It seemed that they could not even grieve in peace. Their mingled sorrow - too soft a word, too tame for the torrent of emotion that twisted through them with the force of an avalanche - was still piercingly fresh when the dragon crossed the sky overhead, it's primal voice sending a spear of ancient fear through Tal. He felt Alys pull away and he followed her gaze even as he reached for her again, unwilling to let her go as a far deeper panic into his soul.
He couldn't lose her, too.
It was a cruel mockery, then, to see the dead ursur in its claws. An unwelcome reminder that it was not just the Void that brought destruction and loss. Why the fuck couldn't the dragon have taken on the Void threat? Why didn't Caido fight back instead of leaving it all to them?? Theological questions that Tal could linger over later, when his heart and mind weren't in such disarray. Now, in this moment, all that mattered was Alys. Was getting her somewhere safe, and the safest place that Tal's soul grasped for was now within their reach.
"It's not," he promised her, his own voice cracking under the weight of his tears. He pulled her back against him with one arm, but his other groped for his pocket, for the comforting weight of the Constellation Compass on its chain. His hand closed over it and he squeezed, seeing the Peregrine in his mind's eye and willing them both to the safety of her cabin.
The world shifted around them, a sense of movement without taking a single step, and in the next heartbeat all three of them - not four, never four again, not the same four that they had been - huddled together within the protection of the skyboat. Hidden, at least for a short while, from the cruelties of their world. "Th'Void... y'said it was th'Void that did this t'her... th'fucking Void," he growled out through his tears. "That's why she's gone. Not you." He might not know the details, but the certainty in his voice was unshakeable and as raw as the grief that came out hoarse and weeping alongside it.
He couldn't lose her, too.
It was a cruel mockery, then, to see the dead ursur in its claws. An unwelcome reminder that it was not just the Void that brought destruction and loss. Why the fuck couldn't the dragon have taken on the Void threat? Why didn't Caido fight back instead of leaving it all to them?? Theological questions that Tal could linger over later, when his heart and mind weren't in such disarray. Now, in this moment, all that mattered was Alys. Was getting her somewhere safe, and the safest place that Tal's soul grasped for was now within their reach.
"It's not," he promised her, his own voice cracking under the weight of his tears. He pulled her back against him with one arm, but his other groped for his pocket, for the comforting weight of the Constellation Compass on its chain. His hand closed over it and he squeezed, seeing the Peregrine in his mind's eye and willing them both to the safety of her cabin.
The world shifted around them, a sense of movement without taking a single step, and in the next heartbeat all three of them - not four, never four again, not the same four that they had been - huddled together within the protection of the skyboat. Hidden, at least for a short while, from the cruelties of their world. "Th'Void... y'said it was th'Void that did this t'her... th'fucking Void," he growled out through his tears. "That's why she's gone. Not you." He might not know the details, but the certainty in his voice was unshakeable and as raw as the grief that came out hoarse and weeping alongside it.
