KAJ

the aurelight

Why was Kaj here, you ask?

Honestly, you probably had a better idea than he did.

Kaj did not care to examine his desires, the strings of fate that pulled him this way and that, not any longer. What was the use in robbing himself of the encounters and experiences he may have, in favor of endless patrols that others could rightfully fill? So instead he left the tasks to those who were required to complete them, and he ended up...here.

Kaj didn't know what drew him here. The place where he'd received his kingdom and crown, though the colors of the banner he flew now were so very different. There was sentimentality, if only because he had blocked his memories - he had not removed the emotions that he still experienced. There was also a resignation, an awareness that it did not matter where he ruled or who served him. It could all be taken from him in a moment, after all. What mattered was how well he ruled, the impact he made in the present, the changes he made, the relationships he forged. Isn't that ironic, considering you rejected Brisa over something like memories? Snorting softly to himself, the Aurelight twisted away from the caverns ans went striding across the dry, cracked earth. A lone king on a ruined battlefield, a wasteland of blood and fire. He went where his limbs took him, having nothing in mind and no place to return to quickly.

Of course fate had other plans in store for him, depositing him almost on top of the awkward pair traveling together in the eastern side of the land. He recognized them immediately, for he'd not blocked any memories of Quilyan. Perhaps some last minute sentimentality, or a desire to torture himself? But he viewed those memories very differently, with the absence of all the other memories that had transformed him into Other Kaj. That Quilyan had been suspicious of his relationship with Resplendence...perhaps he had nothing to fear from Other Kaj, but Kaj now, here, today? Perhaps he did.

Still, he could read the pain and the anger in the healer's posture, and was beside her almost before he could recognize himself moving. Quilyan was no short soul, but Kaj towered over him, and he drew himself to full height, wings flicking back in a rather disrespectful manner as ears fell flat to his crest. "You better have on hell of an explanation, Quilyan," rumbled like thunder from his chest, his magic coalescing with heated air and sparks that danced between the vanes of his feathers. The Czar placed himself between the once-prince and Resplendence without any care for subtlety, danger and anger covering the gape of his own ignored hurt to see the face of the man he'd called brother, returned with a smile on his face, still daring to call Resplendence terms like "my lady".