"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
01-20-2016, 05:32 PM (This post was last modified: 01-20-2016, 05:34 PM by Lucrezia.)
She runs her muzzle against his neck, closes her eyes, and takes a deep breath. A moment to breath was what she needed. And when she opens her eyes, the glint of a shard is tangled in Kreios’ mane. Lucrezia laughs softly and grabs the piece of the share with her teeth. She removes it from his tangled mane and holds it between her teeth while she manages to smile at Kreios.
Suddenly, the shard breaks.
The world around her begins to shimmer. Her vision is going blurry again as the image of Kreios is fading. The tolling of bells is sounding again. It is loud and obvious just as before. “Kreios?! Kreios!?” she whispers frantically as the last bit of his face is lost in the shimmer and shadows that blind her vision.
The world is suddenly haunting again. It reminds her of the lamb. Lucrezia excepts to see the lamb soon, but she can only feel the pulsing of a heartbeat underneath her. The smell of mist and pine needles suddenly fill her nostrils. Her nostrils twitch at the smell. The familiarity of the scents brings distant memories back. She doesn’t know where she is. It’s still dark all around her.
The pulsing grows faster underneath her.
The world shimmers again.
A light catches her eyes.
The color of dark greens and smoky white peer through the light. The bright light slowly fades away and starts revealing solid structures around her. The wind stirs furiously around her. The smoky white mist clings to her like a leech. Lucrezia blinks a couple of times as she tries to process where she has ended up.
Is this the forest? She asks herself, nutmeg eyes search the tree line. The ground underneath her continues to beat harder and harder. Lucrezia quickly looks down to her hooves. She gasps loudly. “No, no, no!” Her voice is full of panic as she begins to realize where she is. The beating of the earth slowly begins to beat softer.
Lucrezia breaths heavily. She looks up from her hooves and around her. Her gaze glimpses through the fog, looking for any signs to confirm where she thinks she may be. The mist around her twists and turns. It’s hard for her to tell where she is. However, there is a few times where Lucrezia sees the familiar ancient giant pine trees. The beating earth beneath her is also another sign. She then looks to the east to confirm that the mountains are there. I am in the Chamber. But why?
Kushiel was used to strange things happening. He had, in fact, come to expect them. If nothing strange were to happen he would consider his existence a particularly large waste of time. He couldn’t just stand around contemplating the meaning of the universe. For one, it gave him a headache, and for another, it was an exercise in futility. Kushiel didn’t like to exercise, especially when it was futile.
Kushiel was standing around, looking at the Chamber’s tree, when the girl began to shimmer into existence. He didn’t realize it was a girl at first, just that it was something. He blinked stupidly at the spot. When a form began to emerge his interest was piqued and the large gray stallion made his way over, his steps fast with anticipation. He was standing very close to the spot when the girl began to take shape as a girl. He grinned for a second, but the expression quickly turned to a scowl when her emotions began to come through. She was panicking, and Kushiel could feel it as an uncomfortable knot in his stomach. Some gift, being able to read emotions you didn’t want to read.
“Oy!” He called through the fog that still seemed to cling to her. His expression of welcome was now tainted.
“Calm down you’re giving me a headache.” Kushiel was unaware that yelling at someone to calm down as not the best way to make them do so. As always, his needs took a front seat even though he could be privy to other’s emotions. If anything his new power made him less sympathetic. Now everyone else’s bad moods affected him directly. It was a heavy burden he had to bear. But still, it could be worse. At least a girl had appeared instead of some stodgy old man. Kushiel looked her up and down with a critical eye.
“Are you from the future or something?” In Kushiel’s expert opinion, this was the most likely scenario. Perhaps she had come back in time to warn them that they were headed down a path of destruction? Yeah, that would be interesting. Kushiel looked at the newcomer expectantly, eager to hear her ghostly prophecies.
She has finally come to the realization that she is in the Chamber, that she is back home . A home that truly was never a home to her. It had been built on lies and fantasies of child naïvetés. Lucrezia had simply played a pawn in the games of the blood king’s board of chess. She had believed in his love and in her sister’s promise. These ideas had only built up a mind full of silly ideas and fantasies, but it was what she craves most in the world. She craves for a family to love her again. She craves for her father’s love and her sister’s promise of visiting her.
It is all she has known.
It is all she has ever been raised to know.
It was family that kept her moving forward, despite whoever it was.
And maybe that is why she is here – the Chamber holds the very thing she longs for.
Lucrezia is too distracted at first to notice the stallion near her. Her mind is confused as to why she is her and overburden at the thought of being here (but she also has worries about her friend, Kreios). It isn’t until she calls out to her that she spots. Her mind empties and her emotions stop for just a moment. She blinks, nutmeg eyes quickly find the dapple stallion.
“A headache?” She questions, uncertain and completely unaware of his empathic trait. A trait that surely was not easily to detect and once she had found to be useful when she served as a diplomat to the sandy kingdom. “How am I giving you a headache? I’ve said barely a word to you, stranger.” She huffs, coming to her senses on how she is at fault her for intruding. Lucrezia didn’t ask to be here in the Chamber.
The stallion’s next question is completely absurd that she giggles at the silly assumption. “The future? Really?” she asks once her laughter has subsided. Her eyes twinkle at the scenario unfolding before her now. However, if she thinks about it, maybe she was from the future of sort. She had just come back from a quest at trying to stop purgatory reaching Beqanna – she had failed but hopes that the others will not at least. “I was just trying to save the world. You know trying to save humanity and all, but that doesn’t really work since I am here.” Completely useless in fact. Lucrezia scolds herself silently.
The ravens tell her of Lucrezia’s appearance immediately. How she appeared out of nowhere, how she shouted No over and over. Go figure. Lucrezia probably didn’t want to be here, and Straia almost doesn’t go. Almost leaves her sister to fend for herself with Kushiel. Not that Kushiel was particularly mean, just interesting.
She almost finds herself mean enough to shun her sister the way her sister had shunned her. She never even broke the promise, just took too long to follow through. But her sister didn’t give her a second chance. So why should Straia give her a second chance, either?
But it doesn’t matter, really. Because Straia may be cruel and hard in so many ways, but she loves her sister, no matter what. Even though she expects the girl to kick and scream and be miserable, Straia goes anyway.
She won’t sink quite so low as to not go at all.
Kushiel is already there, yelling at her sister for giving her a headache. Straia doesn’t really envy his empathy. It is not something she’d want. She slips in beside him (he was undeniably fun to flirt with, after all, though she keeps that to herself), wearing her usual crown of raven feather, overlarge black wings tucked to her side as well. Mostly just for show.
She catches just the end of Lucrezia’s words, and a number of nasty, sarcastic remarks come to her mind. She doesn’t say them, knowing better in this instant. Though she does enjoy the sound of those comments in her own head, giving herself just a moment to savoir what it might be like to say them aloud.
But instead, when she does speak, her voice is cool and calm and collected. Her eyes, though, say far more. She doesn’t hide the fact that she still loves her sister, despite everything. Doesn’t hide that she is glad to see the girl is alive (though not all that well, right now, it would seem). She isn’t so cruel as to pretend otherwise.
“Kushiel, this is my sister Lucrezia. Lucrezia, this is the Chamber’s Govenor, Kushiel.”
straia
the raven queen of the chamber
....couldn't resist
Use of mild power playing is allowed; no injuries without permission
As much as Kushiel hated it when his mother read his mind, it tended to annoy him when other people could not. Explaining himself was a difficult and cumbersome process and he didn’t like to do it. That wasn’t to say that he expected anything less than complete understanding. Assuming lenience would be a mistake. So, it was a vague sense of annoyance that Kushiel fixed the girl with an exasperated look. He opened his mouth, fully prepared to say that her presence was enough to give him a headache before he looked at her again and decided against it.
He had better things to do then torment the new girl. Or, at least, he really should have better things to do than torment the new girl. He didn’t, at the moment, but that was all just details. He was still looking at her with a strange combination of curiosity and misplaced grouchiness when she spoke again. He couldn’t help the tiny, reluctant smile that tugged at his lips.
“Well excuse me for keeping an open mind.” He said it was some level of sarcasm, but couldn’t fully fight down his improving humor. Kushiel could now see that his theory was a bit outrageous. Still, he wasn’t about to admit that, and stranger things had happened. She obligingly supplied him with a stranger theory not a minute later. He laughed aloud at her words, and his sense of righteousness came flooding back.
“Oh ho, so I’m crazy for thinking you’re from the future, when in fact, you’re just saving the word.” He affixed her with a withering look.
“Hello Ms. Pot, I’m Mr. Kettle.” Yes, because she was most certainly the pot calling the kettle black. If one of them were crazy it was most definitely her. He was still gloating, obviously and flamboyantly, when Straia appeared. He grinned widely at her, not at all ashamed of the childish conversation he had stooped to. It would never occur to Kushiel to be ashamed. At her introduction however, the gray stallion did deflate a little.
“Ms. Pot is your sister? Well that is…unexpected.” He glanced back at the new mare, Lucrezia as it turned out, and tried to see the family resemblance. He could not find any similarity, partly because he couldn’t imagine Straia ever endeavoring to save the world. It just didn’t really seem like her thing. Kushiel let the awkward pause go one for a little too long before jumping back in to make it more awkward.
“So are you hoping Straia will help you save the world?” Again, he asked the question with no small amount of doubt. The whole situation seemed to be missing several pieces. Lucrezia was attempting to valiantly save the world single handedly and just happened to materialize in her sister’s kingdom? And where did Kushiel fit into all of this? Was he the dashing antagonist or the fumbling, unwilling sidekick? He was fine with the former, the latter was completely out of the question. He looked at both the mares, hoping one of them would fill him in promptly.
02-13-2016, 09:51 PM (This post was last modified: 02-13-2016, 09:53 PM by Lucrezia.)
In truth, the Chamber was the last place she would want to be. It has been years since she last stepped hoof upon the dirt floor of this kingdom. This place held too many memories, of false hope and lies of love. Maybe Lucrezia was too stubborn to see the truth that she had been loved truly – perhaps not the way as true fairytales go, but her father did love her and she had a somewhat of a pleasant bound with Straia. Lucrezia is likely selfish in this matter of hate she feels towards the Chamber and her sister, something that she probably picked up from her father in his selfish nature.
Lucrezia’s reason for appearing here may seem ludicrous but for her it entirely was not. It was very real. She had heard stories of what she experienced – the magic of Beqanna – though so entirely different forms. Often it seems these experiences of being pulled away into another world, another realm is left in the dark. Maybe there is a purpose for some of these events, such as her part in trying to save the world. It was often sacrifice that required to end these events.
However, Lucrezia isn’t sure anymore. She’s angrier at the idea of her being made fun of and the lives at stake. There was someone there she cared for. It is the idea of completely losing him that terrifies her the most. Kreios and her have been friends since childhood and a certain part of her considers him to be her family – she cares for him more than she could imagine even if they did not speak much of their dreams or desires.
“It’s not funny when others are dying to save your life,” she huffs at him even more. Her nutmeg eyes narrow at the dapple stallion. She wonders how others can be so closed off from the world sometimes, or just thinking for themselves in fact. Lucrezia remembers though that this place breed for selfish reasons – sacrifice for the Chamber only. She had never been drown to it like her father, sister and many others have. Lucrezia, however, had found something entirely different in the Deserts.
Lucrezia tears her eyes away from Kushiel. She’s caught the familiar scent of her sister, it’s crisp and fresh. She has an instinct to run away at this very moment as her heart races but it’s too late. Straia is already there at dapple stallion’s side. Her eyes un-narrow as she watches Straia carefully. She is quick to pull herself together now. It is natural in the way she works, instinct and training mingled into one to conceal herself. Her eyes wander over her sister’s body, eyes and mind overlooking her together. There is something that meet the eye more than she last saw her sister in the Deserts. “It’s so good to see you again, sister.” Her voice is filled with hate, venom like a snake spitting. Lucrezia cannot hold her tongue for long in this moment – being overemotional was a huge flaw of hers.
Her attention turns back to the dappled gray stallion that she now knows goes by the name Kushiel. “Unexpected is rather an understatement for our family.” Lucrezia pictured her true family far from worst. She expected anything out of them now and nothing would surprise her if something terrible did come up. Of course, Straia had overthrown their father and spent him as a piece of meat to the Valley. She knew the two of them had differences but she never thought Straia would have fallen so low. Was it all for the sake of this pathetic place called the Chamber? It was so selfish to throw away family like that. However, Lucrezia knows nothing about her father returning her but only that she might have seen him before she was taken to the little lamb with the other horses.
“My sister would never help anyone,” she says bluntly, “She is only capable of breaking promises and forgetting you exist.” Perhaps Lucrezia had been too honest in her words, but she’s never had a chance to express what she felt about it all until now. She was a ticking time bomb, ready to explode any second now. “You wouldn’t understand what I saw when I was there in purgatory. Beqanna’s magic is sometimes too hard to comprehend. And besides there is already others there from the Chamber.” There are foals there too… She wants to say, but she doesn’t.
She has missed Kushiel’s ridiculousness more than she realized. He always provided some level of relief to her otherwise rather serious life. Oh, it was always talk of war. She honestly was tired of it. It would be easy enough to end this thing now, truthfully. They could invade, and win or lose, it would be done. But that it not what’s expected of the Chamber, and therefore, it is not what she will do. They will scheme and plot and ultimately win, even if it’s not the way one might expect.
In the end, this kingdom will be great. And Straia’s job will be done.
Straia laughs at the nickname that Lu has earned, and then opens her mouth to reply, but her sister is quicker with that bark. All bark and no bite though. “Lying is terribly unbecoming in a lady,” Straia says, without any of that vicious outward hatred that Lu has. But of course, Straia does not hate her sister, no matter how ridiculous her sister’s grudge might be. Straia never could hate Lu. But the Raven Queens defense has always been calm and collected jokes. And so that is what she does now, because she cannot let the world see how a little girl like Lu can rip the Raven Queen’s heart in two.
She had been late in coming to Lu, but the girl had never been forgotten. And the fact that her sister is angry over Straia’s late arrival and not the fact that Straia overthrew their father or sold him like a slave speaks volumes of her sister’s personality. Granted, Straia still did it on purpose, and still hold by that decision. At the time, Rodrik could not use his gifts in the Chamber. And to be perfectly fair, he was always free to go. Straia never claimed that he’d actually stay in the Valley. It’s not her fault that her father didn’t take advantage of the opportunity that she tried to give him. She tried to give him the ability to be himself. It wasn’t so cruel as selling him as the price of a crown.
After all, she had never needed Eight to take the crown from him. He’d failed as a King at that point, and the kingdom would have supported her either way. But no one else can see past the obvious, past the things staring them in the face. There’s always so much more than meets the eye though.
Straia doesn’t even bother to reply to Lu’s first accusation. It’s not worth her breath. The girl was hell bent on being spiteful and angry for the rest of her life. And they all thought Straia was the cruel and spiteful one. It was actually kind of funny. “You mean Warship and my daughter? Large black stallion and a little black and white tobiano girl?” She says in response to Lu’s next statement. It’s not as if Straia doesn’t know. Each of them has a raven, and it was only a matter of seconds before both ravens came screaming their heads off into the Chamber when their charges disappeared.
There’s only one place you disappear off to, and now that Lu has magically reappeared, Straia can guess where Warship and Weaver are. Perhaps she’s wrong – it is possible – and so she waits for a beat to see if Lucrezia disagrees with her before continuing. “If I’m so terrible, Lu, please tell me how I’ve managed to raise a child who’s off saving the world. Still there, it would seem, while you apparently failed if you are back here, stuck talking to me.”
Perhaps it’s not the way to win her sister’s love back, but Straia’s love since accepted that her sister would never love her again. She had tried. Tried to do the right thing, as best she could, by her sister. But for Lu, it would never be enough. So Straia might as well be herself.
“Is there anything else Lu? Otherwise, Kushiel will see you safely to the border, if only because you are my sister.” She turns to Kushiel, making sure he’s amenable to the task. She would not treat her sister like an intruder. Not this time, anyway. But she wasn't entirely sure she'd make that decision in the future.
Kushiel’s head tilted to the side like a strange, confused doll. There were several things he had not been expecting to witness today. An unexplainable appearance, a family reunion and a falling out were all high on that list. He was, clearly, very out of the loop. That much, at least, he was comfortable with. He tended to be out of the loop. He did, however, have enough tact not to interrupt the sisters for an explanation. This seemed like one can of worms he didn’t need to root around in. He quickly wore out his limit of skepticism and the gray stallion’s attention began to wander.
Saving the world, yes very good. Unexpected was an understatement for their family, yeah he could see that. Kushiel was still nodding along half-heartedly when things got a little more heated. The gray stallion’s mouth popped open when Lucrezia made her bold declaration about Straia. She is only capable of breaking promises and forgetting you exist. The already large stallion seemed to grow even larger and he huffed angrily. He fixed the girl with a withering look, the fire on his mane popped ominously.
“Now wait just a second, missy —“ He huffed for another moment, looking between Lucrezia and his queen. He couldn’t allow that kind of disparagement, could he? He had forgotten for a second, and then quickly remembered that Straia could take care of herself. He was now in the awkward position of defending her honor, knowing full well he was probably not the best man for the job. Still, he was already offended, and in this moment, at least, Kushiel was keen to finish what he had started.
While the Chamber’s Governor marshaled his thoughts, the women traded several heated words. Kushiel’s face went from confused to rather pained. He would never admit it, he had a reputation to protect after all, but somewhere along the line he had developed something similar to loyalty. He sighed gratefully when Straia gave him an opening. He nodded smartly and puffed himself up again.
“I think that’s a good idea. Here we go —“ He stomped and huffed around Lucrezia, attempting to herd her to the border without actually touching her. She was Straia’s family after all, despite whatever may have occurred. He swished his tail, stamped, and generally tried to look intimidating.
“Thanks for stopping by, please don’t come again.” More stomping and bluster. Kushiel couldn’t help but think of his own sister, and wonder if there would come a day when she came around accusing him of all sorts of travesties. In his case, they would probably be true, but he couldn’t help but hope she stayed cute and naive forever, at least as far as her opinion of him was concerned.
Lucrezia knew she shouldn’t have stayed here. She should have run when she first had the chance once she realized that the place she arrived in was the Chamber. However, she couldn’t – willfully wouldn’t, something she would not admit it to saying. There was something here within this kingdom that held her here, anchored her to the ground. Maybe it was the memories that kept coming back, the ones she kept pushing back into the darkness. She cannot forget them so easily as she wishes to.
It is the very memories that haunt her. The very memories that make her act out. These memories of hers are filled with happy moments, things she deeply desires for down in the very depth of her soul. Lucrezia wants to forgive her sister for what she believes is a broken promise. She loves Straia deeply still, despite what differences she may have with her now and their father, and always will. Yet, she is stubborn. She is selfish because she feels forgotten, unloved, and unimportant to those she does care for. A childish way it may be, but Lucrezia doesn’t care because she wants it all back. She wants the childhood she should’ve gotten – the happy ending with an older sister and loving father – but she will never have it.
She will never have anything.
“I am not worried about being a lady, Straia.” She says sharply. Lucrezia has always played nicely since she was a little girl. Rodrik had shaped her into being such that nature. She was supposed to be a lady – patient, gentle, and caring – but she was molded to use weapons at her will if necessary. She remembers her lessons well, grained into her small blank canvas when she was just a child. It was planning, being one step ahead of the others, and manipulating them to your plan. The mare could do it all if she had wanted to. Yet, it was not who she was. She was no planner to take down others and uses them as she pleased for herself or even the greater good (whatever that might be). Lucrezia is learning though, coming to understanding, that maybe she must be something she is not in order to have something or anything. Maybe she must be the person her father intended her to be.
Lucrezia nostrils flares angrily when Straia mentions the Chamberlings that she saw in purgatory. She cannot help but think Straia is truly mad for letting her own people into that place. Then again, she had not chosen to be there as well. She had chosen nothing of the life she is living now (but she could now if she truly wanted to). Lucrezia doesn’t even need to confirm who the horses are before Straia tumbles further down into Lucrezia’s pit of grudge she already has for her sister. “Managed? You sent her off into a lion’s den. She could be dead for all you know. You weren’t there. You didn’t see what I saw.” She huffs, taking a step towards Straia. Her eyes widen quickly as Straia continues forward with her words. “I did not fail. I did what I could! But you, you came too late! You failed me, Straia. And maybe the only family that will truly love you!”
She doesn’t except to be herded away so quickly when Straia demands it. In fact, it’s the first time she notices Kushiel is still there. It’s not she knew the stallion, so this moment she doesn’t feel so sad. However, she realizes just how awkward it might have been for him, wrapped into one mess between a family feud. “Don’t touch me,” she says sharply when he tries to herd her away. Lucrezia didn’t need anyone to show her the way out of the Chamber. She remembers the path well because it was the same path she had last taken when she saw the Chamber. This place was never meant for her truly. She was never fit to live in the Chamber all along and she clearly believes now that this place has never been here home. It has never wanted her to begin with. And Lucrezia should be pleased with that fact but she is not truly.
“I wish things turned out differently,” she says softly and admits honestly to Straia. Lucrezia wished for many things to turn out differently but most of all she wished this moment had turned out not like this. She needed her sister, despite all of her words and feelings of hatred towards her these past years. She had always needed Straia. But it seems that the world had a different chosen fate for them – a different path of life that maybe was not meant to be shared with another. And so, she turns away from the Chamber, trotting over the border for perhaps one last time. She doesn’t know if she will ever return.
