Hope Falls

“I incubated a minute version of myself and it’s far more irritating than I realised.” Thea laughed, nodding her head. “I’ll come out and join you.”

---

“Daddy was brave. He went out alone.”

---

“You won’t be alone. Your mama would never leave you alone, would she?” Lucian assured as he gently tucked Eden into bed, waving a hand at Devika to signal he’d answer her later. “If your mother and I go anywhere you’ll be looked after by your aunt Dagmar or Devika most likely. People who love you just like your mother.”

---

“You see why it may be hard to believe that, when everything is… as it is.”

"Oh, your daddy was the bravest person I have ever met." Karina whispered in agreement, ducking her head to kiss the top of his head. "He was very special, just like you and your sister. I miss him very much."

---

"I love you getting your own medicine." Magnus laughed, getting to his feet and leaving the room. "Karma is a spectacular thing."

---

"Not daddy." Eden mumbled. "If she had to go before, to do important stuff... it would be okay because we would have daddy. Not anymore."

---

"It makes me very sad..." Matilda confessed, "To see that spark fade from your eyes like it is, more and more each day and feeling so... helpless to stop it."

“I lost my daddy too. When I was younger… I know how much it hurts. I really do.” Lucian empathised, smoothing down Edens hair. “And I have my own daughter now too, and losing her is the thing I fear most. But as a dad… I can tell you that I know your daddy loved you very much. And even though he’s not here he would still be so proud of you, and he’d still love you.”

---

“Do you? Eden sees you with Prince Lucian. Daddy didn’t like him.”

---

“Mm, you won’t be saying the same when we have a sim and you realise what it is I have to content with.”

---

“Some days I wish they had won. Because if they had won, home would still be home. And we’d have still found each other eventually.”

"She does? Well, Prince Lucian and I were friends long before your daddy and I knew each other properly and.. I need a friend right now, sweetie. I think your daddy wouldn't mind so much, not if it meant I wasn't lonely. Adult company lonely, I mean. Not family lonely."

---

"I know." Eden swallowed thickly. "But one of them always had to go away, always. Now when she goes away, no him so..." She turned her face away, staring at the wall. "Lonely."

---

"We wouldn't have ever found each other, had they won." Matilda mumbled, swallowing thickly. "You will never understand, and I never want you to understand, how it feels when someone I am so linked with dies. How they feel before their death, we - I feel too. I pleaded Draven and Sarika to leave Thea be, I begged... I told them that if she died under them they would kill me too and they wouldn't listen. Winning would have meant Thea dying, which would have killed me too. If our people won, I would have lost."

---

"When we have a son? Have you had a vision of one, are you pregnant or are you hoping?"

“You’ll have your brother, and your friends. And your mother will come back. I’ll make sure of it. Can you trust me?”

---

“You have friends that dad liked.”

---

“Maybe they could’ve won without her dying… there’s endless possibilities for where they could’ve won and we’d still have a home that accepted us for who we are.”

---

“Hey, relax. You think I would announce I was pregnant so casually? Or that I had seen any more future children?” Thea raised her eyebrows as she wrapped her robe around herself and followed Magnus out into their living area. “We always hoped for more children and I definitely don’t think we can handle another Zaria right now.” She chuckled.

((Night))

"Draven spoke to me before they went after her, they had no intention of letting her leave." Matilda whispered sadly.  "I - I'm sorry, Izsak. I am so, so sorry but Sarika and Draven were so bloodthirsty that no one else mattered. I adore 'Ven, he is family to me,  but they were so focused on vengeance for their children. They had no concern of anyone else."

---

"Brother same age, no safe. Friends kids too. You... you stranger. Mama and daddy used to say that strangers might not be true." Eden lifted her hand up to wipe away drying blood, shuddering at the feel as it peeled off the skin beneath her nose. "She no go. No let her go, please.."

---

"It isn't so easy." Karina whispered, kissing the top of her head. "It doesn't matter who I am friends with, okay? You and Eden always come first and daddy... well, that'll be the most important thing to him too. He loved you so, so much, Ira."

---

"You may have." Magnus chuckled.


(( Night night))

“You know full well I’d interrupt the most important meeting you’d ever taken if I had a vision of any more babies.” Thea assured, squeezing his shoulder. “Who knows, at this rate maybe Zaria will be telling us before I know.” She laughed softly.

---

“I can’t stop your mother doing anything she wants to do, however I will speak to her and tell her you’re worried. Okay? I’ll let her know.”

---

“If he loved us so much he wouldn’t have gone…”

---

“Does it make me a bad father that I wouldn’t do half the shit he’s done if anything happened to Eris? I - I wouldn’t want our daughters memory to be associated with so much violence and pain and death.”

"Oh, he had no choice Ira." Karina whispered, kissing the side of his head. "If this could be changed, if... if us losing him wasn't a set event then I would have been warned. I would have seen it, been able to prevent it. There was no vision though, so, whatever plan there is for our family... it involves losing him. It isn't fair, but... he loved you so much, loved us... don't ever think otherwise."

---

"No, it makes you sane." Matilida finally stepped away from him, crossing the room to busy herself with tidying clutter away. "It makes my heart ache, they were meant to mean a brighter future for everyone."

---

"I think that would be my preferred way of finding out, actually." Magnus went to speak again, when two firm knocks on the door to their quarters interuppted him. "'We weren't meant to be elsewhere today, were we?"

---

"Dangerous, where she'll go. Big creature... Grey."

“You always say everyone has a choice between right and wrong. Right is staying with us. Wrong is leaving. Daddy choice was to go.”

---

“Everyone think of them now, their son… and all it conjures is pain, loss. What his loss made them do. Their sons legacy is the destruction of everything.”

---

“No, nowhere. We’ve nothing on the table for today.”

---

“Big and grey and dangerous?”

"Like a statue.. like.." Eden pulled her lips in, draring wide eyed at Lucian. "You - you be mad, mama be mad that I - I knew and no say. Everyone be mad."

---

"It wasn't a choice. He didn't have a choice." Karina inhaled sharply, voice breaking with despair. "I am so, so sorry you feel that way Ira. I'm so sorry you don't feel he loved you enough." Clearing her throat to try and centre herself, she stepped back into the palace grounds, using her shoulder to open the door to her quarters.

---

"He was a nice boy too," Matilda whispered. "Cocky, arrogant but there were times it would be me he'd come to with nightmares because he didn't want to look weak to them. His legacy shouldn't be something so horrible."

---

Magnus' nose wrinkled, kissing the top of her head before leaving the room to see who knocked. Returning moments later, with an envelope with the Fae emblem displayed in the scarlet wax seal, offering it to her. "It's urgent, apparently. Does it give you anything from touch?"

“You say everyone has a choice. Always.” Ira whispered faintly, shrinking back as he heard his mothers tone.

---

“Nobody’s mad at you, I promise.”

---

Thea took the letter, frowning as she felt it. “I don’t see anything but it doesn’t feel good. I can tell that it wasn’t penned to invite us along for tea and cake…”

---

“If anything… Gods forbid… happened to Eris… I’d want people thinking of her with nothing but good things. Not remembering her as the downfall of an entire country. Driving her parents to… evil, in the end.”

"I would think the rapture had begun if it were to invite us for tea and cake." Magnus snorted softly as he sat down beside her once more. Waving a hand non-chalantanly to encourage her to open it, "You can have the honours, if you wish to."

Your Majesty's,

Allow me to preface this correspondence with an apology for it's brief nature. I write with a delicate caution to including too many finer details, were this to be intercepted by anyone who held ill intent.

On writing this later, I regret to inform you that it has just been formally confirmed that Ada Morgenstern and Dmitri Cermak were involved in an incident that resulted in the death of them, and seven others of our guards. We have detained what is responsible for this, but the incident possess a greater matter for all three of our alliances.

Therefore, I am writing to encourage you with urgency to make your way to our Kingdom. It is only in person we will be able to share details with you.

Aodhän's handwriting would have been scrawled, harder to decipher than normal and tired from his many attempts. His signature at the bottom stamped rather than hand written.

---

"Evil. Evil is a horrible word. I don't like that word..."

---

"Not yet, but if I tell you what I-" Eden went silent quickly as her mother walked in. Walking over to clumsily wrap her arms around her brother when Karina placed him down.

"No more forest, for anyone." Karina swallowed thickly. "It's not safe."

“Eden has seen our trip to the Fae… she says it’s dangerous.”

---

Thea took the letter, opening it up and reading through, moving to sit down. “I’m - im sorry, Magnus. Dmitri has been killed. Somethings happened with the Fae. They’ve invited us to go see what happened.” She said sympathetically, handing over the letter.

---

“You don’t think the torturing of your sisters knowing you can feel it all isn’t evil?”

"Everything is dangerous right now, especially bringing children anywhere near the forest their father has been killed." Karina snapped towards the side room then, where Devika was making her way through with glasses of water. "What is wrong with you?! In what dimension would that be a good idea, you stupid, brainless woman. All it would take is for me to-" She cut herself off, nostrils flaring as she crouched down to take Eden's face in her hands and look her over. "Go wash your face, dear, then you and Ira go to your room. The adults need to talk."

"Karina, I-" Devika grimaced, glancing towards Lucian and then back to her.

---

"Killed? Oh. Oh..." Magnus took the letter, skim reading it before folding it back up. "I don't believe they have called us to a meeting for decades. We should begin packing, right away."

---

"I am tired," Matilda deflected quietly. "Of all of it, everything."

“Kari you’re being rude. It’s not Devikas fault. You’d be distracted too if Eden had a vision. Don’t be like this.” Lucian frowned deeply.

---

“What do we do with Zaria?” Thea asked, moving to note at her fingernails with nerves. “We can’t leave her - we can’t leave her here but, it’s dangerous? People were killed I - “

---

“Then I’ll stop talking about it…”

"We need to figure out where the least danger is. No one here has been killed, and.. and most of our military are here but no one can keep her safe like we can."

---

Karina shook her head at Lucian, almost baring her teeth at Devika. Eden grabbing Ira's hands to drag him into their own room.

"Get out, do not show your face to me again - if you are needed I will seek you out. I don't want you anywhere near my chil-"

"That isn't fair." Devika interupted calmly. "I helped you raise them in those first years, I have been as constant as you. You can not just decide-"

"I am there sole carer, so I do decide and I will." Her fingers curled into a fist, before her knuckles hit against the wall to the side of her enough to draw blood. "Nothing is fair. It is not fair that I do not have my husband, it is not fair that every aspect of my grief is being watched and judged, it is not fair that my son believes his father did not love him. It is not fair there was none of him to hold, it is not fair that we still don't know what took him and it is not fair that the mornings continue to dawn! Life is not fair!"

“Kari, none of this is Devika’s fault. Okay? I get it.” Lucian frowned, moving to gently take her hand, wiping off the blood, moving to stand in front of her to take her gaze from Devika. “What happened wasnt fair, no. None of it was. And I know you still want someone to blame, because we haven’t found what did it. But I promise we will. But until then - it’s nobody’s fault here.”

[hr]
“I don’t… I don’t know what’s best to do here. She’s never been away from us.”

"There is something in that forest and she let my baby wander off alone! He said something spooked a deer! It is still in there." She bit back a sob, her hand shaking in his. "I trusted her."

"I'm sorry." Devika spoke in a whisper, edging herself towards the door so she could slip out if she needed to. "There was no one near for me to ask for help, and I didn't think he'd wander off I thought he'd stay with his sis-"

"He is a baby, of course he'll wander off! You stupid, stupid bitch." Karina swallowed thickly, letting her eyes meet Lucian's, tears staining her cheeks. "H- he doesn't think Em- emmett loved him. H- he thinks he chose to go. He- I'll never be able to fix that."

---

"One of us needs to go, and one of us needs to stay. She can't come with us, we can't risk putting her in danger like that."

“And that’s not Devikas fault, Karina.” Lucian stated again with a sigh. “She was looking after your daughter who has had a huge vision. Ira wandered off. It happens, it’s what kids do; they wander, they’re curious.”

---

“But who - who has to leave her?”

((Night))

"It doesn't matter. I couldn't find him, and he was in the forest and I kept picturing rounding the corner and - and finding - and seeing-" She pulled her hands free, covering her face with her palms. "Go... please. B- both of you."

"Thea should have not allowed you to see. This is why everyone agreed to keep you protected from it." Devika whispered sadly, not needing any more prompting as she slipped out of the door.

---

"I will. I'll go. The fae have been... I can't ask you to look them in the eye after what they done to you during the first war. If you have any visions that effect Zaria's safety, it is better you are here to do what you need to aswell."

(( Night night! ))

Lucian frowned, waiting till Devika had left the room before gently pulling Karina into his arms and kissing the top of her head. Not saying anything, knowing words wouldn’t help, just holding her close.

---

“We’ve not been apart in so long, either. Not willingly…”

"This isn't willing, this is duty." Magnus whispered, an arm wrapping around her shoulder to pull her in. Lips pressing the side of her head, "I threw Dmitri in the deep end on a whim, he was just a kid. I - I need to see if it was my fault, T. I wouldn't trust anyone else to stay here with Z, either."

---

"I said go," Karina screeched, though it was muffled as her face found his shoulder and an agonised sob escaped her lips. "Something was in there, it was watching us. I - I felt it."

“No staying longer than you have to then… there and back home to us.”

---

“I’m putting you all under full guard. I don’t want to hear any protest, I’m throwing my weight around as Prince.” Lucian rubbed her back, moving a hand to gently hold her head. “I won’t let anything happen to you Karina. Or them.”

"Please don't - please - they... they're all his friends." She cried. "I'm not ready to see them, I- I'd want to look after them, I- I know I would. I - I need to ask Dagmar to watch the children, when we go to the fae. I thought it would be Devika but I can't trust her now... its too dangerous."

---

"There and back home." Magnus agreed. "I don't intend from being far away from the two of you for long."

“No challenging me, Kari. You need protection. I need you to have it, if things are watching you. I need to know you’re safe.”

---

“It’ll feel so… odd without you.”