monday left me broken; Kagerus & Solace

[Kagerus]

{ and in my dreams i've kissed your lips a thousand times }

It is a cool spring morning; foggy, and strange. The mist hangs in the air as unkept promises hang over a relationship, daunting and unapproachable. For the first hours, Solace and I stay cooped up, wishing for the sun to come and shine into our kingdom such that the fog my lift. Alas, from our vantage point in a grotto in one of the mountains lining our western border, we see that no such wishes shall be granted. Lethargic and smelling intensely of one another to the point that our scents are nearly indistinguishable, we set out, walking comfortably in tandem to do a round of our peaceful kingdom.

Upon reaching the valley basin which connects to one of our small lakes, however, chaos finds us - even through the fog. (I will come to learn, before long, that the chaos will stop at no ends to find us). It comes in the shape of a mare, ragged with plague but sick with something worse; news. I can tell immediately by the way her eyes sag, and by the way the child at her flank scampers off without even coming to say hello. My lethargy clears immediately, replaced now by dread, heaving and useless in the pit of my stomach.

Primarch Kensa speaks our names, dejectedly bows her head. My nostrils flare in concern, ears tipping forward; but the way her eyes seem to look just past ours, I can tell that she is not here over her health. Kota and Velk have been around, she could find either of them if she needed - which she does need, I realize. I decide to remind her of her options, later - after whatever storm she is about to set loose upon us, passes.

Litotes is gone.

The dread ignites into panic, then into dread - a memory of Litotes' rash attempt to steal a Loessian' councilor forms like the flames of a forest fire in my mind. My teeth grind in my skull, focus dislocating from this reality a anger rolls through me, hotly, wetly. The fog suddenly burns my skin, where before it cooled it. Another memory comes unbidden into my mind's eyes - one of me impulsively and inadvertently declaring war on Loess. It calms me for a moment, but only until I remember that my actions had been in retaliation to Loess attempting to steal Ilma - Litotes had acted for no reason, and in fact, had acted against the ideology of the quadrant he claimed to love and serve.

Scathing words simmer on the tip of my tongue, but Kensa's sobs stifle them. I see now, in the hollow between her ribs and the curve of her spine, her youth; and this fact lessens my rage some. Some. Solace had ruled since the age of four, or younger. If anything, Kensa had a claim to a youthfulness of heart; perhaps we had been hasty in allowing two green hands to try their luck at running a kingdom.

Biting my tongue, I voice none of these thoughts. Instead, I look to my wife with angrily glittering eyes, hoping that sweet Solace will have something - anything - more constructive to say than I.

KAGERUS

Caretaker of The Sanctuary
Lover of Solace
Immortal, antlered Dreamweaver

"@[Solace] @[Kensa]"

my apologies for cranky pants.