To crooked eyes truth may wear a wry face - Lilliana

[Neverwhere]

The warning on Lilliana's voice causes her ears to pin. Even from her friend, Neverwhere dislikes an order, especially one whose root is dubious. The touch and the whisper tell her nothing useful, only that the chestnut wishes her to be silent, and her heart heaves against the trusses of her request like a wild thing in a trap. She bites her tongue, because it has been asked of her, and settles for a stony stare as the blue and gold stallion confirms his identity.

Wolfbane. The Taigan Commandant.

"Wolves." A hard word, coldly dropping from her lips like tempered glass, "Indeed?"

The name is familiar. She remembers that he is a relation of Heartfire, but she is unsure exactly how, had never bothered to ask. They certainly share the ability to make her distrust them. Although she misses fine details - his small, pointed, looks, his fangs and hungry smiles, she finds her dislike of him growing. Something in his scent, in his voice. It is almost inexplicable, perhaps, and the bald-faced mare turns her milky gaze on the chestnut mare as though to judge the sincerity of the banter she trades with him so easily. Instincts gathered from years traveling alone scream like claxons in her head, but nothing about the red mare suggests she feels the same way, that her teasing words are pretense. Neverwhere shakes her head. Of course they aren't, Lilliana is everybody's friend. She is a candle, drawing everyone out of the darkness indiscriminately.

But he is not my friend, Neverwhere thinks. She can track him easily because of the hard contrast of his stripes, and does so, ears swiveling, head turning, as he approaches them. Well, as he approaches Lilli, though the two mares are still close enough to touch. With every word, she can feel the focus shift and pull away until she is barely more than another bit of driftwood washed up on the beach, and she doesn't fight it.

Let them forget her.

Like the driftwood, she remains silent for a long while, shortened, bear-cub ears tracking the heavy sound of Wolfbane's footsteps in the sand, tracking his voice and the oil-slick of manipulation that coats his throat. Though his angles have smoothed, she maintains hers, and clouded eyes roll from across Lilliana's back as he speaks. Hounds of Hell and the Chamber and the Falls, it's Dreamer's talk, and he does not strike her as one. Not him, not this Wolfbane.

"Oh, the Boneyard. Well that sounds lovely." His congenial tone is met with a sudden smile that is not at all friendly and contins too many teeth, but her tone is cool, "Not at all, I came this way with Heartfire in Spring."

And as she levels her ruined gaze to where she can only assume it will meet his, she wonders if he is here to snuff out her friend's light, or set the forest ablaze.



@[lilliana] @[Wolfbane]

[lilliana]

Steady, she thinks as she presses her shoulder against the silver mare.
Steady, she thinks again to the heart that teeters on the brink of racing.

The warning that wavered on the edges of her lilting voice didn't go unheeded. The dappled mare says nothing but Lilli can feel the suspicion coming off her thicker than the fog that hides away the rest of the beach. It feels like they are on the fringes of a forgotten world and the edge looms so perilously close. Lilli knows this edge. She has danced alongside it a few times now and each time she keeps coming back, almost addicted to the feel of adrenaline and the heat that fires her blood in a way that pales the world around her, that brings everything else to almost oblivion.

It almost happens this time. Almost.

But Neverwhere's barbed words pull her back from that abyss and Lilli feels the damp of the mist around her, the chill that comes flooding in where the flames once blazed. She hears the hardness in her tone, can feel the sharp edges of it brushing against her crimson coat and so Lilliana does what she always does, she tries to absolve the cutting edge and rounds it out instead with a playful shake of her head. "A wolf?" she asks impishly with those blue eyes glistening bright, "And what would that make you? A lamb?"

There is one, long lingering glance that says she knows better than to suspect that of him.

Neverwhere shakes her head and Lilliana knows that her distrust for the striped stallion grows with each step closer he takes. But all Lilli hears is the buoyancy in his baritone voice as they keep the conversation afloat. She is acutely aware of the space between them as she has been since that first river crossing and nothing in her flinches or shies from Wolfbane. She studies him from underneath a forelock that has become wavy from the moist air and softens beneath his stare,  "I'll try to keep the hellbound creatures to a minimum." More meanings beneath the words. She has no intention of purposefully trespassing on his goodwill, of taking advantage of what she perceives is his generosity.

He smiles at her and it takes all the composure she has learned in the last few months to hide the flames that lick that the back of her throat, that threaten to darken the sky blue of her eyes to a tempest storm. She almost gets away with it. A faint glow comes from the white sock of her front leg as Tir's gift lets loose beneath her copper coat, that desire of wanting to help and to ease dancing freely while Lilli focuses solely on not letting those luminous eyes betray her.

The glow is a  telltale sign against the particles of fog and her gaze drops even as the condemnation of it travels up her spine,  creeps up her neck, heats her cheeks. The light dims and dies and Lilli tries to tames the silver magic that sparks like lightning strikes beneath her skin. She can't bring herself to look at either of them and instead looks out at the ocean, regarding where mystery and fog came together to conceal what lies beyond the waves. Wolfbane speaks of old Beqanna and Lilliana feels that old want rising again. A russet ear flicks to the direction of his voice and she listens. She thinks she should feel some kind of repulsion that Taiga might have once been the Chamber. Her ancestors had been held captive there once, she remembers. And Hyaline could be the Falls.. perhaps that was why she had found peace so easily underneath their stars. She had been so close to the memory of Texas and Believer, a treasured tale from her youth.

Her earlier shame (at what? not being able to control her healing? her glowing?) lessens and Lilliana finds herself dreaming again, wondering and allowing herself to linger in a realm of infinite possibilities.

Wolfbane's voice cuts through the fog of her mind and she immediately finds herself looking at him. The Boneyard, he suggests. She's seen it from further down the beach, can recall the pale columns of the impressive trunks in her mind's eye. But only from a distance. Lilli has never felt the need to draw closer. It's always been enough to blur herself between the redwoods and the tide. Neverwhere's body, her words, are laced with barbs and razor edges in her reply that Lilli can feel scraping and cutting over every syllable. Wolfbane might feel immune from such things but Lilli feels every consonant. Her blue eyes seek out Never's and glimmer mischievously, trying again. "Scared?" she murmurs, a daring quip. "Sounds like a perfect setting for plots and intrigues." A reminder from their first meeting when they had talked about monsters and terrors, about Beqanna and her tendency for havoc and chaos.

But then Neverwhere speaks again and Lilli stills, her laughter gone with the ocean breeze.

@[Wolfbane] @[neverwhere]

[Wolfbane]

Neverwhere proved to be a petulant cripple, lucky enough to have a friendship like Lilliana’s and luckier still that Wolfbane was the type who enjoyed chaotic neutrality. He watched her turn that pinkish face away from Lilliana when (for a sparkling few minutes) it seemed like the two of them could be worlds apart from this beach, and felt a gross satisfaction at having made her feel even a moment’s worth of alienation. For all Never’s barbs and sour talk, the mousey stray hounding his sunny diplomat, his Lilli, could still be reduced to nothing more than a third wheel if he wanted it that way.

Wolfbane had spent his life learning to outmaneuver smartasses, and he did it subtly without the flair of rolling his eyes or shaking his head. Did Neverwhere honestly believe that she could find a weakness in his exterior? Laughable, if she did. However, If she were smart, the hapless mare would focus more on her instinctive distrust concerning Wolfbane and his relative, Heartfire.

But she was too busy nursing insecurities and Wolfbane was more interested in Lilliana anyways. Speaking of, had the chestnut mare actually illuminated herself just then? Looking away Bane nearly missed it, not seeing how at first her leg and then the fine arc of her feminine neck shimmered with a faint light. Only, when he turned to look at them again there it was - crackling across her shapely cheekbones before sputtering out. So there is more… He thought excitedly, and not even Neverwhere’s prickly retort could put him off the scent of whatever it was Lilliana wanted to keep to herself.

The retort lacked enough force behind it that Lilli herself taunted back, which produced a quick and robustly loud scoff from Bane. “Then what are we doing standing around here when we could be there already?”  He asked the baldface female, easing confidently into a slow walk that led him close enough to Lilliana his wingtips would brush against her skin, if she didn’t move away. “I’d offer you point,” He laughed to Never, throwing the sound and his sly gaze over one thick, muscular shoulder to where he left the females standing, “but I have every reason to believe Heartfire’s already shown you the best there is to see around these parts.” Wolfbane parried back, feeling exceptionally cryptic.

How well did Neverwhere actually know his grandmare, he wondered? Eyeing the beastly girl closely, Bane made it obvious he intended to find out.

Then his attention returned where it felt most welcome, and he lost himself to the youthful brilliance of the visibly anxious chestnut mare stuck between them. It occurred to Wolfbane that Lilli might’ve never been privy to how Bane dealt with horses who kept to the fringes of society, and he can’t immediately recall a situation in which they’ve been awkwardly divided from one another, as Neverwhere seemed hellbent on doing. Don’t worry, his bright olive eyes laughed, I won’t eat a friend, no matter how tempting.

“Coming?” He wanted to know, leaving enough space to his left that the trio could walk side-by-side up the beach. Of course, one of them would have to be near the ocean and preferably, he would rather Lilliana be the physical barrier between himself and the Wicked Witch of the North but he wouldn’t say that out loud. He would just linger closer to Taiga’s forest, and prop his wing a bit higher on his back so a certain someone might see that as an invitation for more … physical contact. “Y’know I can’t help but wonder how you two came to be friends.” Bane humored himself aloud, truly believing in the old turn of phrase that “opposites attract”. “For a moment here I thought I could keep Lilliana all to myself; looks like she had other plans.” His eyebrows wagged, teeth glinting through the fog.

@[neverwhere]
@[lilliana]

[Neverwhere]

Hm.

She definitely didn't see that. Every part of her that might have detected the glow on her friend ignores it to such an extent that she easily pretends it didn't happen. Unlike Wolfbane, Neverwhere is not interested in anything that might caused Lilli to illuminate more of less under her own power. She settles into the silence as the pair beside her flirt and, if Wolfbane could read minds, he might be disappointed that she is not the least troubled by her position as intruder and hanger-on. Though it would seem that she has learnt at least a small amount of civility from the other mare, it is not enough social grace to care deeply about being ignored or not belonging. And as for trying to find weaknesses in his exterior, well, she doesn't need those. She found him wanting from the very first moment and nothing has changed that opinion.

What can she possibly see in him? The silver-brown mare wonders, turning to meet her friend's hopeful gaze, holding it steady with a grim expression. What she will not pretend is that everything is okay, that she doesn't see perfectly well what is happening, even though she barely sees at all. A quiet voice deep in the back of her mind curses the loyalty that Lilliana built within her, it should be so easy to leave, so easy to turn her back and just go, she'd done it a hundred times before.

But it isn't.

It just isn't, and she's stuck here, watching someone who should know better throw her self preservation into the sea with a joke and a smile. She is unfamiliar with the feeling that opens like a black gully in her belly, but it sits both hollow and heavy, until she is forced to reply at last to the question hanging in the air, the reminder of their first meeting.

"No, I am not afraid of the Boneyard."

There is nothing on her voice that speaks to the wry amusement of that earlier conversation, when they had both just arrived, and when Neverwhere should have turned right back around, but there is little time to say anything else, the indigo-and-gold stallion is already chirping away, moving off to this mysterious destination. Despite misgivings, she drifts along with him, because to refuse would be to leave her friend alone in his grasp, and she is not at all ready to do that. She steps forward, seeing the trap laid on the narrow path and knowing exactly how much of a bad idea it is.

Well, she has done plenty of stupid things in her life, what is one more?

"Lilli," she says, with a gesture, "perhaps you'd prefer the place with the view? It'll be lost on me." She shrugs, almost nonchalantly, but the idea of being pressed close to him is enough to make her hair curl with disgust, and, with the chestnut's response, Neverwhere moves up onto the path, nostrils so full of his scent she might choke.

"Heartfire gives a thorough tour, it's a shame she could not offer the same courtesy to Lepis when she visited last fall. Your mate is well, I hope?"

[lilliana]

Lilliana tries to attune her senses to the beach, the sound of a wave as it crashes against the shore, the salt that flavors the air around them, the ice in the spring breeze as it comes rolling in from places unknown. She tries to use these things to ground her and yet her gaze still drops to where the tips of his wings graze against her skin featherlight, languidly. They brush against her flank and Lilliana wonders if he knows the line of fire that he draws against her skin, the stark white of his feathers contrasting against the firegold of her coat.

What had she been so afraid of?

His eyes smile at her, something that borders between an understanding and a joke. In return, she offers the beginning of an appreciative smile. The last of her apprehension fades into the haze of the fog and Lilliana turns her attention back on Neverwhere. She remembers their first meeting, the way it had taken Lilli (what felt like) endless coaxing to draw the mare out of her shell. And so Lilliana assumes that this is what this is - Neverwhere being suspicious of what she doesn't know. She can't expect her to warm immediately to the Commandant. Lilliana attributes it to Neverwhere's shadows, to the places where the light should have been and wasn't. If she was perpetually left in the dark, how was she supposed to know who to trust other than herself?

The pegasus offers an invitation over his striped golden shoulder and Lilli looks to Neverwhere first, trying to find a way to smooth the way forward. The dappled mare gestures her nose to the shore, stepping forward before she even has a glance to see the raised wing. The chestnut mare hesitates and loses her chance before she knew it was  even offered. A question lingers behind her eyes but when has Lilli ever refused what was asked of her?

As Neverwhere moves forward, it takes her only a moment to realize what was happening. Lilli has been here before. The scene starts to play out before her eyes and she warms to Nev, understanding what it is her friend is trying to do. She seeks to protect her from whatever threat she has deemed him and the chestnut mare, while touched, wishes that she could convey that Wolfbane has never been anything but kind.

"I don't mind." If this is what it takes to put Neverwhere at ease then she will do it.

Lilliana settles into her place against the phantom beach and casts one steady ear towards the two horses on her right. The fine copper edge stands out against the mist that cycles in with each cresting wave. "Neverwhere was kind enough to keep me company during one of my first nights in Beqanna," she offers by way of explanation to Wolfbane's speculation. For all of her bristled exterior, Lilliana is intent on making it known that she is indebted to Never.

But it's his next words that send a ripple of warmth through her and she finds herself hoping that the fog might shield the soft smile she is unable to hide.

Lilli thinks at last that there might be some ceasefire offered, some peace to found as they walk down this deserted beach.

Neverwhere, calculated and precise in her rebuke, pierces the brief lull that had been found. She might have aimed for Wolfbane but she strikes Lilliana instead. Something in her stiffens, freezes before it burns to anger. All the chestnut hears is the reprimand, that she should know better. The blue in her eyes chills as she looks to Neverwhere with a smile that does nothing to warm her gaze, "I didn't know you followed politics, Neverwhere."

She looks away as she blazes within. As if the words are an afterthought she adds, "Funny you never mentioned anything earlier."

Still tempered by fire, Lilliana manages to glance over the silver shoulder to the golden one that strides alongside Neverwhere. The logical side of Lilliana has always urged caution when it has come to him; the side overruled by the heady sense of desire finds she no longer cares.

@[Wolfbane] @[neverwhere]

[Wolfbane]

As off-putting as Neverwhere was, the idea of a bulldog mare keeping guard over Lilliana while Wolfbane couldn’t was like a balm to the exasperated stallion. The idea of it made him bite back a sharp grin, watching Never grouch and then surprisingly take the upperhand. Two half-ears, two half-eyes, one gall-filled stomach and you’d have the ingredients for what Lilliana considered a friend worth helping. Bane reasoned that even if his deepest desire right now was to suddenly spring atop the muddy brown-and-sterling mare and pluck her useless eyes right out of their sockets he could still allow himself a margin of respect concerning his ‘guest’, considering she was going out of her way to keep Wolfbane from the one thing he desired most right now.

And doing a damn fine job of it too, he thought, eyeing Lilliana slip further away from him and down into the damp, swirling mists near the shoreline. Begrudgingly he let the lofted wing sink again, then kicked off to follow where they’d begun walking.

“Yea, there’ve been plenty of nights I wished for company and been left without much except that desire to keep me warm.” Bane grinned through a mouthful of fang, caught up for a minute in the reverie and soothing motion of how his shoulders, back, and hips rotated at this leisurely pace. His wings swayed gently through the strides, adding rustling to the cacophony of sounds like hooves plopping through wet sand and the gentle swoosh of the ocean rolling back and forth from the land. “Takes a rare individual to make you feel at home in a world of strangers.”

He sighed visibly this time, thinking (much like Lilliana thought) that whatever initial reservations Neverwhere might’ve harbored against him, she’d decided on trying to make the rest of the trip as bearable as possible. She’d been reticent enough in the past few moments that when the rough bystander finally did say something, it was to try and land a hit below Wolfbane’s belt which, kudos for her, was the last thing he’d expected.

Unlucky for Never, the aim was misplaced.

She does manage to twist his relaxed mouth into a rough frown. Disliking him or hating him was fine, those were matters of her opinion. Mentioning Heartfire and goading on her previous knowledge of Taiga was endearing as well, he didn’t need anyone’s approval and unlike the majority of Beqanna he didn’t fear Heartfire. In fact Neverwhere should - and thinking about it turned Wolfbane’s head askew so that he was staring at the base of that silver-brown poll - before she said too much.

The thing that unsettled him most was how Never was so willing to bare her ass while he was doing his best to build something of a ceasefire here, (at the very least to make Lilliana comfortable) and if Neverwhere considered herself someone who needed to protect Lilli then she was going about it the wrong way. For all her obvious disgust at Wolfbane and his attraction to her companion, Neverwhere didn’t know jackshit about anything concerning his past or future, the mother of his children, or really Heartfire for that matter either. Worst of all she knew nothing about how he felt for Lilliana. But while he was wetting his tongue to tell her all this, the slender chestnut took him by surprise.

‘Lilli’ disappeared, replaced by the short sparks of a lit firecracker who managed to steal the words directly off his tongue. Wolfbane blinked back further surprise at the turn of conversation, drawn away from looking at the back of Neverwhere’s head to where Lilliana strode like a flaming torch through the fog. The desire for any retribution burned away, overcome by something much stronger that settled very firmly into the roots of Bane’s core when he found Lilli’s blue eyes waiting for him across the span of Neverwhere’s back.

“That’s alright Lilliana,” The blue-striped drake hummed, settling for “we’re neighbors after all. I expect our neighbors to be curious about the Comtesse.”

He hoped to the Gods that Heartfire was watching them now, or that Lilliana could hear the thin, sharp edge in his words when he further explained, “But I’d prefer the world to know Lepis as that - the Comtesse - and not my mate. Politics, like horses, change often in Beqanna. Sometimes it’s best to keep the two separate.”

He’d not taken a year abroad to come back and keep things the same. Not when he’d changed so much; not when his entire world was shifting focus around him. “I’m glad you asked though: speaking of Lepis reminds me that I have an engagement with her.” He spoke casually, not allowing either the chance to respond while he turned to glance at their progress. Barely, the faint outlines of otherworldly shapes loomed ahead in the dense, misty cover. They were close enough now to continue without him. “I’ve interrupted enough as it is. Ladies,” He smirked, halting and looking down the beach to his left.

“Neverwhere, a pleasure. Someday I’ll have to extend the same courtesies to you and my grandmere in Nerine.” The place was like a second home to him; he knew the crags and cliffs nearly as well as he knew Loess, “Lilliana,” He paused for a moment, conflicted. “Can I come and find you later?” Bane breathed, the same energy from earlier crackling into his eyes and brightening his expression.

She only needed to answer, and then he’d happily soar away to leave them on their own again.

@[neverwhere]
@[lilliana]

[Neverwhere]

What Neverwhere plans is often made complicated by a strict refusal to muse and plot and consider, she is a creature of the present, so it is reasonable that others might incorrectly interpret her motives. It is perfectly reasonable that both Wolfbane and Lilliana would think her love for the red mare might ameliorate her dislike of the stallion, that she might try to smooth the waters when she takes her position beside him quietly, but of course, her path has never been a smooth one and a contrary streak runs bright and wild across her heart. It would be wrong to assume that her blunt mention of Lepis had been solely - or even mostly - to rile Wolfbane. Indeed, though she does not know him well, she can tell in his voice and his scent and his bearing that he will not be put off his quarry so easily, and if her banter is designed to annoy, it is not with the expectation that it will do more than ruffle his feathers a bit.

But there are more characters in this story than just Wolfbane, and one of them could use a heavy dose of reality. When Lilli flares, it is unexpected in that Neverwhere has never seen the reaction before in her friend, and she thinks that, very possibly, this is the first time the red mare has ever been angry in her life. That sounds impossible, and yet...

And yet.

She lets the rebuke wash over her with no more than a flick of the ear closest to it, the words do not stick but fall away from her like snowflakes. She need not follow politics to know that Lepis came to Nerine shortly after she herself had arrived there, she needed only eyes. In Nerine, she can see. She does not reply quickly, allowing Wolfbane his reponse, and if his meaning is directed for the auburn mare, it does is not lost on her. The Comtesse, not my mate.

"You misunderstand me, Lilli," she firmly suspects that Lilli does not misunderstand her, "I can see in Nerine, so I take advantage of it. If I followed politics, perhaps I might care to call Lepis The Comtesse as is preferred." Her tail swishes lazily, nonchalantly, as though to punctuate her disinterest. Ahead, only the closest of the dead, white, trees can be seen by her eye, and only the faintest outline against the fog, no more than the suggestion of something solid.

She stops, half a moment after Wolfbane does, turns her clouded eye to him, as he speaks. Leaving so soon? She is admittedly surprised by it, and more than happy to see him go. His offer to repay her courtesy rips a gruff, careless, laugh from her throat as he questions Lilliana and takes to the air. Courtesy, indeed!

"Get out of here, Lilli. Get out of Taiga." She says, watching as the striped golden stallion fades into the fog, "Come to Nerine with me, or go to Hyaline, or the bits of Pangea that remind you of the Desert."

She does turn, then and her bald, scarred, face is steeled and serious, but behind the cataracts there is a softness, too, that exists solely for the red girl who is her only friend, "Go wherever you want, but don't stay here."

@[lilliana]