There Must Be Something More ( Bellroc x Jim Lake's older sister Iris Lake)

Semideum Venti Et Nivis

She tranquilly breathed in the aromatic early-morning air.
Pines stood ink-black against the macaroon yellow coloring half the dawn sky. Below it, a sleepy lapis blue; above, shades of coral, and woolly crimson clouds.
The sign for Arcadia National Park beckoned to her. But, a car could get stuffy after almost three hours of occupying it, and worse, she'd been the driver.
Iris rubbed the sleep from her eyes, and chugged the last coffee out of her thermos. Smiling, she tossed a muffin wrapper and popcorn packet into the trash can, and climbed back inside her vehicle. Her thoughts were filled with Bellroc. She'd be seeing them again soon..
The road only seemed to get longer and longer, the further she drove.
There.
The closest cliffs. Some huge black thing is there; what is...?

It must the Fortress.
Iris got out quickly.
It was!
And, what a sight, it was.
She couldn't be more excited that she'd at last gotten her turn , that the day had just dawned on which she'd meet Bellroc's family, and see their home.

Black skull of some long-extinct giant of unknown race. Headlights and lesser lights, and a full row of small ones,all Halloween-orange.
Big skeleton-teeth, clenched tightly together to bar entry.
Iris saw a tower of flame, and from it Bellroc emerged.
They flew upwards , descended, and greeted her. " Good morning, minu valjyr. I hope this was worth all the fuss."
" A, cool superhero moves you got. B, I would like to see your life behind the scenes, it's not too much to ask."
She planted a kiss on their neck; they huffed like a lion, and kissed her forehead, right hand caressing her hair and back.
Iris squealed as she was effortlessly scooped up off her feet.
"Arms around my neck. Hold on."

She screamed as the ground gave way and the wind snatched her up and bore her helplessly ever higher.
At least that's how it felt.

They landed at the jaws of the skull, and Iris was allowed to stand again.
Bellroc gazed up at the skull's face.
Its mouth slowly opened, and its lower jaw extended.
Bellroc and Iris walked in side by side.
She was given the not-so-grand on-the-go tour.
The Fortress had five levels,from just beyond its teeth to the very top of the bone ceiling.
They'd gone though the entrance/mouth, now for the Entryway, the antechamber of this amazing castle .
The Entryway led into the Gathering Hall. A dark, vast open space, with the vessel's four round eye-lights seen from their other side .
In this place, gatherings were held , and/or guests were received . Not that either one ever really happened, the Order was perhaps not as revered or well-known as Bellroc had said.
Perhaps, those times were only memories now.
They trotted down the passage,Bellroc pulling her onward from a half-open door she had been peeking through. Nothing there save for Jim's green land-piranhas, and a thick coating of dust.

They weren't themselves, rushing irritably to dump her wherever in here, and go do whatever they really wanted to be doing right now.
Too quiet and too impatient.
She almost asked them to deliver her back to to her car.
At present they were utterly unlikable , behavior so unlike how they'd behaved a few minutes prior.

The Witching Room made up for Bellroc. A huge sigil on the floor, to magnify magical energy; and inscriptions on the walls, to contain massive magical emissions .
Here were cast spells requiring multiple, particularly powerful spellcasters, and especially large quantities of magic.
The fourth level housed :
An awesome library straight out of her recent fantasies ,stocked with centuries- old handmade books about the world of magic and magickind;a kitchen with a pantry room at the back end and some olde worlde-vibes throughout;
and at the end of the row, along the passage before the stairs, three bedrooms.
Iris stepped towards the nearest door, from which sadness emanated.
They grabbed her wrist.
Maybe they weren't gripping so hard on purpose, or maybe it was a warning. Bellroc loomed as calamity over a hapless village, their ash-grey red-inked face all of fire and stone, and catamount ferocity.
And pain.
The room brings them pain,
She realized.
She dared not ask why, not until Bellroc was once more the Bellroc she loved. Rather than loathed and feared.