Plot 001: A Royal Summons

Hajime | High King



The brindle King paced anxiously before finally settling on a wood-framed couch set strategically on the north side of the room. I groaned uncomfortably beneath his weight, the old wool upholstery making his skin crawl as he fought the urge to itch. Blue eyes scanned the area, noting all the imperfections of the run down furniture and outdated decor. He may not have been a maker, but he certainly didn’t need these old things lying around anymore. It’s not that he didn’t have more important matters to attend to than how the meeting room was decorated, but it kept his mind from focusing too much on the weight of the present.



The present: oh there was so much to do, so many things that needed to be sorted out and addressed. He would be lying if he didn’t admit to being a bit overwhelmed by it all. And the Guides, oh what would they think of him? The new King, having never even called them to meeting once since his father disappeared and he took up the throne. They probably already doubt him and his abilities.



Did he even know what he was doing, though? He knew what to do but how, that was a whole different question. Most successors spent years learning from the Kings, and would not step foot on the throne until their near 40’s; 30’s at earliest. But there was no time to dispute that now, not when he had succeeded Isamu six months ago already.



A pang of guilt and grief touched Haji’s heart. Would he have been proud of him or disappointed in the fact that he had no true idea what he was doing? He would never get an answer to that question.



The creak of the old door broke the High King from his thoughts, and quickly he stood as the King’s Guides entered the room escorted by one of the Help. Out of the usual five, only two had been appointed since his ascension. Maybe it was a sign or just bad luck. ‘Gods, Argus help me,’ He pleaded to himself. He would need it, now more than ever, with what he was about to bring to the table.

'Creak' was... well, it was a generous word to put to the sound, for it was Hoshi who had come barrelling through the door first, and the erratic mare did nothing with subtly. No, she had quite literally struck the door in her excitement, crashing into the meeting room with an orbit of scrolls, tomes and scattered notes steadily circling her chest. Levitating so many items at once was a simple enough task; her telekinesis, while not capable of lifting heavier objects, was certainly fine-tuned. One needed a steady levitation to make precise mixtures of maybe-explosive substances. Orbiting a collection of information was a breeze by comparison.

"Hajime!" She cried, slamming her bounty upon the meeting room table. The silver buckskin paused, and then dipped into what she evidently thought to be a curtsy. "My liege. I'd thought you'd never call us, and I have so many notes, so much data," She sprang upwards so quickly that she achieved minor lift off. "It's beautiful. Let me show you it."

From the pile she'd left on the table, her telekinesis plucked a scroll some twelve feet long. It floated- or rather, snapped as erratically as its writer- to rest an inch from Hajime's muzzle.

"Names," Hoshi breathed, orange eyes wild with excitement. "Birthdates, ranks, place of residence, affiliation, favorite color. I took it upon myself to headcount every. Single. Resident. Of Nariah, and if you'll turn your attention to this graph, I think you'll find that there's an even split between New Generation and Old. An even split! That's unprecedented! "

She leaned in close to her cousin, voice lowering to a whisper. "Isn't that amazing?" A beat. "Oh, what did you call us here for? I'm certain I have data for it. I have so much data."

"Sure did. I mean, not by myself, that would be tedious, you know?" Hoshi replied, casting a proud look to her assistant, Marionetta. Well- 'assistant' was her official description, anyway. Reality was a little more complicated and a lot less kosher, but whatever.

When Hajime stood, Hoshi moved to follow. Her strides were long and sweeping; she could cross a room in only three, easily. Though such a thing had the potential to cause trouble, the mare was deeply in-tune with her body's presence. She had to be. In the lab, a thoughtless bump of the hip could ruin a day's work. Or, you know, cause an explosion. Both were equally terrible.

"What've you got for us?" She questioned, curiosity sparkling in her gaze. She neglected Hajime's offer to sit. While the chairs were essentially couches, just the right height for the average horse to lounge on as naturally as they might on the ground, Hoshi didn't find them appealing. She liked to be on her hooves. She liked to move, to display excitement with wide gestures and hops. Such was her nature.

Finnick | King's Guide


The hippocampus stallion was going to be late and he knew it. To be honest, the king had never called on his guides before, and Finnick had underestimated how long it would take him to get where he needed to be. Of course there were the nerves too, they had slowed him down. But now, being late only brought out his nerves more. So with as much finesse as he could manage, the steel stallion trotted through the palace and neared the room to where they had been invited. 

Finnick slowed his trot as the room grew nearer and he saw the door and each line of grain in its wood. A deep breath rattled his lungs as his ears perked. He heard voices within, but it was a mare's and it seemed very excited, it was a reply to a comment by the King he guessed. He opened the door first to a crack and then so that his entire body was standing within the doorway as he heard the King speaking of the reason they had been called together. No one seemed to notice his presence, but he took note of them and of the words being said. This was certainly an important issue, and it inspired confidence in Finnick that Hajime had decided to call the guides together. Finally.

When the King was finished, Finnick finished pushing his way through and offered a deep bow in apology for his tardiness, "Apologies, my liege," he said simply. "Timing does not seem to be my strong suit, I hope to offer guidance that is better than my own scheduling." He waited for the King to acknowledge his presence and perhaps forgiveness for his mistake. The stallion didn't want to intrude, but his features showed his eagerness to take part in this meeting and the importance that he could already see in the issue. Finally, there would be something that he could do to try and help his herd towards the light.

The small zonkey was quite used to Hoshi's outbursts, making her perhaps the only one to not show surprise at the guide's whirling and twirling. She merely picked up the lost ribbon, folding it up and sticking it in the pages of her notepad.

"Uhm," she spoke up nervously, raising her nub of charcoal like one might raise a hoof in a classroom, "If we go w-with my mistress' idea, I know of some herbs that will make their bellies feel full. You k-know, while they wait for the crops to grow. A-and with p-proper care taken to vitamin supplements, we could sustain them u-using minimal food. Unt-til the crops have reached a harvestable state, assuming t-the use of plant manipulation to speed growth."

Despite her damnedable stutter, she was fairly confident that her knowledge would prove useful. She hadn't spend all those nights poring over textbooks on herbology for nothing. And being Hoshi's Echo, her knowledge would only serve to brighten Hoshi's star.

"A-and there's a certain combination of herbs that help strong plant growth when mixed in with the compost. I use it in my h-herb garden all the time."

She was on a roll. Well, figuratively. Though she was probably round enough to literally roll as well.

The steel stallion slipped further into the room as he listened to the commotion going on around him. He was quite shocked by the behavior of a horse that he recognized as one of the other guides. Hoshi, if he remembered correctly. But while he was silent and still on the outside, showing surprise only when he was nearly bowled over by the mare; on the inside he was thinking. Once the ideas of many of the others had been given, he brought his voice up and his ideas out.

"My liege, and my fellow guides. I agree that letting the Serorans use some of our uncultivated land may solve this problem without lessening the rations of our own members, but we will still have many horses to convince of the decision. Nearly half of our population is incredibly distrustful of outsiders, and they would sooner believe that the Serorans will sneak into our tunnels and wreck havoc on our kingdom than simply and peacefully cultivate the land. We will need to show them that there is nothing to fear or they will think us traitors for putting them in unnecessary risk. More ambassadors from Serora will need to come and live among us or speak to the herd; that their fears may be slighted some."

He stepped forward more, finally situated at what would be his place around the table. A feeling of goosebumps fell down his spine. This was the first day that he had truly felt like a guide, the first words that he had said that might affect the herd, the first meeting of five minds trying to come up with the best solution. Now the hard part was likely to commence.

"Sharing could work." Hoshi relented, setting two hooves upon the table. Just like that, it seemed that her mania had passed and she'd become calm. A welcomed, if fleeting, state of being; her batteries never took terribly long to recharge. "We have people farming in the western bay area. Not too many sinkholes out there- actually." As she paused she telekinetically plucked Mari's charcoal from her grasp and pointed it at the map spread across the table, the tip hovering over the bay in question. "The Labyrinth doesn't reach that far, so they'd be safe enough from mishaps."

She swung her head to look at Finnick and nodded, showing that she'd heard his words and agreed. "Good idea. Breim won't ever grow if we don't start reaching out. Beyond making the populace feel at ease with the Serorans, having the Consuls reinstated will provide opportunities we've lost since the God's War. Certianly our trade relations would strengthen... new knowledge would be acquired... maybe even make peace with Aodh. HA," She barked a great laugh that bellowed across the room. "Just kidding. I mean, maybe, in a few centuries."

Finnick listened to the others speak, Hajime offered substance to Finnick's own doubts, but the subject quickly changed to something that was perhaps even more pressing. Consuls. His mind turned as he thought of what they could do to make the people of Breim trust a consul or be willing to be one. He listened as Hoshi joked about gaining trust in the Aodh and then as Marionetta spoke of a truth serum. The idea openned up an uncomfortable pit in his stomach. Finally he spoke again, not quite having a firm grasp on a solution, but having strong objections to some things that had been suggested. 

"Though it could possibly offer some comfort, a truth serum... its a large grey area. Our people may like that they can be sure they are getting the truth, but they are not above taking advantage of that. A consul from another herd would be unlikely to accept the terms of such a truth serum unless it was common practice and fully understood, mastered, controlled." He stopped, collected his thoughts again, spoke, "I feel that we need to rely on trust, in a truth serum there is no trust, there is a lack of it, supplemented by the knowledge that one cannot lie. It is trust that we need to build." For a moment he looked down at the table but soon looked up at Hajime again, finally with a suggestion that he felt might offer at least an option of a solution. 

"The youth are the most trusting, in our own Kingdom certainly, in others, quite possibly the same. I'm not sure what everyone would be comfortable with ,but I feel as though that is where we must start, with the youth. They build trust and they could pass it on to the others."


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