i never said that i would be your lover
i never said that i would be your friend
i never said that i would take no other
The portal Leliana opened had tossed Kensa onto Ischia’s shore, and getting home had taken the last of her strength. When she rises out of the lake gold glimmers through the blood, soot, and dirt that run down her skin in rivulets. Whole but exhausted the Primarch leaves the rocky shallows to stand with her back to the mirror-like surface of the water. Over Hyaline’s peaks a distant cloud of ash continues roll into the sky. Should the wind turn a dry grey snow may even fall here, leaving nothing untouched by the destruction of Tephra. The danger on that coast, and in Loess, the shaking of the world, has driven unfamiliar faces and old acquaintances up into Hyaline. These and her own few people she meets upon the lakeshore. It has taken days for her to return, only having teleported the last little way after meeting a rude pink child who had healed her wounds to a degree. Her body asks for rest, but there will be time. There are things to say first, a yoke to the past that must be broken. “All of you know by now that there has been a war.” She has failed to plan what she would say, and her gaze passes over the faces turned toward her, all she can do is meet them on even ground and do her best to tell them what she has decided.
“I do not want to discount the struggles of our friends, family, and the kingdoms in this conflict. There were deep wounds on both sides. However, what has occured is proof of a need for change in all of our lives.” Very young she had come into Hyaline, a sanctuary, and believed that its peace was a kind balance. Maybe it had been, in a different world. The years have intervened and now she sees only immobility, a kingdom with walls made of the vulnerable. “A god-monster called us to kill a man, and we did, because we craved blood and violence and were tricked into thinking we were protecting what was ours. A sickness fell over us and we hid, clustered in places where we thought we were safe or stubbornly, like myself, endured the sickness. Proud fools thinking we could hold onto something that was gone long before. Unable to change as our world changed. There has been pain too great and losses too many and it is all because we have forgotten what we are. We are not made for perfect peace or brutal war. Restraint chokes us. Many of us are like strangled newborns; we have never learned how to live because we are tangled in the umbilical that ties us to our forebearers. Our mothers and their traditions are dead, and if we hold vigil over their stagnant corpses we will die too.”
Kensa draws a deep breath in spite of the lingering pain in her knitting ribs. The breeze, full of spring perfume wisteria and apple blossom drags the drying ends of her blond locks across her face. A new Hyaline, she has known only the feeling of what it will be and yet that is enough, the words make their own way past her lips. “We must learn to see with clarity again, so that the tyrants cannot hide among us. We must open our hearts so that when dark magics try to twist us we will feel it, knowing once more the difference between the natural and the unnatural. There will be days of pain and trouble but we will have the heart to face them and shift their course. We will feed the land with our blood, our love, our worship of the pleasure of existence. Some will call it chaos, will say we are unpredictable, but we are the truth. Not zealots, or monsters, but a free people. Each of you, I charge with acting as brings you pleasure. We will have leaders, diplomats, and warriors but it is because we must preserve a place for ourselves in this new world. As many of you know I am a woman who makes friends far more easily than enemies and I ask you to do the same, but even so there are those who will not tolerate our liberty and we must be prepared for that.” If they can stir up the peoples around them through their own freedom all the better, a few ripples in the pond might go a long way toward preventing all of their destruction. “Welcome to a new Hyaline, if you wish to stay please do so. If you cannot bear the thought of change you may go. I have never considered myself your master, only a woman who hopes to forge a new way alongside you.” Those words spoken she remains still and waits, her open honest face calm and confident. "...For those who do not know, I am Kensa, Primarch of Hyaline."
Okay Everyone, Hyaline is now a different place. We are no longer a Sanctuary, though still primarily peaceful. The motivation is to enjoy life, be light-hearted troublemakers, and create a bit more activity! A few guidelines will be added to the ranks post soon. Any questions of suggestions please feel free to PM Lyr via discord!
