enough with the lies tell me one
more time my blood your line is this you inside
A
routine had been born ever since coming back to Denocte. That is, she would wake at the evening and wait for the sun to set. Then, she would wander the mountains for a bit. Watching over old herd members as quietly as possible and never revealing herself to them... Done. Now, she found herself in the prairie.
No medicine needed to be mixed. No herbs needed to be plucked. She had caught a rat earlier and fed, still uneasy about feasting on her fellow equines in Novus. The bat unfurled her wings and made do with the vermin, because that is what she felt she deserved. After casting a vote for the newest sovereign of Night, Salome found she cared little about the result. No doubt it was a popularity contest she never involved herself in.
No doubt, the people would cry their new leader's name joyfully. Caligo would go back to the heavens from whence she came. Nobody would say anything else. Everything would quiet again. It was a boring routine. A tired routine. She hoped her vote counted among change, and not some rudimentary machine. Nosing along the grasses of this prairie, Salome made note of local flora to collect later. She flickered her eyes to the form of an approaching being.
But she did not so much as raise her head.
due to being a vampire, she can only thread during the night
Jane was not necessarily supposed to leave the bosom of the Day Court, but it wasn’t exactly like anyone missed her. Her cousin was in the process of switching to Night, and the thought was that she may well join him. As it was, she took her time and watched the proceedings. It was times like this where she stood in total anonymity. Everyone knew who she was in theory- knew her name when they passed her in the hallway.
Rumours, like sand, spread themselves everywhere. She heard them on the edges of conversation- she was an escaped mother, a libertine’s daughter. None of these were true, of course, and when she was older perhaps she would laugh at the wildness of the accusations, but for now each point had the same driving force: she was a foreigner. She belonged to no one, and with Sebastien gone that point was driven even deeper. For now she stayed with his parents, haunted their halls and ate their food while feeling like an outsider. The closest occasion she could look forward to was the coronation of Adonai. She looked forward to it eagerly. If she could get into his inner circle- If she could drink his drink and eat his food, then maybe, maybe this could all be worth it.
The truth was that Jane had no idea what she was doing. She had come here on business, yes, was to be a scribe, but who knew what that meant. The longer she stayed here, the more she realised how unlikely it was that she would ever go back home. And she missed it.
Yes, Jane missed it. She missed the particular scent of grass, she missed the mountains that surrounded the plateau of her herd. She missed the slight codependence of her mother’s company and her affectionate, if reward-based, words. Of course, that thought now brought with it the sheer anger and disappointment in her mother’s brow on that fateful Spring evening.
You will be leaving for an education, Catradine had said, but underneath it all laid, Your education shall not be here.
Jane tried not to think about that night. She barely remembered Castor now, he was never someone she was supposed to remember. She did remember what he’d said though, as he came in with the garrison of colts that belonged to the herd.
He was a magnificent specimen. A buckskin stallion with brindling on his legs, and a blaze dashing across his face.
Here is the thing: It is one thing to remember the details of how someone looked. To say they were brunette, or tall, or fat. But when the eyes evade you- if you can say they were blue-eyed, but never see the eyes, is that really remembering them?
Mademoiselle, he had said that night. She had been out on the edge of the pasture, wandering as she did when she couldn’t sleep. He had been on watch that night. I believe your name is Jane.
Yes. She was three months past her Third year. Autumn had brought the men back from their practices on the coast, and the whole herd was on guard. Fathers kept their eyes on their fillies. But Jane, respected and esteemed Jane, chosen filly to Her Majesty, was allowed to wander. A mistake, of course.
Captain Guillford was one of the most esteemed gentlemen, if you could call him that. He came from a gentry family, both of his parents having worked with the army. He had followed in their path with a rigour that was more encouraged by fantasies than ideals. Fillies watched him, mooned over him.
So when he talked to Jane, and knew who she was, it meant something.
It meant she was alive. It meant she existed beyond the quarters of the queen.
They had never done anything, but he had flirted and made her feel special. And then when her mother had found her in the fields, yelled until Jane nearly went deaf- what was the point of it? What was the point of any of it?
The Night Court reminded her a little of home in the way it felt. The energy of the place. Sometimes she closed her eyes and felt it around her.
There was something moving. She looked up and saw the form of a mare- a mare unlike any she had ever seen before, almost batlike in appearance. Normally, Jane wouldn’t have thought anything of it, but her heart clenched and she stepped back a bit. “My apologies, Madame,” she stammered, “I hope I didn’t walk up on you?”
@[Salome] / speaks / notes
01-15-2021, 04:39 PM - This post was last modified: 01-15-2021, 04:39 PM by Jane
enough with the lies tell me one
more time my blood your line is this you inside
A
cutely aware of the other's presence, Salome chose to ignore it for a few minutes. "I am not 'Madame' " Salome says softly, but bluntly. She hadn't been called 'madame' once in her living life, and she didn't want to in her undying one. Alas, that was too much to ask. Eyes flickered to the plain girl briefly before dropping. She didn't like to look at others for long.
"But no, you did not" she says, making a point to stroll a bit away from the other to keep her distance. "you aren't Night Court" Salome adds, narrowing her eyes to the ground. The smell she gave off was from one of Day. "why are you here, in the middle of the night?" Surely lively and polite girls were tucked in their beds, unless the bat was woefully out of touch.
A few minutes spanned between Jane’s words and the mare’s acknowledgement of them, but it was enough time for Jane’s heart to raise its tempo. The darkness had technically made Jane vulnerable, and she never should have ended up here- and yet the mare raised her head and Jane caught sight of a pair of blinding eyes that stuck out in the night behind them. Her coat was speckled with what seemed like stars put into formation. I am not ‘Madame’.
“My apologies,” Jane breathed into the night, nervously, analysing the actions of the stranger. She had no power here, no legal recognition- But Leo would know, she thought, Leo would avenge her. “I am not,” she confirmed at the mare’s… accusation? “I have a cousin living in the Night Court and have come to visit him. I went out to look at the stars.” Her voice trailed off as she felt those stars on her back, the same stars that she had watched a whole epoch ago, in another land.
The mare angled away, kept her distance, and this was what finally allowed Jane to relax a bit. If there would be any attack, the mare would surely not move away.
enough with the lies tell me one
more time my blood your line is this you inside
A
n odd time to visit someone, but Salome didn't assume most even in Denocte were as nocturnal as her. "You pick a late hour" she remarks idly, not really caring either way "you can see the stars within court walls..." she breathes "are you not worried you'd get attacked outside of them?"
From what the bat could gather, this young lady lacked any muscle. No strength seemed to flow through her, but blood did. As much as it was tempting to attack and bite down on her throat, Salome resisted. She didn't want to cause trouble for her home's people. If word got out that someone - some beast - was drinking blood... The walls would close. It would make it difficult to gather supplies.
And ultimately, she would have no choice but to leave Novus again until things settled down.
Jane saw the thoughts running through the mare’s head, and there was something distinctly predatory around the mare’s gaze. Yes, predatory. “I have been staying with my cousin Sebastien inside the walls, and the city air got to be a bit much for me. I’m from a very far off place.” She hoped Sebastien’s name- politician, powerful, vengeful Sebastian- would act as some sort of shield around her. There would be people who missed her, if anything happened to her.
She kept her body close, ready to run if she needed to, although realistically it was unlikely for her to outrun a much stronger, fitter mare. At the end of the day, Jane was still a filly. On the urge of marehood, her childhood gone, but her body was still that of the youth that had been on the planes of Solterra. She frowned a little, watching the mare, “The city blinds the stars out, pollutes the sky. Besides, I like night walks. I like the quiet.” And she distrusted it, naturally so. But she was no longer used to the constant stream of chatter and noise, used as she was to the sands.
@[Salome] / speaks / so sorry for the long wait! i thought it was you who was next on the reply list but it was ME! r i p
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