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  • Beqanna

    COTY

    Assailant -- Year 226

    QOTY

    "But the dream, the echo, slips from him as quickly as he had found it and as consciousness comes to him (a slap and not the gentle waves of oceanic tides), it dissolves entirely. His muscles relax as the cold claims him again, as the numbness sets in, and when his grey eyes open, there’s nothing but the faint after burn of a dream often trod and never remembered." --Brigade, written by Laura


    [private]  someone's marching through the fire to find you; ilka
    #1

    We're caught in the crossfire

    of the war inside our soul

    He is no stranger to darkness, but even he cannot feel comfortable in such eternal night. The eclipse that never ended had stirred the hair along his spine, prickling with such intense foreboding he had been drawn from the shadowed depths of the private glen he shared with Ilka. He had not needed to venture far to discover the source of his apprehension.

    He has no name for the creatures that had clawed their way from the loam, but he does not need one to understand the danger they represent.

    In the darkness he is strong. The only boon in such an ugly time, and for perhaps the first time since he had discovered his ability, he is grateful for it. Instinct warns him he would never win a confrontation with whatever had stolen the light and crawled like botfly from the earth. Instead he returns swiftly to Ilka, dread beating a rapid rhythm inside his chest.

    Before he has even reached her, he has already begun weaving the heavy darkness around them, crafting a barrier against the unnatural things that lay beyond. He’s not entirely certain it would work, but he needed to do something.

    “Ilka,” he breathes her name hoarsely as he presses his lips almost desperately to her cheek. Wrapping her close, his eyes scan their home rapidly, the natural warmth of his brown gaze dampened by worry. “We need to find our children.”

    It’s a foolish thought. Their children had been scattered to the corners of Beqanna and beyond. Only a few remained here, tethered to this land by a sense of home. But it pains him to imagine them out there, facing this on their own. “We need…” he continues before his voice trails off, unable to complete the thought.

    They needed help, or too help, but he fears it may be far too late for that.
    Shahrizai


    @[Ilka]
    Reply
    #2

    Faultlines tremble underneath my glass house

    She has never had reason to fear the dark - not when it has always been so much a part of her family. She can remember how Shahrizai had revolted against it - though he had never told her why it chafed him so, but as the years passed and so many of their children were born with shadows of their own, it became a gift impossible for her not to love. This thing that had hurt her husband so deeply, left him with scars she could never seem to heal, was the same thing that now lent their family so much protection.

    But when the sun and moon meet overhead in the sky and neither one will surrender, the dark that falls is nothing like the dark she has come to love. It is bleak and dangerous, and the strange new creatures who fill it leave her feeling violated and unsafe in a place that has always been a sanctuary to their family.

    She bolts for Shah just as he returns to her, and she collides with a neck as heavy and warm and safe as it has ever been. “Shah.” She says, and though her voice is less ragged than his, just as her burden is less, the sound of it is still changed by fear and uncertainty.

    His shadows rise around them as she buries her delicate body against the larger bulk of his, searching in the dark for his worried face. But there’s pain in her eyes when she shakes her delicate head, pressing her cheek to the heat of his shoulder. “We can’t do both. We can’t protect the ones here with us and also leave to find the others. And you’re needed here.” All truths, even if they wound him.

    She pulls away enough to touch her lips to his muzzle, commanding his attention back to her, as though it had ever wandered for even a moment. “You need to stay, but I can go.” She has no idea where she would even begin to look, it’s been so long she last left Taiga. “You and our sons can strengthen the barriers with your magic.” And it’s funny, isn’t it, how their boys always stay and their girls always leave them. “Find Illum and Ether. Phosphor may be nearby too. I’m sure Heartfire will find me.” She isn’t actually all that sure at all.




    Ilka


    @[Shahrizai]
    Reply
    #3

    We're caught in the crossfire

    of the war inside our soul

    It had taken him far too long to recognize the good in his ill-begotten ability. After all, how could a gift gained by murder be any sort of gift at all? Time had healed the wound and caused the scar to fade. Even if he might never truly embrace it, he had finally come to realize how good could rise from such darkness. That life is far more gray than it is black and white. He had been a fool of course, but through it all Ilka had remained. Had forgiven him time and time again.

    The least he could do for her was to learn from his mistakes.

    He holds her close now, pulling the darkness around them like armor. What had once hurt would now protect. Perhaps fortune had been smiling upon him all those years ago, shaking her head at his gross lack of foresight. But now he is grateful.

    It lasts only until he finds her gentle eyes in the darkness. The shake of her head stirs a fierceness inside him. It galled to know he could not possibly hope to protect them all. He knows his children are clever and capable of course, but there are some things that never leave a father even when his children have grown.

    The minute the words ’I can go’ pass her lips however, something shifts inside him. He stiffens, pressing her impossibly close, his touch fierce, less gentle than he had intended. “No!” The word leaves him in an explosive burst, emphatic and implacable. In this he would not budge. If they were to leave to find their other children, they would leave together or not at all.

    “We stay together,” he reiterates with a shake of his head. His lips press almost desperately against her dark skin. “I cannot lose you. It would be the death of me.” He closes his eyes then, breathing deeply to restore some semblance of calm, comforted by the scent of her, by her warmth against his chest. “We will find them together, starting here.”
    Shahrizai


    @[Ilka]
    Reply
    #4

    Faultlines tremble underneath my glass house

    There has never been any need for forgiveness, not even once in so many long, beautiful years. She had, of course, known of his pain even if it was something she could not personally understand, even if there were pieces of his truths he could never bring himself to share with her. She knew how pain worked, how it twisted and warped and made things seem different than they were. She had seen in it him, and again in their son, Illum, until he was entirely unreachable. But there had never been a need for apology, never anything for her to forgive. She was wholly capable of loving them even while they tried not to break apart.

    He crushes her against his chest, and the love in the gesture fills her with a warmth that, for a moment, makes everything feel like it’ll be okay. She touches her dark lips to the stiff muscle of his shoulder, tracing quiet kisses across the expanse of mottled blue and dark hairs. She can feel his lips against her skin, too, warm and searching as the fear in his voice begs her to listen.

    She pulls back from him, immediately reaching to touch her nose to his, to let her lips wander to the crook at the corner of his mouth where the skin is so soft and the small hollow is the perfect size for her kisses. She tries to steady him with her love, touching her nose to his chin and pushing forward again to follow the curve of it back to his jaw, down his throat and his neck, back to the heart beating furiously inside his wide chest.

    “Together then.” She agrees, exhaling warmth against the tightness of muscle beneath roan the same color as a churning ocean. “You won’t lose me,”, she promises, though it is the kind of promise she has no right to make, no ability to keep, “I am too stubborn to be parted from you.” And she smiles, because at least that feels true. 

    But the smile fades again, and those light brown eyes darken with a pain she does not know how to ease. “I wish they were all here still, I cannot bear not knowing if they’re okay.” Her eyes close to hold in tears that wait in quiet depths, to seal in a sadness he doesn’t need ever to witness. “I feel as though I’ve let them down.”




    Ilka


    @[Shahrizai]
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    #5

    We're caught in the crossfire

    of the war inside our soul

    Her touch is a balm, soothing the ragged edges of his being. If he ever paused to consider it, he might find it frightening how much of himself is entangled in her well being. He would not wish to exist in a world where she did not. Is not even certain could carry on without her by his side.

    It is only natural then that his greatest fear is any kind of harm coming to her. The burden he places on her shoulders is an unfair one, but he cannot seem to help himself.

    As she pulls back to place gentle kisses at the corner of lips and down the angle of his jaw, Shah can feel something loosening inside of him. His own mouth trails down the soft curve of her neck and slim shoulders, pressing close as she finds the thrum of his heartbeat. And just as she had wished it, her love steadies him, soothing the wild fear being separated from her had inspired.

    Her words bring a smile to his features and a familiar warmth to his brown eyes. After a moment, he exhales slowly and deeply against her skin. “I am glad to hear it,” he murmurs against her, eyes sliding briefly closed. “I love you too much to let you go.”

    As her smile fades into pain, a matching ache rises in Shah’s own chest. Though she tries to mask her tears from him, he knows they are there all the same. Knows because he too feels it. The anguish of a parent who cannot possibly protect their children from all the trials this world has to offer. As he holds her close, eyes closed against the darkness, he consoles her in the only way he knows how.

    “Me too.” His voice is soft and gruff with emotion. “But we raised very strong and capable children. We must hope that is enough until we can find them.”
    Shahrizai


    @[Ilka]
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