#willowbrook lore

Her curiosity got the better of her and she rose out of the mess of sheets that made up the bed that they shared. Perhaps he had gotten thirsty and had gone to the kitchens. She could not help but smile at this thought, his appetite was a good one and it was also possible he desired a snack, even though it was not in his usual habits to do so.

Gracefully she grabbed one of the silks on her way out the door and draped it over her shoulders. The corridor was much better lit then her room, the soft haze of the blue lanterns gave ample light for any that desired to traverse the night. After all, not all shadow dragons were as adept as seeing in the dark as many would expect and not all dragons that remained up at this hour were shadow dragons at all. One of which was the lantern keeper that she saw on her travels through the castle.

"Ah, princess, pleasure to see you on my patrol." The light dragon bowed her head and Etherea returned with a small nod of her own.

"As it is to see you. Have you by any chance seen my husband?"

"The prince?" She thought for a moment. "I believe I saw him heading down to his greenhouse a while go. I wasn't close enough to say anything to him but it is very hard to miss an imperial, especially one with as white scales as he."

Etherea chuckled, "Yes, Cordy does tend to stand out doesn't he." She began to move on, "Thank you, good night."

"Good night to you too princess." The lantern keeper waved and began to fiddle with a hearby lantern.

As she walked through the gardens, she could see that the greenhouse was filled with a blue light, possibly he had brought a lamp with him to show his way, Etherea mused as she pushed open the heavy glass door. The large form of her mate was not far off, his head was turned down and away so that all she could see was the shimmering wings and tail of his form.

Etherea was asleep still as well, she had double checked her room before coming here. The kidnapping had been a surprise, but several weeks with little trouble made her think that the problems had passed. All of her advisors and friends had all assured her that the clan was safe, and the battlemaster Llyr had insisted on raising the number of patrols on the castle walls. Whatever storm had rumbled through the lair seemed to have passed, and a part of her relaxed at that thought.

There was a table on the left of the room, surrounded by large cushions for anyone who wished to sit down. She did so now as she let her mind wander, so distracted was she that she missed the beat of wings until the figure landed near her.

"Oh?!" The Lair Mother blinked in surprise. "I'm sorry I was daydreaming and completely didn't see you enter. Good morning.”

The fae bowed slightly and spoke, "Good morning to you Lair Mother."

Selene had always wondered how the fae managed to speak as she did, without the monotone pattern that most fae had, "Is there anything I can do for you this morning, miss?"

Hecate looked at Selene with her big rose coloured eyes, something about them set off a warning in Selene's mind but she couldn't figure out why, "My name is Hecate, no miss needed. I am here because I wanted to ask you something,” she paused before he continued in a curious tone, “Have you ever had any children, Lair Mother."

The guardian blinked, a little thrown off by the question, but nodded, "I have, they have all gone to serve the Shadowbinder now though."

"What about Etherea, isn't she your daughter?"

"She is." Selene nodded.

"Why?"

"I adopted her and I love her as my daughter."

"But she isn't your blood?"

"Is that important for family?"

The fae's expression was neutral but her voice was getting darker, "Blood is what connects us." Selene felt the scales on the back of her neck rise; there was magic here that she didn't like. Something was going on that she didn't understand.

"Why are you asking me this?" Selene asked guarded, her wings shifting with an anxious energy.

"Because it should be me... not her." Hecate dug her claws into the wood of the table. "I have watched and I'm tired of it. She isn't worthy of being your daughter, she is a lazy, dazed idiot that does nothing all day. I am far more fitting."

Selene stood up and tried to take a step back, but then in a sharp hiss of magic a large weight fell upon her back and pinned her to the floor. "Augh!" A glance back revealed that a large purple crystal had materialized in the room, the largest arm of it now across her wings.

"You didn't know then, but when you went down to my birthplace you bled and created me. The crystals were the womb that took your blood and made ME! Me who is of your blood and far more qualified to be your daughter!"

"The crystals..." Selene remembered the event. It had felt like nothing at the time; she had bumped into a crystal which caused her to shed a couple drops of her blood. To think that it had caused this fae's creation was a shock.

"Yes, Selene, the crystals, you know them. The ones you grow to embed into the walls of the castle, the ones that protect the lair! I came from those, I am more connected to this lair then that dolt will ever be!" Hecate growled, her wings flaring, a ripple of magic spreading through the fabric between the long fingers.

“I would have happily taken you as my daughter Hecate.” Selene said weakly, the weight of the crystal that pinned her down made it hard to breath.

“No. As long as that fake was around you would never have accepted me. It is HER fault! She is not your blood! I AM YOUR BLOOD!” Hecate roared the last part, the crystal atop Selene quivered with the fae’s rage.

Selene gasped, and tried to calm the creature, “It doesn’t have to be this way, Hecate. Please, just stop this now and we can talk.”

Hecate fluttered over, and perched on the edge of the table nearest Selene, “You know, I looked up to you for so long. But now...” She looked down at Selene, whose head was flat against the floor from the burden atop her back. “I see that I was wrong to do so. I am not your daughter... I am a copy of you. A better copy.” Her form started to shift and the table snapped under her weight as she grew into the form of a guardian. She looked nearly identical to Selene, with the only difference being her rose coloured eyes and darker hued wings and belly.

“You have failed this clan Lair Mother Selene!” Hecate hissed the title, “It is time that you stepped down!” With a malicious grin she stomped her foot and Selene screamed in pain as the crystal grew heavier and crushed down on her wings.

"Good morning to you too Quorra, how can I help you?" Selene smiled warmly, the skydancer Astreos wasn't as warm however and just nodded at the spymaster's arrival.

Quorra took a breath and placed a small scroll onto Selene's desk, "I have come to just give a report about the disappearance of Etherea three weeks ago." She paused briefly before she continued, "After much research and investigation, no suspects have been found, but there also hasn't been any further unusual incidents. I have had all my eyes on high alert and absolutely nothing else has occurred since Etherea's short disappearance and I honestly do not think anything is going to happen further at this point."

"How can you be sure of that? What if the culprit is waiting for us to lower our guards?" Astreos asked incredulously.

Quorra shook her head. "If they wanted to make an effective and lasting attack they should have done something shortly after the kidnapping. I believe that something went wrong, maybe they needed Etherea for something but it fell through. Or the fact that Cheshire discovered her shortly after her disappearance prevented them from making a ransom. Whatever the case, I do not believe the threat persists."

Astreos frowned at the spymaster, "And you say this with full confidence? Are you sure that there is absolutely no threat left?"

Quorra smirked, "Come now Ambassador Astreos, nothing is ever without dangers or threats. We live in the shadow domain after all." She chuckled, "I am merely confident that we do not have that particular threat to worry about any more."

The skydancer rolled his eyes and grumbled, "I will have to take your word for truth."

The lair mother let out a sigh of relief, "Thank you for the report Quorra. I appreciate your dedication to this and I do hope you will continue to keep an eye out for unusual happenings within the lair."

"Of course Lair Mother, I may not have any info on the culprit right now but I do not like the idea of the dragon who did this having gotten away with such a crime. While I believe the threat is no longer present, I refuse to give up the search yet."

The skydancer Astreos nodded, pleased by this response, "Now that is something I can agree with. But if you would leave us now Quorra, Lair Mother Selene has many important matters to attend to."

"Like the potential alliance to Clan Manatou?" The pearlcatcher smirked confidently. 

Astreos blinked and Quorra laughed as she walked from the from, "I'm the spymaster for a reason ambassador, remember?"

"Everyone leaves evidence, footprints, scent, mana residue! It is impossible for a dragon to simply vanish!" Quorra flopped onto the cushion behind her desk and stared out the window. It was odd to see the castle so bright, the tree had illuminated itself a great deal more then usual. It both lit up the castle and cast odd shadows across the surrounding landscape.

Tiredly she rubbed the sides of her temple, this was all absurd. There had been no signs, none of the info in the recent days had made any indication of such a strange would occur. She had checked the backgrounds of all the merchants that had come, she knew the pasts of most of the residents and even the ones she didn't know didn't seem to have the physical or magical ability to do this.

"Please tell me you have news..." Quorra groaned as two owls fluttered through the window and flew over to the middle of the room. They circled before their forms blurred and became two skydancers.

"Hiya Quorra!" The female skydancer  smiled, "Hiya Spirit" She waved at the catatonic pearlcatcher who only looked up at her briefly as a response.

"Athene, Tyto, news please..." Quorra waved her paw dismissively to Athene, the male skydancer nodded.

"We checked the castle and the general consensus is that no one can find a trace of her. None of the mages are having any luck and I think ninety percent of the castle has been searched at this point."

"So in other words, nothing new?" The spymaster rubbed her face with her paws, while both of the skydancers shook their heads.

"Oh!" Athene looked to Tyto, "What about what the fancy mage said?"

Quorra perked up, "Which fancy mage?"

"She means the court mage Hyperion. We passed his study and we overheard him talking to himself. Said something about one of his books being stolen."

"Which one?" The skydancers both shrugged again to her question and Quorra frowned, "Well, go find out!"

Athene jumped a little and said "Yes ma'am." Before talking her small owl form again. Tyto followed suit and together they flew out the window.

The young skydancer might not have been blood related to Selene, but the progen loved the girl like a daughter and that was all that mattered to the dragons of Willowbrook. She had been given the title of heir but no one could see Selene just stepping down any time in the future. Erebus had told him that giving Etherea the title was simply a back up measure that some of the council had suggested and Selene had embraced warmly.

The sky was dark with the pinpricks of starlight dotting the black velvet abyss. The castle felt almost as if it was in the middle of the day however because the willow had increased the glow of it's leaves after the search began. It was usual for the tree to have a constant glow, but the distress of the situation had made it try to help in its own way. Which made him feel even more guilty at his uselessness. The tree was more helpful then he was. He had tried to feel the land for the heir, with no success and he did not have a good enough familiarity of the castle to do as good a search as the other residents.

Beyond his view, hidden behind the large trunk he heard a conversation. Struck by his own curiosity he edged closer, doing his best to remain out of view but close enough to hear what was being said.

He found Selene and Vesper huddled together, it looked as if the larger guardian was attempting to comfort the smaller lair mother.

"They will find her. Don't cry." Vesper said softly, his wing draped over her back.

Her voice was muffled as her face was hidden under the crook of his wing, "I can't find her, I can't feel her anywhere. I can always feel her... I'm scared."

"Hush, hush." He tried to comfort her, although his face betrayed his worry. "Maybe she has found an odd place in the castle that is hard to find even with your abilities. Her spirits have a habit of distracting her."

"This is different!" Selene moved her head to look him in the eye, the tears that rolled down her face were easy to see.

Vesper nuzzled his mate and she embraced him, it was a tight hug, as if she was afraid that he too would disappear. Clarus flinched as he felt a dagger of emotions pierce his heart. He hated seeing Selene in such pain and a part of them wanted to rush over to her and tell her it was all going to be alright; but he didn't. Like the coward he was he stayed behind the root that blocked him from view and he wallowed in his own guilt.

A distant voice began to call for Selene and Vesper nudged the progen, "Someone is calling for you. Lets go back out there."

Selene rubbed her tear-streaked face with her mantle and tried to put on a strong face, "Y-yes. Lets go look for our daughter."

The air around her swirled with noise and a wet heat. Voices roared and spoke quickly. They spoke in a language she didn't comprehend, it all was a jumble of rumbles and sharp tones.

Her ankles were shackled, she felt the heavy metal dig into her flesh with every tug as someone tried to guide her somewhere. She didn't want to go. Everything was foreign, no one could tell her what was happening and she wanted to return to her nice soft bed.

Someone or something pulled on her chains, directing her to a spot that was really warm. It made her sweat and when she tried to move out of the warmth someone pushed her roughly back into place.

She could tell by the echoing that she was in a big space, but it must have been crammed full of creatures because it vibrated with the loud unintelligible conversations of many things.

A single voice rang out, forcing the level of the voices to lower for a short while. It was a forceful clear voice that she wished she could understand, they sounded as if they knew what was going on.

A loud crack rang out as a stick was smacked across her back, her wings flared and tears rolled from her eyes. The cacophony of noises hushed for a brief moment before one individual grabbed her face and said something loudly. The sounds returned at a louder pitch then before; it made her ears ache. She tried to curl up to hide but the strong hands gripped her chin and kept her sitting upright.

The tears continued, the cold liquid making trails down her cheeks.

A swift crack of a hammer broke the wall of noise and the hand let go of her. She collapsed onto the wooden floor, sobbing quietly, vainly trying to cover her ears.

It wasn't long before a very strong pair of arms picked her up suddenly; making her yelp weakly. They slung her over it's shoulder and walked away from the room. At first she struggled but the one who was carrying her made a quick command and she went still; she could not escape. The strangers footfalls reverberated off nearby walls, a corridor maybe, but then the sounds changed entirely.

A breeze brushed her mane, the pattering sensation of rain cooling her hot and sore body. With a grunt the stranger slung her onto another wooden surface, this one creaked and swayed a bit with her weight. The stranger said something, it was much softer then the previous ones and was followed by a soft click as a door creaked shut.

What followed was a long journey within the clattering, creaking contraption. The rain could not reach her where she was, and vibrations lulled her to sleep over time.

Her mind dragged itself from her sleep as the shackles from her ankles were removed. It was a pleasant sensation to feel the weight fall way. The voice, the same one that had put her there, spoke softly again and touched her shoulder. She flinched, curling into a ball.

“Don't hurt me... please...” She whispered.

“Ah, you speak serthis, that explains a bit.”The voice commented. Her ears perked and she aimed her head in the voice's general direction.

“Please, I want to go home!”

“I'm afraid I cannot do that... I do not know where the blackmarket dealers grabbed you and even if I did know, I doubt you have much of a home to go back too... I heard that the serthis cultists were completely destroyed.” The voice said honestly.

She lowered her head and cried into her hands, she wanted to go home. The voice grunted and stammered, “C-Come on brat. I saved your ass from becoming a piece in some noble's oddity display...” She could hear as he shuffled his feet. “I guess I should ask you your name... brat isn't the best thing to call someone.”

She sniffed and replied very quietly, “Isolde...”