[private] and in my dreams i've kissed your lips a thousand times // oriash

[Kagerus]

and in my dreams...

i've kissed your lips a thousand times

For as long as the mare opposite me remains silent, all seems well. The tension in the length of my spine passes itself off as stiffness from sleeping wrong, the twist in my gut something related to another worry. Today would be a simple, easy day, I decided as the painted woman stepped back from our quick greeting, wherein I'd caught a quick scent of someone familiar but long gone. As though this person had once been in contact with someone I loved.

Ori, she says.

Ori

Ori

Ori

Everything clicks.

"Oriash," I whisper, just as the other mare thanks me for my prior compliment. My pleasant expression drops like dew from the leaf, replaced by a wide-eyed and somewhat horrified shock; I wrestle with the emotion, attempt to bring it to heel. When I fail to do that (something about having unpracticed discipline over such things since my fall from politics and my embracing of intimate family life), I take a step back with a respectful and, it is hoped, chastened drop of my head. I do this despite wanting with all that I am to rush forward and embrace my daughter.

"Oriash," I try again, words rasping with emotion. "My daughter..." Hard swallow. "I would so like to embrace you against my chest as I once had the privilege of doing, before I left." My ego begs me to sugarcoat my abandonment of the sweet child (the perfect mixture of Solace and I), aches to be so plain about what happened. But I must try -- I must try to learn from what happened with Abysm.

"But I respect your need for space, or time, or whatever you need right now." The river sounds too loud. As much as my shame bids me drop my gaze, I force myself to look into Oriash's beautiful blue eyes. I can't know whether she hoped for me to recognize her when she gave me her shortened name; all I know is I could not hide my recognition from her. "And if you have any questions, about then or now or the future... please, I am at your service."

kagerus

Enjoying Middle-Age in Tephra | Lover of Solace | Immortal, Dreamweaving Fantasist

@[Oriash]