02-14-2022, 01:46 PM
I'll settle for the ghost of you.
It’s funny how culpability works, how it wedges itself deep between bones and flesh until you can physically feel it. Both of them carrying this weight while wrongly assuming that they were to blame for their parents mistakes. As if they hadn’t been children, as if they could make a difference when it came to a natural disaster or kingdom schemes that had gone far over their heads. He can only give a tight nod when she speaks, his own hope for a reunion growing dimmer by the day. Surely if Aela was alive, he would have found her by now. Guilt curls heavily in his stomach even though she smiles when he touches her gently, he’s not sure he deserves her kindness. What was the point of all this power that flowed through his veins if he couldn’t protect the ones that mattered? He hadn’t tried to stop Sickle from being stolen, hadn’t been able to do anything when the Pampas fell. Since Terror had fled from the angel, failure had not hung so heavily around him. It stirs now in those dark parts of him, reminding him of what he has always been.Color blooms along her cheek as he pulls away, a golden blush against dark skin. He finds the humor in her gaze and gives a soft chuckle, feeling that tightness in his chest lighten slightly and that nagging voice of ”Terrible” fades. She offers another distraction by asking after Hyaline and he can’t help but notice the subtle changes in her body, the uncertainty that is often mirrored in the flames that dance along his spine. “It was pretty, seemed nice enough. I wasn’t there long and only met one while I was there, a real-life angel if you can believe.” He pauses, thinking of Ryatah and her healing touch. Remembering Terror’s abhorrence. “I liked her.”
Before he can question her curiosity, as she shifts her hooves and his own interest rises, she provides an answer. For a moment, he’s not sure what to say. "Your adopted?” He finally manages to ask, wondering why she had not mentioned it before. He had never kept his own adoption a secret, had been proud that Aela had seen something worthy in him for her to call him son. Had she been ashamed of where she came from? It starts to make sense though, her being stolen. He remembers what Sickle had told him about the jungle of her home and a volcano, the complete opposite of what he had found in Hyaline. Everything surrounding Sickle’s disappearance from the wildflowers had been off from the beginning and everything he was finding out now leaves a sour taste in his mouth.
Surely his mother had known what had happened to her and for the first time, he wonders if Aela had kept anything else from him. Something new begins to stir in his chest, something hot and upsetting that ties into that heaviness of guilt, thinking on those last few words over and over again. She hadn’t wanted to go. Flames flicker in the yellow of his eyes as he looks at her before quietly asking, “Was she unkind to you? Your birth mother?”
FYR
@Sickle