Lion Head Mesa [ap] I'd rather have the right man, than the right wedding.

hi i got carried away what an anamoly /s <3

the eagle was indeed aware of her limp. he wondered if she would have the ability to hold her own upon the jagged slopes. he wondered if she would command respect from the soldiers in his training. but only ruenna knew herself. only ruenna knew the strengths she possessed. he had come to understand that she had many.

the sun is setting on the redhawk caldera. this commanded a reaction from germanicus. it took the form of a quick blink. ruenna was planning her immediate future. the eagle must have an answer for her sooner than he realized. her profile reared beside him. she did not wait. she had accepted.

germanicus settled into their comfortable silence. his yellowpaint eyes watched the proceedings. he picked out the pharaoh. satsu. sabah. sayf. he looked toward arsenio who attended the queen. he saw how shoko kept himself close to the outskirts, describing a slow circle and keeping his own company.

akashingo was a powerful place. and it would always be a power which used him. had he not already allowed this to happen? ruenna had spoken to his ear as a voice of equity and peace. germanicus pulled her words back into his mind. it was true that he had envisioned one thing, and that it was force. might. even the appearance of soldiers might keep the saints from regrouping in the sunspire.

"how long have you been an advisor, lady redfern?" germanicus quipped softly. for the moment he had not yet collected the rest of his words. "the girl married off today as queen will struggle if she cannot guide that mad egyptian." his own words were gentle. they carried a dry humour that perhaps she might find cruel. but germanicus was only pragmatic. "she would benefit to learn from you."

ruenna had been correct. again.

he did not want to admit that mereo must be a home. it spoke to him of domesticity. and it was at this that he balked, for crowfeather had wanted the same. and now the shadow lay healing from an attack that germanicus had led him to seek. he had ordered the young seeker and crowfeather had done the opposite.

germanicus supposed that his inner resistance meant it was the truth.

the redfern's offer to create a home with him tensed his stomach. it was for many reasons. the least of which was not that he had already plotted a basilica and a forum within the canyon. the colliding sensations of this settlement with the one ruenna offered were altogether too much.

crowfeather came to his mind again. and then the plight in which ruenna found herself. but it was not pity she required. he would not insult her with a decision made upon this new awareness. "i am calling the canyon mereo. it means 'to serve as a soldier.' there are auxilia stationed there already."

his eyes shifted to the side of ruenna's face.

he had the beginnings. it was what germanicus meant to say. the cloud of his nature filled the edges of his mind. he thought for a spare moment of telling her what he knew now not to be torment but want. a singular, impossible want.

akashingo's loudness swelled. "we should take ourselves to crowfeather," he said wryly. "before long, the pharaoh will return to the mesa with his entourage. let us enjoy the quiet until then."