i came and sat in your pew

KIADA

You think I'll be the night sky,
so that you can be the star?

Kiada doesn’t recall ever meeting Edrei, so the jest goes over her head – it doesn’t alleviate the feeling in her gut, that frustration swirling with upset that has barbs choking on her throat, has her tongue sharpened and honed. Unblinking eyes focus on the Queen when she tells her that she didn’t expect the Harpy to be okay. And that’s good. Because she isn’t okay. And she recalls the offer that the Queen had made to help the monster that held Ru’in’s soul, but that was pointless now too. She couldn’t bring it back to Ludo, not without getting struck down.

So what was the point, then?

She tells her it’s okay to not want to go back, she brings up a vote that has Kiada’s eyes narrowing. The offer to talk makes Kiada not want to say anything, but Wessex was here, and she was offering to listen, and Kiada’s got seasons of pent up frustration and upset that she can’t keep her mouth shut entirely.

So she looks down at the table, shakes her head, offering a quiet unamused laugh. “A vote, you said? How many people voted for it that are dead now? How many of us came back to replace them who probably don’t want to be conscripted into a fight with the monsters that we don’t want? We just got back.” Her hands fall into her lap, fingers fiddling with one another. “How many people who voted to fight actually still want to? Or are they doing it because they were told to?” Her head shakes again. “I get… What, a few weeks of time with Chulane again before I’m whisked off to the Grounds? What if I don’t come back again? After all, my own mother died last year. I don’t want to do this.”

i'll swallow you whole.