❦
rare bird
extinct color
rare bird
extinct color
The little dark body trailing plumes of silver hair could be no one else. But what was she doing here by herself?
Aghavni didn’t allow herself time to think on it. Tucking her limbs in and swallowing a scowl, she jostled her way through the crowd of wary onlookers, not sparing the breath to utter apologies.
Though it was only around mid-noon, the Scarab’s doors would stay tightly sealed for yet another night. The little sign posted like a sentinel out front stayed unchanged save for the line drawn through “imminent,” because disaster had truly arrived, and it thoroughly lacked the hospitality to leave anytime soon. As disasters were known to do.
“Selfish little bastards,” Aghavni swore, because the idea of belittling a volcano exploding and a wall of ivy growing and pearls raining seemed like something no one else had done before.
In any case, it placated her fraying nerves like nothing else could.
A boy with a basket of fish at his side chose the precise moment she was passing him to step into her path. Gasping, she narrowly avoided the fate of crashing face-first into fish by ducking beneath the basket. It was times like these when Aghavni was just a bit glad for her height.
Any other time she would have slipped something poisonous into the boy’s ear, but she lacked the time for it, so he got off with little more than a smile that promised daggers. She caught a glimpse of his puzzled face, shot through with a hint of recognition, before she hurried back after Lieve.
Slipperier than a fish, that girl, Aghavni thought, with a touch of pride, when she reached the side of Vikander’s resurrected daughter. She had paused at the edge of the sea, uncertainty painted across her prim features. Her youth made her bold, but not at the expense of caution.
“Your father will not be happy you’re here.” She lowered her head to touch muzzles with Lieve, before curling her lips into a conspiratorial smile. “Want to come with? I doubt he’ll protest later if he knows you’re with me.”
With a sly glance over her shoulder, her brow lifted when she saw a white falcon circling the skies, halfway to the island already. “And the nobleman Hajakha, an important patron of ours. Your father knows him. He'll be very intrigued by you.”
She straightened herself back up, eyes shadowed, her smile little more than a memory. Little Lieve was too young to bear the treacherous secret of the Hajakha's on her slim shoulders, and if Aghavni had any say in the matter, she never would. But the decision was not hers to make.
It was —
“Lord Hajakha.” She sank into a halfhearted curtsy when her father strode out of the crowd.
@Lieve'tel - little did Lieve know who she would meet today...
STAFF EDIT***
@aghavni has rolled a 1! She has been awarded +40 signos.
