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Her eyes open to reveal that the walls of her cell looked as dilapidated as ever. Ever since her internment here, it's not as though anyone came in to do maintenance on the walls that, while resolute, showed signs of age, bordering on outright bursting into cracks along its surface. The faint light of the lanterns adorning extravagant sconces showed the real focus of the ones running the containment facility... she shook her head. Something felt different about today.
She glanced at the subtle notches she scratched into the wall. With a small gasp, she realized almost immediately what it was about today — it was her birthday. The joyful surprise soon dissipated into bitter resignation, however; it's not as if it would be spent anywhere different. She was the birthday girl... in jail.
The rush of air as a door swung open sounded, and the Demon of Sound perked her ears up. Following the opening, one, then another, clacking of heels falling upon the ground echoed through the halls. It wasn't all that long before she noticed a glowing blue light drifting in her direction. How her heart soared the moment her mind registered the sight! Her excitement mounting, she gingerly held the bars sealing her inside the cell, pressing her face to the heavy iron to see as far down the hall as she could.
Moments later, Elizabeth Rose Bloodflame approached the cell. Her expression was as severe as ever, and the poise with which she conducted herself was just as swoon-worthy as ever. The flickering of the firelight over her chest seemed to grow more agitated, almost imperceptibly to anyone except the resident of the cell. Scarlet eyes fell upon her and the mouth that seemed fixed into a frown curled in the opposite direction... almost impossible to notice by all save for the Demon inside, who had all her features memorized.
"Nerissa Ravencroft." Her elegant accent floated in the air, wafting through Nerissa's ears and drawing all too easily a silly grin on the inmate's face. "Step back from the bars, please."
"Aww... no birthday kiss first?" The Demon pouted with a playful wink and puckering her lips; the expression on Elizabeth's face remained as undaunted as every other time she made these sort of advances. The blue blaze that rest upon her, however, flickered just a fraction quicker than before... an action invisible to any except Nerissa's smirking face.
She complied, shortly after, stepping back toward the wall of the cell with her hands up. "Another search, then? Maybe you should do a body inspection." She giggled mischievously. Elizabeth remained silent after her initial command. When Nerissa had retreated a distance that satisfied the Harbinger of Order, the redhead reached for a set of keys that dangled from her hip, never once breaking her focused gaze away from Nerissa.
The key slid into the cell door, then turned, and a small click sounded just before the key jingled out of the lock and back onto Elizabeth's hip. The knightly woman carefully, slowly, opened the cell door.
Nerissa's heart skipped a beat, then thumped faster than ever. Could it be...? Was today finally the day? Is it over? Is she...? So many questions shot through her mind like a lightning bolt each, but before she could open her mouth to ask a single one of them, Elizabeth spoke.
"This is not a release. This is not a pardon. This is not freedom." And just like that, the horned woman's heart plummeted all the way back into the pit it had just began to rise out of.
She must have seen the pain and sorrow in Nerissa's face, because while her face remained as stoic and expressionless, the next words seemed different.
"This is... a favor." Her voice was gentler, by the smallest of breaths different from her usual tone. Inaudible to anyone except the woman who had been here longer than this current guard had been alive, and could quite possibly be here long after she's gone.
Nerissa remained silent, and waited for Elizabeth to finish opening the door. The woman clad in white beckoned to her. "Come with me."
The Demon uncharacteristically held back her witticisms and quips as she obeyed, walked towards... then beyond, the bars of the cell. But before she could take in too much of the sight, Elizabeth's voice carried behind her. "I'm sorry, but you'll have to wear this." She whispered just before a silken blindfold was placed over her eyes. Nerissa instinctively gasped, her face feeling hot. "Oh... I didn't know you were into this...!" She was unable to stop herself from saying it, but Elizabeth's total silence clued her in to the reaction. "You're totally blushing right now aren't you? Just cause I can't see it doesn't mean you're not~" she teased.
Elizabeth cleared her throat. "Please follow me." She said, before taking Nerissa by the wrist gently and beginning to walk slowly in a direction. "Oh, ok...!" Nerissa's surprised tone sounded before she grunted, stumbling along without sight. It was a somewhat uncomfortable gait for her, led along by a woman shorter than herself; her long legs struggled to find satisfactory footing, and the doubled clacks of their heels was mildly disorienting without sight to give context or warning. Still, it wasn't an unpleasant walk, and she felt a smile pulling at the corners of her lips.
"So what's the surprise? Is it cake? Is it ice cream??" She gasped dramatically. "Is it a stripper!?" She laughed, to no response. "Aw come on, Elizabeth, at least give me something to work with. I'm just a girl! It's my birthday!" At this point she was a one woman show with an ironically captive audience.
The silence was broken by the faintest of snorts, exhaled by none other than the woman holding her hand... wait when did she change from grabbing her wrist to holding her hand? An action unnoticed by all including the woman wobbling about blindly. Nerissa smiled to herself.
The sound of water alerted her first to a change in environ long before the feel of warmth on her face. Then... a breeze? Nerissa stood stock still, disbelief in her eyes evident even through the blindfold, for Elizabeth seemed to respond directly to it.
"You can take it off now." She said, and the Demon couldn't be fast enough to yank off the blind. She yelped as sunlight shone straight into her face, golden beams of light the first to greet her. As she averted her gaze, ducking somewhat away, she found herself almost face to chest with Elizabeth, the glow of her flame for once not the brightest light in the area. It was strange...
"Ahem." Elizabeth cleared her throat, and Nerissa sheepishly righted her posture, a blush on her face.
"Sorry. Not intentional. This time. I swear." She said, rubbing the back of her head, just before the full breadth of her surroundings caught up to her.
Sunlight... presumably the early morning light, streamed all around them, illuminating in full clarity the vast ocean beyond the jail. The cliffs they stood on were awash with wave after wave of salty seawater, the faintest spray of which registered on her face. On the ground around them, roses shimmered with dew in the golden glow of the morn.
"I... how..." her gaze finally settled on Elizabeth. "Why?" The question she at last was able to ask, and all she could muster was the single word.
The right side of Elizabeth's lip pulled upward, just slightly, into the smallest smile Nerissa ever saw, but also the first break in the redhead's expression that she ever beheld. Just that much was enough to make her heart jolt.
"A favor." She repeated the word from earlier. "Just once, just today. The Gods have allowed me one favor... to not let you be alone on the day of your birth."
Elizabeth stepped aside, her cape flowing behind her in the ocean breeze, as she gestured for Nerissa to stand closer to the edge of the cliff. "Happy Birthday, Nerissa Ravencroft. On this one occasion... you may sing to your heart's content."
Nerissa, dazed, slowly made her way to the natural stage that waited for her. As she passed Elizabeth by, she gazed at her... red eyes meeting each other, unspoken words communicated in a single blink. But before she walked by, she brought Elizabeth into her arms in an embrace. The knight let out a small startled gasp, before relenting and her stiffened posture easing into a one-armed return of the gesture. Nerissa's wings unfurled tenderly, wrapping around the woman who had given her the best gift she could never even think of asking for.
Then, she stood at the edge, overlooking the sparkling waters below. Slowly, hesitantly, she opened her mouth, and began with soft vocalizations. How long... how long had it been since she last uttered such a sound? How long since...? Her hand reached up to the crown of her head, then to the side. Gently touching the damaged horn, she continued to warm up her voice. Her vision blurred slightly as the sound of her own voice singing filled her ears, the act of projecting herself to the expanse beyond something she felt sure she'd never feel again.
Somewhere in the tumult of her own emotions spilling over in song, she was vaguely aware of another voice, joining hers and harmonizing. It was soft, restrained, almost held back with as much force as its user could summon. But it was there, mingling with hers nonetheless, unable and unwilling to be completely stifled.
That day, the last ember that Nerissa believed extinguished throughout her time in prison gently sparked back to life... it glowed in her heart and endured. The memory of that morning song shared with Elizabeth, the birthday that she looked back on as a sort of rebirth of herself, renewed her hope of seeing the sun again. Of singing again.
And on the day, about a half a year later, when she broke out with the rest of Advent... Elizabeth would be among the first on the scene. She would find a note, tucked into the fragmented wall. It read: "Hiya darling. If you're reading this, my escape has been made. Sorry, I like you, but this bird needs to spread her wings. But thank you... for giving hope back to me, on my birthday. Welp, this paper's short so I'll stop. See you soon? –Nerissa♡"
Her lips pulled into a taut line as she read it, and she sighed as she held the note against the flame over her heart. As it burned, she simply smiled.