Brother, my sentinel, the tempest is upon us
We are now each other's responsibility
We are now each other's responsibility
It was the most surprising that it was Rhone who soothed him most of all.
The righteous burning anger that pumped furiously through Ard’s veins soothed at the arrival of the rich bay male, as though his mere presence was enough to calm the storm that was the warlock’s fury. It shouldn’t have been. Ard should have been most comfortable with Theodosia and Marisol, but that wasn’t so. He wasn’t. How could he be comfortable amidst the presence of liars and hypocrites?
They had lied. Ard wouldn’t forget it.
Instead it was Rhone; placid, gentle, understanding Rhone. Ard remembered their first meeting, how he hadn’t trusted the bay stallion despite Erd quite enjoying their time together. There was something calming about him. Perhaps it was the nature of his magic, the patience, the soothing atmosphere of earth manipulation that he certainly had to grasp in order to achieve such feats.
There was something in Marisol’s expression that Ard didn’t like. Something cold. Detached. Aloof. It sickened him. Even after all this time, he wanted to scream, but he couldn’t find his voice, ’Do we mean so little to you?’
“Oh,” Ard rasped in displeasure, simply because his voice could no longer handle anything louder due to the shrill strain he had placed upon it, “Now you will check the borders.” He sneered, pierced ears pinned back to be lost amidst wild taupe hair. “Now you’ll do your job as Halcyon commander, now that it’s too late.”
There was so much more he wanted to spit out. Oh, but Ard wanted his words to hurt. He wanted Marisol to feel the very hurt that sped through his veins, that burned and maimed and stabbed his weary, aching heart. If only she hadn’t been too self-centered, too caught up in her desire to galavant across Novus to chase the Night Queen. Did she not understand? Did she not care? There was worry that creased her brow, certainly, but he doubted that she understood. She couldn’t. She would never. Marisol could never understand that Ard could not survive losing his brother… But he found that he didn’t want her to.
She didn’t deserve to understand.
Mournful turquoise eyes danced between the three, the two Halcyon and then Rhone, and it was the latter that his eyes stopped to rest on. “Rhone. Erd liked you… More than I did. I’m sorry.” Apologies never left his lips, but it was so very easy to remember how fond Erd was of Rhone. The gentle spirit that the bay carried had infatuated his brother, and Erd had babbled on time and time again about his latest inventions and what Rhone might think of them. It was that fondness that Ard grasped now, frantic and imploring. He swallowed, tasting the copper of blood from his shredded throat. “Please... Please help me find him.”
Realistically he knew that Theodosia did not deserve such anger. She cared. She understood the frantic desire to bring Erd home, the wrongness of the entire situation… But just like Marisol, Theo had left. Rumors got around. They hadn’t stayed to protect Terrastella’s borders, and in his eyes, stained by fury and terror, they were just as responsible to Erd’s disappearance as whatever truly was to be blamed.
Focusing back on the two Halcyon, he swallowed once more, his chest heaving. ’By Her hand’, Marisol said, as though Vespera's influence really fucking mattered here. Ard scoffed, although it came out like a painful, warbled gasp. Fuck Vespera, fuck the Halcyon. “Search the borders if you want to, but I’m leaving. I don’t think he’s here. I can’t feel him nearby.”
And that, too, was something that they did not deserve to understand.
@
