[PQ] His Dying Wish

Are

He was way in over his head. It was all the cobbler could think as he stood there between what would amount to gods from where he hailed. Clutching his axe and quivering in his shoes, yet he didn't run. Quietly he just nodded at the calls to calm the whole situation down, praying to whatever deity might be listening that he wouldn't leave this world not more than a fortnight before he entered it.

"I... I... he peeped, almost hoping his mewling protest would be drowned out by the growls and snarls of the warrior's facing one another.

Ashe And when you're scared so bad you gotta dig your nails into your palm white knuckles    Ashe was going to kill someone today. She certainly had done it plenty before, but this was a snarling, crackling rage that flared and snapped in her bones. Rage at all of them. Rory thought he was some angry wolf? Hah. He was a naive farmboy, selfish and cowardly and afraid of anything that didn't fit snugly in his little bubble of familiarity. She stopped listening to their stupid back and forth, self righteous ranting the second he said it: Ronin died. Whatever sense of right and wrong and wanting to appeal the Naturals she had very loosely held on to vanished with those two words.    An animalistic snarl ripped from her throat and her lip curled back to reveal sharpened canines, eyes flaring gold as her ears grew to a point. Edrei, thank fuck for that Launcelyn, because she put words to the roaring fury in her chest. Her lightning snapped and sparked with hostility as she moved to step up beside the woman -    The wolf girl flicked her eyes to her mother when her hand touched her arm, her magic that snapped over her skin calming only where Vervain touched her. She stilled with tightly coiled muscles, eyes sharp as her mother departed. Ashe herself had said much the same to Safrin, hadn’t she? Ronin wouldn’t want this.    Golden eyes snapped back at Rory, and she did step forward then. Past Edrei, past Roana even. She stalked forward until she was looking right up at Rory with sharp eyes. ”I know you think you’re high and mighty, farm boy,” she hissed. ”But you’re pretty fucking small from where we’re standing. That Spire will be breached and I don’t give fuck who does it. The fall of the barrier is going to happen, and your stand here is as pointless as pretending you’re anything but scared.” Lightning sparked across her shoulders like bristled hackles. "And if I ever hear you use his name again, you'll have one fucking hellstorm to deal with between me and Edrei."    Ashe’s lip feathered up at the man, and she only stepped back at the feeble sounds of Are’s protests, her eyes not leaving the man until she was beside Edrei once more.. But she didn’t remain. Ashe shifted into the jet black fur of a large wolf, snapping her teeth once with a snarl at Rory - Rory who had never known a world beyond his bubble and thought he knew so much. Eye roll. Ronin could have her hide for being an ass when he was back if he wanted, but she would get him back.    With a final snap of lightning crackling in her black fur, the wolf turned tail and began padding loosely after her mother. Snarling and fighting with the naturals was pointless. Their mob would disperse, and then they would make their move. Northaveners had come, they had seen the threat, and they had destroyed it (the cost was too high, idiot girl).    They were here. And they were inevitable. You gotta hit so hard so they know that this was never their world red knuckles

Roana's expression fell as soon as he began to speak. Not in a sad way - she was angry. Livid Her lips pressed together in a thin, hard line, blue eyes ablaze with steely anger. Unlike some women though, Roana did not get 'cuter' with anger, she became more intimidating. More severe. She seemed to grow taller even, and whatever pliability she had to bend towards understanding his cause had gone rigid. Whatever respect Ronin may have had for Rory was lost on Roana. But unlike some of her companions she did not move forward. Not yet. A hand shot out, grabbing Edrei's wrist as she advanced on the Natural man. "Edrei." she said quietly, but with a clear undertone of command. You didn't have to yell to control afterall, especially not the well trained. It wasn't a rebuke though, just a check. A quick reminder to mind her emotions. Wars were sparked over kinder words and actions after all. She would have done the same to Ashetta, but a quick glance made it clear that her mother's retreat would keep her in line - no real surprise there, Vai was clearly not a woman to cross. But still she let them all say their piece, Ashetta and Vai leaving, Are stuttering helplessly, Edrei still by her side in true Launceleyn fashion (they wouldn't back down unless ordered to or they died, and in the case of the latter they could still pose a threat in some instances). "I wish I could say that they do not speak for me, but they do and do well." Roana said in a low tone. "What you forget is that we have lost a friend too, and unlike yours, he is not coming back." she said, darkly. Edrei might feel the slight tremble in her hand as she held her arm, restraining not just Edrei, but herself as well. It was a rare person that could take a direct punch to the face from this former Captain after all. "And unlike you, in our grief we do not stall, we do not hesitate, we do." "Don't try and discuss the hardships you and your compatriots face as if we could not understand. You know nothing of what these people have seen and been through. These are people who were born to war and raised in bloodshed. Furthermore our suffering was not because of monsters which are easy to despise for what they are, but humans - humans who would kill your children, flatten your homes, raze your fields because you wear teal and not purple. Humans that will laugh as they terrorize innocent bystanders before slaughtering like cattle, humans that despite all of that you can still look in the eye and empathize with as you slit their throats because one of you has to leave orphans and widows and crying mothers behind, and you know whoever lives ultimately descends into maddening darkness as your dreams replay that moment repeatedly until you meet the same blissful fate." Ask she spoke, Roana stepped forward, releasing Edrei as she came to stand toe to toe with Rory, her height keeping her eye to glaring eye with him, tone lowering to a near hiss. "Ronin had fought many monsters before coming here defending our people, just like the rest of us, and your Spire Demon hardly qualified as one of them. Because, Rory, the real monsters look like you - pitiful excuses for humans who are willing to watch and criticize as people die in wars they started because they were afraid." For a moment she just stood there, letting that point sink in. Rory was the one causing conflict. Rory was the one that organized a mob. Rory was the one taking offense and acting rashly about that which he didn't understand, letting his fear guide him to a division rather than to unification. Then she turned back towards Edrei, Rory not even being worth the caution of not turning her back on. He was exactly what Edrei had called him. Weak. Scared. A child. She walked back to Edrei's side, standing shoulder to shoulder with her but in the opposite direction. "Gather more people willing to fight. This ends one of two ways, a unified effort to enter the Spire or war to make it happen. I can count on a Launceleyn to make certain we are prepared for whatever the Naturals bring to our doorstep, correct?" she said in a clipped whisper so only the young woman could here. This was not what Ronin would have wanted, but their hand was being forced. It was unfortunate, but she would not see them unprepared. Roana 'Cause it makes me that much stronger Makes me work a little bit harder It makes me that much wiser So thanks for making me a fighter

Well then.

That certainly .. robbed him of most of his words, leaving only some kind of emptiness inside of him. Only, it wasn't truly empty, because there were echoes of things in there. Echoes of anger, the soul-scorching kind he had never felt before; echoes of fear, numbing his tongue and sending his heart into a frenzy; echoes of annoyance, bleeding over into everything else.

And in that emptiness: Edy, moving to stand beside Roana. The snarl of her voice. Roana's grab for her wrist. The words, fire and poison, the crackle of flames coming into life around her hands. He swallowed, even as his mouth became a thin line, eyes flat.

He knew what that felt like. The scar snaking up his throat and across his cheek was born of those very flames.

He wanted to growl right back at her. Spit at her feet and ask how Ronin would feel about her making death threats over his name, point out how he was stopping them because they weren't getting past him, but the fire silenced him. His heart was pounding so loudly he thought that they must hear it, that they must smell it as every inch of his memory begged for him to capitulate.

But for once in his life, he would not back down. He set his jaw, tried to control his breathing, tensing his body against the shivers the sight of her unbridled fire woke in him. She advanced, but he refused to budge, his blue eyes wary, angry, something inside of him tearing in a way that could not possibly heal.

Again, the words died in his mouth, crumbling to ashes. Don't you think this would've happened if Naturals had brought the Demon down, too? he wanted to shout at her; don't you think we would've stopped some hotheaded fools from possibly dooming everything?

But barely had he wrestled his shallow breathing into control when the next onslaught came. As Vai—the only sensible person—departed, he felt his grave loom deeper, and closer. As Ashetta stared into his face, he stared right back. Blue sparked. Lightning crackled. Fire burned. It was the first time in his life that he dared to stand up for something, and still he got called a coward.

There was a roar building in his soul, but one that could never escape; one that ran along pathways that led to nothing, because what he wanted just wasn't there.

Abandoned.

His teeth bared in response to hers, but then she was gone, glass splinters ground into his skin by the way her body so effortlessly changed shape, slid away, an ink blot, blackness, a perfect shadow—

His eyes snapped back to Roana when she spoke, and through it all, his gaze was steady. His breathing did not falter. His posture did not change.

Did she think Wessex was the only one he had lost to the Demon? It was just the only one she knew about, and his flashing eyes narrowed just a fraction more. Like, fuck off, everyone had a trail of loss leading back to that damn creature, and his wasn't just one body long—no. There were more. And they weren't coming back, either.

But he had asked her if she knew anything of what it was like, and she answered, and he wanted that answer. He knew of cruelty—he had suffered at the hands of base humans, too—but not by some oppressive government, no, just by average people and outlaw packs, drifting around the barrier until they caused trouble one too many times.

He would not pretend to know what it was like. He merely stored the information away for later, and when she made her point about monsters, he felt like laughing bitterly in her face. I thought we needed a new one anyway, didn't I?

But he said nothing, sensing that they were dispersing, that this was the death throe bite, and he was very much not interested in baiting them into sticking around longer.

They were soldiers; he wasn't. They had been trained for conflict; he hadn't. It took all he had to not just get himself the fuck out of there, and he was soothed only slightly by the fact that lightning-hands had left. His nostrils flared as he watched Roana turn to leave, pausing by Edy to say something he didn't catch.

Rory's eyes burned with dry fire, just as his body burned with fear and anger, and he leveled his gaze upon them, saying nothing. Just waiting for them to go, or to throw the first stone.

EDREI happy ending? sorry this isn't disney. "That's what I thought." Edy snarled as Rory remained silent. She knew in her core that he had no where to go, that they'd placed him in an impossible decision, but fuck it. This was their world now too. Rory and co. had 300 years give or take to fuck around with the Spire. Now it was their turn. But still, ever a soldier at heart, as Roana stepped to her side, Edy snapped her teeth together and just nodded silently. For a moment she simply eyed Rory, trying to get the measure of him. She found the leathery lines of his face unreadable and she wanted to slap him for that, to dig her nails deep into his skin and burn  out of him something she could understand and wrestle with. Edy was far too physical and outwardly emotional creature to deal with someone like Rory, and if Roana was calling a temporary halt, she'd fall in line. With a snort, the Launceleyn turned and looked at Roana. "Aye aye 'cap." She said, exhailing vehemently and stalking off after Vai and Ashe.