Flora watches as the pain dims his eyes, sinking down to capture the breath in his lungs. She says nothing, for there are no words that would make hearing this any easier. Weir was absent and Florentine could only hope she was partaking of some wonderful adventure, carrying a part of Terrastella’s heart – and Rostislav’s- with her.
Ruby red blood glints upon his teeth, fresh from a wound. He makes his pain a physical thing, no longer just emotional. “Does that make it better?” The flower girl whispers before she can stop herself. It was no judgment. Maybe worse is the fact that she is curious… What could ease the pain of a broken heart, of an ache that just will not ease? Time they say. Time.
Well, Florentine has an eternity of lives, but the pain was now and it was so very real. It sank into the open ruins of her heart and threatened to stay forever.
A dangerous part of her, as fleeting as a butterfly’s wing, but as terrible as a yawning sinkhole, questions just what she could do to ease her own pain - a reckless part of her wonders.
Then, because the affairs of her heart were so frightfully unavoidable, Flora hears her past, retold from this stranger’s lips. Oh what has come to pass? It is all so real now: a terrible truth. Florentine’s pain is a weight about her chest and it smothers her. The Dusk girl might have hoped his retelling was wrong; it wasn’t.
She fills her lungs so deep, they stretch and stretch and stretch. They press against bone and sinew and it will never be enough, she wants to swallow the stars, just to find another galaxy to call home – just to be big enough to overcome her hurting heart.
“…are in love.” Florentine finishes softly for him as her gaze escapes into the Swamp again. It seems Rostislav is not the only one avoiding eye-contact today. Though strangers, they meet upon common ground this day and together, their hearts bleed a red, red river between them.
Madness
“I cannot disagree,” Flora’s honey voice whispers, warm with sorrow. “Your story is accurate, Rostislav. Reichenbach and I were together, but when I became Queen, we saw less of each other. When I saw him at the Winter’s End Festival, he was with Isorath and their feelings were obvious between them. I had brought an old friend to introduce to Reichenbach and… it inspired Reich’s jealousy. He hypnotized me.“ Her voice is bitter, her breath ragged in her lungs. Betrayal, a terrible, horrible feeling sinks deep like bitumen into her soul and she chokes deep, deep within herself. “I am not sure the answers he got from me were of anyone’s benefit.”
Her eyes seek out her castle that tends the boy so close to death. “But then Reichenbach attacked the friend I introduced to him. With his Crows they have brought Lysander to death’s door and I will not tolerate it.” Dusk eyes become as hard as the stone from which their amethyst is forged. “I cannot help you with the troubles between Solterra and Denocte or the madness you speak of. Reichenbach has made his feelings known and I will protect and get justice for my people where I could not before.”
Shame rises like lava within her. It burns for how she could not protect her people, for how easily she was used by the Night King’s magic and for how a traitorous part of her heart still aches for him despite it all. Ah Florentine fights to tamp it all down, to ease that fire it lights within her.
@Rostislav
★ She is clothed with strength and dignity,
and she laughs without fear of the future ★
