Chapter 24. Council of Owls & Code of Conduct
The last group of Harpy to leave the dining room, following the late lunch and both Seraphina and Lady Nox, the Raven Queens' departure to continue the obligations that came with her ruling a Kingdom as a widowed Queen, was the Eurasian Eagle Owl Harpy.
As they walked up the corridor; the group turned in the direction of their room, around several more turns and a few doors up. It did not seem to take long and the brothers were in high spirits – slightly tipsy after a few glasses of the blood wine themselves.
Not enough that they had almost complete loss of bodily functions. Such as that, they had witnessed, of Lord Fielder. Who was supposed to be chaperoning Master Fenn, had ended up having to use the young owlet as a crutch to get him back to his room after several goblets of the blood wine, too many.
Both of the Eurasian brothers' laughed and mocked various individuals who had been sitting around the table. They did this the entire walk back to the room and all the while Lord Easton listened in an uncharacteristic, disapproving silence.
The young owls, his sons, had not noticed this disapproving silence of his yet. As normally owls interjected when something was wrong… this time Lord Easton wanted to give the owlets a chance to notice, stop and possibly correct their behaviour and conduct. Most importantly, without having to tell him to do so.
As young Princes, they should not need their King to tell them how to act. Instead, they should already know the expectations of a Royal of any Owl Harpy Clan.
This was something, which, the Parliament of Owls had already made very clear, a long, long time ago now. Ever since, every Owl Clan has agreed to their conduct by those values and moral principles.
While young Master Lucas and young Master Loris were not quite as derogatory as Master Caruso, the gaudy blue-green, ombri-haired Peacock Prince… however lightly they were doing this it still erred in a large violation of the Owls' Code of Conduct.
Once the group were in their assigned room, Lord Easton quickly made his disapproval known to the young owlets, "Are you both proud of yourself?" He studied their responses, with his orange eyes ablaze with condemnation of their conduct, "Do you believe that tonight was a fitting demonstration, by the Eurasian Clan to the Raven Clan, of the Owl's Code of Conduct – of the values and principles that the Parliament, and all optics surrounding owls pivots?"
Hanging their heads one by one, at the same time the uttered, "No, sir."
"While that Peacock began mocking the Raven Queen…" The Eurasian Lord clicked his tongue once, choosing his next words very carefully to ensure that these two understood clearly, "…the Peacock Clan cannot be held to account by the Parliament of Owls, against the Owls' Code of Conduct; they are Peacocks and we are Owls. There is a key difference there."
The young males still said nothing. Their eyes fixed on the marble flooring of their room, at Lord Easton, their father's feet.
"Can you see how easily degradation humour of another was so infectious to you both?" The Eurasian King, was beginning to lecture his sons instead of scolding them.
"I suppose so," mumbled Lucas.
Lord Easton snapped, "Lucas!" Which caused the young harpy to look up sharply at his father. His eyes large with worry and an apology clear and apparent in his eyes but his father would not relent on this matter, "Do you want to marry Peacocks? Lucas, does the notion of a socialite mate with no social morals or standings entice you? As that is the founding and core principle beliefs of Peacock Harpies – indulgence. They have no restrictions, no filters and no refinement of their standards… that is why their males are so gaudy with those colours and the females are… well… there's a reason that young prince himself, refuses to seek a female Peacock mate."
"What…" Loris began to ask, "What exactly will be the consequences of us breaching the derogatory taboo? What will the Parliament of Owls do?"
In his distinctly booming voice and accent, Lord Easton began to go over his analysis of the evenings events where, his sons, young Master Loris and young Master Lucas made fun of particular individuals.
The Eurasian Lord also notedly compared his own sons' conduct, with that of the Tawny Harpy Lord's son. Not only this, but he also reinforced that Seraphina had seemingly responded to Owl values and conduct.
He could not help but burst into a loud and deafening roaring yell at the young owls. "From the first chance you two got…!" His voice stayed loud, "You lowered their standards and conduct in front of the Princess… thankfully, only one of them was present at the evening so there may be further opportunity for one of you to take the younger one as a mate."
Loris and Lucas – the Eurasian Princes just looked dejected when their father pointed out how the eldest Raven Princess had snubbed them out at almost every conversational point they tried after the initial meeting.
It was Loris, the brains between the brothers, who spoke up again, "The younger sister is supposed to be more naïve and fun loving. It should not prove too difficult."
Lord Easton looked at his son as if he had just spat in his direction; throwing disrespect at him and insolence, "What do you think the reason is, that I will be speaking to Lady Nox this evening? Why…" He huffed, running out of oxygen from his booming, "Why, do you two think that I am going to go a walk with her? What do you think I will discuss?"
"Harpy Clan Politics with a twisted old Raven woman?" It was Lucas who answered this time, "You do not even like her, father. Why are you tolerating her like this?"
"WATCH YOUR TONGUE!" Lord Easton fumed; if smoke could come out of his ears they would have right now. The over extended and comical eyebrows of Eurasian harpy added to the intense pressure, demanding obedience by the Lord.
"Already, I am cleaning up after your mess and might as well be wiping your arses after the sh*t show you made of introducing yourselves." Owls rarely used profanity, but in the case of Lord Easton it was common once his patience and temper had been worn out. Never would he speak like this in front of others who were not family… but his sons were different.
"Father… are you worried that the Scrawny Tawny is going to report our conduct to the Parliament?" Asked Loris, now more serious than he had been previously. He had interjected but it wasn't entirely an inappropriate question.
It would be wrong to say that Lord Easton favoured Loris the way Lady Nox favoured Seraphina. Rather, it was more the case that Lucas often said the wrong thing… too often. Where Loris would rarely use the derogatory taboos
Just as Lady Nox herself had said to, Lyla the black-ruddy hued Raven Harpy who was a servant member of the house hold staff, it really was a mouth full to say the full name… as such, most Clans' just referred to them as the Eurasian Harpy.
They were affiliated with the Parliament of Owls and the Council of Eagles.
Both of these organisations were considered very proper and proud. Requiring a high calibre of cooperation, honest and transparency among their members; all of the variants of "Eagle," Clans were required and called to answer by the Council of Eagles if there were ever any wrong doing, this was made up of the retired Clan leaders – Kings and Queens who had stepped down to allow their named, or sole, successors to take their place.
Similar can be said of the Parliament of Owls, who instead was made up of the existing heads of each of the variants of owl Harpy Clans.
Though the parliament and the council's values did not always align on everything, in their baseline principle, both of these organisations attempted to do the same thing; bring peace and an end to senseless infighting surrounding one large faction of Harpies.
Just… both of these organisations attempted to do this in different ways of enforceability.
"If it comes to that," Lord Easton said darkly, "I will deal with Lord Fielder and the Parliament of Owls myself."