Tandavi

I'll light a fire in your new shoes.

She takes pleasure in the body beside her, the easy companionship Megaera offers. Copper child listens intently to Megaera's lively, jubilant tones, quietly delighted by the ecstasy the mare wears emblazoned within her expressive features. The girl smiles in return, shrugging as the questions redirect, dark eyes wide in the moon-slashed face. "I have always known," she answers simply. More surprising to her was learning that others did not know, that she was alone in her ability to both sense and replicate the skills of others. It was yet another source of isolation for the copper girl, but one she had learned, with time, to embrace.

Light and sun are always appealing to the girl; she reaches out with tentative breath, looking to brush her nose against some part of Megaera's anatomy. "May I?" she asks, though perhaps it is delayed, uncalled for, as she has already gathered the ability into her veins, working it spiderlike through her mind until she is confident in it. Magic still struggles when she takes it in, yearning to be released, exposed, but the girl has at last learned some modicum of control. She releases the power gently, carefully reigning in the wild beast she has borrowed from Meg, letting her body take on a bright, radiant glow. "Wow," whispers Fire Dancer, and her brother agrees- though he nips at her hocks to remind her to stop, before the power runs away and overcomes her slender frame.

Her smile retains the brilliance of the light, at least briefly. It falters beneath Megaera's news- she nods, yes, she knew of the invasion, though not its outcome. She assumes by the words and inflection of the mare that her uncle Kaj had been successful in his mission against the Falls (why?), but questions still linger, an undeniable pull toward her ancestral home. "Who rules the Edge now?" A dim, lingering hope that the name will be a familiar one, that her family has returned to glory- but she stomps it out. Her family is gone, and all that remain are their ghosts.

Fire Dancer listens to the remainder of the news with not a little surprise. She is happy to hear that the Dragon's Throat thrives; she yearns to return to those aureate sands, to find her way once more among brush and dune. That Megaera is Sultana does not perturb the girl, though she does have to wonder the virtue of the choice: if the copper child is any example, Gaucho is less than skilled when it comes to choosing colleagues. Still, the girl smiles, a warm "Congratulations," ready on her lips. The girl has no desire to return to her former throne, and cannot help but liking Megaera, hoping she shall succeed.

More surprising is the promotion of Ampere. Fire Dancer distinctly recalls the last time she saw the tumultuous pair interact; that Gaucho would promote someone with a history so torrid and ideals so bold... the girl shakes her head at this, though part of her does admire the mare. She wonders what became of Bucephalus, that obnoxious man. At least Ampere is preferable to that.

Everyone situated, everything changed, but so many more on the tip of her tongue, names with question marks where answers ought to be. What are they doing? What role do they serve? What will she do, when her hooves once more leave crescent imprints on the desert turf? She yearns to take up her place beside the Diviner's fire, to once more channel the power of the Sun... will this be available to her, she wonders, or has another taken her place? Tentative she turns back to Meg, wistful uncertainty in her dulcet tones. "I should like to serve the Sun again, when I come home... perhaps teach as well."

The girl's descent into morose mood is mercifully disrupted by the arrival of a fourth. The descending eagle easily captures Natraj's attention; he draws his sister toward it, firing his desire to interact and play like gunshots within her mind. She shakes her head in amused dismissal, informing him that he can make his own friends without her help, though her gaze remains trained upon the young bird. "Natraj," she answers the unspoken question, gesturing to where the kitsune now sits by Megaera's side, staring eagerly at Gwaihir. "We were born together." For all she knows this statement is true, for the fleeting days she spent in the world without him are hazy and distant in the backdrop of her mind.

At last they reach the ruined shrines, and the girl draws away from her companion, attention fixed on the task at hand. From her journeys she has brought back a trinket for each; she deposits them now with a simple prayer, similar in vein but different in desire. For the Earth, a stone of sparking green, and a quiet request for the gift of strength; for the Spark, a sliver of aquamarine, and a prayer of hope for the time to come. The Moon she has brought an obsidian shard, polished to reflect all the light of the sky. Copper child asks the goddess for forgiveness, and the wisdom to persevere on. Of all the gods, this is the one whose nature and power makes her most afraid, but the Fire Dancer is an acolyte, and will not slight any deity- not knowingly, at least.

At last she comes to the shrine of the Sun, and a smile stretches on the crescent face. From the tangle of her mane she procures the final gift, a brilliant piece of alabaster stone, traced in intricate patterns of gold. They found it in the crumbling ruins at the top of a spire, the last remnants of a temple left prey to the whims of time. The marble is placed with the utmost care, and no words leave the girl's mouth. There is no need for words between the girl and her God, merely silent gratitude from behind closed eyes, an endless affection and admiration and will to serve as best she may. Embers bloom around her form, magic pressing in the presence of her devotion; she is silent, still, until at last her alto voice cuts the air, innocent and ardent, a question ripe in the Fire Dancer's mind.

"Are you happy, Megaera?"