TC Ep 280 Script

scra and co inside the massive castle, everything’s dark and creepy, with busted furniture and tattered tapestries. 

ree: nah, this feels haunted, man. I don’t like this. 

erias: it probably is, considering what happened here.

erka: (looking at slices in a painting) what did happen here? why is a place like this just abandoned?

ky: a siege of traitor Redguard, led by the Director’s grandmother, stormed the castle and slaughtered the Royal Family, and any who go in their way. It’s been abandoned since. 

erias: cursed. None dare step foot here.

kieera: not like it’s easy to even get here - who builds a castle this big on the biggest mountain they can find?

lyr: …what are Redguard?

Ky: …me. I…was one. 

Scra: not the traitor kind though, obviously.

K: i - (looks at scra) yeah. I wouldn’t have done that. 

kerwik: if the Director’s mother succeeded in killing the King here, why did she end up exiled to Kooup when they won?

Farrah: Kings and figureheads only mean so much, the true power lies in the subjects. They, along with loyal Redguard, pushed the Eagle forces back to Kooup and kept them there. It should serve as a reminder to those who propagate tyranny, that there will always be resistance to it. 

ree: the guest wing will be this way, we should all get some rest before pushing for the coast. we don’t know when we’ll get another chance.

everyone choosing rooms down a corridor. Ree sticks her head into one

ree: this one’s not too dusty and decrepit. Farrah?

(farrah walks in past her looking around) F: it’ll do.

(ree looks up and realises Lyr is watching them. they make eye contact. Lyr flicks her eyes up and down ree, then walks off down the hall. ree stands there, frozen)

R: (I haven’t told farrah Lyr and I hooked up.)

F: (comes up behind her, hand on waist) I’m just going for a quick look around, there are some spare blankets in the wardrobe that aren’t too moth-eaten for you.

R: i’ll come with -

F: i won’t be long. get some rest. (walks off) 

R: (...crap.)

farrah in the kitchens, rifling through cupboards, eurippe on the other side helping.

F: nothing here either, aside from 50 yr old preserves. I didn’t expect anything obviously, but now we really can’t stay any longer than needed.

E: i don’t know why we would want to, anyway. This place is evil.

F: yeah, well, evil things happened here. It sticks in the walls, sometimes. is it strange, seeing the history of your ancestors in this state?

E: i - uh - yes, you could say that (looks away). 

F: ah! (pulls out an iron pan) this one’s not too rusty either. Here - help me find something to scrub with and we’ll sort these out. 

the two of them sitting and scouring pots.

F: thank icarus the water pump still works. we need to find a mountain spring or something though before we set off. hopefully the seasonings left in the cupboards arent too moldy.

E: …why do you all praise his name if you do not believe in his divinity?

F: who, Icarus? I think it’s just more of a turn of phrase than anything nowadays, isn’t it? We hear our parents say it, and repeat it in turn. Lot’s of things are learnt with mindless repetition. Are you…from Kooup, or here?

E: K-Kooup. 

F: ah, so you’re familiar with the Murders there, then. You didn’t initiate fully, though? No tattoos.

E: I - uh, no, I didn’t.

F: it’s hard, that life. When you’re hated just for existing. I’m sorry you had to go through all that. it must be nice being considered a real Avian here, for once. 

E:...your wing…how did -

F: Doves. They mutilated me, because someone told them I was trying too hard to be something i wasn’t. Fortunately, things like that only fuel me. They’ll never see what’s coming for them.

E: (stands) I - uh - have to go. I think i am more tired than i realised.

F: Goodnight. Thanks for helping.

(dove pounds on lyr’s room, she opens and the dove rushes in, wretching out the broken window.)

Eur: that sparrow - she was -

Lyr: (looks away) you figured it out, then.

eur: how can you just - stand there, knowing you did that?! How can you face her, be near her - 

lyr: it wasn’t only me. you are just as guilty.

eur: m-me?! I had nothing to do with - I didn’t -

lyr: you knew it happened, though. that it was happening. doing nothing, or using someone else's actions for your own gain,  is the same as wielding the knife.

eur: no. (drops to the floor) it can’t be. it can’t be. 

ky finds scra in the portrait gallery, bigger than lord e’s and ky’s combined.

S: it’s bigger than yours, even.

K: well, yeah. when your bloodline goes back to Icarus, there’re a lot of generations to get through.

S: all these people…are in my blood. They’re family, but they’re all strangers to me.

K: family…can be a lot of different things.

S: I believe that. (offers hand to ky). will you come with me? there’s one more place i need to see.

ky and Scra are in the throne room. all the windows are blown out, the mountain air streams through it. There are two thrones, one bigger, slashed to ribbons. chunks of the walls are burnt or missing. arrows stick out here and there. in the center is a flag pole, a cyan flag with the symbol from the director’s brooch on it, tattered with age. it ripples in the wind. there are black smears on the cobbled stone floor at its base. The boys stand there, staring. They leave.

ky and scra sit in the small chapel in the pews, rising sunlight streaming through stained glass showing icarus falling with black wings.

S: the iconography is different everywhere we go.

K: people use other’s beliefs and twist them to their own advantage. Did Icarus really use Crow feathers to fashion the first wings? Dove, as the Doves would have you believe? In the version of the story where he was stuck in a tower in the sea, surely sea bird feathers were all he had access to? Maybe he was a Seagull, afterall.

S: or Osprey.

K: (snorts) Perhaps. It’s hard to ever be sure, when the tales have been told so many times, by so many mouths. I believe Avians were purely the product of gradual evolution, myself. 

S: not quite as fun though

K: not quite.

(everyone enters from behind them)

Ree: none of us can sleep. This place is way too creepy.

S(leans back, looking up at the glass): yeah. Let’s get out of here. this place is full of ghosts.

(they all leave. Eurippe hangs back, looking at the black-winged icarus)