sayf-insurgent:
give and take, push and pull, the desire to protect vs the desire to harm. The best defence is a good offence but what makes a war holy? what justifies bloodshed? what allows them to raise a sword against one who didn’t ask to aligned in such a way (though they made a choice, took a risk, and perhaps that is reason for damnation enough)?
this friendship between the winter child and the new high king was odd enough as well, no matter that they’d been escorting safie around the palace at odd times for near a century. at first, it had been an excuse to prevent unwarranted harassment from some of the guards (though they quickly found themselves replaced, sent off to strange and quiet locations to monitor instead, no reason needed), or to free up those who couldn’t bear the prospect, too afraid or worried about the child (they, also, were sent away, for if they couldn’t bear one winter fae, how were they to protect anyone?). so sayf had volunteered, whenever they were able, and now safie’s presence at their elbow was becoming eerily familiar, comfortable.
[ if the world was destroyed and you had to start over, what things would you keep from this life? the pyramids, mathematics, a person, the memory of a kiss, or leave nothing but ash in the smoldering remains and build something entirely new? ]
silence accompanied them for a few moments, a comfortable cloak that sayf let wrap around them, before safie broke it, letting the shards of it clatter to the ground around them like ice. It was the winter queen who had left that ring of bruises, for who else would dare, who else would be capable of leaving such a mark without any retaliation? They tensed for just a moment, the anger brushing up against their skin again (take take take, leave a trail of blood as demonstration of destruction, justice wreaked on these fae who claimed and broke and held the world in nothing but selfish regard), let a ripple of frustration show as they hummed.
❛ did she say those words exactly? ❜ fae couldn’t lie, but they could twist the truth, layers of falsehood underneath a single innocuous sentence, masters of manipulating implied sub-text to allow incorrect conclusions, a thousand interpretations for a thousand ears and re-tellings. safie could have believed one understanding, false as it may have been, and spread it as truth via their own words. ❛ what about the winter court in general? ❜ they asked, what about yourself? they left unsaid.
“Had she truly raised an attack on the High Queen, I fear she would have been successful.” Safie brought a hand up to trace the edges of her throat, drawing away when the barely there pressure was felt as a sharp pain. “I cannot say for the winter fae, but I do not move lest our Queen bids it and I had no part to play in this.” She looked at them, a silent plea for their belief, and then it was gone, a flame guttered out.
“Perhaps there is more,” she gestured vaguely ahead, referencing some unseen thing, “I would not know...I have stayed far outside the realm of their politics.” Their steps down the corridor were barely audible, but other fae could be heard, their voices distant but there. She drew further into her cloak, trying to piece together something she barely knew or understood.










