[private] I might go interstellar

[Ciri]

all of time and space, everywhere and anywhere, every star that ever was

He has every right to lose his temper, he has more reasons to be angry then she does. But she can’t explain to him that if her blood isn't boiling then there will be nothing left. That the endless empty void that her rage would leave behind is too much for her to handle. So she glares at him in his (rightly deserved) outrage despite the part of her that wants to reach out and touch him and let him know that she understands. That she does understand his wisdom, his pain, those flames that currently beg to be released.

“Until Beqanna is reduced to ash?” He asks and she smiles but once more that light never meets the stainless steel of her eyes. Her stars seem to have taken on a reddish hue as she snaps at him with hollow words. “Maybe it would be better if it did.” Because there is nothing anyways. She wants to say as she looks down at those silvery scars wrapped around her front legs. Because this is pointless and what comes after is pointless. Because there is nothing after all of this anyways.

Her apology still comes but it is flat and she has forced her steely gaze out to the sea so she no longer needs to see her own anger reflected in his eyes. As she wraps that fury around her and closes herself off to him, pulls herself deep within it and finds refuge in the heat. As she tries to ignore that emptiness beckoning in the distance, she flicks back through the plans Nashua had laid out before her instead. Perhaps she could kill two birds with one stone this way and complete the request given to her in her hasty visit to the Mountain. “I’m ready to go when you are.” She finally says, her words clipped as she finally brings her icy gaze back to him, the stars around her glowing red.

-- Ciri

Image by Phil Botha

@Nashua

[Nashua]

That black anger has been inside Nashua since he has been young.

He's worked hard to overcome it and leave it behind; as a young pegasus, he traveled and roamed Beqanna as far as he could to leave that feeling on the hard ground. Nashua doesn't have the empathic abilities the rest of his family seems to have but he doesn't need them to know that the emotion simmering beneath Ciri's skin and her shield of stars could match his own. For Nash, it goes back years to the moment that he learned all the wrong that he was created from and the striped stallion has always tried so hard to be something incredibly right ever since.

Tried so hard to get it all right, but as Nash stands there looking at the glinting lights above them, all he can think about is how wrong it's gone anyway.

Yanhua, missing.
Gale, Cursed.
And Bolder, his youngest son -

"Not while my children are here," the Freyr tells her with a defeated air. He closes his green eyes and tries to focus on a plan. But Nash thinks that Ciri might understand his sentiment, because if it were her own estranged child (despite the heartbreaking history there), he thinks the Thane would do whatever it took to keep Takhar safe. As Nashua had tried to do with his son, even if it meant keeping the family history away from Bolder and his other children.

"I don't think either of us should be going anywhere," Nash states and finally opens his eyes, the brilliant green turning to meet the icy silver of Ciri's. "Not in this state." He tells her with a hoarse voice, feeling suddenly weary of... everything. Nothing good would come with them meeting Loess now. Not when they were both so close to the brink of losing their tempers again (at least Nashua had been), "Give me a few hours to speak with Leilan about precautions to take with the North, and then you and I will journey at first light."

@Ciri

[Ciri]

all of time and space, everywhere and anywhere, every star that ever was

Before the Curse had killed her, speaking of his children would have been enough to sober her and soften her heart. However the memories of Takhar (which he successfully brings to mind) only seems to add to her overflowing cauldron of aggravation and while she can understand his pain, can understand wanting to salvage a world for his children, she doesn’t see the point in it. Not anymore. Not when she knows that their children suffer in this world for nothing. Absolutely nothing at all.

She says nothing as he changes their plans, as he decides to speak with Leilan first and all she does is nod, the stars around her still glowing their eerie red light even as she flicks her gaze past him to the sparse tundra behind him. She doesn’t miss the rough edge in his voice or the defeat in his eyes but this never-ending fury makes it so hard for her to care. To focus on anything else but the curdling in her stomach and the flames engulfing her heart. “As you wish.” She finally says tersely, turning her back on Nashua as she folds her wings with a snap against her backside and sends her seething gaze back to the sea.

For the first time she understands what might have inspired Castile to burn this beach, what a dragons rage might feel like. That it was just a taste of the anger that lives inside of her now and without release how it could turn you absolutely insane. That it could burn you into ash until you became the nothing that awaits beyond the grave.

-- Ciri

Image by Phil Botha

@Nashua