Ceroill's smile almost froze, but not quite. After a moment, his tension eased a bit, and he said: "We do have some things to discuss young lady, and I guess this is as good a place as any. I will begin with answering your first question. This (indicating the owl) is Oberon (Oberon hooted softly in greeting, and calmed a bit). We only met in the wee hours of this morning".
"Way cool", replied Anwyn. She couldn't get a very good look at the owl from where she sat. So, with an abrupt slide-and-twist, she popped back through the hole feet-first. The strands of the lattice flexed outwards as she passed, then sprang back into shape behind her. Dust then got shaken off, before Anwyn slowly approached the owl "Oberon, huh ?", she commented, "I remember a story about an Oberon. Does that mean you're ... magic ?". Her jaw then suddenly dropped open in amazement as something suddenly occurred to her.
Excitedly she turned back to Ceroill and demanded "Oh WOW, that's it, isn't it ? You named him by his nature, didn't you ?".
"Something like that. As to his behavior...", Ceroill continued. He paused, a moment, collecting his thoughts. "To answer that properly, I shall have to back up a bit. This I will tell you only because Kay advised that I should." His smile was gone, as was the twinkle. He was looking Anwyn straight in the eyes. "She told me that you are not unfamilliar with unusual happenings...", he began cautiously.
"That's damn well as sure as chervine reish stinks", came the giggled reply. Then Anwyn frowned, "But I don't understand even HALF of it. Kay says it's all suppossed to be some kind of big secret that's really dangerous to talk about with strangers. She says some folks firmly refuse to believe that magic exists; even if it bites them on the rump. And she says that it's terribly-illegal to hide it if you have it, 'cause most of the really powerful people who DO have it, like to 'collect' lesser powers for use as puppets".
Anwyn paused, frowned, then added, "Is _THAT_ what happenned ? Did Kay run into someone who found out what she was, and wanted to 'collect' HER ? And where do you and the owl fit in ?".
"It was something like that; not exactly, but she did get in trouble, and I helped her in some way. Last night it seems that Kay went out on the town dressed, as you have seen, as a young local lad", Ceroill explained, "What you said earlier is almost correct. She did get caught in an altercation, but first she did something even less wise than her outing".
"How daft _WAS_ it?", Anwyn inquired curiously, thinking of some of the foolish stunts she'd pulled. Fortunately, she was as good at talking herself OUT of trouble as she was in finding it. Sometimes it could be a USEFUL thing to look much more young and innocent than you were.
"She drank some of a dangerous local liqueur, called Kirian", Ceroill explained, "This is distilled from a plant which has strong effects on those with, um, special talents".
Anwyn frowned, and resolved to herself that she would NOT be drinking anything that might have ANY kind of liquer in it. A nagging suspicion suggested that hidden talents might be able to be identified by their reaction to this stuff. And anyways, as her father had told her once, self-defense was much more difficult if you were drunk and facing sober opponents. "So what does this stuff do ?", she asked anxiously.
"Specifically, it tends to amplify them, while also weakening any mental barriers the drinker may normally have in place", he explained. Then he paused again, still keeping eye contact, trying to gauge how much of this made sense to the girl.
A wide-eyed horrified stare crossed Anwyn's suddenly-deathly-pale face, as a low-pitched stream of cuss words tumbled from her lips. Eventually, she got control of her tongue enough to ask in a small, anxious voice "But HOW ? And why ? Kay didn't do it on pupose, did she ? Is _THAT_ what attracted you to her, power calling to power ?".
"Again, not quite, but sort of. It is true that it is mostly the powerful families here that tend to have these powers, but occasionally one of the common folk has a share. This is usually very minor to the point of being all but unnoticed or useless. People who are naturally good with animals, who have a knack with weather prediction, or even healing. The nobles keep close track of which of them has what ability and how much, but they can't catalog all of the commoners with minor talents, and this worries them. Some of the powers can be dangerous, especially untrained.
Anwyn frowned, recalling some of the folk tales and folk music that Kay had found for her in the Caer Donn archives. She was suddenly very, very grateful for the fact that some woman named "M. Lorne" had been so careful about preserving records (even the ones containing events that official Federation policy claimed couldn't possibly be anything more than fiction). Since most of those records had been locked by classified seals (that expired only after a century) and stored under obscure filenames, these had been the most difficult pieces of data for Kay to find.
She was tempted to interrupt Mestru Merrick to tell him that she knew about horrible things like what had happenned during the Sharra Rebellion, and about the tragedy of the long-ago woman whom legend had nicknamed 'Stormqueen'. But interrupting would be rude. So, instead she said nothing for now.
"Kirian is most often used to help identify truly faint abilities, or to help break through blockages that could be dangerous themselves", Ceroill continued, pleased that the girl was paying such close attention. "This can happen if the power remains hidden until adulthood. Threshold sickness is often fatal for grownups. Kirian can, with proper supervision, help with this transition. Even if one is familiar with what one's abilities are, kirian tends to be very disorienting, as if one were quite inebriated."
Ceroill paused again, giving Anwyn another opening in which to ask questions. He was somewhat surprised when she actually looked relieved. "If it only affects people the FIRST time they use their Gift, then Kay isn't likely to die from this sickness", Anwyn told him, "She told me that the Power awoke in her when she was around my age, and that it made her feverish and delusional for several days".
Then a look of uncertainty flickered across Anwyn's face. "but Kay also said that she didn't use it much on Terra, 'cause it disturbed anyone who saw that she had it. She also told me that too much power can corrupt people to the point where they lose all the good qualities of being human. So if this stuff makes her power level _increase_, and her degree of control _decrease_, does this mean she might turn into a demon and do nasty thing to people ?".
[OOC: Did this question ever get answered, or did the interruption (by cat and bird) distract Ceroill from answering ?]
Oberon, seeing no purpose to all of this chatter, kept alert for mice; he was hungry. Then something completely different caught Oberon's ear. Giving a small hoot of inquiry, he pulled himself through the access-hole and settled himself on the hoist arm next to the obviously-distressed little cat.
Mairead pointed with a paw, meowing insistently. There were three she-humans approaching, young but not human-cubs. She recognized one of them as the strange she-human who had patted her earlier. And one of the other looked like the picture she'd gotten from Kay. None of them looked like the danger-pictures, but they had a dog with them. Mairead did _not_ like dogs; before she'd had the owl to protect her, dogs had chased her all too often.
Hastily, Oberon popped back through the hole. For some reason, the closer he was, the easier it was to make Elder-Brother hear him. Even though the human was still talking to the she-cub, this was IMPORTANT.
With a thump, Oberon landed on Ceroill's shoulder, digging in his claws for balance. *approaching presences ... stranger who was here before ... mommy-human-friend (?) ... more strangers: human and dog*, he insisted. Being limited by the human's limited communication skills, he'd concentrated on sending feelings and pictures (just as he would have done to a young owlet).)
Anwyn paused and gave them both a puzzled look. "What's he saying?", she demanded.
"The woman who was here before is returning, with a friend who has a dog. I should get downstairs." Ceroill rose from his sitting-beam, and turned to open the door.
"Hey! Kay ! Louis !", Anwyn shouted down the stairs and she rushed towards the kitchen. "Company's coming ... and it's probably friendly". Behind her, the other three followed at more reasonable speeds.