While his blood family shrinks in number every year, his Dalean family grows.
He takes comfort in the fact that the kingdom has filled more and more with each passing season. He enjoys the tight-knit community they’ve created, the comradery that has blossomed between the misfits and wanderers who have chosen the Dale. It’s not an active, burgeoning, bustling place like he thinks the Chamber must be. But then again, he didn’t think the residents were ready for that level of growth – not before, anyway. Before, they’d needed time to heal: Soliel with her vanished memories, Graveling with her rotting flesh, Isetnofret and Weir with the loss of their child. Sometimes, Ramiel wonders if the Dale has become the new Falls in its proclivity to take in the wounded, physically or otherwise.
Now, he hopes they are mostly whole, or at least patched up.
Now, there is work to be done and changes to be made. As his parents fade into the background of his life (no longer the pillars on which he can comfortably rest, should the crown become too cumbersome) and his sister moves on to make her own, he knows it is his time to step up. It’s time for the Dale, too, as well. They need to either find their place in the scheme of Beqanna or make their own. He has his own ideas on what direction to send the mountain land, but he wants to get the kingdom’s opinion on the matter as a whole before implementing them. Keeping the feeling of family alive and well has always been his first concern.
Ramiel is mulling over the idea of calling them all together when he hears his name on the wind. An exotic, earthy smell accompanies his moniker on winter’s dying breath. The Jungle. The most easily recognized scent of all, for its foreignness from the others. Sure it is his sister, the grey stallion moves into motion immediately, abandoning his favorite place alongside the river. The ground is hard with frost, but he pays his punished joints no mind as he canters towards the border. If it is indeed Joscelin (and he thinks it must be; she’s lasted longer than he thought she would without a visit home) he wonders why she’s worried about respecting boundaries – he’d sooner ask Carnage to join the ranks than ask that of her.
But as he draws closer, he realizes why the scent is still so strong, despite the cold winds pulling it in all directions. This isn’t a simple homecoming. The toothy grin he’d been wearing in anticipation for her half-sister fades into a proper, welcoming smile instead. Soliel is there already, and he is happily surprised to see Ea as well. He comes to stand next to Soliel, giving her a quick nudge of support before facing the Amazonians. Three grown women, a young child, and a man. A man? His gaze lingers on the winged stallion the longest, curiosity sparking in his golden eyes, but he makes no comment on the way the man seems to position himself closer to Joscelin than the other women. As wrong as he is on that thought, he spares it only a second before turning back to the largest mare among them. He already knows that she is the new Khaleesi, this Lagertha, but he nods anyway when Josc introduces her. “Congratulations, Lagertha.”
He smiles at her before taking in the others as well. “As Soliel said, welcome.” The cracked-skinned bay introduces the young filly as a princess, and Ramiel smiles even warmer at her. She looks nothing like her steel mother, but he doesn’t comment on it, of course. She seems cold, though, so he shares a worried look with his sister. “Can you warm her with your light? It must feel like the Tundra here to you all.” He is as concerned to ask it of her as he is for the girl, since the last time Joscelin had damaged an entire meadow with her lack of control. But perhaps she’s learned since then; he hopes, anyway.
Once that’s out of the way, he figures they should get down to business. “I’m sure you are aware of our standing agreement with Scorch?” The ghost king watches the khaleesi for signs of recognition before he continues on. “Does the arrangement still hold now that you are on the throne? For our part, we’d very much like to continue the relationship. Truthfully, we’d like to make it a working, mutual partnership rather than an alliance in name alone.” And he doesn’t say that the Amazons had gotten the better end of the bargain (that they should be in debt to the Dale for the hard-worker they’d gotten) but he wants to. Dalten had appeared only once, and though Ea had said she would stay, her presence has been quiet and elusive as she adjusts to her new home. Ramiel’s eyes find Joscelin’s, an unspoken apology for their father’s decision to ship her off reflecting in them. But she’s done alright for herself, it seems. She is confident and proud – a far cry from the broken girl he’d seen the last time. Still, he misses her here.
Ramiel
ghost king of the dale