no stone unturned

HARPER

"I wish I could show you," he admits wistfully, gaze still stuck on an image he'll never be able to recreate for her. "I'm no artist but maybe I can commission something from Bastien. Not just for you but...for myself as well." There's a longing in his voice that draws it down, softens it. Harper only manages to shake himself from it when she poses her own question, and his lips purse in a contemplative pout as he considers it. "Much higher than a roof, but not as big as the Spire. Maybe a very tall tree in the Greatwood? We had no harnesses or nets, but I was learning before I could even walk." His grip strength as a baby was insane to say the least.

Then it's her turn to share parts of herself, and he squints at her in exaggerated suspicion. "I would scold you for that if you couldn't fly." Even so his lips twitch at the corners, glad someone else enjoys the sensation of empty air and adrenaline. "I'm sorry," he murmurs instead, thick with sincerity. "I can't imagine how hard that must be. Do you think you want to reconnect with her as she is now?" Or were the memories - even if Rexanna had not experienced them directly - too soured with history to move past?

this is your ocean, an ocean of night

BASE INSPIRED BY ODD <3

i want to be a mystery, yet be known

i want to be together, yet alone

She hums along with his admission, wanting to see it for herself too… And the mention of Bastien has her gaze flickering over his face with interest. Bastien had been kind to her, even after she’d explained the confusion and everything regarding her mother to him. And he’d helped her create a small little token of her other life for her mother to remember for their wedding of all things. But she doesn’t comment on it, only offering a supportive nod in agreement. If he wanted it for himself most of all, she’d support that. It would be a wonderful little memory to keep tucked away.

He explains it’s taller than a roof but not as big as the spire, and with no harness or nets, she eyes him curiously. “Are you sure you’re not Attuned?” She offers with a small smile, aiming to poke him in the shoulder, as though he’s hiding something from her. But it’s evident as she explains the parts of herself, of the ‘scolding’ she’d have received if she couldn’t sprout wings on a whim. She shrugs to that with a bright smile. “I jumped off of it entirely human, believe it or not.” Winking to him, she withdraws a small amount at his apology.

“I…” She pauses, head tilting in an avian way among the blankets. “I think maybe when things are better. Not now, I’m not ready for all of that yet.” A quiet admission, cheeks flushing with the honesty of them, how he can bring them out of her. “I have Amalia and Deimos now, though. They’ve kind of ‘taken me under their wings’ so to speak.” Though the fact they truly do have wings goes unsaid.

is it too much to ask to be famous yet unknown?

to be a wanderer, yet have a home?

KIADA

HARPER

He laughs softly at her teasing question. "I hoped, honestly. When I met Safrin she said she thought I may be a wolf, but I wonder if I ever did Attune if I'd be some kind of bird first." Harper has been flying without wings since he was born, he can't imagine the euphoria of being able to chase the horizon without fear of falling. In many ways he envies that of her, but something still makes him hesitate when he thinks of calling out to Safrin and asking to be one of her chosen. Though he grins at her when she admits to having jumped before shifting. "It's an incredible experience, isn't it? That was my life every day." Even if she doesn't know what a circus is, maybe she can understand that portion. The exhilaration, the freedom.

"Then you can take all the time you need," he assures confidently, pressing his palm to her back in some sort of facsimile of a hug. "And if it never comes, then you have Deimos and Amalia. And me, of course," he corrects with a cheeky grin. It settles into something more serious, not wanting to make light of her situation when she has trusted him enough to tell him about it in the first place. "I don't know if I'd have the strength to try to reconcile if my parents returned in that way. It makes you very strong."

this is your ocean, an ocean of night

BASE INSPIRED BY ODD <3

i want to be a mystery, yet be known

i want to be together, yet alone

She perks up a small amount as his comment, squinting at him thoughtfully as though she can see the fur and wolfish grin, anything in those soft smiles that he gives her. She can tell already that protectiveness is part of who he is, she can see it in the way she draws nearer and his palm splays against the small of her back. “I’m a vulture and a caracal so far. I’m curious what my next one will be.” She admits a bit quietly, a smile tugging on her face as she goes to nod to his follow-up.

It was exhilarating. “Incredible but exhausting.” She admits with a small smile, reaching up to brush the hair from his eyes, to find the steel beneath the fringe of dark hair that threatens to spill and block her from his view.

A somberness takes over her at it, at the comment of her parents and Amalia and Deimos, and him. Forcing a small smile to grow on her face. “She wasn’t a great mother in that version.. I think this one would be better but perhaps I’m just jealous? Why it couldn’t be me that she was like that with… Or maybe it was my father that had a hand in it.” She reaches up to rub at her eyes, rub at her temples. And she hears the comment of his own parents, fingers splaying along her face to peer at him from beneath the shadow of them. “What happened?” She asks without thinking, before her hands drop from her face to look up at him. “If you want to share, that is.”

is it too much to ask to be famous yet unknown?

to be a wanderer, yet have a home?

KIADA

HARPER

"I remember when you told me," he agrees, remembers her shifting her ears and the feathers that had trickled down her neck. Doesn't think he'll ever really forget his wonder at seeing it happen, the first time he ever had in Caido. "Safrin told me it's a reflection of your soul, that none of the gods can dictate what you become. It's interesting, I don't know what mine would be or what it would mean." If it would be complimentary or reveal the parts of himself he desperately doesn't want to remember.

"Very exhausting," he agrees, expression going soft and adoring as she brushes away his fringe to better align their gazes. He feels like a lovesick puppy, even though he knows lovesick is not the appropriate word. Here with her loosely held in his grasp he is warm and content, happy to not move from this bed for the foreseeable future.

He doesn't claim to know her story intimately, or to even understand on a personal level. "Not easy to move on from that," he agrees softly. "It sounds like they wronged you in that world. And it's not wrong of you to hold that against her, even if she may not be that same person. And if she really will be a better mother here...she'll wait for you." And if not then well...she has Harper, Deimos and Amalia. They will keep her uplifted.

Admittedly he doesn't expect her to ask about his own parents. Nobody ever really has when he's mentioned them in such an offhand way. It's admittedly touching that she cares enough to be curious. He hesitates for a moment before answering, trying to summon the strength to remember that horrid night. "They were the original duo for the trapeze before they had me, then it became a family act. There was a national underground organization that would kidnap prodigal children and perform mental and physical conditioning to groom them into mindless killers above the standard physique. They..." his voice wavers but he clears it softly and continues on stubbornly, "I suppose I caught their eye. We were very well known. They sabotaged the trapeze my parents would use first before I joined them, and they...they fell to their deaths while I watched." It ends softly, but there's a sorrow there that he can't hide. Doesn't necessarily bother to.

this is your ocean, an ocean of night

BASE INSPIRED BY ODD <3

i want to be a mystery, yet be known

i want to be together, yet alone

She gives him a gentle nod as he explains what Safrin had said. It makes sense, the vulture within her a reflection of Khairi, of part of her soul… But the feline? The caracal form is one that doesn’t make much sense to her… But it’s there, just as the rest of them are, and she can’t imagine what her life was like without it in the end regardless. And so she gives him a gentle smile, brushing the fringe from his face as he peers down at her with those soft steel eyes that she could get used to seeing look at her this way.

It’s scary to her, to let someone in. And she hadn’t quite even let someone in so deeply as he’s about to do. One hand snakes up the side of her head to prop her up to watch him as she nods about Rexanna waiting patiently to possibly be the mother Kiada had always wanted – but it takes a backseat, far in the back as Harper begins to speak, hesitating, and she wonders if she should tell him it’s not necessary if it makes him uncomfortable, that she doesn’t need to know.

But he goes on, and her smiles falter to understanding, her gaze following the lines of his face, the thoughts and sadness she can see there reflected within her own. His voice wavers, and she reaches up to brush her calloused hand to his cheek, giving him as much encouragement as she can from her scar-flecked hands, her understanding that life was terrible and shitty and the fact that he was here as such a strange yet exciting person was a statement to that alone, that it couldn’t break him.

“I’m sorry Harper.” She says quietly, thumb stroking his cheek bones to try and convey as much into it as she can, a look in her gaze that’s similar to his own, that she’d too seen too much blood to last lifetimes, especially those of loved ones and those close to her. “Did they… Take you after that?” She asks softly, quietly, trying to work him through it if he wanted to share.

is it too much to ask to be famous yet unknown?

to be a wanderer, yet have a home?

KIADA

HARPER

If he could read her thoughts he would surely agree. Neither of them are the type to leave themselves and their hearts unguarded. Already this is the most intimate thing he has done since his previous beloved had died, and while part of him is soaking up every moment like a touch-starved fool, another part of him is fearful of just how well they can see into one another.

There is so much empathy in her glacial gaze, and his own closes as his brows lower in a rictus of emotional pain that has faded with time but will never truly subside. Her touch helps ease it away and he leans into the gentle touch, breathing a little shakily as he focuses on the warmth, the callouses on every individual digit to try and chase away the images still plastered in his brain. It's unfair that after everything, that night remains crystal clear.

He manages to give a pained smile as he opens his eyes to find her. "It was a long time ago," he says softly, feeling like he needs to comfort her as well as himself. But he sighs softly and nods tentatively against her palm, wondering what she will think of him even after the conversation they'd had upon first meeting. "Yes. For five years. We were beaten for any kind of disobedience or questioning to make us unflinchingly loyal. Subjected to torture as often as they could justify to teach us pain tolerance. Kept on a training regime to have us become as strong, fast, and silent as they could make us. Brainwashed twice daily into believing we should be proud to be their tools, that their cause was just and we should be honored to be useful to them." Voice flat as he recounts all of this, remembering those hellish first months. "I fought them for so long. Years. They forced me to kill so many times, sometimes other trainees to 'cull the weak'. Until I fooled them enough to trust me on solo missions, to have lowered surveillance. I became their ultimate weapon, beating out all of my competitors in death matches the higher we climbed in the ranks." His hand twitches spasmodically against her back, and he grips tight to her shirt to try and hide the way it shakes. Remembering those young, young faces going slack in death as he held them in his arms. Knowing it was him or them, but wishing he hadn't valued his life over theirs every time. "And then when the time was right, I ran. As far and as fast as I could, hiding in the gutters of society so they could never find me again. I was only...fifteen I think? The years got so blurry..." Still far too many to have lost to them, years he will never get back.

this is your ocean, an ocean of night

BASE INSPIRED BY ODD <3

i want to be a mystery, yet be known

i want to be together, yet alone

Even if it were a long time ago, that didn’t mean he had to forget, that it was okay that it happened. And she remains quiet throughout his entire statement, what he’d had to do for them when they’d captured him, how it resonates with her own past – albeit differently, but still the similarities were there… Only, it sounded as though he had done it out of a preservation for his own life, while Kiada’s had simply been naïve. If anything, she truly was the monster in the end.

His hand shakes at her back, and she reaches up to hook her arms around his neck to pull him into her when he’s finished speaking, letting him take all the time he needs, all the touch and comfort she can give. She thinks it’s only fair she tells him how much of a monster she is too. “You’re a survivor, Harper.” Murmuring to him, she shifts a small amount to look to the ceiling above them as she inhales her own sharp breath.

“But that doesn’t make you a bad person.” A brief pause, a small smile crossing her face at the thought of how he could be so bubbly, so bright, when life had given him such dark turns. The same way she struggles to feel comfortable within the light, within the sunlight that cascades from above. As though she doesn’t deserve any of the happiness that could be brought to her. “You’re strong. To have gone through all of that and still be… Well, you. That’s incredible.” She smiles at the thought of it.

“I was not that strong.”

is it too much to ask to be famous yet unknown?

to be a wanderer, yet have a home?

KIADA

HARPER

He falls into her like a body into a grave, pressing into the warmth she offers that chases away the chill of bad memories and bloodied hands. There are no tears. Not because Harper is afraid to cry, but because he has cried so many times over his past that it simply doesn't happen anymore. After all of it he has achieved happiness, and there's no point in crying over things he can't change. No matter how painful the memories themselves may be.

"Thank you," he whispers in the safety of the crevices of her neck, the solid embrace she holds him in. Grounding him. "It doesn't excuse the things I did when I was free...but hearing it, it means more than you know." His mentor had always been stoic and reticent to compliment him on anything, no matter how much she cared for him. These are the words he has been searching for, and though they are delivered on a different tongue they still mean the world to him. And he can hear the story behind her own small confession, lifts his gaze just enough from her embrace to try and catch her eye. "I still think you're incredibly strong. But tell me anyway?" An offer, the same as the one she'd given him. An offer to listen, or to turn a blind eye if she doesn't want to talk about yet.

this is your ocean, an ocean of night

BASE INSPIRED BY ODD <3

i want to be a mystery, yet be known

i want to be together, yet alone

He falls into her, and she holds him close, letting him bury his head into her neck, holding him as though she has the same bloodied hands, the same destruction wrought about her body. And she does, with the burn scars that line her spine, the talon markings along her shoulders, the X marking in her neck… They’re all a story. A story of survival, terrible decisions, and a strong person beneath it all.

His thank you is granted a soft squeeze around his body, a quiet nod at the mention of hearing it. It was the same as when she’d told Deimos the terrible things she’d done after he’d died, and he hadn’t judged her for it. But there were those like Melita who would like nothing more than to tear her throat from her neck, to bring her to her knees, to destroy her. Could she blame the girl from the Dragon’s Throat? No. In the end, Harper and Kiada were both to blame, trying to amend the mistakes they’d made.

His offer to tell her story is granted with a long inhale, deciding that it’s important. That he’d shared his, the least she could do is share hers. “I suppose for starters, I had a twin named Kianzo.” She begins, staring at the ceiling. “And we did everything together… Until my mother took us from our home to go live with my father, and on that day Kianzo went missing. Someone had taken him. And I tried to find a way to help get him back. I was so young, though, and I stumbled across someone named Kisamoa. He promised me power and strength, enough to find my brother, and I agreed.” She pauses, trying to figure out how to continue.

“Eventually, Zo came back. But Kisamoa had turned out to be a chaotic god. Kaos was his true name. And he used all of us in Helovia to destroy it, to kill our gods and open a portal to the Rift. And he’d managed to do it… Because I helped him. I helped kill hundreds of us, my own childhood lover included, all because of greed? Because I wanted to be more powerful?” Her hands tremble and she tries to bury her face away from Harper, trying to steady her emotions to continue.

is it too much to ask to be famous yet unknown?

to be a wanderer, yet have a home?

KIADA

HARPER

A twin. Harper had always wanted siblings, and it makes him yearn anew with childlike desire as she speaks of him. Her story unravels, and he wonders how she could possibly ever think she may not be brave when with every word she proves herself to be. He holds her tight in return, and now they're truly tangled together, giving and receiving comfort in equal measures until they can't be torn apart.

"Wanting power isn't greedy, it's not wrong. Neither is believing a literal god who had the power and age to trick you when you were young and vulnerable. You were no match for him, and that's not your fault." Hands move to cup her face in return, to tilt her gaze to meet his own sincere blues. "Even if you hadn't helped or supported him, he would have destroyed your home regardless. Being deceived does not make you a monster, you weren't an accomplice if you never new his plans." She is merely suffering from survivor's guilt, but he's not sure if she even knows what the term means. Once again he mourns the technology of his time, the therapy they could have given her.

this is your ocean, an ocean of night

BASE INSPIRED BY ODD <3

i want to be a mystery, yet be known

i want to be together, yet alone

He cups her face and she looks at him, feeling the guilt, the frustration, the sorrow within her as the story just begins. “That’s not all, Harper.” She stumbles over the words, the ice of her eyes swarming and swimming with an emotion she can’t quite place. “I followed him into that world of his, and while everyone else shivered and cowered, I found him. And I threw a fit, telling him that his reward for helping him was pathetic if this was it. He rewarded me.” A shaking pause. “And… He tried to make amends, tried to bring those that died back to life, but they came back wrong and started attacking and he fell into the river he’d brought them from. I followed him in, I watched myself die to save him, the one that destroyed everything I had. I stayed in the Rift for a while with the others after he’d been saved. I fought monsters of every kind, had magic at my fingertips, everything I could ever want aside from my family.”

Her gaze seeks his with sorrow and sadness. “I… Loved him, before everything else happened. He threw us from there, and I found myself here, wrong and different… No magic, but I could shift into the vulture. And I found Ru’in here… From my childhood, who I watched Kisamoa kill.”

is it too much to ask to be famous yet unknown?

to be a wanderer, yet have a home?

KIADA

HARPER

Even as she tells him more, he never wavers. Stroking her cheeks gently until it's clear she has spoken her piece for now. Only then does he respond, to give her the respect to think over what he wants to say. "I've seen people do many terrible things when they're young and foolish. Even more terrible things when they are desperate; for love, for family, for power. But that doesn't make them - or you - bad people. It makes you human." Sighing he brings her closer, letting her choose whether to keep his gaze or hide away, whatever makes her more comfortable.

"You lost your twin at a young age. Your parents abandoned you. I don't blame that little girl for getting attached to the first person - god or not - who showed her any bit of attention. It may have been a bad choice, but we all make bad choices. It's knowing they were wrong and wanting to atone that makes us good people beyond those mistakes." Harper will always value wanting to do better, to do good, over past choices that people grow beyond. Even ones as deep and scarring as hers. "He got another chance. He may have died, but even a single day alive once more, free again - it would have been a gift." Not that he knows Ru'in personally - or ever will. But he can assume.

this is your ocean, an ocean of night

BASE INSPIRED BY ODD <3

i want to be a mystery, yet be known

i want to be together, yet alone

He holds her close, tells her that she’s not a bad person – and gods how she wants to believe him, but she can’t. A part of her still remains confused, broken, hurt at the idea of it all. That she could be good when all she can see, all she can taste is the blood on her tongue, feel it oily in her hands, drying and flaking as though it’s the only thing she has left. And she buries her face into his shoulder to hide away, understanding what he means by the attention, by the fact Ru’in got a second chance. But that’s not all, either. And she takes a shuddering breath.

“He died on LongNight, two years ago. The monsters have his soul. Ludo gave me a quest to retrieve it and I tried to last Deepfrost.” She stumbles, breaking through it as though if she doesn’t get through it now she won’t ever. “I had to kill him again to try and get his soul, and Jigano and I couldn’t do it… I was too weak. And I have to kill him again and again until I get it.” She shudders, tears brimming along her eyes as she buries her face further into his shoulder, holding him close as though if she lets him go he’ll turn to stone like Ru’in had when she’d cut off his head.

is it too much to ask to be famous yet unknown?

to be a wanderer, yet have a home?

KIADA