“no, you were the reason I kept my light on late into the night turning all those pages, searching for you everywhere.“ — Billy Collins 08 above / deep — CoL Discord Weekly Drabble Challenge — WC: 361
Blood pounds deep behind Aderith’s eyes. She takes in Alyss’s elfin features, her violet eyes, silver hair. The tears forming just over the edges of her lashline. I’m going to Argus. When they go, I’m going to Argus. A plated finger jabs upward, at the looming demon-infested planet above.The words had tumbled free from Aderith’s mouth — behind them, the sizzling hiss of anger threatens to turn the announcement venomous. The Spirit Healer had just explained why she planned on stepping away from her position with the Children of Lothar, so it would come as no surprise to Aderith on Sunday. All this person did was judge her for drinking. The half elf whisks in and out of her life when she pleases. Arias - Zero -- whoever she was, on an eternal quest for self-identification, never seems to wonder how Addy’s doing. How she feels. How she thinks. Arias understood their goals, what peace they always attempted to give the North. This person? No. This person understands nothing. Arias would’ve never abandoned her for weeks to search for himself - Arias was focused on the fight for the homeland. Arias loved her. When Aderith turns her gaze back, sharp and pointed, the woman’s lips part. The same eyes widen. Alyss begins a broken speech, tears streaming down her face, about how Aderith will die like everyone else. Her words become far away, drowned as if the pair were underwater.
But all Aderith can see is Arias’s cool violet eyes, the way his lips press together disapprovingly when he silently disagrees with a decision, standing behind the female echo of himself. His gaze burns deep in to her eyes. Aderith, stunned, fumbles for any words at all. There are none, even as Alyss rushes away and the spectre of the Alteraci Nobleman fades.
The Stromic woman’s knees shake. They threaten to give out beneath her, so much so that she rests a plated forearm on the brick building’s foundation beside her. Terrified tears fill her eyes, drop free on to the cobblestone alleyway. There is an internal sickness that churns her stomach, lurks deep beneath her skin.
Something was terribly wrong.