Mauja the FrostHeart
ice cold man watches earth die, eternal winter takes its reign

"You are the purpose of this meeting, King," was what he got and Mauja had no idea what to make of the initial statement. The part of him that wasn't all ice cold and serious wanted to say something flippant about being honored, but just a single look at Ulrik's dark eyes stalled any such comment that otherwise might've flipped off his tongue. The mechanic was an intelligent man, but perhaps most important was the fact that he clung to shadows and darkness like a foal clinging to its mother - or maybe it just seemed that way to Mauja. Especially in the dark, Ulrik's large bronze marking stood out, casting the rest of him in darkness. In a way, it was fitting, but for all his lack of social grace, Ulrik was not a stallion Mauja dared take lightly. It was someone he didn't want on his bad side, but rather someone he wanted on his side. Firm loyalty would mean the world to him, but he knew it was nothing that could be bought. It had to be earned, through blood, sweat and .. maybe not tears. The King was fairly certain he would have to work hard, but he was prepared to do it. Ulrik could be extremely valuable.

All of this his mind touched briefly, not as words but as concepts - concepts were so much faster to use when thinking. Ulrik's voice grew more and more dangerous to Mauja's ears, and he realized that perhaps he had erred when making his choice. He had made it, though, and had to stand by it. It hadn't pleased him to do it, but it had been for the Moon. If he just had a herd of devout Moon worshipers... They would've understood, then, that it was the right decision at the time. Hard, but the right one. A necessary evil. Mauja felt like sighing, groaning, anything, but kept it all inside, firmly under his icy mask. The frost upon his horn glittered and he kept listening, and Ulrik fell silent after calling the choice asinine. In the wake of Ulrik's voice, Mauja blew out the air he'd held in in a long, thoughtful sigh.

"I see," he finally said, voice giving little away. Briefly, he let his eyes wander the crowd. Lotus. d'Artagnan. Seiren. "It was a decision made when the Moon herself visited our land, to inform me of an Order following the Sun. It was a temporary decree in an effort to help strengthen her until the Order had been felled." He hadn't enjoyed making the decision, and hoped they understood that. Mauja's pale eyes focused upon Ulrik, and he desperately wished Lotus to the other side of the world. Her scent was intoxicating, and despite knowing that it was, it didn't make it easier to ignore. He wanted as clear a head as possible to deal with Ulrik, and yet found himself focusing on every word in order to not slip something out of context. Calmly, he continued speaking. "The Order has fallen. The decree is no more. No hornless ever resided here, either." His eyes narrowed just a fraction. The Pegasus and equines weren't drying up their ground or burning the land. The Sun was. The Sun was the real enemy right now. The Pegasus and equines were just inconvenient, annoying bugs, ticks and fleas; they were harmless when compared to an angry God.

It was as slim a justification as he could offer, and with another small sigh Mauja bowed his head down to scrape at the dry layer of earth. "The Sun is doing this to us," he said, a bit more quiet now. The pain of the land was his pain, and never before had he felt so powerless. It was humbling in a way to know that he was nothing when pitted against a god, that he could not in any way protect his own land from nature itself. And frankly, Mauja was of the opinion that it outright sucked. After a moment, he raised his head again. The tip of his pristine horn was grayed out by the thin layer of dirt. He let his gaze sweep the gathered again, before settling back on Ulrik. "I will not be a fool and ignore the feelings of my herd. No matter how severe a situation, such a decree will never again be issued." He admitted the mistake, but hoped that it was not a weakness; rather, wasn't it strength to take the times you erred and learn from them? Owe up to the wrong you did? He desperately wanted to tell Ulrik that they from now on would go kill Sun followers, but he didn't want to accidentally give the impression of buying him off. What he did want them to know was that he wasn't going to pretend he lived on a cloud. He wanted to be a fair King to his own kind, and listen to their concerns. No one had approached him and told him how displeased they were with his decision, and so he hadn't known just how bad it sat with Ulrik. Now he knew, and he would not make the same mistake again. If the Sun was to burn the world down, they'd better die pure of heart than tarnished by the presence of hornless.