#muse; lyliana carvahali

[legaciestold]

@honorhearted continued from x

sounds reverberate throughout the tunnels under the palace, dirt and stones shifting and falling as a battle of magick and swords and dragon fyre encases everything above. her body feels numb, not even the bloody wound to her skin felt as she's half drug along, deeper and deeper until they turn and then begin moving upward again. 'would you truly let your father's sacrifice be made in vain?' sir ben's words ricochet within her mind, the image of her father's gaze as he'd pushed her into ben's arms so clear. the high queen was dead, a prince was dead. the high king was dying or dead, and she'd been forced to flee as men and women died in her name. it was wrong. oh it was so horrifically atrocious! the princess doesn't remember ben raising her hand to the painting to allow them passage. she doesn't remember her screams or the way she'd thrashed in his hold. 'be strong, lyli -- live for him...for your kingdom!' when she'd recall these moments later she thinks that was the moment she'd stopped fighting. when something else had taken hold of her, wrapping around the horror and encasing it in a broken heart, using it as fuel and deciding she had to survive. her people were dying. her father was dying but she remained and her other brother did too. the horrors of this night would be too horrific if such a toll held no purpose. if she died and her people were left to the venomous wrath of an evil witch to rule them in terror.

and so she had stopped fighting ben and instead began leading them through the labyrinth of tunnels until sounds and smells met their senses, day blackened out by rising smoke as they meet quickly waning daylight a distance from the palace, and her dragon standing high and tall at the ready. there's one man too, a man she'd always fondly seen tending to the royal family's dragon companions. he's wounded, she can see, the bodies of three others laying splayed across the ground where they'd worked to aid him in preparing the riding harness on apophis. if their princess was to take to the skies she would not do it without some precaution. without the best chance for her survival and escape. these people had given their very lives to ensure it. other dragons, wild, spiral through the skies as they clash with two who have been enthralled, covering the activity taking place below. apophis moves closer then, laying flatter as the man meets her and sir ben and urges them forward toward the dragon. everything happens in quick succession then. her forcing benjamin with a commanding authority she'd lacked in her previous shock to get onto the dragon first because she hadn't trusted that he wouldn't attempt to cause her to escape and stay behind and her following quickly after, seated in front of him. she seeks to grant the man who had ushered them forward some form of comforting words yet apo rushes onward as a dragon crashes feet from them and takes the man with him in a cloud of dust.

she wants to scream. this time she doesn't.

the battle had raged around them, apo maneuvering in the way sir poe had taught them never having intended for her or the dragon to have to use such teachings in practice. dragons flank them, dragons fall, the capitol is in ruin. there's a point when anger begins to overwhelm everything else, as she watches myra's men slaughter people in the streets below. she knows they can not stop their escape yet she does have her dragon lower toward the ground, a single command for fyre uttered, engulfing myra's men and their dying victims with it before they surge back into the skies and away from the city, out over the water and into the night. fyre did not care what it touched, it was brutal, but it could be wrath and mercy in one. she thinks that's the moment she truly became something new. when youthful innocence had been tore from her and fyre had remade her. the serpentine princess lyliana had never taken a life before this day. in fact she had strived to protect it even when a plot to take her own had once befell her. in the chaos of the usurping she had killed in defense. but in that moment she had killed as justice. she had killed as the queen they'd need her to become.

she'd nearly fallen off apo soon after, consciousness lost in the dampness of flight and apo's voice spoken into ben's mind to hold her before she slipped. much of the following hours had been cold and chaotic, any pursuers lost to the depths of the sea and darkness of the night. they nearly crash through the raised wards of the kingdom of eldenvale. sir poe had made it. he'd warned them. they'd prepared. soldiers meet them with prince jayson pushing past to meet her as she's passed down off the dragon. unspoken words passed between the last remaining children of a dead king and queen. chaos ensues when her uncle commands sir benjamin detained, untrusting of anyone so near to his niece and nephew when reports came of trusted friends having been turned against the royal family. the princess that would be queen can barely stand, though she rages immediately. authority in her voice that causes pause to even the warrior king-uncle before her. they let sir ben remain with her, escorted to rooms and only the carefully spoken words of her queen-aunt causing lyliana to allow healers into the rooms. they use their magicks to close their wounds and restore their skin though the fatigue and blood loss is not so simply remedied. that would take time.

the princess, like ben, argues the moment sir ben leaving the chambers is suggested by members of court though how she has the energy to have such powerful conviction in her upset is a wonder. they concede to her because they have to. the realms are in chaos but the high king and queen are dead. this girl may be exhausted and in turmoil yet she had become their queen the moment her dragon had made landfall. they call her 'her grace' in respect and in mourning, as a symbol of what was to come in the wake of what was transpiring around them yet the title is lost to her because she's beginning to fall apart again the moment the door closes. the moment the world and reality begin to enclose around her again. the moment she can't be strong as ben had commanded of her anymore. she doesn't remember anything after that. she doesn't remember the exhaustion consuming her or how she'd been laid in the bed. she doesn't remember refusing to let go of her hold on him either.

time passes, hours, as others in the castle move about directed by her uncle and aunt. prepare for war. prepare to protect the castle should myra send others upon them. they do not bother the chambers lyliana and ben occupy, not yet though the small trails of colors begin to play in the skies. it's early, extremely early when she awakens with a strangled scream upon her lips, her surging upward in the bed in horror as if she's back in the moment. her breath is labored, eyes searching wildly until they settle on sir ben. thankfully no one has heard her, no one but him and she knows as her light hues meet his that it wasn't a dream though she wishes it all had been some horrid nightmare. it had all happened. it was all real and the weight of that is gut-wrenching. "they're all dead, ben. she killed them. she killed them all and i want her dead!"

[dracoserpentis]

@honorhearted

a light drizzle meets thorndil, skies above the city awash with streaks of green and blue. the day has been quieter than most as of late, the excitment of conflict to the east of which her parents had saved the lady myra from imprisonment having finally passed. though worrying talk had still plagued her mind. images of dark armies morphing into a kind of dark plague washing over the land in her dreams. myra's talk of things she had seen had had brought forth hushed tones among court of a time foretold even if many did not give such credence. they had always believed such a threat would come from the unknown reaches to the north not the east. lyliana wished her brother was there, for at least she'd have him to speak with for as rash as he could be at times he always seemed able to quell her fears and chase her nightmares away if only just by providing a comforting embrace. of course she could have spoken to sir ben but.. despite how silly such a thought was she didn't want him to think her weak for having such fears. he'd always been her most loyal friend and it had usually been her thrusting them into danger-- even if said danger was merely mingling secretly with the peoples of the city or venturing into the darhk forest when young. she'd always appeared the princess she was supposed to be, strong and brave. not a silly girl with nightmares of a time that perhaps would never come to pass in the first place.

darkness begins to meet the sky awhile later, the sun lowering as the twin moons appear just past the rings and she wonders what the sky might look like far way as she stands near the window of her chambers. she's heard tales the planets rings look different elsewhere, altering the whole look of the sky. <we could go there one day, i've seen it, i can show you.> the thought is projected into her mind from apo, blue hues washing over the city as she sees the dragon, his morph first dark and then turning golden as he soared above buildings and toward the dragon pits to rest. <maybe one day but not today. i think sir poe is still recovering from my last unexpected excursion. maybe sir ben is too.> she projects back, smiling. the tension in her shoulders eases and she decides to go in search of her youngest brother. one of her guard outside her door acknowledges her and she frowns slightly at the unexpectedness of who it is. wasn't sir ramsey supposed to be her guard for the evening? she had made a point to know of such things, determined that she was kind and friendly to all her guards and not just the one she'd grown up with. lyliana questions such being informed sir ramsey had been ill and required a healer, perhaps having eaten something which had not agreed with him. she has no reason to question it, further stating that she should visit him in the infirmary following finding prince cormac.

her door remains open still when strange sounds begin to emit through the palace. there's a scream that causes her pause, then metal clanking far down the corridor. alarm creases her features as sir edris moves closer to her, seemingly to usher her back inside her room, however he grabs her arm instead all pretense lost and a strange darkness covering his eyes like black glass. she questions what he's doing, shoving at him as he begins to unsheathe his sword. there's a loud crashing sound somewhere outside the palace, shaking the floor for a moment as if something large has attempted to break into the space. it gives her an opening to yank herself away from sir edris, the large vines outside her window directed toward him as she falls to the floor and he after her. he swings his sword at the vines before attempting to stab at her. he nearly succeeds, a large cut to her arm spilling blood on the floor of her chambers before she rolls away. her vines falter for a moment before she redirects them back toward him and when he attempts to stab her again she sends them through his neck though she's not entirely sure such was what she intended. lyliana doesn't have time to allow herself to comprehend what's just happened or what she's just done, her grabbing at his sword before moving out of her chambers. she's in kind of daze, apo sending her flashes gates opening and a dark army moving into the city though she can not quite muster actual words to send to him or understand fully what he's trying to communicate to her other than there was no means for a dragon to enter the castle so a dragon wasn't going to save her from whatever was happening.

another person, a knight for twins sake charges at her, the same look in his features, and she raises the sword against him. she may not be as skilled as jayson or ben when it comes to swordplay but she knows enough. she needs to get to her brother. to her mother and her father. but first her brother. he'd be the least able to defend himself. she manages to shove the knight down the stairs before she's moving again. but what she finds when she gets to cormac's chambers sends a chill through her body. his guards are dead outside the ajar door and she nearly drops the sword then and there despite the sounds of conflict coming from all directions now. her footfalls are slow, too slow, as she pushes the door open and it's then the worst and most blood-curling shrill scream escapes her. she moves into the space, nearly falling onto the queen and prince's bodies on the floor, her mother's lifeless body protectively over her brothers. blood, too much blood littering them. the sword falls as she shakes her mother first and then her brother but.. there was no life left in them. she can't breathe. she can't think. they have to come back. they have to. this wasn't real. it couldn't be.

her scream, or was it screams? not even she knows have attracted attention, two men who she recognizes as having seemingly been imprisoned with myra before her parents saved her appearing in the doorway. they don't have the same darkness washing over their eyes but they do have hate and malice in them. they move into her brother's chambers and she scrambles for the sword trying to protect her mother and brother unable to accept them truly fallen. but they are larger than her, quicker, and their sight is not clouded by tears. she tries to strike out at them but the sword is knocked from her, one of them, the one without a sword so that his hands were free grabs her as the other with his back toward the door seeks to stab her too. in the distance her dragon screeches violently over the city, sound booming given his size and age as he like the now fallen dragon of her brother's tries to break through a palace wall with fire and sheer force of his body.

"why? why are you doing this? we helped you!" she's struggling violently, seeking answers if it is to be the last moments she has and praying others.. ben, her father, and so many others still lived. but then she realizes with the sick and twisted expression of the man with the sword staring at her as he points it toward her the true depth of betrayal. "it was all a trick. myra never was a prisoner was she? this is what you wanted, wasn't it?!" she doesn't get a response and anger rises within her as she stares back at the man, unwilling to grant him fear in her death. there is no peace as she realizes she's about to die, no, anger is all she has. "the twins will see you pay for this! my brother will hunt you down and you will burn for this!"

[legaciestold]

@razorfst

wards pulse over the green skies of halendil, the sure signal of a storm upon the horizon as misty air blows off the sea onto an overlook from the palace. prince jayson looks out over the city, his dragon companion soaring high and then surging lower as they observe the groups of mages checking the energy sources of the wards, a silent conversation passing between the two as the dragon comments upon the state of the grey skies to the east and the way it melded into green as snow became warmer rain within the wards. the queen-- the true queen-- ponders herself, looking upon her brother and then back toward the large table with various figures plotted within the kingdom, how long their wards would be able to keep the brutality of the snow witch's winter from this part of the ten. it took an extraordinary amount of resources to maintain when their forces and the loyalty of houses were still scattered. of course there was always an advantage to keeping winter at bay when one was training forces, something which would likely ensure halendil's state of warmth, though the entirety of eldenvale perhaps not. her queen-aunt would need to speed along her plan to help reinforce the south of the kingdom for what was to come. eventually, they would have to let it in and divert some resources to maintaining wards in throne where much of their weaponry and gear was being formed.

lyliana's features frown as her golden hair cascades down her back and shoulders, light hues analyzing the map as her king-uncle kaspar enters, the doors closed around him and jayson meeting his sister and uncle at the map. "he's arrived with the men and shipment from throne." he reveals with a kind of fascinated look upon him. kaspar was tired of the stagnation around him, his own avenging quest consuming him as he gathered forces to his niece's.. to his.. to their family's cause and threatened those who's loyalties remained teetering. of course, his threats were not like the snow witch's, there was no calls to slaughter families, but the stern reminder that when fyre and blood met upon the field and mira lay dead with her glass soldiers the banners who rose to lyliana's call would be the ones remembered just as much as those who did not.

"remain at your sister's side. always vigilant jayson but do not allow your emotions to cloud truth." kaspar commands before turning toward his niece. "i hold no doubt, your grace, that you could defend yourself. but we do not know the full truth of his otherworldly weapon. i will not take chances in this matter. any more than we already are in the least." for it had been lyliana whom had insisted to meet this man reports had come in about once one of her own former guard had spoken of witnessing the man's actions within a letter and though a king, her uncle held no power to truly overrule her. of course, all communications thus far have revealed the man in question as a possible ally, reports that he aided in battles along the long path to halendil positive. but there had been too great of loss to take too many unnecessary risks especially when it came to technology of realms like earth which were so strangely contrasting to their own world's.

the sound of large stone doors at the end of the corridor emits through the space, the lack of being within the throne room the man is being passed through is purposeful. this space is that of military discussions, of planning, of speeches of loyalty and pledging banners. of seeing the true vastness of the war upon them on the large wooden table and magical figures moving about the map. royal guards shift their stance near the doors, two remaining there and two others moving to other vantage points within the large chamber. prince jayson's dragon finds it's way below the overlook, heard but not seen unless one looked down while kaspar's and lyliana's remain close to the palace, within reach but unseen, sensing possible danger and allowing themselves to be ready for it, ever-protective. king kaspar shifts closer to the door, a hand upon the hilt of his sword and stance every bit the confident warrior-king songs spoke of while high queen lyliana and prince jayson remain where they had been. when the doors open and the stranger is led in and presented to the royals lyliana is the one to thank the guard who brought the stranger in, a kindness about her smile though weight in her light hues which shift to the stranger in curiosity.

"reports from our allies speak well of you, sir. it is why you have been brought here. i do hope your journey has treated you well. i understand you come from somewhere very different than my home." lyliana comments, moving around the large table and placing her hands at her front with her prince-brother following her, him remaining a step in front of her, not so subtly protective and ensuring she does not get within reach of whatever the devise upon the man's arm was.

"yes, yes. there will be time for pleasantries later depending upon what is spoken here." king kaspar speaks, seeming to decide that the man before him held himself as he'd expect someone who held more than a month or so's history in battle. still lyliana frowns briefly at the way he speaks though allows him to continue.

"let us not beat around why you are here sir. by all accounts you have held time to see what is befalling the kingdoms and thus far you have shown a willingness to aid our forces in as much as such has aided you. your asset would be of great use to us against the bitch who infects the walls of thorndil." there's venom in his tone toward the bitch in question. "so speak now, where is your fidelity?" kaspar questions as prince jayson chimes in. "your time here is assured until the war's end. the portals are not safe under mira's guard." and then, her uncle again speaks. "choose your path sir, now before the rightful high queen of the ten, and such will determine what your time in this realm shall contain."

[legaciestold]

@everythingheard asked: “  i won’t let anyone hurt you again. not ever.  ” (for lyliana from peter)

the soft mewling of a dragon, golden color shimmering into a deep black harmonizes with the sounds of crashing waves against the black cliffs below. the rock of beruna. her little brother should be there with them, flying carefree with his dragon against a sunlit sky. apo knows it as well as she does and lyliana sighs with a heavy heart, light hues washing over a shimmering horizon in resigned sympathy, a hand placed upon scales before she looks away. all these months later and reality felt as disjointed as her aunt's magical wards made the scenery from dragsea. oh lyliana held no doubt that if the snow witch had known her and peter had ventured from eldenvale and queen allyria's war councils that she would attempt a move against dragsea.

she'd fail.

of this much lyliana is confident. for even without the seeming loyalty of the wild clutch of dragons which resided there, the magical wards of the mage houses on the island would be enough to combat even myra's dark magic for quite some time. long enough, in the least, for reinforcements to arrive. it further benefitted her and peter's presence there that the snow witch's attentions where drawn away by her uncle's forces having joined with house qin of the ten, engaged in conflict against the dark army. no, the witch couldn't have dragons uniting with dragons. not unless they were under her thrall.

it strikes the princess then, that her uncle had taken jayson with him, a fact which causes a tight kind of pain to course through her body and a hand to fall upon her midsection. forcing her eyes from the horizon and away from her dragon too as she looks back toward peter who's no doubt deduced where her mind has gone. she'd lost her little brother along with their parents just months prior. lyliana wasn't sure she could survive losing jayson too. wasn't sure the child within her could survive the stress of such an event either. war. she had been a child bore to prevent war and now she would give life to a child in war. the twins were cruel sometimes as was the nature of gods and goddesses, the duality of light and dark, though perhaps she should hold a greater distaste for the fates at present for did they not also hold the very gods accountable?

a snow flake from the south blows past her face and lands in peter's hair, melting in the contrasting warmth within the wards and lyliana's features soften. sometimes she wonders if this man before her, this king, understands the depths to which she cares for him. to which she loves him, even if duty had nearly spelled their end before they could have truly become what they were now.

“you can not promise that, peter. not when war surrounds us at every turn.” her hand reaches out for his cheek gentle, bittersweet. "but-- we have allies, we have family, and we can vow to be at each other’s side, to do everything in our power to protect each other and this child in these uncertain times.” she had to believe that would be enough.

[dracoserpentis]

@honorhearted gets a semi-flashback!

the sun is past it's peak in the sky, late afternoon upon thorndil as the princess changes her clothing into something less formal and more of the common classes. she knows ben is outside, her guard for the evening and that he's capable of protesting far more than her other guards feel able to but it's the last day of one of the cities fetes and she wants to experience it, not from the tourneys held within the confines of the palace lands but as her people do. she wants to experience the colors and the joy and the excitement of it and she is ever determined to, it's just a matter of sneaking out of the confines of the palace and making her sir poe doesn't find out. still, she is not an idiot about it, her normally icy blonde hair appears darker, almost as dark as the princes' hair that they'd inherited from their grandfather. nearly black. one of her attendants had created the waxy mixture herself that they had worked through lyliana's hair. it'd come out with a good washing but for now she looked ever unlike herself, at least from the perspective of the feature she was known to the people for. most people of the city had never been close enough to her face to actually remember her facial features. her clothes are layered too, a finer cloak open and hanging off her shoulders revealing a somewhat shabbier one underneath. she could shed the top one once they got to the secret tunnels that'd lead out of the palace. because she fully intended to drag him with her and was well aware if he wanted to keep to his oath to protect his dearest friend he was going to have to join her. alright, perhaps her and sir caleb might have to fight for such title of dearest friend but she did have the fact she was the princess of the nation on her side.

maybe such was playing dirty, but lyliana was determined and it wasn't as if going into the city was going to be as dangerous as when she'd drug him out into the darhk forest when they were younger. now that, even she could admit, hadn't been the smartest move. but her dragon had been overhead so they'd made the trip in one piece. ah to be young and adventurous. she thinks, a small smirk coming to her features that she knows will certainly not be on sir ben's. door to her chambers opens gently and quietly, her half-stepping out to draw his attention from his watch of the corridor. he certainly had to have expected something from her, rare was it that she let him merely do his job outside her chambers without engaging in some kind of conversation or excursion even if it was just a walk about the gardens in the evening before she'd go to sleep because sir ben wasn't her other guards. they'd known each other most of their lives, experienced growing up together, been tutored together at times and while she was always nice and engaging with the rest of the watch which protected her, she always felt a certain level of guilt that ben was to watch over her when he was one of the people she trusted above many others, when to her he was her equal rather than just another knight sworn honor and defend her family. she never had liked holding herself above others in any real sense, even if she was the crown princess and sometimes pulled rank to get her way on such occasions like this night.

"ben--" she begins, using his name and not the honorific in an attempt to win him over with their friendship. "--before you try to say no, let me remind you that i'll find a way to go out there even if i have to call apo to my window. and that will cause far more of a scene than if we just sneak out through the tunnels. it's the last day and i want to see it and i'll surely i'l be the safest princess in all of the ten if you're with me." her eyes are pleading in that way that always reminds of a baby animal or child. completely innocent, except she knows they are both well aware of her use of such tactic, at least with him and perhaps her father and brother. as a point of fact she's used such on his father before too. it never quite worked on her mother though. "i promise we don't have to stay in the city long."