08-08-2016, 09:26 AM
I was in the darkness; so the darkness I became.
She hadn’t thought of her family in a long time.
It was shameful, perhaps…but they were mere memories now. The shadows of the Valley had taken their place in her heart, and that left little room for the goodness that was Mast and Camelia and their slice of Heaven. Both were alive, she thought; she’d heard nothing to the contrary, anyways. Would they even recognize her now? Their once gypsy-eyed girl with a thirst for wandering was now a steel and lace queen of a kingdom with a dark and bloody history. She had felt feral longings in her breast and tasted blood upon her tongue; surely, she was no longer apart of their world.
But as they so often, memories have a way of interjecting themselves into the here and now. Topsail smelled her immediately; the delicate scent of lilac, mingled with the tang of sea salt and brine. The grulla queen raised her head, turning it and her heavily pregnant frame to gaze along the horizon. It was not her mother, not quite. But there was no doubt as to who it was. Picking up an uncomfortable trot, she headed towards the scent, a breath of apprehension creasing her face. She heard the voice on the wind, and she knew immediately who it was. Her half sister, the product of Mast’s loneliness and frustration. “Seastory” she said as she stopped, belly swinging. “What brings you here, to the Valley?” A part of Topsail worried that her sibling brought news of Mast; the other part, the darker part, didn’t care either way.
Topsail
Queen of the Valley