• Logout
  • 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


    [private]  I'd Like To Know More [Lepis]
    #1
    Aten could now say he had officially gotten what he wanted, but it would never be that easy. This issue he had to address, in order to return to the mountain and inform the fairies of what he'd learned... it required something that he didn't imagine he'd do until at least a solid year of friendship had passed. But now here he was, traversing through Taiga's terrain in search of the Queen.

    Over the suns that it had taken Aten to complete his journey to the Mountain and back, he'd given this matter a lot of thought. Specifically, how exactly he would approach this. He couldn't be upfront and ask the Queen about the darkness that surrounded her heart, the darkness that drove her down certain paths that she might not otherwise go. But he couldn't bead around the bush either, for perhaps she would begin to suspect something and start confronting him instead, which would lead him to reveal his purpose for talking to her anyways.

    If he approached it like that, it was a lose-lose, and, even if Aten no longer cared about receiving the gift from the Mountain fairies, he didn't want to be responsible for pushing the Queen further into the dark. He didn't want to seem selfish about that, but there was no other way to describe it. If he did something like that to the Queen, whether she healed or not, he'd feel guilty about it for the rest of his life. And he already had enough hanging over his head.

    At least there would be a little more time to think while he waited for her arrival. Aten spent a sun grazing and thinking near one of Taiga's small ponds not far from the main meadow, allowing his thoughts to swim randomly in the hopes it would help him come up with a plan. At some point, he thought he had the beginnings of one, so, thinking the rest would come to him, he lifted his head and called for Taiga's Queen, requesting she come to meet with him. It was only after doing so that Aten realized he only had roughly half a plan, and started to pace around the pond to stimulate his brain while he waited for Lepis.

    @[Lepis]
    Reply
    #2
    The blue-eyed Comtesse watches the fog roll in. She is rather fond of the way it slips in from the sea, winding through the massive redwood trunks and encapsulating the entire territory in a blanket of white. In some ways it reminds her of the snow that will soon fall. The same snow will cover Nerine, she knows, and the idea of the northern kingdom brings a crease to her navy-marked face. The roan Queen had chosen not to heed Lepis’ decision, and while the pegasus still weighs the options she has been given, she does regret that Heartfire had not made the wisest – and the easiest – choice.

    She is pulled from these thoughts by the sound of a summons.

    It is Aten, and he is not terribly far away. Following the echoes of the call, the dun tobiano eventually finds him pacing the edges of a small pond as he waits.

    “I hope I didn’t keep you long,” she says to him with a smile. Celina is off on an adventure, and Lepis’ quiet contemplation of the fog had taken more time than she’d imagined. The Taiga is resting for a time, and Lepis cannot help but feel that it is the deep inhale before action. She certainly hopes it is.

    The champagne stallion looks rather somber, and Lepis wonders what he needs of her. Surely Taiga is not in danger, or he’d have sought her out rather than waiting for her to find him. She considers offering him some of her empathic gift, a dose of calm to settle whatever bothers him while he tackles it with a clear mind, but chooses against it for the time being. Let him speak what is on his mind and she will determine then what is needed.

    “Is there something you needed?” She asks him, though they both know there surelyis. There’s no other reason to have called her here, and she waits with a faint smile and curiosity in her gaze.

    @[Aten]
    Reply
    #3
    Aten waited patiently in the calm silence before he nosed Lepis' arrival off to his right. The golden stallion turned his head and greeted the Queen with a friendly smile. He wanted to start this conversation off right, make things roll off his tongue with ease so that she wouldn't sense he had any ulterior motives.

    Which, truthfully, he didn't, but if the mare suspected that Aten was trying to find out more details about her history, would she really be so trusting if he didn't bead around the bush at the start?

    The golden stallion's gaze was unwavering, not betraying his building anxiety. He stilled his breath by blowing air from his nostrils, noting how it formed a slight cloud of fog around his muzzle as a sign that the cold season was not far off now.

    "Not at all; the silence here can be quite peaceful when you are waiting for another," he offered, assuring Lepis.

    He noticed the curiosity in her eyes, "Yes, there is a reason that I have called you here. However, it is not urgent, so there is no need to worry for anything."

    He took a breath, "I... recently had a talk with Wolfbane, regarding each of our histories. I doubt that he told me everything, for he has no reason to share every detail of his life, but there are a number of things he did tell me that I wished to also receive your side of the story about.

    "I expressed my wishes to Wolfbane for us to stand on mutual ground, and I do desire the same for us. I have never harbored ill will towards either of you, even if my attitude in the beginning said otherwise. I was merely... disappointed," he decided was the right word, "But you have not yet given me a reason to distrust your leadership of the redwoods. If you are willing to share, as Wolfbane and I did, I will impart to you any knowledge of Taiga that you wish to know. In exchange, I ask that you do share with me, but I will not ask for more than what you are willing to give."

    Oh how he so wanted to change what he said to her. He very much desired to know more of her personal history, for he had a very strong gut feeling a lot of it had to do with the scars that littered the mare's body. Aten had scars of his own, but his only came with physical pain. Only the burns on his pasterns and stomach carried more of a story, and it was not even that tragic to begin with. All the emotional scars were carried in his heart, the scars still torn and bleeding, but no one knew they were there.

    He would not say anything however; patience was a virtue that had grown in Aten's heart since the day of his birth. He would not achieve anything by being upfront, especially when it came to this sensitive matter. He could wait, he would.

    But by the end of this, who knows? Perhaps Aten would learn something new as well, something fresh would sprout in his heart.

    But first, he had to hear what Lepis had to share.

    @[Lepis]

    OOC: My apologies for the wait; many things have kept me busy.
    Reply
    #4
    Her husband had spoken in passing of a conversation with Aten, so when the champagne stallion mentions it, Lepis is not blindsided. She has been expecting this even, and her blue-grey eyes flick across his face curiously. He is rather composed despite what she expects he must be feeling internally, and the dun mare admires his composure. Her own gifts make such an ability easier to master, but Aten appears calm even without magical aid. A good choice of diplomat, she thinks to herself, even if her prefers to thinks of himself as primarily a defender of their forest. After a year with no rebellions though, this also comes as no surprise. She had been certain of herself when she had come to Aten, and that confidence remains much as the champagne stallion remains a stalwart presence in the Taiga.

    She listens, her expression nothing more than curious. When he mentions disappointment though, the mare cannot help but smile. In his position she cannot feeling something so light as disappointment. She has always been a creature of mercurial emotion though, the same is not true for Aten.

    He has no reason to distrust her leadership, he says, no reason yet. Will he finally have his reason after he’s heard the history that he is so curious about?

    Perhaps, she thinks, but it does not occur to her to lie to him. She has been dwelling on her history of late, having been told that Aten might ask soon by Wolfbane, and so the words come out more smoothly than they might have were she unexpectedly ambushed by the request.

    “I don’t often speak of my history.” She tells him, but despite the firmness of this statement, it is clear from her body language that it is not all that she has to say. Indeed, she takes a breath and glances up at the open sky overhead.

    “I was born in Loess, and my father made me Queen the moment I was foaled, the moment he left us.” Being abandoned by a parent starts off her story, but there is no sadness in her gaze -she cannot mourn the loss of a man she had never met. “I won’t pretend I was not a headstrong and spoiled child, but I ruled a quiet kingdom and what mistakes I made were tempered by my mother and uncle Castile, who were to be my regents when I came of age. I fell in love – in what I thought was love – with a handsome stallion from Sylva, and made him my king.” Here she falls quiet, because for all her preparation she still must block the memories of the grey Arthas from driving the knife of guilt between her ribs.

    “He gave me to the clown king of Sylva as a gift, to show good will between our lands.” This is said sharply, each word bitter, but she glances down from where her gaze has wandered to the trees. “I was beaten and tortured for a year by the residents of the kingdom, and Arthas brought me home only after King Modicum Mortem broke both my wings and raped me.”

    “I met Wolfbane while recovering in Loess, and he…he saved me.” Here at last she smiles again, but it is a bittersweet thing, one that only softens as she looks up to meet Aten’s eyes. “You already know about the loss of our son. I came to Taiga as part of a plan to make Beqanna safe, so that no one might suffer what I did – what my son did. I am sick and tired of pain and suffering.” That her plan is less than orthodox, perhaps Aten has already guess. Takeovers of quiet territories are not the most ordinary means of assuring individual safety. But she is not exactly an ordinary mare.

    “I understand your curiosity,” she adds, because she too is driven by questions, “But I  do ask that this is the first and last time we speak of my past. I will answer more questions if you have them, but then I would like the sun to set on this.” She can’t force him to understand (well, she could but that would undermine the infant trust that is beginning to build between them), but there are parts of everyone’s past that they would rather not see light too often.

    ooc: no worries! i'm glad you're able to be back at BQ now! Smile
    @[Aten]
    Reply
    #5
    As he'd done with Wolfbane, Aten settled in to listen to Lepis' own history, cocking one leg but keeping his eyes on her to show his attention was still on her alone. Perhaps his relaxed stance would do some good in helping the mare feel comfortable, so she in turn would give him more of the information he sought.

    The mare's eyes went skyward as she began her tale, speaking of her birth in Loess and how she was handled the mantle of Princess-to-be-Queen from the day she'd been foaled. Aten could see why she did not wish for the same burden for her own foals, even if he could not understand her plight. She had been raised by her dam and uncle, who had also helped temper her during her rule. She spoke of a stallion she'd loved and how he gave her a kingdom to express such emotions before...

    Aten shuddered at the mention of what Modicum had done to the mare in front of him. His blood began to boil at the mere thought of taking a mare by force, without a shred of her permission to indicate she was okay with the matter. Even though Aten and Lewis were not close friends yet, he swore that, if he ever did come across Modicum one day, he would...

    No, he could not allow his thoughts to become consumed by revenge. He would deal with that matter later, perhaps if he ever did run into Modicum. But for now, he would hold his tongue. It was not his business anyway; if Lepis wanted to confront him in the future, that was a fight she had to handle herself.

    Aten would just have a few choice words for Modicum himself.

    Next came the portion of her history where she met Wolfbane and how he saved her. Aten could sympathize with that; he'd been saved, even though it hadn't been a loved one. Taiga had saved him too, knowing that his home had been restored helped stitch together one of the scars in Aten's bleeding heart.

    Aten did indeed know of Lepis' loss of her youngest colt; it no doubt had been hard on them. Aten imagined his dam had felt the same way when she and Aten got separated, even though he had tried to find her among Beqanna's chaos after the Reckoning. Aten did have to wonder why she had chosen Taiga as her place instead of another more fortified land, but perhaps that was the point?

    To build a kingdom from the ground up as he'd been trying to do, to show that she could rise from nothing and defeat the demons that had tried to beat her down?

    The stallion wrapped his mind around everything she had told him so far; it seemed to satisfy his questions, but he didn't think that was everything. There had to be something else clouding her heart, twisting the knife into the bleeding wounds. But what exactly was it?

    Did it have something to do with her son? Surely the pain of just losing him, of wanting to prevent others from suffering the same, couldn't be all of it. That seemed like a justified reason, but he didn't know one individual who did anything sheerly out of pain...

    There had to be more...

    "Forgive me for overstepping a boundary if I do with this," he began. "I won't lie and say I understand what you have been through... perhaps my own dam could, but not I. I have felt pain and loss, but not that of a foal of my own blood...

    "I commend Wolfbane for saving you from the shadows, and the strength you have in each other after Gale's death... but I can't help but feel..."

    There was no turning back after this... should he do it?

    "I do not know an individual, any horse, who has done something purely out of the pain that grew in their hearts," his eyes softened ever so slightly, his eyes still on hers, "Pain is a powerful motivator, and it can lead to revenge, but I do not see you as the type to make that your only goal. Is there something else that has birthed in your heart to why you decided to go through all of this in honor of your colt? Of why you want to prevent the pain of others, to save those like Gail so they don't experience the loss of a foal?"


    OOC: Essentially, Aten is trying to figure out if her motivation is through guilt; Lepis experienced a lot of pain, he realizes, but he figures that the pain she feels isn't all that pushes her.
    Reply
    #6
    Though he is adept at keeping himself in check, Aten does respond viscerally to some parts of her tale. This is comforting to Lepis, this knowing that he is emapthetic despite thier rough beginnings, and makes the rest of her telling far easier. When she has fallen silent, she waits, fairly sure that he will have something more to say, some reason for inquiring about her history.

    That he begins by asking forgiveness does cause a small crinkle of worry to mar her navy forehead, but she reminds herself to feel the forgiveness that he asks for and so is more open minded and kindhearted than she might be without the use of her gift

    To bury a child is not a task she ever intends to do twice. Watching the dirt fall across Gale's wings - all that her husband had been able to salvage from the molten lava) is not a memory that she will ever be able to erase from her mind. The emotions that come with it are no more forgettable, though she has found that time sometimes softens them. And sometimes it brings them back, larger even than before.

    'I can't help but feel' he begins, and Lepis blinks. Had she been projecting something without knowing it? But no, the soft glimmer that is her magic remains tightly bound within her body. Any emotion he feels are those of his own making, whether he controls them or not.

    Aten digs for something more, some deeper motivation behind her actions, but the dun mare has been entirely honest with him. "No." She says simply, and then elaborates after a moment of consideration. "I chose Taiga to be the foundation of a unified Beqanna, to start gathering all the lands under one banner, to prevent broken factions and root out evil before it can find a deep hold."
    Reply
    #7
    The golden stallion's eyes narrowed in just the slightest so that, unless one knew Aten well, it would seem to be more out of concern than anger. He wasn't angry at the mare, moreso irritated because of this state of mind she seemed to be locked in.

    He was also irritated because she continued with her same answer. Was there really nothing else left to tell? Did her only motivation lie behind the pain she felt with Gale's death? Not the failure of a dam for a foal she shared with a living stallion to pass and be buried? How could it just be that pain though? Pain was a motivator for... revenge...

    Aten had a dangerous feeling about this. Even though Lepis spoke of a unified Beqanna, a region free from the roots of evil growing beneath the earth, he sincerely doubted that she would allow the one who had killed her colt to actually walk away unscathed, much less those that had helped.

    He also doubted that all of Beqanna would truly unite under the mare, even if the lands agreed to a truce. There would always be those ready to stage a coup, lying in wait among the shadows for a chance to strike. If he had to guess, they would come from Sylva and Pangea, based on just what he'd heard. That didn't eliminate the possibility of an inside job however; he was sure Lepis had a fair share of enemies.

    After all, he'd included himself in that list back in the beginning when he'd first had his leadership stolen. There was no way she didn't have other enemies elsewhere.

    Aten really wanted to push for more, dig into the recesses of Lepis' heart, but he knew he would get no more from her. And he couldn't push her, wouldn't... that was not his style without true motivation.

    And his wish to acquire a gift to protect his homeland was not enough. The only true motivator was if he cared for Lepis as an old friend, and, regrettably, for he wished she didn't have to deal with this pain, they weren't there yet.

    Aten dipped his head to the mare, "I realize that this could not have been easy for you to discuss Lepis. And... I respect the courage you have to tell me when you had no reason to. I am here to provide council if you need it, and to protect Taiga as you wish.

    "I am nearly ready for the diplomatic trips as you've instructed me. I look forward to helping take this first step in acquiring Taiga the support it needs."

    @[Lepis]
    Reply




    Users browsing this thread: 2 Guest(s)