Hope Falls

“They do fade for a while.” Lucian moved to wrap his arms around Karina, resting his head on top of hers. “But they’ll come back to you when sparked by something. And it’ll catch you off guard… You were right when you said he would want you to be happy, Kari.”

---

“I am fine. Have my schedule cleared for the rest of the day. I wish to be left alone until I say otherwise. You’ve been gone for a while, go spend time with Zaria.”

Magnus was silent on the other side of the door, before he pulled it open and stepped inside properly. Eyes widening with concern as he moved to his knees beside her, resting his hand on her arm. "Thea..."

---

Karina's breath shook, leaning into his torso and tucking her head against the crook of his neck. Her arms moving around him, fingers brushing briefly against one of his tense muscles before finding their place tangling his hair. "Magnus may give us tonight, we should risk using it. The camp beds are making my muscles ache."

---

Tadgh was staring. Mouth agape, wide eyed and pale skinned staring as Cassius, with a hand on his wrist still, dragged him through the tall white gates of the palace and up the stairs towards the main doors. His eyes moving quickly, from guard, to decoration, even to the fabric adorned by the courts people before finally going back to Aesira. Only just able to vocalise the question, "You - This is home?"

“No.” Thea jumped at the contact, shrugging him off. “Don’t touch me. I don’t want to be touched. Don’t touch me.” She whispered shakily. “I want to be alone.”

---

“You really think Magnus won’t have us dragged to the door the moment he learns what was said in our exchange with Thea? You know he won’t see that she was also at fault by bringing up Emmett and Kenna. He’ll see it as you triggering her for no reason, painting you as the villain. He already mistrusts me over our relationship.”

---

“This is home.” Aesira nodded in confirmation.

"Can I sit here? Right... right over here." He asked softly, slowly moving away to the farthest most corner from her and sitting down. "Is this okay, Thea?"

---

"He.." Karina sighed, nodding ever so slightly in defeat as she began to peel herself away from him. Dropping her hands to get sides and stepping over the pieces of food on the floor as she went to leave. "You'll need to rest, before going straight to your cousin when we get home. Your back will be in pieces. I'm aching, you must be in agony."

---

"It's big, big and-" Tadgh flinched, physical reeling away as if he had been struck at the suddenness of Cassius letting go of his wrist and putting his whole weight behind shoving a door open to a room his mother frequented.

"Mama! Si Si and I have a friend, he's alone. Can he stay here until he finds his family?!"

“Why won’t you listen and leave me alone? I don’t want anyone here. I want to be by myself. Nobody touching me. Nobody laughing at me. Nobody talking about me and what they did to me. I need to be alone.”

---

“Am I making it obvious?” Lucian grimaced as he followed her. “I thought I was hiding it well.”

---

“You can’t just pick up strays from the market sweetheart. His parents are probably worried about him.” Dagmar frowned as she looked up from the couch in the reading room, putting her book down and standing up.

"He said he's been alone for days," Cassius frowned, stepping to the side so that Tadgh could be in her view. "We couldn't just... leave him."

Tadgh took in a sharp breath, eyes wide like a trapped animal. Taking slow, calculated step backwards until he was stood just behind Aesira - using her almost as protection.

---

"No," Karina frowned, flitting a hand behind her to catch her fingers with his only briefly once they had stepped out of the castle. "Your masking abilities are sublime. It just... makes sense. The beds are uncomfortable, the terrain is rough. I feel tense from it all myself."

---

"No laughing, no talking, and no touching." Magnus promised gently, pushing himself to his feet. Voice still quiet as he pulled the door open, "I will be the other side of the bathroom door, you won't know I am there. An entire wall will seperate us, so, you'll be alone."

“This is my mama.” Aesira encouraged gently as she moved to take Tadgh’s hand. “She’s good.”

“Alone for days?” Dagmar frowned as she headed over, crouching down in front of Tadgh. “Where do you live?” She asked gently.

---

“You’ve just told me you will be there! I will know!” Thea sobbed then, shaking her head. “Get out! Go back to the Fae bitch! Laugh some more at my expense! I’m sure she’s hilarious!  Enough for you to forget what she did, or maybe that was the cause of the humour! Karina told me everything! She’s a cruel bitch but she has never lied to me! Get out!”

---

"Karina told you what?" Magnus frowned, rage sparking in his eyes as he cast a glance towards the hallway. "The fae Queen and I were not laughing together about anything, I maybe laughed politely when she spoke of her sons antics. I could barely go there and be hostile, Thea. I addressed what she done to you, when no one else was in the room and she informed me that the men who done that were executed for it - that she never commanded it, she was remorseful and I couldn't accuse her of lying about that remorse but it doesn't mean I believe it either. I was pleasant. She offered understanding over Alex and spoke of her deceased girl." Raising a hand, he rubbed it over his face and whispered sadly, "How little you must think of me."

---

"Live.. we were staying amongst the coed." He cooked his head toward the forest visible just out of the window. "Uh, forest. I went looking for berries... food. Shelters were gone when I got back. I searched. Gone."

“She said you were bonding with her. Said you were speaking highly of her to others…” Thea cracked then, the noise broken. “She brought up what they did to me… said it was sport.” She sobbed, moving to scratch at her skin, nails quickly breaking through the sleeve on her dress and through her skin. “And now I can feel them again. They’re touching me… and she said you bonded with the woman who ordered it…”

---

“Who were you with? Your mother?”

"She didn't order them to do that, I questioned. They went too far, and she has punished them." Magnus gulped, making his way to her once again and crouching down to be at her level and offering out his hands. "Don't... don't hurt yourself, T. She and I 'bonded' if you could call it that, over grieving a child whilst ruling a kingdom. I spoke highly of her to a stranger, a dangerous strange new species who was going to kill the Crown Prince.  It was a dangerous situation, I was trying to make sure it didnt escalate so I could return home to you."

---

"Mam? No.. d- dad. Brothers. Men." Tadgh frowned, pressing himself against Aesira's side. Eyes still wide with fear, flinching as a door fell closed down the hall.

"Si Si thinks they're tribal." Cassius whispered.

“I can feel them again.” Thea sobbed as she looked up at him, face swollen from crying, hands shaking violently as she moved to scratch away at her skin. “She said you being with me is an illusion. Only married me because of what I am and that our relationship is smoke and mirrors… I know she’s wrong but she - she said that. She threw it in my face and said that… and now I can feel them again.” She cried, making a small choking noise as the sobs caught in her throat.

---

“So you’ve been travelling with your father and he left you behind?” Dagmar frowned as she tried to grasp the situation.

“Can we keep him?”

"Oh, can we please?!" Cassius giggled, bouncing on the balls of his feet excitedly as he stepped the other side of Tadgh and grabbed his arm. "We'll look after him, promise!"

Tadgh's head whipped around to stare at Cassius, shoulders tensing at the restraint it took not to pull himself away. Though, tears began to surface, only enough to make his eyes gleam as he became overwhelmed. Only nodding his head to confirm Dagmar's words.

---

"Losing Emmett has made her lose her mind, hasn't it? The grief is twisting her, and being prayed upon by the pirate is making it worse, they were suspicious whilst we were away." Magnus reached a hand across, fingertips lingering centermeters from her skin. "Can I touch you, Thea? Can I hold you, and then run you a bath?"

“Here - “ Dagmar softened when she realised Tadgh was upset, opening her arms up, inviting Tadgh in for a hug. “Cass, Sira, why don’t you go make some space in one of your rooms for your friend to sleepover for now mm? And tell the kitchen to make him something nice.”

---

“It needs to be h-hot enough to b-burn them a-away.” Thea whispered, nodding in answer to him.

Magnus shifted his weight to sit properly then, crossing his legs in beneath him as his hand slowly lowered to rest on the fabric that covered her arms. His contact only feather-light as he brushed his thumb in slow, smooth circles. "I am so sorry, my wife, that the Fae Queen had those awful, awful men killed. That was your justice to enact, you deserved to choose what was done to them, when, by whom. You deserved to watch if their punishment wasn't by your hand. Karina, nor Prince Zaretsky, will be welcome here until you give the word - that is under any circumstances, even dire ones. I will instruct the Fae representative to vacate to lodgings in the town I'll supply instead, so you don't have to see anyone who resembles those men. This is your home, your sanctuary. Remember that."

---

"Yes!" Cassius clapped the celebration, letting go of Tadgh's arm and almost skipping down the hall towards the kitchen.

The boy flinched again at the noise that erupted from Cassius, almost choking on the way it made his breathing catch in his throat. Casting a hesitant glance toward Aesira as he took the plunge, stepping into Dagmar's arms and burying his face in her stomach. Shaking as silent sobs wracked through his body.

“My mama is good. I’ll sort food and then be back.” Aesira assured before following her brother out.

Dagmar held Tadgh close, resting one hand on the back of his head and rubbing his back with the other. “You’re safe now okay? Safe.”

---

“S-she just threw i-it at me with no warning. I told her Lucian w-wasn’t right. We were talking about h-her and him and she used what t-they did like it was n-nothing.” Thea shook her head, hand rea chi int up to wipe at her face.

"Nothing you could have said to her would have excused her weaponising that. Nothing. I'll be informing Conan, instruct him to reprimand her. You may be her sister but you are my Queen." Shaking his head, he moved closer. Pausing, every few movements to give her the opportunities to tell him to stop as his arms snaked around her back to pull her into an embrace.

---

"I- I le- let d-dog go. H- he was mad." Tadgh choked out through struggled breath. "Th- that's why. That must be why. F- five... five sunrises. I looked, looked but they're not anywhere."

“Letting your dog go or not, your dad should have never left you. Not without food or shelter.” Dagmar frowned, gently swaying with the boy. “I will try to find your father, in the mean time, you will stay here with Aesira and Cassius okay? I’ll make sure you have food.”

---

“She made out like I was some possession of yours. That you married because it made you look good… I was warning her of the man Lucian is. How he has prayed on her… she is so blinded… and she said I went too far.”

"Someone so intelligent, so resilient, someone so astonishingly brave to be seated at my side. It makes me look good, of course it does. You know that is not the reason I love you though, I don't love you for how you being beside me looks." Magnus chuckled lightly, resting his cheek on top of her head as he pulled her into his chest. "Karina is a grown woman, you have done your duty, you have been a good friend. People only listen to the truth when they are ready to hear it."

---

"You no find? Wh- what then?"

“Then you stay, still safe, okay?”

---

“Not friends any longer… She said she would not kneel to me. As if I had ever, or would ever ask her to…”

"Isolde told the Crown Prince to bring her to see the beast they had in the dungeons. Those were the same dungeons she was held, weren't they? The beast.. it was the creature that killed Emmett. Conan was stupid allowing her to go to that place after what had been done to all of you there."

---

Tadgh hesitated, sniffling as he took a step back from her, tears still coating his cheek. Merely lifting his palm up to press it, trembling, against hers - a show of trust.

"Dasha." Conan asked from the doorway, frowning down at the boy. "We have a guest?"

“You’re back early.” Dagmar remarked quietly, resting her hand over Tadgh’s for a brief moment. “This is the children’s friend. His father has abandoned him for almost a week now. I said he could stay with them until we found his family.”

---

“Knowing her she will have insisted… or maybe it was him. He would’ve wanted her isolated…”

"Lord Zhao interuppted us, said the Lady was urgently needed and they both apologised profusely. I think she is pretending as much as I am to be invested in things such as wedding cakes." He answered miserably, lines of his head forming with a deepening frown. "Their friend? They've not mentioned a friend to me before, did you know about him?"

Tadgh's hands lifted up to wipe at his face as he turned to face Conan, observant for a moment before asking; "You live here too? It's big, expensive. You speak with Lady's, so, wealthy?"

---

"Manipulated or not, she was needlessly cruel to you."

This is Aesira’s father, Cassius’ father. King Conan. The children didn’t tell you?”

---

“She knew… she knew what it would do…”

"King? If he King then..." His eyes widened in horror, moving so quickly to face Dagmar again that he stumbled a step or two. Dropping to his knees and ducking his head before her and keeping his gaze fixed on the ground, "Ymddiheuriadau, ymddiheuriadau.. ah.. apologies. Queen, I never would have touched you if I'd have known. No disrespect." Completely ignoring Conan in his babbling.

---

"I will run you that bath, then I'll write a letter to Conan. Demand he makes her apologise."

“No… no letter. It will not matter to them the way it does to us…”

---

“No, no. Not his Queen.” Dagmar shook her head, swallowing thickly. “Stand up, please. You don’t need to do that. Not to me.”