The two of them arrived at a gritty little beach after the sun went down. Ark hovered over the ground for a second before dropping Ceallach in a heap and landing with about as much grace.

"The nearest town should be a little further," the angel said, attempting to stand. Ceallach caught him before he stumbled. "...But I won't be able to tell what direction it's in until it's light."

Ceallach spared a moment to look around him. Beyond the beach were hills, and what seemed to be be forests beyond those. "Do you know where we are now?" he asked, turning back to Ark.

"South," said Ark. "...I think."

"Have you been here before?"

"No, but I studied a map before I met you."

This did not reassure Ceallach very much. He started to walk, guiding the angel's steps as well.

"Are you looking for shelter?"

"Yes, that's the idea."

"Good," Ark said, leaning against Ceallach's arm. "I trust you won't mind that I leave that job up to you."

By the time that Ceallach had found a little cave-like outcropping for them to wait the night out in, the angel had fallen asleep. Ceallach put Ark down, gathered some leaves to even the ground, and ate a bit of bread - he was too excited for much else - before curling up next to him. The angel's wings were cool and soft when they brushed by his arm.

----

After waking, Ark stretched, winced slightly, and said, "I'm going to see where we landed from above. It's important we know if we're nearby, after all..."

Ceallach noticed the sign of pain from the other and frowned. "...Can you really see that far?" he asked.

"Of course. The Seeing Blind is very powerful," Ark said, tapping the edge of the blindfold. "Stay here, where I can find you. I won't be long," Ark said, and then took off.

Ceallach watched the angel wing away and sighed. He couldn't fly, so he wouldn't be much use to Ark anyway. Instead of dwelling on that for too long, he took this time to investigate the soil and the trees nearby, as his only experiences with them before were bound in books. Some trees hardly came up to his chin, but others were so tall that he could not see where their branches ended. He stared at what he could perceive of their ends and reached for the little pockets of light that fell out of the holes. He caught a few dust motes shining in the sunlight before the joy faded away - there was only so much playing he could do before realizing how silly it was playing by himself and ached for the company of his usual playmate. Even if she wasn't far away, in some direction that he wasn't completely sure of, she wouldn't have been able to appreciate the dappled light in her state. When he thought of that, he sat on a curling root and sighed.

He sat and waited, picking out twigs and leaves that had stuck in his hair. It didn't clear out the tangles it had accumulated, but at least it looked neater. Then he wondered what he could see from the treetops and stood. After all, the limbs of the bigger trees looked more than strong enough to hold his weight and were spaced in a way that seemed to beg that someone scale them - and he knew he could pull his own weight up short distances, at least. He reached, struggled for the lowest of one of these limbs, and managed to pull himself up to it. Instead of a clean hoist, as he had hoped, it ended up being more of a scramble to get up. He was not doing a very good job and he knew it.

A flapping noise behind him told him of the angel's return. "Well," Ark said after he landed. "You seem like you're making a right fool of yourself."

"I've never done this before," Ceallach said defensively. He slid off the branch and wiped his stinging hands on his vest.

"If you say so," the angel smiled. "Anyway, it seems that we're not as far south as I thought."

"Is that a bad thing?"

"Not really. As a matter of fact, I saw signs of a village not far away, so it may have been for the better. There's something very interesting there, as well. If you're ready, we should head there now."

Now that Ceallach had time to think of his own state of being he realized something. "I'm hungry. Wait here, I had some food..."

Ark's wings fluttered briefly as Ceallach wandered away. "When we get to the village, there will be something you'll need to do before anything else. While you take care of that, I'll see what I can do about food and board. Alright?"

"How would you be able to...wait, something I need to do?"

"Yes. We've got quite a bit of luck, actually, since the village has just the place for it. Don't worry, I'll show you where to go, and it shouldn't take long," Ark said, starting to walk. After a few steps, he paused and turned around. "How presentable are you right now?"

Ceallach looked down at himself and the trail of hair behind him. It was as untidy as ever, but he had cleared it up some - something that could not be said about his clothes and feet. He gave the soles of his feet a quick dusting and answered, "Good enough."

"It'll have to do. Leave all the talking to me, and everything should be fine."

Ceallach couldn't find any reason to protest, so he followed. As they walked, they found a dirt road, which they followed into the village. He was totally unprepared for the sight that greeted him. He knew that villages were supposed to be smaller than towns, but what they approached seemed large enough. Seeing so many people milling about nearly made Ceallach dizzy. Even though there were buildings, and he knew that those were enclosed spaces, everything felt so open. If he looked up, all he could see was the sky. Not the roof of a tower, nor the leaves of trees. When he looked down to rest his neck, he would see so many people again that it was almost frightening.

"Someone's bound to be able to help Aisling," he said, taking a deep breath. Even with that hopeful thought, it was difficult to actually approach the people. He stayed rooted to where he was.

A woman with a flour-dusted apron noticed the two of them waiting and hurried over, stopping a few steps away from them. "Welcome to Talfal, good sirs," she said, curtsying. "Apologies if you were waiting long. What brings you here?"

Ark made no movement to acknowledge the woman's curtsy. "I am Ark, a demonic protection ward inspector. I'd like you to tell me about the current state of wards in the area, but first, my associate here has some business to attend to. Would you point him towards the celestial portal?"

"It's the marble building near the well there," said the woman.

Ark nodded his thanks. "Very good, one moment please." The woman took curtsied again and moved away, casting glances toward them now and then. Ark turned towards Ceallach. "Alright, that building is where you need to be headed. Ask for someone who can see if you have a title."

Ceallach knew what a title was - a 'second name' that granted power - through the tower's stories and poems, but the idea that he might have one seemed absurd. He hadn't done anything to get one, and he didn't possess any of the wondrous powers they were supposed to grant, in any case. "What makes you think I might have a title?"

"I have a feeling. Having one might make the task of awakening Aisling easier, at least."

"Why? Nothing I tried ever helped."

Ark sighed and tilted his head. "We will need great power to break Aisling's curse. If you have a title, you have power. It might not be what we need, but I would like to know whether or not you have anything, at least."

Ceallach stared at the celestial portal, which looked somewhat out of place amongst the various wood and stone buildings. "Are you coming with me?"

"Inspecting the wards will take some time. Afterwards, I'll be making arrangements for a short stay here. You should be fine on your own," Ark said with a smile. Then he joined the woman and they walked away, speaking to each other in low voices.

The celestial portal had a gated entrance made of brass. It swung silently open when Ceallach came near, allowing him to go down a path into a wide white chamber with many corridors. Sculptures of flowing, flying shapes stood next to five marble desks of different colors - pink, blue, green, amber, and white. At each of these desks were winged people under hoods, some attending to a villager, some brushing their long, curly hair or their wings, and all wearing blindfolds. He followed the lines of one of the statues with his eyes before remembering with a start what he was there for. He chose the winged person who looked the least busy and approached.

Once she had dismissed the villager she was talking to, she raised her head and leaned forward to address Ceallach. The scattered flecks of silver in her wings arranged themselves into loose circles. "Hail, guest," she said. "What are you here for?"

The hood obscured most of the angel's features, but he noted that the design on her blindfold was made up of hard, square shapes and black lines. "I'm here to see if I have a title."

"That would be Mortal Records," said the winged person, catching one of her curls with a finger. She arranged a few things on her desk. "Present your palm."

He lifted up a hand. She pressed a small moist stone to it and sat back. The stone left a rounded sigil on his palm.

"Mortal Records is the second corridor to your right," she said. Then she turned to speak with another villager and seemed to completely forget Ceallach was ever there. He waited a minute or two for a farewell, frowned, and left for the direction indicated. Did people, at least the winged ones, not value goodbyes? Even if he and Aisling knew they would see each other soon since the tower kept them together, they always gave some sort of farewell, or acknowledged they were departing. There were many things to get used to.

Once he began walking down the corridor, the light began to dim and continued to darken in stages. After a bit of this, a thought occurred to him: the celestial portal had not looked very big on the outside. How could such a long corridor fit in such a building? Even in the deepening darkness he was certain he was not ascending or descending. The entrance chamber with the desks and sculptures was much more expansive than he would have thought, as well...

A rush of wind blew past him and he came upon a large wooden door with the same rounded sigil that was on his hand. There were no other marks or additions to the door - not even a handle. He put his hands on the door to push it and the sigil on the door glowed. It opened into a small, windowless room lit by a great proliferation of candles. On a tall column near the back of the room lay a huge book open towards the middle. Behind this, on another column, was seated a young winged woman.

"Please, do come in," she said. The room gently reverberated with soft echoes, and the candles' flames danced. Ceallach wanted to watch the movement of the lights, but he remembered what he was there for and approached, looking up at the angel seated on the column. Unlike Ark or the other winged people, whose wings were mostly black, hers were a deep blue, like twilight. But, like Ark, this one had fine features and looked like a small thing, though that could have been because that she was at some distance from him. She seemed to smile when she realized he was staring at the gentle red swooping shapes on her blindfold.

"Greetings. I am Weiss, and I will be handling your inquiry. What is it you would like to know?" she asked.

"I'm here to see if I have a title," Ceallach said.

"Your full name, please."

"Ceallach." He paused. "...That's all."

"Hm. That is an old name. Please spell it?"

"C-e-a-l-l-a-c-h..." he said, watching Weiss as she noted this on a small chalk tablet.

"Ceallach, beginning with C," she said to the book in front of her. The pages turned on their own for a few seconds. "...You have indeed a title. 'The Brave Princess of the Tower on the Sea'."

The "brave" part of the title pleased him, but the other part surprised him. "...A princess?" Ceallach asked.

"Yes, that is how it is writ," Weiss said, looking up from her book to glance at him. "There are cases when the title does not match the person's gender, because of inheritance. That does not affect the title's power."

"But...I'm not a princess," he said, stepping towards the columns. Both of them looked too smooth to climb, even if he wrapped his hair around them - which was a shame, since he wanted to see the book's pages for himself. "Since, well, I'm not a girl. But anyway, I'm not a princess, or a prince, or any kind of royalty, I think. I just lived in the tower."

Weiss tilted her head at him and seemed to ponder how best to respond, her expression somewhere between exasperation and sympathy. "Titles are...given. Drummed up and thought when someone of power obtains power. It is...a way of organization. Because they are given to people with power, they are names of power. Lord, Princess, Baron, Lion, and Fox are a few that I have seen, with appropriate signifiers for the individual in question. Is that clear?"

"I...suppose. Who gave me my title?"

"The original holder of the title gave it to you, since it is a woman's title," Weiss folded her hands and placed her chin on them.

"But no one gave me that title."

She frowned behind her blindfold. "Titles are not passed without express consent on both sides...unless one party was just born, or had just died. Someone must have given it to you."

Ceallach pondered this for a little while. "The only other person who might have known me when I was born is Aisling, but I don't think she gave me my title. We're the same age, I think."

"Aisling?" Weiss repeated. "Please spell this?"

He spelled it out so that the winged woman could consult her book once again. What she found did not seem to please her much, since her expression did not much improve.

"There must have been an error somewhere," she said, flipping between entries. "You...both have the same title. That does not make sense..."

Ceallach brightened. "So Aisling is a Brave Princess as well!"

"She's marked as such. But it cannot be right," Weiss tipped her head at her book. "At least, it is very unusual."

He craned his head upwards, trying to have a look at the book. "Does it say there somewhere what my title does?"

"Doubtless it is some kind of small talent, as your influence is not listed as very large. Is the Tower located near any elemental poles? Perhaps that would give you a hint as to your ability," she said, turning back to his page. "Listed here as 'heat manipulation through contact'. Would you like me to do additional research on the subject?"

After being told that titles were indicators of power, being told he only had a "small talent" deflated Ceallach until he could feel a dull anger in his belly. It felt a little worse than nothing. "No, that'll be fine."

Weiss tilted her head again and waited for him to say anything else. Eventually, she said, "...Can I help you with anything else?"

"Not that I know of."

He turned to leave. Before he felt the wind on his face again, he thought he heard her say "Good luck", with the echoes following him into the corridor for some time.

Ark was waiting for him outside the building. "Good news!" he said. "I managed to secure a room for us at the inn. I had them set something aside for you to eat as well."

Ceallach blinked at Ark for a few seconds. "How did you do that?"

"It was a small compensation for the work I did on the wards," Ark smiled, putting a finger to his lips as if for silence. "Besides, it is hard for people to say no to a celestial's demands."

Ceallach didn't know what to make of that for a moment. "I guess it's good that you're on my side, then."

Ark laughed and led him to the inn. As they were crossing the village, he asked, "So what about your title?"

"Oh," Ceallach put a hand to his forehead. "Yes, I do have one."

"Well? What is it?"

Ceallach did not want to tell him, since he wasn't in the mood to chance a negative reaction, but Ark had stopped and didn't look like he was going to move until he knew. "...The Brave Princess of the Tower on the Sea."

Ark opened his mouth in a grin. "Ah..."

"Don't even think about laughing!"

Ark put a hand on his mouth.

----

Ark was often busy with the heads of Tafal, discussing the state of its wards. He told Ceallach he did not need his presence, and that his time was better spent looking around for any help regarding Aisling's condition. Ceallach was a little daunted by the idea of walking up to strangers to press them for information, but after watching Ark for a while, he felt as if he could imitate the presence Ark had, the stance and attitude that commanded others to pay attention. The villagers were often surprised to see him, but they paid attention to hi, and went to great lengths to make sure he was comfortable and answer his questions.

An herbalist lived in the village, but she had nothing to offer them. Most people suggested that finding a doctor in a city was the best choice, but there were no cities for miles around - Tafal was the biggest settlement in the area, due to the Celestial Portal. An old man told them that a rune master known for his miraculous cures lived "just a village and some forest away", but the next day they heard from someone else that the rune master had been dead for two years.

Ceallach began to feel an ache in his bones, something only running wild laps around and across the little river nearby seemed to help. It was something to do other than speak with strangers and end up empty-handed. He was sitting on the riverbank to catch his breath when he heard stones crunching behind him. Ark's footsteps did not make nearly as much noise. He whirled around.

A heavy-set man approached, taking a seat on a rock nearby. He seemed like any other muscled, older man save for the fact that his head was that of a brown bear. "You seem troubled, stranger. There anything we can do for you?"

Ceallach stared. The man's head, face, and neck were definitely ursine, but he spoke just as well as any human. It was difficult to respond to such a strange sight - the books in the tower had many differing depictions of talking animals, good or bad.

"Am I the first beastman you ever met?" the bear-man grinned. "Don't worry - long as you stay on my good side, I'm just as harmless as everyone else. Name's Oslo." He offered a hand.

"I'm Ceallach." They shook.

Oslo put his hands on his knees. "If you'll excuse my curiosities, I had a little question. Me an' the other folks noticed you're with that celestial a lot. He said he's here to do an inspection. Is it because there's been a sighting nearby?"

Ceallach did not know if he should speak in Ark's place. Instead he looked out to the river.

Oslo chuckled. "I get it, you're not allowed to say. But you seem a little out of sorts. A bodyguard doesn't get to do very much in a peaceful place, eh?"

Ceallach decided not to dismiss what the beastman already believed. "Right. Nothing I can really do 'till we find something out of sorts. It's...quite bothersome, actually."

"Well, if you're looking to apply yourself, we could use a pair of arms like yours to help put together a house for a new family. How about it?"

Involving himself with the village beyond asking its people for information had never occurred to him. He had felt more than just a stranger - he knew he was an outsider. Being asked to be a part of something...was a warm feeling.

"I don't know how much longer we'll be staying here, but I'll help," Ceallach said, standing.

"We won't keep you any longer than you need to be," Oslo said. "But until then, we'd be glad to have you."