i am the mace, the map, the fall and the high
If Reave had been born without all his power of sight and memory, it’s possible he may have grown to be the normal, steadfast stallion Nashua wished to see. But he had not been, and so he had been immersed in heartache - both his own and not - since he had taken his first breaths. That sort of introduction to the world would change any creature, especially a young and malleable one who had never experienced anything before.
He had been born into sorrow and grief and rage, and it has not abated. His recklessness is only one response to the fuel of that existence. But Nashua hadn’t bothered to learn that much about his youngest brother, so it comes as no surprise that he does not understand his actions now.
The older pegasus has excuses ready on his tongue, and if they had been anything else, perhaps Reave might have been able to keep the smirk on his lips and the laughter on his tongue. Instead whatever good humor might have been lingering dissipates like sea-spray on Nerine’s cliffs, the vibrant blue of his gaze settling into something fiercely cold.
“So you assume I am able to pull knowledge from thin air then?” he bites out acerbically, unable to keep his tongue in check. “Or that I do not have troubles of my own to handle?” Though it shouldn’t be, it is a punch to the gut that his own brother knows so little of his gifts that he thinks he could just miraculously pull news from nothing. Even Aela, in her arrogance, had never assumed so much. So what did that say of Nashua’s arrogance?
“Since it seems to have escaped your notice,” he continues, voice as chilly as his eyes, “I cannot, in fact, find something from nothing.” He pauses, legs still for once. The stoniness of his features hides the hurt his brother had unintentionally inflicted. “I couldn’t have known about your son until your mate asked because I needed her connection to him.”
“As for Yanhua.” His voice grows low, though it cannot hide the razor edge to it. “Your connection is far stronger to him than mine. I assumed - wrongly, I guess - that if you wanted to know more, you would have asked.” Reave grits his teeth, eyes flashing. His brother sought to upbraid him, but Reave is not so easily taken to task. “Could I have found him without you? Not easily, but yes. But he is your priority, not mine. Why the hell would I waste my energy when I had more important things to do, like ensuring the fucking future of the North?”
reave
@Nashua