"But the dream, the echo, slips from him as quickly as he had found it and as consciousness comes to him (a slap and not the gentle waves of oceanic tides), it dissolves entirely. His muscles relax as the cold claims him again, as the numbness sets in, and when his grey eyes open, there’s nothing but the faint after burn of a dream often trod and never remembered." --Brigade, written by Laura
A glance is enough to tell her Wolfbane recognizes the offer for what it is. A double edged blade, to be certain, but one he would doubtless risk to find the truth. She had done the same once, after all. Had plucked at the chords of that frayed truth until it had come undone. Until a few words in the right ears had wrought the vengeance she’d so craved.
Of course, she could not have predicted the fallout. The single tipped domino that had started a cascade that led them to a plague.
A double edged sword indeed.
As she turns her attention to Lepis, it’s far too easy to recall just what seemingly small, insignificant acts could do. Perhaps the newly-risen comtesse would have her believe her actions are nothing, but Heartfire knows too well that is not the case. It would be a dangerous mistake on Lepis’ part to discount the attention she had drawn to herself with her less-than-quiet takeover. Certainly Heartfire would not be discounting it.
The other woman’s steadfast refusal to take the bait Heartfire had lain almost brings a smile to the queen’s lips. Almost. It’s regrettable, in a sense, that Lepis had placed herself in this position. After all, Heartfire could have been a great help had she not so deliberately placed them in opposing corners. Still, perhaps there are means by which to salvage something here.
Indeed, it’s the true purpose of her visit. After all, she will need to take action regardless. It is only what kind of action that is yet to be determined.
When Lepis makes no move to volunteer any further information, Heartfire lets all pretense drop. The diplomatic solution had clearly failed. And, well, Heartfire hasn’t the desire to beat around the bush if Lepis is not going to stand in the way. “So tell me then, what are your real reasons for coming here?” The pointed question is dropped into the silence with no gentleness or carefully worded wrapping. Lepis’ silence had cost her her opportunity to spin the story to her liking. Really, in the end, Heartfire is only interested in the meat of it. “And not the mouthed platitudes you’ve been offering to everyone here. They’re deflections, at best.”
An uncomfortable weight shifts the balance of Wolfbane’s life, listening to Heartfire speak. Maybe the two haven’t been on equal pages when it came to information, and maybe his grandmere knew more about Bane’s life than anyone present, but the remaining stallion among mares felt a very real chill emanating from Heartfire’s mouth as she spoke. A chill that clenched his teeth and straightened his spine because of the awkward position it left him in.
Heartfire or Lepis, Lepis or Heartfire?
Heartfire could want submission and obedience to Nerine, and she would harbor suspicions and have to act on whatever promises she’d made to Aten at one point or another, regardless of her connection to Bane.
Lepis would want freedom; it’s what she’s always wanted. Freedom to change her life and exceed predestined expectations. And Bane wants that too, for her and himself. He’d always been a high, fast flyer.
“Those deflections have their purpose.” Her grandson lowered his voice, disgruntled. “Not everyone believes the truth. Even if it’s spelled out for them.” He flicked his tail.
Since Heartfire seemed to think that she wasn’t prejudice in the least (until Lepis had given her a reason to be,) Wolfbane fed into her quiet anger and tried his best not to feel disappointed. If it was the truth she wanted, Bane would tell her what she demanded to hear.
“If there are going to be horses in our world thrusting countless lives into chaos, then I believe Lepis and I have a right to put a stop to it. Step by step we’ll rebuild, day by day if we have to.” He spoke, “Until the day comes that we can unify Beqanna.”
Taiga is just the beginning. They’ve hurt Aten but the wound will heal and close up again like it should. Wolfbane is determined to find common ground in a home that utterly distrusts them as outsiders. They’ll nourish and do exactly what Heartfire did, though Lepis and Wolfbane don’t know it:
They’ll use their powers to influence, except to salvage instead of being reckless.
08-16-2019, 07:40 AM (This post was last modified: 08-16-2019, 07:42 AM by Lepis.)
Lepis glances once at her husband, then flicks one navy ear back to be sure that Eyas has truly left them. Only then does she focus on Heartfire, and the pointed demand that Lepis tell her the real reason behind their coming to Taiga. Internally, the little dun mare bristles at the demand and the authority it implies. Her expression remains clear though, at least until the roan follows up the demand with the accusation that Lepis has been duplicitous in her dealings with the residents of her home. At that she does frown, and the expression shifts from confusion – how does Heartfire know what they’ve said to each other? - and then to disbelief as she realizes exactly how.
Her husband’s disgruntled voice suggests that his reaction to this is not too far from her own, though she supposes that with their family history that he might have been aware of Heartfire’s spying. It’s not something she had considered before. Her own children possess the same talent, and Lepis briefly wonders how much light Eyas might bring to the situation if Lepis were to recall her and inquire. But no. Eyas is still a child, and Lepis has no intention of involving her in such duplicitous acts. The pegasus is a great many things, but she’d not involve her children in things they are not prepared for.
Wolfbane answers his grandmother in a manner far more diplomatic than Lepis might have, and she leans against his shoulder with a quiet press of gratitude. There are times – and this is one of them – that the dun mare wishes she might be able to take emotions as well as give them. She would not mind some of the calm that infuses his voice when he sheds light on their plans. On her plans.
“Our coming here revitalized this quiet land.” She says, and though a shadow of the frown remains on her expression, there is also something of a dare in her alto voice. Surely Heartfire with her all-seeing eye has witnessed the quickening of the redwood forest south of her home.
“The residents here are safe and well-defended.” Lepis adds, having tallied the able bodies of the woods and not found them lacking. “We could always be safer though, which is why I intend to ask Castile if we might be considered a territory of Loess rather than Nerine.” She wonders if Heartfire can see the past as well as the present, and if so hopes that she is able to find the draconic stallion that Lepis has always considered family. Far closer family than her husband’s grandmother, certainly.
“I understand if you’d rather the Northern lands remain united though,” The dun mare says, a casual gesture of her muzzle encircling the direction of the Icicle Isle and Nerine. “Without Taiga, you’d be left with...what? Yourself and Jesper and his little mutineer? It would be difficult to keep a kingdom safe with such low numbers.” Her tone is flat, an indicator that her emotions are bound in a steel-fist lest the less ideal ones escape. It makes her sound cold, harsh even, despite her inner turmoil and her shared belief in what her husband has more delicately phrased. She means well, she truly only wants security for her children and for Beqanna, yet she cannot make herself become something she is not, cannot make others see what she sees or feel the true desires of her own heart. “If you’d rather we’d stay, Bane and I would be willing to accept the kingdom seat here. It would make more sense, don’t you think, that the most thriving and active land be the one from which the North is governed?”
It had never been her intention to place Wolfbane in a position where he felt he must choose. He had done that rather neatly himself, unfortunately. He couldn’t have possibly expected the manner in which he’d chosen to overtake the wooded territory to be welcomed with open arms. And the fact that he had chosen to do so without informing her first spoke volumes of where his true loyalties lay.
The faintly bitter taste of betrayal lingers on the back of her tongue as he spells out there purpose in sharply disgruntled syllables. She wonders then whether it was consuming his grandfather’s withered heart that had brought them to this, or whether he had always thought so little of her.
Her tone is low when she replies to him, the words as flat as they are brutally honest. “You do not unify Beqanna by alienating someone who could have been an ally to you.”
He had actively made the choice to invade this land without even so much as acknowledging her. They had not just hurt Aten. They had opened a larger wound than they believed, and already it begins to fester. Even now, they seem to have little interest in salvaging it.
Lepis picks up the conversation where Wolfbane had left off, her words serving only to cement the conclusion she had come to. Peace had not been their intention. Not truly. If it had, they would have come to her immediately, rather than waiting for her to come to them. Because it is Wolfbane, she had hoped otherwise.
She should know better than to give in to foolish things like hope.
With each word, Lepis steps more neatly into the trap Heartfire had set, until it springs, silent and unfelt, around her. Though Heartfire had hoped otherwise, the navy-tinged woman had fallen straight into it, without even realizing the perilous ground upon which she trod.
She likely wouldn’t realize it until much later, unfortunately.
Heartfire, rather than growing angry or upset as Lepis had no doubt intended, instead favors her with a cool, faintly amused smile. “That’s unfortunate,” she replies mildly, her features surprisingly placid given the revelations Lepis had just made. “Perhaps one day you’ll be able to see the ground beneath your nose. Until then, I believe I have what I came for.”
With that, she turns and walks away. Let them make of that what they would. Part of her hopes that Wolfbane would find his way to Nerine with understanding on his tongue. Another part of her knows that he has already made his choice.
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