Work Text:
Ethari was drowning himself in his work again.
He knew it wasn't healthy but... it was a good distraction. Hiding behind commissions for swords, bows, and various other weapons was a good way to keep Ethari's mind off of other things.
Yet even as he worked away to hammer down the remaining uneven parts of a sword he was working on, thoughts wormed themselves into his head nonetheless. He found himself continually glancing outside of the little work room he had, focusing his sights on one thing in particular that had haunted his dreams for nearly two weeks: The fountain. More specifically, the lone flower floating freely above the water, while the others had died and sunk beneath the surface. Rayla's flower..
No.
With a violent shake of his head, he looked away again. He couldn't think of her. She was ghosted. Gone.
She didn't matter anymore.
Yet still, Ethari found himself looking back. Again and again though he tried to stop himself. He still worried. He couldn't just forget like the others...
No. He had to. She caused the others to- She caused Runaan to-
A tear fell before he could stop it. His hammer hit the wood of the table with a resounding thud, echoing through the empty room. More tears followed the first, a sob was ripped from his throat as a heavy wave of emotion struck through him, just as it did every time. He hunched over the table, grabbing a hold of the edge in an attempt to steady himself even as he felt his very arcanum shaking with grief.
Runaan was gone and... He was expected to ghost Rayla completely...
Why did Runaan have to pick Rayla, of all people, to go on a mission she wasn't ready for?!
With an almost yell, he slammed a fist onto the table, making the tools and even the sword jump from the sheer force. Soon after, more cries followed, carrying the heartbroken sound of sobs throughout the room and the rest of the lonely, silent home.
He cried for what felt like hours, eventually sliding onto his knees and crying on the floor, partially hidden by the table. Everything hurt, his head, his arms, his chest... Yet nothing compared to the pain in his heart. The knowledge that Runaan was never coming back and it was, in some way or another, Rayla's fault...
... He shouldn't be crying over this. He knew what marrying an assassin would entail, he knew the risks, why hadn't he seen this coming? Why did it hurt so much?
A clink at his knees caught his attention. He opened tear-stained eyes to see, only to freeze as he realized what had fallen.
The moon opal.
The string must've come loose... Of course it did... Everything seemed like it was beginning to come loose, unraveling in his very hands. Just as he felt he lived the perfect life...
He scooped the pendant up carefully, holding it to his chest as a kid would a newborn kitten, before slowly pushing himself to his feet.
Life was never perfect.
If Runaan was gone... That meant Ethari's heart was gone. And if so... What was the point of a stupid opal meant to represent a love he no longer had?
He stumbled out of the work room, shaking like a leaf even as he dried his tears and descended the steps to the stone floor, where the fountain sat, with a single, lively flower floating in it, and five others sinking.
Rayla lived, but she was dead to him.. Runaan really was dead...
Castillo, Andromeda, Skor, Ram....
All of them. Gone.
He held out the opal, first with both hands, then with one. If he just let go. Dropped it...
He had no more heart as far as he was concerned, Runaan had taken it with him. He had nothing keeping him from just letting the opal fall into the water.
He lifted one finger away, then another, until only his thumb and index finger prevented the pendant from touching the surface and disolving into nothingness.
He was about to let go. So close yet- yet-
A flash of light caught his attention.
He looked up towards the center of the village, to the source of the light. It oulsed in waves throughout the forest, surrounding the trees, yet glowing with an eery white light instead of a deep, calming blue.
A ghost.
Rayla?
In a moment of surprise and a slim hope, Ethari's hand slipped.
The pendent dropped and in that moment, he realized, he wasn't ready to let it go just yet.
"No!" He shouted, just as he snatched it up again with a desparate fumble, barely saving the intricate pendant from a watery death. He clutched it to his chest once again, his heart raced, he felt the sudden rush of adrenaline still flowing through his veins, but most of all... Relief?
He looked the opal over carefuly, before sighing and shaking his head.
Maybe he still had a heart left. Perhaps that was why he couldn't drop it.
...He shouldn't...