i know its rough, when you go it alone

KIADA i wish that i could say, i am a light that never goes out. She can’t meet his gaze, doesn’t want to meet it as she focuses on the task at hand – offering a necklace of sorts that has some bit of history that she’d tucked away, only to look at when she was feeling particularly lonely or resentful. But now? Now it was all she had, after burning that piece of Halyven with her mother, and part of her isn’t sure if she deserves to keep it when someone who had loved her for herself was here and willing, capable, surrounded by a makeshift shrine for the Penumbra. What she doesn’t expect, is for him to hand it back, red rimmed eyes lifting to meet his face as he speaks. Her lower lip trembles, brows furrowing as she fights to keep her tears in place, trying to keep that collective calm she’d grown so used to over the years. She fails, however, as soon as he’s standing, her hand lifting to wipe away the tears that slip while his back is turned. But he comes back with a parasol, and her confusion only grows. “I… What?” She asks, setting the necklace to the side as she reaches out for the umbrella, still sitting in the middle of the paintings on her knees, lowering it and inspecting it, pressing here and there and looking at the intricate details of the vines growing along the handle. But when she twists it, it springs open a small amount, the handle popping out and revealing a sharp hidden sword within. There’s a hiccup of laughter through her despair, however, and she looks up at Bastien with a pained but amused expression. “Some things didn’t change, did they?” She asks him, her mother holding secrets and far more strength than she’d ever imagined. She pulls the dark hair away from her face, dark hair that matched Rexanna’s nearly perfectly, before leaning in to inspect the carved blade. but i flicker from time to time.