"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
Gale this is going to break me clean in two -- this is going to bring me close to you
Snow-heavy winds carry the blue osprey down from Hyaline, his white wings looking starkly pale against the thick grey clouds that fill the sky. The Silver Cove lies across the strait, but it does not shimmer this evening, and he knows it only by the distant darkness of its black hills against the grey sky. The last of the sunset still brightens the far western sky, but its light is weak and shielded by clouds that promise snow.
The osprey flies east, toward the other lands that Mazikeen rules.
Do they acknowledge her in Pangea and the Cove, he wonders? Or is she as distant a ruler to them as Isilya and her successor had always been to Islandres? The brindle stallion is curious, and he wonders what he will find in the lands of the Dark God. The Curse wonders as well, and the parts of it that are remnants of Carnage’s magic flex and swell at the proximity.
He banks south rather than north when the time comes, does it without even thinking. Gale tries to turn to his right, to spiral back, but his wings do not move. He tries again and then realizes - with a deep and sinking sensation - what has happened.
The sun has long set by the time the Curse lands in Pangea, trading its avian body for an equine one, though keeping the white feathered wings that Gale is rarely without. It has never been to Pangea before, but what it knows of it is a muddle of truth and tall tales, and so it is wary as it makes its way through the deep canyons, and its blue eyes are wide.
It is searching for something, and eventually it finds it. A burning tree illuminates the bloody shoulders of a stone mare, and the thing wearing Gale’s face smiles. The brindle stripes along its navy body glow faintly in the dark air. They’re not nearly so bright as they’d been on the day the sun returned, and they seem dimmer still against the burning tree.
“I think I'd like these” he says aloud, to himself or to anyone who is near enough to hear him. His tone is conversational, as though he discusses a pair of sparkly geodes. “- for Mazikeen.” Gale adds, breaking through the control of the Curse for only a moment. There is no outward indication that two beings have just spoken, and Gale is exhausted by those two words. He can only watch the same dark shadows as the Curse that controls him. It searches for someone, and then as it steps nearer the entities searches for some way to claim these entities and their magic, his blue eyes wide and curious just as Gale's would be in this instance.
i think i'm better on my own but i get so lost in you
Much like its disappearance, the return of the sun had brought with it a ripple of unrest across Pangea. She had noticed that while some residents seemed to delight in the first sunrise and the departure of the creatures that had been tormenting the lands, their champion, Jamie, did not seem nearly as thrilled. Though Desire had not approached him she had watched him carefully from a distance, perhaps mildly curious to see if he was going to plunge Pangea into its own darkness. She does not know the extent of his power, but she would be the last one to ask him to harness it—especially not here, of all places
For her, though, the end of the eclipse was like a heaviness being lifted from her shoulders that she had not realized she was carrying. She no longer felt she had to pay quite so close attention to Thomas and their two youngest children—Iskinder was not made of glass like his father and all of his siblings, but she worried for his safety all the same—which left her free to wander Pangea in the dark without needing to worry some creature would spring from the shadows while she was gone.
She is easy to find in the dark, with the scattering of stars that glowed amid the galaxy-color of her skin seeming to illuminate the startling white of her mane and her legs. Though the light cast from her halo is dim—the halo itself being small moons in various stages, a mix of shadow and light the always keeps them appearing just as they should—it is still bright in the night, but she moves with an ease that suggests she does not mind if she is seen. She is perhaps too confident for one that lacks any real powers, but she likes to think of herself as smart enough to survive most situations.
It’s why when she sees him, the stranger, staring at the monuments that had been left here by the entities, that she does not hesitate to approach. “Are you talking to yourself?” She asks him, her voice a velvety purr, though her white lips are pulled into a teasing simper. “I suppose the other option is you were talking to the burning tree or the statue, so I’m not sure which would be worse,” she says with an easy laugh, her black eyes finding the bright blue of his. There is something about him that seems vaguely familiar, though not enough for her to place it. She is sure she has never met him before, and can only assume that she has met a relative (or two). “My name is Desire. What brings you to Pangea in the middle of the night?”
i think i'm better on my own but i'm so obsessed with you
Gale this is going to break me clean in two -- this is going to bring me close to you
The Curse, a creation of Carnage’s blood, sees a bit of itself in the haloed mare that approaches, and smiles a slow smile that is very unlike Gale. Gale would have been confused by her teasing, but the Curse is amused and appreciative.
It uses Gale’s curious blue eyes to look her over, and it thinks briefly of Ciri.
They are both glittering creature , emitting light as soft and pale as stars. The purple of this mare is not a shade seen often in nature, and the Curse’s electric gaze is appreciative as it takes in the many shades of her body. She is lovely, that is unmistakable, but there are some things more important than finding out how close it might get to starfire before it begins to smolder.
“I’ve come to take these off your hands,” It answers the starry mare, gesturing over its shoulder to where the pair of magical monuments stand. The Curse does not expect her to simply give them over, but there are advantages to taking the path of least resistance at times.
“I’d like to keep my place in my lover’s affections, and I think she’ll enjoy them.” The Curse lies easily - it wants the entities for itself. Gale wants them for Mazikeen to protect her, but Gale is not the one making the decision after the sun has gone down. That is one promise that the Curse has not yet broken. Its voice is smooth and its smile charming, and it tells her: “My name is Gale.”
i think i'm better on my own but i get so lost in you
Desire was mostly unfamiliar with her father, and if there was any part of his blood that might have recognized the curse in the stallion before her, she does not notice it. She knew he created Pangea, she knew that she is stamped as one of his countless offspring thanks to her coloring, and she knew the little amount that Ryatah chose to reveal of her relationship with him, but other than that, he was a stranger.
She knew just enough to reserve a healthy fear of him, but that was about it.
This man’s smile, however, is not overlooked. She recognizes it, thinks that it possibly mirrors hundreds that she herself has given—the kind that lacks warmth, but is not quite sinister. The kind that hides a secret, and rarely the good kind. Her own lips tilt upward in a return gesture before her eyes shift back to the monuments he was referring to. “Hm,” she hums the sound between pressed lips, tilting her haloed head as if to seriously ponder what he is asking for. “Well, they are quite valuable, you know,” she says thoughtfully as she steps toward the statue of the mare, purposely brushing far too close to him in the process though she deliberately does not acknowledge doing so.
She gazes at the statue, and then back to the burning tree, silent as she pretends to weigh the options. Truthfully, she didn’t much care about the entities one way or the other. Desire is a mediocre leader at best, serving more as a pretty placeholder than anything, and she figures if anyone here was that attached to them they could simply fight for them back. She certainly isn’t going to lose sleep over them. “But I am a sucker for a good romance,” she laughs as she turns back to him, the firelight reflecting off the unsettling black of her eyes. “And since I would like to stay in my champion’s good graces and not ask him to fight over trivial things, they are yours.”
i think i'm better on my own but i'm so obsessed with you
Gale this is going to break me clean in two -- this is going to bring me close to you
She passes by, near enough to touch. It is tempted, but the magic of the entities sets its skin alight in a way that books no distractions. So it only watches, and nods in agreement as she tells him that the entities are valuable.
That is why it’s here, after all. Leaving Hyaline is not something it would do for the fun of the trip, not when its next host is so near to arriving.
No distractions from the taking of the entities, the Curse allows itself. While Desire look from the tree to the statute and back again, it allows itself an appreciation of the purple and white mare ahead of him.
Her answer surprises him, but in a pleasant way that causes a slow smile to grow across his handsome face. “I appreciate it,” the Curse tells her truthfully. The entities had been trivial in the darkness, it thinks, but it has plans for them now that the light has returned.
