"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
The fairy gave her a time limit and her time was up. One last restoration of magic to someone and she would be free of her task. She'd restored the ghost's. The Woolf's. The dark one. The frosted one. She hadn't been able to find the Ageless one. So it was up to her to bestow magic to another in her place. Her last one.
She scanned the faces in the Meadow, looking for the lost one. The broken one. The incomplete. She was the Champion, she would make them whole again. The child of an Angel. Defender of the innocent. A heavy burden for one so young, perhaps, but her only purpose in life.
You, she called firmly, finally choosing one. Her mane whipped around her like a wild fire, orange and bright. She was an adult, and yet she was clearly still just barely grown, her navy-blue figure so slender and a hint lanky. Soon, it would bulk with muscle tone. Soon, she would be trained and honed, forged into a weapon. A shield.
Have you lost a magic? Blunt, honest. Always to the point.
She is alone – a rare thing, honestly, but for the moment she has left her family to their own devices, and she grazes quietly by herself. Until she isn’t. You, the voice called and she lifts her head, startled, and blinks in momentary confusion. She doesn’t know the voice, or the face, and so for a minute she looks around, thinking perhaps the mare is talking to someone else, but they are alone, several paces away from anyone else who the strange could be addressing. No, clearly she is talking to Carwyn.
“Ah…” she starts, taking a moment to get her bearings, trying to figure out what prompted the girl to pick Carwyn, of all people. The other girl is…bright. Carwyn is a subtle, natural blue, the result of her roaning; the strange is deep, true blue and her mane and tail are…orange. “Yes. I have.” she finally says, twitching involuntarily near her withers where her wings usually emerge. “Wings, actually, and a magic.” Her grandfather’s bone-bending does not sit as easily under her skin, but she had just been beginning to master it with him before it was taken.
Flight, though – she misses flight. Flight is the thing that had come naturally, soaring wildly above the earth where even her mother and half-sister couldn’t catch her. It had been private, and quiet, and alone. “I’m Carwyn,” she adds, giving a tentative smile. “What’s your name?” She doesn’t understand that the strange might be able to give her back her wings, her magics, or she might not be nearly as calm.
01-09-2017, 04:32 PM (This post was last modified: 01-09-2017, 04:32 PM by Raeg'n.)
-Raeg'n-
Her sharp voice startled the roaned creature. She felt a small pang of guilt at that, but didn't show it. Her honey-amber eyes narrowed imperceptibly, though she didn't hold the mare's hesitance against her. Raeg'n would have turned out much the same one day, perhaps, had her mother stayed earthbound. Instead, she was alone. No, not entirely alone. Lauchlan could be found at any time she might need him. Sometimes.. she felt like seeing him, but didn't have a reason. So she stayed.
Carwyn explained her loss, though a bit vaguely when it came to her magic. Maybe it was a secret, maybe so powerful that it had to be. Her interest piqued at the prospect, curiosity tickling her mind. She didn't pry though.
I'm Raeg'n, she said almost apologetically. She still wasn't very good at social niceties. It was on her list of things to learn.
Magic is a gift, isn't it? And so Raeg'n didn't ask more than if she had any at all before invisible tendrils of the Fairy's magic were plucked from Raeg'n's mind and coiled around Carwyn's neck. All magic was good to her, daughter of an Angel, it was only the person wielding it that could be dangerous or evil. This woman had a kind heart, it seemed to her, and so her magic was restored without hesitation. Unbidden, maybe, but with good intentions.
It is done, she said flatly with a short nod, though Carwyn had probably felt it settling back into her. Some of them did. Raeg'n's magic hadn't; she didn't feel anything. But she knew about it now, thanks to a devil.
Tell me what your magic is? she asked, somewhere between a polite command and a question. If she could lend her aid to Raeg'n one day, it would be ideal. But it was not required this time, like the others. Only hoped for.
Folded wings into flattening veins and fluttering eyes
As they stand facing each other, Carwyn decides the stranger doesn’t mean her any harm, and she starts to relax, smiling as Raeg’n gives her name. She not sure what to say from there – Raeg’n had sought her out, after all, not the other way around – but she is patient, waiting, and she doesn’t have long to wait. There was a shift in the world, almost a dizzy moment, and then everything snaps back together. In the space of a heartbeat, everything is back.
The comfortable, solid weight of her wings at her sides and the deeper connection to the bone magic – she can feel it all, comfortable weight and space where before there was emptiness. Raeg’n speaks, nods sharply, and Carwyn realizes with honest astonishment that it is the young mare’s doing that her gifts have been restored to her. She shuffles, resettles her gray wings, and blinks blue eyes, reassessing the remarkable girl. She does not know why or how it was done, but she is very glad that it has been. Very glad that once more, she will be a creature of the air. “Thank you,” she says, gratitude infused in the words and in the smile.
The command-question makes her tilt her head, and consider. It isn’t that she doesn’t want anyone to know, but rather that she often finds it awkward to name her magic. She has only the name that Brennen calls it, but it seems so clunky a term. And…better to show than to tell. She doesn’t manipulate her own bones – she knows it can be done, but it’s not worth the pain just for a show-and-tell (though sometimes having a horn is worth it) – or Raeg’n’s (that would be rude, since the girl just gave her her powers back), but reaches out with the magic, looking beneath the earth.
There are fewer here than some places but eventually she finds one, picking an unfortunate coyote who must have died not far from them. The ground shifts under their hooves, just a tiny tremble, as she forces the skeleton out of its shallow grave and knits the bones together in her head, and sends it running between the two mares, moving as fluidly as if it had skin and muscles still. It goes to the edge of Carwyn’s sight and then falls lifeless to the ground again, and she turns her blue gaze back to Raeg’n. “I control bones.” she offers, a slight grin of satisfaction on her face.
The woman seemed to consider her request, studying her for a moment then looking off in another direction and down. Her honeyed eyes followed as the dirt and debris shifted about. The skeleton of some poor creature long dead rose from its shallow grave. She seemed to give it life in some way, and it darted between them like something re-living, ambling as though it still had muscle tissue and skin. Eventually, it got distant and crumpled lifeless to the ground.
She turned back to the woman, a secret tinge of fear in her eyes as she confirmed: she controls bones. Raeg'n was by nature entirely fearless, but this... This one might be a magic she would not be able to heal from. Calcuation replaced that brief instance of fear, and she mulled it over impassively as she stared at the mare.
Control her bones, maybe. Break them? They'd just heal, as they always did. Instantly. But would the mage be able to hold them broken? Would she feel pain for once? No, not for once. She'd felt pain before the Fairy returned her magic. Nevertheless, how would a magic like this effect her? She was itching to know for certain, however she also was reluctant to allow anyone learn of any sort of vulnerability. If Carwyn could counter her healing magic, she sure as hell didn't want her to know it. Or anyone.
However. To have her use it on someone else.. That would indeed be helpful. She couldn't even imagine how much aid that would give Raeg'n. Her eyes refocused and she nodded at her again.
I may seek your assistance one day. I hope you will lend it. I live in Tephra if you ever have need of me for anything. Do not hesitate to request me. She managed a kind smile, though her mind was still reeling with what she'd learned. And she turned and walked home.
