The Dale had been a bedtime story. Stories of that forgotten kingdom had been passed down from mother to daughter for generations until it was told to her own mother on the rooftops of the world, another silver mare who was said that she carried the coloring of that noble line. Of a line descended from kings of a place called the Forbidden Dale.
It was one story amongst a plethora of others that had been told to Lilliana as a girl; there had been stories of the Amazons, of fierce queens like Aslyum and Prague, of the child-queen Antarda and stories about what that band of jungle women represented. Those stories had been told alongside the ancestors of her sire, of Ichiro and Ramiro and Legado.
And honestly, Lilliana hadn't given much thought to those stories until she was grown. Until she had struck out on her own and those stories were the only things she had to carry with her. What she knows of Beyond is no use to her here but what she knows of old Beqanna? That too had been rendered useless by the Reckoning until Aten had spoken those magical names, until he breathed life into the legends of her youth: Magnus and Ryatah.
And the fact that the Fates have delivered one of those legends in her presence, well, Lilliana isn't about the question the irony of gods and divinities.
Ryatah eyes her with curiosity and Lilliana repays with open wonder, with a smile that hides nothing. It is all delight and admiration in that blue-eyed gaze, "Aten told me of you. Of you and Magnus." She doesn't know if this means anything to the silver woman but the chestnut girl has to start somewhere.
When Ryatah confirms that, yes, she lived in the Dale once, Lilli feels the world shift beneath her. The stories were real. There was truth in her mother's words and for a girl who has longed for nothing but her family, Ryatah brings her closer to them than she has been in years. Lilliana could bask in the warmth of this feeling that drowns her; of the love that spreads to every corner of her soul. She can't help the daydream smile that lingers on her dark mouth, "What was it like? Did you know the old kings? Solomon? Coca-Cola?"
The daydream has to end with the remembering. (So much of her life is this - of the dreaming and then remembering what can't be, what no longer exists. She should be used to this by now, the way that the dreams ripple apart.) Lilli mourns the loss of the daydream with a small shake of her head and a touch of apology on her chiseled face, "I wasn't born there. I wasn't born here." She admits with her foreign-born heart. And then another question, the curiosity returning again. "Were you born there? The Dale, I mean."
It dawns on her that she is asking questions of an immortal. What do you ask of someone who has known endless days? At some point, do all questions become alike? Does daybreak still hold the potential of possibilities or do they all blend together?
@[Ryatah]
It was one story amongst a plethora of others that had been told to Lilliana as a girl; there had been stories of the Amazons, of fierce queens like Aslyum and Prague, of the child-queen Antarda and stories about what that band of jungle women represented. Those stories had been told alongside the ancestors of her sire, of Ichiro and Ramiro and Legado.
And honestly, Lilliana hadn't given much thought to those stories until she was grown. Until she had struck out on her own and those stories were the only things she had to carry with her. What she knows of Beyond is no use to her here but what she knows of old Beqanna? That too had been rendered useless by the Reckoning until Aten had spoken those magical names, until he breathed life into the legends of her youth: Magnus and Ryatah.
And the fact that the Fates have delivered one of those legends in her presence, well, Lilliana isn't about the question the irony of gods and divinities.
Ryatah eyes her with curiosity and Lilliana repays with open wonder, with a smile that hides nothing. It is all delight and admiration in that blue-eyed gaze, "Aten told me of you. Of you and Magnus." She doesn't know if this means anything to the silver woman but the chestnut girl has to start somewhere.
When Ryatah confirms that, yes, she lived in the Dale once, Lilli feels the world shift beneath her. The stories were real. There was truth in her mother's words and for a girl who has longed for nothing but her family, Ryatah brings her closer to them than she has been in years. Lilliana could bask in the warmth of this feeling that drowns her; of the love that spreads to every corner of her soul. She can't help the daydream smile that lingers on her dark mouth, "What was it like? Did you know the old kings? Solomon? Coca-Cola?"
The daydream has to end with the remembering. (So much of her life is this - of the dreaming and then remembering what can't be, what no longer exists. She should be used to this by now, the way that the dreams ripple apart.) Lilli mourns the loss of the daydream with a small shake of her head and a touch of apology on her chiseled face, "I wasn't born there. I wasn't born here." She admits with her foreign-born heart. And then another question, the curiosity returning again. "Were you born there? The Dale, I mean."
It dawns on her that she is asking questions of an immortal. What do you ask of someone who has known endless days? At some point, do all questions become alike? Does daybreak still hold the potential of possibilities or do they all blend together?
@[Ryatah]
but it's all in the past, love
it's all gone with the wind