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  • Beqanna

    COTY

    Assailant -- Year 226

    QOTY

    "But the dream, the echo, slips from him as quickly as he had found it and as consciousness comes to him (a slap and not the gentle waves of oceanic tides), it dissolves entirely. His muscles relax as the cold claims him again, as the numbness sets in, and when his grey eyes open, there’s nothing but the faint after burn of a dream often trod and never remembered." --Brigade, written by Laura


    [private]  keep thinking about those angel eyes
    #11

    The expression on Reave's face practically smolders when Aela asks for his help. Reave has a broad smile but his sister thinks that the scope of magic that he wields is something even broader. The fire burning behind his blue eyes goes somewhere else, burns in other lifetimes perhaps, and the palomino doesn't move.

    Aela takes the opportunity to study him, to recognize the way that her spine tingles in the presence of his magic. His skill - the ability of foresight - is not one that she has encountered before. And there is a myriad of questions still swimming in her inquisitive mind but the golden mare stills it, focusing instead on the ivory edge of bone on Reave's shoulder. His emotions become harder to feel but Aela thinks she finds the perimeter of it and pushes past the border of concentration. His mind is wild with images (is this how it was for Glamfire?) and she can feel the weight of whatever futures that Reave is passing through.

    It is a power unlike her own and yet the sheer scope of it forces her back. Whatever she has seen, Aela knows that it is only the fringes of it. Mere waves crashing against the shore when what Reave sense could be a tsunami barreling towards it.

    Her head starts to pound and the slender mare takes a step back, lightly shaking her head in the process. It has bothered her greatly and despite the few futures that she had seen through Reave's mind, they had all been hazy. There had been nothing definitive. Was that how it always was for him?

    But perhaps being the more experienced Seer, Reave understands how to bring clarity to the visions.

    He certainly understands how to gain Aela's attention. Her brilliant gaze - a bright shade of summer blue - fixes on him as he asks her a nearly impossible question. If all the futures he saw were like rivers spanning out into creeks and streams, then Beqanna itself was a regal tree with many branches all bearing the weight of different kingdoms and territories. They might not be able to knock the tree down - not yet anyways - but the weight of one particular branch might grow too heavy. Perhaps, the burden might become too much and the limb falls, taking others with it.

    Her first choice would be the North. But Reave complicates that answer. The Nerinian Guardian is their only saving grace with Aela (now that Heartfire is gone). Maybe in time, he might indulge by letting her use Taiga as kindling (again) for something else; they could attempt to sink the Isle. But it the possibility of the West that could ignite some real possibilities.

    "What if we start with just one action?" she counters back to her brother. Aela saw Straia become swallowed whole by Pangea and so she knows there is danger in rushing ambition.  "We don't strike at the branches," she muses, "but rather the roots."

    #12

    i am the mace, the map, the fall and the high

    He isn’t aware of her watching him, lost as he is in the endless paths of the future. But when he returns to himself, it is to find her regarding him with something curious wrapped around her like a shroud. His question brings her back, but he is left to wonder what it is that had caused such introspection. With only visions and memories at his disposal, it is nearly impossible to know her present thoughts.

    She weighs what answer to give, and it is Reave’s turn to watch her. He is silent as she considers, watching her curiously. Watching the subtle play of emotions her thoughts of the various kingdoms cause as they drift through her mind.

    Her question brings his attention back into sharp focus. Shifting with unconscious agitation, Reave considers her question as carefully as she had considered his. After a moment, he replies slowly, “Roots and branches are all the same. Turn the tree upside down, and branches become roots.”

    A small, wry smile tugs at the corners of his lips then as he shakes his head. “There is no one action that will cause it to topple. This place was built too strongly for that.” He watches her close, tracking how she might respond to the proclamation. Reave has never been terribly good at the hypothetical. The metaphor they now explored tests the very edges of his wisdom. He could not tell her much more than he had already. Lips quirking with amusement, he adds almost as an afterthought, “Unless your goal is to annoy them in a hundred small ways instead.”

    As he considers her, his own mind curls around the problem. Quite abruptly, his eyes go vacant for several long heartbeats. When his attention has returned to her, a devilish smile is blooming across his mouth. “How do you feel about Hyaline?”

    reave



    @Aela
    #13

    "Turn the tree upside down and you no longer have a tree," Reave's palomino sister counters. She is thinking of Pangea and the way that Straia had met her (unfortunate) demise and the conversation she had following with their grandmother. Remove a branch and the tree could still stand (though she relented that some kind of disease could spread that way). "It is the roots that offer nourishment, that give it supplement." The sun had something to do with as well, perhaps.

    But Beqanna had lost their sun and much to her dismay, places like Taiga still existed.

    "Cut off that and you can greatly weaken it." The tree might not fall but it could suffer and Aela was willing to settle for that. It could be a place to start. This place is too deeply rooted to topple, Reave warns her and the golden mare accepts this counsel. That might be true. The former Raven Magician is lingering in her mind because she had gone against Carnage and the Dark God had punished her for it. She thinks that the ancient Beqanna entity much appreciates chaos but there is also another part of her that feels her stomach twist; what if He does not?

    "My goal is to sow distrust." She tells Reave and she knows that the bone-armored stallion is well aware of her on-goings in Loess and the Pampas. She plans to start there but her ambition is like Heartfire's ability (and his ability) to See. There are many parts of this plan and no corner of Beqanna is immune to it. That rakish smile blossoms across his handsome face and Aela shares another image with him.

    Perhaps he has Seen this but his sister gives him a warning.

    It is Gale as he devours her heart and her expression remains guarded, because Aela is still discovering the damage that her other sibling has wrought. "I would warn against Hyaline for now," she tells Reave, "unless you think that you are ready to tackle something like that." She continues to watch this relation closely because part of wonders about the possible futures that he has already Seen there. Did he know what would happen to Aela? And had his lack of a warning been intentional?

    She decides to forgo applying pressure on how to raze Taiga now. Her blue eyes deepen as she contemplates another future. "What do you See for Tephra?"

    @Reave

    #14

    i am the mace, the map, the fall and the high

    Reave laughs abruptly at her certainty that the tree would die, genuinely amused. “I did not need further proof that you have spent little time around trees, but you have given it.” He shares a vision then. A tree uprooted by a storm. The tree should have died, but instead branches burrowed into the soil to become roots even as roots had sprouted leaves to catch the sun. Just as trees had learned how fire could help as much as it hurt, so too had they found other ways to survive. Reave knows of her desire to burn Taiga until nothing existed there, but she would never succeed. She might burn it, it’s true. But the trees would come back. They would always come back.

    Still, perhaps he should warn her about the creatures that lurk in Taiga’s hidden depths. The ones who had ensured it did not burn last time. He suspects they would not take kindly to another attempt. But if she truly wished to try, who is he to stand in her way? Besides, she hadn’t asked.

    He grins widely at her, appreciating the game she plays regardless. “If you wish to sow distrust, you should start where there is the most distrust to sow.” He pauses then, eyes gleaming brightly behind the strange shadows of his mask. “You already have a very good head start there.”

    Reave sees the warning and understands it for what it is. He would have to be both blind and a fool not to recognize the threat that Gale posed. But even so, with the dark magician already wreaking havoc in the shifter pack, it is a tinderbox waiting to burn. It would be undoubtedly dangerous, but it would require only the smallest push. Perhaps the other kingdoms appear easier on the surface, but one thing he is quite certain of is that none of them would be truly without danger.

    “Tephra is quiet, but they house magicians too,” he eyes her with that familiarly devilish gleam in his eye. “If you want easy and without danger, you have chosen the wrong profession.” He pauses then, gaze going briefly distant before refocusing on her. “Tephra would be less likely to retaliate, and they would recover quickly. Unless you can muster an army…” He lifts one quizzical brow then, lips tilted in a wry grin. He suspects he already knows what his sister’s answer will be. “Is that what you wish?”

    reave



    @Aela
    #15

    YOU'RE ONLY AS SICK AS YOUR SECRETS

    There is an ominous warning sparkling in Aela's blue eyes.

    She doesn't need further reminding about the years she spent trapped in Taiga. Aela would push herself as far as she could from that place and what Reave touches upon is a tender subject with the empath. Her brother shows her an image of a felled tree where the roots burrow themselves into the ground and then the tree itself arises again like a phoenix. The trees might always come back but his golden sister doesn't mind filling his mind with images of her own: trees fallen by storms that rot and decompose into the ground until they are nothing. Trees that suffer from diseases that leave their branches bare until they finally fall. A painful, agonizing existence as they continue to die off - limb by limb.

    "Loess has been rather easy," Aela confides to Reave after the memories fade between them. "A new ruler in one territory. Notorious rumors about the other." Those are all angles that are easily manipulated and for the palomino - who has the emotions of others so close in her reach - it is not a hard feat; it is not a challenge like Aela truly wants.

    Tephra could be the one she seeks and as her mind blazes with Skandar, she thinks that targeting the Western kingdom could be a fitting one.

    The coy smile returns, even though this is Reave. "I want chaos," she tells her bone-armored brother. She takes another step towards the Nerinian leader and Aela attempts to share with him all the ways that they could accomplish that. If he wants to go after Hyaline, she wouldn't stop him. But the pack that resides there was well-guarded by entities as well as her half-brother, Gale. A strike there would have to be strategically planned, despite the way that she assumed they both wished for pandemonioum.

    "Give me time and we might be able to achieve an army," and Aela believes that this might be something for the Pampas. She had whispered to Obscene about stealing the best and brightest from several of the kingdoms; an indentured period in their fighting force was another angle that she hadn't even considered. The golden-striped mare hadn't wanted alliances - not the ones other than between herself and Obscene and Reave and Skandar - but there was an opportunity if they could convince Hyaline to align them.

    Or at the very least, look the other way.

    "My half-brother has odd tastes," Aela murmurs, and wonders what the brindled stallion might think of what she is entertaining. Her blue eyes sparkle menacingly, "what if we were to help expand his palate?"

    It's a rather delightful thought, the realization that those who don't fall in line with their plans might be fed to Gale.



    @Reave
    #16

    i am the mace, the map, the fall and the high

    Reave nearly laughs again when she bombards him with diseased and dying trees, images swimming in her hatred and vengeance. He nearly laughs because it seems she could not see the forest through the trees. The metaphor hadn’t been about trees - he could have used a pile of rocks just as easily. Aela wished so badly to be right that she had entirely missed the point he had been trying to make. And as he stares at her, he has to wonder if she could ever truly achieve the level separation she would need if she wished to pull this off.

    Those thoughts he keeps to himself however.

    Instead he grins at her proclamation. Though he has not taken the time to dive too deeply into the history of each kingdom, he knows Loess has long been an unstable kingdom. “Loess is always easy,” he replies, blue eyes gleaming with his amusement. There are few who would keep Aela humble, but Reave has never shied away from the more dangerous paths. But then, they both know the southern kingdom is not the problem.

    While Aela dreams of chaos, schemes and plans swirling as she tries to piece together a strategy to inspire, Reave watches her. And he watches the future shift and change around her. He could see no clear path to the complete and utter madness she so wished. His warnings had not been given because he wished to stop her. No, they had been given because he needs her to be clever about it. She wants to target one first, then the other. But it’s a foolish tactic. It would give the other time to plan and prepare, and as he follows that route, he can see their successes dwindle and falter.

    No, they need more.

    Her plan to involve Gale is not uninspired. But Reave has seen enough the aftermath of their mutual relation’s antics to know no loyalty beats in the cursed creature’s heart. Finally, after a lengthy silence spent watching her plans unfold, Reave speaks. “If you wish to involve Gale, you should place no trust in him. Even if he agrees to whatever you might offer, he does it for only his own gain.” He smiles, though it is a dangerous smile. A warning, much like the one she had given. “Whatever you offer needs to benefit him as much as you.”

    But while Aela courted and woo’d the shifters of the East, Reave is beginning to form other ideas. A two-pronged approach, as it were. “You are a better diplomat, so it makes sense for you to court them.” Reave shifts, the wicked thoughts bringing forth an equally wicked expression. “I will take a different approach.” He grins, anticipation bubbling inside his chest. “You wanted chaos? So let’s poke the bear.”

    reave



    @Aela
    #17

    YOU'RE ONLY AS SICK AS YOUR SECRETS

    If Reave thought he could harbor his doubts, then he underestimated his sister.

    The doubt is there - perhaps not as clear or perceptible as someone who didn't know to shield their emotions - but Aela sees it. More than that, she can sense it seeping so deep into her that she can feel it in her bones. The warning dissipates in her blue eyes but her pretty smile holds a lethal edge.

    (Not at Reave, never at her brother. But the doubt itself is something she would wash clean from Beqanna. By fire, by flood, by war - Aela didn't care the means. She only knew that by the time she was through, there would be nobody left alive to doubt her.)

    "Perhaps you should join in the fun," his sister teases him with a blazing gaze. Loess was proving to be easy for the young Empath and it felt... selfish to hoard such uncomplicated quarry. Her smile lifts a little, imagining the fun that Reave might find there. There was unsettled Sabra whose mind was full of lightning strikes and Aela still had yet to discover what the opalescent woman was truly capable of. Loess itself had fallen quiet again and though it wasn't hard to strike a sleeping giant, the palomino had been mindful of waiting for the right time.

    A prod to one of their young diplomats had been an enjoyable game but with Reave and all the possible futures playing out in his mind, perhaps, the slender creature muses, he is right. Perhaps she hasn't been thinking big enough. Perhaps they needed action so large that it could spear-headed all those potential paths into a few.

    Sharpening her focus on her brother, Aela asks: "Is there a future where we might use his gain to our advantage?" Whatever her brother was, he was powerful. She would much rather be the one to strike but if Gale had a future full of chaos, why not use it? Reave is right, though, that there would have to be something if they were to bargain with that beast in the East. But her mind can't fathom what that would be, not without speaking with him again.

    She shudders at the thought and the phantom scar on her chest aches, itching as if Gale's magic was still writhing around her fractured heart.

    The mention of a bear distracts and then inspires her.

    "Did you know Loess has a pet bear?" Aela says smoothly, sharing the images of golden Ledger in the Southern kingdom. As a resident of the Pampas, she was bound by laws that prevented her from stealing him. But Reave - her wonderful brother, Reave - was not bound by such laws. "Perhaps you could borrow him," the striped mare muses with a blooming smile.



    @Reave
    #18

    i am the mace, the map, the fall and the high

    If there is one thing Reave would never do, it would be to underestimate his sister. But some things she would not believe when spoken openly. Some things she needed to discover for herself. Perhaps he is not as clever or omniscient as he might like, but he has come to know equine-nature rather well.

    Returning her teasing invitation with a wicked grin of his own, Reave lifts his head, tossing the wheaten strands of his forelock from his eyes. Where Aela has long found her joy in the manipulation of others - in twisting and pulling until she finds their weakest spots to exploit, Reave has found his in recklessness and danger. He has not had nearly so much of it as he might have wished lately, and her suggestion is tinged with just enough of it to draw his interest.

    It is in that moment that he recognizes their disconnect. And he laughs, because he suddenly knows just how they might be able to best help one another.

    Though for a moment it must seem that way to her, Reave is not actually laughing at her question about using Gale advantageously. The pause before answering undoubtedly does not help, but his reply when it comes is thoughtful and considered. “There is, but the path forward is… convoluted.”

    It goes without saying that he would need more if she wanted to know a path that led to the outcome she desired in that situation. He would not commit himself to divulging such an uncertain future. Not yet, in any case.

    His grin widens when she draws inspiration from his fortuitously timed colloquialism. It is an intriguing thought, and Reave would not be opposed to facing off with a bear. But he has to wonder if she is not thinking large enough. “I am intrigued, but,” he pauses, features cunning behind the bone mask, “is their pet bear truly the most… provocative option?”

    reave



    @Aela
    #19

    YOU'RE ONLY AS SICK AS YOUR SECRETS

    Her lips press together in a thin line as she considers Gale.

    She wants to question him again. And like she has done with so many others, Aela wants to know where his weakest points lie. But to do that means to return to Hyaline and the palomino doesn't mean to that without an offering and some kind of protection to ward her half-sibling away from her powers.

    A Magician would be helpful. Pangea had them growing once like the weeds that grew in Tephra now. But Eight hasn't been sighted in ages and she doesn't know enough about the mentor that had once taught Beyza. (Her pale friend, though, does come to mind. Perhaps she was overdue for a trip to the place she would always consider her home.) She wonders if Reave might see something advantageous that might work in their favor - a location, a moment that might act as the catalyst for others - but that would require more knowledge.

    (And she certainly can't blame her brother for not wanting to meet with Gale yet. Not until they had some kind of leverage.)

    Where Reave wonders if she isn't dreaming big enough, Aela offers him a few glimpses into her mind. Lets him see the web that she is spinning.

    "I have a feeling that he's rather special to the Loessian queen," Aela reveals with another flourishing smile. Ledger was preferable because the golden brute was drowning in emotion. She didn't think it would take much to break him. The grief was already there, threatening to drown him. All he needed was a good shove. Loess hadn't done much when one of their own had been stolen by Pangea, Aela remembered. The silver pegasus had done his year in captivity without so much as an emissary to see how he fared.

    If they brought him to Nerine or the Pampas, the worst that could happen was that Loess would do nothing.

    "But he could be an influential bargaining point, if we were to decide something against Tephra or Hyaline."

    Or, perhaps, both.

    @Reave

    #20

    i am the mace, the map, the fall and the high

    In this, their interests align perfectly. Just as Aela does not wish to confront Gale a second time without some sort of leverage, neither does Reave (though for a first time rather than a second - he has seen enough to know he had better be well prepared when they meet). Even as Aela considers what magicians they might be able to sway to their side, Reave too considers their other options. Magicians are not the only ones with power, after all.

    And magicians are hardly omnipotent. Not anymore. Not in this new world that had been carved from the ashes of the old.

    As Aela opens her memories to him - the glimpses of her plans - something insidious begins to suffuse his bone-masked expression. Tilting his head, he eyes Aela with one matching blue eye as she expounds on her thoughts for thievery. Reave has never been above such things (after all, his entire life had been built on that very thing - even his name), but he would not be foolish about it.

    His grin deepens as she speaks, and he can see already the ways in which her plan might play itself out. If he truly means something to the Loessian queen, he could be valuable. And if he isn’t… well, it would be good practice. But at the end of the day, there would only be one way to find out for certain however.

    When Reave finally makes his decision, there is no vacillation. No hesitation. He has never been one to second guess himself once he has made up his mind, nor would he start now. “I will take him then,” he agrees simply, eyes gleaming with a dangerous anticipation. He finds now that they have found a direction in which to go, that there is an intoxicating sort of excitement in the whiplash visions of the future now unfolding before him.

    reave



    @Aela




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