i am the mace, the map, the fall and the high
Where Aela had imagined the memories a weight to drag them beneath their ever-flowing tides, Reave had always worn them as a buoy. That is perhaps the greatest difference between them. He had never feared losing himself to them because he had never imagined he would. Though he is not yet quite perceptive enough to pick up on this, he does recognize in her that stubborn refusal to cede. A stubbornness that he imagines might be clouding her memories (both the ones belonging to her and the ones that do not) of the northern kingdom.
It would be so easy to lose themselves to this tumble of echoes between them. To fall down a rabbit hole to nowhere. But Reave, as he has done so many times in his young life, brushes them aside like flotsam to focus on the woman behind them. The hazard and the boon of a shared gift. But Reave had been practicing the art of discerning memory from reality since the day of his birth, and for him, the skill has grown increasingly innate.
To his surprise however, Aela does not dismiss his supposition with a scoff. And, just as it had faded, that devilish grin begins to return.
Does she know she had just awarded him a rare and coveted freedom?
He most certainly does not need a second invitation before delving into her sight, into the memories and the visions that never lie. She is young yet, so he does not expect much. But what he finds is far more than he had ever anticipated. A tether he had never before encountered that, when tugged, opens a floodgate of visions and memories. Past and present roiling through them like an endless tide of carefully curated sights and long hidden emotions.
For a moment, he finds himself staring into an identical blue gaze before he is abruptly expelled, vision cut off.
He finds himself blinking rather stupidly at Aela, surprise etched in every line of his features. His original intentions are momentarily forgotten as the surprise fades into a frown, then suspicion. Moments later, he blurts rather thoughtlessly, “Is that why you felt… suffocated?”
reave
@[Aela]