fracturedreign·.
those words are more than they appear – when did the subtlety leak into the hum of ephemera’s words, blunt and straight traded for meaning? humans were less, less, less, but to ephemera, whose eyes burned with hate, to subject themselves to hurt, to death, at weaker, detested hands? it was a painful kindness as much as it was an answer, a tremor held preciously in the well of elysia’s growing heart. ❛ LET IT NOT COME TO THAT, ❜ elysia murmured, for did they not see each other’s death the same? neither could bear to love again, to trust, devote, dedicate: to relearn all of another being.
ephemera was their own miracle – a hiccup in an indifferent, ever-moving world, where things are lost and changed and unfamiliar – starting out with the traces of history, the pads of their fingertips tracing back to a time elysia still had the heart of a child.
elysia sighed and felt all her breath come out with her, ephemera’s grip reciprocated from arms to back, elysia’s hands clutching with less desperation and more comfort. ah, to be held like this; to be loved without expectation, how the empty maw of ages of loneliness cried out insatiably. had that been what it was, after all? the cruelty, the morose hysteria marking crows feet at the corners of elysia’s eyes, pain pressed into the sharp lines of her smiling mouth?
how her sovereign made her softer. how her sovereign, who had turned colder in these later days, amusingly, made her tender, as if broken open. broken open, wounded, and still hugged so tightly. if ephemera had lessened her grip even the slightest, elysia would have turned to sand, easily slipping through the hold – but ephemera didn’t, wouldn’t.
❛ I LOVE YOU, ❜ elysia said, words uncharacteristically rough, husky, pulled from the depths of them. ❛ THAT IS WHY I AM AFRAID. I FEAR I CANNOT LEARN TO LOVE AGAIN, ❜ she looked up to ephemera, ❛ NOR DO I WANT TO. SO I NEEDED YOUR PROMISE OF FOREVER. I NEED IT. I’M SORRY TO HAVE MADE YOU SAY SUCH THINGS. ❜ the blues of her eyes sparkling with wet, she shook her head. ❛ YOU REVIVE SOMETHING IN ME. YOU CONTINUE TO. AND PERHAPS I AM ALSO AFRAID OF CHANGE. ❜
through the tight embrace, elysia found purchase on ephemera’s cheek, her palm caressing skin. ❛ BUT HOW COULD I COME TO HATE THAT? YOU WHO BRING LIFE TO THIS OLD FAE, DON’T YOU FIND IT FUNNY, MY MAJESTY OF DEATH? ❜ her hand falling, elysia laid the side of her head on ephemera’s chest, calmed to the predictable beat of ephemera’s heart. closing her eyes, elysia said, ❛ CONTINUE TO BE MINE UNQUESTIONABLY, AND SOMEDAY, I MAY LEARN TO BE YOURS. I PROMISE. ❜
to wander, void wroth - life lacking, horror seeking -- would be of no reprieve. a life without the warmth of autumn’s brief foilage. rot coated all that lingered near it, eating like an unfed parasite starved by all the happiness life had to offer. it grew, and writhed gnawing away patiently as the finality of winter decay began to frost its way over the land. ❝ I FEAR WHAT MY LIFE WOULD BE LIKE IN THE SHADOW OF WHAT MAY BE THE LOSS OF YOU. ❞ there is a tremor of distaste, of a hatred so strong it coated wet muscle in acrid tang.
elysia differed from the other fae, she was not prone to tradition. prone to feeding her royal veins above those that lingered beneath her station. she was bored, tired of the old ways. harsh reality of it, being they both were. archaic hierarchy had done nothing for either of the noble tradition neither. ephemera honored the ways of their people, those aspects to which most could not see. saw that they were well-fed, that the humans did not linger too close to their borders and that all who went to the ether met with their family's elders.
now the nuances of court were another entity entirely, something that the high lady of the night court could not retain interest for. hot-headed nature would have her cloying at another nobles' throat for even entertaining the idea of elysia’s hand being offered. near-feral with the indecency another would go to get what they wanted. a blood oath, night court blood to autumnal blood. a kiss of greeting, sanguine stained upon their mouths in promise. as the old ones would, as they would. ❝ MY PROMISE WILL BE A VOW, A BLOOD VOW AS THOSE BEFORE US HAVE MADE. ❞ reluctantly space is created between them; not much, but enough to bare upward cast palm toward the elder fae. ❝ I WILL NOT LEAVE YOU TO THE WOLVES, NOR THE PEOPLE OF COURT. I WILL NOT LET YOU DIE FROM A BROKEN HEART, NOR LET YOU WITHER AS SOREN HAD. ❞ within death’s gaze is a flicker of uncertainty, if they should have brought up the man so influential in both of their lives or let it be.
revival is spoken of on ambrosial tongue, and the melody it sings conveys much of agonies of the past. beyond what ephemera has lived - beyond the knowledge they have contrived through careful curiosity and exploration. this was not the time for rebuking memories of the past but moving beyond them, together. ❝ YOU SATIATE THE VIOLENT HUNGER IN MY HEART. AND I--- OFTEN WONDER IF YOU ARE BUT A FIGMENT I HAVE MADE UP TO DEAL WITH THIS---..... ❞ & suddenly night court monarch is at a loss for words. lips graze lips, another promise : covet me & I shall flourish in you the love you’ve lost over and over again.
❝ I WILL LOVE YOU UNTIL I AM NO MORE UNTIL THE LAST OF ME HAS FOUND ITS HOME IN THE LAST OF YOU. ❞ left cradles the nape of elysia’s neck; affectionate gesture unwavering just as vocalization had been.
