The Keep, Ebon Askavi, Kaeleer, Just Before Sundown (Kaeleeran Time)

[glacial_witch]

Karla tried not to look nervous as the great doors to the Dark Altar opened in front of her. Inside, Opal witchlights danced in sconces, forming a path for her to follow, rather than illuminating what was within. This was very different than her Birthright Ceremony, where she'd had the company of her parents and several other children, where a

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[offers_choices]

Lucivar glanced around and shook his head. For all that Karla was feeling the loneliness of the Offering itself, Lucivar was marveling at how many people were packing in this antechamber. His own Offering had been a silent affair. Most Eyriens had a feast waiting for them at the camps when they came back from the altar.

Not the bastard half-breed, for all that he came back wearing a Jewel darker than most had seen in generations.

[blondecanary]

"Hey, big guy." Dinah was perched on the back of the couch now, next to Morton. "Something wrong?" Gaaah, no, say there wasn't!

[offers_choices]

"Hmm? Oh, hey Dinah."

Look, Dinah, you weren't a threat! You were able to get close to Lucivar without his hackles rising.

"Just brooding. This--" he jerked his chin to gesture to the room around him "--was pretty different from my own Offering."

[blondecanary]

Yay! ... wait, right? Oh, sure, yay. Threats to Lucivar weren't the sparring-fighting-active kind. They were the things that got under his skin and made him wary.

"Different how?" Dinah asked, curious. "Was it an Eyrien ceremony, or something?"

[offers_choices]

"Or something," Lucivar said shortly. A moment of stony silence later, he relented a little. "In Tereille. Where the Keep's Registry had been altered to deny paternity. Eyrien bastards get little respect. Half-breeds get none at all."

[blondecanary]

Dinah took a minute to get her reaction to that under control, then said carefully, "I'm glad you're not there any more." After a second, she added, "And you know everyone here respects you. Likes you, even. Even the ones that are scared to death of you."

[offers_choices]

"The liking ebbs and flows," Lucivar snarked. "Though the respect I'll take." He looked around, spotted a decanter of something, and floated it over. "I'm also glad I'm not there anymore. After so many centuries of kneeling and serving, it's nice to take a free breath. To find witches I respect."

[blondecanary]

"Enh. That's their problem. Some people just have trouble being, uh. Given choices." Dinah grinned, then sobered a little. "Can't imagine it. Not really. I just... wasn't there anyone cool there, in all that time? Any witch who wasn't part of that nightmare system?"

[offers_choices]

"My brother," Lucivar said shortly. He wasn't fond of talking about Terreille or Daemon. Especially not with him still being in the Twisted Kingdom and Lucivar being the one who shoved him there. "A few others here and there. Few worth mentioning and most of them dead and gone."

[blondecanary]

Dinah bit her lip, not wanting to make his abrupt mood change any worse. Stupid question! Okay, so...

"May I please have some of the wine too? Maybe?" She could TK her own glass to herself, but it wasn't like she'd yank the decanter out of his hand. Back to Karla, and tonight. "Is there anything specific that happens after she'd done?"

[offers_choices]

"Sure thing," he said, pouring some wine into her newly-acquired glass. He seemed only too pleased to shift the topic, too. "She goes to sleep and probably eats her weight in food," he said wryly. "What do you mean?"

[blondecanary]

Dinah snickered, relaxing a bit. "I wasn't sure if there were more ceremonies. Or paperwork, or formal let's-tell-everyone events after she gets done. We don't have anything quite like this back home." She cocked her head. "Well, I guess graduation ceremonies. But it's not really the same."

[offers_choices]

"Well, if she's really lucky, she'll get an uncut Jewel," he said, sipping from his glass. "A Jewel that no one else has worn before. That, she'll need to get cut and set; I'm pretty sure Father's planning on having Banard do it for her, as a gift. He had Jaenelle and Karla looking at settings weeks ago."

His had also been uncut, though he'd carried his in a leather thong for a few years before he'd found a jeweler that he trusted with his Ebon-gray. "No paperwork for Karla, though Draca or Geoffrey will note what she descends to in the Records, here at the Keep. Otherwise, there's really nothing for her to do, but set up her Court, and I think she plans to wait for that until she's back home for good."

[blondecanary]

"Yeah. Another couple weeks. Then it's time for sneaking and politics and taking down of oppressive fascist evil regimes." Dinah toasted him with her glass. "So what are you doing this summer?"

[offers_choices]

Lucivar's face fell. "Being very good and very visible away from whatever is going on in Glacia," he growled. "Because I'm not allowed to 'interfere.' Saetan has put his bloody foot down."

From 'Father' to 'Saetan' in mere minutes.

[blondecanary]

"You have to, dude." Dinah completely sympathized. "Otherwise any chance of keeping the people on her side is going to evaporate. I mean, I'm sorry, but," she gestured at his wings, his height, the Jewel. "You don't exactly do 'stealth', do you?"