i want to teach you a lesson in the worst kind of way
still i'd trade all my tomorrows,
“You should go.” A pause. Before a continuation, as if she’ll leave at the first heart beat after. No, Loren’s got her for the moment, focused on him, listening as he mentions hour glasses and cups a hand to his ear as he mentions he can. And all she can do is give him a bright smile of response. “Is that so?” A quiet question – because while he might have the ability of worrying over such things, Rexanna won’t age. She can be killed, and nearly almost had been. But growing old isn’t one of them, dying of old age isn’t one of them. But he does pick up on her look that she gives him when she mentions the blight, and the flowers, and while she had been away in the Greatwood destroying a sacred tree, evidently so much had happened. And Loren had cracked, broken somehow. Instead, dark brows furrow slightly as he creates a piece of paper, and the smile grows a bit wider, a bit colder as she tilts his head to him. “Only to the important ones.” A small admission, but she’s prepared to follow it up. Even if he thought he wasn’t important to anyone, he didn’t get to dictate who she thinks is important.
She makes a show of checking a clock, to add into the dramatics that he’s obviously overdoing, before focusing on him again. “All the time in the world.” And she does, settling in and remaining as still as she can while he unleashes a deluge of information on her that she starts to pick apart. The Fae pit, a place she’s never been but heard of. A meeting with Remi that had gone incredibly south, wondering if her other friend had known how cruel that entire thing could be. And for a moment she’s angry for the both of them, for Remi to have caused such distress. For Loren, because of the admission of feelings despite being tied to another and supposedly whole heartedly loving that one.
But she smartly keeps her mouth shut as Loren mentions Ronin’s awareness of the incident, of Wessex thinking he’s an idiot to which Rexanna snorts. She’s seen the softer side of the Queen, but she does understand that thought. For a time she had thought Wessex thought she was an idiot too, before she was proven wrong. She only pauses when she hears the information that Roana is out to kill all the Ascended, when her hand clenches at her side and her jaw tightens.
“Sounds long. And hard.” She agrees, tilting her head to the side as the sing song voice returns, as a special smile is sent her way that’s decidedly Launceleyn, she thinks. And she wonders if she knows what’s going on deep within. That he really had broken. That multiple weights pressed upon the summoners back until eventually it broke. “I suppose, to start, the Fae aren’t exactly the friendliest bunch. But they probably hate me more than you, so take some solace in that.” She gives him a bright smile despite not really feeling it deep within. If Loren wants to dance, Rexanna will dance too.
“As for Remi’s huge mistake, it should have never happened.” Her voice grows softer, contemplative for a moment. “But it did. So you can dwell on it, or deal with it.” Her head cocks, a dark brow raising as she folds her arms across her chest. From Rexanna’s point of view, it seems as though he’s certainly dwelling, and not particularly dealing well. “Wessex is her own kind of person. I wouldn’t worry about her thoughts on you.” She’s far past caring what people think of her nowadays, anyway. “For Roana, you can ask for help.” Because she has her own little Ascended family to worry about now, and the protector within her would fight back against it.
But he singsongs back to her, asking how she’s been, and that sickly sweet smile returns again. “As for me, I planted some flowers, got attacked by one of the blighted, found out my daughter has it, went to the Voice, happened upon an ascended new arrival…” Here she hums, a finger pressed to her lips as she looks around the room too, until it’s like a light bulb goes off.
“Oh, and I almost died.” So yes, little time for honeymoons and ticking hour glasses, little time for sending notes to friends. Too busy opening portals and burning a sacred tree to the ground.
for just one yesterday
the
PeNuMBRA
