[complete] there's a humming in the restless summer air

[rosebay]

Rosebay

It feels strange to climb the mountain.

Feels strange to ask the faeries of something she thinks her mother perfectly capable of giving her. Feels strange to ask the faeries of anything. Or anyone, really. Even in her young age, there is a pride to her—something that teeters on arrogance, although she is young enough that it has not fully blossomed yet.

Instead, it rests behind her ribcage like a promise, like a thing yet untapped.

So she makes the climb. Her delicate, youthful legs moving upward into the cold air. Her bones ache by the time that she arrives, her lungs stinging, but she refuses to let such discomfort show on her face. Instead she waits until her breath is gathered to move forward—although even this is not enough to hide the faint sheen of sweat that shows on her thin neck, on the place where her armor would one day grow.

She takes a step forward and then another, until she feels the air shift, nearly thicken.

It is different than her mother’s magic and yet similar enough that she recognizes the hum of it.

Pausing, she lifts her gaze, unknowing that her mother had come just days before to seek her own request of the faeries. Finally, she angles her head. “If you are anything like mother, you already know what lives in my head,” her voice is delicate but not commanding. Perhaps before this, she is cowed enough. Perhaps she is simply respectful enough to her mother’s gift to extend the same thing that birthed it.

Regardless, she continues. “There’s something in me that I need.” It’s the only way that she knows how to phrase it. How to bring words to the dreams that haunt her—the endless desire of unknown that taunts her at night. It comes in waves, these dreams. These promises of daggers and vipers.

“I was hoping you could help me find it.”

but in all chaos, there is calculation

Rosebay is questing to express her Poison Manipulation. I'd like to cash in the auto-successful quest from last year please!

[Wysteria Fairy]

”We do,” comes the voice first, agreeing that they know exactly what is inside the child’s head. They always know such things. It is child’s play, really, to read the minds of mortals. They are predictable, open things, even when they try to shield them. But then again, the faeries are ancient beings with far too much experience on their hands. "Your mother's power is naught but an extension of our own."

She appears a moment later in her usual swirl of purple, glittery magic. Far too pretty for the jaded heart of this particular fairy, though she is a pretty fairy. Looks can be deceiving though, don’t you know?

”What you seek is a destructive gift. It will make you like your sister.” She puts words too the feeling, giving the girl some inkling of what power they are talking about, though it is only in the next sentence that it becomes fully apparent. ”Go, and first learn what it is you are asking for. Poison three others, be it literally or figuratively, I do not care. See what such a power can do and return only when you are capable of wielding it.”

With that, Wysteria disappears.

***

You have received a quest. You must have three threads where you ‘poison’ someone else (it can be with words, literal poison, whatever) and learn the repercussions of such actions.

[rosebay]

Rosebay

It takes longer than she had expected.

Longer for her to hatch plans. Longer for her to find others that she wanted to target. The first had been easy. It had been natural for her to turn such a quest against Crowns. He was always a willing participant in such matters and since he had shown her death’s door, she felt strongly that she could return the favor.

So she had.

The second had been trickier, but she had eventually found Lumineer. The sweet boy who had barely needed any prompting but who had gladly succumbed to it. It had been different to poison him. Instead of feeding him the poisonous flowers, she had instead entangled herself in his mind. Had drawn him to the point of freezing—nearly herself too, but she hadn’t thought much of that—and then pulled him out.

The third had been nearly the most difficult of all, but he too had succumbed. It had taken a combination of enthrallment and womanly charms, but when he had bit the oleander from her mane, she had watched with glee as he stumbled away from her. Watched as his mind betrayed him and his body soon followed.

And then she had turned to return to the mountain.

Older now, her face more refined and her mind a sharper thing, but still the same at her core. She is tired when she finally comes back to them and more certain of what she wants. She waits, patiently, and when she is certain they can hear her, she finally speaks. “It is a more difficult thing than I had imagined,” she smiles, a little cool, “but also more rewarding in the end.” A pause before she continues.

“A destructive gift should be both, should it not?”

And then she waits.

but in all chaos, there is calculation

https://beqanna.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=28323 - she poisons Crowns with foxglove
https://beqanna.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=28169 - she poisons Lumineer's mind / manipulates him
https://beqanna.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=28568 - she poisons Pteron with oleander

@[Wysteria Fairy]

[Wysteria Fairy]

She does not come, but a white oleander grows in front of the young mare. Purple magic glitters in the air around it. Perhaps it is poetic, or perhaps Wysteria is just too lazy to dig much deeper or show up herself. Maybe it's both. Regardless, it is clear that the oleander must be eaten, though it will not make Rosebay sick. No, it will give her the power she seeks.

***
You have received poison manipulation. Please post in updates.