Hiya! My various sprinklings of info about the Scattered Bones/Windriders may or may not conflict with canon, but I'm too lazy to care.
Dezel had no idea what just happened, but he found himself between Rose and Talfryn, sitting cross-legged on a cold stone floor in a circle comprised of the remaining Scattered Bones. This room had been their meeting chamber, back when they'd used the Tintagel Ruins as their main base—atop the ruins, its door was well hidden and narrow windows offered views of the ruins from all sides.
"Are we planning on having a visitor?" Kira asked, eyeing the space in which Dezel sat. As was her custom, her dark brown hair was pulled back into a long, thick braid.
Despite knowing no one but Rose could see him, Dezel felt self-conscious. He'd have been perfectly fine standing by the wall, outside their circle, but Rose had insisted he stay, and he hadn't had the heart to deny her.
Rose spoke firmly, not just addressing Kira but looking at each of them in turn. "We do have another member, but he isn't a visitor. His name is Dezel, and he's been with the Windriders and Scatted Bones longer than any of us—well, except for maybe Celine and Thomas." That was true. The ebon-skinned siblings had been even younger than Rose when Lafarga introduced Dezel to the Windriders, but now, prominent wrinkles scrunched at the outer corners of their eyes. "We just haven't been able to see him, for the most part, because he's a seraph. A wind seraph, in fact."
Dezel flinched, in spite of himself. No going back now—he was exposed.
No one spoke for a few moments. Kira, Thomas, Celine, and Talfryn all kept their faces expressionless, but Flavius raised his eyebrows, glancing back and forth between Rose and Dezel, or rather, the space he occupied. Dezel couldn't blame him for his skepticism, but that didn't stop it from chafing.
"I suppose it was this Dezel who healed Talfryn's arm, then?" Kira asked lightly.
"That was Lailah, actually," Rose said. "Well, it wasn't just her—we did it together, her and me."
Talfryn nodded. "You guys should've seen it. Boss said some sort of incantation, lay her hand on my arm, and boom! Healed." He waved his arm around for effect.
More silence.
Flavius started to laugh. "C'mon, Boss. You could at least try to make it believable."
"I'm absolutely serious, Flav," Rose said. She leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees. "What do you think I've been doing the past few months? How do you think the Shepherd has such amazing powers? They're not entirely his own—they come from seraphim." She placed her chin in her palm in mocked fascination. "And just how would you explain Talfryn's healed arm, then?"
He pursed his lips. "Maybe it wasn't as broken as we thought it was."
"The bone was poking through the skin!" Talfryn said.
"Maybe you just healed quickly, then." Flavius shrugged. "Either way, I see no reason to believe a seraph did it. There's no concrete proof."
Oh, he wanted concrete proof, did he? With the slightest thread of power, Dezel ruffled the hair at the back of Flavius's head.
He whirled around and, seeing nothing, glanced to those on either side of him—Kira and Celine. "Whoever did that, quit it."
Kira arched an eyebrow. "Did what?"
"Blew on my hair. I know it was one of you!"
While Flavius faced Kira, Dezel ruffled his hair again, this time harder. Flavius whipped around to face Celine. "That's not funny!"
Rose glanced at Dezel, a small smile spreading across her face. He affected not to notice her.
Celine regarded Flavous coolly. "Brad always said that he'd felt a presence with us," she said slowly. "A feeling that came with the wind. I'd always chalked it up to his idealism, but perhaps ..." She looked to Rose.
Dezel's eyes suddenly burned, and he turned his face away. Lafarga—Lafarga must have been the one Brad talked about. Lafarga had always been by Brad's side; always been the first one to help. Faithful until the very end, when he'd given up his life for the apple of Brad's eye.
At such words from the most level-headed member of their group, Flavius deflated. "But ... how?"
Rose laughed softly. "I've been asking myself that same question for the past few months. How could an entire class of people live among us, and we don't even notice? Why don't they even try to make themselves noticed?" She leaned back against the wall, folding her hands across her lap. "But that's the wrong way to look at it. Why would they reveal themselves to us—who's to say we'd accept them? Knowing how awful we are at even accepting some of our fellow humans, I doubt we'd do much better with them." She paused. "That's one of the Shepherd's goals—to create a society in which humans and seraphim can coexist peacefully." She paused again, then suddenly seemed to come to herself, sitting up straight again. "Anyway! That's all beside the point. The point is, Dezel is here to help, and since none of you can see or hear him, I'll act as a sort of translator. Sound good?"
"Yes, Boss," they said. They still seemed shocked, but all things considered, they'd reacted much better than Dezel had hoped.
Rose gave a curt nod. "Now that that's settled, it's time to get up to speed with you guys. Talfryn's filled me in on the essentials, but tell me everything that's happened since you guys went to Pendrago."
Thomas told most of it. For the first few days, everything had been apparently normal—they hadn't heard a peep of anyone pursuing them. Still, they lay low. But on the fourth day, early in the morning while most were asleep, Lunarre and a knight squad stormed the inn they were staying at, putting the entire inn into a panic. The Scattered Bones that escaped only did so narrowly, and they only managed to shake off the knights' pursuit at Lastonbel.
"The only thing we know for sure is that Lunarre is in league with certain members of Rolance's nobility," Thomas finished. "I recognized one of the knights present. I'd happened to see him the day before the attack, under the employ of Julian Alflatt."
Dezel wanted to sigh. He hated human politics, and now, Pendrago's political sphere would likely be highly relevant to what they were doing. Lying, scheming humans—nothing was sacred to them. They'd commit the most barbarous atrocities to get ahead, all while pretending to be the quintessence of propriety.
"Alflatt ..." Rose said musingly. "He was the one who requested a few months ago that we take care of Cedric Velarion, right? I bet that's how Lunarre got close to him, posing as an assassin willing to do his bidding."
Thomas nodded. "That's what we thought, too. But last we heard, Velarion is still alive and well, spearheading the coming war against Hyland."
"Typical Lunarre," Talfryn said. "Fools around instead of getting the job done."
Flavius's thoughts on the matter were a tad more colourful. "The bloody bastard," he said, pounding a fist into his palm. "By now he's probably told everyone our secrets. All our contacts, all our potential safe havens, gone."
Rose sighed. "It doesn't look good, does it. I've done a bit of thinking myself, but first, I wanna hear what you guys think we should do." Dezel admired that about her—she always listened to her subordinates before making important decisions, never afraid to admit when they might know better than her.
He could hardly believe he was so lucky, getting asked by her to accompany the Scattered Bones. Spending so much time with her likely wouldn't be better for him in the long run, certain to only make him fall ever deeper ... but if he could support her when she needed it, it didn't matter. He'd take whatever he could get, and damn himself for it.
"Whatever we do, we don't have much time," Talfryn said grimly. "Executions take place on the night of a new moon. Taking away the week it'll take to get to Pendrago, we'll have just over a week to rescue them."
Kira frowned. "I guess a rescue mission to the castle dungeon is out of the question?"
"I'm afraid so," Thomas said. "It's exactly what they'd expect us to do, and I'm sure everyone here is well aware of what happened when the Windriders made such an attempt."
Kira and Talfryn hadn't been with the Windriders, but the rest of them had. Five years ago, after Rolance's royal family had betrayed them, their attempt to rescue their imprisoned comrades had gone awry. The prison guards had somehow been notified of the attempt before they'd gotten there, so instead of formally executing the prisoners as planned, they slit their throats in their prison cells. Eguille was the only one who escaped alive.
That was one of the last things Dezel had seen with his own two eyes—the Windriders' battered bodies, throats slit, their dark blood staining the straw on the filthy prison floor. His chest tightened at the memory.
"I doubt we could impersonate guards and infiltrate the castle, either," Thomas continued. "Lunarre's given them our descriptions, I imagine."
Rose chewed her lip. "So if a rescue mission's out of the question, then what?"
"Maybe we could take hostages," Kira said.
"Who's valuable enough that they'd give up half the Scattered Bones, though?" Rose raked a hand through her bangs. "With war on the horizon, everyone in the royal family except the king'll be in hiding. If we had more time, maybe we could cook something up, but ..."
Kira sighed, her shoulders sagging. "You're right. We'll just have to figure out some other way to convince them it's in their best interest to give them up."
After a moment of silence, Rose added, "There's another issue we need to take care of, too. We need to draw Lunarre out somehow, separate him from the nobles' protection so we can give him his due punishment."
Celine pursed her lips. "Well, that may be easier to achieve. All we'd need to do is convince his protectors that he's a liability, so they'd abandon him."
"Yes," Rose said. "And to do that ..."
No one spoke. Just then Dezel thought he had an inkling of an idea, so if no one else thought of something ...
"Rose."
Her eyes pierced him. "Yeah?"
He was terribly conscious of everyone looking at him—rather, not at him but through him—and he cleared his throat uncomfortably. "If we want to make the nobles do something, let's hit the where it hurts the most—steal their money. And so they know it was us, we can leave little notes at the scene of the crime, giving our terms: give us Lunarre and our comrades, or we'll only trash your homes more."
"I like the way you think," she said, a smile tugging at a corner of her mouth. Dezel's face burned, but fortunately, she glanced away from him as she explained his plan to everyone else.
"Hmm." Talfryn scratched his chin. "It could work. Especially in times of war, when luxuries are scarce ... guess that wouldn't apply to nobles as much, though."
"You think they'd care anyway?" Flavius asked with a laugh. "I think it's an awesome plan."
"You would," Kira said, rolling her eyes. But she was smiling, too. "It's still a good plan, all the same."
"How about you two?" Rose asked Thomas and Celine.
Celine was lightly tapping her fingers against her knee, a sure sign she was deep in thought. "It could work," she said slowly. "Especially with the implied threat that if, in the worst case scenario, they execute Eguille and the others, it doesn't mean we'll stop looting their manors."
"And we wouldn't," Talfryn said, an oddly fierce look on his normally nonchalant face. "If they go through with the executions, we'll burn the entire Rolance nobility to the ground."
"Of course," Rose said. "And you, Thomas?"
"Sounds good to me—though we'll have to be extra careful. Things are already tense with the war, so the nobility may be more antsy than usual. Threats are all well and good, but they might be so impulsive as to not think it through before acting." He paused. "Of course, that'll apply no matter what we do. It's a fine plan, Dezel," he finished, smiling in Dezel's direction.
Dezel tugged his hat lower over his forehead. "Thanks."
"Aww, you embarrassed him, Thomas," Rose said, laughing.
"Seraphim can get embarrassed?" Kira looked curiously in Dezel's direction.
"Oh, all that and more," Rose said. "You wouldn't believe some of the things I've seen. But we're getting off subject—let's make a concrete plan. Anything could change once we reach Pendrago, but at least then we'll somewhat know what we're doing."
So they planned, all the way to the early hours of the morning. Occasionally Dezel spoke up, and Rose listened attentively to him, looking straight at him, before translating for everyone else. It made him nervous, but he hoped it didn't show. Damn his feelings!
Even though the situation was grave, the Scattered Bones still joked with each other, still laughed. By the time the humans headed to bed, Rose's face had lost some of the tension that had accumulated over her journey with Sorey.
Here, with her family, she was home.
When the humans finally began to head to bed, sunrise was mere hours away. As they left the room, Dezel faced one of the windows, relishing the cool wind on his face. He thought he'd patrol the perimeter of the premises tonight, to make sure all was well before they left, but mostly to calm his jittery nerves.
But Rose hung back, and after the others were gone, went to his side. Dezel carefully kept his face composed, scarcely breathing.
Finally, she said, "Thank you for your help." She didn't look at him.
There were so many things he wanted to say. But he settled with, "It's no problem."
With a curt nod, she headed for the doorway. With one final backward glance, she retreated for the bedchambers.
