Guilty Plea

by **Belgar** on November 16th, 2011, 7:10 pm

83 Fall, 511; eighteen bells

The walk had been long and quiet, after that.

The eastern horizon rippled with impending darkness as the white sun burned cold ahead, hovering much closer to the distant sea than it had, when Belgar first encountered Hadrian and his magic. A hesitant huff frosted out of the Kelvic’s nose as he finally halted before the great arch of the palace doors, tipping his chin up for the first time in a bell. His feet were cold; even they could not hold out forever against the moisture of the snow through which he had marched for so long. He shivered, and he thought he could feel the mark beneath his clothes itch like the djed he thought he loathed. He glanced at the human mage beside him, who was not blessed with the same immunities, but Belgar’s face was masked with a greater resolution than pity. He pushed inside.

Despite that the palace was made of ice, the smile that greeted them seemed to warm the entrance hall. Belgar offered a small bow to the Queen’s assistant, a polite smile of his own tugging awkwardly at the edges of his mouth. He stepped to the side, nodded towards the foreigner. “Hadrian Aelius,” he said to her, pulling the introduction out of his memory from between thick threads of anticipation. He adjusted the bundle of clothes beneath his arm as he glanced around to deliberate where to put them, but ultimately settled his attention instead on the threshold to the throne room.

“I seek an audience with Queen Morwen,” he explained as if there could be another reason, reverting to Vani for comfort rather than secrecy. A moment’s hesitation and he added, “Hadrian will accompany me.”

by **Hadrian** on November 17th, 2011, 5:28 am

Hadrian had respected Belgar's silence, retreating into his own. Instead he turned the knowledge he had gained from the Memosite over and over in his mind as a distraction from the cold that seeped in despite the warming walk and the winterbane coat he wore. Once they reached the palace, he took looked up. Of course he had seen it before, but never up close like this. And now he would meet the Goddess-Queen.

He nodded to the assistant, but did not bow. He was Syliran, and only really bent the knee to Loren Dyres, though he treated everyone with due respect. Of course, he would bow to Morwen, but she was Queen of the entire continent when her time came. He didn't understand Belgar's words other than picking out Morwen attached to something that sounded like an honorific, and his own name. There was nary a flicker of malice in Belgar's aura, so he waited resolutely for the assistant to deal with them. But he did pay close attention to the words exchanged, wanting to learn as much of Vani as he could while he stayed among the Winter people. Having learned Nader-canoch and even some Isur, he was no slouch at linguistics.

"I apologize," he added quietly, "but I do not speak Vani."

by **Cheshire** on February 10th, 2012, 4:05 am

Jenna bowed lightly to Belgar, returning his gesture. There was just as much honor in being Morwen's assistant as their was in being a mount in Icewatch. All jobs were important to the city. "Greetings Belgar, and your acquaintance as well." Jenna could not exactly call Hadrian a friend of Belgars. The woman knew the bear and she was well aware that the man did not make friends lightly. Besides, she had never seen this man before in her life. He was clearly not Vantha, judging from his skin and height. His hair and eyes could have passed as Vantha if they had been on a shorter, darker skinned body.

"Of course, head right in." Jenna trusted Belgar, as she did all of the Icewatch bears. They were bred with the help of Morwen herself and more importantly, were born to protect her, her city, and her people. If Hadrian was a threat, he would not have dared bring him before the queen.

Perhaps it was a stroke of kindness running through Jenna's cold veins which caused her to speak up to Hadrian in his native tounge. "You are going have an audience with Queen Morwen. Best be on your most gracious behavior. The bears don't take too kindly when outsiders disrespect their queen." Jenna never really trusted outsiders when it came to Morwen. Who knew what people were thinking. Some people did not understand the gifts Morwen gave to the world. They sought a deity to prove themselves to, or against. The latter where never let past the throne room doors though.

Jenna walked the pair to the throne room, pushing the doors open and ushering them inside. When the three of them were in the room, Jenna dropped to a knee and bowed her head. "Queen Morwen, Belgar, one of the Icewatch bears is here with an outsider. His name is Hadrian Aelius. They seek to have an audience with you. I hope you are not too busy." Before them, Morwen sat on her throne. To look upon her was to see beauty far surpassing even the most picturesque of Winter mornings. "Thank you, Jenna. You are dismissed." The woman bowed her head and left, leaving the bear, Hadrian, a few guards, and the Winter Queen in the room together.

"Belgar, Hadrian, welcome. What brings you to my castle?"

by **Belgar** on February 15th, 2012, 3:31 pm

The sight of her wrung Belgar’s gut like it did when he was a cub, before he had learned what it meant to love and fear and serve. He loved his Queen, and the tryst was painful for it. He knew it was his duty to confess his crimes, his honor to accept his sentence, and yet... for a long moment, he paused stiffly in mid-bow.

“Thank You, my Queen,” he said in Vani, and stopped himself. His hands fidgeted into fists and he trained his tongue on Common, out of respect for his guest. The human could not testify, if he did not know what was being said.

With a glance at the mage, he began again, “I have come to... to tell my sin.” Hadrian had used the word and he hoped it was the right one. “I did dishonor to this man, and many like him. He can tell it. I tried to protect the city from them, when it was not needed.”

Belgar struggled with the words, whatever the language. He licked his lips. “And I did dishonor to the one known as S- Seisswyn Skyglow. She was killed in battle. I am to blame. I did not protect her, and...” It seemed whatever Hadrian had broken in the Wastes had been fixed then, for it only took a short pause for the Kelvic to regain himself. His eyes were touched with red, but his voice was low and hard. “As she burned, I smothered the fire, and I... I dishonor her, the Icewatch, and Avanthal, for waiting so long to tell it. But now that I know my crimes, I know I must pay for them.”

And out of respect for his Queen, his executioner or his exonerator, he spoke the language of her people as he dipped his head again. “I have come to accept my punishment.”

by **Hadrian** on February 16th, 2012, 7:10 am

"Of course, I will treat her divine majesty with perfect courtesy," he said, falling back on the etiquette drilled into him as a child by Plotina Aelius, his dead mother. Of course, her lessons had never really covered an actual audience with a deity, though she had been devout in her religious duties at the Temple of All Gods in Syliras. He assumed he should speak to Morwen as if she were Loren Dyers in a dress, times ten. He even bowed to Jenna, the Queen's ... valet? Lady-in-waiting, perhaps.

He offered her a half-bow. "Thank you for your help."

Then he accompanied Jenna and Belgar into the Presence, feeling the chill of Winter seep through his winterbane coat, feeling something akin to that first time he had witnessed Kye using Morwen's gnosis, only here was Morwen herself. He kept his gaze respectfully low, watching the ground in front of him rather than meeting her eyes. It was not until she acknowledged them that he looked up and gasped. She was beautiful as, well, Winter itself. In a sense, she was Winter herself.

"Holy One," he said quietly, bowing low. "Forgive me, but I do not speak the language of your people." That said, he was quiet while Belgar gave his litany of sin. Such a strange word, an offense against a deity. But that seemed to be the word for which Belgar searched, and so Hadrian had supplied it, encyclopedia that he was.

"If I might," he said diffidently when Belgar seemed to have finished, "I believe Ser Belgar and I have worked through our differences, and if it matters at all, I would have no charges brought against him on my account. It was a misunderstanding, and I would rather he make amends for whatever else he may have done rather than waste time on me."

Of course, the Icewatch weren't knights, but he could think of no better honorific. Calling him merely Belgar seemed inappropriate now, even if Kelvics had been created to be subservient to humans.

by **Valkyrie** on November 8th, 2012, 2:06 am

Belgar :

Hadrian :

You Will Be Collected if Worthy

If you have any questions or concerns regarding your grade, please send me a PM and we can figure it out.