[private] In the light of the moon; [Leilan]

[Yanhua]

And when all the lights are broken, You keep the fire going

This night in Hyaline was blessedly clear, but Yanhua felt no comfort from the open sky of endless stars. For once, he’s found himself nestled among the mountain peaks he so often gazed at from across the winding River in Taiga. Pangea was behind him, swallowed into darkness again and emanating that self-same sickness it always had. Straia’s dream of the Chamber reborn had been premature. It had foundered underneath Yanhua’s very hooves and been swallowed by the dark God’s power once more. There is (there has always been) a larger fish in this pond called Beqanna, and Yanhua refuses to look back and see its face. Let the creatures have their desolate land and all that it stands for, he thinks bitterly. I've seen what could be, what might be. That's good enough.

Sleep doesn’t come, though.

His mind is restless, his emotions wild as the sea that breaks her gray waves against Nerine’s rocky coastline. Yan would walk if he could, had he not exhausted himself beyond measure. The residual adrenaline and the rapidity of everything that’d occurred was what kept him awake now. Straia was gone. Aela, alive and well. The Chamber, destroyed in an instant. The only history he has of such occurrences are those handed down by word-of-mouth from the elders, and so the gently glowing stallion can only compare what he’s just witnessed to the likes of Taiga’s Great Slumber. A time when the discordance between inhabitants had driven Beqanna itself to drive them all out of the redwoods.

If he wanted to change Taiga - and he did want to be the catalyst for such change - then he knew well enough now to make such changes in harmony with his cohabitants and leaders. His curiosity had led him to Straia again, and in more ways than one the old Raven Queen had answered his questions.

From high above him, Yanhua sensed the sky darkened by a massive shadow of a beast. Instinctually he froze; mentally he let go. The net of his magic expanded, ready to catch any wavering emotional echo that might give him a hint as to what the being(s) were feeling, least he be caught unaware by some evildoer or conjugation made with malcontent, but a moment or two afterwards he relaxed with surprise. The echo he’d received was familiar; it was @[Leilan], probably out for a flight in his dragon form. Maybe the Freyr had been drawn to the activity like Yanhua had, but whatever the reason for his sudden appearance Yanhua thought it best to intercept the shape-changer as quickly as possible. He drew his power inward and thrust it out again, sending the Northern King a brilliantly vivid memory of Lilliana and her thousand-kilowatt smile, and then he settled in to wait.

Leilan could work out the details from there. All he needed to know what that someone with Lilli’s power (and a good memory of her face) was nearby. The dragon’s superior senses could most likely aid him in finding Yanhua's hiding spot. Now, all that was left for the Taigan to do was to wait, and he did so happily enough while hoping his energy hadn’t attracted others nearby.

Perhaps, he figured, they were all too busy in the East.

And when all the nights feel like they're closing, You're leaving an opening

OOC: Obviously this a 'for plot reasons' post, but since Yan isn't a Hyaline member I'm totally fine with another pony interrupting!

[Nashua]

stars when you shine, you know how i feel
oh freedom is mine

Of all the thick-headed ideas, Nashua thought.

When flames had risen towards the East and it was obvious that the commotion was coming from Pangea, Nash had no desire to venture that way. It was one of the very few times in his life that had no wish to see what was happening beyond the Northern border. If Pangea was sinking (again), burning, collapsing - well,  let them have their reverie. They'd earned it.

(His stomach still soured at his memories of Loess and parts of still-healing Taiga that he walked through nearly every day.)

Nash had plenty of things to worry about in the North. He made the flight between the Isle and Taiga almost daily to check on a heavily-pregnant Noel. When the most recent trip revealed that Yan had finally left the North - finally gone on those 'adventures' as he had liked to tease Nashua for - it coincided with the wild and unnatural things that came roiling from Pangea. The chestnut had waited and waited until what little patience he had wore thin; then he had finally flared his dark wings and taken to the sky.

It seemed too large a coincidence that smoke would roll in from the Kingdom of Chaos and that his introverted brother would vanish. He'd flown for hours after he left Taiga. The striped stallion had soared over Loess, scoured the Common Lands, and then had turned north towards Pangea in hopes of finding Yanhua. Despite resting sporadically, Nash had been on the move since the day before attempting to find his twin.

All that searching and nothing.

He is fraught with worries - for Noel and now for Yan - and the normally high-flying pegasus struggles to keep steady on his tiring wings and the unsteady spring drafts. The presence of something else up here in the wide, starlit blue forces Nash to quietly descend towards Hyaline. He even manages something of his usual dexterity at the beginning of his landing until the copper Hersir gets stunned by an echo; the image of their mother and her wildfire smile. He's so overwhelmed by the image that Nash doesn't notice that he's crashed until his blazed face is looking at the damp Hyalean soil. "Dammit, Yan." He mutters before cloaking himself with invisibility as he staggers up from the ground.

It works for a few moments but Nash strains to keep the magic in check and ripples in and out of view before finally focusing enough that only a single floating chestnut ear shows.

Nashua tried to move around as little as he could, not wanting to attract anything that might be lurking nearby. The mostly invisible stallion knew that his brother was nearby but without the ability to see in the dark, it was pointless to keep stumbling around. Yanhua was (thankfully) here, he could feel it. So he whispers again, "what the hell blew you this way?"

NASHUA

html by castlegraphics; art by MirrorLands

@[Yanhua] @[Leilan] hi Nash is here because he's totally affronted that his brother would take a trip without him

[Leilan]

You know what’s really fun about ruling? It’s that you always get something to do - greet people at the border (in so many ways), recruit, go see other lands - nobody looks down on it when I’m first to arrive. And when I’m not, I’ve just sent an envoy so see what’s up. Genius, isn’t it?

This time, Taiga’s Champion obviously beats me to the barbeque in the East, by sheer distance of course. Nevertheless when I get closer, I get less and less in a hurry. I can’t exactly pinpoint why - perhaps this fire is too weird, too strange to happen in a desert full of dragonlings. And if they did set it themselves, why give them all this attention?

I stagger mid-flight, my senses overcome by another before I can think about it. This time it’s Lilli’s face, and not a memory of my own, so I don’t go down the same path as before. I instantly know it’s Yanhua - he did it before, after all. Begrudgingly I have to admit to myself that it is a clever enough move, as not many others would recognise it for what it was. Still it takes me back to the battlefield and the memories of the spotted mare, and for that, it takes a while for me to turn. Let him wait, then, and see if I still want to talk to him.

He’s still somewhat my responsibility though. Like it or not, even if I wasn’t the North’s appointed ruler, I’d have answered his questions and concerns. He doesn’t seem to understand that relationship, that obligation that I feel, for anything else than a king doing his duty, and perhaps I’m grateful for it. Makes it easier to hold a bit of a grudge against him, I guess.

I shift and land, not necessarily in order, not necessarily at the same time, so my wings disappear only after my hoofs have ran a few paces over the hill. Hyaline. I smile a bit, knowing the kingdom as a former home. I don’t know the current ruler, but I remember the sly Kensa, and think she wouldn’t have minded Hyaline becoming the area kingdom again.

I spot only Nashua, frown, switch visions and then I pick up two warm shapes right in front of one another. Grinning, my yellow eyes turn back to blue again as I drop the vision act. ”There’s no hiding after summoning dragons, Yan. You may as well show your brother some courtesy.” Plus, I don’t feel much for giving the impression to any onlookers that their meeting is much of a secret. ”So how was the party downstairs?” I tilt my head and, just for the sake of clarification, tilt my head a little to the south-east. Yanhua smells of ash and pine and the red dust I know is in Pangea, which is an odd combination, to say the least.

my head tells me to stop - but my heart goes

@[Yanhua] @[Nashua]

[Yanhua]

And when all the lights are broken, You keep the fire going

The downfall to having glowing golden locks was obvious. Yanhua couldn’t go unnoticed in the dark, and what was considered a lantern of safety and good luck in Taiga worked against him in the dead of Hyaline’s dark mountain nights. He had to weasel himself into a thicket of laurel, highly uncomfortable for an animal of his lanky height, to wait out for Leilan (who was taking his sweet time.) Alone and silent on the hillside, Yan listened out for the sound of giant, leathery wings as they faded into the distance, then altogether. The quiet enveloped him. Time passed, enough of it that the smaller insects began to chirp their shrill little songs again. Yan stayed put and waited until he started to feel a prickling sense of irritation, and then his reverie was interrupted by a much more concerning noise nearby.

He jerked to attention all at once, hyper aware of something crashing into the mountain woods nearby, eyes wide and heart pumping as he heard the muffled sound of cursing. He figured Leilan wouldn’t be so unceremonious, and he reasoned to himself that no one intending to take him by surprise would give away their location so easily. Still, he held back. With Pangea on uncertain footing and currently leaderless, the surrounding Eastern lands were a dangerous place for outsiders. He wasn’t safe at home anymore; Yan couldn’t just barge out to greet whoever it was like he would in Taiga.

He could be prepared, though. The tall, lean northerner felt a strange sense of certainty in his ability to at least defend himself, so he lowered his head to peer through the tangled leaves and his ears fell flat against his neck. He’d decided to rush the stranger at the last second if they came close enough, but heard his brother whispering clearly the second time Nashua spoke and surprised himself by chuckling instead. Of course it was Nash, of course.

“You don’t get to have all the fun all of the time, @[Nashua].” Yan breathed happily, relaxing his expression as he tugged himself free from the clutches of his hiding place and stumbled down the hillside, back onto the trail where he could meet his twin face-to-face. Happy to see such a familiar horse, the glow in his hair brightened. “Glad to see you, brother. But I was expecting…” He trailed off and turned his head, just in time to see the subject of discussion finally join them.

“@[Leilan].” Yanhua called out to the Freyr, listening with a dark eye roll as the elder dragon-shifter chimed in. Typical Leilan. Always talking and never listening, but what else had he expected? He paused and considered mouthing off for the fun of it, but Yanhua held himself back after considering their current situation. Nothing would irritate Leilan more than refusing to play at his games, and besides: they both remembered how the alliance round had gone, didn’t they? If Leilan had forgotten so quickly, Yanhua could always remind him.

That put a smile right back onto Yan’s face, and he answered the King of the North brightly. “The Pangean’s really know how to show up and show out.” He exhaled, shaking his head at the scenes replayed through his thoughts. The Chamber reborn around him, the gathering and its rejection, and Straia right at the center of it all. “Utter chaos from start to finish. Straia grafted one of the old Kingdoms onto Pangea, but it seems like the magic didn’t stick. Not sure if it was because the general population hated the idea or because Beqanna itself rejected the Raven Queen’s tactics, but whatever the reason the place is uglier than it was before. I got out of there as quickly as I could when the earthquakes started, but Straia herself wasn’t so lucky. Something nasty swallowed her right down into the bowels of hell; that’s the only way I can explain it without showing you the echo.” He finished up.

And when all the nights feel like they're closing, You're leaving an opening

[Nashua]

stars when you shine, you know how i feel
oh freedom is mine

"Fun?" Nashua chimes in. The chestnut pegasus allowed himself to come into full view, taking off the cloak of his invisibility and appearing before Yanhua. His brother relaxed into the velvet shadows of night and Nash followed suit, growing comfortable in the presence of his brother (and the fact that if anything did happen upon them, well, there was two instead of one) as the glow from Yanhua's mane illuminated them both.

"We could have gone to Islandres for fun," the striped stallion says, "or Ischia. I hear the Pampas is lovely as well." Nash says, mentioning the names of places that seem (obviously) synonymous with beauty in Beqanna.

Yanhua finally gets the pull for fun and it calls him to Pangea.

He'd have more to add but [Leilan] finally emerges and Nashua gives the Dragon King his attention, turning his blazed face to look up at his mentor.  The humor emanating from the roan leader is almost as comforting as Yanhua's glow. Nashua is grateful for them both and quiets as he listens to Leilan ask about Pangea, about why Yanhua had sent the echo out in the first place. His copper ears flick in the direction of his brother and the striped stallion considers everything that Yan is explaining.

Without the glimpse of echo to imagine, what his brother is claiming is... alot.

Nashua knows some things about Pangea. He has never gone to the East because that had been the one thing Leilan had requested of him. And the truth was Nash never had much desire to see the kingdom that had held his mother hostage; it belonged in the past, where it could be forgotten and not dwelled upon. But that was where @[Yanhua] had gone and it seemed the timing had been right for his brother to take an 'adventure' of his own - the information that Yan was revealing wouldn't have otherwise reached the North for months.

The Raven Queen had attempted to rise one of the old Beqanna kingdoms, something that the Fey themselves struck down. And by meddling with that old power, it seemed to have taken Straia down with it. Nashua shuddered, thinking that what Yanhua was speaking of revealed a simple and yet dangerous truth to Magic: that there was always a price for it. A cosmic give and take. Knock it out of balance and the consequences could be cataclysmic.

(And leave it up to the Pangeans - lovers of chaos - to try and knock it out of balance.)

There is a grim set around his eyes, a firm line pressing his pale lips tightly together. He eyes Yanhua first and then looks to the Freyr, "so what might this mean for the North?"

NASHUA

html by castlegraphics; art by MirrorLands

[breach]

BREACH

I'd bare you my heart, if I knew that it still was there
I'm too nervous to look, too afraid to close the book

She is tired by the time that she leaves Pangea turned the Chamber turned back once more. The kind of tired that settles into her bones and reminds her that she is merely a mortal. No matter the expectations that she puts on herself. The expectations that she carry the very weight of the world. But she’s just a young girl and she has the entire East to look after, not just Hyaline and the pack that roams it.

Still, despite this exhaustion, she is still vigilant as she crosses the border as a hawk, sluicing through the night air silently, the cool air reinvigorating the parts of her that would rather slumber.

The flash of something softly glowing in the mountains awakens her even more.

Her avian eyes sharpen as she watches it the faint glow before she alters course to cut across the night sky and make her way toward them. When she is close enough, she sees the trio all together and something tightens in her chest. Something like a pent up aggression that has increasingly scratched at the door, something that howls every morning when she raises her head and snarls when she patrols the border.

She lands on a tree nearby, fluffing her feathers slightly and shuffling as she watches, listening to the stallion recant what had happened. She had thought perhaps she had seen him retreating when she had come to Pangea, but it was interesting to see his version of the story.

Unclear as to why the group was choosing her home to rendezvous and too on edge to sit and listen to find out further, she swoops down, shifting into the latest version of her as she lands.

Breach walks forward as herself, shaking out the leaves from her tangled, ivory mane. For all appearances, she’s a fairly lithe, young girl, but there’s a hardness to her face that had continued to develop over the years. Something forged in trial and fire and the gravity of her life.

“Can I help you all?” she addresses the question to them all, not caring who answered.

so take all the wind from my lungs if you're out of air
just deliver me truth, deliver me you

[spirit]

i was alone, falling free, trying my best not to forget.

He does not leave Hyaline. In fact, he hardly leaves Sochi’s side no matter how thin his ribs get or how cold the night grows. The fire in Pangea and the subsequent earthquake nearly pulled him from his perch, but he knows Breach will see to it. His tired eyes lift when Spirit approaches and clears his throat in case his father didn’t hear him walking closer.

“Intruders,” he says simply, and this, at last, is enough for him to rise from the wild grasses where he lies. His mouth is dry with thirst and his joints ache with each step, but the younger shifter maintains a patient pace until they reach the northerners and Breach. Risk’s mismatched eyes skim over them each with little interest, but Spirit allows his brows to furrow and his lips to dawn a slight frown. They have so few visitors, here in the mountains, but he finds this gathering to be an annoyance more than anything.

“I think they are lost,” Risk suggests in his rasping tone. He coughs, and the sound rattles through his chest liked shutters on a haunted house. It is clear he is nearing his end, soon, but death is only a minor obstacle for him, he’s learned. Still, when he opens his mouth to speak further, Spirit steps forward to keep him from wasting whatever precious energy he has left.

“You would, perhaps, not take kindly to easterners gathering in your kingdom. So why would you treat my home as your own private meeting place?” he asks with a tilt of his head. “It is presumptuous and rude, at best. And at worst, well..”

He lets the silence settle in after his words. Spirit knows the people of the north are only harmless fools, but he is driven to guard his family from even imagined threats.

[Leilan]

Information - one of the only things one must adher to when they hope to stay in charge. Luckily for me, Yan has a lot to say, which makes it easier for me to ignore the taunting that’s going on between the two brothers and the almost malicious grin that Yan suddenly gives me, after eye-rolling at my comments. He definitely has some growing up to do still, but he won’t accept my view of the world nor any guidance, so I’m starting to let go of the idea of helping to raise him.

Yanhua has barely finished or Nashua’s question follows like a hollow whisper in the cold mountains, and then we are interrupted before I can answer. The hawk on the branch becomes a woman, with a blue sheen but what most reminds me is her eyes, cold as the mountaintops’ rocks. I nod to her, realising that in the land of shifters any warm, living shape can be a horse now; but others show up too - the stallion’s breath is raspy and I hear what he must already know - I hear how I would have sounded without the gift of immortality. His suggestion is a neutral way of saying we are not welcome here, only contradicting the younger mare on the surface.

The younger stallion has a lot more to say, like the younger ones usually do - they often have lots of words for their feelings. ”Perhaps. As you can see, we’re not here to set fires.” I tell him, almost dismissively - I really don’t care who wants to be upset by my rudeness, those days are over. I see no need to throw a fuss over three horses just passing through and catching up, or at least, I wouldn’t. It’d be different if one (or three) were sneaking around and listening in for secrets, or if someone came with destruction, stealing or challenging on their mind, but none of that had happened here that I know of. If we’d wanted to be stealthy, we would definitely have been more stealthy than this (at least, two out of three of us - I can’t always speak for the striped pegasus in that regard).

I pay more attention to the blue-sheen mare, with her eyes that remind me of someone, but I can’t exactly remember who. Nevertheless, she looks the highest in rank of the three of them, so it’s her I’ll talk to. ”Just an impromptu summoning while passing through. We can leave now, if you want us to. Though perhaps this is as good an occasion as any to discuss the matter of Straia.” I offer with a curious spark in my eyes. I wonder what she makes of it. The painted mare of the Chamber had lived in the past, wanting to revive it, and this being the result of it should not be a surprise, though her being literally swallowed up certainly was. A good thing then, that I hadn’t agreed on anything with her yet, no promises made. I feel no need to follow in her exact hoofsteps, nor to try and persuade any magical beings to release her. But Hyaline may have different inclinations.

Tension, tension. I loathe it. Let me soar through the skies and kill a few deer and I’m happy - if Kensa hadn’t left Hyaline so suddenly, that’s what I’d still be doing. Right here, even. Maybe I should move again in some time and tick off all of Beqanna’s lands sometime. Honestly this whole border-business is a minor pain in the scheme of what’s happening to the world - or perhaps, those cogs had stopped turning now and the lands would return to their boring cycle of wanting to expand, wanting to make a mark on the world, and then going silent when the losses were taken - and another would rise up with the same ambition. Sometimes I wonder if I should have taken over that role, as a counter-clockwise turning wheel over Beqanna; it was technically my turn. Only - I just really hate cycles and rules and by extension, borders. I don’t bother myself with starting wars when I know the outcome. Straia had been different, in a way. Perhaps her queen knew that too, and perhaps even without the Chamber and the mare who led it, the world could still become more... interesting.

my head tells me to stop - but my heart goes

@[Yanhua] @[breach]

[Yanhua]

And when all the lights are broken, You keep the fire going

Hoping that perhaps the quiet mountain peaks could offer him respite on such a long, exhausting journey home, Yanhua wasn’t surprised that a gathering of three outsider stallions had done just the opposite. For most of his young life he’d hoped that these purple snowcaps could be explored by his hooves, somewhere the goats akin to his likeness only tread. Down here in the shadowy valley, underneath a quiet blanket of trees so different from his own, where @[breach] shifted down from her branch to change shapes and join them like a proper horse, Yanhua began to wonder if that wish would ever come true. Her words were open, but her expression was not, and in an instant the tallest stallion of the group felt small and insignificant beneath their sharp points.

If he was ever bothered by the opinions of others, perhaps Breach, @[spirit], and Risk (who joined their leader thereafter) might’ve succeeded in their task - maybe Yanhua would’ve felt his cheeks flush and his jaw tighten.

But he reserved those kinds of emotions for very few horses, and what Leilan often mistook as youthful idiocy, Yan simply thinks might be his way of exposing his personal weaknesses to the dragon-shifter. Here, in Hyaline, he meets the homelander’s distrust with a quick, warm smile and the upturn of his ears. While the Freyr speaks, Yanhua’s cheek tilts slightly and his knowing gaze slides deftly towards his twin brother, where he hopes @[Nashua] might look back. Call it intuition, but just to be on the safe side he sends his winged companion a brief memory of himself happening upon their mother in the fog of the redwood forest. This memory, unlike the one he’d cast out to Leilan earlier, is a bit more honed and slightly more focused on the intended target. It would shock him to find out that anyone else gathered might’ve picked up on the echo, unless they also had a knack for psychic tricks.

His answer to Nash’s question was clear: it meant he’d find Lilliana and talk to her, tell her everything he’d told them here, tonight.

Just as Leilan finished, Yanhua straightened his head and spoke up. “It’s my fault, really. I was on my way to Taiga from the scene in Pangea and I… sensed Leilan, so I called him here.” He shrugged, noncommittal. For a long while he let the mare and other horses have their turn, and when the conversation broke once more he spoke up as way of finally easing out from the confrontation for good.

“I speak for myself, of course, but I would take kindly to your ‘members’ visiting the northern forest.” Yan paused with a chuckle as deep as a tolling bell, eyeing Leilan before looking back at Breach and her covey. “The redwood elk need thinning. A particularly troublesome bear stalks the river, and he’s my favorite nuisance. Maybe you - or one of yours - is up to the task of seeing him out?” Yanhua grinned, the easy remark illuminated by his ever-glowing forelock. For all he knew, the shifting mare might only be one kind of other animal.

For some reason, the polite request caused pressure to build between his shoulder blades, so he lost interest in talking from there out. Yanhua held his smile, but shuffled on his split toes in an attempt at easing the unexpected (and unwelcome) ache.

And when all the nights feel like they're closing, You're leaving an opening

[Nashua]

stars when you shine, you know how i feel
oh freedom is mine

His green eyes had remained fixed on the Freyr. While Nashua is waiting for a reply from Leilan, a shifter sheds her feathers for the shape of a young palomino mare that approaches. For her, Nash is content to wait in silence and stand at the ready as a well-trained second should. The pegasus adjusts the wings at his sides but says nothing, allowing the oldest stallion among them to take the lead.

A flicking to the side of his ear is the only sign that Nashua is distracted by something. In the presence of the other two who arrive, Nash eyes the younger one speculatively. The images in his head are clear: there are flashes of their mother in Taiga. It takes everything in him not to turn and look at Yan but the vision of their dam also gives the young pegasus another reminder.

Nashua might have retorted that the Easterners who last came to the North seemed to lack... manners during their recent 'visit'. Turning his focus back on Leilan and the others, the striped horse keeps quiet instead of quipping back with a reply that would set back his brother's attempt at etiquette.

He glances sidelong at Leilan, wondering what his Freyr would say before tacking on to Yanhua's reply.

Following suit of the others, Nash merely shrugs his shoulders. He can't say that he has any particular desire to see Pangeans in their corner of the world again (though Nashua reminds himself that the flames had been before the kingdom shifted; holding the new leader of the East accountable for Pangea's crimes would be like Nashua and Yanhua being held liable for the atrocities that their father had committed). In case there is a doubt to his presence here and what his part in the trio is, he simply offers: "Where he goes, I go." The flaxen-haired stallion directed his head towards the glowing one and looked to the other pair - the one made up of bones and his darker companion.

They should be talking about Straia, he thinks. What happened to the Raven Queen will travel all over Beqanna soon, thanks to the gossip. He should perhaps voice his concerns back in Taiga or the Isle but what they speak of could pertain to Hyaline as well.  Nash glances back to Yan, always his rudder in unsteady waters. "Do you have any idea what swallowed her?" He asks. The other realms in Beqanna shouldn't be his concern, least of all Pangea but Nash still voices the thought: "And whatever it was... could it happen in the other lands?"

NASHUA

html by castlegraphics; art by MirrorLands

@[breach]