it's been a long time coming; #teamromek

[demian]

There is something to be said about the way things are done. To immediately approach with their plea had seemed useless. It wasn't every day that you had to face the Goddess and plea your case and it wasn't every day that you were forced to face the wrongdoings and the negative aspects of one's true nature that lay beneath the surface. Demian had been a patient king, and yet a selfish one. He had sought after the power of his fire not once but twice and in turn had grown to lust after it's capabilities.

He listens to the rest, silent and unmoving. Barely flinching when Lily spouts off and Reagan soon covers for her. And when the magician grows silent he is flooded with memories of his past, doing his best to direct them to the fairy....

His first mistake had been when he used his power to create more than what he was allowed. He had allowed the dark Magician, Eight, to use him as a catlyst to create a fire wall that was impenetrable. His main goal may have been to protect his kingdom's residents, yet deep down it was a move made of greed. He had wanted to keep the Valley untouched by those they did not accept and when the faeries came running he realized his heart had been headed in the wrong direction. Like a dictator he, flamevein and eight had tried to force their members to take a mark of flame in order to prove their loyalty.

Instead of quietly trusting them he had given them a choice. Prove yourself outwardly or leave and yet he hadn't ever had the right to do so. It had led to the pain of one of his closest friends, Cress and soon to one of his greatest regrets as he watched her struggle with the turmoil that his choices caused her. He thinks of this, perfectly remembering each and every detail, showing the fairy silently his first major wrongdoing without saying a word as the sense of guilt spreads throughout his every being.

He is finally aching now as the images flash and change in his mind, memories fading into black and then coming back full force. It is now the war comes into play, the way he is reborn in the meadow with the fire spreading through his veins. The images of Pollock, the Krampus making his way out of the dark and the deadly smile of pure joy at Demian's pain filling his mind. The way he plots with the evil to kill the chamber and valley's enemies and how Vanquish discovers midbattle that he is who started the whole thing. How he runs like a coward from the fight, knowing he didn't have the experience to last.

It is his biggest grief and regret. The way he allowed children to die at the hands of their bloodlust. There had been no reason for any of it. Other than the simple fact he had wanted to prove to them that to mess with their families and home was a mistake that came with not only major but fatal consequences. Yet the children that died. His friends who had died. None of them had deserved what they did. None of them. And deep down he ached for their souls. "I'm so sorry," it is not an apology to the Goddess or the faeries. Instead it was to those that had been lost at the hands of the war.

None of them should have had to die. And had he been a true king he wouldn't have asked his people to go into a war they did not belong in and the choices he had made that led to certain deaths would not have even been considered. He was a weak face and he knew it.

It is then the third memory comes into play. The way his son is born in thr dead of night at the brink of the wars end. How he leads the new soul to the potion master and trades the gift of age for a future child from himself in order to satiate Kirin's lust for power. How he did all of this so he and Mast could avoid the wrath of the Deserts queen and Queen and hide amongst the shadows. How his son, due to his choices had gone mad in the mind, unable to fulfill his duties. How Tannor had suffered, trying to do what his father asked and expected while his mind quickly unraveled to the point he had to disappear from his duty, not once but twice.

How when Tannor returned the evil that had been birthed within (some say it was the darkness that Demian could not hold himself) led to the silver stallion taking on the form of baal and leading queens and kings into battle to try and strip the Deserts of a King and his consort due to the hatred he held for them for trying to destroy his father. And it was this act that led them here finally. To Beqanna finally snapping and taking from them what all mattered most.

It is then he feels his cheeks are wet. The temporary sight given to him by Reagan clouding even more. "I'm so so sorry," again. It isn't to the fair or Goddess. The apology is not yet meant for them, it is meant for his son. For his selfish desire to protect himself had led to this. All of this. And he entirely blamed himself. He looks up slowly, knees shaking and for a moment he chokes.

"I am guilty of so many terrible things and you know this, if not before then definitely now, as I have shown you... I do not deserve to be here. To be pleading this case alongside these much more innocent souls. But I feel I need to make up for the things I have done. I must do something, anything to fix the wrongdoings of my past. I have been selfish, greedy, and led a life without true respect for you or the Goddess herself. I am guilty of so many sins that they haunt me in the quiet of night when I am forced into my own mind as I have done nothing to redeem myself. Not yet." He tears up more, his heart thudding in his chest.

"I am not here to do more damage, beautiful fairy. I am here to apologize. Not just to you, but to everyone who has suffered due to my abundance of poor choices. To help form a world that is righteous and selfless and serves you and the Goddess appropriately. I am here to help teach and lead those who follow Romek and the others of the other lands in the right direction in the way I know I am capable with the knowledge of having done this before." He thinks back to the time he had encouraged a quiet shy and unconfident Fennick to kingship aside Gallows despite the black stallions reservations and inability to believe he could be great. Demian had known otherwise and the king had led a peaceful rule alongside the dark queen. He had been great. Just like the leopard stallion had known he'd be.

" I simply want to see Beqanna become great again, one lacking of greed and selfish behavior. I want to help form a home where the worries of the past are no more. Where the children grow to respect you and the other faeries and the Goddess herself and are able to teach their children the same morals and values... I want to help lead Beqanna into a time of peace, where the worry of loss of children or our greed leading to senseless wars are a thing of the past. I want to help you, help the rest to learn even moreso from the mistakes of our pasts that we carry so heavily on our shoulders...." he pauses for a moment, realizing he is doing more talking than the rest. That at this point he is rambling due to thr pain radiating throughout his entire being.

"Your willingness to hear or see (he is referring to his memories and the regret and the apologies he had shown her) our case is what we ask for most. To consider us as potential candidates, for your aid is more than we could ever be blessed with, I now beg you that even if you turn me away, you still consider Romek, Maribel, Reagan and the innocent children that stand before you now. They are full of good spirit, kind hearts and could be so very valuable to your cause. They would do wonferfully at helping you build this new land and to teach the future of true right and wrong. You have a strong set of bodies and minds at your disposal and they will be forever yours if you see the light that I too see in them and are kind enough to grace you with their aid."

"And though the children are young, they are strong. Strong minds with strong hearts, and though it may be wrong in the minds of many to make them come with us, we allowed them to follow on their own behalf. Had they not wanted to come, we would have let them Remain below, carefully watched over...." he takes a deep breath. "From what I understand they too want to be a part of forging new Beqanna and I know they are capable as much as any of us. Especially with the parents they have to raise them... To overlook that just because we are adults of extra age and more experience would be foolish. For sometimes the least experienced are even greater than the ones with the most. And new blood is always important..." He looks at Maribel and Romek breifly before turning back to the Fairy.

He grows silent then, his eyes searching the ground, his voice growing quiet. "I beg you please, to consider their cases. Even if my own pleas and apologies mean nothing to you and the Goddess. Even if you turn me away, please, I beg once more, do not turn them away. They are capable of so many great things and I would bet my life on it." He doesn't deserve to be here. He deserves nothing but death. And yet he cannot go to the grave without pleading for his friends and their followers to be given the opportunity that he was once handed and so selfishly wasted away.

(Ooc: i assume hes pleading to the BQ fairy. If not then just simply read it as he is talking to the goddess, haha.)

@[Nicole] @[Elle Belle]

[Beqanna Fairy]

She finds the tiger's pleading appropriate. He understands - or is at least willing to try to - and the empty air around them is, for a moment, a bit easier to breathe.

That moment is short-lived.

One of the begs her to think of the children, as though that is not what this is all for. She thinks of the children, and mothers, and the fathers, of those horses with no family and those with relations in the dozens. She thinks of nothing but them, and that is why they have come to this.

Her gift is more than the magic that flows inside them, it is the very breath in their lungs and the beat of their hearts. It would have been easier to start new, to mold new creatures with more appreciation from the earth at their feet. Easier, but it would not have taught them the lessons she so desperately wants them to learn.

"You are young and foolish and ungrateful," the wind says to Lilitha while remaining nothing but wind to the rest of them, "And you will someday learn what it really is that you are willing to toss away so easily." Beqanna sighs, because she had wanted them to learn from the proverbial carrot rather than the stick.

But to spare the rod is to spoil the child, and Beqanna wants her children to grow strong.

"Your land awaits," she tells them all, and places the path in their minds and in their hooves, which will carry them north to the paradise she has prepared for them.

"Yours does not," she says to Lilitha alone. "You will remain a wanderer, and you will feel the heat of the fire I gifted you with each use to remind you of the pain that comes with magic."

The rest of them, she leads to the Coniferous Forest (will be edited later with link)

Note: Lilitha will be unable to enter the new land occupied by her team and will experience an excruciating burning sensation if she uses her pyrokinesis in any way. Both of these punishments will cease immediately with proper apologies to Beqanna or in three Beqanna years.

[Lilitha]

I pretend to close my eyes;
I pretend I'm burning bright.

The wind murmurs dire imprecations in my ear, a sighing voice, dripping insults and warning, and the fire catches even more, burning brighter along my skin. Call me what you will, it won’t change how I feel. It won’t change what’s fair, or what’s right. A benevolent deity wouldn’t use her power to make her people squirm and crawl and beg, especially not the ones who’ve done nothing wrong. Tell me what I did, beyond standing up for myself and the people I love when a bully tried to make all of us feel like we deserved to be punished.

I can’t speak just to her, or I’d say the words out loud. But I have no doubt she can hear me, whether I use my voice or not. I would not toss them away. But I will not stand by and watch someone treat us cruelly either, not without saying something. Tell yourself what you like; I sure can’t stop you. But don’t expect me to beg your forgiveness for using the voice that apparently you gave me.

Relief washes through me as she tells the people I love that their home awaits, and that relief is only slightly dimmed when she turns to me and damns me. The fire that has been my friend my whole life flares up as she speaks, and the truth of her words is immediately evident. For the first time other than when it devoured my wings, the fire hurts. It sears through me, red hot and vicious, and I let the pain wash over me and prove what I had already begun to suspect.

Our god isn’t one of mercy and love and benevolence. This world is no friend of mine. I feel my childhood burn away as she leads my family to safety without me. And I wish them well as they fade into the distance. Perhaps someday I’ll see them again. But it won’t be because I learned how to grovel. I wait, and when they are gone, I walk back down the mountain alone, following the same path we used to ascend.

If I am to be a wanderer, I might as well get started.

Lilitha