we need love, but all we want is danger; any

[Straia]

i am the violence in the pouring rain

i am a hurricane

The ravens tell her of Lucrezia’s appearance immediately. How she appeared out of nowhere, how she shouted No over and over. Go figure. Lucrezia probably didn’t want to be here, and Straia almost doesn’t go. Almost leaves her sister to fend for herself with Kushiel. Not that Kushiel was particularly mean, just interesting.

She almost finds herself mean enough to shun her sister the way her sister had shunned her. She never even broke the promise, just took too long to follow through. But her sister didn’t give her a second chance. So why should Straia give her a second chance, either?

But it doesn’t matter, really. Because Straia may be cruel and hard in so many ways, but she loves her sister, no matter what. Even though she expects the girl to kick and scream and be miserable, Straia goes anyway.

She won’t sink quite so low as to not go at all.

Kushiel is already there, yelling at her sister for giving her a headache. Straia doesn’t really envy his empathy. It is not something she’d want. She slips in beside him (he was undeniably fun to flirt with, after all, though she keeps that to herself), wearing her usual crown of raven feather, overlarge black wings tucked to her side as well. Mostly just for show.

She catches just the end of Lucrezia’s words, and a number of nasty, sarcastic remarks come to her mind. She doesn’t say them, knowing better in this instant. Though she does enjoy the sound of those comments in her own head, giving herself just a moment to savoir what it might be like to say them aloud.

But instead, when she does speak, her voice is cool and calm and collected. Her eyes, though, say far more. She doesn’t hide the fact that she still loves her sister, despite everything. Doesn’t hide that she is glad to see the girl is alive (though not all that well, right now, it would seem). She isn’t so cruel as to pretend otherwise.

“Kushiel, this is my sister Lucrezia. Lucrezia, this is the Chamber’s Govenor, Kushiel.”

straia

the raven queen of the chamber

....couldn't resist