's view of the group was unimpended.

[Bacon]

Sir Bacon led Lyardel to the stables, taking in the scenery all the while. The underground chambers the Porc Knights had used was far less grand.

[KitClairvoyance]

Kit had always been amused by how different people and places looked through clairvoyance, and as he sat deep within his meditative trance, that one little fact drew a subconscious smile from the back of his mind. The basis of clairvoyance was that everything had a story to tell, it was just a matter of being able to read those stories. Which was why through clairvoyance, the walls of his room grew dozens of eyes, the dining hall had rolls of bread floating mid-air, and King Wolf had a dozen or so little golden crowns with tiny white angel-wings fluttering around his head.

Of course, that was only the surface of clairvoyance.. the stuff of carnival divinators and roadside fortune-tellers. As Kit slipped deeper into his trance, his vision began to peel back the surfaces to reveal the more primitive thoughts and emotions that ran through them. A steady hum resonated throughout the castle, the sound of its strength and stability. Gentle vibrations arose from various parts of the castle, coming from its inhabitants, knights and servants alike. Slowly, he sifted through the various noises, looking for Maya's distinct wail.

She had to be here somewhere.

The fact that the castle had more newcomers than usual didn't help. Kit took a long time to sort through the haze of static, trying to find something, anything, that would help him find that accursed familiar of his. Given a choice, he'd have loved to plunge into the haze of static and tear it apart until it was no more. But he was a Clairvoyant, not a Sorcerer. He could only observe, not disturb.

"Looking for something?"

Kit's senses, both clairvoyant and conventional alike, snapped straight to the voice. Its source came from the hollow of the castle's attic, a place Kit liked no more than the dungeons. He wondered why castles had so many dark places anyway, they were proving to be more of a liability than an asset. The creature, for lack of a better word, that spoke to Kit seemed to sprawl across the entirety of the attic, and felt dangerously familiar to Kit, as if he had met the creature not too long ago.

"Who are you?" Kit asked, his clairvoyance probing the creature as he spoke.

"You don't remember? I'm disappointed, we just met yesterday."

Silently Kit cursed himself for not being able to remember what had happened the day before.

"I think I might have something that you would remember," the creature continued after a moment of silence. It drew itself out of the darkness for Kit's clairvoyance to see, in its hand was Maya's purple sash, and more disturbingly, it had the half-eaten corpse of a Kestrel in its jaws. "I hope I didn't scare you. I'll sing you a lullaby to calm you down," the creature snapped the corpse in half as it grinned, "..rock-a-bye baby, on the treetop. When the wind blows, the cradle will rock. When the bow breaks, the cradle will fall. And down will come baby, cradle and all."

Kit's clairvoyance cracked sharply back as he was forced out of his trance, sending a knife of pain straight through his mind. He collapsed onto the stone floor of his room, hands clutching tightly at his head as the pain throbbed and seared his mind violently, his eyes blinded by the sheer brightness of pain.

As he pulled himself back together, he dropped an urgent clairvoyant message to all the council members that he could find..

"War room. Now."

Gathering his tarot deck, Kit walked swiftly out of his room, heading straight to the arranged meeting point. He really wished he had eaten some breakfast.

[Shadaras]

Shade watched, not commenting on Bacon's absentmindedness as he led his horse back out to the stables, the walls echoing with the clatter of hooves on stone. As soon as he was out the door, she turned to greet Emma and Pyro, though only with a nod. She knew both already, which was a relief.

Then she heard Kit's words. "War room. Now." She tensed, wondering what reason Kit had for calling them. Not all the knights heard, she was sure, but which ones did? Lord Wolf, she was almost certain, had. She bowed to him before turning and finding the closest path to the War room, almost using the shadowlands, but not. It didn't seem quite right to do so, not now.

[Vyt: Down, but Not Out]

"War room. Now."

An unfamiliar voice suddenly passed through SILE's mind, abruptly stunning her for a brief moment. Judging by it, she was sure the message was meant for someone else. "I curse myself for the reason of still being unable to master my own powers", she sighed.

She looked around to find the potential receivers of the message, and was able to notice Shade turning around and leaving the group. The cat was having the urge to follow, but remembered an advice from a long lost friend not to put her nose in someone else's business.

[Bacon]

As the message went out to many of the other knights, Bacon had a feeling of deja vu. He had not heard the message, but he felt it. He felt the power it had even as it passed him by. Subconsiously, he tried to make sense of the sensation.

[zarikrahia]

Zari flinched when a sudden spasm of pain raced along her left wing. It burnt. 'I-owwwwwwww?'


She inspected the area where the pain had started. A feather scale had fallen out. By this, she wasn't concerned. What did concern her was that if she faced the castle, her left wing automatically folded, numb. if she moved just a few more degrees, it stopped. She had never really pondered her title, The Blood Knight, until now. Maybe it carried more weight than she had thought. 'Yowch. Uhm, m' Lord Wolf, maybe this isn't the right time, but the thing I picked up in the city was this. There’s Trouble down south. That's all. If you'll excuse me, I need to think on this strange predicament we seem to be in.' with that, she darted up the stairs and shut herself in her room.

Staring out the window, Zari vaguely noticed Holly was sitting in a corner, asleep in a small, barely noticeable huddle. 'Predicament Indeed. Jhioan. Jhioan, Jhioan, Jhioan. A thousand curses on the one hanging us on the string.'

[Dice]

Pyro, moving forward, about to address Lord Wolf, watched as some of the Knights tensed and went suddenly silent. She looked from Shade, to Zari, to the strange pink feline figure, as they all got very strange looks on their face. She placed her hand on the hilt of her flameblade, wishing for the comfort of the metal, but the sword held no comfort. It was humming in the sheath at her side, and as it jerked away from her fingers she was forced to clamp down on it with her willpower.

Shade turned and walked quickly away from the group. Pyro's eyes flew to the Bronze Knight and her fingers tightened on the flameblade. It had fallen still. Whatever had summoned Lady Shade away from the group was over. She cursed thrice over the fact that she had no magical sense. She couldn't even tell if the magic--it had to be magic, only magic made her sword quaver--was good or ill!

"My Lord Wolf," she said, turning to the king. As Zari fled, she didn't know if any of the others in the group could sense magic. "What was it? What--I sensed--well, my flameblade sensed--some kind of magic. I saw the kestrel earlier, too. Are the Knights in danger? Did someone or something just call Lady Shade?"

[Bacon]

Lyardel was now in a stable, where he, in theory, couldn't damage anything. He snorted at the horse one stall over, who whinnied in reply.

"Be nice." Sir Bacon said firmly, turning to head back the way he came. Although he had been welcomed, he most certainly didn't want to get lost in here.

[KitClairvoyance]

Kit had never been claustrophobic, but as he walked down to the war room, he couldn't help but feel that the castle was beginning to close in on them. Maybe it was his insomnia that made the walls feel like they had been permeated with a soft darkness; he couldn't sense it, but he knew it was there. How long had they had a creature bent on evil living in their attic anyway, and why hadn't anyone even sensed its presence? Why hadn't he sensed its presence?

The empty war room greeted him with a hollow echo as he closed the doors behind him. A large blue-white marble table rested in the middle of the room, the map of Dunburrow carved into its surface. Right in the middle of Dunburrow stood the castle. He wondered what use were the fortifications that surrounded the city of Dunburrow when the castle itself couldn't keep unwanted visitors out.

Was it his fault that the castle was so easy a target? After all, it wasn't as if he was the brightest source of holiness and nobility in the area.

Where were the council members anyway? It wasn't as if his room was next door to the war room; if anything, he had probably traversed at least a quarter of the castle to get there. Surely the other council members could have made it by now.

Taking a deep breath, Kit sat down on the seat reserved for the Arbiter and closed his eyes. Dipping into his thoughts, he tried to place the creature he had seen. It wasn't a demon, it didn't feel like it had come from the lower planes. Yet, neither did he recognise it from any of the books he read. It felt familiar, as if Kit had known the creature for a long time, yet he just couldn't place it.

He remained motionless for a while in his seat, eyes closed as he tried to place the clairvoyant flashes in place. The vision of Maya, of the demonic pattern. It made no sense. Then again, clairvoyant flashes rarely did. Not until the event had passed.

A bright green flash jolted Kit out of his thoughts, the entire war room was covered in the same demonic pattern he had seen in his clairvoyant flash earlier. It was alien to him. The patterns seemed almost organic as they curved and flared all over the room, unlike the carefully drawn lines and angles of the demonic patterns he was used to. His sight dropped to his own body, watching as he too glowed with the same demonic pattern, its tendrils coiling around his arm and sneaking all over him. It felt like cold syrup and left a discomforting tingle on his skin. Both amazed and terrified, Kit sat frozen to his chair as the pattern tried to worm its way into his thoughts, burrowing into his ear and reaching into his mind-

The sound of footsteps broke the flow, shattering the pattern and causing it to fade away, leaving only the tingling sensation all over Kit's body. Still shaken by the sudden experience, Kit rose from his seat and opened the war room's door to see Shade.

"Lady Shade," Kit said, trying to mask the fear in his voice, "glad you could make it."

[Shadaras]

The route Shade took to the war room was not the straightest or fastest. In fact, it was one of the slower routes, avoiding the most commonly traveled pathways. Shade preferred not using those, at least at times like this, when she didn’t want to explain anything to servants who would ask any knight they found about the ‘odd bird’ that had flown over the castle.

So she took the long way around, the walls echoing with the sound of her footsteps as Shade walked through the castle, creating odd noises in front and behind her. She could hear the sounds of the servants, but they were oddly muffled, as if the shadowed corridors were a blanket absorbing sound.

Before this, the castle had not had these overtones of darkness. Perhaps it had something to do with yesterday? Shade shook her head. Anything was possible, and the shadows on the castle were merely one option out of many, though it seemed rather likely, with the kestrel that had flown over the castle not long ago.

Assuming that the kestrel was an omen of some sort, which wasn’t assured. Shade turned a corner, shaking herself out of her thoughts as she neared the war room. She could feel something that wasn’t quite right about it, but ignored the feeling. It was probably something that Kit was doing unintentionally.

Even so, it didn’t seem very good.

Shade paused outside the door, uncertain as to whether or not she should open it. The door opened, and Kit stood behind it. ”Lady Shade, glad you could make it.”

“Thank you, Kit. I assume that you called the Council? If so, Lord Wolf should not be far behind me,” Shade said. The odd energy was still in the room, but it were fading quickly, though it still made her rather nervous.

[Deleted]

((This is probably an example of how long not to make your posts. Sorry.))

Wolf backed away and pushed Jonathan behind him as banging on the doors followed them inside almost as soon as they had closed the doors behind them, banging that, in a loud and booming voice, was accompanied by calls for him, calls for the king.

Shade suggested they open the door, and Wolf pulled himself and Jonathan behind the corner just in time to hear the doors be drawn open and the sounds of hooves entering the hall. He—he had road his horse into the castle?

Wolf held his hand on Jonathan's shoulder and signaled for him to be quiet; then he turned his head towards the doors to hear what was being said. He tried to tell himself he wasn’t afraid—but he was, he’d never before been demanded like he was being demanded now—but he knew he was the king and had to listen anyways. If this man were an assassin, the other knights would be able to take him out safely. If he were peaceful, there would be no harm in his side-stepping.

Besides, the man seemed to go on as if he thought Wolf were still out there, as if he believed Wolf were still standing in the hall. No assassin would be so uninformed as to not know the face of the man he was meant to kill, and yet he mentioned hearing of the many deeds of Wolf, and Wolf knew of no such deeds he’d committed. He hadn’t even been king for a full day—how could such rumors even exist?

Unless…unless some sort of sorcery were involved…?

The man seemed pleased enough by now and made leave for the stables; Wolf felt almost ashamed he’d missed an honest message, if the message were as honest as he had hope to believe, at least.

He turned to rejoin the others, and then he felt it. A surge of energy in the castle, expanding outwards towards the Knights. No time seemed to pass as he saw the wave of power flood the halls and rush towards him. He braced himself, felt his muscles tense as the power neared—and then he felt it, saw an image of the war room burst before his eyes as a spark of pain rushed down his spine. The wave passed as quickly as it had come, and he realized he'd has his hand to his temple.

“W-wolf?” It was Jonathan. “S-sir Wolf?”

“I’m alright,” he whispered as Shade rushed past him. She must have received the message at well. It…it had the distinct flavor of the Grey Knight, the same dark-but-yet-not-evil feeling Wolf always felt when near him. He must have been the one to send the message, and considering his clairvoyance, this was likely. He wondered what other powers being king might place upon him, or if these sudden powers he had were not due to his kingship at all.

Zari rushed up to him and started speaking quickly. But after the telepathic message he’d just received, he could barely hear a thing she said and caught only something about the south and west. What about the south and west? And then she rushed off; he reached after her to clarify her message, but she was gone already.

The war room. He was needed there. But would it be alright to take Jonathan along with him, and what of the others? He trusted Pyro to join him, though why he held such trust for someone he still barely knew was uncertain, but Ladies Emma and SILE had only come to the castle that day, and he wasn’t certain if their presences would be desired in a meeting he knew nothing about beyond its urgency.

The Knights were meant to be unified, however, and to have even an inkling of doubt could spoil that unity, but what if Kit had learned something new about these Knights? Or even about the trusted ones? It seemed that neither Emma nor Pyro had gotten the message, and he couldn’t tell whether or not SILE had, so what if it were meant only for him and Shade?

Jonathan tugged at his tunic, and Wolf turned to face him. “I’m hungry,” he said.

Aha! He could ask them to take Jonathan for some food and then to leave him at his room. But if they weren’t safe…? No. He had to not lose faith in the unity of his Knights. He was king. He had to trust those who had sworn fealty to him. Besides, if they were all together, no one untrustworthy knight could attack Jonathan.

“Ladies SILE, Emma, Pyro,” he stepped forward and nodded to each of them in turn, “would you mind walking Jonathan to get a snack from the kitchens? I’ve got to run to the war room, but if…” He took a deep breath, “but if any of you would like to join us, you may send him back to my quarters with a servant after he's gotten some food and join us then.” He’d have to hire an attendant for Jonathan. Forcing him upon the other Knights and upon servants he may not always be able to trust was both uncaring and dangerous.

“My greatest thanks,” Wolf said and bowed. He turned and knelt before Jonathan, “Behave for them and don’t get into any trouble, okay? I—I’ll try to be back there as soon as I can be, okay? You’ll be safe there, I promise.”

Jonathan forced a smile. “Okay,” he said. Whoever had stormed the castle earlier—what had his name been? Apple? Bacon? Cheddar? Donut? Éclair?—seemed to have startled the boy, so maybe, hopefully, he’d be less inclined to run off now than he’d before. That’d certainly make taking care of him easier, Wolf thought.

Wolf patted Jonathan on the shoulder (he didn’t know what else to say) and rose to his feet; he waved them off and rushed away.

He’d been told of a couple hidden passages through the castle the day before, and he arrived at the war room in hardly more than a minute. Kit was there, standing in his place, and Shade had already taken her seat at the table. Wolf walked passed them to the head of the table and stood there. He didn’t quite feel like sitting just yet.

Something…something about the room seemed familiar, though. He had only been here once before to his knowledge, but as he looked around, he seemed to recall bursts of fire and smoke, fighting, betrayal… But, honestly, what was to be expected in a war room? Perhaps, as king, he was recalling past events in the castle…? And, yet, there was something distinct in the air, another presence, something warm and summery, something that made him think of long fields of flowers, yellow flowers and purple flowers, and of fluttering blue butterflies in the air.

He glanced at Kit and Shade—they were staring at him; just how long had he been standing there?—and then slowly he lowered himself into his seat, his hands feeling the carved texture of the tabletop’s map of Dunburrow. He hadn’t had much time to look over it before, and he felt too concerned with other, more pressing, matters to do so now.

Wolf glanced at the door and wondered who else had been called, but since no one else had yet come, he instead turned his attention towards Kit. “You were the one to call us, yes?” He swallowed, not sure how to phrase his next question in a king-like way. After a minute, he decided he’d failed and just said it: “What’s going on?”

[Vyt: Down, but Not Out]

“Ladies SILE, Emma, Pyro... Would you mind walking Jonathan to get a snack from the kitchens? I’ve got to run to the war room, but if... but if any of you would like to join us, you may send him back to my quarters with a servants after he's gotten some food and join us then.”

SILE was puzzled at Wolf's request, doubtful that the order was not that of an urgent need. He mentioned the war room as his point of destination, making the cat think that the message that passed through her ears earlier had also been received by him. She was not able to see any magical signatures around him, however, forcing her to think otherwise.

With a quick message of appreciation (and some words of advice for Jonathan), Wolf rushed off, not giving the knights a chance to react. SILE finally convinced herself about Wolf getting the message earlier on, but was confused why he did not inform them about it.

The message sure was intended for everyone, wasn't it? Judging by the tone of the unknown voice, it was sure to alert everyone of something urgent, but why did Wolf not bother to tell the others about it if he was the only one who had accepted the message? Or was the message only purely intended for those of a higher sense of duty?

As much as SILE wanted to ponder on the confusing matter, she had realized they were given an order from the king and were supposed to obey it. The pink cat shook her head in an attempt to at least subdue the earlier thoughts. She looked at Jonathan, then turned her head back to the other knights.

Oddly, the sound of a grumbling stomach echoed around the place.

SILE put on a rather weird smile on her face, a little bit startled by the sound. "You may dismiss this guess of mine as mere conjecture, but I cogitate that hunger is upon us. Shall we head for the nearest culinary room to subdue this weakening state?" she asked, hoping that one of them would agree to her.

"The time I have spent indulging in a mindless conversation had brought my stomach to its limit."