[mature] [Private] I sold my soul for this ~Kagerus~

[Hestia]

Hestia waits, not patiently, not as she normally waits. She thinks she can’t wait any longer. She’s so tired of waiting, it feels as if that is all she does these days. Wait, waiting, waits some more. When the brightly colored mare shows up, and she doesn’t have the same fire that she had in the field Hestia flicks her ears around. She wonders if the girl is okay. She feels the urge to ask. In fact, she is about to but the first words out of Kagerus’s mouth are abrupt and disconcerting.

Hestia shifts, her green eyes roaming over the lithe frame in front of her. What had happened? And yet did she have a right to care? A right to nose into the others business? It’s not as if they are friends. It’s not as if she had known the girl all that well. They were passing acquaintances knowing each other in passing. Each dedicated to their separate kingdoms. Hestia almost does ask, then she clenches her jaw working it, waring with her pride until she beats it into submission. Her words come out strained from the bitter taste she has in her mouth. Kagerus, I came here in search of my children. Caw informed me that I can find you here. That you can help me.

Her stomach turns at these words. Her gut wrenching at the idea of having to ask for help. She swallows deeply, cotton filling her mouth taking all saliva and ease of speech with it. Please, I need your help. She’s a queen, she shouldn’t say please. Yet here she is ready to fall on her knees if she must. Her children are lost somewhere, and they need her. They should have come to her by now. They haven’t, and she is afraid she will never see them again.

Could they help each other, could she help Kagerus as Kagerus helps her? The black hag decides this would be a good way of finding out if the other is okay. I’ll do anything, anything you need or want I’ll get it done. Just please, help me Kagerus. She’s a queen, what can she NOT offer her? Nerine has a mage, a fickle one, but still a mage none the less. They have safety, warriors, access to several kingdoms. Surely, she can do something for the girl.

Hestia doesn’t notice the change that has come over herself either. More expressive, less steely in her harsh ways. More womanly in her curves. She looks like the ocean with her tussled mane and tail. She feels calmer, less likely to reflect on the past. The voice comes and goes, ebbing with the tide. It does not bother her as it used to. She knows who it is, has always known.

It’s herself, her that was stuck as a ghost, the part of her that wasn’t completely pulled from the afterlife. She’s a person stuck in elevator doors, mostly here, but another peace that is still there. She looks healthier. But Kagerus, she looks as if all hope has been destroyed in this world. She appears older, wiser, more like the old Hestia. The Hestia that found joy in other’s suffering. The black mare is still a bitter old hag, always will be. But she is not the bitter Hestia who had nothing to care about. The old hag looks into the girls eyes searching for anything remotely related to the girl that she’d seen in the field that day.
.

HESTIA

The devil whispered in my ear, you’ll never survive the storm
I whispered back, I am the storm

@[Kagerus]