Before the Banquet

Title: Before the Banquet: Couer/Issiri Short
Author: SilverInk
Writing: Short short story/ beginning of a longer story.
Word Count: 1804

Couer Harper:

The curtains were purple today. I took a moment while Mom was talking to Aunt Ever to scrutinize the fabric. It was thicker than the usual curtains and a bit fuzzy too. Not at all like the usual light and smooth ones. These were also lacking in design, while the blue ones had been intricately embroidered in silver silk at the edges. 

“Young man, I advise you against inspecting the drapery. They are for decoration, not amusement.”

I dropped the cloth. Maybe Jane would let me have a bit later. “Sorry sir. I’m pretty careful though.”

“Regardless. Thank you sir.”

My smile dropped the moment I turned around again. Huh. That was odd. There weren’t any guards last time we came. I stood patiently next to mom after that. She said it would be a nice night and that I would meet a bunch of famous, powerful people, but so far I’d only seen Aunt Ever, Uncle Auris, and Mr. Emile. I admit Uncle Auris is a pretty well-respected researcher and it’s always a treat to see Aunt Ever—she made me a knapsack this time—but Mr. Emile isn’t too spectacular. At all. He’s a good analyst, but not the top and he can’t even beat Ever at Destiny’s Edge: Battle Blitz. (Just to give you a point of reference, I can beat Ever with half her starting HP.)

I guess that has nothing to do with anything. But you get my point—I was bored. 

“Bree Harper, is that you?” 

I turned at mom’s name. 

“Ellasyn!” They hugged, then, 

“It’s been too long, Bree.”

“Elisa!” Aunt Ever and “Elisa” embraced and the pretty—weird—lady bowed to Auris. 

“Is this your son, Ever?”

“Mine actually,” mom said. I pressed my fist against my left palm and bowed respectfully. 

“Couer Harper, pleased to meet you, Ms. Gilfax.”

She stood frowning at me for a moment. I smiled and waited; I was used to this. Next she would be asking who my father was and when she found out she would either gasp in shock and begin chastising mom (“I told you he was a good-for-nothing!”) or pitying  her (“Are you holding up ok? I can always spare some cash or food or clothes, you know.”). And after that she’d ask me if I were going to be a puppeteer like my parents. It was the same routine, over and over again.

But Ms. Elisa only nodded and murmured quietly, “I see…” before the adults began talking about Lady Ellasyn’s latest trop to Edihn. I forced myself to tune in; not many people besides the objects were allowed—must less could survive—on the smallest moon of the ESRAI system.

“Did you see Alina’s child? Is it—she—alive?”

“Alive, well, and powerful,” Ms. Elisa answered uncle Auris. 

“I still don’t get how an Object of Holena was able to conceive,” he said. “But I suppose the child’s father was an aos si—that alone might have accounted for it.”

“Lady Holena was fair, I think,” Aunt Ever nodded. “Would the child be here possibly?”

“Is Holena herself coming tonight?” Mr. Emile asked.

“Lady Holena hardly leaves the Haven and the Senate did declare the child an abomination,” Mom said with a quick glance between him and Uncle Auris. 

“Damn the Senate!” I stared at Aunt Ever’s soft exclamation. “More and more fools each year. I respect the Council’s decision on the girl.”

There was a quiet pause in our group and a few agreements. Finally, mom broke the silence with a casual “So Elisa, who is representing Edihn tonight?”

“I know the Alina and the General of the Guard are coming,” Ms. Elisa said after a moment of hesitation or awkwardness. “And Fallarbor is too, though Alina said it wasn’t for the banquet.”

Fallarbor Warni! If one of the Nine Houses were coming, I might have a chance of talking to him—and maybe the old guy would let me see the Bracelet Eveline.

“Yea, something about all the Nine Houses being here for a reunion or something,” Auris confirmed. “Not part of the banquet in any case.”

All the Nine Houses! I wanted to talk to Silence Winds. Maybe she’d divine my future or read my life-dagger for me.

“If all the Nine Houses are coming, they must think something’s a big deal,” Aunt Ever said, considerably mollified after he outburst. “Is today a special day or something?”

The others indicated they weren’t aware it was. 

At that moment the doors opened and the greeting hall hushed almost instantly. William Oakler, former Ruler of Idyllen South and current Head of the Council of ESRAI announced the guests in no particular order to the various leaders of the moons, who were already seated at the long table.

“Lady Julian Winchester and Juniper Winski, channel of earth.”

“Lady Maple-Ann Lewis of the Halls of Cieonna and Mr. Wisconsin Tynan.”

The list continued. I had recognized no one in the greeting hall but suddenly I recognized all the guests by name. Soon I lost track of who was who or even who had been introduced. I found myself wondering how William Oakler knew all these people and their titles—even if he was the Head of the Council. 

“Elijiah Gilfax, Keeper of the Rift Hearts, and Miss Aurasine Windrose with Lady Ellasyn Gilfax, Servant of the Chasm of Secrets.”

“Dr. Auris Wyn, researcher, and Miss Ever Blaize,”

“Dr. Emile Errolheart, puppeteer analyst.”

Mr. Emile was scowling when Uncle Auris and Aunt Ever were introduced and I nearly burst into laughter when I saw his expression suddenly freeze and change when he was announced after them.

“Puppeteer Bree Harper, Guardian of Zaloren, and Mr. Couer Harper.”

I swear his power is the ability to tell what people’s names are. 

We made our way down the ramp and bowed to the people at the head table; Queen Geneva of Idyllen North, High Chancellor Edaline Evera and Ruling Chancellor Agyris Peck of Remnants East, and Chief Idon Aleda Korbin of Remnants West. Jane and the representatives from Edihn were missing when we arrived but I saw the General of the Guard of Edihn and Captain Alina Zephyr slip through the curtain and seat themselves presently, their Marks of Holena very conspicuous in the sea of faces.

When everyone was introduced I looked around me to see who I was sitting with and found myself between mom and Aunt Ever. A gold identification tag popped up on the table in front of me and as I watched, mom’s name appeared on her tag. I glanced across the table to see a a pretty lady with a crystal tiara and her friend, a lady with scar on her shoulder and a garnet necklace. The scar-girl had a black marker in her hand and was messing with their name tags. 

I watched as she put them down and winked at me before turning it around. The gold tag had been embellished with a few funny faces and a little scribble that I soon realized was supposed to be a tornado. “Uzina Serenity” had been crossed out and replaced with a scrawled “Storm”—

“Storm Blaize?” I gapped, glancing quickly at Aunt Ever and then at her mother—the crazy savior of the planet back when legend was reality. “You’re my favorite character in Battle Blitz!” I blurted stupidly. Mom and a few of the people around me laughed amicably Storm grinned. 

“I’m my favorite character too! You want to have a showdown sometime?”

Issiri Aeria Zephyr:

General Caesaera Adeline Emer was upset. 

“No. Issiri is not a zoo-creature. I refuse to have her examiled or otherwise gawked at by the guests, Council, Senate, or whatever.”

I turned silver eyes to the Ruler of Idyllen South. She was a regal figure, with none of the fancy airs that wafted around the Senate members from earlier. She didn’t need fancy airs or anything to be commanding. 

Behind her stood the Council of ESRAI, missing their Head. I could hear him announcing the first guests though, and understood that dinner was starting. Caesaera and mother should be going. 

“I have spoken to the Senate multiple times but they refuse to seat her, General Caesaera,” the Queen was saying. She paused carefully, as if reading the Object’s intentions. “I am loathe to go against them so early in my rule, but yes, I could override their decision.”

Caesaera turned to mother for advice. “She doesn’t need to be here,” my mother said, seemingly ambivalently. “She doesn’t mind…” she continued, glancing at me. I nodded my agreement. “…So long as she gets dinner.”

“I will ask the chef to cook to her desires,” Jane Exina followed flawlessly. Caesaera didn’t look too convinced but at the moment the side door opened up and two people stepped into the room. We all bowed graciously. 

“No need to bother the chef,” Aurora Rizea said once everyone had risen.

Marion Iekelazi said with a little dip of his pink-striped head, “If she would have our company, Miss Zephyr could sit with us.”

I bowed again to both Houses before glancing at Caesaera and mother. Caesaera left the choice to me; mother just blinked. “I would be most honoured it the Nine Houses themselves deem me eligible to sit at their table.”

“The honour is ours,” Marion said, ever humble. 

There was a flurry of shock and excitement before the matter was formally settled and Caesaera and mother slipped through the curtain to join the banquet. Queen Exina finished speaking with the Council before they too left. 

I followed Aurora and Marion to the hall where the Houses had chosen to dine during their reunion. It was a much smaller room than the banquet hall and not very lavishly decorated, but it was a nice space, enough to seat the Nine Houses of ESRAI and their “reunion”. Before we entered I listened in on the snippets of conversations I could hear from outside and identified Reon Cieonna telling Fallarbor Warni a joke. Eliam Winchester, Silence Winds, Laurel Slyph and Iyn Tamari Winski in her draconic form were cleaning up a ma-jong game.

“See, it’s not fair whenever Silence plays because she can tell who’s going to win twenty years before we start.” Iyn was saying—by the sound of her voice she was in her draconic form.

“Knowing who wins isn’t the same as actually winning,” Eliam said.

But when I stepped in, the room was suddenly quiet and  all the Houses aside from Aurora and Marion were seated. They too sat, and offered me a seat on the end of the table, across from the accepted head of conferences. 

“Welcome,” Kaelin Alder said when I too had sat, “Lady Archangel.”

Artist's Note: Hi! Long post this week, but I actually wrote all of it this week. A lot was added/ changed as I typed it up.

Anyways, this probably doesn't make a lot of sense to anyone. I tried to at least add in a few characters that would be recognizable though. xP

OH! I've got a personal blog now  again! :D The Silver Leaf  Check it out? 

~SilverInk

The Whisperer

Title: The Whisperer

Author: Lewis Spiel

Writing: short, short story

Word count: 211

“Let me repeat what you just said,” she says. “You want me to send you to hell.”

A cloying sweet smell suffuses his senses as the wax tapers extinguish with a suffocating press of finger and thumb. The pads of her fingers must burn but she hardly seems to notice. There is really only the Ritual and the dark, the enormous stone emptiness of the cathedral and the wind whistling through it, and the presence of a spirit, hanging heavy in the air.

“Close your eyes,” she says.

He obliges, but only because there is nothing else he can do. He starts at the cool press of her fingertips against his eyelids.

“We had a deal,” he says, struggling to stay calm. “And weren’t you going to tear my eyes out?”

“There are other ways to take away sight.” The touch on his eyes eases and lifts away. “I’m not a barbarian. Don’t worry, I’ll hold up my end of the agreement.”

“That’s hardly reassuring."

“Be patient.”

More orders? “B-,” he pauses. “Witch.”

“That’s me,” she responds dryly. “All right. Here we go.” 

Something in the air seems to give way. As his world fades to nothing he hears her say, faintly: “You never said when you had to get there.”

---------------------

Artist's note: Still unfinished. I have several snippets of unfinished stuff right now, but none of them are quite long enough or done, as you can see. We're still alive. :) 

This came from reading Stadust by Neil Gaiman and watching Umineko no Naku Koro Ni (Where the Seagulls Cry). They reminded me that witches are cool. ^-^ Uh, not to say that I wrote this just so that I could mention a witch.

~Lewis S.

Lewis’s belated end-of-year (2010) note

Consider this an extended Author’s Note- although we’re not always calling it that here. 

When we started I think we hadn’t a lot of opportunities to share our writing with each other besides, and a writing blog sounded like a novel idea at the time. Looking back I still think it was.  

Frankly, I never thought I’d be capable of turning out the stories I did for Drawn in Words. When I started out with it, and while I was writing for it, there was mostly the thought of writing to meet the quota and trying to emanate the dream writer in my head who just put words on paper that fell perfectly into place. I’m so glad that we decided to make this blog, and proud of what we have on it. 

Have I improved? Or do I think I’ve improved? Well… the only big project I’d had- Dog Eat World for NaNoWriMo- was never finished. If I wanted to fish around for reasons this ended positively, I could say that I ended up with more writing than I’d ever done in a year.  But I think the thousands of words that were written for this story never held the kind of appeal to me that I’d imagined this story should have. So I think I’ll be coming back to it someday. Maybe not in the near future, but hopefully when I feel ready to write these characters better. They’ve really grown on me, and I still want to share them with the world.

This year I want to cover some new ground. I’ve made a few small forays into fanfiction, most of which are just barely over the 500 word limit. I’ll try writing romance. I’ve read so much of it (to top it off, so many titles of shojo manga with such bad plots and cliché setups you couldn’t imagine) that I think I should be able to pull something off. Maybe something else. Right now the projects that are just laying around to be done are 100 themes, Jacks (which is probably going to be entirely revamped), DEW, and this one where I’m trying to base all of the characters off tarot cards. That last thing is supposed to be similar to the way they design their characters in the Persona series, which I really love.  

(but I digress.) 

Thank you, Silver, for starting this blog with me and supporting me all throughout the year. Let’s keep writing. 

Word Count: 412

Post-script: also, thank you to any others who might be reading this. You’re a big part of the reason we’re still here. Keep checking up on us! ;) 

~Lewis Spiel

Not Doing Anything

Title: Not Doing Anything
Author: SilverInk
Writing: random short short story?
Word Count: 528

I’m not doing anything. 

“Yea, yea-yea-yea. “

Trumpets in the other room. Or clarinets. Maybe a little squeaky, either way. I can’t tell. 

“Nine plus ten…no.”

My backpack, leaning against my leg. My tarot card bag is on the top. I can see it in my peripheral vision. My right foot hurts because of the way I’m twisting it. 

“You’re the one that dealt me both jokers.”

“You’re the one that took both jokers.”

Come to think of it, my other foot is a bit sore as well. But not really. 

“Eight minus four is four!”

“…Take it, take it.”

“Do you need someone to help you in math?”

I ought to be doing something productive now, like homework. I want to have time to write and draw and what not later anyways. 

“Is it three times eight? Is it really? Today’s my lucky day!”

I’m afraid that I’ll be too lazy to do homework or write or draw or what not later.

“Twenty plus four.”

That’s been happening a lot lately. Being too lazy to do anything. I don’t want to do anything yet I want to do something. It’s really upsetting.

“…Meow…meow…”

I feel lonely, but it’s stupid to. Music coming from the other room, three friends sitting about a foot away, and I’m sure there are more people milling around just outside one of the doors. 

“Wait, wait—what just happened?”

The bell rings, but there’s no silence to shatter. 

“If she doesn’t call me, you call me.”

“Why?”

Why is it always “shatter” silence? Shatter is too special a word to use simply for breaking quiet. 

“Well I have to go—bye Ella!”

I leave too. I might as well. I’m walking home. I scamper out to where I meet my friend to walk home. My feet are numb, but just a bit. 

“Rose, do you know where Patrick is?”

I have an original character called Silence. Silence Winds. She’s a diviner. “Shatter” would be appropriate if she was broken. 

“Poncho! The poncho matches the bag!”

“Yes. Yes it does.”

“Touch. Touch touch Feel feel. 

I’m wearing a white ribbon in my hair. 

“Touch touch feel feel…”

Not many people—no, no one—has noticed. Well, noticed it’s white at least. I suppose that’s a good thing. White ribbons in hair aren’t a good thing. It’s a grave thing, very grave. I can feel a physical weight pulling on my hair because of it—extra gravity. 

“Hey, It’s Ella!”

“Don’t disturb her! She’s in the middle of an inspirational moment!”

“…Disturb! Disturb!”

My friend’s grandmother died yesterday. I don’t know how she’s taking it mentally, but she seems to be ok on the outside. I don’t exactly know how death is like—death of a close one, I mean. I don’t want to bring it up because I’m afraid it’ll make her miserable. Not to mention it would be very untactful. 

“Oh! Are you coming to see the play?”

Yet I want to support her and let her know we’re all with her if she needs us. 

“Yes, on Friday.”

White ribbons in the hair mean death and mourning.

Shatter death.

Artist's Note: Hi! I know this is ridiculously late...and that I haven't posted anything for a month...but..yea...X.X 

About this post: Most of it was written at the end of school on Tuesday (April 12, 2011) in a moment of inspiration and I expanded it a couple hundred words yesterday. All of the dialogue was actually said, except for the last two dialogue lines ("Oh! Are are you coming to see the play?" and "Yes, on Friday"). None of it was me speaking. The underlined names are the ones I changed....it's also underlined because I felt like underlining it....

And of course, I was wearing a white ribbon in my hair. I'm very wary of posting this, but I suppose it's all I can do. :( Rest in Peace.

~SilverInk

Leader

Title: Leader
Author: Lewis
Writing: Fanfiction (Katekyo Hitman Reborn)
Word Count: 553

For Tsuna, the month before finals is always wrought with a sense of foreboding. Of course, it’s a given that it will be a time eaten up by Reborn’s intensified Spartan teaching methods, and he can probably expect a score substantially higher than a 6% on all of his exams. His baffled classmates might still believe that he’s acquired a new brain, but Tsuna knows otherwise. It’s not necessarily that Reborn’s guidance has allowed him to finally grasp the concepts, but really that Reborn would have him strung from a very tall building if he failed. But it comes with being trained to succeed the Ninth of the Vongola mafia.

Tsuna’s a little worse for wear than usual. There’re Gokudera’s study sessions, where while it’s still apparent that Gokudera is still a genius and he is trying his hardest for Tsuna, the Tenth, he’s not the kind of genius capable of getting anything through the thick skulls of two incorrigible idiots (read: Yamamoto and Tsuna). Today Reborn is out of the house for once, so things start quietly. But the meeting erupts in an explosion of smoke as little Lambo finds his way into the room and (after loosing a couple of grenades out the window with his poor aim) lets fly with his bazooka. 10-year-older Lambo sits up with a sigh, dandy and lazy-eyed as usual, when the squabble starts up again.

This time Gokudera begins flailing and bawling something about a stupid cow and the baseball idiot while Tsuna cowers beneath a table. Yamamoto laughs again, carefree as usual amidst the chaos: “Is this a game?” Tsuna wishes he weren’t in this room. Somewhere far away would be nice.

Unable to handle himself as usual, the grown up Lambo promptly bursts into tears. Gokudera is still shouting and Yamamoto is still laughing and doing nothing to help the situation.

The door opens.

The room goes deathly quiet. It’s not Mama (thank god) but Reborn (even worse). The Arcobaleno slowly raises revolver-Leon to point at Tsuna, who blanches and begins to uncurl from the fetal position.

“I told you to finish those practice problems. Are they done yet?”

Yamamoto breaks the silence with ease, cheerfully replying that the study session’s been going well. Lambo’s sniffling quiets and with a poof the infant Lambo is back; the five minutes of time travel are up. Gokudera lurches forward and prostrates himself before Tsuna, spewing gibberish about how it’s all Yamamoto’s fault for spoiling the lesson and how he’s so sorry for failing the Tenth. And Tsuna reluctantly drags himself upright and sits at his spot at the table, hyper-aware of Reborn’s critical gaze.

They try again. Reborn has again somehow rigged the room without Tsuna’s notice so that each wrong answer ends with an explosion or a harsh blow, but within an hour or so they are getting through the study material at a steady pace. It’s not until Tsuna sees Gokudera and Yamamoto off at the door when he realizes how relieved he feels. Gokudera and Yamamoto are his friends as well as his right hand men- no matter what Gokudera might say about being the only one- but he still doesn’t feel like a leader worthy of them yet. When he doesn’t know what to do, he always turns to Reborn.

Artist's note: Sorry we haven't posted in so long. Things have been rough. I'm hoping to get to some semblance of posting regularly. Thanks for checking up on us! :)
~Lewis

Puppeteers: Song vs Vyronika

Title: Puppeteers battle: Song of Falling Star vs Vyronika
Author: Silverpaw
Writing: random fight scene
Word Count: 884

Bree lashed her stylus through the air and whirled it around. As she did, a ghost-like puppet sprung out of the center of the stylus and spun. 

"Song of Falling Star!" she called her puppet's name and the cat-shaped puppet took on a solid form. Bree took a step back and stretched her hands out before flipping her stylus. Along the way she hit three of the now-glowing circles on the end of the stylus, and Song's fur glowed with the charging of an attack. 

The Marionette puppeteer sneered and brought out his own puppet, a large blue and orange wolf-like creature that was called "Vyronika". The Marionette puppeteer tossed his stylus up and touched the circles on the stylus lightly. Responding, Vyronika lashed out with his claws. Fire spewed out the end of the claws but at Bree's direction Song spun out of the way. The small cat tottered a few paces backwards as if it were about to loose its balance and then tore at the wolf's unprotected flank. Vyronika howled, snapping its jaws at the smaller cat. A burst of water spun up from his giant paws and washed Song off his back, but not before she left three long gashes. The blue-gray she-cat landed in a puddle a little bit away from the wolf, but before she could clamber to her paws the water shot up. 

"Song!" Bree cried, watching her puppet helplessly as it was blasted into the air and fell back towards the ground. But as Vyronika crouched to leap, she hit another circle on her stylus and spun the tool around counterclockwise. In the air, Song reacted after a brief moment's hesitation. She twisted, using her tail for balance, and a blast of sound hurtled towards the wolf so that when Vyronika leapt, she crashed straight into the sound barrier and fell back wimpering. Song landed a few paces away, shaken but unhurt. 

"Get up," Vyronika's puppeteer commanded harshly, turning his styler and lifting it. Painfully, the wolf-puppet obeyed. 

Bree had Song charging her energy again, and the faint violet glow had reappeared around her, making her pelt take on an eerie ghost-like quality. Song's clear blue eyes were narrowed with concentration, and Bree closed her eyes briefly to see through her puppet's perspective. 

Her eyes were still closed when Vyronika attacked again and Bree didn't dare open her eyes. Instead, she fought, seeing the battle from Song's point of view. Her hands moved fluidly in the gestures needed to direct Song and she felt her puppet's muscles bunch and her paws push against the muddy ground. When the energy had been sufficiently gathered, the pale-violet glow around Song melted into her pelt, converted into a strengthening and healing spell. She then leapt again, nipping the wolf-fiend's hind leg. Vyronika snapped her long jaws, and her puppeteer cursed. Bree commanded her warrior to bite down on the wolf's fluffy tail, but let go quickly. 

Bree opened her eyes again and blinked a few times to clear her vision. Her adversary didn't look far from defeat now, and she directed Song to charge again. Vyronika launched a few aggressive attacks, and a few nipped Song's flank as she whirled and twirled out of harm's way, but on the whole, the small cat escaped easily, her agile body weaving through the wolf's elemental attacks. 

"Finish this," Bree muttered under her breath and Song's last charge radiated from her in the form of a radial sound blast. Behind the blast was the full force of a dozen drums, trumpets, and horns, amplified into an operatic boom. When the sound had passed, the dog lay panting on the ground, and even when her puppeteer commanded up, she could do little more than lift her head from the grass for a few brief moments before it fell back. The puppet's body faded and whirled back into its puppeteer's styler as the puppeteer was still yelling at it. 

"Fine!" the Marionette puppeteer finally said. He turned his glare to Bree, and said with a voice lathered with contempt and defeat, "You may have won this time, but the next time we meet you won't be so lucky. You can't stop us anyways." He shot them another dark look and tossed a smoke pellet at the ground before escaping. Bree could have probably chased after him, but she stayed where she was, letting Song yowl a last warning call at the escapers.

Bree tucked a strand of her smooth blond hair behind a slightly pointed ear. "Good work Song," she said. "You fought well."

The she-cat's ears twitched as she turned around to face her puppeteer and a look of pride and pleasure crossed her face before she trotted forward and touched the stylus lightly with the tip of her tail. The cat was enveloped in a violet-white glow, as if she were concentrating her powers again, but this glow engulfed her in an opaque bubble and sucked her into the stylus. 

Bree nodded, hooked her puppeteer stylus back on her belt and gazed into the distance. The smoke was clearing, but the Marionette puppeteer had vanished as well. 

"I'll find you," she murmured to no one in particular. "We'll meet again."

Artist's Note: This was actually from...a long time ago, October 2010 according to the datestamp on Scrivener, though I've learned not to trust those too much.  But yea. I didn't really write anything this week, so... >.< 

An attempt at battle writing; what do you think?

Hopefully I'll get over my lack of motivation soon..... please comment! See you next week!

~Silverpaw.