The Cillian Mission #5
Main Terms & Character Glossary
***
I stared around the room. Great. Fucking great. Well, we got to Cillian in one piece. The Queen has agreed to see us all in less than 24 hours. And what were we doing?
Being completely drunk off our asses.
Alright, that wasn't really fair. Erasmus was sober, and looking on at the proceedings with blatant disapproval. And actually, most of us were just tipsy. It was the lead man and leading lady that were deep in their cups. Somehow, they had managed to chug jugs worth of ale without any of us noticing, and were now berating or consoling each other back and forth about their terrible plight.
The two in question were Rani and Pollux, and their aforementioned plight being that the show revolved around them, and they had, for some reason or another, a bad case of stage fright and self-esteem erosion.
I looked over to my left, and watched Hansine, a sparkly drink adorning her hand, engaging in a conversation with some charming and handsome young Onofrian nobles that were also enjoying the luxuries of the common room in the posh inn that us exotic troupe of entertainers were staying at. There were a lot of high society types rubbing shoulders with various bohemians in the place, and the tides of laughter and conversation and swirling cliques of people pretty much obscured the lanky tall man and the red-banged girl in one corner of the room, both bespectacled and getting progressively shitfaced. Well, it wasn't obscured from Erasmus' sight, who kept glancing over at them periodically, frowning slightly, despite still having an animated conversation with Lana, who was sipping a sparkling drink similar to Hansine's.
I turned to my right and locked eyes with Daun. Both of us were trying not to drink too much, and keeping tabs on each other. We were worried about Rani and Pollux, and their hopelessness was rather infectious. We also wanted to help them, but maybe Hansine was right, and they just needed to unwind. Erasmus feared they'd go too far, but I doubt with him keeping watch over them, that anything would happen.
"Everything was going so well," Daun sighed, taking another swig of her rum and juice. "What happened?"
"Well..."
I thought back. After the Siren sisters had escaped, Hansine lead us out of the healing rooms, to the Great Tower's walkways. The Axis Mundi was largely hollow, only it's small inner core held rooms and people. The rest was vast space criss-crossed in Escher-like patterns with winding stairways that held their own peculiar geometry and gravity, and which Seekers, as part of their training, grew adept at climbing. Some of the walkways even shifted places, either randomly or in patterns. Each path lead to a door, and on the other side of that door, waited a world.
Hansine, leading us all single-file, quickly had explained to us that Initiates of House Matter and Jinn had already prepared a caravan for us waiting at Cillian. She'd booked us at an inn fairly deep in Opul, which was the capital city of Onofrio. She would also engage the doorway in such a way that the entry point would be in the caravan, which was parked in a wide side street adjacent to the inn, the geis weaving us into the memories of the passersby and citizens. We would have a wider range of choices for Cillian clothing in the caravan, and then she'd escort us to the Pen & Sword Inn. Afterward, Hansine would go off to the main palace to arrange for us to be able to perform in front of the Queen, and Lana would fill us in on our roles while we were gone.
So far, so good. We had walked through the Axis Mundi and the door that lead us into Cillian. The clothing was a lot of brocade and crushed, heavy velvet. For women, apparently corsets were the rage, and for guys, we had puffy ridiculous pantaloons and floppy hats with pimptastic feathers. While in the caravan, Lana informed us that since we were laying low with our powers in Cillian, we had to stay in one form only, and that would be the one most conducive to the script she'd written for the royal show and our Muse-blessings. Luckily, I got to stay as Peregrine, but Hob had to transform into Rani, and Daun had to choose a standard female form.
By the time we trudged out of the caravan, we were all decked out in Cillian bohemian finery. Hansine was wearing a fancy, intricately embroidered black and violet dress, as befitting a favored noble at court. Less patterned, but no less sexy matching velvet and corseted dresses were being worn by Rani, Daun, and Lana, the latter a contrasting blue and silver colour theme, as opposed to the other two and their black and red themes. Erasmus wore lavender and midnight blue colors, while Pollux wore black and grey. Both men opted out of the plumed hat, as they thought the pants were embarrassing enough. I loudly bitched that they had no bright pink men's costume for me, and settled for my standard turquoise and black, keeping my hat for when the urge to make flourishing bows struck me.
The Pen & Sword Inn had the air of a Mid-world 50's Beatnik cafe, with fluctuating waves of snobbery and earnest artistic fire pulsing through the air. No sooner had the reservations been confirmed, then Hansine was out the door and leaping into her personal carriage, carting her off to Court. Lana was left in charge of this portion of the mission, and herded us all into the room she shared with Daun, making us crowd onto the two double beds while she paced back and forth in front of us, debriefing us of our cover stories.
Our troupe was called "The Faery Coven", and we specialized in making fantastical music & dance plays about the mysterious and evil "faery" folk banished from Cillian long, long ago. Erasmus, who had no Muse blessings, was the troupe's manager and producer, keeping tabs on the ledger. Lana was the troupe's main director and writer, as well as a fill-in for any other role. That left the rest of us as actors, singers, and dancers. Rani and Pollux violently protested at being forced to dance publicly in front of a judging audience-- so I had grinned and said that since they were both great singers, then that's what they'd do in addition to acting.
Lana silenced the bickering that began, and told us the gist of the script while passing us our copies. Basically, it was about two betrothed lovers, Maya and Mikael (played by Rani & Pollux), who were torn apart by the evil machinations of Robynn, an evil fairy (played by me) who had cursed the groom-to-be into becoming a rakish, fickle, heart-breaking rogue like himself. Luna, one of the fairies that traveled with Robynn (played by Lana; the other fairy Solari would be Daun) decided to place hope on the couple behind Robynn's back as her revenge for Robynn's unfaithfulness and dalliance with Solari, and thus if Mikael could kiss the hand of a queen, he would remember his true heart and the face of the one who had cursed him. Eventually, Mikael gets to the queen (who would actually be Queen Perdita), and rushes off to kick Robynn's ass, then be with his beloved bride before she threw herself off a cliff. The play ends with a wedding and merriment, while Robynn is being chased around being beaten with a stick.
As soon as Rani and Pollux realized they were the leads, had the most stage time and words and songs to memorize, and that Pollux had to use his character to physically get close to Queen Perdita-- that's when Hansine burst into the room and excitedly and breathlessly told us that she was throwing a party for us down in the common room, where some nobles were invited, as we were celebrating the acceptance of our show being put on tomorrow afternoon for the royal court of Onofrio.
"The script," I said decidedly to Daun. "The script is really when it started to go wrong."
"Lana's not going to change it, is she?" Daun said simply.
"No, absolutely not!"
I looked up to see Lana standing over the two of us, and then sliding in gracefully to sit down at my left. "First of all, we don't have time to change the script. Tomorrow afternoon is when we have to put this altogether. Basically, we've got enough time to go over the play several times in the morning, at the crack of dawn, and then present it to the Queen. Secondly, me and Hansine tailored the play both to focus on the strengths of our group, as well as to get the mission moving forward-- i.e. get Pollux to do what we have him for."
"But Pollux and Rani are scared shitless!" I protested. "Look at them!" I gestured over to the corner, where Erasmus had decided to sit down beside Rani and Pollux, trying to calm the hysterical pair. "Couldn't you have written something easier?"
"Look," Lana sighed. "The audience needs to be entranced by a really good show, Perry. Otherwise, how can Pollux get that close without being stopped by guards? I have faith in them. And if anything goes wrong, it's really my fault... I'm in charge of this portion of the mission..."
I put my hand on top of hers as she stared down at her lap. I loved the way her wavy mahogany hair curtained her face, and how she looked up at me with those startling blue-gold eyes through her lashes.
"I'm not dissing your script, Lana," I said softly. "I'm just worried, that's all. I accede to your wisdom in this."
She rolled her eyes and gave me a familiar grin. "Besides, shouldn't you be worrying about yourself? You've got as much lines as they do, plus one song, and a few dance numbers. You think you can handle all that, big shot?"
I gulped. "Dance numbers? More than one?" I turned back to Daun, and she had an enigmatic grin on her face as she nodded at me.
"Uh, I don't suppose you have a separate script for the dance moves, eh Lana?"
She shook her head. "I'll have to show you."
"How about right now?"
She blinked. "Now? Where?"
I stood up, abruptly, downing the last of my ale and impulsively taking Daun's hand. "Now. In your room. We'll push the beds aside. Muse is calling to me, and I need to dance."
As I slammed my empty cup back on the table, Lana and Daun trilled with laughter, finishing their drinks, and following me up the stairs to their room.
***
...to be continued...
x-posted to omphaloscosmos
***
I stared around the room. Great. Fucking great. Well, we got to Cillian in one piece. The Queen has agreed to see us all in less than 24 hours. And what were we doing?
Being completely drunk off our asses.
Alright, that wasn't really fair. Erasmus was sober, and looking on at the proceedings with blatant disapproval. And actually, most of us were just tipsy. It was the lead man and leading lady that were deep in their cups. Somehow, they had managed to chug jugs worth of ale without any of us noticing, and were now berating or consoling each other back and forth about their terrible plight.
The two in question were Rani and Pollux, and their aforementioned plight being that the show revolved around them, and they had, for some reason or another, a bad case of stage fright and self-esteem erosion.
I looked over to my left, and watched Hansine, a sparkly drink adorning her hand, engaging in a conversation with some charming and handsome young Onofrian nobles that were also enjoying the luxuries of the common room in the posh inn that us exotic troupe of entertainers were staying at. There were a lot of high society types rubbing shoulders with various bohemians in the place, and the tides of laughter and conversation and swirling cliques of people pretty much obscured the lanky tall man and the red-banged girl in one corner of the room, both bespectacled and getting progressively shitfaced. Well, it wasn't obscured from Erasmus' sight, who kept glancing over at them periodically, frowning slightly, despite still having an animated conversation with Lana, who was sipping a sparkling drink similar to Hansine's.
I turned to my right and locked eyes with Daun. Both of us were trying not to drink too much, and keeping tabs on each other. We were worried about Rani and Pollux, and their hopelessness was rather infectious. We also wanted to help them, but maybe Hansine was right, and they just needed to unwind. Erasmus feared they'd go too far, but I doubt with him keeping watch over them, that anything would happen.
"Everything was going so well," Daun sighed, taking another swig of her rum and juice. "What happened?"
"Well..."
I thought back. After the Siren sisters had escaped, Hansine lead us out of the healing rooms, to the Great Tower's walkways. The Axis Mundi was largely hollow, only it's small inner core held rooms and people. The rest was vast space criss-crossed in Escher-like patterns with winding stairways that held their own peculiar geometry and gravity, and which Seekers, as part of their training, grew adept at climbing. Some of the walkways even shifted places, either randomly or in patterns. Each path lead to a door, and on the other side of that door, waited a world.
Hansine, leading us all single-file, quickly had explained to us that Initiates of House Matter and Jinn had already prepared a caravan for us waiting at Cillian. She'd booked us at an inn fairly deep in Opul, which was the capital city of Onofrio. She would also engage the doorway in such a way that the entry point would be in the caravan, which was parked in a wide side street adjacent to the inn, the geis weaving us into the memories of the passersby and citizens. We would have a wider range of choices for Cillian clothing in the caravan, and then she'd escort us to the Pen & Sword Inn. Afterward, Hansine would go off to the main palace to arrange for us to be able to perform in front of the Queen, and Lana would fill us in on our roles while we were gone.
So far, so good. We had walked through the Axis Mundi and the door that lead us into Cillian. The clothing was a lot of brocade and crushed, heavy velvet. For women, apparently corsets were the rage, and for guys, we had puffy ridiculous pantaloons and floppy hats with pimptastic feathers. While in the caravan, Lana informed us that since we were laying low with our powers in Cillian, we had to stay in one form only, and that would be the one most conducive to the script she'd written for the royal show and our Muse-blessings. Luckily, I got to stay as Peregrine, but Hob had to transform into Rani, and Daun had to choose a standard female form.
By the time we trudged out of the caravan, we were all decked out in Cillian bohemian finery. Hansine was wearing a fancy, intricately embroidered black and violet dress, as befitting a favored noble at court. Less patterned, but no less sexy matching velvet and corseted dresses were being worn by Rani, Daun, and Lana, the latter a contrasting blue and silver colour theme, as opposed to the other two and their black and red themes. Erasmus wore lavender and midnight blue colors, while Pollux wore black and grey. Both men opted out of the plumed hat, as they thought the pants were embarrassing enough. I loudly bitched that they had no bright pink men's costume for me, and settled for my standard turquoise and black, keeping my hat for when the urge to make flourishing bows struck me.
The Pen & Sword Inn had the air of a Mid-world 50's Beatnik cafe, with fluctuating waves of snobbery and earnest artistic fire pulsing through the air. No sooner had the reservations been confirmed, then Hansine was out the door and leaping into her personal carriage, carting her off to Court. Lana was left in charge of this portion of the mission, and herded us all into the room she shared with Daun, making us crowd onto the two double beds while she paced back and forth in front of us, debriefing us of our cover stories.
Our troupe was called "The Faery Coven", and we specialized in making fantastical music & dance plays about the mysterious and evil "faery" folk banished from Cillian long, long ago. Erasmus, who had no Muse blessings, was the troupe's manager and producer, keeping tabs on the ledger. Lana was the troupe's main director and writer, as well as a fill-in for any other role. That left the rest of us as actors, singers, and dancers. Rani and Pollux violently protested at being forced to dance publicly in front of a judging audience-- so I had grinned and said that since they were both great singers, then that's what they'd do in addition to acting.
Lana silenced the bickering that began, and told us the gist of the script while passing us our copies. Basically, it was about two betrothed lovers, Maya and Mikael (played by Rani & Pollux), who were torn apart by the evil machinations of Robynn, an evil fairy (played by me) who had cursed the groom-to-be into becoming a rakish, fickle, heart-breaking rogue like himself. Luna, one of the fairies that traveled with Robynn (played by Lana; the other fairy Solari would be Daun) decided to place hope on the couple behind Robynn's back as her revenge for Robynn's unfaithfulness and dalliance with Solari, and thus if Mikael could kiss the hand of a queen, he would remember his true heart and the face of the one who had cursed him. Eventually, Mikael gets to the queen (who would actually be Queen Perdita), and rushes off to kick Robynn's ass, then be with his beloved bride before she threw herself off a cliff. The play ends with a wedding and merriment, while Robynn is being chased around being beaten with a stick.
As soon as Rani and Pollux realized they were the leads, had the most stage time and words and songs to memorize, and that Pollux had to use his character to physically get close to Queen Perdita-- that's when Hansine burst into the room and excitedly and breathlessly told us that she was throwing a party for us down in the common room, where some nobles were invited, as we were celebrating the acceptance of our show being put on tomorrow afternoon for the royal court of Onofrio.
"The script," I said decidedly to Daun. "The script is really when it started to go wrong."
"Lana's not going to change it, is she?" Daun said simply.
"No, absolutely not!"
I looked up to see Lana standing over the two of us, and then sliding in gracefully to sit down at my left. "First of all, we don't have time to change the script. Tomorrow afternoon is when we have to put this altogether. Basically, we've got enough time to go over the play several times in the morning, at the crack of dawn, and then present it to the Queen. Secondly, me and Hansine tailored the play both to focus on the strengths of our group, as well as to get the mission moving forward-- i.e. get Pollux to do what we have him for."
"But Pollux and Rani are scared shitless!" I protested. "Look at them!" I gestured over to the corner, where Erasmus had decided to sit down beside Rani and Pollux, trying to calm the hysterical pair. "Couldn't you have written something easier?"
"Look," Lana sighed. "The audience needs to be entranced by a really good show, Perry. Otherwise, how can Pollux get that close without being stopped by guards? I have faith in them. And if anything goes wrong, it's really my fault... I'm in charge of this portion of the mission..."
I put my hand on top of hers as she stared down at her lap. I loved the way her wavy mahogany hair curtained her face, and how she looked up at me with those startling blue-gold eyes through her lashes.
"I'm not dissing your script, Lana," I said softly. "I'm just worried, that's all. I accede to your wisdom in this."
She rolled her eyes and gave me a familiar grin. "Besides, shouldn't you be worrying about yourself? You've got as much lines as they do, plus one song, and a few dance numbers. You think you can handle all that, big shot?"
I gulped. "Dance numbers? More than one?" I turned back to Daun, and she had an enigmatic grin on her face as she nodded at me.
"Uh, I don't suppose you have a separate script for the dance moves, eh Lana?"
She shook her head. "I'll have to show you."
"How about right now?"
She blinked. "Now? Where?"
I stood up, abruptly, downing the last of my ale and impulsively taking Daun's hand. "Now. In your room. We'll push the beds aside. Muse is calling to me, and I need to dance."
As I slammed my empty cup back on the table, Lana and Daun trilled with laughter, finishing their drinks, and following me up the stairs to their room.
***
...to be continued...
x-posted to omphaloscosmos