[P] butterfly skeletons

[Seraphina]

THIS IS ALL THAT IS PROMISED:
there will be a decade you are born, and a decade that you will not make it out of alive.

When she sees the girl, at first, Seraphina is not sure if she should approach.

She has not seen her in years, since just after the Davke attack; then, she was newborn, a fragile, stumbling little life, clinging tight to her mother’s side. Still, she recognizes her now, because she sees her parents in her. Still, she recognizes her now, for who else would come to this ruined land by choice but a daughter? Still, she recognizes her now, for, in all her dreams of killing Raum and putting an end to all of this, she is her solitary regret. If she wants to protect Solterra’s orphans, and keep what children are left from becoming orphaned themselves, she must make this child an orphan – she must kill her father.

(Did he never think of his daughter, when he did this? How could he let her leave alone? She knows that Sabine was a well-kept secret, prior to this incident, but, if she spoke with her father, and Seraphina is sure that she spoke with her father, the moment she requested an audience, a target was placed on her back. How many families had he broken apart? How many lovers had been lost to his influence? How many people had he killed? And oh, if they found he had anyone he still loved - anyone, even this little girl –, wouldn’t they love to slaughter her, like a lamb at the altar, just to make sure that he hurt the same way that they did? If they knew that he had anything left to love, if he loved her at all, they would come for her, and they would use her like a knife to drive into his throat. In Solterra, vengeance was an eye for an eye.)

(She already knows the answer. Raum’s idea of love is only control.)

Ereshkigal lingers on her shoulder, leaned forward like some charcoal specter. She clacks her jaw.

Seraphina steels her nerves. For all she knows, the girl is on her father’s side – but her conscience dictates that she guide her out of the desert kingdom, lest she become prey for teryrs or vengeful spirits. She emerges from the shadow of the canyons, beaten-steel of her coat – visible in patches beneath her armor – glinting like metal in the sunlight. Her hood has fallen back to her shoulders, though she is not sure that the girl will recognize her even if she can see her face. She was newborn, the last – only – time they met, and, with her own memory a series of fractures, tangled up somewhere with a cruel, cruel man and a dead mother, she has no idea how far back a child’s memory can extend.

She wonders if she will ever greet this girl as more than a banshee, a concoction of wild eyes and jutting bones, white hair a mass of serpents.

“…Sabine?”

She looks like her mother, Seraphina thinks. Like her mother – graceful, like her mother. Beautiful, like her mother. When she looks at her, she thinks of Rhoswen as she last saw her, of Rhoswen as she will always exist in the back of her head, infinite and burning-

But she has her father’s eyes, like chips of ice. So blue. So blue, and so nearly terrible; if they were not in her own face, or her mother’s, or some mixture thereof, they could have made Seraphina shudder, because they are so like his eyes. (They haunt her nightmares. His eyes, his face, the terrible curve of his lips. His voice. Every bit of it a violation, a violation - her violated corpse, her violated reputation, every bit of her that was her carved out and left empty, even stolen.) As they are, she just looks at her and pities her, because she will always have to carry her father’s sins like a funerary veil. She carries Viceroy’s. She carries Zolin’s. When has the world ever cared that they hurt her, too? When has the world ever cared that they were not her own to bear?

Never. The world will not care that she is not her father, either. (Did Raum ever consider that? Did he ever care? Does he care? She can’t imagine it.)

She stands before the girl, her gaze lingering on those blue, blue eyes. “I’ll accompany you out of Solterra. Follow me.”

---

@Sabine || baby girl ;~;

"Speech!" || "Ereshkigal!"

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