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Citlali had kept her distance from Aether, even as the hero said to be their savior.
He was too similar, too much of a reminder. Too much of a grieving reminder of her; her eyes, her golden weaved hair, the soft flexing muscles that became known in her body movement and quirks. It didn't raise any suspicion; her behavior. As great of a shaman as she was, as long a life she had lived, she'd always been closed off from the others, and those who sought her guidance. Dismissive and brisk was the way she had always been; whether to a great traveler from afar or her own archon.
Wrapped up in a comfortable darkness, surrounded by pillows and bedding, a bottle in her hand half empty. A washed up elder, stuck in the fantasies of long told fairytales and the writing of small authors sending their novels into the world from their bedrooms, doing something with their short lives. Yelling at a farmer boy for his delusions with his plants while she escaped into her own. That's how it was meant to be; complaining about Mavuika's loud motorcycle and the raging migraine left from a long night passed out by the bar. How it was safe, the same, something she knew couldn't leave her.
So why, standing in the middle of the abyss tainted grass, red, rusted blood staining the ground, shadows drawn over the ruined outposts, was she there?
Why there, in the field of dark hypnotizing abyssal nothingness, was she back? The same golden woven hair, firefly eyes; flexing those same soft muscles as she raised her sword; new scars littering skin once kissed over by alcohol stained lips. She wasn't looking at her, why would she - her eyes focused on the battle between them, weapon raised to the heart of Citlali's home. Eyes once soft, glossed over in her bed, sweat sticking their skins together with the warm smell of their love in the air, a book by the nightstand and the glow of a lamp gleaming off of her skin. Lumine, a love long lost; moved on through the world and forgotten by scriptures, forgotten in the minds and hearts of the people Tayvat would keep deep in its core, never extended to an outsider; fallen far from their home without family. Citlali didn't forget, couldn't if she tried, not in her arduous, ever expanding lifespan.
Shit. shit shit shit. you idiot- what are you doing? you aren't supposed to be here. not here, not now- not to see this.
So why where her feet still moving; carrying her across the battle field and her people lying dead on the earth? To the woman at the head of it all, lost to what she had promised, promised she'd never give into. Pillow shielding the blows, keys swinging in her fingers and her feet hitting the ground running, aching from the weight of her desperation.
The sweeping darkness sunk into her heels, just there; in a few strides reach, the half of her journey lost without reason.
"Lumine!" She rips from her throat, shriek and cold carrying through the thick air.
And for the first time, her hardened vision falters. Just as the pads of Citlali's fingertips grasp onto her throat.
-
It was going to plan. Eyes set on the battlefield, sword raised. She wasn't expecting the Harbinger to show, but it was hardly an issue. The soldiers weren't limited. More would come in their place to take the posts. So why had it not?. Why had the one she had been trying to lock away in her mind; the one keeping Natlan something she dreaded stepping foot into, managed to tackle her to the abyssal pocket by the neck?.
Her back hit the ground hard, skull reeling from the shock. The fingers curling around her throat tightening in their iron grip as her heart jolted back into place.
"Fuck! The hell are you doing, you idiot?!" shrieked the ringing in her ears.
"L-Lali, let me go."
"Don't use that name! you have no right, traitor-"
"Damnit- off!" She pushes harshly, the hands on her reeling themselves around her neck to her shoulders.
The shorter woman tensed over her body, pulling into Lumines chest. "You fucking left me! You left and now want to destroy the last goddamn thing I have left!" She sobbed into her neck, voice catching of each word.
"You l-left- *hic* Left me with nothing but the bottom of a bottle and half of myself! You want to kill what's left of me!? My life you left torn to fucking shreds?!! is that what will finally make you happy? Because you c-can fucking take it if it is-"
"Lali- you don't understand! I have to do this. Its not about you-"
"It never was, was it?! You piece of shit- *hic* Making me think it ever could be-“
Lumine, in all her brazenness and grit, honest to god lets her arm wrap around the other girl. God, why now…
"Citlali. its not like that- of coarse its not! Fuck, if i think about you now for even a second- i want to leave it all back there. But i can't- I've seen things, Lali." Her voice tightens, raising the shamans chin to meet her eyes, hand wiping the wet tears staining her cheeks. She wishes those tears were the result of something else.
Citlali’s grip tightens, throat clenched."You think I haven't?! you think that's any reason for this? You think someone long lived as i wasn't like you? Didn't bury themselves in the web of the truth until it suffocated them?" Her words come out as half sobs - half pants. "Please. just come home..."
Lumine runs her battle scarred fingers through the woman’s soft hair, sighing out painfully.
"Lali, I can't. Tayvat isn't my home.:"
Citlali breathes into her neck, lavender hair sticking to the sweat of her skin.
"It could be. I could be. please, I need you."
...
"I'm sorry, Citlali. I really am.", as the body in her arms drifts away, the bloodied ground filling her view once again.