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essays-for-breakfast · 4 years ago

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Let the Time of Separation Disappear

Kiane Week Day One: Touch/Feel

This group thing was a terrible idea. The Seven Deadly Sins – more like the seven daily prayers King sent to the Sacred Tree to put an end to this madhouse. No matter how skilled the individual fighters might prove in combat – and King had his doubts about at least two of the four oddballs in this matter –, they would not function as a unit. The afternoons he spent trapped in the community quarters high up in Liones castle demonstrated this point with such emphasis, he might laugh. That is, if he hadn’t felt so miserable.

On the rare occasion that the Mage, Merlin, showed herself, she would levitate in a corner of the room, smile to herself, and watch the disaster unfold. She played the group without the need of a single word, and King did his utmost to turn invisible whenever she teleported into their midst. But the Captain, Meliodas, would always shatter his efforts by showering everyone on the team with a disgusting excess of liquor only humans could find amusing.

And unfortunately, ‘everyone’ included King.

The third of the bunch, Gowther, did nothing much at all. He sat on the floor in his clunky armor, took away space, and sometimes speed through a book Merlin handed to him in about a minute. The mere thought of gluing his eyes onto a piece of manufactured wood filled with this many words gave King a headache.

And no, the alcohol was not responsible this time. Although the sight of Gowther’s untouched mug on the floor did produce a foul taste on his tongue. King hurried to open the nearest window, and swallowed a lungful of oxygen. A bit better. Even though the air circling around the human castle lacked the scents of nature, of conifers and pollen and grass heavy with morning dew.

“What’s the matter, King, you gotta throw up?”

King craned his neck to throw a death glare at the owner of the voice.

Ban was by far and away the worst. If a single human existed to whom King liked to demonstrate the deadly capabilities of his Sacred Treasure more than Aldrich, Ban would make for the ideal candidate. Careless, loud, rude, followed by the stench of alcohol wherever he went, and overall, the most human-like human King had had the displeasure to meet. The day he would fight alongside this man would without a doubt bring about the end of Britannia.

“I would have rather stayed in my cell,” King said with a pleading look in Meliodas’ direction.

“Too late. I got’cha out of there, so you owe me your eternal loyalty. Although I might free you from your debt if ya take another drink and relax. I’ve got good news this time.”

Gowther looked up from his book with a teeth-clattering shriek of his helmet. “Does this mean you have found one of our missing members?”

Meliodas grinned. “Bingo.”

“Nooo!” King buried his face between his hands. “Not another one. I won’t take another.”

The only hinderance that had so far saved him from the dreaded field missions as a special order of King Bartra’s Holy Knights with a special talent for lacking any resemblance of teamwork, had been their shortage of numbers. According to Bartra’s vision, seven knights would unite against an unnamed great threat. King’s lucky streak had not only pushed him into the spotlight as one of these seven, it had also chosen the worst people as his teammates. And he had little hope that the Sins of Envy and Pride would upset the trend once they showed up.

Meliodas wiggled an accusing finger in the air. “Now, now, King, you have to give her the opportunity to win you over. I met her by chance before she was sentenced. She’s a nice girl. And her grilled pork tastes far better than mine.”

“That’s a low standard to beat.” Ban robbed across the lavish carpet – the pelt of a white hound-like creature if King had to guess – and put an arm around the Captain’s neck. “I’ve never tasted worse food than yours!”

“Well, it’s not like cooking’s a revered skill where I come from.”

“To return to your complaint, King,” Merlin said while hiding her intentions behind the rim of her wine glass, “I believe our newcomer will surprise you. You might find that you share more than a few things with her.”

Aha. Another one of Merlin’s cryptic messages. Did the Captain carry with him a dictionary on the way she shared knowledge in singular puzzle pieces to understand her? And could King borrow such a dictionary?

“Let’s just get this over with,” he said with a sigh.

Meliodas clapped his hands together. “Great! But we gotta go out to the yard to meet her. She’s a little shy.”

With crossed arms, King floated behind the others through the great halls of the castle. Cold stone atop of more cold stone, decorated with stone ornaments. A handful of knights passed them on their way towards the yard and stared at the group with a mixture of curiosity and hostility. Many a hand wandered towards the hilt of a sword, mace, or spear. King could handle the glares, as a Fairy, he had earned a plethora of glances and hushed comments from his prison guards throughout the past two hundred years. His human form did little to divert suspicion, after all, he hobbled behind an armored colossus, a drunkard, and a blond child. But what unnerved King far more was the fact that he would soon have to collaborate with these human knights and fight their war. Last time he had been forced to kill, his hand hadn’t stopped trembling for days on end.

King bumped into Ban when the latter stopped dead on the doorstep towards the yard. The string of curses he planned to hurl at Ban died in his throat, suffocated by the sight of his newest teammate. She reached thirty feet above the cobblestone, her head blocked the sun, and she refused to dissolve after one, two, four hacked breaths that escaped King’s mouth like whimpers.

She hadn’t changed one bit. Of course, she had grown in these two hundred years, the shape of her body had become more defined with added curves, but she still wore her hair in pigtails, she still shuffled her right foot over the ground, and she still hid her face behind brown locks when none of the other Sins raised their voice to greet her.

Her eyes, a shade of violet more intense than any forget-me-not – the same.

Her hands, strong and dirt-stained and able to form clay into fantastical figures – the same.

Her voice when she mumbled a “Hi, guys” into her hair – the same.

The world turned upside down and shrunk, King’s vision and his sense of smell narrowed until no one but her existed, her and a cave and a field of flowers he had called home. She had survived – what had led her here? Did she remember? No, of course not, the spell King had woven had plucked every last hint of him from her memory. But she still stood here, presented to him as his teammate. They could spend their time together like they had used to – but they would fight in a war together. She might get hurt, she might be forced to kill, she might see the failure he was, a killer who didn’t hesitate to end his best friend’s life. Even if the universe had worked its magic to make her remember him… wouldn’t she hate him? For abandoning her?

Ban smacked his elbow into King’s ribs. “Will ya say hi to her already? Otherwise my feet are gonna freeze to the ground.”

What? Had any of them talked? Had Meliodas introduced her already? King turned towards the Captain for help, but he only offered a knowing grin that matched Merlin’s expression to a T.

She extended a hand towards King, the skin covered by tiny scars from a life in the wild. “The name’s Diane.”

“Harle- You can call me King.”

“Nice to meet you, King.” The smile she gifted him was ripped right out of his memories, untainted by the two hundred years of separation.

And when he placed a trembling hand against her outstretched finger, every moment that had withered and lost its gleam in the darkness of his prison cell returned to him, and they were kids again. The games of tag, the stories she told him, the anecdotes about plants he shared with her, the sound of her laugh, the smell of grilled pork, the warmth of her body next to him when they slept.

All of this and more overwhelmed King at the touch of Diane’s skin. The sweaty palm of his human form against the softness of her fingertip, so close that he felt the individual grooves and bumps of her skin.

His heart might have well run away and forgotten to beat when Diane leaned forward. “We wouldn’t happen to know each other, right? Something about you feels familiar… I can’t put my finger on it.”

“W-where could we have met?” King blinked against the sting in his eyes. Probably dust. Yeah, definitely dust. “I’m sure you’re imagining it. You can find a face like mine all around human towns, right Captain?”

“Sure, but most of those folks can’t fly.”

“I always wondered about this,” Ban said. “But I’ve had at least two… three… five bottles of ale, so I can’t trust me ears or my eyes anymore. Speaking of, with our sixth member tracked down, the evening calls for a celebration! Captain, you wouldn’t happen to have more of that Vanya Ale stocked somewhere?”

Meliodas grinned. “I’m one step ahead of you. You’ll join too, right Diane?”

“How could I decline when you’re the one asking?” Diane winked at the Captain, but by some miracle, her eyes found their way back to King. “Still, I’m sure I’ve seen you somewhere before. It’s like a memory from long ago I can’t quite reach.”

“Maybe it was a dream,” King said. “People can imagine the most wonderous things when they’re dreaming.”

But he remembered. He remembered all of it, all the moments, the conversations, and the quiet togetherness Diane had forgotten. And on this day and throughout the next five years King stayed beside her. He found excuses to touch her, hand her a drink, brush her arm when floating next to her, high-five her after a successful mission. Her skin against his skin for the briefest of moments.

So that at least one of them remembered.

#kianeweek #kianeweek2020 #nnt #nanatsu no taizai #nnt fanfic #king x diane #kiane #king #diane #the sins #my writing #I don't know what this is #but it's not the prompt #too tired to edit

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angelicillusions · 5 years ago

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Name: Karalayna Amora Ikelos. Pronunciation: Kar-ah-lai-nah Ah-mowr-ah Eye-kay-lows. Nickname/s: Kara, Layna, Laynie, Kar, Aralay, Alayna. Physical Age: 24. Real Age: 2,451 Birthday: June 21st, 432 BCE. Zodiac Sign: Cancer. Birth Place: Vankila, Seelie Realm. Current Residence: Los Angeles, California. Occupation: IT Analyst. Sexuality: Pansexual. Alignment: Chaotic Good. Species: Eroseelie. Marital Status: Single.

Personality: Karalayna has always felt like the outlier. Her world was surrounded by those who were crueler, didn’t value life and didn’t understand things like empathy and sympathy. She had always been different, even from the start. Where others of her kind were selfish, holding out for only themselves and being shocked when someone extended kindness or sympathy to them, she was kind, selfless, and tried to help those she came across, even though they were more likely to stab her in the back than they were to return to favor. She always felt compassion was its own reward, and was never the type to ask for anything in return for the good deeds she did. In the world innocence went to die, she held onto a wonderment in the world, and had an optimism that most others didn’t possess. Things changed as she grew older. The kinder she acted, the more she was greeted with cruelty. She was called weak, told that loving others made her weak. She had to try and internalize what she felt so she wasn’t singled out. She learned to disguise what she felt. The acting and pretending that she was like the others taught her how to lie and deceive, though she’s not proud of this side of herself. She’s better at construing larger, more elaborate lies, but when it comes to tell white lies she often falls short and most can tell she’s lying. Karalayna typically only uses her more deceptive side when it comes to hiding what she is and who she is, otherwise she prides herself on honesty and tries her best to be open with others. She’s very moral and has a strong compass that guides her actions and makes her try to fight for what she believes is right. She’s very compassionate. She cares about others deeply and is the type to try to protect those who can’t always protect themselves, especially the humans who know so little about the supernatural around them. She’s incredibly defensive of humanity, and holds a high regard for human life and those within it. When it comes to those she cares about, she’s incredibly kind, and always puts those who she cares about above herself, even if it means danger to herself. Karalayna is rather awkward, nervous and clumsy. She doesn’t do so well when it comes to first meetings, and if she’s particularly intimidated by a person, whether it’s by their beauty, their skills, etc. she has the tendency to stumble over her words, or blurt things out without truly thinking about what she’s saying. Karalayna is often over-apologizing for when she’s in her more bumbling and awkward state, especially when she’s nervous about something. She’s got the tendency to babble, and quickly becomes embarrassed by what she says when she forgets to censor herself. While she’s confident in her abilities of things like learning and technological savvy, she can be rather insecure about herself. Karalayna is intelligent, determined and hard-working. She’s got a creative, crafty mind and does well with problem solving. She’s a fast learner, and has a high capacity for learning and picking up on things. When she’s determined to do something, she battens down and always strives to bring out the best of herself and her ability. Her problem solving nature also makes her rather curious and her penchant for learning things and piecing together mysteries has the tendency to lead her into trouble. She’s not the type to back down or hide even when she’s in a dangerous situation, and knows how to be brave and strong. Karalayna is patient, and knows how to wait for things. When she is comfortable with somebody she has the tendency to be somewhat sarcastic and witty, but typically doesn’t go above and beyond to a level that would hurt someone. She’s often the type to use humor, even in dark situations. Despite her past, Karalayna is trusting, and believes in giving others the chance to do the right thing. She isn’t afraid to stand her ground, and will hold up what she believes in. At times she can be rather stubborn about what she’s thinking, and it can take a great deal of sway to try and change her mind. Though her mind isn’t easy to change, it can be changed. When she makes decisions though, she does try to follow through with them.

Biography: Karalayna was the fifth and last child born to King Kian and his favored concubine Odelle. She was conceived during one of Odelle’s fertility periods, in which the King serviced her. Like his other children with Odelle, he had every intention of acknowledging the children and accepting them in his line of heirs. However, unlike his other children, he was not expecting Karalayna to be a girl. For many months, Odelle and Kian were told that the child that Odelle carried was a boy. The King was overjoyed, another son. He’d had a particular distaste for women since his mother and his experience with her. And with his bravado and certainty he would not face death, he could laugh about the fact if somehow someone did manage to bring him down, he would have five heirs to back up the throne and continue in his practice.

Two months before the due date, Odelle went into labor. It was a long labor, and while many healers of their kind tried to prolong the labor so the child had a greater chance for survival, after about thirty hours, not even the strongest magic could hold back Karalayna. And so she was born. She was born on the Summer Solstice, in Odelle’s chambers. Because of the particular case of the birth, even the King was present for it, something unseen even with his four prior acknowledged songs. It was a shock to everyone to find the child that came from Odelle was not a boy but a girl. The king was undoubtedly frustrated that he did not have another Prince, but a princess. However, he took stock that he already had four possible heirs, and in part his own arrogance made him think he did not need even one, so he came to terms with the fact that his youngest was a daughter and acknowledged her as well. Karalayna’s birth was not without lasting effect, as her mother was left unable to bear children after her birth.

Karalayna was spoiled and pampered. She was a princess, and was given no less than the best. She had the finest food, the most elaborate clothing, the only thing she was truly missing was the one thing she craved even as a little girl, true affection and love. It was clear from even her birth, she was different, and it showed as early as her toddler stage how. She didn’t have a muting on her emotions, no watered down version of feelings. She could feel things more deeply than those around her, possibly even more deeply than humans. Yet she was trapped in a world where emotion was not just frowned upon, but made one weak. Her brothers – being as in depth in their nature as they were – ignored and rarely ever paid the slightest drop of attention to her. They were indifferent to her existence. She didn’t provide a threat to the throne they wanted, as nobody truly took her seriously for being in line for the throne, and they didn’t take her as worth their time. Her father, while he paid attention to her at times, showering her with pretty jewels and gowns, he showed no true love, and at the slightest sign of having her own mind he’d cut down those thoughts. Her mother was the closest she ever to true care. The woman had affection for all of her child, but clearly favored Kara. She’d often spend time teaching Kara how to do different things she often said she had been unable to teach her sons. She wasn’t so outright with it, but Karalayna was certain there had to be something there, more than what she saw. Her mother was also the one who taught her to fly when she was three.

Karalayna reached maturity in her mid-twenties, ceasing the aging process and becoming immortal like all the eroseelie did. The difference was still there, the depth of emotion, a heart that she clearly had where others might not have so clearly. She struggled in her world, with the coldness of it, with the constant motion and how everything seemed to matter so little. So many seemed to just waste away their immortality, and while she disdained the fact that she often felt so alone, she almost envied those who didn’t have to feel as strongly as she did, because then they wouldn’t have to feel the pain that came with being so truly lonely. She did her best to hide it, so she could blend in and not face the wrath of her kind. She spent many years of this, blending in, forcing herself not to show everything she felt. She took lovers into her bed during her fertility periods, pretended to enjoy the lavish nature of her life style, and acted as if she was a normal eroseelie. It was not easy, and all the years she had to do this for slowly chipped away at her, haunting her.

When Karalayna was in her early first few centuries, she and her mother were having a brunch when her father’s men stormed the room, dragging her mother away from her. Kara couldn’t remain stone faced during this and ended up fighting as hard as she could to defend the woman she cared about. She managed to incapacitate three of her father’s men, but soon she was also brought down. When she awoke she was in her chambers, under heavy guard. Weeks passed, and supposed information poured in about her mother committing infidelities. She was not allowed to leave her room, but she could hear the guards gossiping while she wondered what would come of her mother, and what would come of herself.

About six weeks after her mother’s arrest, Kayalayna awoke in her room when guards came in with a gown for her. She was ordered to dress and accompany the guards downstairs. She had hoped it meant the end of her bedroom arrest and that the gown and invitation was her father’s way of making peace. It wasn’t as if he was the type to apologize for what he did. So she dressed, she walked down to the throne room where her father sat. And she was forced to watch as her father drove a sword carved from rowan wood through her mother’s chest. Karalayna tried to get to her mother, but she was restrained as she watched those last agonizing moments.

Karalayna was haunted by the death. The one woman who’d come the closest to affection was gone, and she was left in a cruel world with a father who had enjoyed as he skewered the woman he’d once been rumored to love. She put herself on a house arrest of sorts, locking herself away in her chambers. For years she stayed in the solitude, rarely leaving. When she did leave it was for food, and she didn’t speak to anyway. She spiraled into a depression, haunted by nightmares of what she had seen, reliving the horror of her own helplessness over and over.

Eventually, her depression drove her to a sort of madness, and she wanted to erase all the memories of her mother. She destroyed items given to her by the woman, yet the memories still remained. She somehow came to get it in her head that her wings were just another reminder of her mother and the fact she was no longer there. She obtained an iron blade and attempted to carve her right wing from her back. She passed out before she could complete the process, but was left with a nasty scar along her shoulder blade to show for what she’d done to herself. It was after that when healers started drugging her, so she wouldn’t be such a danger to herself.

Two weeks into the drugging, she forced herself out of her depression, or at least found the foundation for trying to climb her way out of it. The drugging had only meant she was asleep and weak more often. And when she was sleeping and weak, she was vulnerable to the awful nightmares of her mother. It was torture, constantly seeing the repeats of her mother’s death, or seeing memories she’d shared with her mother contorted by the awful horrid event. It was enough that she at least pretended to be better long enough to make the steps to actually recovering somewhat from the entire incident. It took decades for her to find any true peace with it, and even then there was so much unrest it would only take something painful to trigger the horror of it.

Months turned to years, and years turned to decades and decades turned to centuries. So much time blurred together, but Karalayna was still the same person she had always been, a fish out of water among her own kind. She was different fundamentally, with the powers and the looks of those around her, but not the soul. She tried many things, even tried immersing herself in the culture of her people to escape what was inside of her. But nothing seemed to work. She could not shake what she had been born with. Her father had tried to some degree, recognizing her softness. Anytime she would grow someone attached to anyone that seemed beyond that of something physical, she would be forced to watch them die in the same manner her mother had killed. Three lovers of her went like that. Convenient crimes popping up that gave her father grounds to execute them. Not that he needed those grounds. He was a king. She often imagined he did such things to mock her.

Some of the eroseelie left their realm, escaping through worn holes in the fiber of the wards holding them in place. They had tried to escape into the seelie realm, only to be face with death and torture as a result. Instead they found themselves in the human world. Some would bring back stories of the humans, and the world they lived in. It was one of the things that always intrigued Karalayna. The times she felt most alive was when the latest eroseelie would return with news or artifacts from the human realm. She busied herself by speaking to those eroseelie, learning the ways of humans. She felt a kinship to them more so than she did her own people, though she passed off her interest as a clinical curiosity. It was always believed that Kian’s line would be incapable of leaving the realm, because of the fact Kian’s very blood bound the warding that held them in place. It wasn’t until the early 1990’s in the human realm did Karalayna’s brothers discover otherwise.

It happened on one of those rare days where Karalayna was actually with those who were her blood kin. They were spending at one of the lakes down by the warding edge. It wasn’t anything special really. A normal day. Her brothers roughhousing and wrestling about in the water, closer to each other than they’d ever be to Karalayna. And Karalayna laying at a distance, flipping through the pages of a book. She wasn’t entirely sure what had happened, but as things often did with the colder nature her brother’s held, the lack of care caused one thing to escalate to another. Her brother Oryn telekinetically threw her other brother smack into the warding. Only he didn’t slam into the invisible force field, he passed through. For moments, panic gripped them all. Soon enough, Dax decided to investigate. The ward was in place where he touched below where Averett had been thrown. When he touched where he’d been thrown, his hand passed through. And so Dax used his powers to push through that tear. One by one her other brothers followed. Karalayna was the last. The tear opened in Virginia in the human world.

Cautiously, they explored what they could of the human world, being smart enough to use their glamor so they appeared to be humans, rescinding their wings and dulling their powers. Karalayna, despite her cold relationship with her brothers, stuck by their sides for the better part of the day, breaking off only two hours before they were pulled back. Those two hours were some of the best of her life. Finally, she didn’t have to hide her soul from others. She could smile, and she could be genuine. Those things had been so long dormant she felt stiff calling up the behaviors that were part of her. Yet it brought her the feeling of being alive. She craved it. And then she was pulled away, pulled back into Vankila.

A blast of power dragged her back, an extension of the warding. She found herself back in the woods that had been near where she and her brother’s had lounged earlier. When she got back to the castle, her brothers were there. Her father seemed completely tickled that his blood and flesh had gotten through the warding, even if it had been only temporary. He assumed that it was because of their mother’s blood that they could have been able to escape for that short time. It became a regular thing. Sometimes one brother went out, sometimes two, sometimes three and sometimes four. Always with a fleet of guards, often testing out the different rips in the warding.

Sometimes she was also allowed to leave. She was allowed to accompany her brothers out into the human world. She never quite got to venture away from them though. There was no more going off on her own. Instead she was forced to watch the chaos those of her species put onto the world. She had to see their loose morals and inability to feel allow them to commit such horrid acts as unleashing their power onto the poor unwitting humans and forcing them into their control. She watched the creatures she felt so attached to willingly march to their death just to get what the power of her species made them crave.

A few times she had tried to intercede. She was often punished for that. The first time she tried to intercede, she had been whipped five times. The second time she’d been locked away in solitary confinement. And the third time her father lanced power debilitating crystals through her hands. The latter left her weak for two weeks. Once more, she was forced into silence, into being quiet. Her whole life in her world had been spent muting who she was, but now her time in this world of promise she had to spend muting what she was as well.

Her breaking point soon came. It had started relatively normally, she was attending one of her brothers to the human world in the early 2000’s. He had been on the hunt for a human woman to turn to his ways and contort to what he wanted. He found a girl he was interested in, and decided to partake in a game of genuinely trying to draw her in before he unleashed his powers on her. He managed to get her back to an apartment that was one of many her family was renting so they had a temporary residence in those few hours they could spend in the human world. Karalayna under her usual orders was to attend him where he went, so she too returned. She went to one of the two rooms, not wanting to see what came next. Only when her brother went to unleash the power, it didn’t work. The woman was resistant to the magic her brother could access. Karalayna left her room when she heard the woman screaming. Her brother, with that limited eroseelie comprehension forced the woman into being with him, and the moment Karalayna had left her room she was locked in place by a guard.

They returned home immediately after, and Karalayna was resolved on what she had to do.

Weeks, Karalayna spent weeks trying to come up with a plan. She knew she had to get out. She knew that if she could not stop each of her brothers, she could no longer support what they were doing by watching as a bystander. She would find a way to try and stop it when she got out. The plan was not an easy one to form at first. There were many obstacles, such as the fact she could only leave for a few hours at a time. She knew leaving was something she would only be able to do once, even then she would be chased after. That was just another of the obstacles she would have to face.

It was not an easy task. Eventually the answer came when she had been looking at the vacant crystals her father had had crafted into a set of earrings, the ones that had one held the power to debilitate her powers long enough for her punishment to be served, the ones that had become earrings as a reminder of her father’s will. She realized that if she used enough of the power muting and perhaps a weaker one of those crystals, she could trick the barrier into thinking that she was not one of her father’s bloodline. All those of her father’s bloodline who had passed through had been strong and powerful, and it was not the blood the barrier looked for to track the person down, but their power. It was purely a theory at first.

But she eventually tested it through observing the people entering and leaving the realm, and observing the spellwork in the ward itself. Slowly, she gained enough evidence to believe that her theory was right. Next she located her own crystal, one that had not been enriched by power yet, but also not one that had been burned out of such power. She took the crystal and brought it to one of the ‘thugs’ of her kind. She paid the person handsomely to enchant it with a far weaker version of the spell on the crystals her father had impaled in her hands. It was enough to compliment her own power muting, but not enough to completely drown and weaken her like her father’s crystals had been.

She chose the night, the busy night of the Winter Solstice. Most of her kind would be wrapped up in celebrations. That night she packed a few things, mostly her journals from over the years, and then headed off. She used a bracelet that had been composed with the crystal she’d had enchanted and a combination of her muting power this time. She didn’t have to escape through a tear. This time she walked right through, and felt the true freedom for once. She knew people would come looking for her, but she kept her powers muted enough so they couldn’t send people that way. Slowly, when she felt less paranoid and inclined to skip towns every few weeks, she started to settle in.

Karalayna found a home in the human realm. She acclimated, learned to fit in. Even though her species was different, and she had to hide that, she felt more at home in the realm than she ever had in her world. She adapted to the new world, learned how to keep herself safe. For a while, she had become so wrapped up in that new buzz of finally feeling at home somewhere that she forgot what had driven her there in the first place. It wasn’t until the eroseelie invaded the city she had come to call home. It was only a few of them and she’d barely caught them out of the corner of her eye. She knew what they were going to do.

She became driven to do what she could to stop it. She couldn’t use masses of her powers because of the constant muting she did, but she became driven to learn another way to defend the precious gift she felt was humanity. Karalayna started to attend school in the human world. At first she was dawn towards law enforcement, surely they would be the best option. But she soon realized she had an aptitude for computers. From there, she learned more. She used her intelligence and dedication to learn as much as she possibly could about technology and how to use it as a weapon.

A few years later she had set up a unique web that allowed her to detect the movement of the eroseelie. It alerted her of apartment rentals, purchases. At first just under the names her family had used. But soon she picked up on more eroseelie aliases, and used those as well. During the day, she spent her time immersed in her human realm, working as an IT girl at some company in Los Angeles. But when she wasn’t doing that she was tracking and searching down every possible member of her kind and doing whatever it took to drive them out from the human world.

#biography

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thecrossingroleplay · 5 years ago

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UNAVAILABLE

Name: Kayalayna Ikelos. Age: 24 [Real Age: 2,446]. Species: Eroseelie. Sexuality: Pansexual. Faceclaim: Emily Bett Rickards. Personality: Karalayna has always felt like the outlier. Her world was surrounded by those who were crueler, didn’t value life and didn’t understand things like empathy and sympathy. She had always been different, even from the start. Where others of her kind were selfish, holding out for only themselves and being shocked when someone extended kindness or sympathy to them, she was kind, selfless, and tried to help those she came across, even though they were more likely to stab her in the back than they were to return to favor. She always felt compassion was its own reward, and was never the type to ask for anything in return for the good deeds she did. In the world innocence went to die, she held onto a wonderment in the world, and had an optimism that most others didn’t possess. Things changed as she grew older. The kinder she acted, the more she was greeted with cruelty. She was called weak, told that loving others made her weak. She had to try and internalize what she felt so she wasn’t singled out. She learned to disguise what she felt. The acting and pretending that she was like the others taught her how to lie and deceive, though she’s not proud of this side of herself. She’s better at construing larger, more elaborate lies, but when it comes to tell white lies she often falls short and most can tell she’s lying. Karalayna typically only uses her more deceptive side when it comes to hiding what she is and who she is, otherwise she prides herself on honesty and tries her best to be open with others. She’s very moral and has a strong compass that guides her actions and makes her try to fight for what she believes is right. She’s very compassionate. She cares about others deeply and is the type to try to protect those who can’t always protect themselves, especially the humans who know so little about the supernatural around them. She’s incredibly defensive of humanity, and holds a high regard for human life and those within it. When it comes to those she cares about, she’s incredibly kind, and always puts those who she cares about above herself, even if it means danger to herself. Karalayna is rather awkward, nervous and clumsy. She doesn’t do so well when it comes to first meetings, and if she’s particularly intimidated by a person, whether it’s by their beauty, their skills, etc. she has the tendency to stumble over her words, or blurt things out without truly thinking about what she’s saying. Karalayna is often over-apologizing for when she’s in her more bumbling and awkward state, especially when she’s nervous about something. She’s got the tendency to babble, and quickly becomes embarrassed by what she says when she forgets to censor herself. While she’s confident in her abilities of things like learning and technological savvy, she can be rather insecure about herself. Karalayna is intelligent, determined and hard-working. She’s got a creative, crafty mind and does well with problem solving. She’s a fast learner, and has a high capacity for learning and picking up on things. When she’s determined to do something, she battens down and always strives to bring out the best of herself and her ability. Her problem solving nature also makes her rather curious and her penchant for learning things and piecing together mysteries has the tendency to lead her into trouble. She’s not the type to back down or hide even when she’s in a dangerous situation, and knows how to be brave and strong. Karalayna is patient, and knows how to wait for things. When she is comfortable with somebody she has the tendency to be somewhat sarcastic and witty, but typically doesn’t go above and beyond to a level that would hurt someone. She’s often the type to use humor, even in dark situations. Despite her past, Karalayna is trusting, and believes in giving others the chance to do the right thing. She isn’t afraid to stand her ground, and will hold up what she believes in. At times she can be rather stubborn about what she’s thinking, and it can take a great deal of sway to try and change her mind. Though her mind isn’t easy to change, it can be changed. When she makes decisions though, she does try to follow through with them. Biography: Karalayna was the fifth and last child born to King Kian and his favored concubine Odelle. She was conceived during one of Odelle’s fertility periods, in which the King serviced her. Like his other children with Odelle, he had every intention of acknowledging the children and accepting them in his line of heirs. However, unlike his other children, he was not expecting Karalayna to be a girl. For many months, Odelle and Kian were told that the child that Odelle carried was a boy. The King was overjoyed, another son. He’d had a particular distaste for women since his mother and his experience with her. And with his bravado and certainty he would not face death, he could laugh about the fact if somehow someone did manage to bring him down, he would have five heirs to back up the throne and continue in his practice. Two months before the due date, Odelle went into labor. It was a long labor, and while many healers of their kind tried to prolong the labor so the child had a greater chance for survival, after about thirty hours, not even the strongest magic could hold back Karalayna. And so she was born. She was born on the Summer Solstice, in Odelle’s chambers. Because of the particular case of the birth, even the King was present for it, something unseen even with his four prior acknowledged songs. It was a shock to everyone to find the child that came from Odelle was not a boy but a girl. The king was undoubtedly frustrated that he did not have another Prince, but a princess. However, he took stock that he already had four possible heirs, and in part his own arrogance made him think he did not need even one, so he came to terms with the fact that his youngest was a daughter and acknowledged her as well. Karalayna’s birth was not without lasting effect, as her mother was left unable to bear children after her birth. Karalayna was spoiled and pampered. She was a princess, and was given no less than the best. She had the finest food, the most elaborate clothing, the only thing she was truly missing was the one thing she craved even as a little girl, true affection and love. It was clear from even her birth, she was different, and it showed as early as her toddler stage how. She didn’t have a muting on her emotions, no watered down version of feelings. She could feel things more deeply than those around her, possibly even more deeply than humans. Yet she was trapped in a world where emotion was not just frowned upon, but made one weak. Her brothers – being as in depth in their nature as they were – ignored and rarely ever paid the slightest drop of attention to her. They were indifferent to her existence. She didn’t provide a threat to the throne they wanted, as nobody truly took her seriously for being in line for the throne, and they didn’t take her as worth their time. Her father, while he paid attention to her at times, showering her with pretty jewels and gowns, he showed no true love, and at the slightest sign of having her own mind he’d cut down those thoughts. Her mother was the closest she ever to true care. The woman had affection for all of her child, but clearly favored Kara. She’d often spend time teaching Kara how to do different things she often said she had been unable to teach her sons. She wasn’t so outright with it, but Karalayna was certain there had to be something there, more than what she saw. Her mother was also the one who taught her to fly when she was three. Karalayna reached maturity in her mid-twenties, ceasing the aging process and becoming immortal like all the eroseelie did. The difference was still there, the depth of emotion, a heart that she clearly had where others might not have so clearly. She struggled in her world, with the coldness of it, with the constant motion and how everything seemed to matter so little. So many seemed to just waste away their immortality, and while she disdained the fact that she often felt so alone, she almost envied those who didn’t have to feel as strongly as she did, because then they wouldn’t have to feel the pain that came with being so truly lonely. She did her best to hide it, so she could blend in and not face the wrath of her kind. She spent many years of this, blending in, forcing herself not to show everything she felt. She took lovers into her bed during her fertility periods, pretended to enjoy the lavish nature of her life style, and acted as if she was a normal eroseelie. It was not easy, and all the years she had to do this for slowly chipped away at her, haunting her. When Karalayna was in her early first few centuries, she and her mother were having a brunch when her father’s men stormed the room, dragging her mother away from her. Kara couldn’t remain stone faced during this and ended up fighting as hard as she could to defend the woman she cared about. She managed to incapacitate three of her father’s men, but soon she was also brought down. When she awoke she was in her chambers, under heavy guard. Weeks passed, and supposed information poured in about her mother committing infidelities. She was not allowed to leave her room, but she could hear the guards gossiping while she wondered what would come of her mother, and what would come of herself. About six weeks after her mother’s arrest, Kayalayna awoke in her room when guards came in with a gown for her. She was ordered to dress and accompany the guards downstairs. She had hoped it meant the end of her bedroom arrest and that the gown and invitation was her father’s way of making peace. It wasn’t as if he was the type to apologize for what he did. So she dressed, she walked down to the throne room where her father sat. And she was forced to watch as her father drove a sword carved from rowan wood through her mother’s chest. Karalayna tried to get to her mother, but she was restrained as she watched those last agonizing moments. Karalayna was haunted by the death. The one woman who’d come the closest to affection was gone, and she was left in a cruel world with a father who had enjoyed as he skewered the woman he’d once been rumored to love. She put herself on a house arrest of sorts, locking herself away in her chambers. For years she stayed in the solitude, rarely leaving. When she did leave it was for food, and she didn’t speak to anyway. She spiraled into a depression, haunted by nightmares of what she had seen, reliving the horror of her own helplessness over and over. Eventually, her depression drove her to a sort of madness, and she wanted to erase all the memories of her mother. She destroyed items given to her by the woman, yet the memories still remained. She somehow came to get it in her head that her wings were just another reminder of her mother and the fact she was no longer there. She obtained an iron blade and attempted to carve her right wing from her back. She passed out before she could complete the process, but was left with a nasty scar along her shoulder blade to show for what she’d done to herself. It was after that when healers started drugging her, so she wouldn’t be such a danger to herself. Two weeks into the drugging, she forced herself out of her depression, or at least found the foundation for trying to climb her way out of it. The drugging had only meant she was asleep and weak more often. And when she was sleeping and weak, she was vulnerable to the awful nightmares of her mother. It was torture, constantly seeing the repeats of her mother’s death, or seeing memories she’d shared with her mother contorted by the awful horrid event. It was enough that she at least pretended to be better long enough to make the steps to actually recovering somewhat from the entire incident. It took decades for her to find any true peace with it, and even then there was so much unrest it would only take something painful to trigger the horror of it. Months turned to years, and years turned to decades and decades turned to centuries. So much time blurred together, but Karalayna was still the same person she had always been, a fish out of water among her own kind. She was different fundamentally, with the powers and the looks of those around her, but not the soul. She tried many things, even tried immersing herself in the culture of her people to escape what was inside of her. But nothing seemed to work. She could not shake what she had been born with. Her father had tried to some degree, recognizing her softness. Anytime she would grow someone attached to anyone that seemed beyond that of something physical, she would be forced to watch them die in the same manner her mother had killed. Three lovers of her went like that. Convenient crimes popping up that gave her father grounds to execute them. Not that he needed those grounds. He was a king. She often imagined he did such things to mock her. Some of the eroseelie left their realm, escaping through worn holes in the fiber of the wards holding them in place. They had tried to escape into the seelie realm, only to be face with death and torture as a result. Instead they found themselves in the human world. Some would bring back stories of the humans, and the world they lived in. It was one of the things that always intrigued Karalayna. The times she felt most alive was when the latest eroseelie would return with news or artifacts from the human realm. She busied herself by speaking to those eroseelie, learning the ways of humans. She felt a kinship to them more so than she did her own people, though she passed off her interest as a clinical curiosity. It was always believed that Kian’s line would be incapable of leaving the realm, because of the fact Kian’s very blood bound the warding that held them in place. It wasn’t until the early 1990’s in the human realm did Karalayna’s brothers discover otherwise. It happened on one of those rare days where Karalayna was actually with those who were her blood kin. They were spending at one of the lakes down by the warding edge. It wasn’t anything special really. A normal day. Her brothers roughhousing and wrestling about in the water, closer to each other than they’d ever be to Karalayna. And Karalayna laying at a distance, flipping through the pages of a book. She wasn’t entirely sure what had happened, but as things often did with the colder nature her brother’s held, the lack of care caused one thing to escalate to another. Her brother Oryn telekinetically threw her other brother smack into the warding. Only he didn’t slam into the invisible force field, he passed through. For moments, panic gripped them all. Soon enough, Dax decided to investigate. The ward was in place where he touched below where Averett had been thrown. When he touched where he’d been thrown, his hand passed through. And so Dax used his powers to push through that tear. One by one her other brothers followed. Karalayna was the last. The tear opened in Virginia in the human world. Cautiously, they explored what they could of the human world, being smart enough to use their glamor so they appeared to be humans, rescinding their wings and dulling their powers. Karalayna, despite her cold relationship with her brothers, stuck by their sides for the better part of the day, breaking off only two hours before they were pulled back. Those two hours were some of the best of her life. Finally, she didn’t have to hide her soul from others. She could smile, and she could be genuine. Those things had been so long dormant she felt stiff calling up the behaviors that were part of her. Yet it brought her the feeling of being alive. She craved it. And then she was pulled away, pulled back into Vankila. A blast of power dragged her back, an extension of the warding. She found herself back in the woods that had been near where she and her brother’s had lounged earlier. When she got back to the castle, her brothers were there. Her father seemed completely tickled that his blood and flesh had gotten through the warding, even if it had been only temporary. He assumed that it was because of their mother’s blood that they could have been able to escape for that short time. It became a regular thing. Sometimes one brother went out, sometimes two, sometimes three and sometimes four. Always with a fleet of guards, often testing out the different rips in the warding. Sometimes she was also allowed to leave. She was allowed to accompany her brothers out into the human world. She never quite got to venture away from them though. There was no more going off on her own. Instead she was forced to watch the chaos those of her species put onto the world. She had to see their loose morals and inability to feel allow them to commit such horrid acts as unleashing their power onto the poor unwitting humans and forcing them into their control. She watched the creatures she felt so attached to willingly march to their death just to get what the power of her species made them crave. A few times she had tried to intercede. She was often punished for that. The first time she tried to intercede, she had been whipped five times. The second time she’d been locked away in solitary confinement. And the third time her father lanced power debilitating crystals through her hands. The latter left her weak for two weeks. Once more, she was forced into silence, into being quiet. Her whole life in her world had been spent muting who she was, but now her time in this world of promise she had to spend muting what she was as well. Her breaking point soon came. It had started relatively normally, she was attending one of her brothers to the human world in the early 2000’s. He had been on the hunt for a human woman to turn to his ways and contort to what he wanted. He found a girl he was interested in, and decided to partake in a game of genuinely trying to draw her in before he unleashed his powers on her. He managed to get her back to an apartment that was one of many her family was renting so they had a temporary residence in those few hours they could spend in the human world. Karalayna under her usual orders was to attend him where he went, so she too returned. She went to one of the two rooms, not wanting to see what came next. Only when her brother went to unleash the power, it didn’t work. The woman was resistant to the magic her brother could access. Karalayna left her room when she heard the woman screaming. Her brother, with that limited eroseelie comprehension forced the woman into being with him, and the moment Karalayna had left her room she was locked in place by a guard. They returned home immediately after, and Karalayna was resolved on what she had to do. Weeks, Karalayna spent weeks trying to come up with a plan. She knew she had to get out. She knew that if she could not stop each of her brothers, she could no longer support what they were doing by watching as a bystander. She would find a way to try and stop it when she got out. The plan was not an easy one to form at first. There were many obstacles, such as the fact she could only leave for a few hours at a time. She knew leaving was something she would only be able to do once, even then she would be chased after. That was just another of the obstacles she would have to face. It was not an easy task. Eventually the answer came when she had been looking at the vacant crystals her father had had crafted into a set of earrings, the ones that had one held the power to debilitate her powers long enough for her punishment to be served, the ones that had become earrings as a reminder of her father’s will. She realized that if she used enough of the power muting and perhaps a weaker one of those crystals, she could trick the barrier into thinking that she was not one of her father’s bloodline. All those of her father’s bloodline who had passed through had been strong and powerful, and it was not the blood the barrier looked for to track the person down, but their power. It was purely a theory at first. But she eventually tested it through observing the people entering and leaving the realm, and observing the spellwork in the ward itself. Slowly, she gained enough evidence to believe that her theory was right. Next she located her own crystal, one that had not been enriched by power yet, but also not one that had been burned out of such power. She took the crystal and brought it to one of the ‘thugs’ of her kind. She paid the person handsomely to enchant it with a far weaker version of the spell on the crystals her father had impaled in her hands. It was enough to compliment her own power muting, but not enough to completely drown and weaken her like her father’s crystals had been. She chose the night, the busy night of the Winter Solstice. Most of her kind would be wrapped up in celebrations. That night she packed a few things, mostly her journals from over the years, and then headed off. She used a bracelet that had been composed with the crystal she’d had enchanted and a combination of her muting power this time. She didn’t have to escape through a tear. This time she walked right through, and felt the true freedom for once. She knew people would come looking for her, but she kept her powers muted enough so they couldn’t send people that way. Slowly, when she felt less paranoid and inclined to skip towns every few weeks, she started to settle in. Karalayna found a home in the human realm. She acclimated, learned to fit in. Even though her species was different, and she had to hide that, she felt more at home in the realm than she ever had in her world. She adapted to the new world, learned how to keep herself safe. For a while, she had become so wrapped up in that new buzz of finally feeling at home somewhere that she forgot what had driven her there in the first place. It wasn’t until the eroseelie invaded the city she had come to call home. It was only a few of them and she’d barely caught them out of the corner of her eye. She knew what they were going to do. She became driven to do what she could to stop it. She couldn’t use masses of her powers because of the constant muting she did, but she became driven to learn another way to defend the precious gift she felt was humanity. Karalayna started to attend school in the human world. At first she was dawn towards law enforcement, surely they would be the best option. But she soon realized she had an aptitude for computers. From there, she learned more. She used her intelligence and dedication to learn as much as she possibly could about technology and how to use it as a weapon. A few years later she had set up a unique web that allowed her to detect the movement of the eroseelie. It alerted her of apartment rentals, purchases. At first just under the names her family had used. But soon she picked up on more eroseelie aliases, and used those as well. During the day, she spent her time immersed in her human realm, working as an IT girl at some company in Los Angeles. But when she wasn’t doing that she was tracking and searching down every possible member of her kind and doing whatever it took to drive them out from the human world.

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essays-for-breakfast · 4 years ago

Text

When the Daisies Bloom

Kiane Week Day Two: Flowers/Daisy

Diane has never cared much for flowers. Most of them, while pretty to look at, don’t fill her stomach. And whenever she spent too much time marveling at the blossoms, yellow and white, vibrant pink and soft blue, with small petals and elaborate calyxes, the daylight would fade too soon, and she would have to fetch water in the gloom of the night or endure the thirst. In Megadoza, no one had an eye for these short-lived bursts of color when they turn a dull stretch of grass into a painting. Even if she had cared to ask before she left her people and their mindset for an autumn adventure, no one would have told her the names of these blossoms. For the longest time, she doesn’t know they have names.

Until she finds a Fairy by the riverside.

He has trouble remembering his own name, just like she has trouble pronouncing the complex syllables the first few times. Harlequin. Unlike anything a Giant would call their child, almost like a piece of foreign music. But he gives each flower they stumble across a name and a story.

The yellow, starshaped ones that like to show their faces to a crowd of same-looking blooms – daffodils.

The tiny buds in blue and purple that are the first to crawl out of the earth after the cold – crocuses.

The pack of upside-down tankards that will turn the ground between the forest trunks a short walk south of Diane’s cave into an indigo carpet – bluebells.

Whenever Diane goes to the river to fetch water, Harlequin flies beside her and points at a shrub here or a bush there. Some won’t produce buds before a few more months. But Harlequin describes them in such detail, from the way the blossoms will rustle with the wind to the scent they will share with the world, that Diane can imagine it all. This way she learns to identify broom, bluebeard, and summer lilacs before they change their green attire for a colorful dress.

The days grow longer. An orchestra of crickets gives daily concerts, and as long as Diane doesn’t have to see the bugs, she can enjoy their play without a disgusted shudder. Even at night, the air outside her cave tickles her bare arms with warmth.

She lies on her back and plays with a flower crown Harlequin made for her. A few turns of his forefinger, and the blossoms of the meadow across the river have danced in the air, held the hands of their neighbors, and formed a circle of merry ball guests in pink and white and violet.

“Harlequin?” Diane asks, and he sits up to look at her. “How do you know so much about flowers?”

He tilts his head, a move he always performs when he ponders. “I grew up surrounded by flowers, I think. Everyone there knew them by name, and some people took the names of flowers they liked for themselves. It must seem like a weird thing for a Giant…”

Diane shakes her head. “I don’t find it weird. I would have rather learned about flowers than about weapons and the different ways to gain honor in battle. That’s why I went away. Everyone at Megadoza only cares about fighting for the sake of fighting. Why did you go away?”

“I don’t remember. I think I wanted to help someone… but my head’s all fuzzy.”

Diane rolls over until Harlequin’s face hovers mere inches away from her nose. Her breath distorts his hair, and a pink shimmer covers his skin.

“Maybe you wanted to help me!” Diane says. “Since I found you, you have helped me to tell the good fruits from the ones that make my stomach all twisty. And you have taught me everything about flowers. I would have never found the little waterfall or the stone circle on the other side of the beech forest without you. It’s been a lot more fun than anything I did back with the other Giants. Can I tell you a secret I never told anyone?”

Harlequin has forgotten to blink, and he almost forgets to nod too. Diane fights down her giggles. What she is about to tell him is important.

“In the third night after I found this cave, a snowstorm roared outside. My fingers wouldn’t move because of the cold, and I forgot to collect wood for a fire. The rooms of Megadoza aren’t warm, the stone always spreads this cold that seeps through your toes and then your entire body. But at least there were other people around, many orphans who huddle close to each other. In this cave in the middle of the storm, I didn’t have anyone else. That’s when I made a wish. I held my lips close to the earth – because that is the only way your wish will be heard – and asked for the earth to send me someone to help me. A friend to share this cave with. And since that night, I always whispered the same wish to the earth. I only stopped after I found you. You fulfilled my wish, Harlequin.”

Again, he has forgotten to blink. His eyes shimmer as she looks at her.

“I’m sorry,” he says with a hoarse voice.

“Why?”

“For the horrible things you had to go through.”

“You apologize too much.” With these words, Diane plucks a white freesia from her crown and shoves it into his hair, knocking him over in the process.

The next morning, a ray of sunshine caresses Diane’s cheek. For a handful of heartbeats, she snuggles deeper into her bed made out of dry leaves and squeezes her eyes shut. But then she sits up. Harlequin’s slow breaths have maintained their rhythm. He can sleep for hours, probably days on end without growing tired of it. A shame considering all the amazing new things the day may have in store for them.

But when Diane crawls out of the cave, and her eyes adjust to the brightness, she shrieks.

Snow. In the middle of summer. The meadow in front of her cave, a vast plain of grass blades yesterday, has disappeared under a white blanket. Weird yellow blobs are sprinkled across the snow. Diane reaches out with a finger and shrieks again when the contact lacks the expected cold.

Harlequin races outside, still a little confused after the sudden theft of his sleep. “What is it, what happened, are you alright?”

And he would have continued his barrage of questions if Diane hadn’t grabbed him out of the air. With both hands she shakes him, up and down like an oversized rattle.

“WHAAAA!” she screams. “I shouldn’t have told the story about the snow, I never wanted to make it snow, I take everything back, forget I said anything in the first place. And then do your magic and lift this course from meee!”

Harlequin’s head bobs back and forth, but the pats he gives her fingers to calm her don’t spare him from more violent shakes. “Diane, Diane, stop, please. Diane! Okay, I promise I do my magic. Everything will be alright. Just hold still for a moment.”

Diane obeys but presses her eyes shut right away when the weird snow attacks her vision. If she doesn’t look for long enough, maybe the white will go away.

A strange sound comes from Harlequin. By the eternal earth, maybe he is dying. The snow is killing him. And it’s all Diane’s fault because her story summoned the white devil to their threshold.

She needs several moments to realize he is laughing.

“Diane, it’s not snow,” he says, and the joy clings to each of his words. “Look again.”

Maybe he has gone mad. But in the end, Diane trusts Harlequin and cranes her eyes open. The ‘snow’ still covers the meadow, despite her best attempts at wishing it away. Only that it isn’t snow after all. Uncountable white flowers have sprouted overnight, an entire ocean of them, and the yellow dots make up their heads.

Harlequin wiggles free of her loosened grip and plucks one of the flowers to offer Diane a closer look. “They are called daisies. We had a cool early summer, so they are a little late. You can find them all across Britannia on plains and hills just like this. That’s… what someone told me at least. I’m not sure.”

“Next time, they should be more considerate than to scare me so much. I want a heads-up before they invade our lawn,” Diane says and makes a face. But it’s hard to stay mad with the funny-looking flowers for long.

Harlequin kneels down and brushes the flowerheads. “I like them. I didn’t get to see them often in the forest, but when the daisies show their petals, you know summer has arrived. They also taste great in company with wild salad and beetroots. Did you know that they follow the sun with their bloom?”

“I didn’t even know they existed until this morning.”

A flash of pink colors Harlequin’s cheeks. “Oh, you’re right. Sorry.”

“You apologize too much,” Diane says with a snort. “But I like them too. As long as I don’t have to think of them as snow. And I like summer even more. Let’s make a promise, okay? At the beginning of every summer, we will watch the daisies in full bloom. Then we can celebrate a year of our friendship.”

Harlequin smiles as he looks at Diane. A hint of distant sadness swims in the amber of his eyes, another promise broken, another life forgotten. But in this moment, he is happy. That’s what Diane wants to believe.

He uses his entire hand to grab her outstretched finger and shakes it. “It’s a promise.”

Summer comes and goes. All while the daisies bloom on the fields surrounding their home, Diane and Harlequin find an excuse to waste time outside, chasing each other across the hills, spinning in senseless dances, or lying amidst the ocean of white flowers. Harlequin weaves another flower crown for her, a gift she tears apart in her endless enthusiasm and cries over the broken remains until he tinkers a new wreath, even lovelier than the last. She tries the salat he mentioned, but politely declines a second serving in favor of another piece of pork.

Diane has never cared much for flowers, but daisies in particular spread their roots inside her heart. All because of Harlequin.

Summer comes. They craft a garland of daisies and decorate the cave with it. Okay, Harlequin does most of the work, Diane’s fingers struggle against the fragile shafts in vain, but she supplies him with bucket after bucket of new flowers to the point where he can’t keep up anymore and has to admit his defeat with a laugh.

Summer comes. Diane lies on her back amidst the daisies and watches the stars. Their soft scent lingers in the air, even though they have closed their blooms. Harlequin sits on her stomach and points at the bright freckles in the sky’s dark face, a few of which he recognizes from before she knew him. The small lights dot the sky like daisies in an endless blue field.

Summer comes. The air has warmed over the past days, and Diane no longer needs the blanket Harlequin made for her after she lay sick with a fever. And when she returns from the river with an armful of hunted boars, the first daisies stretch their heads towards her. She giggles and picks the prettiest one out of the gathering to surprise Harlequin with the good news.

But the cave is empty.

“Harlequin?” Diane asks. Her voice echoes from the barren stone walls. She drops the meat, and turns over the loose rocks, hurls them outside, even though she knows he would have answered her.

Gone. Has he remembered his past? Did the people he knew in his old home feel the same numbness in their stomach when he disappeared? Has he forgotten her the same way he had them? Harlequin promised to watch the daisies with her.

He promised.

Diane fails to realize she has crushed the daisy between her fingers until the petals rain to the ground. Like snowflakes they cover the place where Harlequin went to sleep last night, right next to the big mold in the pile of leaves where she sleeps.

A hiccup cramps Diane’s throat, and her eyes sting. Rubbing them doesn’t help. Her fingers are cold against her face. He promised.

And that’s when his voice sounds from the cave entrance, and Diane’s heartbeat jumps so high it pounds in her head. “Look what I found, Diane, it’s the first—”

She suffocates the rest of his words as she plucks him from the air and squeezes him, so tightly that he could never possibly leave her side ever again.

“Are-are you crying?” he asks in between desperate coughs for air.

“Don’t leave me, you promised to stay with me.” The tears streaming down her face muffle her voice, but it doesn’t matter. Harlequin hasn’t left her. And when this realization grabs hold of her brain, Diane eases her grip just enough to let him breathe.

“I won’t leave you. We promised to watch the daisies together, don’t you remember? I found one at the back of the cave. It’s a bit dented, but it still means summer has arrived, right? I’m sorry I made you cry, I thought I would be back before you noticed.” Harlequin offers her the flower, and when she ends her stranglehold around his torso, he places the battered daisy in her hair. “Can you forgive me?”

Diane sniffs. “Of course. As long as you make sure to hold your promise from now one.”

“I will.”

Summer comes. Summer comes and goes many times, way past the point where Diane can count them with her fingers. One field of daisies blends into the next and the next, and the one after that. But no matter what happens, Diane and Harlequin always celebrate the beginning of the warm season surrounded by daises. If she could make a wish to the earth so that life went on like this forever, Diane would do so in a heartbeat.

But no flower can blossom forever.

The sun slowly climbs over the mountain peaks and bathes the meadow in soft pinks and oranges. Diane sits in front of the cave and taps the ground in an endless drum play with her feet. The early rays of day warm her skin, but instead of the pleasant feeling, her mind only focuses on the implications the morning carries with it.

Harlequin has been gone for a long time.

When he left, the moon has painted his skin in a ghostly white. Like the porcelain plates Diane once saw a merchant sell.

Now, the moon has gone to bed, and she searches the sky above the northern hills for a sign of Harlequin in vain.

She sighs. Harlequin promised to return, and he has never broken a promise he made to her. Still, she kicks the ground to give her feet something to do other than fantasize about running after him.

A blob of white beside her catches her eyes. The smile tugging at her lips comes on its own. Lured forward by the warmth of the morning sun, a single daisy has spread its petals and welcomes the summer. Around midday, the meadow might already wear its yearly dress of white flowers. Diane strokes the early daisy with her pinky, careful not to crush the small plant. All will be good. Harlequin has promised to watch the daisies with her. Even if he is a little disappointed that he didn’t find the first flower, they will soon laugh and forget about it.

The birds shift into a new tune as the sun rises higher.

And then Harlequin emerges from the hills, and Diane’s heart beats faster the closer he comes. He smiles that smile ridden with half-remembered pain and stretches his hand towards her.

He came back, he came back like he promised, and they will watch the daisies together, celebrate the beginning of summer, and they will chase each other across the field of snow-dotted grass, and everything will —

Summer comes. The stone walls of Megadoza emit a little less cold than throughout the rest of the year. Diane has nevertheless seized the opportunity to escape her training when another Giant distracted Matrona with a report on the last successful battle.

Outside of the Giant capital, a mild breeze brushes the dry grass, and the scent of wild roses and thyme greets Diane’s nostrils. How wonderful to finally trade the endless combat sessions for a simple walk. There is nothing to worry about, except for the nasty butterflies bobbing across the plain in search for nectar. Diane narrows her eyes. Just because they top the ranks of the least disgusting insects doesn’t mean she welcomes them to ruin this perfect afternoon.

One of the confused yellow butterflies discovers the sweet plant juice it is looking for, but Diane’s Giant shadow succeeds in chasing the bug away. In its place, a white flower amidst the clover remains.

A daisy.

Where did she learn that name? The person who first taught her about this flower must have been someone important. But Diane’s head is all fuzzy.

She kneels down and brushes the delicate petals. “You apologize too much,” she says, but she can’t figure out what this sentence means or why the words sprung to her mind just now.

Diane has never cared much for flowers. But something about daisies and the first days of summer sparks a warmth that makes the days at Megadoza more bearable.

If only she could remember…

#kianeweek #kianeweek2020 #nnt #nanatsu no taizai #nnt fanfiction #my writing #king x diane #kiane #king #diane #i hope you like FEELS #patterns and repetition are such fun writing tools

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