The Illustrious Telperius Atlon

Log Info

• Title: The Illustrious Telperius Atlon

• Emitter: Telamon

• Characters: Ravenstongue, Telamon

• Place: A14 - Society for Progressive Arcanists

• Summary: Telamon is meeting his father at the Society for Progressive Arcanists when Ravenstongue walks in with Pothy in tow, sporting some new clothes. She is introduced to Telperius Atlon, a lyranesi man with a formal way of talking and a cool, ethereal air. The trio (plus Pothy) sit down to talk, and Ravenstongue finds rapport with Telperius due to her past. She comes close to divulging she is the descendant of the Feathered One, but ultimately does not. Telperius departs after the group arranges dinner at a later date.

-=--=--=--=--=--=<* A14: Society for Progressive Arcanists *>=--=--=--=--=--=-

The central courtyard of the Arcane Society is a large and sprawling affair within the heart of the city. Soaring marble pillars reach upward to the sky, four sets of three, evenly spaced apart as the massive columns form a rough circle, each trio of pillars warding a particular direction. Carved into the smooth stone floor within the center of the atrium is a massive circle within the ceiling itself, which opens always to the stars, in honor of Eluna, the Goddess of Light Magic. Taara, the Goddess of the Dark, is given no such honors.

The central courtyard radiates outwards into paths, leading through the exotic gardens of the Society. One extends to the Library, another to the College of Magic. Another path leads off to a small, rather plain looking building between the two colleges, most likely the dormitory for the students, and yet another for the famous Cafeteria. Numerous magi can be seen walking back and forth most hours of the day and night here, with familiars or other odder creatures roaming about, most of them in the latest styles, as dictated by Madame Gelfure, the a more social head than the Society has had in most of its history. Myriad scents and aromas can also be sensed, some delightful, others repugnant, others quite colorful as apprentices and magi alike go about their experiments. Arguments are not unheard of, and even the most "dignified" of magi might be seen from time to time, in a pique of anger, waving an agitated hand to teleport the disagreeable person to the top of the nearest tower.

-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=- Dramatis Personae =--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=-     
Ravenstongue         5'0"     99 Lb      Half-Elf          Female    Short half-elf girl with violet eyes and black hair.                       
Telamon              5'6"     140 Lb     Half-Elf          Male      A platinum-blond half-sil man with dancing dark eyes                       
-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=-

The chill of winter is abated here at the Society, primarily by enchantment, though it's considered wise to bring your own cloak when the weather turns foul. Still, a smattering of magicians of various disciplines can be seen here and there, reading or talking quietly in groups. Visitors are always leaving or entering as well.

The pair entering, then, are no different from most of the others, although they might draw the eye. Telamon is wrapped in his new cloak, happily chatting animatedly to the taller man walking next to him. A few inches taller than the half-sil, he has the sleek build and graceful bearing of a llyranesi, dressed in fine clothing -- a ruffled white shirt under a dark over-tunic with long sleeves, the shoulders and sleeves studded with quartzite stones, black trousers and stylish, pointed boots. A heavy furred cloak is slung over all of this, the hood pulled up as the tall elf patiently listens to Telamon -- his face slightly obscured but his lips curled up in a gentle smile.

She's not dressed nearly so finely as Telamon nor the man speaking to him, but Ravenstongue comes into view with a different set of clothes for a change. Gone are the blue-and-copper or blue-and-white clothes. They have been exchanged for a black woolen cloak that stops just at Ravenstongue's ankles with a flash of royal purple silk on the underside layer, and a matching royal purple wool gown that has a rather high neckline, terminating just below Ravenstongue's chin. It's a rather nice complement to her violet eyes, but she seems somewhat unused to a cloak at this length.

Pothy is on her shoulder, of course, and he spots Telamon before Ravenstongue does. "Telamon!" he calls out in Ravenstongue's voice--which gets Ravenstongue's attention too, naturally.

"Pothy! I told you not to do that to him," she says with a little sigh.

The two, of course, turn to look at Raven, and Telamon's face immediately lights up. He starts towards her, almost leaving his companion behind; the elf's shoulders shake in a barely-suppressed laugh as he smoothly catches up. Telamon reaches out to wrap an arm around Raven, smiling at her. "Cor'lana," he says with a smile. "This is my father, Telperius Atlon." He turns his head to the elf. "Father, this is Cor'lana." Words like 'chosen' or 'girlfriend' seem kind of superfluous.

The elf reaches up to push his hood back, and suddenly the family resemblance shines out. His hair is a wild shock of dirty-blonde hue, almost like a mane surrounding his head with two long locks that fall down past his face to his shoulders. His features are different from Telamon's -- more saturnine, graven, but his eyes are the same. Dark, dancing, friendly, though cannier and full of worldly wisdom. "Lady Cor'lana," Telperius says with a smile. "At last. A honor and a privilege to meet you."

Ravenstongue flushes a little as Telamon wraps his arm around her, smiling from the warmth of his embrace. She nods politely and opens her mouth to speak, but Pothy beats her to the punch: "Snacks!" he says.

"Pothy, be polite," Ravenstongue says, having to suppress her usual urge to chastise him. "It is lovely to meet you, sir Atlon. I understand where Tel gets it from now. Please call me Lana, or just Cor'lana--I'm not a noble even if I am a Lúpecyll."

She gestures to Pothy on her shoulder. "And this is Apotheosis. Pothy for short. He's my familiar--and he will eat anything you offer him, just fair warning. We always have to order him something when Tel and I have dinner together." She smiles politely.

Yet Tel can sense a slight tremble as he holds her. There's definitely some nervousness.

Telamon smiles, and gives Raven a small squeeze. "My last letter told him about Pothy. And you, obviously. But," he turns back to his father. "Mother didn't come along? I know things are a little busy in Ylvaliel, but surely she's not..."

"Angry?" Telperius raises one arching eyebrow. "You know better than that, son. But I could barely get a word in edgewise while we were on the way here." He deftly reaches into his cloak, withdrawing a very thick packet. "She caught cold a day before we were going to leave. The healers were very insistent on her not going out into this weather, regardless of apportation circles or airships. So she is home, sipping hot tea, minding the office. She gave me this to pass along to you and instructed me," here, his expression lightens quite a bit, "that I was to take stock of Cor'lana and pass along all the details." His dark eyes flick to Raven's face. "No offense intended, my dear. Ariana is a stern mistress and simply wishes for our son to be happy."

"I understand completely," Ravenstongue says, smiling. The subtle shake disappears with the reassurance of Telamon's squeeze. "I'm sure it was a shock to be sent a letter that your son's met someone out of the blue."

She looks around and spots a pair of benches around a table nearby, clearly intended for students to converse while ignoring their textbooks opened to their homework as long as possible, or faculty doing the same while ignoring assignments to grade. Ravenstongue points to it and says, "Shall we sit down and talk, then?"

Telamon nods. "Absolutely." He leads the other two over to the benches. "I enjoy this place. It's usually quiet enough to sit and think, but not so much I feel isolated." He takes a seat next to Raven, resting his hand on hers. Having taken the packet from his father, he opens it, scanning the first page, and looks rueful. "This may take some time to go through."

"Indeed," Telperius replies with a grin, sitting across from the couple. "Your mother is not known for brevity when her emotions run high. Just make sure to write back -- otherwise she may come in person when the cold subsides." He mock-shudders at the notion, before turning his gaze to Raven. "My son... mentioned your difficulties with your parents." His tone sounds much like Telamon's, the voice of a man carefully threading a path through quicksand. "I cannot speak for others; I will not, not unless I am called to it. But I can speak for myself and Ariana. We are not like that."

Ravenstongue smiles more genuinely with Telperius's notion, although she looks briefly at the packet that Telamon has just been assigned with a little bit of an expression that suggests curiosity in addition to, well, shock at the size of it. "Thank you truly, sir Atlon. It really does mean a lot that you feel that way about me. Although..."

She hesitates for a moment, looking at Telamon, then at Pothy, before she looks back at Telperius. "What did Tel say in his letter about my mother?"

Telperius steeples his fingers, a familiar gesture, and his voice is calm. "He said you had lost her, that she had died when you were young. He did not specify the circumstances; I presume he did not pry into it." He ponders his next words for a moment. "I understand if you would not want to dredge up bad memories. I would not ask that of you."

Telamon, for his part, has tucked the packet away and is resting his hand on Raven's again. "It's not very diplomatic to snoop about that sort of thing anyways."

"I'm fine talking about it," Ravenstongue says, her gaze level with Telperius. She seems just as calm as the man in front of her. "I'd like you to know, because I don't believe in hiding anything, especially from you."

She motions, and Pothy comes to sit in her other hand. "My mother's name was Nadina. She raised me on her own in a little town in Rune. She was an enchantress--I remember that people came to her for magical aid. And I remember that she worried about me, as I... Well, life can be difficult for half-elves, and I never found friends with the other children in Rune. She had me try to learn magic, and I was able to muster some magic talent with simple cantrips. One day, not long after I passed eighteen years of age, she handed me a book I'd never seen before--out came Pothy, and she was gone."

Ravenstongue smiles lightly to dispel the sober note of the story. "My mother has never been found. I believe she's dead, as Pothy was her familiar and is now mine. It's been two years since then, and I don't think I will find her without magic aid. And my father... Well, he is alive, and while I use his family name as my own, it is not to honor him."

She seems like she's ready to spill the beans on Grandfather until she says, "So I appreciate that you seem so willing to welcome me in despite what you've been told--and I understand any hesitance you and your wife may have about me as a result."

Telamon winces a little. "I apologize -- this is my fault. I know enough about familiars that I expected she was dead, 'Lana, if Pothy had passed to you." He squeezes Raven's hand again. "And frankly, the less said about your father the better!"

"Indeed," Telperius remarks. "In all honesty, Cor'lana, the hesitance was mine. Your father treated you poorly, and I feared you would grow to resent other elves as well. His willingness to ... misuse you does not sit well with me nor does it reflect well on him." The corner of his mouth curls up. "It is fortunate that you are your mother's daughter, in my opinion at least."

Ravenstongue shakes her head. "I don't hold a negative opinion on any one group of people," she says. "Everyone's capable of being a good person or bad person regardless of where they came from. My father might have failed me, but not everyone of my father's line is like that." She smiles at that. Tel knows exactly who she's referring to.

"Snacks," Pothy says, apparently having had enough of being polite.

Ravenstongue takes her hand out from underneath Telamon's hand to reach into a pocket and feed Pothy some nuts. "I am my mother's daughter, that's true," she says, still smiling that knowing smile.

Telperius leans back a little, studying Raven with those wise eyes. "I'm glad to hear that, Cor'lana. You and my son are clearly happy together. I think we will get along quite well, in any case." He covers his mouth to stifle -- poorly -- a chuckle at Pothy's insistent demand. "A veritable bottomless pit, as you said, my son."

Telamon rolls his eyes. "You have no idea, father. And he gains no weight. Where does it go? Where does he put it? Remember when you took me to see that fantastic creatures exhibition? They had a black pudding there, and I think half the crowd was tossing garbage into it. And it devoured every bit of it."

"I actually asked a friend of mine with arcane sight to observe Pothy eating once," Ravenstongue says, smiling. "He said that the food simply turns into a miniscule amount of mana. You couldn't do anything magical with it. So Pothy's not eating for any reason whatsoever--he just likes to do it. I humor him because he can get bitey when you ignore him."

"Snacks," Pothy says in between bites of nuts. It sounds somewhat like a threat, as though he's saying, "I can and I will, in fact, bite, if I don't have my snacks."

"He even has bakeries that he prefers, and every single food stall in the Market District knows him. They give us free samples because they think he's cute." Ravenstongue snickers a little. "He's a demanding familiar. But he's mine, and he's been with me through some bad times. So has your son."

"Weren't you the one who told me that nothing worth doing or gaining was ever easy?" Telamon inquires with a grin to Raven. "Pothy's a case in point... but it's worth it, for you and us." He looks to his father. "So if you want to have dinner with us, I'm afraid you'll have to set a place for Pothy."

Now Telperius does chuckle audibly. "Let's be honest, son, that's not even close to the strangest thing I've had to handle as part of an informal dinner. I'll be fine." The elf strokes his chin. "I may need to tour the city. I've not been back here in several years. There've been some changes."

"How long will you be in town, mister Atlon?" Ravenstongue inquires, still using her formal mode of address for Tel's father. It's a clear sign of respect. "I imagine you can't be away from your work in the Mythwood for long, let alone from Tel's mother. Especially, umm... Are all of those questions on the packet related to me?" she asks, looking down at the packet again for a brief moment.

"Mother knows best," Pothy says, mimicking the deeper female voice that Telamon's heard before--the one that Ravenstongue's identified as sounding like her mother.

Ravenstongue smiles to hear it again. "Yes she does, Pothy," she says, giving the raven a scratch on the head.

"I'm a diplomat, Cor'lana. I don't read mail that's not addressed to me." Telperius's eyebrow is raised, but he's smiling. "No, I imagine there's at least three pages of gossip as well. Ariana listens like no woman I've met and she always seems to know everything." His expression softens a bit. "That might be why we're together." He stands. "I do have business in the city for a couple days, but I do want to take you two to dinner. Well, three," he adds, looking to Pothy. "But barring any terrible, horrible revelations, I can't see myself going back to Ylvaliel without giving my blessing." He fixes Telamon with a glinting stare. "There had better be proper invitations, son."

Telamon grins. "We're not eloping, father. No worries. And I do want mother to meet Cor'lana as well, before we start making serious plans. In the meantime though... I will keep you informed."

'No terrible, horrible revelations.' Ravenstongue turns to look at Telamon for just a moment, before she laughs and says, "No, nothing like that. I promise I haven't sullied your son's honor and he hasn't sullied mine. However, I can tell you that your son has spent perhaps more money than one might agree to be sensible on feeding Pothy." She grins. A very obvious joke.

A hand goes to her chest where the curuchuil mark of the Feathered One would be visible if it wasn't for the very high neckline of her dress. To Telperius, it's merely a hand over the heart--a genuine gesture of emotional expression. "No, no eloping. I want a ceremony where... Well, forgive the sad notion, but a ceremony where I get a new family. I feel like running off with your son without your participation would be the exact opposite of that."

Telamon twitches ever so slightly at Raven's gesture of her hand -- a tiny twitch, but there. "That was a remark I had made in my last letter," he says to Raven. "That you... needed a better family, or at least a new one. And that I ... thought ours would be a good fit."

Telperius nods, dark eyes twinkling. "Indeed. I don't know what those tiresome boors in Llyranost do, but at least in my household, family is family." Evidently he's not impressed with the sil there either. "But, I'm afraid duty calls for now. My son knows how to contact me."

Telamon rolls his eyes. "Are you going to do the dramatic entrance again like last time, father? Where you came striding in and declared, 'Perhaps I can be of some assistance?'."

Ravenstongue just grins a little. "That sounds like fun though," she says to Telamon. "Better to make a dramatic entrance than a boring one, right?"

She looks back at Telperius with a more tempered smile and says, "I will look forward to that dinner, then. I'll try and feed Pothy a little beforehand so I don't have him making up the majority of the cost. I feel it's only polite."

Pothy just stares at her for a moment, seeming almost offended. Finally, he throws his head back and makes a "hmph!" noise. ... But he recovers quickly. Which is to say that he simply sticks his head into Ravenstongue's snack pocket and helps himself.