"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
Today is the first day Beyza has ventured outside Ischia in a while. The obsessive need to hide away herself and her daughters has faded, but it is all too easy to lose herself in the pleasant tropical paradise she calls her home and practice her magic there. All too easy to lose track of the days and seasons and years.
And also the wider world seems less dark and daunting now that her mothers are both back in it.
There is a desire to go to Hyaline and to track down Agetta as well, to see their familiar faces and take comfort in them, but Beyza’s thoughts stop drifting to the east when she passes through Tephra and finds that there is a wide, watery channel where the southern lands used to be.
She had noticed the earthquake, of course, but that had been about where her interest had stopped. She had not thought to be curious about what else could have happened and now she feels frustrated with her past self for that oversight. Here was an undoubtedly magic, interesting thing and she had been more focused on practicing wielding her magic so the sun didn’t burn the soft white skin of her nose.
A narrow strip of land has survived, connecting Tephra to the rest of Beqanna, but Beyza doesn’t use that to cross. She had been practicing walking on water to get between the different islets that made up her home - and she does so now. Adjusting to the current after a few steps - like walking over small grassy knolls that move.
The sunlight glitters on the surface of the water around her and she alternates keeping an eye on the forest looming ahead on the new shore, and looking beneath her hooves to see if she can spy any of the features of the lands that once existed here.
02-09-2022, 03:18 PM (This post was last modified: 02-09-2022, 03:18 PM by Aela.)
Where Beyza water walks, Aela keeps her sights firmly on the landbridge ahead.
(Though the small palomino would never claim to be afraid of anything, Aela has no love of water. The further she is from it, the happier she is. But there is much to be reclaimed after so much has been lost, so she keeps searching for it. She no longer goes to the Ruins as much, not since her last find had been Cheri and Obscene. However, there are still other places to search and so Aela keeps searching for any sign of her son.)
Keeping her blue eyes fixed on the horizon of Tephra, Aela reminds herself that the journey won’t be a long one. She can make it there and back before the sun sets. She has time to make inquiries about Fyr, to learn about the new rulers and bring that information back. But there is a haste in her stride, moving her quickly towards what used to be Loess. The buttes and steppes of the once-kingdom jutt out from the ocean, as if reaching towards the sky from a watery grave, as if they too wanted to escape the same fate that claimed so many others.
She comes closer to the beginning of the coast, and her pretty head rises to cast a careful glance over the embankment ahead. The last few trees of the Forest shadow her back, and with only a few more steps to go, Aela forces herself to climb over the rise. She had expected the ocean and the churning of a still-angry sea. What she hadn’t expected to find was the strikingly familiar form of the White Magician.
Beyza stood over the ocean, commanding the currents in a way that appealed to Aela. Why take the landbridge when Magic decreed she didn’t have to? It made the slender palomino smile as she stopped on the top of a higher bank, hoping that the vantage point might allow the other mare to see her.
It takes more concentration to walk over water than it does over land, so Beyza easily gets lost in the constant use of her magic. She enjoys this - the exercising of her powers, seeing what she can do when no one is harmed. The ocean will remain unaffected by her passage.
As she crosses the channel, she becomes aware that there is someone using the land bridge nearby, and curiosity interrupts her determined focus. Surprise and then delight flash through her, though there’s little indication of either on her face. She does not hesitate to alter her direction - her white hooves lifting off of the ocean and, with a small burst of unnatural speed, Beyza floats over to the golden mare.
She lands nearby, her legs taking a short moment to adjust to the rigidity of the hard-packed earth in comparison to the air and water she had just been travelling on moments ago.
“Aela.” Beyza’s greeting is accompanied by a small but warm smile. It’s been years since they last saw each other - not since Beyza called canyons instead of paradise her home. And not since Aela was much shorter than she was - still a filly, communicating only through thoughts. Now it is a mare she approaches and the white magician feels her curiosity bubble up within her.
What has her young friend’s life been like?
This isn’t the question she asks just yet though - instead choosing something a little more mundane. A question that is expected when two friends meet after a long time, but still one she genuinely wants to know the answer to. “How have you been?” Beyza’s magic instinctively brushes a request against the mind of the other - the opportunity to help Aela project her thoughts to speak. Not knowing that verbal communication has since become something the other mare is quite capable of.
02-27-2022, 01:14 PM (This post was last modified: 02-27-2022, 01:14 PM by Aela.)
It almost feels a little bit like coming home, the way that Beyza’s magic brushes against her mind. Years have passed since she has felt a Magician’s power touch against her own, and even longer since it has been Beyza, a Magician that she considers a friend. She has very few of those, and in the presence of this one, Aela allows a shadow to creep across her face. It is still undeniably lovely, still exquisitely beautiful, but there is a very mortal tiredness that emerges across those divine lines.
She has been worried for her son, Fyr. Despite her loathing of deep water, she has come out here time and time again, trying to sense any part of him. All her trips here have so far come up empty, and her new relocation to the Taiga (with its long history of turmoil) has left her exhausted. As her friend descends on land, Aela smiles and then remembers what Kensley had told her, that Beyza was now a mother herself.
That she no longer lived in Pangea, either.
Beyza, she thinks warmly through their shared bond, not quite yet able to break old habits, peering up to the slightly taller mare with her trademark blue eyes.
”I have been better,” she finally says aloud, ”But seeing you is certainly an improvement.”
Do you always travel this way? she wonders (preferring the privacy of their minds), almost in a teasing tone. It's certainly a way to avoid the crowds.
The familiar sound of Aela’s thought-voice softens Beyza’s smile - which then brightens a moment later with a chuckle when the mare speaks out loud. Last time they had met, Aela had needed some assistance to do so - but it seems the palomino mare has found her voice after all. And such pretty words for it to carry too - Beyza’s certainly not above appreciating the compliment.
It is good to provide improvement to someone’s day.
Aela switches back to casting her thoughts and this time Beyza joins her, projecting her own out - careful not to stray too far into Aela’s mind. Not that her magic would allow her - she’s not even sure that this much would be allowed if the other mare did not mind it. “Not always, though I’ve been practicing more. It’s a convenient way to not get wet travelling between Ischia’s islands.” She could grow wings as well, but finding new ways to use her magic has been a way to keep herself entertained and also an excuse to hone her skills.
There's a small pause as she attempts to choose between a hundred different little curiosities that are buzzing around her mind.
Honesty comes so naturally when speaking with thoughts. “It’s been so long I hardly know what to ask first. You’re not still in Pangea, are you?” Sometimes Beyza's mind still strayed to those canyons - sometimes she let herself be curious and wonder about what she had left behind. So far, that pull had not been strong enough to actually visit. Far better to leave certain things in the past.
03-07-2022, 12:28 PM (This post was last modified: 03-07-2022, 12:33 PM by Aela.)
The moment that Beyza think-speaks about living in Ischia, a thought clicks into place in Aela’s mind. Ischia was where she had gone. I heard you had left Pangea some time ago, the slender palomino reveals (and the memory linked to that knowledge remains open for the White Magician to peer into, if she wished; Beyza was not someone that she was trying to get the better of nor was she someone that Aela was making trades or bargains with). It had been a fellow Pangean who had told her that, Kensley, and a relation to Beyza through his grandchildren, her daughters.
Has Ischia changed with the Sinking? Aela’s inquiring mind wants to know. She hasn’t been since her encounter (beauty pageant) with Enoch; that had been under the rule of Dame Aquaria. Learning that Beyza and her daughters now lived there shifted the map of Aela’s aspirations. Like Pangea, it would be a territory that the former Seneschal would keep her ambitions from.
It’s been too long, she affirms and then does something that is a rarity for Aela, And I’m sorry for that. The younger mare reaches out and moves to touch the cheek of the pale woman before her. I’m not, Aela answers when she takes a step back. I resided in the Pampas before - her lovely head tilts towards the very ocean that Beyza had been crossing - it resided there. I’ve since moved North, where my brother Reave is king.
Perhaps Beyza remembers their first interaction when Aela had still been a filly and she had slipped through Brennan's magical barrier. She had little love for the North then as she does now and though there is a small regard for her grandmother Heartfire, there isn't much else for that place. It's at least not underwater. She thinks with a slender roll of her shoulders and a wry expression to the White Magician.
Beyza’s expression hardens slightly when she sees the memory linked to Aela’s knowledge of her move from Pangea - the familiar dappled grey stallion. A friend of her mother’s - and the grandfather to her daughters. She carefully keeps her own memories locked up, the ones tied to that family were better left untouched.
She doesn’t remark on it further and since their conversation moves on, she allows herself to be easily distracted by other things. Beyza considers Aela’s question about Ischia for a moment before shaking her head. ‘Not so much, really. A few more faces to be seen in the water, perhaps.’ The Baltians were a strange lot, though even the appearance of that other civilization had not been enough to stir Beyza from her strange little retirement.
A threat to Ischia may do just that but for now, she remained content and did not mind being so.
Aela apologizes for the time that has stretched between their meetings and though Beyza does not audibly repeat the sentiment, there is a warmth in her smile when the golden mare steps forward to touch her cheek.
It is good to be reminded that she does have friends.
She’s surprised to hear about Aela’s move to the Pampas - wondering what had been there before the flowers had drowned - and even more surprised about the move back north. Had Aela also mellowed out with aging, or had she been drawn back into the north for other reasons? All the other kingdoms seemed to have had their share of drama lately, perhaps it was time for the same in those colder regions as well. ‘Why north instead of back east? Or west?’ Was it simply the fact that her brother was king? Or had something else drawn her there? There were still plenty of lands not under water and she did not get the impression that Aela chose at random.
