Sleep, and I Shall Soothe You

phoebe Sleep and I shall soothe you, calm you, and annoint you As soon as he stood, she could feel a snap in her chest, audible to her ears, her heart breaking under the weight of the impending crash before it even fell. She didn't hear his words. Not really. Nor did she need to. The sound of her blood rushing through her ears was too loud to make sense of what he said, and yet her heart knew what it was, what he meant, what it meant. They had survived Long Night together. They had almost had a child together. And now this - this was all it took to bring it crashing down. A disagreement. An argument. Her refusing to bend to his will, to quietly nod yes and agree, to follow along like the perfect little wife-material she had desperately wanted to be in his eyes. Somewhere, amongst all the chaos, she had changed and grown, and desired to have her thoughts and opinions respected and given equal weight - for her knowledge of what was to come to be considered worthy - to be an equal partner alongside him. But that was clearly not what he wanted. He wanted to be the man, and if she would not quietly sit in subservience to his ideals, he had no use for her. But Phoebe stayed still, watching him in silence. Head still held high. Shoulders straight. She stayed firm, where she was. She would not let him see her cry. She would not let him see how quickly he shattered her heart and soul, her hopes and dreams, what she had thought would be her future. Only once the door closed did she crumble. The sound of the latch clicking closed broke through the haze keeping her in her seat - a resounding whip-like crack that reverberated, breaking what little steel in her spine there was. She slide from her chair to her knees, collapsing to her side, caught only on the hearth of the fireplace. A sob broke through her lips, tears burning her skin as they rolled down her cheeks like liquid fire, ignited by her sorrow and heartbreak. It was over. Over. Her first love, that had burned so brightly, so quickly, extinguished with such suddenness the recoil broke every fiber of her being. Pim became equally distraught as her pain and sorrow rushed through their bond, and the young little dragonling had no natural instinct for how to deal with such an emotion. He flapped his wings, wimpering as he crawled up next to her, nuzzling in by her neck and face, rough cat-like tongue licking at her cheeks to remove the wet stuff falling from her eyes. Phoebe leaned into Pim's attempts at comfort, curling one arm around him as the other wrapped around the base of her shrine to Frey, her face pressed against the soft fabrics there. And for a time, that was all she did, sit there, hugging her dragon and the shrine to her friend, crying uncontrollably. Only the loss of her child topped this pain, and to have it in such close succession to that loss left her defenseless to it's onslaught, leaving her nothing more than aching ribs, gasping breathes, and bloodshot eyes. "Why." she whimpered after a time, tears still streaming down her cheeks. "Why does it hurt so much, Frey? I knew it was coming and still it hurts." Of course, she did not expect them to come. This was no glorious shrine infused with divine power like the others, merely a humble little reminder of her love and respect for her god-friend. But still she asked, if only to comfort herself that Frey might hear and know, for her own selfish reasons. It was over. And as Emmett walked home, so staunch in his belief that he could walk away from his love, Phoebe spiralled wildly out of control, feeling as though the world itself ceased to spin in the wake of her crash.