The Weaver

[tenacious-finnian]

Our people would have to go through me if they wish to cause harm to you, unbefitting of the crime, Emilia.

There is nothing I can truly say to make you see that I am not the man who had changed before your eyes, and I don't know what lies ahead of me in my time here either. What I do know is that I have so many people behind me, ready to keep me accountable for my actions, just as I am keeping others accountable. I know what's at risk if you come back to the coven, but there is always redemption if a person believes they can change. Trust is earned, Emilia, just as I know that you need to learn to trust me. Do I trust that you're not a true villain? Yes, I do. I would also trust that, if right now what you need is to see into my mind to understand my full intentions and to see the memories of my timeline, then I would give you the go-ahead.

[emiliaxhan]

"Well, our people may not stop at just one coven leader until I'm dead and gone."

"Time is uncertainty, it changes and flows in ways we cannot predict. I don't know what kind of leader you will become, Finnian, nor can we say where the coven will end up. It's about hope. Foolish, blind hope." Emilia pressed her lips tightly together while thousands of thoughts raced. The defensive arguments and the refusals returning. It shocked her a little, hearing the male give his permission to root through his mind. Mil hesitantly lifted her hand and slowly grazed her fingers back-and-forth across Finn's forehead with her eyes closed, memories flickering like a movie. The training moments with his fathers to take over the coven, his bonding moments with the Second Daughter, including the fierce protectiveness when she was pregnant. Flashes contradicting what she expected could easily break under pressure. After a moment, Emilia dropped her hand and opened her eyes. "I don't want to be the villain. I don't want to turn into her or let him win, I want to fix what I broke with Azriel. And I don't want to die." This was her only choice, the only form of protection. "I'll come back to the coven, Finnian, but you must promise me something. If I feel you are making a turn for the worse or I start feeling used for my gifts just as they had done, you will let me leave of my own free will."

[valentin-kuznetsov]

That she did, was probably about two seconds from jumping my bones had I not stopped her. You are being manipulated, Lia. I may not have met this other version of Azriel, but I can imagine who he is if he is so different than ours and harboring a darkness that calls to yours. You are a conquest, and you're falling into his hands. You say that you weren't alone with the other Azriel, but you were never truly alone with ours either. Our Azriel cares for very small number of people, and while his road may have taken him from the coven, he never strayed far from you. He went to you when he left his demon Prince. He trusted you with the people he cares most for in the world. You are unable to look or run from the other Azriel because he designed it that way. He is with the alternate version of you; he knows exactly how to be who you think you need.

[emiliaxhan]

Emilia arose from her chair and walked around it, unable to sit any longer and creating distance between her and what Valentin was saying. Is this not what every person she expressed these feelings with implied? Pure manipulation, her mind screamed from an echo chamber and sent shockwaves through the glass window of her naive oblivion once protecting a different version of Azriel so hellbent on molding her. Making and breaking until she did not understand what is real and what is not. He was not her Azriel, no, Emilia's Azriel would never forgive betrayal. The one good relationship, the one that's always been real, will never recover. "No." Mil's head shook from side-to-side furiously, the nauseous bile burning within her throat as it rose and threatened upheaval. "No, no, no, no. Valentin," The woman finally turned around and pressed a hand to her stomach as she addressed the wolf, "What have I done? What did I do?" A panicking spiral washed over the Weaver's being, the rare few times she let anything of this nature take a grip of her. "He lied to me. I knew he was lying and, yet, I was too starved for attention, that I let him have exactly what he wanted." Emilia hissed in agitation. She was better than this, but he played her for the fool. "You don't do this to someone you love. I have to fix it, god, I have to. Gianna...she declared me an enemy, there is no way she would ever let me go near him again. They're planning to kill me, Val, I know them." The realization pierced through like an arrow, deep and white-hot, "She and Kai will kill me."

[judiciously-ezekiel]

"That we do, but it's how we go about dealing with them that sets us all apart." Ezekiel took a sip from his cup before placing it on the saucer, then took the teapot and warmed it in his hand. With a small gesture, he filled the cup that appeared before the woman as he listened. He placed the pot to the side with a small sigh. "There is a darkness within all of us, Emilia. I witnessed my wife and son spiral down the road of revenge and cause centuries of pain. My darkness had called for me to leave them, abandoning the family that gifted me my title." He leaned back in his chair, resting his hands over his crossed knee. It wasn't a good time for anyone in the family, having lost the glue that had kept them all together. They faced a similar situation, with Celeste choosing to stay with Wrath rather than return home. Some of them have adapted, while others have a harder time doing so. "Balance calls for light within dark, dark within light. No one, and I believe this to the very essence of my soul, is without light or dark in them. It all relies on the person, and if they want that balance, for the scale can be tipped either way if they wish." The First Father leaned forward, gazing at the woman he'd watched from afar while he stayed out of coven business. He didn't agree with how the coven had treated her, and now she was spiraling out of control. He couldn't help but feel some responsibility– his absence, his family's absence, had allowed such an ugly head to rear itself from within the coven. "Which road do you wish to travel, Emilia. You are at a crossroads that only you can make that choice– let the darkness consume you or control it?"

[emiliaxhan]

"It's what sets you apart from good and evil." Evil and good, a mystery escaping the common humanity desperate to uncover the root cause. What makes a person evil and makes them good? Principles? Honor and justified duty? Emilia spent her centuries encapsulated by witches who thought themselves moral just because they thought their way of ruling was the only right way. A council instilling fear, trained enforcers, the females married off to the highest bidder and birth more children who repeat the cycle. And where does that leave the Weaver? Wiping memories where the leaders saw fit and hiding her identity from those thirsting for using her abilities as a seat of power. Mil tentatively nudged the warm cup Ezekiel magically poured closer, looping a few fingers through the handle and taking a small sip. "Yet, as the darkness hung over your wife and child, you ran instead. Kept your distance while they enacted a revenge punishing the Princes. Pandora has come back from that terrible grip, but your abandonment of Rhys caused irreparable damage on his psyche." Emilia's gaze peered down in her cup as she continued listening, the opaque amber liquid steaming from the pleasant heat warming her insides. It's always darkest before the dawn, a statement balancing the scales of the First Father's logic. "I know there is light in me, Ezekiel. Helping a boy dealing with immeasurable loss of the one person he cared about understand his abilities proved I could do good. No person leaning toward the light would ever choose what I did when I used Gianna's son to punish the same demons who've taken from the Foxwoods." A plan with the right amount of conniving and misguided righteousness that it caught even Death's attention. Mil's gaze found the man after a beat of silence, shaking her head, "A part of me feels the guilt manipulating Ulric, but another can't shake wanting to see it through for those three siblings. To unravel the cosmos if that is what it takes saving the world. And granting an unhinged dream witch permission is no different." The young woman deeply pondered Zeke's question a long moment, two sides of her battling the fork in this road. The twisted Azriel's voice whispered how the collar to her chains rested in the First Father's hand. It's the old coven all over again. Your powers do not belong to them, Emilia, they belong to me. Emilia shut her eyes tight and pressed the heels of her palms to her eyelids, pushing him out. This is what he wants. "What if I can't control it?" She dropped her hands with a furious shake of her head, attention landing on the other. "What if this keeps happening? Another war, another extreme choice I make that will not turn out well, and I eventually turn out like her? Turning the mortals into mindless slaves and stealing children from their parents?"

[tenacious-finnian]

Yet, if you came back to the coven, he wouldn't have the last say in what happens to you if you fear he would wish death onto you.

You're right, I don't know that. I could change, just as my family has in this timeline, becoming a warped version of myself through the centuries. However, that's not how I was raised. I've trained my entire life to be the coven's next leader, who is fair and just, but firm when need be. I can't tell you what to decide. It is your choice, Emilia, but know that I can't protect you if you aren't under my mantle. From anyone who may come for you, or yourself.

[emiliaxhan]

It's true, he will eventually grow bored the moment I break how he designed. Maybe he won't be the one killing me first but your own people.

I knew a former coven leader half a century prior who promised making a difference like you have, and yet, the council's rules corrupted him. He was the kindest, bright-eyed, and swore my freedom like a whisper of hope and then I watched him change. I can feel that psycho version haunting me, his face so similar yet so different from my Azriel, it's disarming. I spent too long in his timeline. Fearing it, yearning for it...it's a reason I went back voluntarily. How do you protect someone itching to set the world ablaze and beckon in a monstrosity? If I come back to the coven, Finn, you risk an uprising when they come for my head. If I come back, they will spend an eternity hating me...never trusting me. Do you trust me, Heir?

[tenacious-finnian]

Unfortunately, I need to see the true outcome of your decision to judge how I need to handle you from here on out.

Azriel Delacroix is dangerous on his own, but to introduce a version of him not native to this timeline is like introducing a predator with no true weakness. Let's hope for all our sakes that we're able to stop him, Emilia. I know one thing, though: you cannot operate on your own anymore. It's time for you to come back to the coven.

[emiliaxhan]

There's only two ways this is going to end and I know which one Azriel will choose.

It's useless pointing out the obvious, considering I have spent more than my fair share with both my Azriel and that one. I come back to the coven and you will chain me as your descendants have, Finnian. You won't think you are capable of such or promise you'll be better, but you do not know that. Just me in an empty house of a prison while the coven only needs my abilities to fix your problems. It's funny...that's how the other version of me was created, his Emilia.

[tenacious-finnian]

I had really hoped I wouldn't hear any iteration of that sentence, Emilia.

[emiliaxhan]

Which you'd reserve the right handling what my punishment would be in accordance of your leadership.

Bellora will be dead soon, Finnian, but the cost introduces a dangerous version of Azriel who plowed through demons in the name of your father. An evil that doesn't compare to the goddess and I let him in.

[steadfast-hope]

Metaphorical, since you still have your soul... at least if you sold your soul, that's the price of exchange. You're essentially stirring the pot in the name of 'getting things done' for free– does that bring you joy? Personally, I love stirring the pot when it comes to my brothers. That brings me great joy.

[emiliaxhan]

There is a difference, but I don't need to physically hand over my soul to feel as if I've still lost it. Joy? I-...I don't feel happy about it. Underappreciated maybe, confused and crazed definitely, my predicament is not like yours. You sought revenge on your brothers for abandoning you and yet, you failed, didn't you, Hope? Your mother is no longer vying for the crown and she's even gotten married while leaving you behind. Brushed aside and forgotten. We're both alone as we should be.

[steadfast-hope]

Oh... someone has been stirring the pot. Fun.

[emiliaxhan]

You have no option stirring the pot to get things done even when it costs my soul.

[gianna-foxwood]

"You may not retaliate in that way, but you wouldn't hesitate to hurt my family for your twisted gain." It was a glaring signal beneath all the emotions that hummed through her psyche. There was obvious love that the Weaver held for Azriel, but there was something snared and tangled around it– an offshoot that linked Emilia to the Azriel that she all but threw their Az to like a piece of meat to wolves. "Keep telling yourself that, Emilia. You don't need to tell me what she's done. I'm well aware of the strings Bellora is holding over Ainsley and my brothers, but they are also playing their larger parts with plans that you had no part in but somehow saw it as your right to interfere with just because you have the power to do so." It was mind-boggling; the logic of the other woman would be sound, but only if she had no consciousness or heart. "He's an unpredictable monster, yet you invited him into my brother's body to wreak havoc on a realm that has not tasted his powers? If this Azriel leaves or not, it leaves our Azriel to clean up the mess, to take the fall. The worst part is, you're not insane. You're just a woman who got too wrapped up in the other Azriel that you only know his right from wrong. Now I know why the coven kept you on a leash." Gianna stepped closer this time, her voice dangerously low. "You didn't have to do shit, but you did, and now you can take a backseat and watch your plans hurt everyone around so long as he looks at you, right?" Another step, until she was almost nose to nose with the other witch. "You are no longer a friend to me or mine; you are now an enemy of my house, and when your plan comes to fruition, and it inevitably hurts my brother, it won't be a metaphorical dagger running through you, but mine." Gianna let her threat linger before pointing to the door. "You're lucky I don't get rid of you now. Get out of my face, Weaver."

[emiliaxhan]

"I gain nothing from this." Except the survival of thousands which no one will consider if it costed Azriel's sanity. She did love him, she realized fully in her time away that she did, but why could she not erase his polar opposite's voice from her mind? Why did it echo in the darkest depths of her soul and weave a loom she could not free herself from? He was her master and she the puppet dancing on the strings he crafted. What was happening to her? "They weren't working fast enough. The longer Bellora remained in control, the more powerful she becomes and that is a catastrophic doomsday waiting to happen. You cross the threshold with a dream witch and a time witch and nothing will stop you from destroying the world." It's how the First Son and the Delacroixes rose to power, by joining forces and mass-murdering every demon in their paths. A regime the other version of her and Az built from the ground with their adopted family, their children ripped from the arms of their birth parents. Emilia thought about Marina briefly, the evil Az's familiarity with her causing a shiver down her spine. Letting him in would subject the girl to that when she was already attached to their Azriel. Already willing to leave safety and taken by a goddess just to see him. "It's true, I opened the door and let him walk right in, none of which can be stopped now. Everyone knows it is not Azriel's doing, but mine. It is mine to clean, mine to take the fall for, it's a price I told him i would pay. You understand now, Gianna...why the coven never allowed me such freedom seeing what I have done with it. I should be leashed, but I will be damned if anyone tried leashing me again." Emilia wiped her expression clean as Gianna stepped closer and closer until she could feel the woman's breath in her face. Hot and raging. If it's a friend no more she wants, then an enemy she will justifiably receive. "Azriel and Envy might not be the same, but you know how it feels wanting someone you shouldn't despite what others warn you against. That version is my Envy, Gi, and I can't pry myself from his hands. A part of me doesn't want to." She nodded once in understanding at the clear threat, letting the silence float between the two former allies. It was a tragedy seeing a years long friendship fall apart, but she couldn't win them all. "You'll kill me, or Kai will, or someone else comes along and runs me through. It won't matter if Bellora wins anyway." It truly did not when she was losing everything. "Protect what you have, Gianna, he will come for it. Your Prince will be first and that is a fact." Emilia spun on her heel with that and exited through the door.

[judiciously-ezekiel]

It may be surprising, but I tend not to want to think of anyone as an enemy. You can sit down and tell me all about it, then, Emilia.

[emiliaxhan]

"Yet, one of your caliber tends to collect enemies at some point." With a fraction of hesitation, Emilia slid into the chair across from the First Father, hands dropping to her lap. "I'm about to unleash something in this realm that should never be free for the sake of trying to save everyone from Bellora. Another Azriel. He is darkness incarnate, evil, manipulating, and intoxication personified. It's a choice that will hurt my version and turn my friends against me, but I can't unring this bell." Her voice held a note of sadness, but mixed with it, came the slight monotone. She was just...tired. "You have witnessed the same darkness affecting your son and wife, First Father. They've mostly come back from it, but I don't think I can."

[judiciously-ezekiel]

I have more tea if you would like to sit.

[emiliaxhan]

Are you certain you wish to fraternize with a now deemed enemy of the Firsts?

[gianna-foxwood]

Gianna stared at the woman incredulously. She used to know Emilia and felt that, even though her methods were sometimes unorthodox, Emilia cared for her brother. But this? "No. I'm not going to yell yet. I'm not going to hit you yet, because then you'll use that as an excuse to justify ignoring my words." The witch didn't move an inch, but she could feel the boiling rage under her skin with a shake of her head. "You're too far under his influence that you don't even know what you're truly risking. You're hurting my brother. This psycho version of him won't care about his body. He definitely won't care about the people in this timeline, and yet all you see is the endgame that you had no part in orchestrating. What if he decides to stay despite your deal?" Gianna let out a humorless laugh. "Funny thing is, Azriel would have done the same thing as the psycho one if someone asked him, yet you're single-handedly taking away his autonomy and making it seem like a good thing. This psychotic version is corrupting you, and you're feeding into the delirium."

[emiliaxhan]

One moment, Emilia thought she had the control over herself and her ability remaining on the straight, well-intentioned path before something within her took a sharp left turn. She didn't lie to Azriel, she was a good person at one point in her life, willing to help where needed. "I wouldn't retaliate in that way." Not when the Weaver already made up her mind on this particularly world-ending decision. It's understandable if Gianna would not trust her again after almost using Ulric's love of his mother for a petty revenge scheme making the princes pay, but it was a question whether it's better the First Mother heard the information straight from the source or the psychotic Azriel himself. In the end, neither ended well. "Anything Bellora will do to every realm is far worse than what Az will do to your brother's body. I do not want to see such happen, to see him hurt would be as if a dagger has run through me, but she can't continue. She has one of your children, Gianna. She's forced Ainsley to be her minion and she is keeping your brothers captive despite their choice joining her. I have seen into her memories, the way she unravels others without lifting a finger. I need to save our Azriel from that even if it means inviting in a monster." Mil's gaze fell on her hands briefly, the term 'monster' almost feeling like an apt description for herself. "I can't predict if he will stay or not, Gi, he's unpredictable." A man lining the drive of his house with royal heads. Her eyes found Gianna again. "Had someone asked him, there is no telling how catastrophic letting loose his powers could be when Az always held back. This Az knows how to control it." An excuse maybe, but the real truth. "Call it corruption, but it's already too late. I have to do this."

[gianna-foxwood]

Excuse me? What did you do?

Please, enlighten me on how you've once again meddled in something that you shouldn't have?

[emiliaxhan]

I'm doing what the gods are not, Gianna.

Another version of Azriel from a different timeline, the very unhinged Azriel well-equipped with his abilities, is taking over your brother long enough to take Bellora down. I made a deal with him. Once he's done with that, he's gone. Yell, hit me, do whatever you think will make you feel better, but this game of hers has gone long enough.

[valentin-kuznetsov]

The timeline where the psycho version of you came through? She was... something. You... invited this other version of Azriel into our Azriel? Sure, he's going to be doing us all a huge fucking favor by getting rid of that goddess, but this could be dangerous for our Azriel. How much of your feelings for this other Azriel is because he actually makes you feel like he's yours, and is not actually jealousy, because our Azriel doesn't operate the same way? Don't mistake this as me judging you for your choices; I just want to understand what's going through your head.

[emiliaxhan]

Right, the other me spent time here being a nuisance. I wouldn't make this choice if I didn't consider the dangers for our Azriel, yet, he is the only person capable of pulling the trigger when even the gods haven't. Look, I'm accepting of his decision spending time with Lust knowing their prior relationship and maybe I'm willing to share, but I'd be lying if I said a fraction of it did not come from a place of jealousy. I care about the version we have, Valentin, I've known him for most of his life. I had centuries of loneliness without a companion because anyone knowing my secret was dangerous. It's the life as the Weaver, tiring, always alone. I wasn't alone with the other him. That is half of where my feelings stem from and the other...is his capability of darkness. I am also capable of such seeing that I set to ruin the lives of the princes for Az. This feeling of disgust and fascination to witness something so terrible but gripping scares me, I can't lie. Here I am, though, unable to look away or run from him.

[valentin-kuznetsov]

I read, Lia, I just prefer to do other things when I had the capability of doing them.

Oh, my weakness. Drama. Alright, then, how stupid are we talking?

[emiliaxhan]

Like running a bar and encouraging Robin's antics? I know.

Very, very stupid. There's this other timeline that Greed's son Aemon came from where basically the First family took over the entire city and killed nearly every demon royal. Azriel is a complete psycho along with a just as psycho version of me. Well...they're married. First time I took a trip into her body, we fucked. I just came back from another trip and I brought him back with me to kill Bellora. I invited him into Az's body, Val, and I'm aware our version will never forgive that, but it's only half the problem. The version who's now here, the one where I'm his, is the one I can't stop thinking about.

[gianna-foxwood]

Barely into the lockdown, and I already lost track of someone I'm caring for. Not very First Mother of me.

[emiliaxhan]

I heard about Marina. I'm sorry.

As the First Mother and a friend, Gianna, you deserve the forewarning. I've solved the Bellora problem, but at the cost of a very dangerous version of Azriel coming through.

[valentin-kuznetsov]

Not that I dislike the fact that there are multiple libraries, but did all their books have to be so dry?

[emiliaxhan]

I drop by for a visit and you're reading of all things now.

Could use a friend, actually, if the material's dry. I did something stupid.