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Peruere blinks - once, twice, and even as frail and weak as she feels after channeling all of her strength she quickly makes an analysis of the sight before her. The house that was once known as the “hearth” now in ruins, a defeated “mother” and a rebelling king that refused to submit to her will lying admits the rubble. The only difference being that one was breathing, and the other wasn’t.
Perueres entire body was aching. It was as though flames were sparking and channeling within her blood. Still with her newly pitch black arms she made an extensive effort to lift what was once the walls of her so called “home” and rise above the wreckage.
Catching her breath after what could be considered a heavy exercise for someone in Perueres condition, she spotted black leather heels under massive rocks with a liquid trail painted in crimson under them, still spreading. She slowly approached the corpse, but made no effort to lift the rubble that it was under.
Sure enough, it was the body of her so called “mother”, lying pulseless. Her eyes were still open, though devoid of light. Surprise was painted all over her wide-eyed face, or what was left of it atleast. Moreover, Peruere made up burnmarks all over her body, from her arms, to her torso and all the way up to her neck, eating away at her flesh and reducing all odds of survival to zero, serving as a harsh reminder of what the curse of the crimson moon bloodline truly was capable of.
After examining the corpse, she inhales shakingly at the sight of the flames, a shiver sent down what she herself deems is a disgusting spine as whispers begin to force themselves into her ears, suffocating them as they ring - loudly, but never as loud as the screams and wails she hears from the shadows that are now also approaching behind her ears.
She knows better than to cover them with her hands by now. It doesn’t hurt, atleast not physically. She merely closes her eyes and takes deep breaths, trying to close off all the sounds of the cries of the shadows and the whispers of the deceased and the footsteps - footsteps? Approaching from outside? Conversing? But not from the shadows, no - from outside the building. “Harbinger”, this. “Killed”, that. Not one, not two, a whole expedition!
Fatui soldiers sent from Snezhnaya, examining the scene. Searching for Crucabenas dead body, and the one behind the crime, Peruere thinks.
They are going to find her and they are going to kill her, or worse, sentence her to a life behind bars. Which Peruere realizes isn’t all that different from her current life, just that it’ll be colder.
That is the life fit for a murderer after all.
Peruere deserves this.
She killed her brothers and sisters, she killed her best friend. Being left alone, restless, desiring vengeance, she killed her “mother”, putting an end to the system. All that’s left for her now is to lie under the rubble and let the soldiers finish the job. Take out the last remaining victim - if you can even call her that.
The sense of restlessness was meant to fade away the moment she saw Crucabenas breathless body, and yet it hasn’t. In fact, Peruere realizes that all this time, from the moment she awoke and rose from the rubble to the spirit that sparked within her the moment she heard the sounds of the fatui soldiers outside - it has bloomed into something deeper.
The shrieks behind her ears go silent and it suddenly feels like her ears are allowed fresh air again. She feels something - not disgust for herself, not hatred for the system. But a spark of will. The will to decide for herself, the will to experience life in a matter that isn’t just out of survival.
The will to crave freedom.
Swiftly, with her heart practically beating out of her chest and her head spinning with this new found desire she ducks and hides under pieces of rubble, making sure she’s out of sight from the fatui. Then, she locates the area furthest away from the corpse - which just happens to be the area where no fatui are present - and she hides there. Patiently waiting for the fatui soldiers to all gather around Crucabenas body and do a thorough examination.
When that moment comes, she uses the powers of her vision, the proof of her ambition, to make a hole in the wall as silently and discreetly as she possibly could - which luckily ended up not being too hard since the building was practically already in ruins.
She sneaks out, alike a rebellious teen in the middle of the night hiding from her parents. At first, she’s quiet and slow as to not alert the guards, but once she’s far enough away - she runs.
She runs, she runs and runs and she never looks back. Having nothing but the illumination of the moon as her guiding light.
Things were not supposed to go this way. Peruere was meant to die. She didn’t deserve to live. She was meant to crumble under the ruins next to her “mother”, killing two birds with one stone. Or better yet, rot in the ice cold prison cells of snezhnaya for all of eternity, such is the fitting fate for a tyrant such as herself.
This feeling of restlessness - it was meant to die alongside Crucabena, alongside her. Instead it continued to thrive along side her breathing body. Reborn into something else, not vengeance but desire.
Peruere knows she has no right to feel this way - but for once in her life she feels relieved. So relieved in fact, that for the first time in years, she laughs.
She’s running, she’s laughing. She hears wails of the shadows linger behind her ears yelling out to her, but one particular voice stands out to her. A familiar bubbly voice that laughs alongside her, not out of mockery but out of relief, out of pure hope. The bubbly voice overtakes the screams, as well as the clangs of the bells of liberty. And Peruere does not care for the loudness of it all.
Peruere is chasing the never ending glistening stars of the midnight sky, not knowing where they’ll take her.
But that’s okay.
That’s what freedom is all about.