A New Resident.

**Claudia never slept. This was a common factor. When bored, she would find herself wondering around the corridors observing the way the Castle was organized and run. Her favorite past time was the dimly lit library and she had spent days, weeks, months studying the old arcane texts.

On this dark eve she was not going to her usual place, instead as she glided silently through the halls she made her way to Damyn's office. With one hand, she knocked on the heavy wood door, with the other she held a jar - containing one small and sleeping auroran fae. As she awaited his reply, Claudia quickly concealed the jar under her long gown and tied it to her belt.**

=The door opens inward silently, allowing entrance into the spacious rooms. Braziers sat in the corners at cardinal points of the compass, lit with the ghostly white spirit-fire Damyn conjured. The floor was graven with runes and protective spells placed there by Damyn. The room was bare but for a waist-high stone slab, also graven, sitting towards the Northern end of the room, dark with the stains of blood and other things, resembling nothing more than an altar. A bone pedestal sat near it, holding an open book.

Damyn himself stood behind the stone, one pale hand resting on the book, the other hidden in the shadow of the wide sleeve of his black robes. His face was hidden in deep shadow, and the black pit of the cowl of his robes faced the open door expectantly.=

**Claudia moved into the room without a sound. Her eyes moved to drink the sights of what was within. Only her mind conveyed her thoughts, speaking to the Master Necromancer without moving her sweet and pale lips. She mind linked him, her voice a torrent of high pitched screams.

"Someone new has come to live here." Claudia was about to continue when she noticed one of the runes that appeared upside down. She calmly keeled down to the floor and turned it around with her delicate pale white hand and then stood up again.

Moving some of her gown, she pulled the jar with the sleeping fae. "Can HE stay?" She whispered through his mind, her eyes wide and her head tilted. **

=Damyn closes the book with a small gesture of his fingers and steps around the altar stone. As she alters his rune, he waits, and when she is done, he lifts a hand, concentrating a moment so the runes all over the room were slightly glowing. He gestures and returns the rune to it's original orientation with a small twist of force.

"You will see, that if you transpose that element from the rest of the sequence, it weakens the basis of the entirety. You are learning quickly, but you must adapt the usual figures to your need, as such." His voice echoed back, undercut with whispers and mutterings. He allowed to runes to glow a moment longer so she could see the complex interplay and the alterations to the commonly accepted forms that had been made to strengthen the spell.

gesturing again, he cut off the glow as she retrieved the fae. He pondered the jar a moment. "A dark fae." he gestured idly. "Wake it, so that we may speak."=

**Claudia watched the runes as they transformed. She contemplated his words and came to the conclusion that he was right, she should not accept things in the order that they insist on being placed on. It was a lesson well learnt and the small curves of her lips almost smiled, almost.

Her hand held up the jar more closely to her face and she flickered the jar with her finger. The fae did not move and this caused a little frown. She tilted her head some more, then said to Damyn "He claims to be here on behalf of his Mistress - yet he will not say who she is. Can you make him?" **

=Damyn turns and makes his way back to the stone, gesturing her forward. "Release him."=

**Claudia without hesitation unscrewed the lid from the glass jar and turned it upside down. She gave it a little shake with her palm upturned in front of it, waiting for the little man to come out. "Come on..." she said, shaking the jar a little more vigorously. **

~ The tiny figure raises its head, the silver bells on its head dress not making any sound as he cocks his head in mild confusion and annoyance, the mask making his face impossible to read as he stands and stretches within the glass. His eyes span the room slowly, noting the trappings of magic and the presence of the death mage. With a flurry of ice and smoke the jar empties, standing on a nearby table the little fae gives an overly dramatic bow before standing and locking his gaze on Damyn. The voice goes straight into Damyn's mind, rather than through actual sound.~

" You are the temporary master here...a pleasure sir. I am here on my mistress's business, which for the moment concerns only these two...your part will come later."

=Damyn stands before the table as the fae bows, silently watching the little man for a long moment in silence before giving a short bow of his head.

"Welcome friend, and welcome to your mistress as well, should she so choose." He gestures vaguely around him. "Be welcome to our home, though." He looks to Claudia. "See to it that our guest is treated to all due courtesies."=

**Claudia nods her head slowly to Damyn and turned her gaze on the fae and . She found him a fascinating character and adored him. Her arm came up with the empty glass jar and she pointed for him to get into it. "You'll be safe in there.." **

~ The tiny fae's head cocks to one side as Claudia motions to the jar. With a swirl of smoke and snow the little figure appears before Damyn in much larger form, standing nearly six feet in height. In his hand rests the glass jar, inside the jar sits Claudia.

He speaks to Claudia in her mind:" I did not enjoy my last stay in the jar, perhaps an evening there for you will improve your understanding of hospitality."

**Claudia blinked and looked around her. Her pale hands touched the large glass jar that she had now become a prisoner in. She scowled and opened her mouth, screeching a thousand screams but it only resonated in the little jar. Sitting down on the clear glass bottom, she sighed heavily and pouted as she crossed her arms.

ML's Xavier: "I knew that fae was trouble. I'm trapped...in a jar. Come and get me..."

She looked to Damyn for help in the hope that he might do something more immediate to the insolent fae.**

=Marcus was passing the room, an arcane book of the dead resting underneath his arm. He was lost in contemplation and deep thought, when the high pitched squeak of a thousand screams caught his attention. Stopping abruptly outside the large wooden door, he rapped his knuckles against it to alert those within that he was entering.

Not waiting to see if someone was about to reply, he stopped in the door way. "Evening....I heard....something...strange." Marcus eyed up the new stranger with with suspicion. "Do I know you?" Then he raised an eyebrow, spotting Claudia jumping up and down inside the Jar.

"What is going on here? Claudia??" He turned from the Jar and looked at both Damyn and Wintershadow. "An explanation is needed. Hand her over." He walked towards the stranger and the Jar, mindlinking her "Don't worry..."=

=Damyn looks to Marcus. "I would not recommend that course of action, priest. Claudia is making friends." The cowl of his robe turns towards Wintershadow. "Welcome, again. Do see to it that my students remain relatively intact, otherwise I shall be very put out, and your mistress all the poorer for a lost servant."=

~ Wintershadow eyes the preist warily, the cold mask of his face turning toward the new comer. His hand drops to the slender blade at his hip, and the bells on his hat fall silent. As Damyn speaks he keeps his eyes on the boy~

ML: " I would take more care necromancer with your words, my mistress is not one to take kindly to idle threats, and your magics only hold power over those who are dead or who can die. I am neither. As for your student, I accept this gift as a show of your good hospitality and will be most pleased to send word to the Lady of your generosity."