Of the five that had greeted Yseulte in the mists of the Threshold over a year ago, two had become kings. The Gentleheart and the Lionheart. What had become of the Lionheart, she couldn't say, but her Gentleheart with his gentle eyes and gentle voice, she had left far behind. The thought made her heart ache with a fierce longing, a longing for the sea roaring against the Edge of the world and the screams of seagulls. But she could not turn back, not after coming this far.
Yseulte had wished more than anything that she might belong to World's Edge and had dared hope that she had found her refuge in that kingdom by the sea, a sweet sanctuary that accepted her regardless of the murder staining her heart. And it had, for a time. She discovered friendship in the most unlikely of places, in Lace, her gentle mentor with the sad, distant gaze, as if he had lived a thousand previous lives and none of them happy. And Torasin, her summer-eyed friend, though the wounds of his recent murder still ran deep, raw, and red in her heart; leaving behind her first family in Helovia only salted those wounds further. She had even dreamed dreams of creation and purpose rather than darkness and destruction, and learned from a valiant, fearless queen and her kind, compassionate king.
She would miss them, she realized.
She had never truly been part of the Qian, however. She pretended, mostly, but in reality, Yseulte felt very much like an outsider. A sham, pretending to be something she was not. She belonged in the world of thieves, and murderers, of backstabbers and liars. She didn't deserve belong to this...this honorable family. The word was foreign to her in a way that made her heart ache strangely. It had been doing that a lot lately. She wished the heart wasn't such a weak, vulnerable organ that felt so much.
And so she could understand the violet-eyed mare's need for nothing more than a name, a simple name. Although a name could not say half so much about an identity as actions could, Saga had a right to them all the same. The pale stallion introduced himself first, a thin smile curling over lips like velvet. Mauja. She was not unfamiliar with the name—but then again, neither was the whole of Helovia from the tales of history Lace had once spun for her. But whether or not she recognized the pale unicorn as the ex-king of World's Edge and the reigning Lord of the Basin, her expression did not say. He was a nobody to her, for now. She would not dismiss him completely; no, that would be both foolish and dangerous. Perhaps there would be a time in the future where they might use one another, but until that day, they had no interest in each other, only in the unicorn before them.
Icicles chimed together, a haunting, hollow sound in the dead silent of the forest, and moments later, a great pale owl swept through the darkness, gliding through the air like a ghost and alighting on the stallion's withers. Itzal sneered in her mind, and cracked another bird bone audibly in the brief silence, taunting the bright-eyed creature, daring her to retaliate.
"And I am Yseulte. That beautiful specimen is Itzal, and if he does not behave himself, I shall make myself a lovely fur cloak out of him." Yseulte gave him a cold look, not wishing to see him torn to shreds by that cruelly hooked beak and those gleaming talons. He returned to his meal sullenly, but not before giving her a bitter, venomous look. Let him sulk. He must learn humility. Perhaps the owl ought to teach him a lesson, after all—no doubt it would be more effective than Yseulte lecturing him. To Itzal's mind, she was simply his butler, and an ill-tempered butler at that.
"If neither of these options appeal to you, I would have you join me," she said at last. She did not extend this invitation often, but in Saga, she saw something she liked. What would Mauja make of this new twist? He could make of the Valkyries what he liked. Let him ponder their existence or dismiss it completely; she cared not. "I cannot offer you a safe home surrounded by mountains or fancy walls, but then, what are walls and kingdoms compared to freedom? Join my Valkyries, and you shall have it." |
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