and let me crawl inside your veins. I'll build a wall, give you a ball and chain.
Tearing herself from Malone had been nearly impossible. She had promised him that she would never leave him, and so far she had kept her promise. And now when he needed her the most, when the world was being flipped upside down, she was breaking it.
Of course they had known it was coming. Loess hadn’t been in the business of making friends, and it wasn’t at all surprising that someone they had wronged had finally tried to give them their comeuppance. Perhaps Leliana’s maze had not been intended to harm the way that it had – but the road to hell was paved with good intentions, and Starsin found herself running that road straight to Tephra.
The wall of shadows that surrounded Tephra’s border should have made her hesitate. It should have created at least a flicker of fear somewhere in her mind, but instead it does the opposite. She knows who had created it, without even having to wonder. And so she rushes headlong through the darkened barrier, completely immersing herself into the world that had been plunged into darkness and smoke, and she feels her blood surge in her veins. The flashes of lightning and the lingering flickers of fire that had not been put out by the rain that plummeted to the earth was the only light to be found, and it only added to the pandemonium. It was difficult to see, but she could hear them; she could hear their chaotic thoughts as she rushed past everything and everyone, but there are only two familiar streams of thought that almost make her falter. Kensa and Litotes, fighting with…Dawn? Almost immediately, she is warring with herself, so desperately wanting to stop. But her indecision lasts only a split second, even though she whispers a frustrated curse under her breath. They would be fine. They had to be fine, because she had to find Ophanim.
She finds him so much faster than she had expected.
Instinctively, she is drawn to where the dragons are fighting, and she recognizes one of them as Castile. For the first time, this is when she slows, coming to a jarring halt. In the abyss of this darkness, Ophanim glows like the actual angel he was; beautiful and bright, with fire expelling from his mouth at Mary – which secretly pleases her, but she is too distracted to dwell on it. Sinner is there too, landing bites into his skin, and this is when her temper begins to flare. But she is still so far away. Far enough that she has time to slide to a stop again after she had just begun to run, when the diamond-armored dragon is suddenly hurled into her angel boy, and far enough away that she can do absolutely nothing when she sinks her jaws into his wing and punctures a talon into his throat.
She should have felt anguish. She should have been stricken into shock. But she has been stock-piling her fury over the last several months; everything, absolutely everything that she had been warring with culminates in this moment. The frustrating situation with the East and Sylva (and running past Kensa, Litotes, and Dawn had only stirred everything to the surface – and then watching Mary and Sinner attack Ophanim, which she can promise would be dealt with later), Ophanim’s infidelities, whatever the fuck had happened with Vadar, Malone nearly dying, and now this.
She has been furious before, but she has never been this. She has never felt such a ferocity take hold of her, where all other thoughts have completely fled. Her blood runs cold as she surges forward, her dark blue eyes locked onto Sinner, Mary, and the nameless white dragon that was moving to go after Ophanim’s retreating form.
Something inside of her snaps – either into place, or out of it.
She doesn’t realize she detonates the charred remains of trees as she hurtles by.
They spontaneously burst as the star-studded mare flies past them and then the two Sylvan leaders, deciding that right now they are not worth her time. Her sights are on the white dragon, and even though her instincts are screaming at her to stop, the sight of Ophanim’s wing in the dragon’s jaws and his blood being spilled across his throat overrides everything in her.
She doesn’t stop even once she is close enough to make out every scale that glittered on her body. She doesn’t stop even when she can smell the smoke and dragon-fire that seemed to cling to her.
And she doesn’t stop when her own body – so small in comparison – collides with the hindquarters of the dragon. The reaction that is causes is the only thing that snaps her out of her blinded rage. She doesn’t know what causes it, and she cannot make sense of the way the dragon viciously splinters apart and explodes upon contact. The force of the collision and the resulting blast knocks her back, the residual dragon-fire singing her face and her chest. She hits the ground with a gasp, her blue eyes bright with shock and alarm, but her mind was dazed from the blast and how hard she hit.
Blinking blearily through the confusion, she makes out Ophanim’s glowing form collapsing behind a tree. She scrambles upwards, ignoring the way her face stung from where she had been burnt, and this time nothing is in the way of her getting to his side. “Ophanim,” she gasps his name, forcing the emotional panic that she could feel rising in her throat as she immediately lowers her head to embrace him. Her lips press worriedly to his forehead, not caring that he is covered in blood and mud as she caresses every inch she can find that isn’t injured. She finally allows herself to look back to his mangled wing, and to where blood spilled and dried along his throat, and this time instead of anger, she only feels a crushing sorrow. “Your wing….and your throat. We need to get you home,” She struggles to keep the calm in her voice, as the sounds of the war continued to rage, and she presses another kiss to his forehead. This should have been her element. Any other time, she would have delighted in watching Tephra burn to the ground, and perhaps once Ophanim was home safe, and they had Malone, Alita, and even Meraxes with them, then maybe she would be satisfied with what has transpired. But there was nothing, not even the war she had been craving, that meant more than him.
starsin
it’s not like me to be so mean. you’re all I wanted.
( just let me hold you Like a hostage. )
Tldr;
* Starsin noticed Kenslie fighting with Dawn when she first enters but she can’t stop because she’s here to find Ophie
* She sees Mary, Sinner, and Casimira fighting with Ophie and her new trait of shattering is triggered because she’s beyond pissed (approved by officers, and already posted at the mountain). She explodes some trees but doesn’t realize she’s the one causing it.
* Realizes Casimira is going after Ophie again, so she collides with her and makes Casi explode. Casi is my character, and she has serial immortality, so it’s fine
don’t tell Insane.@[Ophanim]
