Of Monsters and Men

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Windsong

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A long time ago, in a land not unlike our own, a single seed had sprouted in a place long inhabited by things humans had never quite grasped how to understand. Beings that had little idea of their own origins, though humanity had its ideas, most of them bad, despite their oft peaceful nature and willingness to live alongside the short-lived but quickly breeding race that felt it had more right than anything else on their world.

The humans had given many names to these races, elves, dwarves, orcs, goblins, gremlins, dragons, gargoyles, griffins, wyverns, wraiths, werewolves, and many more names befitting monsters. Each of these beings in kind had their own names for the human race, many sought peace, far many more felt they were a pimple on the worlds ass that needed to be popped.

Neither side, mortal nor magical, thought much when one star fell from the sky to land behind distant mountains. From this star seed something began to grow, malicious and cruel, unfeeling and unflinching, infectious and terrible that seeped into the ground and spread its tendrils forth into the landscape. Trees became monstrous, grass itself became like shards of glass, even the air grew sickly and toxic.

It grew slowly at first, a few curious souls tried to learn from it, though none knew what they did for they never returned.

The first peoples to flee were the ones in the mountains, and then they fled alongside the forest-folk, and so the Great Exodus continued, race after race fleeing from the Corruption that spread.

Much time has passed, any many still flee, though the Corruption has been slowed by efforts of zealous humans, who seek to blame the magical, and they who would give all to save their world..


Here is the story of two in this world, one young man named Qilby, and an unknown woman, unaware of the turning of fate's wheels..​
 
Lilika signed softly as she stared into the mirror and looked herself over one more time. She had to look perfect for this party, for her parents. Most of the people who were attending thought that the party was just a party. A gathering where like minded mythical people could meet, mingle and enjoy themselves. Little did they know that this party served a more serious purpose. It gave the members of the Kindred council a change to meet without raising any suspicions that something major might be wrong. Since she was not actively a member of the council it was Lilika's job to play the perfect hostess and make sure that all the non-council member guests had a good time, and to also listen to what was being said and by whom. She wore her long white hair down so that it fell to just above her rear. The dress was white and had a tightly corseted empire waist that flared slightly over her hips into a floor length gown decorated in in tiered layers of white fabric edged in a gold that drew attention to the gold color of her eyes. Though it did not have traditional sleeves, she did wear a set of detached sleeves that began in the middle part of her upper arm and ended with a flared bell that fell over and covered her hands. around her neck she wore a white and gold choker. Her mother greatly approved of the dress aside from the fact that because the back of it only came up to under her shoulder blades, her white and gold phoenix tattoo showed. When her mother was going to protest and have her wear another dress, she simply reminded her mother that she was an adult now and could make her own choices, and that since she was wearing her hair down, hardly anyone would see it. This seemed to placate her mother enough that the woman left to get dressed herself.

Once she was sure she was presentable, Lilika made her way out of what used to be her old room and made her way towards the entrance of the large house to take her place with her parents before the guests arrived. Once all the council members had been received, her parents would turn the party of her to and her job as hostess would begin. When she reached the entryway, her mother and father were already there, standing off to the side, waiting to welcome their guests. Just as she took her place beside her mother, the bell rang and a footman made his way to the door and opened it. Lilika plastered a smile across her face, a look she had perfected over the years of having grown up around these parties and waited as the first guests made their way toward her and her parents. Show time.

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A party, it had to be a party. It wasn't so terrible all in all, he'd meet new people, and he might actually like some of them to boot. The journey to the Council had been a long one, and he'd been far less than happy with the places he'd had to stay during the trip, run down inns, hostels, even a brothel once. "Not worth the coin for the fleas." He muttered in recollection, following distantly behind a group of guests heading towards the main doors. Catching a few words of gossip here and there, word of a growing religious movement amongst the humans was all the talk these days.

His garments had kept up remarkably well despite the rough conditions, even his hat, on at all times was still somehow clean even with the heavy rainfall the day prior to the party. His half-robe gave way to brown cloth breeches, tied at the waist into a cinch to keep them from falling past that. All in all his clothing was far from lavish or extravagent compared to the group in front of him, gems, magically enhanced features, and other such nonsense he felt had something to say about the society that he called his own. If anything he may end up the center of attention simply for his garments, simplistic and made from common materials, but such was his race's way.

Even his hair was simple in its form, lengthy and tied with simple cotton bands throughout the large hat that kept it all in check, peaking out the bottom of its end near mid-way down his back. His facial hair was kept clean shaved as well, and though he lost his means to keep it that way he'd done remarkably well in making sure he appeared presentable before the council tonight.

The door loomed closer, and he was quick to recognize the child of one of the prominent figures. He forced a warm smile as he continued forward. Though in his brief lapse of attention he nearly collided with one of the greeters, hand extended to accept his invitation.

"Oh, yes, right, his invitation.." The man rattled off quickly, reaching inside his robe to pick it out from over his right breast, handing the folded and pristine paper to the man, who flipped it open as if he'd done it hundreds of times before, glancing from the man to the card rapidly a few times, looking a little more uneasy with each glance.
 
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As she continued to greet guest after guest, a soft squeeze to her hand let her know that that last council member had arrived and her parents were leaving. She a small nod to indicate that she understood, before shifting her position to where her father had been standing. As she smiled and welcomed their guest with a polite 'hello' and 'thank you for coming, please enjoy yourself' a slight commotion near the front door caught her attention. She saw a very plainly dressed man talking softly to one of the footman as he produced an piece of folded from his robe. The footman took the paper, which she assumed to be an invitation from the mans hands and flipped it open. She saw the uneasy way he looked from the invitation to the other male and decided that she should probably go see what the problem was. She turned her attention to the guest who had just walked up to her.

"Good evening Mr. Weiss, my parents and I are so glad you could make it. If you would please excuse me, I am being flagged down by one of the staff, but please find me later. Oh and please enjoy yourself tonight." she bowed her head slightly and quickly made her way through the crowd of people before coming to a stop next to the footman, who still held the invitation. "Is there a problem with this gentleman's invitation Phillip?"

The footman jumped slightly at her sudden appearance and bowed before handing her the mans paper. "I'm sorry m'lady, but this is not one of our invitations, however..." he trailed off as she opened the paper, her golden eyes widening slightly.

"It's alright Phillip. I'm sure the gentleman wasn't offended by your hesitation. You were just doing your job." she turned her attention to the man in question and gave him a practiced smile before handing him back the invitation. "I'm Lilika Pyralis, the daughter of Lord and Lady Pyralis. Please allow me to escort you into the main hall." she indicated for him enter the door way then then offered her arm to him.

She wasn't quite certain how to treat the man beside her. He seemed the quiet, gentle sort by his dress and demeanor, but there was an aura around him that was puzzling to say the least. Phillip has been right about the mans invitation not being one of their own. It had been an invitations from one of the council members, and one of her least favorite members at that. Chimera was not much liked by those on the council. He made no effort to hide that he was selfish and greedy and would exploit any and every loophole he could find in their laws. Her golden eyes glanced at the man beside her as she made her way back into the main hall, wondering what kind of plans Chimera might be plotting by inviting this man here.
 
If he had been growing annoyed with the greeter he did nothing to show it, simply smiling and looking apologetic as if it were somehow his fault, which it was of course not. Moments before he was going to dismiss the man and enter on his own volition the woman from the door appeared before him and he felt a twinge of irritation that he'd not noticed her approach, quickly dismissed as a mild annoyance with the invitation and his entrance.

He had to admire her outfit, not that it stood out from many in the ever growing crowd but for its simplicity in the state of affairs as one of the council member's offspring. With invitation back in hand he placed it back within his half-robe, a pocket on the inside most likely.

"Ah, the child of Lord Pyralis. I could've sworn I'd seen his eyes in you. My name is Qilby, representative of the Seven Wyrm's and the dragonkin of the mountains. Do hope there wasn't a problem with my invitation?" He asked calmly, taking her arm in a casual manner, much to the chagrin and foul eyeing of a few guests as they entered. It was plain as day that he was hardly one to bother with such formalities and proper scenes. In all he'd simply avoid offending anyone outright, but if it meant following their formalities he'd attempt his best sandal clad foot forward as he raised his free hand to greet a familiar face or two, of whom did their best to reply quickly in turn, a personal entourage wasn't something you interrupted lightly.
 
She smiled softly and nodded. "I have been told such by many people. If it is true, I suppose I am lucky. My father has lovely eyes." Once they had reached the center of the main hall, she politely extracted her arm and gripped the sides of her dress and gave a small curtsy. She had heard of the Seven Wyrms and of the dragonkin but she had never met one before. "Please forgive Phillip for the way he handled the situation. It is not often that we have guests that are personally invited by one of the council members that aren't my parents. It is of course an honor to meet you and have you in our home. I have heard many things about the dragonkin, but you are the first I have met." she had noticed as they walked that he had waved to a couple of the other guests and was glad that once she took her leave he might have others to whom he could talk.

She glanced back to the door and noticed that more guests were arriving and she needed to get back to her greeting duties. She curtsied again and gave him a genuine smile. "If you'll excuse me Mr. Qilby, but as my parents are currently engaged in other matters, I am responsible for welcoming their guest and must get back to my post." she turned and started to walk away before turning and offering him one last smile over her shoulder. "I hope your time with us is enjoyable. Perhaps I shall see you at the banquet once everyone arrives." with that said she made her way back to her post, curtsying and smiling to those that walked up to her as she apologized for stepping away.
 
"It's good to see you've at least been informed of my presence and duties. Ah, please do just call me Qilby, I'm just grateful things have gone as smoothly so far as they have." He dutifully replied as his arm left hers. "I'll leave you to your duties as well." His response was short, briefly distracted by a tray of appetizers that were carried by one of the many attendants.

"We will discuss my kind in more detail later if you'd like, I'll never let a curious mind go." The line was almost teasing as he flashed her a playful smile, whisked off by the smell of something delectable that had passed by once more, he felt for certain they were doing that to pander to the poor food along the road here.

A quick glance at the entryway made him smile, the lines of people hopefully beginning to dwindle. One small group of local lords had stopped to question him on his attire, when his patronage was brought into question and responded with hawks and disbelief he had to pause. Had they been so out if touch that his kind were regarded as mere myth by the magical community at large?
 
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