"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
09-28-2018, 02:07 PM (This post was last modified: 09-28-2018, 02:08 PM by Lepis.)
Brennen has much to say and I listen with quick-flicking ears, though I do glance at Wolfbane to see how he is taking what the winged stallion has to say.
When it it my turn to address the bay king, I do make an effort to soften my tone, though I suspect Wolfbane will be the only one to appreciate it. ”Your conversation with Arthas didn’t inspire much confidence with us either,“ I tell the bay stallion flatly, meeting his gaze without hesitation. ”I’ve heard the Krakens protect their law-breaking members from outside punishment in favor of internal justice, but it seems you have no intentions of allowing us to do the same.” I leave that hanging for a moment, a reminder of the hypocrisy my kingdom faces, but I do not let the silence drag on too long.
”But, having been a victim of Sylva under its previous rulers, I can empathize with your position more than my husband seemed to.” I turn to scratch an itch on my left shoulder, revealing the myriad of scars that cross my neck when my long mane shifts with the movement. I am aware of this, and shake it back quickly before glancing to Wolfbane as he speaks.
The idea of a triumvirate is mentioned for the first time, and a faint smile pulls at the edges of my navy mouth. The heavy issues of loyalty have been on my mind much of late, and I feel a weight I hadn’t even known I carried grow lighter. The positivity doesn’t last long, as the stallion who before had seemed so bored with politics chooses this moment to become obstinate.
I have already bitten my tongue once in the name of diplomacy, but Leilan seems determined to force me to nip it clean off. The roan stallion hadn’t impressed me at our first meeting, and he seems bound and determined to continue that trend during this - our second.
”It’s fortunate then,” I say to the scaled silver bay, ”That Wolfbane and I proposed this to Brennen, and not to you.” My tone is sharper than necessary, but Leilan should be counting his blessings. The venom is only in my voice; my control of my power is ironclad. As much as it would please me to terrorize the bay stallion and send him screaming in fear from this conversation, I settle instead for a scowl that is not entirely gone when I turn back to Brennen.
”I intend to rein in the terrors that still dwell in Sylva.“ I tell him, because there is no bed to sugarcoat the truth. There are monsters that roam the autumn woods, and I am now their keeper. ”That alone is something that Ischia - that Beqanna - gets out of this, and for no effort on your part at all. I’ve offered no objection to your clear intentions to violate my kingdom’s sovereignty in your search for vengeance, and have even offered to help find the child-killer. I was even inclined to turn them over to Ischia.“ There is no better vengeance than that enacted on a perpetrator by their victim after all, and since the children are gone it must fall to their family. In this case, Brennen.
”But...” Here my voice trails off, and I glance once - harshly - at Leilan and then purposely avoid Wolfbane’s gaze before looking back at Brennen. ”If you share Leilan’s view that such an offer benefits Ischia in no way at all, we’ll deal with the issue internally.“ I cannot fathom that he would, but it stands to reason that Leilan is influential in Ischia if he is here and voicing his opinion in a conversation between monarchs. Perhaps Brennen will agree with him after all, and I’ll be left with a child-killer on my hands.
10-05-2018, 01:17 AM (This post was last modified: 10-05-2018, 01:17 AM by Brennen.)
Lepis has clear concerns, but her words don’t even cause him to bat an eyelash, though she certainly seems to have intended to shame him. “You’ve heard…” he responds, the second word lingering for a second, his feelings on relying on rumor alone clear in the tone of his voice. “The difference is, of course, that I have decades of being known for keeping my word. Arthas has no such reputation; nor did he indicate in any way that he intended to impose any sort of justice, internal or otherwise, so I certainly wouldn’t have been left with the idea that he could be left to impose justice by himself.” He holds her gaze for a moment, and observes the silvered old scars dispassionately. Perhaps she has reason to distrust the Sylvans herself, but Brennen is forced to wonder why she remains amongst them.
Wolfbane’s answer to Brennen’s question is readily available following quickly on the exchange between Brennen and Lepis, and Brennen absorbs the information, trying to decide how he feels about it. He is no stranger to forging tight bonds; though he has always been loyal first and foremost to his Brotherhood, the bay has bound himself tightly to others as well, most recently the strong ties between Ischia and Nerine. He follows the update on relations between Loess and Sylva with a proposal, something along the lines of offering to ask the Sylvans about Alonwy and Khaeli (and Krone?), in return for some mocks and a ceasefire. He ends his proposal with a compliment, however offhand, and a grin.
The sheer exuberance behind his expression draws a flicker of answering smile from Brennen. The boy falls quiet, and Brennen begins to turn his head in expectation of the single mare among them offering something to fill the silence, but Leilan is instead the one who fills the silence. He turns a wordless look too the Brother beside him, and this time there is no mistaking the censure, or the single irritated flick of his tail. Still he is uncertain if he has any desire to align Ischia with Sylva or Loess, but he’s not particularly pleased with Leilan’s attempt to ruin any chance of such an alliance. She speaks sharply to the silver bay and Brennen allows it, though he’s ready to interfere at the first sign of sharp words becoming anything more.
“Leilan does not speak for me, or for Ischia,” he says firmly, and the ice in his voice is razor-sharp. “But he is free to speak his mind, as any of the Krakens are.” Brennen would, however, like him to shut up, and he has the power at this point to enforce his desire. He doesn’t do anything to Leilan, but simply changes the air around them to create a private bubble for himself, Wolfbane, and Lepis. Leilan can hear them, but if he speaks again, it will be no more than a vague buzzing unless they choose to intentional listen to him; or at least that’s what he intends, but he’s never tried anything like this before.
Leaving it to be or not to be, he turns back to Lepis. “You say you will ‘rein in’ the terrors in Sylva, but that just puts them in your control, rather than Morty’s, and I don’t know you, nor do I trust Arthas. So at best it’s a vague assurance, and one I have no guarantee of. You could bring them under control just to unleash them on us later. You must understand why I have reservations.” Amber eyes flick to Wolfbane. “You only offer me the promise of a cease-fire from two of the three legs of your triumvirate. I’d need Arthas’ promise as well, and if you find the killer, I would want their guilt confirmed by one of our own. After that, I don’t care who gets them, as long as they don’t have the opportunity to kill again. Certainly don’t turn them over to me, unless you want that solution to be a permanently dead sort of solution.” The bay shifts, shuffles his wings in an equine equivalent of a shrug. “As for mocking together, my people could always use the experience, just as yours could.”
Rash in action and word, Leilan’s outburst does very little to douse the confidence Wolfbane feels. He merely tilts his nose aside, glancing sidelong at the self-proclaimed warrior with a half smirk as Lepis takes the liberty of reminding him just how much weight his opinions really measured. “Bitten off a bit more than he can chew.” Bane thinks to himself humorously, returning his attentions toward Brennen so that he could gauge the bay’s reaction.
Far be it from the Loessian to stop Sylva’s new Queen in her reprimands. The cream colored mare was justified in her tone so long as the Islander King found no offense.
What he found was displeasure in the roan stallion’s obtuseness, and Wolfbane appreciates that Brennen is willing enough to disagree with Leilan’s dismissal in order to contemplate reasonably. Had the opposite been true, the Pirate Lord would’ve returned home with much heavier thoughts in mind. Some sense of foreign magic follows on the heels of King Brennen’s reprimand, adding a light pressure to the forefront of Wolfbane’s skull due to the warped bubble they now speak in. It feels like a void but remains comfortable enough that the white-winged pegasus can continue to concentrate.
“Arthas was complicit in this idea when we last discussed it together.” He speaks into the vacuum, “I thought it best to come alone due to tension, but Lepis herself surprised me.” He tells truly.
“However our lack of camaraderie isn’t lost on me. I never expected this proposal to go on without a few hitches but I find it necessary to impose the idea that Loess and Sylva can be a force for good as much as a force to be reckoned with.” The drake says, “Send someone or come yourself to verify the authenticity of our proposed interrogation. I think it would only squeeze the perp that much harder, if they’re silly enough to be hiding in plain sight.”
Having spoken his peace, the tiger-pelted stallion sighs in remote satisfaction. “Do we have a deal?”
a dragon who couldn't be hurt on the outside could have so many ragged holes inside
Almost immediately following his remark, which for a good ear would have been a question, looking for an explanation for something he doesn’t quite follow - was there something he’d missed? - Lepis suddenly sneers at him, and his ears fall to his skull, though his tone is still cheeky when he answers. ”I never claimed to be a diplomat, Lepis.”What’s your excuse? he thinks, but doesn’t follow up. Perhaps she catches the thought from his tone, perhaps she doesn’t. At the very least it should mean to her that he can be safely ignored, and that he should not be expected to know every little bit about these negotiations.
She’s looking at him strangely however, and he doesn’t particularly like it. Had he known what she was thinking about, the fear induction, he might have laughed about that, too. Out of the fight-or-flight-or-freeze reactions the adrenalin kick of such a fear might give, Leilan is the type to fight before thinking. Might have taken a bite to that pretty little wing of hers, or defied the distance with a good, burning freeze. See how she’d like that. He wouldn’t have even thought of it - she’s lucky not to have tried. But he wasn’t actually trying to sabotage any of this meeting though she seems to take it that way; if anything, he’d wanted Wolfbane to rethink what he was offering and see if there was more to get for the brotherhood out of it. And so if he even thought about shutting her up in a different way than with words, he didn’t show it. Hell, he had better things to do than be bothered by her,
But apparently Lepis was extremely sensitive. Gods and fairies, if she wasn’t gonna talk to him, why would she let his words influence her negotiations at all? Seemed unnecessary to him to reprimand him twice and that in front of his own king.
Seems Brennen however, also didn’t like him opening his mouth. Good grief, what was it with these people today. Seemed like they were almost desperate to make this deal, all of them. It’s not like he’d joked about actually storming into Sylva to interrogate the old forest dwellers himself, had he? Jeez. But the disproving look had been enough for him to finally shut up - even though again, he felt like it wasn’t strictly needed to be toned down twice, and he huffs and looks at the waves, wondering what he’s still doing here.
Then a small display of magic settles it; he can only understand what Brenne and Wolfbane are saying if he focuses real hard, though honestly, the striped man seems the most reasonable one to him - not lashing out in anger, not disapprovingly staring at him after having been reeprimanded twice already, and actually noting he had not expected Lepis to show up. Hah, wasn’t that funny. She seemed to have a knack of disturbing a good negotiation almost as much as he. Impressive.
It’s cue to leave, though. Dipping his head a little too excessively at each of them, since they don’t seem to hear him any more, he turns to leave. If Brennen doesn’t need him around so clearly, then he’s not staying and ‘complicate’ this further.
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@[Lepis] @[Brennen] @[Wolfbane]
Out of here, unless someone feels the need to stop him leaving!
Two things I know I can make: pretty kids, and people mad.
The bay stallion speaks of being known for decades for keeping his word, and I – who have been alive for barely half of one – cannot keep an amused smile from my navy mouth. It remains, even as Brennen continues to extrapolate on the ways my husband had failed to convince him of anything. My response is just to meet his gaze, I offer no verbal defense – it is not my place to apologize for the Sylvan King. Wolfbane takes that responsibility, and I incline my head in agreement. The dappled stallion had agreed to search for the killer, and if perhaps there had been pressure from someone who he valued more than Brennen, that I do not mention either.
When the Ischian King mentions his reservations about me I am less passive, though there is no hint of it in my outward appearance. For all my quick temper, I still make the conscious choice to bare the sword of my tongue. For all my abrasiveness toward the roan horse, not a word of it had been spontaneous. For Brennen I sheathe it – a diplomat at the core – and find that Wolfbane again steps forward to deal with the brunt of the explaining.
“You’re welcome to send someone to witness,” I tell him, thinking briefly of suggesting Grye. I’d met the coppery colt on my last visit to Ischia, and he had seemed the sort to enjoy an adventure. He’d be an adult now, I realize, and I wonder if still favors the same tidepools. Whomever Brennen decided to send, they’d see the same as any other.
“To both the questioning and the changes, I mean.” I add. “Though you have only my word to go by, I can promise I intend to make Sylva far better than it was under Modicum Mortem.” It is more difficult to say his name than I had anticipated, and a shiver from my head to the tips of my wings at the memory. I find myself stepping closer to Wolfbane as the scaled stallion leaves us, but it is to move nearer to him rather than farther from Leilan. There are some things I do not speak of, and I find that the warmth of the blue and yellow stallion is emboldening. “I don’t intend for others to suffer as I did.”
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