lepis, comtesse of taiga
RUN AND TELL ALL OF THE ANGELS; THIS COULD TAKE ALL NIGHT
i think i need a devil to help me get things right
Fresh snow, fallen overnight, powders the forest floor, and Lepis’ hooves make fresh marks in the untouched snow. She had watched this snow fall. Sleep had not taken her last night, and though her eyes burn with lack of it, there is a determined set to both her mouth and shoulders that suggest she will not be resting anytime soon. Not when there are things to do, and changes to make.
Castile’s command had been a clear one, and it is without a doubt the easiest way to quickly extract herself from Taiga with minimal fuss. Yet easy might not mean best, and the dun mare has fretted since their conversation, and fretted through the night.
Finding Pteron is easy – when he stays night in Taiga he can be found in his aerial nest, a hundred feet up a redwood. A well-placed kick sends a thunk up the tree, and a pair of giggling voices go suddenly silent. Pteron’s head emerges, and he peers down at his mother peevishly, at least until he sees the expression on her face. Then, he is at her side in a moment, and Lepis does not spare a glance for whomever might have been up there with him. They’d gotten into the tree, and so she assumes they can get themselves out as well.
A few words of greeting pass between them, a few inquiries as to his nest-mate that he deflects in a way that makes her diplomat heart proud, and then they are on to the meat of the business. What she has to say leaves Pteron visually stunned, but she bids him farewell, and moves on to the second horse she intends to speak with. She finds herself in the meadow where Lepis knows that Aten can often be found. And yes, there he is, and she is sure the golden bird is not too far away. The Comtesse nods a brief greeting and a quick smile, but soon begins.
“Aten,” She says, her blue-grey gaze flicking toward him. “Castile of Loess, speaking as Taiga’s king, has directed me to place Pteron as leader of Taiga while I return to Loess.” The words are delivered calmly, but she does not smile. Instead, her cool eyes rest remain still. “But Aten, you are my heir, and to follow his order is to break my word to you.” A mild frown creases her face at the last; as though the thought is unpleasant, the tension difficult to handle.
Her gaze is steady when she meets the champagne stallion’s, and when she tells him: “You have lived in Taiga under my reign for almost three years.” That is no insignificant span of time, she thinks – it is more than half of Pteron’s life, and nearly a quarter of her own. “Pteron has lived here that time as well.” Aten is aware of this, she knows, but means to underscore that her time knowing each of them as Taigans is identical. “I do not want to lose the close ties between Loess and Taiga that we have fostered in that time, and yet I admit that I am still not sure which monarch you truly serve. If I keep my word to you, and defy my king to do so, I would need to be absolutely certain that he is your king as well.”
Though she has asked no question, Lepis pauses, searching the golden stallion for a reaction before she finally says: “And so I must know, before I make this decision: do you serve Heartfire’s Taiga, or do you serve Castile’s?”
The first answer would make things easy. She could do as Castile has ordered: set Pteron as Leader of the Woods and keep Aten in his place as Protector. The second would be more difficult, laden as it is by the distrust and suspicion, she knows that the Protector still carries in his heart. Can she even trust him to answer truthfully, she wonders?
@[Aten]
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