the Rift


[OPEN] leave the past in the past [kaj]

Quilyan Posts: 206
Deceased atk: 5.5 | def: 9.0 | dam: 4.5
Stallion :: Pegasus :: 16.2 hh :: 10 (ages in Orangemoon) HP: 62.5 | Buff: NOVICE
Zarina :: Pygmy Marmoset :: Quantum Leap ChaoticMelodies
#1

But when his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride...
Quilyan
...he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him.

The meeting adjourns, and the deposed prince is left with a conflicted heart. His queen has said one thing, but his friend (for he can consider Kaj a friend, can't he?) has said another, and quite vehemently - it is not like Kaj to speak so fiercely, so... angrily. Something is not right, and it makes the painted steed uneasy. He was to be king, once; he has seen the result of a restless kingdom. He has seen the terror, the chaos, the Anarchy... he shakes his head, banishing the sudden visions, the memories of a land far away as it burned. "I... will find you later, my lady," he says by way of an excuse to his darling princess. His hooves move almost of their own accord, and he picks his way through the dispersing crowd carefully, offering a pleasant smile here and a polite nod there.

Before long he has located Kaj and drawn alongside. For a moment, he stands in silence, suspended again in memory. What would it have been like, if he could have cared so much for his own family? He regrets it now, the fact that he never really tried with them. He wishes that his brothers would arrive to stand with him, to support him, and he them; he wishes his sisters were present for him to love and protect. He has Resplendence - he has Kahlua, even, for she has a sister's place in his heart - but he still has time with them. He has already failed his family. Perhaps his presence in the Edge is a chance to redeem himself - a new beginning. Perhaps by treating Resplendence as his princess, Kahlua as his sister, and Kaj and Destrier as his brothers... perhaps then he could make up for his past apathy.

"You are uneasy, brother," he says finally, his voice a soft tenor. There is more he could say, more he wants to say, but he wouldn't know how to begin - a heart-to-heart between brothers is not something that is in his repertoire of abilities. But something in his gaze is kind, earnest even, as though he would place his faith and support in the golden boy, if only he knew what had transpired.

[W/C | ---]
Walk walk walk.
Talk talk talk.
Think think think.

RayoDeSoleil.deviantart.com | Ness8Bit.deviantart.com

Please tag Quilyan in all replies.
Use of force and/or magic (with the exception of death) is allowed at all times.

Want to plot with Quilyan? Visit his plot page here!

Kaj The Aurelight Posts: 381
Hidden Falls Conscript atk: 4.0 | def: 9.0 | dam: 7.5
Stallion :: Pegasus :: 17.2hh :: 8 Years 9 Months HP: 69.5 | Buff: ENDURE
Arabella :: Common Zephyr :: Wakiya Brit
#2
 

Kaj</style>

everything on the earth has a purpose...

every disease an herb to cure it...

and every person a mission



Anger is naught but a dull heat in his veins when he walks away from the meeting, head low. Strong shoulders, once capable of holding the world upon them, are drooped and defeated. Aaron had cursed him cluelessly, and Kaj would waste no breath on the fool if he would not use his brain for more than just breathing and spitting horrible words at people. Kaj's anger...it rarely if ever exploded out of him. Words were a tornado inside his head, burning and freezing him simultaneously, spinning him into a haze of pain of self-disgust. Eyes did not meet anyone else's, lost in his own thoughts, heart breaking and constricting all at once. When he and Lace had nearly come to blows, Kaj had thrown away his feelings, locking them deep in his chest and abandoning them. Now they howled for release, and he didn't know how to handle it anymore. Kahlua, Evangeline, Resplendence, Destrier, Quilyan...five people. Five people who loved him and supported him. Honestly, it was pushing it to include Destrier and Evangeline, maybe even Quilyan. In Helovia, they were so emotionless, so cold. Where Kaj had come from, the climate had been that way, but never the hearts of the inhabitants. Soldier, nameless and faceless, he may have been, but he would lay his life down for someone just as nameless and faceless as him in a moment if they were brethren. Even if they'd never met before.

These Helovians had no clue about true love. Real, raw love. Loyalty. Honor.

He knows he's being followed, even if he was at the very edge of the meeting, and had been the first to depart into the mists. No words are exchanged, Kaj doesn't so much as glance back to figure out who it is. If it is Aaron, Lace, or any of the others who apparently now hated him, he hoped they would snap his spine and end this suffering. Unwanted by the herd he bled for, cried over, sweated for. Well, if he was so unwanted, they could tell him to his face instead of hiding behind words like cowards. Or they could man up and attack him, challenge him, put an end to it there and then. Only when the fellow came alongside him, matching strides despite their height gap, did Kaj turn eye and see who it was.

Quilyan.

A hitched sigh left the brute, and he clenched his teeth. Why did he suddenly wish to cry tears of anger, of frustration? Tears alone were weak, no matter the emotion that spurred them from your eyes. When Quilyan speaks, the larger pegasus shuddered, and his eyes clenched shut. "Can I really be named brother, now, when so many turn to me with eyes of hate?" It is a solemn question when he speaks it in his deep voice, willing his legs to keep moving as much as he wanted to just stand still until his life stopped existing. Kaj hadn't given up before, he wouldn't give up now, but like hell he didn't want to sometimes. "Lace verbally attacked a unicorn at our borders, who happened to wander towards the opening of the wall as he was inspecting it. His racist attitude was apparent to more than just I, in fact to more than three of those who gathered there. Even Kahlua was dragged in to act the same way, though I don't believe it excuses her for following his lead. Fajira, Lace's dragon, dove down around the young dierbaren- er, companion- of the unicorn. The youngling reacted by lunging back, and harmed herself falling from her protector's reach, flightless as of now. The supposed intruder was civil, throughout all of it. When I intervened...Lace degraded me. Declared I was too trusting, did not have the best interest of the Edge in mind." Teeth ground, wings tightened, tail lashed against his hocks.

"I fought for this land. The scar on my leg? I let it heal naturally to prove that I would never be afraid to bleed for my people, if I was granted the right to be their WingLeader. He...he called me Soldier. Nameless, faceless, replaceable soldier." He angrily slammed his shoulder against the nearest tree, breathing harsh and strained, body quaking as he appeared to physically fight with the beast inside of him. "You may not know, brother, but where I hail from, it is the females who hold the powers of destruction. We are only there to die for them. To step between them and the spells of another, to take the blows when they are tired. We are replaceable, nameless to our assigned Mages. My sister's death was hardly even mourned, when my parents found out. Nobody knew her name. Nobody knew the color of her eyes, or how her favorite flowers were the purple daisies where the snow couldn't touch, or that she liked to sing herself to sleep."

His throat choked and he staggered away from the tree, striding on, knowing if he didn't keep his eyes on the horizon...if he didn't keep moving forward...he would drown. The future was all he had left. "He demanded I speak to Aaron, an encounter which already transpired, which you my friend were witness to. Did you know, his young sister Azale Moniet, was nearly stolen from our borders? I dueled her attempted thief, made him prisoner of the Edge, and still he shows no gratitude. I put my life down for her honor, her safety, and he declares that I know nothing of the suffering of his family! HIS FAMILY WHEN I HAVE LOST ALL OF MINE!" It is a roar to the heavens, a declaration of hatred to the Gods above.

"I have no siblings as he does! I have nobody! Nobody to come to at night, or greet come morning! I have bled and sweated for this land, I have wanted nothing more than their safety and love, and in return I am hated and despised!" His eyes are moist, but his face is drawn in anger, a conflicting mix of emotions. Again he slams his shoulder into a new tree, and his skin splits and bleeds through freely. He does it once more before he slumps to a standstill, the ache of his limb now something he could concentrate anew upon, instead of the thoughts inside his head. Dead blue eyes turned to Quilyan, voice trembling and wobbling with emotion.

"Call me weak, brother. You must think it of me, to be so childish as to cry. You have my zusje, and she loves you. You have your companion, always faithfully at your side. What do I have but old memories and broken dreams, brother? What have I done to my kin to deserve their denouncement and degradation? What have I done aside from my best? I do not understand these customs...these emotions they have. Perhaps...perhaps it is best if I leave the mists forever, brother." Wings are drooped, shoulders heavy, head low. He is defeated, not in battle as he had suspected he would be, but in the safety of his own home, by his own people. What more does he have to lose, aside from the few people who still stood by him, still loved him?

Or did they even feel for him at all what he did?


Credit

Quilyan Posts: 206
Deceased atk: 5.5 | def: 9.0 | dam: 4.5
Stallion :: Pegasus :: 16.2 hh :: 10 (ages in Orangemoon) HP: 62.5 | Buff: NOVICE
Zarina :: Pygmy Marmoset :: Quantum Leap ChaoticMelodies
#3

But when his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride...
Quilyan
...he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him.

At first, the sigh that leaves the golden boy makes the prince's auds flicker back; did he make the wrong choice when he had chosen to follow Kaj from the meeting? Had he offended his sole true male friend in some way? Or perhaps the WingLeader simply wanted to be alone, and Quilyan has thoughtlessly intruded. As they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions - and the painted steed has those in abundance, but occasionally lacks the good sense to go along with them. But the moment passes as emotion floods his companion's face, his eyes shut tight against some unknown thought. He questions Quilyan then, his voice almost pained. It worries our prince in ways that he cannot describe, and he stretches a wing to gently brush Kaj's, a light offer of support.

The stallion does not expect the vehemence of the response he receives, does not expect such a long-winded explanation. He is not sorry for it - in fact, he rather thinks that Kaj needed the release - but he does find himself lost in his own memories once more. He raises his brows at the insinuation that their new leader is racist in any way, feels the passionate heat of anger bubble in his gut at the way Kaj was treated. He was raised to rule, after all - he knows how not to treat one's subjects. Though he does not know Lace, he feels the pit of contempt and dislike grow in his belly, driven by Kaj's words and Quilyan's own knowledge. He has seen a kingdom fall. He does not need to be a Seer to know that this one was out of control. He respects Mirage, is grateful to her for allowing he and his princess a home, but the thought that she could allow an imposter such as this to rule beside her... his lips turn into a frown, his thoughts soured.

For the first time, his loyalty leaves a bad taste in his mouth.

Kaj's anger, for a moment, gets the best of him; Quilyan winces as his shoulder slams into a tree. The following words explain the golden boy's heritage to the prince, and he begins to feel even more deeply the wrongs that have been committed. His own memories start to whirl through his mind, for he, too, has lost his family; he, too, has been treated poorly. The Anarchists had come, battle-fire roaring and war-mages chanting. They had come for him - he found this out later. The working class, cut off from the Royal Family by the very Council meant to protect their interests, had chosen to forcefully dethrone their leaders, and to prove their right to rule with the Family's execution. Quilyan had gotten lucky - he and Erigor had been in the godswood and escaped mostly unscathed - but later, when they had crept through the crowds of refugees burned from their homes, they had learned of their family's fate.

The Anarchists had not know the Royals. They did not know that his mother had a lovely singing voice and always prayed to the Healing Goddess. They did not know that his father was a horrible public speaker, but tried to speak at as many state functions as possible in an attempt to overcome his stage fight. They did not know that his favorite sister was Nasreen, and that her favorite pastime was trying to figure out how to braid his mane without any magic to guide her. They did now know that his youngest brother, Eirik, had asked for the poor to receive cakes when his first birthday came around. And yet, they had hated the Family, and they had slaughtered them without mercy, all the way down to Eirik. He hadn't even turned one.

And suddenly there are tears in the prince's eyes, because he understands Kaj's pain. He understands what it feels like to lose everything you know and love. But he is not selfless like Kaj - no, the golden boy is the better man of the two of them, of that Quilyan is certain. What has the prince done in his time here except take? He took Resplendence as his own; he took refuge in the World's Edge without ever giving back. But Kaj has fought and bled for this kingdom, and for what? To be thrown beneath the hooves of those inferior to him? To suffer from his losses over and over again? Guilt and pain flood the painted steed's heart, and for a moment it is difficult to even breathe. But then Kaj has stopped talking, has turned his dull gaze to Quilyan, and he knows that he cannot leave a broken heart in ruins. Not when it is his brother.

"You aren't weak, brother," he says, eyes glistening with repressed emotions and memories. "We are more alike than you know, you and I. My family was murdered for the blood in their veins, without knowing anything about them, for a crime they did not commit. I was a prince, once. I was in line for the throne, and I had to learn how to manage it. To place one such as this Lace in a position of power... it bodes ill for this land. I have seen discontent, I have seen rebellion, and I can tell you... this is how it starts. This is how kingdoms burn." He shakes his head, knowing that his words are not comforting in the least. "But you... you are not weak for seeing the truth. You are not weak for wanting to be appreciated. You are a better stallion than I - yes, I have Resplendence, and yes, I have Zarina, but what have I done to earn them? And yet, here you stand, bearing the scars of your so-called family, with naught to show for it."

He pauses, again shaking his head. Locks of gold and white fall to frame violet eyes. Zarina, from her place on Resplendence's neck (for she had chosen to accompany the mare and assist with the herbs, as she so enjoys) feels his pain; her concern floods their bond, but he waves her off. He tells her he has it under control. It may be a lie, but it is all he has to offer. "She loves you," he says finally. "Resplendence. I didn't... understand, at first, I thought... but... you're family to her. You're family to me, if you'll have me. If you choose to leave, I will not beg you to stay - I cannot ask it of you when you have already given so much to this land - but I will have your back, whatever your decision."

[W/C | ---]
Walk walk walk.
Talk talk talk.
Think think think.

RayoDeSoleil.deviantart.com | Ness8Bit.deviantart.com

Please tag Quilyan in all replies.
Use of force and/or magic (with the exception of death) is allowed at all times.

Want to plot with Quilyan? Visit his plot page here!


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