Ghyslaine

Ghyslaine is content to share the information that she knows about the lands content to give others a paw up in this world. She wishes, that she had been told more of the lands upon her arrival.

Rike… The name… He answers her about Erna and he does indeed know her.

“She…” Ghyslaine trailed off. “When I was brought to the Mire, I met her. Erna.” She said. “Alaric- her husband is the king.” She added. She pauses for a moment, looking down at the water

“There was a war recently… She…. She was killed during it.” She adds. “A war between the Rike and the Sigrun.” She clarifies, pausing for a moment to look over at @Andras before sighing. “I’m sorry to tell you that… I just.. I wouldn’t keep it from anyone who knew her.” She added.

Despite her personal feelings towards Erna, the woman had been a hell of a fighter, though she had been felled by an apparently…. Better fighter- considering the other lioness had been blind when she won.

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She was a cousin, then.

The thought came and went, fleeting, dark. Erna had become another casualty, another victim to the war driven by his family. Though András was stone-faced, a deep sigh rumbled through his lips, his brows knitting the only surrender to an otherwise icy expression. At first, there was exasperation. Erna was a spitfire, enough to draw the public ire of the Sigrun. But then, there was anger. A deep, welling regret that he'd not been there to protect her. He'd been there once, he'd been capable of protecting them. And then he'd left, and things all fell apart.

András was not so superstitious to believe himself the catalyst. But perhaps had she another shield, she would have survived.

Suddenly, he got to his paws, his leisure left behind in favor of stalking toward @Ghyslaine. His eyes half-narrowed, a steady and deep drawl rising only just above the roar of the river beside them. “The Sigrun, huh?” He paused, half-hovering over her, should she let him come so close. “Tell me, Ghyslaine—” he paused. A breath, a whisper. “Who did it?”

A shift, a change. Something unlike the man moments before. Darker. Deeper.

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Ghyslaine

She feels her heart squeeze painfully within her chest, as she admits what has happened to him. She hates being the bearer of sorrows, but she won’t lie to him either. So when he stands and stalks towards her, there’s af flicker of fear within her, but it is quickly diminished by the power of telling the truth. He looms over her, and she lifts her head up to stare at him, subconsciously aware that she’s baring her throat to a male that seems upset- a male she does not know.

His question, makes her eyes narrows as she thinks. She shrugs, half lifting her left shoulder. “She was white.” She said, and truly she didn’t know much more than that about the female. “I saw her between fights. I think… I think she was blind.” She said, frowning a bit as she steadily remained there- supplying the information that he asked for. “I’m kinda new to the whole Rike and Sigrun thing. I don’t really know all the key players.” She added, and then just looked at him- refusing to be ruffled even if he was imposing and kinda scary.

@András

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András paused, considered. His lips pressed into a firm line, his fiery gaze angry. He knew to which lioness @Ghyslaine referred; she, who had first dragged the war between the Rike and Sigrun to the hallowed halls of Amaryllis and let it fester even long since his leave and his return. And what Erna had taken from Saga that day, she'd come back and taken tenfold. And between it were the innocent bystanders; those roped into what centuries-long feud and left to pick up the ashes from the aftermath. Theirs had destroyed homes and lives in the wake of their disputes, and it would not leave Amaryllis spared.

If one of them were to die, it would be Erna. Spitfire, impulsive, unrestrained. He wondered what Odhgrimm and Eulalia thought of it, if they knew.

He pulled away, but only just. His glowering expression, the firmness in his jaw did not give way. He gave her just enough space to breathe, but no less than that. He did not want to hear the roar of the waves beside them overcome the sound of her voice. “It is hardly something you should be troubled with,” he began, but even he knew all too well just how roped up in their affairs Ghyslaine perhaps already was. None were spared in the wake of their destruction. “And yet,” he paused, a breath, “here you are.” Not quite informed, not quite resolute enough to choose her side. And yet, far too knowledgeable now to let slip through his fingers.

“It is a choice of yours to know. You may find peace in ignorance of it, or,” his lips twitched, the gentle glint of a canine poked through a half-smirk, “I can give you everything you wish to know.”

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Ghyslaine

What she knows of the feud she has found herself within is very simple. First, that the Sigrun drowned their own cubs. They were cub killers- the worst crime that Ghyslaine could ever imagine. Second, as far as Ghyslaine knew the Mire stood against them because of that. As far as Ghyslaine understood, Erna had been killed because she stood against that.

When Andras steps back just a hair, she can still see the rage that simmers there upon the male. She doesn’t move back, merely studies him, wondering what to make of this- his intense sort of questioning. She doesn’t know what to make of anything he says when he speaks. She frowns at his words, wondering what it meant to the strange male that ‘here she was’ right in the middle of a feud that at it’s core she didn’t truly understand.

His next words, made her feel like she was standing on a precipice of destiny. Standing on the edge of ignorance and knowledge- and the need for knowledge was a quest that she desperately and always needed quenched. She stares at him, her own eyes aiming to meet his fiery gaze.

“I want to know everything.” She uttered, her words steady and sure as she studied him, and then waited to see… what he could enlighten her about regarding this situation.

@András

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He would have thought nothing less of @Ghyslaine had she chosen not to pursue him. If she had relented, disengaged, and willed András away amidst the chaos of the rains and floods around them and the chaos of their heated conversation, he would have done so willingly. But instead, she fed into it. She let loose the snapping jaws of hounds and hunters András had kept locked away under the guise of quiet and control. It were rare for this in-law Rike to get so riled up, but the news of Erna's death had been so brutally laid out before him.

Little had he known just how much the Sigrun had taken, and taken, and taken in his absence.

“The Sigrun would have you believe we are lawless, brutal creatures,” he began, his gaze regarding her carefully, following each feminine curve; the tenseness of her jaw, the feathery plume of her chest. “Ours is a centuries-long war forged and fought for generations. What all had kept that fire burning has long been lost to history.” What all they had now was the here and now, and if András were any aware of the score, then Sigrun owed them a good few pounds of flesh.

“They take what they believe to be theirs. The lives of the Rike, and of their own children.” András had heard far too often of the torture of Drownings gone awry, the way young lions suffered at the paws of some false God they sought to appease. They were lambs lead astray by their own shepherd, guided right into the jaws of the wolf. “The evils they perpetuate pale in comparison that which they accuse us of.” Though the Rike were ruthless creatures, their victims were never children. “And they stop at nothing to justify it to those who do not understand.”

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Ghyslaine

Ghyslaine’s head was swimming, as the Rike male spoke of their feud, the Rike side of things. She contemplated- silently, of course just hopping off into the water- because this was all just too much for her. She clenched her jaws as she listened, once again sitting on a beach in her mind as Nero told her that cubs weren’t drowned. Who was she supposed to believe? This was all just too much.

She sighs softly, when @Andras finishes speaking, studying the water rushing down below them. She spies a small trail, that perhaps will help her exit the tunnels and get away from this. Away from him, so she can think about everything.

“Thank you for telling me. I… I need to think about all of this.” She admîtes. “I’ve spoke to some Sigriun - trying to understand their side and I just… I need a moment.” She says. She nods toward the small path that the lightning had illuminated. “I’ll see you again, Andras. I’m sure by then I’ll have some more questions. The Mire is to the south-east of the his land…. If you feel the need to seek them out.”

With that, she exited.

-exit-

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The mood shifted once more. What once had been intense fascination had soured, dissipated. András watched as @Ghyslaine searched for her exit, desperate now to escape him perhaps not because of him, but because of all he'd told her. He knew not the nature of her relationship with Erna, if the two had been friends or sisters-in-arms, if Erna had ever divulged the true nature of the Rike and their purpose for being in Amaryllis in the first place. But whatever Erna had told her, it was simply not enough.

András had once more tugged at Ghyslaine from the side of the Rike, and was careful, knowing if he pulled too hard the tension would break and snap, and the Mire lioness would be left to pick up all her own pieces. Thus, he stepped back and gave her the space to leave, watching as she disappeared through the caverns. Wordlessly did he stand there, backed by the roar of the raging river, before he, too, turned to leave.

exit András

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