Situated at the edge of Kingswood Forest, The Stone Dragon tavern is on the border of the King's control. Consequently, it is a hotspot for outlaws and law-abiding citizens alike. A number of secret rooms, doors and passages enable outlaws to hide or make a quick getaway whenever the King's men come swooping in. As there is also an inn here, this is also a popular place for temporary travellers and explorers.
temporary residents
Faeyra
Zohar
Nine
Kaito
Evelyn
Paris
permanent residents
Jacopo, under house arrest
Olive
Alder
Cypress
Effie
Torram
Renn
Nerissa
Sapphire
employees
Olive, Owner
Renn, Bar Staff/Waitress
Jacopo, Gardener
Nine, Bar Staff/Waitress
Zohar, Stable Hand
Paris, Bar Staff
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Bar: Fairies can drink and be merry in this pub-style bar.
Inn: A comfortable place for temporary or permanent residents to stay.
Stables: The stables offer a variety of pens for different animals while their owners are staying in the inn.
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Warning Aura's posts invariably contain strong death themes.
A friend, a girlfriend, a random person he’d dumped half the ocean onto? Definitely one of the former two: she was leaning forward and her pupils were dilated, bringing out the colour in her pretty, bicoloured eyes. Aura studied the teenage girl with a little too much interest once she’d settled down on top of the pony’s rear end, her piercing blue eyes seeming to penetrate right through to the soul. She didn’t miss how Thoth seemed to defer to her, or how she responded to his unspoken question with a hesitant, verbal one of her own. A new relationship, maybe? Or one on unfamiliar grounds?
Thoth nodded in answer to her, a slight frown on his face as though he wanted to add the word obviously. He never had anything to hide.
Except me, the thought invaded the back of Aura’s mind viciously. He doesn’t want people to know he’s related to me.
She sucked in a breath and reached up to tuck a strand of silver-white hair behind her ear from where the fall had shaken it loose. Now that she’d finally gotten him to listen, it was difficult to know what to say. The words were stuck behind a door locked from the inside, refusing to let themselves out because if they did, then they’d be true. They’d be real. Tucked away inside the mind, it was easier to think of them as just a nightmare. Dismissible.
“I felt someone was dying.” She started, her mouth a little dry. “I never know where I’m going to appear, but this time it was on a ship…”
This time it was on a ship. It was night. There was a storm.
Waves the size of buildings crashed against the portside right as she landed, causing her to stagger. Towels and bowls flew off shelves, the latter smashing to the floor with a crash which was drowned out by the bellow of the wind. The whole ship creaked and groaned like it might splinter apart at any second. Aura rammed her staff into the ground, wedging it into a gap between two floorboards, and clung grimly on as the room lurched to the side. There was no porthole. Perhaps it was better that way.
There were two young women in the room. One scuttled about, snatching a washcloth to dab at the other’s forehead where she lay on the bed. The bedridden woman moaned in agony, her little fingers stretched over a stomach so swollen its contents must have doubled her body weight. Aura took half a step forward but stopped the moment her eyes locked with the pregnant woman’s.
She wasn’t a woman. She was a child. And those eyes – the colour, the shape, the long dark eyelashes… they were identical to Aura’s. She gripped her staff with knuckles even whiter than usual, but they still slid down a little as the ship rolled to starboard, loosened by sweat. It was Eselda. It had to be. The little girl Aura had met once on the rooftop of the castle was barely recognisable, with her copper-brown curls flattened with sweat and her bloated body shuddering with pain. She was dying.
“But you saved her.” Thoth interrupted, his tone particularly monochromatic. Their relationship had been strained by many things, not least his black-and-white views of the world and how her new job fitted into that. His eyes seemed to burn a hole right through her. “You saved her. Right?”
Aura took a breath. “I cannot intervene to save a life.” She said quietly, watching as his hands balled into fists. “But…”
She crouched down next to the bed on the other side of the midwife, who hadn’t noticed her at all. That happened sometimes; Aura couldn’t account for the fact that some people saw her and some didn’t. Maybe it was about faith, or expectation.
Neither of which Eselda had right now.
“Listen to me,” she said softly, glancing nervously over at her scythe, which she had left wedged between the wall and the bedframe. Without it, her clothes had shifted back into her less intimidating ordinary clothes, but it still seemed to be… watching her. Aura had never quite gotten over the idea that her staff had a mind of its own. “I cannot intervene to save your life. But you can.” She slipped her hand into Eselda’s and gripped it tightly, wishing she was better at this. She’d never been the motherly or touchy type. “You can choose to live. For you and for your child. You both deserve a chance.” She reached up and pushed Eselda’s damp hair away from her face. “If you choose to live, I’ll come back. I’ll help them find you. I promise.”
She stayed, holding her hand and repeating the reassurances, for hours. It was hours longer before Eselda’s child – no, children - joined them in person and the new mother was able to slump back against her pillows, her whole body shaking from the exertion. She wasn’t entirely out of the water, but her chances were a lot better. Aura gave her hand a final squeeze before dropping it, reaching out to grab hold of her scythe again.
“I promise I’ll come back.” She repeated firmly. Like it was a statement of fact.
One way or another, she’d be back.
She left through the door, leaving behind the stench of blood and sweat, and staggered down a rolling corridor in her icy blue robes. The first set of stairs she found she climbed, gripping the railings tightly as gale force winds whipped her hair and clothes. Through the rain and the wind, with waves crashing over the deck and men and women haring about, their shouts lost in the storm, it was almost impossible to see or hear anything. Aura craned her neck upwards, trying to catch a glimpse of the rapidly whipping flag: black, with the skull of a long-toothed carnivore ringed with a mane. A lion? The ship tipped suddenly. Aura allowed herself to slide down to the portside and slammed into the railing, using the momentum to lean as far over the edge as she dared. The figurehead carved onto the front of the ship was a snarling cat, leaping forward. Definitely a lion.
Her mouth full of salt, hair and wind, Aura twisted her scythe and tumbled forwards into the death portal as the boat lurched again.
Her breath ran out. Somewhere at the back of her mind, Aura wondered vaguely why that was. Surely she didn’t need to breathe if she was dead?
The two teenagers were staring at her, eyes wide. Thoth broke the silence after a moment.
“I’m going to get her,” he announced, his eyebrows curving sharply downwards towards his nose in a way which reminded Aura strongly of his first foster parent, Joel. He said it decisively, with the certainty of one whose mind was not going to be changed. She felt a pang in the region her heart would be if it were any use anymore and a rush of fear swept through her.
“No,” she challenged him, refusing to quake under the terrible look he gave her. “I didn’t tell you so you could go chasing pirates, I told you so you could rally help – ”
“From where?” He snapped back. “My family isn’t exactly tight with Mordred. Besides, who could find a ship quicker than me?”
Aura bit her lower lip, glancing across at the teenage girl.