[center][img]https://i.ibb.co/ssxt53R/Thalia-Evercrest.png[/img][/center][hr][right][sub]Location: Community Barn
Interactions: Virgal ([@Dark Light]) 
Mentions: Nyla, Ivor, Sya, Flynn [/sub][/right][hr]
[indent][indent] [color=#b22222]"Ah, so good to see a fellow Aurelian," [/color][color=#ffffff]the man declared warmly as he stepped away from his glowing staff, an easy grin still gracing his lips. His tone suggested a shared camaraderie, an implicit understanding between exiles. [/color][color=#b22222]"I thought to find one of those southerners in here looking after the animals."[/color]

[color=#ffffff]For a heartbeat, Thalia could only stare, caught between the receding warmth of that impossible sunlight and the sheer absurdity of his greeting. A fellow Aurelian. The phrase needled at her, a label she hadn't heard in what felt like a lifetime. He uttered it like a password to an exclusive club, unaware that her membership had long since been revoked. His next words, however, revealed he wasn't just using an old password; he was referencing a club that no longer existed in the way he remembered, its rules and memberships fundamentally altered in his absence.[/color]

[color=#b22222]"You must of come here with the prince,” [/color][color=#ffffff]he continued, his expression one of genial certainty.[/color][color=#b22222] “I thank you for your service and commitment. I hope he has been looking after you well."[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Her eyebrows arched in an incredulous tilt. The assumption was so grand, so entirely misplaced, that a dry laugh almost escaped her.[/color]

[color=#663399]“Is that so?” [/color][color=#ffffff]Thalia said lightly. [/color][color=#663399]“You assume a great deal, my lord.” [/color][color=#ffffff]The words [/color][i][color=#ffffff]service[/color][/i][color=#ffffff] and [/color][i][color=#ffffff]commitment [/color][/i][color=#ffffff]cut deeper than he likely intended. There was a time, in a different life, when such terms might have applied to a future she was meant to have: a strategic alliance her mother schemed for and her father tacitly accepted. But those schematics had burned to ash. Did this man truly believe she had trailed after the prince to this frozen outpost like a devoted retainer? Or was his ignorance of recent history so complete?[/color]

[color=#663399]“The prince does not keep me, nor do I serve him,” [/color][color=#ffffff]she stated, her tone leaving no room for debate.[/color][color=#663399] “If I am looked after, it is by my father’s hands, and not nearly as well as you’ve been looked after by your tailor.”[/color][color=#ffffff] She delivered the last remark with a glance at his attire, a silent commentary on the vast gulf between their current stations.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Content with the remaining snow on his clothes, Virgal gave up and stood up straight, turning his attention away from his clothes and the girl as he ran his gaze around the barn.[/color]

[color=#b22222]"I imagine it is no easy feat, being surrounded by these blightborn and Lunarians constantly," [/color][color=#ffffff]he mused, almost to himself, his voice laced with a distaste he clearly believed she would share.[/color]

[color=#663399]“Constantly?” [/color][color=#ffffff]Thalia echoed. [/color][color=#663399]“You say it as though they were wolves circling the door. I’d call it sharing a roof. Or a meal. Or a morning, if you’re inclined to eat.” [/color][color=#ffffff]Her mind flashed to the giant blightborn in the inn who had shared a joke and a bottle with the owner, another blightborn, their presence not a threat but a simple fact of life here. He had been massive, perhaps terrifying to some, but in that moment, merely another soul. The thought stood in stark contrast to the morning's tense encounter with Nyla, another so-called ‘fellow Aurelian’.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]His gaze swung back to her, and once again her practical, hay-strewn appearance gave him pause, his judgment visibly wavering.[/color]

[color=#b22222]". . . That boar is a gift for the prince. Please look after it well,” [/color][color=#ffffff]he said, abruptly changing the subject and gesturing to the creature.[/color][color=#b22222] “Was many a time I thought to just save myself the hassle and eat him on the way. It's not like Flynn would know anyway."[/color][color=#ffffff] He trailed off with a self-congratulatory chuckle before reaching out to reclaim his staff. To Thalia’s dismay, the captured sunlight within the crystal seemed to have dimmed even further in its brief abandonment.[/color]

[color=#663399]“Flynn,” [/color][color=#ffffff]she repeated, the name rolling off her tongue more carefully, almost testing it. [/color][color=#663399]“You call him Flynn?” [/color][color=#ffffff]It was strange to hear the prince’s name stripped of its title and tossed so casually into the dusty barn. He had permitted her to use it once, in what felt like another lifetime, but she highly doubted that particular privilege had survived her family's fall from grace.[/color]

[color=#663399]“You speak of him as if he were your drinking companion, not your sovereign,” [/color][color=#ffffff]she observed, her voice neutral.[/color]

[color=#b22222]"Forgive me, miss,” [/color][color=#ffffff]he said, executing a perfunctory bow that was more acknowledgment than apology.[/color][color=#b22222] “I seem to have left my manners somewhere back on that long, dark road. I am lord Calistar, and I'm here to see Prince Flynn. I was advised by the gate guards that he is currently not at his residence. Do you know where I might find him?"[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Oh Calistar. Of course. It all made sense now. [/color]

[color=#ffffff]He was the enchanter. The prince’s cousin-in-law. The man Aurelia’s court had whispered about with a mixture of awe and unease. She recalled the gossip exchanged between ladies during endless soirées, stories of his unconventional marriage, his perilous magical crafts, and his renowned work against the blight-born.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]And now here he stood, his magnificent silks spattered with mud and snow, dragging a boar through a Dawnhaven barn as if it were the most natural thing in the world.[/color]

[color=#663399]“Forgive me, my lord, I didn’t recognize you,”[/color][color=#ffffff] Thalia said, the courtly formality returning to her tongue by instinct, a ghost of her past self. She hesitated, caught between the old habits of a noblewoman and the new, hardened pride of a survivor. Once, the name Evercrest would have required no introduction. Now it felt like presenting a relic, tarnished and forgotten.[/color]

[color=#ffffff]Still, she straightened her shoulders, brushing a stray lock of hair from her face with a gesture that summoned a ghost of her former composure. She would not be diminished before him—not before Lord Calistar, not before anyone.[/color]

[color=#663399]“I am Thalia Evercrest,”[/color][color=#ffffff] she said at last. [/color][color=#663399]“Daughter of House Evercrest… though I fear you will find that title doesn’t quite command what it once did.”[/color]

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