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03-31-2015, 04:35 PM
Hotaru
and Alice
The journey north was long, one that would span the entirety of days at a steady pace. Hotaru did not have time for a steady pace. Even with all the hours at her disposal, she allowed none of them to cool her head or pull upon her gait. She called upon her ancestors, gripped their blood tight and let her endurance break free. The desert bled into her frame, and like a hawk she set her eyes north and never wavered. There were small snatches of sleep, lost hours that she grieved for how they slowed her progress. No matter her desire to fly to the snows of her home on the fastest beat her legs could manage, Hotaru had to pace herself. She could not burn out before her light was most needed. Information boiled and bubbled dangerously in her mind, a thousand interwoven plans that were finally coming to fruition. This was so much more than helping arrange peace with the desert denizens. This was something on a whole new scale. This was war and murder and triumph, and she was nearly intoxicated with the mere potential of it being she who led to the downfall of those who had snubbed their noses at her. Hotaru had never cared what they thought of her, because their wallets and trinkets were far more interesting to her than their misgivings concerning her character. Didn’t they know that Hotaru didn’t even care what she thought of herself? No, she would merely sweet talk her way into their borders, their sentimentalities, and slip her knife between their ribs with a kiss to their cheek in apology. They would be left with only the wounds she had left, the absence of their valuables, and a crimson print upon their skin in memoriam of her passing. Truly, more than they deserved in the eyes of the foxy thief. Alas, she was a queen of dramatics, and so she could not pass up those opportunities. Oh but this was on such a larger scale. And so she heaved northward on aching hooves, aided by chilled lungs and flared nares. Beneath the intricate web of her plans lay the boiling fury of her realizations, the ones that caused the bone of her teeth to grind when her mind would fall between the infinitesimal holes in her webbing to the realizations below. Oxy had been her little plaything for seasons, when Illynx still reigned and Hotaru could conquer at her leisure, her whole life ahead of her. But Oxy had made a very big mistake when he chose Kou to murder. Hotaru did not like to admit that her weakness lay in her daughters, for whether Aviya liked it or not Raeru was hers in all ways that mattered, but the truth was inescapable. So where once she might not have cared, he had forced her hand. He had been the one to murder the mate of her mentor, the one who had orphaned her daughter and scarred her for life with memories of her birth mother’s demise. Oxy had taken their business negotiations and made it personal. So Hotaru slipped on her Venetian mask and twirled her dagger in her tiny, capable palm. He should have known never to play with fire. The borders wash over her as she ascends the hill, and her eagerness – or perhaps it’s misplaced desperation – finally frees itself as she runs trumpeting across the tundra. There are two specific souls she desires, and she will chase them from the woodworks because she needs them. They would need her too, Hotaru had made sure of that, because the impersonator was nothing if not capable, and she always made sure to cross her t’s and dot her i’s. Though she trusted her Basin kin more than perhaps she trusted any other strange soul, her pale eyes still flickered in unison, wary of their prying. Thranduil in particular, as the two had a game of one-up on each other, and she wouldn’t have him stealing away her information a second time. Especially not with her new title to rub into his smarmy (annoyingly handsome) face. As they come, she inclined her head with grace towards the cove of trees looming in the distance, wanting to shield their gathered forms as much as she could for the upcoming speech. Leading them in silence, she calmed the acceleration of her heart. Emotions were not a part of her business, and she wouldn’t have them skewing her deal. Turning to face her leaders, she cleared her throat demurely. ”I’ve found Oxy.” She hoped it would snag their attention, at least Ophelia’s who had read her daughter’s mind and discovered that Kou’s killer had been the druggie. ”When Illynx was Lady, I had deals going on with Oxy, plans for invasions. It was a delicate process, one that splintered when Illynx disappeared.” Hotaru had no idea how Ophelia would handle such information, she always seemed to be the more sensitive one of the two – not in a wholly negative fashion, but certainly one that impeded Hotaru’s progress – but it was in the past, and Hotaru doubted she and Illynx could still be held accountable. ”He trusts me, he believes he is safe with the Basin because of our…relationship. We want vengeance. I want vengeance. And I can give it to you.” Still, why would she stop there? ”But he has offered to lead us into the Falls, to fight with us in a potential invasion, and show us the path that hides the entrance. The Falls have made moves against us before, it’s why they’re free game for Thranduil, myself, and our thieves. We could have the Falls land, and when the invasion is over, turn on Oxy and let the punishment for his crimes fall upon his head. I have secured this route of my own volition, it can be bypassed with ease. Or…it can be grasped.” Bichromatic eyes turned flinty as she ended, tiara high and honorable, watching her leaders for inflections of emotion in their features. How they responded was up for debate, but Hotaru had offered them a huge possibility, and it was up to them to accept or deny it. |
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Plot with me here!
