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  • Beqanna

    COTY

    Assailant -- Year 226

    QOTY

    "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


    like the dawn, you broke the dark - magnus/any
    #1



    In the days after the breaking of the seal, Solace had taken to the sky. With half her children missing and the rearrangement of Beqanna's geography, it was only natural. Whenever she tried to settle in Hyaline, a lone ghost among the cliffs, the stillness caused her wings would itch for use, and despite her pregnancy, she spent entire days drifting below the clouds instead. 

    The knowledge she gained then is useful now, and she leads them on the straight and true across the continent. They squeeze between the scent lines of kingdoms other had volunteered to visit, holding a pace that falls just short of strenuous. 

    Often Solace glances over her shoulder to make sure both of her companions are still in her wake, keeping her cerulean wings held tight against her topline. She is glad that Dawn chose to accompany her, as she had often seen the girl but not had the chance to get to know her, and she hopes that the trip will afford her time to do just that. 

    Her other traveling partner does not inspire sure rosy thoughts - at least not for now. But while Yidhra had made a very poor first impression on the other Caretaker, (hitting on her wife, insulting her, and attempting to lure away her kingdom members) for Kagerus' sake Solace was making an effort to accept her as an ally. Despite the churning in her gut that makes it hard to truly trust the Pangean sea-mare, she was nothing less than cordial.

    Nothing new for a woman whose own daughter (and a few crestfallen suitors) had called uptight more than once. 

    Summer seems to weaken as they pass through Sylvia, and the chill sinks it's teeth into her heart as she thinks of Valdis somewhere within the dark kingdom's core. Subconsciously her ears pin and she moves a little quicker, making a note to return, alone. 

    Finally, the familiar scents of her girlhood home wash over the gold-splashed mare, and her entire posture visibly relaxes. But regardless of her deep ties to the land, Solace halts just inside of the border. Her chin rises as a light call leaves her, and she never doubts that they will be greeted shortly. 

    S
    olace
        we're reeling through an endless fall
    we are the ever-living ghost of what once was


    sol wants to chat with yid and dawn but i didn't want to bog down the ~diplomacy~
    idk, if they had any questions or anything on the journey she can answer in my next post
    Solghostdoll2

    #2

    desire consumes me like a fire consumes me

    The trio that comes upon his border is not one that he is used to witnessing.

    Two of the mares are normal enough—normal by Beqannian standards, at least—but the third is a mixture of tentacle and equine and he watches with narrowed eyes as they near Tephra. Still, despite his reservations, despite his own concerns for what they may bring with them, he has never been one to believe in the power of a closed border. Those with ill intentions never listened to such things and those who wanted to bring harm were unlikely to be the ones who looked like it. So, instead, Magnus did his best to greet everyone who made their way toward him; he did his best to welcome everyone equally.

    He shakes the reservations from his mind and continues along his path, through the twisting magma and saltwater and lush vegetation, the summer heat turning his golden coat to crushed gold. When he nears them, he lets loose a greeting call of his own to answer Solace’s own, the husk of his voice whiskey and ash. She looks enough like her father that he feels a twinge of recognition, a twist in his belly that reminds him of his friend, but not enough to make him say anything. Just enough to warm his smile.

    “Hello there,” he finally offers when he is close enough, when he comes to a stop, hooves sinking into the volcanic loam beneath. He looks at them each in turn, dipping his wild head as the matted pieces of his mane slide forward to reveal the map of scars beneath. When he lifts his head again, the smile remains. “My name is Magnus.” He doesn’t know how many times he’s said such things, how many times he has been in this situation, but it feels like a riverstone in his hands—worn and familiar and comforting.

    “How can I help you today?”

    good shouldn’t need to tempt us above

    [Image: gqYjsHr.png]
    #3

    in the cold light of day we're a flame in the wind
    not the fire that we've begun

    Dawn is silent on the way to Tephra, but in her defense, she does have a lot on her mind.

    Her last conversation with Sunny had been heartbreakingly eye-opening, and she honestly doesn’t know why she told them that she would accompany Solace to Tephra. The kind queen had offered her a shoulder when they first traveled to the Cove, when she was frantic over the thought of Rhaegor not being safe, and she wants to know the woman more, but words fail her and she is silent throughout the entire long journey to the other kingdom.

    Maybe it’s becaue she is still truly considering Sunny’s plea, even after everything. Come to Tephra with me, he had begged of her, and she had protested that it wasn’t fair. She had told him she was no lost puppy, to be dragged around by a leash to wherever he suited. She wasn’t going to stick to his heels while he fell in love, had children, and all the like. He had said he loved her, but she still isn’t quite sure what he meant by that. It’s definitely not the love he feels for Chryseis, and though she knows the feel of familial love quite well, she isn’t so sure it’s that kind of love either.

    Either way, it hurts and she hurts.
    She wants to see the land that he fell so in love with, he left Hyaline.

    Eventually Solace comes to a halt and Dawn falls in to her side and slightly behind her, letting the queen take the reins here. She has hardly noticed the tentacle-woman on the other side of Solace, let alone tried to make conversation with her. Instead, her eyes fall upon a smiling golden stallion that appears before them, clearly the leader of Tephra. Magnus, he introduces himself, and she nods politely in his direction, her golden horn flashing in the sunlight.

    “Dawn,” she offers, but says nothing more.

    Dawn

    Hyaline's resident polar bear cub

    clean.
    #4

    Rhaegor

    the playboy

    Some might call it destiny, designed by fate, or some other phrase which means meant to be, but the truth of the matter is that this fate of his is apparent, even to him. He smiles to think on it, as twisted and incomprehensible it may be to an outsider; but to him, and to Will, it all makes sense. Although moving to Tephra had been initially out of spite, the once-prince has come to realize that he came in search of that which so called his mother to this place during the few months following her birth. Tephra is in his blood, as much as Hyaline is in Will's; for just as Rhaegor mimics and follows Solace's legacy, his sister Warlight follows Kagerus'. Two perfect extensions of their mothers, the triplets often murmur in the night about all this trivialities, about all these destinies and twists of fate; but again, the truth of the matter is that they are not their parents, but themselves, utterly.

    This, however, changes not the skipped beat of Rhaegor's heart when he hears the sound of his mother's voice carried to him from the eastern border. Solace's brook-like tones send a grin to the feeble stallion's bloody lips, a reminder of times when he had been but a healthy babe racing up and down the mountain slopes of Hyaline. He longs desperately to return to such simplicity when he thinks of his current plague-ridden state, but he simultaneously knows that he is meant to be exactly here for a reason.

    Wasting not a breath, Rhaegor sucks in a deep lungful of air before bursting into an uneven canter. For what once may have been the elegant gate of a well bred part-Arabian, the man looks now a disheveled mess; but still, he retains a roguish glint in the ash-brown of his eyes, and there is no denying the charm with which the corners of his lips turn upward.

    Of course, that self same expression dies instantly as he rounds a corner and glimpses the group standing there upon his border. And no, it is not the tentacle-ridden monstrosity that so cools him, but the absolutely plain and absolutely heart-broken girl standing next to his mother. Dawn.

    The person I love most standing next to the person I want least to see, standing next to my king, standing next to a God damned sea monster. How fucking poetic.

    Fighting the urge to just straight up turn a hundred and eighty degrees and leave (a fight which he barely wins, believe me), the young Beta stifles his moodiness with a tuck of his chiseled jaw to his chest and a slow final approach. He sees Magnus' lips moving in his customary greeting, short and to the point; and to Rhaegor's misfortune, he is within earshot in time to catch his one best-friend's utterance of her name. Dawn. Rhae's withers flinch visibly at the pronunciation, but the movement of his rolling muscles - as emaciated as they are - do a good enough job of hiding his discomfort; never to mind the breadth of his bedraggled wings.

    Slipping into the group of Eastern-hailing women, Rhae momentarily makes eye contact with Magnus before privately greeting his mother. Were the betentacled witch not with the Sanctuarians, he might have spoken at large; but instead, he is forced to only press himself ever-so-lovingly to Solace, a sincere, heartfelt apology writ clear in the crease of his brow. An apology for never returning; an apology for abandoning her; and a request for forgiveness that his eyes show he doubts will be granted. I love you so much, he mouths into the golden fur of her neck; a time-old form of communication between the mother and son, for when he could not speak but needed to communicate things of importance to her.

    Stepping back, Rhaegor avoid's Dawn's eye contact, and resigns himself to being but a shadow in the rest of this conversation.





    ...my name on your tongue and your tongue on my...



    @[Solace] @[Dawn] @[magnus] @[Yidhra]
    [Image: rhae]
    #5

    out in the deep, I've seen something real
    the mouth of the void that the waves conceal

    She disdains that which she cannot have, the sky: the blistering sun, and all those who bask and play- fly so freely. Solace, ah yes Solace, she is all these things and Yidhra in her own way finds herself unable to swallow the full load of venom that lingers in her beak: in her throat; but she admits, there is a charm to her… a beauty that would lack if not for the wings and the air beneath them.

    Solace was a creature not made for the sea…

    Yidhra, however, is something strange and ill-begotten. A hairless beast whose watery skin is porous and rubbery, perfectly black and blue with mottled gray and white varnish… whose neck is aligned with thirty or more tendrils, all long and moving: a mass of writhing barbs and suction cups. Her tail too was the same, and upon her shoulders twin arms stretched out nearly some feet with paddle-shaped tips. Her oval shaped eyes are a strange teal with orange flecks and barbell irises that become little more than slits as she greets the sunlight.

    Her beak chatters beneath a maw of tentacles that exist where her nose and mouth should be, and the playful chatter is joined by a strange lullabye from the depths, a shanty long lost.

    Dawn is a mystery, and yet? Yidhra watches both Solace and the other- lingers and slithers beside them, the abrasive radula licking the chitinous black beak as she wades through green grass seas and jungles of vine and shadow. Tangles of primordium that make her shiver and recall a life long lost to her and as such she comments on it in passing.

    (“I used to be a Goddess in form, immortal and revered: the Element named me the Avatar of Earth itself… how odd that I have been taken so well into the sea.”) she chuckles darkly, the language ancient and old- rattling through her water soaked lungs. To Solace and Dawn it is little more than clicks and hard consonants, harsh sounds that are accompanied by a bizarre foreign manner.

    Magnus arrives in form and Yidhra blinks, watches and listens: the gutteral purr rumbling through her throat suddenly evident. She hears introduction and question, steps a leg forward and slithers in a manner more sea-beast than horse; but nonetheless a single long armor reaches forward: the paddle end stretching and flexing, briefly reaching out to, if allow, briefly press itself on Magnus’ nose before releasing the suction cups and drawing it back.

    When she speaks it is with a voice harsh and smoky, accented in a song lost to time: a place sunken beneath the sea. Yidhra’s form lifting and poised in a manner that makes her seem taller. “I am Yee tho rah (Yidhra), the Archon of Pangea and one of the Councillors of the Sanctuary in the East.” she hisses, softening in an alien way. “I believe that our beloved coterie has arrived to speak of diplomacy between our regions: also to observe the manner in which the lands have blossomed in the plague’s wake.”

    She’s had smiled; but instead her black chitinous beak chatters and clicks, the tendrils around her face moving apart to allow the sight of the dagger-like and impossibly dangerous maw. “It is a pleasure to meet you King Magnus of Tephra, you smell like the very jungles of this place. Mist and primordium, such a wonderful thing, to embody that which you control. Beautiful.”

    Complementary and quick, she retracts the tendrils, parses the presence of Rhaegor; but little interacts with him, rather she offers the same- a tentacle reaching out to brush the nose in greeting.

    Yidhra
    #6




    Magnus. The shape of his name forms in her mind as he answers her primal call with his own husky, masculine echo. She knows the stallion by the burnished gold; she had seen him in dreams after all,    But Tephra's King holds himself with a poise that dreams had not truly established, not as well as he did in the flesh. The Queen of the East dips her crown to him as he halts. Despite her title and his connection with her wife, she knows Magnus may not know her by appearance alone, and so she slips in a soft, "Solace, of Silver Cove," by way of introduction before Yidrah begins. 

    But when her boy is suddenly there and the words of the blue roan mare fade. A nicker reverberates deep within her chest, low and barely audible except to her closest companion. He greets her sincerely if not a little sadly, and the silent words his lips form against her skin that are more meaningful than those of every emissary in Beqanna. 

    The obvious sickness which has dimmed his coat and eyes troubles her, his labored breathing causing the mother's pale lips to set into a hard line which she had to consciously attempt to soften. 

    She doesn't know that the quiet yet dutiful girl's troubled eyes are the way they are because of her son, she doesn't although she should. But the way he avoids the girl's eye contact is a hint to the observant mother that something is off. Her son had never been pass a chance to befriend a pretty girl, and if she remembered correctly she had often seen them spending time together in Hyaline. But Solace pushes away the thought for now. The return journey would afford her a few moments alone with Dawn to check in with the young mare. 

    Returning to the conversation she catches Yidhra's last words, before beginning. "Do you have no healer, Magnus?" She questions, her voice gentle but never timid, as her glacial eyes find his. Above her golden topline the feathers of her wings rustle airily, diffusing the scent of the heavens: ionized air and sun-warmed skin. Frost lingering supernaturally in her hair as if she had just come from one hundred miles above the clouds. 

    "We have two healers in Silver Cove if you should need help," she adds to the king. "They can only help with symptoms, but some relief and a night's sleep free of pain can only help."

    As the blue-roan mare reaches a wayward tentacle towards her son, a pale wave of barely visible of light travels across her skin in. It is the outward manifestation of her distaste for the antic, but not other sign gives the Caretaker away. Her son was nearly a man grown, whether she liked it or not, and perfectly capable of choosing his own battles. 

    With a deep breath, she continues, diving into the topics which have brought them here. "Kagerus and I have moved to Silver Cove and taken leadership of The East. Two of our younger residents, Kensa and Litotes, are leading Hyaline as a territory and Yidhra leads the territory Pangea. We were lucky to be able to settle things quickly." She gives the sea-mare an appreciative nod, her cool gaze briefly searching the other woman's foreign futures before returning to her host. "How does Tephra stand? This land has always been a pillar of strength in Beqanna. I hope, for you, nothing has changed." 

    S
    olace
        we're reeling through an endless fall
    we are the ever-living ghost of what once was
    Solghostdoll2

    #7

    desire consumes me like a fire consumes me

    The rhythm of the meeting is ancient to him, and he breathes in the pattern easily. His chest expands and falls, his gold-flecked eyes kind, but observant, watching the trio and then his own diplomat as they come together. When Rhaegor approaches, stepping forward into his mother’s embrace, Magnus just smiles, a corner of his scarred mouth tipping upward. He knows what it means to love your mother, to feel a deep appreciation and respect, and a burning need to step outside of their shadow and prove yourself.

    It is only when the tentacled thing steps forward that his attention is dragged away, even a little.

    He watches with amusement as the woman slithers forward, filling the silence with her clacks and ancient tongue. When she presses her tentacles onto his face, he fights the instinctual desire to spook, to put as much distance between himself and the stranger. Instead, he stills, maintaining eye contact and studying her, the wind moving his forelock across his broad forehead, something like understanding sparking.

    “It is truly a pleasure to meet someone so unique, Yidhra,” he does his best to mimic the way that her tongue formed around the syllables of her name, but it comes out clumsy in comparison, and his grin grows a little sheepish in apology. As she withdraws, he angles his head toward Dawn, giving her a barest hint of a smile, an encouraging dip of his head, and then to Solace, the Queen amongst them.

    “I know of healers, but we currently have none that call Tephra home,” he says, thinking of his niece while his smile again turns apologetic, wishing he could show Solace a more healed version of his home. “We would appreciate the attention of your healers, should they wish to make the journey or if those who are ill feel up to traveling.” He holds her gaze steady. “It would be a great kindness to our people.”

    He then falls quiet, listening intently as she fills him in on the latest to happen in the East.

    When she falls quiet, he gives her his familiar crooked smile. “Tephra remains strong. We have risen as the kingdom of the West, with Ischia and Island Resort becoming territories.” It feels strange to call them that, but he has no true desire to stretch out his political hand to stir their waters. “For now, both are left their independence and given free rein, although should there be problems, we’ll see how that goes.”

    He has no doubt that Island Resort would remain peaceful, but he has heard and seen things to give him pause about Ischia and the creatures that reside there. He would need to travel soon to see for himself.

    good shouldn’t need to tempt us above

    [Image: gqYjsHr.png]
    #8

    everything we are, it just went away
    with a slide of the tongue and a sour taste

    Why, why, why did she tell them she would travel to Tephra with Solace and Yidhra? You’re such a fool. Tephra is where Sunny lives, you dolt. Of course, the odds of running into him are incredibly high here and of course, he wants nothing to do with you; he made that abundantly clear when he abandoned you on the beach in the Cove. The bear ripples uncontrollably under her skin, and her shape wavers vaguely before them. She struggles to push it back down—to push everything down—but it’s almost easier just to surrender to the bear. She has to focus on something else, anything else.

    She is standing close to Solace—close enough to portray a united front, but not close enough to touch—when he approaches, studiously avoiding her gaze. What is he thinking about? she wonders, unable to pull her gaze from his emaciated body. She knew he was sick, but... he’s definitely taken a turn for the worse. She bites her lip and looks away as he embraces his mother, unable to interrupt such a private moment. He is here to be a diplomat, like she is; she can’t focus on things that happened weeks ago now, things that don’t matter.

    Clearly, she isn’t even on his mind anymore. She’s lost the one person who’d mattered most to her (aside from her mother, of course, but that is entirely different) and even though he can’t look her in the eye she knows that she doesn’t cross his mind. She is nothing but a negative blip to him now... her best friend. Her Sunny.

    I didn’t want to lose you, she thinks desperately, knowing that he can’t hear her and wouldn’t care anyways. Her declaration meant nothing to him, only to cause him heartache. Why, oh why, did she want to come to Tephra?

    She is so wrapped up in her own thoughts that she misses a great deal of the conversation, only tuning back in when Solace mentions healers. Healers? Her dam is a healer, and a damned good one at that. She hears Island Resort as well and perks up for the first time since arriving, shifting her weight around as she rolls her shoulders. Her horn gleams in the sunlight as she waits for a lull in the conversation.

    “My mother is a healer,” she says once Magnus falls silent. “She lives in Island Resort; she was one of the first there.” Eyes turn to her—sans Rhaegor, she assumes, but refuses to glance in his direction—and she shrinks beneath their gazes. She didn’t intend to really be a part of the conversation; this is only her first diplomatic trip and she is already shy as is, but sometimes she just can’t control her mouth. “Her name is C-Cress.” Oh great, just throw in a stutter and really sound pathetic.

    “I could talk to her and see if she will pay you a visit,” she tells Magnus, shivering slightly and wishing she could retreat back to her little corner once more. “She was born a healer so she’s been doing it a long time.” Good job, you just called your mom old.

    Dawn

    oh, it's gonna be a long night



    @Rhaegor since you're next<3
    clean.
    #9

    Rhaegor

    the playboy

    After a firm embrace and a secret nicker pressed into his skin in the form of vibrations, things return to business as usual for the young man's mother. A flicker of unease passes visibly through Rhaegor, thoughts of yesteryear turning the present sour with their insistence upon nostalgia. The sweet memories cause bitterness now, for the pegasus remembers when he was but a boy beneath Solace's downy wing, listening with bright eyes as she dealt with kingdom business as if it were nothing. Now, he can see that it is not nothing; despite Solace's evident health, Rhae has developed enough attention to nuance to know that things are not easy.

    Perhaps they never were.

    The rest of the happenings - Yidhra addresses Magnus and vice versa, his mother detailing the East's movements and mention his other mother's name, and his king accepting it all in kind - pass by almost too quickly for the mute to understand. He recognizes his place that six people is too many to properly establish any kind of palatable conversation. That being said, the boy also carefully shuts himself in, not allowing himself to pick apart each member's mind with his newfound telepathy; that would ensure that he not absorb any of the actual politics. That being said, the young man hasn't perfect control over his ability, and picks up on some aspects of each equine present.

    Magnus is content as ever, unworried and well-weathered in the area of diplomacy. Yidhra thinks largely on Pangea, among other things that Rhae doesn't understand. Mother's piercing thoughts of concern for his sickness leave him rattled; and of course, Dawn.

    I didn't want to lose you.

    The words sting as if she had slapped him with them, leaving his heart pounding; after all, few ever see suck a strike coming at them before it is too late. At the exact moment that his once-best-friend thinks them, Rhaegor jolts, snorting softly and whipping his head to stare directly at her. Enough is going on around them that no attention is drawn to him; even so, after a short moment of his intensely cool gaze staring at her in a dazed, clearly undecided fashion, he turns away.

    Ironically, Dawn speaks next, calling all of the attention to herself.

    Unsettled and having no place here, except to pry into minds that he knows need no examining, Rhaego finds himself retreating. That is, after a last press of his muzzle to Solace, and a nod to Magnus. They would fare perfectly well without him.

    As his hindquarters fade into the distance, he picks out one mind in the bunch, and castes a single thought into it.

    I didn't want to lose you either.





    ...my name on your tongue and your tongue on my...



    @[Solace] @[Dawn] @[magnus] @[Yidhra]
    [Image: rhae]




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