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  • Beqanna

    COTY

    Assailant -- Year 226

    QOTY

    "But the dream, the echo, slips from him as quickly as he had found it and as consciousness comes to him (a slap and not the gentle waves of oceanic tides), it dissolves entirely. His muscles relax as the cold claims him again, as the numbness sets in, and when his grey eyes open, there’s nothing but the faint after burn of a dream often trod and never remembered." --Brigade, written by Laura


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    [open]  show them the joy and the pain and the ending; Any
    #1

    That had been a disastrous day, truly. Without the fever addling her brain, she would have handled things very differently at that tense stand-off. But what’s done is done, and now she is left with only the option of building upon what had started that day. Though things had grown quiet since then, she is not lulled into a sense of complacency. It is merely the calm before the storm.

    This time, however, she would be much better prepared.

    That explosive meeting had culminated in her departure, and ultimately the birth of her children. Without her pregnancy to drain her resources and her health largely restored, she feels much more like her old self than she has in ages. The plague still lingers, but she is much better equipped to fight it now.

    And so she returns to the isle in the same way she had been taken from it. With her children and Briella safely tucked away on the tropical island, she no longer need worry about keeping them safe from the interlopers. They could command her full attention. And they would not like her full attention of they stirred her ire again.

    Perhaps they could still come to terms here. Based on what she has seen since her departure, she somewhat doubts it. But then, stranger things have happened.

    She touches her brother briefly by way of thanks before stepping onto the rocky shores. Spring has begun to bring a hint of warmth and promise of more life to the isle. Ether disappears behind her, leaving her alone on the island shore. Her sharp blue eyes study the landscape with a calculating air as she considers what their next course of action might be. Leilan has done well enough, but no one, no matter how fierce, could do it alone.

    But first, she thinks, a closer look is warranted. So she steps forward, traveling parallel to the beach. She would need to return to her children before long, but time enough for this, at least.

    i see your sins
    and i want to set them free

    Reply
    #2

    She has been with her brother in an abandoned cave at the Isle’s northernmost reaches. Though Leander had been subdued by the telling of Rhy’s long-ago death, he was still eager to know everything – about Rhy, about her. Too eager. Something about divulging old memories had been stirring a sense of discomfort that wells within, pressing against her ribs; and so, in the coolness of the morning while Leander still slept, she slipped away from the confines of the hollowed rock and began following the shoreline.

    As she moves, cold water laps at her slender legs. The rhythm of the tide soothes her, as a babe whose subconscious is reminded of the womb. She sighs. An odd thing, to be breathing again. While surely well-meaning, Leander’s dogged interest in her past and their shared history felt tiresome to her. Ever since her resurrection from the ocean, the ice-encased mare found that she was rather disinclined to dwell on who she’d once been.

    Weak, small, scared – she had been no one.

    In truth, her life before had been something of a waste. Too fearful to have known her own sister, too meek to have harnessed the ice in her veins, too naïve to have been of use to anyone. It was like a skin – one that she had shed upon melting into the sea all those years past. She had truly been nothing then; and it had changed her. Emerging from the waters again had been her rebirth. For better or for worse, her atoms had rearranged and reformed in a way that made her irrevocably different.

    She was remade.

    Idly, she sends fissures of frost among the rippling surf, watching as one wave after the next crystallizes mid-break. Frozen in time. There is satisfaction in knowing that she has the power to still the ocean’s unceasing movement, and she continues like that for indistinguishable miles. Only a flicker in her periphery makes her look up to see the oncoming roaned mare. Her delicate head tilts, eyes of glowing blue brushing over the stranger whose movements could be stilled, too, if she only felt like knowing what that might look like.

    Instead, there is a brief pause.

    “Hello,” she says absently, while the water at her heels begins icing over as though to make a hard, glittering, immovable wave of her next.

    kora

    vanished winterchild of riagan and rayelle

    Reply
    #3

    She sees the stranger long before she comes into view. She had come here with a purpose, and it would hardly do to be taken by surprise by the first to find her. That the first should be a woman of unknown origin is interesting. No, it’s more than interesting. Concerning, perhaps, but she would reserve judgement for the time being. After all, it seems strangers of all sorts are drawn to this desolate isle.

    Odd, that. A single ice coated island at the very north of Beqanna the epicenter of such life-changing events. But then, odd is what she deals in, isn’t it? It seems, even when she doesn’t precipitate it, she still finds herself drawn to the unusual. The things that stand out above the rest.

    She continues forward until they meet, only halting when she is close enough to speak comfortably to the woman. Her eyes follow the trail of frozen waves she had left in her wake, impassive and inscrutable. Her features are still, unreadable, the familiarity of the seamless calm having finally settled over her once more. Though her companion likely didn’t know it, she had already begun to know her better than she might care for. Words and thoughts could easily lie, but sight so rarely does.

    It’s unusual though, not entirely what she is accustomed to. Almost as though the woman had lacked vision for some time. Until she digs further. Back before the isle had disappeared so many years ago.

    How curious.

    Her bright blue gaze focuses sharply on the woman before her, suddenly far more interested than she had been a moment ago. “Kora, isn’t it?” she returns by way of greeting. “You have an interesting story, I think.” One corner of her lips quirks faintly then, a bare semblance of a smile. “I am Heartfire.”

    i see your sins
    and i want to set them free

    Reply
    #4

    The approaching mare stops and looks at her, and after a moment of consideration the stranger speaks her name. At that, her golden ears flick delicately backward. Was this yet another relative? Perhaps she had been recognized by the ice that armors her, or the Winter she brings – after all, there had been those who had known her from before. Still, hearing her name like that causes an abstract thought to cross her mind: was she really Kora anymore?

    Her blue eyes narrow briefly at the woman’s next words before a quiet laugh slips from her. “Do you?” Her lips press into a soft smile that does not reach her gaze. “How funny. I don’t find it all that interesting, myself.” She shrugs a narrow shoulder while the ice at her heels creeps upward – rippling along a foreleg, winding across her belly, washing over a hip, forming crystallized projections and whorls against gold-and-silver skin.

    “Heartfire, is it?” Coolly, Kora gives the roaned mare a once-over. Her own voice is still whisper-soft, just as it had been before – but the beating in her chest is no longer that of a butterfly-heart. “Am I supposed to know who you are?” Damp with seawater, her silvery tail flicks almost inattentively, though the motion flings droplets that have suddenly turned to small pellets of ice in Heartfire’s direction.

    kora

    vanished winterchild of riagan and rayelle

    Reply
    #5

    There is a surprising kinship in this stranger, she thinks. Not of blood, but of mind and spirit. Perhaps their history’s diverge wildly, but still it had brought them here, staring face to face, subtly prodding and testing. Heartfire has seen enough of the woman’s past to know this was not always the case, but apparently her re-birth had settled somehow differently. And of course, Heartfire has never been one to leave well enough alone.

    “Of course you don’t,” she replies easily, unperturbed by her denial. “We never find our own stories terribly interesting.” After all, they had already lived them. Of course, there is so much to learn if one cares to look more closely. But no one ever does. Even Heartfire has fallen victim, when it comes to hers.

    Her blue gaze is sharply assessing as she eyes her companion, features still inscrutable beneath Kora’s impassive stare. So many have learned the dangers of underestimating her, but she thinks perhaps this woman would not make that mistake. There is a great deal of power in the unseen, and only someone who knows the truth of it could appreciate its import. Does she though? Would she?

    For all her skill, she cannot read thoughts. And those are the only questions she truly has yet to answer.

    “No,” she responds when asked if Kora should know who she is. They have never met, though their families had known each other once upon a time. But that fact is hardly what interests her. And most certainly not why she hadn’t dismissed her already.

    The corners of her lips quirk up, the barely there smile the only indication of the thoughts that lay beneath her still features. Her only outward response to the subtle assessment behind the small pellets of ice flung almost haphazardly her way. Before the frozen droplets can reach her, they break apart, caught by a faint breeze that carries them away. Her gaze doesn’t falter as she shifts her position slightly, her own tail flicking idly against her haunches. “Do you plan on staying?” she finally continues, as though nothing of note had occurred.

    i see your sins
    and i want to set them free

    Reply
    #6

    While there is little she can read in Heartfire’s carefully crafted features, Kora does not fail to notice how the frozen droplets disintegrate into thin air before reaching her. This time, the curve of her smile unveils a brief flicker of acknowledgement within her gaze – perhaps she, too, begins to feel a measure of affinity towards the other mare. Without missing a beat, she produces a wayward response. “I didn’t plan on any of this.” Stepping forward, the frozen wave that had formed almost artfully against her shatters to become broken shards of ice adrift at sea.

    The glow of her blue eyes trails after them; sharp-edged, translucent, the pieces glistening darkly as the tide draws them inexorably to the depths from whence she’d came. “Since you seem to know so much about me already, I suppose I should ask to know more about you.” It isn’t a question, exactly, but there is a pause. An opening. Whether Heartfire chooses to use it or not would be her prerogative – outwardly, Kora’s attention is lax, appearing somewhat indifferent either way.

    As the last fragments finally fade from view, she rounds on her companion. Her angular head tilts as she considers Heartfire. It was possible that she was in possession of other unseen talents, and a sigh slips from her lips. “My brother is sick,” she states, sounding strangely detached. “Are you able to help him?” Tied down by a deadened sense of duty, for now a part of Kora was bound to Leander’s plight – a dark fragment adrift upon a shadowed sea.

    Perhaps that piece will soon fade, too.

    kora

    vanished winterchild of riagan and rayelle


    @[Heartfire]
    Reply
    #7

    Her vibrant eyes are keenly observant as she studies her pale counterpart. It should be odd, to know this stranger’s story without having been there to see it. To live it. But it is an oddity she had long ago grown accustomed to. Sometimes she wonders how it must be to others though. To know that nothing they ever do is truly private. Such gifts are not common, perhaps, but they are certainly not unheard of.  Even her own past is vulnerable, though it is a rare creature who would truly care to look.

    Still, her awareness of such things is ever-present. And that has led her to live life differently than she might otherwise have. Who would she have become, if she’d been able to have faith in equine-kind?

    They’re impossible imaginings of course, but sometimes she does wonder. Would she have been like Kora? Still ended up here in spite of everything?

    She notices how easily the woman side-steps her question, but she does not push. Choosing instead to tilt her head slightly, lips twitching faintly in wry amusement. There are other ways to find out what she needs. Still, she thinks perhaps this woman actually knows how to parlay. To mince words in the same way that she so often does. It could prove to be immensely entertaining. Or immensely dangerous, depending on how one might consider it.

    “I suppose you should.” She answers the question easily, one ear flicking atop her head, as though she suffers a mild boredom. Avoiding the bait too obviously placed before her. If she asked a question, perhaps she would answer. Perhaps she would not. But she is not so foolish as to spill her story without prompting. That begged oversharing. And in the right ears, those words (that knowledge) could be… problematic.

    Her trust has always been earned, never freely given.

    She listens dispassionately to her mention of a sick brother. Kora sounds no more impassioned than she feels, and she finds that curious. She makes a plea on behalf of her brother, yet appears as though she has very little care for him. Heartfire wonders then, just how far she would actually push to help this brother of hers. “Perhaps,” she offers noncommittally. She could help him. Or rather, she has the pull to get someone here who could help. But the real question is, would she? “Tell me though, why should I help him?”

    i see your sins
    and i want to set them free

    Reply
    #8

    A quiet sound – a faint wisp of laughter – falls from her lips as Heartfire dances around her words, just as she herself had done. Kora doesn’t press the matter, however, since she finds their mutual impasse rather more interesting than common conversation. Yet when the roaned mare asks why she should help Leander, her glowing gaze settles upon her, weighing the question for the test that it was. Why, indeed. Something deep inside turns an idea over and over like a sharp-edged stone in smooth hands, and she wonders.

    What would it look like if she let time have its way?
    What would it look like to be free of him?

    But she is not so cold as that. Not yet. In a way, Kora’s old fear had been a sickness – her very own plague – and in that sense she had been dying ever since she was born, until the day she walked into the sea to subside at last to her watery grave. But her brother wasn’t like her. If anything, he was like their parents. He deserved a chance to live. She considers Heartfire a moment longer before she finally responds, “He’s a good person.” Her dished head tilts ever so slightly, silvery-blue forelock obscuring her features. “Would you deny help to a good person?”

    A test of her own.

    kora

    vanished winterchild of riagan and rayelle


    @[Heartfire] ew this one is poopy :/
    Reply
    #9

    She can feel the weight of her contemplation, the arguments turning over inside her mind. It’s odd, she thinks, to struggle to find reasons to bring aid to one’s own brother. Heartfire is, on the surface, calm and calculating. Many would even say ruthless. But ultimately, a flesh and blood heart that feels just as well as the next still beats inside her chest. And her family had settled closely inside, claiming the largest portions of her love and care. A family she would never hesitate to do what she could to aid them. Few beyond them could ever hope to claim a piece of it, though it’s not entirely outside the realm of possibility.

    In that respect, she thinks that perhaps they are very different. It’s curious though, rather than unsettling. Drawing her attention in a way few rarely do.

    He’s a good person. For a moment, Heartfire merely watches her, letting the limited argument hang in the air between them. As though waiting for an aside or afterthought. There are many good souls in this world. It is a thing thing that can hardly be considered unique or suggestive of special treatment. Heartfire has never been intentionally cruel, but if she went out of her way to help every good person that crossed her path, she could spend her life lost in their plights.

    “Is he dying?” she finally asks, her tone as neutral as her expression. It’s unclear whether an affirmative would sway her opinions, but it’s worth consideration. Especially for a man she does not know and likely would never have needed to know otherwise.

    There are plenty of others who would have helped him, no questions asked. Heartfire suspects it is merely convenience that had inspired Kora to ask her rather than another who might be more inclined. She cannot fault her for that. Even so, she does wonder, what is that convenience worth to her?

    i see your sins
    and i want to set them free

    Reply
    #10

    Perhaps that is the problem with Kora now – perhaps her heart is no longer flesh and blood. Perhaps it has frozen over. Perhaps it is for the best. Blood that runs warm and riddled with fear had never served her well. After all, she had been a coward – a sheep in sheep’s clothing – but now?

    Now, she could be a wolf.

    “I don’t know,” she responds, an answer both frank and elusive. Perhaps she would have been better off heartless from the start – she might never have mentioned her brother then. Her whisper-soft voice is made light. “I’m sure there’s time.” Easy words which render Leander’s plight inconsequential – but only for now.

    She could worry about him later.
    For now, she wanted to be a wolf.

    Flicking her gaze in the direction Heartfire had originally been heading, the ice-encased mare smiles. “Shall I join you, then?” It wasn’t really a question, for Kora means to join her regardless. After all, the mare intrigues her – for all their outward coolness, she gets the impression that perhaps the feeling is mutual.

    What might become of such mutualism remains to be seen.

    kora

    vanished winterchild of riagan and rayelle


    @[Heartfire] hope it's okay to wrap up here for the sake of catching up timelines! if you feel like replying please do, but otherwise we can pretend they go off and start brewing mischief <333
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