Tanique grinned at her mother.
"I'm still working on that, I'll admit, but I do my best."

Tanique flagged the servant down.
"Is everything okay?"

The servant looks over bouncing on his talons, "I uhm, I need to speak with the Queen. She is going to kill someone." He whimpers.

Ellika says, "What?! What is it?"

The servant looks at the Queen, "I think this should be for the Queen only but... well your military."

Tanique seemed baffled.
"The Queen is going to kill someone?"

The servant paces.

"I can't interrupt her dance but she has to know."

Whimper.

Ellika grips his shoulders, "You tell me if it is that important."

The servant looks at her and tilts its head birdlike, "Well."

Whispers to her. She says something back to the servant.

Ellika's eyes widen then go angry. She just says one word to Tanique, "Come." She starts heading for the door. She speaks with some guards along the way who once again make their presence more known.

Liya notices this.

Now thoroughly confused, Tanique followed her mother.  She caught Liya's eye and shrugged.

Liya had been watching Bastion and the Queen, but when the servant came in and began talking with Lady Ellika and Tanique she turned her attention to them.  She looked at Tanique as they left in a hurry with concern then back to Bastion. Hopefully they saw as well.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:53, Tue 07 Mar 2023.

Halls of Stormcastle.

Lady Ellika and Lady Tanique.

Once away from the ballroom and after speaking with some guard her mother turns to her.
"The body is missing and several guard and one of her Majesties sorcerers are dead. According to the servant the remaining Chaosians are all accounted for and under observation."

She turns and marches down the hall, "Come along, perhaps armor and weapons are called for."

Tanique scowled and walked faster.
"Shapeshifters!  They fooled me!  I can't believe I fell for it.

Should we interrupt the Queen?"
This message was last edited by the player at 01:05, Tue 07 Mar 2023.

"The servant will let her know the moment her dance is over, and your father is being informed of this and to watch out for her as well. Come, we need to look into this. I have a feeling your right perhaps he played possum is what your father would say."

She continues down through the halls even using the winds to carry them faster.

Tanique moved faster, ready for anything

Down corridors and since the castle was built for the Storm Lords there were both stairs and shafts for quick access to other floors. Ellika chose to fly down a shaft with her daughter. She dispersed an enchantment and her gown vanished replaced by her Valkyrie armor.

Soon the arrive at a room where two raven folk servants stood guard. They looked to her and Lady Tanique. They moved aside, "It is gruesome in there, Ladies." Says one of them.

In the room there was a table with a cloth on it where the body was presumably laid. All around the room were the fallen, twisted, punctured and crushed bodies of guard and one of the realms sorcerers. The sorcerer has a hole clean through his head.

It is very messy in the room.

As Tanique had suspected upon inspecting things there were signs the body itself had moved rather than been moved. So it was possible her theory the Chaos Lord had faked his death. The way the cloth is twisted on the table and some bloody prints give rise to her thinking this.

The Dance ends and the Queen is smiling as is Bastion.

That is until a ravenfolk approaches and speaks with her. Then her arms go straight down fists balled. There is a flash of lightning outside. The queen approaches Bastion and speaks with him again before smiling though it is a tight smile. She moves to the center of the room.

Bastion moves to Liya, "Hey play along. The Queen is going to ask people to put on a show of storms for us before heading home. She needs to get people out of the castle to safety and asked me to help. So just oooh and ahhh at all the pretty fireworks. Clap a bit, heck it probably will look impressive but the goal is to get people out of the castle."
As he talks to Liya the Queen is making an announcement.

"My Lords and Ladies, King Bastion Von Silver has requested a festival of storms, as a guest of my realm, I would love to fulfill that request. So everyone please make your way up to the roof of Storm Castle. After the festival of storms due to prior excitement I would like to end tonight's festivities and people may freely fly down to their carriages, or if you flew in, feel free to fly to your homes or other celebrations as you may wish. I have need to deal with the bad behavior of our other guests."

She smiles and her Raven caws and a few others caw and some of the Lords and Ladies catch on and laugh. People file to the cloak room and head up to Stormcastle's upper spires and roof.

In reply to Shadow of the One True GM (msg # 573):

Tanique looked around.
"Is there anyway to detect shapeshifters?  He could be anything, right?  Like a table, a suit of armor, or any servant?"

"If true we would need to stab everything. I think they need to be a living or at least look like a living being. Not so sure about inanimate objects."

She somewhere along the way acquired her telltale spear that Tanique is used to seeing her mother with.

Ellika seems to be playing out events in her head.
"I think it used the power of that far realm they all hail from. Just from the various way people have been killed here. That or magic."

In reply to Shadow of the One True GM (msg # 574):

Liya stiffened noticing the queen’s demeanor change. She nodded to Bastions request, “What’s going on Bastion? I saw Lady Ellika and Tanique leave a few moments ag o as well, and they didn’t look happy either.”  She looked from him to the doorway with a concerned look.

Whispered to Liya, "That guy from Chaos, he didn't die. He someone faked it maybe or his body was rescued. Several deaths happened and she wants to protect her subjects from more madmen killing them."

Tanique took up her dagger from her bodice and started stabbing everything in the room, being careful to be observant of everything that happened.

Liya looked back to Bastion surprised. “Are you serious? Alright, I’ll go with the rest and watch things from there. I’ll let you know if there’s any trouble.”

She turned to follow the people to the roof to watch the festival of storms, “Be safe Bastion.”

Ellika seems surprised but let's her daughter test her theory with the dagger.

She squinted slightly when Tanique stabbed the already dead guards and sorcerer. Much less so when she stabbed the table, walls and other things.

All things reacted much as Tanique imagined they should.

"I am going with you, to appreciate the display. That is kind of the point. We are the distraction while they hopefully deal with the problem."  He heads up with her.

Stormcastle top.

The various families each start to put on atmospheric displays trying to outdo one another of course. This draws not only the eyes of many in the castle but down in the town as well. The explosions of thunder, flashes of lightning. Practiced flight routines and other displays are quite the vision.

"I think he may have left this chamber and made his way into the greater castle. Regardless we need to find and neutralize this threat."

Tanique looked at her mother.
"Should we lock down the castle?   No one leaves until everyone is accounted for?"

"The three floors this one and the one above and below are locked down. I am not sure the Queens wishes but I am sure her Raven or she herself will let the guards and ourselves know soon enough."

As if on que a raven flies to the door and lands.

Tanique turned curiously