08-26-2021, 05:34 PM
Ryatah
He does not return her smile, or her kindness that borders on being a formal kind of cordial (a fallback to being a diplomat and queen for far too many years—always neutral, always polite). It goes mostly unnoticed by her. She has had far worse interactions, bringing the bar to what she finds pleasant to near ground level. Her kindness is a mostly shallow thing to begin with, a pretty veil hiding the ugly marks underneath. Not a facade so much as armor; her way that she learned to survive in a world that she did not stand a fighting chance against.
She is kind at the core, but so many different kinds of darkness have twisted their roots around it that it has become blemished, tainted.
After all, she has stood by here in Hyaline, entirely aware of what Gale is capable of and the things that he has done to Mazikeen. Trying to put a stop to it has never occurred to her, and most likely she would have warned anyone way had they tried to interfere.
“Obligation, probably,” she answers his question, her tone still light and a little nonchalant. “Remittance for saving her twice.” Her dark eyes fixate on his when she says this, an unspoken kind of knowing reflecting from them, accompanied by a nearly imperceptible smile. She is sure that he knows. Knows that she was the one to heal all that he had broken that second time around, when Mazikeen had nearly bled to death on the lake shore. She does not say that she finds him careless; she is no stranger to the dynamic of a violent romance, but, she wonders if he learned from his previous mistake.
Toying with death is a dangerous thing if you cannot undo it, as she has learned.
“Would you rather I was dead?” she asks him while watching him inspect the shimmering stardust, the question spoken with the eerie kind of calm of someone unafraid of death or dying. She is no stranger to it anymore.
She is kind at the core, but so many different kinds of darkness have twisted their roots around it that it has become blemished, tainted.
After all, she has stood by here in Hyaline, entirely aware of what Gale is capable of and the things that he has done to Mazikeen. Trying to put a stop to it has never occurred to her, and most likely she would have warned anyone way had they tried to interfere.
“Obligation, probably,” she answers his question, her tone still light and a little nonchalant. “Remittance for saving her twice.” Her dark eyes fixate on his when she says this, an unspoken kind of knowing reflecting from them, accompanied by a nearly imperceptible smile. She is sure that he knows. Knows that she was the one to heal all that he had broken that second time around, when Mazikeen had nearly bled to death on the lake shore. She does not say that she finds him careless; she is no stranger to the dynamic of a violent romance, but, she wonders if he learned from his previous mistake.
Toying with death is a dangerous thing if you cannot undo it, as she has learned.
“Would you rather I was dead?” she asks him while watching him inspect the shimmering stardust, the question spoken with the eerie kind of calm of someone unafraid of death or dying. She is no stranger to it anymore.
EVEN ANGELS HAVE THEIR WICKED SCHEMES
@
Gale