[P] an evening stroll (on a knife's edge)

[Avdotya]

Unlike Anatoly, Avdotya had walked these halls many a time before - and as much as she abhorred them and their suffocating, sandstone walls, she could not help but acknowledge that they were witness to nearly every high and low that befell her immortal life. They saw her arrive in chains as a battered and bloodied slave, then watched her rise from pit-fighter to kingslayer, then saw her vanish like a ghost. Given time, she returned to them with animosity burning hot in her chest and a hunger for vengeance that could not be sated by king’s blood alone. The Davke mare was welcomed so foolishly into Solterra’s capitol as its regent and like a wolf among sheep, she ate them whole. She set fire to those very halls and left them with nothing but ash and dust. After that, Avdotya knew the only time she would ever see those walls again was if she was being marched to her execution. Yet here she was, walking as a free woman and an advisor to the mad king who now occupied the throne. Ah, yes, how quickly circumstance could change the paths one took. And once again, circumstance seemed to have found her. As the viper slipped around the corner, she found her fire-hot eyes caught by a face that so suddenly tickled at her memory... it triggered something, but she came up with nothing. His name felt as though it were right there, within reach, but somehow it still felt far from her grasp. Her ears fell flat out of agitation, and then she stopped mid-stride. What Avdotya did know was that his was no face she had seen around the palace since her arrival, rather peculiar considering how often she haunted the corridors out of sheer boredom. These walls were never meant to contain her. ”A fine evening for a walk about the castle,” she called to him while she spun around, watching him saunter off in the other direction, ”wouldn’t you agree?” The harsh expression she wore seemed to say otherwise - and that was very much her intention. @anatoly bring them on!! image © pacificdash