Festivities in Sellean [O1.2]

Many families in Sellean forage sky-silk from the surrounding forest and sell it to the weavers that create the great balloons of the airships. The two largest foraging operations being Marchal's family and the Kellenhearts. Azran had started spreading rumors among the weavers that Marchal's brother was mixing regular silk into his spools to make more profit. The weaver's had noticed that their fabric had been less effective recently, so they became wary of Marchal's family, much to the family's dismay.

One evening, Marchal overheard Azran spreading these rumors at the tavern and had retaliated in anger, knowing her brother would never do such a thing and the impact the rumors had had on their livelihood. After the chaos that broke out, Azran called for her arrest for assaulting him.

Oril had been with Marchal at the tavern that night. They had been catching up because Oril had just gotten back from one of his outings. He had come across an abandoned cottage in the woods that had triggered a vision. In the vision, he had seen a small group of people in the cottage experimenting with blends of various types of silk fibers. Marchal seemed upset to hear about the vision and revealed the rumors about her brother. Oril told Marchal that he didn't see her brother in his vision, but didn't really know what else he could say to reassure her, so he changed the subject. It was later in the evening when Marchal overheard Azran and hit him.

As the dust settled after the incident between Marchal and Azran, Oril realized that he recognized Azran. Azran was the individual leading the group of silk-blenders in his vision!

Oril tipped off the authorities about the cottage and its location and a quick investigation found evidence of silk blending and links to Azran and a few others from the sketchy side of town. Eventually the truth came out, it was Azran who had setup an operation to blend sky-silk with regular silk to temporarily stretch profits. He knew it wouldn't go unnoticed, so he was covertly selling it to the weavers under the Marchal's family name to hide his tracks. With Marchal's family taking the blame, it would give the Kellenhearts a chance to expand their market share in the long-term.

Marchal was excused for her behavior given the circumstances, but cautioned not to take matters into her own hands next time. Azran was fined heavily and banned from personally doing business with the weavers, but a few months later he was quietly given a promotion within the Kellenhearts to a more senior manager role where he could continue to indirectly influence their dealings ...

Marchal had never outright disbelieved Oril's visions, but she was always a little skeptical, perhaps even tease him about some of the weirder ones. But now, the fact that Oril had ID'ed Azran and helped clear Marchal's family, it had convinced Marchal of the value of Oril's strange visions. Sure it was probably possible that Oril had witnessed the events at the cottage some other way, but why would he lie about it? After this event, she always took great interest in his visions when they happened.

A prince stood in the room, practising the mandolin. By the door, a woman with red hair stood guard, a Knight of the Feathers, her colorful companion perched nearby.

The door openned and a figure dressed all in black stepped inside. He pulled out the most ornate pocket watch Oril had ever seen. After checking it, the figure nodded to the Knight, who returned the gesture and turned to the Prince, "Alright Bedon, we must go. You must leave your things," she said as she took the mandolin from the child. Bedon argued and grabbed for the instrument, but only succeeded in ripping the strings off before the Knight tossed it onto the bed.

Suddenly, the ship jarred to the side as though from some sort of impact. A bell began to toll. The muted buzz of commotion. Fear.

"Quickly! It's already begun!" The dark figure urged. The Knight picked up the prince, who had been knocked to the ground and gone quiet with confusion, shock and concerned on his face. "Are you sure this will work?" the knight asked as she followed the figure out the door. "No, but it's too late, it's our only chance now. We must get him off the ship and to Micester before ..." and they were gone.

Before the vision faded, Oril's mind spun and conjured what he recalled from rumors about the city of Micester, a dark city with tall towers, shroud in mist ...