An Owl's Rise

Wearing a scowl on her face, Melisandre exuded an almost hostile aura as she led the way back to her estate. Clearly whatever Silas did in order to keep Otis' acceptance as a member of the Roost had heavily upset her.

No one dared ask her anything during the flight back from the Hall Masters' meeting chambers, and they could all only wonder what exactly had happened.

When they finally arrived back at Melisandre's estate, she held a meeting with everyone in attendance to tell them what had occurred and plan their next step.

"To start, Silas must have called in a large number of favors just to spite me in this issue. He got multiple other Hall Masters on his side and brough up long forgotten precedent from when the Roost was still fairly new." Melisandre said, practically grumbling.

She then explained that far in the past, long before her time, the admittance of any new owl required the permission of three of the Roost's top brass.

This rule had not been put into practice for centuries, but Silas had decided to bring it up and used it as his main argument for why Melisandre could not push Otis' membership through on her own.

Normally doing something like this would have only gotten him annoyed looks and a quick dismissal, but with the supporters Silas had prepared ahead of time he was able to push his agenda.

"So, I won't be able to get Otis to join the Roost any time soon. Thanks to Silas I need to get the approval of two other Hall Master and while I can call in some favors of my own, it will still take time, since we will apparently need to go and assess Otis before he can ever enter the Roost, which means that three Hall Masters will need to leave at the same time. That is not something easy to schedule. And it does not help that Silas insisted that he be brought along to make sure that as he said, 'Proper procedures are followed.' Damn I want to wring his neck right now." Melisandre said her anger obvious.

For any other special admittance to the Roost, it would have only needed to be brought up briefly and the Hall Master wanting to bring a new owl in would have no problems doing so of their own volition.

However, due to Silas' interference Otis was not going to have and easy time of it.

"Could we not just go over Silas' head?" Evelyn asked.

If Silas and the Hall Masters he had gotten on his side were causing a problem, then they could just go to the highest authority in the Roost, and get Minerva to quash the issue.

Unfortunately, Melisandre could only shake her head at Evelyn's suggestion.

"No this is not a matter for the leader of the Roost to deal with. She has far more important things on her plate than dealing with the admittance of a new owl. Perhaps if your friend was at the calamity rank it would be another story, but for just a mere newly evolved tyrant rank there is no way I can ask for our leader's assistance." Melisandre said.

As much as se would enjoy watching Silas squirm if she brought in Minerva, calling on the leader of the Roost for something so small would tarnish Melisandre's reputation, and make the current Hall Masters seem highly dysfunctional.

"Why does this guy even have it out for the two of you in the first place?" Bylur said, a look of displeasure on his face.

Evelyn though had no clue why Silas did not like her or Melisandre, and could only shrug her shoulders.

On the other hand, Melisandre grimaced, she knew exactly why Silas was periodically getting in her way and harassing Evelyn as a way to get to her.

"I suppose that I might as well tell you all about what happened between me and Silas in the past." Melisandre said, sitting up straight and getting ready to tell a long story.

Everyone looked towards her intently and from the expressions on Anneli's and Katrina's face, neither of them knew about Melisandre's history either.

"Back when I was still only at the awakened rank, I was actually on a team with Silas. Back then we did not go out of our way to antagonize each other, and I would say we were even good friends." Melisandre said, shocking all of them with this revelation.

Evelyn had figured that they had a long-standing rivalry and had always been enemies, but never once did she think that the two of them had been allies.

Continuing on, Melisandre told them all of some of their exploits together as a team, but things obviously did not end well.

"During our rise up the Ranking Hall, we got approached by a large faction that wanted us to join and Silas thought that it would be a good opportunity, but I declined, and our other team member did as well. This left Silas with no choice but to also refuse, since we were wanted as a team. Only later did I learn that just how malicious this faction could be." Melisandre said, a look of sorrow coming over her face.

Just like what had happened with Evelyn, this faction decided to antagonize Melisandre and her team, and on one such occasion when they were outside the roost, they riled up a bunch of beasts and led them to where Melisandre and her team had been resting.

Both her and Silas managed to escape, but their other teammate did not and ended up dying in the battle.

"After that we were more careful and the two of us spent a great deal of time planning and getting stronger so that we could crush the faction that killed our friend. Eventually we were able to bring them down and not a single remnant of that faction remains, but our friend, Ava was still dead. This hit Silas harder than it did me, since I am certain that he was in love with her. He was almost manic in his quest to destroy that faction, though, I was not much better."

Once they had wiped out the faction that opposed them Melisandre and Silas stuck together for a bit longer, but it all changed when Silas tried making advances at Melisandre.

Now that his love was gone he wanted to try and fill the void with his next closest friend, but Melisandre rejected him, seeing him more as a little brother than a romantic interest.

"Ever since I rejected him, Silas has been antagonistic towards me. He has never done anything to truly harm me, but he enjoys annoying me where he can. I believe he does this mostly just to get my attention, and he clearly still has some level of respect for me in his own twisted way." Melisandre said, giving her own opinion of her current relationship with Silas.

And from what little interactions he had with Silas Evelyn could see that Melisandre was probably right.

When she first arrived in the Roost, Silas flat out told her that she was not worthy to be Melisandre's apprentice.

Even now he wants to see Otis to make sure that he was qualified to enter the Roost under Melisandre's endorsement.

"That is the general gist of my relationship with Silas. I honestly wish I could just ignore him, but since he is another Hall Master that is impossible. In this case he has pretty much already won. I would recommend that we stop trying to get Otis into the Roost right now. Silas is just going to turn it into a bigger mess and it could snowball out of control if we continue to push back. Otis would garner plenty of unwanted attention and by association so would all of you. In my option our best bet now is just to wait until the normal trials to enter the Roost are held again and have Otis participate then. Silas is not the one going to be in charge and the Hall Master who is owes me a big favor. I will make sure that Otis is evaluated fairly and allowed into the Roost. Not even Silas will be able to interfere with the Roost's scheduled recruiting."

Sighing Evelyn had been hoping to get Otis into the Roost in order to use his status and power as a tyrant rank beast to help her and her companions accelerate their growth.

Having Otis onboard would have allowed them many more options than they currently have.

Sadly it seemed that getting him in now was going to be more than a hassle than it was worth.

"You are right Melisandre. We will just have to wait until Otis can enter the roost normally. It is only a few months' time, we will get by fine." Evelyn said, her shoulders slumped in disappointment.