Solira: The Ocean: Alshain, we need to talk;

Blood trickles from Aquila’s gaping wounds on her victorious march back from Blitzkrieg. The ocean’s waters soothe her blazing skin with its cleansing, healing properties as she wades in their waters. Her eyes close, and in a moment of brilliant magnificence, she looks so much like her mother. The scars that litter her body glint with malice; Genesis was chained to immortality now and would always be held on a pedestal for her daughter. Aquila is the same build as her mother, the same white coat, same eagle-like blue eyes (though hers, admittedly, are void of the touch of almond-brown like her mother’s and are a pure sapphire color and untainted) and the same drive to succeed and protect those that could not protect themselves. The ocean roars around her, crashing against the earth and violent in its rage. The sands tremble as the mighty waters repeatedly attack the shoreline with all of its rampant fury. Aquila can feel her mother in the sea, and she knows she is out there, somewhere. The sea’s spray lingers on her ivory hide like that of a mother’s touch. It relaxes her, calming her into a state of what could be the most ordinary and tranquil Aquila could ever be. She is at peace in this moment, and she can feel a breath of wind enter her waiting nostrils. It’s what makes her open those dreadfully beautiful eyes.

The white of her coat sparkles in the sunshine, holding forever a shimmering glow about her magnificent physique. She is quiet in all of her unnerving glory, and she does not flinch a muscle as she stands in the ocean’s wrath. There is no change in her eyes, though. They still hold no fear, hold nothing but the fierce determination; that flickering flame of patriotism for those she holds dear (Gecko, Altair, Courage, Connor, Stymie, Riven and Ianthe). There is a familiar trace of a grin – so much like Genesis – that makes itself at home on her graceful features, but she makes no other move towards him for the moment. Her mother had told her the stories of how she and Alshain had met. For a moment, Aquila recalls that it was at this time of year (Autumn) that Aiden had been killed and not long after (Winter) would signal when Alshain and Jude left, along with so many others. But Genesis had never been angry with him; she hadn’t gone into a fit of fury at the sight of Altair when he was born. And she promised one day they would meet their father, which now they had. Aquila watched the silver stallion with the grin tempting her face, but her eagle eyes held a look that was somewhere between deadly and mischievous.

”I saw Stymie yesterday,” she said to her father as she waded through the waters and back onto the shores of Solira. ”And I’ve met Kratos. Tell me, is there no safety from your loins for any mare that’s a warrior?” Her mother once said Alshain didn’t like a mare unless she could beat him up. So far that’s down to: Arashi, Genesis, Notte and now Saphira. Aquila doesn’t want to believe her father loved Genesis. That would mean that he in some way loved Aquila and Altair. But those thoughts are pushed aside now, as she takes on a more “I’m here for business” kind of stance. ”I came here for Gecko, Alshain,” she said through a sigh as her gaze wandered back towards the waters. They begged her to continue, whispered softly to her to continue. ”You should know that while Stymie is my oldest daughter, she’s not my only child. I have Ianthe and Riven in Andarin and Maximus in Ni’Srilan; they’re all Gecko’s children, too.” She now takes a step closer to her father, her blue gaze holding a maelstrom itself within it. ”And you’d like Stymie if you ever got to know her. But if you ever try to harm her in any way, I’ll kill you myself.” And now she relaxes, with the ocean roaring at her for not telling her father what she came here for in the first place. Aquila struggles with it for a moment.

”I came here also because I was outlawed from Andarin,” she said, looking out across the vast distance. The sun was beginning to set, and she was beating around the bush avoiding the inevitable. ”I was a slave to a shard. Elemmire drank my blood to satisfy the shard’s thirst. I had a marking on me, and when she was around me I had no control over my actions. The shards corrupt their keepers, no matter how strong,” Aquila’s head dipped now, chin tucking in remembrance of Gecko’s expression on his face when she told him what happened. ”I had a choice in my slavery, though. I only wanted to do it to save someone else from being forced into slavery. So they pushed me aside in their society.” She remembered how Riven had always asked why the others were always looking at her differently. Aquila had tried to calm the filly and tell her it was nothing, just as Genesis had done when she had been forced to live in Enipeus’s shadows when Illiana had ruled with Caelan beside her. But even then, Aquila’s daughter was observant, just like her mother had been. Maximus had left because of it. Ianthe was hardly around anymore either. And Gecko left to pursue his options in Solira, and she followed after her daughter knew where she was and where to find her. ”And while I was a slave, Gecko was given a relic. They save shard-holders and slaves from the corruption. I don’t know how but I was saved without his relic. And now, he hopes to save Saphira with it and by doing that end Altair’s slavery.” Her eyes, those blue, fierce eagle eyes locked with her father’s in this moment, determination and pride shining like a beacon of light that Aquila promised to become. Oh, did Alshain not know that Altair was a slave to a shard? Aquila could feel the shard’s presence just by what she had gone through. It was a smaller pull that it had, but it was there nonetheless. She had seen Altair’s scar, and knew that the slaves were drawn to their master. Saphira was the only one in Solira’s depths that had two shards, one of which was activated. ”I came to Solira to be saved, and now I want to save Solira, by any means necessary; even if it means I have to save Saphira from herself.”

By any means necessary. Those are steep terms and fearsome words. But Aquila means them with all that she is. Look at your lover, Alshain. You know she is already succumbing to the corruption that corrodes her very soul. She is a shadow of her former self. Truth hurts. But your daughter who you abandoned all those years ago is here to help fix her. And then you can get back to the fact that she hates you and still can’t quite bring herself to hate Kurai later. Choose, Alshain. Save Saphira by any means necessary or watch Altair and Aquila go through what must be done to protect the rest of Legend.