Post by Tamari on Jul 31, 2012 4:55:59 GMT 10
Title: Someday
Rating: PG
Team: Emelan
Prompt: beyond the ash rains
Word Count: 297
Summary (and any Warnings): As the country breaks apart, so does she. And he is there to watch it all (again).
Notes: So this is a Tortall/Emelan crossover... I’m not sure if it can count for two or what, so I’m just choosing Emelan. The setting is Sarain, pre-SOTL.
“What made you come here?” she asks. She is careful to keep a light tone and avoid intense eye contact. She does not want to scare him away, not now when there’s so little time left.
“Anything is better than there,” he says from far away, the sounds of temple bells etched in the lines of his face.
“I wouldn’t be so sure,” she says. “Viewing things from higher up does not make them better.”
“No,” he agrees, “it doesn’t.”
“Someday, things will be different,” she says, “and this-” she runs her hand across her own tan arm, then her face- “this will not hold us back.”
He meets her eyes with his own gray-green ones. “Someday, milady, but it won’t be soon. You know that, don’t you?”
She doesn’t say yes, but Kalasin is not a fool. “My people will fight back.”
“Oh, yes, they will, but they’ll lose.”
And then her head’s between her knees and she’s keening, rocking back and forth, because she knows this too. He kneels beside her and rubs her back, whispering that everything is fine, but everything is not fine.
“It rains water here,” she tells him in a hoarse voice. “But north, it is already raining blood and ash.”
He almost tells her I will be gone before the clouds of pain drift here, but he doesn’t because it does not need to be said aloud. She knows.
“Someday, I will come back to you, when this is over. You will be so happy, and you will have little Thayet with you,” he says, forcing a small smile.
She rubs her protruding belly and blinks rapidly. “Yes, yes, I know.”
Decades later, Briar comes back, weary, graying, even more war-torn.
Ash clouds swirl in the sky.
Kalasin is dead.
Rating: PG
Team: Emelan
Prompt: beyond the ash rains
Word Count: 297
Summary (and any Warnings): As the country breaks apart, so does she. And he is there to watch it all (again).
Notes: So this is a Tortall/Emelan crossover... I’m not sure if it can count for two or what, so I’m just choosing Emelan. The setting is Sarain, pre-SOTL.
-:-
“What made you come here?” she asks. She is careful to keep a light tone and avoid intense eye contact. She does not want to scare him away, not now when there’s so little time left.
“Anything is better than there,” he says from far away, the sounds of temple bells etched in the lines of his face.
“I wouldn’t be so sure,” she says. “Viewing things from higher up does not make them better.”
“No,” he agrees, “it doesn’t.”
“Someday, things will be different,” she says, “and this-” she runs her hand across her own tan arm, then her face- “this will not hold us back.”
He meets her eyes with his own gray-green ones. “Someday, milady, but it won’t be soon. You know that, don’t you?”
She doesn’t say yes, but Kalasin is not a fool. “My people will fight back.”
“Oh, yes, they will, but they’ll lose.”
And then her head’s between her knees and she’s keening, rocking back and forth, because she knows this too. He kneels beside her and rubs her back, whispering that everything is fine, but everything is not fine.
“It rains water here,” she tells him in a hoarse voice. “But north, it is already raining blood and ash.”
He almost tells her I will be gone before the clouds of pain drift here, but he doesn’t because it does not need to be said aloud. She knows.
“Someday, I will come back to you, when this is over. You will be so happy, and you will have little Thayet with you,” he says, forcing a small smile.
She rubs her protruding belly and blinks rapidly. “Yes, yes, I know.”
Decades later, Briar comes back, weary, graying, even more war-torn.
Ash clouds swirl in the sky.
Kalasin is dead.