She flipped the garment around to show Ganthe, “What do you see?”
“An eagle?” he said. “Did you draw that?”
“I most certainly did not!” she spat.
“Then who did?”
Lera’s pointed gaze fell upon the still-sleeping form of Falduin.
She was livid. She prodded Falduin with her foot, “Did you do this?” she snarled, holding up the surcoat before him.
Falduin turned to face her, eyes blinking, but still unseeing.
“Did you do this?” she repeated.
“What?” he asked.
“This. Did you do this?”
He blinked at her, “Do what?”
“This!” She specifically pointed at the eagle so he couldn’t be mistaken what she was talking about.
“What?”
“This is not funny, Falduin. This garment is very important to me. It symbolises much that I hold dear. You had better hope that this, what ever you did to it, washes out.”
“I can’t draw,” he said.
“You don’t need to draw. You can use your magic.”
“No,” he said standing. He pointed at the eagle, “To do anything like this - and I can’t even conceive how that might be done - I would need to be able to draw. Even a full-fledged wizard can’t just magic up something from nothing. Very well, they can but it is extremely difficult, and have no such skill.”
“Then how did this happen? It was white when I packed it away last night, this morning it’s like this.”
“Lera,” it was Heric.
“What?” she said not taking her gaze off Falduin. She was certain it must be his doing.
“Lera, you’re forgetting one possibility,” Heric said. He reached out and cradled the fore-cloth in his hands, almost reverently.
“What?”
“It is a wonder,” he said smiling at her. “A blessing. For helping the griffon pass over. From The Gods.”
“The Gods can draw better than this. Plus they do not bless someone like me.”
“Why not?”
“I have been cast from my order. I am no longer a Sister of Axiom.”
“You are still a Priestess of Úlæ.”
“Nominally.”
“ Úlæ is sending you a message.”
“What message? Why?”
Ifonsa joined Heric appraising the surcoat. “It looks a little like those worn by The Eagle Knights,” she said. “Perhaps you are supposed to start a new order. Armed and armoured priestesses. The Sisters of Lera.”
#TootFic #Writing #WritingCommunity #CoilsOfTheSerpent
skribe 🇺🇦 
