Everything froze as her father turned to look at her, his expression something she had only seen a faint glimpse of in the past--when she was shaking with her coughing fits. It was the look of sorrow and fear, and Aviya only guessed when she was a child that the Nightshade had been afraid of losing her. Her brows knit together, a look of honest, sincere concern washing over her. She wanted to step forward and nuzzle her father, hold him in a warm embrace, let him know what whatever was troubling him was going to be okay. He was strong. He was superior. He was d'Artagnan the Nightshade. No one could defeat him. No one.

Aviya's ears flicked gently and she lifted her crowned head--albeit broken--and looked into the cerulean eyes of her Lord. She dropped her gaze respectively to his cloven hooves, much like her own, and nodded to him gently. He seemed to show some semblance of concern for his Time Mender as well, and there was some determination in his steely voice that gave the Doctor's daughter the confidence that whatever her father was fighting against, Deimos would take up arms with him as well. Blinking once, twice, she turned her icy eyes back to her father's mismatched hues, and that was when her world crashed in around her.

"Kou...murdered...I'm sorry."

It felt like Aviya was being thrown into a vacuum, being suffocated beyond her control. But she was still frozen, staring at her father. At first, she did not believe the words she heard fall from his mouth onto the floor like shattered glass. No. Momma Kou--No, no, no-- Panic fluttered again in her chest, and suddenly, her jaw dropped some and she began to shudder. From staring at her father, Aviya was not staring through him, at nothing. The only sound she could hear was her own blood pounding in her ears. Her legs felt cold, but her face felt hot. Her vision blurred as white hot tears formed carefully, tentatively. It was only a millisecond before her eyelids were overrun, the dam they were broken, and tears flowed down her pale cheeks. She sobbed, still staring through her father. Her body was racked with her sobs, breathlessly she gasped, trying to gather herself. Her heart hammered against her breast, and in a crumpled heap, the dark princess fell to her knees.
@[d'Artagnan]