AlongthePrimrosePathAlong the Primrose PathKovikin growls as he stirs toward wakefulness. He is not fully awake, his eyes are still closed. A protective arm is around Aura where she is curled against him. "If that is your cousin, he is going to be fed to the Kraken." he says. The Heir remains in place. Of Nick, there is no outward sign. Aura chuckles against his shoulder and waves a hand towards her door to open it with a spell. "Let's see, shall we?" She smiles as the bedroom door swings open, as well as the door being mistreated by someone's impatience. After all, everyone in Atlantis knew she and Kovikin were sleeping together. It had never been a secret, and it wasn't like she was one of those unfortunate females she had heard about who had a father who would fly off the handle at finding his daughter in bed with someone. Come to think of it - that had already happened years ago. The knocking stops as the far door opens. "Lorius still is not completely comfortable with Atlantis' blatantly open sensuality," she whispers as she kicks off the light sheet that had ended up over her legs at some point after she fell asleep. "Well, he better learn the next time he shows up here, if we have to tie him down into the shadow for a few months." Kovikin growls. As Kovikin finishes speaking, Nick darts into the bedroom. He hops up onto a small table and regards Aura and Kovikin. "Good morning to the both of you." Nick says, pointing a digit in the direction of the both of them on the bed. "I tried to keep him from coming over as long as possible. He has a bad habit of not wanting to sleep in. You'd think he wanted to sing to the sunrise." "Who?" Kovikin demands. "Me of course." comes the voice of Lorius from the anteroom to Aura's chambers. He still hasn't entered, and has carefully kept out of the line of sight. Or, perhaps, he is keeping Aura and Kovikin out of the line of HIS sight. Kovikin for his part is reluctantly putting on clothes. A small puff of a cool breeze, somewhat chillier than a sea breeze should be, flows into the bedroom from the anteroom like a tendril of smoke might curl upward from a smoker's lips. Aura, on the other hand, cast a bland look in Lorius direction. She stands from the bed, tosses her hair over her shoulder, and saunters into the anteroom wearing nothing more then her annoyance. "Oui?" she inquires breezily on her way to tug on the bell pull. Lorius floats two feet off of the ground in the anteroom, arms folded across his chest, when Aura enters the anteroom. He doesn't quite avert his eyes, but the color of his not-very-suntanned complexion does shade toward the red. "Um...Good morning, Aura. I thought you wanted to get an early start." Lorius says as Aura tugs the bell pull to summon a servant. When Kovikin comes out wearing little more than Aura, Lorius turns from Kovikin's arrival to regard Aura. "If you knew my sister, I'd think you were put up to this by Brandeigh." Lorius says, spinning around like a top, once in his floating position. With a smirk, the damage done, Kovikin heads back into the bedroom. Nick, who has entered in the meantime, just laughs. In addition, the servant who arrives at about that moment in response to the pull, of course, has no idea what the fuss is, and he looks to Aura expectantly. "I do not need anyone to put me up to walking around naked," Aura smirks before turning to the servant. Lorius blinks. "Breakfast, please. I was expecting several deliveries this morning. Have they arrived?" The servant bows. "Breakfast will be arranged, as you request. For two...?" "Three" growls the voice of Kovikin, from inside Aura's bedroom "And Nick," Aura adds. "Yeah. Me!" Nick pipes up. As far as the packages, I am unaware of any that have arrived." He looks quizzically at Aura. "I can check of course, when I go to arrange food. By your leave, of course." "Merci. That would be lovely," Aura agrees and waves him away to his errands. The servant departs with a bow and a quick exit. Lorius' quizzical look turns briefly and mildly mischevious, clearly stifling a grin. She turns an eye to her cousin hanging in mid air. "You are looking for trouble? I can create some for you. The Emperor is blaming yesterday on you." This sobers Lorius. It sobers him enough that he sinks in height, until he is standing on the floor of the sitting room. A dispirited look crosses the face of the son of Fiona. "So much for amusement." Lorius says. Aura feels an emanation of Pattern energies. Subtle, but noticeable. Lorius' left hand extends into the air to the left of him as if it were reaching into a pocket. In point of fact, his hand up to the elbow disappears. When his hand emerges, Aura recognizes the packaging as that used by Klotho. This is followed by other packages from the shops that Aura visited, from Aoenas the glassmaker to the apothecary and the vintner. Once Lorius stops his gesturing, all of the packages Aura has expected are there, intact and pristine. She crosses her arms under her breasts and gives him a disappointed look. "In addition to the amusement value, I had taken the liberty of collecting the packages as they arrived so that they would not get lost." Lorius explains. "Of course," she remarks dryly. "You're still a thief." Kovikin growls. Lorius ignores Kovikin and looks up at Aura. His eyes overcompensate, focusing at a point on her forehead. "Ahem..." Aura begins pointedly. "My eyes are down *here*," she says crossly. "And what are you? Five? Abran and Kess got over playing 'Let's hide Aura's stuff' when they were about six." "Just a chance to show off." Lorius says plaintively. His eyes finally lowers to meet Aura's. "It wasn't so much as hiding as a chance to show you some new stuff. You haven't learned everything from me. Yet." Kovikin growls and turns away. Nick laughs. Aura sighs at Kovikin's back and pats him on the shoulder. And at that moment, the servant returns, pushing in a cart loaded with four silver-lidded plates, sets of silverware, and carafes of what must be coffee and juice. "Breakfast is served, Aura." the servant says, stopping the cart and standing alongside it to unload its contents.. I was unable to..." he then sees the pile of packages and gives a nod. "Never mind, I see they have been found. Will there be anything else?" "No, merci," Aura says with a dismissive wave of her hand. "Have you eaten, Lorius?" Lorius shakes his head. "I wasn't sure if the near-universal that food eaten while in a hospital is horrible held, even here. Atlantis might be the exception to the rule..." Lorius regains his pluck with a smile. "I figured I would be able to beg at your table. So I thank you for the grace of your food." "Let's just stop arguing and eat. Baby!" Nick says, hopping toward the table. She sighs and rolls her eyes. "Ridiculous amphibian.:" She strolls to the table and takes her seat next to the Heir to the Throne of Atlantis, still naked as the day she was born. As she starts serving herself, she nudges Kovikin playfully. "You are really going to have to stop growling so. Otherwise, I am never going to get out of here..." "And that would be a bad thing exactly in what manner?" Kovikin says, his scowl and growl diminished once he is seated and Aura banters with him. Lorius simply opens plates and looks over items, picking and choosing here and there. "I bet we won't get half of this stuff in Amber." Nick declares, hoisting a small chunk of white cheese and eating it. She rolls her eyes. Nick would eat just about anything. As long as it wasn't what lizards normally ate. He did not do bugs. "Amber is much more temperate in climate." Lorius responds. "However, we do get a lot of trade from outlying shadows. And of course, the Family has its own tricks. Aura won't starve." "You'll have to train up Michael to have the kitchens cook to your tastes, though, Aura." Lorius adds, popping an olive into his mouth. She makes a sound of disbelief. Clearly, the Atlantean born Amberite did not believe for a moment Amber's cooks could possibly meet her Atlantean standards. The place sounded like a backwater. "You might as well bring an Atlantean chef with you, Aura. That would make sure you eat right." Kovikin says, peeling some citrus fruit. "Rather than the poor fare Amber will force on you." He offers one of the pieces to Aura in an easy, intimate gesture, dangling it from his fingers. She gives him a playful, languid smile as she eats from his fingers. She seems to just barely be paying attention to her cousin. "I am taking some things with me that I //know// the barbarian lands do not have. Magic is such a wonderful thing." Kovikin grins and relaxes into the easy body language of breakfast with Aura. Lorius, barely on Aura's register of attention, gives a grudging nod at Aura's point. "Maybe not with her arrival..." Lorius finally says, turning toward Aura and Kovikin. "However, if Aura decides to spend a while in Amber, its something that people have done. Bring a chef from shadow, put her in the kitchens and have Michael and the staff learn from her while she's there." "Oberon, though, had a habit of not letting the chefs leave afterwards." he adds. "Random, though, frowns on unwilling immigrants." "Aura will not be deciding to spend long enough in Amber to need a chef," she sniffs daintily. "You will be lucky if I can make it through winter." "That does raise a good point, though." Lorius muses, taking a grape and popping it into his mouth. "When I left, it just turned Spring. Festival of the Unicorn and everything. How long I was off in Corwin's Realm, and how long it took me to get here are somewhat unknown variables." "You are saying you don't know what season it is in Amber?" Kovikin says with only mild impatience. "Exactly." Lorius says. "Its likely still early spring, so if Aura makes it to the Midwinter Ball, that would still be most of the year. At least the temperature is headed the right direction." She waves a hand lazily in his direction without looking at him as she feeds Kovikin a bite sized tidbit of meat. "Can you not //call// someone there and find out? Really, Lorius. Why would you even need to guess? Unless there is no one speaking to you in Amber...." Aura turns and gives him a suspicious look at that idea. Lorius shakes his head as Kovikin devours the morsel. "Its not that at all, Aura. Its simply the lack of security on Trumps." He says, looking at his cousin. He holds up his hands, palms toward Aura. "Too much trouble with spying, inquisitive Trump Artists lately for me to casually call without really good reason, especially given that I am not one. If Jayson or Apollo still exists, I don't want him or it listening in onto my trump calls and realizing that I've survived. I wouldn't want Apollo, if it still exists." he looks at Aura levelly "getting ideas about Atlantis. Inflicting Apollo on Atlantis is definitely not on my to-do list, cousin." "I think the god has suffered a mortal blow, given the blowback that catapulted me here, but I am going to be absolutely cautious, thank you." "Besides." Lorius looks at Aura. "I know you like the privacy of your shadow. You don't even have your moping brother come visit. We can step sideways in shadow when we're ready to leave, to give some parallax on Atlantis, and *then* I can trump Amber and find out what's going on. And trump if for no other reason than to save a long trip through shadow." "All right?" Lorius asks Aura. "Oui, Merci. That was more then enough." Aura sighs and turns to Kovikin looking mildly amused. "Have you ever noticed he always tends to use 250 words when 25 or less will do?" She asks before sucking the sliver of fruit he was offering her from between his fingers. "If anything, you've underestimated his verbosity." Kovikin responds, with a smile to her as she takes the offered fruit. He then follows with taking a piece for himself, closing his eyes as he eats it. Lorius glowers but doesn't respond. Nick simply tries not to laugh. He mostly succeeds. Mostly. "How will be traveling this side step, Cousin?" (Aura asks) Lorius breathes in and out and then regards Aura. "We'll shadowshift out a bit from Atlantis, using the Pattern." He stops and then smiles. "10 words." "We are very proud," responds Aura indulgently. "Horse back or in that ship of yours? Which does not appear to be able to hold more then yourself." She turns from making sultry eyes at Kovikin to regard Lorius. "Did the Healers actually say you were fit to travel, or did you just never go back yesterday?" "Oh, I was tempted to slow my recovery to get a longer vacation. At least, until your intruder showed up." Lorius admits. Aura shares a look with Kovikin. Kovikin's raised eyebrows seem to say "Is he serious?" mixed with clear relief that it didn't happen. "Whatshername. The Head Healer at the Temple. She said I can go. She sounded relieved, too." Lorius adds, a slight disappointment clear in his tone. "Sagraine," Aura supplies absently. "Right. Sagraine. Her." Lorius says with a wide smile. Kovikin sighs. "Anyway." Lorius adds. "I do need to collect the ship. It's intended except for emergencies, not for day to day travel. We'll go a little less conspicuously." Lorius says. "I'll take Starfire," she says, and then turns to Lorius again. "Or would you rather take a carriage?" Lorius shakes his head. "We don't need to travel in State, unless you wanted to make that sort of impression." He scrutinizes Aura's reaction. "That, really is up to you. My idea was to ride out from Atlantis, stop, take stock, trump Amber and if things were quiet, lead our horses and go through. With a carriage, we need to alter the plan." "What do you think, cousin?" Lorius says. "If it were up to me, we would take a flying carpet," Aura sniffs while reaching for her cup. "Blasted inter-shadow physics. I am perfectly happy with my horse." "Now I know what to make for you for your birthday!" Lorius says brightly. "It would take a fair amount of work and would be difficult..." his green eyes brighten and he looks distant for a moment before returning to normalcy and continuing to speak. "Anyway, I can conjure a horse for myself, if you don't want Atlantis to lend me one." He looks at Kovikin as he says this. Kovikin sighs. "That I leave up to Aura. I refuse to wade into the waters on the matter. You will be gone soon enough in any event." He looks at Aura. "In one case, it will be far too soon." Nick quietly takes a sip from a small saucer. Aura smiles at Kovikin and leans over to kiss him on the nose. Then she looks over the table to her cousin. "Of course you can borrow a horse. Honestly. I have a stable full of my own, so it isn't like you are imposing on His Glory's generosity....and patience." "Well, it all depends on the culture." Lorius says with a smile, his eyes watching the interaction between Aura and Kovikin. "I've seen shadows where they care more about their Horses than anything else, and never lend them to strangers..." He pauses and grins. "Anyway, I'll accept the loan of the horse from you. I'll take good case of any horse you lend me. Honest. Better yet, you can pick the horse" "Good" Kovikin growls. "As well as Aura herself. Although she is more than capable of doing that on her own, I want you to be mindful of her, Lorius." Nick doesn't quite roll his eyes. Lorius however, sobers up and looks at Kovikin and then Aura. "I may have come here unexpectedly. I do keep my word, when I give it." Lorius says. "And now, as we are going to depart, I give it." Kovikin seems placated by this, and gives a look to Aura of satisfaction. Aura just smiles and rolls her eyes. "Men. I love you all, but you can be frightfully silly sometimes. I will be fine. I am just going to check on Mother. That is my primary concern. The rest..." she waves a hand dismissively. "If it gets too ugly, I can always just come home. They have survived this long without me - though Celestra only knows //how// they managed..." "Of course you can go home." Lorius says soothingly. "As far as how we've managed without you, mon ami, some of my cousins, and aunts and uncles might have decided opinions about that." Lorius grins and continues. "They're going to love you. Most of them will pretend to know all about you, sight unseen. I don't expect any of them not alive at the time to do so, though. Except maybe my sisters. And perhaps not even them." "Why would they know?" Kovikin asks. "Because one is a history buff and the other can get a tale out of a rock." Lorius says. "They actually pay attention to the past." He picks up a piece of tropical fruit and pops it in his mouth. After a moment he grins and throws a gentle lob of a second piece of fruit in Nick's direction, who nabs it easily. "I'm done." Lorius adds. The parcels she gestures towards vanish and Aura rolls her eyes. "They will //think// they know because no one in that family will ever admit //not// knowing. Since I was born here, and Mother had been here for well over a year before that, I would like to see their shadow spanning crystal balls that would allow them to know these things." Lorius laughs. "I keep mine, and a spare at my house in shadow." There is a twinkle in his eyes. She waves her hand and a gently breeze washed over her, dancing with the loose strands of her hair as a short sleeved, midriff bearing top settled snuggly on her. When she stood, the low slung matching skirt that swished around her ankles in matching rich purple was revealed. A snap of her fingers produced the silver and fire gem jewelry that she had decided to wear for the day. Kovikin whistles. Lorius' eyes bulge slightly. She holds out one hand for Nick, and tangles the other in Kovikin's dark hair, pulling him towards her as she leans down to give him a kiss that curls his toes and sears itself into his memory. She was going to be gone for who knew how long, after all. And for a timeless moment between Aura and Kovikin, even with Nick on her shoulder, and Lorius standing nearby, there is absolutely no one else in Atlantis, or even the entire multiverse. The universe is reduced to just the two of them, with Kovikin giving and receiving in equal measure. "There" he says, when breath more than decorum dictates the end of the goodbye kiss. "Return soon, Aura." Kovikin says. "With bells on, mon cher," she smiles and saunters towards the door. She waves a hand in her cousin's direction. "Come along, Lorius, or I shall leave you here." "Oh, you wouldn't make the denizens of Atlantis upset with that." Lorius grins as he follows Aura toward and out of the door, with Nick riding along on Aura's shoulders. "Don't forget we need to retrieve my Lifeboat. I *could* leave it here, it would be safe enough, although I figure that wouldn't be the friendly thing to do." She waves a hand in his general direction. Nick chuckles as they head toward the Stables. "Which of the horses are you lending him, Aura?" he asks. "Hmm...," she ponders. "I think Brimstone will do nicely, oui?" she asks the lizard innocently. No need to explain to Lorius that the only reason the horse had that name was because she couldn't bring herself to name him Damnation - which was what everybody said at least once while riding him. Herself included. Feisty didn't begin to cover it. Arrogant didn't scratch the surface, and he had a wicked sense of humor, which he exercised at his rider's expense more often then not. Nick stifles the chuckle that might completely give the game away to Lorius. "Yes. Lorius will suit well with Brimstone. Very well." Lorius shakes his head as the group reaches the stables. "It doesn't matter to me. I'm not the equestrian rider of our family, anyway. I don't treat horses like some of our relatives, though, who treat them like four legged cars." "More fool they." Lorius says as walks to the stall where Brimstone's nameplate helpfully gives Lorius a glimpse of Aura's choice. He gives a doubtful look. "I did say that you could choose." Lorius says as he turns from Aura and Nick to try and get a handle on Aura's choice for him, and give her the opportunity to pick her own steed for the journey. Brimstone snorts and tosses his mane, pawing the ground while eyeing Lorius as if he were a tasty snack. Aura coos at him as she walks by on her way to her horse. Starfire nickers in greeting and steps to one side so Aura can open the gate. "Don't whine, Lorius." "I won't." Lorius says. "However, you do realize the arcane energy cost that it will take for a spell of mine to convert me from horse dung back to regular form? Still..." Aura turns her head enough to see Nick. "Why did I not think of that?" Nick laughs. Lorius speaks a couple of words, and an apple, mottled red over a yellow background, appears in his hand. He looks up at the fierce steed. "Okay Brimstone. This is a Honeycrisp apple. One of the tastiest in any shadow. You don't try to kill me, I'll make sure you are well supplied with these. Heck, I'll bring cultivars to Atlantis for Aura to grow them. If I were a Trader, I'd have done it long since." Lorius gently proffers the apple toward Brimstone. The hot breath Brimstone blows out his flared nostrils is hot on Lorius' hand The silvery gray eyes of the garnet colored stallion look balefully from apple to man. He snaps his teeth alarmingly close to Lorius' hand. Lorius steps back a couple of paces. Its not completely undignified...but it is rapid. He manages to keep hold of the apple....and all of his fingers. Even Aura stops and eyes the horse. Starfire stomps a hoof and huffs at Brimstone, who freezes a moment before slowly turning his silver maned head to eye the opalescent mare of Aura's. Lorius just stares, perhaps glares, at the horse. He says nothing. Stepping out of the stall, Aura walks over to her cousin. "So... if I were you, I would not try to feed him from my hand," she says casually as the two horses nickered and whinnied at each other. "Just put it down and step away." Lorius looks at Aura, Nick, and Starfire. He then looks at Brimstone. "Promise is still good. Even if you want to add digits to your diet." Lorius says. He sets the apple down with the care that a golfer might set a ball on a tee. and dances back a few paces. "I'll still bring you a cultivar...for the benefit of your other horses, and yourself." he says to Aura as he turns to regard Brimstone. Brimstone eyes Lorius suspiciously as he steps out of his stall. The stallion toes the apple with his hoof, pushing it across the cobblestones towards the door out to the courtyard. If a horse could roll their eyes, Starfire would have. She gets her point across by tossing her mane and nickering at Aura, which draws a sharp look from the stallion,. Both females ignore him as Aura selects the tack and blanket she wants on her horse for this ride. "The grooms will saddle him out there," Aura informs Lorius as his mount continues nudging the apple towards the open air. "And I am fair certain the Minister of Agriculure will not want any foreign fruits brought in. But it was a nice gesture anyway." "You could give me apples." Nick points out. Lorius ignores this. "The climate may not be suited to their effective cultivation anyway." Lorius says with a sigh of clear disappointment. "I admit that I was looking to add a favorite fruit to the suite of foods available here, so I wouldn't have to make do with conjured versions." "Conjured food is not quite as good as real food. Not even mine." Lorius watches as Aura gets her tack and blanket. "Does Brimstone have a preference in his gear?" Lorius asks. "Does His Ferociousness even *need* a blanket?" Aura's expression is one of immediate outrage. Nick looks at Lorius with narrowed eyes. "Of course he needs a blanket," she scolds the man. "Else the saddle with chafe his back and the other pressure points you put on him -- and you and he both need him with a saddle. Honestly, Lorius." She tuts as she turns to point out what she wants for her horse to the stable hand attending her. The jade green and gold complimented Starfire's unique coloring beautifully. The tack was a darker jade that complimented both horse and rider. "Put Brimstone in the blue and silver barding, with the silver hoof decorations" she orders one of the grooms following the great stallion. "Black and silver tack. We will give them a show, oui?" "Oui, Aura" the groom agrees,sidling off with the black and silver tack, and the blue and silver barding. Lorius watches him go, and then turns to watch as Starfire is outfitted. "I was being facetious." Lorius finally says. "Mostly, anyway." he shrugs. "He will look good in those colors." he concedes. "Starfire here, too." he adds, as Starfire's ensemble is finished. "Are we ready at last?" he asks. Aura gives him a disdainful sniff as she passes him, following the groom that was leading Starfire out. "Come along, Monsieur Impatient." Nick, perched on Aura's shoulder, laughs at the jest. Lorius doesn't quite glower, although perhaps only through herculean force of will. Lorius follows Aura out into the sunshine of the day. Starfire is led to and then alongside Brimstone. Of the apple, eaten, or kicked away, perhaps, there is no longer any evidence. "Right." Lorius says. He walks toward the mounting block next to Brimstone and takes a deep breath. And then he carefully proceeds to mount the temperamental horse. "I have a feeling." Lorius says. "Brimstone doesn't like to take second place. Still, this is your terrain, Aura. You lead our way out and then I will take over once we're outside Atlantis." he suggests. Starfire is the very picture of a well trained horse as Aura settles into the saddle and gathers the reins in one hand. Brimstone, on the other hand, is the very picture of an impatient, cranky, downright dangerous beast as he stomps, huffs and tosses his silvery mane and twisting his neck around to snap at Lorius' foot when he does something the stallion doesn't like. Which seems to be just about everything. Aura ignores all this as her mare prances regally towards the gate. "Collisum," she directs to Brimstone as they pass him. The stallion snorts and lunges forward suddenly to follow them. "You didn't!" Lorius protests. "tell me" "that you trained him!" "in some sort of latinate language!" he adds. His words are somewhat broken by the less than smooth ride Brimstone gives the son of Fiona. Very much less than smooth. The ride out of the gate of the palace, for Aura and Nick anyway, is easy. The day is young and beautiful. The perfect day to ride out of Atlantis and beyond. "Don't forget!" Lorius exclaims from behind Aura. "I need to summon my ship!" "That is why we were going by the Collisum," Aura explains patiently over her shoulder. "It is where I sent it, and as twitchy as the guards were after your entrance, simply making it vanish from their watch is not a good idea." Comprehension, when Lorius' face bounces into view, crosses his countenance. She looks at the chomping at the bit stallion and smirks. "Atlantean is quite a bit like Greek. But as they are my horses, they understand Thari as well." "Brimstone," she says sharply. The stallion snorts and eyes her warily. "Do not eat him." Aura laughed at the stallions indignant retort as she turned back around. "He says you are too stringy." "I thought Collisum was a command." A pause. "Not the destination. And I am not for eating!" "You listen to Aura." Lorius says in Thari to Brimstone. A few minutes of riding toward their destination and Lorius resumes conversation. He has seemed to have gotten the hang of riding Brimstone, or at least is speaking with far less broken words. "Any road, my sisters are the ones who are the language experts. Either of them could be Linguomancers, if they wanted." She rolls her eyes heavenward and mutters drily. "Of course they are." "Where do you see your own studies taking you?" Lorius asks as the road curves toward Aura's goal. Aura shares an amused look with Nick as they reached the towering marble columns topped with golden horned lapis bulls that lined the road to the edifice they rode toward. She was a hedonist, for gods' sakes. Where did he think they were taking her? "I thought I would start small," she announces casually. "World domination. A practice run, if you will, before I point my armies towards Amber. I think I would make a fetching Queen, oui?" Lorius gives a dry chuckle. Aura smirks at Nick, knowing that the following will get a rise out of Lorius and he'll start going on about the man's overprotective daughter. "Or maybe I shall see what it is Uncle Julian wears under that armor." Lorius doesn't make a sound for a few moments. A sharp change of speed from Brimstone, perhaps just out of contrariness, gives Lorius a few more moments to deal with something else. When Brimstone simmers down, Lorius finally answers as they pass in the shadow of the columns. "Well, as far as Julian, its less unlikely than it might have been, oh, fifteen or twenty years ago." Lorius concedes. "Random is not as harsh as Granddad was as far as relationships or even just casual encounters within the Royal Family." Aura makes a dismissive sound. She had heard all that from her mother. She wasn't talking about Percy here. "His daughter and his son, though, will see it differently." Lorius continues. "Especially his daughter, if you handle it at all badly. She has faerie ancestry on her mother's side, Aura. With all that represents." She looks supremely unconcerned. Perhaps because Aura has never met a fae. "On the other hand." Lorius says. "Make it clear that you aren't a threat, and, hey, she might even appreciate your efforts to let her father relax for a change." "Well, if people are going to //approve//, where's the fun?" Aura grumbles. Then she gives him an innocent smile and a flutter of her eyelashes. "Me? Threatening? I am 5' 2" - though a very well put together 5'2". I am certain all those towering sword swingers will not even notice this little voluptuary - unless it is to try and convince me they have some sensuality I just have to experience for myself." "Then point yourself at those of us who don't spend six hours a day with their swords and you won't be bored." Lorius responds. "Little Voluptmancer." Aura snorts. "Anyway, back to Julian and his daughter, I get the feeling that Brieanne could be an Emma-level matchmaker, if she turned her mind to it." he adds. "You realize, I trust, that this means nothing to me?" she replies pointedly. "Is this another of your literary allusions? Because you know quite a bit of that fiction you keep trying to foist off on me bored me to tears, Lorius." "Some of the stuff I foist off on you was foisted off on *me*." Lorius responds with a grin. "Its the circle of literary life, its the wheel of reading fortune, the leap of faith and the band of hope." "Oh, I see. You are sharing the pain," she chuckled briefly then ceased suddenly to shake a finger at him. "Stop." Lorius chuckles and stops the quasi-song in its tracks. "As far as watching out for our cousins, just watch out for the half-fire elemental, too, while you are at it." Lorius adds. "Tempermental, are they?" Aura asks casually as their horses angle onto the drive leading around to the entrance to the field of the massive marble structure that was now looming over them, blocking the morning sunlight. "*She* definitely is." Lorius says. He seems ready to say more, and then stops as the entrance to the Coliseum looms above them. Lorius' eyes glow briefly as he is shadowed by the edifice. "I see that, like the people in Shadow Antares, when the Atlanteans seek to build big, they don't do it by halves, do they?" Lorius says. He reaches out a hand to touch the side of the wall as they ride past. "And so well maintained." Aara looks up at the walls on either side of them and shrugs. "It has to be big enough to hold several thousand." "What is this used for, Aura, when its not the repository for your cousins' lifeboat?" he adds. "It's a Coliseum, Lorius. What do you think it's used for?" Aura asked while waving a hand. "Races, Bull Dances, various other sporting events. Sometimes the mages test here if the scope of their trial is too big for their enclave. Occasionally it has been used for a refugee point when one of our neighbors has had to evacuate part of their population for some disaster or another. The city guard trains here. After the last war, the peace treaties were signed here so everyone could witness the Lumerians' official surrender. During that war, prisoners were housed here." Lorius listens along, nodding thoughtfully. "...and of course, this is where we feed heretics to the lions.." Lorius could be fairly sure they did no such thing. Atlantis had only one high crime that warranted the death penalty, and they had much more creative methods of carrying out the rarely given sentence then the barbaric practice of tossing people to wild animals. Religious heretics, if there ever were any, would be dealt with by the Temples. Plus, no lions in Atlantis. Though there were in Persa, but they tended to pit their criminals against manticores. The Persans were a bit blood-thirsty on occasion. At this, he stops and laughs, earning a snort of derision from Brimstone. He manages to slow the horse enough to regard Aura and waggle a finger. "Nice try, Aura. That was just an attempt to see if I was listening, wasn't it?" Lorius says, amused. "With this polytheistic, civilized, pleasure seeking culture you have here, dear cousin, the only thing that could be considered a heretic would be a stick-in-the-mud outlander who never stops to smell the roses, or the perfume of one of the denizens of the city." "And I suspect the response would not involve lions." he adds with a grin. Aura sniffs and tilts her chin to a haughty angle. "Do not be silly. There are no lion in Atlantis. Where do you get these ridiculous notions?" Starfire's whiney sounds suspiciously like a laugh, and the mare picks up the pace as the path broadens until they pass under an archway carved with images of a Bull Dance. The floor of the massive structure lays before them and the seating rises all around, dwarfing the humans into insignificance with its majesty. Lorius lets out a whistle as the size of the edifice really becomes evident as they enter into the center of it. Lorius' errant shuttle was lay dead center and under heavy guard, several of whom eyed it suspiciously from time to time. "Is it its alien crystal appearance, or the catastrophic manner of my arrival which irks the guards the most?" Lorius asks, with a tone that suggests genuine interest. "It's clear that I have design problems with the lifeboat. Not enough testing of the spell under live conditions. But, then, its only intended for situations in extremis." "Neither," she says cheerfully. "The answer is C: Because it is you." Lorius rolls his eyes but takes it in stride. "Hey, Aura." he adds after a moment. "How do I get off of our friend here without him trying to stamp or bite me?" The expression she gives him fully conveys the questioning of his intelligence going on in her mind. "When they taught you to ride, did no one teach you to dismount?" She smirks. "From a horse, I mean." "Oh I know how to dismount a *horse*." Lorius counters. "However, my contacts in Helgram neglected to ever teach me how to dismount from a quadruped demon mount that Brimstone here seems to be descended from. Fine, we'll try it the regular way." "No biting. I mean it." Lorius says to Brimstone,as he slowly, and cautiously starts rising in the stirrups, a hand guiding the pommel. "Easy now. You promised Aura not to try anything. And hurting you will make her angry at me for a few decades." he continues to talk to the horse. "I need Aura's goodwill. You don't know how good she has it in her demesne." And then he continues to carefully swing his leg over to continue the dismount. Brimstone curls his neck around to give Lorius a baleful look. He snorts, snaps his teeth together menacingly and paws at the ground all the while Lorius is dismounting warily. Aura meanwhile is laughing at him (as are a few of the guards, though are are much quieter about it). She hops easily to the ground and offers Starfire some sugarcane while they wait for her silly cousin. "Very funny" Lorius says, once he has managed to avoid injury in getting to the ground and several steps away from Brimstone. He walks forward toward the crystal/glass shuttle, he begins to float again, until he is four inches or so above the ground as he closes the distance to where it rests. Placing a hand on it, he speaks words in a language that sounds exotic and yet the cadence and syllables are familiar, even if the meaning are not. The glass begins to glow, just as it did such that Aura found it worrisome when it first fell from the sky, a light red glow. The glow intensifies as the shuttle, to Aura's eye, starts to shrink along its minor axises, turning from a lozenge shape to a thinner and thinner object, until it is the dimensions of a long and thin staff of crystal Picking it up, Lorius turns to face Aura, Starfire, Brimstone and the guards as he grins. And as the glowing staff flares briefly to intense brightness, he draws his cupped hands closer and closer, and the staff telescopes down in size, until there is nothing left, and only a brief afterglow to show it ever was. The guards, being guards, look bored at the display. But then, they've seen Mage trials. Kovikin created a //nebula//. Lorius' little display doesn't compare. The horses, of course, just don't care. Although Brimestone is looking hungry again... "The alternative would have been the Möbius method." Lorius says with a grin. "Although I am sure you would have had a pretty method of accomplishing something similar, si?" he adds as he walks back toward Aura and the two horses. Aura's eyebrow curls and she looks around as if to make sure they hadn't teleported to some Spanish locale when she blinked. She sighs and shakes her head as she looks to the guards. "I think you can go since there's nothing left to guard." The pale haired one saluted and turned to dismiss the others. Then they begin teleporting away as they received new orders. She turns to Lorius while gathering Starfire's reins again. "You forget, I think, that we don't require steps B-F to accomplish G while in Atlantis. Or I don't anyway. From A straight to G. Poof." Lorius laughs. "I would have thought as a hedonist that the journey from A to G is part of the fun, rather than rushing to the finale." he counters with a smile on his face. She rolled her eyes. Clearly he had not partaken of the more hedonistic practices of Atlantis, and she was not going to explain. "I could have made that display quicker and less ostentatious. It just would have been a lot less fun. Besides, cousin, you're worth the efforts." Aura sketches a curtsy in a completely cheeky manner, and then flutters her eyelashes at him. "You're too kind." Lorius grins. "Enemies not worth my respect, now they'll get the no frills version of the voodoo that I do." Lorius finishes. "Like the Oompa Loompas." It was not a difficult decision to make. She was pretty sure she didn't want to know. "Right." Lorius says as he reaches Brimstone. Standing on air as if he were standing on an invisible mounting block, Lorius proceeds to remount the temperamental stallion. The stallion's expression made it quite clear that if had been capable of rolling his eyes, he would have. The muscles under The stallion's expression made it quite clear that if had been capable of rolling his eyes, he would have. The muscles under his skin rippled; tensing, gathering... expectant.... "All right." Lorius says softly to Brimstone. "You want to run? I'm going to let you run." Louder, he speaks to Aura. "All right, cousin. Ready for a hellride out of Paradise?" She gives the stallion a wary look before ducking under Starfire's neck and swinging back up in the saddle. "Uh.. yeah. Although I am not entirely sure that is what he is doing..." Brimstone tosses his head arrogantly and nickers harshly at Aura, who coughs and busies herself with checking the buckles and ties on her saddlebags. "Well, we're about to see if he intends to give me some broken bones." Lorius says. "And besides, I thought you knew all of the horses in your stable. Heck, I'm half convinced you have secret commands lined up for Brimstone just waiting to be vocalized." "Now, though..." "Aura's House." he says to Brimstone. Brimstone's shoulder muscles twitched. But all he does is swing his head around to look at Aura, who turned to look at Lorius. "'Aura's House'? You will need to be a bit more specific, mon petite cabbage. Why are we going to my house?" "I am *not* a vegetable." Lorius says firmly. "Although I once met a traveler who liked to wear celery on his lapel." Aura laughs silently. "No, of course not mon chou. Non légumier." "To answer your question," Lorius continues "Why I said your house is simple. Brimstone knows the way there and can move in that direction quickly. That will make the shadowshifting I intend to start much easier to accomplish rather than telling him to run on a random road from here. Or we could go round and around in circles around the Coliseum, but that would be boring." She huffs and mutters under her breath. "Tout ce qu'il avait à dire devait commencer le Hellride, mais aucune...." "Brimstone," she says briskly. "Haven Bay, s'il vous plaît." And that was all he needed. The stallion and the mare both explode into motion; from a standing top to a full gallop in one leap that nearly unseats Lorius and has Aura laughing as she leans low and close over Starfire's neck. In counterpoint to Aura's use of French, a stream of an unfamiliar exotic language** comes out of Lorius once Brimstone plunges into action, leaving Lorius trying to seat himself in a better position, or at least not fall off. A couple of minutes of riding toward Haven Bay, though, and Lorius is comfortable enough that Aura soon begins to notice the changes around them. It starts with the sky. The beautiful blue of Atlantis' sky,with the yellow-white sun begins to shift, with the star becoming slightly less white and dimmer, and the blue deepens from its perfection to something a touch deeper. After that, the air pressure begins to lessen, as if they were climbing a tall mountain. The plant life around becomes hardier, less Mediterranean and tropical, as the area around takes a cooler, higher sort of aspect. Too, the humidity of an ocean bordering land dries out and dessicates. By the time this is all done, Lorius has led Aura onto a plateau. Off to the right, the ground slopes down toward a distant haze of a blue ocean or sea. Ahead, the road continues to curve along the edge of the horizon toward a destination unknown. "Brimstone, stop! Arrêter!" Lorius shouts at his mount. Aura's horse dances to a stop at Aura's signal, sides heaving as she catches her breath. But Brimstone isn't interested, it seems. He has moved several yards past Starfire before Aura shouts "Varrêtes!" The stallion stops so fast Lorius is once again jerked around. The stallion throws back his head and whinneys; it sounds suspiciously like a laugh. As if he has no rider, he prances back over to stand in front of Aura - who is trying hard to keep a straight face. "Shame on you," she scolds the stallion. He snorts without a shred of remorse. With a couple of tears in his eyes, Lorius is half mad and half laughing as Brimstone drags him along to where Aura has commanded him. "Varrêtes" He says. "Unicorn's blood, Aura." Lorius exclaims. He shakes his head. She ignores him while straightening her hair, adjusting her bodice, smoothing her skirts... "So much for your apples." Lorius says to the horse, with slight impatience. Brimstone makes to lunge at him, snapping his teeth, but decides at the last minute Lorius is probably too stringy to bother with and instead looks expectantly at Aura.. "Anyway, we're outside Atlantis sufficiently to try a trump to Amber, if you were interested." Lorius offers. Aura appears to pluck a golden apple out of the air. "For the Fairest?" Lorius asks incredulously. "From the Fairest," she smirks. "And they also come in silver." Aura tosses it to Brimstone, who catches it in midair, biting it in half. "Give the horses a moment, and then try away," she says as Starfire lowers her head to eat the other half of the apple. "A few moments." Lorius observes. "I'd rather not have apple bile on me, thankyouverymuch." He waits until Brimstone seems to have finished with his half of the apple, and then pulls out a trump card and lays his will upon it. Sweat rolls down his forehead as the moments pass without any outward sign of success. Lorius' eyebrows furrow until they threaten to permanently crease in that manner. "Lorius..." Aura ventures cautiously. Starfire steps closer to him and Aura leans down to poke him. "Lorius! If you are straining yourself, we are not close enough, oui?" Lorius finally snaps his attention from the card, and a growl emits from his throat. "If that martinet of a would-be-godling messed up shadow between here and Amber, I'll resurrect him just so I can kill him again." A gust of cold wind whips up out of nowhere, blowing across the plateau from the ocean. He finally sighs and the wind ceases. "I'm sorry, Aura." Lorius says. "We're going to have to do some more traveling." She waves a hand in a grand gesture of dismissal now that the chill wind was gone. "There is no need to apologize. Now you have time to clarify just which martinet of a would-be-godling you were cursing." She holds up a finger then leans down over the side of Starfire facing away from Lorius. When she sits back up, she is holding two glasses of chilled wine, looking as if she just picked them up from a table. "Here. Have a drink and relax. You are far too tense. As you know." "Hey, none for me?" Nick, quiet through all of this, finally pipes up. Aura tsks and waits for Nick to scamper off her shoulder and down in front of her before conjuring a tiny bowl he can hold between his hands; which he was perfectly capable of doing. Nick takes the bowl gratefully and hopefully. "Many might agree with you, Aura" Lorius concedes, letting Aura see to Nick's question. He takes the glass of wine and regards it for a moment. "Thank you." he adds. She just smiles and dribbles a little into Nick's bowl. "In vino veritas." Lorius says, as if it were an axiom, and then takes a sip of it. He takes a second before resuming his speech. Nick takes a sip from his bowl in turn and looks up as Lorius speaks. "As far as the godling, I've mentioned him in passing a couple of times. Apollo, of course, the being that got connected with our cousin Jayson and indirectly responsible, in a way, for me crash landing in Atlantis." "Ah," she nods. "That one." Aura gives him a crooked smile. "Seeing as we are all godlings to some extent, it is so difficult to know who you are referring to." "Claiming that one is a god is a strategy that is often best reserved for fantasy cinema and turgid novels." Lorius counters with a grin. "Come on, mount up. We can shift at a more leisurely pace for a little while." She gave Brimstone a stern look. The stallion just snuffed as if offended. "We can." Lorius says. The son of Fiona mounts Brimstone with somewhat more confidence, although his hesitation is still clear. Nick for his part has drained his bowl and has resumed his place on Aura's shoulder. "The question is, do you want the shifting practice?" Lorius says. "We're stuck out here without hope of Trumping Amber for a while. "You could show me your moves, so to speak, if you wanted." Lorius grins. "I don't *always* have to be on top, you know?" Nick snickers. "Funny," Aura says casually as she tosses her hair back. "You always struck me more as a bottom." Then she flashes him a cheeky grin and nudges Starfire into a brisk canter. Lorius just shakes his head with a smile. Brimstone tosses his mane and makes a noise that sounds suspiciously like a snicker as he gathers himself into motion. Aura can hear an exhalation of breath from Lorius as Brimstone falls into place behind Starfire and he can see Aura's hair trail in front of him like a beautiful pennant in the breeze. "My guess." Lorius says aloud "is that you make it warmer first." "Yes, Captian Obvious, I am," Aura retorts as the air becomes gradually warmer. "I plan on being warm as long as possible." "Somehow" Lorius retorts with a grin and a last exhaled puff of chilly air. "I don't think you suffer from too many problems with that." Aura, it turns out, enjoys shadow shifting for the sheer artistry available. The sky shifts through spectrums of color, dotted with clouds that are not always white as they ride beneath them. Mountains rise and fall. For a time they are joined by a herd of horses until the equines around them suddenly take to the sky on feathered wings. Night creeps in and stars fall in arcing rainbows of light under the pale light of one, three, five crescent moons before shifting to a moonless night with the white of the stars mirrored by the field of white flowers under their feet. She had obviously had more practice at this then she had let on. Lorius has been quiet throughout the ride, content to follow behind, or perhaps concentrating on keeping Brimstone on good behavior. However, any backward glances by Aura shows that he is watching, and absorbing, the changes and landscapes that Aura has brought them through.Once the kaleidoscope of shifting is done and stable with Aura's choice, he finally pipes up. "I am not sure to be annoyed that I didn't know you had had more practice, or delighted that you have been working on these arcane skills as well." Lorius says, with the tone of a surprised schoolteacher presented with a project beyond his expectations. "Despite appearances to the contrary, there is more to Atlantis then just sex and art," she points out, then gives him a saucy wink. "Besides, I enjoy kidnapping the Crown Prince and spiriting him off into Shadow where I can exercise all my talents in the journey." "Somehow." Lorius observes. "I don't think its technically kidnapping if he's a willing journeyer on an expedition." "Shhhh...." responds Aura. "We enjoy our games." "We've gone laterally." Lorius adds, looking done at the field of moonflowers. "We're somewhere way out in the Bronze Circle still, I'd judge." She waves a hand dismissively; the other hand still holding her wineglass - though the contents were different. "Tis more fun out here," Aura smiles and lifts her glass to the heavens as a curtain of colored light moves up from the horizon. "I never get tired of watching that, no matter where it happens." She tilts her head a moment, watching the pinks and purples light the sky before she turns to look at her cousin. She holds her glass tilted and next to her shoulder so Nick can take a drink. Nick dips his head slightly and takes a tentative sip and then a longer one as Aura speaks. "I take it you want to go in a more direct line?" Lorius rolls his shoulders. "I said nothing of the sort. I simply was placing us in multidimensional space and where we eventually need to go." He turns his head toward the colored light and regards it with a grin. "An Aurora thanks to Aura." She gives him a look and then shakes her head with a sigh. "Come Starfire. Lets us see what else we can find to amuse, and Lorius can explain to me what Amber considers fashionable at the moment." Aura smiles over at him. "Won't you, mon cher?" Lorius gestures for Aura to start riding. As Brimstone follows, he answers Aura. "Prince of Amber. Sorcerer. Tutor and Teacher. Magister of the Air. Fashion Guru. It's a wonder I've not been married off." Lorius says with a grin in response. "I should have bundled Noys in the capsule with me to help you coordinate your outfits even better. Although her poor reputation would have suffered even more for it." "Eric's daughter. Many say that she has a thing for me." Lorius adds. Aura shares an amused look with Nick. Nick is trying not to laugh, and is mostly succeeding. "Aside from that, she's sharp as a tack, and doesn't carry the poisoned social daggers someone like Flora's daughter does." "Truly a match made in heaven," Aura replies as the flowers under their feet shade into periwinkles, then violets. "At least she talks to him. That's half the battle, baby." Nick says to Aura in a stage whisper. Lorius gives a glare to Nick. Overhead, the starfield shifts as they ride on. Multiple colorful moons eventually become one hanging low in the sky. The air remains warm and the sea moves lazily against the shore. "I have to admit, as far as the artistry of change, you pass that part of the test, if I were testing you overtly." Lorius says as the moon hangs in front of them like an enormous paper lantern. "At least an O-level." he adds. "Now, though, if we're going to take the time to do this sort of thing, dear cousin, show me your fine controls." Lorius says. Nick laughs. Lorius rolls his eyes. "Like I have never heard //that// before," Aura smirks over the call of a distant nightbird as the journey continues. NIck moves from Aura's shoulder to perch on her mare's head to watch the journey. A gentle incline in the path takes them up a rise that turns from the sea as the moon sets in front of them and the sun starts to rise at their backs. The carpet of flowers thins and becomes dotted with heather; breaks in the green show soil shifting from orange-red to brown to rich black. Trees appear and change as they pass; silver leaved to flaming reds, to pale greens of spring and the emerald of summer. As the sun brightens the sky, the calls of wild birds become twittering songs. Starfire snorts in mild surprise as a rabbit darts across her path from the high grass. Brimstone eyes his surroundings suspiciously and tosses his mane and bugles a challenge to any unseen foes. As if in answer, a butterfly lands between his ears, wings moving belligerently until a mighty shake of his head launches the insect into the air. Although his perch on Brimstone is slightly threatened by the violent motions of his tempestuous steed, Lorius laughs at the reaction of the horse to the gentle butterfly. Aura drains the last of her wine and tosses her glass over her shoulder where it transforms into a shower of petals in mid fall. "Excellent, Aura." Lorius rubs his hands together. "Merlin told me once about managing to shift subtly enough to change the flavor of his ice cream in mid stride. He was bragging, of course, or he was lying and really did it with sorcery instead. Or telling me something that someone else in the family managed." "Well, it's Merlin," she says flippantly. "I would guess though." Lorius points to a cloud that is rising on the opposite side of the sky from the sunrise, spreading like seeping ink "THAT is nothing of your doing...is it?" She looks up and frowns. "No.... it certainly is not. What is that? I've not seen anything quite like that before." She tilts her head and narrows her eyes to study it through the eyes of a sorceress. "Let's find out." Lorius says in agreement. Bringing up her arcane senses, Aura can see that the cloud is not just a cloud, but rather it is something greater. It's a storm. Not just or merely a storm of rain, and wind, but a storm infused with energies, both natural and esoteric, and a storm that Aura can deduce, although not prove with mage sight, likely extends beyond the bounds of this world. A Shadowstorm. In the time it has taken Aura, and Lorius, to analyze it, it has grown to about double its original size. "A serpent for our garden of eden, so to speak." Lorius says. "A particularly nasty one at that." The horses shift nervously under their riders as Aura turns to him with wide eyes. "I have never dealt with one. I'm guessing we should be going now. Quickly." "Oui." Lorius says. "We must be careful in our flight. Shadowstorms have a nasty tendency to react to shadowshifting. I might disagree with my mother on their nature and origin, but we agree that trying to shift away from them directly can backfire." "You lead." Lorius urges Aura. "We'll ride perpendicular to the path and shape of the storm. We'll get out from in front of the bow of the wave and escape it." "If we hurry." Aura doesn't need to be told twice, and neither do their horses. Setting a perpendicular path, Aura starts shifting again. The changes aren't harsh, but gone are the artistic touches she brought to it earlier. This is all very straightforward and business-like in its subtlety. She lets Lorius worry with tracking their progress against the storm. The shifting has her focus. With Aura in the lead, the pace of hoofbeats is like the sound of twin rumblings of thunder. The terrain's shifts aren't harsh and not even really noteworthy as Aura and Starfire lead Lorius and Brimstone. Out of the corner of her eye, as they run, Aura can see the shadow grow and darken. Lorius doesn't keep up a continual patter, his comments coming infrequently. "Steady. It's growing and fulminating, but its supposed to do that." A few minutes more of riding, and it becomes clear to Aura that the storm is getting closer and larger. Lorius' voice remains calm. "Keep the pace. It's a tight balance. Too fast and we accelerate the storm, too, and faster than we ride." Despite any of Aura's shiftings to the contrary, the sky to their right darkens and darkens and there is the smell of ozone and rain in the air as the front of the storm gets nearer and nearer and upon them. The fulminating dark cloud briefly illuminates time and again as lightning flashes within it. Ahead, Aura can finally see the curving upper bound to the approaching storm and the clear skies of freedom. Its difficult for her to really tell with Aura concentrating on the shifting so much. But it seems that at her current pace and the approach of the storm, she sees that she will just get out from in front of it, with little to spare. Perhaps too little for even a single rider just behind her to make it as well. "Lorius!" she calls out loudly while urging Starfire to the next level of speed. "You better stick close and pick up the pace!" Lorius growls something that sounds like a mixture of Thari, Latin, and an ancient language that Aura has heard Lorius use once or twice in spellcasting. And then in more intelligible speech. "Believe me, if I was going much faster, Brimstone would be performing an unnatural act on Starfire, or trying to." And then as Starfire picks up the pace, Lorius urges Brimstone to a faster speed as well. The shifting proceeds apace, and with the faster speed from the riders, the storm comes ever closer. Gusts of wind blow against Aura and Starfire, and presumably Lorius and Brimstone as well. Lightning in the storm is accompanied by the sound of thunder, like the sound of dozens of Atlantean trumpets. Rain starts to spatter on the road, and when it does not hit the road, the drops are small missiles carried on the force of the chilly wind. The real front of the storm, and its true menace are meters away, but so is the upper bound to the tempest, and safety. Lorius is as good as his word and Brimstone's nose is nearly on Starfire's rear as the latter, and Aura, clear that last upper bound into sunlight, and Lorius and Brimstone a gallop behind. A mere horse length behind both them, the storm crosses the path like a whirlwind of destruction. Even here, out of the path of the storm, the wind still carries the rain around like small missiles. "We made it!" Lorius says triumphantly. Starfire dances sideways breathing heavily through her flaring nostrils. Brimestone bellows a challenge to the storm, but he is in no shape to battle much of anything just yet. The rain washes the lather from the gleaming coats of both horses. Lorius says a few words. An egg shaped field of translucent pale blue energy surrounds Lorius. Aura is suddenly wrapped in a cloak lined with silvery fur. She pulls the hood up while looking past Lorius and not feeling especially celebratory. The Shadow Storm has clearly shaken her. "Those do not just spring into being, do they?" Lorius' celebratory mood has dampened somewhat as he turns his head from the storm to regard Aura. "I may dispute with my mother some of the details, but no, they do not simply spring into being without inputs of some kind. The nature of what those inputs might be is a different matter." "It may have been a natural phenomenon thanks to resonances from various aligned and unaligned Powers. However, given the odds...it could very well have been an attack, Aura." Lorius says. "On us." She nods. "Considering what happened yesterday, I happen to agree." Aura peers through the driven rain to the landscape. "How much further?" Lorius stares at the rain and narrows his eyes thoughtfully. "Just one moment..." Lorius closes his eyes. The translucent blue shield around him flickers a bit. Aura can feel the Pattern, and magic, surge in the area around them both. Brimstone snorts. "We've been driven nearly exactly in the direction we wanted to go." Lorius says after a few moments. "We're within the outer bounds of the Golden Circle. We take a slightly curving path, and we'll soon see the glaciers of DuMarque..." he looks at Aura ."where you'd look great in that cloak, although its colder than Grandfather's heart...and soon after that, warmer shadows even closer in." "And then, of course, Amber itself." "I am cold enough already," Aura snorts as she pulls on some gloves. Her sandals have been replaced by boots, and goddess only knows what else is going on with her clothes under that cloak. "It's your turn to drive," she declares. "This is your neck of the woods. I shall be too busy trying to stay warm in this arctic zone." "I wouldn't have it any other way." Lorius replies. "At least that storm is off bothering some else. Don't worry, I'll get us through the colder shadows as quickly as possible. I'd hate for our new cousin Glacier Boy to complain you melted his shadow in an effort to keep warm. Gerard would give us hell for it." "All right, time to play nice again." Lorius says to Brimstone, urging him forward and ahead of Aura and Starfire. He starts off at a decent pace, riding wise, although the shifting comes quickly. The rain goes away, replaced by an overcast sky, and then a steel blue sky. The vegetation changes to deciduous trees, tall and majestic. The sun is low in the sky, weakly illuminating the landscape. Unfortunately, with these changes, the temperature has plummeted to well below freezing, and in point of fact the road is now well-tracked run through a snowy landscape. Snow covered mountains loom to the left and right. "Just a little bit of this, Aura. Stay with me." Lorius says with what has to be considered a reassuring tone. Even his teeth are chattering in what must be the arctic hell of the Golden Circle. "Just going to hit the path just right..." The horses are no more used to this cold then Aura is, and even Starfire has to be urged to go forward. Aurora speaks to them in Atlantean. No doubt bribing the pair to just get through this journey. Every breath is like cold fire to inhale, every moment an eternity of cold. And then the temperature changes, suddenly, 50 degrees warmer. It's still more than chilly by Aura's standards, but the snow is gone, the air no longer deadly, the horses no longer exhaling puffs of steam with every breath. A few more paces, and the world changes again, the temperature up another few degrees, the world turning warmer, more palatable. Now its merely cool. Lorius looks down at a city visible from the hill they have arrived on. Even from here, Aura can see the city as a collection of white marble buildings which looks a bit like Atlantis, although with a somewhat different aesthetic, a more martial feel. "Antioch. Perfect." He looks at Aura seriously. "We cut and saved a lot of time with that mountain pass in DuMarque. And kept away from that storm." Taking off a glove, Aura comes up beside him and leans over to stroke Brimstone's neck under his flowing mane with her bare hand. "Just keep moving," she says as she studies both horses with worried eyes. "They are no more used to the cold then I am." The stallion huffs something that is probably rude and curls his neck around to nuzzle Starfire. "I hope the stables in Amber are heated, or they are going to fall ill, I fear." "The stables are heated, and we'll get warmer by the time we reach Amber anyhow. It's early spring there." Lorius says reassuringly. "I do have an idea though." Even as he says this, though, Lorius waits for the horses to disengage before he coaxes Brimstone to start. Trusting Aura to follow him, he starts throwing changes again. The temperature warms up considerably. Not only because of the sun climbing high into the clear blue sky, but also because of the change in terrain. The relatively sparse trees of Antioch give way to fewer and fewer trees, until there is little but desert sand dunes, and the ocean, or a sea to the left. Its certainly the warmest place they've visited since the storm. Lorius leans into Brimstone as he pushes forward, leading Aura. The shifts stop for the moment as the sand dunes stretch on next to the blue water that nearly matches the blue sky. "Kashfa!" Lorius says. "We'll warm up on this route before Begma and the last shadow veils to Amber." The horses dance beneath them in the warm sunlight. Brimstone eyes the water as if he is tempted to dive into it. Aura shrugs out of her cloak and it falls into folds behind her across Starfire's back. The jade eyed daughter of Deirdre looks appreciatively over the Kashfan landscape before giving Lorius her attention. "Did you wish to try Trumping the rest of the way now that we are closer?" Lorius stops and grins. "If we couldn't trump from here, I might as well check my brain into a museum and fit me with a robot brain." Lorius gets off of Brimstone. Reaching into his clothes, he pulls out a trump deck, pulling out a Trump with a unicorn on a green background backed card. Fiona's son concentrates on it for only a half minute before a grin splits across his face like a canyon. "Finally." he says. Lorius takes the reins of Brimstone. "Grab hold, and we'll be in Castle Amber and tormenting the Chamberlain in two shakes of Starfire's tail." "Mind the light change when we step through. Its nighttime in Amber." "Of course it is," Aura replies blandly as her cloak slithers back up around her and Nick burrows again into the fur of the hood. Starfire edges over beside Brimestone again. Aura rests a hand on his saddlehorn and the horses walk in step behind Lorius when he steps through. And so she does. The moon is up and there is an early spring cold in the air once Aura, Lorius, Brimstone and Starfire make it through the connection and to the courtyard of the Castle Amber. A couple of guards, framed by the light of the main castle entrance look smartly at Lorius and Aura. Its a young red haired groom, in Castle Amber livery, who comes up first. He looks uncertainly at Lorius, as if not expecting him with a Horse, and then looks at Aura briefly before looking at Lorius again. "Your Highness..es" he adds the plural at the slightest raising of an eyebrow from Lorius. "May I take your horses?" "Thank you, Ambrius." Lorius says. "This is my cousin the Princess Aura. They are her horses, and like she, they are Atlantean, and we'll want the warmest stables for them." "Your Highness." Ambrius bows to Aura. "Bon jour, Ambrius," Aura nods as she dismounts from Starfire. She moves around to the front of the horse and flips part of the pale green mane to one side before she turns back to the groom. "Starfire here is mild tempered and sweet natured, though she has a somewhat surprising sense of humor. Brimstone is temperamental, demanding, and can be rather dangerous if handled improperly. They will understand all verbal commands, and they are both vain creatures; him more so. You will not have their preferred grains, but if you mix pears and apricots in with their feed, they will be content." She gives him a brilliant smile. "If you have any trouble, please send for me and I will come deal with them." "Yes, your Highness." Ambrius stands firm and resolved as he executed a bow in response to the smile. She gives Brimstone a stern look. "Do not eat the stable hands." The ebony stallion tossed his midnight blue mane and huffed. "Can he...would he..." Ambrius' resolve threatens to crack like an eggshell as he stutters. Lorius interrupts his verbal flailing "Just think of Brimstone as Morgenstern's distant cousin. You deal with him, don't you? And the other horses of the Julii" Lorius says. "Y...yes." Ambrius says. "Well, just so. Listen to the Princess' words and all will be just as well." he finishes. Ambrius looks from Lorius and focuses on Aura. His resolve returns as he regards Deirdre's daughter. "We will take care of your horses. Properly." He whistles, and a couple of figures come from the direction of the stables. "Merci," Aura smiles again. She pats both horses affectionately and moves to Starfire's side to remove the tooled and gilded saddlebags. "Lorius," she says as she resettles her cloak around her. "You owe me warmth, a hot toddy and my mother. Let's go." "All three should be easily done; in addition they will be gladly done." Lorius says, leading Aura away from the departing grooms and the horses, and instead to the entrance to the Castle. The guards noticed earlier salute Lorius, and at least one of the quartet gives Aura a very long look, even in the semi darkness. Aura notices; she always notices. She pushes the hood on her cloak back and gives the guard a languid smile as she saunters past. Nick stays burrowed into the fur of her hood until they are inside. But she can hear him faintly snickering from his hiding place. "...more people trumped into the courtyard tonight than I've seen do it in a month..." one of the guards murmurs to a second. And then they are past, into the warmth of the edifice built by Oberon, Castle Amber. Guards, servants and passers by fill the hallways as Lorius strides confidently forward. "The family keeps the best artwork and eye candy on the second floor, except for the parts used to impress visitors." Lorius says. "You want the toddy and your mother in the same hand?" Lorius says. "I can let you catch up with Deirdre while I intimidate Henden into giving you a room for the night. A full family suite will have to wait at least until morning and Random." Aura hums as she lets her eyes travel over the castle decor. She tosses her cloak back over her shoulders, and now that she is in a suitably warm environment again, her gown clothing has morphed back into the belly baring outfit she had called up when they left Atlantis. From his perch on her shoulder, the purple striped white lizard was also eyeing their surroundings, his tongue flicking out to taste the air occasionally. Compared to the colorful, airy structures of Atlantis, both of them were already finding the edifice somewhat oppressive. Lorius glances at Nick, and Aura as they take in the Castle. "I am having a hard time seeing the woman I remember my mother to be growing up in this place," she opines after a moment more of following Lorius. "It reminds me more of the cave cities of Etrusca then anything else." Lorius makes his jaw work soundlessly. 'Cave cities of Etrusca' his mouth spells out without voice and then he shakes his head. "Its not so bad. Just you wait." Lorius says. "Knowing my luck, I'll wind up giving you a nickel and dime tour of other places than Castle Amber. I'd love your opinions on, say, Castle Azure, or House Helgram or the Thelbane." Nick swishes his tail. "Don't smell any stippal trees," he grumbles. Aura snorts quietly. "I doubt they would grow here. Too stodgy." "I will resist the urge to inquire just what they are." Lorius replies with a smile. By this point, Lorius has led Aura up a grand staircase flanked by guards who look at Lorius warily and Aura with raised eyebrows. Lorius stops at one guard and waggles his finger "You should stop thinking *that*, Yurra." Lorius says with a grin to the dark skinned guard in green and gold he addresses "I taught her a fair amount of what I know, and Nick there might want a playmate." "Yes my lord." Yurra manages to squeak out, and suddenly decides that guarding a different area than the stairs is a very good idea. "There." Lorius says smugly. "Your honor is satisfied." He proceeds to the top of the staircase and keeps leading Aura on. She rolls her eyes and looks at one of the guard. "Ignore him," she smiles. "If I did not want people to look, I would dress like that woman in that picture over there." Aura wrinkles her nose at the portrait. "Cannot imagine how she breathes..." With the flash of another smile, she sauntered after Lorius. Another guard just gives Aura a wide grin behind Lorius' back. Its just a short passage down a corridor bedecked with artwork. Busts, paintings, sculpture and other collected pieces in a manner not unlike the Hall of Heroes in Atlantis. Much of the artwork seems to depict various family members. Lorius finally turns down a side corridor, to a door which is watched over by a guard. With black hair and pale skin, and even blue eyes, the guard has a passing resemblance to Aura's mother. "Good evening, Selene." Lorius says. "I take it that the Princess is resting in her quarters?" "Yes, milord Prince Lorius." Selene says. She looks from Lorius and gives Aura a quizzical look. "Good. This is Aura, Princess of Atlantis and Princess of Amber de jure. Percy's half-sister." It takes a moment for Selene to work it out and then she gives Aura a full and complete bow. "Milady Princess, it is a splendid honor to meet you." Aura swats Lorius on the back of the head while Nick snickers. Then she turns her attention to the young woman. "Merci, Selene. At ease, s'il vous plait. I would very much like to visit my mother now." "Oui. I only know a little of that language." Selene says. "Please, be welcome to her Highness' quarters." There is a reverent look in her eyes as she turns toward the door. Backlinks |
