you can run but you can't hide
breath on your skin, I've arrived
She smiles at Aela’s imagination, amused by her confident assertions of teaching her half-brother a lesson. It would be the wrong lesson, but Heartfire doesn’t say so. There are some things the young simply need to learn on their own. Sometimes it is far better to let others knot their own ropes, but in the heat and tempest of youth, it can be a difficult thing to do. After all, what fun is there in simply standing by and watching? What amusement is to be found in a carefully timed word in the right ear as compared to a rage-fueled confrontation of wits or blood?
Her next question brings a derisive curl to Heartfire’s lips, brief as it may be. Aela knew even before she finished the question what the answer would be. Heartfire had seen the devastation. Had wreaked her own devastation on Pangea to catch Straia’s attention. She might even have been willing to listen had the entity not responded with such overbearing arrogance. She had believed herself infallible, and in the end, that would be her downfall.
Those who believed themselves without weakness have always and inevitably been brought down by that very fault. Heartfire would not be part and parcel to such foolishness, and though she might wish Aela to understand, she would not place her in a bubble for her own safekeeping.
She would need to learn one day, just as Heartfire had learned.
It takes her a moment to respond, but when she does, her thoughts are level, her words plain. “What she did to Nerine was child’s play compared to what I have seen before.”
Beqanna has been remade so many times, though none quite so great as what she had experienced in her youth.
She is pleased when Aela concedes that she will use caution, echoing along the tether that binds them together. She wouldn’t try to keep Aela from her amusements, but she is glad to know the girl would be vigilant in them. It’s even almost enough to temper her apprehension at her granddaughter’s next query.
Carnage is a subject she had never attempted to broach before. With anyone. She had never personally met him. A very deliberate act on her part. As a seer, she understands so much more than the average equine when it comes to the dark god. He is one of the few she considers truly dangerous, and thus imperative to avoid. It’s almost amusing in the wake of their conversation about Straia. Her power pales in comparison to his, yet she believes herself invulnerable. Carnage, who is perhaps much more truthfully invulnerable, has many times demonstrated (without words perhaps, but Heartfire had long ago learned to read between the lines) that he understands he is not truly infallible. A fact that makes him so much more dangerous than the entity could ever be.
He would never put himself in a situation that might bring him harm. Instead, he would fling others into it. And that is far, far worse than a woman who would willingly place herself where she might be defeated by something more powerful. Because he would survive, always.
It’s ironic truly, because it does not escape Heartfire that she has frequently done the same. That she understands his motives.
There is some length of time before Heartfire responds. Though the girl could no doubt feel the sizzle of her emotions and chaotic flow of her thoughts along their tether, it takes her some time to formulate a sufficient response. “He is. Distantly,” she replies slowly, thoughtfully. “But I strongly advise against seeking him out. His descendants are legion, and he cares nothing for them. Next to him, Straia is an ant, and you less so. You might amuse him for a time, but he could just as easily step on you as humor your lust for power.”
heartfire
@[Aela]