02-24-2018, 02:26 PM
While she had been raised there in the shade of the saguaros, the desert has not been Djinni’s home since she was a child. A childhood that is five lifetimes gone, far beyond the reach of any mortal memory. She has never served a kingdom; the idea of putting a land above herself still remains utterly alien. From time to time she’d toyed with settling down, but it was in a pine-heavy northern kingdom, and she would not have stayed for the landscape.
The empty sand, the echoing caves, the way the sisterhood has fallen silent without Nayl’s iron rule? Does she think Djinni gives a damn about any of that?
Does the think having been tucked beside a certain golden side makes her omniscient? Does she think age alone makes one wise? Does she doubt - even for a moment - that Djinni would not leave her for the sharks solely for her own amusement? Djinni cares less for the welfare of the kingdom of Nerine than she does for the cloud of gnats that she’s just flicked away with her golden tail.
She has returned here time and again for the sake of those bright lives that called it home. Nay, Isobell, her own daughter, and Walter. They are what binds her to this place (for all she finds the beauty of the land forever breathtaking).
It is a vast overstatement then, to say that Hestia knows anything of Djinni. She thinks she does not know the full extent of Djinni’s history? No - she knows nothing of Djinni’s history at all, especially given that she has never shared the truth of her birth land with a single soul.
These thoughts - these and many more - flicker in the depths of her sea green eyes while she waits for the queen to reply.
Hestia’s laughter is a pleasant surprise; it reminds the dun mare of Nayl.
She acknowledges the truth of the mare’s first statement with a dip of her head and the faintest hit of a smile at the corners of her dark mouth.
”You’ve exceeded expectations,” replies the genie, and while the words remain sharp, the force behind them is infinitely less.
Hestia asks if Djinni is able to catch her up on the history that she has missed. Briefly, she considers being literal - yes, she’s able to but that doesn’t necessarily mean she is willing - but chooses not to.
”Naga disappeared not long after you did. Nayl challenged her for the throne, and Naga abdicated in the midst of battle. For a while, Nayl ruled an empire, but with time she chose to let the subkingdoms become responsible in their own right. She stepped down to allow her daughter to rule, but Isobell didn’t stay for long. She’s somewhere out in the sea, last I knew.” Out in the sea with her son, Djinni doesn’t say, raising her only grandson in the depths of the ocean.
”Nayl did not make me Nerine’s mage for my undying loyalty to the cause of sisterhood,” she says to Hestia. It is best that she not start her reign entirely buoyed by false impressions and faulty intelligence, ”She did so because she knew that I could defend this place easier than any army, were I so inclined.”
If the Fourth Queen of Nerine would inspire such an inclination remains to be seen, but Hestia has shown a spark of promise. Djinni has always been fondest of those most willing to speak their minds and laugh at their own folly.
Still, she knows the those that are fond of kingdoms always do best on sturdy ground, and she supposes there is no harm in reassuring Hestia that she has no immediate intentions of forsaking the granite shores.
”I imagine I’ll be inclined so long as Starlin and Walter call Nerine home.”
The empty sand, the echoing caves, the way the sisterhood has fallen silent without Nayl’s iron rule? Does she think Djinni gives a damn about any of that?
Does the think having been tucked beside a certain golden side makes her omniscient? Does she think age alone makes one wise? Does she doubt - even for a moment - that Djinni would not leave her for the sharks solely for her own amusement? Djinni cares less for the welfare of the kingdom of Nerine than she does for the cloud of gnats that she’s just flicked away with her golden tail.
She has returned here time and again for the sake of those bright lives that called it home. Nay, Isobell, her own daughter, and Walter. They are what binds her to this place (for all she finds the beauty of the land forever breathtaking).
It is a vast overstatement then, to say that Hestia knows anything of Djinni. She thinks she does not know the full extent of Djinni’s history? No - she knows nothing of Djinni’s history at all, especially given that she has never shared the truth of her birth land with a single soul.
These thoughts - these and many more - flicker in the depths of her sea green eyes while she waits for the queen to reply.
Hestia’s laughter is a pleasant surprise; it reminds the dun mare of Nayl.
She acknowledges the truth of the mare’s first statement with a dip of her head and the faintest hit of a smile at the corners of her dark mouth.
”You’ve exceeded expectations,” replies the genie, and while the words remain sharp, the force behind them is infinitely less.
Hestia asks if Djinni is able to catch her up on the history that she has missed. Briefly, she considers being literal - yes, she’s able to but that doesn’t necessarily mean she is willing - but chooses not to.
”Naga disappeared not long after you did. Nayl challenged her for the throne, and Naga abdicated in the midst of battle. For a while, Nayl ruled an empire, but with time she chose to let the subkingdoms become responsible in their own right. She stepped down to allow her daughter to rule, but Isobell didn’t stay for long. She’s somewhere out in the sea, last I knew.” Out in the sea with her son, Djinni doesn’t say, raising her only grandson in the depths of the ocean.
”Nayl did not make me Nerine’s mage for my undying loyalty to the cause of sisterhood,” she says to Hestia. It is best that she not start her reign entirely buoyed by false impressions and faulty intelligence, ”She did so because she knew that I could defend this place easier than any army, were I so inclined.”
If the Fourth Queen of Nerine would inspire such an inclination remains to be seen, but Hestia has shown a spark of promise. Djinni has always been fondest of those most willing to speak their minds and laugh at their own folly.
Still, she knows the those that are fond of kingdoms always do best on sturdy ground, and she supposes there is no harm in reassuring Hestia that she has no immediate intentions of forsaking the granite shores.
”I imagine I’ll be inclined so long as Starlin and Walter call Nerine home.”
D J I N N I
genie | rose gold tobiano dun | trickster