2 Chirreb 4385: Intelligence!

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

I wanted to go inside to do their feathers but the others complained there wasn't enough room for everyone so I said I'd do one at a time but I don't think the ulgrane wanted to be split up on a strange ship and the other Primes didn't really want even one ulgrane inside the ship.

"But I can't work out here," I complained. "There's too much wind."

"This problem I can solve, Joy," Chain Lightning said. "Behold: Shelter of Wind." That put a big bubble made of swirling air spirits visible only to magic sight around us. They blocked the wind completely and would've stopped rain or snow I think, and maybe deflected arrows a bit too.

So I sat on the Charger'sdeck next to Chain Lightning while he lay on his back with his his left wing spread for me to get started. I have to say that as much as I like furstyling, I love doing wings even more. They're so big and flat that it's like painting on a canvas. It was easier to work while Flying Like a Bird too because then when I had to do the middle I could just hover over his wing instead of having to find ways get to it without stepping on him. "Now, what's this about bandits?" he asked.

I explained as I worked while the Ulgrane gathered around to watch and listen. Purrzhon lolled on his side with his head upside down and his tailtip twitching, throwing in a few corrections here and there. Nightbloom and Trust went back inside the ship. Mirhandrax watched quietly.

Chain Lightning clicked his beak when I finished. "We have heard of them. A year or two ago, the Mewellicaps made certain incursions in our territory. We chased them out and considered eradicating them, but after they acquired some Prime allies our Council ruled we would leave them be as long as they did not trespass again, as they were not worth causing trouble with Ulmarn. But you are saying that though they have Prime allies in Ulmarn they are not, in truth, allied with Ulmarn?"

Purrzhon snorted. "If they are in the employ of the Duke of Ulmarn, I think twice before I hire adventurers to attack them, rrai!"

I noticed that wasn't exactly a yes-or-no answer. Mirhandrax must have noticed that too because he asked, "Do you have any reason to think they might be working for the Duke of Ulrmarn? Either of you?"

Chain Lightning said, "They are Primes and they are in Ulmarn? We thought all of you Primes worked together."

Purrzhon thumped his tail against the deck. "No. The Duke of Ulmarn does not make the alliance with monsters, and he does not hire the bandits to terrorize his Mene. If he wants his Mene terrorized he sends the uniformed Guard to do it and they say 'In the name of the Duke, we demand thus-and-such. Comply or face the Duke's wrath in the person of our many and sharp swords.' These robbers make their demands in their own names, and their wrath too."

The Ulgrane listened to this with great interest. "I did not realize Primes fought other Primes. Outside of those duel-wars," Chain Lightning said.

I felt sort of embarrassed then, like my people weren't living up to our reputation. "It doesn't happen very often."

"It happens the more often than you think." Purrzhon kneaded his claws against the deck, making little pockmarks in the wood.

"Soooo ... did you know anything else about them? That might be true?" I asked in an effort to get the conversation back on track.

"The Mewellicaps moved into an abandoned bolthole Ulgrane once kept in the Hanorill Snag. I heard they were doing some work on it after the Primes moved in, on behalf of the non-flyers."

Purrzhon's ears perked. "How long ago do the Ulgrane stop using it as the hideout? Do you know its layout?"

"And why did you abandon it?" Mirhandrax asked.

Chain Lightning fidgeted. I told him, "Stop that you'll mess up my line work."

He held very still. "It was not precisely our hideout. It belonged to a different flock. And a generation ago. And ... they abandoned it because it was a raiding bolthole and they'd stopped raiding."

"So it was used to store spoils?"

"Er. One might say that."

Mirhandrax gave him a look. One of the girl Ulgrane, Windchime, drummed the talons of one mid-leg against the deck. "They held prisoners there, before ransoming them back or selling them as slaves," she said. "Half of the flock got killed during a raid, oh, twenty years ago? We annexed the other half. They gave up raiding then, since, for one thing, we don't raid, and for another, the survivors were mostly the ones who didn't raid themselves, either."

"The survivors -- there are some of them still alive, yes? They know the layout of the lair, or what the layout is when they are using it?" Purrzhon asked.

"Can we talk to them?" I added.

The ulgrane exchanged glances amongst themselves. Chain Lightning said, "Let us be clear. You are not going to accuse them of slave-trading or assault them for having associated with former raiders? This was twenty years ago. And as Windchime said, most of those who survived were not raiders at all, but only their hatchlings and spouses."

"I am not the caring about the crimes of the Ulgrane twenty years ago. I am the caring about the crimes of the Mewellicaps two days ago. Vrai, we are not making the trouble for any Ulgrane who are helping us to catch the Mewellicap bandits or their Prime allies."

The ulgrane looked at each other again. A boy Ulgrane, Summer Sun, shook out his wings and sighed. "Sure, I can tell you what the layout was. I was just a hatchling then, mind you. And I better be getting my wings painted for this."

Comments

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

Well, nice to see your services are in demand. ^_^ Do you need materials like paint or dyes or is that part of the magic you're doing?

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

On the other hand, if the Ulgrane had gone and attacked the 'caps and their prime allies, the Duke of Ulmarn might have been called on to defend primes against the evil evil raiding Ulgrane.

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

Haaayyyy Deliiighht! Glad you are getting on so well with the nonprimes, AND the Primes near you aren't freaked out! Anyway, I thought you might want to read up on the latest Sythyry stuff, especially that question-and-answer session with hCevian, that gives lots of insights into the way "Here" probably thinks, seeing as how, apparently (!), they are the same species.

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

Ohhh yeaaa! That discussion also gives an example of WEIRD MATH that a) my culture knows of, b) locador demons know of, and c) primes do not know of!

...Although I'm not sure if you can ACTUALLY access that particular set of conversations. Tell me if you can or not, please?