"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
03-10-2018, 12:58 PM (This post was last modified: 03-15-2018, 10:54 AM by The Goddess Nike.)
Spatial awareness is what defines where you are in relation to everything else. It seems that none of you lack that skill. Well done! The rankings for this event stand thus:
Team Alpha, Modicum Mortem has earned your team 6 points
Team Beta, Jesper has earned your team 8 points
Team Gamma, Hestia has earned your team 6 points
Team Delta, Saedís has earned your team 6 points
Team Epsilon, Ilma has earned your team 6 points
Team Zeta, Amorette has earned your team 10 points
Team Eta, Imperial has earned your team 6 points
Team Theta, Nymf has earned your team 6 points
Team Iota, Begaer has earned your team 9 points
Team Kappa, Wound has earned your team 7 points
The Goddess appears, looking as bashful as an entity made of gold can. Her schedule was off, and that irritated her. Oh well, the games must go on.
Her smile is bright as she addresses the Intelligence competitors. "Knowing where you come from is important. Our history is what gives us life, and the threads of our past become the fabric of the future." The arena glows suddenly, and then the floor shifts. Instead of dirt, they now stand on an intricate map of Beqanna. The surrounding ocean ripples with waves, and it looks like a windy day by the way the map's trees are shaking. Looking closely, you can even see the top views of her inhabitants. Yes, at the base of the arena, you can even see yourself, a point of color against the green landscape. "What you see is right now. You will each experience this individually, so don't be afraid to play with it. You need only think in the direction you wish to go, although this current time is as far forward as you are allowed to look. Now for the hard part. I must know, who were the first three Mystical horses of Beqanna?"
They are just beginning to get restless, waiting for their next task, when she reappears; and the tasks re-commence with no hesitation. The Goddess sends them onto an intricate map of their world, and sets them a task in the past.
But this isn’t right - this isn’t the Beqanna of the past. Too much has changed. Belgaer remembers his father’s stories, his mother and father’s world of before, and he concentrates on what he remembers. The eight Kingdoms - but no, it would be even further back than that. Back to when Beqanna began, before Brennen and Galilee; back to when there were only a few Kingdoms, separated by how they felt about the world; this is the history he dives into, watching the stories of ancient myths unfold before his eyes like fairy tales told to children before bedtime. And here he finds his answers, and fights his way free of the history. It’s like swimming hard, upstream, but finally he stands before Nike again in the here-and-now.
“Lone Star and Banat er Rih were the first two,” he says though he is exhausted almost past making words. ”And then Prelude was the third.”
One by one they turn to the Goddess to tell her their answers. They are all unanimous, and that is something that pleases the ebony mare. She’d hate to see any of them fail, but that doesn’t mean she will back down herself. Amorette listens closely to the new task the Goddess lays out for them.
Amore finds herself nodding, wholeheartedly agreeing with what Nike says. To know ones history is important. However, she does not expect the land to shift. Her eyes roam all over the arena, the intricate map of Beqanna showing even the tiniest details. But what is most amazing, and frightening, is that she can see herself. What magic is this?
While the goddess' speaks Amore tries exactly to do what she says. Think forward, and hey, the can see the little her moving forward indeed! But their task does not lay in the intricate map of the here and now. Instead they dive into the past. This has Amorette look up, and smile. ”The first three mythicals were Banat er Rih, Lone Star and prelude.” That much Magnus' history lessons taught her.
She’s old, she remembers the old world, but no this is older than the world she knows. No one had told her that the world had changed before. This is a world that her mother never mentioned. Which, is surprising as Jadis put emphasis on the importance of remembering their history, drilled into her head to always remember her roots. She stands there a moment in awe, taking in the purity of a world untouched by the magic that scarred and tore apart the world she had grown up in. She sees them, the originals, and part of her leaps with joy at this. She closes her eyes, taking a deep breath, before returning to the golden mare. They are Banat er Rih, Lone Star, and Prelude. She falls silent still thinking on the amazing experience she had just been granted. Nodding the mare in gratitude for giving her this give.
A wash of pride and, relief, overcomes ebony stallion as he delivers the correct answer to the first task for his team. Lobes remain hyper-fixated upon the Golden Goddess as obsidian steed waits for the next announcement. When her shrill tone breaks the symphony of breathing, poll lifts and, entire body pulses with anticipation. The scene shifts beneath their feet and, blue gaze scans the map carefully. He wishes to introduce himself to the first three Mystical horses of Beqanna. In a breath, he stands before the handsome Lone Star, equipped with a magnificent pair of wings, a horn and, as youthful as his immortal grandsire. Next, the raven bronc finds himself before the graceful princess, Banat er Rih. And, now for number three. In a moment, Jesper stands in front of Prelude also adorned with a pair of beautiful wings, a horn and, youthful beauty.
Enlightened by this mission, the ink-hued male feels a stronger connection to the land of Beqanna. He decides to return to The Goddess Nike and, soon finds himself standing there. He addresses her with a confident tone, “The first three mysticals of Beqanna were Lone Star, Banat er Rih and, Prelude.”
He paces nervously as they wait. Back home his partner is heavily pregnant and his daughter, well he doesn't dare stay away too long. She is quickly growing up. Much to quickly.
Suddenly there is light and shifting and the world under their feet shifts to show the lands of BQ. He is unfamiliar with most of the lands but a name stands out against the rest. Pangea? That had sunk. He had been there. Had witnessed it. Again the map shifts and lands change again... Tundra, Falls.... He is even more confused. This must be before his time. Way before. Then the goddess speaks again. A question on her lips. He thinks of history, stories of old, the beginning... "I believe it is Lone Star, Prelude, and Banat er Rih."
Saedís - with a stranger´s mark still fresh on her brow knows little of Beqannas motley history. All she knows has been given to her by her friends. Oh, she has listened beneath the sighing stars to the countless stories they have gifted her with. They are precious to her, these stories - and she has kept them close to her dreamer´s heart, and today it seems - they will serve a purpose other then just to put a smile upon her face.
She should have been afraid - perhaps, for the experience of seeing the map down there instead of the arena-dirt is so surreal she cannot quite fathom it. But she laughs her starsong laugh, and closes her eyes in fealty. She need only ask, the Goddess had said, and Saedís thinks of magic - rivulets of power in her veins and when she opens her eyes she is elsewhere though Saedís cannot quite pinpoint where. It is a beautiful place; lush green and serene and there are wildflowers sprinkled across the land in colors she has never before seen. And on the back of the wind; there is a voice - as gentle and soothing as the breeze itself. "Lone Star, Banat er Rih and Prelude are the names you seek dreamer"
Saedìs bows her small head in breathless gratitude, and it is with these names on her lips that she returns back to the real world and the Goddess.
Wound’s nerves begin to eat at her as they wait. She can hear a buzzing in her ears — one which doesn’t come from the chaotic symphony of the audience — and gives a shake of her head to rid herself of the noise. It persists regardless, as the competitors stand and wait for their host, only ceasing its annoyance when the Goddess appears and immediately pushes the contest onward.
The ground rolls in color beneath them to reveal a map of Beqanna. Wound can see Tephra’s island on one side of their arena and she can even spot her own silvery body as a dark pinprick on the arena’s portrayal on the map. Their host’s question causes Wound to think back to the stories her brothers had told her, in the deep swirl of forest and darkness.
The map shifts beneath her, causing her head to spin. She gasps, but her mind is already running back through Beqanna’s time. For a few moments she feels dramatically lost. But Wound finds the information she needs and catches ahold of it with a tight grip before she is whisked back to the present, gasping for air. Breathlessly, she replies, “Lone Star, Banat er Rih, and Prelude are the historical figures you seek.”
Ilma is amazed at the goddess' invention. She stands alone, suddenly, or at least that is what her probably limited awareness tells her. She hears the explanation that Nike gives her, or all of them. They are allowed to move the map, but only further back into history. This seems only fair to Ilma; the future is uncertain or at least it should be, and knowing it might honestly just lead someone on a wrong path, trying to avoid something bad. But bad things are part of life, and after deciding that knowing the future is never a good thing, she instead thinks to move it backwards.
It is slowly at first, for her own history is brief and she looks at it intensely. Her meeting with Kagerus on one of her first days here, two small dots flying backwards from Hyaline to the Meadow and Kagerus indeed losing her wings while she dreams; the miniature self-image of Ilma walks backwards to what seems to be the Beach although she doesn't really remember where she comes from - then she poofs. She blinks at this, but shakes her head. She had a task here, and it's not to find out how the Beqannian magic brought her here.
She pushes her mind backwards further - slow, fast, slow, fast, until she finally sees no more horses with special traits. She looks at them, but as she slowly goes even further back in time, she realizes that the herds grow smaller and smaller, and she is even able to go back to where there are no horses at all.
Good. Now forward, slowly.
She watches Black Magic and Swish, but they do not seem to be mythical. And of course, are two horses, not three. She progresses in time; herds are kingdoms, competing for power, neutrality arrives when some horses don't feel attracted to either side. But Ilma focuses on the mountain where she is now - there, one after another, three horses in total come to fulfill a quest for the fairies. They are granted the first magical traits, and she now knows the answer. "They are Lone Star, Banet er Rih, and Prelude." she answers the golden mare. She feels like perhaps Black Hole had chosen more wisely than the other three, but this time, Ilma is not asked for her opinion.
She blinks; the map is gone. She realizes she must have answered correctly.
Any fool knows men and women think differently at times, but the biggest difference is this: men forget, but never forgive; women forgive, but never forget.
Around her, Nymf could sense her fellow competitors’ impatience. Some paced while others fidgeted where they stood. She however, stood perfectly still with her eyes fixated on the golden goddess as she waited for the next task. Once again the ethereal beings voice rang clear – filling up the space around them like the gusting of a warm summer’s wind. Her words were true, however hard they were to accept.
Nymf was painfully aware of her past and the woman it had shaped her to be. As the world around her shifted, she saw it as the gods must have. As if she was perched on a cloud she could see herself, only discernable by the copper tips of her wings as they blew delicately in the wind. It was just her so high above the rest and a sudden peace took hold of her. Unbidden, she felt the earth below turn and shift until the rocky shores of Nerine appeared before her. She saw herself, once again stood upon the precipice contemplating how it would feel to die. Behind her, the familiar figure of Volcan ambled ever closer to the almost unrecognizably distraught version of herself.
It was shameful for her to see herself thusly. She’d always thought herself so strong until that moment as she contemplated ending it all.
Just as suddenly as she’d been suspended she found herself back in the arena, surrounded by the other equines once more. Nike posed her question and Nymf was unsurprised to hear the voice of her mother filling her head of the Tales of Old. She found herself grateful for those many lessons and reminders she’d given her throughout her life.
Confidently she stepped forward and offered her answer, ”I believe Lonestar, Banet er Rih and Prelude are the answers that you seek.”
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Jesper
