04-12-2015, 05:59 PM
and death shall have no
DOMINION
Three days. For three days, Dom had mourned in the quiet, practical way that had served her so well last time around. People died. It was part of life, and no one got to choose when the ones they loved most were gone. Survival was the only thing left to do when all else was lost, so she would survive.
What a load of bullshit. The only thing that had helped at all was pushing her body almost to the breaking point. That, and an encounter with a mysterious sea goddess named Camrynn, who had drawn words from the ether to remind Dom her life was more than just a curse or a cruel joke on the part of some malevolent god. That those she had lost lived on in her heart, and as long as she lived, her people lived on too.
Even her little ones.
It still hurt to think of them, her strong little warrior and her tiny dancer. Seeing their faces in her mind, so bright with life and hope and heart-breaking innocence, still sent waves of grief washing over her. Though they sink through the sea, they shall rise again. And she was rising, slowly but surely, with those words spoken as if by the sea herself.
She’d returned to the quiet shelter of the willow tree at the end of the world, split and scorched by lightning but still standing just like she was. And by the time she’d arrived, she was ready to move on. Nish had offered to show her around, and after a bit of discussion they’d found themselves on the path toward the Dale. At least they could scout it out, see if they liked the place. Neither of them had felt quite right about a kingdom of light, and he’d suggested they’d perhaps be most useful in the neutral mythic kingdom, despite her being perfectly ordinary and quite content that way.
What the hell, right? If they hated it, they could always leave.
So it was that she found herself walking by sheer force of will through mountains not too different from the ones that had claimed the lives of everyone she loved only days earlier. She’d gritted her teeth through those first steps, choking down the rising horror of flashbacks to a homeland turned abruptly into a cemetery, of walking past the broken bodies of friends and herdmates, of her son’s crushed head and her daughter’s screams and her lover’s body lying so still, the sleek lines of his neck twisted into something grotesque and nightmarish. She’d panted, fighting against crying out the names of the dead as desolation flooded through her.
And through it all, he was beside her, gentle and steady as the earth quaked again if only in her mind. He stood with her as she forced herself forward through the pain and the only difference this time was instead of dragging her way through the pain of a body that by all rights should have quit long ago, she was pushing through waves of grief and despair and sorrow born of memories of love and loss.
He would have turned around at any time, she knew, if she’d just said the word. They could have picked a different kingdom, started somewhere safer, somewhere that felt less haunted. But it would always have been looming on the horizon like the distant mountains visible from almost anywhere in the land. And she was no goddamn coward. And by the time they arrived at the border to the Dale, she was standing tall once again, and he was the only witness to her pain.
She looked his way, puffing out a quiet breath to convey her gratitude without words as they waited for permission to enter the kingom.
What a load of bullshit. The only thing that had helped at all was pushing her body almost to the breaking point. That, and an encounter with a mysterious sea goddess named Camrynn, who had drawn words from the ether to remind Dom her life was more than just a curse or a cruel joke on the part of some malevolent god. That those she had lost lived on in her heart, and as long as she lived, her people lived on too.
Even her little ones.
It still hurt to think of them, her strong little warrior and her tiny dancer. Seeing their faces in her mind, so bright with life and hope and heart-breaking innocence, still sent waves of grief washing over her. Though they sink through the sea, they shall rise again. And she was rising, slowly but surely, with those words spoken as if by the sea herself.
She’d returned to the quiet shelter of the willow tree at the end of the world, split and scorched by lightning but still standing just like she was. And by the time she’d arrived, she was ready to move on. Nish had offered to show her around, and after a bit of discussion they’d found themselves on the path toward the Dale. At least they could scout it out, see if they liked the place. Neither of them had felt quite right about a kingdom of light, and he’d suggested they’d perhaps be most useful in the neutral mythic kingdom, despite her being perfectly ordinary and quite content that way.
What the hell, right? If they hated it, they could always leave.
So it was that she found herself walking by sheer force of will through mountains not too different from the ones that had claimed the lives of everyone she loved only days earlier. She’d gritted her teeth through those first steps, choking down the rising horror of flashbacks to a homeland turned abruptly into a cemetery, of walking past the broken bodies of friends and herdmates, of her son’s crushed head and her daughter’s screams and her lover’s body lying so still, the sleek lines of his neck twisted into something grotesque and nightmarish. She’d panted, fighting against crying out the names of the dead as desolation flooded through her.
And through it all, he was beside her, gentle and steady as the earth quaked again if only in her mind. He stood with her as she forced herself forward through the pain and the only difference this time was instead of dragging her way through the pain of a body that by all rights should have quit long ago, she was pushing through waves of grief and despair and sorrow born of memories of love and loss.
He would have turned around at any time, she knew, if she’d just said the word. They could have picked a different kingdom, started somewhere safer, somewhere that felt less haunted. But it would always have been looming on the horizon like the distant mountains visible from almost anywhere in the land. And she was no goddamn coward. And by the time they arrived at the border to the Dale, she was standing tall once again, and he was the only witness to her pain.
She looked his way, puffing out a quiet breath to convey her gratitude without words as they waited for permission to enter the kingom.
No more may gulls cry at their ears
Or waves break loud on the seashores;
Where blew a flower may a flower no more
Lift its head to the blows of the rain;
Or waves break loud on the seashores;
Where blew a flower may a flower no more
Lift its head to the blows of the rain;