Exordium Fax PV Closed

Mariah, at 1115 sharp, had stowed away from the castle, attempting to remain undetected. Kaegan was a confusing creature, blurting out demands, testing her to achieve ends she didn't understand. It made her wary and indignant. So then that raised the question of why she was here. Why did she stand outside the stables where the hippogriffs were kept? Curiosity? Maybe. Possibly. Mostly. She couldn't deny she was intrigued. So she looked about and, after a few moments, found a piece of parchment telling her where to go. She put the paper back and turned, following his directions.

Soon she came upon the tree in question, the flowers spread around a hollow log. She stopped at said log and look about her. Mariah caught notice of the Raven claw in his branch.

"So what's with all the fiasco?" She asked, her arms folding over her chest. "Has anyone told you that you're a rather cryptic kid?" She looked up at him, her hazel eyes narrowing expectantly, but it wasn't clear what she wanted. Mostly an answer, but also for him to come down from there so she could gouge his expression, understand the boy that was difficult to be understood.

Celynne glanced at the moon in the sky, almost full but not quite. It was bright tonight, thankfully, as she made her way carefully through the grass by the lake, keeping her footsteps light and silent as she scanned the Great Lake.
She'd never seen it in the dark before, but it was even more beautiful at night than in the daytime, with the silver moonlight reflecting off of the surface and becoming distorted into a streams of flickering white like a giant moving sheet of lace, and stars dotted the sky, a view she'd seen myriad times during Astronomy but never in its fullness. Her back still smarted from the chaotic duel yesterday, though she was certain Kaegen had suffered too, even if the duel had been friendly. Of course, Cel was also fairly sure she wasn't supposed to be out this late after curfew.
Perhaps the bright moonlight wasn't to her advantage after all.
In any case, she had solved the riddle quickly and done as instructed in the dead of night, then found the handwritten note at the Hippogriff stables. She hadn't brought it with her, but she remembered its description clearly. Beside... a log? The one that had once been laying strangely in the middle of the field, though she hadn't commented on it. It was difficult to tell the colors of the nighttime Grounds with so little light, but she narrowed here eyes, searching, searching...
Oh, there. She had been looking in the wrong direction, not thinking it would be so close to her already.
As the handle of the dagger stashed in the sash at her eyes rubbed against her waist, Cel treaded gently over to the little tree, careful not to step on the flowers.
Another girl was already there, speaking to Kaegen... that was Mariah, the girl she had met in the Leaky Cauldron before Hogwarts had begun, wasn't it!
"Cryptic as he is, I'm sure there is an explanation," Cel asserted, sliding into view. "Come down from that branch, if you could. It's difficult to see you from here, and I don't feel like climbing the tree with bruises, even if you decided to." The words weren't accompanied by any annoyance, just a jocose tone that matched a small smile.

They came, that was something at least. Kaegen had been prepared to just sit there all night with no one showing up. They didn't have a reason to, what was the point of them coming, there was nothing to gain. Except for one thing. The satisfaction of curiosity. That one driving force was enough, or so Kaegen thought. The desire to pursue that which is interesting was a driving factor behind the human race. The wizard race as well, assuming they were any different.
Kaegen hopped off the branch. His grey scarf seemed to float along with the slightest gust of wind, blowing along like a grey wisp. His eyes shot back and forth, looking at everything as fast as they could, taking in as much information as possible. He hyped himself up, for a few seconds, getting more power to his vocal chords. Getting ready to be louder, more assertive. When he finally did speak, it was less of a breeze and more of a black cloud, filled with power that you couldn't see, but sort of knew was there. It was still quiet, that much hadn't changed. But it had a direction.
"Do you want to go up? Go above everything, gain whatever it is you want to gain. Shine like a flaming meteor, but remain unseen. Your brilliant war cries heard only by those by your side. This is the dream of the silens fax. I extend membership to both of you, for separate reasons. Oh, one more thing. The thestral represents this group. Think of it as a mascot."

Mariah's eyes widened as Kaegan spoke. Meteors? War? Memberships? Mascots? The test was for a club! And she had passed... Much of Kaegan's past odd behavior was starting to fall into place. But this club didn't sound like your average school group. In fact, she doubted any legal club would be allowed to meet 30 minutes to midnight out on school grounds. Had she any lick of sense, she would turn on her heel and march right into the school, her dorm, and bed. She'd close her eyes and forget she had met Celynne in the tavern and Kaegan in the trophy room.

However, it seemed Mariah's sense had abandoned her. She wanted to be here. If this was what it took not to be another faceless being tucked in the corners of society believing they were special but dying nobody, then how could she refuse? This was how she, for lack of a better way to describe, sprouted those color changing wings and feather crown upon her head.

Mariah said nothing, but she stood taller, less defensive and more open to what happened next. She supposed she could have yelled at Kaegan for not being outright, but that would have defeated the purpose. There was no denying his tests still made her feel indignant. They showed him nothing he wouldn't have found out with a little more time spent in her company, but she was willing to push it aside. She was willing to let bygones be bygones.

As the boy spoke, eyes flashing like lanterns, Cel leaned against the trunk of the tree, ignoring the pain that lashed at her back as the bark pressured, raising a celery stick-- she, of course, would bring one for every occasion-- to tap her lower lip in consideration. The thestral: a symbol of death and of darkness, but also a symbol of what else there was, out of the world she and others existed in, that humans still had yet to accomplish and understand.
Could this be simply the chimaera of a hopeful eleven year old mind, or could it be-- or at least become-- something more? Well, everyone present was only a child, including herself. But youth might hold power as well, sometimes more so than the grown.
Silens Fax. She'd taken Latin, even if she wasn't exactly fluent, back in Oxford... home, she guessed she might call it, even if it had never spoken to her, just as no place ever did. Silens, a silent death. Fax, a fiery comet. A fitting name.
"I'm listening," Cel responded, careful to lace the words with nonchalance. If she seemed too eager, then her backing out could be difficult or even impossible. But it wouldn't hurt to see what could come next. "Any... plans... for this?" The girl took a tiny bite of her celery stick. "Plans as in direction or symbolism."

Did he have plans? Oh, yes he truly did. Not exactly detailed plans, but that part didn't matter. They were plans to go as high up as he could possibly go. He would reach the very top of the world, and then keep going. He would have the power to survive everything, to survive anything. All he had to do is find out how. That was going to be the only hard part. And that was why he had silens fax.
"We're going up, straight up. As the unknown protects me, it will probably protect this group as well. You all have your own goals, but all of them are somewhere higher up, above where we are now. We'll reach all of them, sooner or later. We even have a base."
Hopping backwards onto the log, Kaegen reached down and pulled up on the stub of a branch, lifting a round section of the log. The log was big, partially sunk into the mud. Big enough to stand in, and have room above you head. There were little shelves carved into the wall, as well as a few designs. A curtain of roots separated the inside of the log from a small cave. The carving was of a flower with a single petal. The other one was a stylized thestral head. The shelves were covered in worthless treasures. Shiny rocks and interesting leaves, a few dried flowers and odds and ends aplenty.
"No one gets to know"
He assumed they could piece the other pieces of the puzzle together, such as why no one else got to know. "If you see someone worthy, then tell me."
That was all he had to say on the matter, he wouldn't be able to use silens fax quite yet, but he would.
And when he did...

Mariah looked at the "base" hidden under the old log and grinned. It was rather neat how it was set up but she wondered what would happen to it when it rained. It was comical how she had just gotten inducted into a "super secret" organization and she was worried their clubhouse was going to get flooded during a bad storm. Mariah chuckled to herslef but didn't mention her concerns. Instead she looked to Celynne and Kaegan, eyebrows raised.

"I hope you don't mind my asking," she said. "But exactly what will we be up to? We can't exactly become a world famous organization at the age of eleven can we?"

Maybe it came off a little critical, but it was a legitimate question. Certainly the children couldn't do anything that would land them right up there by the golden trio. There was nothing that Mariah knew of that was going on with the school that needed three children to swoop to the rescue. The most she could see them doing was scoring top marks in all their classes and maybe gaining a few trophies for services to the school if they somehow stopped a freak accident in the making.

Cel inhaled sharply as the section of log was lifted, revealing the hollow interior, inscribed with two beautifully carved illustrations and wildlife strewn in the hollow shelves as decoration, she supposed. It was a masterful handiwork, especially for one person.
Mm... hey, was that the log she'd seen in the middle of the field and bumped into with her mind buried deep in the midst of a very good book a pretty long while ago?
No matter.
"Well," Cel began a reply to Mariah's sensible--unlike her mind and probably Kaegen's too-- question. "We can't become world famous in an instant, that much is true. But from what it sounds like, that isn't the point, is it? The Silens Fax is something to help us get there, with each other to rely on." She placed a hand on the bark of the tree. "One step at a time." The girl drummed one finger on the rough surface with every word. "Am I right?"
Maybe they'd be nothing. Maybe they'd be everything. Maybe they'd fall apart. But there was no harm in simply trying, was there?
...Right?
No, there wouldn't be. And in any case, she'd probably already expressed herself enough as invested. No backing out anymore-- not that she particularly wanted to, but it was always good to have her choices open.
Besides, she could always just run away if she wanted or needed to.
"So: if we're to put this group, this death comet, into action, we need something else. Something to unite the group further, or at least help to give off a united ambience. We need symbolism."

"Yes, you're right. I have a song, but I'm not going to sing it. Are either of you good at art?"
The boy passed a sheet of parchment with a string around it, in the fashion of a scroll. It had lyrics on it, but no sheet music.
'The silent deep, shrouded in cold To rise above the mortal fold We’ve taken time on winding road Born from ash, becoming gold The winds were roaring through the night The shadows move to take flight The comet red, its brilliance spread Their eyes like torches blazing with light'
With any luck one of them would be able to sing it. He was more worried about the ideas for a emblem. He had that carving of a thestral, maybe she could base it off of that? Honestly anything would be fine with him, as long as it gave off the proper feeling. That was what emblems were for, to convey an idea or feeling. This one was going to convey an eerie power. Or at least he hoped it would. Silens fax wouldn't gather often, just whenever something came up that required their attention. It was like a commando force of a few people. All with the goal of moving up.