"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
For a half-dozen centuries zer children have bickered back and forth, and ze has finally had enough.
Beqanna gathers them to zerself one midwinter day.
They assemble in a semi-circle around their MotherFather, each looking subdued and rather shy. None of them look apologetic despite their crimes, and so Beqanna takes it upon zerself to punish them, to ensure that they know of their crimes.
“I have allowed you governance of your own worlds, but you have disappointed me. What right do you have to discriminate?” Here ze looks to Desert, Valley, and Dale. “And you three – why do you think yourselves responsible for draining my magic from those who seek your shelter?” Beqanna’s flinty gaze settles on Falls, Gates, and Chamber. “And all of you –dividing yourselves? What are light and dark but two halves of a whole? I am ashamed”
“I take back the magics I have given you. I take them all back.” Ze does so, pulling back the magic into the earth. Each of zer children will feel it, god and equine alike. They will feel a ripple in their spirits, an intangible something pulled out of them in all directions at once. They will not feel its absence because it has only relocated, drawn back into Beqanna’s heart.
“You may have them back in time, but this time the division of power will be fair. You are siblings, and it is time that you act like it.”
With one cool breath, ze strips Amazon of her tattoos. “Your followers make an oath, but they do not swear to the right gods. Take this, and raise him. His growth will reflect my pleasure with you.” A cub appears at the feet of Amazon, a jaguar that winds itself between her legs. Tundra is next, and his scars grow less distinct as Beqanna tells him: “Do not forget your origins. I will bring your ruins to light that your people might remember the past. They are but stones for now – they will change if you improve.
Beqanna turns to the rest of them, and with a deep inhalation strips them of their power. “You have forgotten me. I will change the lives of your people to ensure that you do not forget again.” Beqanna is the earth and the sky and the water, and one by one ze alters the kingdoms. Some remain the same, others shift minutely. To Chamber and Valley ze gives a single seed, telling them to “plant it, and ensure that it grows strong.” To Gates, Falls, Desert, Dale she gifts zer waters. “Place these where you will, and protect them. Do not allow them to become dry, or suffer my displeasure.”
And then, in a swirl of stars, Beqanna is gone and zer children return to the worlds they occupy, each to speak in dreams with the leader of their followers. They appear as the most awe-inspiring dream, each as individual as the horse they appear to.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
Desert appears to Camrynn and Pevensie: “I have created a new oasis. Only those loyal to the desert will find it, and in it dwells my spirit. Seek me in several months, when I have grown stronger. I take back my other magics in their entirety, save those that I think most useful. You, and leaders to come, will be immortal for as long as you sit the throne. I will give wings to two horses to create an airforce, and a horn to the leader of your army. Your peace leader may receive empathy from my spirit, and their second-in command invisibility. Petition me, and I might grant something more.” And then they are gone.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
In summary -
ROYALTY:
-King/Queen allowed immortality as long as they rule - non-genetic
-King/Queen allowed one trait that is in line with the kingdom (ie Tundra ice manipulation, Desert's sand shifting, etc)
ARMY:
-Wings to maximum 2 horses to have "airforce" - non-genetic (allow license to make wings cooler, like butterfly wings, etc)
-Horns to leader of the army - non-genetic (any horn is acceptable)
DIPLOMATS:
-Empathy to leader of the peace caste - non-genetic
-Invisibility to second highest member of the peace caste - non-genetic
All of these traits can be given without approval, except for the one king/queen trait that is not immortality. This trait must be approved by administration, and is contingent upon ruling. Kingdom granted traits will not be marked in the database, to show they are both non-genetic and disappear once that horse has ceased to serve in that kingdom. You may add them to your profile with the caveat that they're kingdom granted. Traits are granted by the magical entity's alliance with the king/queen, who has sworn to protect the magical entity while it's in its fledgling state. Because your kingdom's magical entity is still an infant it will take 6 months (2 RL years) for the trait to come to full fruition. If your queen/king possesses magic they may grant the trait themselves. All other kingdom granted traits are now completely gone (see directly below).
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
Beqanna will be roaming the Meadow for several weeks. If zer grandchildren feel too defenseless without the magics that zer children have now taken from them, perhaps they might seek zer out. Be warned, Beqanna is benevolent but not overly generous.
07-01-2015, 10:15 AM (This post was last modified: 07-01-2015, 10:16 AM by Camrynn.)
so you wanna play with magic?
She is asleep when she feels it.
As acutely attuned to the magic of Beqanna as she is, Camrynn notices the first little tugs that Beqanna makes. She feels it like a ripple, like a disturbance in the force, and it wakes her immediately. The Desert is quiet around her, but the night still feels alive.
Then a form appears before her, a glimmering source of power that pulses amorphously before her. She's felt power like this once before, when she'd stood in the presence of the old gods of the Deserts and been judged by them. In the presence of this power she is respectful, quiet, her head lowered in deference to the obvious greatness. She notices that Pevensie is beside her, and she knows immediately that it comes to them as the queens of the Desert.
It speaks of a new order, new magics, a new oasis that will serve as its home among the sands. It explains what she had felt: that little moment where it had felt like something was sucked away was the removal of kingdom granted traits, wherever they were found. The black mare nods, understanding. The gifts now will be predetermined, more useful, and more sporadic. Camrynn nods again.
And then, just as suddenly as it had come, the spirit is gone, and she and Pevensie are alone in the sands.
They stand beside an oasis, and Camrynn can feel the way the magic flows from it. This must be the new oasis, the new home of their country's spirit. Camrynn steps forward so that she can gently, reverently brush her muzzle against the still waters. It is a respectful, deferential, lover's touch.
Straightening up and stepping away, Cam reaches out with her magic, touching Eight's mind to confirm her suspicions. She knows after just a moment that he has received the same message, the same vision, and the same set of instructions. She senses that the magic has been similarly pulled from all the kingdoms, that it has been sucked back into the ground, from which it will flower outward again, but in a different way.
But more than anything, she senses that there is a fundamental difference in the other kingdoms. She's certain of it, and she turns to Pevensie.
"Everything is different, Pevensie." The other mare will have never heard her voice like this save for during the Deserts throne competition. It is muted, hushed with respect and awe. "This erases mythical and non-mythical. Anyone is free to live anywhere." She pauses then, knowing exactly what that means for Pevensie and wondering if her fellow queen has followed through to the same conclusion. She wonders what the mare would do – she could know, but she finds herself unwilling to pry into the future here.
"That means…" she pauses, unsure how to continue, before gathering herself and looking Pevensie directly in the eye. Camrynn's eyes are Deserts gold today, but their depths are unknowably dark. "A mythical horse could live in any kingdom that was previously non-mythical, with no harm done."
She is nervous to hear Pevensie's response.
CAMRYNN
co-queen of the deserts, magical, mother of badassery
Instead of travelling to the Tundra, where she might he to see Rigdon, Yael sends Gaza instead. He should meet his headstrong half-brother and explore the world for himself. She would rather stay within the sandy Kingdom and sleep.
Yael is tired, Oh so tired, and the combination of the shade of Van’s tree and a crisp(er) wind from the North an hour after sunset lulls her into a deep sleep. A sleep that consumes her and sends her dreaming across Beqanna. She follows the wind paths and the sun rays and the water droplets as they burst on razor-sharp blades of grass. She freezes and burns and is covered in sand.
Yael slumbers in sweet oblivion, as many a magician has done before her. The world is all at once too much, and not enough; and so she must retreat.
Until there is a tingling at the tip of her nose and a tickle in her hindquarters as the magic that she is tied to inexplicably to shifts and changes. For a moment, it’s as if something is missing in her soul and then it is replaced - different, but still there. Her eyes fly open, and she finds herself buried in sand; the golden sands surrounded their golden protector and drew her under its dunes, until she felt the need to wake again. A light smile, touches her lips in thanks - but she cannot linger long in thought about it. An invisible vacuum sucks away the grains and she emerges, just like she was a couple of months or a year or so ago (what time has passed, and how much has happened?). Curious, Yael melts her body into the wind and seeks out Cam, surmising that she has probably been neglectful of her Advisor/Ambassador duties and should rectify that.
However, when she finds the black mare, it is at a new oasis that brims with concentrated Desert power and Cam’s countenance is hesitant, even worried. She is sure the woman can feel her and makes no move to hide herself - Pevensie, however, may not be able to feel her, and so she joins Cam in waiting on bated breath for Pev’s response.
Yael however, waits for a different reason; she knows there is something else to Cam, and she doesn’t trust her to rule alone. It’s something she’s held in the very depths of herself - under lock and key and three levels of shields. Don’t ask her why. It’s just the way Yael is.
Beqanna is a seasoned phoenix, with several reincarnations in several forms. Pevensie herself has lived through the shifting of the kingdoms, the realignment of the ground beneath her feet and the quaking of the earth. She knows, perhaps better than most, how powerful Beqanna can be when she is called to do so. What summons her, well, Pev is yet to figure that out. She has come to terms to accept she probably never will know.
There is a shaking of the earth again. Not just a normal earthquake, because Pev has known this shift before. It happened when she was only three, when the Falls and Dale separated again. Yet the feeling floods straight back. When such a monumental moment happens, it is difficult to forget. She doesn't know what is happening, but she knows it is big. Bigger than anything even Yael or Cam could conjure with their magic. The ground itself is churning.
Through the dark night she slips, a shadow against the dunes, making her way to where the powerful women of the Deserts will have gathered. She can feel the dull drums beating in her chest, the intake of her breath sharpen. If only she could fly at night, she would have. Now more than ever she needs her wings to soar. It is during this thought that she realises, atop her dune-towers, that she knows not which direction to turn. Her eyes frantically scan the horizon, glancing back and forth until she see's the eerie blue light, so starkly unnatural against the rolling desert hills.
She breaks to a canter, precariously sliding down the dunes, straining limb and lung to summit the next one. In this fashion she makes her way towards Cam and Yael, streamed black with sweat by the time she arrives. She takes her place as Queen, watching the light flicker and change, stepping closer to her magical daughter in awe and comfort.
When the spirit has spoken, Pevensie watches aghast as the blue light splashes down into the floor, the oasis waters lapping at their hooves as the misty turquoises fades to leave a plain puddle. Cam remains calm, composed, but the little buckskin pony is shaking. She knows that the forces that have moved here tonight are more powerful than she can ever be, more wrathful than her wildest dreams. And now she has been placed at the helm of the ship set on a course to navigate treacherous seas.
She looks to Cam, who tells her what only seven trips could have done in a heartbeat. A moment is needed, for her to digest. "Freedom. Equality. Beqanna was tired of the old world, and she is ready to embrace both the dark and the light," she whispers back.
The little mare turns to see Yael next, emerging in the darkness. She offers the mare a kind smile, though it is now muted with fear and apprehension. She knows the spirit is gone, it has had it's say and will feel no need to come back tonight. However, that gives her little comfort. The air is electric, the whites of her eyes shimmer with the thoughts of her youth flashing back, waking to find her world changed in an instant.
"My home needs me," she starts, looking down at the waters, turbulent from the harsh winter breeze stroking the glassy surface. As she looks, she can see the stars distorted. Much like her life, twisted and turned through fate and love, loss and resurgence. She closes her eyes for a moment, steadies herself. Her eyes flicker, her rib cage expands. A decision must be made, and it was not the one she expected to make. She doesn't understand, but she knows. She just knows. It is etched in her bones. If asked even an hour ago, she would not have known the answer. However, the gods wrote this fate deep within the fibres of her bones long before this night. This part in her tale, though she could not have told you, was written in stone from the very first moment she drew breathe.
"This is my home now. The Deserts needs me." And with that, her resolve is steeled. She raises her head now, mane blown wild in the night sky. Between both mares her attention shifts, not sure quite where to turn now or what to do. As Queen, she was crowned years ago, but it wasn't until tonight she felt like that Queen. Tonight is her true coronation, her rebirth.
"There is much to discuss. Let's gather everyone at first light, decide in unison how best to move forward from here," she suggests, regaining the authority in her shaking vocal chords, her eyes mostly set on Yael at this moment. In her heart, she wonders if this is what Cam wanted to hear or not. Whether she wanted to rule alone.
She closes her eyes for a quick second in the soft, gentle manner that one does when they are relaxing after hearing an answer that pleases them. "Yes, we do." she says simply, her voice hushed and quiet. And it's true, she knows – the Deserts needs every horse, every mare and every stallion, even every one of its foals. That's how a kingdom grows strong. Pevensie is no exception.
But whether Camrynn feels relief that Pevensie intends to stay, or simply relief that the question is finally settled, Camrynn cannot say. But it is relief nonetheless, flooding through her and over her like a tidal wave. No doubt, Camrynn could have ruled alone – perhaps one day, she will, either in the Deserts or elsewhere. She does not fear that moment of solo rule, that moment when she is ultimately responsible, singlehandedly, for the lives of her subjects. She has never feared responsibility. But perhaps she knows that in this place, here in the Deserts, Pevensie is a necessary part of the equation.
Perhaps, perhaps not.
Perhaps she just has a strange affection for the pony mare. There's no doubt that she is closer to Pevensie than to most; she's grown to respect Yael in her own way, but with Pevensie it's more than respect. She's been willing to meddle, to tamper in ways she'd never usually do when asked. It's because of Camrynn's meddling that Pevensie and Hurricane had been so immediately attracted. It's because of her that they'd fallen so quickly and so completely into love, and because of that attraction had conceived a child. But she hadn't set that up out of any kind of spite or malice – rather, she'd done it because she felt Pevensie's sadness, felt the mare's colossal aloneness, and felt a need to do something about it.
It was, quite arguably, an act of friendship, of love, of kindness, not the kind of thing Camrynn is historically known for.
Camrynn smiles, both at her co-queen and at Yael. She isn't an idiot; she understands that the gold-mare's silent presence means something, and that it likely isn't wordless support. She doesn't dare pry into Yael's head, so she can't confirm her suspicions, but at best, she's certain that Yael is quite keen to have Pevensie remain queen here in the Deserts. Why else would Yael be just as anxious as Cam to hear what Pevensie has to say? Why else would she be silent, not rendering any kind of opinion?
And if Yael is anxious to have Pevensie remain as queen, Camrynn can think of only so many reasons why.
But, interestingly enough, it doesn't bother her. At all. She's never much cared whether others trust her or not, so long as she's able to make happen whatever it is she needs to make happen. And Yael has never second guessed anything she's suggested, nor been anything but helpful. So why should she be bothered if the once-queen still dislikes and distrusts her? The key question at the end of the day is not whether Cam gained Yael's trust, or Pevensie's, or anyone's, for that matter. It's whether the Deserts is or is not better off because of her being there. And at least for the time being, she believes the answer is an easy yes.
"I think it would be best to wait until after the event is over, and our borders are our own again." she adds, after Pevensie has spoken. The tournament is almost ready to start, ironically timed considering the changes that had come to Beqanna, but there's little to be done about that. It would be interesting to see how these changes were playing in the other kingdoms. In particular, it could have interesting impacts on alliances.
CAMRYNN
co-queen of the deserts, magical, mother of badassery
Yael remembers the first time she realized that - the first time she accepted the fact that the place was born, the place she knew like she knew her Ima’s scent, could no longer be considered her home. It was gone, destroyed in flames and all that remained (she believed) were ash and charred bones. But the allure of a home that is still standing (and can now fully accept her) is not to be taken lightly. That Pevensie makes this decision and says these words makes Yael breathe easier, and she silently thanks Adonai for giving her the foresight to approach her again in the Field.
She had never meant to become visible… and in that, she has clearly underestimated Pevensie’s ability to feel her presence. With the buckskin’s eyes upon her, she becomes fully corporeal, and gives the little Queen a sly wink. She is proud of her and how she has grown into her role. She scales remain in balance.
Yael can feel the curiosity rolling of Cam, and so she simply nudges the black mare’s shoulder in a sort of ‘looks like our girl is all grown up’ way. Can’t she be keen to keep Pevensie as Queen because she believes in the spirit of the Desert that put her there? Because she, too, has communed with that spirit (or goddess, whatever you want to call it), and believes that the two mares were intended to be a team of checks and balances. There are a hundred reasons why she is not eager to see Cam rule alone, all of which are based on a feeling in the gut. It’s not the sort of feeling that keeps her up at night, just one that she gets every now and then - like when they were in the Valley, or when Cam was asking her about the past. There is more to her than Yael may ever ask about, more because she is exceedingly polite than any other reason.
When Yael does finally speak, it has nothing to do with what has just transpired. “I shall assemble the Deeplomats queeckly, before ze event. T’ere ees some restructuring to do, as Zilpah ees gone, ve need a new second in command. Perhaps t’ey can xaf ze empathy, as I xaf no need for eet, obviously. T’ey vill be instructeed to vatch everyt’ing.” She smiles coyly. There could be a dramatic shift in power with this new development. There could be new allies worth having, and new friendships to form. Finally, before she turns to go and leave the two Queens to discuss whatever they want to in private, she says, “So sorry for my brief disappearance… I fell asleep, and seem to xaf slept for several months. Eet vas… kite odd.”
Yael, guardian of the desert
[idk what this is, but felt the need to end it, should yall want to keep on talking by yourselves ]
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