karma sat in the middle of the ballroom floor, legs crossed beneath her, head tilted back toward the vaulted ceiling. the light from the stained glass windows washed over her like smoke. reds, golds, blues bleeding together across her skin. the walls were polished marble, veined with rose gold, and the high arches glowed with the afternoon sun. gilded carvings lined the pillars, scenes of heroes and lathander frozen in motion. everything here felt like it belonged to another world. it was quiet. for now. it would be full of people later this evening.
everything here felt like it belonged to him. her brother. aurelius. this was the kind of place he grew up in. not cages. not shadows. not silence. she had hours before she even needed to get ready for the ball. everyone else was off in a flurry. baths, gowns, trimming beards and braiding hair. she'd slipped away. she needed stillness. something soft. she didn’t even hear the door open. but she felt him. aurelius.
when she looked up and saw him, her smile came easy. small, quiet. the kind a little sister gives her big brother when words aren’t quite enough. he was still her calm. her anchor in all this noise. from their beginning, he always had a way of knowing what she felt before she even said a word.
"did you ever get bored of all this growing up?" she asked, voice low but curious. her fingers fidgeted with the hem of her shirt. he gave her that look. the one that said he already knew why she was in here. maybe he’d asked himself the same thing once, too.
karma exhaled slowly, golden eyes drifting back to the stained glass. "...i don’t know how to live in this kind of world," she finally said. and she wasn't talking about the ballroom. "all this. being part of something.. something gentle. kind. it's not like anything i’ve known." her voice cracked, just a little. but she didn’t look away. karma didn't take this for granted. but this change was a lot. she was waiting for the other shoe to drop. from someone to come and steal it away from her like they did to her as a baby. "i don't know what to do with all this... this change. everything's different now, and i can't tell if it's just something i should... accept, or if there's something i'm supposed to be now. i... i trust you, aurelius. i never thought i'd trust anyone this much. what am i supposed to feel right now? what am i supposed to do?"
🔥 STARTER FOR AURELIUS: @vowofthesun
