the captain of the seas.

Jia stood in front of her lonely little house. If anything, they felt more in danger at her home court than in Winter. Despite her initial rescue, they never told whatever rescued them which court they belonged too.

Or where they lived.

It was almost as if it was taunting her. Winnowing all these fae to their home, secret, court. Winnowing her in front of her house was just another cruel slap in the face.

There was footsteps nearby. Jia could not recognize the fae, or maybe she did. Whoever they were they must have been as disorientated as everyone else.

"I'd offer my vessel for lodging anyone displaced, but I cannot guarantee its safe" Jia said honestly. Safe from what? Jia did not know. Themself, the murderer, whatever magic brought them here.

the murders still weighted heavy on her - as did the ominous voice.

But, as she found herself going in circles again, Yu marched over to the nearest fae - the one that, apparently, shared her position ; or at least something similar to it. "I'll never say no to being on a ship, even if it isn't my own. If your girl is sturdy and true, I would be most grateful to you for letting me stay the night. I can't seem to find my way back to Luxencia inn and I fear I've strayed too far in my exploring."

She sighed and waved towards the opposite way of the water, where they were meant to be going. "Alright, alright, you could have led with that, Captain." Letting her through so she could guide them to the tavern, Penélope added. "Lead the way."

Once they embarked on their journey towards safety from the storm and after a few moments of awkward silence, Penélope finally broke the eerie atmosphere of Winter's great outdoors. "Did you here it too? The whispers in the wind?" The Valkyrie asked. The last thing she needed now was to go crazy.

it did not sit well.

So, when Penélope agreed to come with her, she exhaled a tiny breath of relief. Nodding, she began the short trek towards the nearest inn, located right at the docks. It would be less then five minutes, actually, she thought to herself, but when her companion spoke again, she sighed through the nose.

"I did." Yu admitted, then shook her head, continuing ; "It doesn't make any sense, this voice. I have seen and heard some strange things out on the open ocean, but this... I'd never experienced something like this before. For the unseen force to speak to me and to have it be both in my ears and my head."

The first thing Penélope did when she felt a hand on her was reach for her sword, hand on the hilt. She pulled back defensive, taking a step away from the woman in front of her. It didn't matter that her words were nice and she seemed to worry about her, Penélope didn't know her and she appeared right after a stranger voice came out of nowhere.

Facing her, she drawn her sword, keeping it between the two of them so she wouldn't come any closer. "I'm fine. I don't need a drink. Who are you?" She asked. The Valkyrie knows that the court of Winter has the power of cold and snow and it had just turned uncharacteristically cold right before she showed up. She didn't have a way of knowing if she was from the Winter court or not. "Speak before I get creative with my sword."

it was as far as she'd go with courtesy when being openly threatened.

"If I wished to harm you, you wouldn't be standing here." she spoke with an arched eyebrow, before introducing, "Wen Yu. Captain of the Sunken Fleet." casting a narrowed glare at the darkening sky - of more accurately said, yellowing sky - Yuer clicked her tongue.

"You don't need a drink, but I want one. You can either come with me to the tavern or stay here and wait for the storm to come. By the speed of these clouds, you have five minutes to decide. There's a short trek to the tavern and I intend to be there in the next fifteen minutes. Which is how long you have before the first gust of wind starts ripping through Gláta." she pointed out.

"I really wouldn't recommend for you to find out what's coming after it." she'd survived far too many such storms out in the ocean to know it's never to be taken lightly.

"perspective is a singular experience for us all," he answers, hands flat & slack upon the tops of his thighs. "we are bearing witness to a story that hasn't been told before. everything that has happened to us, so far, has been outside of our realm of control or experience. we've been rendered powerless by it. is that what hell means to you?"

dohyun does not fear the abstract; it would be foolish to try and outwit a force whose moves can't be charted yet. what bothers him is that he cannot see any trace of it in the stars. there is no familiar thread, no coordinating events in known history. this is something altogether new, and that simply means change.

kingdoms falling. death. war. famine. trials and tribulations. but such is life.

"i'm looking for a pattern." one hand lifts to trace his sketch of the night sky. "this archive charts the heavens back a thousand years, and i've detailed the major events that transpired in the realms under those skies."

yes, this was Hell - and it was cold.

"Is losing control not Hell for you? Out in the open sea, the loss of it means death. I cannot risk such a thing when I have a crew that trust me to keep them safe and out of harm's way." control was what she was good at. Something perfected from an early age. As he spoke again, Yu followed the direction of his hand, dark gaze fixing upon darker sky.

well, wasn't he meticulous - he sounded like a good addition to her crew.

"And did those past events hint to this present occurrence? Stars are ghosts - if asked the right questions, they will answer. They will show the way. They are a book easily read by those who understand their language, their subtlety." she agreed, then snorted at the question.

perhaps.

"I would not bother with why and who. Everyone would be asking it, so why add to the uselessness of it? When or where. Where are they hiding or when will they strike again. I don't for a moment think this is over."

the chill in the air is a living thing, and do-hyun feels it sinking into his bones, nesting there, pooling like a frozen lake at his center. he welcomes the stillness all around him as another entity, listens, and tries to understand its energy. the high strangeness that's unfolded in this wintry court feels like a riddle he must solve, but despite his skill, the events feel too random. there is no pattern that's revealed itself.

his dark eyes drop to the brittle pages laid open upon his lap. his heavy cloak drapes around it, shielding the delicate tome from wind and moisture. a pale hand draws across the porous page, fingertips following the welts left by a scratching quill.

"the heavens are closed to me here," he whispers to himself, a shiver finally overcoming him. how many hours has he sat here, watching the clouded sky turn from glowy gray to lavender?

she had a tendency of making them run away from her.

But, this time... Yu didn't knwo what to do. She wanted to visit a library. Maybe go back to the docks. Hell, even ask around Gláta for answers from commoners. Someone must have seen something. Heard something. Anything. She would have been willing to grasp at straws, now, if it provided her with answers.

instead, the moonless night beckoned.

Still, it looked like she wasn't the only one with the need for a fresh, brisk air. As the man spoke, Yu gripped the black furs of her warm coat tighter around her and came to stand close to where he stood - her fingers instinctively grazing the hilt of the dagger tucked in her belt.

"I fear you might be optimistic of the predicament we find ourselves into. This is no limbo. No hope for better things to come, if we earn our penance. This is the threshold of Hell and I fear we may only sink deeper." she spoke, casting a glance at the cloudy sky. The hues of the dusk deepened and it would not be long before the stars pepper the sky.

once you hear us, you will never be sane again.

"What are you looking for, then, if no answers are to be found? Better questions?" Yu asked.

but, if their own asses were on the line...

Wen Yu wondered if all of this was just some elaborate thieving scheme - but, with a body count, it felt far too trivial for it to just be an attempt at stealing from other courts. Or one specific court. It could be a viable plan. Though for it to end in murder seemed a tad of a stretch. But, it if wasn't simple thievery...

she hated to consider the alternative.

"The target could be any one of us. Maybe someone here has a personal enemy and what better way to settle a score without being caught, than the scatter it within other unrelated things? The best way to hide your true intentions, is to mix it together with things that just couldn't implicate you - one implication is a coincidence, but more than one is a certainty. So, even if we find the true motive among the sea of red herrings, it couldn't trace back to whoever had done it." she mused out loud.

"It could be someone from Winter, yes. Someone who knows all the nooks and crannies of the court and the palace. And, you're right, the Págos family could be entirely in the dark about it." she wondered if it exonerates them or further condemns them. A ruler that doesn't know what's going on under their nose is a poor ruler then, isn't it?

but, it wasn't important.

She doubted it was tied to their respective magic, it had to be something else, something tangible and palpable. Didn't the voice say the Midas' crown fell? "Well, the voice did mention a crown. Maybe whoever said it is after it? I don't know who or what the Midas is, but logically deducing, it should be a person, right? Nothing else has crowns that fall, right?" Yuer mused, turning a inquisitive stare Shika's way.

if it is a crown...

"Do you think they want to keep us all here to ransack the courts? Seven out of eight is a safe bet. Maybe they've searched the Winter before and didn't find it here in Gláta." or maybe they were from Winter and knew they wouldn't find it here, she thought to herself, but hesitated to speak, in case of prying ears reporting back to the Págos family.

perhaps it all came from outside.

But... who? Who could benefit having seven courts trapped in a single place? Someone to make them all get along or to do the dirty work and be at each other's throat, for them to finish them off with zero effort? Yu clicked her tongue.

"Who, indeed. But, I'm also concerned with the what. What do they need from all of us. If it's life, they could take it whenever they want - we have an enemy we can't see, don't see. So, it can't be just that. But, what else is there?" she mused out loud, though she valued any input Shika might have.

she has no idea what's coming next.

Still, pondering ideas with the Night court's apothecary had been a soothing balm for her mind. "Well, it's not a bad idea. Shadows and storms could shield us, but it could also blind us. I don't like not knowing where my escape routes are and this place doesn't give up it's weak spots." it was as if this cage had been designed for them all.

and a very sickening thought slithers into her mind.

"Do you think it could have been someone from the Winter's court who had done all this?" Yuer quietly asks.

thinking about the fucking Midas was way above her paygrade.

"Legends are good. Legends are at least saying something." which is more than she could say about that load of gibber-gabber in the book she was perusing. Perhaps she ought to check with the librarian about the sources she could use, but then again, the Winter court didn't seem like they had the faintest idea, either, so that's saying something.

if about nothing else, about their librarian in the least.

Pursing her lips in thought, Wen Yu fixed a dark stare at the page she was reading. "Listen to this. Some speak of an ancient curse, fifteen eons ago, that wiped a people from a place. A place that after it, was no more." she read, frowning. "No, I don't think that's it. The rest of the page says it's from a stage play about the creation of Prythian." a thought, then: "Hey, do you think the Midas could be something from the Cauldron? Maybe like, I don't know, an object? Like a neat vase or a compass. Or a statue." she chuckled.

"Imagine it turns out our bane is a little chess piece. I'd be livid."

but losing control of himself like that. losing himself like that.

when the illusion lifted, he found himself disoriented enough that he drew away from the sea of unfamiliar to try and gain some foothold in the chaos. pieces of himself began coming back in flashes and sensations, but it was still a patchwork. a shredded tapestry. the thought occurred to him that he couldn't trust the memories coming to the surface either — what was real? what was the true illusion?

like a trace of shadow, he moved through the great hallways, around the edges of the great ballroom, listening, discerning, picking out threads of truth from what he observed. it seemed everyone was just as clueless.

eventually retreating outside, the cold air is a dousing of clarity to him, away from the warm, hazy glow of candelight. overhead are the piercing stars, the velvet night, and the blanket of stark white snow beneath his feet. he doesn't expect to find anything but guards braving the frigid temperature, but he finds another guest looking skyward.

dead silent.

Still, as the man spoke, Yu frowned, lifting up her gaze to where his finger pointed. It was faint, the glow of the Maris. But, it was to be expected as this court's stars have been misplaced. Or, better said, she had been misplaced and thus unaccustomed to seeing the Winter's sky with Winter's eyes. In Summer, the stars never shifted their position, the perpetual Summertime keeping them in a fixed position.

But, as a captain of the fleet, Yu knew the sky chats of other courts by heart. And yet now, for a moment, she'd forgotten. The frown shifted into a light, upward curl of the mouth -- no, she did not live among the stars. The sea in her veins roared much louder than the cold touch of the pale light, even if she appreciated it.

"I know my celestial charts. Every captain should. When a compass fails, how do you think we'd find out way back home? It's not like I can winnow a whole ship, especially not during a violent storm. Only stars will show us the way, only stars can safely guide us. Every captain knows that." Yuer explained, dipping her head in silent thanks.

"I see her now." she spoke after a moment, then elaborated, "It's strange in here, isn't it? I've visited the Winter's court before, but this... it feels odd and unwelcome."