MagiStream

"Honorable Yin?" Lachesis mouths, as Yin inspects the pendant before daintily taking it with her beak, then darting onto Donovan's head to swallow her snack. The alicanto chirps at Lachesis when she's done eating, and Lachesis groans. "Well, the good news is, she likes you and your, and I quote, 'tasty craftsmanship,' and is happy to help. The bad news is that she's going to be absolutely insufferable after this trip." She glares at the bird. "I don't feed you like this every day because I can't afford to. Especially when you steal my jewelry every time you visit my room."

Donovan's pygmy phoenixes take this opportunity to stick their heads out of his pockets at this point, and Lachesis absolutely loses all thoughts of spoiled alicantos from her mind as she goes to coo at them. One particularly enterprising pygmy phoenix clambers on top of another (eliciting an absolutely adorable squawk of protest) and hops out of its pocket into her hands, chirping imperiously at her for pets.

Lachesis laughs and complies. The pygmy phoenix chirps again, so she turns to Kieran. "This one wants all the scritches," she informs him, holding the pygmy phoenix out. Before Donovan can object to her wanton handing out of his companions, she adds, "She says being scritched by the same person all the time starts to get boring."

Donovan waves Lachesis off as she turns toward Kieran, brightly-colored nugget in hand, and stifles a laugh. His pygmy phoenixes may not be traditionally powerful companions, but there was nothing mightier at redirecting Lachesis's ire. He sends a nudge of solemn approval towards the one in her palms, and receives a blast of migraine-inducing, explosive happiness in return. Well, he thinks, blinking a bit as he pushes their link a little further from his mind. Nothing wrong with liking your job.

As Kieran politely gives the presented phoenix some scritches, Donovan looks toward their mounts, gathered a little ways across the courtyard. There's Midnight, accompanied by Huginn, Muninn, and a gaggle of geese. Victim to his ministrations is the infamous foal, who Donovan has thankfully been spared from playing babysitter to due to his recent commitments. Finally, standing regally among it all is Elegy. The sight of her brings up fond memories of playing hooky to go on joyrides, and of watching Kieran slave for months as a stable mucker to afford her in the first place. Her muscular haunches leave no question about her ability to carry him, Kieran, and the foal to Voltar. Still, though, they aren't scrawny teenagers anymore. Donovan's glad that the majority of his cargo was loaded onto Midnight's powerful draft-pegasus frame.

"So, Mister Artificer Candidate," Kieran says, drawing his attention. "Remind us of the plan, hm? Think we can squeeze in that hoagie place on the way to Voltar?"

Ah right. There is allegedly a small shop that makes sandwiches to die for in an otherwise unremarkable village along the way. Donovan isn't sure how or where Kieran got this information, but magi do go on a lot of quests all over the known world, and there's at least two magi at the artificer's guild who like to swap tips with each other about the most unexpectedly incredible cuisine in the most unlikely of places. He's overheard one of them excitedly tell the other about one woman who sells "the most authentic Xoctolan tostadas" but only on one particular street corner in the village surrounding the Keep, and only on every other Tuesday, and only if it hasn't rained the night before. It's hardly a stretch to imagine there's a whole network of enthusiasts like them at the Keep.

Anyway, regardless of how Kieran knows, Donovan is fairly certain they'll never have peace unless they stop to try out this place. Despite his urge to get the test over with as quickly as possible by resting as little as possible, it'll definitely go faster if he keeps his companions happy.

"Relax, Kieran," Donovan sighs, reaching into his pocket to pull out the first page of his planned itinerary for the trip. "No point in exhausting ourselves before I even reach Voltar, so we're going to have a leisurely trip down. We'll spend one night in Etain, arrive in Voltar the next day, and have that afternoon free to recover from the trip. So there's plenty of time to stop wherever you want for food." Few quest plans manage to withstand the trials of reality, especially when Kieran is involved, but Donovan has built several contingencies into his schedule to account for that. Starting with Kieran remembering that the hoagie place exists. He mentally nudges a spell embedded in the paper, and his schedule shifts from the original hectic one-day flight down to the much more leisurely pace described. Fortunately, because it seems Yin will be helping him after all, he can take that day out of the generous block he'd originally planned for prospecting for ore, and still hopefully be ahead of schedule. Assuming all goes well, of course.

"Good," Lachesis responds, glancing at the sun's position in the sky, to Donovan's surprise. Lachesis is notoriously disinterested in planning out trip schedules if there's someone else around to do it for her. "I don't think we'd be able to arrive in Voltar before midnight if we were trying to do the flight in one day at this point. But Kieran, those sandwiches better be absolutely divine."