[complete] lead me back from the darkness like you do; any fairy

[magnus]

but she's bringin' the moon and stars to me -

It takes him some time to make his way back again.

Perhaps it is because he has been told to wait. Perhaps it is the more than small distraction of a war coming to his shores. Perhaps he simply has been distracted by the joy that persists through it all—the small gifts of being given a family again, a woman to love desperately. Regardless, when he does come again, it is with a renewed purpose. He had watched hell rain down on Tephra—threaten his family.

He knows more than ever that he cannot lose Isle.

He knows that he has to keep trying.

The climb up the mountain does not get easier with time. From the first time coming off of it during the Reckoning to his first time climbing it to ask for Tephra—it remains difficult, and he supposes that is right. It is not a journey to be made lightly and with his heart heavy, he certainly does not consider it such.

He golden neck is slick when he finally makes the ascent, despite the frigid bite to the air, and although he remains warm from his own internal heat, he feels the ache of it in his bones. 

When he finally comes to a stop, he lifts his gold-flecked eyes up, his handsome face raw with all of the emotion that pounds in his chest. “You know what is in my heart,” he says softly, his voice low because he knows they will hear him. “I will climb this mountain every year, if that is what it takes.” There are storms in his eyes as he looks into the darkness for a sign of them. “I watch her life threatened in this latest war. There is only so much I can—anyone can—do to protect her. I know that. Even immortality has its limits.” 

He stumbles on his words a little, feels his heart trip. 

“But I have to try. I have to ask.”

- Magnus

@[Officials] - Magnus is back to petition for Immortality for Isle.

[Wysteria Fairy]

All hail the Queen of the Boards.

He is persistent, if nothing else, though mortals so often are. And yes, despite his immortality, he is mortal in a way the faeries never will be. He exists, he has the capacity to die. The faeries exist, but only because they need to in order to do their jobs for mortals and not because the require any form at all, and they cannot die. They are nothing more than magic incarnate, and as such, they see the world so differently. Wysteria is young compared to some of her sisters, but still, she has lived a thousand lives and then some because the history of Beqanna is her history; it’s ups and downs and in between’s are hers as well. She does exist separate from the land that made her.

His request is noble, yes, but foolish in her eyes. Why live forever? Most immortals still don’t. They don’t die, necessarily, but disappear into oblivion as anyone else would. Still, she respects the fact that he’s aware what he asks has limits. She respects his love, and his persistence despite knowing that in the end, he can control very little. Also, he is one of the few who realizes he need not ask, that she already knows.

She appears then without fanfare, simply materializing before him. “You seek to change someone else’s life irreparably, without them even present. It is in your heart, but is it in hers? Before we will grant your request, you must first know what it is like to have that done to you. Someone else must make a choice for you, and you may not weigh in. Come back and tell us what you have learned.” She is gone as quickly as she arrived, leaving him to descend from the mountain alone.

***

Magnus has rolled a 6 and will receive a quest. Let someone else make a life changing decision for Magnus, and return to explain what you learn from the experience. You may use the NPC account for this if you prefer.

[magnus]

but she's bringin' the moon and stars to me -

He is not gone for long, but the ascent up the mountain is not easier this time.

(It has never been easy. Will never been easy.)

By the time that he finally makes it back up to the crest of the mountain, he is breathing hard, nostrils flaring and sweat darkening his dappled neck to crushed gold. But it is no match for the fire in his eyes. He glows like the sun, outlined by that molten light, and his heart pounds in his chest.

For a second, he is quiet, respectful, catching his breath and feeling that faint tug in his belly that lets him know that the faeries are near. After a moment has paused, he rolls his shoulders. “You were right.” A faint laugh like thunder in his chest as he shakes his head. “I was impulsive and brash. You have known me all of my days—you know these weaknesses of mine better than even I do. Than I ever will.”

Still, he is relaxed, not flinching from what had previously caused such a seed of guilt in him.

“It only seemed fair that I give the power of that choice back to the woman who I had sought to make the choice for in the first place—and she was far wiser than I could have ever hoped to be.” He takes a breath before continuing. “You asked to come back and tell you what I learned. The largest lesson is that I could not be luckier to love the woman that I do; she chose to ask to tie my immortality to her own.”

It was hardly a price to pay.

Instead, it was the clear-eyed right choice all along.

And only Isle saw it.

His crooked smile grows more serious as he frowns slightly, shifting his weight and straightening himself. “But I also felt the weight of that decision—that powerlessness in it—and I know the mistake that I made in thinking that my love made my choice the right one. If I want to love Isle forever and live with her forever—and I do, I truly do—then I need to make her an equal partner in all things.” His smile returns with the twitching of his sooty lips. “After all, she makes so much better decisions than I do anyway.”

- Magnus

Magnus / Isle are now asking to give Isle immortality with hers and his tied together.

Their thread: http://beqanna.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=23968&pid=92020#pid92020

@[Wysteria Fairy] - whoops forgot to tag!

[Wysteria Fairy]

All hail the Queen of the Boards.

“Oh, it does please me to hear that I was right,” she says before appearing. Her body materializes only a moment later, her eyes gleaming with something that looks, perhaps, like amusement. It’s such a strange sight on the usually gloomy fairy that it seems out of place, despite her bright colors that would, on her very surface, suggest she is kinder than she is.

Perhaps her colors don’t lie though. Her outside is as rough as the bark of the trees from which she sprung, but her insides are far kinder though they are rarely seen. “You are indeed lucky. Few find what you have found. Your request is granted. Do not forget what you have learned, and treasure what she has given you.” She believed he would, but in the worst of moments, it was so easy to forget the lessons they had already learned. Easier still when your lives were forever long, when you changed in the course of forever.

Theirs would not be forever though, just for a little extra while.

She disappears, leaving behind the magic that would change him and her, a glowing purple sphere that looks like it can be carried back to Isle and used together.

***
You and Isle have been granted linked immortality. Please post in updates.

@[magnus]