Ni'Srilan: The Desert: to hypatia; "best to keep things in the shallow end."

They have met before; and so the shard knows—it sears and burns her flesh, screaming angrily as she moves across the heated and wayward sands. The sun bats down upon the ancient hag; her angular walk anything less then graceful, she moves with the sway of a drunken mule… her head bobbing once as the hot sand beats upon her flesh. She is not built for this, rectangular and bearing strange curves, her fur thick and shaggy, the lengthy mane and tail sticks and clings together in matted filth (and the hag smells strangely of the primordial earth itself). She is unsure of her footsteps on the sand, and so beneath her she melds and plays with the earth, the sand beneath her feet burning and become a strange glasslike substance… and all the while the shard attempts to drown out thoughts by screaming. She is not welcome face anywhere, rogue queen and shard keeper turned Soliran… she is not welcome for the many victims she has left in her wake (but she finds a certain comfort here).

She approaches the white mare with her raptor companion at her side, the reptilian beast barking and falling silent as it adjusts it’s fiendish claws. She pauses for a moment, clearing her throat and sending a sharp whistle towards Hypatia. She glances at the strange woman, she has seen her before, met her before—and yet she only finds heartbreak (and his name is Kale). Her eyes drifting to the lion and then back to her, she sighs, knowing she cannot com any closer. “Hypatia,” she says, her smoky voice mutilated by a Parisian sort of accent, “I intend no violence here, only matters of peace and hopefully a truce.” She finds a sort of strange comfort in her sobriety and beyond the shards metallic voice ripping away inside her mind—her sanity is at the moment unhindered.

”I have felt and long since known a great sort of secret,” she pauses, her mismatched eyes glancing between Hypatia and the area around them. She does not fret, yet Gaia is aware, feeling out movement in the earth beneath her feet. “I had come to Solira to confirm and I have.” She sighs, speaking of the beach and alluding to a sort of derelict unspoken truth. She steps forward; even though pain swiftly shoots through her she takes that step. Easing and stopping as a breath tries to ease her, “Saphira has in her possession two shards, although I am not sure which I can feel them with my own. I can assure you I am not as evil as you would see it, I am corrupt yes, and in my corruption I am known for wicked deeds—“ she stops, shaking her head and glancing back at her raptor friend who shrieks for a moment, turning her head to Hypatia once more.

”But I cannot allow her evil be spread.” She flicks an ear, her body not shifting, not moving, “She is my blood through her mother, and although it is distant it is blood.” She sighs, her eyes narrowing as she looks at the ground below her, the glassy substance shimmering. Her breath becomes a whisper and her voice a half growl, “I made a vow to protect my family.” She feels a sort of humane tranquility, one gouged violently and angrily by the savage shard and it’s burning screams. She grits her teeth, looking at Hypatia with a helpless sort of expression. “I want to save her, but I fear I may have to kill her to do it. In selfishness, yes, I want her shards…” she knows this will greatly sway her credibility, but honesty is the key, “but she is my blood, and so are many others in this land… I cannot allow her evil this power.” She doesn’t know what she’s asking, what she wants, “Hypatia, I, she… needs to be stopped.” She breaks for a moment as the shard bites into her mind….

‘Mother…’ it says, whispering and cradling her with sensations of pain, ‘lies, lies, lies, and more lies—we are proud of you.’ It would grin if it had a face, run fingers through her hair if it had them, and yet it only has a voice, ‘Let her, Mother, and she will eventually try to take me from you like that child Azshara…’ it speaks in ways she cannot hear and her body shivers and she tries to take a step forward, but it pulls her legs, ‘Mother, don’t fight… remember what happened when you fought before.’ She finds violence in it’s ways, her body forcing itself forward and a raging swiftness hitting the shard. It screams and she regains herself, her eyes looking at Hypatia with vulnerability and a hint of fear.