Santiago, reads the marker, but although the Dusk King stands at the foot of the disturbed grave it is not the weathered sandstone he watches. Overhead, Cirrus wheels silently, well above any passing pegasi, keeping an aerial view on Susurro and the nearby sea. It is late afternoon, somewhere between spring and summer, and the grasses and wildflowers, sedges and shrubs, are high enough to tickle the stallion’s belly and shoulders as he begins once more to walk. They are high enough to keep secrets, too.
Asterion has not come to look for Prudence - only to keep an eye on his Court. There are too many strangers and he does not need a horse’s natural inclination for suspicion to be wary of them; he thinks it is a bad time to let unknown glory-seekers into their home, but then, it always is.
And so he watches, and his companion watches, and rather than worry the bay makes his thoughts like the waves: an endless rhythm like breathing, remote and calm but ready to shape to any change, any threat.
Curious about lands further from the Night Court's reach, Camillia ventured into the unknown. Well really everything was unknown at this point, but she was doing her best to learn. Camillia had been interested in the Dusk Court when she had learned of it, really anything but the Day Court could've drawn her in. But their caring and tendency to give was just too much for her. She was interested in learning from their medics, they seemed to be the most focused source of knowledge on healing. Perhaps she could find a medic or herbalist of theirs to help her learn the herbs of this land. But she didn't really have any idea how friendly the two courts were. She figured making some sort of ally in the court would help her form bonds and be a stepping stone to learning from them.
Flying into their territory, Camillia was careful to watch for any sort of guard. She definitely wasn't looking for a fight and was planning on making herself known as soon as possible. It wasn't part of her plan to be an unwelcome intruder. Gliding through the air she notices a gull riding the drafts far above her. Her eyes sweeping downwards across the field below, she sees what she is looking for. Descending, she lands quite a few paces from what she can now see is a stallion. He looks quite a bit stronger than her causing her to warily keep her distance. Keeping a mildly submissive posture she calls out, "Am I in the lands of the Dusk Court?" She's careful about her tone, reminding herself that her bluntness can drive people away and she really doesn't want to make an enemy of such a powerful horse.
Camillia knew almost nothing of Halcyon or the recent gossip about a grave or something. It had been an individual mission of diplomacy and curiosity which drew her to the land.
Her eyes get seized by the bird up above again and she wonders if it is a pet or something of the man. Drawing her eyes back down, her eyes now get caught by the variance of colors in the stallion's coat that she hadn't noticed before. Observing him for a moment she remembers her manners and introduces herself. "My name is Camillia and I am a new medic for the Night Court. I hope it is okay that I came here, I'm not confident on the relations between the two courts." She realized how stupid it was that she came here without asking a Night Court horse beforehand. She had acted impulsively and wondered if she would pay for it.
It’s a fleck of silver-grey that catches his eye first, like a wisp of cloud that’s separated from the rest. Cirrus notes her too, though she doesn’t pause in her wide and untroubled circles; one stranger was not a threat today, not with so many Halcyon on patrol. Incoming, the gull murmurs down the bond between the two companions, and the king of Dusk Court huffs a soft breath and settles in to wait.
She does not keep him waiting long. His gaze is soft and dark on the stranger as she lands, her hair billowing like stormclouds, her points dark and her monochrome patterns striking against the bright color of the sunlit day. As soon as her gaze catches his the bay stallion nods, an easy dip of his muzzle, and when he notes her posture he comes a few steps nearer. Enough to speak comfortably, but not enough to threaten; enough to see her more clearly, but not enough to see the glint of sharp teeth or untangle the scents of where she’d been.
“You are,” he answers simply, but there is a smile beginning at the corner of his mouth, and his voice is colored more with humor than suspicion. When she glances up at Cirrus he follows her gaze, and if he’d known her thoughts he would have laughed - the big gull claimed him as much as the other way around.
Asterion is growing accustomed to being studied, though it took him a long time to accept that it came with the territory of being king. Now, beneath her dark-eyed gaze, he stands easily, regarding her in turn - each detail he notes only makes him more curious, from her arching horns to the wire curling around her neck to her long and lovely tail, its silver vanishing into the grass. When she speaks again, his eyes go back to hers, and something in her words settles him, broadening his smile.
“Well met, Camillia. I count Queen Isra a good friend - our courts are allies, and you are welcome here. I am Asterion, King of Terrastella. And that,” he adds, gesturing his muzzle upwards, “is Cirrus, my companion.” From high above comes the keening of the gull, but the bay man doesn’t continue watching; the Denoctian woman has his full attention. “What brings you today? I hope the city is faring well.” He refrains, for now, from mentioning Prudence, though the dug-up fields and cadets combing the area must seem curious -
but the less said to strangers about the errant relic, the better.
@Camillia ahhh I can't get over how pretty her design is. sorry for the wait!
Not only was she meeting a member of the Dusk Court, but the sovereign king. How lucky was she to have an audience with someone with so much power. Perhaps if she could just stay on his good side she might have luck in coaxing the vast amounts of healing knowledge the Dusk Court was known to have. She would just need to keep her tongue in line which was not an easy cause.
"Well met Asterion. As far as I know nothing is the matter in the lands I now call home. I'm still quite new to this world which is why I had to ask of its customs," She began to mirror the comfort the man seemed to show in talking with her. If he didn't figure her a threat she wanted to show him the same courtesy. Her eyes wandered for a moment contemplating how to ask of her goal. Should she just be straightforward? That's the path she often went, but it left little wiggle room if he said no. But to be sneaky with her words just wasn't her forte, she wasn't even sure how to if she was honest with herself. "I'm here on a mission of my own to learn more of the art of herbalism and medicine in this world. Many of the plants are the same as my previous world, but there are also quite a few I have no hint as to their usefulness. I figured the Dawn Court would be a great source of knowledge as well as the opportunity to know more of the Court itself." The last part was only a bit untruthful, she hadn't intended to make friends on this journey. But when speaking with the king of the land, it seemed wise to extend a hand of fellowship that might coax him into giving her what she wanted.
"And I'll of course offer what I know should any of that be new to one of your medics," she added quickly to sweeten the deal. She straightened her neck and looked about for any plant she might know to make an example of her knowledge. But instead her eyes caught on one of those excavated patches of land she had noticed while flying over the land. She made a mental note to ask of that if Asterion seemed relatively giving in his speech.
@Asterion thank you! and no problem :)
08-01-2019, 10:31 AM
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Terrastella sleeps through the days of turmoil without a complaint--not a raincloud or the faintest thrum of an earthquake to testify that its dark, holy places are being dug up. The earth is calm and silent. Even as Susurro becomes pockmarked and scarred with more and more caverns, not much has come to show for it: everything the cadets and the strangers have turned up so far seems to be a red herring.
Until just the right stone is turned.
Some hoof knocks over a small grave marker. On the bottom plane, the granite is filthy with eons of dirt and overgrown moss. Underneath the grime it is inscribed with words and a design carved by a strange, careful hand. The art is simple: an empty, stylistic wave, from the froth of which rises a single link of chains with a cuff at the end.
The inscription underneath is somewhat harder to understand.
Just like Juliet it’s morning again. And lovers leap from the ward Which keeps them from each other, Just as it divides sea and city.
A pair of green eyes watch from the edge of the field.
Please PM me (RB) here or on Discord if you’ve got any questions! <3
The bay king regards his companion as she speaks, noting the polite words and the lilt of her accent. New to Novus - and now it makes more sense, the slightly unfamiliar shape of her words and the foreign scent that the bonfire-smoke of Denocte has only just begun to cover up. “I’ve been here years,” he says with his smile still lingering, soft and a little wry, “and I’m learning them still. But it’s a good world.”
How strange it is, to think of how long he’s been a part of this world; more years than he’s spent anywhere else. Now he cannot think of it as anything but home, all the hills and valleys and good and ill, joys and sorrows, gods and kings. How long ago (it seems a lifetime) he came in on a summer storm, and met the sister he’d never known. Now they stand at the doorstep of another summer, and the cicadas sing sweetly, and when it grows dark the fireflies will be out again -
Asterion feels like an old man, reminiscing. For that he’s grateful when Camillia continues, glad to turn his gaze back to her from the field dug up like fresh graves and all the memories buried in them. A brow lifts when she names herself a healer; he might have thought her a warrior, or a mystic, with her height and her horns and the way she holds herself. But he is quick to nod, quick to grin. “Our healers are among the best in Novus,” he says, and does not try to hide the note of pride that colors his voice. “You are very welcome to learn from them and alongside them, and use what resources are hospital - in the heart of Tinea Swamp - and our court provides. The world could always use more healers.”
The king follows her gaze out across the sweep of the fields, to the line of the forest dark in the background - but then there is a cry and the king straightens, ears pricked, dark eyes searching out the source of the sound. Overhead, Cirrus dives and rises again; in his mind she says They’ve found something. At a far corner of the field, horses are gathering, and though he can’t make out the words there is no mistaking the excited clamor of their voices.
When he looks back to Camillia, the king’s smile is gone, his expression schooled into calm even as his heart begins to quicken in his chest and he wonders what next, what next for my people?
“Excuse me,” he says, and begins to dip his head - but then he tilts it instead, dark eyes considering the black of her own. “Unless you’d like to join me? There’s a relic of Terrastella that has been lost a long, long time - but it seems close to being found again. I wouldn’t turn down another set of eyes, or sharp mind.” And the king stands, poised to run, and waits to see if the not-quite-stranger will join him.
@Camillia we can wrap it up or keep going - your choice <3
Camillia couldn't help but wonder if Asterion only thought this to be a 'good world' considering he was at the top. Clearly it had been at least a bit kinder to him than others. Or perhaps he fought harder than all of the others. But she couldn't a imagine a truly 'good world', she had only ever experienced cruelness and was apt to look for the negative that might harm her over the positive.
The king was speaking words that were music to Camillia's ears. He was giving her all that she wanted and she couldn't help it as a small smile played on her lips. "I greatly appreciate this Asterion, it means more to me than you can know," she said trying to keep the excitement coursing through her veins from overpowering her words. The prospect of having access to all of the Dusk Court's knowledge, it would give her something to consider for many weeks further.
The smile faded from the king's lips and Camillia's heart dropped. Just as quickly had he made the offer was he going to take it away. Had he seen something in her, perhaps the greed for knowledge, her endless thirst. But it seemed Asterion had other things on his mind. Camillia watched curiously and when he invited her, she had no mind to deny his request. He had, after all, just accepted her request for help. Also should she be a great help perhaps the king could owe her a favor.
"I have nothing else planned for the day and I'm already here, I'd be glad to help," she said. Her body tensed in reaction to the stallion, ready to follow him.
Asterion misses what might have been a sharp edge to her smile, too curious of what was happening just across the field - and he might not have thought anything of it had he seen it at all. Though he has learned much of people and politics, so absent is his own ambition that he still does not see it in others. Marisol is not wrong when she thinks him too trusting, too open - even when his faith is battered he still does not look for teeth where he does not expect them.
But his ear does flick when she calls him simply Asterion; it’s unusual, not to be addressed as king.
Still, he smiles when she accepts his offer, and gestures his chin in the direction of the gathering. Then he’s cantering, hooves a drumbeat over the meadow, mindful of the holes and valleys, some fresh, some remnants of last year’s flooding.
His people make way for their king and the monochrome woman who follows him. The starlit bay passes a few brief words with the ranking Halcyon at the site, and then steps forward. The freshly overturned soil is pungent and the air is thick and lazy with the drone of bees; it feels a strange companion to the feeling sharpening in him, something that crackles like excitement and gnaws like worry.
When he lifts his head and steps away, it is to make room for Camillia, though he doesn’t expect the words to make sense to a non-native of Terrastella, much less a newcomer to Novus altogether. But there is already a thought forming in his own mind, building like a wave out to sea - a wave that will be mighty by the time it hits the cliffs.
“I think I know where this means,” he tells his new companion, and he can’t keep back the boyish grin that lights across his mouth then. “Follow me.” And with a nod to those gathered and a flick of his tail the stallion is leaving, first a walk and then a lope, running east with the sun behind him.
@Camillia let's close this one for the contest timing and I'll start a new one for them <3
As they took off across the field, Camillia paid close attention to the other horses and the way they treated their king. She realized she hadn't held the company of much royalty. Perhaps she had been too informal, but she really had been trying. Something that could not be said about most of the interactions she had.
When she came upon it, her eyes were immediately drawn to the stone. It didn't look like much considering her lack of knowledge at the events surrounding it. But the writing was curious and Camillia drew in closer to inspect it thoroughly. At Asterion's words, she lingered a moment longer, thinking of her own answer although she wasn't very well versed in the geography to search properly for the next clue.
"Will do," she said absentmindedly. Following after Asterion, she found a sense of joy building in her. It was a hunt for clues with unknown prizes of knowledge. Already had she gotten what she was looking for on this trip, this was all just icing on the cake.
