[private] i can feel your halo

[Tarian]

There is a long history with Tarian and doing things he dislikes.

As a youth, there was never a choice of simply turning away from them. He had been raised with the principles that a Guardian does what he must and sometimes those responsibilities could be unfortunate or uncomfortable. But as a future leader, it had been instilled in Tarian that those duties were never unbearable.

The burden could be carried however a Guardian liked - alone as Ichiro had carried his, surrounded by family as Valerio did - but there was never a choice of not carrying it. They are lessons from his youth - set long enough that they are cast in stone - and Tarian has no desire to change now. He has no wish to visit Sylva any more than he had wished to visit the Pampas but both trips have come at the behest of their Queen and so to Tarian, must be done regardless of his personal wishes.

Ashhal abruptly rises and the other stallion watches him carefully, noting that the silver pegasus seemed to have plenty to say about Tarian's request. For all his blunt words to the Loessian Champion, there is one missing that he had been listening for: no.

"I don't need a diplomat," Tarian calls out as he finally moves after the ambling Ashhal. He's never been much of one and Lady Oceane must realize that by now; Tarian hadn't bothered to smooth anything out with the Pampas Prince and yet the Queen of the South hadn't rebuffed him for it. She did what she did often  - surprised him - and had asked the gray stallion to make another trip. This time to Sylva.

"Sylva has a reputation," he starts grimly and then leaves it there. @[Ashhal] has lived in Beqanna his entire life; Tarian won't waste a history lesson that the other brute had most likely lived through. The Champion keeps pace behind the darker-colored pegasus though there is a troubled shadow across his features as Ashhal rounds the corner for the nearest hot spring. He didn't need somebody to spout pretty words to the Sylvan leader or whatever else they might encounter in the fire-hued wood. (It's the whatever else that occupies his mind and Tarian snorts at the thought.) "We go, extend a few pleasantries from the Queen and then leave."

None of this sounds particularly appealing and he imagines that sounds even less so to Ashhal.
Ashhal, who holds no position or owes any fealty to Loess.

"If things don't go... pleasantly," Tarian offers (if Ashhal was feeling restless since the Eclipse, well, here was something else for him to rip apart if things in Sylva literally went south), "I don't want a diplomat with me."