azrael
He stares at Elena, seeing the anticipation in her eyes with her unspoken ask and whisper of need. Pride keeps her from falling apart, even as those eyes, too expressive, betray her inner turmoil. He needn’t be an empath to know the lostness she felt – for Azrael had felt it too. For these long nights, he’d wished for her on every rising star. He’d longed for her touch like the desert longed for rain… and though he also was proud enough not to crumble before Elena in his lostness, Azrael knew he needed her too.
So he stands and waits, shifting in the uncomfortable silence as her voice makes mention of secrets and she steps away to reveal Tenebrae’s child.
Elliana is all the innocence he saw in Elena on the mountain, when they'd gazed at the stars long into the night. Her eyes are bright with hope and trust, her body unsure of its place in this new world. As he watches the girl, Azrael is lost for words. There is something of a marvel in the way Elena shares her daughter with him, as if he were the only one in the world that she trusted with such a secret. He didn’t know what to think of it, but as the doe-eyed child watches him, Azrael’s demeanor grows gentle. In that moment, the shed-star knows he cannot hold his own broken-heartedness against the girl. He knows that forgiveness would be enough. It had to be enough.
For a moment, he quietly takes it all in, his eyes falling on the mark of the Night’s Order on Elliana’s shoulder. Tenebrae’s mark – one which served as a stark reminder of oaths broken. Still too, it was Caligo’s mark. The irony of Elliana’s name is not lost on him – ‘my god has answered me’… for to the monk, the girl would be anything but an answer. Still, perhaps Elena’s child was an answer to Azrael’s search for meaning. He had to wonder if there was more in store for him, some ironic twist of fate which Caligo had planned.
“Elliana”, Azrael says at long last, his voice as smooth as it is strained with emotion. “Welcome to the world.” Memories flood him of his own childhood, devoid of a mother’s love, as he watches almost envious of the way Elena holds her daughter close with a protective embrace. This child would know love, he decided. Even through his own regret, Azrael could not begrudge affection for the girl. For her bright blue eyes betray her innocence, blissfully unaware of the man who gave her life, far from responsible for the actions of her parents.
She needed Elena’s loving touch, he decided – just as she needed Elena’s light. And so, in an achingly familiar gesture, the shed-star shrugged his own glowing obelisk from his neck, stepping forward to drape it over the child’s head, it’s turquoise light so like his own falling over her, chasing away the shadows.
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