#cicholic

[minorinterest-a]

@cicholic ( cont. )

  ✎

               ❝ I know that’s rude.  It’s why I asked you, instead. ❞

               An interesting deflection, one Linhardt anticipated under their current working hypothesis.  This answer would have been completely expected from Flayn, regardless of her actual age or intention in hiding it, but it does seem suspect from her brother...  He should have no reason to hide it... unless??  Every step is one step forward.

               ❝ I didn’t mean to imply she’s doing poorly in class.  As far as I can tell, she’s a better student than even I am.  And it’s an unrelated point to her age. 

               ❝ I came to ask you because I assumed you’d be an expert on Flayn, as she is your sister.  I can search for answers elsewhere... ❞ 

               Interviewing people about anything is always such a bother...

                                                                                                         〔 📚 〕

[cursedcrest-a]

a pause before the despondent eyes of the living ghost flit up from their normal resting place, looking- but not quite making eye contact. “ am i in the way? should i relocate myself? ”

@cicholic  📚’d.

[valkeirie]

@cicholic / ♡ for a starter!

Relief washes over Seiros like a wave breaking against the coast and her heart feels lighter than it had since learning of Flayn’s disappearance -- perhaps even lighter than it had been in years, given how foreign it now felt to her. Thoughts of her homeland had monopolized her attention and memories resurfaced of their own volition, brief flashes of the canyon and smiling faces haunting her waking hours. A spark was all that it took to ignite the embers still burning somewhere deeply within her, the thought of something tragic and horrible befalling her dear friend’s -------- no, she cannot bear to dwell on it any longer. Flayn was safe ( safe and sound, she keeps reminding herself ) and Seiros would ensure that it remained so.

“ Seteth, ” his name is a whisper of the barely-contained tempest raging inside of her; the worry, the relief, the fear. It is only in his presence within her private chamber that she dares to shed her raiment of ‘Archbishop Rhea’ to simply be Seiros once more. She doesn’t know whether it helps mend the wounds on her heart or if it only serves to make them fester.

     But she does know that it lessens the weight that felt as if it would crush her.

“ Flayn is unharmed, I hope. ” The concern that bleeds into her voice feels as though it’s trying to suffocate her, but she ignores the burning in her throat. It has always been difficult to hide herself from him -- the good and the ugly -- and the unrestrained emotion in her eyes is a testament to her trust in him. “ I can’t even begin to imagine how you must have felt. ”