08-31-2018, 03:02 PM
This one is very different than the last one.
<p>He was rude, and angry, a hurt child lashing out at the most powerful thing he could think of, looking for a response. She had reacted in kind, sensing that he needed to be pushed back against. She’d been happy to play the angry deity that took his pain-fueled choice and turned it into the opposite; he’d wanted to die, and she had made him immortal.
<p>This one is the opposite. She wants to avoid death, to thwart it, but not for herself. She, after all, is already immortal, though her longevity has a cost. She’s cheated death of its price once herself already, not dying in the birth of her firstborn as she was intended to, nor in the creation of the three children she has with her lover. The fae simply materializes in front of the woman, bringing with her the bone-deep cold from the top of the mountain. Her dark eyes on unblinking, focused on Kagerus without hesitation. <i> “Why shouldn’t I simply strip you of your immortality, so that you can die together?”</i>
<p>The last petitioner (if you could even call him that) had put the Ice Fairy on edge. Lingering animosity boiled under her skin, and it was easy enough to hear it leaking from the edges of her sharp tone. But the girl before her nearly bleeds sincerity, and the feeling of it around them is so thick as to be sickening, like standing in a grove of honeysuckle. Without warning, a storm descends on them.
<p>The snow and hail are fierce, whipped against the mortal’s body in gale force winds, the temperature dropping alarmingly fast, and Kagerus dare not move, forced instead to simply stand there and take it. They are, after all, on the edge of a mountain; she has no way of knowing a single step won’t drop her off the edge of the cliff, and the fae has already threatened to strip her of her immortality…she has no reason to think that the Ice Fairy won’t let her die.
<p>Meanwhile, the fae is ruthlessly sorting through Kagerus’ memories, forcing the mare to watch whatever she watches, relive both the highest highs of joy and the lowest lows of despair. Some of them she watches again and again, as if evaluating every nuance of the bay-and-white mare’s life. She has sense of urgency, no hastiness, not even when she feels at the edge of her hold that a piece of flying ice has slashed deeply across the mare’s face, dripping hot blood that freezes on her face and is sure too leave a scar behind.
<p>After all, she said she’d do anything.
<p>In the end, it is her soft spot for children that decides her. Kagerus can feel her weigh the love she and Solace have for their offspring against the worst of Kagerus’ deeds that she finds offensive, and the mental scale seems to balance. It tips in her favor when she considers the true devotion she feels for her mate, and the fact that the request is not for herself but for another. <i> “If you ever betray her, if you stop loving her, one of you will die.”</i> She does not say which one. That would be too easy. She’s still not feeling particularly magnanimous.
<p>The storm is gone as fast as it came, leaving simply a treacherously icy path back down the mountain, and with it the Ice Fairy is gone as well. Maybe she was never there. Kagerus is a dreamer, after all, and she knows better than any that dreams aren’t always incorporeal.
<p>He was rude, and angry, a hurt child lashing out at the most powerful thing he could think of, looking for a response. She had reacted in kind, sensing that he needed to be pushed back against. She’d been happy to play the angry deity that took his pain-fueled choice and turned it into the opposite; he’d wanted to die, and she had made him immortal.
<p>This one is the opposite. She wants to avoid death, to thwart it, but not for herself. She, after all, is already immortal, though her longevity has a cost. She’s cheated death of its price once herself already, not dying in the birth of her firstborn as she was intended to, nor in the creation of the three children she has with her lover. The fae simply materializes in front of the woman, bringing with her the bone-deep cold from the top of the mountain. Her dark eyes on unblinking, focused on Kagerus without hesitation. <i> “Why shouldn’t I simply strip you of your immortality, so that you can die together?”</i>
<p>The last petitioner (if you could even call him that) had put the Ice Fairy on edge. Lingering animosity boiled under her skin, and it was easy enough to hear it leaking from the edges of her sharp tone. But the girl before her nearly bleeds sincerity, and the feeling of it around them is so thick as to be sickening, like standing in a grove of honeysuckle. Without warning, a storm descends on them.
<p>The snow and hail are fierce, whipped against the mortal’s body in gale force winds, the temperature dropping alarmingly fast, and Kagerus dare not move, forced instead to simply stand there and take it. They are, after all, on the edge of a mountain; she has no way of knowing a single step won’t drop her off the edge of the cliff, and the fae has already threatened to strip her of her immortality…she has no reason to think that the Ice Fairy won’t let her die.
<p>Meanwhile, the fae is ruthlessly sorting through Kagerus’ memories, forcing the mare to watch whatever she watches, relive both the highest highs of joy and the lowest lows of despair. Some of them she watches again and again, as if evaluating every nuance of the bay-and-white mare’s life. She has sense of urgency, no hastiness, not even when she feels at the edge of her hold that a piece of flying ice has slashed deeply across the mare’s face, dripping hot blood that freezes on her face and is sure too leave a scar behind.
<p>After all, she said she’d do anything.
<p>In the end, it is her soft spot for children that decides her. Kagerus can feel her weigh the love she and Solace have for their offspring against the worst of Kagerus’ deeds that she finds offensive, and the mental scale seems to balance. It tips in her favor when she considers the true devotion she feels for her mate, and the fact that the request is not for herself but for another. <i> “If you ever betray her, if you stop loving her, one of you will die.”</i> She does not say which one. That would be too easy. She’s still not feeling particularly magnanimous.
<p>The storm is gone as fast as it came, leaving simply a treacherously icy path back down the mountain, and with it the Ice Fairy is gone as well. Maybe she was never there. Kagerus is a dreamer, after all, and she knows better than any that dreams aren’t always incorporeal.