Floating Key
FIFTY WORDS FOR MURDER AND I'M EVERY ONE OF THEM For a moment he thinks maybe he should be angry. As he sets eyes on her, there's a traitorous little flash at the back of his mind, in the same locked-away section that he keeps all his thoughts and emotions stashed safely inside. It's the place where he keeps his grief bound and gagged, unable to conquer him until he's good and ready. It thinks - why wasn't it her? Why did Aithniel and Isopia have to die, yet Roskuld got to live? Why did his precious Mountain, queen of the earth itself, have to perish in Helovia's name whilst the Spark's child survived to fight another day? It is not fair. Isopia and Aithniel both had children to mourn them and lovers to avenge them - to Volterra's knowledge, Roskuld has neither. It seems like the highest form of injustice that she is here, alive and well, but his precious Isopia is dust upon a desolate Helovian wasteland, and his heart along with her. The beast has to remind himself that it's not Roskuld's fault that she survived, and the cruel thoughts to the contrary are momentary, swiftly batted away. She is his friend, and she is alive. That's all that matters. The Unfuckwithable. He smiles, but it holds no humour. The great Indomitable, the warlord who bends the knee to no other, has had everything ripped away from him. Strong as he is, he was not enough to save his beloved Isopia or the innumerable others that were taken. It's refreshing to hear the word, though, to remind him of happier, simpler times. Her sorry bids him to visibly flinch, fearing for a moment that she's read his mind, but he quickly settles and assumes it's mere coincidence. Then, puzzlement replaces the fractured smile that he wears. "What?" Her prone position on the ground, her words....does she think he's here to kill her? "I'm not here to hurt you, Ros." Then, his eyes narrow. "Have you been at the alcohol again?" Volterra himself has cut back recently, scared to get into the same state he did when he half-shagged the mare in front of him, but it seems that Roskuld herself has no such qualms. He can't blame her, not really. If it weren't for his children, he too would have sought solace in the bottom of a bottle. Only the knowledge that he has to stay strong for them, that he can't wallow, has kept him from drowning his sorrows in pursuit of blessed oblivion. |
@Roskuld
