Anila
(#77269765)
This is Why We Have the Rules
Familiar
Longneck Wanderer
Click or tap to view this dragon in Predict Morphology.
Energy: 50/50
This dragon’s natural inborn element is Fire.
Female Aberration
This dragon is an ancient breed.
This dragon is hibernating.
Expand the dragon details section.
Collapse the dragon details section.
Personal Style
Ancient dragons cannot wear apparel.
Skin
Scene
Measurements
Length
6.84 m
Wingspan
7.2 m
Weight
313.31 kg
Genetics
Peridot
Savannah (Aberration)
Savannah (Aberration)
Chartreuse
Blend (Aberration)
Blend (Aberration)
Honeydew
Fangs (Aberration)
Fangs (Aberration)
Hatchday
Breed
Eye Type
Level 1 Aberration
EXP: 0 / 245
STR
7
AGI
8
DEF
6
QCK
6
INT
5
VIT
8
MND
5
Biography
friends with gavinia
For reference, Here Are The Rules.
Regina let out a long sign as Lynx stared out the window, where Ankaa was currently hanging on for dear life to the windowsill and banging on the glass with her free claw.
“What happened?”
“I got defenestrated,” she complained once she was hauled up by the both of them.
“By who?”
“Ava.”
There was silence, during which Regina just stared. The Gaoler was understandably bemused about the whole affair.
“I don’t understand Ava’s obsession with defenestration. It’s been the second time this month, please tell her to stop.”
“It’s the tenth of Brightshine's.”
“Exactly.”
“Did you produce a hand-written list of every complaint Magnolia has ever made about Ava and begin reading it aloud in a whiny voice when Victoria asked you to pass the salt again?”
“NO! Of course not! I don’t want to be tied up with duct tape and hung upside down from the chandelier ever again!”
It said a lot that Regina didn't consider this weird. Come to think of it, why hadn’t she banned that? Oh well, never mind. “Okay, then what did you do to her?”
“Nothing!” Ankaa protested, then paused. “Okay, I may have replaced the normal coffee with decaf? Apparently Amalia can’t survive without her caffeine, so she-”
Regina held up a claw, clearly not enthusiastic about hearing more because it was probably at mind-bogglingly levels of pure ridiculousness. “Forget it. Where is she right now?”
“I was going to tell you about the part where Hotaru was telling Ava, Amalia and I about how I was your secret love child and how Amalia threw the decaf at Ava’s face under the impression that she was Hotaru - even though they're completely different breeds - because she wasn’t wearing glasses and hadn’t woken up properly, then Ava got temporarily blinded so she accidentally grabbed me instead of Amalia and threw me out of the window because I was standing right next to her,” Ankaa complained. Obviously, this drew several double takes from the both of them.
Regina blinked twice. “Run that by me again?”
“Yeah, I still don’t know how she mistook me for Amalia, because Amalia was wearing yellow,” she continued, gesturing at her own red feathers, “Well, at least Hotaru's conspiracy theory rant was better than the one last week about Euchre being their own secret love child from the future.”
Regina was later told that her face at that point had been priceless. Either way, the door burst open at that point, revealing the Aberration in question (speak of the devil) holding a poster board with plenty of thumb tacks, red string, and pictures. Regina caught sight of the caption (“Regina: Dawn Sr's secret love child?”) and promptly buried her face in her claws.
“What the f-”
As Ankaa dragged Hotaru out, to everyone’s relief, Regina reached for her notebook. “So, about-"
The doors burst open a second time, revealing a thoroughly enraged Ava whose white blouse (ouch) was soaked. To make matters worse, her feathers and mane were sopping wet with a dark brown liquid she could only assume to be the aforementioned decaf. For bonus points, she was also dragging Amalia (holding an empty coffee cup that was still leaking drops of decaf onto the floor) by the hoodie.
“I have a complaint to lodge,” Ava intoned in an eerily calm voice, and Regina just let out an even longer sigh.
“Well, I also have a complaint,” Seraphina barged into the room (Lynx wisely decided to move himself to the corner), “Dawn Jr and Api Biru taped me to the wall! Hikari had to cut me down!”
“And then not even five minutes later the Chaotic Trio - because Ankaa was preoccupied - taped the both of us to the ceiling,” Hikari (standing behind her) added.
“So… how…”
“I got them out, but then they taped all three of us to the floor,” Magnolia responded.
“...”
“We got better - well, Ankaa got us out. Then on the way here we saw Maria throwing bird seed at Ravenna. So Ravenna started throwing cereal back at her, and then-”
The power promptly went out. Regina eyed the ceiling light silently as everyone else seemed to regain their composure.
“Can I assume that’s Levina's fault?”
“Probably, yeah.”
“...why are you all like this.”
“Any loopholes?” Dawn Jr begged as the crowd gathered around. Rule List Version 2.0 had somehow covered the entire noticeboard, and it looked like Regina was going to add more. If she couldn't have fun, she was going to get bored out of her mind, and a bored Dawn Jr was never a good idea. "Does it say anything about arson? Also, why is 15 there?"
"Rule 22," her mother responded faintly. Nobody knew how in Sornieth she had escaped Exile (she wouldn't share), but nobody was complaining either.
"I honestly don't blame him for 15," Laurel muttered under her breath. "I would too, but he beat me to it."
Dawn Jr made a gasp of fake hurt. "Laurel! I trusted you! You were the chosen one! It was said that you would find loopholes against Regina, not join her. You were to bring chaos to the Observatory, not leave it in boredom-"
“10 says we can't annoy her at 2am. We can, however, rickroll her at 4am,” Ava deadpanned. Huh. it seemed that she did have a sense of humour after all.
The Princess looked through the rules again as she squinted. "...you're right. Wait, no, it's invalidated by 10e. Dragons actually pay Maria for dirt on others? What is there to collect dirt on, their sleeping habits? Wait, do you even stalk people at midnight and watch them through windows?"
"No, I need sleep too," Maria responded, quickly scanning through the list to find what she was talking about. "Honestly, they could get it for completely free from the gossip mill. That last one is... oddly specific."
"You'd be surprised what dragons do to get rid of evidence," Hikari shrugged. The Skydancer shifted the position of the rapier sheath attached to her belt, before squeezing closer to the board. "I still haven't seen it all, but I have seen all of those..."
"This one thinks someone will find a loophole in the next five minutes," Black offered after squinting at the board. "This one also thinks that confiscating this one's copy of Monopoly is unfair, and this one wants it back."
"One has other versions of Monopoly in the storage cabinet," Red responded. "However, one wants that particular version back because it was one's first-"
"I don't take other dragons' laundry!" Anne sputtered, tail lashing from side to side in protest. Euchre quickly stepped out of the way, before Marie coughed politely.
"Is that where my nice business suit went?" Seraphina turned to Marie, looking absolutely scandalised. "It doesn't even fit you! You have two heads now!"
"I only did so because you glued sunglasses onto my head!"
"That was Sera?"
"Only in Marie's case! I took inspiration from Api Biru and Ankaa Inconveniencing random people, and it was mostly harmless! This is disproportionate retribution, and I want my business suit back!"
"We're having a pizza party?" Ankaa interrupted suddenly, causing everyone to stop and look at her. She did have a loud voice, after all.
"Where?!"
"The winning bet one. With pineapples or no? Because if there are pineapples I will commit arson. Actually, does the arson rule only apply for Prometheus?"
Everyone paused.
She wasn't paid enough for this.
"You know," Zia mused, glancing at her ancestor, "given the fact that you've come directly to me, you must be rather desperate."
Regina let out a long sigh, electing to slump across the sofa and causing all her tail apparel to clink against each other. "I've successfully gotten Dawn Sr and Jr to duke it out in the training grounds, but every time they fight, the training grounds are almost always beyond repair, everything's on fire, and it's chaos. I had to consult Primal, Euchre, and Pisces just to make sure we wouldn't have an emergency on our hands, and then get Polaris, her adopted children, and Annemarie just for damage control, and it wasn't enough to contain the flames. So I need someone who understands both parties who isn't me or a direct relative, knows how to calm them down, can see the future somewhat, and is highly resistant to their flames. You fit the bill perfectly."
There was a slight pause as one of the balls of light floated closer to Zia and she caught it, examining it for a short while, then let it go and allowed it to be swayed by the gentle breeze from the open window. She had always been precocious, even from a young age, and despite hailing from the notoriously reclusive Summershall cadet branch of the Blazelight family, she was still quite well-respected as a mediator, as a well-read and well-spoken scholar, and as a powerful mage in her own right. You could deny it all you want, but her words held weight to them. "It's not impossible, however, Senior carries too much baggage for me to unpack at once, and Junior holds too much of a grudge to resolve it overnight."
"Which is why I asked Aceso to assist."
Zia considered this. "Very well."
"Out of curiosity, why the..." Regina waved in her general vicinity, most likely referring to all the floating orbs, candles, mysterious petals falling from seemingly nowhere, and fragrant summer grass. Zia tilted her head, causing the petals collecting on her head to fall off onto the ground and dissipate into nothingness. "Wouldn't the grass catch fire?"
"No, I can control the candles to a degree and fortunately they don't give off smoke," Zia answered as an orb bounced off a lustrous horn, "the orbs are because candles are fire hazards in a library, the grass is because I like the scent, and I have no clue about the petals. Hmm... it seems that Dawn Senior is alone right now in her room and sulking, it might be easier to reach her now."
Polaris was waiting outside, and Regina gave her a small nod. It was basic courtesy, and while Regina was the de facto head, the blue and white Skydancer was still a full-fledged Archmage with all that the title entailed. "She's in there?"
"Mhm. Having a nice conversation with Shokan," Polaris indicated, then glanced back to her floating book. It wasn't her Spellbound Tome; she was just casually lifting a book with what was presumably telekinesis or clever use of Ice magic. So, Regina just shifted her sword to fit better along her belt, Zia let her tiny gecko crawl around on one of the wings of her mantle (come to think of it, how did the mantle work?), and the three of them remained there in silence for a while.
Eventually, Polaris knocked on the door, and Regina quickly made herself scarce. She and Dawn Sr didn't exactly see eye to eye with each other, and it would be... awkward for her to remain.
Naturally, half an hour later, she was greeted with a headache and a new rule to add to the List. Regina stared down at the List 5.0 (and the List 4.5; .1 to .5 because of the typos in 4.0) and decided that enough new rules had been added to it. For now.
93. Laurel: Don’t slide across the carpet in socks. That’s how static shock death matches start.
Regina opened the door to the dining room, expecting to see a box of her favourite satchels of tea on the table. She was not expecting to see Hikari of all dragons sitting on Maria's lap, singing about “Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes” while attempting to punctuate each line with a kiss on her cheeks.
Now, Regina normally had a reputation to maintain. However, she was internally gleefully cackling like a madwoman, so thoughts of blackmail merrily danced through her head instead.
“Don’t make me push you off!” Maria hissed, but her trying to shove Hikari off said otherwise.
“SNOWFLAKES THAT STAY ON MY NOSE AND EYELASHES-”
“I can hurt you, you know!”
“SILVER-WHITE WINTERS THAT MELT INTO SPRINGS-”
“Dear gods… I’m an assassin you know! I could kill you on the spot!”
“THESE ARE A FEW OF MY FAVOURITE THINGS!”
Regina, who was trying so hard not to laugh out loud that she feared she might have cracked a rib instead, leant against the doorframe and tapped a foot loudly against the floor. Hikari stopped her valiant attempts to hurt as many people’s ears as possible and looked over to where she stood, smiling benignly. Regina also noted with some delight that Maria had paled to a rather ashen grey colour and was looking quite thoroughly mortified of having been caught in such a compromising position.
“Hey Reg,” Hikari slurred. “Biscuit?”
“Sure,” Regina answered, already summoning a small Light construct to alert Spindrift. With that done, she took the seat next to Maria to save her the worry that Hikari would take it. She sent her a look of pitiful gratitude. Ava was one thing, but an amorous inebriated secretary another entirely.
“Here you go,” Hikari hiccupped, passing Regina a box which clearly stated Aspirin. How simultaneously ironic and apt. “You’re looking lovely today, blue really is your colour!”
Regina looked down at her red and black ensemble and raised a brow at Maria. She shook her head despairingly as if to say “I know, I know…” and shrugged.
Just in time, a bottle full of pale blue liquid appeared on the table. One which Regina knew (from just one mild experience. One, you understand) sent the patient into a deep sleep and ridded the body of all alcohol for an hour. Maria looked at it as though it was her anointed saviour.
“Hikari? Would you do me a favour and try some? I… would like to make sure it tastes right.”
Hikari wordlessly unscrewed the cap and downed the whole thing. So Regina watched with mild interest as she withered and landed in a seeming puddle on the dining room chair. Unfortunately, Hikari neither drooled or snored while sleeping, so it was not nearly as entertaining, but the image of the prim and proper secretary was simply too good to not note down and/or draw. Which was precisely what Maria did.
“Shouldn't we do something about it?”
“Absolutely. Put up a warning sign for the next poor soul(s) and run like hell. She thought I was a former male suitor of hers…”
Regina chuckled and leaned back further in her seat. “Well… we do have one slight problem. I’ve just witnessed what I personally consider to be one of the most entertaining examples of drunken behaviour in my lifetime.”
Maria glared.
“Not to mention you screaming “I’m an assassin you know” at the top of your lungs.”
It was quite interesting to see how far the Nocturne's eyes could actually widen. “Oh dear Windsinger. Whoops.”
“You did,” Regina reassured her. “Now, as understandable as your behaviour was, I am caught with a bit of a conundrum as to whether I should share this little episode with the rest of the residents. Dawn Jr and Ava, for example, would almost certainly be interested to hear of it.”
The look of horror Maria gave her was followed by whatever remaining colour there was draining from her face. “You wouldn’t.”
“Oh, I would,” Regina sipped her just-conjured tea. “That is, unless you promise me something.”
“What?”
“Spread the photos of her as much as you can.”
Maria stared at her, trying to see if she was joking, and when it was established that Regina, shockingly, was not, she gave her a single nod. “...fine.”
"Sagittarius, here you are," a cheerful voice he most definitely did not feel like hearing today sounded as an arm slung around his shoulder.
Of all people, it was Zia, and she looked deceptively calm. Sagittarius couldn't tell what she was thinking. Annoyed he’d let the Summershall scholar sneak up on her, the Spiral made to throw her off his shoulders.
"I do apologise, Summershall, but I have no time for tomfoolery today. I have important matters to attend to," he declared, intent on getting as far away from the nuisance as possible. Even if he had to lie about his schedule.
To his surprise, however, as he attempted to shrug off Zia's arm, the irritant didn’t budge.
Instead she tightened her grip. How was she so strong?
"Now, Sagittarius, you’ll have plenty of time to go skirt-chasing later… Well, no, actually, we need to talk about that too, but my point is, you’re clearing your schedule right now, because you and I need to have a little chat," she said, her voice keeping that cheerful tone so evenly that it felt downright unnerving.
Zia was a book nerd and a bore, but for all her more shifty tendencies never attempted to project strength or menace, even while fighting. No, when she did fight, she would resort to underhanded tricks and distract others from what she was doing.
This Zia, however, had something scary about her. Zia was never cheerful.
Was she going to threaten him? How quaint. Nonetheless, it appeared she was at last showing some spine, so perhaps it was worth indulging her this once.
"… Very well, lead the way then."
What he did know, however, was that he was most likely not being allowed in there as a mark of trust. Nor was it flirting, because Zia famously did not like him.
The room very much belied Zia's scholarly tendencies — open books and hastily scribbled notes were littered all over the desk (and part of the floor), the shelves were stocked with a vast collection of literature ranging from the academic to fantasy novels (how shallow), a rough hand-drawn map of the Sunbeam Ruins littered with annotations covered one wall and, most imposingly, a chemist’s set took the place of honour on the desk, while various vials and reagents were scattered all over the room, most labeled with random squiggles he couldn’t make heads nor tail of. He glanced at the room again - clearly she couldn't be bothered to neaten the place, if the covers heaped in a short stack on top of the unmade bed and the half-wilted Patio Rose bouquet in the vase was any indication.
And yet, playing the part of a gracious host, Zia sat him down on one of her armchairs and got some tea ready, though she didn't bother adding milk and sugar. A quick sniff told him why.
"Cindermint tea?"
"One of Polaris' recipes," she answered back, tone still carefree, far from the undercurrent of menace he’d felt earlier as she poured herself some Dandelion Seed tea.
"The Ice mage?" Sagittarius asked, thinking back about the time he tried to woo her. Then again, she hadn't been very impressive, and he didn't know why he had bothered with her in the first place. Maybe Hydrangea would be a better catch?
"Yes, her. This is why you’re here. Look, Sagittarius, you don’t like me, and to be quite frank that’s entirely mutual. But this whole… thing you have with constantly going on about your superiority needs to stop.”
"Excuse me-!" he began, but to his surprise Zia threw him the darkest glare he’d ever seen on the Skydancer, and he felt himself almost forced to shut up. Much like earlier, it was like Zia was suddenly channeling someone else entirely. No... come to think of it, he had heard of this side of her before, but he had dismissed it on the grounds that she was too young and timid. Clearly, he was wrong.
"No. For once, you are going to shut up and listen. Since you refuse to listen to the Summershall, then you are going to listen to the Blazelight, and believe me when I say I have been angered enough that you’ve forced me to do this."
"… Are you accusing me of—"
"I said shut up."
Someone scraped their armchair on the ground, as though prepared to run for it, and Sagittarius belatedly realised it was him.
He refused to let himself be intimidated by this tiny Skydancer, of all dragons. He sat himself back down and had another sip of tea, acting nonchalant, but he knew it was too late. The damage was done, and he’d shown a hint of submissiveness where he should not have flinched.
"Good. Now, I was hoping you’d mature a little and we wouldn’t have to do this, but after the Polaris incident, you haven’t really left me with that much choice. You can chafe all you want, you can complain, you can contest my decisions, and that is completely fine, but you have been too stubborn to listen to anyone else's opinions. Regina was very clear with me about this: if I didn’t get you to fall in line, you're going to get yourself killed, and some of us with you. I’d like to think you wouldn’t do something as stupid as ruining a carefully-thought out plan to raid a Serthis base - which we took days to come up with - again, but it’s been three days since then and you’ve not even apologised once to anyone. So, we’re doing this the hard way."
From a shelf next to her, she produced a small vial filled with slightly yellowish transparent liquid and menacingly held it up to the light.
"Miracle dew. It’s commonly said that a drop a day will help the most barren branch blossom anew."
"…I fail to see how a mere fertiliser is relevant to the current situation." he scowled.
Zia gave him a thin smile with no levity to it. "It is no fertiliser. The reason they say that is because this particular poison is most famous for being used by branch families with shaky standing to prevent the main line from having heirs, thus allowing their own branches to flourish anew. You see, a drop a day for a few weeks is enough to keep a dragon sterile for the rest of their life. Tasteless, odourless, and completely undetectable."
There was a beat of silence, as Sagittarius came to the horrifying implication of what he’d just been told and looked at his teacup. Had Cindermint tea always been this colour? The cup was black porcelain with gold inlay on the outside; he’d thought it was just evidence of Zia's poor taste in tableware, but was it to mask that it’d been tampered with? Zia was from a cadet branch... so she would have reason to have it on her... and like Ava, she did have a penchant for resorting to underhanded tactics... to... get... rid... of... enemies...
And Zia was just smiling at him, his sudden panic obviously a source of great entertainment to her. A small ball of light pinged off his head, and he didn't know whether that was deliberate. How irritatingly clever of her.
"Don’t worry, I’d never use such a thing on the Observatory members, but on an unrelated note please do remember that the Observatory dragons take all our meals together, we have rotating cooking duties, and Magnolia likes me far more than she does you and is willing to close an eye. Something to think about, hmm?"
"You…" the gemologist began, apoplectic and ready to start yelling at her, but sudden awareness of a growing stomachache stopped him in his tracks.
"And now that I’ve stalled for long enough, while I’d never make you drink something quite as heinous as that, I did slip a fast-acting laxative in your tea. If you leave right now, you should be able to make it with time to spare, but better not take any risks, yes?"
"Why you-"
His building tirade, however, was interrupted by another stomach cramp, more painful than the previous one. Clearly, the irritating Skydancer hadn’t been bluffing. So he swallowed his pride and his rage, and headed for the door without another word.
"Oh, and Regina has received plenty of complaints about you harassing the female dragons, so this is also an official reminder to keep your skirt-chasing and misogyny to a minimum, or else you might find yourself a little short-staffed for a fair amount of time!" he heard behind him.
And while he was sure that part must be a misunderstanding, rumours that were disseminated by others jealous of his success, there was no time to answer. Which he knew Zia knew, and she’d timed it perfectly so that she wouldn’t have to handle a civilised discussion.
Later on, when he calmed down, he’d probably acknowledge that Zia had finally acted with the cleverness and decisiveness demanded by her position, if not the decorum.
But right now, he had rage to seethe on and a need to rush to the restroom.
"You were right," Zia admitted, dipping her head in Ankaa's direction. "He didn’t even glance twice at the covers."
"Told you he’d just assume you were a mess and go with it. Would it kill you to dust the place a little? I think I got some in my eye," Marie coughed.
"I do, just not behind the bookshelf," was the flat response she received as the illusion disguising the pristine condition of the flowers faded.
Hmm. Well, putting their resident irritant towards females down like that was possibly the most entertaining thing they'd seen all week! Anne would also absolutely call Zia out as a horrid liar should she try to pretend she did not enjoy doing it.
“What’s in that bottle?” Ava asked, stepping out from inside the cupboard and motioning to the vial she’d waved threateningly at Sagittarius earlier. "Because I know for certain miracle dew doesn't exist."
Naturally, this confirmed that Ava was highly shady, but nobody paid her any mind. It was an open secret at this point anyway, but she didn't know how much Ava dabbled in poisons.
Zia tossed the little vial at Polaris as everyone crowded around. "Hmm... you can try and tell me. I know most of my collection is probably alien to all of you except Polaris and Ava, but I can guarantee you that you can figure this one out."
"Where’d the whole miracle dew thing even come from then?"
Ankaa smirked.
"Dawn Jr came up with it after she heard we would be telling Sagittarius off. Something about getting revenge on him for attempting to forcibly bring her on a date even though she's married. She would join, but she has a meeting with Elio with actual important business to discuss."
Sloshing the vial a little bit, Polaris noticed it was heavier and a little thicker than water, and it left a small film on the clear glass.
"Most likely some kind of oil? Is it safe to-"
"Yes. Go ahead. Just don't spill it, otherwise it would be a nightmare to clean."
"You sound like you've spilt it before."
"I haven't," Zia immediately denied. "I'm just saying that oil stains are difficult to get rid off, and considering what's in this..."
So Annemarie reached out, pulled out the cork, and Marie gave the contents a small sniff while being very careful not to spill it. To their collective surprise, a strong floral fragrance with hints of grass and fiery spice immediately assaulted all of their nostrils. Come to think of it... it was slightly familiar, but... from where?
"Your fragrant grass is messing with my nose," Polaris muttered. It wasn't a criticism, it was just that she was too tired with Sagittarius' nonsense to snark. So, Zia waved an arm, and the grass and falling petals repositioned themselves in the corner of her room.
"That’s Heart Rose and… Cindermint extract? Jasmine and Day Lilies in there too, I think," Marie answered. Then Anne narrowed her eyes. "Is that the real product, or are the scents are just there to hide it?"
For once, Zia actually looked a little surprised.
"You actually got all four of the main extracts straight away. That's not all, though."
"And what reward do I get?"
"I might consider lending you one of my rarer perfumes for the gala."
With that, Marie got back to the bottle and inhaled a deeper breath in.
"The subtle fragrant smell is definitely Red Emperor Tulip for the citrusy and main honey scents, but it’s too cloying for an extract, so it’s essential oil… And the other smells have the same kind of consistency to them, so they’re probably also essential oils. First off, either Smolderpetal or Speckled Fire Lily because that isn't just Cindermint."
"Eh?" Ankaa questioned, but by then Marie was on a roll.
"Cindermint is fiery, not spicy, and there's a slight difference. No, it's Speckled Fire Lily because it's cleaner and deeper, Smolderpetal would be slightly smoky. Peppery, warm and slightly fruity... is that… Cinnamon? What else... that's definitely Speckled Petunia and I can see how that would complement your fragrant grass. There's Daisies in there, but I'm not sure if that's coming from the bottle or the Flowerfall. Hmm... there's a hint of... let's see, heady, nectarous and tinged with vanilla, so definitely Juneflower... The last one… some kind of wood? I don’t think I can single it out… Wait, no, it’s sandalwood?"
"You are somehow completely correct, but... missed two."
"I... did?" But... Hmm. "Is the first one just extract from the fragrant dried grass swirling around you? No wonder I didn't detect it, I thought it was from the swirl."
Zia looked down. True enough, the grass had sneakily migrated back over to her. "Well, yes, and the second?"
Fruity, a bit like freshly-cut green grass... and if she had to guess, it was a yellow oil for it to give the liquid that colour...
"Olive oil. Extra virgin," Polaris finally deduced as everyone stared at her. "What? I cook."
"How did you guess all of them?" Zia acknowledged with a small smile.
"I do have a good memory for smells, you know. It comes with being an airhead, plenty of space to breathe in there,” Marie smirked, causing Anne to give her head a little bonk as Polaris snorted. "Does this mean I can borrow free perfume then?"
“Not yet. You’ve… somehow told me all the fragrant components, but you haven’t actually told me what it is."
Oh. Right, that.
Marie tried to wrack her brains fast concerning what any of these ingredients could do. Sure, drinking that would give anyone a stomachache, but that didn’t seem very efficient given its pungency. Olive oil was used in certain soaps, so instead, it seemed much more like some kind of body… care…
Marie gave the bottle another quick sniff, and frowned as she stoppered it.
"Did you threaten Sagittarius with your conditioner?”
"Ex-conditioner technically, I swapped to another conditioner temporarily while I wait for Milvina to restock on Speckled Fire Lily essential oil," Zia picked up a slightly larger vial and held that one up. "They grow very close to active magma vents, so it's not easy to collect them, but fortunately they're in season so I should be able to purchase more soon."
Anne caught Polaris' supremely amused look, and they all (save Ava) instantly broke down laughing. The unconscious smile on Ava's face spoke volumes, though.
"Sagittarius ran away from your conditioner!"
It was a couple of minutes before they slowly began to regain their breath, which was in Marie's mind entirely justified. The image of a panicked, indignant Sagittarius fleeing for fear of being emasculated by Zia's surprisingly excellent mane care regime would be burned into her mind for a long while.
And so, Zia tossed her a vial labelled "Ocean Perfume" with handwritten scribbles detailing its top notes, heart notes, and base notes in that order. "Don't forget to return it to me after the Brightshine Jubilee gala, yes?"
"Got it," Marie grinned.
"So..." Regina grimaced as she watched Bellatrix conjure expensive fabric out of thin air for Nella to sew into apparel for others to wear, and waved a claw in their general direction. "Won't that crash the market?"
"Theoretically? Yes," Ava answered, "but only if there's excess that she doesn't use and she just gives it out for free. If she charges high prices, then that's fine, but it's still flooding the market with high quality fabric at virtually zero cost."
"But she's technically giving it to Nella, and Nella's the one charging the prices, so..."
"I'll see to it that it's only used for the apparel."
"...thanks."
"Ya think?" his older sister snarked, devoid of all of the craziness she usually obfuscated. Clearly, it had taken a toll on her. "The Peahat invasion actually wasn't my fault."
"So what did you do, then?" Regina flopped onto Dawn Jr's couch and eyed her because that look definitely screamed that she was guilty of something.
"I actually didn't do anything. I'm serious. Although whoever ordered that particular species of rhododendrons should probably be investigated. They contain grayanotoxins. If the honey was also from rhododendrons... that might be a problem too."
"Gray... what?"
"Hallucinogens."
"And you didn't say this earlier?"
"I didn't see what they were until it was too late!" Dawn Jr protested. Then she paused. "Actually, it might also be because I'm immune."
Regina was about to rebuke her, but decided not to press further in favour of focusing on her growing alarm over her sudden hacking coughs.
"Clearly, you were affected too, but it was delayed. Let's get you to the hospital wing."
"This is mild?" Regina coughed.
In response, the tiny Fae just gestured around the room.
"...o- okay, that's fair."
The entire hospital wing was filled with dragons from the gala, presumably because of the giant bouquet with the rhododendrons smack in the center of the function room, as well as someone accidentally using mad honey in the canapés because of mislabelling. Elio could see the normally prim and proper Laurel muttering feverishly about passing increasingly strange bills (which he quickly tuned out of), and even Magnolia was twitching though clearly fast asleep. The strangest thing about this, however, was the curtained enclosure in the corner of the room.
Dawn Jr made a questioning motion, and Spindrift just let out a sigh, so she inched closer. As it turned out, it wasn't a curtained enclosure at all, but rather one enclosure and one adjoining screen which hid those receiving treatment from view. Although... rather than treating those with milder symptoms at the small healer station near the doors, Polaris was doing so from an armchair by the actual enclosure. And bewilderingly enough, there was a thick book of runes and an ancient text on the desk next to her, and a long rounded stick at her tail.
"Where- *cough* where are Makora and Honeyleaf?"
"Makora is making the appropriate remedies with Annemarie and Harvest right now," Spindrift answered. "Honeyleaf is doing a supply run. Apparently she trusts me? Also, Polaris is here because all our other healers are out of Zenith's Light, and she apparently knows healing magic."
Ah, speak of the devil. Makora, Annemarie and Harvest strode into the room, each pulling a trolley of glass bottles filled with varying shades of red liquid - presumably different concentrations of anti-delirium potions. Polaris looked at them like they were sent by the Icewarden himself, and she slumped back into her chair once she cast a minor healing spell on Victoria (the Summershall, not the bard; Vicky the bard was fast asleep on another bed while cuddling her weapon / harp, fortunately someone had been prudent enough to remove the astral iron strings).
"What happened?" Dawn Jr asked her sister, who made a small noise of frustration.
"I... got attacked. I was about to ask to see you, actually," she sighed, joining them by Regina's bed while Makora, Annemarie and Harvest all left to get more trolleys of the stuff. "It's about Zia."
Dawn Jr suppressed a groan. Zia was highly intelligent, but that unfortunately meant that her common sense was... slightly lacking, especially when too focused on something, and therefore during these moments she had a tendency to do stupid things. As in, really stupid things.
She doubted anyone would forget the exploding magic soap incident, after all.
Not that she was speaking ill of her sister's descendant.
She was thinking ill of her, and that was entirely permissible.
"What did- did she do?" Regina asked, then grimaced as another cough escaped her. Spindrift sighed.
"So, we all know Zia has a sweet tooth," he began once he was sure she wanted to know, but was quickly cut off by a loud, girlish scream from within the closed-off area.
With a long sigh and a small eye-roll, Polaris picked up the stick in one deft motion, and the Blazelights watched in stunned amazement as the Archmage poked it through the curtains and started viciously prodding whoever was screaming in there.
"QUIET!" Polaris bellowed; in fact, this was the loudest she had ever spoken while in the Clan. "QUIET DOWN NOW! DON'T MAKE ME COME IN THERE!" Once she was done (and a loud yelp of pain had sounded in there), there was finally blessed silence, and Polaris meandered over to the potion trolley.
The only noise Elio managed to make at this turn of events was a fairly astounded "Err..."
Polaris didn't even look up from her investigation as she studied five repurposed standard transparent wine bottles filled with near-black liquid, presumably trying to find the strongest of the lot. To the untrained eye, they were indistinguishable, but Makora had likely written the concentrations on the labels. "She's been doing it since last night and all morning, it's becoming ridiculous. Did you know that I've had to go in there twice to stop her from swallowing her own tongue?"
Dawn Jr blinked in spite of herself; she had already set aside her mask of insanity because she could never have come up with this. "You mean... wha?"
"Aha!" Polaris grabbed a bottle and began uncapping it. "One glass, fill to the line..."
"Who the hell was that?" Elio demanded, obviously alarmed. "You've been prodding someone since last night? With that thing? You could've impaled them!"
The Archmage, looking supremely unperturbed, began to measure out the quantity of liquid she needed. It was fairly easy, given its colour, although it was around the viscousness of nectar. Flatly, she answered, "Zia."
It immediately became apparent to Dawn Jr that Polaris' decision to vacate the armchair was not for her own benefit, so much as the eldest Blazelight's. To wit, she collapsed into the cushy chair. "What."
"As I was saying, we all know Zia has a sweet tooth, and we all know Zia likes eating hors d'oeuvres," Spindrift answered hesitatingly. "So during the party... she ate half the canapés."
"She didn't," Regina groaned as Elio sat on a freshly-conjured armchair made of snow (Victoria looked suspiciously like she had known).
"She did," Polaris answered grimly. She hadn't been at the gala, presumably because she had been deciphering and translating the ancient text on her desk (though Regina highly suspected her laziness had struck again and it really doubled as an excuse). To be fair, it was quite long, and she appeared to be a quarter of the way through. "She promptly became delirious and was under the impression that her balls of light and candles were out to get her. She then made a break for it into the forest where she was found half an hour later cowering behind a shrub and trying to fend off everyone who tried to get her with magic."
"I was one of those dragons," Victoria volunteered reluctantly. "But hey, she did take out the aggressively affectionate Peahats, I'd count that as a bonus."
"Please, anything but the Peahats," Elio shivered, throwing a glare at Dawn Jr, who forced herself onto her feet again and went back to Regina's side.. "How did they even get out?"
"That was Nelumbo, actually. He... somehow broke the fence, and I think it was something in his cologne that made them get into such a frenzy... the good news is that I have an excuse to up the defenses around the Peahats, the bad news is that they'll be multiplying soon..."
Spindrift grimaced. "Why do you even keep the Peahats around?"
"They're endangered, for one, and secondly I was thinking of using them on Dusk because they make surprisingly useful weapons in siege warfare as an attacking party-"
Perhaps it was a sign that Regina had been in charge of the Eternal Star Observatory for too long, or a sign that she was thoroughly jaded at this point, but the only thing that really surprised her about the situation was that she had been found after only half an hour. Or maybe that was the wrong part to be surprised about because a dragon throwing fireballs around everywhere was rather conspicuous, and Polaris had said "found" rather than "retrieved".
Since the conversation was quickly derailing into the usefulness of Peahats as a strategic resource, Regina cleared her throat on purpose this time and asked, "Recommended treatment?"
"Anti-delirium potions brewed by Makora, the strongest concentration she can offer, three a day for a week, possibly more given the vast quantities of mad honey ingested. Highly concentrated Blue Entoloma extract at night and bed rest after that," Polaris recapped the bottle and answered in a business-like tone Regina assumed she reserved for arguing with stuffy dragons who fancied themselves erudites. "If it's any consolation, this isn't the worst case I've seen. The Academia is... hmm, how should I put this? ...nevermind."
The blue and white Skydancer looked like she dearly wished to sit down and lament about Zia's condition for the next few hours, but she had a dose to administer and so she proceeded to do her duty as the Blazelights simultaneously shared a look.
"...I can only say that I'm glad it was Zia and not Mother," Elio finally divulged, glancing at Dawn Sr, who was awake and staring at them from two beds over. Spindrift quickly went to tend to her, but Regina blinked up at him.
"Why?"
"Because if it were Mother, instead of just the area around her being burned down, it would have been the entire forest. Think of the paperwork," he shuddered.
"Ah. F- *cough* fair."
Laurel eyed the shotglass filled with transparent liquid and raised an eyebrow.
"Anti-delirium potion," he explained, pointing to the shelf where bottles of the stuff were arranged by shade, from nearly-transparent (what was presumably in her glass) to a bright crimson red, all the way to five bottles filled with dark sienna liquid at the very end. "Fortunately, you're mostly healed up, and you're one of the first to recover - well, not counting Regina. Congratulations."
Truth. She downed it and washed it down with water, then asked in bewilderment, "What even happened? I only remember being at the gala, then feeling slightly dizzy and fainting."
"The flowers made people hallucinate. Oh, and apparently so did the canapés." Truth.
"...please tell me I didn't do anything embarrassing."
The Fae laughed. Actually laughed. Which was already unusual for a Fae, but she would take what she could get. "Compared to some people? Not too bad, actually. You were just constantly talking about passing increasingly strange bills. You're... not actually going to make it mandatory to own unicorns and force dragons to braid their manes and dye them rainbow on a daily basis, right?"
Truth. Well, delirious her was clearly... something else. "...of course not. By not bad... you mean...?"
Spindrift pointed. "She didn't eat the honey, but she was still near the bouquet, and I had to knock her unconscious with Dunewine Manticore venom before she started screaming bloody murder and killed us all with a dessert spoon."
Well, that was totally not concerning at all. She glanced over to Ava, currently unconscious and chained to the bed, and just blinked. Everything so far was true, which meant...
"And that's not even the worst," Regina agreed, and Laurel craned her neck to the left to see her give a tired wave.
"Eh?"
"Fortunately, Regina wasn't hallucinating, but the pollen did give her a nasty cough, so she's confined here now."
"It's been terrible so far," the red and black Skydancer twitched, and coughed some more.
"The cough, or the hospital wing?"
Her only response was to reach for her tail pouch and take out a pair of earplugs. "You'll need it."
Truth. Oh no. "Do I want to know?"
"Zia is... not faring very well," was all Polaris grumbled before she stood to get the appropriate dose for Nelumbo, snoring away in a corner of the room.
Laurel gulped. Never mind. That sounded false, if only because that was an understatement. She... didn't think she wanted to know.
She blindly obeyed as an oddly savoury sweet (though slightly bitter) liquid she didn't recognise got poured into her mouth. She was thirsty, anyway, and she didn't think they were trying to poison her. It was... not bad, actually. Around the consistency of water and easy to swallow.
"Feeling better?" the voice resolved itself as her vision sharpened. Green Fae... green Fae... what's his name?
"Better," she croaked, feeling oddly mad about having been caught in such a moment of weakness. She was safe, wasn't she?
"Good," a second, distinctly female voice grumbled somewhere to her right. "Better than an attempted murder spree, anyway."
"Attempted... murder spree?"
"Well, yeah, you grabbed a spoon from the hors d'oeuvres bar and tried to stab people with it," the Fae answered patiently. "How are you feeling?"
"Mostly fine. A bit blur." She raised a claw in front of herself.
Sight... still good. Five things. Her claw. The small green Fae. Beds with railings, white sheets, pillows, and some with others on them. A curtained-off section, in the corner. A blue and white Skydancer of average build. Touch. The bedding sheets. The railing of her own bed. The Fae checking her pulse. Oddly enough, chains around her limbs. Hearing. ...silence, actually. No, wait, the Skydancer was standing up. The sound of glass bottles clinking against each other. The Fae placing an empty shotglass onto a desk. Smell. Nothing much, actually. The room was oddly sterile. Taste. Much the same, except the slightly bitter aftertaste of liquid on her tongue still remained. Hmm.
"...what happened?"
The Fae (right, Spindrift) quickly explained the situation to her. "You're... mostly okay, but you're going to remain here for the next few days while we monitor your condition. The potion causes drowsiness, so get some rest."
She did. The last thing she heard was the Skydancer chuckling to herself about "the mighty Ava Starling acting like such a..." and then she was out.
"It's... not smooth sailing, but we're getting there," Polaris answered as she sorted the new brews from Makora. "Although at this rate, we might run out of fresh herbal plantains. They don't grow very quickly. Fortunately, Cleansing Elixirs are really easy to come by."
Regina accepted this with an unsteady nod. She had been discharged two days prior and was now taking it upon herself to assist with the others' recovery. Fortunately, almost everyone had recovered, the exceptions being Zia and Seraph (though he was almost there). At some point, Polaris had switched from the most potent potions to somewhere around the mid-range, and she was currently deciding between two bottles.
"What's the difference?"
"Hmm? Oh. This one's slightly stronger than that one," Polaris tapped the glass with a claw. "Her condition has definitely improved, but... I'll go with the stronger one, in case."
So, she let her do her job, but then Polaris was prevented from doing just that by the sudden arrival of a harassed and highly irritated looking Annemarie. Marie's pale blue mane was flying around her face, and while Anne looked more accustomed to running around, she hardly looked pleased either.
"Regina?" Anne greeted testily. "It's Soko, he's gotten into a fight with Ritto, and I don't want to bother Archmage Everwinter because-"
"-because I'm busy, yeah," Polaris distractedly poured the madder-coloured liquid into a shotglass and waved Regina off.
Regina just frowned. "Out of interest... how many places have you been searching for me?"
"Err... Your office, the dormitories, the Observatory, the research lab, and now here."
Roughly translated: Half the entire Clan. Typical of Anne to be thorough, but that also meant that they had been fighting for a good while.
"What are they fighting about?"
"Okay, technically it's a spar, but by the time I left it looked like it was getting too serious to be a simple spar so I was worried and-" Marie babbled, and Regina held up a claw.
"Who's winning?"
Annemarie paused. "Err... sorry, what?"
"Who's winning?" Regina repeated calmly.
"Well, I'm not sure, I've been looking for you for the past five minutes and..."
"Spindrift, take over my post, I'm going to do damage control," Polaris sighed and shoved the shotglass into his claws before nodding her head in their direction. Spindrift glanced down in alarm as the liquid sloshed, but fortunately none of it spilled, and he hurried off to administer the dose.
"Now, where are they?"
"Hmm. Definitely still fighting. Soko is winning, but barely, and I can sense their magic in the air. I don't sense Ritto's raw magic, but I can sense him reshaping Soko's. Clever," she finally pronounced. "In a fight of attrition, Ritto will win because he can use Soko's magic against him. In a straight fight, Ritto relies on manipulating existing ice, and he just so happens to have experience manipulating ice conjured by others because Toji provides him with ice for his sculptures. If he wanted to, he could probably used the ice on Soko's body to impale him."
They turned the corner to see that the entire cavern had been iced over, and Polaris' prediction was actually correct. Ritto had surrounded himself in a shield made of ice, while the white bits on Soko were flickering. He was tiring fast, but So was blasting everything indiscriminately while the rest of Polaris' adopted kids were sitting on the sidelines and attempting to mitigate the blast. Judging from the lance impaled in the wall above Toji's head, this was not exactly a success.
And in the corner was poor Eurus (who had been looking slightly horrified this whole time) calling out as if to the Windsinger.
“Ah, Regina, Archmage! Please remind your children that such open gambling would set a bad example on the rest of the Clan!"
“Gambling?” asked Regina, looking somewhat confused at the room’s otherwise jovial mood. “What about?”
“They've been gambling about the outcome of this battle!” he cried, indignant.
“Have they now?” Regina drawled, running a seemingly disappointed look over all of them. Toji, Daikan and Shosetsu looked suitably contrite while Shokan, Kanro and Riyuki all stayed as impassively blank as possible, but she could swear that… hmm.
And then her gaze landed on a straight-backed, defiant Taisetsu. She then turned to Polaris.
“The usual wager?” Polaris asked her adopted daughter. There was definitely a tinge of amusement to her voice.
“Yep, no one’s dared to raise. So far, only Toji's bet on Ritto winning, everyone else pointed to Soko,” Taisetsu detailed, making Toji break into peals of cackling laughter and provoking an indignant strangled sound from Eurus. She couldn’t help but feel sympathy for the poor Gaoler.
"Seriously? How one-sided. Twenty on Ritto," Regina announced, much to Eurus' consternation.
"I bet on Soko, Anne bet on Ritto, so either way we win," Annemarie answered. Polaris just hummed.
"Make that ten on Ritto as well."
And so, with an increasingly scandalised look from Eurus, Polaris produced some shaved ice in bowls and started passing them around, mostly because Regina had run out of popcorn.
Part 2
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#2499920
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THIS IS WHY WE HAVE THE RULES - PART 1
Everyone in the Observatory is insane, stupidly overworked, extremely brilliant and powerful but equally lazy, a deranged explosion-happy lunatic, a trigger-happy serial killer, some combination of the above, or Regina. Who desperately needs aspirin and more sessions with Aceso.For reference, Here Are The Rules.
Regina let out a long sign as Lynx stared out the window, where Ankaa was currently hanging on for dear life to the windowsill and banging on the glass with her free claw.
“What happened?”
“I got defenestrated,” she complained once she was hauled up by the both of them.
“By who?”
“Ava.”
There was silence, during which Regina just stared. The Gaoler was understandably bemused about the whole affair.
“I don’t understand Ava’s obsession with defenestration. It’s been the second time this month, please tell her to stop.”
“It’s the tenth of Brightshine's.”
“Exactly.”
“Did you produce a hand-written list of every complaint Magnolia has ever made about Ava and begin reading it aloud in a whiny voice when Victoria asked you to pass the salt again?”
“NO! Of course not! I don’t want to be tied up with duct tape and hung upside down from the chandelier ever again!”
It said a lot that Regina didn't consider this weird. Come to think of it, why hadn’t she banned that? Oh well, never mind. “Okay, then what did you do to her?”
“Nothing!” Ankaa protested, then paused. “Okay, I may have replaced the normal coffee with decaf? Apparently Amalia can’t survive without her caffeine, so she-”
Regina held up a claw, clearly not enthusiastic about hearing more because it was probably at mind-bogglingly levels of pure ridiculousness. “Forget it. Where is she right now?”
“I was going to tell you about the part where Hotaru was telling Ava, Amalia and I about how I was your secret love child and how Amalia threw the decaf at Ava’s face under the impression that she was Hotaru - even though they're completely different breeds - because she wasn’t wearing glasses and hadn’t woken up properly, then Ava got temporarily blinded so she accidentally grabbed me instead of Amalia and threw me out of the window because I was standing right next to her,” Ankaa complained. Obviously, this drew several double takes from the both of them.
Regina blinked twice. “Run that by me again?”
“Yeah, I still don’t know how she mistook me for Amalia, because Amalia was wearing yellow,” she continued, gesturing at her own red feathers, “Well, at least Hotaru's conspiracy theory rant was better than the one last week about Euchre being their own secret love child from the future.”
Regina was later told that her face at that point had been priceless. Either way, the door burst open at that point, revealing the Aberration in question (speak of the devil) holding a poster board with plenty of thumb tacks, red string, and pictures. Regina caught sight of the caption (“Regina: Dawn Sr's secret love child?”) and promptly buried her face in her claws.
“What the f-”
As Ankaa dragged Hotaru out, to everyone’s relief, Regina reached for her notebook. “So, about-"
The doors burst open a second time, revealing a thoroughly enraged Ava whose white blouse (ouch) was soaked. To make matters worse, her feathers and mane were sopping wet with a dark brown liquid she could only assume to be the aforementioned decaf. For bonus points, she was also dragging Amalia (holding an empty coffee cup that was still leaking drops of decaf onto the floor) by the hoodie.
“I have a complaint to lodge,” Ava intoned in an eerily calm voice, and Regina just let out an even longer sigh.
“Well, I also have a complaint,” Seraphina barged into the room (Lynx wisely decided to move himself to the corner), “Dawn Jr and Api Biru taped me to the wall! Hikari had to cut me down!”
“And then not even five minutes later the Chaotic Trio - because Ankaa was preoccupied - taped the both of us to the ceiling,” Hikari (standing behind her) added.
“So… how…”
“I got them out, but then they taped all three of us to the floor,” Magnolia responded.
“...”
“We got better - well, Ankaa got us out. Then on the way here we saw Maria throwing bird seed at Ravenna. So Ravenna started throwing cereal back at her, and then-”
The power promptly went out. Regina eyed the ceiling light silently as everyone else seemed to regain their composure.
“Can I assume that’s Levina's fault?”
“Probably, yeah.”
“...why are you all like this.”
“Any loopholes?” Dawn Jr begged as the crowd gathered around. Rule List Version 2.0 had somehow covered the entire noticeboard, and it looked like Regina was going to add more. If she couldn't have fun, she was going to get bored out of her mind, and a bored Dawn Jr was never a good idea. "Does it say anything about arson? Also, why is 15 there?"
"Rule 22," her mother responded faintly. Nobody knew how in Sornieth she had escaped Exile (she wouldn't share), but nobody was complaining either.
"I honestly don't blame him for 15," Laurel muttered under her breath. "I would too, but he beat me to it."
Dawn Jr made a gasp of fake hurt. "Laurel! I trusted you! You were the chosen one! It was said that you would find loopholes against Regina, not join her. You were to bring chaos to the Observatory, not leave it in boredom-"
“10 says we can't annoy her at 2am. We can, however, rickroll her at 4am,” Ava deadpanned. Huh. it seemed that she did have a sense of humour after all.
The Princess looked through the rules again as she squinted. "...you're right. Wait, no, it's invalidated by 10e. Dragons actually pay Maria for dirt on others? What is there to collect dirt on, their sleeping habits? Wait, do you even stalk people at midnight and watch them through windows?"
"No, I need sleep too," Maria responded, quickly scanning through the list to find what she was talking about. "Honestly, they could get it for completely free from the gossip mill. That last one is... oddly specific."
"You'd be surprised what dragons do to get rid of evidence," Hikari shrugged. The Skydancer shifted the position of the rapier sheath attached to her belt, before squeezing closer to the board. "I still haven't seen it all, but I have seen all of those..."
"This one thinks someone will find a loophole in the next five minutes," Black offered after squinting at the board. "This one also thinks that confiscating this one's copy of Monopoly is unfair, and this one wants it back."
"One has other versions of Monopoly in the storage cabinet," Red responded. "However, one wants that particular version back because it was one's first-"
"I don't take other dragons' laundry!" Anne sputtered, tail lashing from side to side in protest. Euchre quickly stepped out of the way, before Marie coughed politely.
"Is that where my nice business suit went?" Seraphina turned to Marie, looking absolutely scandalised. "It doesn't even fit you! You have two heads now!"
"I only did so because you glued sunglasses onto my head!"
"That was Sera?"
"Only in Marie's case! I took inspiration from Api Biru and Ankaa Inconveniencing random people, and it was mostly harmless! This is disproportionate retribution, and I want my business suit back!"
"We're having a pizza party?" Ankaa interrupted suddenly, causing everyone to stop and look at her. She did have a loud voice, after all.
"Where?!"
"The winning bet one. With pineapples or no? Because if there are pineapples I will commit arson. Actually, does the arson rule only apply for Prometheus?"
Everyone paused.
~0~
As the acrid stench of smoke and burnt pineapples wafted through the entire Eternal Star Observatory at the completely reasonable time of 2am on a Sunday morning, Regina groaned, got out of her bed, and grabbed a bucket of water.She wasn't paid enough for this.
"You know," Zia mused, glancing at her ancestor, "given the fact that you've come directly to me, you must be rather desperate."
Regina let out a long sigh, electing to slump across the sofa and causing all her tail apparel to clink against each other. "I've successfully gotten Dawn Sr and Jr to duke it out in the training grounds, but every time they fight, the training grounds are almost always beyond repair, everything's on fire, and it's chaos. I had to consult Primal, Euchre, and Pisces just to make sure we wouldn't have an emergency on our hands, and then get Polaris, her adopted children, and Annemarie just for damage control, and it wasn't enough to contain the flames. So I need someone who understands both parties who isn't me or a direct relative, knows how to calm them down, can see the future somewhat, and is highly resistant to their flames. You fit the bill perfectly."
There was a slight pause as one of the balls of light floated closer to Zia and she caught it, examining it for a short while, then let it go and allowed it to be swayed by the gentle breeze from the open window. She had always been precocious, even from a young age, and despite hailing from the notoriously reclusive Summershall cadet branch of the Blazelight family, she was still quite well-respected as a mediator, as a well-read and well-spoken scholar, and as a powerful mage in her own right. You could deny it all you want, but her words held weight to them. "It's not impossible, however, Senior carries too much baggage for me to unpack at once, and Junior holds too much of a grudge to resolve it overnight."
"Which is why I asked Aceso to assist."
Zia considered this. "Very well."
"Out of curiosity, why the..." Regina waved in her general vicinity, most likely referring to all the floating orbs, candles, mysterious petals falling from seemingly nowhere, and fragrant summer grass. Zia tilted her head, causing the petals collecting on her head to fall off onto the ground and dissipate into nothingness. "Wouldn't the grass catch fire?"
"No, I can control the candles to a degree and fortunately they don't give off smoke," Zia answered as an orb bounced off a lustrous horn, "the orbs are because candles are fire hazards in a library, the grass is because I like the scent, and I have no clue about the petals. Hmm... it seems that Dawn Senior is alone right now in her room and sulking, it might be easier to reach her now."
~0~
Really, the two of them made quite a sight. Zia was strolling along as if unhurried, while Regina (who was slightly larger and thus walked faster) was brisk walking, but the former somehow managed to keep up. At some point, the candles surrounding her had parted and chosen to float a short distance behind instead, and the only explanation had been a short "We're close" from her.Polaris was waiting outside, and Regina gave her a small nod. It was basic courtesy, and while Regina was the de facto head, the blue and white Skydancer was still a full-fledged Archmage with all that the title entailed. "She's in there?"
"Mhm. Having a nice conversation with Shokan," Polaris indicated, then glanced back to her floating book. It wasn't her Spellbound Tome; she was just casually lifting a book with what was presumably telekinesis or clever use of Ice magic. So, Regina just shifted her sword to fit better along her belt, Zia let her tiny gecko crawl around on one of the wings of her mantle (come to think of it, how did the mantle work?), and the three of them remained there in silence for a while.
Eventually, Polaris knocked on the door, and Regina quickly made herself scarce. She and Dawn Sr didn't exactly see eye to eye with each other, and it would be... awkward for her to remain.
Naturally, half an hour later, she was greeted with a headache and a new rule to add to the List. Regina stared down at the List 5.0 (and the List 4.5; .1 to .5 because of the typos in 4.0) and decided that enough new rules had been added to it. For now.
93. Laurel: Don’t slide across the carpet in socks. That’s how static shock death matches start.
Regina opened the door to the dining room, expecting to see a box of her favourite satchels of tea on the table. She was not expecting to see Hikari of all dragons sitting on Maria's lap, singing about “Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes” while attempting to punctuate each line with a kiss on her cheeks.
Now, Regina normally had a reputation to maintain. However, she was internally gleefully cackling like a madwoman, so thoughts of blackmail merrily danced through her head instead.
“Don’t make me push you off!” Maria hissed, but her trying to shove Hikari off said otherwise.
“SNOWFLAKES THAT STAY ON MY NOSE AND EYELASHES-”
“I can hurt you, you know!”
“SILVER-WHITE WINTERS THAT MELT INTO SPRINGS-”
“Dear gods… I’m an assassin you know! I could kill you on the spot!”
“THESE ARE A FEW OF MY FAVOURITE THINGS!”
Regina, who was trying so hard not to laugh out loud that she feared she might have cracked a rib instead, leant against the doorframe and tapped a foot loudly against the floor. Hikari stopped her valiant attempts to hurt as many people’s ears as possible and looked over to where she stood, smiling benignly. Regina also noted with some delight that Maria had paled to a rather ashen grey colour and was looking quite thoroughly mortified of having been caught in such a compromising position.
“Hey Reg,” Hikari slurred. “Biscuit?”
“Sure,” Regina answered, already summoning a small Light construct to alert Spindrift. With that done, she took the seat next to Maria to save her the worry that Hikari would take it. She sent her a look of pitiful gratitude. Ava was one thing, but an amorous inebriated secretary another entirely.
“Here you go,” Hikari hiccupped, passing Regina a box which clearly stated Aspirin. How simultaneously ironic and apt. “You’re looking lovely today, blue really is your colour!”
Regina looked down at her red and black ensemble and raised a brow at Maria. She shook her head despairingly as if to say “I know, I know…” and shrugged.
Just in time, a bottle full of pale blue liquid appeared on the table. One which Regina knew (from just one mild experience. One, you understand) sent the patient into a deep sleep and ridded the body of all alcohol for an hour. Maria looked at it as though it was her anointed saviour.
“Hikari? Would you do me a favour and try some? I… would like to make sure it tastes right.”
Hikari wordlessly unscrewed the cap and downed the whole thing. So Regina watched with mild interest as she withered and landed in a seeming puddle on the dining room chair. Unfortunately, Hikari neither drooled or snored while sleeping, so it was not nearly as entertaining, but the image of the prim and proper secretary was simply too good to not note down and/or draw. Which was precisely what Maria did.
“Shouldn't we do something about it?”
“Absolutely. Put up a warning sign for the next poor soul(s) and run like hell. She thought I was a former male suitor of hers…”
Regina chuckled and leaned back further in her seat. “Well… we do have one slight problem. I’ve just witnessed what I personally consider to be one of the most entertaining examples of drunken behaviour in my lifetime.”
Maria glared.
“Not to mention you screaming “I’m an assassin you know” at the top of your lungs.”
It was quite interesting to see how far the Nocturne's eyes could actually widen. “Oh dear Windsinger. Whoops.”
“You did,” Regina reassured her. “Now, as understandable as your behaviour was, I am caught with a bit of a conundrum as to whether I should share this little episode with the rest of the residents. Dawn Jr and Ava, for example, would almost certainly be interested to hear of it.”
The look of horror Maria gave her was followed by whatever remaining colour there was draining from her face. “You wouldn’t.”
“Oh, I would,” Regina sipped her just-conjured tea. “That is, unless you promise me something.”
“What?”
“Spread the photos of her as much as you can.”
Maria stared at her, trying to see if she was joking, and when it was established that Regina, shockingly, was not, she gave her a single nod. “...fine.”
"Sagittarius, here you are," a cheerful voice he most definitely did not feel like hearing today sounded as an arm slung around his shoulder.
Of all people, it was Zia, and she looked deceptively calm. Sagittarius couldn't tell what she was thinking. Annoyed he’d let the Summershall scholar sneak up on her, the Spiral made to throw her off his shoulders.
"I do apologise, Summershall, but I have no time for tomfoolery today. I have important matters to attend to," he declared, intent on getting as far away from the nuisance as possible. Even if he had to lie about his schedule.
To his surprise, however, as he attempted to shrug off Zia's arm, the irritant didn’t budge.
Instead she tightened her grip. How was she so strong?
"Now, Sagittarius, you’ll have plenty of time to go skirt-chasing later… Well, no, actually, we need to talk about that too, but my point is, you’re clearing your schedule right now, because you and I need to have a little chat," she said, her voice keeping that cheerful tone so evenly that it felt downright unnerving.
Zia was a book nerd and a bore, but for all her more shifty tendencies never attempted to project strength or menace, even while fighting. No, when she did fight, she would resort to underhanded tricks and distract others from what she was doing.
This Zia, however, had something scary about her. Zia was never cheerful.
Was she going to threaten him? How quaint. Nonetheless, it appeared she was at last showing some spine, so perhaps it was worth indulging her this once.
"… Very well, lead the way then."
~0~
Sagittarius was a bit surprised Zia had taken him to her room — she was ordinarily very defensive of it, and the only other dragon whom he knew had set foot in it was Regina.What he did know, however, was that he was most likely not being allowed in there as a mark of trust. Nor was it flirting, because Zia famously did not like him.
The room very much belied Zia's scholarly tendencies — open books and hastily scribbled notes were littered all over the desk (and part of the floor), the shelves were stocked with a vast collection of literature ranging from the academic to fantasy novels (how shallow), a rough hand-drawn map of the Sunbeam Ruins littered with annotations covered one wall and, most imposingly, a chemist’s set took the place of honour on the desk, while various vials and reagents were scattered all over the room, most labeled with random squiggles he couldn’t make heads nor tail of. He glanced at the room again - clearly she couldn't be bothered to neaten the place, if the covers heaped in a short stack on top of the unmade bed and the half-wilted Patio Rose bouquet in the vase was any indication.
And yet, playing the part of a gracious host, Zia sat him down on one of her armchairs and got some tea ready, though she didn't bother adding milk and sugar. A quick sniff told him why.
"Cindermint tea?"
"One of Polaris' recipes," she answered back, tone still carefree, far from the undercurrent of menace he’d felt earlier as she poured herself some Dandelion Seed tea.
"The Ice mage?" Sagittarius asked, thinking back about the time he tried to woo her. Then again, she hadn't been very impressive, and he didn't know why he had bothered with her in the first place. Maybe Hydrangea would be a better catch?
"Yes, her. This is why you’re here. Look, Sagittarius, you don’t like me, and to be quite frank that’s entirely mutual. But this whole… thing you have with constantly going on about your superiority needs to stop.”
"Excuse me-!" he began, but to his surprise Zia threw him the darkest glare he’d ever seen on the Skydancer, and he felt himself almost forced to shut up. Much like earlier, it was like Zia was suddenly channeling someone else entirely. No... come to think of it, he had heard of this side of her before, but he had dismissed it on the grounds that she was too young and timid. Clearly, he was wrong.
"No. For once, you are going to shut up and listen. Since you refuse to listen to the Summershall, then you are going to listen to the Blazelight, and believe me when I say I have been angered enough that you’ve forced me to do this."
"… Are you accusing me of—"
"I said shut up."
Someone scraped their armchair on the ground, as though prepared to run for it, and Sagittarius belatedly realised it was him.
He refused to let himself be intimidated by this tiny Skydancer, of all dragons. He sat himself back down and had another sip of tea, acting nonchalant, but he knew it was too late. The damage was done, and he’d shown a hint of submissiveness where he should not have flinched.
"Good. Now, I was hoping you’d mature a little and we wouldn’t have to do this, but after the Polaris incident, you haven’t really left me with that much choice. You can chafe all you want, you can complain, you can contest my decisions, and that is completely fine, but you have been too stubborn to listen to anyone else's opinions. Regina was very clear with me about this: if I didn’t get you to fall in line, you're going to get yourself killed, and some of us with you. I’d like to think you wouldn’t do something as stupid as ruining a carefully-thought out plan to raid a Serthis base - which we took days to come up with - again, but it’s been three days since then and you’ve not even apologised once to anyone. So, we’re doing this the hard way."
From a shelf next to her, she produced a small vial filled with slightly yellowish transparent liquid and menacingly held it up to the light.
"Miracle dew. It’s commonly said that a drop a day will help the most barren branch blossom anew."
"…I fail to see how a mere fertiliser is relevant to the current situation." he scowled.
Zia gave him a thin smile with no levity to it. "It is no fertiliser. The reason they say that is because this particular poison is most famous for being used by branch families with shaky standing to prevent the main line from having heirs, thus allowing their own branches to flourish anew. You see, a drop a day for a few weeks is enough to keep a dragon sterile for the rest of their life. Tasteless, odourless, and completely undetectable."
There was a beat of silence, as Sagittarius came to the horrifying implication of what he’d just been told and looked at his teacup. Had Cindermint tea always been this colour? The cup was black porcelain with gold inlay on the outside; he’d thought it was just evidence of Zia's poor taste in tableware, but was it to mask that it’d been tampered with? Zia was from a cadet branch... so she would have reason to have it on her... and like Ava, she did have a penchant for resorting to underhanded tactics... to... get... rid... of... enemies...
And Zia was just smiling at him, his sudden panic obviously a source of great entertainment to her. A small ball of light pinged off his head, and he didn't know whether that was deliberate. How irritatingly clever of her.
"Don’t worry, I’d never use such a thing on the Observatory members, but on an unrelated note please do remember that the Observatory dragons take all our meals together, we have rotating cooking duties, and Magnolia likes me far more than she does you and is willing to close an eye. Something to think about, hmm?"
"You…" the gemologist began, apoplectic and ready to start yelling at her, but sudden awareness of a growing stomachache stopped him in his tracks.
"And now that I’ve stalled for long enough, while I’d never make you drink something quite as heinous as that, I did slip a fast-acting laxative in your tea. If you leave right now, you should be able to make it with time to spare, but better not take any risks, yes?"
"Why you-"
His building tirade, however, was interrupted by another stomach cramp, more painful than the previous one. Clearly, the irritating Skydancer hadn’t been bluffing. So he swallowed his pride and his rage, and headed for the door without another word.
"Oh, and Regina has received plenty of complaints about you harassing the female dragons, so this is also an official reminder to keep your skirt-chasing and misogyny to a minimum, or else you might find yourself a little short-staffed for a fair amount of time!" he heard behind him.
And while he was sure that part must be a misunderstanding, rumours that were disseminated by others jealous of his success, there was no time to answer. Which he knew Zia knew, and she’d timed it perfectly so that she wouldn’t have to handle a civilised discussion.
Later on, when he calmed down, he’d probably acknowledge that Zia had finally acted with the cleverness and decisiveness demanded by her position, if not the decorum.
But right now, he had rage to seethe on and a need to rush to the restroom.
~0~
Throwing aside the covers as she heard the door close, Polaris allowed herself a little cat stretch after having maintained her cramped position for entirely too long. Similarly, Ankaa poked her head out from under the bed while Annemarie stuck theirs out from behind the bookshelf and joined the rest on the king-sized bed."You were right," Zia admitted, dipping her head in Ankaa's direction. "He didn’t even glance twice at the covers."
"Told you he’d just assume you were a mess and go with it. Would it kill you to dust the place a little? I think I got some in my eye," Marie coughed.
"I do, just not behind the bookshelf," was the flat response she received as the illusion disguising the pristine condition of the flowers faded.
Hmm. Well, putting their resident irritant towards females down like that was possibly the most entertaining thing they'd seen all week! Anne would also absolutely call Zia out as a horrid liar should she try to pretend she did not enjoy doing it.
“What’s in that bottle?” Ava asked, stepping out from inside the cupboard and motioning to the vial she’d waved threateningly at Sagittarius earlier. "Because I know for certain miracle dew doesn't exist."
Naturally, this confirmed that Ava was highly shady, but nobody paid her any mind. It was an open secret at this point anyway, but she didn't know how much Ava dabbled in poisons.
Zia tossed the little vial at Polaris as everyone crowded around. "Hmm... you can try and tell me. I know most of my collection is probably alien to all of you except Polaris and Ava, but I can guarantee you that you can figure this one out."
"Where’d the whole miracle dew thing even come from then?"
Ankaa smirked.
"Dawn Jr came up with it after she heard we would be telling Sagittarius off. Something about getting revenge on him for attempting to forcibly bring her on a date even though she's married. She would join, but she has a meeting with Elio with actual important business to discuss."
Sloshing the vial a little bit, Polaris noticed it was heavier and a little thicker than water, and it left a small film on the clear glass.
"Most likely some kind of oil? Is it safe to-"
"Yes. Go ahead. Just don't spill it, otherwise it would be a nightmare to clean."
"You sound like you've spilt it before."
"I haven't," Zia immediately denied. "I'm just saying that oil stains are difficult to get rid off, and considering what's in this..."
So Annemarie reached out, pulled out the cork, and Marie gave the contents a small sniff while being very careful not to spill it. To their collective surprise, a strong floral fragrance with hints of grass and fiery spice immediately assaulted all of their nostrils. Come to think of it... it was slightly familiar, but... from where?
"Your fragrant grass is messing with my nose," Polaris muttered. It wasn't a criticism, it was just that she was too tired with Sagittarius' nonsense to snark. So, Zia waved an arm, and the grass and falling petals repositioned themselves in the corner of her room.
"That’s Heart Rose and… Cindermint extract? Jasmine and Day Lilies in there too, I think," Marie answered. Then Anne narrowed her eyes. "Is that the real product, or are the scents are just there to hide it?"
For once, Zia actually looked a little surprised.
"You actually got all four of the main extracts straight away. That's not all, though."
"And what reward do I get?"
"I might consider lending you one of my rarer perfumes for the gala."
With that, Marie got back to the bottle and inhaled a deeper breath in.
"The subtle fragrant smell is definitely Red Emperor Tulip for the citrusy and main honey scents, but it’s too cloying for an extract, so it’s essential oil… And the other smells have the same kind of consistency to them, so they’re probably also essential oils. First off, either Smolderpetal or Speckled Fire Lily because that isn't just Cindermint."
"Eh?" Ankaa questioned, but by then Marie was on a roll.
"Cindermint is fiery, not spicy, and there's a slight difference. No, it's Speckled Fire Lily because it's cleaner and deeper, Smolderpetal would be slightly smoky. Peppery, warm and slightly fruity... is that… Cinnamon? What else... that's definitely Speckled Petunia and I can see how that would complement your fragrant grass. There's Daisies in there, but I'm not sure if that's coming from the bottle or the Flowerfall. Hmm... there's a hint of... let's see, heady, nectarous and tinged with vanilla, so definitely Juneflower... The last one… some kind of wood? I don’t think I can single it out… Wait, no, it’s sandalwood?"
"You are somehow completely correct, but... missed two."
"I... did?" But... Hmm. "Is the first one just extract from the fragrant dried grass swirling around you? No wonder I didn't detect it, I thought it was from the swirl."
Zia looked down. True enough, the grass had sneakily migrated back over to her. "Well, yes, and the second?"
Fruity, a bit like freshly-cut green grass... and if she had to guess, it was a yellow oil for it to give the liquid that colour...
"Olive oil. Extra virgin," Polaris finally deduced as everyone stared at her. "What? I cook."
"How did you guess all of them?" Zia acknowledged with a small smile.
"I do have a good memory for smells, you know. It comes with being an airhead, plenty of space to breathe in there,” Marie smirked, causing Anne to give her head a little bonk as Polaris snorted. "Does this mean I can borrow free perfume then?"
“Not yet. You’ve… somehow told me all the fragrant components, but you haven’t actually told me what it is."
Oh. Right, that.
Marie tried to wrack her brains fast concerning what any of these ingredients could do. Sure, drinking that would give anyone a stomachache, but that didn’t seem very efficient given its pungency. Olive oil was used in certain soaps, so instead, it seemed much more like some kind of body… care…
Marie gave the bottle another quick sniff, and frowned as she stoppered it.
"Did you threaten Sagittarius with your conditioner?”
"Ex-conditioner technically, I swapped to another conditioner temporarily while I wait for Milvina to restock on Speckled Fire Lily essential oil," Zia picked up a slightly larger vial and held that one up. "They grow very close to active magma vents, so it's not easy to collect them, but fortunately they're in season so I should be able to purchase more soon."
Anne caught Polaris' supremely amused look, and they all (save Ava) instantly broke down laughing. The unconscious smile on Ava's face spoke volumes, though.
"Sagittarius ran away from your conditioner!"
It was a couple of minutes before they slowly began to regain their breath, which was in Marie's mind entirely justified. The image of a panicked, indignant Sagittarius fleeing for fear of being emasculated by Zia's surprisingly excellent mane care regime would be burned into her mind for a long while.
And so, Zia tossed her a vial labelled "Ocean Perfume" with handwritten scribbles detailing its top notes, heart notes, and base notes in that order. "Don't forget to return it to me after the Brightshine Jubilee gala, yes?"
"Got it," Marie grinned.
"So..." Regina grimaced as she watched Bellatrix conjure expensive fabric out of thin air for Nella to sew into apparel for others to wear, and waved a claw in their general direction. "Won't that crash the market?"
"Theoretically? Yes," Ava answered, "but only if there's excess that she doesn't use and she just gives it out for free. If she charges high prices, then that's fine, but it's still flooding the market with high quality fabric at virtually zero cost."
"But she's technically giving it to Nella, and Nella's the one charging the prices, so..."
"I'll see to it that it's only used for the apparel."
"...thanks."
~0~
"Well, that was a disaster," Elio observed."Ya think?" his older sister snarked, devoid of all of the craziness she usually obfuscated. Clearly, it had taken a toll on her. "The Peahat invasion actually wasn't my fault."
"So what did you do, then?" Regina flopped onto Dawn Jr's couch and eyed her because that look definitely screamed that she was guilty of something.
"I actually didn't do anything. I'm serious. Although whoever ordered that particular species of rhododendrons should probably be investigated. They contain grayanotoxins. If the honey was also from rhododendrons... that might be a problem too."
"Gray... what?"
"Hallucinogens."
"And you didn't say this earlier?"
"I didn't see what they were until it was too late!" Dawn Jr protested. Then she paused. "Actually, it might also be because I'm immune."
Regina was about to rebuke her, but decided not to press further in favour of focusing on her growing alarm over her sudden hacking coughs.
"Clearly, you were affected too, but it was delayed. Let's get you to the hospital wing."
~0~
"She'll recover," Spindrift reassured them. "Fortunately, it's mild enough that she isn't suffering any hallucinations.""This is mild?" Regina coughed.
In response, the tiny Fae just gestured around the room.
"...o- okay, that's fair."
The entire hospital wing was filled with dragons from the gala, presumably because of the giant bouquet with the rhododendrons smack in the center of the function room, as well as someone accidentally using mad honey in the canapés because of mislabelling. Elio could see the normally prim and proper Laurel muttering feverishly about passing increasingly strange bills (which he quickly tuned out of), and even Magnolia was twitching though clearly fast asleep. The strangest thing about this, however, was the curtained enclosure in the corner of the room.
Dawn Jr made a questioning motion, and Spindrift just let out a sigh, so she inched closer. As it turned out, it wasn't a curtained enclosure at all, but rather one enclosure and one adjoining screen which hid those receiving treatment from view. Although... rather than treating those with milder symptoms at the small healer station near the doors, Polaris was doing so from an armchair by the actual enclosure. And bewilderingly enough, there was a thick book of runes and an ancient text on the desk next to her, and a long rounded stick at her tail.
"Where- *cough* where are Makora and Honeyleaf?"
"Makora is making the appropriate remedies with Annemarie and Harvest right now," Spindrift answered. "Honeyleaf is doing a supply run. Apparently she trusts me? Also, Polaris is here because all our other healers are out of Zenith's Light, and she apparently knows healing magic."
Ah, speak of the devil. Makora, Annemarie and Harvest strode into the room, each pulling a trolley of glass bottles filled with varying shades of red liquid - presumably different concentrations of anti-delirium potions. Polaris looked at them like they were sent by the Icewarden himself, and she slumped back into her chair once she cast a minor healing spell on Victoria (the Summershall, not the bard; Vicky the bard was fast asleep on another bed while cuddling her weapon / harp, fortunately someone had been prudent enough to remove the astral iron strings).
"What happened?" Dawn Jr asked her sister, who made a small noise of frustration.
"I... got attacked. I was about to ask to see you, actually," she sighed, joining them by Regina's bed while Makora, Annemarie and Harvest all left to get more trolleys of the stuff. "It's about Zia."
Dawn Jr suppressed a groan. Zia was highly intelligent, but that unfortunately meant that her common sense was... slightly lacking, especially when too focused on something, and therefore during these moments she had a tendency to do stupid things. As in, really stupid things.
She doubted anyone would forget the exploding magic soap incident, after all.
Not that she was speaking ill of her sister's descendant.
She was thinking ill of her, and that was entirely permissible.
"What did- did she do?" Regina asked, then grimaced as another cough escaped her. Spindrift sighed.
"So, we all know Zia has a sweet tooth," he began once he was sure she wanted to know, but was quickly cut off by a loud, girlish scream from within the closed-off area.
With a long sigh and a small eye-roll, Polaris picked up the stick in one deft motion, and the Blazelights watched in stunned amazement as the Archmage poked it through the curtains and started viciously prodding whoever was screaming in there.
"QUIET!" Polaris bellowed; in fact, this was the loudest she had ever spoken while in the Clan. "QUIET DOWN NOW! DON'T MAKE ME COME IN THERE!" Once she was done (and a loud yelp of pain had sounded in there), there was finally blessed silence, and Polaris meandered over to the potion trolley.
The only noise Elio managed to make at this turn of events was a fairly astounded "Err..."
Polaris didn't even look up from her investigation as she studied five repurposed standard transparent wine bottles filled with near-black liquid, presumably trying to find the strongest of the lot. To the untrained eye, they were indistinguishable, but Makora had likely written the concentrations on the labels. "She's been doing it since last night and all morning, it's becoming ridiculous. Did you know that I've had to go in there twice to stop her from swallowing her own tongue?"
Dawn Jr blinked in spite of herself; she had already set aside her mask of insanity because she could never have come up with this. "You mean... wha?"
"Aha!" Polaris grabbed a bottle and began uncapping it. "One glass, fill to the line..."
"Who the hell was that?" Elio demanded, obviously alarmed. "You've been prodding someone since last night? With that thing? You could've impaled them!"
The Archmage, looking supremely unperturbed, began to measure out the quantity of liquid she needed. It was fairly easy, given its colour, although it was around the viscousness of nectar. Flatly, she answered, "Zia."
It immediately became apparent to Dawn Jr that Polaris' decision to vacate the armchair was not for her own benefit, so much as the eldest Blazelight's. To wit, she collapsed into the cushy chair. "What."
"As I was saying, we all know Zia has a sweet tooth, and we all know Zia likes eating hors d'oeuvres," Spindrift answered hesitatingly. "So during the party... she ate half the canapés."
"She didn't," Regina groaned as Elio sat on a freshly-conjured armchair made of snow (Victoria looked suspiciously like she had known).
"She did," Polaris answered grimly. She hadn't been at the gala, presumably because she had been deciphering and translating the ancient text on her desk (though Regina highly suspected her laziness had struck again and it really doubled as an excuse). To be fair, it was quite long, and she appeared to be a quarter of the way through. "She promptly became delirious and was under the impression that her balls of light and candles were out to get her. She then made a break for it into the forest where she was found half an hour later cowering behind a shrub and trying to fend off everyone who tried to get her with magic."
"I was one of those dragons," Victoria volunteered reluctantly. "But hey, she did take out the aggressively affectionate Peahats, I'd count that as a bonus."
"Please, anything but the Peahats," Elio shivered, throwing a glare at Dawn Jr, who forced herself onto her feet again and went back to Regina's side.. "How did they even get out?"
"That was Nelumbo, actually. He... somehow broke the fence, and I think it was something in his cologne that made them get into such a frenzy... the good news is that I have an excuse to up the defenses around the Peahats, the bad news is that they'll be multiplying soon..."
Spindrift grimaced. "Why do you even keep the Peahats around?"
"They're endangered, for one, and secondly I was thinking of using them on Dusk because they make surprisingly useful weapons in siege warfare as an attacking party-"
Perhaps it was a sign that Regina had been in charge of the Eternal Star Observatory for too long, or a sign that she was thoroughly jaded at this point, but the only thing that really surprised her about the situation was that she had been found after only half an hour. Or maybe that was the wrong part to be surprised about because a dragon throwing fireballs around everywhere was rather conspicuous, and Polaris had said "found" rather than "retrieved".
Since the conversation was quickly derailing into the usefulness of Peahats as a strategic resource, Regina cleared her throat on purpose this time and asked, "Recommended treatment?"
"Anti-delirium potions brewed by Makora, the strongest concentration she can offer, three a day for a week, possibly more given the vast quantities of mad honey ingested. Highly concentrated Blue Entoloma extract at night and bed rest after that," Polaris recapped the bottle and answered in a business-like tone Regina assumed she reserved for arguing with stuffy dragons who fancied themselves erudites. "If it's any consolation, this isn't the worst case I've seen. The Academia is... hmm, how should I put this? ...nevermind."
The blue and white Skydancer looked like she dearly wished to sit down and lament about Zia's condition for the next few hours, but she had a dose to administer and so she proceeded to do her duty as the Blazelights simultaneously shared a look.
"...I can only say that I'm glad it was Zia and not Mother," Elio finally divulged, glancing at Dawn Sr, who was awake and staring at them from two beds over. Spindrift quickly went to tend to her, but Regina blinked up at him.
"Why?"
"Because if it were Mother, instead of just the area around her being burned down, it would have been the entire forest. Think of the paperwork," he shuddered.
"Ah. F- *cough* fair."
~0~
"Drink up," Spindrift told her.Laurel eyed the shotglass filled with transparent liquid and raised an eyebrow.
"Anti-delirium potion," he explained, pointing to the shelf where bottles of the stuff were arranged by shade, from nearly-transparent (what was presumably in her glass) to a bright crimson red, all the way to five bottles filled with dark sienna liquid at the very end. "Fortunately, you're mostly healed up, and you're one of the first to recover - well, not counting Regina. Congratulations."
Truth. She downed it and washed it down with water, then asked in bewilderment, "What even happened? I only remember being at the gala, then feeling slightly dizzy and fainting."
"The flowers made people hallucinate. Oh, and apparently so did the canapés." Truth.
"...please tell me I didn't do anything embarrassing."
The Fae laughed. Actually laughed. Which was already unusual for a Fae, but she would take what she could get. "Compared to some people? Not too bad, actually. You were just constantly talking about passing increasingly strange bills. You're... not actually going to make it mandatory to own unicorns and force dragons to braid their manes and dye them rainbow on a daily basis, right?"
Truth. Well, delirious her was clearly... something else. "...of course not. By not bad... you mean...?"
Spindrift pointed. "She didn't eat the honey, but she was still near the bouquet, and I had to knock her unconscious with Dunewine Manticore venom before she started screaming bloody murder and killed us all with a dessert spoon."
Well, that was totally not concerning at all. She glanced over to Ava, currently unconscious and chained to the bed, and just blinked. Everything so far was true, which meant...
"And that's not even the worst," Regina agreed, and Laurel craned her neck to the left to see her give a tired wave.
"Eh?"
"Fortunately, Regina wasn't hallucinating, but the pollen did give her a nasty cough, so she's confined here now."
"It's been terrible so far," the red and black Skydancer twitched, and coughed some more.
"The cough, or the hospital wing?"
Her only response was to reach for her tail pouch and take out a pair of earplugs. "You'll need it."
Truth. Oh no. "Do I want to know?"
"Zia is... not faring very well," was all Polaris grumbled before she stood to get the appropriate dose for Nelumbo, snoring away in a corner of the room.
Laurel gulped. Never mind. That sounded false, if only because that was an understatement. She... didn't think she wanted to know.
~0~
"Oh, good, you're mostly healed," an indistinct voice cheerfully enthused as her blurry vision swam in front of her eyes. "Open your mouth and swallow."She blindly obeyed as an oddly savoury sweet (though slightly bitter) liquid she didn't recognise got poured into her mouth. She was thirsty, anyway, and she didn't think they were trying to poison her. It was... not bad, actually. Around the consistency of water and easy to swallow.
"Feeling better?" the voice resolved itself as her vision sharpened. Green Fae... green Fae... what's his name?
"Better," she croaked, feeling oddly mad about having been caught in such a moment of weakness. She was safe, wasn't she?
"Good," a second, distinctly female voice grumbled somewhere to her right. "Better than an attempted murder spree, anyway."
"Attempted... murder spree?"
"Well, yeah, you grabbed a spoon from the hors d'oeuvres bar and tried to stab people with it," the Fae answered patiently. "How are you feeling?"
"Mostly fine. A bit blur." She raised a claw in front of herself.
Sight... still good. Five things. Her claw. The small green Fae. Beds with railings, white sheets, pillows, and some with others on them. A curtained-off section, in the corner. A blue and white Skydancer of average build. Touch. The bedding sheets. The railing of her own bed. The Fae checking her pulse. Oddly enough, chains around her limbs. Hearing. ...silence, actually. No, wait, the Skydancer was standing up. The sound of glass bottles clinking against each other. The Fae placing an empty shotglass onto a desk. Smell. Nothing much, actually. The room was oddly sterile. Taste. Much the same, except the slightly bitter aftertaste of liquid on her tongue still remained. Hmm.
"...what happened?"
The Fae (right, Spindrift) quickly explained the situation to her. "You're... mostly okay, but you're going to remain here for the next few days while we monitor your condition. The potion causes drowsiness, so get some rest."
She did. The last thing she heard was the Skydancer chuckling to herself about "the mighty Ava Starling acting like such a..." and then she was out.
~0~
"Any luck with Zia?""It's... not smooth sailing, but we're getting there," Polaris answered as she sorted the new brews from Makora. "Although at this rate, we might run out of fresh herbal plantains. They don't grow very quickly. Fortunately, Cleansing Elixirs are really easy to come by."
Regina accepted this with an unsteady nod. She had been discharged two days prior and was now taking it upon herself to assist with the others' recovery. Fortunately, almost everyone had recovered, the exceptions being Zia and Seraph (though he was almost there). At some point, Polaris had switched from the most potent potions to somewhere around the mid-range, and she was currently deciding between two bottles.
"What's the difference?"
"Hmm? Oh. This one's slightly stronger than that one," Polaris tapped the glass with a claw. "Her condition has definitely improved, but... I'll go with the stronger one, in case."
So, she let her do her job, but then Polaris was prevented from doing just that by the sudden arrival of a harassed and highly irritated looking Annemarie. Marie's pale blue mane was flying around her face, and while Anne looked more accustomed to running around, she hardly looked pleased either.
"Regina?" Anne greeted testily. "It's Soko, he's gotten into a fight with Ritto, and I don't want to bother Archmage Everwinter because-"
"-because I'm busy, yeah," Polaris distractedly poured the madder-coloured liquid into a shotglass and waved Regina off.
Regina just frowned. "Out of interest... how many places have you been searching for me?"
"Err... Your office, the dormitories, the Observatory, the research lab, and now here."
Roughly translated: Half the entire Clan. Typical of Anne to be thorough, but that also meant that they had been fighting for a good while.
"What are they fighting about?"
"Okay, technically it's a spar, but by the time I left it looked like it was getting too serious to be a simple spar so I was worried and-" Marie babbled, and Regina held up a claw.
"Who's winning?"
Annemarie paused. "Err... sorry, what?"
"Who's winning?" Regina repeated calmly.
"Well, I'm not sure, I've been looking for you for the past five minutes and..."
"Spindrift, take over my post, I'm going to do damage control," Polaris sighed and shoved the shotglass into his claws before nodding her head in their direction. Spindrift glanced down in alarm as the liquid sloshed, but fortunately none of it spilled, and he hurried off to administer the dose.
"Now, where are they?"
~0~
The first sign that they were nearby was the immediate drop in temperature near the training room. Regina glanced at Polaris."Hmm. Definitely still fighting. Soko is winning, but barely, and I can sense their magic in the air. I don't sense Ritto's raw magic, but I can sense him reshaping Soko's. Clever," she finally pronounced. "In a fight of attrition, Ritto will win because he can use Soko's magic against him. In a straight fight, Ritto relies on manipulating existing ice, and he just so happens to have experience manipulating ice conjured by others because Toji provides him with ice for his sculptures. If he wanted to, he could probably used the ice on Soko's body to impale him."
They turned the corner to see that the entire cavern had been iced over, and Polaris' prediction was actually correct. Ritto had surrounded himself in a shield made of ice, while the white bits on Soko were flickering. He was tiring fast, but So was blasting everything indiscriminately while the rest of Polaris' adopted kids were sitting on the sidelines and attempting to mitigate the blast. Judging from the lance impaled in the wall above Toji's head, this was not exactly a success.
And in the corner was poor Eurus (who had been looking slightly horrified this whole time) calling out as if to the Windsinger.
“Ah, Regina, Archmage! Please remind your children that such open gambling would set a bad example on the rest of the Clan!"
“Gambling?” asked Regina, looking somewhat confused at the room’s otherwise jovial mood. “What about?”
“They've been gambling about the outcome of this battle!” he cried, indignant.
“Have they now?” Regina drawled, running a seemingly disappointed look over all of them. Toji, Daikan and Shosetsu looked suitably contrite while Shokan, Kanro and Riyuki all stayed as impassively blank as possible, but she could swear that… hmm.
And then her gaze landed on a straight-backed, defiant Taisetsu. She then turned to Polaris.
“The usual wager?” Polaris asked her adopted daughter. There was definitely a tinge of amusement to her voice.
“Yep, no one’s dared to raise. So far, only Toji's bet on Ritto winning, everyone else pointed to Soko,” Taisetsu detailed, making Toji break into peals of cackling laughter and provoking an indignant strangled sound from Eurus. She couldn’t help but feel sympathy for the poor Gaoler.
"Seriously? How one-sided. Twenty on Ritto," Regina announced, much to Eurus' consternation.
"I bet on Soko, Anne bet on Ritto, so either way we win," Annemarie answered. Polaris just hummed.
"Make that ten on Ritto as well."
And so, with an increasingly scandalised look from Eurus, Polaris produced some shaved ice in bowls and started passing them around, mostly because Regina had run out of popcorn.
Part 2
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