[mature] i feel a bad moon rising | heartfire - Printable Version +- Beqanna (https://beqanna.com/forum) +-- Forum: OOC (https://beqanna.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=24) +--- Forum: Archive (https://beqanna.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=81) +---- Forum: Lands (https://beqanna.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=98) +----- Forum: Nerine (https://beqanna.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=91) +----- Thread: [mature] i feel a bad moon rising | heartfire (/showthread.php?tid=24816) |
i feel a bad moon rising | heartfire - Lepis - 08-28-2019 Each exhaled breath is a cloud that streams to either side of her body as she walks, further blurring the edges of her vision. Fog already blankets the forest, though it grows progressively thinner as she travels farther and farther north. The cold that has prevented the northern creep of her forest’s fog has instead turned the moisture in the air to hoarfrost. What little vegetation remains (mostly the evergreens - pine and spruce and juniper) sparkles in the weak afternoon sunlight. The air here is more still than she expected; her hilly homeland always has a breeze of some sort, and she’d thought the same would be true of the terrain of Nerine. If she were down on the beach rather than at the heart of the kingdom, she would understand where the gales are trapped, beating against the unforgiving granite. Lepis had considered flying, but she does not know her northern border well and has taken the chance to reacquaint herself with them. Despite the tension in their last meeting, Lepis has given the security of the north no further thought; Nerine might not be her very favorite, but they do not strike the golden tobiano mare as one to spill unnecessary blood. If there were to be losses as a consequence of what Lepis has planned, at least she trusted that none of them would be a loss of life. She is secure enough to come alone, having told her still drowsy nestmate that she was just going on walk. That was true of course (she has never lied to her husband), but the destination of her walk today is far different than her usual treks through the redwoods. Shuffling her golden wings, the dun mare now pauses beside a path worn by many hooves. It is the first of its kind she’s come across on her journey north – a patrol route around the border of Nerine, she suspects. She stops beside it after a brief walk east and then west along it, satisfied that it will work as a demarcation of their border and a suitable place to wait. Raising her dun mouth, a clear call issues from her lips. She readjusts her weight, resting one golden hip against a broad tree trunk as a small gust of wind appears for just a moment to nip at the long strands of her navy mane. Lepis shakes them back into place as she settles in to wait. @[Heartfire] RE: i feel a bad moon rising | heartfire - Heartfire - 08-29-2019 She's got the devil's eyes Heartfire has never been a woman especially given to violence. Were she aware of Lepis’ thoughts on the matter, she would be inclined to agree that she is not one to spill unnecessary blood. The mistake however, lies in the belief that of the losses that might accrue, none of them would likely be life. Heartfire may not be an indiscriminate murderer, but she has little compunction in performing the act if she finds it necessary. and they'll cut you like a weapon Heartfire RE: i feel a bad moon rising | heartfire - Lepis - 08-29-2019 Heartfire had declined to participate in the discussion that Lepis had started and the subsequent offer that the Comtesse had made, but at the mention of a ‘threat’, Lepis blinks. She is genuinely taken aback, despite having been sure she’d considered each potential ending to this conversation on her journey north. “My threat?” She repeats, and the furrow of her blue striped brow matches the disbelief in her voice. Lepis might not be a spring chicken anymore, but surely she is not already losing her memory? She’d certainly not treated with Heartfire the same way that they had with Aten; there’s been no promise of violence if all did not go smoothly. But then, with a dawning realization in her voice (if not a clearing of her frown) she repeats: “My threat. My threat to make Taiga safer.” She does not elaborate further, but the frown on her face lightens to something that is quite like the blank mask that Heartfire had worn on her visit to Nerine. “I did come to discuss that, but I don’t think there’s anything to retract. I shared my plans and made you an offer. But if you felt that was a threat…” She trails off with a shrug of her winged shoulders, and this time there is amusement in her eyes when she adds: “You might not like this conversation either.” Bane had asked her if she was happy, and while she’d given him an answer, the question has plagued her since. She had always been certain before. She would take Taiga, and then the North, and then Beqanna. Her world would be united and her family would be safe. Others’ families would be safe. That her methods are unorthodox is something she accepts, but she’d been sure if was the best way, the fastest way, the quickest way. “I came to ask why you refused to discuss it. To find out why you think Nerine is more capable than Loess and her allies to defend Taiga, and why you think this quiet cliffside deserves to be the kingdom rather than our growing redwood forest.” Perhaps there is something she is missing, Lepis reasons. Aten had acquiesced to the logic of their demands. Heartfire should have been no different. @[Heartfire] RE: i feel a bad moon rising | heartfire - Heartfire - 09-05-2019 She's got the devil's eyes It would be quite amusing were the situation not so serious. Doubly so were she not positive that Lepis believed absolutely in what she was doing - in the righteousness of her actions and surety of success. She had come to realize there is an almost fanaticism that blinds her, driving her forward without allowing her pause to consider all facets. and they'll cut you like a weapon Heartfire RE: i feel a bad moon rising | heartfire - Lepis - 09-09-2019 Lepis has always loved diplomacy. The tales her mother and uncle spun her of treaties and alliances, blood-bonds and marriage-ties - they fascinated the dun pegasus since she was a small child. But in her delight, she had been overeager to try her own hand at it, and the plethora of scars that hide beneath her navy curls are ever-present proof of that. Lepis had learned in the autumn woods that spoken words and promises made aloud were nothing more than the surface layer of diplomacy. There is far more lurking in the depths, and it is that which Lepis has reached for, that which she grasps so tightly. Diplomacy is a shield for most politicians. They hold it ahead of them, drawing attention and notice to the firm words, the well-meaning promises, the detail and meaning behind carefully phrased sentences, all of it serving as decorative woodwork on the pretty shield. Lepis prefers to use the shield as a battering ram. "I didn't need your permission to take the Taiga." She replies to Heartfire's claim that it was she who failed. Lepis does not fail. She does not let herself. Heartfire's interpretation of her fanaticism is not far from the truth; the Comtesse's self-confidence has always danced along the edge of arrogance."And I do not need your permission to keep it." Lepis knows that she wishes peace. That is why she is here, that is why she has done all she has. She has made no mistakes - save perhaps not requesting Heartfire simply burnt out of Nerine. She has refrained because there could be children here, and the place is not so far from redemption as Sylva. She does think things through - but the conclusions she makes are her own. "You forgot my question in your lecture, I think." She tells Heartfire with a smile that does not reach her grey-blue eyes. "Why should Taiga remain a territory of Nerine?" There is a breif pause, long enough to blink, long enough to consider what she might add, how she might impress on this roan mare how very serious she is. "I spoke of this with Aten, and he thinks that you and the Isle would be vulnerable with Taiga pledged to Loess." He had said other things as well, but Lepis had not watched him say it. Her intent is to rattle the icey serenity of the Nerinian Queen, to let her know that Lepis has not been quiet with her plans. "Castile said we should not give you options, but I felt you've ruled long enough to deserve a choice - and you are family after all." Two can use Wolfbane, it seems. @[Heartfire] RE: i feel a bad moon rising | heartfire - Heartfire - 09-17-2019 She's got the devil's eyes This was not a conversation she had intended to have. There was no way to say the things she believed without entirely offending the golden mare before her. And while she did not have any particular care as to whether or not Lepis was offended, she would rather things fall according to her schedule. Still, she has nearly everything in place already. And, well, Lepis had asked, hadn’t she? and they'll cut you like a weapon Heartfire RE: i feel a bad moon rising | heartfire - Lepis - 09-21-2019 For quite a long moment, Lepis simply frowns, her grey eyes narrowed (though not necessarily at the roan mare ahead of her). It is clear that she is thinking, turning over not only what Heartfire has said to her but other things as well. Bits and pieces; facts and strings of knowledge that have no meaning by themselves, but that she has always been certain that she can place together in a comprehensive woven whole. Heartfire seems determined to throw knots into her weaving, to insist that the thread Lepis wants here should instead go there. The Nerinian Queen is wrong, Lepis knows, because how can they both be right? "Perhaps we think of peace differently." Lepis finally says, and it seems she will ignore the insult to her diplomatic skills, the threat of destruction, and everything that has been said in between. "Perhaps you just don't understand this quite the way I do." The dun mare doesn't mean to project, but such unconscious acts are not uncommon. As Heartfire has found out, and as others have suspected, Lepis' skill with diplomacy does not really lie in her silver tongue. She does get what she wants - she almost always has - but it is the intangible gift she's always possessed that put such things within her grasp. She is careful, with a decade of practice and precision in her ability. "I will not give up Taiga." She tells Heartfire again, and the words are not the only thing that drift in the space between them. Admiration comes too, chosen for Heartfire because it is not so unbelievable an emotion for her to feel for Lepis: this woman who refuses to back down. Not too heavy, Lepis knows, not quite enough that it will strike Heartfire as unnatural. There is a fine line, and she means to skirt it carefully. "I mean to bring peace to Beqanna." She tells the roan mare. "If you cannot understand my methods" - and she might now, with the emotion Lepis had sent earlier, but she cannot know for certain - "Then I ask that you at least accept that I have good intentions." Lepis does, at heart, mean well, and this earnestness is reflected in more than her subtle use of empathic projection. "If I'd listened to Castile, like you suggest, we'd stand amidst ashes. Nerine is no more than tinder to a dragon - Beqanna is nothing but tinder." This time there is nothing but her words, and the brightness in her eyes that dares the roan mare to contradict her. Heartfire had been there, Lepis knows; she had seen Tephra burn. They live in a flammable world, but only one of them holds sway with the firestarters. "But I do not want war. I do not think Castile truly wants war, for all that he and his allies are ready for it." This, perhaps, she lies about, for who can truly know the mind of a dragon? What she does know, though, is that she is more than capable of gentling a monster if the need were ever to arise. "Perhaps it is him you should speak to," Lepis suggests, "Perhaps he can convince you why I feel Taiga would be far safer under Loess' protection than that of the North, since you find it so hard to take me at my word." It hovers, the softest bit of emotion at the edges of their conversation, the lightest touch of the exact emotion that might sway Heartfire to most seriously consider the Comtesse's suggestion. @[Heartfire] RE: i feel a bad moon rising | heartfire - Heartfire - 10-08-2019 She's got the devil's eyes Heartfire is not a woman easily swayed by words. Were the other mare more heavy handed with her influence, Heartfire might have grown suspicious. Might have wondered, after all that was said, how it were she had so easily changed her mind. But there is a subtle finesse in the fine threads of influence, carefully treading the line of nudging and pushing. and they'll cut you like a weapon Heartfire |