"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
She has lived many lifetimes, and still she has seen nothing like this.
Of course there had been more land, long ago — before this queen, before the queen’s father, before his father, even. Lands crumbled and sank, the price to pay for war. Destruction was inevitable, but reformation? Only in myths and legends.
Before the dust settles, Helice is face-to-face with an outsider. She is almost never alone, nor on the frontline of uncharted territory, but she remains unrattled. They don’t speak long; Helice prefers to do her own fact finding, to not rely on strange others.
When she leaves the girl, she is quick to return to her soldiers, sending a small group of them to land as she wades in shallow Baltian waters with another group. She watches them, muscles tense as they reach the shores of the land surrounding the Ruins, though her gut tells her that her soldiers aren’t in trouble.
They return with information. She thanks them with a nod.
Helice slips back into the deep water, dismissing the soldiers with her silence, and sets off to the higher ups’ meeting spot: a large cave, hidden behind a small but dense brush of kelp. As she swims, she emits a red glow around her — her own way to call for a meeting, though she lets out an audible call as well. She stops when she reaches the mouth of the cave, still glowing until the rest reach her.
She dips her head in greeting as they catch up with her: the Queen, Rezza, Mesarez. Although she is otherwise friendly with Mesarez and knows she’s likely to outlast all of them and their power, she also knows enough to show formality and respect. The Baltian way runs deep within her.
“Your Highness,” she begins once they’ve settled, “I’ve come to you all with news of the land. An earthquake, not an attack as I’d originally feared. No one knows where they came from yet, but the residents call it Beqanna.”
She pauses for a moment, looking between them before turning back to the queen and continuing: “Not a place I’ve heard of before, either in my time or my studies. There is still so much land for our scouts to search, but they seem to be peaceful.”
Helice nods at the Queen to finish. She has questions — of course she does — but she is brief, waiting for the others’ thoughts first.
I’m sure it is not a place I had heard of before. I scour my thoughts, but not even the decades of experience have made it known to me. It cannot be a place in the Baltian world, and I shake my oldest head when the general’s gaze comes to rest on me.
The eyes of my second head flick to the others just as Helice’s do, though having been the one to teach my son of the most distant lands I am certain @Mesarez will know no more than I. Still, my youngest pair of eyes barely avoid narrowing as they settle on my heir. Decades of schooling my faces makes them impossible to read, but my tone is unmistakably stern firm as that head’s gaze turns north.
North beyond @Rezza toward the distant land that has arrived with a quaking of the earth like I have never felt before.
“I do not want Baltians venturing too far into this Beqanna.” I decide, lest an overbold scout wander too far from the water and truly breach themselves. Until I know how large Beqanna is, and how much of it is water, it is better to keep to the shore. That does not mean we cannot find out information in other ways though, and my second head turns back to Helice, those eyes joining the others that have never looked away from her.
”Thoroughly question those you find. I want to know as much as we can. Do they have abilities like ours, or are they giftless like other animals?” They sound more like Baltians than any animal I know of, but their affinity for life on land makes them seem impossibly foreign.
appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak.
Ah, good old Helice. Rezza doesn’t even have to find the General before she’s come with news from her scouts. Helice, in many respects, makes Rezza’s job far easier. A good general makes all the difference, after all. Helice doesn’t bring much news, though she brings more than any of them actually knew at least. Beqanna. Rezza just shakes her head slightly, indicating that she’s never heard of it either. It was not a land that existed in their world or in their history or even in their stories, and trust her, she’d been schooled on all of it when she was young. Though her brother had been the important one, Rezza’s parents had certainly made sure she was ready for wherever her life may lead. Little did they know she’d be the only one to survive this long. That may or may not be a good thing, but it’s irrelevant now. She’s here, and they aren’t.
Rezza waits, letting Tsilutsuli speak her mind first. The Queen gives instructions, looking for answers to questions that they all have. When she is done, Rezza adds the little bit she’s been able to glean on her own. “The ruins are here, now a part of their land but still unmistakably familiar. I met a few of them though I was unable to get much information before returning here. They glowed, much like many of us do. I did not learn if they have any other powers though.” Still, she suspects they do. They seem too much like Baltians to be like the other animals. They were more than just pretty to look at, but what she does not know is what it means for them, for Baltia. What she needs to figure out is how they can use this to their advantage.
01-02-2022, 08:55 PM (This post was last modified: 01-02-2022, 08:55 PM by Mesarez.)
Mesarez
The three mares (three and a half, really) are all being very serious with their formal nods of greeting but when the iridescent prince arrives at the cave, Mesarez shines a brilliant smile to them all - polite affection for Poseida’s mother, Rezza; a particularly amused light dancing in his gaze when he looks to the red general (all the breach of protocol he dares with her while the queen is around); and then a small wink for his favourite of his mother’s twin-heads as he feigns ignorance to that slight narrowing of her gaze that serves as her greeting to him.
At least, any boisterous words he might have used are kept quiet (or, at least, he does not get a chance to speak before Helica does and he likes all his limbs where they are, so he does not interrupt with frivolities… or with anything louder than a blink).
He does not consider his mother’s decree as something that applies to him so it does not bother him. He nods along with the reports given. “My experience has been much the same, the few I’ve met seem friendly enough.” No less or more than those he has lived with beneath his sea all his life.
His black and silver eyes do not focus on any of the mares in particular, keeping the question open to all - he would not be surprised no matter who knew the answer. “Do we know if any Baltians were left behind?” Although his concern for the citizens of Baltia is genuine, he mostly is thinking of those who had been banished, living on the fringes of their society. Though he knows better than to speak of this directly out loud where his mother’s four ears can hear him. He still has not decided if it is better for them to finally be free of Baltia or if Beqanna could have give them a better life, even if it was on land.