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Post by Mr Spock on Jul 10, 2013 12:01:47 GMT
Emily Amnell-Prince was shaking. Whether it was with fury or sadness or a massive sweeping guilt she couldn't identify, but yet she stormed into the castle at Tamarask as if she owned it, out of her normal visiting cycle, the rain at her back. She showed no care as she half strode, half ran into the main corridors.
"Link!" she called, and the edge of her voice betrayed a sharp tension that foretold bad news.
"Link!"
She tried again, her shoulders sagging with the effort. She was barely out of a confrontation that stung her heart and it had taken more from her than she'd expected, and now she was tired, pained, desperate to speak to the one person who would fully understand all of her feelings related to it.
She wore her casual clothes, an increasing rarity as she aged and her royal status took more control of her life. She painted an odd picture anywhere but here, where she was her most relaxed, her safe haven from everything she'd become, where she was always thirteen.
Her argument with Ian had been worse than she expected. She had wanted to be gentle, to be hurt, but instead her temper had flared as it always had and turned into screaming, into desperate anger. Ian's temper was as fierce as her own and his departure, with the idea that they would never see each other again hanging in the air, was too much for her and she was already on the verge of breaking down. She tried again, the tense note in her voice all the more desperate.
"LINK!"
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Post by Taya on Jul 10, 2013 16:32:28 GMT
The "late" Link Star-Anise and soon to be High Priestess of the outer realms knew something was wrong the minute she entered the back door of the kitchens to make use of the mud room. She removed her wet cloak and muddy boots and then heard her name being called through the empty halls. She ran with fear closing around her heart knowing only one person it could be.
"Emily!" Link cried out as she saw her best friend close to collapsing in a breakdown. She enveloped her in her arms worried on what could bring the faery queen to her isolated life this time of year. "Emily, what's wrong? What's happened?" All the while she could only think, 'Please let everyone be safe and alive.'
The soon to be immortal, caressed and petted the queen's golden locks and face. She even dared a kiss to the forehead to help clam her.
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Post by Mr Spock on Jul 10, 2013 16:40:43 GMT
Emily knew she should calm down before she spoke, but the presence of Link only made her more rattled, more furious, by her anger with Ian. Ian who she had never once been angry at.
"Ian," she said, and her voice rattled with enough fury that it was clear she was more angry at him than she was worried. "He's..." She trailed off as she felt anger incapacitate her throat, pulling back slightly from Link to meet her eye before she continued, starting again.
"He's writing us out of his life," she said, and the sudden childish hurt of a woman who had never been spurned before seemed to burn in her. "He's denying himself!"
She pulled fully away from Link to throw her hands into the air, clearly edging on a full-blown rant.
"He's denying the memory of his whole family! He's denying what that child will become!"
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Post by Taya on Jul 10, 2013 16:51:40 GMT
Link was struggling to keep up with what Emily was telling her. Her brother was cutting out his only family and something else caught her ear.
"Emily, Emily!" Link interjected into the rant a bit harsher than she needed to. But something had clearly upset Ian who ha already lost so much and she needed to know what was going on now. "You need to slow down. What child?"
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Post by Mr Spock on Jul 10, 2013 17:05:29 GMT
Emily exhaled sharply through her nose, before taking a deep breath.
"Kendra's pregnant," she said, her voice dropping several tones though her heart continued to thunder away.
"He doesn't want his family," she intoned the word family with a bitterness that made it clear she and hers weren't included, "Anywhere near magic. He wasn't even going to tell me. He wouldn't even look at me. Us, Keira..." Even the word Keira wasn't spoken with a darker tone, and for Emily to speak with sympathy for anyone with Darkwind blood showed just how much was at play.
Simmering down was the worst thing that could've happened for Emily at this point, because now every other emotion in her heart ran riot and she looked at Link with that ache ebbing out of every one of her pores.
"This is all my fault, isn't it?"
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Post by Taya on Jul 10, 2013 18:43:13 GMT
"He's cutting off Keira, too?" Link asked perfectly astonished. Her brother, the skilled conjurer and lover of all things magical, was cutting himself off from the most natural thing in the world and there was nothing she could do. How could she blame him for hating magick? It had left him alone and bitter.
"I don't know." She answered honestly. Even if she hadn't faked her death for the sake of Emily, there was a good chance he would be acting the same way. But the more she thought about his face at the memorial and the way he cried into Emily's arms, the more she wondered if Ems was right. Shaking her head, she responded with, "No one could have known this would happen. But I'm not going to sit back and watch him torture himself with such twisted thinking. This still my family and I will still fight for it." She took off back the way she had come, a fury building inside of her.
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Post by Mr Spock on Jul 10, 2013 19:24:06 GMT
Emily followed, rushed, suddenly panicked. She wasn't sure how Link was reacting, or indeed how to react herself. She wanted to ask the question that pulled at her now, even more than it had every day since she had forbidden the discussion of it, but she let her mouth hang limp, too empty to try.
"Where are you going?" She huffed as she followed.
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Post by Taya on Jul 10, 2013 19:29:39 GMT
Link didn't answer straight away. Instead she went to the mud room and put her cloak and boots on once more. As she flipped up her hood, Link simply said, "To see my brother."
There were so many things she would do for the woman she loved, but seeing her family destroyed without even trying to stop it was a bit too much at the moment.
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Post by Mr Spock on Jul 10, 2013 19:33:45 GMT
Emily watched, dumbfounded, for a moment, a tingle in her spine. She knew there were two things she could say and one of them would change her whole life forever. The other would bring a cold harsh reality down on this desperate woman, staring at her with hard eyes. Her words were much steadier than the heartbeat thundering in her chest. She had made her decision.
"Where is she?"
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Post by Taya on Jul 10, 2013 19:42:20 GMT
Link froze. She hadn't intended to reveal the second half of their secret just yet. This sacrifice they had both made for the sake of a child. Taking a breath, Link took Emily's hand in thanks.
"I don't know what I'm going to do yet. Are you certain? Just because I'm alive doesn't mean she has to be."
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Post by Mr Spock on Jul 10, 2013 19:47:04 GMT
Emily pursed her lips. There were a million and one lines in her head, all of her careful reasoning, the explanation of how she wouldn't let Link take the fall for her secret, not twice, but all she could get out was the same question, looking directly into Link's eyes.
"Where is she?"
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Post by Taya on Jul 10, 2013 20:44:15 GMT
Link's smile was full of sorrow, love and gratefulness as she nodded.
"Thank you and I am so sorry." She then kissed Emily full on the mouth. "Be safe, my love." Then she was gone. The only thing left was the blue glowing inscription of an address on Emily's hand.
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Post by Mr Spock on Jul 10, 2013 21:11:47 GMT
Much like it was in Paris, it was raining in Chicago too. Emily was beginning to regret not grabbing her jacket and now she was staring up at the large, daunting building, the sky grey and overcast, catching herself as she stood there, soaked, wearing little more than her jeans and the short sleeved blouse, going sheer in the rain. What was she doing? Why was she here? Her head was spinning. This would change everything.
Closing her eyes briefly and begging forgiveness for wasting so much time, Emily began up the steps to the door that was daunting her so. She placed her hand in her pocket and she needed no concentration to summon the crumpled birth certificate that she then wrapped her hand around, now short of breath.
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Post by Taya on Jul 10, 2013 21:31:12 GMT
He had grown up so handsome. Link had purposefully avoided the living because of the pain she felt in her heart now. But that would all end once her younger brother's arms were wrapping themselves around her protecting her smaller frame from the rain that seemed to follow her from Chicago to the outer realms and now even to New York.
He was getting out of a yellow cab getting drenched as he paid the man. This was her chance, but could she do it? Could she willing sacrifice the safety of the most precious thing in the world. Tryamon may not have been her actual daughter, but that didn't change her feelings. In fact, she had just visited the little girl this morning to leave her a flower. Something she had forgotten to tell Emily.
Before she could step out from the shadows a figure appeared from the house running with a large black umbrella. So this was Kendra. Link's thoughts were confirmed as the two embraced and fell into a kiss. She hesitated. Ian did have a family. Maybe he would be okay. Just as she was about to turn away, she heard the crack of Ian's voice saying,
"It's done." That's all it took to fuel her fury once more.
"Then you're a fool." Link said spinning on a heel.
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Post by Mr Spock on Jul 10, 2013 22:46:26 GMT
Emily felt like she had stood in front of this building under this dark sky forever, as she watched it barely daring to breathe or hope, illuminated by its harsh artificial light, streaming from the windows. She couldn't feel herself moving, and yet suddenly the bell of the front door was tinkling above her and she was in a bright reception area, the walls yellow and covered in paintings or drawings by small children, the carpet a bright blue, darkening around Emily where she dripped on it.
"Can I help you?" asked the girl behind the desk, barely older than a child herself, cocking her head to the side in a display of pleasantry whilst clearly quite disturbed by Emily's ramshackle appearance.
Emily stared at her for a few long seconds, her expression still distant and vacant, before she drew the certificate out of her pocket and extended it to the receptionist with a shaking hand.
"My daughter," she said, and her voice was surprisingly even and clear, "Do you have her?"
The receptionist's eyes widened as she looked up at Emily.
"Please. Take a seat," she said, gesturing at the uncomfortable looking sofas against the yellow walls, before vacating her own and running down a hallway with Tryamon's birth certificate.
Emily's head was spinning again. She hadn't said no. Tryamon was here. She glanced down at herself and shook her head, realising just how ridiculous she looked.
In seconds there was a bag by her side, with a jacket draped over it; she was damp as opposed to soaked; and her hair was spun into a plait, rather than the long and free, soaking blonde tendrils it had been before.
She seated herself and tried to look presentable as the reception girl hurried back with a much more important-looking woman, with greying hair and a suit, followed after.
"Ms. Prince?" she asked, looking at Emily as if she didn't quite believe she was here. Emily nodded mutely, following the woman back to her office as gestured, drawing all of her own documents out of her bag and trying to calm the shake in her hand.
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