a meeting of princes

[Finn]

It was always sweet to awaken to Arvælyn's music within him. A season had passed since his maiming on the sharp edges of the shadow creatures. A season had passed since the most talented and skilled healers in Solunarium had worked their miracle upon his flesh. They had warned him that recovery would be slow, and there had been several surgeries to improve his chances of a fuller recovery. He didn't know yet if he would be able to play the lute, though he did his daily physical therapy and often went overboard gently miming chord progressions against silver strings, not wanting his fingers to lose the feel of them. His voice, at least, was improving as it was the only channel for his creativity at the moment.

Finn continued his duties for the Silver Sentinels, albeit modified to his abilities. He attended parties and events at Arvælyn's side. Despite it all, the healing process sapped him of energy, his body channeling as much as it could into knitting itself back together, tendon by tendon, nerve by nerve, muscle fiber by muscle fiber. He almost wished he could return to Kalzasi, beg the Priestess of Ioniri for help. But to suggest such would be seen as blasphemy by the Solunarians.

His nap ended, he did choose to walk, giving his body and mind a chance to wake up entirely. By the time he arrived at the sitting room and was allowed through by the ever-present guards, the conversation had turned to the Order of the Dawnmartyr. He schooled his face to amiable ignorance. The Order was another thing at which Solunarians glanced askance that he had grown up venerating.

"Your Exalted Highness," he said, bowing to his princeps draconum. "Your Divine Highness," to his princeps septentrionis. His smile wasn't feigned. His sling had been replaced by a clever contraption—a pauldron, a couter, and a vambrace connected magically with kinetics to allow him his former strength while also stimulating nerves and muscles constantly to encourage growth and strength. It felt like his entire arm had fallen asleep and was just waking up, unpleasant, but a small price to pay to have his music back.

"Welcome back to Solunarium."

[Talon]

T A L O N

“Truth be told, the mechanisms of Solunarium have somewhat inspired me.” He considered the steadfast vigilance of the Silver Sentinels when juxtaposed to the radiant glory of their golden counterparts. He had to admire the stalwart devotion that Solunarium infused into its citizens. There would be many long days ahead where he contemplated the meaning of his dominions as a deific power. He had ideas in his head already but some of those ideas he knew were the products of his union with his true self. They were old and overwhelming at times. It was ultimately up to him to decide whether or not such things had a place in current society. With the bold threat of the Imperium, the still looming threat of unrest in Karnor and the murmurings of old foes coming to roost, he had a clearer vision of what he wanted his knighthood to be. It was simply a matter of shaping them accordingly.

“Faith is self-serving by design, Arvaelyn.” Talon spoke candidly. The statement made Mathias blink and Aoren arch an eyebrow. Talon leaned back more comfortably in his seat.

“What is the difference between a Justicar and a Darkling?” Idly he reached over and brushed his fingers over the black marking that was upon the back of Aoren’s hand. His husband shivered and traces of gold veins shone softly within the ebony pitch of the Nyxian mark. Talon did not wait long to give the answer to his rhetorical question.

“Perspective. Justicars believe in the righteous path upon which they walk, that they are serving the world from a place of goodness in order to stand defiant against a terrible wrong. Darklings? They too seek to right a wrong in the form of vengeance. But is not vengeance but another form of justice?” Talon shrugged his shoulders. Aoren flipped his hand and interlaced their fingers, squeezing his hand softly. It made him smile but he pressed on.

“My elder brother and I have always been but two sides of the same coin. Sometimes I think our Father allowed one of us to be taken, that a seed of dark chaos could be planted in one of us. Can you imagine what the world would have been like had Shaeoth and I been united in our beliefs to exact terrifying Order upon Ransera?” Talon shook his head. Many things likely would have been different in the world.

“All of this is to say that people will find meaning in the faith that means something to them. So I can hardly fault you for enjoying one that has clearly benefitted you.” He answered Arvaelyn’s impish smile with a smirk of his own. It was then that he felt the stirrings of a familiar aura on the peripheral of his awareness. Talon turned his head as Finn entered the room and his expression grew both warm and concerned. He observed the weave of Finn’s aura, what he could see at any rate, and noticed the disconnect between a portion of it and his cleverly outfitted arm. It was mending, brought together by skilled hands and even more skilled magical augmentation, but the break was still visible to him, even if it was being repaired.

“Finn.” He dipped his head. “It is good to see you up and walking. And in one piece.” His gaze went pointedly to Finn’s arm.

[Arvælyn]

“Ironic, that.” Arvælyn noted of Talon’s regard for a society that demonised an aspect of himself. He’d inspired an entirely disparate sort of regard from the Solunarian populace, but that seemed to be on the mend from the top down at least. This meeting was evidence of that.

“Perhaps, but perspective is a problem my people address quite directly.” Talon hadn’t called it a problem, per se. His didactic rhetoric even suggested that it was, after a fashion, a boon.

“But I am no theologian and feel ill-at-ease broaching these lofty matters with one born and raised in a faith he was meant to lead. I will meditate on your sentiments, to be sure…” His eyes darted askance as he lifted his cup of wine to his lips.

At that moment, he felt Finn’s approach before his imminent arrival and shifted his gaze toward the entryway, a smile lighting his visage as Finn entered. He inclined his head in acknowledgement of the perfunctory formalities, which always felt strange coming from his amatus. It seemed stranger still in present company, given the circumstances under which he’d met Talon and Aoren.

“We have dispensed with formality for the nonce. Of course you will remember Talon’s amatus, Aoren, and I only just met his squire, Mathias.”

A servus fetched a chair and drew it up to the table around which they sat, so Finn could join. It was placed, of course, at Arvælyn’s right hand.

“It seems that Talon… or rather Arcas, has conferred with his father as I did mine. Alas an audience with Eikaen is not in the cards for me, which should please His Exalted Majesty who was none-too-pleased with my overture…” Finn knew that bit, but wouldn’t have known that it had been broached with their present company and could thus be openly addressed without compromising the whims of the Crown.

[Finn]

"Oh, swell," he said with some relief.

"Talon. Aoren." He grinned at the dragon; he knew the love between demigod and his husband, having studied it with his eyes as well as his Rune in order to write a paean to it. But, of course, his Sentinel blacks blocked a great deal of magic so he didn't endart his arcane eye into anything he oughtn't. It just didn't seem polite no matter what Vrædyn had told him about the Rune of Control. He offered to shake hands with the squire, whom he hadn't met. "Well met, Mathias."

Even the informal formalities out of the way, he took a heavy seat beside his lover after thanking the servus. He still forgot himself sometimes and thanked slaves for what the law required of them. His injured arm was nearest Arvælyn, but it had been over a season since the injury and the initial surgeries and he knew it wasn't so fragile as all that. It was just a painstaking recovery.

"Ah, I've grown a bit since the craven who let Zaichaeri thugs beat him on his own turf." Indeed, while his physique might not match Talon's, what early blacksmith training had started now culminated in to the bulk of a warrior-poet. "Sheoth's bastard children can't keep me down for long." The bravado was tempered with a humor, but he did have to prove himself strong and resilient, lest a worrisome Arry have him chained naked to their bed to prevent him from stubbing his toe. While the mental picture wasn't entirely without merit, he kenw he would grow bored as busy as the dragon prince was on a daily, sometimes nightly basis.

Finn leaned over to kiss Arvælyn.

"Well, as august as the present company may be, I suppose it was a moonshot to imagine the All-Father would make time for us. But... shouldn't your father approve, Arry? Eikæn is the Platinum Dragon, is He not?"

[Talon]

T A L O N

“Uh, yeah. Nice to meet you too!” Mathias gave a lopsided grin as he shook Finn’s hand. He was even with Finn in height but slighter of build, an individual better suited for the scouting work of a ranger as opposed to the front-line fighter that Talon often took the role of.

“Glad, I am that you are no longer threatened by street thugs.” The frown that crossed Talon’s face was one that accompanied a recollection of their first meeting. Talon had intervened to spare Finn from a spiteful noble. The additional memory of his back alley beating was one that was equally unpleasant.

“He was not as disinclined to meeting as you might believe.” Talon interjected. “Merely, cautioned that his direct intervention carried with it greater consequences than any of us could imagine. I got the distinct impression that had I asked him, truly asked him, he would have.”

Talon remembered well both the look in his Father’s eyes when they had been face to face for that brief but intimate moment in Pantheon. He also recalled vividly the conversation with Avatar. The warning that had followed his request. He was still hurt and angry to some extent but he supposed time would tell whether he could carry himself over that hill. It was but another in the long list of pains and disappointments that he was steadily learning to set aside in order to look at a picture bigger than himself.

“Suffice it to say, after what I witnessed, after the things that were revealed to me…” Talon shook his head. “It is better that the Dragon King remain the quiet observer.”

He remembered the look in Avatar’s eyes when the subject of Eikaen directly intervening had come up. In many ways, Talon had gotten the impression that his Father was restraining himself, the implication being that if or when he acted…it would be a feat so terrifying as to bring all of the cosmos to its knees. Eikaen was a being beyond even his understanding and he suspected he was beyond the understanding of even the Greater Gods.

“As for Shaeoth?” Talon smiled softly. It was a sad smile. A smile that was as bitter as it was fond. He looked to the nearest shadow. “My brother is closer than you might think.”

[Arvælyn]

Arvælyn pursed his lips at the recollections of Finn's assault and the days of dread that followed it. The fiery in his eyes seemed to surge somewhat, but he would cast them down to the tabletop so it was only briefly in view. When he lifted his gaze moments later, at Talon's interjection, they had dimmed back to their normal contained pyre. He arched a brow, seeming intrigued.

At Finn's question, Arvælyn would tense slightly, his sidelong glance sharp and cobra quick.

"That was not what was at issue." He would offer through his teeth, before his gaze slowly dragged its way back toward Talon and softened back into cordiality.

"I have a difficult enough time beginning to fathom my own ancient father. I cannot begin to imagine being in your unenviable position as the son of one who is by his very nature remote..." It was strange to even ponder the implications. He shook his head to dismiss the notions before they distract him from his present company, and washed them away with a sip of wine.

At the mention of Shæoth, the prince would part his lips as if primed to reply. But his lips closed into a wry smile and he nodded, leaving the matter unremarked upon. After a pregnant beat, he would transition, sans segue, to another topic.

"I haven't been following closely, but I anticipate things must be coming to a resolution on the matter of the Kalzasern succession. Finn and I have been keen to get back and I can't think of a better excuse than a coronation." His grin turned impish,

"That way I can frame it as a political obligation rather than a flight of my fancy. Though I suppose it would be both, in truth." The notion of which caused him to wrinkle his nose in ostensible distaste.

[Finn]

Finn knew there was no implied threat in Talon's words, but all the same, he cast a furtive glance at a shadow over his shoulder. He wasn't afraid of the dark in general, but now the dark was taking physical form and hurting people - perhaps a bit of healthy fear was in order, at least should he have to leave the aegis of Avaerys' Sceptre.

Brother, he mused. Well, he supposed it made sense that a demigod of light and a demigod of darkness would be brothers, twins opposed rather than twins complementary as those of Atraxia.

His eyes lit up at the idea of returning to Kalzasi; he had wanted to visit his parents and friends, but the ongoing eclipse made him worry that his traversion would go awry with its tendency to warp things. Then the thought occurred to him that he might safely vault to Talon's realm and thence to Kalzasi, protected by that realm of light to which he had been welcomed before. Later, he would ask.

"Oh, good. I can sleep under covers while we are there," he mused, "and I can deliver your father's invitation to my parents. Talon, do you know of any dragons in Kalzasi? Zalkyriax won't teach me draconic. Says it's unfit for human mouths. But I have a knack for languages. They're all just different modes of music... Or perhaps your sister will be in attendance and I can meet her dragon..."

Finn was confident that he had found a path to acceptance from the Crownwyrm, but didn't know that his merely human lifespan would give him enough time to truly create a relationship. All the same, he wanted to fully experience any sort of relationships with dragons because that would be phenomenal, and might also help him understand how his amatus had changed other than growing wings and horns and the like.

[Talon]

T A L O N

He watched the exchange between Finn and Arvaelyn for a moment, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips. At Arvaelyn's comment, he nodded.

"I have opted to focus my attention on other matters. Perhaps in the future there might come a day when Kalzasi has need of divine rulership but that day is not today. I intend to work on the matter of expanding my faith. Karam's coronation will be soon. You are both most definitely invited." He inclined his head with a smile.

"If you so desire, I can have rooms at the Palace of the First Wind prepared for you. You are welcome to stay as guests for however long you wish to stay." He picked up a bit of meat and cheese from a platter and nibbled lightly before arching an eyebrow at the inquiry made by Finn. He, Mathias and Aoren all exchanged looks. Talon and Mathias then both looked at Aoren. The witchfires in Aoren's eyes burned softly amusement evident in his expression and his tone.

"I might know one." Aoren tipped his wine glass back and took a sip. Mathias snickered. Talon shook his head.

"There seven dragons in or around Kalzasi that I know of." Talon tipped his head in thought. "There is the bronze dragon of House Zatrian. I am certain that if you approach them she might be inclined to make time to teach you if you prove a promising student to her."

He thought a bit more on some of the more obscure knowledge known to the Highlords of Kalzasi.

"There is a blue dragon though I highly doubt he would be so inclined to impart such knowledge. Sociable as he is, he does not share his secrets often. There is a black dragon that has been seen frequenting the area, though not much is known about it. Within the forests and mountains there is a green dragon though it has been years since anyone has seen her. If rumors are to be believed there is a silver dragon somewhere as well but from what I understand he tends to keep a very low-profile and hasn't made any noticeable appearances in quite some time." He took a sip of his wine and continued thinking on the many reports and stories he had heard over the years.

"There is a hollow dragon in the Low-City. I very much do not advise approaching one such as him for anything." Talon frowned slightly. He did not like the presence of such a beast in the city but when it came to dragons, it was always best to be cautious. Knowing it was there was one thing, confronting it was another matter entirely. Talon shook off such thoughts then looked at Aoren.

"And now there is a red dragon as well." Aoren raised his glass slightly with another smirk before sipping his wine.

[Arvælyn]

"Oh, but that would be splendid!" Although Kalzasi had agreed to host a Solunarian embassy, it had yet to be constructed. He resolved to check in on that. Even so, if one had the opportunity to stay at a palace that tended to be preferable. Besides, it looked good for his people that they were received with such honours.

Arvælyn's eyes widened slightly at Finn's inquiries with Talon. When his expression settled it was one of concern. Finn may have been chosen of Ambition's Dread Lord, but treating with aliena dracones to undermine the express wishes of the Crownwyrm was of rather a precarious sort. Finn had spent a great deal less time with Zalkyriax than Arvælyn himself, but the dragonborn still found his father enigmatic to say the least. That was understandable, given he was only in his early 20s, while the dragon was well into the thousands, but it certainly made him cautious. Theirs was not what could be considered a warm relationship, and Finn was more remote from that still. He forced a smile, though... This was still a diplomatic visit, even if it was a friendly one, and such private concerns were better reserved for their private chambers.

Still the request yielded interesting information of which he took mental note. It was entirely possible that these dragons were known to his family or to the Sentinel Order (which, admittedly, had a lot of overlap), but if not it was good to be aware.

"Well," He sat back and crossed his arms over his chest, "Quid pro quo, as we say in Vastian, you are all welcome to remain here for as long as you wish. I can have rooms set up for you here in the Umbrian Palace. I hope you'll at least stay for dinner, since you went to all the trouble to come here. That was most courteous."

[Finn]

"Aye, but how often could I get a highlord of Kalzasi to tutor me in draconic?" he asked Aoren with more humor that he might have before he left for Solunarium. He had only gone to support his lover, and now he was affianced to a crown prince, an Empyreal Lord in his own right, and many other things he had never imagined. He was, at long last, a bard, though.

His eyebrows climbed his forehead little by little as Talon tallied the draconic population of Kalzasi. Of course, as any child of Karnor knew, Finn knew dragons often walked among people unaware. Of course, everyone knew the highlord of Great House Zatrian rode a dragon, but the rest were news to him. He wondered if, perhaps, Lyra was a dragon of some sort. The mere mention of the hollow dragonflight made him shiver despite the heat.

Finn wasn't a coward, but he wasn't stupid.

Of course, he caught Arry's concern and decided to tone down his desire. Zalkyriax hadn't forbade him from learning, merely implied it was dangerous and would not be the one to put Arry's beloved in danger. Well, perhaps what happened in Kalzasi would stay in Kalzasi. But he didn't want to earn the ire of his someday father-in-law either. Or would it be sire-in-law?

"'Tis only good diplomacy to return the favor and abide sometime in the umbral palace," he agreed. He was only a subvigil, but he assumed the Vigilia would make Arry's wishes come true should he invite the pair of Novalys men to stay. Surely Zalkyriax would brook the presence of a foreign dragon in his realm for diplomatic purposes.

But imagine that - a Senue Shokaze. Finn didn't know much of Karam Senue, but public opinion was that he was a kinder, fairer man than his father. Time would certainly tell, and if diplomacy continued apace between his homeland and Arry's, he would likely get to know the new ruler over time.