As strong as the seas are stormy.</style>
It seemed of the newly crowned trio, the sole maiden was the only one to feel the loss of her predecessor. To call her such felt odd, stiff and unnatural on her tongue. Outwardly, the thief had never had qualms with self-esteem, for she'd built herself an entire vessel which she could occupy and play the part with. Internally, old echoing whispers haunted her. She stood fragile and young between the two Lords, wondering in a sort of quiet desperation what Ophelia had possibly seen in her. Why she had pronounced Hotaru as her choice for replacement. Of all the successes she had gripped and wrenched from the unwilling world around her, Hotaru could not determine which one had earned the attention she'd always wanted from the frosted mourner. She longed for resolution, solidarity, explanation. Old, tattered remains of a soul long denied cried for comfort, and she stifled the haunting echoes as she did with every part of her past. She lifted to face the rising sun, closing her eyes and pretending she could feel its warmth upon her skin. How is it that I never noticed that what I'd always wanted from you, you'd already given me?
It was destined to remain unanswered, for hers and Thranduil's vows had been taken and administered to the Reaper that held their contracts. It was not so binding for the sole Lady; she'd carved her bones into panoramas of the frost-capped mountains long ago, had let her blood drain into the earth beneath her feet and hoisted the weight of her quiet little family upon her shoulders long ago. Crown or no, she had been Lady in her heart since she'd stepped foot in the lands that should have been her birthright. Her inheritance. Stepping into Ophelia's position was daunting, if only because she doubted her own abilities, her youth making her tremble where nobody could see. Could she hold the peace, become the equator, the impartial party, the scale to the ever-tilting sides that Thranduil and Deimos had become?
She ascended on the opposite side of Deimos, his secondary champion arising at his call. Hotaru held to her heart, Alice proud and regal at her side as they strode to meet those gathering in turn. She held their medium ground, neither stoic and serious like Deimos nor smug and pleased like Thranduil. Calm eyes gazed out across her fellows - the ones she was to rule, to lead into eras and guide out of storms. A bewitching smile curled on her lips, one of the few sincere gestures anyone had ever borne witness to. Calm, radiant, resplendent.
Her fears were written in ancient, indecipherable runes upon her organs. Pulsing with every motion, every reminder that she had made it. In all the ways she had ever considered, she had achieved the end game. From the corner of her eye she glimpsed a coat as red as blood, another golden pelt dappled with starlight and ivory kisses. Hotaru breathed in a slow, quiet breath, not daring to turn and attempt to look. Are you proud of me? A lost part of her whispered, desperate and wanting, aching for love and approval. For so long she had railed against their distance, their loveless souls and shadowed eyes. How many steps had she taken, risks validated, trials conquered all in the name of her bitter desire to prove them wrong? And yet somehow she yearned, because if Ophelia was not there to reassure her, who else knew her? Who else cared to know more than a modicum of information about what lay at her core?
Blinking slowly she dispelled the illusion, breathing chilled air deep into her lungs. No, she had stood on her own for far too long. An island, surrounded by the waters of her own creation. Hotaru did not need their approval, their reassurance. There is no reason to doubt myself. And so she smiled, evanescent, waning slowly, but apparent. Welcoming the travelers and the grounded alike to her fold, to her heart where she would keep them safe and protect them from the travesties that had ruined her so long ago.
"Our might has been tested, and we have prevailed. Let us grow stronger still through the winter, for our greatness does not end here. They have reason to hold us in equal awe and fear - as the weather kills and cradles this land, so we shall thrive in contrast." Not quite the oath, the promise of the future that Thranduil had proposed, but Hotaru's own brand of encouragement and insight. Young she may be, but her heart was mighty and scarred, and it shone like sharpened crystal in her eyes. Perhaps the edges of her smile turned a little crisp, reflected a glint of something dangerous. Or maybe it was just an illusion.
| | .svg/2000px-Google_Chrome_icon_(2011).svg.png){kind=icon}
⇒
saints just swimming in our sins again
![[Image: 515265280ffff]](http://images.helovia.net/index.php/view/515265280ffff)
