Straia;

[Straia]

sometimes we want what we want --
    -- even if we know it’s going to kill us.

How so?

A slow smile curves her lips at the question. “Magic thrived in my Beqanna. I was given my magic through the kingdom I ruled. Atrox’s heart beat beneath your feet in the Chamber. An ever-burning tree showed glimpses of the future, for the price of your blood. Other kingdoms had other pieces of magic. Healing waterfalls, pools that gifted companions.” She imagines those lands, those magical entities, and around them, she creates their image. The prophecy tree burns nearby, the waterfall of the Falls roars in the distance, the pool of the Dale shimmers to their left. She shows him, because she can, before the ghosts of the past fade away. “But we abused the power we were given, and as such, it was taken away.” We, because she had absolutely been part of the cause. Part, because she is not so full of herself as to believe she was the entire problem.

She listens, focusing on him as he tells of his desires. “I am, and yet, you do not know my story. Time will erase us all, eventually. And there are many ways to leave a legacy. I chose to build a kingdom that was feared, to make my name one whispered in fear and synonyms with destruction. You can choose a different legacy though. Kindness builds its own legacy, though I don’t think that’s what you have in mind. A family, one large and lasting, builds another kind.” She will not steer his path, but rather, she will open it. She will push and prod until he finds the path he wants to take and the way to take it.

Straia had always simply known her path, the legacy she craved. But not everyone knew their goals so clearly.

Her amber eyes fall on him at the next question, and she chuckles slightly. “To live, one must die.” She’d never thought of death really, had always figured she’d escape it. And in some ways, she had. She’d simply disappeared into oblivion, simply stopped caring enough to live. That was the point. Life is exhausting, and sometimes death is required. In a world like there’s, death was not a very permanent state. She supposes they have Carnage to thank for that.

-- straia

the raven queen