Silver Insanity

On the second floor of Castle Amber, near the guest quarters reserved for the "inhabitants" of Tir'na Nog'th, is a room edged in mirror-bright silver, enchanted such that it gives the impression of walking amidst an endless clear blue sky with neither ground nor clouds in sight. The illusion is broken only by an open balcony looking out over the castle's courtyard; even the insides of the doors are lined with enchanted silver, and tales tell of unwary servants closing the doors and then losing track of them entirely.

Right now, however, the doors are propped open, and the room is being prepared for Harrune's planned meeting of the Tir'na Nog'th high nobility... under the watchful eyes of the sphinx, Cassandra. This is something of a recipe for trouble; for starters, she's set the servants to make sure that there are at least three more chairs than there will be attendees - and to make every chair different, with no clear indication of which one is meant for whom.

Into this scene, Rasanam arrives, dropping neatly onto the balcony with a flutter of wings - already shapeshifted in preparation for the ball in Rebma that evening. His current form is a sleek bipedal dragon, with a pointed sharklike nose, gills, fluked tail, and thick, surprisingly muscular wings supported by a single finger - what you'd get if you crossed a pterosaur with a manta ray.* The wings apparently don't fold; as Rasanam walks into the room, he wraps them around his body, forming a sort of living robe of rippling blue and silver.

His voice, however, is unchanged. "Hello, Cassandra. Interesting setup you've made here..."

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* People used to birds or bats might think these wings are poorly adapted for flight. They'd be wrong - recent fossil evidence shows that pterosaur wings were muscular, and probably included air bladders to allow fine adjustment of wing thickness. The wing designs in use here are poorly adapted for gliding or long-distance flight, but they are well designed for rapid take-offs, aerial maneuverability, and underwater use of any sort.

"This? It is simple." Cassandra purrs. "It is good to see you again Rasanam. You're one I was most curious about. What with your marriage. And you seem much more interesting than our previous spellcaster. Unless you count the mascot. She's perhaps a little too interesting."

Rasanam blinks. "There's another spellcaster than myself and Asai? I hadn't noticed..."
((Note that he's referring explicitly to spellcasters in the Tir'na royalty; he's well aware of, for example, Morgana, or of the several lesser mages that count themselves as fae.))

"You redeemed yourself, at least mostly, with that last sentence," Asai will comment cheerfully as she saunters in through an open door. "I shall have to save the spell I had all readied with the distressingly bland meringue pie for some other time or target, I suppose." The feline spellcaster hops up onto the back of one of the more lightly-built chairs in the room, somehow perching atop it without tipping it over despite her size.

"I suppose it shows how uninteresting the other is that you have not noticed him." The sphynx will nod to Asai. "Yes. Have you decided we are worth your time? I hope I offer enough riddles for you..."*
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*: It occurs to me with Asai's psyche, Cassandra has yet to offer her a riddle worth Asai's time. Which likely annoys the sphynx to no end.

"Uninteresting and unnoticed?" Comes a voice from the doorway. "Cassandra, are you talking about me again?", Harrune asks and he enters the room. "I suppose in the current company I am the least interesting." Harrune laughs.

"Or, perhaps, the most, given your unexpected appointment... though I suppose that depends on what one is interested in."

Rasanam tosses off a quick spell before continuing. ((Mage sight, if anyone is curious. Zero lynchpins, magic of Amber, self-targeting empowerment to grant the ability to see magic. ...And given the number of cats in the room, I'm sure someone is curious.))

"Magically speaking, on the other hand... yes, I think I can safely say that you are the least interesting person here in that respect. Even the servants," he gestures to where a pair of elves are setting up refreshments, "have a few trinkets on them. I'm guessing that's because you travel so much? I should see if I can make enchantments that can survive such journeying... is there anything in particular you might find useful?"

"I am definitely the least interesting magically...at least while I'm here. Back on the Tree I can be quite interesting. Like so many the magic of my shadow doesn't work here. Some, like Ossian for instance, have managed to keep some of their magic here but at still reduced. I'm certain that in his home shadow he is quite formidable in that regard."

"As for...trinkets, yes in part because of the challenges of travelling. Also in part that I've been more worried about taking care of others than myself. We can only carry just so much and I've been more focused on the greater good than personal benefit. ...well except for bringing my family here. What would I find useful? Well sadly weapons and defense are useful far too often. Something that could help me blend in with the natives could be useful at times too. Some shadows can be very provincial about such things."

Cassandra will ponder a bit*... before asking Asai:

"Who makes it, has no need of it.
Who buys it, has no use for it.
Who uses it can neither see nor feel it.
What is it?"
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*: Despite being lost in thought she is clearly listening to the conversation at the same time.

Asai wrinkles her nose in good humor at Cassandra, and says "Oh come now, it's hardly my fault Tir-Na Nog'th's erratic grasp on manifestation makes it less than optimal for a library... While it would provide a definitive way of defining business hours, it'd drive me to distraction not being able to fuss with all the books for so much of the day." With that, she tilts her head to one side in a moment's thought. "Pesky cultural references, my home shadow had too many troubles with reanimated corpses for the practice to be common - or even legal, in many places - but burial seems to be a common thing elsewhere. And since so many seem to find the notion of returning to the earth disturbing, they box their dead up in fancy little coffin boxes, which is the answer - a coffin."