gravity's a palm pushing down your head

Hotaru

I know they'll be coming to find me soon
But I fear I'm getting used to being held by you

I'll come to you. 

It's utterly laughable to think Hotaru would bother to speak to anyone but her daughter after Remi's raven finds her, that she'd think of things like parchment and politeness in the wake of the news that Flora is alive. It's not like the man can reach her through dreams to push the issue anymore either. Not that Hotaru sleeps - that's equally laughable. No, she squeezes every drop of stamina out of her cells like blood from a stone, scouring Torchline's waterways and shorelines relentlessly for the Doubletake.

It doesn't matter how she finds her or when, there's no mistaking her when she does. And it's going to be a good thing the beach is vast and empty soon enough.

Her landing is rough, the shift from falcon to woman grotesque in its speed, electricity crackling between golden hairs in fits of aimless expression. She grabs Flora roughly into her arms, an agonized sound between relief and rage shoved from her lungs with the force of their collision. "Three times is enough, Flora." Her voice is low and forbidding, shaking on every syllable like the threat of an earthquake. "Stop. Just stop." She shakes the both of them, short jerks of emphasis not unlike a dog ripping intestines from a limp kill. Ru isn't sure what she's saying; anything that makes its way between clenched teeth is a miracle of life, and the shape it takes is not within her control now.

I used to sing about being free
Oh, baby, look what you've done to me

marked me like a bloodstain

For a split second panic seizes her. Pierce had appeared in the Greatwood like some decadent predator; unhurried, unbothered—it couldn't have been more different from the way the Valkyrie descended toward the shoreline, and yet as sand sprayed away from her mother's feet and the smell of lightning hit the air, Flora's heart rose into her throat as her fingers clumsily reached for her daggers. Before they could find them, her body was swallowed up by a tangle of maternal limbs that had her gasping with a mixture of pain, surprise, and relief such that the first sound she was able to make, swallowed up by the halo of her mother's hair, was a strangled and soft whimper.

As Hotaru's embrace grew more frenzied, the Doubletake braced against her mother as the Valkyrie's jerks sent ricochets of pain screeching out from Flora's still-healing wounds. "Mom," the queen pleads weakly, trying to straighten enough for Hotaru to see her face properly; to see that she was alive and well.

Three was a terrible number, impossible for any mother to bear, and yet it was as accurate as it was inaccurate given that the Doubletake was able to wrap her arms around Hotaru; her grip far softer on the right thanks to where the fatal blow that had ended her life had also made a mess of her shoulder. "Mom. I'm okay."

Hotaru

I know they'll be coming to find me soon
But I fear I'm getting used to being held by you

She gentles only so much as her trembling arms can manage in their rigor. She longs to make them a cage so that her daughter can never leave her sight again, but pain isn’t something she can stand to inflict. Not this kind. 

One twisted hand clenches in any fabric she can muster between fingertips at Flora’s spine while the other comes to cradle the Doubletake’s pallid face. Still, she doesn’t look into her face the way her daughter tries to allow for. No. She can’t this time. 

“You are not okay,” she hisses like the warning just before the shriek of a kettle reaching boiling point. “Three is enough. I never should have let it go this far - I never -” breaking off with a guttural noise, the Valkyrie inhales sharply and holds it. One by one she forcefully relaxes each muscle in her body until even her face is eerily blank. An exhale. “It’s fine. It’s over - the hardest part is done for you anyway. You aren’t staying in Torchline.” And something steely lingers in her undertone, something that sounds a lot like the age-old because I said so and that’s final.

I used to sing about being free
Oh, baby, look what you've done to me

marked me like a bloodstain

The sparkle and shine in Flora's gaze has been dimmed since her encounter in the Greatwood, and while not even death could dampen it entirely, the dark circles around her eyes from lack of sleep only serve to emphasize the way the kaleidoscopic mixture of blues and greens has faded into something muddy and lacklustre.

No, maybe Flora wasn't okay, but she was fine. She had Jack, and he loved her, and while cheating death didn't feel at all like the victory she'd originally imagined when she'd touted her father's gifts, at least she was alive to bear the scars of that experience, and—

"Wh—" The sound brays from the Doubletake's lips, sounding entirely girlish and young as if Hotaru had been saying that Flora couldn't break curfew to attend a school dance, or that that Halloween costume she wanted to wear was scandalously too revealing. "Mom," Said not with the confidence of a ruling queen but with the entitlement of a daughter who will not be moved, now it's Flora's turn to try and shake some sense into the Valkyrie, weak as her efforts are.

"I can't...leave." Her tone sounds almost hysterical for the way surprise has begun to mingle with panic. Would it surprise anyone to learn that the Valkyrie kidnapped her daughter to keep her safe? "There's no safer place for me to be than here." Sure, Starfall was visible just off the coastline, but Torchline was the only region to completely banish void creatures from their lands, the only region with four demigods living upon their shores.

The only region with Jack.

Hotaru

I know they'll be coming to find me soon
But I fear I'm getting used to being held by you

It’s an echo of a tone from much younger days. Days filled with twin pairs of pounding feet, towering silent trees, and little else. But now there is only one pair of feet, and Hotaru can’t listen for their passage anymore with how the sand beneath them swallows everything. It swallowed her son - how much longer until it swallows her daughter too? 

Flora’s face is gaunt and bruised but beneath those lurid colors lies the bone structure of what is undeniably a woman. Yet Hotaru looks upon it, impetuous denial ringing in her ears, and sees only the fragile babe red-faced and squalling she’d once cradled against her chest. And there is nothing she will not do to keep her safe. 

It’s a cruel irony then that here and now, changed as she is, Hotaru does not see any of the supposed defenses Torchline has as safety.

“You can and you will.” Her voice rings like iron struck, fingertips curling slightly inward to steer Flora to look into her eyes. Hotaru has ever been the giving and permissive parent, eternally swayed by the idea of preserving her children’s happiness. Not anymore. “Your fathers will go where you go. Your friends believe you are dead. You are safer now than you’ve ever been by being invisible - and I will not have you so far away again.” Her breaths shudder, ragged from an exhaustive flight. Or perhaps from the depth of emotion that stares out like yawning pits in the shadowed, unblinking stare she wields. A tempest scarcely restrained by the threads of her own snapping control. “Where are your things? A boat is too public, we need your compass or magic.” Her hand drops from Flora’s cheek to her shoulder, briefly casting her gaze around the empty beach with a cutting slant to her eyes. Good, still empty. Though she’ll be having words with Remi over the fact Flora was out here alone in the first place.

I used to sing about being free
Oh, baby, look what you've done to me

marked me like a bloodstain

Stiffening, though whether in response to her mother's tone or simply because Flora had never liked being told what to do, the girl shakes her head, the motion quickly becoming less a method of communication and more a loop she found herself caught in, unable to break. She couldn't leave. Wouldn't.

Right?

Some small part of her, perhaps made all the more vulnerable and willing to entertain her mother's rash plan because of everything she'd recently gone through, softens. Not enough to agree perhaps, but enough for Flora to wrap her arms around the Valkyrie and drag her close once more. Beneath the scent of sweat and the exhaustion that has her mother's body feeling like a livewire rather than the soft and sensuous curves the Doubletake expects, she's still wonderfully familiar in a way that has Flora sagging wearily against her.

"Mom." Straightening slightly, the queen gives her head a slow shake. "Mom the Family will already know that I'm alive. They know everything." There was nowhere that she could hide from them, nothing she could keep hidden from them. "And..." Swallowing, Flora thinks of the way the world had grown so small as Pierce plunged the blade into her shoulder that final time; how his wicked laughter had been the last sound to reach her ears, long after Jack had taken his final breath. She thought of the way it had hurt to be cleaved back into her body, and how desperate she'd been to get back to Jack regardless of the consequences.

"I'm not going to run away, I'm not going to hide." Swallowing hard, a shivery breath forces itself past Flora's lips as her body tries to contain the sobs beginning to form in the back of her throat. "They don't get to do that to me."

Hotaru

I know they'll be coming to find me soon
But I fear I'm getting used to being held by you

No physical limits will prevent her from tightening her grip to support Flora as she sags, hand dropping away to envelop her around her waist once more. Here, she can drop her cheek to Flora's golden hair and drown in her scent, attuning her ears just enough to hear the rhythm of her heart past human limitations. It's not unlike cradling her, and perhaps that's why her tone shifts to croon softly, dripping hints of poison amidst honey.

"Of course they do, that doesn't matter. You're still invisible to everyone else." Or so she prays. Prays that she got here in time, before such an advantageous position could be lost. "There's no need to justify stepping down or leaving now. And then there will be no expectation to follow misguided advice, no citizens to placate or appearances to keep." Surely that's why Flora had persisted time and again. It's why Hotaru had not intervened sooner, aware of her daughter's thirst for success and approval. She regrets that now. The Family wouldn't have had to intervene in her stead if she hadn't coddled her daughter's delicate pride for so long. That's why she has to fix it here and now. "And when this is all over we'll say I stole you away, and you can rule wherever you like. It will all be alright." Her hand smooths gently over the back of Flora's head as she had for past heartbreaks and disappointments. This is surely no graver matter than those had been now that her death had been rectified.

Frowning at the wording and her daughter's mounting distress alike, Hotaru shushes her, arms tightening as far as they can without causing pain. "What? Who - your people? They can't blame a dead woman, and they'll understand in time that what they are wanting is wrong." Her eyes scan restlessly over the beach behind Flora, the ticking of the clock for every moment spent convincing like a death knell in her ears. "Calm, petal." Her magic winds through her veins, laying a delicate cord around Flora's neck; harmless, for now. Harmless so long as she doesn't tighten it. So long as Flora doesn't make her. She doesn't want to - it would be a grievous sin, stealing her daughter's free will for the sake of compliance - but she will not lose another child. If Flora cannot see reason, she will do what she must.

I used to sing about being free
Oh, baby, look what you've done to me

marked me like a bloodstain

"What?" Confusion weighs down the word as deep furrows appear in the queen's brow. No, Flora hadn't gone around shouting from the rooftops that she and Jack weren't dead, but she'd seen Hadama already, had left a message on the Notice Board. She'd been seen at the festival, even if she and Jack hadn't deigned to stay long. "But mom, I'm not—" She tries to interject, her mind reeling in response to the disjointed confidence that honeyed her mother's words; stepping down? being stolen away?

Exhaling a short huff of breath as Hotaru's hands smooth down her curls, Flora continues to try and wade through the chaos, sure that there's some obvious tether of rationality in what the Valkyrie is proposing that she's missed. "No, the Family..?" Her people were the ones she wanted to stay for, to fight for. Torchline was as much a reason not to run away as her pride was, if not more so.

As her lips part to continue to press softly against the plan taking form, Hotaru's magic deepens the mists already fogging her mind. Only one pathway seems illuminated, and at the end of it is her mother, glowing and wise and comforting as she always has been. "I can't go without Jack.." Flora protests gently, her words dazed and dreamy as she leans her cheek into one of Hotaru's hands. "And he won't leave Torchline.."

Hotaru

I know they'll be coming to find me soon
But I fear I'm getting used to being held by you

Half-uttered sentences are hardly arguments and clearly that's why they're so disjointed; Hotaru can understand the desire to rebel on the basis of wounded pride, especially when Flora is no longer a child. But mother knows best.

Too many times she has paused and listened. Too many times Flora has wheedled and convinced her way out of Hotaru's protection and into the fire. This time, she won't question and prompt when her daughter falters. If Flora wanted to engage in a debate with the Valkyrie, she should have come prepared with greater defenses than trailing interrogatives and conjunctions.

"It's time he meets your mother anyway," she dismisses readily, willing to compromise if it means avoiding further exertion of her magic and a swifter assurance of Flora's safety. "Will he not leave even at your request?" Her magic lies impatient beneath the surface, held at bay on the remaining thread of reverence she has for her daughter's free will. Further questions and options brew behind her pursed lips but go no further. Not yet. Safely held in her palm, Flora's cheek is kissed by the brush of her thumb in slow sweeping arcs, lulling and comforting her without needing so much as a drop of magic.

I used to sing about being free
Oh, baby, look what you've done to me

marked me like a bloodstain

Would he? Almost immediately Flora knows that the answer is no. Theirs is not a love that promises it would do anything and everything for the other, and while it has been tested by death and come out the other side, it's still new enough for whatever roots might eventually grow to have only started to wheedle their way down toward bedrock.

"Do you want to come and meet him now?" Glancing over her shoulder toward where the Ark was moored in the harbour, Flora returns her stare to Hotaru's. "He...no." Firmly said, the queen gives her head a little shake. "Jack won't leave Torchline, not even for me." There's no sadness or upset in Flora's voice as she says this; for all of Flora's fantastical musings, she's never once painted Jack out to be someone he wasn't. "Come and talk to him. You'll see I don't need to leave. I'm safe here, especially aboard the Ark." For all the reassurance and comfort her mother's presence inspired, ever since her murder only the captain's touch could send her to sleep or stop the rising tide of panic that nightfall always seemed to bring.

Hotaru

I know they'll be coming to find me soon
But I fear I'm getting used to being held by you

Well. Not exactly rousing information about her daughter's partner before their first meeting. Her cheek twitches slightly, impaled on the edge of her strained smile. "I want you safe." Not wasting time on a belated meet-and-greet that will do nothing to improve the situation.

For a moment the Valkyrie pauses. It's not a moment of hesitation - it's more like she turns to stone. Her eyes bore down into Flora's, and several possibilities unfurl before her. Remi's words, scrawled with frustrated strokes and damning vitriol, overlay across Flora's pleading expression. Her own crumples into a visage of dismay, and she presses a gentle, lingering kiss to her daughter's brow.

"You aren't safe enough. Not beside a man who would not do anything and everything for you. And not so far from my reach." Jack had clearly already failed to keep her safe once - though Hotaru will find a way to get Flora into the Family's good graces, because the threat wouldn't have existed otherwise - so clearly the Valkyrie must take over now. "I'm sorry. But it's just for a little while sweetheart. I promise." The arm around Flora's waist tightens in preparation to bear her weight, and in the same tone she'd used for years to lull her off into dreamland, she murmurs, "Sleep until I wake you."

I used to sing about being free
Oh, baby, look what you've done to me

marked me like a bloodstain

"Mom," Flora's tone has reverted back to being a touch petulant as her safety is once again mentioned. Standing on Torchline's shores with her mother's hands smoothing down her curls and the Ark somewhere behind her, the queen feels as though the threat of retribution from the Family is quite far away indeed, even though Starfall is just as visible out on the ocean as Jack's ship is.

But before Flora can argue the finer points of Jack's merit and explain to her mother that unlike the rest of the demigods in their family that lowly mortals like she and Jack had to rely on training and their own cunning to make it through, the queen feels sleep begin to weigh down her limbs. Unlike the suggestion that she up and leave Torchline, the offer of sleep is something the Doubletake's mind readily agrees to, and it's a clever thing that Hotaru has braced an arm around Flora's waist for the hasty way her body immediately submits to her mother's request.

Tumbling silently into a darkness that wholly snuffs out any other thought, Flora slumps bonelessly against the Valkyrie.

Hotaru

I know they'll be coming to find me soon
But I fear I'm getting used to being held by you

For all its petulance and aggravation, mom being the last thing she hears from Flora before she succumbs is a bandage for the wound still bleeding inside her chest. It gives her certainty where her spirit falters, reluctant to harm her child's deceptively delicate heart.

"I love you," she whispers into Flora's hair. In a moment of weakness she lingers there, clutching her daughter close. Then she straightens, hair shortening and features shifting until they mimic Remi. Perhaps she might have chosen Jack if she knew what the man looked like, but this will suffice. Hotaru doesn't intend to go far. She doesn't have the available necessities to do so even if she wants to.

Compulsion is a funny thing you see. It can account for coin you don't have, liberties and trust you never earned. It doesn't take long to secure a modest houseboat - what's one more in the ranks of those 'Remi' owns? - and set out onto the waters beyond the coast. Just close enough to see Torchline on the horizon, but far enough away that the duo are easily overlooked as a passing vessel.

She tucks Flora into the bed on the lower deck the same way she used to when the Doubletake was a toddler; blankets tucked in beneath her ankles, arms free (moooommm I can't breathe if they're not out!), hair pulled to the side to sweep over the pillows. She takes her daughter's compass and any other item she can find, though handling the parchment makes her fingers tremble. (Mom that's my diary leave it alone!) Ru leaves only so long as to hide them where Flora won't be able to reach them. Then she returns to curl up in the scant space left in the bed, body curving around Flora's like a mother cat's. 

Only then does she cry; great, heaving sobs of relief smattered with godly names and broken expressions of gratitude.

- Fin

I used to sing about being free
Oh, baby, look what you've done to me