The High Church of Esdar

"A council huh? I'd love to meet them all someday..."

As the banquet seemed to have been overtaken by an awkward silence, Jun decided to make some more small talk with some of the natives, but not before recalling her little friend. "Psst! Psst!" The crow stopped bothering the priest and jumped onto Jun's shoulder, where she fed it a scrap of meat.

Suddenly thinking about her companion, she asks, "I have a dumb question. Do your kind ride flying mounts, or do you exclusively rely on your wings?"

The priest laughed softly at Asadobres' words, and then his hands drew away from her back as the magic faded. The burns and the poison which had caused them were gone from her body, and she should feel much better.

"There we are, Lady Hero. I removed the poison and healed as much of the damage as I could, but your body will need time to heal up the rest on its own. You're welcome to remain with us for as long as that may take, or even after - Esdara is indebted to you, and we would be greatly honored to have any of our Heroes remain with us."

He stood and bowed, then moved toward the door, pausing to look at the two of them once more.

"Oh, I almost forgot. Would you like a meal sent up here, or do you wish me to lead you down to the dining hall?"

----

The priests near Jun seemed amused by Blackbean's antics, and a priestess was even offering him morsels of food. Whether this was because he was winged or because he was with Jun was up for debate. One of the priests heard Jun's question and decided to be the one to tackle the answer.

"Well Lady Hero, as you can see, wings are quite rare among us. They're seen as a sign of being exceptionally holy, touched by the Winged One's grace. Those who have them generally don't fly unless it's a matter requiring expediency, as it's.. rather unseemly, using such holy appendages for mundane purposes. Not to mention, 'flying mounts' as you call them are exceptionally rare. There are the zanora, which are the companions of our military forces, the sokeli, who are the protected creatures of the Winged Blade, and the nimuar, which are protected by the Winged Crown. The zanora are very particular, they don't like anyone but the military and their caretakers coming up to their eyries, but perhaps you could request permission to see them, as well as the sokeli and nimuar, if you're interested?"

Asadobres stood and spun around, her dress twirling with her. She giggled lightly as she did, doing her best to look at the back of her wings. Content, she made her wings fold to her body and disappear. She looked bright and happy at Leiron and Priest.

"Of course. This way, if you would please, Lord and Lady Hero."

The priest bowed and led the way out of the room, down the stairs, and through hallways, eventually bringing them to the dining hall after several minutes. He left them there with assurances that they had but to ask for anything they needed or desired, and it would be retrieved if at all possible. Then he was gone.

Asadobres sat beside him, a smile on her face.

Leiron looked at Jun, coming in on the tail end of the conversation. With a smirk, he spoke, "I can teach you to fight in the sky. I imagine that bird will be a bit different from Asa, but all in all the basics are the same." He placed his hand on his chin  and peered upward in thought, "Though, these people seem to fly birds... They may prove better teachers than a Dragon Rider, in your case... Either way, 'irlymi loreat de wer svant janik.'"

The Dwarf's spirits were increasing each moment. The music was the sort of light stuff that knife ears or the feebler humans he'd enjoyed but it was soothing after his arguments. The dances were  wholly not his thing owever,  for they included no shield banging, no axe throwing, no bottle smashing and subsequent stabbing, so he bothered not to watch. Praising them a little more in his book, he emptied another wine bottle before lighting up a pipe. He would take a few pulls and give a flaming burp before mumbling something along the lines of "oh my" to himself. Finally leaning back he took ajother, this time quite massive pull from his pipe, ouff his cheeks and blow it out to just so, making a little skull in the air. Waiting a second, he would blow a little more smoke from his nose to change the skull into a bearded face; a Dwarf's head. He wondered if they had actually known of Dwarves from old scripture or just said that to make them look clever. Either way, a fine if devious move. Deciding this was one of the few times he was "safe" he got to cleaning his gear and armour. He would stop embarrassed for a moment, as he scraped someone's face off of his boot but then continued humming, first switching tunes but finally deciding to settle on an old one back from his days in a proper regiment. "Got to go legitimate..." He thought to himself, his face appearing angry everywhere but the grin.