[se] we can't go on together

I was born into the light Under wide and open skies He had forgotten how quickly his compass took him from one place to another. The cold air hit Noah's lungs and sent a wave of palliation through him that nearly brought him to his knees. He sucked it in deep until it hurt, standing in the open-most space of the Citadel, and laughed. He laughed until tears stung the corners of his eyes. People walked passed him and greeted him with excitement, waving and smiling and patting their friends on the arms to point out his presence. He was home. Home. The last time Noah had been gone from Halo this long was when the ascended attacked and Morgan stole away the land and the people with her unruly, demanding, atrocious iron fist. It had been Vi's ruling this time, but it had been just. Just and fair and yet merciless. It was what Noah needed to have learned the best from the deity. He was glad he had, and he was glad he could traverse Caido once more. But he wouldn't hide away here like he had before. No, there was more work to be done and healing to deal, but for now, Noah waved to the Halovians and breathed in the frigid air. Noah Olson the sentinel of the north

style inso by odd and skylark

Hotaru

Somewhere my lifeline still hums and sings
In the mess of all I have thrown away

With most of her goodbyes settled, the task of boxing up belongings and transporting them has kept the Valkyrie busy in recent days. Though she had coordinated employing Talyson to take the majority ahead of time, the desire to linger had remained - leaving her with a bare-bones house and a thousand memories to revisit before her final day.

It must be auspicious, or some other form of divine fate, for her final days in Halo to coincide with the return of her prodigal son. It's entirely happenstance that she is in the Citadel when the news starts spreading, pulling her attention and hastening her feet away from whatever chore she may have been completing, now utterly forgotten.

Nimbly sliding through the hustle and bustle, Hotaru's swallow clicks in her throat as she lays eyes on Noah. It feels like it has been years somehow no matter how short the days. She just barely manages to refrain from running for him, though her pace is still hurried as she crosses the cobblestone, reaching for him with a smile half-joy and half-desperation. "Noah," she murmurs, pulling him into her embrace without a single care for the others waving and calling their greetings to the same man.

Hungry now,
I am gathering new seeds to throw wide

He didn't do much else than walk, pausing only to crouch down and accept the gift of a small kite from a smiling child. He knew the child to be related to one of the soldiers lost during the cultist attack and Eirachi destruction, so Noah accepted it with his own broad smile. When he stood back up, he caught the sight of Hotaru's familiar form and build coming through the crows and he opened his arms for her without hindrance. The hunter did not hesitate to take the woman into his arms. He didn't even hesitate as his hug tightened and he lifted her clear off the ground, the laughter continuing to echo through him and the joy infiltrating the attuned bond with no censoring. She was like a memory restored as they melted in to each other, as familiar as the tundra and as comforting as the Citadel walls. This hug no felt no different than how her hand had felt in his when they ascended to wardenhood together all those years ago, as if they had been made in the same mold. He breathed her name into her wild yellow hair and then set her back down, holding her shoulders at arms length as if he needed every moment and every breath between them to recommit her to memory. "How are you, Ru?" He asked simply, though his eyes wrinkled at the edges with the unmistakable happiness to see her. Noah Olson lost in the shadow of an endless grace

style inso by odd and skylark

Hotaru

Somewhere my lifeline still hums and sings
In the mess of all I have thrown away

Hotaru muffles her laugh into her arm wrapped around his neck as he pulls her straight off her feet in a whirl of jubilation, squeezing tightly in return. He smells just as she remembers, and his body is warm and solid in her grasp, reassuring all her senses at once of his wholeness.

He remains close even as he sets her down, which is a relief as her own hands stay poised on his shoulders, fingers slightly curled into his clothing as if preparing to tug him back by them should he try and disappear again. Joy fades at the edges at his question, the duffel bag across her body a heavy reminder of all he has missed and all she has to inform him of - but at least she can answer honestly as to how she is faring.

"Better than I have been in years," she admits, smile unburdened and a glow beneath her skin that had been absent since even before the war. Glancing down at the kite he'd ended up with - now a little crumpled and in need of repairs - Hotaru hums and quickly concocts a way to sneak him off away from the crowd. "I can make one for myself and we can catch up while we fly those?" There's so much she wants to ask, even more that she wants to share, but she wants Noah to herself for a moment while she does.

Hungry now,
I am gathering new seeds to throw wide

As Noah set her back down on the ground but kept her close, he let his glacier eyes roll over her and take in all that was both familiar and new. He noticed the bag she had with her, but given the nature of who she was as leader of the academy as well as a frequent hunter, it wasn’t something he swelled on. He smiled and nodded at her suggestion, looking down at his own kite and taking a step back. ”Youre telling me your magic has grown so much that you can create as well? That’s brilliant.” Noah said with a broadening smile. Once the Valkyrie had her kite, Noah would lead them out to a proper and quiet place just beyond the walls. On the way he told her all about the twins and how they were doing, how they were growing and learning. He knew it was something she would ask after, but he didn’t give the opportunity. He was too proud of his tiny children to hold it in, especially from Ru. ”What has your smile so big? I know that isn’t all for me.” Noah half questioned, half teased. The woman had said just moments ago that she was better than she has been in years, and Noah wanted to know why. Noah Olson lost in the shadow of an endless grace

style inso by odd and skylark

Hotaru

Somewhere my lifeline still hums and sings
In the mess of all I have thrown away

His praise makes her preen as all praise does, but she waves a hand slightly all the same, laughing slightly. “Nothing magical just yet, but soon I hope.” Dominion over earth and stone has yet to show in her repertoire, but it won’t stop her from construction more mundane items in the meantime.

Hearing about the twins is almost enough to soothe the desire to see them, something she has slowly become more comfortable with, especially as the two grow a little older - obtaining defining features and personalities that will make it harder to see them as anyone but themselves. “I’m glad they’re thriving,” she murmurs with a warm smile, though she spares a moment of sorrow for the fact that she may never see them grace the Academy halls - at least not as Headmistress.

Wrinkling her nose playfully at his teasing, that thread of sorrow plucks itself once more in her heart, dampening her cheer. “Sunjata and I have been seeing one another again.” It feels so very juvenile to call it that, but it’s the best descriptor she has for people who won’t comprehend the complexities of her relationship with the Flood. “I…I’m actually leaving Halo to move in with him in King’s End.” Perhaps if she says it quickly, rips the bandage off, it will hurt less to admit to someone she’d once stood beside as Warden. Deimos’ disapproval she could handle (though their fighting she could not), but somehow telling Noah is just as hard even with his recent similar absence.

“Evie will be taking over the Academy, and I’ll be continuing on as a student myself. Flora also recently became Queen of Torchline; we certainly tried to get her to move as well, but it wasn’t to be,” she admits with a huffed laugh, part of her glow assuredly attributed to pride in her daughter, even if the distance between them remains unfairly vast. At the time, the notion of having her family all in one place had made the decision to move all the more appealing. Still, she isn’t inclined to back out now just because Flora will be remaining in Torchline.

Hungry now,
I am gathering new seeds to throw wide

Even though the facts and realities brought before him were the reason that Hotaru felt better than she had in years, and had her smile so bright and warm and brilliant, every word felt like a weight pressing down on Noah’s spine. While he had been gone from Halo, it wasn’t entirely out of choice — it had started that way, finally decided to pursue what his deity had for him, before the shackles were formed from his disobedience. Noah couldn’t stop the frown that tugged at the corners of his mouth, and he clutched the kite a little tighter until they made it to the perfect spot for flying. ”I am..glad that you are happy.” He forced, trying to pull his mouth up. ”But I am sad that you won’t be here anymore.” King’s End was far away, and even with the ability for sky boat travel it still took a long time for the Valkyrie to traverse. Noah could blink there within moments, that was true, but having Hotaru at home felt different. Not to mention how Noah felt about Sunjata, but he wasn’t sure he was ready to breech those emotions right now. So, he focused on Flora. It was easy for a mother to talk about her child, right? ”You must be so proud of her.” He started, looking down at his kite before extending it to her and asking with a flick of his eyebrows if she would be willing to fix it. Another thing to keep his mind off of the bubbling and boiling of his distaste and disdain towards the Flood deep in his gut. ”How is she doing? Being in such a position at her age is quite a feat.” Noah Olson lost in the shadow of an endless grace

style inso by odd and skylark

Hotaru

Somewhere my lifeline still hums and sings
In the mess of all I have thrown away

Noah is not much of an actor, though it’s a fond, sad thought as she watches him struggle to be happy from the corner of her eye as she focuses on her kite bobbing overhead. Still, it’s a facade she doesn’t want to exist between them, no matter how difficult it may be to talk openly about it. “I understand if you don’t agree, or approve,” she remarks quietly. It will not stop her - not if even Deimos’ disapproval wouldn’t - but she can understand their reticence. “However, I owe it to myself and to Enzo to try. He asked me to live, to be happy. If I am wrong, at least I will have tried.” And part of her - a part she doesn’t let free, never shares with her loved ones - still can’t bear to walk through the Citadel, unable to stop seeing the spot where Flora teleported in with Enzo in her arms. It’s why she’d thrown herself so fully into the Academy, comforted by the way it kept the world at large away from her eyes.

Flora is indeed a safe topic, as Ru could surely talk about her for hours. “Immensely,” she laughs, trying to follow his lead and lighten the mood. “I worry of course, and think she is rather young, but I can’t deny her ambition - plus, I’d be a hypocrite given how young I was when I began ruling as well.” It feels like lifetimes ago. Given how many portals she fell through before Caido, it’s not an inappropriate comparison. “She is better than me in every way, as I had hoped. If I could do it, I have full faith she can too.” Pulling on her string slightly as she smirks up at the sky, a slow bloom of protectiveness unfurls faintly through the bond he might feel from her. “And if she encounters any problems, she has quite the parental force behind her.” Ru might not be able to get there immediately in the same way channeling her father might, but not all things require immediate intervention. If her daughter ever shows a need for the slower, more insidious kind of planning that ruling might bring, Hotaru will happily provide both mind and might in the Doubletake’s service.

Hungry now,
I am gathering new seeds to throw wide

Noah was not trained in the same ways as Hotaru to be able to mask his expressions from his thoughts, but he could silence his end of the bond. Though, he didn’t. He knew Hotaru too well and she knew him too well, it would be unusual for him to block her out in such a manner. He wasn’t interested in starting a fight with her, and he certainly wasn’t interested in hurting her — even if the thought of her leaving, the absence of her presence in Halo, stung him deep down to his core. ”I don’t agree, but I know you well enough that I can’t stop you. But I really wish it wasn’t him.” Noah said, the obvious grimace at mention of Sunjata. He still had not forgiven all the man had done, and still held rage for how he was held responsible for none of it. Had Hotaru forgotten it was his shift the ascended used to attack and destroy Halo, taking it from them? Noah settled in to Hotaru’s maternal pride, letting the ire in his belly bubble and boil for another day. He was certain to rant and roar about it to Cordelia later, perhaps just as likely to Deimos. He sighed, though, and as his own kite lifted and bobbed (though not as well as her’s, given its sorry comparative state), he gave a slightly inclination of his chin. ”You will be closer to her than Remi, though. King’s End is much closer than the Draig.” He regarded, not knowing the mated demigods had relocated from the mountain back to the beach. ”I will be sending her a letter, soon. As queen I think it’s important that she learn of what Vi told me recently.” He paused only for a moment, glacier eyes looking across at her to his side to see her reaction. ”He does not like the presence of these dangerous flora and fauna. Have you encountered any?” Noah Olson lost in the shadow of an endless grace

style inso by odd and skylark

Hotaru

Somewhere my lifeline still hums and sings
In the mess of all I have thrown away

Impressions aren't enough to glean his complaints through the bond, which Hotaru is grateful for. People seem to appreciate her fatal flaw of loyalty until it inconveniences them; given how much the Voice had given her, no matter how she distrusted the goddess, Hotaru had never been able to despise her so viscerally. Even the invasion was too cloaked in politics for her to blame an individual for it. Her loyalty is so hard to win, and yet her downfall is never being able to rescind it - even if it makes the rest hate her for it when those loyalties conflict.

"And I wish it were not her," Ru responds, a quiet admission that seems aimless. Truly, though, she harbors far too much ill-will against Cordelia - partly why she has yet to see the children. Yet just as Noah will not stop her now, just as he wants her happiness above all else, so too does Hotaru resign herself to the same.

Remi is a positive thought despite the souring of Ronin's existence always following behind. Though she does not blame him for retreating to the Draig, part of her will always be bitter for having stayed away for so long, for leaving Flora to her grief in the wake of Enzo's death. Perhaps that is merely because she knows the pain of losing a twin. "She can Channel him, though. Which I suspect she does more often than she needs to," Hotaru titters with a grin, pleased with Flora's own form of petty teenage revenge.

Surprised not only by the news but by Vi's stance, Hotaru furrows her brows slightly and turns her eyes away from the kite to give Noah her full attention. "I have, though I'm surprised Vi thinks them such a threat. They're dangerous, yes, but Caido is home to plenty of dangerous plants." Is there something more to this? Something they're all missing? Or merely another case of gods disagreeing on various realms? "I will ask Frey when I see them if there's a faster way to remove them." Perhaps they all have some sort of unifying chemical or magic that could be targeted to destroy them at large?

Hungry now,
I am gathering new seeds to throw wide

Noah's eyes darken and cast down at her response. While he knew that the Valkyrie did not agree with his Cordelia's wartime decisions, he didn't know how far the depths of the woman's rage and disdain went towards his wife. Cordelia had not caused any outright hurt to individuals or to the world as Sunjata had. Cordelia had served Halo with her life as a huntress until then, and only preserved her own life because Noah had asked her to. Sunjata, on the other hand, was a walking cause of disaster and heartbreak and ruin and destruction. The demigod's jaw feathered as he pushed it all down the bond, however, trying to keep as much civility as he could. There would certainly be times later he could rehash his feelings on all of this. But as their kites bobbed and weaved aside each other in the surprisingly warm -- had Noah noticed that before? -- air of the afternoon. Noah nodded at the idea of Hotaru's daughter being able to summon Remi, and he added in a fatherly tone, "If my children could, I would hope with all that I am they would." She went on, then, bringing up Frey. Another nod gave the impression that the demigod agreed with her decision to ask them. "My suspicion is that, dangerous or not, Vi does not want anything in this world not formed by Rae's hands. I am sure Frey isn't fond of such things encroaching on their territory, either." Noah Olson lost in the shadow of an endless grace

style inso by odd and skylark

Hotaru

Somewhere my lifeline still hums and sings
In the mess of all I have thrown away

She cannot sense any coherent words, but given he only dims instead of conceals his emotions from her, it’s enough to know he just doesn’t get it. Though her actions during the war were cowardly and shameful regardless of his misguided attempts to take the blame, Hotaru’s detestment for the woman goes far deeper. Her strange envious, shrew-eyed suspicion of the Valkyrie upon their first meeting, her refusal to take time to know the important people in Noah’s life beyond Deimos - and oh, if Talyson ever thought it of Evie, it pales in comparison to the gold-digging suspicions Ru has of the One-Shot - not to mention the shameful way Cordelia never even tried to redeem her name after the war. He will feel only a raging spark of brightness as these thoughts coalesce, larger and sharper than he might have suspected, before Ru’s bond (unlike Noah’s) goes completely dark, shutting him out entirely. She looks up at her kite in the sky, heart in her throat amidst all the bile, burning away.

For every person who supports her decision there are two more in opposition. Though she is chasing her happiness, she is losing so much in the process, as if any of them are free of blame or judgement from their actions leading up to the war.

Ru wishes Flora could summon her, but unlike Noah’s children who cannot channel, becoming a demigod is not exactly any more attainable for the Valkyrie. “So do I,” she murmurs, though her thoughts are on that instead of on the particular case of his children. At least he has his compass still - and Flora, too. Ru can’t help but take some comfort in that.

Beginning to reel in her kite, feeling closed off and ill-at-ease with her own thoughts and feelings, Hotaru offers Noah a reserved smile. “I will ask them, if they grant me an audience. Rae does not often weigh in on current affairs; perhaps now is a good time.” With so many worshippers of Vi and Safrin abound, maybe it is her duty to be a tad boring and ask such things next time she sees Frey.

Hungry now,
I am gathering new seeds to throw wide

There was a bright and brilliant firework of her in the back of the Forsaken's head, and it sent vibrations of static down his spine. Then the Valkyrie went dark at his side, and though his eyes cast upwards at his kite, he could feel her. Could feel the weight of her, despite the darkness cast across their mental bond, and it nearly shook his knees. Her kite bobbed and then came down. Noah's own followed, coming more quickly with the way he pulled at it and its general disrepair in comparison to her creation. He put it at his feet, rather than holding it, the string tangled and a mess. He turned to her then, another nod. "We can only hope." Noah didn't want to say it, but perhaps if the woman followed Sunjata to the shrine after sharing this information with him (though Noah had written him a letter, with no reply), she had a better chance. He Forsaken stood before her with his hands at his side, and swallowed a lump down his throat. He didn't want her to leave like this, didn't want things to be shattered and ruined between them, so he did the only thing he could think of. Noah stepped forward and grabbed her. He wrapped his arms tightly around her and enveloped her with his warmth. He buried his face in her golden hair and took in her scent to keep it in his memory. "I love you, Ru. I hope you know that." He whispered, his cheek pressed in to the top of her head. "I'll always be here." Noah Olson lost in the shadow of an endless grace

style inso by odd and skylark

Hotaru

Somewhere my lifeline still hums and sings
In the mess of all I have thrown away

His answer is unexpected, and she wonders which silent topic he’s referring to; his children or her desire to be able to be called upon by Flora in the same way. Expressing a desire to be a demigod isn’t exactly a common after all, so Hotaru doesn’t chance inaccuracies by replying with more than a nod. It feels stiff, formal, like how they feel right now. She hates it, but Hotaru is nothing if not prideful, defensive of her opinions and choices.

It’s a blessing then that Noah is less so, and though she stiffens at first when he reaches for her, it isn’t long before she turns into him and goes boneless in his embrace. Prideful defenses easily broken by displays of affections, as they always have been. “I love you too,” she murmurs into his chest, ignoring the wobble in her tone. Her hand reaches up and curls into his jacket, chest aching. It feels unfair to have to say goodbye when he has only just returned home. “I’m only a flight away - or a teleport, I suppose,” she huffs a strained laugh, because Kings End becoming a formal region feels so meaningless in the midst of their goodbyes.

If she lingers - if they both linger - at least there’s nobody around to see it.

- Fin!

Hungry now,
I am gathering new seeds to throw wide