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Chapter 26
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2022-04-12 22:53:21“It is alright,” Darla says, with the kind of snappy openness that accompanies an uncharacteristic honesty for someone of their class.
“I am a lot to digest’, or so Brendan says.”
Brendan.
Alcina wonders, not for the first time, if the semblance of normalcy and familiarity she’d been allowing herself to imagine in her head had simply been that: an imagination.
Being suddenly confronted with all the bounds of a life she had no knowledge of reminds Alcina with sharp and bitter acrimony of just how little she knows about the lord.
“Have you,” Alcina begins, hesitantly - but unable to help herself. “Have you known Brendan long?”
Darla stares at her curiously.
In Darla’s piercing and sharp gaze, curiosity feels more like being broken down and dissembled than merely inquired after.
Alcina fidgets.
“Brendan,” Darla drawls as though testing out the nam
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She only knows a stark and ugly honesty that her brother Nordin has constantly sighed would be her undoing one day.Nordin hadn't been wrong.Brendan is silent.So I am simply yet another burdensome thing to be set aside, out of sight.Alcina is sotiredof being set aside.Somewhere, in between Brendan looking at her with a gravity underpinning his gaze, as though Alcina were something particularly remarkable, and Brendan, allowing Alcina to cling to him, Alcina had forgotten what it felt like."Why am I not permitted to know?" It sounds childish and sullen, even to Alcina's own ears, but she feels so-choked up.The words come tumbling out without her control. "Would it really be so burdensome if I were allowed to-"Brendan's brow furrows harshly. "Because you do not need to know."Alcina physically jerks back as though stung. The bewilderment in Brendan's gaze grows more pronounced, as though he c
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When Alcina is ten years old, she learns, for the first time, what it means to bediscarded.It’s a strange concept for a child so young to learn; at the age of ten, most children are preoccupied with learning how to navigate that peculiar space, of beingeverything that matters, the center of the universe, to their parents.Instead, Alcina learned the deafening quietness of the spaces in which she’d been placed, out of sight, out of mind, and the hushed whispers that followed her wherever she went.Like the spare, which wasdefective.At twelve, Alcina loses herself to the fantasy world inside her head. She imagines what her life might have been like if she had been born with a Gift -anyGift - like she’d been supposed to have.At fourteen, she begins the painful and not at all pleasant process of learning to hide herself away, even before anyone asks.This is also the age where she starts t
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The following day, Brendan is called into another meeting with Percy and Waylon before they've even had a chance to eat breakfast.As it is, Alcina - pouting blearily and still ridden with sleep - insists on walking out with him, until at least the main hall, before parting ways.Here's another thing about finding all the depths of Alcina's affections returned to her following a lifetime of being chastised and sent away.It'saddicting, intoxicating, and exhilarating like nothing else.Alcina finds herself rapidly growing attached in a way that defies common sense and rationality.Alcina takes the chance to wrap her hands around Brendan's, reveling in the small, amused smile Brendan sends her all the while. Alcina, unable to do anything but smile shyly, sheepishly back.She can't bring herself to stop testing out the boundaries of the space she's permitted to explore. Because each tentative step reveals to her that thereare&
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Darla finds Alcina in the orchard by her usual tree.For a moment, Alcina is almost fooled into believing that it isGhost,given that the Lady Darla comes jogging up to Alcina in the form of a pitch-black wolf.Alcina is, once again, startled into pitching backward when the wolf suddenlyshifts into a woman,shrieking with laughter.Alcina pouts.Lady Darla drops into a graceful seat in front of Alcina with that unnatural, animalistic grace she always carries."Sojumpy," she teases, but it's without any malice.Alcina picks at the fabric of her dress, flustered and embarrassed and a little sulky."That's not very polite," she mutters, and her ears turn pink when Lady Darla, apparently, finds it uproariously funny."You're cute," Darla grins, sharklike.Alcina barely suppresses a shiver.And then, Alcina realizes what it must mean that Lady Darla is now out and about rather than shut in t
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At that age, when children learn to differentiate and understand various human emotions as displayed in the faces around them, The first emotion Brendan learned to decipher in his childhood was fear.The close second had come as- not quiterevulsion,but. Rather close.His mother, in particular, had never quite learned to overcome her knee-jerk reaction offear, terror horrorat her own son.As surrounded as Brendan had been by legions of people who feared and worshipped his “Gift,” he had nonetheless had an intimate opportunity to learn these same emotions from his own mother’s face.- and, to an extent, his father’s.But a child’s connection to his mother is the most intimate, strange, world-defying thing in the world.Being rejected by his own mother then had brought a crippling sense of alienation that cannot be replicated by the same rejection by his father, as devastating as both
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Brendan wakes from his sleep in the same instant way that he has a tendency towards.This means that Alcina doesn't have the time she needs to pull away and pretend shehadn'tbeen hovering over Brendan. That she was peering down at his features with curiously fascinated abandon.Brendan opens his eyes to Alcina's face, floating just inches above his. Alcina's doe eyes are round and glittering in the morning sunlight streaming through the curtains, seeming almost comically wide from the present angle below her nose.Heat floods Alcina's cheeks as she freezes, flustered, mouth parting and no explanation forthcoming save for incomprehensible stutters.Brendan's lips quirk upwards, transforming the blank cold face into something undeniablywarm. Creasing her features with lines that pull a weak smile from Alcina's lips, despite the blush still marring her cheeks."May I help you?" Brendan rumbles, perfectly polite even in th
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Darla comes swooping down upon them in the form of a screaming, bloodthirsty eagle.Alcina, startled clutches at Brendan, who tucks her in a fluid movement into his side, throwing up a leaping dark wall from their shadows.The eagle dodges smoothly, shifting mid-air and landing lithely on her feet in front of them.Still curled around a trembling Alcina, Brendan grits his teeth and sends Darla a scathing glare. “You,” he hisses. “Need to be neutered.”Darla preens. She seems to find it a personal victory each time she manages to terrify unwitting humans.“I came to let you know that Percy and I are departing,” she announces, with little preamble.Brendan straightens up, revealing Alcina, who scowls at her.“That was very rude,” she huffs, and Brendan can’t help the small, endeared smile that quirks on his lips.And then, Alcina blinks, having registered Darla’s words.
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Alcina spends the following week in what can only be described as a haze.Of rosy cheeks, that giddy euphoria that's unique to the blooming affections for someone new, and Brendan, indulging in all of Alcina's tentative growing bolder by the day explorations of the boundaries. Under Brendan's growing affections, Alcina comes to life. Like a blooming starflower, basking in the glow of the attention she'd never received before, effervescent and vivacious and ruddy-cheeked.In turn, Brendan finds this kind of Alcina utterly fascinating, enchanting like no other thing he's ever known. It makes Brendan want to give, and give, and take.At Alcina's request, Brendan takes her to the night bazaar again. This time, Alcina and Brendan intertwined and were drawn more to each other than the sights and wares of the market. Though Brendan still insists on wearing the hooded cloak - much to Alcina's dismay.But Alcina finds it isn't all bad, as the dark fabric allows Brendan to press her in again
Last Updated : 2022-05-01
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“And how long has she been here?” Brandon asks, just as the others arrive at the cell.He can hear a sharp intake of breath; Alcina.“Oh, a few days, I reckon,” Lincoln shrugs casually, his hand still holding the girl’s neck to the wall in a brutal grip. “I’m afraid I’ve lost count, as I’ve been down here all the while.”For a man like Commander Lincoln, sleep is but a trifling and unnecessary luxury.When a man like Lincoln has a prey set in his sights, he does not need such a thing as sleep.Even for days on end."I caught her trying to slip into your study," Lincoln says. The girl comes to life momentarily, struggling against the grip on her neck, but grows limp when Lincoln simply tightens his hold anew without even batting an eye.“I’d hoped to be able to have a nice, civilized conversation with our friend here,” Lincoln sighs, sounding as though it were nothing more than a matter of some friendly gossip. “Without needing to call you here, but.”“She has not been forthcoming,” Alf
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There is little time for pleasantries, in light of the note.Brandon does not know what could have possessed Lincoln to send such a note, nor are there any details to be gleaned from its contents: a precautionary measure, given how often such notes are wont to be intercepted in travel.Still, he knows that there is very little - almost nothing at all - that the Commander is not entirely equipped to handle on his own, short of the very war coming to their doorsteps, such that he would be forced to call for Brandon's return.Let alone demand him to bring Lord Alfred, as Lincoln had so alluded.It makes Brandon slip seamlessly into the shadows, for even the scant extra moments it would take to travel by foot is a luxury they do not seem to have.* * * * * * * * * *In the end, it is a lean retinue of the Lords and two soldiers from the Heartlands, that are to make their departure for the Western Plains.Given that the Western Plains are directly en route to the Ranges, Percy and Darla wi
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Alcina wakes up alone.It’s enough to startle her, even trapped as she is in that dull haze of the moment in between sleep and consciousness; enough, that she sits up, blearily rubbing one eye. “Brandon?” she calls blindly, voice rising in pitch to come out just the tiniest bit plaintive.Brandon steps out from the ensuite doorway, then, and Alcina turns her head in his direction, still rubbing sleepily at one eye.Brandon has evidently just stepped out of the shower, clad in a black silken robe, tied loosely at the waist and splayed open around his upper body. Alcina, still dazed from sleep, watches the way water droplets continue to drip down from Brandon’s damp locks, trailing down his neck and splattering onto the floor.When her eyes return to Brandon’s face, she finds Brandon wearing a small smirk, dark eyes intent and amused. Brandon raises a slow brow.Had Alcina been more awake, she might have had the presence of mind to be embarrassed at having been caught staring.But at th
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Alcina gasps violently awake.Her hands fly to her neck.But her neck is fine. There are no hands curled around them, like manacles pressing the very life out of her with each squeeze. There is no soldier, eyes wild with the adrenaline rush of a battle, forcing her onto the ground to choke her into an eternal slumber.But there are, Alcina dimly realizes, soldiers.All around her.They seem to be swarming in, from far away, but bringing with them a panicked sense of urgency, all the same.From-Alcina stiffens.The marble floors, the elegant pillars, the limp body of-Elton.She is-Alcina is in Elton’s fortress.The thought of it brings the immediate, surging terror for- Brandon-!Alcina whirls around, nearly stumbling with the force of it. And then she sees him.Brandon, here this time, strapped to the pillar behind him with massive, heavy iron chains. Brandon, pale and gaunt and dripping crimson, everywhere-“Brandon!” the cry tears itself out of Alcina’s throat, a wild and devasta
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“You would wage a war, For my daughter?”Brandon’s gaze flickers up to meet Duches's eyes, wretchedly amused.“Madame,” he laughs, low and dark, and in it, she hears something ruinous.This man, she realizes then, is one who would wage not one war, but thousands of wars, all in the name of devotion to her daughter.“I would do far more than fight a war, for your daughter,” he says, condescension laced into every word, lips parting to reveal a cold and predatory, calamitous facsimile of a grin. “and I would win it.”And as the Duchess stares into Lord Brandon’s face, she discovers, that there is something frightening like no other nightmare in the world could replicate, in a devotion like this. An ardent, zealous, terrifying brand of devotion, one that is more befitting of a creature they call the Shadowed Beast than a man.For better, or for worse.The man - the monster - to whom she had bartered off her own daughter, with thoughts of a hundred and thirty thousand lives, and hundreds
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Nordin, after all, had been Alfred’s closest friend all throughout their childhood and had been there when Alfred underwent his own grueling training with the Duchess.He had been the one person whom Alfred allowed to see all those cracked and broken parts of himself and had been the person who had mended Alfred and made him whole each time.Nordin has had to put one Clair back together and does not fancy having to pick up the pieces of another one after all this time.Years ago, when Nordin had only been thirteen and Alfred eleven, and Nordin had had to put the broken pieces of Alfred back together after his mother’s training--Thirteen-year-old Nordin had looked at Alfred, then, wearing a soft and kind smile despite the pain that had been wrought upon him by virtue of a terrible and harsh world--And that is the moment when Nordin had decided that he would become strong enough to ensure no man would be able to hurt Alfred again.That for Alfred- the boy who spoke of those mysteries
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In the morning, Alcina wakes earlier than her husband.It is not often she gets to experience such a luxury, given that Brandon is the early riser between the two of them. But occasionally, on mornings like this, Alcina has the privilege of waking before Brandon, and looking over to see her husband’s face smoothed with slumber.Alcina had never thought she’d grow to adore another’s features the way she has Brandon’s.It is an endless fascination for him, one that she could spend hours tracing the lines and dips and curves of, without end. Even now, Alcina turns and shuffles a little closer, pillowing her head on one arm while her other reaches up of its own accord, fingers reaching out to-She stills.Her fingers, still outstretched towards the slope of Brandon’s nose, hover uncertainly in mid-air. They twitch, before she brings her hand back to tuck tightly against her own chest, biting her lip.Alcina stares at Brandon, now, the man who had fearlessly and lovingly grasped the very h
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When Alcina manages to trudge her way to her room in the palace, she has hardly made it past the doorway when Brandon is instantly at her side.Brandon grips her by the shoulders, expression blank but eyes almost frantic in the way they run over her frame from head to toe, as though cataloging any possible injuries. And then, at last, Brandon lifts a hand to rest gently along Alcina’s cheek.Alcina shudders and sinks into it, sighing. “I half feared the Duchess may have buried you somewhere in the courtyard, and I would have to go digging for my wife,” Brandon drawls, teasing and insouciant but with genuine worry in his eyes when Alcina peers up at him.Alcina manages to muster a scowl, though she loses the energy for it right after.Drained, Alcina allows Brandon to help her change into her silken pajamas and guide her right to bed, where Alcina sinks gratefully into the pillows. “I really ought to shower,” Alcina murmurs uselessly, wrinkling her nose in distaste. “I’m quite disgust
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The courtyard is a ruined wasteland.Everywhere the eye can see, the ground is shattered into nothing more than rubble, uneven and dusty and jagged with uneven footing.But there is one woman who maintains perfect balance, even as the ground shakes violently underneath her precarious red heels: the Duchess, hair flawlessly coifed with not a single strand out of place, even four hours into their training session.She lifts her chin, and a massive, tapered boulder, narrowed to a lethal point, separates itself from the ground.And then, it goes shooting forward, soaring through the air to hurtle towards the two figures hovering in the sky. Alcina sees it coming and grits her teeth as Orion dives sideways in a spinning tumble to avoid it.The Duchess straightens up.All of a sudden, the ground falls still.The silence that follows feels oddly deafening in Alcina’s ringing ears, after hours of its cacophonous din. She, too, straightens up, peering down at her mother in confusion. The Duc
