Hope Falls

“We got outsmarted, draga. We are weak, and they have only had time to get stronger. We will end up back in that fucking house again if we stay.”

---

“A welcome problem I suppose.”

---

“They’re not getting out.” Izsak frowned, rocking her gently.

"We were not outsmarted, we were betrayed." Sarika's hand moved up from his shoulder, to the back of his neck and into his hair. A quieter, softer tone replacing the anger she had just spoken with, "Come now, my love. Hearing you speak like this, without your fight... without your bite. It's what they wanted, what they intended with that punishment. Do not let them win. We need to rebuild, yew, but they have not broken us."

---

"Th - They will. I need - I need to go. I need to warn Thea, a- and Magnus." Matilda trembled, peeling herself away from him - though gripping his hands tightly still. "I didn't do anything last time an- and I- It won't ha- happen again... it won't happen again."

“I’m done Sarika. I don’t want revenge, I don’t want any of it. I just want to get the fuck away from people that will keep going for us whenever they can. We failed, we were bested, imprisoned. I’m not going back there again, I’m not doing it.”

---

“You’re going to give yourself a heart attack if you don’t just breathe.”

"Turn your head, turn your head and look at me. Let me see your face."

---

"Your not listening, y- you don't understand! Sh- she is going to take o- our day- daughter an- and kill you. We need to stop it."

“And nothing is going to be solved by you panicking and scaring Eris, we need to calm you down!”

---

“You’ve seen nothing but my face for the last however many years Sarika. What will that do?”

"I love that face. I looked at it day in and day out long before we were held captive in our own home and unless you are running off on your Eastern adventures alone then I will continue to look at it."

---

"You - you stay with Eris. I have to tell Magnus and Thea, this can't w- wait." She sniffled, dropping his hand and going to leave. Only making it to the door, however, before jogging back to kiss him firmly - as if it would be the last time.

“Matilda… please calm…” Izsak frowned, kissing her back gently and taking her hand.

---

Draven sighed deeply, pushing himself up and rolling onto his side.

"They want us to eat with them tonight, whilst we are down there I will ask if any of them have scissors and a razor." Sarika whispered, expression softening as she brushed her thumb against the hair along his jawline. "You listen to me, and listen well. You are not weak, Draven Adair. They may have imprisoned us, Matilda and Izsak may have washed their hands of us, but we are not broken. If we were nothing, these people wouldn't have thought us useful as propaganda. We can run again, we can rebuild our physical strength. In every other way though, we are not weak. You are not weak."

---

"I- I'm fine. I'm fine. I'll be as quick as I can, I love you." Matilda whispered, bringing his hand up to kiss his knuckles before leaving properly this time, the door falling closed behind her.

"Is - is she okay?" Eris asked nervously, stood in the doorway of her room. Her pajama top on back to front, though her shorts she had managed.

---

"Thea!" Matilda almost screeched as she hit her knuckles against the door to Thea and Magnus' quarters, "Thea! Thea! Let me in! Let me in, i- its im- important, please!"

“You trying to tell me I need a haircut, draga?” Draven snorted, shaking his head. “Why can’t you accept that I am done? That I just want to go off and live the rest of our lives in some semblance of peace rather than fight again?”

---

“Gods, Matilda!” Thea exclaimed as she opened the door, scowling furiously. “What do you think you’re doing?!”

---

“She just went to see the Queen about something, she’ll be fine, don’t worry.” Iszak assured, gesturing for her to come over.

"You do most definetly need a hair cut, you are not one of these wild men. If we are to be around people then you have to look put together. My hair is also a bird nest, so once I cut yours I'll be letting you loose on me." A smile crept onto her face. "These people won't just let us go, we'll have to fight out of here. Anything after that, we can circle back to." Leaning in, she pressed her lips to his forehead, speaking against his skin, "You are strong, Draven Adair. You are ever so strong. Do not ever believe otherwise."

---

"They are going to get out! Th- they are go- going to get out and come h- here and ta- take Eris an- and hurt Izsak. They are going to get out!"

---

Eris cast a glance towards the door her mother had just exited from, frowning as she wandered across the room to her father.

“I am also, so tired, Sar. We’re not circling back to anything. I’m not fighting any more once I have my freedom.” Draven sighed, moving to sit up properly.

---

“Who and what are you talking about Matilda?! You can’t just come screaming like a banshee at the door and then blurt out nonsense!”

---

Izsak gently lifted her arms to take the backwards clothing off before putting it on the right way.

Sarika bit back a groan as she moved her own stuff muscle to push herself onto the bed next to him. Slipping her arms around his shoulders to pull him into an embrace, swallowing as she whispered, "I can see that. I see."

---

"Sarika! Sarika is who I am talking about, wh- who else would it be?! Who else-"

"Enough." Magnus cut her off from where he sat on the sofa further in the room. "The woman sounds like she is hysterical, T, let her in before she humiliates herself."

---

"What are you - Oh.." Eris pouted. "I thought I done it right."

“Almost baby girl, buttons at the front. But you did a good job of lining them all up right!”

---

Thea stepped back from the door to allow her in. “Come on,
Let’s discuss this.”

---

“Baldruun has nice weather… I think we’d suit it.”

Magnus got to his feet to disappear into their small private kitchen, coming back with a glass of brown alcoholic liquid and offering it to Matilda when she stepper into the room. "Take this, and calm down."

"No, no." Matilda gulped, holding her hands up to the drink. "No, thank you... I - I mean."

---

Eris half smiled, leaning into her father to hug him. "When I am big do I get to be fluffy like you or will I do weird twitchy doll things?"

---

"Oh don't," Sarika chuckled humourlesslt, casting a glass down at her bare arms. "I think if the sun hits me at the right angle I may blind someone."

“We don’t know sweetheart, what you inherited. If you have the gift of seeing then it will manifest itself in a few years time if not sooner. If you get a little older and you don’t have visions then it means you’ll shift, like me. So it’s just a case of waiting.”

---

“Maybe if these pricks will let us in the sun we can get some pigment back. I swear even my fur is lighter.”

---

“Have a drink, let it calm you a little.”

"I hope I get to be a wolfie like you," Eris grinned. "I want to be fluffy."

---

"No, no I am not here long. I need to get back to my family, I- I need to make sure they are safe I just have to tell you what I have seen."

---

"We worked so hard honing our bodies. Looking like we were supermodels wasn't easy." Sarika wrinkled her nose. "That is the worst part of all of th-"

"Get your ass down here, alphas!" That same gruff voice shouted up from the bottom of the stairs. "Feeding time!"

“Your family are safe for the moment, no? Relax Matilda. You’ll give yourself a nosebleed.”

---

“It would be nice to be able to run with you, but we will have to wait and see mm?”

---

“I best get dressed…”

"Take your time," She encouraged quietly, leaning in to kiss his cheek. "I will see you down there, try and keep them busy enough they don't notice."

---

"No, n- no you don't understand." Matilda gulped, offering her hand out to Thea to share the vision. "P- please. Can I show you?"

---

"I be faster than you," Eris nodded with a confident grin. "Much faster."

“I won’t be long, I’ll be down soon.”

---

“I’m sure you would be. We will have to wait and see mm?”

---

Thea hesitated before offering her hand out.

Matilda took in a deep breath, her hand trembling as she reached out to touch Thea's - pulling her into the vision

Matilda stood in the centre of the dining hall, her chest heaving with the panic she tried to subdue as she stared straight ahead at Sarika whom held a bloody knife with a jagged blade.

At Sarika's feet Izsak lay, blood pooled around him - his abdomen almost hacked open, deep and wide enough for his inners to have spilled out. The light only only just fading from his eyes; and behind her, Eris was screaming, sobbing - broken and hysterical. Sarika's face tilted into a wicked smirk, her tone unnervingly pleasant as she explained; "No one gets to turn their backs on us and carry on breathing. Your daughter is not safe with these people, with you, so she will remain with me.".

The vision then shifted, almost like camera flashes separating several images. Magnus' head on a pike, wolf jaws snapping and break Thea's neck. Zaria thrown into her room and trapped there.

"Wait, maybe do this sat - down..." Magnus grimaced, placing the drink down before moving to stand just behind Thea. Watching closely, prepared to catch her, or steady her, if she needed it.

---

Eris grinned, nodding as she reached over to fiddle with the dog tag chain around her father's neck. "How come we get to be in the palace with fancy people but others like you are in the town?"

---

Sarika nodded, taking in a breath to brace herself as she stood up. Biting her tongue to keep from complaining at the aches in her bones, leaving the room.

“No, no!” Thea hissed, snapping her hand away and stumbling backwards - into the couch. “No! No! No!”

---

“Because your mother is important. She must stay here with the King so she can tell him of her visions. It’s her job.”

"Do you see wh - why I yell?! Do you see?!" Matilda yelled through her tears.

"Careful," Magnus warned, hand reaching out to rest against Thea's back and stabilise her before she fell to sitting. "The sofa is there, T, take it is easy."

---

"What about you? Is your job important too?"

“Dads job is taking care of you, so yes, it’s very important. The most important.”

---

“I wanted them dead! I wanted them to hang for what they had done and everyone decided that they deserved imprisonment.” Thea seethed, beginning to pace as she held onto her hands, wringing them.

---

"And mamas job... isn't to take care of me?" Eris wrinkled her nose, confusion flashing in her eyes.

---

"I am no Seer, I will need this explaining to me. By either of you, I am not fussed on who."

"When was your last update on Sarika and Draven? When was your last report Magnus?" Matilda gulped.

"Three - three weeks ago maybe? It isn't unusual for them to come in less often now, there is little to report. The guards should be changing over soon though."

“That’s one of mamas jobs, her other is when she sees things, she has to discuss it with her sisters, your aunts. They have to piece things all together, see what it means. See if they’ve got a puzzle to be solved or if it is a clear picture.”

---

“The Adairs are free… they kill us. You and I… Iszak. And they take her child.” Thea said shakily, trembling as she looked to Matilda. “He should have been dead! I wanted that bastard dead but you and your sentimentality lead them all to vote that he should live!”