flora
Flora's fingers pulse back against Kaisel’s as they climb, a quiet rhythm of reassurance, and at the top of the stairs she glances over her shoulder at him, aqua eyes softening just enough to try and hold everything she can’t say aloud; gratitude, love, the steady certainty that he can get through this even if his jaw is tight and the air feels thin. She squeezes his hand once more before turning forward.
Jack is perched on The Ark’s rail like a dare made flesh, boots dangling into the abyss as though the drop beneath them is an afterthought, peppermint bark at his mouth and that lazy drawl cutting across the space between hulls. Flora meets his eyeline without hesitation, though; for all the goading, for all the bitterness curling at the edges of his smile, she still holds the stronger position. Him hating her doesn’t undo that, it just makes it hurt more.
Her chin lifts and her gaze slides past him, past the dark line of his ship, up into the bruised sky where sunset bleeds into indigo. The air feels charged, stretched thin between the two vessels hovering over the Maw, and she draws in a breath that tastes of salt and heat and something like inevitability and maybe a little bit like closure. "Safrin," she calls, voice clear and unwavering despite the tremor still ghosting in her bones, "you can already find the terms Jack and I have agreed on in my mind. If you wouldn’t mind bearing witness."
Her hand tightens subtly around Kaisel’s as she waits, shoulders squared, refusing to look back down at the abyss or over at the man who would make her nothing.
Flora channels for Safrin, asking her to bind the deal between the three of them.
Terms: If Flora or Kaisel tell anyone about Jack's secret, every person/animal in Caido will forget who Flora is, except for Jack.
If Jack retaliates against Flora or Kaisel on the basis of them knowing his secret, he'll lose his revivify feather.
Jack is perched on The Ark’s rail like a dare made flesh, boots dangling into the abyss as though the drop beneath them is an afterthought, peppermint bark at his mouth and that lazy drawl cutting across the space between hulls. Flora meets his eyeline without hesitation, though; for all the goading, for all the bitterness curling at the edges of his smile, she still holds the stronger position. Him hating her doesn’t undo that, it just makes it hurt more.
Her chin lifts and her gaze slides past him, past the dark line of his ship, up into the bruised sky where sunset bleeds into indigo. The air feels charged, stretched thin between the two vessels hovering over the Maw, and she draws in a breath that tastes of salt and heat and something like inevitability and maybe a little bit like closure. "Safrin," she calls, voice clear and unwavering despite the tremor still ghosting in her bones, "you can already find the terms Jack and I have agreed on in my mind. If you wouldn’t mind bearing witness."
Her hand tightens subtly around Kaisel’s as she waits, shoulders squared, refusing to look back down at the abyss or over at the man who would make her nothing.
Flora channels for Safrin, asking her to bind the deal between the three of them.
Terms: If Flora or Kaisel tell anyone about Jack's secret, every person/animal in Caido will forget who Flora is, except for Jack.
If Jack retaliates against Flora or Kaisel on the basis of them knowing his secret, he'll lose his revivify feather.
you're under the feeling like teenagers in cars
it ain't robbing or stealing if the moment is ours
it ain't robbing or stealing if the moment is ours
