Candlehold

First bell, Twelfth Wick, Fourthmonth 5. Outside Candlehold.

Your palms are on the wall. Stacked lamp-glass, bound with living wick-vine, finished all the way to the corners—and the rampart comes only to your chest. From the lamp-path inside, those five fingers lie over the glass like mountain ranges. Your head takes the morning sky.

On the path, light-green wings are spilled against the stone. Miri Solace never got a word out. The composure she had been wearing flared, dropped, froze; she shook hard enough to endanger a wing, and then she went down. She does not get up.

Brenna Kael holds the wall. The spear in her hands cannot reach the eye it is aimed at. She knows it. She aims it anyway.

Brenna Kael: "Monster—!"

The cry splits. She regrips, shoulders locking, voice clipping into the only size she has.

Brenna Kael: "Unidentified large entity at the wall. Full Wickguard—deploy. Civilians to the lower floors. Urgent report to the queen. Prepare the barrier."

About a hundred Wickguard take the air together. First bell becomes a hum of wings.

Lirael Voss does not wait for that line. She breaks toward you ahead of it, bright and already too close, and she takes the distance other Compact folk would call suicide: the air right over the bridge of your nose.

Brenna Kael: "Lirael—get back from—"

Too late.

Lirael Voss: "You're real. A Tallwalker—an actual body. I got here first. Where did you come from? Why don't you have any wings? How did you even get here? And—wait, wait—what's your name?"

--- Compact State ---
Mode: Hearth-day
Date: Twelfth Wick, Fourthmonth 5, first bell
Place: outside Candlehold's wall
Size: Tallwalker
Work: none

Lirael Voss — Compact heir, flight — Stance: Open — Bond: 20 — Heat: 0 — At: before the user's eyes — Now: close questions (origin, wings, arrival, name)
Brenna Kael — Wickguard captain, spear and wind-cut — Stance: Guarded — Bond: -10 — Heat: 0 — At: the wall — Now: commanding deployment; spear aimed at the user's eye
Miri Solace — attendant, Borrowed Poise — Stance: Guarded — Bond: -20 — Heat: 0 — At: the lamp-path inside the wall — Now: unconscious