Kestrad's tales of birdy Keep misadventures

[Kestrad]

So while the site was out I wrote some stuff to entertain myself.
_

"Hey, Lachesis, don't you think you might have just a bit of a problem?" Lorelei asked from the doorway to her friend's room.

Lachesis glanced up from where she was writing at her desk. "Oh hey, Lorelei," she said, waving for her friend to come in. "I have no idea what you're talking about." A male adult quail amagnae had been sleeping nestled in her hair; it woke now, chirping indignantly and pecking her.

"Oh hush," Lachesis said. "I'm almost done with this essay. Besides, it would be rude to ignore Lorelei. Go back to sleep." She reached up, fondly scritching the bird's head, and rose up from her seat.

Lorelei watched all this happen, not having moved from her spot in the doorway. A bird nesting in Lachesis's hair was far from an uncommon occurrence, but that was hardly the only quail in the room. In one corner, a female adult dozed, a half-dozen or so quail hatchlings nestled in her feathers. In the next corner, a flock of at least twenty hatchlings were playing an elaborate game of hide-and-seek crossed with tag, running in and out from under Lachesis's furniture. On the windowsill above the bed, another ten or so were snuggling with Lachesis's cinersi Calida. Two adults and five hatchlings were splashing around happily in a small washbasin. A multitude of hatchlings were simply milling about every which way, chasing specks of dust and each other. Lorelei wasn't sure she could set foot in her friend's room without accidentally stepping on one.

Lachesis made her way over to Lorelei, sending adorable fluffballs scattering every which way around her. "What's up, Lorelei?"

Lorelei glanced around the room at the huge abundance of quails and simply raised an eyebrow.

Lachesis grinned. "Aren't they the cutest?"

Lorelei groaned. Clearly this was one of those cases where having birds overrode her friend's good sense. "But don't you think having this many is, you know, just a little bit excessive? Especially if they're all going to live in your room?"

Lachesis considered for a brief moment, then shook her head. "They're so cute! Besides, they all cuddle with me at night and it's so warm, and the instant an insect steps inside my room it becomes a birdie snack. They've also found 30 gold and several pieces of jewelry I thought I'd lost forever."

Lorelei shook her head. "You're crazy." She paused, thinking. "How did you get this many, anyway?"

"I uh, may or may not have sold all the things I was holding onto as winter solstice presents," Lachesis said, shrugging. A few quail chicks ran up to her, begging for treats, and Lachesis bent to scoop them up, holding them on the crook of one arm as she reached into her robes to produce a packet of berries. "Wanna feed them?" she asked, holding the packet out to Lorelei. Lorelei nodded and took the packet. The quail chicks chirped eagerly, extending their necks and gaping beaks toward her as she shook some berries out.

"It's not fair that Aderyn gets all the fun," Lachesis said as Lorelei dropped berries into the chicks' waiting mouths. Suddenly most of the hatchlings in the room noticed that treats were being handed out and ran over, all chirping and demanding to be fed. Lachesis put the chicks she'd been holding down, producing more berries out of her robes. "When I get my alchemist robes, I'm going to start my own amagnae farm on the side," she continued.

"You can't just run an amagnae farm as a side thing," Lorelei pointed out, but Lachesis ignored her. Lorelei sighed. Her friend was clearly beyond help at the moment. It was probably best to hope that her cuteness-fogged brain would clear up in a week. Well, more likely a month. Possibly close to a year. Lorelei sighed again, remembering Lachesis's similar situation with wild amagnae hatchlings many years ago, pygmy phoenixes a few years ago, and dismots the year after that. The wild amagnae, thank the gods, had left to nest in the forest and didn't visit. Most of the pygmy phoenix army had eventually decided to wander out to explore the world on their own, much to Lachesis's sorrow, but they came back from time to time. The dismots eventually decided they liked the Keep's dedicated area for them more, but they also occasionally wandered back into her room. Visiting Lachesis at the wrong time still sometimes meant instant rainbow-colored death by voracious chickens.

Lorelei shuddered at that particular memory. Well, at least quail were cute. Definitely better-natured than wild amagnae. She supposed that was probably the best thing she could hope for, considering, and returned to feeding cute hatchlings.

[Kestrad]

Lorelei had been about to leave her room to set up a hilarious prank involving a goat, a dismot, and two professors, when a rather bedraggled-looking bird zipped straight at her. "Okay no not the face," Lorelei yelped, swatting in front of her.

The velox chirped indignantly, dodging her flailing arms, and landed on her shoulder. When Lorelei turned to glance at the bird, it waved the note bound to its leg in her face. Lorelei lifted an eyebrow and set her prank supplies down to take the note.

The note was very simple, clearly hastily scrawled, with only one word on it - "HELP". Lorelei looked over the paper for a long while, trying to figure out if this was some sort of elaborate prank or puzzle, and glanced back over at the velox. "Who is this from?"

The bird fluffed itself, sending a few tufts of brightly-colored down flying. Down that definitely wasn't velox-colored. Lorelei got the distinct impression that, were the bird capable, it would be rolling its eyes. "Lachesis finally found a way to have too many birds, at a time, I take it?"

The velox seemed to hesitate for a moment, then nodded. Lorelei sighed and shoved her materials aside. "Of course. Tell her I'll be there soon."

*

Lorelei stepped towards Lachesis's room, her tienko curled around her neck. His tail swished excitedly, probably at the thought of getting to chase birds around, occasionally lashing her in the face. Lorelei winced as he whipped her again and pulled him down from his perch.

"Remember," she said, placing him on the floor. "No actually hurting the birds, or there will probably be a very large number of angry phoenixes and dismots harassing you for a long time, and I won't help you with them. Got it?"

The tienko mewed and dashed into Lachesis's room, which Lorelei took to be an affirmation. She hoped it was, anyway. A second later, the tienko dashed out again, mewling indignantly as a surprising number of amagnae pecked, scratched, whipped, or otherwise harried him as they chased him back out into the corridor. He jumped into the the relative safety of Lorelei's arms, hissing at the birds as they retreated at the sight of another magi.

"What even--" Lorelei began, then trailed off as she couldn't figure out how to finish her sentence. She would expect such behavior from wild amagnae, but the majority of the birds harassing her tienko had been quail and wugu amagnae - close to the friendliest birds imaginable. Taking a deep breath, she stepped into her friend's doorway.

"Lorelei!" Lachesis called the instant Lorelei walked into her line of sight. "Thank goodness you're here!" She leapt towards the door, spilling various amagnae everywhere. They chirped in protest, fluttering and hissing in protest as they caught sight of the tienko and Lachesis didn't instantly eject it from her room. Lachesis herself looked almost as bedraggled as her birds did during molting season, her robes in disarray, stray feathers sticking out from everywhere. There were dark bags under her eyes - not an uncommon occurrence during exam season, but that didn't usually result in desperate appeals for help.

"So...what's the problem?" Lorelei asked. Usually a sea of birds visiting merely delighted her friend.

"Well..." Lachesis said. "You know how wugu amagnae like finding eggs and brooding them?"

Lorelei nodded. "Go on."

Lachesis gestured to a particularly bird-covered corner of her room. "This is not a type of egg I expected them to find. Go on, birds, show Lorelei - I promise she won't try to steal it."

Reluctantly, the wugu amagnae and the crowd of quails they'd recruited peeled away from whatever they'd been brooding. Lorelei gasped as she recognized the large gold and black-swirled egg. "That's...but..."

"Yeah, an eldritch dragon egg," Lachesis confirmed, as the birds began covering the egg again.

"So why am I not literally losing my mind with fear?" Lorelei demanded.

Lachesis sighed. "I put a fear shield around it so my birds and I didn't go crazy. My dismots found the egg - and I'm pretty sure I don't want to know how - and brought it in to show me. Now, dismots don't understand the meaning of fear, but I certainly do, and so do the amagnae who were with me at the time. I found out the hard way that they still know telekinesis like their wild cousins, they're just less good at it. Also, birds aren't great at controlling their bowels at the best of times, and this was definitely not the best of times." Lachesis shuddered at the memory. "Putting the fear shield on the egg seemed like the best idea at the time, especially because I probably wasn't thinking straight."

"And then your wugu amagnae, being no longer afraid of the egg, decided to adopt it," Lorelei finished. Lachesis nodded, and Lorelei sighed. "And why can't you just take the egg from them?"

"They're being extremely not cooperative about it," Lachesis explained. "I keep trying to tell them that they won't be able to handle the dragon hatchling, let alone a grown one. They keep telling me that it's their baby now, and to let the creatures who've raised broods before handle this one."

Lorelei cocked her head. "Have you considered casting a fear shield on yourself, and then lifting the one on your egg?"

"I have," Lachesis said. She shuddered again. "All that bird poop again...anyway, I just straight up don't have enough magic to maintain both shields at once. I can barely keep this one running sustainably as is, and only because Calida's letting me borrow her power at all times. It turns out eldritch dragon fear is very potent."

Lorelei groaned. "I could cast one on you, but then I'd be terrified once the shield on the egg gets removed, and if you can't maintain two shields at once, I probably can't either. And how do we even deal with the egg, assuming you do manage to pry it from your birds? It's not like how to deal with eldritch dragon eggs is common knowledge."

"It's not like how to deal with most dragon eggs is common knowledge," Lachesis amended, then paused. "Wait..."

The two magi looked at each other. "Karz," both of them chorused at the same time. That guy loved dragons and had an almost encyclopedic knowledge of how to deal with them.

"I'll go get him," Lorelei told her friend. "You sit tight."

*

Karzar'ill didn't need much convincing to go help Lachesis. Getting to see an eldritch dragon egg! That wasn't a thing he got to do every day! And also she was his friend, and friends helped each other when their creatures did bafflingly silly things.

After getting to her room and confirming that yes, that was indeed an eldritch dragon egg, Karz rubbed at his temples as he tried to formulate a helpful plan.

"So," he began. "Dragons are immune to dragonfear, right? I can probably convince one of my dragon friends to help, but getting the egg to a place where we can hand it off is going to be a problem."

Lachesis nodded. "We could all maintain one fear shield each, on ourselves or each other, but then there won't be one on the egg. Taking it through the Keep halls without a shield is probably a terrible idea."

Lorelei glanced between her friends. "Well, there's an obvious solution to that, isn't there?" Karz and Lachesis both stared at her blankly, and she sighed with exasperation. "We can only all shield each other in the first place if someone can maintain two shields for a short period. For example, I shove a shield on Lachesis, Karz shoves a shield on both me and himself, Lachesis dismisses the one around the egg and then immediately puts one on me or Karz so he can dismiss one and not kill himself trying to keep two up at the same time."

"So..." Lachesis seemed to be catching on. "Once the birds have run away from the egg, I should go grab it and, instead of putting a new shield around you or Karz, put it around the egg again. Then we can drop our personal shields and also transport the egg safely."

"Yup," Lorelei said, nodding. "How's that sound, Karz? I think you have to be the guy - most of my creatures are hanging out in Voltar, where it's nice and warm."

"And most of my birds are too far to be called without breaking my concentration on this shield," Lachesis added.

Karz sighed. "I think I should be able to manage it, if my wyverns are feeling cooperative." He closed his eyes, quietly sorting through the ever-present magical strands binding him and his companions. First he tugged on one thread, shining with brilliant black fire. Five hundred miles away, in the cold depths of Arkene, his black ice dragon Kepesk roared in response.

"I need your help, friend," Karz whispered, and showed Kepesk the eldritch dragon egg. The ice dragon snorted slightly in response, and Karz frowned. "Rhasadilara has other business to worry about right now," he replied. "Or would you rather I only ever called on the void dragons for help?"

Kepesk roared again and launched himself into the air. Karz grinned and turned to his next set of threads.
__

oops I meant to hit preview not submit this is still incomplete aaaaaaah

[Foleo]

HOOGH. GOOD. I LOVE THIS.

what amazing worldbuilding??? i especially like the tidbits on magic limitation and how creatures lend their magic to their magi.

and of course.....all the faves together is such a Good Read i love the interactions between all three of em

[Kestrad]

Ahh Foleo your comments are always so nice I'm super pleased you liked the bits about magic limitation because it was a detail I worried over Like, a fear shield seems like the sort of thing that should be trivial but on the other hand eldritch dragons literally drive most people insane, so this idea was born!
___

The next bond Karz reached for was a multicolored rope, woven from a myriad of jeweled threads. He could reach to each wyvern in his flock as an individual, but as a flock they functioned best, and their bond was strongest together. He called for them now and they answered, filling the air in a few short minutes with small, flapping lizards. Several dropped to perch on him, nuzzling his face, making little whistling chirps as he stroked them absently. Others found roosts on various nooks in the furniture, resulting in some small squabbles if they were already occupied by birds.

As the wyverns all settled, Karz felt a prickle along his spine as they turned their attention towards him, channeling their magic through their bond for him to borrow. The sudden influx of power at his fingertips made his hands tingle, itching to cast. "I'm ready," he told his friends.

"Just a second," Lorelei said from somewhere near the floor. He glanced down. In the time that he'd been communicating with his creatures, Lachesis and Lorelei had been busy as well. Lachesis stood as close to the nest as her birds would let her. They'd drawn a neat circle in chalk on the ground around Karz, and then one each for themselves. Karz recognized standard symbols for magic amplification drawn within each circle - Lorelei was finishing up the last one for her own. None of this was strictly necessary for the shields - spells mostly ran on intent, anyway - but this would help them conserve magic and keep the shields running for longer.

"Good?" Karz asked, as Lorelei straightened.

"Yeah," Lorelei replied, tossing her chalk onto Lachesis's desk and dusting her robes off. "Ready, Lach?" Lachesis nodded, fingers twisting in the folds of her robes. "All right, then," Lorelei said, and pointed at her friend. As she cast her spell, a transparent bubble, almost invisible except for its shining outline, materialized around Lachesis, absorbing the chalk circle and symbols. It contracted quickly until it closed around the magi and disappeared.

"Your turn," Lorelei called to Karz. Karz nodded and finally drew upon the power his wyverns offered him. It flowed through him in a rush, filling his entire body with an exhilarating tide of energy. He couldn't help grinning as he channeled the magic into bubbles around himself and Lorelei. They too contracted - Karz could feel the gentle warmth as the magic settled against his skin.

"Lachesis, go!" Lorelei prompted. Lachesis bit her lip, raising an arm, and made a shooing motion. Almost at once, birds scattered every which way, squawking in alarm, feathers flying every which way as they scattered in sudden, intense fear of the egg they'd been brooding. Lachesis dashed towards the egg, only to stumble to a stop as terrified birds launched themselves at her, seeking refuge.

"Augh, no, don't," Lachesis squeaked, as bird after bird crashed clumsily into her. She lifted an arm before her, clearly suppressing the urge to swat at them. More and more birds landed on her wherever they could find a purchase, seemingly doing their best to blend into her cloak, covering her in white splatters. "Stop!" Lachesis cried. "Go away, get away from me!"

"Lachesis," Karz gasped. As soon as the shield on the egg was gone, he could feel its effect pounding at the ones he'd put on himself and Lorelei. The strain on his power was enormous - even with his wyverns helping, he could feel both his reserves and theirs draining fast. The spell had long progressed past the point of easy sustainability into that state all but the most powerful magi knew and dreaded, where it felt like he had run several miles and was still going. "Hurry," he urged, as sweat dripped into his eyes. "I'm not going to last much longer."

Lachesis bit her lip and stumbled forward. For a moment she hesitated, glancing at the birds all around her, and then she reached out and grabbed the egg, cradling it to her chest. Lorelei gasped at the strain the sudden proximity put on the shield she was maintaining. Lachesis waved the egg about her, sending birds scattering every which way.

"Lachesis!" Karz croaked. Black spots were dancing at the edge of his vision now, his lungs burning as he struggled to draw in enough breath.

Then suddenly the pressure against his shield eased. Lachesis hugged the egg to herself once more, aggressively shooing away her birds. Sighing with relief, Karz dropped the shields. Now that he no longer had to focus on maintaining the spell, it seemed like a perfect time to collapse and sleep for a million years. He stumbled backwards, trying to find a place relatively free of bird poop before his knees buckled. A pair of arms reached out from behind to hold him steady.

"No collapsing yet," Lorelei said sternly. She grabbed his hand, closing her eyes. A small flood of warmth ran up his arm before she moved away again, panting slightly. Karz felt much less on the edge of collapse with that. He raised his eyebrow at her.

"Energy transfer," Lorelei said in response to his implied question. "The first thing you learn as a healer."

"Ah," Karz replied. He glanced over at Lachesis, whose robes were more streaked with white than not. He'd never been much good at reading birds, but her amagnae flock was looking decidedly contrite. A dusk cinersi - probably Calida - had flown in at some point and was perched on her shoulder now. It was definitely scolding the other birds. Most of his wyvern flock had flown off once they weren't needed anymore, presumably to gorge themselves. The rest seemed content to snooze where they were. Karz made a note to bring all of them a nice treat in the very near future.

"Come on," Lorelei called to Lachesis. "We've got an egg to get rid of."

Lachesis grimaced. "Can I at least change, first?" She glanced around, taking stock of her room. It was as covered in bird droppings as she was. "...on second thought, never mind."

Lachesis wrapped the egg with a bit of scrap cloth and they ventured out together to the Keep's dedicated dragon landing pad. Fortunately, handing off the egg to Kepesk passed without incident. Karz had expected to attract some stares on their way, but very few people gave them a second glance. He supposed that it was probably far more common than he thought for magi to walk around in messy robes after their companions had accidents. All the same, he was glad his dragon companions were generally dependable, sensible creatures. Kepesk took the egg and flew off, far enough that Lachesis could simply let the link to her spell on it drop, and that was that.

Later, as Lorelei helped Lachesis clean her room, with Karz resting on her newly magically scoured couch, Lorelei coughed. "I hate to say this," she said, in a tone that clearly showed she meant no such thing, "but I did say that you had a bird problem."

Lachesis chucked a brush at Lorelei. Lorelei shrugged, and dumped her bucket of water on Lachesis.

"Think I should intervene?" Karz asked Calida, who was perched beside him. He didn't much want to. It was awfully comfortable here, with the cinersi gently supplementing his magic in a steady, warm stream. A few of the quails had somehow contrived to bring him a small plateful of sandwiches, and chattered at him if he stopped nibbling at them.

Calida shook her head, chirping. Karz could swear she sounded resigned, as if this was a common occurrence. Well then. He shrugged and helped himself to another sandwich.
__
I forgot to make Karz's tail factor into the story or his actions at all...we'll just pretend that this is an AU where he found a way to remove it, I guess? orz

[Kestrad]

I saw the description of the flaming comets and couldn't resist writing this

__

The candles were burning low, her latest essay had been carefully blotted dry, and everything else was finally in order for the night. Lachesis was cleaning her teeth, getting ready to sleep, when Lorelei burst into her room, not even bothering to knock. "Lachesis! You'll never guess what I found!"

Lachesis jumped at the sudden disturbance, spitting out a mouthful of water. "Gods, Lorelei! It's almost midnight. What is it?" In the corner, her dusk cinersi Calida chattered sleepily, annoyed at being woken from her doze, and at anything that would make Lachesis not get enough sleep. Various other birds roosting in the room opened one beady eye to glare at Lorelei without lifting their heads.

"Oh, hush," Lorelei shushed the birds. "I think this is worth losing some sleep over. I was helping out at the Artificer's Association today, and look what they just found!" She shoved a lightly singed parchment at Lachesis.

Lachesis took the parchment and read it, lifting an eyebrow at the contents. "This is a frankly irresponsible amount of saltpeter," she noted. "I'd accuse you of trying to make a bomb, but none of the other components needed for that are included. What am I looking at, exactly?"

Lorelei grinned. Lachesis got the distinct impression that she was trying very hard not to jump up and down with excitement. "It's the ritual for making their newest creature! Don't you want to try it and see how it turns out?"

Lachesis didn't answer immediately, instead calling upon a small bit of magic as she traced her finger over some of the words on the parchment, making them glow, before handing it pointedly back to Lorelei.

"Aw, come on, Lach," Lorelei pouted as she glanced over the highlighted words. The creation of Odan Galopin's Flaming Comet is restricted to high ranking members of the Association. "We're both no longer students. Well, okay, we're no longer fresh students," she amended, when Lachesis snorted. "We've each already graduated once. Besides, you've dabbled in golemancy before and I heard Kieran say you were considering transferring your studies to spell and ritual creation--"

"That was an offhand comment!" Lachesis exclaimed, cutting Lorelei off. "I wasn't serious!" She glanced reproachfully at her friend. "Besides, none of those things make me qualified to attempt a high level artificer ritual. How did you even get your hands on this, anyway?"

Lorelei glanced around the room. "Well," she said. "You know how the artificers tend to have a lot of...mishaps in their line of work."

"Yeah?" Lachesis asked.

"So, being a healer who specifically is a fire magi, I recently got assigned to the rotation of healers on-call for the Artificer's Association, meaning I got called in earlier to help when someone managed to spray a bunch of fireballs everywhere or something." Lorelei paused. "Well, I assume that's what happened - the room was full of scorch marks. Anyway, no one was too badly hurt, fortunately - there were some nasty burns, but nothing we couldn't fix - so we helped clean up a bit once everyone was attended to."

"Let me guess," Lachesis sighed. "You found this ritual in the burnt room you were helping to clean." She tilted her head as a thought occurred to her. "Don't the artificers usually do their experiments in special labs? One where they specifically scorch-proof the walls and it's designed to release every anti-fire spell in existence if any fire touches the walls or someone yells - or signs - or even just thinks hard enough about the activation word?"

"Yup!" Lorelei replied. "So presumably they just messed up a ritual that's not supposed to actually cause that much damage."

"And what makes you think we won't mess it up?" Lachesis asked. "When the professionals apparently did?"

"Well, they didn't think there was enough of a chance to, or they would have used their special lab." Lorelei grinned, in a distinctly bear-like manner. "So, are you going to help me with this or not? If you won't, I'm sure Donovan would be all over this."

Lachesis shuddered. Lorelei was right, this sort of thing was right up Donovan's alley, except he'd been rejected from the Artificer's Association twice already for setting everything on fire during his exam. The exam materials were specifically spelled to not do that. At least if she helped Lorelei and something went wrong, they were a bit less likely to burn down a whole wing of the Keep.

She was curious, too, just what creature the artificers had cooked up. It would be neat to be one of the very first magi to have a new type of companion, just this once. And the ritual really couldn't be too bad, if the artificers hadn't used their explosion containment lab, could it? "Dang it, Lorelei," Lachesis said, mind made up against her better judgement. "Fine, I'll help you with the ritual."

Lorelei's grin grew wider. She'd clearly known exactly what sort of reaction she'd get from Lachesis. "Excellent! In that case, I convinced Tirian to give me access to the storeroom with meteor iron - I told him I wanted to do some experiments with starmetals' abilities to store healing spells--"

"Not now," Lachesis interrupted. "It's well past midnight and I've got class in the morning. Come to the potions labs after lunch and we'll talk."

"Fine, fine," Lorelei grumbled, and left, presumably to also get some sleep. Lachesis shook her head as she finally crawled into bed.

"Wonder where Lorelei gets all that energy from," she muttered to Calida. The cinersi chirped sleepily, not bothering to lift her head from under her wing.

"I'm trying to sleep, calm your feathers," Lachesis grumbled, closing her eyes, wondering what exactly she'd gotten herself into.

__

to be continued

[Foleo]

KESTRAD IM SOBBING I CAME BACK TO MS ON A WHIM AND SAW THAT YOU UPDATED............IT'S SO GOOD. I LOVE THE TIDBIT ABOUT DONOVAN, WHAT A GOOD DISASTER MAN

[Kestrad]

Foleo!!!!



It's so good to see you! I also came back to MS on a whim and couldn't resist writing a thing when I saw the comet creature description. How've you been?!

(I headcanon that Disaster Man Donovan actually now has a comfy consulting position with the Artificer's Guild where they send him tools they've fireproofed and he shows them exactly how quickly he can set said tools on fire, intentionally or otherwise Meanwhile Kieran probably drops in to watch from time to time and makes snide remarks that are occasionally super useful.)

[Foleo]

I'm doing good!!! I'm glad MS and our OCs still hold such a dear place in our hearts :')

(you did it you turned my heart to jelly, theres so much dopamine going through my body from this one paragraph, i am so glad our boys can finally be happy)

[Foleo]

EDIT: gdi double post :(

[Kestrad]

Fortunately for Lachesis, her mentor generally trusted her to not do anything too stupid. So when she asked for a large amount of saltpeter to help her friend with an experiment, Alchemist Raden merely sighed and approved her request with only a cursory glance at the ritual and a halfhearted reminder to be careful. Just in case, after gathering her ingredients into her pack, she also went and borrowed a desgolo from the alchemy department. The insect, giant from years and years of feeding on student mishaps, shuffled beside her as they headed to the potions lab where she was supposed to meet Lorelei. Despite its graceful movements, Lachesis still found the desgolo unsettling. Too many legs, she supposed, and those eyes - that gaze was renowned for stripping everyone bare. Even without secrets to hide, she found it highly uncomfortable.

As they waited for Lorelei, the desgolo leaned in to sniff where Calida perched on Lachesis's shoulder, earning an irate squawk from the cinersi. "Don't eat her magic," Lachesis warned. "You're here only to eat any excess energy if we mess up the ritual, got it? If everything goes well, I've got peacock phoenix feathers for you to munch on instead."

The desgolo moved away from Calida, straightening at her words. Lachesis could swear its color brightened as well. Any magical creature's castoffs worked as desgolo bribes, but peacock phoenix feathers seemed to be a favorite among things she had easy access to.

Lorelei arrived almost immediately after the standard lunch period ended, panting slightly, as if she'd sprinted all the way from the mess hall. Knowing her, she probably had. "You look prepared," she said by way of greeting, eyeing the desgolo. "I take it you obtained all the ingredients we need?"

"Sure did," Lachesis said, patting her backpack. "I also booked one of the potions testing rooms, which is warded to contain blasts." Calida chirped, right in her ear, and she winced. "Calida still thinks this is a stupid idea," she added.

"If you think it's a stupid idea, why are you here?" Lorelei asked the cinersi.

Lachesis turned to look at her companion, who spread her wings in a shrug. "I suspect she wants to make sure we don't cause too much damage, given that talking us out of it hasn't worked," she explained.

"Fair enough," Lorelei replied. "But enough talking! Let's get started already!"

Lachesis led the way to the testing room, carefully shutting the door behind them and activating all the wards, while Lorelei set to work drawing the ritual containment circle. Once that was done, they etched symbols for the ritual on the ground inside the circle, getting into an argument about how big the symbols should be to fit. Lorelei won, but just as Lachesis had pointed out, her symbols were too big. Lachesis's were too small. Finally, chagrined, they managed to get the size right when Calida flew overhead and chirped directions at them.

Once the symbols were etched properly, it was time to draw them with saltpeter. The two magi each took half and carefully spread a thin, even stream over the lines they'd drawn, careful not to step on their previous work. Once that was done, Lorelei placed a small chunk of meteor iron at every intersection, while Lachesis arranged the other spell components in the center. Phoenix eggshells around a small crystalwing gem, on a large pile of phoenix down, first encircled by magnetite, then encircled by shards from special fire-resistant glass. She had to be careful not to cut herself while arranging the glass. Blood was a potent and finicky spell component, and introducing it where it wasn't supposed to be tended to have unexpected results. Bleeding on the glass would most likely force them to restart the entire ritual.

"Are we ready?" Lorelei asked, placing the last piece of meteor iron.

"I think so," Lachesis replied, sweeping a stray bit of down back onto its pile before straightening back up.

"Then let's get started." Lorelei nodded at Calida and the desgolo, who moved into a far corner of the room to observe. Then, just in case, the two magi called up magical shields over themselves. The spell was favored for experimental settings, designed to be quick to cast and requiring no continued concentration. It was focused on absorbing the worst damage in the case of an accident, leaving its subjects alive but not necessarily uninjured.

Lachesis and Lorelei took up positions on opposite sides of the circle, and then, on a count of three, simultaneously reached down and lit the saltpeter on fire. The fire spread clockwise, filling in their runes, until the entire circle blazed. Lachesis wiped sweat from her brow at the sudden heat, seeing Lorelei do the same across from her. Fortunately, the fire died down quickly, leaving behind a glowing outline.

"So far, so good," Lorelei observed. "Ready for the next part?"

Lachesis nodded. The ritual was almost done - it was tedious to set up, but nothing about it seemed actively dangerous. Still, there was no indication of what they were supposed to end up with, and the scorch marks that had accompanied it were reasons for continuing caution.

The two magi began stepping forward, hands extended before them as if pushing something, willing the circle to contract. It receded before them, quickly at first, then immediately slowing down. Lachesis felt sweat dripping down her back as she focused. The saltpeter and meteor iron had imbued the spell with a lot of energy, and compressing it all into the center until it overlapped with the glass circle took all her magical will and concentration.

"Almost there," Lorelei gasped, as the circle inched inward before them, closing in on the components. It hovered at the edge of the glass circle, almost as if being repelled, before finally settling over it.

The sensation was like getting the last piece of a complicated mechanism to click into place. The resistance against her will dissipated and Lachesis stumbled, barely avoiding scuffing the circle. Across from her, Lorelei overcorrected herself, falling backwards. Now that the strenuous task was over, Lachesis noticed her head pounding as she panted, sweat streaming down her face. She hurriedly stepped back to avoid dripping on the spell. "Are you okay?" she asked, as soon as her breathing no longer felt so ragged.

"I'm fine," Lorelei said, still on the ground. "Look!"

Before the two magi, the glass blazed with light as it absorbed the energy, before the light spread to the magnetite circle, and then the down nest. The components shone brighter and brighter, until Lachesis had to look away - and at that moment, everything exploded.

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I like magi worldbuilding a little too much, okay