the dancing shadows of youth, the colder stars of our truth
the sun that sets on these
the sun that sets on these
In the end, the encounter with Moira had gone better than expected. Ard still didn’t know what to make of it, even after the woman’s countenance had changed into something softer, a gentle lilt that had lured him out of that terrible, foggy stupor. Something about the entire experience had left him shaken, the lingering dredges of a life of enslavement, cruelty, and condemnation far too much to bear. It left him feeling numb and empty, hollow, tired and weak and exhausted... But Erd understood.
Erd always understood.
Where Ard was weak, his brother stood strong. Always the stalwart, jovial sort of pillar holding him up, the young warlock knew well that he could stand and balance himself against his brother’s unfathomable strength. As the door was opened to their shared chamber, Ard allowed his brother to step through before shuffling in after him. Turquoise eyes glanced up and took a quick moment to scan the small confines of their room, eyeing their respective supplies and work stations, the tumble of quilts and rolls they shared for a bed. It felt warm, familiar, their own scent meeting his nose when he inhaled deeply.
They were safe. Here, between just the two of them, Ard knew that he did not need to worry. No one would judge him here. No one would look at him with contempt or judgement within their gaze.
Letting his shoulders droop and sag, his head lowering from the weight of it all and posture hunching upon himself, Ard slowly began to shrug out of his hood and cloak. His twin’s soft inquiry of, ’... Are you alright?’ was responded to with a lingering, troubled silence. Erd knew. He always knew, and yet he chose to ask anyway.
The younger brother’s eyes flicked upwards, catching Erd’s concerned gaze and the furrow to his pale brows, and let out another deep, long sigh. There was a brief moment of hesitation as he made to speak, a rasp of a whisper escaping his lips before it cut off abruptly. Instinct kicked in, the need to remain silent, to not make a sound stealing the very breath from his lungs before he remembered that here, in their small room with just his brother at his side, he was safe. Fine. Okay. Protected. Loved. Free. Vreis’ cruelty and madness held no sway here.
Slowly the warlock’s turquoise eyes slid shut. He swallowed, pursed his lips with furrowed brows, and then allowed the words to come. It was the memory of his brother’s facial expression, open, earnest, and adoring with that look of love and affection shining in his eyes that urged him to finally, finally break his silence. “No.” A simple word of tumbled gravel, thick, choked, and raspy from a throat and vocal chords that were oftentime unused. “But I will be.” Or so he hoped.
Using his telekinesis, Ard pulled off the remainder of his hood and cloak and allowed it to crumple in a pile in the corner closest to the door. He didn’t care much for hanging it up. Instead of retiring to the shelter of the quilts on the bed or to the corner with his charcoals and canvasses, the younger twin turned and moved closer to his brother. His eyes flicked open, catching Erd’s worried stare, before stepping in towards his personal space and pressing up against him to embrace him in the only way horses could. Wrapping his neck around Erd’s own, Ard breathed, feeling his brother’s pulse beneath his touch. For a moment he was content to stand there, listening, breathing, letting the steady thump-thump of Erd’s heart soothe his own racing one.
Abruptly, Ard’s expression gave way, a wretched look of agony stealing across his face. “I… Didn’t expect it. I thought I was getting better.” Turmoil cut through the roughness of his voice, the strained, wavering whisper stained with guilt and fear. “I-I… I thought I was getting better, Erd.” And yet, all it had taken was a single command, thoughtless and innocent, to thrust him back into the wretched mentality he had lived with back in Luminous.
*oh boy*
