The Storm [M][DragonSong]

[Lowen Thorn]

Lola smiled back, deciding to drop it. Not the whole truth, but enough. She didn't seem too keen to elaborate, nor did he see any for her too.

"One more thing," he said through a heavy breath. "Do you know anything about Lord Arvin of Serendipity?"

[DragonSong]

Her expression turned a little regretful. "No, I don't," she murmured.

The truth. The amulet wouldn't change.

Her eyes suddenly lit with and idea and she mused allowed. "But...I might know a way to find out."

[Lowen Thorn]

Lola had been on the edge of his seat for that answer, but his eyes softened at her response. Damn. Well, there was no need in blaming the girl, but it didn't hurt to try.

Wait. A way to find out? His eyes perked up once more.

"Really? Well I am all ears," he said softly, looking at their hands. The woman still had her hand over his, and his still on the pendant. He shot her a quick smile and said, "Oh, you can let go now, unless you just wanted to hold hands all night."

[DragonSong]

Ilia actually blushed, just a bit, and she pulled her hand back perhaps just slightly more quickly than was entirely necessary.

"Right. Well." She cleared her throat as she tucked the pendant back under her nightdress and gathered her dressing gown around her shoulders again. Twyla twined around her ankles, purring.

She glanced toward the door. "We'll need to head back up to my room. Watch your step; Papa is a very light sleeper."

[Lowen Thorn]

"Oh, you don't have to worry about that," he said in an almost bragging tone.

And he was right. The man was quite accustomed to sneaking around, given the line of work he had self-righteously assigned to himself. And with the current onset of the storm, sneaking past her adopted father should be no trouble at all.

"Lead the way."

[DragonSong]

She nodded and quickly bent to scoop Twyla up into her arms. "Follow me then," she murmured as she slipped back to the stairs and up, heading for the hall where her room and the guest room were located.

[Lowen Thorn]

His curiosity only growing, he eagerly followed the woman back up the stairs and into the hall. He couldn't help but smile to himself as he did, because there was just something about this girl. She was the first person in a long time he had taken in an interest in that he wasn't planning to kill in a long, long while.

Clever girl, he thought again as he tiptoed through the house.

[DragonSong]

Perhaps sensing his eyes on her, Ilia found herself walking a little more carefully, very aware of the way her nightdress cling and the slight hunch to her shoulders.

She tried to put it from her mind as she ushered Lola to her door, shooing him inside. "Give me a few moments, I should probably get dressed," she murmured as she followed him in, snatching a walking gown from her wardrobe and disappearing behind a privacy curtain. "Twyla, watch the door, will you?"

The kitten mewed assent and padded over to sit on the bed, eyes on the door as she purred quietly.

[Lowen Thorn]

Lola remained momentarily silent while the woman went to change, adverting his attention to Twyla as she hummed a comforting purr. He stepped over, quietly, to the bed and took a seat next to the little kitten, rubbing his fingers behind her ears.

"How long have you had this little beauty?" he asked in a whisper.

[DragonSong]

"Oh, since I was very young." Ilia poked her head out from behind the curtain to smile at the two of them. "She's such a darling, isn't she?"

[Lowen Thorn]

"She really is," he replied, almost too happily as he continued to pet Twyla. "I've always loved animals. They are so much better than people."

[DragonSong]

"I often feel the same," Ilia chuckled, emerging fully from behind the curtain. She eyed the two of them, Twyla rolled onto her back and purring up a storm.

"You are supposed to be our guard, little miss," she said mock sternly. The cat just blinked at her, still purring.

[Lowen Thorn]

As the kitten rolled to her back, Lola's fingers adjusted and scratched her belly. With a wry smile, he tilted his head at the woman. "This little cutie a guard?" he asked gently, completely unaware of Myla's full being.

After another moment, he rose to his feet. "So, what are we doing in here? You said you might know a way for me to find Arvin?"

[DragonSong]

"Mhm." Ilia rolled her eyes at the cat, but gave her a quick scritch under the chin before straightening up and crossing to the hearth set into the far wall. "Mind you, it's a bit of a long shot, but it's really the only thing I can think of."

She stepped up onto the marble facade of the hearth and held her hand out to him, beckoning. "Come on, stand as close to me as you can manage."

[Lowen Thorn]

"O-Okay," he muttered, suddenly becoming a bit nervous. Not nervous about what was to happen next, but by standing as close to her as he could without coming off as inappropriate. Given him and his mother's history, he never wanted to show any type of disrespect to a woman. Ever.

"Sure," he said, slowly walking up to her. As she requested, he stood as close as he could, looking in the other direction so he didn't breathe directly on her. "How's this?"

[DragonSong]

She gave a little noise that in a less delicate person would have been called a snort. "I'm not glass, Damien, you aren't going to break me," she chuckled, rolling her eyes.

Nevertheless, he was close enough. Eyes glinting, Ilia reached up and traced a finger along the marble molding, following a pattern of ivy carved into the hearth.

There were three soft, successive clicks, then a soft groaning and sliding as the stone beneath them sunk into the floor-- then spun. The entire hearth turned into the wall slowly, clicking away, until it snapped into place on the other side with a soft rumble.

Ilia winced, stepping off the hearth into the hidden room connected to her bedchamber. "Damn. Hope Papa didn't hear that," she muttered.

The room was much smaller than her bedchamber, but it was covered nearly floor to ceiling on all four walls with books. A small desk-like apparatus that looked suspiciously like an alchemy station was tucked into one corner, with a chair slid into place beside it.

[Lowen Thorn]

Lola almost lost his balance as the ground below them started sinking into the floor. Almost.

After regaining his wit, he watched the walls around him, admittedly in awe, as they slid into the hidden chamber. When they got there, he circled around, several times, looking at the piles of books until his eyes rested on the corner desk.

His lost were lost of him for a few moments, but when he did speak, it had nothing to do with the room.

"No one has called me Damien in a long, long time."

[DragonSong]

"Oh." She paused and looked back to him, eyebrows raised slightly. "Oh. Um, sorry. That-- that is your name, isn't it?" It was how he'd introduced himself when they'd been holding the pendant.

[Lowen Thorn]

"Oh!"

His attention wavered from the room, and went back to Ilia. "Oh, yes. My name is Damien, you are right. I was more just.. thinking out loud," he tried to explain. "It's just that everyone that knows me, the real me, call me Lola. Only my mother called me Damien."

He took a few steps away from her, and glanced about the room once more, trying to steer the subject in another direction. "So what exactly are we looking for?"

[DragonSong]

"Oh. Sorry. I'll...call you that, then." Ilia cleared her throat and stepped around him toward her work table.

"I'm going to try to cast a tracking spell. You don't happen to have anything of Arvin's, do you?" While it was possible to do the spell without a personal artifact, that would make it exponentially more difficult.