Naveen

I took her hands and pressed my thumbs into the center of her palms. "My magic isn't like yours. You can draw your energy from around you and do a multitude of things. My magic comes from the moon, and I must use runes to achieve anything." I removed my thumbs and on the center of her palms were two small circular runes with dots in the center. "Those should help you draw out power and focus it to those points."

Maleen:

I took my hands back and rubbed at the marks on my hands. “For how long?” I asked quietly.

"How long what? Will the marks stay? Until you wash them off with alcohol. How long will you need to practice? All of your life until you decide you no longer wish to do magic." I said and spread my hands, runes came and seemed to rise to the surface of my skin, swirling and changing with other runes. I let my hands fall and the runes faded away.

Maleen:

A smile curled my lips. “I’ll be learning forever I guess. There will always be something I don’t know.” I fidgeted with my hands. “How old are you?” I asked shyly.

"643 years old." I said quietly. I spread my hands a bit and shrugged. "We age differently than humans, or witches I think. I have never met someone like you before so I am not sure how you age. This adventure has been interesting. I got to meet an Angel, a Witch...and Talon has started to fall for someone."

Maleen:

I blinked in surprise at his age. I would probably live to be many times older, but it still seemed odd to me as I had only lived for sixteen years myself. My eyes went wide when he said ‘angel’. “What?” I gasped. No one else could know. I thought only Rina and myself knew. No one else could be trusted. Rina didn’t fully understand because she was human how special Wren was. I felt icy cold as I stared at him in horror.

Calan:

I took in her expression and growing horror as she processed my words. "Maleen, calm down okay? The only person I serve is my lord. And unless he asks I have no reason to tell him." I clasped my hands together in front of me. "Yes, Wren is an angel. From your expression you knew and tried to hide it. I can feel the power radiating from her, that isn't something that you can easily hide from someone who can use magic. All of the soldiers under Talon can at the very least feel that she is special. What they can find out beyond that I am not sure. I am the only warrior mage he has, so you have that." I looked down at the ground than back up at her. "What really told me what she was though is..." I sighed softly, "You do know her wings are starting to come out right?"

I pointed towards the direction Wren was, she had stopped to kneel next to some flowers, her back bent over as she smelled them. The tunic she wore was stretched tight across her back, small protrudes seeming to exist under the tunic. To those who suspected nothing it might just look like her shoulder blades were sticking out a bit, but in fact...they were the start of her wings coming out.

Maleen:

I looked toward her and my stomach sank. “What do we do? How can we hide that?” I whispered. I was trusting of him, what he said, I believed him.

"Thicket clothing for one. Stop having her look so much like a girl. I'm sure that they would be easier to hide if they were fully grown but...since they aren't there really isn't much we can do. Maybe change out the tunic for a leather vest. The leather will help hide it better than simple cloth."

Maleen:

I made a face. “Are you saying we should dress her like a boy?” I asked. It seemed a shame to cover up such beauty like that.

"Well, do you have a better idea?" I asked, with a raised eyebrow. "Why the face?"

Maleen:

“Because she’s not a boy…” I mumbled. “Do you have clothes for her?” I asked, looking at him sideways.

"I'm afraid I don't. It might be a good idea to ask Rina about it. She is a smart lass, between you and her I'm sure you can come up with something to help your friend. It is a shame to hide her body, Wren is good looking. A lot of the men talk about that, on both sides of the racial line." I said, just kind of testing the waters with that comment.

Maleen:

I shifted uncomfortably. “Maybe it’ll be good to dress her up as a boy then…” I said quietly.

"Hm. I can't figure you out, you seem to really care for Wren, and go out of your way to try and protect her. But Maleen, Wren cares about you. She came to me, wanting to know if I could teach her how to fight or use magic. I haven't the faintest clue on how to teach her about magic. And it isn't my place to teach her how to fight with weapons. But when I asked why she wanted to learn, she said 'I don't want to have Maleen worry about me. She has helped me a lot, and I just want to make sure she is happy and safe.'" I kept my eyes on Maleen's face, to gauge her reaction.

Maleen:

“We’ve been together every day since we found her. Of course we care about each other and want to protect each other. We’re as close as sisters…” I said quietly. “Rina taught us a little about how to defend ourselves.” I swished my skirt a little, uncomfortable with this conversation.

"Ah. That's good then. She is already attracting attention." I said pointing to where Wren was talking cheerfully to one of the human soldiers.

Maleen:

I looked up at him trying to read his face then I moved toward Wren. I walked up to her and looped both my arms around hers. “What are you doing?” I asked her softly, looking at the soldier she as talking to.

Wren:

I smiled at Maleen, "Talking to...." I trailed off then looked at the guy. He supplied his name with a greasy smile, "Eligor. But please, the two of you can call me Eli."

Maleen:

I gave a half artificial smile. ‘I need to talk to you and we need to find Rina.’ I told Wren in an under tone.

"Oh okay. By Eli, gotta go." I said to him then turned to Maleen, ignoring the man now. I would much rather spend time with her anyway. But I wanted to be nice to the man too.

Maleen:

I tugged her along. “Did you know you’re wings are coming out?” I whispered close to her ear as we walked. “I was talking to Calan, he thinks you need to dress differently so as to hide them.”

I blinked and tried to look at my back while we were walking. "They are?" I asked in an excited voice.

Maleen:

I gave her a mildly disapproving look and shook my head to tell her to stop. “You don’t want anyone to notice. It could get bad if someone that we can’t trusts finds out…” I murmured worriedly.

"But why?" I asked feeling a bit confused.