"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
There’s a little glimmer of satisfaction knowing her secrets are, at least, not boring. She’d been so caught up in her life that she truly had not thought about there might be anything of interest to anyone else - that anyone would be paying attention to Hyaline. Truthfully, she did not think they were doing anything worth paying attention to. A small steal and a handful of kidnappings, one of which had been their own son.
She wanted more, wanted the chaos Gale had promised her, but she did not believe she had gotten it yet.
It is not hard to mirror Reave’s smirk when he continues casually. “Bolder?” She asks first for clarification, just in case there is another nephew she was unaware of. It certainly wouldn’t surprise her. “It’s been nice, having him in Hyaline.” Which was true enough - though not for particularly kind reasons. Mazikeen did enjoy helping Bolder become skilled at shifting - knowing he could become powerful and it would be because of her and Gale. She also felt a certain level of possessiveness over him, the closest thing she was capable of now to affection.
Mostly, though, she wanted Nashua to suffer. For his hatred of shifters and just because he had been able to keep his children when she had not.
She had liked Noel reasonably enough, felt a flicker of respect for how she had stood in front of her mate, and had found no faults except for a poor taste in men. But then, who was Mazikeen to judge someone else on such matters?
Mazikeen nods, confirming she'd had seen the white pegasus - though their conversation had been brief. Her own memories of their talk were filled with satisfaction at threatening Nashua, banning him from the east and from visiting his son. She is curious, though, what waves that visit may have caused outside of the little group and she does not hesitate to ask this time. "And what did his mother have to say that was so fascinating?” What impressions had they left?
Reave has never been averse to chaos as so many seem to be. He has certainly been doing his own share of sowing, though if one looked closely, they would find it difficult to trace back to him. That would change soon, but Reave has been enjoying watching as the seeds he had been planting grew into fruition. There is something almost delightful about watching the cracks spread throughout Beqanna.
Mazikeen, caught up as she has been with the curse inhabiting Gale, has likely taken little notice of the cracks spider webbing through the kingdoms even now. But soon, she would be unable to fail in noticing as things began to sprout. Would she remember this moment when that time came?
He rather hopes so.
Though Reave has always cared for his siblings, he does not begrudge her hatred for his elder brother. The stallion is wound tight as the roots of a dandelion, so Reave has no doubt Nashua had done plenty to help instigate this little feud. Reave is rather delighted by it, even if the northern King would find it infuriating. But then, upending societal norms had always been a favorite of his.
The Guardian cannot help but laugh when Mazikeen states how nice it has been having Bolder there. An understatement for certain. Even if he had not already seen it, it swirls in the memories and emotions rioting around the pale mare. “I bet it has,” he replies in the wake of his laughter, eyes bright with mirth.
Reave eyes her openly as she latches onto his comment about Bolder’s mother, her nod confirming they had indeed met. A sort of impish tenacity suffuses the red and white stallion’s features as he shifts restlessly, lips curving upwards. “It’s not so much what she said.” His tone is light and breezy despite the curl of temptation drifting through it. “More what she didn’t say.”
It’s a non-answer of course, and Reave’s devilish grin widens.
Those red-orange eyes dance with delight as Reave responds to her mention of Bolder, enjoying the shared humour over the situation, only for that light to fall flat a moment later. Mazikeen’s frown deepens at Reave’s answer - or, rather, lack of answer and her response is a hiss as her eyes narrow at him and the breezy tone with which he speaks. “I don’t remember you being this irritating.” Whatever patience she had begins to fray at the edges and she shifts slightly in her stance, fighting the instinct to turn into something with claws.
A few glowing markings crack across the skin of her back - as though she needed any assistance displaying her emotions. They had always been worn so openly and that had not changed when most of them had disappeared.
Once again Mazikeen feels like she needs to ask the right questions - but she doesn’t know what they are. Reave seems to know everything, but what is there of interest to her worth asking about? The politics of Beqanna had never been an interest of hers though she's getting the feeling that she won't have the luxury of ignoring the world at large for much longer. Not if there are more bright eyes like those of Reave and Aela watching her actions.
With a blink, her irritation settles a little as she soothes herself with the thought of trying to peel Reave's bones away from his skin. She doesn't look away from his gaze even when she snorts, as though her hissed reaction hadn't happened. “I didn’t give her anything to complain about anyway.” Just a banishment and threat to the life of her mate - minor things, really.
For all the banter they share, Reave is perfectly aware just how different the woman standing before him is from the woman he had met in that dark, monster-filled forest. There had been an optimism, a kindness then that she lacks entirely now. She may conceal it momentarily behind memories of a dead woman, but Reave sees her for what she is.
So when the facade cracks, splintering before his very eyes, the grin pulling at his lips deepens. It had not taken long for her patience to wear thin, for the anger lingering so closely beneath the surface to bubble forth. And just as she moves, as though preparing to attack, so too does he. He doesn’t fear for his life - not when he is far from defenseless - but he still prepares to defend. Just in case.
He laughs at her words. It’s a wild and reckless sound, his humor. “I can assure you, I have always been this irritating,” he quips back, grin wide.
Her emotions practically lash at him, carrying memories he doubts she wants him to see. But when she sprinkles them so liberally around her, it’s impossible for him to avoid them. Her frustration feeds her anger, but somehow, she manages to tamp it down once more. She hadn’t come here to rip him apart after all, no matter how much his slippery discourse made her want to.
Reave doesn’t bother to tell her just how much more annoying he could be if he put his mind to it. Even he isn’t quite so reckless as to pull that cat by its tail.
He lifts his head as she settles, her reply once again modulated. There is a gleam in his razor blue eye, as though she had given him everything he had wanted. “She didn’t strike me as the sort to complain,” he returns just as blandly. He pauses for a moment before adding, “Truthfully, the fact that her mother still resides in Hyaline is something I found far more interesting.”
She had earned a bit of the truth from him. Even if it is a barbed truth dangled as bait.
She snorts her own short laugh at Reave’s response about how irritating he was, but her frustration does not ease. There is no friendly rolling of her eyes or quirking of the corner of her mouth. He is probably right, anyway, and she had been too dumb to notice it before. Or had found it charming - which was a rather unfortunate habit of hers when she cared. Especially since it meant that now she had to deal with the same individuals with remarkably less patience and interest.
Mazikeen’s scowl deepens at the gleam in Reave’s eyes, her own narrowing as he speaks before widening at the information that Noel’s mother lived in Hyaline. Now she snorts and there is a faint hint of amusement in the sound. “Oh good, someone will be there to snitch on all the horrible things we’re doing to Bolder.”
They would be boring reports, at least. Somehow, of everyone, Bolder remained someone both she and Gale did not harm. Just the possibility of it was apparently enough of a threat and she still found herself interested in being liked by the moon-marked boy. Even if it was only with the intention of bothering Nashua by forging a deeper bond and keeping his son close.
Or, at the very least, if Gale was harming him Mazikeen did not know about it - she hadn’t really thought about that possibility until just now. It just hadn’t seemed important enough to wonder about.
A more direct question is finally released from Mazikeen’s mind as she continues to watch Reave carefully. “Who’s her mother?” Though Mazikeen does have a guess, based purely on the fact that she knows of only one other family with two other white pegasi in it that lives within Hyaline.
While it’s true he has always been the kind of creature to draw stronger emotions from others, he does have the sense not to say he had been trying to elicit a reaction. He doesn’t imagine she would appreciate knowing just how deliberately he has been baiting her. He also has little desire to deal with the fall-out. It doesn’t take someone with even a fraction of the talent he possesses to know how likely she is to respond with violence.
Luckily for him, Reave has gotten pretty good at riding that fine line between provocation and outright hostility.
Mazikeen doesn’t appear overly concerned about the revelation. Neither had Reave expected her to be. They have quite a few residents in that kingdom, including more of his own relatives, so it is almost to be expected. She even manages to find some small humor in it. Her response causes the bone-armored stallion’s lips to twitch in amusement of his own. Of course, he had already told Bolder’s mother that he hadn’t been harmed before they ever made their way to the kingdom. It was the real reason she had sought him out. After all, his gifts are hardly a secret, and she had simply wanted reassurance.
He’s not so cruel as to withhold something like that from a worried mother. Still, he had extracted the promise of a favor in return from her. He’s not altruistic enough to dismiss such an opportunity. She may have nothing he wants right now, but who knows what she would hold in the future?
When Mazikeen continues, her question is pointed and direct. She is learning. Reave chuckles softly, eyes flashing as the levity settles on his lips. “I think you already know the answer to that question,” he replies, the mildness of his voice belying the cunning in his gaze. He might have left it at that, but instead he confirms it for her. “Ryatah.”
Reave confirms her suspicions and Mazikeen’s ears flatten like those handful of syllables were a insult tossed at her. “I’ve had about all I can stomach of angels in this life.” She mutters in response, her head turning away from Reave to look in the direction of Hyaline.
The residents of her kingdom have been protected from Gale and, later, herself by a promise that had been grandfathered in when her emotions had been pried away. It had never been tempting to hunt more than deer or snow leopards within her home before - but it is now. So much of the annoyances in her life stems from two different families - and now she finds out that Bolder is a blending of them both.
She wants to tear every single one of them apart. Everyone related to Gale, everyone with angelic blood. There are too many pleasant memories and too many grievances wrapped up in those families and it would be far simpler for her if she watered the forests and meadows with their blood instead of allowing them to continue.
Wings flare out from her side, but instead of the iridescent blue she had arrived with they are a crisp metallic gold - betraying the direction of her thoughts (as if her scowl wasn’t enough) and then they fade to a deeper black that reminds her of the shadowy wings she had once possessed.
She is readying to leave but her hooves do not shift in her stance just yet. Her gaze slides back to the bone-armoured stallion and she speaks the curious thought that enters her mind. “What’s your part in all this, Reave?” He seemed to know, or was pretending to know, everything - did it end there, with the enjoyment of seeing everyone move around like pieces on a board only he could see? Or was there more active participation?
Even though she had known, she doesn't care for his confirmation of the fact. Her biting words nearly draw another laugh from him, but he refrains. Though truthfully, it likely didn’t matter. Her thoughts are pulled from him as she considers the consequences of what he had revealed.
Memories of the hunt swirl around her, bloodlust sated on the animals in the hills of Hyaline. It does not take any great intelligence to imagine where her thoughts had gone. More proof that she is not the same woman he had met in the woods so long ago. As if he had needed more proof.
If blood and death had ever bothered him, he might have been disturbed at witnessing her memories of slaughter. Instead he lifts his head and watches with bold curiosity, Rune swaying on his hip as he shifts in the same moment as Mazikeen turns from him. The wings flaring at her sides glint gold in the sunlight before dimming beneath a deep cloak of shadow. She gives away a great deal with that simple display, but he suspects she knows that.
She makes as though to leave, but something compels her to glance back. Reave’s mouth creases into an impish smile beneath her probing gaze. Now that anger had subsided, she appears to be working through the implications of his revelations. It’s only natural, that curiosity. After all, why would he collect secrets if he doesn’t plan to use them?
Still, she should know better than to believe he would spill everything.
“Boredom,” he says instead, a faint shrug lifting one shoulder, bright gaze unreadable. It’s partially true at least. Most of what he does stems from boredom. But it is only the tip of the iceberg.
Boredom he tells her and she snorts a small, humourless laugh - her gaze drifting away again. It was something like boredom that had driven her from Hyaline, that had sparked the chain of reactions that had led her here to Nerine. She knows more lazy days will wait for her in those mountains if she does not do something about it, if she does not take control soon.
She is less imaginative now than she was before. If there are other questions she should ask Reave, she cannot think of any. Her mind has already begun to drift away from him back home, to the blood she could shed that would keep her own boredom away a little longer.
“I am so sick of being bored.” Mazikeen tells Reave as her body changes from a winged horse to a winged lioness and she turns to step off of the cliff where her wings will catch her and carry her home. She still isn't entirely sure what the point of her visit was - and while he had certainly been irritating, there was less aggravation than many of Mazikeen's other interactions with his family. And, she knew now, if she had a question she needed answered - this was likely the best place to go.
