07-28-2021, 06:56 PM
all of time and space, everywhere and anywhere, every star that ever was
There had been plenty of times where she had faced death but the Curse had made it a reality. Although the irritation of whose face it had been to give the final blow still bothered her, it wasn’t what kept her trapped in her own head. She had always thought when she had died that she would return to the heavens, back into the fold of stars from whence she had came. The old images of the life she had lived in the sky long before she had been born into this mortal plane still lingered vaguely in her mind, memories shown to her from the Underneath. She had been a star once, she had assumed she would become one again.
So when her death had only led to blackness… when she had gone absolutely nowhere only to awaken with broken legs, a fresh scar over the old ones on her chest, and her own crusted blood around her… It had stung. It had hurt. And it had scared her more than anything else she had faced in this world. It wasn’t the pain of death… No… It was the nowhere that had followed that keeps her up at night. That she hadn’t risen back to the stars, that she hadn’t gone anywhere at all. The absolute pointlessness of the life she had lived so far and of the void that seemed to be calling her back. Taunting her. What was the point now? What was the point in living when all that’s waiting for her is empty darkness? Wouldn’t it be better to just accept death now?
She hears his hooves crunching against the shattered glass long before he speaks. In the moments of his approaching, she finally comes to a few decisions. Choices that she hadn’t been sure of until the moment she knew Nashua had come back. But now she makes them, considered and firmly decided on.
Despite the temptation beyond the void, she has no desire to die. Again. Ciri had always held a black streak of stubborn resistance and it rings true now as her resilience refocuses on to one simple thing. Revenge. Even if it was pointless, it was all she had in this life. So she grasps it as well as the constant anger burning in the pit of her stomach and decides to live anyways.
So she makes her next choice, taking all the trauma from that night in the Meadow and pushes it all down, down, down into that part of her where she holds all her old unresolved hurts. All those wounds that had never fully healed. In goes the empty death next to the loss of her son. Carefully she shelves the unanswered questions of betrayal regarding Gale (if it had ever been Gale) next to the scarred over remains of the love she once had for Amet and Castile. And she sweeps and gathers all those broken pieces of herself and continues to stuff them into the hole of her creation until he speaks.
She pauses for a moment, her thoughtful gaze changing into something else. When she finally turns to him, there is a small smile on her lips but it doesn’t seem to reach the swirling silver of her eyes, the metallic hue somewhat colder now. Harder. “Fine.” She lies easily, smoothly, as she unfurls the dark starlit wings off her back and flares them as she turns around to face him. She is relieved to see him in one piece but it also means one thing. Gale must still live. And that wouldn’t do. “Where is he?”
So when her death had only led to blackness… when she had gone absolutely nowhere only to awaken with broken legs, a fresh scar over the old ones on her chest, and her own crusted blood around her… It had stung. It had hurt. And it had scared her more than anything else she had faced in this world. It wasn’t the pain of death… No… It was the nowhere that had followed that keeps her up at night. That she hadn’t risen back to the stars, that she hadn’t gone anywhere at all. The absolute pointlessness of the life she had lived so far and of the void that seemed to be calling her back. Taunting her. What was the point now? What was the point in living when all that’s waiting for her is empty darkness? Wouldn’t it be better to just accept death now?
She hears his hooves crunching against the shattered glass long before he speaks. In the moments of his approaching, she finally comes to a few decisions. Choices that she hadn’t been sure of until the moment she knew Nashua had come back. But now she makes them, considered and firmly decided on.
Despite the temptation beyond the void, she has no desire to die. Again. Ciri had always held a black streak of stubborn resistance and it rings true now as her resilience refocuses on to one simple thing. Revenge. Even if it was pointless, it was all she had in this life. So she grasps it as well as the constant anger burning in the pit of her stomach and decides to live anyways.
So she makes her next choice, taking all the trauma from that night in the Meadow and pushes it all down, down, down into that part of her where she holds all her old unresolved hurts. All those wounds that had never fully healed. In goes the empty death next to the loss of her son. Carefully she shelves the unanswered questions of betrayal regarding Gale (if it had ever been Gale) next to the scarred over remains of the love she once had for Amet and Castile. And she sweeps and gathers all those broken pieces of herself and continues to stuff them into the hole of her creation until he speaks.
She pauses for a moment, her thoughtful gaze changing into something else. When she finally turns to him, there is a small smile on her lips but it doesn’t seem to reach the swirling silver of her eyes, the metallic hue somewhat colder now. Harder. “Fine.” She lies easily, smoothly, as she unfurls the dark starlit wings off her back and flares them as she turns around to face him. She is relieved to see him in one piece but it also means one thing. Gale must still live. And that wouldn’t do. “Where is he?”
-- Ciri
@Nashua