The Claw Arms ((semi-literate walk-in)) New Announcement!

[Lunderly]

"Thank you, dear."

The phoenix gladly turned its full attention onto the goblet. Its shimmering beak slipped into the contents and its head picked up just a second later, slipping the rose water right down its awaiting gullet.

"Oh, that taste is lovely." Fiore chirped from her own cup of tea Morana had given her. "Whatever is this flavor? I can't quite place it..."

The phoenix popped its head back up and studied the ceiling a moment. Then its curious form swept toward Rot.

"We found one another in the Void. When we were two forms we merged into one to save the other. And thus, we became this whole. Slowly syncing into one, physical and spiritual form."

(Crap internet is crap. Bleh)

[Bone Clock]

(Same here, it's like a flickering light bulb)

Rot felt a chill sweep over himself when the phoenix answered. The Void. The name alone was too similar to the Abyss yet from what he'd heard from Fiore during their initial meeting, it was a place more terrible than one could imagine. "You did so to survive," he muttered, eyes gazing at nothing for a moment, forcing himself to remember what Allister told him: she was not in the Void. At least, neither phoenix nor Fiore had encountered her in that place.

Behind the bar, Morana finally turned and performed a subtle wiggling of her fingers to ensure she was whole again before turning to Fiore. "Th-The tea? Oh!" she flushed a little again but smiled kindly. "I-It's a special seasonal blend, Holli makes them herself. She keeps her recipe a secret but she calls this blend the 'Midwinter's Bounty'."

Rot was silent for a time. The Void was no place to go searching... yet escape was indeed possible; the proof was speaking to him at this very moment. "You synched together to survive but how did you escape a place such as that?"

[Lunderly]

Fiore paused on her tea and stared over that glazed eye expression plastered across Rot's face. And then she forced herself to look away and back into her cup. The contents slipped down her throat once again and renewed the warmth threatening to leave her chilling bones. Or would they chill? She wasn't quite sure anymore. It was better not to think too far on it.

"It's delightful! She certainly knows her stuff, that Holli. Thank you for serving it up to such perfection."

"We have our ways, our kind. And when we were two wholes instead of one our other self had powers as well. They were fading, however, keeping a corporeal form for so long when so close to death. For a moment we were quite certain we'd not made it in time."

The phoenix dipped its beak back into the water and supped on the rose water before returning to the conversation. But when it did its voice had grown somber.

"If you believe that place will hold a clue to something you seek we must warn you. To go there, in any form, is a dangerous thing to go about."

[Bone Clock]

At least the wise creature knew what the next question would be, saving Rot from having to ask. Morana was doing her best not to eavesdrop as well, instead giving another of her gentle, shy smiles at the compliment. "M-My pleasure, miss Fiore," she said cheerfully as her employer spoke to the majestic creature.

"It's someone... a dear friend I wish to find," Rot said softly, trying to keep his voice low so as not to further distress either Fiore or Morana. "You told Dr. Allister you hadn't seen my friend Copperkey in the Void, but I don't know any other place she could be." He turned and leaned back against the bar, running a hand through his hair in that habit of his. "If it wasn't for her... me, this boarding house, all my friends, none of it would exist if it wasn't for her. She vanished not too long afterwards, I was hurt and healing when she did and never even got to thank her."

He sighed, shaking his head. "The way I am now... I've no powers left that could sustain me." Silence started to stretch after he spoke until finally Morana scurried out from behind the bar and stood in front of the trio, hands clasped before her. Her cheeks were flushed but there was a hopeful look in her eyes.

"W-Would anyone like a song? I'd be happy to sing for you as you drank!" The last sentence came out wrong but she pressed on without waiting for a response. She closed her eyes and began to sing with that soothing, gentle Songstress voice, a calm and relaxing melody to mix with the flavor of the tea and rose water and add warmth to the surroundings as the snow fell silently outside.

[Lunderly]

The phoenix allowed itself the pleasure of a glance over the young man. Or rather... What seemed to be a young man. But it knew so much better than to consider appearances for long. They always held secrets not too far gone. The eyes always had their special, deceiving ways... It fluffed up its feathers and looked back on Fiore who, in turn, looked back on the bird. Something was being said, the way they glanced onto one another. But what, only they knew.

And yet all of it fell away when Morana had joined them and offered a song. Something so simple... Something so powerful. Before Fiore could shift in her seat and before her counterpart could offer a word the wondrous melody consumed them both and they stared ahead, bathed in memories and emotions.

[Bone Clock]

Rot was lost in memories as well, eyes closed but the tension in his expression gradually softening. Little by little his face relaxed and as Morana's song spiraled to a delicate close the silence that followed only strengthened the earlier melody. Slowly Rot opened his eyes, his blue gaze taking in everything around him and a little smile forming at the corners of his mouth. The song was so simple, so full of emotion, yet it helped to remind him of the present, that around him friends and tennants alike rested their weary bodies in safety.

All thanks to the past efforts of Key.

Turning towards Fiore and the phoenix he blinked in surprise, realizing they'd both been looking at him and feeling a little flushed himself before smiling politely. "Once more I must apologize," he said, his tone a bit brighter than before. "It was not my intention to become rather maudlin, it was especially not the intention to do so before one of our dear guests and in the presence of a magnificent creature such as yourself."

He gestured politely to the phoenix, only to remember he was still holding the intricate feather it had given him. Morana gazed at the treasure in awe as well, stepping close and looking from it to the phoenix. "Is it good luck? to be given a phoenix feather, I mean."

[Lunderly]

For a flicker of a second, or perhaps shorter still, there came a stretched and weary emotion across those gentle, amber eyes. Fiore steadied herself and let out a little breath. The song had been so glorious, so profound... The young woman turned to the phoenix and out stretched her palm. A glow resonated from the lady's chest and she melted and merged until one form remained between the two. A strangely pale, dark eyed beauty with small, fluttering wings extending from her back. And when she spoke her voice was just a shade deeper, with all the years of wisdom and grace the phoenix did carry.

"Ah. It appears we needed to merge for a time. We do grow weary when we are apart for too long." Fiore sat back on the barstool and eyed her wrists and then her nails. As if they themselves were something so foreign and new. She turned to Morana and that gaze between them was careful and kind.

"You worry too much, Rot, dear. We are perfectly content with you, however you might be at the time. We hold no grudge against the rush of emotions all beings must endure. And Morana, you may have one as well, if you'd like. It is good luck indeed to be holding onto a phoenix feather. And ours are among the very best."

[Bone Clock]

The two gazed in amazement after observing Fiore merge with her glorious companion, taking in this new appearance with no small amount of surprise. Rot was the first to recover, the dark eyes being the same Dr. Allister had spoken of when she had spoken with the lass. The wings were not something he had expected but Morana was already trying her hardest not to fawn over them. The stitched girl was doing her best to keep her hands at her sides after nodding happily at the offer of a feather for herself. A mere moment later she was gazing fondly at the treasure in her own hands.

"Thank you!" she trilled without a hint of her bashful stutter. With a quick curtsy, she excused herself for the evening and raced to her sewing room to gaze into the feather and marvel.

Rot watched her go and shook his head with a chuckle before moving to stand behind the bar, nodding his head in gratitude. "Thank you," he said. The words were simple yet the genuine gratitude for everything said by the two entities that made up Fiore was in those words. He truly was thankful and his eyes, old as they may be, conveyed that sentiment.

"Would you like some more tea?"

[Lunderly]

"No, but thank you. It is our other self who prefers tea. And until we have completed our inevitable merge it is unlikely we will form much of a taste for it." Watching Morana go, Fiore settled her fingers on and around the stool she was currently steated upon. With a little jerk she spun forward to face Rot, her dark eyes searching over his. "So tell us, Rot. What dark tales are lingering in those baby blues of yours, hn?"

The feathered humanoid leaned back until she could have fallen right off her perch, but instead she remained poised.

[Bone Clock]

The sudden motion was a bit of a surprise for Rot. His upper body jerked back slightly and his eyes widened for a half-second before relaxing. It took a moment to process the question as Rot took in this merged form of Fiore's with fresh eyes. Her body language seemed a melting of the human and Phoenix yet her speech was rather direct now that Morana was no longer part of the discussions.

Taking a moment, he collected himself and looked into her dark eyes before answering. "I scarcely know where to begin," he said, calm and honest. "After just over two hundred years as an immortal I've only recently been changed back to the mortal form I once was. I'm sure you can imagine the list is quite long."

[Lunderly]

Fiore smiled.

“That is a rather long life for a mortal to endure. And you're right. There's much that can happen in that frame of time. And with the way you look out and onto this world... It's certainly not been a cakewalk, we might assume?”

Slipping one leg over the other, the lady's body pushed off an invisible wall until her fingers had tapped onto the surface of the bar. It was there that they remained. For the moment.

“We can't help, but wonder who you have met and what you've endured. We did not choose your home to flutter into for no idle reason, after all.”

[Bone Clock]

She was right. More than right.

"There were many people I met," he began, eyes gazing back into the past again for only a split second. "I remember them all. Their faces. Their voices. Those I've met, those I've helped or saved..." He trailed off, a furrow on his brow. "Those I... couldn't save."

He took another moment before resting his hands on the bar counter as well, feeling older than his body truly was. "The one I'm trying to find, Arro Copperkey, she was the first to not scream at the sight of me back when my immortal body was as covered in stitches as Morana's. My arms had come off and she so expertly repaired me. She even called in a favor of an acquaintance of hers to stitch me up." He smiled sadly as the memories came, regardless of his efforts to push them back.

"When a creature calling itself the Scarecrow attacked us, when it tore me to pieces and hurt Alma, Key was the one to stand up and destroy its body. She saved us both. That was the last time we ever saw her." He paused, brow furrowed in thought this time. "After time passed and we built the boarding house, there was a preacher who told me of a vision he had, or a copper-haired lass just like Key trapped in some realm he couldn't name. The man left as suddenly as he came and I've just been left with that information, hence my conclusion the Void you told me of had to be the place."

He paused again, leaning back and taking his hands from the counter. "I'm too weak now to go into that place," he admitted. "The Scarecrow creature I mentioned has returned. Only now has my greatest fear become a more possible reality: that I may never again see Key if only to know she is well."

[Lunderly]

Fiore tilted her head as she listened, allowing her fingers to curl and uncurl over the side of the counter. Grave words indeed, this newly remade mortal spoke. The Void wasn't a place someone could remain whole in for long. Corporeal, even. Perhaps, if Fiore herself hadn't lived for so long, she might have felt a twinge of fear when she herself had gone there. But instead of following that thought Fiore followed another.

Copperkey.

The phoenix in human flesh settled on the name and sighed. Wading in the emotions that pooled over the owner of The Claw Arms, she closed her eyes a moment, paused and then looked up.

"If you were allowed the chance to find out her fate, what would you be willing to sacrifice in return?"

These weren't words Fiore let slip easy. Each one had been chosen with the care and precision one of her cunning kind were known for. She settled her gaze on those azure orbs and stared into them.

[Bone Clock]

That was not something he had expected to hear. The possibility was so remote for so long it took all of Rot's willpower to not vault the counter seize Fiore's shoulders and demand how such a thing could be possible. Looking into her dark eyes again he thought he could see the same subtle swirl of earthly colors as he saw in the phoenix.

"There's little I wouldn't sacrifice," he admitted. "Anything short of my friend's lives, I'd give whatever was needed."

This much was more than true. He'd given his limbs for such chances and he'd happily give whatever else was needed.

[Lunderly]

When Rot's reply spilled out and over their conversation, filled with renewed waves of vibrant emotion, Fiore looked away and settled the tension building in her shoulders. She'd not taken a humanoid form in so long. It was difficult to remember how they reacted to certain events. Giving out one more heavy push of air, the lovely lady slunk her body out of her seat and looked over to the doorway.

Time to think. Time to consider. Time to go.

"We... Cannot say that we can assist. Nor can we say that we will, if given the chance. But we will try and help you, Rot. You are an amusing, clever and benevolent soul. Yours is a kind that should have gone extinct so long ago. We respect that and respect what you are willing to do to find the one you care for. We shall go now and we shall think. And when we are done thinking we will consider our options. If at that time all that needs to align has then we shall see in what ways we can assist you in your struggles."

And with that Fiore headed for the door, opened it wide and departed.