give me hope in the darkness; Neverwhere/Any

[Neverwhere]

Tensions rise quickly, but not - and perhaps this for the first time - through any fault of Leilan's. He is not the only one that can rile a crowd when the mood strikes. She can see the stiffening of the bay under her words, but the roan seems unperturbed, perhaps rightly guessing at their nature. She spares a glance for his scales and ice and changing eyes, and her lip twitches slightly, but she subdues the distaste that longs to write itself across her scarred face. He seems to take note of the flickering figure as well, and Neverwhere wonders if one of the stallions has a magic that's gone rogue. She has heard of such things, uncontrolled magic, it makes the skin on her shoulder jump.

His gaze shifts away from Brennen to the sound of hooves pulsing quickly across the rocky coastal soil, and her ears follow first, before she turns to see. A familiar figure, roan and bone, but not one that she has had an opportunity to speak with yet. There is a brief sense of unease in that, it should not be Neverwhere that must answer to Heartfire's daughter for the mysterious circumstances of her mother's disappearance. And, perhaps, she might have gone to Brazen sooner. To Eurwen, to all of them. But she had accepted the crown, and then she had run. To the Field, to the Meadow, to anywhere that wasn't Nerine, blind in a different way than before.

Still, despite that feeling of... regret, perhaps? Despite that, Brazen's arrival comes with a familiarity that bolsters the brown mare. Though they are nearly strangers, and though the magic that Brazen carries is so obvious and unusual that Neverwhere should want to scowl and step away, the heat and anger that lick at the back of her throat are soothed, the tense ripple of her clenched jaw smoothing away. Frostbitten ears curl forward when the conversation pulls away from her to Brennen's relationship to the the pair of roans. Quite a few generations to reach her from him, and where Leilan demurs, the dapple has no qualms, those very words ready on her tongue but Brennen turns back to her with scolding words and cool eyes, and her snide comment dries up, becoming instead a sharp snort, her head rolling on her neck so that her mane goes in all directions. Amusement flickers in her eyes, for any that might catch it behind the cataracts and swirl of mane.

Enter the fox, arriving in their midst with such boldness that she knows he must either be shifter or companion, but she cannot mark the difference. He ricochets off Leilan's chest, knocking his head off the thick bone of the scaled horse's jaw hard enough that she can hear the impact, then lands on silent feet and presses into Brennen. Not enough to decide, but she turns away to greet Eurwen and looking back, finds a third stallion in their midst and the fox gone. He keeps silent, but his nearness to the Champion marks them as friends, and if Brazen is anything to go by, perhaps family, as well.

But never mind that. Neverwhere makes room for Eurwen in the small gathering, pleased to have at least one horse here that is not new - or mostly new - to her. At least one that will not ask her to explain herself (and perhaps the others will not, either, but she does not know them at all to say.) The spotted mare admonishes Leilan - her father - then eyes her suspiciously, knowingly. In response the dappled mare lifts her chin, eyes narrowing, and then that sarcastic curling half-grin bares her yellow teeth. She is long past furious and overwhelmed.

"You do draw a crowd, Brennen," her voice is full of a well-practiced dryness, "at least, I assume it was you that called them here." Her eyes fall pointedly on the anonymous fox-shifter and Leilan, glittering in his scales and his ice. They smell like cold beyond even what Nerine has to offer. "Well, it's better than I could have done myself." Years of disuse have lent a rust to her voice that keeps it husky and low in spite of the great deal of talking she has had do to recently. If she were to cry out for a kingdom meeting, it is unlikely anyone would even hear her in the great open expanse of wind and sea that is the northern kingdom.

"Heartfire has gone - been taken," perhaps her attention should fall to the Champion, but it lingers instead on Brazen. She should have been told differently, "I really don't have more information than that. I don't think she had much time, the visions were rushed and--" and they hurt, she thinks, "well, they were not controlled, and she always had control."

She does look at Brennen then and stubbornly considers saying nothing, but she is not as foolish as she may act and the line they are walking is a thin one. Still a part of her claws at the words as they leave her lips.

"My name is Neverwhere."

The Queen, God help them.

Neverwhere

...

@[Brennen] @[Leilan] and Eurwen @[Jesper]

oh god so many broken tags. I'm so sorry lmao

[Brennen]

so give me hope in the darkness that I will see the light
'cause oh that gave me such a fright

When he’d sent the little blip along his net, he hadn’t expected much response. Often, he does it with no response at all – just sending little messages of affection and regard down the line to the people who share the bloodlines. Many of them probably don’t even know the fleeting feelings come from him; this sort of response is buoying. He ignores Leilan’s teasing prompts in favor of lowering his dished face to the level of the canine who has come rushing to their group, nuzzling across the pale fur briefly as the fox brushes against his chest.

“Grandson,” he offers the greeting when the white fox becomes the dark equine at his side, favoring his grandson with a warm smile similar to the one he’d given Brazen and Leilan. This boy is nearly the opposite of Leilan, standing quietly where the dragon-stallion had been eagerly contributing to filling the silence, but he vaguely remembers that the two have struck quite the friendship. But he doesn’t have a long time to dwell on them, turning instead to the loud sound of grinding stone, and the appearance of another young woman.

She addresses Leilan as her father, but there’s something else about her…he sets that mystery aside for later, but does put a mental bookmark on it. He does waste the moment to snoop for her name – Eurwen – and at least that means there isn’t a whole other Queen’s reign he’s missed – she doesn’t look old enough for that, to him. And she clearly knows the new Queen, and he is glad for that, in a distant sort of way, because he has begun to realize that maybe their gathering would overwhelm someone not used to the chaos. But finally she speaks again, with something he couldn’t call a friendly smile but at least she’s engaging them.

“Yes, I called them,” he responds quietly, choosing now in this crowd to match her offense with calm; he is all for a good antagonistic tête-à-tête, but he has played the game of crowns often enough and with enough Kings (just recently, the Queens) to know not to push a monarch in front of a crowd, not unless it’s really necessary. “I like to check up on my family, make sure everyone is safe.” There’s a caution in that, the barest hint of the violence he is capable of, but it’s the sort of warning one can ignore if they want, especially if they weren’t all that interested in bringing harm anyway.

Brennen tilts his head when she brings up Heartfire, calm purpose morphing into a sharp frown. “Taken?” he asks, but falls silent again when she tells them what she knows. Her words ring of the truth, and he believes she is not withholding from them when she says she doesn’t know much. But from what he knows of Heartfire (a relation much closer than Brazen, though not as close as Jesper), he agrees that it would have had to have been something strong to take her down. He’s still scowling into the silence, eyes a million miles away, when she finally offers a name.

His face relaxes quietly back into calm, the faintest of half-smiles, and gives a faint nod. “As much as it can be under the circumstances, it’s a pleasure to meet you Neverwhere. I’m Brennen, magician, and Nerine’s Champion for some time. That makes me your Champion, if you’ll have me.” Directness, now, and he focuses on her exclusively for a moment. “I’d apologize for crowding you by calling to my family, but I did not expect such a quick response. In this case however perhaps it is convenient – Leilan can vouch for who I am, and my grandson Jesper leads your Territory of Icicle Isle, and so it is time enough for you to meet him if you have not.” He touches the black stallion’s shoulder briefly, affection written into that gesture clearly no matter the brevity.

She’s young, too, of an age with the spotted girl if he had to guess, and younger than Leilan and Jesper who still seem like saplings to him. The magician guesses from what she said of Heartfire’s disappearance that she wasn’t exactly prepared for this role; but so far she is prickly as a cactus, and he knows that he’ll have to tread quite carefully if he wants to offer any advice, so as not to offend her unduly. His mind, always whirling, has already circled back to concern for the last Queen. “You used a word specifically – taken. That suggests you don’t think Heartfire left of her own accord.” She was too adult, too strong to have ever needed Brennen, but still he worries about her as much as any of the others. “Is there someone else who might know more about what happened? If it’s not someone I need to stay here and defend Nerine from directly, I’d like to go looking for her.”

but I will hold, as long as you like
just promise me we'll be alright

BrenneN

I think @[Brazen] is next?

[Brazen]

cold in the violence after the war
hope is a fire to keep us warm

Her curiosity is assuaged when Brennen greets her with a warmth that immediately sets her at ease, her own innate friendliness rising to return his smile in kind. His explanation makes as much sense as anything, so she accepts it with a curiously pleased little, “Huh. Neat.”

Before she can say anything further, another newcomer bounds towards them. A fox, as it happens. Brazen blinks, head tilting curiously as he ricochets between Leilan and Brennen before abruptly turning into a horse. He is unfamiliar to her, but seems to know the other two stallions well enough. A small, amused grin is her only response to Leilan’s wry commentary. When he settles in without saying anything, she shrugs off the odd arrival. In any case, the grinding sound of stone against stone draws Brazen’s attention sharply around before she can consider it too much further.

The familiar figure that tops the cliff brings an immediate smile to Brazen’s lips. When the spotted mare approaches the small group, she returns her affectionate bump with one of her own, features softened in a warm welcome. “Your ears must’ve been burning,” she teases, eyes crinkling in humor.

With no more new arrivals on the horizon, Brazen’s curious gaze shifts back to Neverwhere, who seems distinctly uncomfortable with the group surrounding her. To be fair, Brazen had always gotten the impression she didn’t care much for company anyway. She’s sure her mother had her reasons for plopping a crown on her head, but she certainly isn’t privy to what they had been. Nor would she want to hazard a guess.

Perhaps her next, rather gravely spoken words should have stirred some sort of reaction from her, but she cannot find them terribly surprising. Though she is as different from her mother as a leaf is to a tortoise, she has lived with her all her life. She had come to understand a thing or two about the secretive woman.

She also knows Heartfire had many powerful acquaintances. And that not all of those acquaintances were necessarily friendly. So, really, is it that surprising, in the end?

No, what troubles her far more is not knowing who was responsible. She’s not entirely certain she could adequately gauge the kind of power it would take to catch her mother by surprise and come out ahead, but she knows there is probably very little short of magic that could do it. And an unknown enemy with that kind of power? It would be terrifying, if she spent too much time trying to think about it.

Her spine twitches at the thought, and with a snort, she stretches her neck out before shaking the entire length of her body. The abrupt action tears fresh wounds in her skin, but it serves to distract her from the darkness of her thoughts.

Brennen however takes a great deal of interest in the subject. He peppers Neverwhere with questions. Who, what, why, all the things she’d been trying very hard not to think about. Frowning, gaze flicking between Neverwhere and Brennen, she does have to wonder if perhaps there is anyone else know anything. No one obvious, but as she wracks her brain, she realizes she does know one person who has at least one of her mom’s abilities.

“Rapture,” she mutters under her breath, not to anyone in particular. A frown tugs at her lips as she stares somewhat blankly into the distance. She isn’t especially close to her sister, but she knows her well enough. Maybe she ought to pay her a visit.

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Brazen

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