Imprisoned Spirit [MadEmperor]

[DragonSong]

She found her hackles raising slightly at the casual way he ordered her around, but she just dipped into another curtsy and moved to edge passed him down the hall.

She glanced back over her shoulder, catching Zephyr's eye and giving a subtle nod to show she understood before ducking back around the corner that led to the stairwell.

[MadEmperor]

Eryck watched her leave before turning back to Zephyr. He headed for the door to his mother's room and was surprised when the spirit stood in his way. "Surely my sister couldn't have meant for you to keep me out as well?"

Zephyr tried to look apologetic. "I apologize, my lord, but she was very clear that no--uh--men could be allowed in." He hoped to throw the man off his footing by citing feminine issues.

[DragonSong]

Eryck looked properly horrified, though he was seemingly then caught between suspicion and disgust. "Well—that—I mean—regardless," he blustered, "My mother needs her medicinal tea. It's quite vital."

[MadEmperor]

"I'm sure the lady's maid can find the medicinal herb. Surely you aren't the only one who knows what to use and how much." Zephyr looked suitably dubious. Though, perhaps prodding at Eryck's lie wasn't the best choice.

[DragonSong]

Asta held her breath from where she was listening just behind the corner, feeling her flight or fight reflex start to rise to the surface.

Eryck's expression went stony. "And just what exactly are you insinuating, Auster?"

[MadEmperor]

"Only that such a menial task is beneath you, good sir. Men like you and I are tied up with more important duties." Zephyr said lofty, touching Asta with a small breeze  as he said "tied up."

"Not that caring for a loved one is in any way unimportant, we simply have better ways of helping." He didn't know if Eryck would buy that after being goaded with implications.

[DragonSong]

Asta popped her head back around the corner and gave Zephyr a desperate sort of look, showing her empty hands—what did he expect her to use?—as Eryck continued blusterung about his need to see his mother and sister.

Then, Asta remembered her guest room. She debating tiptoeing her way back, then quickly decided that was too risky. She dropped down into her mouse form instead and scurried down the hall and under the crack of the door, where she quickly took human form again and hurried to yank the curtain cords from their anchors in the wall.

[MadEmperor]

As soon as Asta disappeared into her room, Zephyr stepped aside in surrender. Eryck grumbled something impolite and walked past the spirit. Suddenly, Zephyr gave him a chop to the back of the neck. He caught the nobleman before he hit the ground.

"So much for the civil way," he said, carrying him across to the guest rooms. Using wind magic, he dragged the discarded dress with him.

"He was getting too suspicious." He put Eryck in a chair and retrieved a pillowcase, with which he gagged him.

[DragonSong]

Asta nodded in understanding, hurrying forward with her pilfered curtain cords. "How long will he be out?" she asked as she quickly sat him up in the sitting chair by her fireplace--grunting with the effort--then bound his hands behind it.

She darted for her discarded dress and quickly wriggled back into the shift, but left the rest; in her opinion, the Connlaothian shift and its underskirt covered as much as she'd seen on a good deal of Serenian women, and she saw no need to lace herself back into that wretched corset.

"Do we know if Keryn and the Dowager Countess heard anything?" This could be impactful to what they were deliberating.

[MadEmperor]

"He won't be out long. Maybe fifteen minutes." Zephyr double-checked her knotwork and nodded in satisfaction. It should hold a physically unimposing nobleman like Eryck.

After Asta got dressed, he answered, "They may have heard his strange insistence about handling the so-called medicine personally. He's far too egotistical for that."

[DragonSong]

Asta worried her lip. "Should we...bring him to the dowager's rooms? I'm worried one of the servants might walk in on...all this."

She waved between herself, Zephyr, and the unconscious and bound count.

[MadEmperor]

Zephyr tilted his head for a moment. "Good point. You should go first and explain the situation. Seeing this without warning could be very upsetting." With bestial strength, he hoisted the chair and nodded for her to get the door.


The noblewomen stared incredulously at Eryck, who was trussed up like he had been kidnapped. They clearly hadn't considered just how to contain him until they could turn him over or they came up with some alternative.

"Was that really necessary, Lord Auster?" Keryn asked, setting aside the obvious question of how "Caelan" carried her brother in with such ease.

Zephyr gave them a gentle, apologetic look. "Apologies. I didn't have much time to think, so I just acted."

[DragonSong]

Asta nodded, not really sure what else she could do to back him up. "I--I know your decision must be painful," she said softly, "but have you come to an agreement on what must be done?"

The sooner the better, with the current count bound and unconscious.

Ralora and her daughter exchanged heavy looks. "I...will ask him to relinquish his title, and he will be sent to the temple," the dowager countess said after a long moment. "If he does not wish to comply, then..."

[MadEmperor]

Zephyr knew it had to be their choice, but that felt like too light a punishment to him. "We can discuss that when he wakes."

"I feel I must ask... What's to stop him from continuing to falsely accuse people of magic for his own ends?"

Keryn gave him an odd look. "Surely you don't think the temple allows such behavior. Need I remind you these are holy men, not an angry mob?"

Zephyr caught himself. "No, of course not." They only whip up the mobs to do the dirty work for them. "I meant no disrespect."

[DragonSong]

Asta seemed to be similarly restraining herself—but she knew it wasn't her decision to make. She moved a little closer to Zephyr, that same hunted-animal instinct that had kept her alive for most of her life raising its head and chirping that there was safety in numbers.

Windstrider, who had remained on Keryn's shoulder, cheeped and began grooming the loose hair that fell around her face, which earned a tiny smile from both her and her mother.

"Should we...still be here? When he wakes?" Asta asked her companion quietly.

It seemed it was a moot question though, because Eryck began to stir.

[MadEmperor]

"It looks like our time to prepare is up." Zephyr stepped back, deciding to let him see family first.

Eryck's eyes shot open and he immediately started trying to wriggle free, groaning in an effort to speak.

"For once in your life, brother, you are going to listen when we speak. If you can do that, then we can discuss what it is we are going to do with you. Understood?" Keryn said resolutely.

Eryck nodded slowly and settled down, but his eyes were both furious and disbelieving. When the full scope of what they knew was laid out, his gag was removed, with a warning not to yell. 

[DragonSong]

"And where is your proof?" the count demanded, though even he seemed to know it was mostly bluster. "What will you do, Mother? Take me to the courts? On the word of these strangers?" He glared at Zephyr and Asta. "Strangers who have already lied to us."

Asta tensed. How—what did he know?

"That is not your cousin, is she Lord Auster?"

[MadEmperor]

Zephyr tensed in much the same way. There was no way Eryck knew who or what they were, but clearly he knew, or thought he knew, something. "I don't know what you're implying?" His confusion and disbelief was entirely genuine.

[DragonSong]

"You don't, hm?" Eryck sneered, disbelieving. "Tell me, did your sainted father truly never speak of Miss Abigail Blythe?"

It was Ralora's turn to tense as the name of her old lady's maid was spoken. She had fallen out of touch soon after Hermes' departure; she had only heard that she'd taken ill and her family had moved her closer to Uthlyn for better treatment.

"Eryck, you cannot deflect from what this conversation is about," she said firmly, but the count just glared at her.

"I can when you choose to take the word of proven liars over my own."

[MadEmperor]

Zephyr's confusion deepened. What did Abigail have to do with anything?

"We have the disinheritance papers, brother." Keryn was firm. It didn't even matter if Auster was lying about his cousin. "And we have proof that you've been keeping mother sick with hawthorn that you purchased before she ever became ill. You were slowly killing her, brother. All to present her suspicions about father's death as delusion."

Zephyr looked at Asta, really looked at her, his mouth drying. He had felt a connection to her from the beginning, but this--this was impossible. His kind couldn't... could they?