[private] you can't hold back time

[Nashua]

Once upon a time, when Nashua was still discovering his wings, he finally decided to brave the open sea. The Isle had loomed in the distance, a small, glistening speck on the horizon, but it had shone to the young pegasus, as bright as Polaris. Nash had spent weeks staring over the ocean, studying the waves and the tides and the way that wind could roar over the open water.

But it had been the gentle nudge from his maternal aunt - her golden shoulder lightly pressed into his winged one - that had finally prompted Nash to make the journey. "We have a duty to ourselves, to our kingdom, and to our family, Nash. While I've given it to all of them, I've found that only one has offered to share the burden." The words had been spoken when Nashua had still been young, considering a wardship on the Isle under Leilan, and yet worrying what it might mean for his Taigan ties. He hadn't wanted to sever those connections and when Elena had spoken those words to him, it had made the young pegasus consider: why choose?

If his family was the North and the North was their kingdom, why couldn't duty to family and country become the same? In his youth, it had seemed like such a practical idea. As Nash grew older, when he had witnessed Yanhua's coronation with both their families in attendance, with even some of their half-siblings coming, the then-Hersir had thought that the dream might even be attainable. And perhaps, it could have been a little bigger. Having Gale in Hyaline had made Nashua wonder about all the good that they might accomplish, that temporary peace could be made a lasting one through blood and bonds. That it could spread not only from the North, to the West, and even that kingdom that saw the demise of his notorious father, the South.

A copper ear flicks towards his niece, as he listens to her mention of a meeting in the autumn.

Nash's dream is gone; vanished like his missing twin.

But, perhaps, not all hope is lost.
Perhaps it was to come through Cheri, an onyx-and-viridian beacon of change.

His green eyes glance down to meet her emerald ones, listening as she went on to explain that the meeting would be held with other leaders. Reave, another family member, would be going. It might have failed for Nash, this dream of a triumvirate of brothers crowning a kingdom. But here was a chance to still do something good; here was a chance to bring two realms together and as Cheri mentions the threat lurking in Hyaline, he agrees whole-heartedly with her statement that they would be stronger together.

Together might be the only way to contain Gale and Mazikeen in the end.

"Be careful of Hyaline," Nashua finally warns her. He wondered briefly, what she knew of Gale and how much she had heard about the stirrings in the East (apart from the theft of Bolder). What had Yanhua told her, if he had even said anything at all? His expression turns dark and troubled, as he glances back out over the ocean. "It seems to be attracted to... familial ties." He finally elaborates in a quiet tone, recalling that Cheri had been at the Midsummer Festival. The gleaming gold-and-blue hides of his half-brothers had been pointed out to his own children, and their relation had been no secret among the rest of the family. "And Loess is...," Nashua starts, "Gale was born there." Did that spare Cheri's adopted home? Or make it a target?

He couldn't be sure of anything that Gale did, but he would do his best to ensure that Cheri wouldn't be taken by surprise as he had been.

And perhaps this route - by agreeing to this summit she was calling - would be the best way to help not only his niece but the entirety of the North as well, perhaps even Beqanna. The white caps rolled higher, and the winds changed direction, a sure sign of a coming storm. "Aye," he said and found the beginning of a tender smile for Yanhua's daughter, a rare thing for the now-stoic Freyr. "I'll come."

@Cheri