my held breath fills the room with blood
hurting in ways I can't describe
Disaster strikes as swiftly and decisively as it had in Helovia. Hotaru can't say she expected it, has been lulled by the relative monotony of this new world, but when it comes - she reacts as readily as she ever has. Ice shatters all around her, mud flying and tangling in her hair, and instantly her magic springs to her fingertips like a sword. Only the opposite this time - her magic can't create large items, but she can make multiples, and she designs them in her mind to interlock together - five small metal shapes that form into a shield that she hefts above her head to ward off the shrapnel. Immediately her eyes scan the field for familiar faces, dark morality damning all others and lighting a fire inside to protect her loved ones first and foremost.
Rexanna is off to the side in a small cluster of people, and she can hear the reverberation of her powerful tone, the boom of her fireworks as people scatter and scream beneath the onslaught. And then there - dark hair, a face she knows as well her own daughter's - struck akimbo in the mud. Hotaru doesn't think, scarcely has time to breathe with how she shoves past the stream of people trying to move past her. There is only Kiada, and her legs cannot move fast enough but she forces them to nonetheless, hitting the mud hard and skidding the last few feet on her shins careless of the ice that rips past her thin leggings. Her breath catches hard in her throat as she moves to hold her body above Kiada's, using her shield and her own flesh to protect her niece from any further damage. And it hurts, it hurts, it hurts like a miniature sun burning beneath her skin to be unable to help. To have no healing magic, as useless and swept away by her grief as she had been the day Arya died over and over and over again in her arms.
Please Gods don't let this happen again. I can't take losing another child. "I'm here beloved," she whispers instead, and only by the grace of willpower and motherhood is her tone even. Tears are forced back, burning behind her eyes as she bows over the girl who has been like a daughter to her from birth. Ice slams into her back, cuts welts and lacerations through her dress and over her shoulders, but she scarcely even flinches. Golden hair cascades down, a gentle veil to shield Kiada from the sight of the wreckage around them letting her focus on Hotaru alone. A sanctuary, a face that projects nothing but love and safety, if only to fool the pair of them. Though her forearm is deep in the earth by her niece's shoulder to keep her body as close as possible to take any further strikes, she manages to turn enough to gently thumb across one pale cheek. "Hold on, sweetheart. Deep breaths, take deep breaths for me. I've got you." And though she isn't Attuned - will never be able to share in the bond between Kiada and Deimos, is unaware of the call for help that has already been made - she lifts her head and screams for him as well.
Rexanna is off to the side in a small cluster of people, and she can hear the reverberation of her powerful tone, the boom of her fireworks as people scatter and scream beneath the onslaught. And then there - dark hair, a face she knows as well her own daughter's - struck akimbo in the mud. Hotaru doesn't think, scarcely has time to breathe with how she shoves past the stream of people trying to move past her. There is only Kiada, and her legs cannot move fast enough but she forces them to nonetheless, hitting the mud hard and skidding the last few feet on her shins careless of the ice that rips past her thin leggings. Her breath catches hard in her throat as she moves to hold her body above Kiada's, using her shield and her own flesh to protect her niece from any further damage. And it hurts, it hurts, it hurts like a miniature sun burning beneath her skin to be unable to help. To have no healing magic, as useless and swept away by her grief as she had been the day Arya died over and over and over again in her arms.
Please Gods don't let this happen again. I can't take losing another child. "I'm here beloved," she whispers instead, and only by the grace of willpower and motherhood is her tone even. Tears are forced back, burning behind her eyes as she bows over the girl who has been like a daughter to her from birth. Ice slams into her back, cuts welts and lacerations through her dress and over her shoulders, but she scarcely even flinches. Golden hair cascades down, a gentle veil to shield Kiada from the sight of the wreckage around them letting her focus on Hotaru alone. A sanctuary, a face that projects nothing but love and safety, if only to fool the pair of them. Though her forearm is deep in the earth by her niece's shoulder to keep her body as close as possible to take any further strikes, she manages to turn enough to gently thumb across one pale cheek. "Hold on, sweetheart. Deep breaths, take deep breaths for me. I've got you." And though she isn't Attuned - will never be able to share in the bond between Kiada and Deimos, is unaware of the call for help that has already been made - she lifts her head and screams for him as well.
my heart bends and breaks
so many, many times
HOTARU
