RP:Ghouling Around

This is a Necromancer's Guild RP.

Summary: Quintessa returns to House Dragana with the intentions of recruiting the newly ghoulified bard, Kanna. Quintessa temps the ghoul with stories and promises of new magical songs, but it is Quintessa's generosity that wins her over in the end. When Magik shows up, tensions begin to rise between the three, but nothing happens at all. We promise. Trying to follow an old lead, they make plans to head the the derelict cabin where Kanna was turned into a ghoul to search for Quintessa's lost research journal.

House Dragana

Towering over the abyssal forest, the dark mass of House Dragana is no less eerie than the vegetation, or lack thereof, in which it stands. The mansion's outer perimeters are flanked by the twisting trees and there are no gates to prevent the seemingly less desirable denizens of the forest from trespassing upon the property. A sleek, obsidian walkway runs from the house's entry to the path. The only source of light without comes form wrought-iron lanterns that are placed on either side of the walkway, spaced perfectly from one another. Within them, an eldritch glow of a deep, verdant hue flickers. Those brave enough to approach House Dragana's doors will be greeted with iron knockers bearing blackened skulls, their eyes set with emeralds that glow with the same light from the lanterns. Within the house's walls, there is no shortage of decadence. Only the most elegant of furniture is placed throughout its rooms. A grand staircase of blackened wood leads to the upper levels, where rooms for those that reside within the house can be found. Midway up, the stairs split to the left and right, spiraling upward. Here, there is a landing with a set of double doors that leads to a large ballroom. The lower level of the house plays host to a dining area and kitchen, though rarely used, a grandiose library filled with grimoires and tomes, and a small museum of artifacts collected by the house's residents. Though there appear to be no candles to light the way, an ethereal glow floods the innards of the house, providing ample reading light - undoubtedly arcane in origin. Dark magic is weaved into the house's existence as a measure of protection.

Kanna stares blankly at her song journal. A cup of hot elven blood wine sits in front of her while she turns the remaining pages. It appears many of the pages have been torn out of the journal. Of all the rooms in the gothic manor, the “war room” is the one most frequented by the undead bard aside from the gardens. As a page turns, there’s a soft sound of skin against paper, and she pulls her hand away to reveal another black line on her pale skin. The paper cut did not hurt in the slightest, but her brows furrow in annoyance. At first, not being able to feel pain had been quite the novelty, but the inability to feel anything except hunger had lost its novelty before the first snowfall of the season last year. With a frustrated sigh, the journal is shut, small holes near the spine revealing the missing pages just as well. The woman brings the cup up to her greyed lips. There was little reason for her to maintain the disguise of the living while in the city of the undead. Even from where she sits, she can tell that something living has entered the house. Another deposited meal, perhaps? She rises to her feet to investigate.

Quintessa waves her pale hand to command the doors of Dragana Manor to swing open as her heeled boots click down the path within the rot iron fencing of the estate. The hex blade has been putting off a great many things she wished to discuss with Kanna in lieu of trying to court her younger sister, but the necessity to perfect the bard's control over her own undead became apparent the moment Kanaame showed his hand. Now there was a fire lit under the changeling. "Kanna...?" Quintessa's scarlet voice rings out, echoing through the mostly empty manor of House Dragana. Undead vassals slowly turn to bow to the necromancer as she strolls past her sentinels, only stopping when she reaches the vampiric butler who waited for her at the foot of the stairs. "Lady Dragana," he greets her, "Your guest is in the war room... again. I told her that the information in there was sensitive but she doesn't listen to me." Quintessa gives the man a look that can only be described as disinterested, and she moves past him with a way. "Don't bother my guests anymore." The baroness says flatly, moving upstairs to join Kanna. Quintessa's shadowed form hangs in the threshold like a specter for a moment, mismatched eyes watching the bard closely. "Kanna? Is everything fine in here?" She finally addresses with honeyed words, gliding in the room to seat herself next to her. "I hope my hospitality has been sufficient thus far."

Magik has been all over the place lately trying to keep himself busy. Lessons in the Tower, field trips to the elven forest, and the normal SoS behind the scenes workings have had the Lyastri slightly scatterbrained. "I need a drink," he thought to himself as he looks to the goodie bar at the SoS headquarters. Nothing tickled his fancy though. He quickly poofs into his smokey form and begins his journey towards the Dark Forest.

Kanna smiles widely at the entrance of the baroness. “Tessie!” The ghoul had no idea what had been going on outside the city aside from mutterings from patrons in the Hanging Corpse. Something about the drow getting out of hand, another about a dryad emerging from the depths of Frostmaw, all the stories getting more and more dull to the woman. The ghoul brightens up considerably whenever the mysterious changeling is around. “Oh, your servants are so cute, and so patient. I just can’t figure out how to get the boys I’ve turned to talk to me. Amante gets a kick out of them too!” Somewhere in the gardens, a large wolf gnaws on the leg of the last frost giant delivered for Kanna to feast on. The songstress looks behind Quintessa, as if searching for someone, and then back at the hex-blade, her cheerful demeanor faltering slightly. It only lasts for a moment, as she inquires, “Are you here to stay this time? You still owe me that night out, you know.” She says with an overly flirtatious wink of her shadowed eye.

Quintessa cannot help but find herself faltering at Kanna's sanguine attitude, her lips curling up into a smile as she tries to hide the slight blush in her cheeks by looking away, back at the door. "Er- Yes, I'm here to stay this time. For a little while at least." Quintessa's smile has become sheepish in the time it takes for her to return her gaze to the bardess at her side. "Our night out might have to wait a little, but I promise it'll be worth it. I'm going to take you somewhere beyond Vailkrin. I hear Schezerade is nice this time of year! Chartsend, perhaps?" It had to be somewhere Kanaame wouldn't look. "Either way, we need to get your 'boys' under control. I can use my magic to boss them around but you are their true mistress. You're going to have to learn to work independently if you are going to be able to assist me in my mission." The hex blade has no idea Magik is on his way as she openly speaks about her plans to curse the Druid's Eternal Tree.

Magik flies through Lithrydel violently, swaying trees and snapping branches in his wake. Finally arriving at House Dragana, his smokey form seeps through the bottom of the entrance. The elf takes his normal form on the other side. He takes a deep breath as he wipes down his casual black garb. He waves off any servants and even the butler as his heavy steps bring him to the war room. After two quick knocks, he steps in, "Ladies." He had just missed Quintessa'a mention of a mission. Passing behind Kanna, he gently lays a hand on her shoulder giving it a gentle squeeze, "Kanna, good to see you." The elf notices something just a tad bit off about that squeeze. "Hm. A little tense.. I'll have to teach you a few techniques to get that under control," he says in a totally professional manner. The elf then slides into a seat close by while looking to Quintessa, "Lady Dragana." He nods his head.

Kanna studies Quintessa’s motions carefully under the guise of a coy smile. Her head props itself up on her hand, silvery teal curls spilling onto the war room’s table. She can tell -something- was troubling the baroness, but not what. At the mention of the locations, she feels her brow twitch slightly. Somehow, the idea of visiting Schezerade seemed off-putting to her “Mm. I don’t believe I have been to Chartsend in years.” She acquiesces the suggestion for travel, her eyes looking up as the Lyastri strides in. “Magikrios.” The songstress straightens up slightly as he enters. “You seem much more…” Her eyes trail down to the hand that rests on her shoulder, then back up to the black-fire eyes of his. “How do you put it-- ‘alive’ than when I saw you last.” The pull of the temporary close-proximity makes her mouth water for a moment. Trying to put off the thought of food, she takes a sip of her drink. “I wouldn’t really be able to tell that I’m tense, being dead and all. I didn’t know you were a friend of the Draganas?”

Quintessa || Lime green runes all along the borders of the walls glow faintly when Magik enters the manor and it becomes clear that Quintessa forgot to recalibrate them after the Lyastri had been returned to his mortal state. As the house creaks and groans, Quintessa too is alerted to Magik's presence and the fact that she has forgotten something. "Elazul's Bite..." she mutters, flicking her wrist to deactivate the security system before settling her blue and hazel gaze upon the elf. "Nice of you to stop by," She says, crossing one leg over the other as she carefully watches the exchange between the two. "Yes, Magikrios and I go way back. He's been a mentor of mine since my apprenticeship." Quintessa notices that her butler has arrived as well, a platter in hand with a bottle of Avian-blood Champagne, three glasses, and a silver cigarette case. "Lady Dragana," He sets her usual request down and leaves as he had been ordered to do hundreds of times before. "Thank you, Jeeves." Quintessa says, eyeing the cigarette case with restrained lust. "Anyway, before you arrived I was just talking to Kanna about that very same thing; Control, and I've discovered some interesting things while perusing the Black Library."

Magik smiled at Kanna's words as he held a hand out to her, "Your hand. May I?" If she obliged him, he would scoot his chair closer to take her hand in his, carefully massaging her hand and between her knuckles, "Remember our deal, Kanna.." The Lyastri's eyes sparked momentarily but then he smirked, "Dead or not, the muscles are still there. This'll loosen them up a little." As Tessa answers for Magik, he continues the small massage but turns his attention to her, "And that's what I appreciate about you. With everything still going on you manage to make it a point to continue your pursuit of knowledge. What interesting facts did you find out?"

Kanna obliges the request of the elf, putting an ice cold hand in his own. Despite the lack of sense in her hand, she can feel some tension giving way in her undead muscles. "Yes, yes, I remember. No more sleep spells. If I want to try my luck again, it'll have to be the hard way." With her other hand, she rests a painted pink nail on the cigarette case and slides it towards herself and away from the baroness. "Control, as in 'controlling your urges'?" She teases Quintessa with a coy smile. The smile fades soon enough as she asks. "I suppose the 'problem' you mentioned would require me getting better control of my 'friends', then?"

Quintessa would have smiled deviously at Magik when he spoke of appreciating her pursuit of knowledge were she not concerned with a certain ghoul and her penchant for devouring married men. "I found out about an art known as Bardic Necromancy." She reaches into her satchel to pull out a thick, ancient tomb bound by what looked to be the flesh of some humanoid race. "Der Pfeifer der Verbotenen Künste." She says, reciting the foreign language skillfully. "It's about a piper who could twist the minds of vermin and undead. They say he would allow an army of rats to destroy entire hamlets before raising the deceased as zombies who danced to his whim. There are a few songs in here- dirges and hymens, but I'm afraid such knowledge is reserved for the Necromancer's Guild." Quintessa wasn't afraid of sharing this knowledge, this was just bait to draw Kanna in. "However, if you were to join as a Novus Morior I could just allow you inside the Black Library whenever you please." She grins at the bard, flashing her shark-like teeth at her. "Once you can command your own creations, that is. You have to learn to impose your will upon them. Without this... sense of dominance, you'll never be able to muster the backbone needed to wield the Dark Arts."

Magik could have stopped massaging Kanna's hand moments ago but was fully immersed in what Quintessa had to say. Rats? Please no. He had a sudden flashback as he listened carefully. A crown of rats? What the hell? Maybe he was remembering a forgotten dream all of a sudden. Odd. Having nothing to really add to the conversation at the moment he quickly realizes he still had Kanna's hand in his, "That'll do it." Well. She did have two hands but..Ya know.

Kanna is immediately taken with Quintessa's retelling of the story, her hand going limp in Magik's hand as they both listen to the changeling. "Interesting. I've never heard of a tale like that before and I've heard, well..." Her free hand motions to the stack of tiny journals she's stacked neatly at the center of the table. "...every forklore there is to hear." She eyes the book, then Quintessa. "I've been in a guild before, and found it to be just as dreadfully boring as being alone. I suppose if it means spending more time with you, I could give it a shot, though." Quintessa's last words seem to hit a nerve somewhere. "I think I can be plenty dominant." The bardess quips as her hand is released. Her attention turns back to Magik for a moment. "Oh, thank you dear. I'm sorry I could barely feel your touch, but I'll be sure to return the favor, if you'll let me." Her voice is lowered in pitch just a tad as she leans over to the elf, keeping her sapphire eyes locked with Quintessa. Kanna's hand rests against Magik's arm, and there's a bang from under the table. The smile on Kanna's face only grows wider as she draws back her chair and examines a new dent on her leg. "Touchy, touchy."

Quintessa gives Kanna a knowing smile and tilt of her head to indicate that this particular elf was off the menu should her kick not do the job. "I'm not surprised you've never heard the tragedy of Pfeifer der Verbotenen Künste. It's not a story the bards would have told you. He had such vast bardic knowledge that he could even keep the ones he cared about from dying. The Dark Arts offer a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural. He became so powerful... the only thing he was afraid of was losing his power, which eventually, of course, he did. But he had apprentices who he taught his skills and his songs. Tales have even come out of Kelay of a Rat King that could command vermin as he had, but those stories have been chalked up to urban legend." She offered the book to Kanna. "If you promise to aid my guild I will allow you to read the songs in this book to experiment with before I test your abilities." She smiles softly at the ghoulish woman. "I trust you, Kanna."

Magik idly laid a hand on Kanna's for a second as she placed it on his arm. Tessa was quite the story teller! After Kanna's unnecessary apology and offer he casts her a sly smirk as he pats her hand. As his mouth opens to accept that offer, the quick vibration of Tessa's kick caused Magik to remove his hand and cross his arms. Although he wouldn't mind Kanna's hand still there. With Tessa gaining his focus once again, he adds onto the tidbit about the rat plague that he was a huge part of unbeknownst to basically everyone including himself, "Aye. I heard that fermin was trying to bring back his dead wife..or something along those lines. Some powerful mage, or whatever. Those bunches of rats that intertwined in groups of six hundred and sixty six were gifts to try and pull her spirit back to the lands. Ratkings, they are called. What a mess." He quickly looks to Kanna, "Please don't involve rats again.." He chuckled.

Kanna juts her lip out at Quintessa's pointed look. "I have little interest in vermin. Especially that many of them at once." With a tilt of the head, she adds, "Really, I would have preferred lighter stories, like those of the olden sky dragons." There's a stretch of silence as she looks at the tome, as if trying to decide whether to take up Quintessa's offer. "Necromancers deal a lot with undeath. Have you ever heard of a mage turning an undead back into a living person?" Regardless of the answer, she gives her head a small shake and rests a cold hand on Quintessa's own. "Aiding your guild is the least I can do in return for your hospitality, love." With a tilt of her head, she looks back at Magik. "Are you a necromancer too?"

Quintessa is impressed with Magik's recalling of that strange time. "Yes, six hundred and sixty six. This number seems to have mystic properties, bolstering black magic and amplifying the effects necromantic spells have. I did not know that the laymen understood the significance of the number, but no matter. The time of the Rat-Kings is at long last ended. For now, at least. Should we see the return of such a plague we must all be wary." Quintessa's eyes flicker over to Kanna and she can't help but smile coyly. Oh, Kanna, my sweet summer child, even as a man-eating monster she was still irresistibly adorable and innocent. "Which 'olden sky dragons' my dear? The ones that were cursed to become drakes and wyverns for sharing the secret of elemental magic with the terrestrial races or the Great Sky Dragons of Kendov-Kest who fought against the first Avian Empire in the war that saw the majority of both races dead by the end?" Quintessa didn't know any nice stories, it seemed. "Glad to hear that, I'll fill out the application for you later." The changeling took this opportunity to crack her bottle of bubbly and pour the pink liquid into the three glasses. The cigarettes Kanna had moved away from her would remain ignored.

Magik shrugs his shoulders, "Perhaps the fermin was hoping the smell of 666 dead rats grouped together and spread about everywhere would be good enough to draw his wife from death. Others hypothesized that the rats gathered exactly where they were meant to so they could draw power from one of the moons as well mixed with the rising spirits of the rats, etc etc..Lithrydel may have just been a random occurrence seeing as how the moonlight reflects off the lands on clear nights. But, what do I know? I just helped clean up whenever I could." Alas, he finally responds to Kanna. He unfolds one arm to summon a black dancing flame in his hand, "Oh. No, dear. Pyro is my specialty." He tucks his arms back in as he brings a foot up to rest on his knee, quite possibly leaning towards Kanna just a tiny bit.

Kanna gives a hum at Quintessa’s summary of dragon-based lore. “My personal favorite would be the tale of two dragons that touched the earth for the first time only to die by shielding the humans from a disaster of their own making. I consider that fairly lighthearted given it was at least somewhat bittersweet since love was the dominating element instead of power for once.” A glance is given to the fizzy drink. “Think that’s safe for me to drink? I can barely eat anything that isn’t flesh.” The bardess takes a glass and looks it over. “That must have been terrible for fermin king. To go through all that work just to bring back the one person you love. I wonder if he got his wish.” At the introduction of the black fire, Kanna’s eyes seem to light back up. “A pyromancer! How dangerous. But then again, I’ve always liked playing with fire.” She smirks up at the elf. “At least, I think I did while I was human.” A curious expression crosses her face before she takes a sip of the bubbly. “Hey, I can taste this!” The bard says excitedly, looking from the elf to the changeling. “What is this?”

Quintessa lifts a glass of the avian-blood based drink and watches how the bubbles move the blood around. "If you can drink elven blood-wine I see no reason why avian-blood wine would be any different. The bubbles? They just add a little fun." She passes the glass over to her and picks up a second for herself. Avian blood would taste similar to elven blood, just a sweeter flavor. "I like bittersweet stories the best, I think. I read lots of books when I was a young lass, but the stories about love always captivated me. most." Quintessa takes a sip before continuing. "You might find this funny, but when I was twelve I used to dream of becoming a swordsman like in my novels. I would sneak out and swing a stick around, pretending that I was slaying dragons and barbarian lords and such, rescuing damsels and winning the hearts of princesses." Quintessa's mind flashes back to the embarrassing letter she wrote the other night and she laughs to spite herself. "You must think I'm very silly." Quintessa would leave the third glass on the platter to fizzle. She knew Magikrios wouldn't be interested in it.

Kanna downs the remainder of the glass. “Avian blood, huh? Never had this before.” Magik slides his glass back over to the girls with an utterance for her to help herself. One of the undead butlers shuffles back into the room on some unspoken command, bringing him a platter of thinly sliced fish. “You’re a dear.” Kanna coos, brushing her shoulder into his arm with a coy hum before taking the glass. Quintessa’s story is given a listen, and Kanna leans on the opposite end of the chair, towards the changeling. “I don’t think that’s silly at all.” Her expression turns serious. “Given all the homework you’ve done about me, I’m sure you know that I spent most of my formative years sleeping in libraries after dark. Stories of finding true love and a knight to whisk you away from your woes always held dear to my heart.” With a wink, a smile curls up on her lips. “Maybe when I’m human again, I can be your damsel.”

Quintessa allows the drink in her hand to slowly drift away from her light pink lips as eyes of ice blue and golden hazel got lost in Kanna's endless field of summer cornflowers. Her beauty could not be denied and the bard's ghoulish form only enticed the deviant changeling even more. Had Kanna's flirtations come a month prior Quintessa would have likely given in to her lust, but emotions for her younger sister tugged at the hex blade's heartstrings, urging her to look away. "We should have had this conversation in the Nameless Desert." Quintessa says back, her voice almost as soft as a whisper. "Back when you were human..." The changeling idly drags a finger across her bottom lip as she imagines how soft Kanna's must be. Quintessa wants to lean closer, to kiss her, but she pulls herself away as if surfacing icy waters for air. "We will just have to see where fate leads us."

Magik doesn't hesitate to grab a piece of fish, "Oh. Sashimi." He smiles delightfully as he chews on his snack. The undead servant would get a slight nod as a sign of thanks. Magik then pats at his pants pockets in search of a flask that he was almost sure he didn't have but it never hurt to check. Oh well. More sashimi. He lightly bounces his head side to side as he enjoys his delicious snack. The words exchanged between the two would mostly go unnoticed as he tries to think of a good wine that would pair with this particular fish. Not wanting to be a complete glutton, he rests his arm around the back of Kanna's chair. Ah. Ultimate comfort. However, he catches sight of Quintessa's lust in his own moment of ecstasy. Without hesitation, he uses his long legged advantage to kick at Tessa's chair but blames it on a bug bite as he scratches at his leg, "Oops." Should Tessa meet his gaze she would receive a look. 'That' look. Ya know what I mean?

Kanna sips on the fizzy blood, averting her eyes when Quintessa does. As much as she loves to flirt with the pair, there was little to be done to sate her craving to do so much as to hold hands with someone again. The thought of holding hands triggers an image that makes her brows twitch in confusion. Hard bread with sliced sausages, coated in winterberry jam and a drizzle of snowbee honey with a pot of tea in the snow. The meal would have sounded delicious if she were human. Another pang of hunger strikes her, despite her having just eaten the day before. “The Nameless Desert…” She echoes. Despite her lack of sense to touch, the bard is aware that something shifts around the back of her chair, and she instinctively leans into it, her curls spilling over Magik’s arm. A nail taps against the glass, and she pipes up. “Did you ever get to collect the bounty you wanted?”

Quintessa returns the looks Magik gave her, silently thanking him for saving her from messing things up with Karasu before they began. Damnit, Kanna was a better seductress than she was! The changeling quickly drains her glass, choking a bit as Kanna asks if she ever collected the bounty. "Uh, what do you mean," Quintessa returns her glass to the platter with a click. "You took my research journal and the trail went cold. Ranok, if he is indeed a real person and not some fairytale, is still out there and so is my 100,000 gold piece bounty. That failed mission set me back months in my plans to build my castle."

Magik twitches his eye at Tessa as a sort of half wink as a sign of 'I gotchu boo'. With his draped arm over the back of Kanna's chair he points a finger to the air, "Ranok is indeed a real person. I can guarantee you that."

Kanna gives Quintessa a blank stare as she wracks her brain for information. “-I- have a research journal? From when we went out there?” Magik interjects and Kanna nods. “Yes, he’s real, Ranok is how I got my absolute angel of a wolf. I was going to…” The bard trails off, setting the glass down on the table. “We went out there to find him because he’s missing.” She states the obvious slowly, as if trying to recall. Kanna was looking for the bounty, of course. Whether the smith was found alive or not was of little import… right? “I will look in my stash spots to see if I have it. I’m so sorry I delayed you.” The songstress lowers her head slightly.

Quintessa doesn't quite believe either of them, "Yes, but where is the evidence? Until I see him or his corpse I'd regard the man as a myth." On the outside Quintessa was put off, but on the inside her mind began to wickedly plot once more. Of course! Kanna and Magik would not lie to her about this, which meant that the Opus Ferri et Arcana -does- exist and was out there waiting for her to collect. "Do not fret, my darkling," Quintessa says to Kanna, placing a hand on her back to console her. "We will search together... your mind... It's fragmenting. I mustn't let you out of my sight until I figure out how to correct it."

Magik arches a brow at the changeling, "Evidence? Me. Because what leverage do I gain lying to you about the existence of such a random fellow? And Kanna too." He laughs but he's a tad offended to be honest here for a second. Oh. More sashimi. He reaches over with his draped arm then leans behind Kanna to put another piece in his mouth. Boy, he's just getting closer and closer, eh? He does keep his manners. He returns to his prior position to chew on his tasty treat.

Quintessa continues to watch over Kanna as her hand rests on her back, the changeling's brow furrowing in concern. "I suppose you are right," Quintessa says to Magik. "But perhaps you only -believe- he's real. Maybe your memories are just as fragmented as poor Kanna's." Was Quintessa gas lighting them?

Magik eyed Tessa, "No. I'm absolutely sure that he's real. Maybe you aren't real.." Magik moves his hand to squeeze Tessa's arm. Oh. Why did this feel so right? He positions his head to get a better look at Tessa's mismatched eyes as he stares deep into them. The elf's eyes flicker brightly. How could he be so blind this whole time? The Lyastri bites at his bottom lip. Oh how he wanted to push Kanna out of the way and taste the changeling's lips as he moves his hand up her arm closer to her shoulder. But he stops. It was too much. He releases her arm and immediately turns a middle finger to his clanmate. A quick pat on the head and he retracts his arm.

Kanna holds her head in her hands, oblivious to the brief moment of tension between the clanmates. "Oh, Tessie. Did I imagine it all? I'm sure Ranok is real. We... we shared a..." Ah, best not discuss that out loud. "Why does it feel like I'm forgetting something important, then?!" She sits up as Magik pulls back and her eyes dilate from the proximity. She leans into him as he pulls back, looking at him with familiar hungry eyes. "How do I know -you're- real?" She says softly, unsure whether she wanted to kiss him or eat him.

Quintessa feels the strong hand of the Lyastri on her arm and her blue and hazel eyes glimmer softly in the mystic glow of her war room. "T-this moment is real, at least..." she utters timidly, her mind thinking back to the night they both spoke on the clan HQ floor. He had spoken about being lonely and for a moment Quintessa wanted to take his loneliness away. Steal his pain and his longing like a thief in the night. Wasn't that what she was? A dirty thief? Perhaps it was the fact that he was married that made him so alluring... But Quintessa stops; She could not allow herself to sully another relationship with a teacher like this. Luckily, Magik feels the same and promptly pops her the bird. Quintessa smiles at him, knowing this is the right choice. "Ass," she says to him, keeping her impure thoughts hidden with the insult, though the mirth of such a jest is quickly dismissed by her concern for Kanna. "My dear, you mustn't focus on existential questions. What's important is that you are safe." Her hand moves up to stroke Kanna's hair, and the necromancer allows an aura of negative energy to swirl around the woman's head. Her 'calm undead' spell was a mere cantrip but it still might work. "I swear to you, I will figure out what's wrong- why you keep forgetting things. I'm going to take care of you."

Magik thought about fading his form out and in repeatedly with the smoke trick he does just to mess with Kanna as she leans in but seeing Quintessa genuinely concerned for the ghoul pushed that idea to the side immediately. He does fade out and in with the smoke but to position himself leaning against the table present, "You have more people looking out for you than you realize, Kanna."

Kanna sways slightly as the cantrip takes hold on the bardess, unbeknownst to her. Magik's movement away from the bardess goes unnoticed as she thinks of a response to Quintessa. She had not even realized that she had been forgetting things to this point. "Yes, I know I am safe. Here with you and Magik... And Amante, and that adorable dragon boy." Kanna smiles, the hunger pangs passing. She downs the last of the Avian blood-wine and rises to her feet. "I should go look to see which bank or library I hid that journal in." Her eyes widen slightly. "Didn't we go out just before Samhain? It could be... in the cabin where I was turned."

Quintessa remembers the last Samhain and the stories that came from that party. The changeling would have come to the party but extensive training with Kasyr had kept her in Vailkrin. "The derelict cabin." Quintessa slowly says, remembering searching for clues there once but never thinking to look for her research notebook. "As hesitant as I am to return to Xalious, it seems we have our first lead. We should prepare ourselves and leave in the morning."

Magik makes his way towards the door on that note, "If you need me in the morning, Tessa, I'll be back at the council hall. There's something I need to wrap up there. Kanna, I'll make it a point to swing by more often for some classes to help you with your 'control' problem and to help with those stiff muscles." The Lyastri offered them both a nod before heading out of the mansion.