An Owl's Rise

Once the connection had been established between her and the snowy owl, he said, "It is blessed to see you again. I was fraught with worry when you did not show up with the group of owls that passed the trials."

Taken aback by how fervent the snowy owl was about seeing her again, Evelyn nearly broke the connection and flew away.

She was really not good with dealing with other she did not know. Especially when they were so energetic.

Still, in the spirit of cooperation Evelyn stuck around and tried to have a normal conversation.

"Uh, thank you for concern, I guess? But yes, I am fine. I was simply scouted by one of the examiners and brought the roost a different way." Evelyn said.

Of course, she did not elaborate further as Melisandre had warned her repeatedly not to tell anyone that she was her disciple.

"I see. I knew that you were as talented as you are beautiful the first time is saw you. It is only natural that the examiners saw your potential as well." The snowy owl said while holding his head up proudly.

But while he thought he was complementing Evelyn; this only made her scrunch up her face and look at him warily.

From her experience, anyone giving out unwarranted praise like this normally wanted something, and she had no desire to get wrapped up in whatever she figured this owl was scheming.

However, before she broke the connection and moved away, the owl with very light white feathers came over as well. And far from the brash snowy owl tentatively extended a line of magical energy towards Evelyn.

Feeling that she was a much more kindred spirit, Evelyn accepted the connection while breaking the one with the snowy owl.

He looked sadden by this, but Evelyn felt like she was done speaking to him for now and would rather converse with the other owl.

"Hello, I am glad to see that you are still doing well." The owl with nearly clear feathers said.

"Same to you." Evelyn responded.

After that they just sat there in an awkward silence, before the nearly clear feathered owl spoke up again.

"I did not see you at the selection trials for this mission. How did you get accepted to the expedition?"

"Oh, my master recommended me." Evelyn responded curtly.

Seeing that their conversation was not going anywhere, Evelyn who normally took a passive approached decided that for once she would need to lead.

"So, what did these selection trials entail? Were they similar to what we had to go through to enter the Roost? Evelyn eventually asked.

Luckily this seemed to do the trick, as her acquainted began speaking happily about what they had to do in order to pass the selection trials.

About halfway through her explanation the snowy owl who was no longer wanting to be ignored, jumped in on the conversation and relayed some more details to Evelyn.

"That sounds like it was pretty tough. But I guess they only want the best of the best on this mission." Evelyn said after finding out what they had to go through to pass the trials.

Apparently, it was very rigorous, and to even participate they had to show that they could control magical energy. Which was rare for fiend beasts.

But like Evelyn, these two had mastered it. And in the snowy owl's case, he had already known before entering the Roost.

"I just realized that we have not properly introduced ourselves. The name I took upon entering the Roost is Bylur. What might yours be?" The snowy owl asked.

"My name is Evelyn. And what about you?" She said turning to the owl with nearly clear feathers.

"My name is Rehni." She said shyly.

With that they were all introduced to one another and began talking about what they had been doing since they entered the Roost.

But before they got too far, Rehni spoke up towards Evelyn to say something that had been on her mind for a long time.

"I just wanted to thank you for not attacking me during the second trial. If you had come at me intent to take my beast cores and magical plants, I know I would have lost."

Once she had said this it seemed that a big weight had been taken off her shoulders.

Apparently when she first saw Evelyn pop out of the water, she figured that was the end for her.

Even though Evelyn had actually been a tier below her at the time, Rehni had been watching her battles and knew she was stronger.

"No, I should be thanking you for not coming after me. I saw the way you use your metal threads, and I was actually not in the best shape when we came across each other. I am certain that I would have been the one to lose had you attacked." Evelyn said.

The two of them then ended up in a sort of loop praising each other's abilities until the Bylur cut in and asked Evelyn more about her powers.

"Um, well you already know I have a wind and fire affinity. I recently learned how to control my magic, so I can do a few things with it. But it is not like I can show you here. What about you? All I know is that you have ice. Do you happen to have anything else?"

Answering her question quickly, Bylur told Evelyn that along with his ice affinity he also had the rare gift of life magic.

Surprised to hear this, Evelyn asked what this entailed, and Bylur began ecstatically telling her about what he could do with it.

"I see, with you around we will not need to worry about wasting healing potions. Your powers are certainly to come in handy." Evelyn said ecstatically.

This made him feel quite proud, as he had finally done something that impressed Evelyn.

And he was about to continue singing his own praises to try and get her to complement him more, when the leaders of their expedition mission called for silence so that they could begin the meeting.