Hope Falls

"And how old is that.. older than Isolde?" Florence questioned with a nervous chuckle. "Everyone is so quiet about how they old here that I feel clueless walking around. Please, please give me some onecoat or else how am I to ever understand?"

---

"It was. Perhaps I was projecting, I had.. heard of her and her husband so much, seen them so often whilst I grew that they became ideqlistic for me. I also remember her heartbreak, how she became unavailable for so long when he died I just.. always did believe she only had one person for her. I am glad she has found happiness once more, but yew, it was surprising."

---

"Don't be sorry. I don't mean to make you feel negatively..."

---

Matilda buried her face against his neck and let out a heartbroken, strangled wail that turned into heartbroken sobs as she shook against him. Crying to hard to be able to respond.

---

"Put them in danger? How? What has she done?"

“She’s told the Wolves where they are. Which on its own may not have mattered but she’s with Conan’s children. The heir to his throne, the Princess engaged to Isolde’s heir. The future of both of their lines. Draven’s was ended… they won’t be safe now.”

---

“Matilda…” Draven whispered. Holding her as close as possible as he gently rocked with her. “I’m here, I’m here…”

---

“You shouldn’t be afraid to tell me how you feel. I was wrong to make you feel like you couldn’t talk to me about this.”

---

“Projecting? Did you have a love you lost too?”

---

“The Queen was a Princess during the first Great War, less than a half century old when it started. That’s about the scope of my knowledge.”

"Oh... oh well I thought that Isolde was much younger than.. I , whatever that age was." Florence grimaced, turning her head away to try and hide her confusion. Trying to rake her brain and remember the rushed lessons the Guardian's had given her.

---

"No but...thinking the one you adored you can never be with is quite similar is it now? I emphasised."

---

"I don't feel like this should be a big thing we should have to talk about, I thought it should go without saying and you would wqnr us to have private time too."

---

"Why did she have to do this?" Matilda sobbed; "ae - we weren't ready. We - the- there wasn't enough planning and - and none of us were ready and now I have lost all of them."

---

"Hey, no. On it's own it would have mattered because she is a Seer and.. and that makes her a target. Don't justify it with Conan's children, T. Karina being yours and Matilda's sister is enough of a betrayal to justify it."

“They’re going to find and kill her.” Thea cried then, putting her hand over her mouth. “How could she?! She said she came to me as a sister but how could she do that?!”

---

“You’re not making sense, talk to me mm? What happened with Thea?”

---

“I didn’t mean festivities instead of private time, just something to organise when we got back. Of course I want to spent time with you too my love.”

---

“Trauma clouds the brain, Seer. It’s okay if after everything you’ve suffered your memory is not what it was.”

"Sarika! Sarika why did she have to start a war now?! Why right now?!" Mayilda cried, leaning back from the hug enough to weakly slap her palms against his chest in frustration. "It is just me, Thea and Karina from our group and they're l- like best friends and I'm like-" She cut off with a sob. "She forced the pain of losing her child onto me! She implied Søren would be ashamed of me! She forced he'd blood down my throat! She implied Søren would be ashamed..." She cut off with another heartbroken sob. "T-that I was fake because I never told him. Th- that he didn't deserve me. Wh- Why is everyone using him to hurt me Draven? All I hear is 'move on' an- and then people- i can't be sad.. I can't be happy.. I can't be neutral."

---

"Can't you just tell me? Instead of using reference points that I don't understand.. " Florence pleaded quietly then. "I am tired of not having clear answers."

---

"Do what?! Do what Thea?!"

---

"You do... but only in front of others after the war. Morale comes before me. It's okay... I know what I signed up for."

“People stop counting. You humans have far less time than us, so every year is marked and counted. Once our children are in adulthood… not many people mark every single year. I can’t tel you for sure because I don’t know. It’s not important here.”

---

“How could she tell them! Tell them where Karina is knowing what they’ll do to her and the kids! She’s baited them out! There’ll be a fucking team looking for her!”

---

“She - you have Vampire blood in your system?” Draven tensed, stopping his movement. “Shit. Shit… shit!”

---

“Why do you assume I meant I want a party the night we return? Of course I planned on spending time with you first.”

((Night))

"And you just forced your blood into her, Thea..."Magnus whispered sympathetically "if she dies now, and... and let's remember that it is a war so it isn't unlikely then you have turned the woman with no consent as a punishment for doing her job. That isn't right, that- that isn't fair. We'll have to take her in because those wolves will banish her. You will have to be kind to her because I am not dealing with a fledgling right now."

---

Aodhan shrugged, quietly staring at the floor

---

Matilda screeched like a child when the rocking stopped; absolutely terrified as she gasped for breathes between sobs.

---

"It just makes everything really hard to work out." Florence whispered

(( Night ))

“She said I deserved Alexandria’s death.” Thea said blankly, setting her jaw. “That it would’ve been cruel to let her live. I am not going to pretend I’m sorry for causing her pain when those were her words. When she knew the suffering we went through and said I deserved it. That she deserved it.” She said as tears began to stream from the corner of her eye, though they were swiftly wiped away with a small sniffle. “I’m only sorry I couldn’t cause her more pain. She’s not my sister. If what I’ve done disgusts you so then I’ll have my things moved back into my old quarters until you’re ready to forgive me for it. I wouldn’t begrudge you that.”

---

“Okay, okay, okay…” Draven repeated as he gently rocked her like a child again, pressing his lips to her hair.

---

“Oh my love.” Isolde sighed softly, tangling her fingers in his hair and reaching up onto her toes to kiss his forehead gently. “I’ve neglected you so haven’t I? During all of this. I’m so sorry.”

---

“So don’t work things out.. just embrace the moment. Just… be with it all.”

"Like I said, things have come much easier since my visions have subsided. There is less of a need to understand everything." Florence whispered, laughing quietly as she got a whiff of the herbs in the cream. "I suggested I run this man a bath ones to help with sore muscles and he said he would never be caught dead having a 'fancy woman bath'. It is going to be fun teasing him about this when he wakes up."

---

"No. Don't... I'm not a child that needs seeing to." Aodhän grumbled in embarrassment. "I can't handle a whole week of parties, that is all. I can happily end the conversation there."

---

"Sh- She made me feel her baby dying." Matilda choked out between hysterics, voice muffled as she buried her face against his shoulder. Fingers tangled tightly in his shirt.

---

"We don't turn people as punishment, we do not turn people to cause them pain. We don't stoop to the wolf's levels." Magnus muttered. "Who she is to you is irrelevant now you've done this. What she has done irrelevant. I trusted you, next time someone else is going to speak to them because you can't keep a cool head. What did the wolves have to say about the war? What was offered?"

“Losing a child is a pain like no other.” Draven nodded in understanding as he held her close. “I’m so sorry.”

---

“She wasn’t there in an official capacity. She had nothing to offer other than our lives if we surrender…” Thea swallowed, trying to remain unaffected by his hostility. “She said I have made you weak. That before me, you cared about your people and I’ve turned you against them. That you deserve better…”

---

“How long have you loved him?” Eleanor asked, not even breaking eye contact with the wound she was stitching.

---

“It’s just us here. Let me see to you as you put it. You’re allowed to need things from me. I need things from you too.”

---

Florence frowned at the question, glancing towards her stitching for a few moments before placing the ointment to the side. Opening one of the drawers of the make shift table and looking through it until she found a hair comb - moving to Wyatt's head and beginning to get gently pull out the tangles and knots. "What makes you believe I love him?"

---

"Lets focus on what you need from me, that seems like a much easier thing to deal with. I'm much more comfortable with focusing on that."

---

"She - she..." Matilda swallowed thickly, trying to calm her cries and her breathing. "She knows where he is, your son, she knows where he is buried and who done it. She offered a desk to - to tell you."

---

"Well that's ridiculous, hm?" Magnus mumbled. "I.. use what is left of the warm water today to get yourself a bath drawn Thea. I need time to work out what I am meant to do if your sister dies in the next twenty four hours - if she turns."

“He’s a beast of a man, and yet you insist everyone be gentle. Your own movements tender, the way you cringed at his brothers handling him roughly, you flinch every time I pierced his skin even though he is not awake to feel it.”

---

“Sarika punished her husband. No doubt you’ll have to come to the same conclusion, your majesty.” Thea bowed her head. “I offered the information we have over the Adairs son in exchange for things to our own gain. It is information we have sat on for years - since I had the vision. They will argue about whether or not to take us up on our offer. I’ve yet to see the outcome.”

---

“And if I would rather focus on you?”

---

Draven stiffened at that. “What did they want for the information?”

"You keep saying beast and I am assuming you are just referring to his stature." Florence whispered with a frowned, narrowing her eyes in concentration as she sectioned off the parts of his hair she had unmatted and areas still yet to do. "Now I think I may be wrong and you are being nasty, I hope that is incorrect."

---

"You should have discussed that with me first, it will just throw us further into the war - it'll damage our relations with people we are meant to be on the same side as." Magnus sighed, lifting his hand up to rub his face.

---

"Well that puts us in a stalemate." Aodhän chuckled then.

---

"We get the name of who done it if we surrender and retreat. We get the location if we send them the soldier who killed their healer." Matilda whispered, swallowing thickly

“If they choose either the location of the body or the name of who did it then we gain something either way, Magnus. We lose nothing if they do not.”

---

“Nasty. You humans are sentimental.”

---

“I’m sure there’s a way we can come to a resolution.” Isolde chuckled.

---

“I need to speak to Sarika… this changes everything.”

"Explain what you mean by beast, Eleanor." Florence encouraged quietly. "And perhaps when you put the connotations of that into words you will understand why it is a horrible way to describe someone."

---

"You went and met the woman - almost turned her and gave her an offer that we hadn't discussed yet. It is... ridiculous, brash. You never would have done any of those things before without talking to me about it."

---

"Mm, I don't know. It may be the most intense part of this war."

---

"Can - can it wait? I can't.. I'm not ready to stop being held you." Matilda mumbled, swallowing thickly.

“Holding our dead daughter when she didn’t need to be dead changes a person. There was nothing I could do then to stop it happening. So I’ll do all I can so they don’t get away with it.” Thea whispered, clasping her hands in front of her. “If this makes our marriage unviable for you then… then I understand. But I’m not stopping until I’ve torn the throat out of the bastards who killed Eve and the other healers. I couldn’t avenge my sisters who were killed in the night in their home. I couldn’t get revenge against the Fae who dragged me naked through the castle and raped me. But I will get revenge for our daughter.”

---

“Have you ever seen him fight in battle, Seer? Have you seen how he kills? The brutality is unnecessary even for war.”

---

“Well you’ll have to do something to resolve the intensity, cool things down…”

---

Draven hesitated before standing up and carrying her to the bed.

"I've not," Florence whispered, snorted softly as she added. "He hasn't let me, he likes to imply I wouldn't last two seconds out there and having to keep an eye on me would be burdensome. I don't think seeing him fight would change my opinion either."

---

"Oh? Like what?" Aodhän hummed, lip tugging up into a smirk as he leant in to purr in her ear. "I couldn't think of anything."

---

"And I don't? I -" Magnus shook his head, mumbling sadly; "You've said that too many times now, questioning our marriage because I have disagreed with you. You are free to leave me, Thea, you clearly wish to do it."

---

Matilda curled into his chest, hesitating before whispering; "I don't think you should take her deals. She is unhinged... it feels like a trap."

“And you keep saying things about how I wouldn’t have done this or that before like I am too different to the person who you married. You haven’t agreed with a single choice I’ve made for months. So don’t make out like I am the only one questioning here - because I am questioning whether or not you still want this since you’ve seemed disappointed in me since she was born. And that’s fine because I’m disappointed in me too but you need to decide what it is you want. Because it’s clearly not the person I am now.”

---

“And there you have the confirmation of feelings from his side. Because the Queen wouldn’t ask him to protect you, she’d assign you your own guard if you insisted on fighting. Yet he assumes the mantle for himself. Odd thing to do if you loathe someone’s presence mm?”

---

“Will she be lying about knowing the information?”

---

“You’ve quiet the imagination, Advisor. Think of something.”

"Oh I never thought he loathed me," Florence laughed quietly, "He and I have been getting on fine over the past few months, well even. I - he isn't any beast." She whispered, pausing what she was doing fo brush her thumb against Wyatt's cheek with gentle affection.

---

"She might be, we have no way of knowing." Matilda whispered, swallowing thickly. "After what she just done to me I just.. I don't trust her. She has no regard for anyone else right now, she openly admitted not caring if her people died as long as she made her own death long to punish us... me."

---

"No, no you keep bringing up us being over Thea! So you need to fucking decide what you want and I need to think of ways to fix the mess you have just put is in! Step back from making decisions that involve the Kingdom, I don't have the energy for you being next to fucking suicidal when I have other lives to think about! Our world is darker without our daughter but my people are not going to suffer for that." Magnus hissed before storming out of the room.

“Love blinds us mm?”

---

Thea let out a sob when he left, sitting down with her back against the wall and pressing her face into her knees as she cried.

---

“Sarika and I… we know what they’re going through. Which is perfect because it means we can manipulate them using it. Turn them against each other. You’ve already started it off Tilly.” Draven praised as he mulled everything over. “Getting her to snap like that, lose control. Not once in all the time he’s been King has he ever slipped or faltered in front of his people. Not like I have, not like Thea just has. This is the starting point. We turn them against each other. If we drive Thea to do something truly stupid because she believes it’ll lead to revenge but is a trap and we kill her - Magnus will break and that’s one half of the fight over.”

"I don't want to feel someone die again," Matilda whispered, eyes wide in terror. "Every time one of us dies it makes my heart stop now. I - You can't kill her, it might kill me. I - I'm tired of it all now.. after today.. I'm tired."

---

"I wouldn't call thus love." Florence denied quietly, brushing fingertips through Wyatt's hair to ensure all the tangles had left it before grabbing the ointment once more and catching up on the new areas Eleanor had stitched. "Do you have someone you love?"

---

"If we were somewhere more homely I know exactly where I'd take you," Aodhän purred, pressing his lips to the crook of her neck. "But we can't."

“She’s already dead. I’ve had a theory for a while that beheading her or the like wouldn’t actually affect you. Even if we just captured her and made Magnus believe she was dead it’d be easy enough if she’s losing it. Sarika and I can tap into that, send her spiralling. Make Magnus question being with her in the first place. Destroy her and undermine him.”

---

“I did. He died last time, the last war. His tree is starting to flourish now. By next spring it’ll be even bigger.”

---

“I’ve ordered everyone to leave Aodhän… you most definitely can.”

"I- I can't..." Matilda swallowed thickly and shook her head. Shuffling back on the bed and hugting her knees to her chest, "We were friends... once upon a time and I can't.. I can't have this conversation."

---

"Oh," Florence whispered, lowering her gaze to look back to what she was doing as she thought. A moment later looking back at her with a sad smile; "Flourishing is a good sign, hm? The gods, the dieties that must all be very welcoming to him."

---

"Would you like me to? Its dirty in here."

“I mourned, I grieved, it’s okay.” Eleanor assured at her sadness. “He wouldn’t have wanted me to wallow for life. I honoured him and our marriage with the time I took.”

---

“Aodhän stop talking.” Isolde whispered as she pressed her lips to his, grabbing his face in her hands as she deepened the kiss.

---

“Sarika and I will. Whether or not you wanted to - you gave us a gift with what happened today. Thea is close to breaking, which means Magnus is ripe for bending. We must take advantage.”

"My last relationship was more of a... situationship. He was chosen to be our representative to the angels and he.. I thought we were special. It went awry in the end but I loved him, and he loved me too I'm sure of it. The wolves mauled him to death, at.. at Isolde and Aodhan's engagement party. Losing people sucks, is my point I guess."

---

Aodhän pulled her into his lap, moving one hand up to grab some of her hair in her hair as he kissed her back hungrily.

---

"I- I don't want to know what you've done with the infomation I gave you on those angel children either, understand? I.. I want to pretend you've not done anything."

---

"Ada?" Conan whispered solmenly as he pushed his way through a crowd of soldiers to get with her. "A - A letter has just arrived, it has infomation in it that I need to relay to you. Somewhere... more private."