𝒉𝒂𝒍𝒄𝒚𝒐𝒏, a period of time in the past that was idyllically happy and peaceful. @zuikko ; prompt.
behold, the looking glass — vitreous apertures to the equinox and an era long expired: the springtide of youth, its easy idyll. two eminences sit draped in hard - won puissance, and between them, a teaset in porcelain, inlaid with gold; steam soars from brimming cups in a summoning for the dewy - eyed. beyond the windowsill, a pair of fledglings traipses across virescent fields, unmarked by whiteouts and conflagrations both. ( children allowed to be children, 𝒊𝒏 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒚𝒔 𝒘𝒆 𝒏𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒆. )
the voyage of sound vouchsafes them the melliferous canticle of guileless laughter. it draws, from elsa’s own mouth, a quiet flowering — camellias half - abashed. neither child is flaxen nor auburn and yet she spies them anyway, 𝐚 𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐬𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 consigned to the nightshade gorge of her memory. twin sapphires in thaw, peering through the scene and the steam, and — ( what do you see, i wonder? a brother and a sister, before the hand of cruel fortune fractured the crucible of sentiment? ) the war, she thinks, bowed mouth turning rictus, is a terrible, necessary thing.
❛❛ we die for them, you know. ❜❜ an assortment of purposeful motions, a sudden mutiny against plangent silence: crystal crown canted toward the outside, where juvenile laughter rings like evensong; porcelain against porcelain, fingers against teacup, ascent to somber lips; a blustering sigh, atlas - borne burden vacating her momentarily; indrawn tea, liquid courage. ❛❛ our deaths — our deaths from years ago … are so that they may perhaps fare better than we did. ❜❜ a pause, in which queen relic ponders the taste of life. ❛❛ i’ve found that i no longer mind it so much. ❜❜ 𝐰𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐝 𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐧, war - torn husks of the sieges to our youths. enthroned.
