[mature] so much time

[Oriash]

Oriash

they promised that dreams can come true

It has been a long time since she’s set foot in the Cove. Not that she was naïve enough to believe she would never see her birth home again, but still, it feels strange to return to it now as a member of Loess and a diplomat. She’s not sure what capacity she expected to return to it in – this seems like a likely scenario, really – but perhaps the scenario doesn’t matter. It would be strange to return to a place that was her beginning, but was never her, regardless.

The black beaches of the Cove still call to her though, and she finds it stranger still to stop so far away from them. They are the one thing she misses. Around her, shadows creep with a mind of their own, the same shadows that crept out from her the day she’d laid on those beaches until Dawn found her and kept her from dying. Because she would have died on those beaches, would have laid on the sand at the edge of the surf until the tide came in and swallowed her whole.

Ori reins the shadows back in now. They are nothing more than an illusion, the inky blackness of her anger creeping forward. She rarely feels it, a thing buried so deep she only notices it as Kagerus name, but still, it’s there. Somewhere in this land Kagerus may still be tucked away in her coma, though Ori has a hard time believing Kagerus would stay there when Solace had not. Yet only one of them had come to find her.

She wonders, briefly, if her companion noticed the shadows. Perhaps, perhaps not. Ori doesn’t care either way, though she finds her companion’s presence stifling today. Not that she minds Brunhilde – the mare was, well, she was Brunhilde but Ori liked that. She’d appreciated the small talk on the way here, not that Ori was remotely skilled at small talk, but she was happy to let others fill the space with chatter and questions. She had just imagined making this first trip back alone.

Maybe it’s better that she’s not alone. Maybe it’s better that she can’t disappear to the beach she misses. Maybe it’s better that she can’t seek her mother now, because some traitorous part of her just wants to know if she’s still in the same spot or if she just doesn’t care. It’s a truth best left buried.

Ori stops at the border of the Cove, nodding to Brunhilde to let her do the honors to call out for someone if she wanted. Ori was content to wait in silence, to see if she even recognized the face that came to greet them. It’s entirely likely she wouldn’t. So much time had passed, so many things had changed, including her. Though she didn’t doubt that most would know her, if they knew her mothers.

but they forgot that nightmares are dreams too.

@[brunhilde] and whoever wants to come chat with them. Ori's pretending to be a diplomat