Evie
There is no Attuned bond to lean and rely upon, and Evie has never known what one feels like, so all she can do is kneel at his side and try to show him physically that he is not alone even in the turbulence of his emotions. He does well in sharing what’s on his mind, and what little goes unsaid Evie reads between the lines. She can see the shadow of the axe he feels on his nape, and her hands twitch with the desire to stop its inevitable descent. Instead, gloved fingers curl uselessly against his shoulder, impotent.
It doesn’t have to be you, she wants to say, if only because she wants to spare him from what he sees as a resignation, a doomed fate. But he would not be saying these things if he felt it could be avoided any other way.
That he had led before is a surprise, but he’d told her enough of Hotaru and the Basin in small snippets of conversation for it to be an easy conclusion, a connection of synapses she hadn’t realized were so close to resolution. As he turns his gaze to her and she reads in his face all the worries she has held on her own shoulders, Evie hesitates. For a prolonged moment she merely stares back into his eyes. Considering. Her own stomach sinking as she stands at the edge of the maw, remembering the pull of those depths, the weight of that crown. But then she reaches for his hand and tangles her fingers in his, and she squeezes with a strength she didn’t know still existed in her veins. “I can run with you,” emerges with a certainty she couldn’t have anticipated lining words like these until the very moment they’re said, “if you’ll have me. I won’t let you do it alone.” And even if he denies her at his side politically, he will have her there all the same in every other way. Unofficial, yes, but she would be his counsel, his reprieve, the light to guide him home when it was time to remove the crown. “If you feel this is what Halo needs, and that only you can provide it, then I’ll be right there with you. We’ve both led before - we can keep each other steady. Yeah?” And though her lips tremble a little with the awareness of what she’s willing to put herself back into, the strength of her hand in his never wavers.
It doesn’t have to be you, she wants to say, if only because she wants to spare him from what he sees as a resignation, a doomed fate. But he would not be saying these things if he felt it could be avoided any other way.
That he had led before is a surprise, but he’d told her enough of Hotaru and the Basin in small snippets of conversation for it to be an easy conclusion, a connection of synapses she hadn’t realized were so close to resolution. As he turns his gaze to her and she reads in his face all the worries she has held on her own shoulders, Evie hesitates. For a prolonged moment she merely stares back into his eyes. Considering. Her own stomach sinking as she stands at the edge of the maw, remembering the pull of those depths, the weight of that crown. But then she reaches for his hand and tangles her fingers in his, and she squeezes with a strength she didn’t know still existed in her veins. “I can run with you,” emerges with a certainty she couldn’t have anticipated lining words like these until the very moment they’re said, “if you’ll have me. I won’t let you do it alone.” And even if he denies her at his side politically, he will have her there all the same in every other way. Unofficial, yes, but she would be his counsel, his reprieve, the light to guide him home when it was time to remove the crown. “If you feel this is what Halo needs, and that only you can provide it, then I’ll be right there with you. We’ve both led before - we can keep each other steady. Yeah?” And though her lips tremble a little with the awareness of what she’s willing to put herself back into, the strength of her hand in his never wavers.
I'll be with you each and every night
Chasing that horizon in your eyes
Chasing that horizon in your eyes
