01-14-2020, 12:49 AM
She can hear the footsteps of Lepis behind her, grinding in the rocky, sandy, soil of Nerine, following to where the rock walls reach skyward, but careful not to stop beneath them, careful to leave the open air above her. A way out, just in case - a precaution that Neverwhere approves of, though it is unlikely to be necessary. The winged mare begins her story and the silver mare lets her eyelids drop. Does it look strange? Beqanna is so full of the unwary, she thinks to herself with amusement, savoring the irony of the thought against the backdrop of her actions. It is easier to listen sometimes without the distraction of her eyes. Her ears swivel and catch every word, every tone shift and the skipping of her voice, though she can only guess at the emotion that causes it. Wolfbane. Cursed? She wonders when that might have happened, before or after that day in Taiga. Before or after he had lured Lilliana in with a dreamer's sweet words? But it doesn't matter, not really, because the meaning is the same. The threat is the same. Beneath the inflammation of her skin the scar tissue grows pale and mottled, blanching briefly before flushing back to red. Anger mingles with worry, mingles with that flare of hatred she had thought had finally died away.
Lilli...
But someone else, too. Eyas, bold and bluffing in the Meadow, but running from something. From someone. She had said her father wouldn't dare challenge her, but was that true now? Had it even been true then? Eyas had needed Heartfire, too, had needed her over anyone else, even her mother. How long since Lepis last saw her daughter? Neverwhere's jaw clenches and she says nothing. Everyone he has a connection to is in danger - And everyone he hasn't, she supposes - if what Lepis says is true. If. But there is no evidence that she is lying, not a hint of it, and not much reason to lie, either, whatever else their relations might be. Neverwhere re-opens her eyes and they focus sharply on the other mare, a scowl twisting her lips until yellowed teeth bare and flash dully in the winter light.
"Oh, I have met Wolfbane before," Her voice drips with loathing and she takes a step forward, closer to the pegasus with eyes flashing behind the cataracts within them, "and he has not been here to my knowledge. Not, in any case, in his usual shape. You don't need Heartfire's vision to notice that."
Heartfire. She pauses, nostrils pinched and narrow so that her breath hisses through them. Heartfire gone and the best hope at defeating the dark magic that has consumed the stallion. Heartfire's grandson. Lepis' husband. Eyas' father. Lilliana's would-be lover. How did she come to have so many connections to him? She does not encroach any further on Lepis' space, but her bear-cub ears flatten and disappear under the wind-knotted tangles of her mane. Her gaze, which had shifted inward and away, locks again on blue steel eyes.
"Heartfire is gone. I don't know where, and I don't know if she will be back, but she has put me in charge - and it's a lovely mess she's left me, too." The wind moans in the cave at Neverwhere's back, putting emphasis on her words, "So nobody in Nerine will be disintegrating you today, but I do not know that I can help you with the problem of Wolfbane."
Lilli...
But someone else, too. Eyas, bold and bluffing in the Meadow, but running from something. From someone. She had said her father wouldn't dare challenge her, but was that true now? Had it even been true then? Eyas had needed Heartfire, too, had needed her over anyone else, even her mother. How long since Lepis last saw her daughter? Neverwhere's jaw clenches and she says nothing. Everyone he has a connection to is in danger - And everyone he hasn't, she supposes - if what Lepis says is true. If. But there is no evidence that she is lying, not a hint of it, and not much reason to lie, either, whatever else their relations might be. Neverwhere re-opens her eyes and they focus sharply on the other mare, a scowl twisting her lips until yellowed teeth bare and flash dully in the winter light.
"Oh, I have met Wolfbane before," Her voice drips with loathing and she takes a step forward, closer to the pegasus with eyes flashing behind the cataracts within them, "and he has not been here to my knowledge. Not, in any case, in his usual shape. You don't need Heartfire's vision to notice that."
Heartfire. She pauses, nostrils pinched and narrow so that her breath hisses through them. Heartfire gone and the best hope at defeating the dark magic that has consumed the stallion. Heartfire's grandson. Lepis' husband. Eyas' father. Lilliana's would-be lover. How did she come to have so many connections to him? She does not encroach any further on Lepis' space, but her bear-cub ears flatten and disappear under the wind-knotted tangles of her mane. Her gaze, which had shifted inward and away, locks again on blue steel eyes.
"Heartfire is gone. I don't know where, and I don't know if she will be back, but she has put me in charge - and it's a lovely mess she's left me, too." The wind moans in the cave at Neverwhere's back, putting emphasis on her words, "So nobody in Nerine will be disintegrating you today, but I do not know that I can help you with the problem of Wolfbane."
Neverwhere
...
@[Lepis] well, I lied when I said I wasn't replying to you tonight, but technically I didn't because it's after midnight and now it's this morning.