11-12-2021, 03:22 PM
so give me hope in the darkness that I will see the light
'cause oh that gave me such a fright
'cause oh that gave me such a fright
While his eyes are scanning the physical bodies standing before him, most if not all of them unfamiliar, there is a moment when he considers retreating back into himself. It's work, starting over, and Brennen has little to tie him to the mortal existence. He's always been a creature of intense loyalties, to lands and to people. The lands are not a draw to him right now - he had broken his last ties to Kingdoms and Monarchies shortly before his last disappearance. Yes, the landscapes might remain unchanged by aught but the seasons, but the people inside of them who commanded his loyalty have changed. So it is only for the possibility of people to whom he is loyal that Brennen stays mentally present, and he is afraid of what he might find if he reaches for them.
Who remains alive? Who has died (for real, not the magic-sleep of the water mage)?
He has gone as far as to close his eyes when something changes. There's magic in the wind that skips across his hide and feathers, and it's not the magic of a stranger. Even if he wasn't attuned to 'look' for the magics and minds of those he has cared about, the wind carries special significance for Brennen, and he is always listening to it. Once, before he was a mage, he had a handful of other hard-won powers, and the winds had been among them. He rarely gives serious thought to the limitations of his powers Before, but the ability to harness the wind had gone hand-in-hand with his preference for flight over the tedium of walking, and so it had been precious. Not as handy in his profession as the bone-bending, but closer to his heart.
The mage half-expects to see the other mage when he opens his eyes, but the space immediately around himself is still empty. He waits a moment, a pregnant pause, and is rewarded with the brush of a mind against his own, rich with the Cold that the younger man has embraced. Brennen tolerated the cold of the Tundra because it was the first home he'd ever known, and his loyalty to it and his Kings had run deeper than any river. The dragon-boy had embraced the Cold over time until it seemed he simply Was. Leilan, the mage tastes the name across his mind less as an affirmation of his identity - neither one of them is any particular doubt as to who the other is - but rather as an affirmation that this is Real, and not a dream or a memory, you know if would take more than that to kill me.
Brennen is hard to kill: he's both a formidable warrior in the physical way, and a practiced magician. Oh, and he's fucking stubborn. It's like a shining threefold illustration of 'hard to kill'.
His memories of the altercations directly before he phased himself out into the ocean for a time are hazy, but time awake is sharpening them. The last things Brennen remembers is working magic beyond even his own level of comfort, Taiga burning, and those that had asked him to stand in protection of their Lands and Kingdoms failing to appear to stand beside him. Brennen remembers being incandescently irate, and he is sure that even a memory of that anger will remain in his mind-voice when he speaks again; but any fury he may have felt at the time is tempered by both time and his long history with the younger stallion that had preceded that incident, and the result is a tone that might have an edge, but isn't particularly hostile. He doesn't bother to shield any of those complicated feelings from Leilan, if the boy cares to look. Too lazy to come say a real hello? he teases instead.
Who remains alive? Who has died (for real, not the magic-sleep of the water mage)?
He has gone as far as to close his eyes when something changes. There's magic in the wind that skips across his hide and feathers, and it's not the magic of a stranger. Even if he wasn't attuned to 'look' for the magics and minds of those he has cared about, the wind carries special significance for Brennen, and he is always listening to it. Once, before he was a mage, he had a handful of other hard-won powers, and the winds had been among them. He rarely gives serious thought to the limitations of his powers Before, but the ability to harness the wind had gone hand-in-hand with his preference for flight over the tedium of walking, and so it had been precious. Not as handy in his profession as the bone-bending, but closer to his heart.
The mage half-expects to see the other mage when he opens his eyes, but the space immediately around himself is still empty. He waits a moment, a pregnant pause, and is rewarded with the brush of a mind against his own, rich with the Cold that the younger man has embraced. Brennen tolerated the cold of the Tundra because it was the first home he'd ever known, and his loyalty to it and his Kings had run deeper than any river. The dragon-boy had embraced the Cold over time until it seemed he simply Was. Leilan, the mage tastes the name across his mind less as an affirmation of his identity - neither one of them is any particular doubt as to who the other is - but rather as an affirmation that this is Real, and not a dream or a memory, you know if would take more than that to kill me.
Brennen is hard to kill: he's both a formidable warrior in the physical way, and a practiced magician. Oh, and he's fucking stubborn. It's like a shining threefold illustration of 'hard to kill'.
His memories of the altercations directly before he phased himself out into the ocean for a time are hazy, but time awake is sharpening them. The last things Brennen remembers is working magic beyond even his own level of comfort, Taiga burning, and those that had asked him to stand in protection of their Lands and Kingdoms failing to appear to stand beside him. Brennen remembers being incandescently irate, and he is sure that even a memory of that anger will remain in his mind-voice when he speaks again; but any fury he may have felt at the time is tempered by both time and his long history with the younger stallion that had preceded that incident, and the result is a tone that might have an edge, but isn't particularly hostile. He doesn't bother to shield any of those complicated feelings from Leilan, if the boy cares to look. Too lazy to come say a real hello? he teases instead.
but I will hold, as long as you like
just promise me we'll be alright
just promise me we'll be alright
BrenneN
@Leilan Brennen said "write me now!" so here