RP: Castles in the air
Date: 1 Nov 2001 (backdated)
Characters: Sir Nicholas and Sir Millicent
Status: Private
Summary: And the exploration begins...
Completion: Complete
Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington awoke a bit stiff but more refreshed than he'd felt in months. Sleeping outdoors beneath the stars... there was something inherently magical in the act. He used to feel this way when he'd made his home in the open space of Millicent's hayloft.
Speaking of Millicent, he cracked an eye open, taking in the pastel colours of the dawn sky and looked about for her. She wasn't asleep by the cold embers of last night's fire, but that didn't surprise him. Sitting up, he stretched until his spine cracked twice, and then he called, "My dear Sir Millicent?"
Millicent came into the clearing, holding an armload of firewood. "Hullo, sleepyhead," she grinned at him. She was already freshly washed and had changed her linens. She made some kindling catch from the embers of the fire, and began stacking it carefully, heating a small tin coffeepot. Her hair was sopping wet with morning dew, but she looked more cheerful and even more healthy than she customarily did.
"I always knew you were an early bird," Nick laughed. "Or an early knight, maybe. Sleep well?"
He used some preliminary grooming spells on himself, mostly so that he wouldn't start to smell halfway through the day and offend his companion, and then crouched down before the fire, eyeing the coffeepot with evident interest.
"Oh, yes. Heaven out here, isn't it?" Millicent said easily. She unwrapped some bacon from one of the saddlebags and began frying it up in a small skillet. "Eggs as well? Can't investigate on an empty stomach."
"I grew up in this country," Nick said dreamily. "I think I could sleep perfectly here every single night. I really should bring Zach here. He could take photographs-- he takes marvelous ones, you know."
Using his wand, he levitated four eggs over and caused them to crack into the skillet as well. "Definitely. Two each?"
"That's fine." She looked around. "It's glorious country. I prefer home, of course, but that's to be expected. Besides, I love the woods, but I love the order of the estate running and humming around me too." She sat back on her heels. "So what precisely are we looking for?"
"That's really the question of the day," Nick said thoughtfully. "I don't know. That odd Della woman I spoke with... she was adamant that my troubles were tied to my family's fortune. Or at least, I think that's what she was trying to say. So we'd best try to find the treasury, don't you think?"
She shrugged. "Sounds well enough for me." While wealth had never been even a small part of what attracted Millicent to being a landed aristocrat, looking through the treasury still sounded rather grand. She passed Nick his plate and began eating herself, hurrying in her excitement.
Nick inhaled his meal with the excitement of a five year old on Christmas morning told he has to eat his breakfast before he opens his presents.
"Ready?" he asked after he'd stood and belted his sword, Comilito, to his hip.
Millicent finished her meal quickly and cast a scouring charm on the dishes-no sense leaving them dirty to attract animals to their campsite. "I'm ready," she said, smiling at the sight of Sir Nicholas with his sword. "Let's go see what we can find." She hoped he wouldn't be too disheartened at the state the place would likely be in after so much time.
"Let's go," he agreed, extending his hand to her. He gripped her forearm the way he once had with fellow knights, so long ago.
"If I remember," he said, transported back centuries in his memory, "The library was in the North Tower, and the treasury was underground, by the dungeons." His brow furrowed. "Silly set up, really. Had we ever actually had prisoners, they'd have been housed next to the gold."
She nodded. "North's that way," she said, after gauging the sun's position briefly. "So let's circle round and come in from the north, all right? I don't want to pick through the whole place-who knows what kinds of protective spells we could run into? I don't fancy being caught in your family's iron maiden or whatnot."
"Certainly. Lead the way, my lady." He grinned. "The iron maiden is not a pleasant experience. I accidentally locked myself into one when I was a very young child. Thankfully, my brother rescued me before anything too severe happened."
Circling the perimeter, they crossed the threshold of the castle proper and Nick felt a familiar tingle of magic that sang of home to him. "Library first, then. I do believe that," he pointed at half a ruined tower, "is it. After you, my dear Sir Millicent."
Millicent didn't think letting her go first into a possibly cursed ruin was terribly chivalrous of him, but she didn't hesitate, and after just a few steps, she fell through the thin, weedy turf. "Merlin fucking Emrys. Sir Nicholas, I found the stairs. Bloody painfully."
Nick was at her side in an instant, helping her up. "Oh dear," he murmured. "All right?" He put his own foot out and felt around the ground. "I think...."
He unsheathed his sword, which had been in his family for generations before it passed to his hands, and held it aloft. "Exhibeum hereditas!" he shouted, and the blade of the sword hummed with magic. All around them, as if shaking off a fine layer of dust, the castle shuddered into being. No longer bare foundations and little more, the castle reappeared. It was still crumbling, still a ruin, but now they could see it without the cloaking charms placed upon it much like Hogwarts'. before them stood the stairs.
"You couldn't have done that before?" Millicent grumbled, but good-naturedly. She looked around. "Fabulous, though," she admitted.
She cast Lumos, and moved towards the stairs going down into the ground again. "I suppose we'll find ourselves in either the treasury or the dungeon," she said grimly, moving slowly and hoping not to be caught by any more enchantments.
Nick blushed. "It didn't occur to me that so much of it would still be standing," he said. "I thought the whole thing would have fallen down by now."
The staircase was only wide enough for them to move single file. Nick cast his own lumos charm, to add to the light in the surrounding gloom. He gasped when his lumos caused the decaying wall sconces all around them to flare to life, magical flames lighting their way. "I suppose the castle really does recognize me as its master," he murmured as they wound their way carefully down into the earth.
The whole thing sent Millicent into a reverie, wondering if her own place would know her if hundreds of years lapsed, if the earth itself would rise up and welcome her. She blinked back tears and focused on minding her step.
When she reached the bottom, she stepped to the side, letting Nick go first, as was his right.
Nick reached out and clasped her by the forearm, as brothers in arms do, and then, wand held high, led the way through the corridor. He had to stoop a little, as the ceiling was less than six feet from the floor, and he tried not to cough as he inhaled the detritus of centuries.
"Dungeons are just that way," he said, nodding toward a massive, black door to their left. "Ophelia and I used to play in them. We never held prisoners, at least in my lifetime. Which means the treasury is just ahead."
And sure enough, around a sharp corner stood a door protected with magic from the ravages of time. Not a hint of rust touched its hinges or locks. "The Mimsy-Porpington family fortune," he breathed, looking at the locks with a puzzled expression. "Now, if only I could remember how the door opened."
"Hmm." Millicent stared at the door, wholly nonplussed. "Open up," she said, rather irritably.
Nick chuckled, but the door remained firmly closed. "I never spent much time here," he said with a shrug. Was never really that interested in my family's wealth. I seem to recall Ophelia and I sneaking in several times because she wanted to look at the jewels, though. It takes two people to open the door."
Frowning at it, he tried to remember, pushing away the mists of five centuries. And the it struck him. "Oh, of course. Do you see these?" He pointed at two porcupines, each one engraved on either side of the door. "On the count of three, tickle that one's belly."
Millicent snickered. It was whimsical, childish, and thoroughly delightful. She waited obediently until Nick counted to three, then tickled the belly, feeling just a little bit stupid, and wondering how you could know if you were tickling a stone porcupine's belly correctly.
The two carved porcupines giggled in unison and rolled onto their spiky backs, and the door swung open to reveal...
Nothing.
The treasury was dank, moldy, and bare, but for its numerous cobwebs. Nick frowned into the darkness. "Well, that's not right," he said. "Do you think looters made off with it all? This place was brimming with gold and jewels when I was alive, and the fortune was under all sorts of protection spells from my father."
"I don't know," Millicent said slowly, moving into the chamber. "Is it possible that someone who knew how to get in made away with it? The house-elves, maybe?" Though her mind rather boggled at the idea of a pilfering house-elf.
"I can't imagine they would," Nick said, shaking his head. "My father may very well have changed the wards upon the fortune, or perhaps left it to someone else. My brother and sister and I all died before he did, after all. Perhaps he found an heir to..."
Nick frowned, holding his torch high. "Hello, what's this?" he murmured, walking toward the far corner. Something white had caught his eye. White and bony and... "Oh, skeleton," he said, blinking in surprise. A skeleton with it's gnarled knuckles curled around something."
"Ugh," was Millicent's response. "D'you suppose it's a thief and there's a curse on the place?" She glanced around her with some concern, then, frustrated by any clue at all being withheld, poked sharply at the skeleton's clenched fist with her wand.
Age-weakened ligaments gave way, and the whole hand crumbled to the ground, with a single golden galleon ringing to the floor to spin and shine amidst the decay.
Nick looked from the galleon to Millicent and back again. "I daresay a thief is right. It certainly fits with what that strange woman told me. If my father cursed our fortune to disappear if a thief tried to make off with it, that would certainly explain this fellow, and the dearth of gold in here."
Nick picked up the galleon carefully and folded it away in his handkerchief. "For research purposes," he said. "Shall we get back above the ground now?"
Millicent nodded. "Wouldn't it make more sense to just curse it so the thief would disappear?" she demanded over her shoulder as she headed back for the stairs. "I mean, more than a little counterproductive, I'd think."
"You didn't know my father," Nick snorted. "I believe the phrase 'mad as hatter' only has competition with 'disappointed in his gay younger son and crazy daughter after his Good Son was killed'. I don't know what it is he did here all those years ago, but you can place a large wager on it being both grandiose and lunatic."
Reaching the main floor of the castle, Nick patted his pocket. "Since we're here, my dear, would you care to take a look at the library? There are a few places I wish to see once more."
Millicent smiled at him fondly. "Lead on, Sir Nicholas. I'll be glad to follow."
Characters: Sir Nicholas and Sir Millicent
Status: Private
Summary: And the exploration begins...
Completion: Complete
Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington awoke a bit stiff but more refreshed than he'd felt in months. Sleeping outdoors beneath the stars... there was something inherently magical in the act. He used to feel this way when he'd made his home in the open space of Millicent's hayloft.
Speaking of Millicent, he cracked an eye open, taking in the pastel colours of the dawn sky and looked about for her. She wasn't asleep by the cold embers of last night's fire, but that didn't surprise him. Sitting up, he stretched until his spine cracked twice, and then he called, "My dear Sir Millicent?"
Millicent came into the clearing, holding an armload of firewood. "Hullo, sleepyhead," she grinned at him. She was already freshly washed and had changed her linens. She made some kindling catch from the embers of the fire, and began stacking it carefully, heating a small tin coffeepot. Her hair was sopping wet with morning dew, but she looked more cheerful and even more healthy than she customarily did.
"I always knew you were an early bird," Nick laughed. "Or an early knight, maybe. Sleep well?"
He used some preliminary grooming spells on himself, mostly so that he wouldn't start to smell halfway through the day and offend his companion, and then crouched down before the fire, eyeing the coffeepot with evident interest.
"Oh, yes. Heaven out here, isn't it?" Millicent said easily. She unwrapped some bacon from one of the saddlebags and began frying it up in a small skillet. "Eggs as well? Can't investigate on an empty stomach."
"I grew up in this country," Nick said dreamily. "I think I could sleep perfectly here every single night. I really should bring Zach here. He could take photographs-- he takes marvelous ones, you know."
Using his wand, he levitated four eggs over and caused them to crack into the skillet as well. "Definitely. Two each?"
"That's fine." She looked around. "It's glorious country. I prefer home, of course, but that's to be expected. Besides, I love the woods, but I love the order of the estate running and humming around me too." She sat back on her heels. "So what precisely are we looking for?"
"That's really the question of the day," Nick said thoughtfully. "I don't know. That odd Della woman I spoke with... she was adamant that my troubles were tied to my family's fortune. Or at least, I think that's what she was trying to say. So we'd best try to find the treasury, don't you think?"
She shrugged. "Sounds well enough for me." While wealth had never been even a small part of what attracted Millicent to being a landed aristocrat, looking through the treasury still sounded rather grand. She passed Nick his plate and began eating herself, hurrying in her excitement.
Nick inhaled his meal with the excitement of a five year old on Christmas morning told he has to eat his breakfast before he opens his presents.
"Ready?" he asked after he'd stood and belted his sword, Comilito, to his hip.
Millicent finished her meal quickly and cast a scouring charm on the dishes-no sense leaving them dirty to attract animals to their campsite. "I'm ready," she said, smiling at the sight of Sir Nicholas with his sword. "Let's go see what we can find." She hoped he wouldn't be too disheartened at the state the place would likely be in after so much time.
"Let's go," he agreed, extending his hand to her. He gripped her forearm the way he once had with fellow knights, so long ago.
"If I remember," he said, transported back centuries in his memory, "The library was in the North Tower, and the treasury was underground, by the dungeons." His brow furrowed. "Silly set up, really. Had we ever actually had prisoners, they'd have been housed next to the gold."
She nodded. "North's that way," she said, after gauging the sun's position briefly. "So let's circle round and come in from the north, all right? I don't want to pick through the whole place-who knows what kinds of protective spells we could run into? I don't fancy being caught in your family's iron maiden or whatnot."
"Certainly. Lead the way, my lady." He grinned. "The iron maiden is not a pleasant experience. I accidentally locked myself into one when I was a very young child. Thankfully, my brother rescued me before anything too severe happened."
Circling the perimeter, they crossed the threshold of the castle proper and Nick felt a familiar tingle of magic that sang of home to him. "Library first, then. I do believe that," he pointed at half a ruined tower, "is it. After you, my dear Sir Millicent."
Millicent didn't think letting her go first into a possibly cursed ruin was terribly chivalrous of him, but she didn't hesitate, and after just a few steps, she fell through the thin, weedy turf. "Merlin fucking Emrys. Sir Nicholas, I found the stairs. Bloody painfully."
Nick was at her side in an instant, helping her up. "Oh dear," he murmured. "All right?" He put his own foot out and felt around the ground. "I think...."
He unsheathed his sword, which had been in his family for generations before it passed to his hands, and held it aloft. "Exhibeum hereditas!" he shouted, and the blade of the sword hummed with magic. All around them, as if shaking off a fine layer of dust, the castle shuddered into being. No longer bare foundations and little more, the castle reappeared. It was still crumbling, still a ruin, but now they could see it without the cloaking charms placed upon it much like Hogwarts'. before them stood the stairs.
"You couldn't have done that before?" Millicent grumbled, but good-naturedly. She looked around. "Fabulous, though," she admitted.
She cast Lumos, and moved towards the stairs going down into the ground again. "I suppose we'll find ourselves in either the treasury or the dungeon," she said grimly, moving slowly and hoping not to be caught by any more enchantments.
Nick blushed. "It didn't occur to me that so much of it would still be standing," he said. "I thought the whole thing would have fallen down by now."
The staircase was only wide enough for them to move single file. Nick cast his own lumos charm, to add to the light in the surrounding gloom. He gasped when his lumos caused the decaying wall sconces all around them to flare to life, magical flames lighting their way. "I suppose the castle really does recognize me as its master," he murmured as they wound their way carefully down into the earth.
The whole thing sent Millicent into a reverie, wondering if her own place would know her if hundreds of years lapsed, if the earth itself would rise up and welcome her. She blinked back tears and focused on minding her step.
When she reached the bottom, she stepped to the side, letting Nick go first, as was his right.
Nick reached out and clasped her by the forearm, as brothers in arms do, and then, wand held high, led the way through the corridor. He had to stoop a little, as the ceiling was less than six feet from the floor, and he tried not to cough as he inhaled the detritus of centuries.
"Dungeons are just that way," he said, nodding toward a massive, black door to their left. "Ophelia and I used to play in them. We never held prisoners, at least in my lifetime. Which means the treasury is just ahead."
And sure enough, around a sharp corner stood a door protected with magic from the ravages of time. Not a hint of rust touched its hinges or locks. "The Mimsy-Porpington family fortune," he breathed, looking at the locks with a puzzled expression. "Now, if only I could remember how the door opened."
"Hmm." Millicent stared at the door, wholly nonplussed. "Open up," she said, rather irritably.
Nick chuckled, but the door remained firmly closed. "I never spent much time here," he said with a shrug. Was never really that interested in my family's wealth. I seem to recall Ophelia and I sneaking in several times because she wanted to look at the jewels, though. It takes two people to open the door."
Frowning at it, he tried to remember, pushing away the mists of five centuries. And the it struck him. "Oh, of course. Do you see these?" He pointed at two porcupines, each one engraved on either side of the door. "On the count of three, tickle that one's belly."
Millicent snickered. It was whimsical, childish, and thoroughly delightful. She waited obediently until Nick counted to three, then tickled the belly, feeling just a little bit stupid, and wondering how you could know if you were tickling a stone porcupine's belly correctly.
The two carved porcupines giggled in unison and rolled onto their spiky backs, and the door swung open to reveal...
Nothing.
The treasury was dank, moldy, and bare, but for its numerous cobwebs. Nick frowned into the darkness. "Well, that's not right," he said. "Do you think looters made off with it all? This place was brimming with gold and jewels when I was alive, and the fortune was under all sorts of protection spells from my father."
"I don't know," Millicent said slowly, moving into the chamber. "Is it possible that someone who knew how to get in made away with it? The house-elves, maybe?" Though her mind rather boggled at the idea of a pilfering house-elf.
"I can't imagine they would," Nick said, shaking his head. "My father may very well have changed the wards upon the fortune, or perhaps left it to someone else. My brother and sister and I all died before he did, after all. Perhaps he found an heir to..."
Nick frowned, holding his torch high. "Hello, what's this?" he murmured, walking toward the far corner. Something white had caught his eye. White and bony and... "Oh, skeleton," he said, blinking in surprise. A skeleton with it's gnarled knuckles curled around something."
"Ugh," was Millicent's response. "D'you suppose it's a thief and there's a curse on the place?" She glanced around her with some concern, then, frustrated by any clue at all being withheld, poked sharply at the skeleton's clenched fist with her wand.
Age-weakened ligaments gave way, and the whole hand crumbled to the ground, with a single golden galleon ringing to the floor to spin and shine amidst the decay.
Nick looked from the galleon to Millicent and back again. "I daresay a thief is right. It certainly fits with what that strange woman told me. If my father cursed our fortune to disappear if a thief tried to make off with it, that would certainly explain this fellow, and the dearth of gold in here."
Nick picked up the galleon carefully and folded it away in his handkerchief. "For research purposes," he said. "Shall we get back above the ground now?"
Millicent nodded. "Wouldn't it make more sense to just curse it so the thief would disappear?" she demanded over her shoulder as she headed back for the stairs. "I mean, more than a little counterproductive, I'd think."
"You didn't know my father," Nick snorted. "I believe the phrase 'mad as hatter' only has competition with 'disappointed in his gay younger son and crazy daughter after his Good Son was killed'. I don't know what it is he did here all those years ago, but you can place a large wager on it being both grandiose and lunatic."
Reaching the main floor of the castle, Nick patted his pocket. "Since we're here, my dear, would you care to take a look at the library? There are a few places I wish to see once more."
Millicent smiled at him fondly. "Lead on, Sir Nicholas. I'll be glad to follow."