Autumnal
conquestofuriel:
☨
He hummed in agreement, acknowledging the massive problem that The Eye was. But the Blessed had not touched down upon this world to deal with one human organization, no matter how large it was. “The rest of the world is not a concern of mine at the moment,” Uriel replied, circling the bottom of the glass on the table. “This is the epicenter. This is where my siblings will be weakened if The Eye decides to strike with their moly poisoning.” He sighs.
“The Drow Queen is allied to the cause of the Necronomicon and the Asphodel. I know how she harms you and your people. Is it not time to put down arguments that are pitiful in the face of truly banding together, your forest and the Senate, to defeat this common enemy?”
...
“Pitiful? Truly, this is your attempt at diplomacy?” She snorts, taking a sip into her drink as she raises a brow at Uriel in clear judgement. Intelligence does not equal wisdom, just as DnD deems it, and it is clear Uriel lacks wisdom to balance his intelligence and age. As old as he is, there seems a lack of common fucking sense bouncing around that magic essence of his. Not that she is truly surprised by that information. “You are correct in that the Drow Queen harms our people, but so has the Eye, and my King has deemed them a threat as well. I understand your worry and your desperation, but dismissing and mocking our concerns is not the solution if you desire for us to work together, Uriel.”
"So you have met often," Robin confirms, a spark of delight on her carefully light tone as she bumps her shoulder against Farenduil. As much as she truly does enjoy gossiping, her attempt to tease the former fey lays more on her desire to bring a smile or a blush upon his cheeks, anything to distract him from the reality in which his mother sacrificed herself for the common good. What Titania had done is commendable, but Robin worries that with Farenduil's already set tendency for melancholy, the grief would not leave him. He might be human now, but he grew up as a fey, and she is sure the long lasting melancholy he is used to would kill him in his fragile shell. "But you have not ventured outside? That cannot do. We must do some recon and find good outing spots, then. The Saturnalia market, for example, sounds fantastic."
"I didn't know that, actually." It's very casual, almost too casual, because he knows what she's getting at and it's something he hasn't really put too much thought towards. Just because he'd made peace with Titania passing didn't mean it didn't hurt, but with all of that swept away, confined to the house, he was left with....Life is quite strange. Though he is touched that many have made a point to keep him in their lives, even if Robin is grilling him on the elephant in the room. "We usually just have coffee at my place. I still haven't gotten out much."
Autumn is in the air, the spores tethering themselves into body and brick alike. It is a relief to have a clear sign that her plans had taken root, that her time spent studying under the elders and the Wisdom Daimona had been worth their while, even if it had meant ignoring the world outside the forest. A world that she no longer feels responsible for saving, not when she needs to focus on her people first. The Lupo pack is moving, so the Eye should be taken care of, which means that the Courts must turn their eyes towards the Drow.
At the same time, she cannot just move without consulting the Elders. Not without documenting her every action to provide a sense of accountability for herself, a paper trail for others to go through if there was ever a doubt of her allegiances. Fen'harel's legacy loomed over her, their shadow as dark as the magic of Lloth's priests. The legacy of thousands of years of lies cannot be erased easily, and she is the one left to hold the weight of an embittered people.
"Inan," Robin welcomes warmly as he steps into the alcove of the Chancellor's Estate, glad to see him returned from a self-imposed exile that the Elders had not thought he deserved. His words settle heavily over her shoulders as the implications dawn on her. Head tilting to the side in consideration, Robin smiles kindly and steps forward, one finger settling under his chin to keep his gaze on her. "As my warder, or my watcher? I am aware that the council would like the later, and I do not begrudge them for it, but I would appreciate your honesty."
@thegoodfellow location: Autumn's Fields, Chancellor's Estate notes: idk when this takes place but I would like it to be when he becomes her warder thanks
Fall's fields were a pale shadow when compared to what they'd held in the Otherworld, but in every corner there was the essence of those hoping to rebuild. Their kind were used to preparation and to anticipation, often their place to look ahead at the coming and cold and understand what had to be done. Forethought in action as Inan wandered with a characteristic autumnal breeze at his back; his presence was light and deceiving, weak magic bolstered few environmental effects but Inan had never cared to be as flashy as some of the others.
Robin's presentation at the Equinox denoted her ascension, maybe undetectable to some but he remembered who she'd been before the Council had tapped her, and he felt the difference now. The myriad shift of small magic that was pronounced among them, spores and rot that were too small to see but for fey of their court who'd trained for so long, it could be felt. She had changed, but time would tell if it would be for the better.
Inan landed on a knee, his head bent towards her as he crossed an arm across his chest. "Chancellor," he should have been here sooner, months ago, but he was here now. He'd sworn the words before, he would gladly do it again, but he would do better this time. Blue eyes shifted from the ground at Robin's feet towards her features, "I was summoned by the Elder Council, if you'll have me, my sword is at your side."
who? @chancellorxlaer
where? summer’s sands
Robin is by far the least experienced of the Chancellors. Born to the stable reign of Fen’harel, having grown with the belief that the Dread Wolf would protect their court and never harm them, only to be proved wrong by the liar’s own lips. Only to be thrown into a position she had never wanted, her freedom restrained and the weight of responsibilities that grew heavier by the day settling on her shoulders. She had done the best she could, but her transition had not come in a time of peace. No matter what, it never seemed like she had done enough. Not for the courts, not for her court. Not while more than half her people suffered at the hands of their most ancient enemy, not while there was nothing she could do, for her expertise laid on subterfuge and not the full frontal attack the drow required. Her task had been solidified once she had become a Chancellor: to watch the Eye’s moves and undermine them as much as they could. And despite that, she had given one of them the entrance to their last refuge, given Wade permission to enter, and invitation. She had been lucky the only one to pay the iron price had been her, lucky that her mistake had not cost any fey life, but even in this luck, she had been unlucky. For she is weakened now, when they need the Chancellor’s strength to be at it’s fullest.
A sigh escapes her lips, as she approaches Laer’s presence. Robin is in dire need of advice, and although she wishes to go to Meryasek or Aurora instead, she cannot overburden her friends on such a crucial time. Laer, however? He has had millennia to learn how to hold the burden of his position, even in war time, and she faithfully believes that although he does not carry all the solutions, talking to him will at least help.
“I am in dire need of advice,” she comments quietly, as she comes to stand next to the other as they survey Laer’s work at shaping his new domain. “And I would prefer if it’s yours, but if you are too overburdened by current events, do let me know, I can find someone else.”
zahryaofspring:
He understands after hearing Robin’s words why so many of the fey struggled to accept his viewpoints on their lessers. They probably thought like her, drawing distinctions between insignificant lifeforms. There were allies and special considerations, dangers and risks. How burdensome it must be to place more stock in those beneath them. If only they could see them as Zahrya had for nearly a thousand years, nothing more than puddles of viscera between Asterion’s jaws. The lessons his warder taught him still rang true today: mortals would only ever be violent creatures, and sometimes the only answer to their violence was violence of your own. “The blessed children can have a chance to return to us, but those who don’t take our side deserve their fate. We’ve been at war since before I was born, it’s due time we bring it to a close.” What more was there to say? Clearly he was the only Chancellor who understood loyalty. He made a vow to Titania and he would enact her will even if he had to go about it alone. He was done with these games of politics and passivity. He was a force of nature, now more than ever. If he’d acted on his own sooner, then surely many of the cruel fates the eladrin faced recently would’ve been avoided. “I will not be defined by cowardice. If you are content being afraid of your inferiors, then I will let you rot like the leaves in autumn. Destroying the Eye, destroying the Asphodel, destroying the realm, it’s all the same. We should only worry about protecting those who stand with us. I have no love to spare for those who’d do us harm, either through action or inaction.”
@thegoodfellow
...
“Do tell me more about this war of yours, this war that Titania did not acknowledge, this war that you seem so sure we are fighting when few others are,” she insists in an attempt to understand the man’s motivations, voice soft as she tilts her head to observe the Spring Chancellor with consideration. “Perhaps it is my age, but I had the understanding that the Eye did not become a more overt threat until recently, and that the only war the fey truly worried about for as long as you have been alive was the inevitable fight against the drows?” The Spring Chancellor had always fascinated her, the oddness of his actions clear even when compared to other’s his age. Fen’harel, Laer, Revas, her parents, they all comported themselves rather differently than the Chancellor before her, and while she understands that she is in dire need to begin separating herself from her own affections towards humanity, she is always surprised at Zahrya’s rancor for the species Titania helped create as he worships the former Queen. “You call it cowardice, but you are wrong, Chancellor,” she offers, words firm. “Destruction is not a domain usually associated to Spring, thus you must fail to understand that not being wary of your enemies will bring your downfall. It’s those who are not wary of the storm that are struck by lightning, and overconfidence is dangerous when dealing with the creature’s whose creation Titania blessed.”
who? @yaviefey
where? near hell’s bell
“I am aware that the Faerie King’s Forest is not the same as the Courts, but you are missed Yavie.” The words are said simply as she comes to stand near her fellow autumn fey, looking around curiously as she tries to figure out if he has been staying nearby or not. “Additionally, I must apologize, I have not been a great friend for the last couple of months and I regret it. Let me make it up to you?”
chancellorxlaer:
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“Fortunately he’s apparently less skilled at hunting fey than he is demons, one would assume anyways.” Came Laer’s simple offer, he was glad that Robin was still alive, they didn’t have much in the way of a personal connection but she was a chancellor and any loss of fey life was a tragedy. That a single, simply human had gotten the best of her was worrying, “You should keep this encounter to yourself, I won’t tell anyone else.” He could only imagine how people would talk, how opinions of her place among the chancellorship might change. Zahrya, Aurora, and himself would have returned with the human’s head or a newly-minted changeling had they been placed in Robin’s position. Weakness of youth, mortals deserved little consideration as far as the Summer chancellor was concerned - particularly those that had affiliated themselves with the Eye. “That alpha was adamant that we should focus our efforts on the Eye, maybe you can bend your vengeance towards his. I can only imagine that there are copious amounts of our own kind in their cells.”
....
“I had enough foresight to at least keep it that way,” she offers, a grim smile on her lips as she avoids the entire truth of the encounter. There is no other survivor but Wade, after all, and bringing further vengeance upon him will make her plans useless. She needs to get to the Eye through him, meaning he is only useful to her as long as he is alive. And when he stops being useful? Well, Robin had seen how conflicted he had been at hurting her, she had taught him that not all supernatural creatures were evil, knows that he believes so. What better way to get revenge but to show him that he is the same sort of monster that had killed his family? When she sees the despair on his eyes, when she sees that he realizes how far he has fallen, that is when he will deny, tortured by the reality of his actions, rather than alleviated by the salvation that fulfilling his self-assigned mission would bring him. “I will keep it to myself, yes,” she nods in agreement. ‘And I have heard the alpha’s argument. I am thinking on reaching out to one of the members of the pack to begin the planning in a few days.”