i am the vanguard of your destruction

"You, clearly. Come, my queen. Let us discuss."

For the first time in his life, Mauja was a Queen. It had been a long shot, trying to amuse the one who had, aside from a brief meeting in the Threshold a few years ago, mostly just called him filth and acted like all he'd wanted was to curbstomp him on the spot. But either it was the beauty of politics, or that flare of anger had gone out—Torleik had responded in kind, dark lips curving into a handsome grin, and Mauja found his eyes drifting to Ophelia. He could certainly see why she hung around with him. He did look good.

But Mauja knew that the moment they shared, that dark maw reaching for her delicate ears and whispering words she would never forget, was not for him. So he looked aside, wondering when things had ended up this way, and why it didn't bother him more than it did—which is to say, hardly at all.

Instead, he looked at Kahlua, and then to the blue-and-black Pegasus mare as she made her exit. "I look forward to it," he said to her, pure instinct, something curbing his words and turning the snarl into a smile. Silently he watched her go. It was a fault of his and a remnant of the past, but Mauja ill liked the Throat.

Then Torleik was moving away from the most mysterious woman Mauja had ever known, and with a flick of his tail the white beast padded after him, wondering if this was to turn into attempted regicide, or if miracles were truly happening in Helovia right now.

---

"Queen Mauja," he hummed under his breath, walking a couple of paces behind the black King—and how was that, for a match? A White Queen and the Black King. He snorted to himself, staring at the hypnotic swaying of Torleik's tail as it moved with the motion of his walk. Queen Mauja. He rather liked it. It sounded.. softer, somehow. And if there was anything Mauja had ever been, it was snow-soft, never quite the ice of his arsenal but frigid all the same.

Torleik paused and propped one shoulder up against a tree; Mauja stopped, tipping one hind hoof up on its tip and tilting his head. Looked peaceful enough. Maybe it was miracles, then, and not regicide. It brought a slight smile to his face.

In his curiosity he had remained silent, waiting for the Black King to take the lead, and when he did, it was with a broad question but one that Mauja had already mulled over in the back of his mind. He always spent too much time thinking about everything, anyway. "The herd," he said after only a slight pause. "The majority of them probably went to the Falls, but we'll need to figure out who we have, and who they are.. and I don't trust Helovia one bit—if it's not one of the other herds, it'll be a band of wolves eager to take us. While not a matter for right now, recruiting needs to be one of our priorities. We need numbers to discourage them to strike us while we're still.. weak," and he grimaced at the word, because it wasn't the word he wanted, but the only one he could find. He cocked his head again, pale eyes peering at Torleik. "That, and, uh, if we want to.. lay down any rules aside from 'don't be an ass, use common sense' ... What do you find the most important, right now?"

They were, after all, supposed to be the two faces of a single coin—and not the same side. Besides, aside from the fact that Torleik seemed incredibly territorial about a certain mare, Mauja knew nothing of him.

Unless that regicide thing was still going to happen.. he was surprised to find that he somewhat looked forward to figure out who this black king was, and what lay behind his so eerily similar eyes.

[ @[Torleik] ]

i am the vanguard of your destruction

"I wish to rebuild the wall," the Black King said after a moment's pause, and Mauja's wandering eyes glazed over as he stared vacantly off in another direction. Rebuild.. the wall? With every word falling from those dark lips Mauja's snowy neck grew stiffer, and when finally the rabicano was done and moving on to the herd his head had turned all the way back. He wasn't sure what was written in his own eyes—if there was more than just ice. Incredulity, surprise, shock even.. that anyone would want to keep such a heathen monument, and worse, rebuild it—it was beyond him. The wall Kahlua had been so proud of was nothing to cherish, to treasure; it was a trap, a curse, defying unity with its dividing existence just like the Throat's fucking islandification.

Maybe times were changing in Helovia.

But that didn't mean Mauja had to help it along.

"I don't agree with rebuilding the wall," he said stiffly, realizing this was the goddamned problem with shared power: opinions were bound to clash, and who was in the right? How would a compromise look? Was bashing your co-ruler into a quasi-permanent bruise a legit way to solve the issue? "It's a remnant of Mirage's narrowmindedness, a symbol of division—they, the pure, high and mighty, guarding against the us, the outcast unicorn legion of the north. To me, it is not strength—it is cowardice. It..." He held his breath for a second, but then let the words roll off his tongue along with his surprise. "It is not something I wish to stand for.

"While I agree that it has some defensive qualities, I believe it could easily be our death. This forest has a history as being highly flammable. Gates would cause a choke-point for escape, potentially costing us lives. It is useless against flying enemies. It.." But he paused there, and drew a deep breath, before looking at Torleik with a pained look. "I've made my case, I don't need to chew your ears off as well, unless you want me to go on." And then he shook his head with a tired sigh, running back his memory lane to what Torleik had said after the shocking revelation that he wanted to live behind a wall. Uhh.. rules. Ranks. Ranks, right. Two for the head of each "class", so to speak.

When Mauja had run the Edge, it had been smaller—there had been no need for two. But.. Helovia had grown, and Torleik's reasoning was flawless. "Two of each head," he said, a half-whisper. "Sounds fair. You mentioned 'others'—what 'other' jobs did you think of?"

[ @[Torleik] ]

i am the vanguard of your destruction

He was already disliking joint leadership.

Mauja, when he had had time to prepare, could be subtle. Could be convincing. Could be tactful. But when things were thrown in his face like this, he was about as subtle as an earthquake, and the ice-guards on his tongue couldn't quite catch all the emotion bleeding through his words. Still, there were things to be said for blunt honesty, and he figured that, in the long run, his honesty would be better than his lies.

"I see. Should I become accustomed to you making decisions on past prejudices?" It was sharp, a whip-lash, thin and needling and I didn't deserve that his mind growled; he deserved to be questioned and analyzed, not.. accused. Momentarily his ears pinned back too, but he didn't interrupt. And then something incredible dawned on him: Torleik and Ulrik were related.

But how could that scrawny, taciturn Engineer be related to this snow-bellied hulk?

It didn't matter. Nothing mattered. The feeling of satisfaction was subsiding, and in its wake came despair; wave after wave of worthless and useless rolled in to the shore of his soul, slowly drowning him as he listened to the black king speak with soft passion about the defense and structuring of their new home.

But even as he fell silent, Mauja did not speak. He merely gazed out between the trees, the sharpness of his pale gaze having faded into something soft, and almost sad; back at the gathering of horses, Diego and Irma shifted upon their perches, feathers whispering with their faint movements. Only when Torleik spoke again, this time of the wall, did Mauja's head turn back, peering at him from behind his long forelock.

That's what walls do to you, he wanted to say. That's what they do to your heart.

"I used to despise those who were not unicorns," he said after a moment. The words felt odd in his mouth. "It was something I took with me from my upbringing, and my early years before Helovia." It's marvelous, how easy it is to shape the mind of a young individual even without meaning to. None of them had said that the few born hornless, or with too useless horn arrangements, were worth less; but everyone knew it. The horns were the only effective weapons they had against the Magnar. Without horns, you could not fight. Without horns, you could not defend your home.

They usually went on to become medics. They had a place, but they were quieter, more mellow...

There's so much I ought to tell him.

"When I first came to Helovia, the Moon chose me as King of this place. I did not believe in equality, but it was nothing I said out loud. I offered the Edge as a safe haven for unicorns, and we lived here peacefully." He still couldn't betray the Plague. He didn't know if the sect was still active—but he still couldn't damn them. "That summer, the Sun God was on a rampage, in a terrible rage because Kri and her Pegasus band had thrown down the Order of the Sun. None was spared his wrath. When the Moon came down, here at the Edge, to let me know of this, another was present: a black, nondescript mare. Her name was Mirage, and I've later learned she led a group known as the Qian, and they were moon-worshipers. Despite her lack of a horn, I offered her and hers sanctuary in the Edge. She did not take me up on it.

"Later, your cousin called me out on my decision. Anyway—when the autumn came, Mirage came again, this time with an army. Kri forsook her word of mutual disinterest, and backed Mirage. Paladin came with soldiers from the Foothills. Nearly all of Helovia, united against us—and for what reason?

"Because we lived only with our own kind." He snorted.

"Mirage gave me an ultimatum, to share the Edge with them or have it taken from us. Even if I had not promised Ulrik that we would not share, it bothered me that she showed up on my doorstep with an army and then made up my mind for me, demanding the very thing I had offered her before but she had declined. We fought, but in the end, we lost."

No wall could've saved us. "And then they built the wall." What was his point, even? "And you've met that wall, and what it does to people." He was silent for just a second. "In the heart of my homeland was a fortress-like mountain, and whoever was in control of it was regarded as in control of the land itself. For many, many generations the unicorns held it, while our scattered enemy regrouped, adapted, and advanced. After I left, things got worse, and when I returned.. that fortress looked to be a very promising grave for my people. And it was the same thing: there was the us, and there was the them. And the solution was to eradicate that divide .. after quite a vicious battle.

"I'm not going to lie to you, Torleik. I'm not a diplomat. I'm a warrior—a sword to be wielded. I have no idea what I am doing here, as supposedly the diplomatic lead, but I'm going to try. I'm going to do my best to learn. But I have been on both sides of that wall, and both sides suck.

"But you are right, we should not go defenseless. Spikes are a good idea. When I ruled here before, we had constant border patrols—they worked well enough. Air-bound patrols would be more efficient, as they cover ground more quickly, but on the other hand, they would not be able to detect scent trails where the border has been breached." And that doubt came crashing back in: had his history lesson been pointless? Had it been objective enough? Had Torleik learned anything from it? Had there even been anything to learn? "So a mixture would be ideal, I think. And.. this terrain offers some natural defense. We have uneven ground, we have many trees, and fog; we ought to practice both guerilla type movements, and large-scale army movements. This is our land, and we should learn to use that to our advantage if someone decides to pay us a violent visit." He tilted his head again. "We ought to have three Generals, actually. One for our ground units, one for the sky legion, and one, winged, that knows both roles. And.. I might not be fond of the Moon Goddess—" look how good he was, not calling her a bitch to Torleik's face "—but having Acolytes dedicated to her is a good idea." And, he pretty much strangled himself saying good idea instead of not a bad one. Oh, the woes of partnership.

"Oh, and, that arrogant little dipshit—Cathun? He said some nasty things and left. While he did have a point, his attitude makes me think we'll have to be wary of him in the future." That's what Mauja liked about leaving his owls in strategic places. They relayed important information to him.

They also reminded him he needed to remember to ask who Irelyn was. Mauja wasn't sure he remembered ever having seen Torleik's companion...

[ @[Torleik] -- bahaha. xP ]