"

"

The winter in the dusk court was cold and commanding, yet it was nothing compared to the harsh winters she had spent in the illyrian camps while growing up, the snow falling and sticking to the ground did remind her of such days. it was why she stood there with her arms crossed by the window watching it fall flake by flake. her mind a turmoil of its own. when the other appears she barely offers him a glance, recognizing him instantly. "i hear your high lord grows as restless as the rest with the new found power of our king," she begins, no need to beat around the bush. "should i be concerned by the autumn court or can i trust it will remain in the sidelines as usual?"

in the middle of the day ?

SO CASUALLY ?

she could almost admire that, it made her wonder if this court was their home. she rendered her theory possibly debunked with the startled reaction: it brought a brief grin on her lips.

“ don’t make it so easy, “ her words had a playful nip of a flame. “ last I checked this is a public room, is it not ? “ she pointed out while placing herself on the arm of the said couch, opposite side.

@dcwnthercad ( ulalume ) - continued from here !

the  sight  of  his  cousin  has  him  grin  at  the  femme.  truly,  of  all  the  upheaval  and  the  circumstances  they've  faced  here,  it  had  also  become  an  opportunity  for  the  day  lord  to  spend  more  time  with  his  extended  family  along  with  his  immediate  one.  the  game  was  not  pressing  against  his  mind,  but  as  he  sat  there,  determined  to  understand  the  puzzle  the  sight  of  his  cousin  appearing  certainly  improved  dec's  moods.

"If you'd taken a moment to observe your surroundings, stayed in tune with your senses," Ares began, his tone laced with quiet confidence, "you might have noticed..." From his hand, he presented a delicate gold bangle. They had moved through the crowd like shadows, unnoticed, as though the world around them existed only as a blur. "Your jewelry was missing," he finished, sliding the bracelet onto her wrist with a deliberate gentleness.

There was no need to make a spectacle of it. He’d spotted the sly little fae who had brushed past her, taking what wasn’t theirs, and dealt with it in silence. Like most of their encounters, his crossing her path had been unintended, but not unwelcome. Some part of him, however unspoken, liked to think the heavens were conspiring to keep their lives intertwined. Ares's fingers lingered briefly against her skin before retreating.

"Does your beloved general not engrave that rule into your family?" he asked, the words as much a tease as they were a challenge.

a time & a place

In times where rhythm is lost

echoed by the verbatim of fate

the lady of day could hardly make sense of the why her heart would continue to race. a rosy color dusted along her complexion, breath dropped at the gentleness.

another soul could not capture her this way, dispel her instinct. and the way her skin burned at his touch, no matter how gentle - it lingered. the universe seem to play these games, but each and every time was welcomed. however his words iced the temperature and she felt indignation rise in her chest before a thank you could slip from her lips. it stopped her in her tracks before she continued to walk after him, brow creased as her eyes were alight with intent.

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED

in the middle of the day ?

SO CASUALLY ?

she could almost admire that, it made her wonder if this court was their home. she rendered her theory possibly debunked with the startled reaction: it brought a brief grin on her lips.

“ don’t make it so easy, “ her words had a playful nip of a flame. “ last I checked this is a public room, is it not ? “ she pointed out while placing herself on the arm of the said couch, opposite side.

In this instance, though she allowed herself to breach that usual wall, not at all aware of how easily something like that could be done here.

handsome stranger? his nose scrunches. the compliment is ill-timed and its utterance completely disregards his directions to keep quiet. eyes, a darker shade than his own, but still of earth and loam, are latched onto his own, and it's a discerning gaze he can't bare. his eyes dart towards the cave's opening, and he listens, waits, his breath quaking, his heart pounding against the cage of ribs beneath his own.

he sighs and drops his head at the comment that follows the first, knowing the position they're in is uncomfortable and .. unsuitable for two fae males. ❝ my name. is vastien. better? ❞ he grinds out the introduction on breath alone, no tone to his voice, and silently slips his hand away from the other's mouth ( it did no good, anyway ). above, he hears the dragon's footfalls receding, but they're still too close for comfort, and he's not dying in a hole in the ground tangled with some unknown peregryn that obviously harbors a deathwish.

CLOSED ⟳ @lichtundschattens , @dcwnthercad ( not a group thread ! )

the lady of the day court had her concerns for the current situation, and so an exploration of her current placement was in order. ulelume displayed remarkable restraint in her curiosities —

alistair and anyone else who knows her should be proud of her.

she decided to preoccupy her time by sending glances from afar and maintaining a distance. if anything she could inquire about it to her cousins at a later point. A melodic tune vibrated from her throat as she did transcend into a room, but the tune died when she realiized that she wasn’t alone. his aphotic hues took in the sight and a curve formed on her lips as she carried herself closer.

“freya—” iain calls out, broadly stretching his arm to signal the spring fae over to join him under the uneven shade of a sagging pine. “care to join me?”

chronically childish, iain had a poor habit of treating his days with an air of freeness, as if he didn’t have a job to do. this was especially evident as he sat atop a thick branch of the evergreen — icy, cool toned hair littered in pin pricks of green pine needles now.

vast is alerted to the other male’s presence instantly when he shouts — a beacon for the dragon to hone in on. cold sweat blooms on his skin, even in the winter air. the shouting fae doesn’t dive into shadow — no, of course not. he flails madly, drawing the dragon's attention. the fucking dragon who is looming barely 15 meters off the ground. its lungs are a great bellows for the forge of flame churning to life within it. smoke curls from its monstrous nostrils, and vast winces at the meat-packing sound of dead elk hitting the flame-blackened earth as the dragon discards its first meal and chooses to pursue a fresh kill.

oh, shit. cauldron, no — the fae is running straight towards him. leading the dragon right to him.

vast looks around to find another hiding spot, and dread closes in when he finds nothing, nothing, n o t h i n g — wait! a few paces away is a small cave in the earth, a nook of stone too small in diameter for a dragon's claw to reach. and there's the gleam of stagnant water within, perfect to camouflage his scent. when he looks back, the male is in a full sprint; they'll brush shoulders when he passes. the dragon is just behind; barreling closer. its heavy footfalls cause the earth to shudder, the trees to shake. vast moves to duck inside the hollow, to leave the fool to his fate, but something stops him, redirects him.

before reason locks in, vast grabs the fae as he's rushing past, throws his arms around him, and shoves off towards the cave. it's a blur, they're tumbling, but by the mother's grace, they land in the hidden place. vast finds himself atop the other male. their eyes lock, and he clamps a strong hand over the other’s mouth.

Cillian was bored. So much of his life was disciplined and regimented when he was back home, so this life, this life of monotony, lacking purpose and direction at the moment was not for him. He didn't do well living like this. He had paced in his room so much he was sure he was wearing a path in the rug. So tonight, he was going to try something different. He would go to the library. While studying wasn't his favorite activity, he could fill his time with it. He could fill the minutes of the day with words and knowledge to maybe learn something that would help them get out of the gods forsaken land. The palace library was just a short walk away. He found himself surrounded by scribes scholars and books. He scanned the shelves looking to find something to pique his interest. He was falling short and not even sure what he was looking for. He turned to ask the closest scribe a question when he realized the person closest to him wasn't a scribe. "Roman? Fancy seeing you here. Didn't know the second in command was into reading." He commented. "Although we didn't talk much when we were....now did we?" He said a smirk on his lips as he remembered the last time they were together.

SHIT. his effort only ended up bumping into a complete stranger and he offered a sheepish smile, apologizing immediately. Thankfully that had been diffused right away, he threw a look to where he spotted Cillian last – trying to assess if he had another opportunity to find the nearest exit. when it seemed hopeless , he turned himself to face the bookshelf to appear engaged with the book in his hands. maybe enough time passed and the universe could spare him this one … damn. the mother and the universe... why have you forsaken me and refused to take pity --

hearing his name from those painfully familiar lips, he wished that he could evaporate on the spot. a quick smile formed as he turned to Cillian — it faltered when the general continued to speak.

𝔰𝔱𝔦𝔩𝔩𝔫𝔢𝔰𝔰 𝔞𝔫𝔡 𝔰𝔥𝔞𝔡𝔬𝔴 are vast's dearest companions. they swath him in a tight embrace, carry him silently over foreign terrain, cosset his cheek, and beckon with curling fingers. the season has turned, and he is clothed in heavy leathers lined with soft deerskin and wool, and still, he moves like a wraith — seamless, footless, like water carving its silken path down a mountainside. he is but another dimension of the shifting shadows that swarm beneath a canopy of evergreens and bare, clattering branches.

what brought him out beyond the city is much like what brought him to the dusk court in the first place: fate. he answers when he's bidden, and he outruns the darkness of his own nightmares when they won't relent. this instinct has kept him alive all these years, kept his general and illyrian brothers alive.

as he approaches the edge of the treeline, he sees a bald cliff ahead, a landing overlooking the city. nothing an archer loves better than high ground. hazel eyes survey his surroundings quickly; no one's coming. as he slips between trees and heads toward the open, he notices ...the once tall grasses that stood here have been scorched to brittle bark, the earth is ashen, and blackened bones litter the ground.

a fucking dragon's perch. fuck.

and then he hears them: massive wings beating in the dark overhead, and the trees around him stir to life as the serpentine beast prepares to land. vast's own wings tuck tightly against his back, and he folds himself into the shadows, watching, silent, invisible. just another shadow, or so he hopes.

the art of the hunt in anything, no matter the target or the endgame – awareness of signs were always pivotal for success. SIGNS of ANIMATION SIGNS of EXISTENCE & above ALL else – SIGNS of PENDING & POTENTIAL HAZARDS. it dawned on him, just how severed and clouded his sense of contingency has become. " shit .. . is that ... " the words were hush against the chilled air. suddenly glacial pressure coursed through his veins as he became aware of his predicament. a nest. That's a fucking nest. " SHIT. " the secondary curse was timely with the far-reaching screech that made the earth and everything surrounding them tremble. no hesitation came from roman as his legs carried him forth with no destination in mind, just trying to out RUN a dragon's wings. as if anyone could while within such damning proximity " i didn't fucking know, i don't want your children! " in all honesty, he didn't even see what the nest contained, or if the dragon itself was a parent .. . he didn't exactly have the means to congratulate, knowing it would likely end with him on the menu. but his words only seemed to be a transgressor as the heat radiated behind him, surprised by his own evasion on joining the foliage in ashes, and he became so fixated on his escape that he did not register that he flew past another being.