[private] Desolation comes upon the sky // Ea

[Scorch]

Sometimes in the chaos of life, being dead felt appealing. Not that she was suicidal - she'd just been dead once was all, and she craved the blood-thickening placidity of that time and place. Not that she really did - God knows that her and Hestoni went relatively batshit with boredom and with longing, having no children besides Rain and Wrynn to maintain contact with, the first because she also was dead, and the second because she could speak to the dead. And although there'd always been mass panic in the breadth of Scorch's chest while she'd been dead, something about panicking while being alive made being dead seem just peachy.

Something about cheating on your steadfast husband of fifty years after raising a kingdom's worth of children just made her feel, y'know, like dying.

But she couldn't die because then where would Blue go, and these new shenanigans with Nerine and Breckin and her goddamned son and everyone else on the face of the planet needed figuring out, and lord knows she needed to figure out her feelings. Except that figuring out her feelings was why she wanted to feel dead in the first place. She had yet to find out if Brennen reciprocated her feelings, and well, Hestoni had disappeared two years ago now and - well, she'd never been good at being on her own.

Night reigned the living world tonight, casting the world in silver and shadow. Scorch meandered thoughtlessly through one of Nerine's pine forests as the moon glowed. Her mind, as above, was on the world of the dead; and though she did not speak first, she cast her consciousness to the Other Side, allowing a kind of warm static to indicate her presence, wondering if some of her relatives might have some words for her. Advice, or inflammatory - it depended entirely on who picked up her call.

@[Ea]

[Ea]

Ea had often thought of death while she was still alive. The Reckoning had brought a darkness over Ea; her heart ached for Ramiel, for her lost children and parents. She trudged on, the heaviness weighing on her in spite of the new life she was building: new friends, a new island, a new beginning. Her affair with a magician who disguised himself as Ramiel was the final straw. Her children were beautiful, and she loved them, but it was difficult to look at them: a constant reminder of her mistake.
In her horrible, painful death, she found peace for the first time. She found Ramiel, stuck in the Afterlife for years. She was able to speak with her mother for the first time in a decade.
While in the Afterlife she was no longer weighed down by the pressures of being a leader, however she often found herself bored. There was no time at all in the space that exists between life and death - no days to wander and take care of kingdom business and no nights to rest.
So she walks.
She’s walking through the empty fog when she catches her mother’s presence on the Other Side - a sad, worried presence. Ea has spoken with her mother enough to know the cause of these emotions: her affair with Brennen and their resulting child. Ea is less than impressed with Scorch’s actions, but she understands she deep sense of guilt that she must feel.
“Mother,” she says, warmly. “It’s me, Ea. Do you want to talk, just the two of us?”

@[Scorch]

[Scorch]

Truth be told, Scorch didn't know as much about her children's lives as she would like to. Sure, she could tell you their favourite childhood hide outs and their particular fighting styles - children tended to brawl when there were ten of them cooped up in a thicket, or at least that's how it felt as a mother. She could also tell you their saddest moments, and their happiest - but only to an extent. Once her children moved out, they became separate from her. Some more than others it was true; for she hadn't the slightest clue what her eldest daughters got up to these days, whereas she saw Leilan and Vi on the daily.

Death, of course, was the ultimate separation; though in her reunion with the world of the living, she'd accidentally stolen a piece of her grandson's magic, allowing her to maintain some semblance of connection with the place from which he'd rescued her. A fact that she's grateful for most of the time. Sometimes the clamoring of the dead gets a little much for her, a fact which she is wont to admitting when in a foul mood; but the dead always manage to lift her spirits in the end, what with their being her intimately close family.

Mother, comes a very familiar voice. It's me, Ea. Do you want to talk, just the two of us?

She did, of course. But for a moment before replying, the wizened mare considers her daughter, trying to see if she could remember much about Ea. There were the usual childhood traits of course, though fewer than the others since she had left at such a young age for the Dale. Scorch resents the strain it had put on their mother-daughter relationship at the time, but ultimately came to see her decision as acceptable when she saw the family and love it procured for Ea. Despite being raised from childhood to be a Queen, the intelligent mare managed to make more for herself than Scorch could ever have intentionally taught her to. In this way, her daughter was the most successful of her children; but also the most dead, and the most reserved.

"I would like that. I don't have anything to do today, and Blue is away in Ischia." She paused in her speech, barely aware of the ground which passed beneath her as she meandered through the Nerinian landscape. "You know something? I miss you much more than I ought to be allowed to." Her chuckle reverberated in both realms, its tones sad despite meaning to be cheerful. "Your levelheadedness always did me well."

[Ea]

Ea had tried her best to not resent her mother for her upbringing. She did, for a while; it was easy to while she was isolated in the Dale. It wasn’t the training, before she’d been sent away. She’d loved spending that time with her mother, probably more than any of her other siblings had spent at Scorch’s side. It was the loneliness, after—Lagertha’s colt, Dalten, had barely been around, and Ea didn’t particularly enjoy his company anyway. She was a schemer, even then, plotting to steal the heart of Tiphon’s heir, Ramiel. How well that’d worked out for her, she thinks with a grin.
She and Scorch were more alike than they were different, really—headstrong, protective of their family, fiercely loyal. Scorch was undoubtedly more fiery; Ea was quiet, a watcher. It’s ironic that this mother and daughter with lives so similar had lived and died on nearly opposite schedules.
It’s enough that she still gets to talk to her mother, from the afterlife. Most days.
“I miss you too,” she says, softening, “but we both know you never listen to anyone else anyway.” She chuckles—identical to Scorch’s own: strained, sad. Ea knows the toll Blue’s existence is taking on her—she’s lived it too—all of the pain, the love. It’s exhausting to keep secrets from those you love.
“How’s the family? Blue, Brennen?” she tries her best not to choke on his name, pausing, “and you?”

[Scorch]

It was true, sadly enough, that Ea had been the child to receive the most attention from her Khaleesi mother. In those days, anyway; Blue gets plenty now. But things were different since she no longer lead a kingdom; not only that, but she had long abandoned the practice of attempting to orchestrate empires and what not. Ironically, it would seem that the children of her children had a passion for making that long-dead dream come to life, or at least, they liked to attempt such feats. These days though, Scorch largely ignored them, preferring to be useless and to gripe.

She had a right to griping, considering that the one home she had known no longer existed. She had a right to gripe, but I doubt that anyone besides me sees it that way. After all, she is my crispy rat, and I love her dearly; so much so that I once brought her out of the place that Ea is, because life without her felt... Well, flameless, and unguided. She is my light and my dark, my biggest bitch and my most passionate queen.

Lost in thought, Scorch flinched slightly at Ea's next interjection. The words were soft enough, but somehow, the barren mare still sometimes forgot about how easily the dead accessed her mind. Smiling now though, she tried her utmost to make the sound of the I miss you too last for as long as it could within the confines of her mind; but shortly, her daughter continued to speak, and the words which meant most to her gradually faded away.

"Hmmph," she answered at Ea's harmless jab, her large head shaking slowly from side to side. "Well, I certainly can't deny that."And yet, the chuckle that she heard from her daughter's end mimicked the sadness she felt tightening the muscles spanning her own chest, and this echo only worsened the feeling. Ironically, Ea chose the most anxiety-inducing thing to ask next; but it was not as if neither of them were thinking it.

After all, the two spent hours speaking as they do now; and if not, they at least kept a silent connection.

Clearing her throat, Scorch averted her eyes, though from what, she couldn't say. "Well, here's the thing... I may or may not have conceived another magically-enabled child with my predecessor, Brunhild, on an absolute whim. So while Blue is lovely and blossoming, Brennen is... At best, back to being just my friend." Big sigh, complete with eyes squeezed shut. "Somehow, I manage to circle back around to a teenage level of impulse control every fifteen years or so. God fucking dammit."

In the distance, she heard the sound of someone calling her name. Hugely grateful of an interruption after this enormous confession, she hastily excused herself from the connection, visibly blushing beneath her mutilated grey skin. "I'll tell you more later, after you're done being disappointed in me. And when I finally get you out of there" - (they joked and spoke frequently of bringing her back to life) - "I give you full permission to yell at me for my stupidity."

"I love you, Ea."

Dimming the connection, Scorch turned and went on her way. She felt more confused than ever, and yet, somehow, serene; as if everything would be okay.

@[Ea]
So, I brought up the timeline to make more sense, especially with the upcoming potential of her revival. I hope you don't mind that I wrapped it up, my to do list is OBNOXIOUSLY long and with the chronology break, now everything is confusing af ahhhh <3 Also, why why wHY WHY is this so LONG, I literally meant for it to be 3 paragraphs. curse you and your muse inspiring writing. (i love you)