[open] i'm contagious, it'd be safest if you ran

[magnus]

— find what you love and let it kill you —

For a while, Magnus stands off to the side of the group, one ink-dipped ear flicked in their direction. It was not often that he did not approach right away; he was much more accustomed to introducing himself immediately. But something about this particular interaction kept him checked, his handsome face passive as he grazed, although little passed his lips. There was a discomfort about her greeting that struck a chord in him and something about the red stallion that belied his appearances. Magnus had no way of knowing what simmered beneath the surface, but he had been around long enough to know something was odd.

After a moment or two of assessing the situation, Magnus lifted his head and made his way toward them, stopping once he had come within a few feet. “Hello,” he greeted, his gold-flecked eyes washing over the mare first and then the stallion. Once upon a time, he may have smelt the pine upon Rodrik and recognized is at his old home. He may have even smelled the faint feline scent of his own father. But that time was now long past and the only thing that clung to Rodrik was the wasteland that was Pangea.

“My name is Magnus,” he offered, dipping his head. To Rodrik’s answer, he offered a crooked smile, almost bashful in nature. “Beqanna certainly does love to offer her children the chance to make amends.” He himself had only had a tenuous connection to magic, but he had certainly offended the land in other ways. He had been a warmonger, he had spilled blood upon her shores. He was no innocent.

“What brings you both here?”

A standard question but a telling one. If you asked Magnus today, he would tell you he had come because he was now shepherd of a flock that had not been his but was now his responsibility to guard—and that meant bringing new life into her folds. But that had not always been his purpose. He had come here before because he was lost. He had come here before because he owed a duty to those who lay buried beneath the ocean waves and sought purpose. He had come here before because it was work and it was easy to forget one’s self in its rhythms. Looking now upon the two, he could only wonder at their answer.

magnus