Finally, she agrees that Snape is right, it's worth a try, but tells him that if Micha is dead, she does not want to know how he died. Snape agrees not to tell her if that is indeed the case. She takes his hand and pulls him out of the room, telling him, "let's start breakfast, you and I. I think it would be lovely to have corned beef this morning, with eggs and potatoes...and maybe we could--" she stops suddenly and after a second she looks back at him, "--make a room for the birds." Snape surveys the dining room and counts four strange ravens roosted and sleeping soundly in various places along the walls, in addition to Loki, Cambion and Whiskey Jack. "Ah," he says, "I was beginning to wonder when we would be doing that."
She giggles quietly then touches him, and tells him she's going to set up the back yard so they can have breakfast outside with the rising sun. When she reaches the back door, however, she freezes. "Severus!" He reacts at once to her whispered alarm and finds her staring out of the glass in wonder. She holds up a finger for quiet, and as he reaches her, he too is struck by the unexpected sight. There is a swan sleeping beside their little pond. Snape rests his hands on Elsbet's shoulders, searching his memory for the meaning of such a thing. They're disturbed before he can actually recall anything by his precious Familiar, running from the dining room.
My Da! My Da! he thinks, we go fly at night, we find big white boy in lake, he hurt! We say he come home and Lusus fix. Snape gently scoops the little raven up and holds him close to his heart. We do good, my Da? Snape nuzzles the excited Loki and rouses Malfoy mentally. Lucius, come quickly...you're needed, my Healer. The fair wizard rises and dresses so fast that he doesn't notice he's put on Elsbet's white robe. They might have teased him about it, but it looks so very right on him. His long hair, nearly as white as the robe, cascades down around his shoulders, framing his softened features perfectly, and the effect is so powerful on the Elf maiden that she touches him with great reverence.
Malfoy sees the swan beside the pond but it takes his mind a second for it to register. As soon as it does though, he knows the great bird is in pain. Carefully he slides the door open and steps quietly out of the house. The bird does not stir until the wizard is nearly beside it; Malfoy first kneals, then sits down less than an arm's reach away and waits for the poor thing to acknowledge him. The swan moves almost imperceptibly and half-opens its eyes, then weakly raises its head. Malfoy opens his hands and offers them to the swan, telling it, I am Lucius, I swear on my life that I will not harm you. He has the swan's attention. I sense you are in pain. May I heal you? The swan makes a pitiful sound and struggles to rise; Malfoy had wanted to let the great bird come to him, but the it hasn't the strength. So as gently as possible, Malfoy helps the swan climb into his lap.
Almost as soon as physical contact is made, Malfoy knows that if the ravens had not found him and brought him here, he would have died before nightfall. As the swan settles into Malfoy's healing embrace, the wizard senses the swan's stomach has been empty for far too long; he's starving to death, and his organs are shutting down. The injuries are not new, he's been suffering for some time, but had only just found his way into the White City before the city was totally closed off from the outside world. The natural magic of this sacred Sanctuary have kept this bird alive, but he has reached a point where that is not enough anymore. "Oh, my friend," Malfoy whispers as he wraps the snow-white bird in his loving embrace, "my poor friend."
He closes his eyes and thinks, Severus, he is dying. His injuries are horrible, and humans did it. Wizards did this to him. He feels Snape move away from the door, taking Elsbet and Loki with him, and Malfoy is relieved. If the swan dies, he does not want them to see. This is a young bird; he still has a life full of potential ahead of him, but Malfoy has to weigh that against the damage that has been done and his own healing ability. Can he restore this great bird to health, or will be only be prolonging his suffering? His thoughts are disturbed suddenly by the swan's own mind. Little black ones say you help...please? And that does it.
"What would you like most, my friend?" Malfoy asks him softly, and the swan thinks of relaxing on the little pond beside them, eating bits of bread and maybe some squshy bugs, and playing with the ravens, then snuggling up to sleep beneath the lovely bushes there in the corner of the yard. A simple, pleasant desire, and Malfoy will do everything he can to make it reality.
Inside the house, Snape and his beauty set about getting acquainted with the new ravens as Therion and Layne make their way into the dining room. "I thought I heard voices," Therion says, then asks where Malfoy is. Snape tells him their partner is in the yard taking care of another bird, but he is guarded in his thoughts; the Dark wizard will not let on how bad it is for the swan. The first two new friends are actually crows; Harlequin, a Pied Crow who has lived her whole life in the White City, and Anubis, a Hooded Crow from Egypt. He had been imported by Felda for her illegal companion trade but was never actually purchased by the Magical who had requested him. When Felda closed her shop, she released Anubis, who had no idea where he was, into the village to fend for himself. Within just a couple of days, Cambion found the hungry, frightened crow and brought him to the city.
The next new friend they meet is one of the ravens. One of the elder wizards in the Silk Quarter named him Johnny Rook, because of his penchant for ruining chess games. The players would leave their games for lunch or a walk and return to find all of the rook pieces removed from the boards and him sitting and laughing at them. "How annoying for them," Snape says, smirking, but Elsbet giggles with glee. "I think it's cute," she says, reaching up to scratch his head, "it's not like he did any real harm. Just mischief." He leans in to her touch and pretends to fall off of his roost, and when he lands on the chair beneath him, he thinks, me dunt doit n'more. Layne laughs and asks him, "why not? Did they chase you away finally?" Johnny Rook looks up at him and thinks, no, dey die. Dey's old. Me miss.
Elsbet picks him up and cuddles him and tells him he and the others are welcome in their happy home, and the wizards echo her sentiment, as does Loki. But Cambion...they notice that Therion's Familiar is missing, as well as the other new raven. They find Cambion in the living room on the couch beside something covered with a dustcloth. He waits until they're all in the room before he pulls the cloth off of the stranger, who turns out to be not a stranger at all. Therion bursts into tears at the sight of the large raven and nearly goes over the couch to get him. "Come here, you little trickster!" he says, laughing through his tears as the raven, himself laughing quite loudly, hops and flaps away from him. Therion catches him up and hugs him as tightly as he feels is safe, then sits him back down on the couch beside Cambion.
He beams at his loved ones, "this is Alphion, Cambion's older brother!" Elsbet, Snape and Layne are delighted, the birds chatter excitedly, and together they decide a little celebration is in order. As they move back into the dining room, however, Snape is distracted by Malfoy's mental summons...
