She wants to stop him.
She wants to place a gentle hand across his mouth, and have him know by the quiet gesture alone that what he is about to say is not the right thing for these quiet, dark moments. Of course she does, because as he starts his sentence she doesn’t realize that quietly he is practicing his own learned methods to keep them safe, more physical than her own, more tangible. She almost does — she opens her mouth to speak, to steer the conversation elsewhere — but she is too late. He says it all, every word: “Sometimes they do.”
Three words is all it takes to steal the breath from Willa’s lungs, and the act itself is so forceful that Eilidh can almost hear it.
She can only hold her breath as Willa spins on him; her heart can only ache for her. Leilan continues though, he goes on to ask for a name and suddenly Eilidh comprehends his maneuver. She smiles softly to herself for the knowledge while she hopes Willa can see what he is trying, too. She does, but there is no smile, no soft ‘thank you’ for his efforts when it happens. She tells them his name though, and when she does Eilidh repeats it beneath her breath, learning its hills and valleys and looking up as she does so as though the name itself is riding on her irises so that it can flip backwards into her memory for safekeeping.
“Just saying his name…”
Here Willa’s honeyed voice drifts away, and Eilidh looks inside herself and finds she can relate. She didn’t want to say His name either. Deep down she knows he is no more powerful for it, but something about breathing life into his existence by simply acknowledging the letters of him feels like a betrayal. She knows what that feels like, even if she doesn’t fear him anymore.
“My mother loved the stars,” Eilidh says then, looking upwards again to find them there in the blackness, shining down across their backs. Here and there they pulse, as though drawing in colossal breaths of the night.
“She said they were a light in the darkness.”
⤜ nobody's watching, drowning in words so sweet ⤛
@[Willa]
@[Leilan]