#ciarcuirte

[sgarrigh]

Ideally he’d planned on never having this conversation. Leaving her in the dark as to what might have been her fate was less cruel than telling her. Less harsh than revealing what Irial likely had planned. And Niall thought he’d said the court had mellowed out some. One rule change didn’t clear any names. Didn’t absolve any of them of past sins.

“I-“ he hadn’t lied. Not directly. Never directly. Never, rarely, even by omission. But she had questions, perfectly valid questions and fears, and the task had somehow fallen upon him. Somewhere, he can feel the awkwardness coming off their third. It’s beyond tempting to drag Irial in by the collar and make him explain. Because Niall has never had the words for this. “It’s not usually survivable and I thought he was done with-with…mortals.”

His voice shook like his hands. Not that he was afraid she’d strike in her anger, but afraid of the ramifications. If she would leave him. Them. Leave them to their not talking and stress and how poorly Niall continues sleeping in the house. “It wasn’t going to be like that anyway. It hasn’t been since-“ it wasn’t a lie, but the word caught in his throat anyway. “I don’t even know if he was going to do anything. You might have been enough, he might not have needed others.”

Shadows pooled between them, guardians flickering just out of existence. As if they knew touching either was a bad idea. Usually, they were nicely cold and soothing. Now Niall stomped them out of existence lest they change their minds. If they were even sentient like that. Another thing he has no answer to. “We thought you didn’t need any more court shit in your life. It can get incredibly fucked up and I know even he wasn’t always comfortable with all of it.”

@ciarcuirte from here

[arc-sunsymbols]

"You seem so relaxed about this... The majority of people would have been pissed off about being locked in a basement. I'm sorry about that, by the way. We told Irial he shouldn't do that..."

     "I try to be understanding when it comes to these sorts of things. And you didn’t lock me in a cage and then try to hunt me for sport .  .  . so it wasn’t the worst experience I’ve ever had.”

[sgarrigh]

@ciarcuirte   said:  "Niall..." she said in a breathy tone, her voice audibly shaking with each syllable. The phone felt slick in her bloodied hand and, for the first time in a long while, Leslie wished Irial could will her emotions away so she could feel calm once again. "I need you to come get me." unprompted

They’d made an agreement.  Not a vow, but an unofficial accord.  She got her space.  Irial got his visits and Niall was left trying to manage a new title, rekindle some sort of genuinely amenable relationship and wait.  In the span of a fae’s lifetime, her degree was nothing.  But it felt long.  Like each day was a century of attempting to learn thousands of intricacies that came with regency.  Some he knew already, but not with this much detail.  Others were completely new.  Or only implemented within the past hundred years or so.   The things he struggled most with were not things anyone could advise him on.  Irial left him alone when he went off to brawl or demanded the house to be cleared with the tang of bitter sadness on his tongue.  Gabriel had little empathy.  And it wasn’t something he was willing to burden Leslie with.   She hasn’t even finished saying his name before he’s all but flown down the stairs and out the door.  “Okay.” There’s no saddle on the sticky black equine of a steed, but he’s never really needed one.  Though it’s off before he’s really gotten his seat.  “Are you at the apartment or school?  What happened?”  Her guards should be there if anything dangerous happened.  But she’d send them away before or they’d given her too much space which was how Ren had been killed.  While it’s likely he’ll get there before she answers all the questions, he’d like to know what he’s getting into.  If it was a genuine physical threat or something emotional or some other disastrous thing he can’t even think of with how fast his mind is going.  She was human.  Mortal.  Very easily maimed or killed.  “Are you hurt?”