We got too close to the flame - Scorch

[Scorch]

WATCH THE FLAMES CLIMB HIGH INTO THE NIGHT

In the wake of her confession, only a word escaped her son; and then, as if his skin could no longer do its duty, he seemed to deflate. Proud Leilan, who always took his mother's side even when it came to alienating his own twin sister; joyful Leilan, begging for attention as the youngest son because if he didn't, he wouldn't get it. It pained Scorch to watch such vulnerable expression flitting across her own son's face, a face that she'd known since birth and had raised and loved every single day since then. It reminded her of how insanely hard it would be to explain this all to her husband, when or if he ever returned... But he always did, and for the first time, Scorch couldn't tell if that was entirely a good thing.

He took a step back, eyes gradually lightening and shifting tones until the icy blue of a blizzard laid claim to their shattered depths. Scorch went to take a step forward, but stumbled, catching herself halfway as she realized that she no longer had the right to demand his closeness and his love. She wanted to of course, but she couldn't; not with Leilan. They'd always been too alike for their own good, much like how she'd been with her first set of twins; no amount of brute-force love would overcome the issues that they had both created for one another in their unthinking impulsiveness.

So... she's not one of us.
Scorch's heart stopped at the utterance, memories of Wrynn's birth flooding her mind.
And although it sickened her to think of, she couldn't deny that a part of her felt the same way about this child, too.
Tampered with by magicians - tainted - not of the pure bloodline she and her husband had created and built and struggled to maintain for decades. Except this time, she'd been an active player in the conception of the child. The magician Camrynn had only taken a twin and shaped her aesthetically.

It's a moment's hesitation before she answered, but it was enough to indicate her uncertainty on the subject. "Of course she's one of us, Leilan." Her tone is harsh, though the anger is aimed inward as opposed to towards the roan stallion. She chokes on the next syllable, squeezing her eyes shut as a headache with the force of a typhoon rocked through her skull. "Of course she is." This time, soft.

With a shuddering breath and the sensation of being pulled back into the network of twilight she had made for herself within the depths of the Nerinian pine forests, the mare slid a hoof back and spoke in a voice that was empty of any emotion. "Come meet her in the summer, Leilan. She'll need a big brother to look after her."

And, turning, she left him there to his heartbreak, as she had been left alone to hers.

Scorch

Once Khaleesi of the Amazon Jungle

@[Leilan] got some feels coming right back atcha pal