behind the cellar door

There was something familiar, from that place back home, that crosses his expression while she speaks of her own home. She can place it easily, in the soft dark earthy eyes of that swan like creature that couldn’t speak. How that creature gestured to her while she picked herbs in the rain. Before she had never wanted to be a warrior, had never wanted to follow in her father’s footsteps. Neither had she wanted to be a Thief like her mother. She had wanted to heal in a previous life, she had wanted to create for a moment there too. But life was strange and ridiculous at times, and she had found herself plunged here becoming the person she had tried to fight against. She remembered the stories her and her twin had made up those dark nights in the Basin, laying beneath the glimmering aurora. Of conquering the world one day, of making friends and enemies of all and none. How far off that dream had been – even those days when she was small and wore her heart on her sleeve and she had told Erebos of wanting to be Queen. Perhaps those wants still lived within her, deep enough she could touch if she chased the darkness long enough. Part of it hurt, to get so close. There were so many others that had been there for those dreams to work. Khairi, Kianzo, the helper and the muscle. She found herself quietly missing her twin’s brutality, his soft touch. The sun to her moon. Kiada hardly noticed when Seiji apologized, too deep and lost in the maze of her thoughts to really respond. She simply reached for more food before he hesitated in responding to her question. Her icy eyes slipped to him curiously, their sharpness softening lightly as he spoke. “I should not be here.” Oh how she could relate. She shouldn’t be here either. And if it were a different world, a different time, she would be home and fine – with her parents and siblings, fighting to take on the world and explore. She offers him a light smile in response, almost a sorrowful one in that she could relate to his words. But his optimism was something that sparked a light in her already bright eyes as she reached for another piece of the food before drowning it with more of the burning alcohol. “I hope so.” She said quietly. She had suffered enough, or so she thought. The universe had a sick sense of humor it seemed, however, and she couldn’t be too careful these days. “Maybe there’s a way to get back for you too? I haven’t explored much here, but it seems people are trying to get rid of the black spire in the center of this land. It’s blocking off more of the world around us.” She spoke thoughtfully, head tilting in an avian way as she thought. “I went with a couple other people who could shift into birds to fly around it and try to find weaknesses. Perhaps your answer is out there somewhere?” She threw the question out there – trying to reflect his optimism. “Perhaps my Khairi is out there.” KiadA and here you come, with a shield for a heart, and a sword for a tongue.

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