"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
Here it comes with no warning; capsize, i'm first in the water
The journey may be long from Tephra to Nerine, but her pace does not grow slow. Duty pushes her forward towards the west coast of Beqanna. Her mind is strictly set on achieving what she must have for her kingdom. Perhaps she is more stubborn than she thought she might be when accepting the crown of Tephra. However, she will not let her current home fall into the pits of the world again.
She is the leader after all of Tephra. It is her duty to put the kingdom first above all else that may come between her. She loves those within her home, and she must uphold the very foundational purpose of why Tephra had come to be. And most of all, she did not want to let Magnus and those before her down to what they have created. Tephra would not fall when she led it—she will carry it no matter how heavy the burden will be.
In time, they all arrive at the border of Nerine. Dahmer and Ellyse have come along with her for which is she very happy about. Dahmer and Ellyse were her supporters. Her friends when she needed someone to help her carry the burden and whatever Tephra may come to face.
Lucrezia settles at the border, not overstepping while she may have the very authority of Tephra. She does not have the authority of Nerine. She wonders how Nayl is doing. Her mind also crosses over Heartfire and Djinni. It has been a while since she has seen her acquaintances. Perhaps they will come.
Their journey is tiring, but it's not excessively strenuous. About halfway through, Dahmer loses himself to his thoughts, but there's something about Lucrezia's presence that keeps distracting him. The black stallion follows in her wake, just far enough back that he can occasionally brush her feathers or her flank with his muzzle, but he makes an effort to keep his blue-eyed gaze from lingering on his Queen, lest Ellyse take notice.
His journey to Nerine with Jord can still be considered the recent past, and Dahmer finds that the salty sea air makes him excited to see Nayl once again. She had been forgiving of their intrusion, had even taken time to give the pair of Tephrans a tour of the inner Nerine, and her winged son had been pleasant company, as well. The black beast can't think of any negatives from his last trip here; perhaps their relationship with the coastal territory will eventually turn into a well-founded friendship.
He pulls up to Lucrezia's left side, his dark torso brushing against her feathered appendages as he shifts and rests his weight on one side. His brilliant blue eyes sweep the rocky coastline before they turn to his Queen beside him, a smile playing on his lips. "Fancy a swim?"
It is not her habit to monitor the borders of Nerine particularly closely (with so little threat of war at this time, it would be a waste of resources as far as she is concerned), but neither is it her habit to be taken by surprise. So it does not take her long to discover the visitors upon the edge of the kingdom. And perhaps fortunately for her, she happens to be nearby. Near enough that is no hardship at all to stumble upon the small group of horses. She is not especially diplomatic, but she is very curious.
And this meeting promises to interesting enough. Especially considering she is familiar with two of the three horses visiting from the relatively distant kingdom of Tephra.
As it so happens, she manages to arrive before Nayl, though she is quite sure that it is Nerine’s queen they had come to speak to. Still, it would be rude of her not to say hello. “Lucrezia, Dahmer,” she greets with familiarity. Her lips quirk into a hint of a smile as she considers the quip Dahmer had made, though she is fairly certain it had not been meant for her ears.
“If you fancy sharks, the water is quite pleasant,” she muses, before continuing. “But I am fairly certain you did not come for swimming lessons. What brings you to Nerine?”
heartfire
i filled up my senses with thoughts from the ghosts
Never had he ever thought she would trust him with such responsibility. All he had been was her guard. He ate, drank, dreamed of her safety, her scent. But now there was even greater need for him protection.
Castille. The smoke and ash boy that embodied their perfections. Never had the stallion ever felt the pride that bloomed in his breast before. Never had he felt so purposed, so selfless. His boy, smart and strong, would be his greatest joy.
Lior can still feel the smile the tugs at the edges of his scarred mouth. Nayl had renewed his soul, electrifying it. She with her beautiful porcelain mask, he with his tangled soul. Lior finds his mind tumbling over her smile, her eyes, the way she swings her hips. Heavy hooves plod him over the sand and salt land in their methodical 'thud-thud' before the sound of voices catch him attention.
They are foreign and questioning. Lior moves towards the gathering with watching silver eyes. He offers a nod to Heartfire, the pretty mare he was acquainted with, before looking to the mare and stallion. A single ear is twisted forward as he listens, the smile replaced with a flat line on his lips. The male does not speak yet for Heartfire has already asked the question that needed to be asked so instead he settles at her side.
”Outsiders are coming,” the boy has taught himself to fly in the last couple months, the unfamiliarity of it clear in the way he clumsily lands near his mother. Nayl looks at her son, regarding him with a fondness in her fiery eyes. She doesn’t say anything – there is no need for words yet – but nods to him in muted understanding. They move together then, a unit mirrored in synchronized steps, toward the small gathering at their border. Castile is still young, but as he approaches his first birthday he has developed more muscle and his crest is no longer lined by a short mohawk. Although he doesn’t formally hold a position in Nerine, he still accompanies his mother as means for knowledge. He doesn’t leave her side, not while they are traveling or when they arrive to their small group.
A short burst of suppressed laughter escapes Nayl upon hearing her mentioning of sharks. Indeed, some have been spotted as well as dolphins and other marine life. There’s still a newness to their home that she still learns daily, that she never would have thought to see in the Beqanna of Old.
Castile innocently wedges himself next to his parents, peering up at Lior briefly before looking back to the outsiders. ”Hello, Dahmer,” he remembers the large obsidian stallion, his amiable nature marking a piece of the boys memory. ”Long time no see,” the Queen mildly jests, feeling like there is always someone from Tephra here. It incites a shadowed idea as to why they are here, but she says nothing of it. Instead, she settles into a brief quiet as her eyes flicker from one face to the other, her heart swelling when she sees her fellow Nerinians.
i don't need you to understand that i'm already saved.
She is quiet – though, perhaps, that was anything but unusual.
She was often lost in her own thoughts – observing, calculating.
Careful and precise, silence was a preference to the alternative, and she was content to linger in the quiet that lingered between she, her fellow councilman and her Queen. It was a comfortable stillness, with little but the sound of their own languid limbs parting the dry vegetation, or the soft rustling of grain and sand stirring beneath their weight. It permitted her to filter through her thoughts, which were many and heavy – a burden settled between the rigid tension of her shoulder blades; a weight she shared with few – if any at all.
Alas, it is a long expedition, over many miles and many hours – she, herself, had never gone as far as the far west, and to see the gleaming sea (paler than what she was used to; a deep and rich turquoise in comparison to the dark, rumbling abyss she had come to know) is something of a reprieve to her.
While she had been born amid the shadows of a dark, deep valley, she craved the ocean – its clutches calling out to her; its roaring waves pounding repeatedly against the wet, densely packed sand always soothing the disquiet stirring inside of her. It had become as much a part of her as the volcano’s rhythmic rumble or the rustling of the dry brush in the heat of summer.
Though she kept to herself (maintaining a steady pace, but several feet back from either Lucrezia or Dahmer), she was anything but oblivious – the way the coal painted stallion brushed gently against his two-toned Queen, and the way his gaze lingered on her when lost is thought did not go amiss. She felt sorely like a third wheel, but her mind did not linger on the thought for long. If Dahmer wanted to make his thinly veiled feelings known to Lucrezia, he would, in his own time – it was little concern to her.
As Lucrezia finally ceases at an unseen border, she, too, comes to a halt – coming up to her right side, opposite of her follow council, as her hazel eyes search the stirring sea and jagged cliffs. It is not long before another approaches – draped in an ashy gray, with deep, searing blue eyes. She had seen her before (many times, in fact – Heartfire was her own age, and she has a faint memory of seeing her in her youth), but a name does not come to mind.
She pays little mind to the towering male that soon follows, for he is silent, with nothing to add (perhaps he has only come to observe, as she had, but only time would tell) – and then, at last, a two-toned smoky female descends upon the gathering, her golden eyes watchful as her young son stays close to her.
”Ellyse,” she says, with little else to say (after all, it is Lucrezia who is best with words) – she has been ignored, for the most part, though there is a small part of her that is content with it.
