05-08-2023, 12:14 AM
She watched because she couldn’t tear her eyes away. When Larnair melted Asad’s sword, she had not seen the tools Jai used to blunt the trauma, only the aftermath. Now she watched his soul bleeding out, and she was not sure how to stem the fatality. Her attention glanced past Arikan’s ultimatum. She’d prefer to call it mercy, but she was sure it’d be a lie. Either way, she wasted no time wondering why he waited.
“No,” she said to Jai. Desperate pleas met straight defiance. She only said it once to counter his mounting distress, hard as fortress walls.
She didn’t appeal with logic, though the light knew she wished she could make him see it. Instead she knelt before him, her back to the door, purposeful in its small shield. She could not feel the power raging outside, but she was not ignorant of what waited when the wards breached. She was quiet for a moment, reconciling something inside.
Her hands laced overtop his, fingers blended into his as they clawed at his own neck, slippery with blood. She’d pry them loose if she could, but if not she only held on in enduring promise. She bowed low, her head pressed against his. Coils of dark hair blanketed them like night. She wouldn’t leave him, and she wouldn’t break him with force. When the words finally came, they stirred with the softest of breath.
“Don’t leave me to face this on my own, Jai.”
Where he led she would always follow. Even the Traitor’s Tree.
“No,” she said to Jai. Desperate pleas met straight defiance. She only said it once to counter his mounting distress, hard as fortress walls.
She didn’t appeal with logic, though the light knew she wished she could make him see it. Instead she knelt before him, her back to the door, purposeful in its small shield. She could not feel the power raging outside, but she was not ignorant of what waited when the wards breached. She was quiet for a moment, reconciling something inside.
Her hands laced overtop his, fingers blended into his as they clawed at his own neck, slippery with blood. She’d pry them loose if she could, but if not she only held on in enduring promise. She bowed low, her head pressed against his. Coils of dark hair blanketed them like night. She wouldn’t leave him, and she wouldn’t break him with force. When the words finally came, they stirred with the softest of breath.
“Don’t leave me to face this on my own, Jai.”
Where he led she would always follow. Even the Traitor’s Tree.