For a 'treehouse', this place is absolutely huge. It takes a good ten minutes to walk from one end to the other. Part of this is, of course, that there are no straight ways. It often seems more of a maze than a house. Eventually, though, Redmane finds her way to the east wing as described by Lyne.
"Okay, which of you has the prettiest eyes?" Redmane says to the door, and starts at the beat furthest to the left, all the while thinking, Really.. what else could Lyne have meant by 'beast'?
Nothing on the left seem to have anything special about the eyes of the creatures carved into the door, alas. Up close they are just small and fairly basic reverse-relief carvings.
Redmane rubs her chin. "Nothing is every what it seems with Thomas," she mutters, and starts looking for something else near the doors, like portraits or mirrors.
Well, nothing near the door seems to offer any clues yet. No mirrors to speak of and the portraits seem rather worn and ordinary. One looks to be of a young Thomas, if she had to guess. Even though he looks rather young in it, the impish grin gives it away. The other must be his parents. Their pose and expression reveals a bit of regal elegance in both of them and Redmane can definitely see features of Thomas in both; the sharp green eyes, pale skin, and dark hair from his father, and the angular features and ever-amused smile from his mother.
"If there was a beast in this family, I think I know who it would be," Redmane notes with a bit of a smirk, and goes to look closely at those impish green eyes.
There isn't so much something in those eyes as they seem to be looking at a very specific spot behind Redmane.
The knight turns and tries to pinpoint where the portrait is looking.
Oh look, more carvings. An intricate chair-rail bisects the far wall.
"Someone liked to carve," Redmane notes, and goes to check the rail carvings for any bits that look moveable.
It takes a few minutes of fiddling, but sure enough, Redmane finds a section of the chair-rail that moves. As she presses on it, there is a soft click. A section of the rail next to where she pushes pops up. Nestled in a slot behind the hidden panel is a silvery key.
Redmane takes the key.. and now has to look for a keyhole! So she returns to the giant doors.
The keyhole is at least easy to find! It's right where a keyhole should be, about four feet from the floor, near the midseam.
"Hmmm," the woman goes, pausing with the key just about to be inserted - wary of traps, probably. "No, he wouldn't make it that difficult," she decides, and tries the key in the lock.
Click goes the key! And the next thing Redmane knows, the floor underneath her falls away. She quickly finds herself sliding down a long, smooth, tunnel!
"Thomas! I'll get you for thiiiisss!" she swears, as she braces her legs for whatever lies at the end of the slide.
The darn thing is greased, or it sure seems like it. Her feet won't find any purchase. She doesn't need it, though, as she soon finds herself flying out of the tube. The next thing she knows is that she's buried in a huge mound of leaves.
Redmane waits for the leaves to settle, and listens for laughter, just in case Thomas was waiting for this. Or Lyne. Can't trust cats.
There's no sound of laughter. There is the sound of tinkling glass, though.
Using her hands, Redmane clears away the leaves so she can see where she's landed.
As the leaves fall away, Redmane finds herself looking out into a beautiful crystalline grotto. The walls sparkle like finely cut crystal, reflecting the light that flows out from an intricate statue at the center. The statue itself is of a stylized woman. Perhaps a Goddess, but its none that Redmane immediately recognizes. In her hands she holds a large book, also made from the the same crystal. Surrounding the statue is ... a garden? Yes, it has to be a garden. Beautiful green grass, ornate and twisting trees that look somehow old and still so full of life sway in an unseen breeze. The tinkling of glass, it turns out, are thousands of beautiful spheres that hand from the branches of the trees. Each sphere glows with its own rainbow of shifting colors, all shifting and sparkling together in harmony. Everything here feels so ... peaceful.
"I must have really hit my head when I landed," Redmane says quietly, and even rubs her temples where her horns used to grow. Finally, she gets up, deciding that she's not hallucinating after all. She looks at all of the spheres, and wonders at their purpose. "Was Lyne being literal when he called this a Hall of Memories?" she asks the air.
Alas, the air doesn't seem inclined to answer Redmane. Seems its up to her to figure out what the place is.
The woman heads for the statue, to get a better look at both its features and the book it holds. "I hope this isn't the family graveyard," she mutters.
The features ... well, look more like sidhe features Redmane is familiar with than the fey of this land. Long, thin, and haughty; not the often seen mix of fey and animal that permeates these lands. Up close Redmane notices that with the way she holds the book, it looks like her right hand could hold something else.
"Hmmm," Redmane ponders, looking from the right hand to the hanging spheres to see if one of those would fit.
They look like they should fit, yes.
Going up to the nearest sphere that she can reach, Redmane examines it to see how it's hung and if it can be taken down easily.
The sphere is entwined in a series of vines and looks about impossible to remove. Except, of course, when Redmane's hand comes near it. The vines come to life and actually place the sphere into her palm and delicately unfurl from it, then draw away.
"That.." Redmane starts to say, but then just shakes her head. "Magic," she whispers, and cradles the sphere as she takes it back to the statue and places it into its right hand.
The air around the statue begins to swirl, the grasses and trees bending and swaying all the more. The colors inside the sphere begin to shift and ripple faster and soon the statue itself begins to mimic its rainbow of colors. And just when it seems that it couldn't get stranger ... the crystalline pages in the book begin to turn.
Redmane's instinctual response is to step back and reach for her sword - which of course she didn't bring with her. "Oh Thomas, you are of the old blood, aren't you?" she whispers.
"The lands here are so wild ... so far from either of our Houses. Can we dare to dream of surviving? Of making this our home?," comes a hollow, yet gentle feminine voice from somewhere behind Redmane. "Home is where we decide. A house, a castle, we do not need these things. We have each other; and soon we will have our first child. Can you not imagine it? The laughter that will grace this valley so soon? Being exiled was a blessing; we can craft our own place, free of the divisions the others cling to," another voice quickly follows. This voice is of a man, the tone suggesting someone with a strong will and determination like steel.
Redmane spins around to see where the voices are coming from.
Redmane finds herself standing only a few feet away from a shimmering pair of fey; the man and woman from the portrait upstairs ... only they look younger and as well as more weary, as if having been in the wilds for some time. The woman is obviously with child and likely close to the time of birth. The man supports her weight and smiles to her in such a way as to convey that everything will be all right. A memory, indeed. The landscape behind them ripples and twists as its image seems to overlay reality. Its the valley, she thinks, but everything is far more overgrown and there are no obvious paths like when she walked through.
"How old is this, and how was it made?" she wonders aloud. "Could all of this have been here, part of the valley when they arrived?"
"Come, I am sure we can find shelter near the falls we saw. There are often caves behind them, from what I have read. Once you are safe, I will begin on our new home," the man tells his companion. The pair then walk towards Redmane, then simply pass through her and fade away.
The swirling colors lose some of their vibrancy and the air grows still once more. The crystalline pages also still, returning to the shape they were before.
After the memory finishes playing out, Redmane takes the sphere and returns it to the branch she found it on, hoping the vines will take it back on their own.
Sure enough, the vines lift the sphere from her hand gently. Their touch does not have the telltale feel of bark; it feels more like silk, when they brush over her palm as the sphere is lifted away.
Redmane frowns. There must be some order to the memories, she reasons. If this one was the first, then the next one along the branch should be the next in time as well, she assumes, and reaches for that sphere.
Like before, the vines release the sphere into Redmane's hand.
Redmane places it in the hand of the statue, and this time turns immediately to watch the spot that the first memory played out in.
Like before, the wind picks up and the room is bathed in a kaleidoscope of light. She sees the valley again, only now the place is near the waterfall. A small timber and stone cottage has been built. At a guess, it can't have more than three rooms. The woman of the previous vision is kneeling near the overflow pool of the waterfall and working on laundry. Her clothing has changed; the tattered rags of royalty have been replaced by simpler and more sturdy, cloth. The man, her husband, is nearby splitting wood. This looks to be some time after the first recording as the woman no longer shows any signs of being with child.
"Now, where is baby Thomas?" Redmane asks, and walks closer to see if she can actually look inside the cabin.
The answer to that question comes soon enough as there is a thunderous crash from the woods in the vision. The underbrush explodes outward as a rampaging bear thunders into the tranquil scene. Something, no ... someone is riding on its back! A wild-haired young child, wearing clothing crafted from scraps of cloth as well leaves and rough twine clings tightly to the bear's fur. As the bear bucks and thrashes, Redmane can see the child's hair has grown to the point it almost reaches all the way down his back. And, of course, instead of looking terrified, the child is laughing.
"Oh, of course," Redmane says, shaking her head. "I would not want to have been your babysitter, Thomas, that much I am certain of!"
The chaos lasts for about a minute before the child is thrown from the bear's back. Miraculously, he flips mid-air and lands on all fours like some sort of panther. His green eyes are narrow and lips are drawn back in a predatory smile. The bear rears back and roars.
"Aldron, Thomas, quit fooling around. NOW. One of you is going to get hurt," the man orders and embeds his spitting maul into a stump with a loud thunk.
"Hmm," Redmane goes, rubbing her left cheek. "Well.. at least he's wearing clothes of a sort," she notes. Having grown up with monsters herself, she doesn't seen anything wrong with playing with a bear.
The child, Thomas, huffs loudly and pushes himself back upright. "Aw, we were just having some fun! I was about to win," he complains.
"Win?" the bear now rumbles, sounding both amused and annoyed, "If you call about to be tossed into the water winning, I suppose." The bear's flesh then shudders and shifts, leaving behind a young, lanky, kid (a bit older than Thomas, if Redmane had to guess) with dark skin and brown hair and eyes (and completely naked).
"Okay, now that is a surprise," Redmane notes. She finds herself trying to recognize features in the boy's face.. but then realizes he'd be long dead before she ever arrived, so not likely one of the weres she knows of now.
Nothing about him looks particularly similar; outside of generally common fae features. "/Hah!/" Thomas asserts and crosses his arms, retorting, "/Like you could. If I went into the water, you would be following. You have no grace at all. All muscle, no brain!"
"Brains enough to know not to tussle with creatures far larger than myself!" Aldron laughs. Now looking to Thomas' father, he adds, "Oh, Lord Bryon, er, sir, er. Father said that we would be working on raising the first of the walls tomorrow for the new town. Will you be able to make it?"
"That certainly sounds familiar," Redmane comments, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "If it were me, I'd have punted him into the river before we even started.."
"I am a Lord no longer, please, desist with the titles," Thomas' father, apparently a man named Bryon, says, "And of course I will be there. We are all part of this new community, we share in all its work."
Thomas, meanwhile, runs towards their cottage and in a few deft (and barefoot leaps), scales the side of the building and sits down on the edge of the root. "And I'll find all the monsters and lead them on a chase so they won't have time to bother anyone!" he claims and even 'puffs' up.
"Not much of Mirari could have been built up this early," Redmane muses. "Well.. maybe. Time is tricky. This could be happening as late as Year 10 for all I know, given the sidhe-like aging of this family."
"No. You will help me with a far greater threat to our safety," Thomas' mother finally chimes in, "You will be helping do laundry tomorrow. Really, the things you find to stain your clothes with ... not to mention the smell."
"Aw, mother!" Thomas complains loudly as he falls backwards against the rough-shingled roof. "Adventurers don't do laundry!"
"Hmm, wolf-like tendency to roll around in stuff," Redmane notes, nodding. "I guess the transformation wasn't much of a hurdle for Thomas after all.."
"You're not an adventurer," Thomas' mother points out, "You're just dirty. Now come inside. Really, I told Bryon we needed to enforce proper, civilized, behavior. Just because we live in the wild doesn't mean we must become it."
"Poor woman," Redmane says, shaking her head. "Why do I feel Thomas would be a good father though? Strange thought, that."
As the memory fades, she can just make out Thomas dart along the roof then jump down the chimney! There's a huge puff of black soot that flies and just before the last of the scene fades, she can hear Thomas mother yell, "Thomas! My clean bed sheets!"
Redmane returns the crystal sphere to its branch, and decides to move to the next tree. With thousands of crystals, she'd be here forever if she went in order. She chooses a likely looking sphere (although they all look alike to her) and tries that one next.
The light of the room swirls, then grows darker. When the memories come, this time it isn't a pleasant one. The scene is a small down with rough-built walls ... only the town is on fire. A mix of monsters run rampant in the streets while the townsfolk try to fight them back. Leading the defense is Bryon. Even through the chaos he shows no sign of fear. His movements are controlled and precise; the crude weapons of the invaders are deflected in one stroke and the follow-up dispatches them cleanly. Now and then be barks orders to the others, repositioning their defense quickly and effectively.
Redmane frowns and tenses, reaching for the sword she doesn't have yet again. The sight of battle gets her blood going, and the fact that it isn't real just frustrates her.
Real or not, the battle is bloody. The efficiency of the fey, though, seems to keep losses on their side minimal. That is, up to the point the monsters figure out just who is in charge and in a directed push, all attack Byron at the same time. He holds his position valiantly; many fall before his blade ... but in the end he is simply one man. An unseen foe managed to slip in behind him and in the next moment, the scarlet bloom of a spearhead sprouts from his chest. The fey simply blinks, then his legs buckle and he falls to his knees.
Growling, Redmine strike out with her fist at one of the monster apparitions, since it's better than trying to fight the urge. She also looks for Thomas, just in case he's somewhere in the battle as well.
Redmane's fist only finds air. Thomas is nowhere to be seen, but Bryon's wife is. She bursts from one of the nearby buildings and picks up one of the dropped swords. She charges the group surrounding her husband, screaming. There is no real fighting skill in her movement; only the rawness born of anger. Stories often talk about heroic events that people do against impossible odds ... only this isn't s story. She stands for only a few seconds before a dagger finds its way into her gut and she crumples, landing in a heap near Bryon.
"Rawr!" Redmane yells in anger at the scene, clenching and unclenching her fists. She's nearly forgotten that it isn't real, just a memory.
The gates of the town explode open and Redmane finally sees Thomas. He's grown and looks much like he does now, save somehow the impression that he's so much younger. Once more he's riding the back of a large bear, only this time there's an entire pack of bears following. Thomas leaps off as the bears charge, roaring. The monster's scatter as Thomas eyes go wide in horror ... and for the very first time Redmane can remember, she sees him afraid. He runs over to his fallen parents and slides in the dirt and drying blood to their side. He looks around frantically, his hands twitching as he tries to find something, anything, to stop the bleeding. "Someone help me, please!" he cries out, voice cracking, "Anyone!" And its there the memory fades, Thomas trying to save his family. The terror on his face, followed by the utter sense of feeling helpless leaves the room feeling oddly hollow when the light returns to normal.
It takes several moments for Redmane to calm down. Even so, she has to force herself to be gentle when returning the sphere to its tree. "Alright.. time for a break," she says, and starts looking around for an actual exit from the crystal grotto, since she surely can't leave the way she arrived.
Redmane finds an actual door easily enough ... because Thomas is standing in the doorway, watching her. His expression is ... neutral. Or at least that's as close as it can be defined. Its the sort of expression people use when they are deliberately concealing how they are feeling at the moment.
"Don't get angry with me," Redmane says. "It would be a bad time for it, since I'm still all worked up!" She heads right for the door, whether Thomas will let her pass or not.
"They didn't die that day, in case you were wondering," Thomas says, "But it wasn't long after. Their weapons bore poison. We couldn't treat it in time. We didn't have the right herbs and the nearby Houses would not sell or give us any. They were exiles and no House was to help them. Not even if they were dying."
"So is that why you hate them?" Redmane asks, although in the mood she's in it almost comes out as a demand, as she comes right up to Thomas.
"I gave up hating them a long time ago. I just feel sorry for them now," Thomas says with a shrug as he steps aside, then walks into the room. Specifically, he heads towards the statue.
Redmane turns in place to watch Thomas, thinking he's going to play another memory. She also asks, "Did you parents make this place?"
"My mother did," Thomas answers as he stands before the statue and just looks at it, "She never wanted anything to be forgotten. Being forgotten is a fate worse than dying, she would say."
"I don't have to worry about any of the spheres picking up my memories, do I?" the red-head asks next. "You never told me your mother was a sorceress."
"No, she tuned it to our family, it won't record you," Thomas notes. "As for my mother ... is that particularly important?"
"I've never heard of any of the current generation of fey being able to wield magic like this," Redmane notes. "Your kind has fallen far from its roots, but your family seems to have kept a lot of the old blood."
To that Thomas shrugs. "Some magic has no real value anymore, perhaps," he offers by way of explanation. "I imagine some still could if they chose. There are a few sorceresses around yet. Most like to remain in their towers and research the world through their magicks instead of experiencing it."
"I prefer the type that stay in one place, actually," Redmane notes. "Less worrisome. Are you mad at me?"
"Do you want me to be?" Thomas asks.
"No," the woman says, sounding a little calmer. "I assumed you wanted me to find this place."
Thomas motions towards one of the trees in the grove. "My memories of Elynor can be found there," he says, "If you ever wished to see them. In truth, I am not quite sure what I should do with this place. When I enter here, I can feel its weight; all the little whispers of the past."
"Are you still adding memories to it?" Redmane asks, taking a step towards the indicated tree, but then stopping to look at Thomas.
"I can't really stop," Thomas says with a shrug, "It records important moments in the life of my family."
"Am I in one of the recent ones?" Redmane asks, curious. "Maybe I shouldn't wonder about that. If there is a memory of Elynor I should see, I'll let you pick it out."
"I don't know if you are or not, I haven't checked," Thomas says as he turns back to face Redmane. "As forr Elynor ... I would prefer to not be here during those. There is much I do not want to be reminded of. Anyway ... I should go finish preparing dinner. Through the door and up the stairs, then two lefts and step over the pit you slid down. Then back to the main hall, through the right, then the third left. You'll get to the kitchen. Join me when you're done here."
Redmane tries in vain to gauge Thomas' mood, and then says, "Those directions are complicated. You'd best show me the way. Maybe I'll come back later to see more."