Chapter Text
Sacrifices Hidden In Rain
In a handful of minutes, the rain would start falling. The clouds above may not have had the looming darkness to show a coming storm, but they did have the tell tale grey coloring that signified rain. This rain though had little in common with the rain the young woman was used to. The Human Realm held all sorts of weird and wondrous things for Edalyn Clawthorne to enjoy or take part in, dancing in the rain had been something a new friend had shown her. Something she certainly couldn’t do on the Boiling Isles, not when the rain reached boiling temperatures. No, the rain here wasn’t like that.
Eda tugged at her hood, the warm air of the summer night wove around her almost in a dancing way and making music with the leaves and branches above her. In the air she could feel the moisture gathering along with the barest shift in pressure from the atmosphere, definitely another signal to the promise of rain. That urgency to find shelter hit her out of habit, but she couldn’t bring herself to move from this spot just yet. Not when her heart had yet to stop trying to beat out of her chest, not when she didn’t feel confident enough to go back through the doorway that brought her here.
“Capture her!”
“He wants her unharmed.”
“Don’t let her get away!”
Eda let out a short breath, the echoes of the guards' shouts still ringing in her ears despite being separated by realms. It had been a long time since they had gotten so close which meant that they were closing in on her once more and she could not let them capture her. A stinging sensation began to prick her eyes, the promise of tears getting ready to build up there despite all her efforts to keep the emotions at bay. Yet her shoulders continued to slump with the unseen pressure that had been building on her small shoulders, with a weight no one could possibly remove from her.
No matter what happened or what she did, it was always better that she remain alone. People got hurt when she got to close, as if she were a fire that would burn someone if they were at an arm's length and reduce them to ash if they dared to come closer. Her chest tightened and her breathing hitched, but she clamped her mouth shut in a firm line.
A warm hand rested on her shoulder and Eda glanced up to meet warm brown eyes. “Come on Lyn, you don’t have to carry your problems alone.”
A former friend, one who no longer knew of her existence, had said those words to her on so many occasions Eda had lost track. Fate would have it that when she used the door to get away from the guards it would bring her to their house, to the place that sheltered her from the realities she had to face. Golden eyes focused on that two story house across the street from her now, her ears twitching with each rain droplet that hit the worn down roof. Only one of the top floor windows had a golden glow that might as well have mirrored the warmth those very walls provided her.
Walls that had shielded her from the curse in her veins, from the guards hunting her, from everything able to hurt her. Walls filled to the brim with stomach aching laughter and countless tears shared.
Sentimental may not have been an obvious word to ascribe to Eda, but she could see herself as fitting the description in some manner of speaking. This house across the way, it meant something special to her the way the couple in the window did. Two of her best friends she had spent years getting to know and bond with, only to have to erase every memory they shared with her in order to protect them. It killed her soul in more ways than she wanted to admit.
What made it worse came in the form of the baby they were holding, the one she could faintly see outlined in that golden window and through the droplets of falling rain. Despite the distance and the wall of separation, Eda could hear that baby’s laughter and her eyes only burned further with the tears she didn’t want to shed.
Her grip tightened on her staff as she tried to push the pain inside of her away, but the jagged rise and fall of her chest did little to show her control. The rain fell freely now, the cowl she wore immediately became wet with the rainfall and the hood did little to keep the water from rolling over her face. Not that it mattered much to her. At least now any tears slipping from her eyes could be masked by the downpour.
“I’m sorry,” Eda whispered, her words drowned out by the crack of lightning and pulse of her heart in her ears. “But you’ll be safe. Mila, Manny, and your baby will be safe. I promise.”
Titan please, please protect them.
Eda spun her staff around her hand, letting sparks of golden magic float around from it and over to the house, a protective spell to ensure that even if she were never around, the little family in those walls she adored would be protected from anything the Demon Realm could throw at them. With the onslaught of rain now soaking her to the bone and feathers threatening to poke out of her skin, she called on the portal door and stared at it for a moment. Its yellow eye with a black slit staring at her, the carved patterns in the wood she had no name for.
Part of considered looking back, even turning around and returning the memories she had taken, hiding with them in this realm away from her home. Yet even as the thoughts flitted through her mind, she knew it would be nothing more than a pipe dream. She had battles of her own to face and she wouldn’t hide behind them, not after what happened last time. Golden eyes set ablaze, she opened the door and didn’t look back. No matter how desperately she wanted to.