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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


    so bring me the dawn
    #1

    I wanna give you wild love, the kind that never slows down
    I wanna take you high up let our hearts be the only sound

    There is a relief when the plague ends.

    He can feel it bloom in his chest; he can feel the splintering of it. It’s a relief to know that it is finally over. That they have reached the end of it. There had been fear that had struck him at the end—fear that he had failed when the sickness had taken root in him, and in Isle, and in the rest of Tephrans. 

    He had burned even hotter with his fever.

    It had, for a moment, reminded him of what it felt like to die.

    But it was short-lived and the fever had fled from him almost as quickly as it had taken root. And with it, he had felt the rest of the plague curl away from Tephra and all of Beqanna. 

    And with it, he had known his duty had ended.

    He had kissed Isle with even more fervor that night, a boyish joy flooding in him. He loved this land, and loved these people who called it home, but he was tired. He had taken the crown to help steer Tephra through the madness of the plague—to ensure her stability and security and he had seen it to the end.

    But it is time to take the crown off.

    It is time to retire.

    It feels like fate when his niece comes to his border the next morning with fire in her veins and the volcano glowing from her eyes. It feels like fate, even when he rushes toward her in relief—after all of the fear that has spread through him since Chaol’s visit. It feels like fate even when she does not return his embrace as she once would have. Instead she shows him the magic that has since taken root in her; instead she tells him of how she was held captive in Loess’ prisons. How many healers had been. 

    And then it feels like rage. 

    Perhaps she senses in him that immediate need to take action and she quiets him. She turns her pupiless, glowing eyes to the border and something like a shadow of a smile crosses her lovely features. Something like justice in the set of her jaw. She burns like a shooting star. Like a vengeful angel. 

    Relief mingles with understanding, and there’s only one thing to do.

    “Long live the Queen,” he says with a wry smile, knowing he would stay to help however she needed.

    Not that this new Leliana seemed to need much of anything.

    I wanna go where the lights burn low and you're only mine




    anyone who wants to can reply. <3 this was mostly just so it was IC and not in my head.
    [Image: gqYjsHr.png]
    #2
    I rise from my scars. nothing hurts me now.

    She does not know what calls her back to the Tephran borders—only that there is a pull in her chest. It is a pull that blossoms out of an unexpected fury that burns like the sun. The fury when she looks back on the years to realize the truth of her captivity, the truth of Loess’ plan to lock up the healers, the truth of it. 

    She has never been one to experience the sharp edge of rage, but she feels it keenly now.

    So she doesn’t resist the pull to the volcanic land. She simply takes to the skies, powering upward with a force that surprises her and then arcing over the Beqanna horizon like a shooting star. When she lands on the beach of her home, she is glowing golden, and it does not take long until her golden uncle meets her.

    He rushes to embrace her, to pull her close, but she does not bend to him. She merely stands, accepting the emotion without returning it—simply inhaling it deep and then letting it linger. When he pulls back, she can see the questions in his eyes, and she doesn’t try to pretend that there are no answers.

    Instead, she gives him the information he wants.

    She shows him where she has been, and what has happened, and her husband’s response. She lets him feel that just rage in her breast and is not surprised when he takes to it like dry kindling. 

    There is almost a smile on her face when she turns unseeing eyes to the horizon, to the land that lies beyond it and the cruelties that steep there. There is almost a smile when she turns back and he gives her a power she has never once hungered for and yet somehow fits well on her brow. 

    The flowers in her mane bloom and her eyes glow and the sea creeps ever toward them.

    And all she does is breathe.

    There is work to do.

    [Image: avatar-1975.gif]
    the heaviness in my heart belongs to gravity
    #3

    Ilma
    And there's a lesson waiting to be learned
    the firestarters always get the burns
    and the good guys never get the girl

    I’m about to leave my own throne; and then one day a decision was made - two decisions really - and I can imagine I felt the future shift. To me, comes both a surge of hope and one of fright, and I hope the world will benefit from the coming unrest.

    I go West then, despite actually wanting Clay and Dawn to go - but they’ll know when they see me take wing in that direction, that it isn’t Loess I’ll be visiting. Besides, I told them we need to keep close with Tephra once or twice before and now is as good a time as any; in fact now is the only time, for me that is.

    Once there, I cannot wait to see if they caught up, though I am sure enough that they will follow shortly. It’s just slower going, on land.

    Magnus once told me Tephra would be a sanctuary for those wanting to be safe from the Plague - but without the Plague I suppose that purpose has ended. Maybe that’s why? It is the only reason I can think of. We belong in the past, him and I - and he deserves to settle down.

    Now I just want to know if his heir will keep the peace between the Western and Eastern strongholds.

    and shooting stars cannot fix the world


    @[leliana]
    @[Dawn] @[Clayton] if you want pls tag along
    Any fool knows men and women think differently at times, but the biggest difference is this: men forget, but never forgive; women forgive, but never forget.
    Robert Jordan, Wheel of Time
    #4
    Jakub stood from a distance watching his King wait.

    "To be a great leader you must always be a servant. The weak always try to hold the strong back." those were the words of his mentor. Words Magnus had believed in and had instilled in Jakub.

    Jakub watched as a golden mare fell to the shores border, a shining ball of fire like a Phoenix. The beginning of something new, Jakub could feel it in the air, an energy as powerful as the volcano that stood watch over their land. She was beautiful and intoxicating, much like the King himself. He closed the distance between the pair and himself, staying at a respectable distance but catching enough of the interaction to know that his King, his mentor, was only that. Just his mentor now.

    Long live the queen he hears Magnus say.

    The flowers of crimson blood begin to unfurl and bloom with strength, and a shiver ran along Jakub's midnight hide in anticipation. The fury of red reflecting in his blue eyes mimicking the birth of a newness among the darkness.

    Long live the queen echoed Jakub towards the ground as he dipped his long inky black neck, finalizing his loyalty to the mare that stood before them.


    OOC: Figured Id pipe in since Jakub has a need to please, and may have daddy issues he's attached to Magnus  he is loyal to whomever Magnus sees fit. Big Grin
    @[magnus]
    @[leliana]
    @[Ilma]
    Tephra inhabitant (Alpha)
    #5
    I rise from my scars. nothing hurts me now.

    Leliana does not expect others to come so shortly—even her newfound gifts have their shortcomings, their failings—but she doesn’t startle at the appearance of the ethereal white mare. She angles her lovely heard toward the Queen of Silver Cove, her depthless golden eyes unreadable, her face impossibly impassive as the wind lifts the tendrils of her mane to curve around the delicate curve of her jaw.

    “Ilma,” she greets, her voice quiet but carried easily to the other all the same. “It did not take long for Silver Cove to arrive,” she comments, wondering if it was planned or merely impossibly good timing. “Then again, you have a gift for good timing.” The barest curve of a smile touches her lips, an almost humor although it never settles into the lines of her faces, never actually takes roots in her.

    Instead, her attention is stolen by the black colt who arrives, the one who is mentoring under her Uncle, and she turns her attention toward him. She studies him too, golden eyes unblinking. “Thank you, Jakub,” she grabs his name too from the air, plucking it as easily as she has always grabbed onto verbal word. “You are going to make a fine Tephran soldier. We will need those like you amongst our ranks.”

    She needed the brave and the strong and the courageous to help further her cause.

    Even with all of the magic in the world, she couldn’t do it by herself.

    So she smiles at him, her gentle smile like a a blooming flower before her gaze sweeps back to Ilma. “I have no intention of disrupting our alliance with the East,” she pauses, thoughtful, feeling the familiar burn of the dying star in her chest. “Unless you choose to stand with Loess and all of their sins.”



    @[Jakub]] @[Ilma]
    [Image: avatar-1975.gif]
    the heaviness in my heart belongs to gravity
    #6

    just let me cry, a little bit longer
    i ain’t gonna smile if i don’t want to

    She has survived the plague, with neither her nor either of her children getting sick. She still isn’t quite sure how, but the plague is ended, and with it, their year of training for a crown is beginning to come to an end. How she has made it through the year in one piece, she doesn’t know if she’ll ever understand, but she has come to accept the toll it has taken on her. She wonders if the sadness that has settled in her chest will ever fully dissipate; so far, it seems things swing upwards for a moment, then come crashing back down. She survived the plague, but she has lost so much in the process.

    Ilma has wanted to travel to Tephra for some time now, she knows, and when she sees the interim queen wing her way westward, she knows that is where the white woman is headed. She sets off immediately – slowly because of her impeding foal – in a westerly direction, knowing full well that she is going to have to skirt the borders of Loess and the other southern territories. She has business there soon enough, but she sets it to the side for now; it can wait until she has received her crown from Ilma, and until the girls are old enough to be properly introduced to neighboring lands.

    Her travel doesn’t take her too terribly long, and when she reaches Tephra, she sees the small group beginning to gather. The golden man who exudes power must be Magnus, but there is a woman alongside him that seems to burn with energy, her eyes glowing with a power that cannot be explained by mere words. Dawn stops short in her approach, but remembers that she is soon to be equals with the leader of Tephra, whom it now appears is this woman. She has nothing to fear, if the West is as peaceful as Ilma makes them seem.

    The woman speaks of Loess, and Dawn’s ears flatten against her head, distaste creeping up her throat. She is not happy with their actions – none of them in the East are. She wants to try and curb their behavior at least diplomatically, but she does not know if it will be of any use. Things may come to war after all, as much as she does not want it.

    “We do not stand with Loess in any regard,” she says, stepping forward as she finds her voice. Leliana will see her mother in the way she holds her head high, blonde mane flying back as the breeze tugs at it. Her eyes sparkle with anger as she things of young Oriash, stolen away by their so-called dragon king. “Loess has wronged more than just you. They took one of my daughters from me, and hid away my mother. I cannot and will not stand for it.”

    Dawn

    i just killed off what was left of the optimist in me



    it would take too long to tag everyone but hi
    clean.
    #7

    Ilma
    And there's a lesson waiting to be learned
    the firestarters always get the burns
    and the good guys never get the girl

    She burns like a shooting star - a vengeful angel indeed. I, as a peace-bringing, semi-angel (I never really think about angels, but I know I’m perceived as a somewhat angelic creature to some) - I cannot take vengeance for the life of me; or so I once thought.

    I thought I could try to make peace - I have a little touch of magic to help me, and I carefully stretch my consciousness to Dawn, trying to soothe her just a little. Patience, my dear. ”The Loessians have wronged many,” I start with, softly - speaking out louder than this feels like shouting to me when the subject is so sensitive. ”But Castile was once also my friend, and I cannot blame him for what has been done by those before him - only what he lacked to do when he received his crown, what he refused to change after I told him I won’t stand for it. I will await his final answer before I go to mingle myself in this war -” I look from Dawn to Leliana, ”But as you may know, through me or the newfound magic you carry now, I won’t be calling the shots in this coming war. I would like to request the opportunity of a little time - time to gather what I need, what I think the Cove needs, before the Eastern kingdom makes its decision to move with you or stand aside for you to pass through. Regardless, as always, should you find yourself in need of a place to harbour your children or your wounded, the Cove will take them in. Caelestra was one of those with you, and is with us now, and perhaps we can persuade some other healers to make a similar move.” I look to Dawn. Surely she’ll want to take the children of Tephra, and her mother, and any children taken and held captive by Loess as well. But I also see that when she is Queen, she will be more like Leliana. And that, I suppose, is what the East needs - stop being a Sanctuary, stop being peaceful at all costs. It’s time we make a stand; but I don’t know if Clayton will agree yet, he is a turbulence in the future I envision. The other option will be to stay out of the fighting and solve this another way - help the Tephrans in their war and fail to aid Loess, is just as much a statement, and can be just as troublesome to the Southerners.

    It’s not my choice, in the end, but I think I’ve set the Cove on a certain path. The changes will come slowly, but they will come, and the world will change with it.

    and shooting stars cannot fix the world
    Any fool knows men and women think differently at times, but the biggest difference is this: men forget, but never forgive; women forgive, but never forget.
    Robert Jordan, Wheel of Time




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