As strong as the seas are stormy.</style>
Life had a funny way of surprising you.
Hotaru had learned somehow, in the midst of the mires that seeped at her soul, to love again. It was a twisted, fragile love. Tainted in ways by the darkness of her own past journeys. But it still throbbed stubbornly inside her withered glass heart, trying to remind her what it felt like to love and be loved. To have something to fight for, stand for. And though she'd been left beneath the evergreens, waking to only birdsong and Alice's soft breaths, it still meant something. That he'd allowed her to sleep upon his withers, and allowed her to slumber on instead of disturbing her with his departure.
Hotaru did not often believe in nor partake in hope. She'd always been the type to see what was before her and work and claw and sell her soul to achieve it. Hope was a non-necessity, in the face of sheer will and determination. The maiden had built an empire from a dream, a name that echoed as loudly - if not louder - than her mother's. At one point in time, Hotaru had thought love to be a weakness. Even family could not be relied upon, for how they turned their backs on you, held the silver blade that would sooner pierce your heart from behind than defend you. She'd learned in time that she was wrong, in that way, as she'd raised Arya and Raeru and slowly brought Mirabella to her side.
Could it be she was wrong, too, about romantic love?
Her mind was disgustingly sidetracked, but the war of the gods gave her the reprieve that she needed as a Lady. Whether a twist of fate or just convenient circumstances, she'd been given far too much to think about on a personal level, but at a time when the turmoil of the world united Helovia instead of separated it. She'd need to compartmentalize it all in time, but for the moment...she allowed herself the distraction.
Even still, she was not useless. Excused a patrol from their duties, if only to see their eyes alight with thanks, and took their route through the borders. If she needed time to think over things, she could at least do it while keeping her herd safe in some minor way.
Pack, Alice stressed in her head, from where she was hardly visible in the snow ahead. Hell black eyes turned over white shoulder, smoke rippling insidiously across the landscape from her fur. Hotaru frowned softly. Had someone been recruiting? A distinct sense of frustration slammed into her from Alice, and the Lady stumbled beneath the weight of the emotion. For a moment her mind recoiled, wondering what in the hell was wrong with her hound. Alice's irritation was followed immediately by the word once more, emphasized more than previously. PACK. Hotaru's legs moved a little faster, white striking out over white, wondering what was wrong. Alice had few words with which to communicate in her youth, but Hotaru knew for a fact she could say 'danger'.
With nothing left to do, Alice ripped open the link between them, images and sensations and memories twisting over and twining together as they assaulted Hotaru as vividly as a current experience. Pale golden flesh and taunting words, a horned companion and Deodat at her side, superiority, conflict, convoluted emotions and a retreating back. The queen stumbled once more, breath hitching and choking until she couldn't swallow past the blockade. Impossible. She'd given her twin up for dead, just as she'd mourned their parents. Gone, disappeared from Helovia, else Hotaru's network would have picked up where the golden girl was. But Alice was adamant, howling aloud to signal her presence to Rhea just as she was chanting the word inside Hotaru's head. Pack, pack, pack!
And Hotaru understood. Pack, real pack. Blood family, the likes of which Hotaru only had one remaining in the world. Alice darted off into the snow, determined to break the rosen girl from her haze while she stood there scarcely breathing and reeling from the insinuations. This meant...so much. Hotaru had wanted so desperately to find a way to atone, to apologize to her parents for what she'd done, only for them to be struck so ruthlessly from the earth by her goddess for the sake of future plans. She had believed that she was destined to be alone, in that way. That her children would never know the stories of her family, that the line would start and end with her in so many aspects. And in deeper, more intimate parts of herself, she had broken apart with the realization that she and Raeden had never reconciled.
Even when Raeden had appeared on her doorstep when she was Impersonator, Hotaru had been too bitter and hateful to do anything more than flaunt her successes in her twin's face. And while the bitterness still existed in her heart...it was washed away by the tidal wave of possibility.
Alice had arrived at the trail into the Basin, standing regal before Rhea and Raeden, and Hotaru's heart stopped as the hellhound forced the image into her mind's eye. Tripped, stumbled, kicked out with all her might, and ran. She was no queen, no Lady, no power to be feared or held in awe. She fled along the snow like a hare with one last chance to escape the wolf's fangs. Her eyes were wet, warm for the briefest of moments only to be chilled by the wind, diamonds of wetness catching in her forelock as her chest stuttered with sobs clasped inside her ribcage. Rhea's opinion of her never crossed her mind as she crested the hill, never pausing. Rae, Rae, Rae! Her mind chanted at her, sounding so much like herself when she was but a foal that she could scarcely breathe or think past the screaming in her head.
Evil teasing washed away by quiet understanding and encouragement, the faith in knowing that her sister would stand behind and beside her anywhere she went. Knowing that all she had to do was turn around and Raeden would be there, so inseparable they had once been, plotting how to evade Stella a few hours more. She stumbled down the hill, hair a windswept cloud of starlight and bihued eyes weeping freely. For just a moment she paused, rocks skittering beneath her white hooves, staring salvation in the face. The world narrowed, and she drank in the sight of her twin. They'd grown to be the same, as they should have done together, and she saw in Raeden her own features staring back at her. Changed only by the different colors painting each sister's skin.
Had Rhea known Hotaru any better, she would have seen it. They were mirrors, children of dawn light and high noon clouds, with bones like rolling waves and hearts like shields and swords. "Raeden," she choked, and the moment was gone. Hotaru threw herself forward, throwing her crown and her titles aside, trying to remember what it was like back then when it was the two of them against the world. Rae, Rae, Rae, her mind cried woundedly, and she knew she wouldn't be whole until she could feel her sister pressed against her skin and know she'd remain there.
Hotaru nearly slammed into her, compact frame seeking as much contact as she could afford, and as she felt her sister's initial warmth against her, everything dissolved. Her sob broke through, a wounded animal crying out as the trap encasing it's leg sprang open, and like a wild thing she hooked her chin around Raeden's withers and held her close. "Rae, Rae, Rae," she sobbed openly, her sister's nickname the only thing holding her to the world. Gravity had no hold on her any longer, shifting and returning the rightful center of her universe to Raeden. "You're alive, you're here," and she's shuddering and crying so hard she can hardly think, and the world is swimming in her vision but it doesn't matter because she can still see gold. Gold of her sister's hide, gold of their shared blood, gold of her memories. And she's no longer Hotaru, Lady of the Basin, with her vast accomplishments and famed ascension. She's Ru, Raeden's baby sister, trembling and shaking and coming apart at the seams. Reunited. Together, again. And Hotaru could worry about fixing their bond later, because her world had become nothing but the touch of her twin's skin and the heartbeat she could feel faintly against her own breast.
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