lepis, comtesse of taiga
RUN AND TELL ALL OF THE ANGELS; THIS COULD TAKE ALL NIGHT
i think i need a devil to help me get things right
The rough bark of the redwood had pressed uncomfortably into her back, but had Lepis remained still, unwilling to disturb the child that sleeps beside her. He’d fallen asleep during a story, worn out by the game of tag the youngsters had been playing; his older sister sleeps a few yards away. The has been pulling away slowly so as not to wake him, a slow process that has taken the better part of ten minutes. When she finally extricates herself, it is to sore muscles she attempts to shake out and determines might only loosen with enough exertion of her own.
Meandering through the woods is her main pastime these days, and the dun pegasus is not surprised to hear the crunching hooves of another horse as she moves beneath the ancient trees. She pauses, but the figure is white rather than red, and streaked with smoky black that she recognizes even at this distance. Castile, she thinks with what is very nearly a smile, and a race of her heart that she knows is usually accompanied by a warm flush of familial affection.
Today there is nothing, even as she moves to stand before him, and it is odd to see the same coolness reflected in the dragon’s eyes.
“Uncle,” she responds in greeting, a polite bob of her head that is respectful yet without deference. Her own expression remains still, the bright smile she had worn for her children having slipped away with the warmth of Elio’s side against her. The crooked grin on Castile’s face does not summon it. She does react to his new though, and a frown creases the space between her eyes, and thins the narrow line of her navy mouth. Her husband’s words echo in her ears: her way of doing things has failed. She and Castile share a delusion of grandeur. The North does not love her.
Not platonic, she hears Starsin say.
“I never wanted Taiga.” She says, her tone as abrupt as the seeming change of subject. In her mind they are connected of course; Heartfire and Taiga, fear and the threat of war, what she holds in her hands now versus what she had once dreamed of.
“We came North because I could not take Loess from you, not and live with myself after.” We, she says, even though now she stands alone, and the day draws ever nearer when even her children will no longer remain. “And now it seems that because of that, Beqanna seems so determined to charge me with starting a war that it seems other would start one themselves to just head me off.” That aligns more obviously with what he has shared, that Pangea and Tephra have joined forces with Nerine to confront Castile.
“And let me guess: they, too, think I move at your beck and call?” At that her voice becomes bitter rather than icily calm, and yet the tone taints her voice, there is no change in her heart: just that same cold emptiness that never seems to leave.
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