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History Part 4 Introduction | The Island of Prufrock | Lantern Port | The Spirit Realm Government, Rules, and Roles | Family Trees and Clan Census Research and Speculation | History Part 1 | History Part 2 History Part 3 | History Part 4 |
A Little Something on the Side
Nathaniel might consider himself a "legitimate" merchant nowadays, but he'd never entirely turned his back on his background as a thief, never given up his contacts in the underworld (the shady semi-villainous kind of underworld, not the shady spirit underworld realm - had to specify that around Prufrock, though he wouldn't mind having a few powerful contacts there, come to think on it). His Moonshadow Market in Lantern Port was flourishing, even in spite of the evacuation of over half the clan's population, but his mind craved the challenge that only crime could provide.
He told himself it was for the good of the clan - thieves and worse were out there in the world, so surely it didn't hurt to have one that was on their side, catching the others before they could act...and if he could thwart them while turning a profit, even better. Sure, most of the library's tomes and manuscripts were acquired legally, but nobody questioned when he brought in a box of books he'd gotten in trade, unaware that they came from a black market of stolen goods (and hey, why not keep those pilfered scrolls out of the hands of nefarious dragons who would use them for ill purposes - better they be kept in the library spire in safety, guarded by the clan's well-meaning mages and scholars). Not all of the clan's dragons were moral head-in-the-clouds thinkers and dreamers, though. Some were far more useful and could be roped into his schemes. The tundra had a better memory for faces than most of his kind and a keen eye for talent, and he was quick to appraise newcomers to Prufrock, few as they were, and assess their use to him. Some were potential threats and had to have the wool pulled over their eyes so that they wouldn't see him for what he really was. Others, however, saw the world his way, and he could place them carefully in his ever-growing network. One word - "evacuate" - had terrified the clan. Let the warriors prepare the clan's defenses with blood and steel, the mages with wards and runes - he would protect the clan in his own way, with intellect and connections.
The quartermaster Maiga, the accountant Atalya, and the brewer Viper had all been members of the Bleachbone Horde that had made an infamous name for itself in the Dragonhome region, and their morals - and scruples - differed accordingly. It was hard to gain a sliver of their trust (people in their line of work never fully trusted anyone), but he encouraged them to settle in the clan's territory, and they eventually agreed to work with him from time to time. Nathaniel had been dismayed when Laylan, an information broker who had thrown useful tidbits his way on occasion, had announced that she was evacuating with the others...but her son, Aeris, stayed to take over their coffee shop, and he proved almost more canny than his mother. Aeris and the snapper Sentis, another savvy information broker, kept him well informed of the goings on of both the island and Lantern Port. If any of the information they received arrived in code, the pearlcatcher Maiga could usually break it, and she invented codes for all outgoing information that Nathaniel sold or traded. He often hid these coded messages in intricate puzzle boxes created by secret-loving skydancer Herros. Herros also worked with Viper to craft clever poisoned rings...illegal in most places, but that only made them a more valuable and potent bartering tool in Nathaniel's arsenal. It could be a bit tricky for Nathaniel to convince Atalya to let him borrow some of the clan's treasure, given her tight grip on the purse strings, but he always paid it back with interest, plus a considerable bonus for her - an amount she could use to support herself in the manner to which a princess like herself was accustomed.
Nathaniel did his best to keep his side business secret, but it was impossible to hide everything entirely. He knew his lover, the lighthouse keeper Evrain, had some vague knowledge of his shadier activities, though she didn't know the full extent; he hoped her adoptive father, the head librarian Emrys, still thought him "reformed" and entirely separated from his former life of crime. He had a feeling Em's mate, the guardian Elyta, knew of at least a few of his clandestine dealings, but she was the more pragmatic of the pair and apparently saw some sense in what he was doing - at least, she hadn't ordered the clan's guards to interfere with his side businesses if she knew they existed.
He had thought the clan's leaders easy to fool - Eztli, as an envoy, was gone much of the time, and even when he was around, he was the type who saw the best in everyone...an idiotic trait, in Nathaniel's mind, though he did occasionally have a weird twinge of desire to try to live up to Ez's and Em's and especially Evrain's expectations, to be what they thought he was. When Vespers was unearthed, he thought the old, powerful coatl would prove a threat, but he rarely left the island and seemed more interested in research and exploring the tunnels than in interfering with the port's business ventures. Nathaniel had assumed Shadowstar was another easy mark - a prince and a dancer, someone only interested in looking pretty and having power. That coatl was more perceptive than he appeared, though - he'd traded in espionage and secrets and revolutions for a long time in the Zephyr Steppes, and he turned the tables on Nathaniel, appearing in disguise as one of the tundra's informants only to reveal his true identity and confront him. Nathaniel wasn't used to his initial impressions and judgments being incorrect, and his pride was wounded. He was sure that he was about to be kicked out of the clan unless he could find a way to get one up on the prince, but Shadowstar surprised him yet again. The shadow coatl was supportive of Nathaniel's efforts. He saw the necessity of them, though he knew the other leaders well enough to realize that they would not share his endorsement of the tundra's shady activities, so he asked that Nathaniel report only to him whenever he learned of anything that might affect the clan. In return, he would provide Nathaniel with resources, both information and material, to further the reach of his network. Nathaniel wasn't exactly thrilled to have a shadow dragon keeping an eye on his shadowy business, but having one of the clan leaders on his side (more or less) might later prove to be useful.
Hidden History and the Restless Dead
When Dust quietly told their mothers that they were leaving Oakrest, Paige asked if they wouldn't mind checking on their older siblings in Prufrock; their niece Ayla also wished for word of her brother Quercus, as despite his promise, he hadn't written her. They nodded in agreement, as they hadn't really had any destination in mind. The dead were everywhere, and it would be a rare clan who would not consider them to be of some use.
They found it odd to meet a nephew older than they were, but if Quercus found it strange to be escorting his younger relative to the island by ferry, he didn't say anything. Perhaps it was because he was too busy apologizing profusely for not writing back to his sister and frantically begging for word of her. Dust told him what little they knew of Ayla, for they hadn't spent much time together - she was always busy with construction and repairs, while they had always been in training with the hunters.
Quercus and Ayla's father Tome was the first of their elder siblings that they met. The other wildclaw was ensconced in a nook in the library spire, his bad leg propped on a cushion and his walking stick nearby as he scribbled away behind a tower of reference books. Dust was already socially exhausted from their prolonged conversation with Quercus during the ferry ride, but they made pleasantries and conveyed news about Oakrest while awaiting the arrival of their other siblings. The eager Quercus had gathered them all and brought them to his father in the library. After they all arrived, Dust had to relate all the news a third time. Only Bound, who shared Dust's quiet nature, seemed to pick up on their weariness and suggested they continue their family reunion later.
Though various relatives offered them a room in their lairs, they opted for a place of their own. There were plenty of empty lairs due to the evacuation. Over the next days, Bound and Verso showed them the weak spots along the veil and introduced them to the island's "approved" spirit residents, and Tome read them entries from his bestiary about the foes they'd encountered and fought off. Sootshadow took them down into the tunnels, though they didn't share their brother's enthusiasm for exploring. The dead were their concern.
"How do the dragons of the island deal with their dead?" Dust finally asked Bound as they walked along the beach, tracking a nearly unseen spirit who was proving more mischievous than malicious. The older wildclaw thought carefully for a moment before replying.
"They are buried at sea," he said, staring wistfully out at the waves, clearly lost in a memory. "Some are cremated first - imperials always, of course, and others if their loved ones wish it. We haven't had many deaths, thankfully, except for the Barrier Breach. That was..." he shuddered. "It shouldn't happen again. Most of the spirits have left, and we have so many protective wards on the veil and the island, and yet..."
Dust wasn't sure why they stayed. They had done what they came for, delivered the messages of their mothers and niece, and there was no graveyard for them to tend. It wasn't that they disliked their family members, either, but they seemed to have matters on the island as well in hand as they could, at any rate; they weren't sure what difference one more hunter would make. But they felt some instinct that they would be needed, so they lingered in Prufrock.
The same instinct led them to the eastern part of the island. Dust had noted that all of the dragons tended to avoid that section, though when they asked them why, they only received confused looks. Even their siblings hadn't done any exploring there, whether underground or along the path of the veil. One part of their brother Sootshadow's story bothered them especially. In the tale Shadow's mate Vespers told, Vespers' former mate had killed all of the island's dragons. What had happened to those dead?
There were spells of misdirection that they encountered, though like Shadow, they were clever and able to unravel the magic that hid one section of Prufrock. The eastern part of the island was pretty, Dust decided - the ground was level enough to build on, the soil suitable for gardens. There was even a series of small lakes and streams with crystal clear water. Perfect for a settlement, and indeed, they saw evidence that there had been one, long ago - traces of foundations, pathways that hadn't entirely eroded, plant life that wasn't native. It was here they encountered Vespers' dead. Their spirits had been bound to that place by his treacherous mate. Hungry for power, he had sought a way to connect with the spirit realm and decided that mass slaughter would accomplish his goal, providing enough raw energy to make the leap from one plane of existence to another. It was probable that whatever he had seen when he ripped open the veil had driven his already unstable mind mad.
Though Dust doubted that quieting the dead and putting them to rest would close the rift in the veil, they set to work.
A Change, for Good or Ill
Eztli stared at the paper the secretary Saya held in front of his nose. He shoved his goggles onto his forehead and rubbed his one good eye, but that did nothing to change the numbers. "Are you sure..." he started to say, then faltered. Of course Saya was sure. She was the most accurate, organized dragon Ez knew.
It had been he who had founded the coatl colony on the island of Prufrock, he who had recruited nearly all of the clan's earliest members. It wasn't that he had discriminated against other breeds - after all, his mate was a pearlcatcher - but it had been his dream to build a safe haven for coatl dragons, and thus that breed had always constituted the majority of the clan's members.
That is, until now. Where in Sornieth had all of these skydancers come from?
A memory tugged at his mind. What was it his half-brother Etsu had been going on about? Oh, right. The genealogist had been gushing excitedly about this extensive family tree that a growing number of the clan were members of, the descendants of a skydancer named Brightwork and an imperial named Shula who had once resided in Oakrest. He recalled his mate Winternight worked with some of them in the Stitchery.
Ez smiled ruefully. It was hard to recruit dragons to replace departed clan members, particularly with Cecil's dire warning to evacuate still fresh in everyone's minds. If these new dragons wanted to risk settling here, especially dragons as skilled as this family seemed to be, he would gladly welcome them, even if they altered the makeup of the clan.
He replaced his goggles, once again hiding his scarred eye behind glass, and gestured for Saya to file her census report. "It's a good thing that our new chef is a skydancer," he mused aloud.
Continuing the Family Line
The imperial Joon nervously clicked his claws against the stone floor as he poked his head into Shadowstar's office, careful not to tangle his antlers in any of the decorative silks hanging from the walls. He had been hoping to catch Eztli, as he'd heard that coatl was the most easygoing of the clan's three leaders, but the shadow coatl was the only one currently in the assembly hall. He appeared engrossed in a pile of documents, though the imperial was sure he was aware of his presence. Joon cleared his throat – hmm, that sounded a bit crackly...I'll have to drink more of that herbal tea later, can't afford to get sick right now – and Shadowstar raised his crest feathers before lifting his head to meet the imperial's eye. "Yes?"
"A few of us would like to use the nesting grounds. Would that be alright?"
The coatl set aside the documents and rested his chin on his fist. "A few of you?"
Joon nodded carefully, trying not to get caught in the wall hangings. "Myself, my sister Nari, my cousin Ena, and my..." He flicked his ear as he thought. Mapping geography was familiar to him, but mapping family trees required an entirely different vocabulary. "First cousin once removed, I think? That would be Sobek." His other sister Iseul would have loved to have hatchlings of her own – she had been the first to suggest the idea that they all nest together, all raise their hatchlings together. But the clan's physician Cindermoon had dashed her hopes when a routine exam of her mate Clay had revealed that he was infertile. She had put on a brave face, though, and insisted her siblings and their relatives go ahead and nest without her.
"And you're sure you want to hatch – and raise – children, under these...conditions?" Shadowstar said delicately, waving his free hand in a gesture that encompassed all of the clan's problems. Previous attacks on the nesting grounds. That ominous word, "evacuate," still influencing all decisions. More dragons leaving every day, and the only ones coming to the clan and staying for long being relatives or former clanmates of resident dragons who either ignored the ill-omened warning or else decided the risk was worth it.
"You've hatched and raised a son under these conditions," Joon pointed out. His mate Sage and her sister Kite, Sobek's mate, had formerly served Shadowstar's sister, the queen of a vast territory in the Zephyr Steppes. When they came to Prufrock, they had brought with them a wind egg, one that had supposedly been sent by the queen as a gift for her brother, who would likely never have children of his own. Joon had been curious about this strange situation and had asked Sage more than once to elaborate on the story, but she was remarkably closed-lipped on the subject.
The coatl quirked a half smile and shrugged a wing, sending a couple of feathers to join the dust motes in the air. "And I would be the last dragon to deny another the same opportunity. I just wanted to ensure you and your relatives were aware of the risks...and that you had thought of what might happen if we were indeed forced to evacuate while your children were still young and vulnerable."
"All of us have connections elsewhere and other places we could go if we had to leave Prufrock and Lantern Port," Joon said, as much to reassure himself as the coatl. "We could accompany Sage and Kite to your birth land of Zenobia, to Ena's homeland in Crownfire, to her mate Hollis' birthplace in the Quarry, or to Nari's mate Hearth's old home in the Clan of the Crystal Toadstool. My parents would also welcome us in Maserift." He chuckled. "Our firstborns might migrate there one day anyway, as Maserift has a strong tradition of honoring them."
"I wish you and your growing family the best of fortune, then." Shadowstar rose gracefully, unfurling his wings and uncoiling his tail in a way that the large imperial envied, cramped as he was in most spaces. "I shall inform Elyta to double the guard on the nesting grounds. I'm sure she'll make a particular effort to prevent further tragedies, given what happened..." he trailed off as they both thought of the guardian Elyta's dwarf son Avery, his seizure-prone charge Quercus, and the possessed Ayla, who had left the clan to seek her grandparents and rid herself of the spirit that had wreaked havoc on their nests.
"We'll be just fine, I'm sure of it," Joon said, backing carefully out of the office. The imperial was less worried about unnatural curses and possession and more concerned about his own family history. He hoped none of the children would inherit a condition like his uncle Ember's arthritis – apparently such problems were common in the imperials in their lineage – but with healthy living, perhaps they could stave off (or at least lessen the effects of) chronic ailments. Maybe it was selfish of him to bring children into the world when they might inherit pain or suffer sorrow, but was it so wrong of him to want to continue his family's line, to see what traits his children might inherit from him and his mate, to watch them grow and learn and bring joy and beauty to the world? A fool's hope, perhaps, that all would be fine, but in his mind, it was never wrong to hope.
Of Death and Dreams
Dust was careful in their work on the eastern part of the island. Ash, grandson of the clan founders though born and raised in Oakrest, assisted them in uncovering remains and putting the dead to rest. Another hatched in Oakrest, Fallowpen, used their Stonetouched ability to read the past and piece together the fate that had befallen Vespers' former clan.
Fearing possession, only Dust's Hunter siblings and the clan's leaders were permitted access to the site. Vespers only came once and left swiftly, overcome with grief as long buried memories were unearthed along with the ruins. Shadowstar felt sympathy for his fellow leader but focused instead on the potential for this new territory and the resources it could provide for the clan, already mentally drawing up plans for its use. Eztli offered condolences and aid, mostly concerned that the veil be repaired lest another incident like the Barrier Breach occur.
Despite their efforts in locating and releasing the trapped spirits of the dead, there was one none of the Hunters could find - that of Vespers' treacherous former mate. The oneiromancers had their own theories, and Revas and Annabel teamed up to hunt the dreamscape for what had blinded and silenced Cecil, the horror that had led him to encourage the clan to evacuate. Though they had no name for him, they thought they knew his identity.
Dust and the others did their best to keep the curious away from the eastern part of the island until it was declared safe, but a curious guardian hatchling crept through tunnels too small for adult dragons and discovered an amulet buried in rubble. Descended from the clan's founders and from one of Oakrest's most prominent families of Hunters, even at such a young age, Redrik knew better than to pick it up...and yet he knew that the amulet was his charge. He did what he could to conceal the amulet from his family, knowing that they would take it away from him, and he lied that his charge was his brother Imith, much as his mother Cessa had done when she had falsely claimed a rare tome as her charge. Redrik's hidden amulet whispered to him, saying that as descendants of the clan's founders, he and his brother ought to be ruling the clan instead of the coatl usurpers, echoing conversations of his ambitious parents that he had overheard.
As careful as the young guardian was, however, he couldn't hide his charge forever. Vespers felt the faintest trace of magic once as familiar to him as his own, and at long last he traced its source to Redrik, arriving at the same time as Annabel, who finally realized the specter she hunted across the dreamscape was rooted in her brother James' son. Though Redrik pleaded and begged, Vespers and all of the clan's Hunters gathered to exorcise his former mate's spirit from the amulet that had served as its physical anchor in all the worlds. Revas and Annabel kept careful watch on the other side to ensure that the spirit couldn't escape into the dreamscape, while their spirit allies stood poised to pounce should it enter the spirit realm. Their efforts blasted the malevolent being into oblivion, scattering its spiritual remains like ashes on the wind across the material and spirit realms. Emrys meanwhile kept watch over his great-grandchild, shielding him from the magical backlash as the guardian's charge was assaulted and altered until it was simply an unmagical necklace.
In the pools, the pearlcatcher Blain started when his fellow pooltender Cecil suddenly opened his blind eyes and spoke his first words since his warning to evacuate. "It is well."
