» every broken promise

Surprise took over the fiery girl. With each hoof fall in the river, warmth succumbed her legs. It was pleasant in a strange way given the circumstances. Ghosts were pouring from this strange river, aiming for their loved ones – and for what? To kill them? To reconcile? Murder seemed the most likely, and here was Kiada, the daughter of a half royal and a general, throwing her blood line away as if it was nothing for a god that killed her friends. She was a reckless girl, stubborn and headstrong. She didn’t think things through before she did them, and perhaps she never would have done this if she knew what would happen. Before long, the warmth soothed her pains and worries, it wrapped its way around her heart and her mind until there was nothing left but the ache and pull of exhaustion. Still, the spotted girl trudged on, step after step into the warmth as ghosts reached up to pull her down. She shook her inky head, trying to loosen their grip on her. Voices once blurry pour into her white rimmed ears, so much and so fast that the girl tries to pin her ears to her skull in an attempt at drowning them out. Her lids grew heavy, dropping ever so slightly that she’s afraid that if she blinks she’ll fall asleep, and in turn drown in the ghosts and cries. But she tries to refrain, her vision begins to grow blurry as strange images flash before her sapphire gaze. She wants to scream out at them, to use her flames among the ghosts to push them back, but her exhaustion sparks nothing but a brief flick of a flame before it’s extinguished as another ghost passes by. She suddenly sees creatures held together by nothing but bone and sinew, and she cringes and tries to look away. The image, however, remains burned into her mind as more follow, more beasts she didn’t know but looked as though they were literally the dead walking the earth – which to be fair, was correct. But it didn’t make it less horrifying. The young harpy tries to continue, one heavy footfall after the other, until another vision takes over her sight. She feels the grip of tendrils on her back weighing her down, and suddenly the girl feels as though she can’t breathe. She tries to call out to Khairi, but nothing comes out. Her throat feels tight, swollen, choked by the scent of smoke and ash. And darkness is all she sees. The spirits still chant, and the darkness begins to clear, and suddenly she sees herself. She wants to tell herself to run, but she can’t. Instead, she watches as the very same tornados she harnesses within her soul begin to consume her, tearing slowly up her legs. She watches herself shriek in horror as the flames along her back join them, little vipers snaking across her skin until it wraps it’s flame around her neck. Tighter and tighter they go as the flames spread, engulfing the girl’s dark throat, her lips go dry as she watches, her voice gone and horror spreads. She finds herself unable to speak as her own flames consume her, swallowing her and her companion whole until they’re nothing left but charred black, bleeding bodies. Kiada wanted to scream, but darkness engulfed her, and she stumbles forward face first into the river that has caused so much dread. The warmth engulfs her, the tendrils tear at her, and all she can see is her and her beloved bird’s remains left behind with nothing to distinguish that it’s her. But she knows because she watched. She saw herself die, take the last few choking gasps of air trying to cry out for help only to suffocate on the ash and smoke in the air, rising from her throat as it bore holes into it. And suddenly, Kiada thought the river hadn’t been as deep as it was. Because when the girl stumbled and fell, she continued to fall, pulled by tendrils deep into a bright light that she couldn’t quite see behind her pale lids. She felt the light as she fell through, saw the reddish hue of it from behind her tired eyelids. Her nostrils flared, and suddenly, she found herself floating. Nothing touched her anymore, no tendrils pulling her this way and that – nothing except for another body that had joined her. He, too, was floating somewhat. To and fro like a game of tag. She drifted toward him and then away, only to drift back. She tried to fight against it, to propel herself closer to Kaos, but it didn’t work. Instead, she remained in the strange back and forth this place had guided her. Light surrounded her, and she could finally keep her exhausted eyes open long enough to assess the situation. And it wasn’t good. Her pink splattered lips parted and she tried to speak, unable to formulate words at first. And so she remained in silence for a few moments while she tried to regain control over her voice. It took a small amount of time, but she was finally able to speak. “Kis?” She called to him in her cracked, exhausted voice, her eyes and ears attentive to the god that she pledged herself to in what felt like a lifetime ago. “How – How can we f-fix this?” She choked the words out, determination and terror finding their ways into the creases of her eyes and her face. No tears fell, for Kiada had none to shed. But oh, how she wanted to. She wanted to be weak, but she could never be such a thing. She was the strong one. She was the one that was always there for her family and her friends when they needed it. She was the one that was there when they died, and she would be there with Kisamoa to try and fix this mess. She was a stupid girl. She knew that now. But she had to do something. And that something she did. She watched herself die, and wondered if she truly was dead. And if she was, at least she had done it for something good. "Talk." Kiada mama, i hope you get this know the bed is warm and our hearts are cold know never have i been better.

image | coding

AH OKAY IM SO EXCITED if you couldnt tell by my novel... anyway, Kiada watches her flames engulf her and ultimately suffocate herself, and falls into the light with Kisamoa. She's floating but is being pushed closer and away from him by an unknown wind or something, and she tries to ask him how they can fix this.