WE ARE ALL JUST FRAGILE THINGS /
SOFT AND SMALL /
BUT ALL THE BROKEN CAN FIND /
HOPE IN THE MOST UNEXPECTED PLACES /
Lilliana - for the first time since she has died - looks up to the stars for guidance. Amidst the blood-red ones, the lone silver-blue orb hovers near his bonded and the slender chestnut flicks an ear towards Leonidas. "That's all he will tell me," she says quietly, with the hint of an apology softening her already gentle tone. The star comes descends again, coming nearer to the pegasus leaning against Lilli.
"He says you are like him, heaven-born." Her refined head turns towards Ciri and she regards her with careful blue eyes. Ciri stumbles - one of her hoofs tripping over a rock - and Lilli chides herself for not taking better care of the injured mare. She arches her neck, and engaging her hind end, she attempts to take on more of Ciri's ambling weight.
While she isn't tentative about bringing the dark pegasus to the North, what might have caused her injuries does bring her worry. This will be her first time back in Taiga since she had died, and her mind is already spinning with thoughts. About being reunited with her children. About seeing Brazen and Eurwen again.
If he comes for us, and Lilliana gives a defiant shake of her head.
"What do you think it is?" she asks Ciri instead and her mind thinks of all the monsters that she has known in her lifetimes: of Frostbane and the glittering malice that reflected out from his emerald eyes. Of Ostere and his shadows, of the way that they had tried to breach Paraiso. Of Underworld and his taunting, of how she had failed to protect Elena from him. Of how she had failed Elena again, when she had come to Beqanna.
She thinks of all those monsters, but one.
That one had burned and turned to ash. That one was nothing more than a memory. That one was not allowed to terrorize her in this life. But it had taught her something. They keep moving towards Taiga, through the shadows and weaving through Leonidas' dim light, but there is no mistaking the way that something on Lilliana's face hardens when she says, "I run from nothing."
@Ciri
fragile things (reprise) - megan hilty
image credit to footybandit