CASIMIRA
dragon-shifting daughter of ashhal and ryatah
Similar to how he erects a fortress around his emotions at the news she delivers about her mother, she is also quick to raise a shield that hides the surprise that sparks in her ice blue eyes when he says his name.
She recognizes it, of course.
It was the only thing of her father she ever had—that and the hazy image she had created in her mind based on her mother’s description.
There had been a time when a younger version of herself had imagined this moment and how it might play out. While Ryatah had never spoken badly of Ashhal, she had warned the twins not to search for him, which of course had only made Casimira all the more curious. As a child she had not understood the complicated dynamic that existed between her parents; how there might have been some version of love that only they could decipher, but that it didn’t necessarily mean Ashhal would be interested in being a parent.
She had been determined to find him as an adult, thinking by now she would be strong enough to withstand the disappointment if she discovered he was just as disinterested in her as her mother feared he would be. She has been through so much at this point; death and war, heartache and new love. There is a strength inside of her now that she had not known existed, resolute and unwavering as she learns to rebuild from every fracture.
But standing now before him she does not feel like the dragon queen of Tephra. She feels small and hesitant, and so instead of telling him who she is she does not say anything at all, and allows the topic to remain on her mother.
“No one really knows,” she says quietly. There is a pause as she seems to debate how much information to share with him, but when she searches his face—and notices how much he reminds her of Cassian, which causes her chest to twinge when realizes she hasn’t seen her twin in far too long—she decides to continue. “When Gale was king of Hyaline he made a strange comment to my mother once, asking why did Mazikeen want her alive. I guess there was an agreement that he would not hunt the angels—my mother, and my brother and sister—in Hyaline.” It seemed the most logical, given Gale’s history and somewhat erratic behavior.
But there was another magician that shared a darker history with her mother, and she did not understand why she seemed to be the only one to suspect him.
“I wouldn’t rule out Carnage, though,” she tells him with an unreadable expression shadowing her face. Her entire life she has watched the strange relationship between her mother and the dark god unfold, and the more pieces of their story that she uncovers, the less any of it makes sense. “I am convinced it had to have been a magician that killed her, because she should be able to resurrect herself, but something is keeping her from being able to. And she would resurrect herself if she could, I know she would,” there is a sudden edge to her voice, her eyes briefly turning narrow and draconic at the surge of emotion that rises in her chest.
Her mother wouldn’t want to stay dead, she is certain of it, but the nagging doubt that has been haunting her ever since her death tightens around her chest, because what if she didn’t want to come back?
“She wouldn’t leave all of us,” she finishes softly, her blue eyes once again rounded and gentled by the sorrow that settles there as she shifts her gaze to anywhere but Ashhal's face.
@Ashhal