[private] tear down hollows, take back eternity; Nashua

[Reave]

i am the mace, the map, the fall and the high

He does not relish the swim through the icy waters to the northernmost isle. He has managed to avoid it thus far, but time grows short as the nights grow longer. His bones make him heavy, and he is breathless from effort as he steps onto the icy shores of the kingdom’s seat.

He had always believed it short-sighted to rule from such an inhospitable and difficult to reach location, but these decisions had been made before his birth. The tendrils of future he can see curling forward tell him that change is coming however. It has always been hard to know the path that would inevitably rise above the rest, but as time grows shorter and they begin to coalesce, it becomes easier and easier to find the way forward.

This gift is both frustrating and useful, but he finds himself glad for it either way.

Rune releases a cry overhead, and for a brief moment, Reave can see the stretch of ice and snow and obsidian stone. With the bird’s guidance, he finds his brother with ease.

This meeting has been long in coming, but it had always been waiting for them. Despite the tempest in his heart and the restlessness of his feet, Reave is a surprisingly patient creature. He had not felt the need to rush this, even if he had been mildly annoyed his brother could not find the time for him amongst all his other… kingly duties. And the missing child and brother.

It’s undeniably selfish, but Reave has never bothered to hide the fact that he is not nearly so selfless as some of his more upstanding relations.

With a faint smile on his lips and a glint in his blue eye, he approaches with the confidence of a stallion many years his senior. The swim had cleansed blood from bone, but new trickles are already seeking to replace it. “I bet you never expected to have so many visitors in such a short time on your remote little isle here,” Reave offers by way of greeting, amusement causing his lips to twitch. “How was your visit with Cheri?”

reave

@Nashua

[Nashua]

Nashua hadn't forgotten about his youngest brother.

The young Guardian had often been on his mind these days, as it became more and more obvious that the Freyr became more occupied with the absence of his twin and his family. As he became more focused on how to keep Bolder safe within the confines of Hyaline from the most northern point of Beqanna. As he thought more and more about Gale and Mazikeen, wondering if the shifting of his youngest son, the disappearance of Yanhua, and Gale's Curse were somehow all connected.

They must be.
But his mind kept getting frustrating caught on the how.

It could spend hours there, trying to find a common link. The chestnut pegasus sighed, reminding himself that his hours were better spent focusing on the North. It was what Leilan would want (and expect) of him.  Though the Isle was a quiet place, Nashua wasn't blind to the small population that Icicle Isle was attracting (and if the rumors were true, one of them was his half-sister, the elusive Eyas and her daughter). His thoughts sometimes even wandered to her, wondering if she might be willing to help him.

With Gale. Find Yan. He wasn't sure. And he wasn't entirely sure that she'd even bother with a half-sibling she had never met.

The more his thoughts focused on his fractured family - on how to best keep Noel and their children safe - the more he became aware that it took his attention away from the North. And the more his thoughts drifted in that direction, the more that it floated to another thought: an heir. (He had always hoped one of his brother's children might show an affinity for leading the North, but like many things Nash has hoped for, it never came to pass.) But the Taigan-born stallion knew his history; at one time, the center of the North was in Nerine, not the Isle.

With so much changing, he wondered if it might suit the Isle as well.

Rune is what Nashua sees first, the red-gold of his feathers catching the sunlight and the pegasus turns to look behind him to see Reave. He had meant to come to Nerine to discuss these things - to bring Ciri along so that might find a way to fuel her need for vengeance - but like his niece, Reave has come to him instead. The older stallion smiles fondly, glad to see the younger one looking so healthy (apart from the groves in his skin where the bones tore it apart). "We've had a few of late," Nashua tells his youngest sibling with a wry smile, not surprised that Reave knew of the latest one.

"Oh, I already think you know how that went." He tells his brother, remembering the young colt who used to pry on his vision as his smile curves into a smirk. "How did your visit go?" he asks, truly wondering since he lacked Reave's foresight.

@Reave

[Reave]

i am the mace, the map, the fall and the high

In such close proximity, it is so much easier to see the distraction that drags at his brother. The heaviness and worry that mires his heart and pulls his mind in all directions but the one it should be facing. Reave is not heartless though. He knows how important family is to his elder sibling. He can even understand that worry.

It’s why he had told his mate the truth when she had come to him, seeking information on their son. The boy is in no true danger in the mountains of the east. At least, not physical danger. But while that had comforted the boy’s mother, he’s quite certain it would not comfort Nashua. The only question that remains is whether his brother needs more or less of a distraction.

The green-eyed pegasus is not surprised to see him here however. The grin toying with the corners of Reave’s lips widens as Nashua acknowledges his greeting. The icy isle is not accustomed to seeing so many visitors, and the Guardian cannot help but find it amusing. Nash too seems to recognize the humor in it. It is something at least. A sign that his brother is not yet too distracted to know when he has more pressing matters to deal with than their absent sibling and his stolen son.

He tips his head, amused by Nashua’s acknowledgement of his insightful gifts. Of course, it still hadn’t occurred to the pegasus to ask his own brother for help in locating their mutual relations. Perhaps a reminder would be in order. After all, Reave had inherited the same gifts he sought to use in his more reclusive sister.

“Yes,” Reave agrees, seeing no point in dancing around the truth. Because it certainly is true that he already knew the outcome of Cheri’s visit. After all, it’s the reason for his own visit. The future of the North could not afford to be decided by one who has been too distracted to consider it properly. “If I didn’t know better, I would have said it was more of a social visit than anything else,” he replies, a faint gleam in the vibrant blue of his eyes. Then he chuckles. “But I do know better.” He pauses. “Tell me Nashua, where do you see the future of the North heading?”

reave

@Nashua

[Nashua]

Family is everything.

That is the code that Nashua has learned to live by. And how easy that code had been when Yanhua had the Taiga and Reave had Nerine. There had been a dream there - fleeting as dreams often are - about what a force of good that they might have been for this world. The way that the shared blood might have helped shape Beqanna.

But that was gone.

Swept away by so many other troubles.

Nashua isn't unaware of his growing reputation. He has heard the murmurs that the King of the North had grown distracted (and how amusing had that been when they had reached his attentive ears). Apart from the theft of his son, the Northern kingdom had remained quiet. There had been no more steals, no more disappearances in Taiga. Apart from the troubles that Gale and Mazikeen stirred, there is no quarrel with the other kingdoms.

It is only Hyaline.

He knows the Northerners though;  they are a sturdy, resilient (and somewhat prideful) population that has never handled change well. Who Nashua had been at the beginning of his reign is not who he is now. There has been so much change across Beqanna - so quickly - and the ripples of that have finally arrived on the Isle.

The striped pegasus smiles slightly at his younger brother when Reave mentions that the visit with Cheri hadn't been entirely social. It's what he remembers most about her, even when she had been small. Cheri, who would tell a story while trying to heal a wound, rarely settled her mind to one thing. Reave had been alike that way, he remembers. His brother had been a colt who had liked to test his own abilities, though perhaps in not so obvious ways.

And then he exhales, ignoring the downward pull of his mouth.
This wasn't a social visit either, then.

Turning his blazed head full-on towards his youngest sibling, Nashua studies him, as if really taking the full measure of him.  "I'd like for us to claim Craft and Anatomy back. To bring them to Taiga where they belong." He tells his bone-armored brother, wondering what he thought of instigating their already intense rivalry with Hyaline. Reave was gaining a reputation of his own, one that aligned more with Aela and her machinations of mayhem. "And, hopefully, we can move forward with Cheri."

Perhaps there was still a chance to save that dream, the one that he had once held for the three of them.

"But eventually," he finally says, "I'd like to see the North moving ahead with you."

@Reave

[Reave]

i am the mace, the map, the fall and the high

These visits are so rarely social these days. But then, if his brother had wanted those types of visits, he would have come to Reave long before now. Before time had begun to weigh quite so heavily on them. Before the twisting threads of the future had forced Reave to come to him. Before the tug of the diverging paths they must take had become quite so powerful.

Nash might look at him and remember the adventurous colt he had been, but Reave had long ago left that youth in the dust. He had grown into a stallion shaped by the machiavellian mechanisms of this world they live in. And he had thrived in it. Reave knows his brother well enough to know Nash wants the world to be good and just and fair. A world where bad things simply don’t happen.

Reave though, he had been forged in the fires of a world that is the very opposite of that. He knows fairness and justice is not the true nature of this continent. Perhaps they had needed Nashua’s vision to lead them when the world had been peaceful. But it is not peace that stirs now, and the North needs someone who can take the cruelties of this existence and twist them to suit their purpose.

A grin slips across his lips when Nashua states he would like to reclaim the magic their mother had once won long ago. “We agree on that much,” Reave accedes, his bright gaze glittering with intent. He has already been working on such a plan, as it happens. But his timing must be perfect, if he wished to achieve his ends. His grin widens. “I am working on it.”

The smile slips to something much more subtle when he mentions Cheri. He tilts his head, eyeing his brother curiously. He doesn’t say anything immediately, instead waiting until Nashua admits he intends to leave the responsibility of the North to Reave.

The armored Guardian watches his elder sibling for a long moment, the silence heavy between them, before finally replying. “If that is the case, then you should know Cheri is not thinking of the North while she plots.” He pauses, wondering how much Nashua already suspects. “But she needs us.” A sly humor crosses his features at that, gone as quick as it had come. “She didn’t say much to me, but she didn’t need to.” He laughs abruptly at that. “I think she feared I might try talking her out of it.”

Drawing a breath, Reave shifts, his feet suddenly restless. He glances to the east. Towards Nerine’s distant coast. When he turns back to the Freyr, his expression is serious once more, a weighty knowledge in his blue eyes. “If we are indecisive in this, the North will fracture.” His expression hardens as he holds his brother’s gaze. “I won’t let that happen.”

If the North’s esteemed leader intends to trust Reave with its future, then he would need to trust him now. For the sake of their kingdom, it could not be a conditional thing.

reave

@Nashua

[Nashua]

They pick a place to start - the discussion of stealing Craft and Anatomy, to bring them back to Taiga - and that suits Nashua just fine. He has never been one to remain idle long - in conversation or action - and he appreciates the way that his brother keeps pace with him. Not only that, there is an approving nod (not that Reave needed it) from the Freyr as they speak of the beginnings of a plan to bring the entities back to the Redwoods, the forest that they never should have left.

It's something he thinks their mother would have wanted.

She had given her word that they would be safe in Taiga, and there is a sense of pride that he and Reave could turn that into a generational promise. He keeps his blazed head tilted towards his youngest sibling, listening as the bone-armored stallion and nods again at the mention of Cheri not thinking of the North. "As the heir of Loess, she has to consider that country first, regardless of her family ties." He says, not disagreeing with Reave. It's something that Nashua has learned over the years, and he's missed much of his children's lives due to his service on the Isle and the rest of their kingdom.

He sighs, banishing those years away.

"But imagine if she didn't have to choose. We bring North and South together, and who knows, perhaps someday the East and West could follow."

Nashua has played his part in the politics of Beqanna. While he can't claim a war with Hyaline - (and he won't, not while his son is there) - there is a bitter feud between the kingdoms, bad blood brewing between them both. With Cheri in the South, it might be enough to keep Aela in check, and perhaps between the two countries, they might find a way to contain Gale and Mazikeen. To prevent other evils from taking shape.

An empire is a large dream, and while Nashua isn't sure it is something that he will see in this lifetime, there is a sense of fulfillment in thinking he could help culminate that for another generation.

And an empire will crumble if there is doubt before the foundation has even been laid.

Hearing it creep into his brother's tone, Nashua considers Reave's weighted words. They will fracture if they are not together, and he knows that Guardian is right. It's only been in their lifetime that the North has known such a strong sense of unity, of its leaders working so closely together. Yanhua was no longer in the Taiga, but Nashua guards that sense of solidarity fiercely.

The North would stand together, or not at all.

"What are your thoughts on this?" and Nashua leaves it up to Reave on how to answer - Cheri's Accord, the thoughts of a potential empire, of what he wants for the North. As the future leader of this realm, Nash wants to know what he would do. He'd listened to his niece; she was family, as Reave was, and thus was entitled to the same. 

Both were at the heart of what Nashua imagined for the future: family.

@Reave

[Reave]

i am the mace, the map, the fall and the high

The magic stolen from Taiga is not something he can do anything about at this exact moment, though he lays his plans for that future day when he can. For now though, he allows the subject to fade. He has said all that needs saying on it, and Nashua’s nod is all he needs to know his brother understands.

Reave has understood for a very long time just how important family is to Nashua. It is the force that drives him constantly forward. There are some that Reave too holds close to his heart, though Nash certainly does not approve of all of them. But then, Aela is as much family to him as she is to Reave. And despite the protestations he would undoubtedly give, Reave knows he could not pick and choose while proclaiming family sacred in the very same breath.

The Guardian however, has chosen. He would not pretend to hold them all sacred as his brother has.

He doesn’t reply immediately to the Freyr’s musings. Nashua imagines a world in which all are united and peace reigns. Reave sees only the impossibility of this. Even if he could not follow threads to the future, he would know it is an impossible dream. But he can, and not a single one leads to the unity Nashua so desperately desires.

It is only when the pegasus asks his thoughts that Reave finally responds. There is a note of finality in his voice when he declares, “There is no world in which we would not have to make the choices you want to avoid.” There is regret in his eyes as he holds his brother’s gaze, but he needs him to understand. “And just as Cheri has to do what is best for the South, we have to do what is best for the North.” He pauses then, drawing in a breath. He does not avert his gaze. He would not shy away from this. “If you cannot make those decisions, then I will.”

For a moment, he is silent. The sharpness of his stare gentles ever so slightly. He knows Nashua understands, no matter how much he might not wish to. And for the first time in a very long time, Reave feels a flicker of sympathy. Rune, he knows. “I wish I could tell you something else.” He hesitates before continuing, “The future is often uncertain, but in this… there are no paths that lead to the future you want.”

After a moment, he adds, “Will you allow me to do what is necessary?” It doesn’t matter, of course. Reave would do it anyway. But still, he respects his brother enough to ask.

reave

@Nashua

[Nashua]

Nashua's family is as convoluted as it is confusing.

The tree is twisted, and some branches are definitely heavier than others. He tries to keep his focus on the one that immediately pertains to him: on Noel and their children. But there are other limbs that he tries to keep as protected as his own. His two half-siblings sired by the former Dragon King are under his protection, always curious Oren and quiet Roselin, who reminds him too much of their mother with her kindness.

There is Aela - who Nashua thinks a branch better broken - but he can hear Lilliana in his mind where it concerns their golden sister. It is not her fault, she had once told him, when Nashua had first started getting word of her dark path. The palomino was just one more sin that the former Guardian refused to acquit herself of.

And there was Reave, the son of a woman who had always inspired Nashua. His Aunt, Brazen. And her child is as bold as the woman who named the young stallion beside him.

He listens as Reave tells him that there is no future like the one that Nashua dreams of. There will be no empire, and for a moment, he's tempted to ask what he sees of Cheri's dream. It seems too big - and too broad - to simply end here. He hadn't expected that the Northerners would immediately take to it. There had been too much change the last few years, too much upheaval and he knew that they would need some semblance of steadiness.

The Freyr sees it, standing beside him.

But Reave has to trust him.

His green eyes remain on the young Nerinian, allowing him to speak.

"You and I will go to Loess," he tells the Guardian. Cheri had invited them both to attend, and though he hates to take anything away from his niece, the pegasus can't think of another time that they will all be together. "We will announce that you are my choice as heir and that when the time comes, we will move the kingdom back to Nerine," Nashua goes on to explain, "but we will try to find a way to work with Cheri." There might not be a way to join their kingdoms together - (not yet anyway) - but his mind turns as he contemplates a way to strengthen both North and South. Perhaps they both would both take an additional territory, and strengthen both kingdoms while finding a way to contain Gale's power.

Containing the Evil that was his former brother was something that could be good for all of Beqanna, not simply a single kingdom or territory.

"When your time comes, Reave," Nashua adds on as he glances to his younger brother, "I do trust that you will do what is necessary. But for now, I am King and you will have to trust me to do the same."

@Reave

[Reave]

i am the mace, the map, the fall and the high

Trust is a tricky thing, even for family. Perhaps especially for family. In one breath, Reave utters his requirement for it while refusing to give it in the second. But then, he has been given little reason to do so. His brother has not been tested by fire before. Not like he is now. So the Guardian can only look to the tenuous threads of foresight to find an understanding for what Nashua might do rather than the sturdier fabric of the past.

It’s a strange thing though. Reave wants his cousin’s success, but not at the cost of his own. And that is where the crux of it lies, isn’t it? There is yet a narrow trail they might follow to see them both where they want to go, but it grows more treacherous with each passing step. This conversation is only the very start of it. The rest lies in the future, still waiting to be decided.

And Reave does not intend to slip.

He knows that Nashua understands. That he considers his words. But the leader of the north has always struggled with his blinders. The red and white stallion can see it as clearly as Nash cannot. He focuses on his goals and forgets to inspect the wider picture.

But he would be forced to see, sooner than he might have anticipated.

Reave nods in response to the Freyr’s edicts, though there is something sharp in the blue of his gaze now. He would not gainsay this. Not when it works well with his own plans. But there is one more piece of information Reave needs before he will be satisfied. Before he will be certain if his understanding is correct.

“And if you learn that Gale has something to do with Yanhua’s disappearance?” he asks, the tenor of his tone suggesting he knows far more than he is letting on. “Will you do what is best for the North then too?”

Or would he launch them into a war they aren’t yet prepared to win? That is the real question.

reave

@Nashua

[Nashua]

This is a start, Nashua thinks.

With his youngest brother by his side, this is a good place for the North to regain its footing and move forward. The future of the Isle - and the entirety of the kingdom - had been much on his mind, and to discuss the future of it with Reave was a promising step towards it. Family had been the foundation of the generation before (it had been Lilliana had wanted the North to function as one, but law dictated they needed a leader and that had been Leilan), but it had Neverwhere in Nerine, Lilliana in Taiga, and Leilan on the Isle that had proposed the Council.

As one.

Nashua had been young, then. Barely older than a year, but he remembers his mother coming to meet with the former Freyr (Neverwhere came as well, but the striped pegasus harbors a thought that it was more likely her magic of duplication). They had agreed on some things, and disagreed on others. Like he and Reave do on the matter of Cheri; the older horse thinks that the younger only needs the assurance of time.

As they come to work together, Nashua holds out a kindling hope that Reave might see a way to weave his own success into the fabric of their niece.

He glances across the gray sea, and stares off towards the mainland. They would travel together to Loess in a few day's time. And while his mind lingers on the preparations he would need to make in the coming days, Nashua freezes. His brother asks a question with a tone that implies he knows more than the scope that he reveals. He's known that the young Guardian is close with Aela - their scheming sister - and Nash slowly angles his blazed face towards the armored Nerinian, concealing the rising suspicion he feels.

"If you happen to know something about our brother's disappearance," Nashua clips in a low voice, barely audible over the arctic wind. "I would hope that you would share it, if not out of concern for Yanhua, then at least for the memory of the woman that raised you."

@Reave