The young king marinated in his lapse in grace (as he did with surprising frequency)—and stared around the room. It was a shadowed little reverie, though light stole in from each broad window. Ancient refuse was littered throughout the whole of it. Piles of it were huddled closer to the walls, dusty and untouched for ages. A few were strewn across the ground where he assumed other Gembound had rifled through and scavenged.

He drew himself to his feet and inhaled. There was a strangely bloody scent in the air, but not a trace of it. Striding over to a pile of strange objects yielded no clarification other than it being stronger. Aure lowered his head to sniff again, catching the odor with increasing intensity; but, it was... earthy, too. Different, not all that akin to sanguine. Ears pricked up as he straightened and extended a talon to sift through the scrap, careful not to get close to any sharp-looking edges (not that there were any with the passage of time.)

Were any of these pieces new and shiny like those that strange creature in Pisces brought in the colder cycles, the wyvern'd wonder if he'd placed them here.

A claw hooked around the curve of something, and he tugged it free. It was more coppery-smelling than the others, littered with the peculiar, flaky redness of the others. Bright eyes stared down at it, tracing the rough and bent points of it. Like a set of claws, he mused, looking at the barbed—but dull—points. There was a central one, and one to the left. It seemed like there once was a third, but it was missing. What remained of it was a scorched-black bit. The whole thing was no longer than his own face. Judging from the hole in the bottom, it might've been attached to something else once.

Curious!

Aure was quickly learning another new something: chipping away at the flaky redness wore at his claws. But, just leaving it in such a gnarled state just wouldn't do. It lacked his own touch, but could he really expect to apply it when it was so... ? No, no—it wouldn't do.

And so, he paced around it, considering his options: reaching for lightning he wasn't sure was there anymore; calling on blustering wind; plain washing it. There wasn't enough confidence in his abilities for him to be so precise, so the first two options were completely out of the window. A blunted claw lifted to scratch at his ear, shedding fungal dander that clung to him. Ah!

The young King twisted, shuffling his wings and rattling the quills of each feather, shedding the spores along the metallic object's surface.

With that, all that should be required was a magical flick of the wrist. Bright eyes widened, and he envisioned the blossoming of fruiting bodies with intentions to chew through the oxidization beneath them. They could be willed to consume flesh—his mother'd said as much, at least—and... well, it was a reach, but Aure had an inkling of faith in it. A claw extended towards it, resting on the surface with digits outspread to maximize the area of contact.

Mold crept across the metal in a thin sheet, immediately overpowering that bloody scent with its own muskiness. It was white and filamentous, and—"no!" The wyvern cut off his magic, even as the fungus swarmed over the broken trident-head. He danced away from it, head held high, mouth shut tight. His nostrils flared out in time with his feathers. Logical circuits flipped back on in time, but...

... for a moment, he'd thought...

Breaths hitched even as he urged himself in and out, in and out. The singe of his feathers ached as much as his shoulders and his gut from the constant sinking feeling, but he reached—desperate. It was high time for them to return, to listen. Aure peeled his gaze away from the conjured mold; it was doing its work plenty well. He'd not made it manifest. It was a matter of convincing his own body that that was the case, and his brain trusted his heart more than his eyes, any day.

A weak phosphorescence flickered into being, and the Pavlovian response kicked into gear. Bright eyes fixed on it, ears pricking up slowly. His beak turned into a wan smile, and his tail flicked. His subconscious desires had it bobbing up and down, dancing a lazy circle around him. It was a monotonous, rhythmic motion.

All leading to—

—a shot in the dark.

Aure cast his light towards the trident-piece. For just the briefest moments, it took the shape of a bolt of fire, through mere speed. There hadn't been a moment where it exuded a dangerous heat. Bright eyes stared on in abject disappointment as the wisp comically seized back into a ball and "bounced" harmlessly off it.

He sighed, staring at it. A teasing smirk lifted the corner of his beak, "none of you listen once I'm done just looking at you." Perhaps, that was something to work on.

The wisp bobbed once in a mock response. He rolled his eyes and muttered under his breath, "talking to my own magic, goodness." Bright eyes glanced at it dancing into his periphery, half-expecting it to make a beeline for his hide out of subcutaneous spite.

It did.

Aure squealed and cringed away from the impact, dispelling the apparently-furious wisp with a wave of his smoldering wing. He dropped on instinct, patting the limb against the floor. Bright eyes watered, and... maybe it would be best to nurse that for a while.
sigh

His teeth interlocked and gnashed against one another as he assumed the fetal position. The wing clutched close to himself was sooty-black. A few more of the barbs were chewed through, and he could tell that it would be a bit of an adjustment. Bright eyes glanced towards the moldy trident-head, and he let out a breathy sort of "hah." The very one he'd done this for would be the one looking him over with sharp, critical eyes.

Aure shifted, placing his feet beneath himself, and laid his head across his good wing. Now that he was lying down, the magical exhaustion was setting in. It made his head heavy, and—fortunately—overwhelmed the stinging pain of ghostfire with a dull ache. He preferred it infinitely more.

It was easier to rest and sleep with that pain.

No sooner than his eyes closed, he was out.
* cancels solo *
exit to sleep for a baby bit