The Nestling: 1

I woke up with a splitting pain all over my body. That was all I felt, for a solid thirty seconds to a minute, as my vision blurred above me. I eventually brought it back to focus as the pain numbed from the initial burst. I was trying to get my head in order, after everything…

My eyes widened when I realized I didn’t recognize the room I was in, and slowly but surely the nights events was coming back to me. I sat up with something of a jolt, which my body then insisted was a mistake, with the wave of lethargy and pain which rolled over me. Ok. Bad idea to move, sure. But still this was bad.

I’d ended up in Virion’s home. Which, while better then being captured or killed by Noctis, still wasn’t ideal. I wasn’t restrained, either. Another good fortune, however caution was still the right move, I knew. I recalled what Shale had said about them being loose cannons…and I wasn’t keen on owing them anything. The fact that I was alive said something about the situation, however. It just meant I had to be VERY careful when approaching this.

The room, though, wasn’t half bad. Relatively spacious, a few dressers, a spottily decorated bookcase, and the relatively large bed I had been in. A near perfect guest bedroom, under normal circumstances.

As the pain dulled enough for me to actually think in longer sentences then a handful of words and base instincts, I took stock of the situation. The door was closed, but the lock was on this side. Another good sign. I could get out of here. The dressers and tables, along with the bedframe, all have a level of them, indicating to me that they hadn’t been used in awhile before I was put here. My cloths were the same, bloodstains and all, which meant they hadn’t interfered with my body or anything in that vein. Also good signs.

In my investigation of the chamber, I kept my footsteps as light as possible. I wasn’t sure what floor I was on, the two windows in the room had their blinds up and curtains in front of them. I could barely see the light outside through them. I’d check them, but after everything else.

The final thing to notice, I found, was a small unsealed envelope with my name written in a relatively fancy script on the outside of it, resting on the bedside table, being the only thing to disturb the dust on any of these surfaces. I picked it up, opening it, to find a short note inside. I decided to read it.

“Dear Acuzio

You fell unconscious shortly after my spell dropped, likely from fatigue and lingering injury. I cast my standard array of healing spells, but that wasn’t enough to wake you right away, so I put you here. I hope you had a good rest. If I’m not here when you wake up, you’re welcome to leave, though I believe we should stay in touch. Otherwise, I will speak with you soon.

-Virion”

I read it a few times to make sure I understood it all correctly. Not that it was a particularly complex document, but I wanted to make sure I had caught his meaning, and had the situation well comprehended. After being fairly certain the short message had no double meanings, I placed it back down on the bedside. Right. The only question was, would he be present.

I decided to get some final lays of the land before potentially leaving the room.

Checking the windows, peering out the curtains and through what I could of the blinds, I saw that at the very least, we were still in the city. Buildings of the same sort as the rest, matching up. The building I was in seemed to be on the older side, though. Made of older combination of wood and a bit of stone, and seemingly being larger then I’d seen before. I was in an outward section, off to the side, an almost tower shape. I could see another off to the side, jutting off of the two story building they were attached to. The pair of towers were a big higher, about half a story up, and while I couldn’t see what was above the one I was in, I did assume it mirrored it, they seemed to top off with a spiraled shape, like a classic wizards tower of old. The rest of the house was positioned in front of it, and the towers were slightly blocked by the buildings around it, explaining how they weren’t as visible from the front.

Overall, things seemed fine. Though it did mean I couldn’t escape out the windows without risk of relatively serious injury with the twenty five foot or so drop to the ground. Damn.

I sighed.

The best way out, like always, it seemed, was to face my problems head on. As always. Gathering my last remaining dormant composure from the depths of my tired body, I moved for the door, opening it, and finding it thankfully not locked by any means of unseen engineering, and finding myself before a staircase leading downwards, a spiral through this tower area. It seemed I’d been correct about the idea of me being on the top floor, with no further way up, only down. I took a moment to listen, to see if I could hear any trace of anyone perhaps waiting for me along the way. After that moment passed, and I heard nothing, I started down the steps, keeping my movements light to the best of my ability. The stairs didn’t creak or anything of that sort, so I was lucky there.

After a moment, I found myself on the next story down. Another door, akin to the one above, but this one shut, and by the looks of things, and me trying the door, locked. I assumed it was another guest room, and so after another instance of waiting, I continued down the stairs as opposed to waiting around any longer. This led me to what seemed to be a bottom floor. A small combinations of rooms, a kitchen in one half, though one that looked like it hadn’t been used in awhile, a thin layer of dust covering most of it, though it was fairly neat, whoever last used it very clearly having cleaned up after themselves and organized. I couldn’t place anything that was out of order. The aesthetical part of my mind appreciated that, on a level. The other part of the room was a lounge area, equally abandoned, with some old looking chairs and a formerly plush couch now somewhat dilapidated. The table in the center, likely meant to allow two or three people to sit around it comfortable, joined its fellows in the room with it’s own dust and somewhat disarray. Though, like the kitchen, it was well organized, at least, even in it’s abandonment.

After looking around the room and walking through it for a cursory inspection, I came to the conclusion that there wasn’t anything hidden here either. No further ways down or up, only a door on the right side, currently shut, but also only had a locking mechanism on this side, which meant I wasn’t locked in. I approached, with the intent to open it, but paused a moment to listen again. Now, I could hear something. The distant sound of voices, from some point further past the door. It was just far enough that making anything specific out was frustratingly difficult to the point of impossibility. It was enough that I could make out seemingly only one person talking, which was odd, all things considered, there didn’t seem to be any kind of conversation going on. I could barely make out of the voice as resembling Virion’s, his clear and somewhat blunt tone hard to mistake. Realizing I wasn’t going to get anything done by listening to something I couldn’t parse, I decided to try and get a bit of a closer listen. They sounded far enough away that I was hopeful I could open the door without much notice. Thus, after trying it to once more ensure no trickery was afoot with it, I opened the door a crack. After hearing that there wasn’t a creaky hinge or other obstruction to make noise, I slowly but surely opened the door all the way.

It opened into a hallway leading down a little ways. A few doors leading to areas off to the sides, before opening out into some kind of larger space, one which seemed to have some furnishing in the form of cabinets, and I could make out at least one display case in the part of the room I could see from my limited view. More importantly though, I could start to make out what Virion was saying.

“-Tali moved last night. Attacked a different area, one we couldn’t reach. Our backup also is very stubborn about fighting in the central corridor. They seem to think there’s a hope of pushing through there, even with Frah as a factor. “

Virion paused his speech. As if receiving a reply, or waiting for something. But nothing happened, before he continued to speak.

“Indeed, those aren’t our only problems, but they’re premier on our list. Noctis has a core of magi which hold up their morale, heroes within the ranks. Tali and Frah are among them. If we can deal a crippling or killing blow to either, the same goes with their morale. It’s unlikely we’d need to defeat all or most of them, one or two would suffice.”

Another pause, this one longer the the last, I noted. I slowly began to creep down the hallway, which thankfully had a rug over it which likely helped to mask my footsteps in come capacity. I didn’t get close enough to see more of the room ahead, merely got about halfway down the hall, before I stopped as Virion began to speak again.

“I suppose I see the merit in your point. Our golden chance to deal with Tali has passed. But a silver one could perhaps emerge. We do have a job to do after all, I’d hate to get behind schedule.”

For the third time, he paused, and I advanced a little further, more and more slowly the closer I got. Three quarters of the way before he spoke again.

“I had not considered that either. I would not like to force the unforeseen factor to make an appearance. Especially since we just now got our promised forces from Phirine. He could demolish them, in theory, and I’d like to hope that we can keep our reputations intact. Perha-“

He paused more abruptly this time. I didn’t move.

“Oh? I see-Acuzio, is that you up and about?”

Virion’s voice called towards the hall I was in. I didn’t hear movement, but I knew either way that my hiding chance had expired. Damn. How’d he know?

Making a split second decision, I walked at a normal stride out of the hallway and into the room proper.

Now seeing it in full, it seemed to be a dining room. A large well carved wooden table in the center, and around the room various other cabinets, and notably, four display cases containing contents I couldn’t quite make out from here, one on each wall. Lights lined the walls, in the form of hung lanterns. There were five exits I could see. Two against the back wall, with shut doors, another hall on the left center, one on the front right, with another shut door, and one directly in the front, that was open to reveal a smaller room of some kind that led somewhere else.

The room was populated by two people at the moment. Virion, sitting at the head of the dining table, a long since cleaned plate of food in front of him, a glass containing some kind of purple liquid sitting half full in front of him. He wasn’t wearing his armor at the moment, a plain white tunic and trousers in it’s place. He still wore a holy symbol of Shie-Kar, a cloud with a stone fist wrapped through it, dangling around his neck, in the form of a carved bronze emblem. On his hand, he wore a rather extravagant looking gem studded golden ring which didn’t quite match the rest of his rather humble appearance. He had his hair tied back this time, though it wasn’t that long to begin with. He smiled when he saw me. Friendly.

The other person at the table, sitting in the seat to the direct right of Virion, was a bit more odd. A taller lizardfolk, with dark blue scales which glinted in the light of the room, and a long neck which stretched above his body a spell. He wore a brown robe, a hood pulled up that covered most of his face, making exact features hard, but I could make out the yellow predatory gaze beneath it. The robe obviously had objects hidden within it, but the nature of the way he was wearing it made it impossible to tell what. He regarded with some kind of expression I couldn’t read.

Virion though, gestured me forward.

“Acuzio my friend, it’s good to see you. Please, take a seat. Can I get you anything? Breakfast, something to drink?” He asked with the same calm demeanor he’d had in my previous talks with him. That hadn’t changed at least.

I moved to sit, moving somewhat slowly with a semblance of caution, but ultimately took the seat at the table to the direct left of Virion, as to be sitting directly across from the lizardfolk. I nodded in return to Virion.

“Breakfast would be great. Whatever you have. And some water.” I found it best to take people up on offers like these. It’s unlikely that they wouldn’t already have it prepared either. Plus, I wasn’t not hungry.

He nodded, snapping his fingers into the air. Nothing seemed to happen, but he looked to me as if that was resolved now. Odd.

Even odder, a moment later after I’d sat down, the lizardfolk stood, wordless. Pushing in his chair, and turning to one of the back doors, saying nothing as he walked out of the room, and shut the door behind him.

“…Did I do something?” I asked Virion, with a measure of curiosity. I hadn’t expected that.

He shook his head.

“My friend there just isn’t very…sociable. He came to talk business, and likely had no interest in small talk. I might introduce you two more properly later if things go well.”

Well that was foreboding. I took a second, before following up, making sure my phrasing was clear.

“…What are you hoping goes well. Why am I here, exactly? Pretty sure you know where I live at this point. And why all of the interest in me anyways? This can’t be all about returning a favor, can it?” I made sure to keep my tone polite regardless.

Virion tilted his head slightly.

“Most of this is what I would have done if you simply owed me a favor as well. However some of it is a special interest as well-”

He was cut off by the sound of clattering, and one of the doors opening. The one the lizardfolk hadn’t gone through in the back, opened now to reveal a much larger and more active kitchen. A set of platters were floating towards us, as if hovering through the air, whooshing towards us in a clattering cacophony of noise. It reached me, and I tensed, mostly out of reflex, but they simply placed a grouping of plates and a glass in front of me, before retreating, with Virion’s empty plate. After thinking about it, I supposed that checked out, for the apostle of the sky god.

Virion waited for them to leave before continuing.

“Ah, that’s a useful trick. Regardless, yes, a special interest. I kept you here for one reason.”

He paused again, as if deciding how to phrase himself.

“I’d like you to give me an answer on my offer.”

He settled for the blunt approach. Smiling still.