12-05-2022, 01:46 AM
feel around until you find where your heart went --
Baltia, the mare says, and something in Ryatah’s demeanor changes, riding the nearly imperceptible shift from casual conversation to what she now assumes will be political. She had known this moment would come—had also known that instead of waiting for it she should have taken the initiative to seek it out, but without an army, or even a council, to back her up, it seemed unwise. Even though not all Beqanna kingdoms were known for being friendly, they still were not strangers. If she did not know the faces of those currently ruling then she would still know their mothers and fathers, would have perhaps once ruled at the same time as their grandparents, and so on. She would know the history of the kingdom itself, would be familiar with how frequently it had swung, like a pendulum, between the dark and the light.
Stratos and Baltia, however, are unknown to her, and what little she does know leaves her with the impression that neither of them should really be meddled with. The storms that wrecked Beqanna had not only revealed the previously unknown kingdoms, but had also unearthed all their bloodied history. Did an alliance with one mean war with the other? Or, even more troubling, would the two enemies find a common allegiance in their dislike for this strange world they had found themselves in? The Pampas could maybe fend off one attacker—but not two.
But Baltia is here now, on her figurative doorstep. The mare has come alone as near as she can tell, which means it's unlikely that she has brought war with her at this very moment. She should perhaps be more wary, but her fear of injury and death has dulled over the years—something that simply happens once you’ve endured it too many times, and it is only the darkness that followed her home from the void that rests coiled in her chest like a sleeping cat that she is reminded that death can still be unpredictable. Other than regarding the mare with a keener stare, though, not much else changes. “That’s me, actually. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Rezza. I have not yet met anyone from Baltia, so I suppose this was overdue,” she finishes with another smile, this one slightly smaller since she knows there are other matters they need to speak on.
“I wish there was more of my world to show you,” she says, her tone tinged with sadness when she thinks of how much of Beqanna rests under the sea. “But perhaps under different circumstances,” she adds sympathetically, recognizing that Rezza and the rest of Baltia were not here by choice. She gives a small shake of her head. “I am not sure how to begin to right things, truthfully. It appears that it took a lot of magic and chaos to get us here in the first place, and would likely take equal amounts to reverse it.”
-- ryatah
@Rezza