06-03-2015, 05:38 PM
(This post was last modified: 06-03-2015, 05:39 PM by Camrynn.)
so you wanna play with magic? The magic-mare has a special affinity for things that are, well, special. She has a keen eye for otherwise hidden talents, a delicate nose capable of sniffing out even the least little bit of more-than. Perhaps it is her innate desire to know everything. Perhaps it is an unbearable drive to understand, to comprehend. Or maybe she's just nosy.
When she had first returned to Beqanna, she had made a point of getting to know all of the resident magicians. It had proved an interesting and rewarding task, one that had given her a charming interlude with Evrae and a far longer and more complicated relationship with Eight. Strange star-crossed magic lovers that they were, they always seemed to find each other.
Since then, she's grown largely complacent, because there haven't been all that many magic horses to track down and interview. She's been busy (you know, ruling a kingdom, recruiting a secret personal army and all) but there also just haven't been many with gifts.
That is, until now.
It's been some time since Jason's return and the magician has watched him. Never in a way he'd know it, unless he were to go digging for it. She watches him through the eyes of others, hearing him through their ears, plucking his comings and his goings from their collective memory. At first, she wonders if he is simply stubborn, determined to stick it out in the Gates despite the fact that the kingdom is eating his magic. But as time goes on she becomes increasingly convinced that he simply doesn't know. She can't even imagine it, to feel powerless as your power slips away – she couldn't do it, couldn't surrender it. Camrynn is magic, and magic is Camrynn. They are intertwined and cannot be separated.
Perhaps that will end poorly for her one day.
But if so, that day is not today. Today she is lingering on the fringes of the Deserts, bathing in the heat, waiting. And when Jason returns from the field, passing through the Meadow, pausing for just a moment, she appears beside him without so much as a sound. She wonders briefly if he has enough magic left to have felt her presence before she appeared.
She is a beautiful thing, all grace and lean curves. She is pure black, no markings at all, the perfect canvas to become anything she wants to be. Across her chest a gilded crook-and-flail stand out proud against the black, the symbol of her stewardship in the Deserts. Across one cheek, a string of diamonds and gemstones drapes beautifully, the equine equivalent of a necklace. For the moment, her eyes are a deep, unearthly cerulean blue.
She is quiet for a moment, regarding the stallion with magic far more ancient than her own (soon, she thinks, soon) and then she offers him a smile. "Jason." her tones are warm, friendly. Around her, the meadow fades into silence as they slip away from the rest of the world, a ship in the mists, guided by Cam's powers. Her voice is warm, like liquid velvet, pleasant and comforting all at once. "It's a pleasure to meet a fellow magician." She smiles, pausing for just a fraction of a second.
"Oh, but I'm being rude. I'm Camrynn." and that is all she says – not anything more about herself, not her titles, not anything beyond her name. Even though he should already know her, should already know everything. Somehow, she suspects that he doesn't.
Pity.
CAMRYNN co-queen of the deserts, magical, mother of badassery
@[Sprite]
It was just another day to Jason. He often sought out the field on an otherwise uneventful day. His journeys had proven mostly fruitful with both friends made and numbers added to the Gates. This day in particular hadn’t ended as he had hoped for he was returning to his home unaccompanied (or so he thought). The passage through the meadow was one that often brought about memories he wished to not recall. Love found, love lost- it was all woven into the meadows past and he did not care to uncover it again.
Jason’s movements forward were unusually rushed. He was not aware of magical entity following him for he was far too focused on what laid before him. Suddenly and without warning it felt as if scales had fallen from his eyes. The perfect form of a black beauty had appeared beside him. His gallant steps immediately stopped almost causing his body to go toppling over. His breathes lingered, and the sweat that had formed along the edges of his muscles shimmered in the dull sunlight. ”What the!” He exclaimed with wildly blinking eyes. ”Damn you nearly gave me a heart attack.” He said in between moments of deep breathing.
The stranger spoke his name, and his head tilted to the side. The confusion only further multiplied when the world around them fell away. She spoke again, this time explaining the situation. Another magician, and Jason slowly came to understanding. He had never met another one with magic in all his years. He didn’t even use his magic to the same capacity; years had simply taught him that love was far more superior to his power.
”Camrynn, pleasure to meet you.” He spoke slowly this time. His mind was now running, as he analyzed his surroundings, not bothering to tap into his own source of magic. ”All of this to meet such an old man?” He grinned.
| | jason
magical son of eol and ashling
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so you wanna play with magic? "The pleasure is all mine, Jason." She returns his grin with a sly one of her own, tilting her head in response to his joke. As she moves her head, her eyes shift from their deep-blue to a subtle silver-lavender. "Old doesn't really apply to us, does it?" she chuckles gently, playing back in to his joke. "I apologize for startling you. I thought you'd know I was there." She is fascinated to know that he didn't know, that he's either slipped so far from his magical center, or that the Gates has sucked him so dry (or both) that he no longer recognizes the presence of another magic-user in his midst.
Now that they are speaking here as equals, she can almost feel it, the way the mother tree pulls away at his magic, a slow and steady half-siphon, half repulsion, like two magnets. Perhaps that's it; perhaps they have opposite polarity, the tree and the magician, and it simply cannot abide any magic but its own. She turns her attention back to the stallion.
"I try to make a point of meeting magicians. Especially the old ones." she offers with another becoming smile. The sunlight shatters across her cheek where it hits the string of diamonds. The oldest were so fascinating, she's found. But she doesn't doubt the new one (does he feel it? She wonders.) will be fascinating too. It's been so long since magic has come fresh to Beqanna. Alliance contenders have gained it, but perhaps she was the last one to whom it was given, to whom the land simply decided to bestow it. The last one, save for the girl that even now is preparing to come into the world.
"We should've met earlier, really." she begins, starting to drive (obliquely) at what might be her main point in all of this. "I ought to have visited the Gates by now, but duty just hasn't allowed me the time to get away." she pauses for a moment, sighing almost wistfully, as though contemplating the burden of queenship. And while it is a burden it's a burden that electrifies her, a state to which she was born, a glory she was meant to carry. She is a queen, through and through, regardless of whether or not she has a crown on her head.
Well, a metaphorical crown on her head. In her case, her crown is writ large across her chest, the gilded crook and flail, shining and stark against its field of black.
"Tell me, how is life in the Gates?" She asks, and she wonders how he'll take her question. Will he think she asks about him, or that she asks about the kingdom? She'll take any answer, but what she's truly driving at is how much he knows about the state of his magic. Does he understand why it's slipping away? Does he understand the implications? And is he willing to stay his course when he does finally come to know the details?
Camrynn knows what she would choose were she in his shoes. Nothing is more important to her than her magic, in part because she takes the opposite view from her fascinating companion. To her, there is nothing stronger than magic. No power in the universe is greater than a magician unbridled – is not Carnage proof of that? Did he not send horses ripping through time, careening from one reality to the next, all in pursuit of a lost love? Did he not rip a chunk of the world from its shores, and establish a home for the dead, all because of Gail? No, there's no power in the world greater than magic. Love can inspire magicians to do great things, but love will never overcome the power of magic.
But love can also inspire stupid things, like bargains to have your cake and eat it too. History is littered with stories of those who traded everything for what they perceive their lover wanted – but for Jason, his lover is the light kingdom and its greedy mother tree, the girl with the ruined face, the shy boy born of two stallions, the quiet and sweet family that has ruled there for so long. What will Jason do for them, his family? Would he leave them and save himself? Or, of even more interest to her, would he seek a third solution, the kind of thing that she could provide?
Provide, of course, for a price.
CAMRYNN co-queen of the deserts, magical, mother of badassery
There was something curious about the mare standing before him. He watches as her eyes flicker and change in color, as her voice lulls over him and sooths the tension in the air. He knows without question that she is younger than him, and that she plays with her magic in ways he had never thought. She was surprised that he had not noticed her, and if he was honest with himself he too was surprised that he hadn’t sensed it. In fact when he thought upon it he hadn’t sensed much of anything lately. ”It’s quite alright.” He notes in response to her apology even though his heart still felt like it was going to peel out of his chest.
Camrynn continued to speak, and Jason’s ears twitched with each of her words. It was becoming clear to him that he wasn’t as unique as he used to be. Magic had become more common, common enough to apparently be found in several horses. He nodded his head at the mention of his home then tilted it slightly to the side when the mare spoke of duties. Instead of magic Jason simply used his power of observation to answer his own question. The markings along her chest reminisced the deserts. She was most likely a queen, a powerful one at that.
”The Gates?” He repeated the end of her question. There wasn’t an easy answer to the question. He wasn’t exactly sure what she was referring to nor why he should be completely honest with the stranger. ”The Gates is doing well.” He said bluntly. ”How is life in the Deserts?” Jason straightened his stance, raising his head and broadening his shoulders. She would soon find that he was far more trusting when the topic stayed on himself rather than his home.
| | jason
magical son of eol and ashling
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so you wanna play with magic? "The Deserts are quiet. But so is much of Beqanna nowadays." she answers easily, her voice calm and unguarded. When it comes to magicians, the black mare has an almost unlimited amount of trust. It's a simple calculation, really; she tries to make a point of knowing as much as she possibly can about all the other kingdoms (and everything else that she considers in her interest to know) before she ever has to ask about it, and she simply assumes that other magic users do the same. So what does it matter what she tells him, because what of it couldn't simply be plucked from the memories of the other Deserts horses? Or even from her own memories? That is one of the (myriad) gifts of magic – the ability to reach into minds, to reach across time, to sift through collective memory and establish a narrative.
Silence drags between them for a moment, but Camrynn is entirely at her ease. She always is around magicians; they understand each other (or at least, she understands them) in a way that never seems to apply to horses without the gift. They are each of them miniature universes, impossible potential woven into every moment in a way that just cannot be grasped until you've lived it.
Although, as she looks at him, she wonders if Jason ever did grasp it quite like she does. He strikes her as far more similar to Yael, whereas Camrynn herself falls closer to Evrae or to Eight: capricious magic users, who push the boundaries of what's possible, who push the bounds of what's appropriate – who just plain push the bounds.
"What was it like, back at the beginning of Beqanna?" she asks, changing the topic completely. She's endlessly curious, and while she could answer the question herself, she's always interested to hear it described. She wants to know everything about him, naturally – how he got his magic, why he left, why he returned – but she also knows that they've got all the time in the world here. She's not an idiot, she can see that he doesn't trust her, and she also doesn't blame him for that. Trusting her usually ends badly, although magicians are one of the exceptions to that. She would never knowingly cross one of her own; she respects them too much, and being the baby of the 'magic family', so to speak, most of them could put her in her place with little more than a thought.
She wonders, idly, if he knows that either.
Perhaps she'll find out as their conversation progresses. She is relaxed as she waits for his answer, letting the unnaturally quieted meadow bathe them in silence and sunlight, idly shifting her weight and cocking the other hoof.
CAMRYNN co-queen of the deserts, magical, mother of badassery
Although Jason stood tall he didn’t feel like he had much power in the situation. Camrynn seemed calm, nonchalant about their meeting whereas he still felt uneasy and distrusting. The dark mare answered his question with candor. He wasn’t surprised to hear that the kingdom was quiet, the Gates shared in that trait, but he was disappointed that the other light kingdom was not livelier. The disappointment could be seen in the frown that had now formed against his lips. He sighed lightly and shifted his weight, lowering his stance to a more comfortable lean.
The next question struck Jason as interesting. He had never had anyone ask him about Beqanna’s past. Although he had lived over a decade and seen the changes within his home others didn’t see the wisdom in history and thus they never questioned him. For a moment he thought Camrynn to be wise in asking such an inquiry.
With another shift of his weight Jason replaced his frown with a pensive thought and then he began. ”In the beginning? Well…it wasn’t too different from it is today. The horses are still the same. Some are kind. Some are ambitious like yourself. Some are not good, others are…it is all the same in that way.” He muses to himself. ”But magic, it is very different now.” His words begin to flow from him almost as if he is speaking for the sake of his own memories. ”Magic used to be more pure. It didn’t flow through the land like it does now. It was kept in just a few horses. There was no such thing as magical waterfalls or trees. Traits were not often given to other horses- there wasn’t nearly as many wondrous gifts running about. All of these different colors didn’t exist either. Most horses were just that, horses. All the magic was mainly held in the magicians themselves. All gifts could be passed onto offspring, not just a few. Those who had gifts typically only had one of three: wings, horn, or immortality. Magic now runs far more rampant.” Jason definitely believed that the past was the purer way and the way that it should be. Those who stumbled upon magic and had not been born with it were more likely to be careless with it. In his opinion most didn’t understand the repercussions, and lack of understanding would always bring about chaos.
| | jason
magical son of eol and ashling
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06-28-2015, 06:01 PM
(This post was last modified: 07-01-2015, 11:00 AM by Camrynn.)
so you wanna play with magic? She listens, rapt, as he describes it. She imagines everything as he says it, perhaps picking the images out of some collective memory, or perhaps not. She can see them, the hordes of normal horses, and the few with gifts, the fewer still with magic. It was a simpler time, she knows. She isn't sure whether she thinks it was a better time or not.
"I remember how it was, before there were so many with gifts." she says, lost in thought as he is. "I was born just before the Catastrophe, when Beqanna was split apart and remade into just three kingdoms. Back then, we had some horses with gifts, but the majority were still without." She sighs. "I was born with two gifts. The ability to change the color of my eyes at will-" to demonstrate, she shifts them to a light, shimmery gold "- and the ability to weave illusions." She still has both those abilities now, although they're a bit redundant in the face of her magic. "I received my magic by being in either the exact right or wrong spot, depending on how you want to look at it, when the catastrophe hit. It shook the earth, ripped it apart, and in the process I received the gift." She looks at him. "I've spent the rest of my life understanding exactly what that means."
And she has. It's been her driving passion ever since, to constantly push the envelope, and thereby learn what's possible. It often ends up with her pushing others beyond their comfort zone, with casual magic use of the sort that Jason might (perhaps quite rightly) frown upon. But at the end of the day she's quite confident that she keeps track of the ripples. And if she doesn't, there's nothing to stop her from going back and doing it all over again. The world is, quite literally, her oyster.
"The magic of the kingdoms was present back when I was born, but it wasn’t quite as pronounced as it is today." she pauses for a moment before speaking the next line. "What do you make of the changes to it?"
CAMRYNN co-queen of the deserts, magical, mother of badassery
Edited to include the Pharate-related changes to kingdoms XD
He recalled the past with great nostalgia. Memories always felt more wanted the further they went from the present. It was just like Jason to finely muse over his previous world especially since it felt far less complicated then his current one. Jason shifted his weight once more and rested his ears on Camrynn’s recollections. He began to feel further at ease with her openness, which caused a small smile to tug at his lips. The gold shimmer that swept her eyes appeared to him as more complimentary, and he stepped closer to the fellow magician. His tail hung low, lightly brushing against his back legs.
”I was born with mine, and I’ve never fully understood what it means.” He said. ”I’m not sure if it really means anything.” His gaze dropped to the ground where he idly dug the rim of his front left hoof into the ground. Jason had been alive for several years and after multiple attempts to understand his gift he had finally drawn to the simple conclusion that some things were random and not managed by a higher purpose.
Jason lifted his eyes at the mention of the current phenomenon that jolted him from his sleep the night before. ”You felt that too?” He said slowly with his head motioned toward the side. ”Of course you did..” He spoke more assured with a tinge of laughter on his tongue. ”Honestly I haven’t put much thought into how it affected everyone, but for myself I can tell that damn tree is no longer my enemy. From the moment his magic began to return to him he could tell that the mother tree no longer held magic- and Jason had finally put two and two together. It seemed that with the loss of his magic he had lost most of his reasoning skills as well. Thankfully both were slowly being returned to him.
JASON magical son of eol and ashling
OOC: Yay for taking a month to reply x_x sorry
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