Quantus tremor est futurus,
Quando Judex est venturus
***
Quando Judex est venturus
***
He let Asterion speak, gaze blade-sharp and mouth drawn to a severe line. The regent's rage broke across his body like flood waters against a mountainside - mighty it may have been, but the mountain remained.
In any other circumstance, Raymond would have been proud. This was not the uncertain boy he knew in Ravos or the uncertain boy against whose flesh he turned his blade upon first arriving in Novus. Wrath made him strong.
This was not any other circumstance.
"If I didn't call her friend," the red stallion replied, vocal fry painting stormclouds into the hard baritone of his voice, "I'd have sent you flowers and a map to recover the body." There was no mirth in it, no glint in his eye to paint the morbid words with anything but the rancor in his blood and in the blood drying to his skin. "You expect me to have faith in you? Your sister has been dabbling in rift magic, Asterion, and if you knew anything about that you would not winge at me about faith now."
He stepped back and aside, finally indicating the Tarrasque with an aggressive flourish of his tail. "Have you met my cat?" The spines on her chin cut furrows into the ground as she turned her head, interestedly fixing Asterion with her blue eye but still too admonished to lift her head. "This is Ruth. Florentine saved her life when she was a kitten - that's how we all met - and when I came to Novus the rift took her back."
Ruth's whimper echoed like whalesong through the humid Tinea air.
"I thought she was dead. Your sister wanted to save her again, against my wishes. Your sister grew so accustomed to popping in and out of worlds for her own amusement that she forgot the rift has teeth. Sooner or later it was always going to bite her in the ass." His brows arched, derision making him irreverent.
Raymond's swagger was as deeply embedded in his nature as his tail blade, and in times such as these it made him look that much more callous, that much more vicious - but there was caring there, too. He would never have gotten angry if he didn't care; the same was of course true for Asterion. "As for what I did, I imagine your physicians will find that answer wrapped around her hind leg."
In any other circumstance, Raymond would have been proud. This was not the uncertain boy he knew in Ravos or the uncertain boy against whose flesh he turned his blade upon first arriving in Novus. Wrath made him strong.
This was not any other circumstance.
"If I didn't call her friend," the red stallion replied, vocal fry painting stormclouds into the hard baritone of his voice, "I'd have sent you flowers and a map to recover the body." There was no mirth in it, no glint in his eye to paint the morbid words with anything but the rancor in his blood and in the blood drying to his skin. "You expect me to have faith in you? Your sister has been dabbling in rift magic, Asterion, and if you knew anything about that you would not winge at me about faith now."
He stepped back and aside, finally indicating the Tarrasque with an aggressive flourish of his tail. "Have you met my cat?" The spines on her chin cut furrows into the ground as she turned her head, interestedly fixing Asterion with her blue eye but still too admonished to lift her head. "This is Ruth. Florentine saved her life when she was a kitten - that's how we all met - and when I came to Novus the rift took her back."
Ruth's whimper echoed like whalesong through the humid Tinea air.
"I thought she was dead. Your sister wanted to save her again, against my wishes. Your sister grew so accustomed to popping in and out of worlds for her own amusement that she forgot the rift has teeth. Sooner or later it was always going to bite her in the ass." His brows arched, derision making him irreverent.
Raymond's swagger was as deeply embedded in his nature as his tail blade, and in times such as these it made him look that much more callous, that much more vicious - but there was caring there, too. He would never have gotten angry if he didn't care; the same was of course true for Asterion. "As for what I did, I imagine your physicians will find that answer wrapped around her hind leg."
***
Raymond
And at his feet they'll cast their golden crowns
When the man comes around.
Raymond
And at his feet they'll cast their golden crowns
When the man comes around.
@Asterion
aut viam inveniam aut faciam
