[AW] For Hearth and Home

[Seraphina]

I STAY EMPTY, I FEEL THE HUNGER
so simple when I was younger

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It was hard to describe the terrible sense of constriction that felt omnipresent in every movement the silver girl, newly-crowned, made. Seraphina had never been prone to nerves, much less fear and uncertainty. She had always been quick to adjust and quick to survive because she had never been able to do anything but pray that, if she just did what she was told, she would make it to the next day. Now she held the weight of a nation on her shoulders – a nation still strained beneath the weight of past despotism and war, a nation that had isolated itself from all others, if not outright provoked them, a nation still reeling from the loss of the first hint of stability it had felt in many years. (And she was still less of a woman and more of a girl, scarcely free of the fragile blush of childhood; she would not step away from the crown now, but she was beginning to doubt herself for ever taking it up in the first place. Seraphina still wasn’t even entirely sure why she desired it.) Conflicted as she felt, it never made the transition from her chest to her face. She walked the worn stone hallways of the fort with the same, icy demeanor that had always possessed her, curled into stiff neutrality as she oversaw efforts to rebuild from the teryr attack and planned to hunt the beast; if anything, she was colder than ever before, desperate to keep any hint of frailty from slipping through the cracks. Solterra had already been devastated. The last thing that her people needed now was a faltering Sovereign.

It was that same coldness that lingered in her every movement as she strode out of the fortress to greet the visitors from Terrastella, even in the scalding heat of the desert; her features were stiff as stone, though there was nothing particularly defensive to her posture as she cast her gaze across her visitors, contemplating the words of the girl she could only assume was the leader of the group – snow and fire, a spiraled horn and wings like a bird. Her eyes lingered on her for a moment, before they drew to her companions; she recognized the man, though the gentle flaxen creature was a mystery to her. “Greetings,” Her voice dripped from charcoal lips, thickly accented and rasping against the walls of her throat. “I am Seraphina, Sovereign of Solterra.” The title still tasted wrong on her tongue, like it wasn’t her own; if it was anything like the role of Emissary, it would take time for it to settle. She couldn’t dismiss the sudden rush of discomfort that came from introducing herself to the Terrastellans – there was no stepping back from such a declaration, now that she had said it aloud. “We are deeply appreciative of Terrastella’s kindness…and of your own, for embarking on such a journey to come to our aid.” The words rolled off her tongue smoothly; her time spent as Emissary had taught her well. Seraphina was, admittedly, reluctant to accept their aid; Solterra was a proud nation, and she doubted they were in any genuine need of assistance besides. However, in the interest of diplomacy and pragmatism, she continued. “We have injured to tend to, foremost, but there is also the matter of the teryr…” For a moment, her expression twisted, the first hint of emotion to show on her features. It returned to something apathetic and unreadable almost immediately. “…and, unfortunately, because the beast attacked the capitol, we must rebuild. Whatever your skills may be, I suspect they will be valuable.” Her ears flicked forward in anticipation of their response, whatever it might be. She couldn’t shake the feeling that she was walking on eggshells, her every move a reflection of her people; it made her stomach twist into knots and the skin around her collar prick with pressure, but she forced herself to remain still and poised, the picture of constraint and eerie calm.

The fear that hung like a dark cloud in the back of her mind was the first that she had ever felt, after all – nothing, not even death, had dissuaded her in the past. As she had come to discover, the threat of failure was something else entirely.

Now, she felt as though she stood on a precipice, with the threat of the abyss hanging below.  

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@Isorath @Evangeline @Israfel - <3