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  • Beqanna

    COTY

    Assailant -- Year 226

    QOTY

    "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


    [private]  i would've crossed the stars
    #1
    Gale
    this is going to break me clean in two --
    this is going to bring me close to you



    Is there a way to rid himself of Gale permanently, she had asked?

    The Curse that inhabits the born-navy stallion grows ever more suspicious that the answer is No. Even though he’d expelled each bit of his host’s conscious mind, Gale had still returned when his body had regenerated after death. It was easy to crush him, far easier than the first time - the process took seconds instead of years. But he remains an ever-present spector, and the Curse spends significant amounts of time using magic in an effort to remove him permanently while keeping his body alive.

    The creature that stares out at the valley of Hyaline looks very much like Gale, from the iridescent blue hide stretched over well-used muscle to the softly blowing white spinal mane, and blue eyes that turn to meet Mazikeen’s. It doesn’t take any extra magic to wear this shape, so it is the form he wears most often.

    A bolt of harmless lightning flickers across his blazed face, and he finds that he is more eager than he’d expected to share his news with Mazikeen.

    “I’ve asked someone to fetch Sickle from Tephra,” Gale says. “Do you think that is worth restricting our hunting grounds?” He no longer has any intention of leaving the mountains, having found a good measure of contentment near the gathered entities. The brindle stallion sends her an image of the glittering black stallion who’d come, as well as his identity and position as Prince of the Pampas.

    The youthful Gale who had briefly returned had been filled with the fresh memories of his parents’ lessons on politics and warfare, and the Curse has spent some time sifting through them. Most of it is useless - the importance of keeping your word, the advantages of blood relations - but some has value.

    Being proactive is one such thing, and the prospect of such activities brings a smile to Gale’s face. He shares some of them with Mazikeen: the taking of captives, blackmail, manipulation. As he does, his eyes trace the whorls of scars across her white hide, recalling the origin of many of them with fond reminisce.


    @Mazikeen
    #2

    The tempest that had taken her over has eased and she is content to be standing beside Gale - as themselves, for now. Having him back even after a short absence has soothed her unrest, returned her for now to a beast satisfied with narrowing the world to just the two of them.

    Or, their small family at least.

    She wanted the entirety of Beqanna to be their hunting grounds but the truth was they had done very little with it - only visiting a small number of the lands. Cutting out one wouldn’t matter, not when they hadn’t even made it there yet anyway. These are bitter thoughts that are easy to push aside for now as Mazikeen senses things may soon start to get a little more exciting.

    “If that gilded donkey manages to get our daughter here, that would be worth forgetting one land of a dozen exists.” Mazikeen wanted Sickle back. It had been a growing thought in her mind and had solidified when she met Anath. The reasons why the twins had been hidden in Tephra no longer mattered. The only thing that did matter was that Sickle was theirs and she did not intend to suffer the injustice of having someone else raise her daughter any longer.

    Had Gale seen those thoughts? Or was this just another example on the long list of ways they seem to be attune to each other with no magical assistance whatsoever?

    The answers to those questions are unimportant - either option was satisfactory and she’s just pleased with the news and the opportunities it presents. “And if he should fail, we can see how quickly those flowers burn.” It feels like a win either way. She will delay her own plans to retrieve the girl a short while longer to see how this deal worked out and then, if it failed, she could handle it herself.

    The images he shares with her of the relations they could have with other lands send a delighted shiver down her spine. A soft purr of approval emanates from her. As much as she is content to spend time with him however they see fit, that restless heart of her wants more for them. She wants a target, wants discord and blood. Wants to see the fear in the eyes of those they fight.

    For now, she desires revenge for having Sickle raised by someone else and once the girl is with them, she will find something else to want. Another excuse.

    Her red-orange eyes watch as his gaze moves across the scars of her face. Mazikeen had once thought it a blessing that she had been passed out before he began to eat her but she’s found delight on the edges of his pointed teeth more than once since.

    “I like when you admire your handiwork.”



    @Gale
    #3
    Gale
    this is going to break me clean in two --
    this is going to bring me close to you



    Gale had healed a few of Mazikeen’s old scars even before he’d let her kill him, so he cannot blame the entirety of the benignant emotions that he now feels on his recent death at the teeth of the fire-eyed mare beside him. He’d healed the wounds from the armored monster as well, and wonders briefly where the little thing had gotten to. But his attention is soon back on the queen exhaling huff of laughter as she describes the southern Fae.

    From this distance it is easier to pretend he is not distubred by the Prince, by the abilities he has that Gale doesn’t entirely understand. Perhaps he’ll take a little princeling from the brilliant pampas; he remembers the hills of the southern land well from his own childhood. That would mean leaving Hyaline though, and so for now Gale dismisses the thought in favor of other things.

    Images of fire are shaken away by the shiver that travels down Mazikeen’s spine. He lowers his mouth to follow the trail it had taken. The bitterness she feels slips down his throat, and the desire for revenge, and the anger, and Gale isn’t sure if it’s his desire or hers that he feels first, but it doesn’t matter.

    Though he’d fallen asleep as soon as they’d reached dry land that first night, Gale has not been shy in his affections since. He is all but certain that they will have another child come spring, so even if Sickle is lost to them forever they will have a chance with another - probably better - child.

    He kisses his way across her scars, humming a content agreement with her admission. He can recall their creation with satisfaction, and though his movements begin as languorous, that does not last for long.

    Later, when they are both satisfied, Gale brushes a lock of black-tipped hair from Mazikeen’s face. There had been no blood shed, yet he feels entirely satiated. His magic is gone entirely, yet there is only contentment where there would otherwise be emptiness.

    His mind returns to where it had been before he’d been distracted by the nearness of his bewitching companion. The advantages to keeping captives are too numerous to count, but the glaring problem is keeping them captive. Malik and Bolder had been simple - child can be lied to - but Gale’s patience is short and he has seen the skittish way that Anath moves about after her interaction with Mazikeen.

    Perhaps he could change them like he had the monster, Gale thinks, transform them into something that cannot run away. He’ll have to find someone to practice on, and wonders how permanently it might damage Malik. Maybe it’s best to wait until Sickle arrives instead.

    “Do you have any particular grudges?” He asks, “Or shall we continue to work our way through my family?” They’d taken Nashua’s son, but the Curse has memories now of all of them, taken from the mind of the briefly-returned Gale and assembled with what he’d already known.



    @Mazikeen
    #4

    The purr that had radiated from Mazikeen deepens as Gale’s attention follows the shiver down her spine, as he kisses his way across her scars. It never stops being pleasant, knowing her own desire is mirrored in him. Other thoughts empty from her mind as they always do under his attention, delight already chasing away the fire and bitterness. It is not enough to survive on, just this bliss, but it always feels like it might be in the moment. She can let herself believe that she will change her nature and run instead of fight so that they can continue on like this forever.

    How could they possibly want anything else? There is no better match for each of them than the other.

    As she always does, when Gale brushes some of her hair from her face afterwards she smiles back at him. It is the closest she gets now to that warm action she had once been capable of, when it was something closer to the sun than wildfire curling in the edges of her mouth, this reaction to this now-common punctuation as they linger close to each other. This may not be love, may not even really be happiness, but as always it feels close enough to count. She knows his magic weakens in moments like this and she wonders if that is why her restlessness fades as well. The shadows recede from them both and they can exist however they wish together.

    Or maybe his contentment is just bleeding into her mind through their bond, enhancing what she feels and making it all a little more real.

    Her muzzle moves idly across his skin, and she practices altering her scar tissue while she does it. The dead cells are difficult to manipulate, but unmistakably some of them begin to turn an iridescent blue as she answers his question. “You mean aside from your host?” Mazikeen says this with a grin as she tugs on his skin, letting go just before it breaks.  She is quiet for a moment, considering, before replying. “I was far too fond of everyone before.” Even those that hurt her. Did she want to draw some kind of revenge out of Firion or that beast that had given her her first death? She has not felt like prey for a very long time so she does not begrudge that shadow any longer and whatever almost-feelings there may have once been for the golden magician have been eclipsed by the creature she is touching now as she speaks. “I have a grudge against myself, for giving up what was ours. And Wishbone, for keeping them.” It didn’t matter that it had been what she asked for at the time, Mazikeen now sees that decision as weak.

    If their children hadn’t been capable of surviving their father, then they simply would have made better ones to replace them.

    Mazikeen does not mourn for the child they would have had this past spring and neither is she particularly interested in becoming pregnant again - though it seems likely considering the pleasant ways they continue to spend their time. Perhaps she can roost them as eggs this time. 

    She thinks of Aela, of Reave and the expanding knowledge she’s gotten of Gale’s family and remarks. “Working our way through your family could keep us busy for a dozen years or more.”



    @Gale
    #5
    Gale
    this is going to break me clean in two --
    this is going to bring me close to you



    The idea that comes to him involves leaving Hyaline, but more than any of the other plans, this one seems beneficial in a myriad of ways. He’s been thinking of it for years, after all, since he’d begun to gather the other entities. They should all belong to the strongest land, he thinks, and that is Hyaline.

    Perhaps Wishbone will be watching Sickle less closely if she is worried about losing the magic of the waterfall. “Perhaps it’s time we pay Tephra a visit,” Gale suggests, tracing the iridescent blue of her healing scars with an amused glint in his blue eyes. He presses his nose to her, and like ink the blue spills across her skin in smokey spirals, until she is entirely navy.

    The color softens as she thinks of his family, and fades to white when he focuses instead on showing her what else he knows of them, as there is only so much magic he can do at once.

    Gale shows her Pteron, Marni, Tiercel, Eyas, Celina, and Elio. And then shows her those that are both the Curse’s as well as his host’s, the double strength of the relation making them all the more appealing as victims. Nashua, Yanhua, Aela, Wherewolf, and Kestrell.

    “Or maybe the south, before Obscene comes back with Sickle.” Until he does, it’s still open season in the Pampas, after all. Even after, it will be, at least if Mazikeen ever longs for a change of scenery. Gale will be content in Hyaline.

    The thought of Mazikeen hunting down the Seneschal is a rather pleasant one, and the navy creature purrs as he presses his cheek against his mate’s shoulder. He is especially distractable when she wears this shape, and especially in this season, when the snow is barely ankle deep and the trees that grow at lower elevations have begun to turn.



    @Mazikeen
    #6

    This close to him, it’s more of an effort to not listen to his thoughts than it is to listen to them. So she hears the suggestion of Tephra in two ways, even while she’s distracted by the way he plays with her colouring - amusement that mirrors his own reflected in her orange gaze that burns a little brighter when framed with the dark navy.

    As she fades to white again she gets the full list of siblings - the other Gale had told her of some, the first set - and that was long enough. But there are more still, a handful she hadn’t seen before. Reave isn’t on the list so she realizes he must be related to the others on his mother’s side, whoever that had been.

    Maybe if Mazikeen knew how many siblings she had, she wouldn’t think anything of the length of this list - but she often forgot about her family and may not even know of the ones she did if it weren’t for Agetta’s occasional visits. They’d stopped last spring for whatever reason and Mazikeen simply hasn’t cared to follow up again.

    She certainly isn’t thinking about her family now, and thoughts of his do not linger as he presses his cheek into her shoulder and she can feel the purr that radiates through him. “So many options.” She comments in a low voice, resuming her exploration of his skin, wherever she can reach. “If we reach Sickle first, there will be no reason to leave any part of the South alone.” Did they have any reason to keep their promises and bargains? She’d caught some unease surrounding Obscene in Gale’s mind, but she felt none of that in her own and it baffled her that there could be any at all. No matter how the fae looked, he was surely still flesh that could be carved from bone.  And it would be nice to complete the set of the entities.”



    @Gale
    #7
    Gale
    this is going to break me clean in two --
    this is going to bring me close to you



    There is an unfamiliar face in her mind, and Gale frowns. A blue-eyed stallion. He only Sees him and does not catch the name, and decides that this must be someone against whom Mazikeen has a grudge.

    Should Gale bring her his head, he wonders? Or would she want to kill him herself?

    He’s about to ask, but then she’s talking again, and it is rather difficult to focus on what he’s saying when she slides herself against him. Take Sickle themselves? There’s a flash of a bleeding Obscene, and then she voices the same thought that had passed through his own mind a moment ago.

    Wishbone is still alive, that much he is sure of. But enough time has passed since he’s heard news of Tephra, and he wonders if she even still rules. Only one way to find out, he thinks, even if it means leaving Hyaline.

    Gale tilts his head so that he can rest more comfortably against Mazikeen, his neck across her back in an effort to focus. But her soft touch against his skin continues to distract him, and Gale’s slow breathing begins to grow ragged.

    His mind has been elsewhere, on the dry well he finds when he reaches for his magic. Gale had reached for the first stone of the well, and pulled strength from his physical manifestation. An old wound reopens on Gale’s left leg, but it’s enough for him to See through Sickle’s eyes, just for an instant, and finds a very long-eared face.

    Gale is not sure if this is fate or the hand of his host’s ancestors, but there is no doubt in his voice as he presses his lips against Mazikeen’s cheek: “In a few days.” How long can his sister hold on to Sickle, Gale wonders? He doubts that Wishbone had hampered the girl’s shifting. Will she be difficult to capture? To keep?

    “It’ll be a girl,” Gale says, and this time the magic is pulled from time itself, and a sprinkling of pale hairs appear to mark the passing of time and the shortening of his lifespan. A small thing for an immortal, really, and he hardly feels it as he turns to whisper against her ear: “Let’s go celebrate.”

    Soon he’ll be feeding on the terror of a stranger, and the anticipation nearly has him slavering.



    @Mazikeen
    #8

    Gale’s reluctance to leave Hyaline confuses Mazikeen but it’s the ‘in a few days’ that actually frustrates her, even as it is paired with the press of his lips against her cheek. She despises these games, waiting for someone else to do their part, and is annoyed at the sensation of being held back. A few small glowing cracks appear down her back as this feeling settles inside of her. Everything has felt like a waiting game lately and she is tired of it. That frustration had helped tip her over the edge into that blinding rage while they had battled with the armoured monster, and now she could feel the same stirrings souring the taste in her mouth.

    She should have gone to get Sickle herself the first time she had thought of it. Mazikeen can already see what will happen in the next few days - she will stalk through Hyaline as a bristling, angry creature with nonexistent patience, or she will venture out seeking something - anything - to do while she waits.

    It takes a moment for her to register the scent of blood on an inhaled breath, but before she can find the source or ask Gale is speaking again - and this news is better, and she feels the growing inferno ebb back into the corners of her mind. A girl. Soon she will have both of her daughters with her, then. And if anyone tries to keep one of them from her again, she will burn everything that separates them.

    This is a soothing thought and she finds herself eager to agree to the idea of a celebration, especially the kind she can see in Gale’s mind. Blood had eased her frustrations before, there is no reason to believe this time would be any different.

    Mazikeen does not ask him to lead the way, not this time - not anymore. If she is going to wait a few days at his word, she'll take the lead whenever she can grasp it. So she beckons him to follow her, holding a spot along the river in her mind that she knows will be popular at this time of year before the snows settle into the mountains. They can have their pick of those looking for a quiet spot.



    @Gale




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