Beyond the Sky - Session 30.7

-23rd Autumn's Third-
Some time later, after returning to see the lower circle, Valaire finds herself back in the magical wing of the library, and can see the Prince engrossed in a book, holding a wand in his hand.
Valaire steps down the halls of the library cautiously, wearing an elaborate, long-sleeved Zeltrian gown. The small sprite perched on her shoulder looks around curiously, having evidently taken to wearing a miniature replica of her companion's outfit.
Prince Kallian seems to be leafing through a page on transmutation magic, from what can be seen on the cover, but seems unaware of Valaire's presence as of yet.
Valaire helps herself to a tome on divination, sitting quietly in a chair near Kallian.
Valaire clears her throat, using her talents to project the sound to the opposite side of Kallian from where she is.
Prince Kallian sits up, looking behind him, at the wall, before turning back and seeing Valaire.
Prince Kallian: "Ah, Valaire! You surprised me."
Valaire: "How does the day fare you, your highness?"
Prince Kallian: "Quite well, quite well. I just was passing the time until you got here, really."
"Before that... I was chatting with Adrian, and Night Eyes."
"Seems they've been running into complications with her mask..."
Valaire: "Is that so? To be honest, I am jealous they got to rendezvous with you before I had the chance, your highness. I was caught up with errands for the esteemed lord, Adrian Kelton of Black Hills."
Kylisae: "...Hey. You know I can tell when you're putting on airs, right? I know you're just faking being all noble and servile right now."
Valaire: "(Well, there goes that plan...)"
Prince Kallian: "Aaah, you must be the sprite Adrian was talking about."
Kylisae: "Oh! You've heard of me?"
"Truly, I must be so famous that my reputation has gone to all the corners of Esbern."
Prince Kallian: "Well, only earlier today, but yes. Though I didn't get your name from him..."
Kylisae clears her throat, standing on top of Valaire's shoulder.
Kylisae: "Well, Prince, know that I am the beloved and adorable Kylisae, peer of her kind, daughter of the Earth Mother and lady of the beautiful and elegant Priffdinas Forest!"
Valaire: "(Hypocrite.)"
Prince Kallian lightly clears his throat, putting his hand to his chin in thought.
Prince Kallian: [Sylvan] "That's quite a long title, Kylisae. My mother taught me the language of the forest, and I remember the fey having complex names like that."
Kylisae is taken aback by Kallian's sudden change in language, before humming in delight.
Kylisae: [Sylvan] "Pleasure to make your acquaintance. I have graciously allowed Valaire to become my familiar. Thank you for taking care of her for as long as you have, I know she can be quite useless at times."
Prince Kallian raises an eyebrow at the little fey.
Prince Kallian: [Sylvan] "That's rather different from how I originally heard it, little one."
Valaire frowns at the conversation, brusquely grabbing Kylisae off her shoulder and putting the sprite down in an adjacent chair.
Valaire: "If you will excuse me, I am going to go look for a book on learning that damnable language."
Prince Kallian: "Ah, sorry, we're excluding you from the conversation."
"Kylisae was simply introducing herself in her own language."
Valaire stands up, putting the selected book back and searching the nearby shelves for a new one.
Valaire: "I'm quite sure that's what she was doing."
Kylisae: [Sylvan] "Don't mind her. She's just cranky since she hasn't brutally murdered anybody all week."
Valaire pulls out a promising book, throwing it dangerously close to the sprite's head before going to retrieve it and sit back down.
Prince Kallian: "Are you feeling okay, Valaire?"
Prince Kallian looks at the tiefling with some worry.
Valaire: "Forgive me, my prince. I've had to spend the last two weeks in this creature's company, as the ritual does generally restrict her from being too far from me. Surely you are knowledgeable with familiar bonds,"
Prince Kallian: "Yes, I used to have a familiar."
Valaire: "The ritual went... awry. When I conducted it, there was some residue of some sort of cobra venom still circulating in my blood. It was meant to grant me a perfectly suited familiar, instead it gave me it."
Kylisae: "Used to?"
Prince Kallian: "Forgive me if this seems out of place, but... you two seem to be rather well fitted to each other, from observation."
Valaire: "(Please, not you too, Kallian...)"
Prince Kallian: "My familiar, well... died, a year or two ago, when I snuck out of the city and we were jumped by a wolf or two."
Kylisae: "Aww. Haven't felt like calling a new one?"
Prince Kallian: "Yeah, I haven't had the heart to."
Kylisae: "Anyways, I'm told we go along well, and I do kinda feel it? But... she's very very stubborn about it. She keeps on calling me a mistake. Can you imagine how that hurts?"
Valaire sighs, putting her forehead in a clawed hand.
Kylisae: "I mean, I came all the way from Priffdinas to Kyaro just for her, only to be told that she didn't want me. She didn't even give me my familiar name."
Valaire: "I tried to give you names, several times. You refused every time."
Prince Kallian: "What sort of names?"
Kylisae: "Naming me after dead people is not okay!"
"Well, her best idea for a name was naming me after her boss's daughter's mother's sister. As if that's not a headache enough as is."
Valaire: "If you could see past your selfishness for one minute, you would understand the relevance to that name!"
Prince Kallian: "I guess she was trying to be symbolic, and name you after someone she cared about?"
Kylisae: "...I guess."
"But I like my current name more. It's a translation of my fey name, or so I'm told."
Prince Kallian: "I guess it's just personal preference. It would be good to at least appreciate what she was trying to accomplish. You have a nice name anyhow."
Kylisae: "Thank you, your highness! Your praise makes this humble sprite proud "
Valaire: "Humble sprite? Was she hiding behind you all this time?"
Kylisae: "I can be humble!"
Prince Kallian: "Can you?"
Kylisae: "When I want to be."
Prince Kallian: "So now isn't one of those times, is it?"
Valaire: "I doubt the situation has ever come up in her life before."
Kylisae: "It's not like I can't!"
Prince Kallian: "To be fair on her, Priffdinas isn't known for it's humbleness or modesty."
"I don't think she would have ever needed a reason to be humble."
Kylisae: "Well, that's because everybody there is completely amazing all the time."
"It definitely makes me proud to be a Zeltrian!"
Valaire: "You're only a Zeltrian out of a technicality."
Kylisae: "It counts!"
Kylisae pouts at Valaire grumpily.
Prince Kallian: "Valaire, she's as much a Zeltrian as you or I."
Valaire: "Do you pay taxes to the kingdom, sprite? Do you work?"
Kylisae: "Well, I... I was born in Zeltria! It counts! I even got a library card."
Prince Kallian: "(To be fair, I don't, either...)"
Valaire: "(I am quite sure it is not the same for royalty, my prince.)"
Prince Kallian: "(Still...)"
Kylisae: "There! If the prince doesn't have to pay taxes, I don't have to pay taxes either. It's fair!"
Valaire: "It's fair only if you count yourself on the same level as royalty. Which I don't doubt that you do, but the truth of the matter is quite something else..."
Prince Kallian: "Well, it's also that I don't technically have an income yet, either..."
"I don't work, as in I do not yet rule, so I don't have a job, either."
"If I, say, decided to become a professional magician and started earning, I would have to pay taxes, the same as everyone else."
Valaire strokes her chin with a claw in thought, before procuring a gold piece from her pouch.
Valaire: "Here, sprite. I am paying you for being my familiar. Now you have to pay taxes."
Kylisae: "...yay?"
Prince Kallian: "It means Valaire could see you as more of a Zeltrian, right?"
Kylisae holds onto the gold piece Valaire gave her, looking unsure of what to do with it.
Kylisae ultimately decides to flutter over, resting it on the arm of Kallian's chair.
Kylisae: "There, that's me paying taxes. I think."
Prince Kallian: "Well, that's not exactly how it works... but okay, thank you, I'll deposit it to the royal coffers later."
Valaire: "Congratulations, you're now an ordinary citizen."
Prince Kallian pockets the gold piece, smiling.
Prince Kallian: "Well done, you're now a proper Zeltrian."
Kylisae puffs out her chest in pride.
Prince Kallian: "So, how was Ashdale, while you were there?"
"I've never been before."
Kylisae: "When I arrived, it was raining up until we left. So my best evaluation is 'rainy'."
Valaire: "It's not a terrible place, but so much of what they do seems woefully inefficient. Their idea of government seems to involve selecting a large group of people which mostly seems to involve nothing actually getting done as they mostly bicker amongst themselves."
Prince Kallian: "All they seem to do is bicker?"
Valaire: "It was quite the feat to simply getting them to accept that the insurgents on their border weren't our doing. We practically had to dump a daemon head on their table to get across the message that there are other threats."
Prince Kallian: "...a Daemon head?! I definitely didn't hear that part!"
Valaire: "Just some hunting we had to do to get them to actually consent to peace."
"That little bit of evidence was enough, as their Minister, the closest thing they have to an actual ruler, came back to Verseris with us. He is likely meeting with your mother even as we speak."
Prince Kallian: "I did hear about you and Adrian organising peace. You've done a great service for myself, my mother and the country."
Valaire: "It is a pleasure for me to serve, your highness."
Kylisae: "I wasn't around for the daemon part, unfortunately. So I don't know what it was like."
Prince Kallian: "I know of them. Apparently they're horrifying and disgusting evil creatures that desire nothing but the destruction of... everything."
Valaire: "..."
Prince Kallian: "...aren't they? I read that daemons are destructive."
Kylisae looks at Valaire's expression, before fluttering over to Kallian's side.
Kylisae: "(Um... I kinda sense she's not taking this well.)"
"(...It doesn't feel like anger, though. More... sadness? Can she feel sadness?)"
Prince Kallian: "Um... I'm sorry. I didn't mean to imply you're like that."
Valaire sighs, maneuvering her barbed tail into view from behind her and coiling it on her lap.
Valaire: "And yet you remember our last talk, your highness. It is completely true, who I am, and what I desire."
Prince Kallian: "Yeah, I do..."
Valaire: "I merely deluded myself into believing, after that day, that you might have been able to see past that."
Valaire stands up, moving away to a bookshelf to return the book she was reading.
Prince Kallian: "Hey, I have been seeing past that!"
"I just... didn't think before I spoke. I didn't want you to be upset."
Valaire sighs, pulling up the sleeve on her right arm and revealing an intricate array of line and runic tattoos.
Valaire: "I have been seeking power, seeking arcane mastery, far more than I have been seeking humility and control."
"It is true, what you say. I am prioritizing power, being useful, being strong. I truly do desire nothing more than destruction."
Kylisae sits on Kallian's shoulder, looking down sadly.
Prince Kallian: "Wanting to be useful and strong doesn't necessarily translate to desiring nothing more than destruction. You've clearly got a knack for helping and aiding, with Adrian, and myself, and of course, the peace."
"It doesn't seem to me like you're as focused on destruction as you put yourself down to be..."
Kylisae: "(I really didn't mean that joke about her being cranky due to having not murdered anybody...)"
Prince Kallian: "(I think it was what I said...)"
Valaire: "Some day, my beloved Prince Kallian, you will understand what kind of horrific beast I truly am. Then you will understand exactly why it is you are best not involved with me."
Valaire turns away from the two, moving to leave the library.
Kylisae closes her eyes, trying to stifle tears.
Prince Kallian: "Please, don't go..."
Kylisae: "I think she needs a little time to herself..."
Prince Kallian: "Right, okay..."
Kylisae: "...You know how the familiar bond works. I can feel her emotions. I can dream her memories."
Prince Kallian: "I recall that."
Kylisae nods, quivering on the prince's shoulders.
Prince Kallian sighs, holding his other arm.
Prince Kallian: "(So what do I do?)"
Kylisae: "I don't really know."
"...She loves you. But she feels she doesn't deserve to."
"She feels she doesn't deserve anything."
Prince Kallian: "...wait, she does?"
Kylisae: "She puts on airs a lot. Acts prideful. Fakes nobility or calmness, hiding her inner turmoil of emotion."
"I know because I do a lot of the same things. We really are perfect for each other, as a familiar and her master go."
Prince Kallian: "I guess my thoughtless comment brought up a lot of bad things, didn't it?"
Kylisae nods, trying to lightly pat the back of Kallian's head.
Kylisae: "Her past is a very... difficult one."
Prince Kallian sighs.
Prince Kallian: "I wish I knew how to speak to a girl I like better."
Kylisae: "She has grappled with being a daemon for her entire life."
"I'm sorry. I really am."
Prince Kallian: "I want to help her as much as I can. But figuring out what to say is... hard. I get distracted, caught up in other things. I want to see her without her walls, and dispel that turmoil."
Kylisae: "Yeah. I can tell how important you are to her. Her emotions and her memories..."
Prince Kallian: "She's not really destructive, isn't she? She always seemed more... caring."
Kylisae: "...She really, truly is. She just doesn't mean to."
"Have you ever had that sort of itch you just can't scratch unless you do a certain thing?"
Prince Kallian: "Yeah, I get that quite a bit."
Kylisae: "For her, that itch is the urge to destroy something. Something important to somebody."
"Whether it's a valued possession or even somebody's life..."
"But it's always followed by remorse. Once the itch is scratched, the urge passes, but then it's just her, in the wake of something she can never truly undo..."
Prince Kallian: "...I think I understand that."
Kylisae: "...I'm sorry. But she is going to be beyond the limits of the familiar bond soon. I need to catch up."
Kylisae flutters to a small gap in the wall near the ceiling. looking towards Kallian.
Prince Kallian: "Oh, okay. I'll see you another time, then?"
Kylisae: "I can't really come without her. But... well..."
Prince Kallian: "I'll try to see what I can do. Can you tell her that she's deserving?"
Kylisae: "She doesn't listen to me on that."
Prince Kallian: "...can you try, anyway?"
Kylisae: "I think it's something you have to do. Something you have to show that even she can understand."
Prince Kallian: "I will."
Prince Kallian waves goodbye to Kylisae as she flutters away.
The Prince gets up, returning his book, and rests on the couch, deep in thought after the events of the day.