Tephra did not boil with life, but she simmered with it. There were pockets of activity, of families who mulled together, of siblings and warriors and mothers. There was his rabbit-granddaughter and her family of wild things. There were the spotted twins and their rambunctious laughter. There was Offspring and Isle, tucked away and keeping to themselves. It was not an overtly active land, but he was proud of those who stayed, of those who carved out a life here beneath the looming shadow of the mountainous volcano.

He was wandering, as he did most days, when he heard the call, and he lifted his handsome, heavy-jawed head toward the source of the sound with the slightest of frowns. It would be the first time that someone from another land had called upon them and while he had begun plotting out his own trips toward the surrounding groups, he had not anticipated that there were those who would beat him to the punch.

Shaking the dust from his coat, Magnus straightened and made his way toward the magician, his gold-flecked eyes measuring the stallion carefully as he approached. While Magnus and Ashley hailed from a Beqanna of old, their paths had never crossed. Magnus did not know of whatever greatness Ashley had claimed, and he is certain Ashley would not know of Magnus’ own accomplishments (of which Magnus thought little). He did not know Ashley had once ruled a kingdom he himself had served. He did not know that magic sparked in his veins. He simply knew he was a foreigner on his land’s border.

It was enough to warrant a polite, crooked smile. “You called?” He came to a stop, unsure how he felt being summoned but willing to let it slide for the moment. “I am Magnus. Welcome to Tephra.”

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Loyalty was always a fickle thing in Beqanna, but never more so than in this new world. When the land had opened up and swallowed the rest, it had left everything unsettled and different. Sure, alliances had forged from the old kingdoms, but they had been tenuous at best. Some kingdoms stuck together while others fell apart. Tephra had been, in theory, the coming together of the Tundra, the Chamber, and the Valley, but even that had been shaking. Magnus had been an outsider as a representative of the Gates, a kingdom historically aligned with none of the others, and over time, while Offspring, Malis and Eight still roamed the volcanic island, they had stepped down from the council and left it to him alone.

Magnus could only imagine that the similar happenings had shook the other kingdoms as well.

Of course, he has no way of knowing that, not yet. He does not know Ashley’s own illustrious history or even know anything about Ischia and the Queen that he served. He only knew him for the stallion before him now, wings tucked at his sides and eyes bright. At his comment of the scent, Magnus chuckled and glanced around them, “The scent gets easier with time. Particularly when the breeze picks up.” Those were the times that he liked best—when the wind brought with it the clean, salty scent of the ocean.

He tilted his head back to look at the volcano, his gold-flecked eyes studying the craggy cliffs and the fog that curled around its base. “I have lived in darker places,” he answered with a dark smile, thinking about about the belly of the Jungle where the canopy ran so thick that no sun could reach the ground and the shadows of the Chamber. “But there are places where the darkness does not reach so that the residents of the land can enjoy the sun on their backs.” Either way, he did not mind. He loved the land all the same.

Turning his gaze back toward the buckskin, he looked upon him for a moment, wondering what brought him to their shores. “And what of Ischia? I had planned to visit shortly, but you beat me to the punch. How goes life upon your island?” It would do Magnus well to learn of it while he had Ashley’s audience.

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