Lepis is contemplative and Lilliana waits. As the Comtesse considers her, Lilli waits under the scrutiny of that blue-grey gaze. The first sentence elicits a nod from her; her family has been torn apart and ravaged by war. She has no desire to see its consequences inflicted on others here. Perhaps at the very heart of things, that is Lilliana's deepest wish for Taiga. A touch too idealistic, painted too much with a dreamers heart, she knows, but still a hope.
But it is the memory of a little blonde girl dropped at their borders, robbed of her parents, amber eyes wild and defiant in the face of tragedy. It is the hallowed blue eyes - eyes her exact shade of blue - that never seemed to regain the vitality of life again no matter how hard her mother tried. It is for those who had stepped onto a battleground but not off of it that gives her a sense of resolve as she listens to the Comtesse.
So Lilli nods, with full agreement to what Lepis says.
This is what she wants for Taiga and so the wisdom holds.
An ear flicks towards Lepis and the tilt gives way to a full head turn as the chestnut listens attentively to what the pegasus tells her. "Why would Nerine perceive us as a threat? Surely Heartfire has better things to concern herself with than what friendships a subkingdom makes?" The chestnut turns the words over in her mind. Couldn't any affiliations that Taiga sought to be as equally beneficial to the land to the North? There are reasons that Lilliana could muse about (she isn't so woefully ignorant that she couldn't realize why Nerine would concern herself with Taiga and its blossoming friendships) but Lilliana wants to believe what Lepis tells her.
She wants to believe that war could never touch them here.
The fear about such a thought tightens in her throat like a vice.
If it does come to that, she thinks, perhaps Lepis is the one to stay it.
"Heartfire threatened you?" It's a restrained question as her mind tries to grasp something she doesn't fully understand. Why would the Queen of Nerine threaten Taiga, threaten Lepis? Lilliana isn't so oblivious that she doesn't know of Wolfbane and Lepis's.. takeover but her time here has been peaceful. Aten, perhaps wronged at the start, has settled into the role of their Champion and for the sake of wanting to keep that peace, she doesn't say more.
@[Lepis] all the hail the twigs
But it is the memory of a little blonde girl dropped at their borders, robbed of her parents, amber eyes wild and defiant in the face of tragedy. It is the hallowed blue eyes - eyes her exact shade of blue - that never seemed to regain the vitality of life again no matter how hard her mother tried. It is for those who had stepped onto a battleground but not off of it that gives her a sense of resolve as she listens to the Comtesse.
So Lilli nods, with full agreement to what Lepis says.
This is what she wants for Taiga and so the wisdom holds.
An ear flicks towards Lepis and the tilt gives way to a full head turn as the chestnut listens attentively to what the pegasus tells her. "Why would Nerine perceive us as a threat? Surely Heartfire has better things to concern herself with than what friendships a subkingdom makes?" The chestnut turns the words over in her mind. Couldn't any affiliations that Taiga sought to be as equally beneficial to the land to the North? There are reasons that Lilliana could muse about (she isn't so woefully ignorant that she couldn't realize why Nerine would concern herself with Taiga and its blossoming friendships) but Lilliana wants to believe what Lepis tells her.
She wants to believe that war could never touch them here.
The fear about such a thought tightens in her throat like a vice.
If it does come to that, she thinks, perhaps Lepis is the one to stay it.
"Heartfire threatened you?" It's a restrained question as her mind tries to grasp something she doesn't fully understand. Why would the Queen of Nerine threaten Taiga, threaten Lepis? Lilliana isn't so oblivious that she doesn't know of Wolfbane and Lepis's.. takeover but her time here has been peaceful. Aten, perhaps wronged at the start, has settled into the role of their Champion and for the sake of wanting to keep that peace, she doesn't say more.
@[Lepis] all the hail the twigs
but it's all in the past, love
it's all gone with the wind