Everclear
He may have been cruel once, in a time now long past. When he was young, when he was angry, when he was lost. He’d been mad, too, a literal lifetime ago.Some might say that love and fatherhood had softened him. And in some sense, that may be true. But, to him, it was finding a true cause to stand for. It was in defending the Gates that he’d truly found purpose and a reason to tether his anger, rope it and bind it only to be released when it was truly necessary.
All of that, nearly a century ago now, had left him quieted, muted and calm.
Narya’s initial answer to his question somewhat piques his interest: her parents had lived here. A flickering, whispering wonder passes through his thoughts – how long ago was that? Had he known them?
Likely not. His tenure in the Gates had been quite brief in comparison to others. But he nods along anyway because he knows that this kingdom (as he still sees it) is ancient and many lives have come and gone upon its soil. He also knows that it had been lost for quite some time, tucked away and forbidden to all by the wiley magics of Beqanna, and he, too, wonders briefly if it has changed.
Looking out, it is still an idyllic land, serene in its apparent vacancy and comforting. While some devils do wear crowns of flowers, as he knows, Everclear does not believe that corruption would ever touch this place. It is simply too kind in the very roots of the trees, the veins of the earth, to abide such evils as discrimination or occlusion.
His secondary question causes a mild shift in her mind that he does not need magic to sense and he nearly regrets asking her just as she regrets hearing it. It seems his skills in communication have not stood the test of time as well as the rest of him. Her answer is vague and he accepts it with a nod of understanding; she need not elaborate.
“I will not pry,” he assures her in his usual steady voice. “I know all too well the burdens of this world and how difficult they can be to bear.” A twitch of his shoulder accompanies the words, a dull reflexive response to memories of old pains.
She gives him her name and he nods again as if to thank her. Her face has brightened and so does his. “Hello Narya. My name is Everclear.” It feels a bit strange to say it after all this time without having met anyone else, just as it always does.
“I was part of this place, once… Though others at the time might have disagreed.” Had he ever truly belonged? They never fully accepted him, even when he’d fought for and won their freedom. Perhaps that is why he had grown despondent – not because his queen had left him, but because he could not convince the herd of his devotion to them.
Loyalties then were hard-won; allegiances were hard-proven.
“Pardon an old man’s reverie,” he obliges her with a meek smile and another twitch of his withers. “I’ve returned to see what’s become of the Gates… but unfortunately it seems almost abandoned.”
E V E R C L E A R
@Narya