with reliquary eyes and a diadem frown
#1
It's set between them or whatever. I TRANSCEND ALL TERRITORIES IN ONE POST GRAHRHRH.
[html]
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj31 ... ona/t8.png); background-position: top center; background-repeat: no-repeat;">

_____The rain had washed away the blood where Andrezej had died, but Corona had been hanging around the place off and on. The carrions had picked at him at first but on her second trip back, she found that someone had buried the body. But the rain had also muddied the smells that were there, leaving her to sift through nothing but the sand beneath her feet as she strolled the dark shore. Her father had said that things were all right, but Corona got the sense that there was something more than that. It was probably her good nature conflicting with the nature of her mother inside of her—the kill was justified!—but she wondered if they could have saved him. She found herself standing over his grave, eyeing the disturbed sand and rock. What had made him hate them all so? What had made him estranged from them?

[/html]
#2
[html]
She would have taken him to the place where he belonged, that was, if he really had a place at all. Rachias couldn't think of where he might be meant to be, and thus she had laid him to rest in the place that he had been killed. Maybe he never really had a place. It had taken her days to bury him at all, the rains washing the sand away, uncovering what work that she had managed, until finally she had spent hours and hours hauling clay to him, packing it around him to ensure that it wouldn't be washed away. Now that it had all settled, now that the rain was no longer undoing her work and things had been finished, Rachias was ready to make it all complete. She heaved the large rock from the ground to make the very last stretch of the journey, head down and arms pulsing with pain, even as she hauled it along. It wouldn't mean much to anyone else, but it meant that she would know where her last brother was. She wouldn't lose him like she had Arkham. It wasn't until she was almost on top of his grave, just as she lifted her head to make sure she was near the spot that she needed to be, that she saw Corona, and she stopped in her tracks.

[/html]
#3
[html]
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj31 ... ona/t8.png); background-position: top center; background-repeat: no-repeat;">

_____Time seemed to slow down when she thought about all of the things that had gone on. Talitha could rest easier, though by all means Corona did not expect her to rebound so quickly. She had seem him get murdered and in the same way Corona had seen her father strike those that tried to hurt her, it left a fear in that place. She had seen the darker side of all of them that day and the eldest Lykoi daughter felt that there would be a settled fear amongst all of the other stirred emotions. But in the case of Rachias, who was making her way to where she was, Corona wasn't sure what was there. Her presence alone had stopped the girl with only a matter of a few feet between them and she easily read the distraught feelings that were there. Like her father could see something askew in her eyes, Corona found that same thing in Rachias. Her breath caught in her throat unexpectedly and she swallowed hard, letting her ears pin back apologetically in the presence of the sibling who was most like her. “I'm sorry.” She hadn't meant to rob her of him, but had to be done to save them all. One life exchanged for all of theirs.

[/html]
#4
[html]
Suddenly she didn't know. She didn't know what to do or say, whether to scream and cry or toss it all aside and attack. Instead of letting the sense of loss get the best of her, at least at that moment, instead of letting her emotions and feelings of blame get in her way, she continued on. Her eyes were suddenly removed from the older woman, settled on the ground in the exact spot that she meant to place the rock. Almost the exact spot, anyways, as Corona was now there. Finally, after a few excruciating steps, she dropped it to the ground with a harsh thud, leaving both hands to rest on top of it. "Me too." She spoke finally, tired and quiet and hurt and a million things all at once. Even if she didn't think her brother should have been killed, even if she was so furious with them, she still understood the things that he had done.

[/html]
#5
[html]
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj31 ... ona/t8.png); background-position: top center; background-repeat: no-repeat;">

_____Corona was torn with an overwhelming sense to do one of two things. To make her understand what they had done was one of those, the other was to comfort her. The tone of her voice was completely different from the one she was already used to hearing; the strength was completely missing from it. The uncertainty in her gaze was there in that voice and Corona could only imagine what she was thinking. “I wished I would have been there for you guys when you were younger,” she found herself saying, unable to look at her any longer, instead turning out towards the lapping water.


_____“And I'm sure you don't know how to feel towards all of us for what we did. But it had to be done, he had to be held responsible.” She was taking the route of trying to make her understand, knowing that she wouldn't. Inferni wasn't the home for her, Corona understood this, though she wondered if Inferni was really the home for her. Reaching inside of the pouch, she pulled out the knife that Andrezej had from that day, and held it out to her. “You deserve to have this more than I do.” And maybe she'd take it and turn it around and try and kill her with it. It would have been justified, wouldn't it?

[/html]
#6
[html]
Using the last bit of strength that she could muster, Rachias gave the large rock a final shove, pushing it over top of the place where her last brother rested. She had none of them now, not Andre or Arkham or Eris, they had all been successfully taken out in one way or another. Despite the extreme exhaustion that had since settled in, Rachias remained standing, leaning against the rock that now marked the last of her closest kin. "I'll have lost them all soon." She commented quietly, finally showing the real doubt that laid within her that her father might make it. If any of them did, she might call it a miracle, no matter how much she denied whatever higher power everyone seemed to believe in.


The girl didn't lift her head until Corona held her hand out, lifting it just to see what was there, chocolate and cream hair falling back against her shoulders. She hesitated a moment, stared at the knife that rested carefully in that hand, and considered. No one deserved to have it, in truth. Be that as it may, she finally reached out her own hand for it, taking it and bringing it close to her. "They don't all immediately deserve to die." She said quietly, tucking her head in to herself, staring down at the disturbed sand. It was true that some could change, some tried very hard and wanted to, but even she would admit that Andre would have never changed. "He was the last of them." And now it was only her.

[/html]
#7
[html]
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj31 ... ona/t8.png); background-position: top center; background-repeat: no-repeat;">

_____She didn't know anything much about the litter that Rachias had been borne into outside of their names. She hadn't seen her mother in over a year and had it probably not been from her brother being in charge she probably wouldn't have been allowed back into Inferni. She hadn't been there since she was born, anyway. But Rachias was right, he didn't need to immediately die. They probably should have chained him down to the ground and stoned him or something else that was slow and painful. But that would have been too cruel for the likes of mentioning. “I wish I could understand why he hated all of us.” Maybe something had happened in his childhood that had made him suddenly hate all of them. To want to usurp his eldest sibling from power when he barely understood how the world worked. “I think he hated me the first time he ever saw me and he didn't even know who I was, he didn't even realise I was apart of his family.” Maybe it was something her mother had taught him, maybe she had come to hate all of them.

[/html]
#8
[html]
"He hated us all." She said quietly, staring down at the lump of dirt and rock and sand that suddenly represented her brother. "From the moment we were old enough to walk." That was, at least, as far back as she could remember. "He tried to kill me once or twice, promised he would some day." Rachias shook her head at that fact, but her voice stayed steady. "He would have too, probably. Me and Arkham and our father, if they weren't already dead and gone or on their way out." It was hard to admit that she would have nothing left, that there was a possibility that it was all true, but she would have to face those facts at some point. "He would have killed every last one of us if he could." But why was it that she wanted him to live so badly, knowing that?

[/html]
#9
[html]
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj31 ... ona/t8.png); background-position: top center; background-repeat: no-repeat;">

_____A bad seed, she surmised. That was what he was, she supposed. But she let that topic slide in favour for what she was saying about other things, especially Laruku. She didn't believe that they were dying, at least not after how Ahren had started to feel after she had given him that particular dosage. He had stood up, he had walked and he had talked and understood things as clear as a bell. “You won't lose him, Rachias. Everything will be okay,” she said, using the same words and tone that she had used with Talitha. “I'm trying really hard to figure out what it is that they have because I don't want to lose him or the others. I even think I'm getting close because my father is doing a little better, but it's a slow road.” She had been ruling out things from neurological to psychological to things like pneumonia and beyond; there would be an end in sight eventually. “I know this is probably the last thing you want to hear, but you know that we're all here for you any time you need our help. Any time you want to talk, I'll listen.” Even if she screamed at her, even if she threatened her, Corona knew she would listen.

[/html]
#10
[html]
It was, perhaps, more that she felt like she was losing them all, than the fact that it had been Andre. Even in her head and her heart, she knew this, but it was not something that she would be quick to accept. It was good news, to hear that Ahren had reacted to whatever it was that Corona was trying out on them, but it still didn't help to ease the worry and pain inside her. "And what if he doesn't want to survive?" Her words were barely a whisper, a question that she was asking both to herself and Corona? Would she ever be able to to accept that fact that his words might be true? That he was trying to die and no one seemed to be letting him? They were words she seemed to hear often now, ones that she struggled so hard to block out but, even when she did, they haunted her dreams.


"And then to have to tell him that both of his sons are lost? That's I'm the only one left?" Not even she really knew how he would respond to that. She still wasn't even sure if his words to her had been true or if it was just the haze of sickness that had taken him. In all honesty, she feared the day that he might be well again, that she would no longer be welcomed by him, or that he might take back the words that he had spoken in their time together thus far.

[/html]
#11
[html]
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj31 ... ona/t8.png); background-position: top center; background-repeat: no-repeat;">

_____Maybe it shouldn't have surprised her to hear such a thing, but she couldn't hide that. Knowing that Laruku said those kind of things almost irritated her, especially when it was to his daughter. His only daughter, the only child he had who hovered over him and held onto him because he was the life raft in her open ocean. “He doesn't know what he's saying. Even my father has said things that sound like he means it but he doesn't. None of them know what they're saying half of the time.” But what if he was just as coherent as Ahren was? What if he was so coherent that he meant every word that he said? “But as sick as they are, I'm shouldn't be so surprised to hear that. Dying just probably sounds easier than having to suffer every day. Having to see us hover over them trying to make them better, trying to ease how bad they're feeling.” But she would have kept doing it regardless of what they were saying. She did anyway, every chance she could get away from Inferni to see them.

[/html]
#12
[html]
He doesn't know what he is saying, and that was exactly what Rachias feared. She was torn between not wanting to believe a word that he said, spouting off that he was trying so hard to die, but then wanting to believe every word. It was the only time that she felt wanted by him, that she felt she might be able to have some kind of relationship with him. He'd told her that he loved her, that he was proud of her, and those words and the feelings that came with them were not something that Rachias wanted to give up. "I don't know if that's good or bad." She commented quietly, painfully. One way or another, it was likely that something would hurt if he ever snapped out of it. Was she selfish for not wanting him to want to die?


"Has he had any of what you gave Ahren?" She question then, finally lifting her eyes from the ground to focus as best as they could on Corona. "I haven't been there much the past few days to even see if he has improved." And she felt shame for that. Instead, she was out here slaving away over a grave for a child that no one in the world had cared for. She did though, in one way or another.

[/html]
#13
[html]
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj31 ... ona/t8.png); background-position: top center; background-repeat: no-repeat;">

_____She knew that it had to have hurt to not know what exactly to do. Between herself and Endymion, she knew that those three were entirely dependant upon what they were given, from scraps of food to water to medicine. And Rachias hovered over them all constantly, she was always there when they were not. Again she reached into her pouch and retrieved a couple of different shaped vials, though their contents were exactly the same, and held them out to her. “I've been giving them all this for a couple of days now. It's worked really well with my father, but since he got sick last, I don't think he's nearly as sick as the others. But I think if we keep giving them this, they'll keep getting better in a few days.” As long as she could find the roots and herbs that made up the brew that she so diligently boiled and drained, she'd keep supplying it. “Unfortunately it's just a temporary fix, it doesn't last too long. Endymion's been giving them something too that helps just as much though.” She wished she could have given her a better piece of mind to hold onto. A definite answer, not just some uncoated truth.

[/html]
#14
[html]
Her world was lost, or so it felt like it, with everything that had happened over the last six months. Arkham, her father, now Andre. She was at a loss for what to do. She could have helped Arkham, should have tried harder, but it had been prevented. Andre was lost to the world now, she could have prevented that even, if only she had stepped in sooner, and now her father's life was in the hands of others that she barely even knew. Despite what happened with Andre, the part that Corona had played in all of it, she still appreciated everything the older female was doing for him. The sudden appearance of the vials brought blue eyes around, staring for a moment before looking to Corona once, reaching out to take them in her hands. She examined them a moment, ears twitching as Corona spoke, and nodded her head carefully. "I'll take these back to the shack and give them some." She said quietly, turning her head to stare off in the direction of Esper Hollow. Anything to take up her time, she supposed, to keep her mind off of what had happened and to help them all get better.

[/html]
#15
[html]

_____Corona could only imagine that Rachias would need space and time. Even as distant as her actions and voice were, she knew the appreciation was there. But she also knew what they had done had left quite an impact on her in the same way that many things had left an impact on her. “I'll try and come by in a couple of days to check up on them and leave more. But if one of them takes a… not so pleasant turn, please don't hesitate to find and come me.” Despite all that they had done, there were no guarantees. To have come as far as they had come, they could still be struck down fast and quickly and that was the last thing Corona wanted. She didn't want to lose anyone else either, especially anyone who was held so dear by others.
[/html]
#16
[html]
Quiet and somewhat distant, Rachias gave a nod of her head to the older female, eyes trailing off toward the ocean. She needed time to think, to mull over the things swirling about in her heart and in her mind. She'd get over it for the most part, eventually. "Thanks." She spoke up finally, because no matter what had gone on, she still appreciated all that Corona had been doing for her father. "I'm going to go see him." And think of a way to tell him that his son had been killed, if the time ever came that he was well enough to understand. She turned then, only granting Corona one last glance before beginning her way back toward Esper Hollow.

[/html]


Forum Jump: