When Morrighan set foot back on Novus again, she realized that the sun hadn't just stopped on the island, but everywhere. It felt strange to be in a state of always day. Quite frankly, she hated it and wished for the night to return.
Since it's been made clear that that isn't going to happen, she decides to set out and do something to keep her occupied. She remembers the spar her and Isra had where her fire magic finally cooperated. It had taken so long for her to spark more than embers, but then suddenly it was a grand fire engulfing the plains. Could she do that again?
The grullo mare stands facing the mountains, recalling how the moon would sit at its peak at night. That is absent today once again as the sun beats down on the lands. Perhaps she had been wrong about the gods not being present. It was clear that they were up to something and… really they just seemed like total assholes. Did someone piss them off so much that they decided to scorch the lands? If there was anyone to punish, it was simply Raum alone.
She decides to take advantage of the dry brush as it'll make much better kindling than usual. Morrighan so badly wants to set off another bonfire, but this time she knows she should keep it more under control. As much as she enjoys burning everything in sight, she doesn't feel like destroying her home (at least not today).
Morrighan sets down a pile of sticks and brush in front of her and focuses her mind on it. She can feel the fire twisting and turning inside of her wanting to come out. Seconds go by with nothing until suddenly- a flame. It started with a few embers, but quickly grew to be a decent sized fire. It eats away at the sticks and brambles as she sets rocks in a circle to surround the fire. Thankfully, this seems to keep it at bay enough for now.
There's something calming about the way fire moves and seeing the flicker of warm tones. She is not fazed by the heat it gives off, although it doesn't feel much different from the summer heat surrounding her. The mare sits down and watches her work, finally feeling at ease with herself.
ntiope stands in the shadows of the woods at the base of the mountains, watching the grullo woman gather sticks and long dry, dead things. Her eyes are like sapphire jewels in the darkness, twin points of curiosity catching in the dim light cast by what sun reaches through the thick canopy. The sun does not sleep and neither does she. Her thoughts do not rest, the lioness in her bones has paced endlessly since discovering the strangeness of the stillness of the brightest star in the sky.
Why?
But her attention is blessedly occupied by this mare, who makes fire out of nothing but a pile of twigs. No flint, no procured flame. It is magic, and the lioness inside her becomes too aware of the power of it, too hungry. She is too starved, and Antiope grinds her teeth against the lust of it. Not for us, it is not for us, she thinks, even as it hurts.
It had been for her once. All the energy in the world had been for her.
Once, Antiope could have fed this girl so much energy that she would have made a fire so large it might have burnt the entire mountainside, rather than something barely large enough to keep one warm in the winter.
Antiope aches, and aches, and breathes against it. She will get her magic back to the way it is supposed to be, she will calm the hunting, haunting lioness in her bones with something other than blood, even as she begs and screams and desires for it. There must be something in this world for her besides the lingering memory of the things she has lost and the hateful reminder of the things she cannot have.
When the woman settles down by her fire, Antiope slips out of the shadows. She disrobes them as if they are silks, letting them slip back and away, revealing deep lashing stripes and striking, pristine white. “Your magic, you must have grand visions of what you want to do with it,” she stops, just shy of halfway around the fire. If her eyes are the sea, her voice is its depths—mysterious and lulling. But there is something sharp and observant in her. Something lean and predatory. Something other.
“I am Antiope.” She doesn’t smile, doesn’t say hello, and yet despite the strangeness of her, she doesn’t seem quite threatening as out of place. She lays down, though the lioness inside her loathes to stop moving, to ever pause in her search for satiation.
Perhaps, the firelight might flicker off the blade of her axe, tucked snugly into its shoulder holster. Perhaps, her eyes might invite the question of what would you do with it, without these limitations?
Her peace does not last long as another appears from the shadows of the woods. The mare gives off the stance of a warrior and fashions ribbons and a choker. She seems vaguely familiar, so she must be from within some part of Night.
The woman comments on Morrighan's magic, already figuring the fire to be something she conjured. She feels a bit defensive, unsure of this mare's intentions. She makes sure not to let it be known it's not as strong as it used to be.
"Maybe I do," she replies, her tone a bit cold. What's it to you? She considers asking, but holds off. "I have half a mind to walk over to Solterra and set it ablaze, that's for sure." Oh what she would give to see Raum finally burn to ash for all he's put them through. Between Isra's capture and the fires in the markets, it had been enough to piss Morr off. From what she knew of him though, he likely wouldn't care and would probably be laughing until his dying breath. Jackass.
The woman speaks her name- Antiope. It still does not ring a bell but she is convinced she's seen her walking around Denocte before. She watches as Antiope lays down by the fire. For now she seems alright, so Morrighan didn't tell her off just yet.
"Morrighan," she says, willing the fire to flicker more strongly for a moment as if to emphasize it. There was a time she could blink and ignite it into a forest fire, but that time feels like centuries ago. Someday she'd show the world again.
"And what about you? Can you wield any power?" she asks, somewhat curious. There are even markings on this woman that resemble that of a warrior going into battle and canine teeth hanging from her collar. If she did not have some kind of magic, surely she had the strength. Maybe she'd be a worthy opponent in a spar.
he other woman’s words are not of a friendly tone, and Antiope doesn’t blame her for it. She is practically a stranger after all, even if the spices and fragrances of Denocte have begun to cling to her skin as of late. Antiope is sure she recognizes the painted mare, but they have never spoken before now.
“From what I’ve heard of this man Raum, I think he’d enjoy that,” she responded, her blue eyes focused on the fire instead of her companion as she speaks. Antiope doesn’t know much about him, she doesn’t know much about the struggle she has seemingly landed in the middle of, but there is enough going around, spoken on people’s tongues, that she has heard plenty.
“You would be doing more harm to the people than to him.”
They have already been through so much. Although Antiope doesn’t know what’s it like to be beneath the rule of a corrupt King, she has been created, possessed and betrayed by pervert gods. This King, she imagines, is no different. And less immortal.
She did not come to this world for a war, but the lioness in her veins still calls its desire. It still seeks out that thing it had so readily available on her old world, when Antiope was as good as a goddess to the equines in the jungle as she led them to battle.
Blood.
Antiope looks at Morrighan as the fire flares slightly, and there is more than just the flicker of the flames sparking in her eyes as she does. If fire is this woman’s element then she is surely a fighter, hot and keen.
Fire… fire is such an abundant source of energy. It sings to her, calling for it, even as its heat brushes across her curves. Antiope looks into the flames and considers, for a moment. Only one other has seen her magic, and it was unintentionally. Septimus had seen her trying to reign it in, to control it, out on the prairie. But she had been running then.
With her eyes still on the flames, Antiope lets the lioness in her bones loose. Slowly, her eyes begin to glow, until they are swallowed completely in a golden light. She doesn’t have much control over this, but as her magic drinks of the fire and transfers its energy into Antiope, it shrinks. She loses her grasp on it too soon for her liking—oh, she would have liked to taken the entire thing down to nothing more than coals—but it is enough.
Antiope strikes out with a hoof at one of the rocks keeping the fire at bay. Even laying, even at the distance she is that she can just, just reach, when the edge of her hoof meets that stone it fractures into several pieces with a loud, echoing crack.
The pieces fall away from each other and settle against the ground. By the time the woman looks back at Morrighan her eyes are no longer emitting light, no longer gold but blue. The lioness inside her will settle for now, for another time.
“I can take energy—from the world, from things—and use it to make myself more powerful.” She says. From myself, from you, she thinks but does not say. Or, once, she had been able to. Now however Antiope is not so sure. How is it she had gotten here? “Where does that leave us?” A girl who can make fire and a girl who can take it away.
One didn't need to know Raum well to know how true Antiope's statement is. The rumors and the story Isra brought back with her were enough. Morrighan rolls her eyes. "He would, unfortunately. The man's a fucking psychopath," she says, gritting her teeth.
Then there is empathy in the woman's tone when she speaks of Solterra's people. Morrighan can only scoff. "Well, they were stupid to let him into their borders. They should've had stronger security and more of a hard ass for a leader." She stokes the fire with her hoof. Perhaps it was cold of her to say so, but she didn't feel much sympathy for the Court. From what little she knew of them, it sounded like their leader was too weak to stand up to Raum. How he was even allowed in was beyond her. They should have caught the signs that he was up to something. Crazies like that usually had that look in their eye, but then again, not everyone was like her and barely trusted anyone. That there is exactly the problem.
Her fire flickers and Antiope is silent for a few moments. She watches the woman curiously as it seems she is about to show off her power. The mare's eyes glow and she sees the flames slowly die down until… it stops. The fire is still lit, but it is much weaker now and Antiope's eyes are back to normal. She kicks a rock as if out of frustration and Morrighan merely blinks.
Essentially, the woman sucked the energy out of things to bring into herself, hence the weaker fire. The idea excites Morr; oh the possibilities if that was something she could do. All the destruction she could cause (within reason, of course). But this power was not hers and at Antiope's question, this did leave her at a disadvantage.
"Seems like you were dealt better cards and I got the short end of the stick," she grunts, feeling a slight jealousy. "Although…" An idea sparks in her mind and she stares at the flames until they spark back into life again. This time she wills them to reach a little higher than before until the fire is reaching out hungrily at the air.
"What exactly can you do when you get enough energy?" she challenges the mare, her eyes glistening. She suddenly feels eager to test Antiope's limits and see her true potential. Could they create beautiful destruction and chaos together?
ntiope chooses not to counter Morrighan’s words. She doesn’t know enough of Raum or the situation in Solterra to say different, even if she feels differently from her own personal experience. She can say without a doubt that no matter how prepared a kingdom may feel, no matter how strong their leader, how loyal and ready to defend, it all depends on the opposition. Antiope and her sisters were examples of that. They had been made to break barriers and kill, without struggle.
Perhaps that is who Raum had been to Solterra’s queen. Who is she to say? But the people are still suffering, needlessly, when they have done nothing to warrant it themselves. If Antiope has learned anything from her life, from those gods who had forsaken her, from the ones she had fought alongside and the ones she had loved, it is that a good leader must be both soft and strong. They just have to choose the right moments in which to be one or the other.
For a moment the fire stays smaller between them. Antiope can still feel its energy filling her. She feels more awake, alert. Her legs beg her to run, her muscles beg her to kick. But she stays there, by the flames, with Morrighan, and ignores the call of the energy. She didn’t take much, and it would slowly drain itself away. It is a strange feeling, to take the energy and hold it in. She has never taken energy and not immediately used it, and it is a restless feeling even she is not used to, for as restless a creature as she is.
“My magic was given to me as the means to an end,” Antiope says at the other woman’s comment, “But fire is very important. It is powerful, destructive yes, but it can save lives. It can light up the darkness.” It is an admirable magic to have, certainly, and one that Antiope’s magic would very much enjoy to have close. Fire is such a great source of energy, indeed, and as the fire grows larger and Morrighan’s eyes gleam, she cannot help but think that the mare has caught on very quickly to this.
Antiope looks into Morrighan’s eyes for a long moment, sapphire blue into earth and sky. The firelight dances across their bodies, throwing long shadows across the space around them. When her gaze shifts to the fire once more, whose flames lick at the sky as hungrily as the lioness in her bones does, something in Antiope feels not right. In truth, it is not what she can do when she gets a lot of energy that is truly dangerous, but what happens when she takes too much.
It is one thing to kill a tree for the bountiful energy inside it.
It is another to drain the life from an equine on the battlefield who is attempting to kill you or your sister. To watch the light slowly dim in their eyes until it is fully extinguished. Until they are limp in your grasp.
She is not dangerous. It is her magic that is the dangerous thing, as lustful as it is. Once, she would have happily drained this fire and showed off her abilities, but now? Antiope wants something more, something else. “Unless you want to have a competition, my magic boosts my strength, stamina and speed.” It was meant to make her unstoppable in war, and now she feels it serves little purpose at all except in the few cases she has used it to try and aid others.
“But, I would understand if you weren't up to it,” she says, and if there is a smirk on her lips, well, it might not just be the shadows and a trick of the light. Maybe for now she could just enjoy having it.
The mare's response surprises Morrighan, although, maybe she didn't have an expected reply in mind after all. It just makes her more curious of this woman and where she came from. It can't be Novus or Ourania; what other lands and worlds are out there? Had she destroyed the land she came from and that's what she meant as the "end"? She continues to look on at the mare, wondering just how powerful she is and how much she's hiding.
At Antiope's attempt to bring a positive spin on fire magic, she can't help but laugh. 'Light up the darkness' - well, no shit it could, but it was more useful in battle and intimidation. Rarely had she ever used it for innocent reasons. She would much rather destroy, it was all she knew and the only form of entertainment she had.
Her thoughts go back to her younger days (to her, they were centuries ago). She had scared off some bullies by igniting the largest fire they had ever seen. Even during the Great War, she set the field ablaze as the kingdom rushed into battle. Fire had been the only way she could survive back in Ourania and the way she had gained respect from her kingdom. Before that, she had been a lowly runt and outcast. She would never let herself get that far down the bottom again.
Perhaps its true power is not needed as much in this new world. They are on the brink of war, but in a different form. It hadn't been hard to gain the trust of their queen and slowly others in Denocte (with the exception of Moira). While she may not have trusted them, almost all of them had accepted her without question upon her arrival. She always has her guard up anyway, but mostly out of habit.
There is a long pause after Morrighan challenges Antiope to show off. Is she afraid? Is she not actually as powerful as she's letting on? But then there is a suggestion of a competition and Morr's expression brightens. Now they are speaking her language.
She swears she can see a smirk appear on the woman's face and Morrighan doesn't bother hiding her own. "I think you underestimate me," she replies, her two-colored eyes lighting up like the fire in front of them. "I never turn down a challenge."
The grullo mare positions herself as if she's ready for a spar. She isn't sure if the woman had been serious, but Morr certainly is. Even in friendly competition, battle is in her blood. It's something she had been born to do and it's hard to stop the adrenaline once it starts pumping.
She lowers her head slightly and raises a brow. Bring it on.
ntiope watches the other woman stand and position herself as if prepared to begin a fight. One of Antiope’s brows raises, beneath the strands of umber and white hair falling over her forehead. She stands more slowly, more purposefully, with more care. “You are always eager to battle, aren’t you?” she says.
It is evident in the way the other woman talks, as hot and fiery as flames she can produce. In that her first instinct in dealing with Raum is to burn all of Solterra to the ground. She is brute, and forceful, and clearly quite self-assured if not a bit zealous.
The tigress woman finds it curious, in all the ways they are similar and yet so different. When the gods made her to kill, they did it in the way of a wild cat. Graceful, sleek, captivating. She is meant to disarm by first appearances and then to destroy. It has always worked—even on the ones who had made her that way.
Morrighan is the fire, and Antiope is the rain.
“Not combat,” Antiope says, standing a few steps ahead of the grullo woman, looking out over the wide stretches around them. The dark is bright and the shadows deep and heavy, and perhaps one day she will be ready again to fight, but not yet. Instead, she sets her sapphire eyes upon a tree, perhaps just under two miles away, which must be massive because from here the trunk looks as big around as the columns that had held tall Corellon.
“A race, to that big tree and back to your fire,” she glances over her shoulder to Morrighan, checking to see if the other mare has picked out the tree from the distance. To tell the truth, Antiope isn’t sure whether Morrighan has seen her magic in use before. As she considers it, she wonders if only Septimus has truly seen what it can do, although others such as Isra have witnessed small fractions of its power.
She almost smiles. “And, rest assured, I never underestimate anyone.”
When Antiope doesn't follow the cue to battle, Morrighan eases up and just blinks at the woman in disbelief. If they aren't doing a spar, what else is she being challenged to do? What else matters enough? Of course she's eager to battle- it's in her blood. It became her one true purpose in life growing up. She doesn't know any better.
The tiger-striped mare looks out ahead and Morrighan follows her gaze. There doesn't seem to be much out there, although she sees a large tree with a wide trunk. So what? she thinks. Were they to burn it down? But then Antiope mentions a race and Morr tilts her head. It's almost like they are little kids and are playing a game; it feels so foreign to her. She found more fun in spars and beating the opponent with her fire magic.
However, like she said, she doesn't turn down a challenge, so she would go along with this. As strange and almost silly as it feels, she would give it her all to win.
"Alright," she replies, readying herself instead for the start of this race. "On the count of three then. One...Two..." she begins to count, her legs feeling restless now at the thought of running. It really had been so long since she just… ran for fun. Would it be worth it?
"Three!" she shouts, taking off with all the strength she has. She's like an arrow soaring through the air and her mane whips wildly around her neck.
Morrighan is running like she has never run before and there is a new emotion creeping through. Is it happiness? For a moment, it's like the innocence of childhood has come back to her and she doesn't actually mind. The two are neck and neck as they reach the tree, then turn around to race back to the fire. She looks quickly at Antiope with a smile on her face.
She can't remember if she ever had a friend like this to play games with. Mostly there were battle partners and then the bullies. Maybe she had one, but the friendship certainly didn't last long. As a young foal, she had been the "runt of the litter" so to speak, all the way up until she gained her fire magic. She could intimidate others then, but it didn't do her much good in the way of gaining friends. By that point, she didn't care as mostly everyone pissed her off too much.
But now, this is what fun feels like - foreign yet exciting. She is almost laughing now, but stops when she realizes that Antiope has somehow beat her to the finish line.
Bitch.
The grullo mare is not too far behind, but still, second place is not winning. That brief moment of happiness is gone and is replaced with a scowl. The fire seems to surge for a moment from Morrighan's emotions.
"Well," she begins to say, partially out of breath. "That race was rigged. You had all that energy or whatever."
ntiope turns toward the tree as Morrighan begins to count, her muscles tensing out of habit, even though she knows something as small as a race is an easy win for her. The energy she pulled from the fire still fills every cell of her body like a charge, making her feel restless. In truth, she’s happy to have devised this little game to use it up. The striped mare is restless enough without excess energy hanging around in her veins.
“...Three!” shouts her companion, as they both take off across the sun dried grass. Antiope’s long hair whips in air behind her as their hooves beat a staccato against the hard earth. And, for the entire stretch to the tree she just enjoys the run. Just enjoys the fast beating of her heart and the simple goal to reach the tree and return to the bonfire and nothing else.
For a moment, she doesn’t think about the stillness of the sun or the lioness in her bones or of all the aching things she tries so hard to forget. Antiope glances at Morrighan, and thinks that perhaps the other mare is even enjoying herself too, and she’s pleased. Perhaps, then, the fire woman is not all fight and flame.
As they reach the tree and turn back toward their starting point, Antiope thinks it’s time to actually get to the point of this little demonstration. She gathers up the energy that is sizzling all throughout her veins and begins to feed on it. Her eyes start to glow, turning from sapphire blue to a pupilless, ichor-gold.
She can feel the power in her muscles, pushing her faster over the ground, and when she reaches the side of the bonfire she turns to face Morrighan who is arriving after her. And looking none too please about it, too. With the energy used and Antiope letting go of her magic, the gilded glow fades from her eyes and returns them to their normal blue. “You’re right,” she says.
“And that is with a very small amount of it,” what Antiope doesn’t say is how dangerous she can be, how dangerous she has been with large amounts of it. Her and all of her sisters. Her bright and sharp gaze settles on the flames as they dance within the confines of the rock circle. She can still feel the temptation, pulling at her. It’s hard to ignore, but she tightens her jaw and turns away.
“I should be heading back to the court,” the striped woman takes a few steps away from the fire, locking eyes with grullo mare’s dual-toned gaze, “I’m sure you’d like your space back.” What she doesn’t say is that she hasn’t slept while the sun hasn’t, and that her restlessness is more than just the energy she can gather that lingers inside her. “Until next time,” Antiope nods her head in parting and turns southward, for the journey back to the familiar streets of Denocte’s capital.
@Morrighan closing this! Hope it's not too sudden rip"speaks"
![[Image: 13716916_Rc8f5hGvZkB3cYP.png]](https://file.toyhou.se/images/13716916_Rc8f5hGvZkB3cYP.png)
