Evernight

[Elle Joyner]

"You say that as if there's another option I've yet to discover. Thalion, I..." A sigh escaped, and Minette shook her head, "I'm confused. You want me to accept my position... Yet remind me it's been usurped. You want to plan, but then have nothing more to offer but to wait. What can I conclude but that I've no better option than giving up our advantage, to drive Thalia from hiding? Or are you really just so opposed to spending one quiet night away from it all? One quiet night with..."

Jaw twitching, she turned away, "I know emotions aren't something you're accustomed to. But I never expected such coldness here. I thought you would be happy to... to be free of it. But I can't help but think you'd rather be there... than here with me."

Rubbing her arms, she dropped her gaze to the floor, shuffling her bare foot across the wooden planks, "I thought you wanted us to be together. Yet all I can think is... is you would rather be alone, again."

 

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The grand question they both seemed to be asking was: did he want to go back?

Thalion looked away nervously. Everything hinged on what he wanted to do and once done, it couldn't be undone. He could hardly think straight. A muscle twitched involuntarily at the corner of his right eye, his mouth forming a rigid grimace. With arms folding tightly across his broad chest, he tapped the fingers of his left hand anxiously against the opposite arm all while he stared out of the grimy window. "I don't know," he blurted out, "I thought I'd be happy to."

There had been a time he had believed that coming to green reach would have solved every one of his problems. That by transplanting himself to his birthright, he would have become someone new and wonderful. He had fantasized coming to Green Reach since he was a young boy—cold and alone and scared—and he imagined swinging into it brave, celebrated, and heroic. It had turned out to be none of those things. Instead, he was just as cold, alone, and scared as he had been before, but this time it felt like he was taking Minette down with him.

"I do want to be with you, Minette," he replied earnestly after his sudden outburst, his voice quieter and calmer. The transition had happened so fast, so unexpectedly and under circumstances that he couldn't even begin to understand that he wasn't even sure if he was really in Green Reach at all… or just dreaming it. He might have actually believed he had been dreaming it had the transition gone smoother, but nothing about his conversation currently with Minette was comfortable. He was painfully unsure of how to communicate with another human being, and it showed in the way he was squirming below his clothes.

"Do you remember your first few days n' Evernight?" he asked, "That's how I feel now."

Green Reach was so unfamiliar to him. When he looked out over the city from the window, he didn't know what half the buildings were… he didn't understand why one building had a giant steeple and a towering cross, he didn't understand what were in the crates being pulled through town by carriages, he didn't understand where everyone in the streets below were going or what they were doing. "Findin Thalia feels like all I know."
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[Elle Joyner]

"Except in Evernight, I was alone, Thalion... And being hunted by horrible monsters" Frowning softly, Minette stepped forward, reaching out to rest her hands on his arms, "I don't want to fight. I don't... And I'm sorry that you're finding it difficult. Maybe it's not fair to expect you to adjust so quickly... I suppose I just... I had hoped that I might be enough of a reason for you to... to want to be here. "

With a sigh, she shook her head and released him, turning back to the door, "I'll never really escape from there, will I. Even after she's gone and it's over... It's always going to be there." Opening the door, she stepped back out into the darkened hall, careening smack into the body of a large, solid man.

She toppled back and hit the floor, staring up wide eyed at the imposing figure, who looked down at her with a slightly shocked, slightly irritated expression, "What are you doing up here, Miss? This area is off limits... No one's supposed to-- Hang on..." Frowning, he stepped back to get a better look at her, "Oi!"

Yanking the sword at his belt free, he swung it down, the edge of it coming perilously close to Minette's cheek, "...Woke up then, did ya?"
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What she didn't understand was that to him… humans were monsters. He hadn't been surrounded by much of anyone since Minette since he was about ten years old. There was always bells of alarm going off in his head whenever he glanced back towards the window and saw the swarms of them filing the streets like water droplets rushing down a riverbed. They eddied occasionally around a stationary object, like a stopped carriage or a post, but they just continued on on the other side. Perhaps they were not bearing of large fangs, deathly bites, or thick scales, but they were as foreign to him as dragons had been to Minette.

No, perhaps he wasn't alone, but even Minette couldn't quell the unease in his heart… not so easily, not so quickly. He ended up frowing into her words, ashamed at his own lack of ability to cope quicker—better, and in shame of his own creature-like qualities. Though she never directly spoke the words, all Thalion could really hear in the tender way she put things was: you don't fit in here with me. And he didn't. At least, he didn't feel like he did. There argument (or not an argument, as Minette seemed to want to insist) was cut short just as she was about to take her leave.

He didn't really know what to do or go once she did, he had just planned on following her but she quickly toppled to the floor in front of him. At once, Thalion's even levelled with the man, realizing immediately he didn't have any weapons on him but a small dagger, which paled in comparison to the long blade the man was gripping venomously towards Minette's neck. It didn't escape his attention either that the man, a guard (or so Thalion guessed), was not at all friendly towards Minette. Perhaps Thalia's rule bled deeper than he had first believed and hoped.

"Hey!" Thalion cut in, grabbing his dagger from the waist of his belt. The folded steel gleamed dangerously against the light oozing in from the window. He poised the blade in his head, steadying the weight to find its balance. "Step away from her—" Thalion barked with a bit of a growl in his throat. The man was more than enough to convince him that all men were truly monsters, except perhaps Minette herself. The only real experience he had with people who weren't Minette had been Thalia, Gregian, and now the man with the sword… not exactly great averages.
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[Elle Joyner]

She wasn't nearly as frightened in that moment as she was angry. Angry at the man, at Thalia... At the world in general. Her victory had been so shortlived... Her respite dead the moment she woke. She had never escaped Evernight... Only transitioned to a new version of it. And she was furious.

Tears stung and so did the small mark where the tip of the guard's blade nicked her fragile skin, but as she studied him, she felt her stomach clench as recollection struck true.

"Ben?" She asked, and his eyes shifted, moving from Thalion to Minette, slightly alarmed.

"Yeah... So?"

Slowly, edging away from his sword, which he maintained a slightly less diligent grip on, Minette rose, "Ben Whitshire... How dare you! You should be ashamed... Behaving this way. What would your mother think?"

Frowning, shuffling back, the man shrugged, scratching his neck with his free hand, "I got no choice, Minnie. If that bitch knew you woke and I didn't do nothin'?"

"So... What? You were just hoping I didn't recognize you?"

His cheeks reddening, the man shrugged again, "It's been a long time, Min."

"Apparently. Where is she?"

"Tossin' babies to wolves, probably. She goes on walks... Says it clears her head."

Looking back to Thalion, Minette frowned softly, "We mean to stop her, Ben."

"Yeah? You and what army...? She's got magic."

"She'll need it. This is Thalion. Her son."

Blinking, Ben sheathed his sword and stepping forward, extended a hand, "Bently Whitshire... Min here and I grew up together."

"Not that you seem to remember as much." Minette mused in irritation, rubbing the small gash on her cheek.

"I'm sorry, Minnie. Honest. I... It's been hard, since what happened to you..." His eyes moved to Thalion again, "Your Mum... Real piece of work..."​

 

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Needless to say, Thalion did not put his knife away. If the creatures of Evernight had taught him anything, it was to never trust them… no matter how docile and harmless they seemed. The man, who apparently knew Minette, was pudgy and soft around the edges. He was hardly threatening, not to the sleek and conditioned athlete and survivalist that was Thalion, but dragons too looked particularly hefty and lazy until they got it in their mind to kill something. Thalion stared at the man with eyes that were narrowed, rigid, cold, and hard. When he squinted his eyes suspiciously, it could easily put someone in mind of a pit viper's slit-like pupils… but at least a pit viper might have been slightly more friendly than Thalion in that moment.

He introduced himself, trying to back-track his initial reaction and Thalion just scoffed. When Ben moved closer, Thalion drew up his blade a little further—a non-verbal reminder for the other man to step off; Thalion was having none of it.

"I see you're about as loyal as a snake, Bently Whitshire," he didn't reciprocate with his introduction to be pointedly rude, though Minette had already gone on to introduce him. Already once he had been foolish enough to make the mistake of trusting a man who made an entrance with violence and a threat; Gregian was markedly similar to this Bently, at least in Thalion's own dark and distrusting mind.

"Piece of work?" Thalion echoed, "Piece of work? My mother is a piece of work?" he slipped his blade back in his belt once he had decided killing Ben wasn't in need of immediate attention, but Thalion's demenour only seemed to become colder and more bristled without any sharp, folded-steel objects between them. "I assure you, you haven't seen nothin'." If Thalia had him running with his tail tucked between his legs already, he was already useless, though there was noted irritation that continued to rub his fur the wrong way when Ben continued to act as though his attack on Minette meant nothing.

Still, Thalion really shouldn't have so easily have forgotten that he had nearly killed Minette upon their first meeting as he had been instructed to do so in the same way Ben likely had.

Hand free of the blade, he extended it down instead to Minette.

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[Elle Joyner]

Minette's gaze traveled from Ben to Thalion, and though Ben seemed to have shiftrd his demeanor entirely, the tension in Thalion was nearly palpable. His hand extended to her and she reached for it, weaving her fingers through his.

Ben gave them a look, smiling faintly, "So you two, then..."

"That's none of your business, Ben." Minette retorted, though a faint smile touched her lips.

"Oi. I won't pry... Easy. As for loyalty, you can bet your left arm I've got none for that hag... But hell if I want her finding out. She's got ways about her... The things I've seen her do to people." Shaking his head, he leaned back against the doorframe, "She gets into your head... Makes you think things. She's got half the kingdom sure you killed the king."

"The... the king is dead?" Last she had heard, he had married... But that had been Gregian's words... And he had hardly been reliable.

"Yeah. Said she put you under that spell to punish you for it. But I didn't want to believe it... And when you yelled at me just now, well Hell... I knew it couldn't be true." Gesturing to her cheek, he winced, "Sorry bout that... Still not used to the damn thing."

"When did you..."

"Join up? Didn't. None of us did. Willingly, anyway. All the men of Doyle were forced into it... Like I sais. She's a piece of work. Good hearin' you say you mean to do something about it... But what?"​

 

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Speaking of pieces of work, Ben seemed to be one himself and Thalion was none too thrilled with his attitude. Had he not been physically biting down on his tongue for Minette's sake, he would have quaintly informed Ben that he was not all that trustworthy. Perhaps he was paranoid, but he was weary of the man in front of him and regarded him with great suspicion. "You're an awfully nosy little boy," he commented idly, noting the questions Ben was making.

Perhaps they were harmless, genuine curiosity, or perhaps they weren't. Ben hardly seemed desperate to escape the Queen's clutches. He apologized to Minette, and winced at the sight of the blood, but what would he have done had Minette not called him out? Thalion dared not think of it. "I don't trust you," he announced finally, decreeing his opinion on Minette's childhood friend, "You remind me of someone I met recently," he meant Gregian. Thalion understood the monsters of Evernight. They made perfect sense… they killed for pleasure and for survival, nothing more. They didn't play games or try and make a mockery of it. Men? Men, Thalion was quickly learning, were a crafty breed that played with their victims. They made no sense to him and he trusted not a single soul except for Minette, even though he knew she was probably still upset at him.

"Though, can't rightly let you run off, 'case you're working for the witch."

Thalion's head tilted to the side, causing a wisp of black hair to fall across his forehead. His black eyes pierced Ben for a moment, lost in mysterious thoughts, before scoffing and shaking his head. It wasn't his call to make. He looked over to Minette, his fingers stilled warmly tangled up in hers. Though the tension bristled through him, he bathed in the warmth and comfort her hand brought him. It was incredibly easy for him to forget sometimes that he had a human part, but even the simplest touches from her could bring them back.

"Do you trust him?" he asked, flipping his gaze between the two. It was Minette who was destined to the throne and the decisions were to be hers. "What shall we do with him?"

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[Elle Joyner]

"Now, wait a minute..." Ben protested, and Minette frowned as Thalion bent closer, his voice lowering so only she might hear it. It was frustrating, the instant mistrust... even if it might have been a little warranted. Ben's initial impression wasn't a good one - and she herself expected better from a former friend, but there was no telling what Thalia had done to the kingdom they had woken to, no telling what his motives were for treating her the way he had.

It wasn't in her to be so cynical... so cold, and she couldn't seem to make Thalion see that he didn't need to be that way, either. That he could open himself up to others, the way he had to her, if he would just allow himself not to feel so guarded...

And if nothing else, she wanted him to trust her judgment, at least where it concerned people that she was familiar with - people she grew up with. Maybe he would never feel as though he belonged in Doyle, but it was her home, and for all intents and purposes, it was going to be his, too... if they could stop Thalia.

"...Do with him?" She looked up at Thalion, shaking her head, "He's not our prisoner, Thal. He's a friend... and he's suffered through her rule, same as us."

Looking to Ben, Minette nodded, "There are others, I trust? Who feel the way about her that you do?"

"Hell... Even those that might actually be loyal to her, they're terrified of her..."

"You think you could gather them? In secret...?"

His lip twitched upwards and Ben nodded, pushing off the door, "I can certainly try."

"Good. Go and do it... We can't stay here, in the meantime. It's not safe... Not if she's got people convinced I had something to do with..." Trailing off, she lowered her gaze.

"Got my place... I don't stay there, much anymore. It's yours, if you need it..."

Glancing up again, Minette nodded, "Thank you, Ben. Be careful."

"You, too, Min. Thalion." With another nod, he turned and left, as Minette tightened her grip just slightly on Thalion's hand.

"I know what you're thinking... and I know that after Gregian I've little right to expect you to trust my instincts, but I need you to be with me on this, Thal. We cannot be at arms with each other, with any allies we might have here... if we're going to go up against your mother."
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Friend.

The word seemed to bring about a vexed expression on Thalion's face. He didn't have friends. He supposed he had, once. There was Thamis, a young boy who he could remember quite vividly playing with when he was once in Green Reach, before Evernight. He had liked Thamis quite a lot, and he found the shy boy with broad, uninspired features and knots of curly red hair to be quite agreeable. It had been some time since he had last perused thoughts of Thamis, but the complex still perplexed him. He couldn't seem to be quite able to grasp his mind around the idea of just trusting someone at face value. All his life, he had grown and been taught to expect the very worse out of every creature he encountered and to him, men were just creatures.

The Antropoes had worked quite hard to earn his trust though Minette had to have worked even harder. Then what of his initial attack? Ben knew who Minette was before she even realized his identity—would he have gone so far as to kill her if she had not scolded him? He dared not think of it. Instead, he rescinded himself into brooding silence. When Ben offered his goodbyes, Thalion did not even bother to respond. It was as if a great something had shifted inside of him, though it was impossible to say as to what aside from the fact that he had clammed up nearly entirely. His face, which had only recently been exploring different expressions, felt flat and cold, as if it was inheriting the properties of the marble floors below them.

He certainly didn't fail to notice that Ben had transitioned from slicing her cheek open to calling her affectionately by 'Min.'

Once he had left, Minette's scoldings seemed to turn to him. They were thickly veiled and while he saw it as nothing less than a lecture, Thalion did seem to soften a ways in her regard. "I'll do whatever you want," he replied bluntly, but honestly. He didn't seem particularly overjoyed or in any way feeling excited about his prospects. Perhaps he had deserved a harsher scolding than had been given.

"I haven't a right to second guess your judgment," he replied again, shaking his hand loose from Minette's and letting it fall lamely down at his side. "And I'll do whatever you need a me."

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[Elle Joyner]

"You have the right to second guess whatever you must..." Minette frowned, as he pulled his hand free, "but you haven't the need, nor cause to, and you should remember that. Whatever happened, Thalion, since I woke up, I can't fathom why it's made you suddenly act as though I'm someone other than who I've been these past several months... but I won't pretend to be happy about it, either. I may be queen, someday, whether or not I want to... and it might do you well to consider that I don't, by the way, but that doesn't mean you have to treat me differently."

Blinking back tears, she stepped back and turned away from him, wrapping her arms around herself, "All I wanted... was to feel like, for one moment, I wasn't under her cage anymore, Thal. I've barely spoken with the woman, and she has so completely tarnished everything I hold dear. I wanted one moment that wasn't ruined by her..."

Breathing out, she shook her head and reached up to wipe away the tears, more angry with herself and those overwhelming emotions than she was with with Thalion. She couldn't expect Thalion to understand the way her mind worked, nor could she expect him to know her heart, her needs... not when it was all so unfamiliar to him, "We should go. It's a good walk to Ben's farm, and we'll be better off traveling at night, so we're not seen."
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Since returning to Green Reach, Thalion had grown irrationally cold. Or, perhaps, irrational wasn't the right word. It had been Ben's sudden appearance that had distilled the thoughts in Thalion's mind that she didn't need him. She had friends here, allies, people of normal backgrounds and histories who, despite making such a crass entrance, were completely normal folk. They didn't ever lose their soul, possess magic, or struggle against a benevolent mother who saw it fit to rule every realm she could grasp. The thought alone caused an angry tickle to course up from his fingertips, though his anger was not directed at Minette. In fact, there wasn't anyone he was angry at, not even his mother, but he was quite upset with the situation around them.

Minette had pulled away and curled around herself. "It isn't about you," he said. For once, it wasn't about Minette. She had been so concerned that he was treating her different, that it was her change in title, that she wanted something… but it wasn't about Minette. She was right about one thing though, he did want to go back to Evernight. Green Reach scared him; he felt incredibly vulnerable and uncomfortable, only made more so by the fact that someone who had attacked Minette was suddenly a friend. Was everything so backwards in Green Reach? Was everything he ever knew wrong? It overwhelmed him a great deal. The panic of it all was like a cluster of electric bursts in his abdomen. Tension laced in his face and limbs. He had never backed away from a fight before, but it was taking all of his nerves not to back away then.

If it hadn't been for Minette, he would have sought a way back to Evernight. It was a prison, but even a prison became home after so long.

His eyes stirred as he blinked away his own thoughts that swirled around his head like a storm. "Would you like to go alone?" he asked. "To talk to Ben. You seem to have a lot of catchin' up to do. I'll walk with you, though." A man, who was a friend, had just tried to attack her. He couldn't imagine what a true foe might try and do. At least in Green Reach, it seemed right that the night was safer and Thalion knew he wouldn't have been able to sleep anyways, even if he wanted to.

Reaching out, he touched Minette's shoulder with an almost hesitancy. He barely brushed his fingertips against her skin before he stopped.

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[Elle Joyner]

Sniffling, Minette turned as he brushed against her and shaking her head, she moved swiftly, to throw her arms around his neck, hugging herself tightly to him. He was so solid and strong, from years of hard living, years of struggling, and he felt like an anchor - one that could so easily weigh her down, but instead kept her afloat... kept her from drowning in her own misery. But sometimes, he could be both stubborn and foolish, and certainly this was one of those times.

"Don't be stupid..." She muttered miserably, into his chest, "Why would I want to go without you, anywhere? Can't you see, Thalion? Surely not even you can be so blind to the way the heart works that it escapes your attention. I just... I need you. More than I ever have. I am scared... I am so scared. This isn't Evernight, but it feels like something so much worse... and you may be here, with me, but I feel desperately alone."

Pulling back, her fingers curled at the nape of his neck, she looked up at him with a small frown, "I don't want to be with anyone else, right now. Not Ben, or my people... I just want you, and you have never felt so far away. And maybe what you say is true - that it's nothing to do with me. But you forget so soon... you're a part of me. And when you're distant, when you close yourself off from me, I can't help but feel like I'm not whole... Like something is missing."
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The soft touch to her shoulder, for however small and insignificant it should have seemed, was just enough to bridge the gap of distance between them. At once, her arms cascaded around his neck and gripped him tight, moving until she was huddled impossibly close to his own form. Hugs, as it were, seemed to be intuitive to any mind—even one like Thalion's, which was quite cold and peculiar. His arms wrapped around her slight waist, resting his chin on top of her head as she nestled into him because he was quite a bit taller than she. She told him frankly to stop being stupid and it didn't offend him like it probably ought to have.

Manners, rules, propriety—had he ever learned them, he surely had forgotten. As a child, he had a nurse who raised him as his mother didn't see it fit to do so herself. His nurse had been a nice woman and had taught him a great number of things about being a gentleman, but whatever he had learned seemed to be mostly undone after years and years spent in Evernight. And how could it not? The fact of the matter was that it had been a long time since he had last been afraid in Evernight. It had been scary at first, but he had grown accustomed to its violent tendencies… Green Reach, however, and emotions on a whole, were still quite terrifying.

"I always dreamed exactly how it'd be coming back here," he said, "What it'd be like to come back. This is nothing like I imagined." For one, he had anticipated being free of Thalia when he was finally allowed to return to Green Reach. He expected to fit in seamlessly with society and all the people in it, but everything he had dreamed was not at all reality. Never once would he had believed he would have wanted to go back to Evernight because it felt safer, but there he was all the same. Of course, he wouldn't go back. He couldn't and not just because he didn't know a way.

Minette roused him from his thoughts when she pulled back a ways so she could catch his eye. Returning the gaze, he raised his brow a little, easing a more light-hearted, surprised expression across his otherwise stern and serious face. "No matter where I am, I'm never that far away, see?" He resigned himself with a sigh, "I'll always be here."

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[Elle Joyner]

Frowning softly, Minette reached up to trail her fingertips along his jawline. He was there, and she was glad for that - physically, he had always been her protector... but it was the strength he gave her that mattered all the more. He had given her the courage to make it through Evernight... the courage to be so much more than a weak willed, sheltered princess. It was because of him that she had even made it to Doyle.

But maybe it was her turn... maybe it was her turn to be strong for his sake. To give him the courage to get through Doyle. It was a new world for him, and one with an all different variety of monsters - some not so easy to spot as Half Hags or Dragons, and considering how difficult he found it to trust, it wasn't exactly fair to lean on him...

He was her anchor, but she hadn't stopped to think that maybe, in at least some ways, he needed her to be his... "We'll be alright, my Love. We survived her games in Evernight... You, for much longer than I did. Even when we were sure it was over, even when it rightly should have been over, we survived. And we'll make it through this, too. Together." Leaning up, she pressed a gentle kiss to the corner of his mouth, "Enough of that. We should go, before someone else comes up here."
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Though words often meant very little, and could not so readily soothe, Thalion found that as she spoke, his shoulders began to unwind. The tension in his muscles eased to some extent, though not easily or readily. A smile didn't become his features, but his lips too began to relax until they weren't tightened into an impossibly stern and straight line across his face. Severity gave way to softness and his eyes took on a more undisturbed tone. Their quarrel, or whatever it was, had passed and Thalion seemed glad for it.

"Where we going?" he asked, pleased with the change in subject. Ben seemed, or at least Minette had assured him, to be helping. There was no doubt that Thalion would continue his refusal of trust, but if Minette trusted him, there was no point in trying to argue. In his mind, Thalion had already decided that if Ben failed, he would kill him. If he pulled through, then Minette's trust was instilled in good faith. Perhaps he had been right in saying that Thalia could drive a man to do things he didn't wish to do, but pointing a sword towards the princess—his love—was inexcusable in Thalion's little world. Of course, he knew he himself had done it once, before they had first met and he could only hope that Ben came to the same startling revelation as he had when the monster swam close to her feet.

"Are we going to this… Ben's place?" he asked again, "If so, I'd feel better with a weapon." He'd feel better with a weapon had they, or had they not, been going to meet Ben. Regardless of circumstance, Thalion felt unusually naked with only a small dagger to his possession. Magic, perhaps, was a weapon in and of itself, but he had continued to try and ignore it. It still pulsed through him. He could still feel its warming effects creep up from his fingertips and burn in his blood. It did often become impossible to ignore, but he did his best to pretend it wasn't there.

Though it had served him well on the few instances he had used it (more on impulse and adrenaline than conscious choice), he was afraid of its corruption. Terrified of it, inherently.

"You should probably get somethin' to eat, too," he rejoined a moment into the silence in their conversation, "And some water."

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[Elle Joyner]

It felt better, decidedly... The peace between them. She didn't like fighting with Thalion, but most especially when they were already at war with his mother. There was too much at stake for them to be at odds with one another... Too much to lose. Too much that they had almost lost already.

Frowning softly, she glanced towards the door that Ben had left through a little while earlier, "His family's farm. He hasn't lived there for some time, now. Not since his father died. He and his mother moved to the palace when he was a boy. I met him when my engagement to..." Trailing off, she blinked, staring ahead still. How many more innocent lives would be lost to Thalia's wickedness? Even the king of Doyle had not found mercy from her injustice and violence...

"We shouldn't linger." Reaching back, she took hold of his hand, "But we can see if the armory is open on the way..." Leaving the small room, she made a brisk pace back in the direction they had come. The halls were still eerily quiet, but Minette did her best to ignore the gnawing uneasiness the empty palace gave. If there were any bright side at all it was that the armory, however poorly maintained, was indeed unmanned.

While Thalion browsed for a new weapon, Minette helped herself to a small blade, easily hefted by her small frame. It wasn't much, but it was a comfort all the same. Once armed, she led him down a stone spiral staircase and through a series of servant halls to the back end of the palace and from there, out a small wooden door that opened up to the southern gates.

Only when they were safely through the gates did she relinquish her grip on his hand, turning her concentration instead on remembering the path to Ben's old home.

It was several miles beneath a full, emblazoned moon, and the stillness of the night made for a dreary walk, but upon arriving outside of the thatch roofed cottage, Minette's spirits began to lift again, "Just as I remembered..."

Moving to the door, she pushed it open and stepped inside, "Even smells the same..."

 

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A stillness came between them. The type of stillness that even a feather would fall without drifting one way or the other. Before they left the room, Thalion passed one more glance out the window. The grass, there, was straight and silent, the leaves dangled more as if they had been painted there. Should he been able to feel the beating of a bird's or a bat's wings—that would have been the only breeze in the moment. It was still, utterly still, though he still couldn't tell if that was in peace or in resolute indifference, whether their argument had truly been ended or whether it had been merely laid down like a baby only to be roused again at another time.

Minette's voice quickly reminded him that there was no time to simmer over such thoughts. He aroused sleepily from his gaze and looked back to her. "Right," he agreed in an airy voice, giving a confirming nod. They moved swiftly and quietly, neither pair of feet making even a whisper of a noise against the stone and marble floors. They paused briefly at the armory and it took Thalion's keen eye but a moment to pick up a well-crafted bow and quiver. The pair married together beautifully and feeling the familiar grip of a bow (though unusual in such that it was carved decoratively, which felt unusual in his palms), he slipped the quiver over his shoulders. The leather strap sunk into the familiar groove across his shoulder, carved by a hundred thousand quivers carried before that one.

Weapons selected, they headed out.

Any last hint of eventide relinquished its hold to the night and a dewy coolness came over the Earth. The moon merrily drunk the droplets and caused them to gleam, practically lighting up their path with each little droplet. Minette had dropped his hand to concentrate, but Thalion continued to follow close at hand. More than once he had taken an aggressive stance against a variety of harmless forest creatures—a squirrel, first, then a bat. Each time, he was surprised to find them harmless beings that sought to cause neither him nor Minette any mischief or pain.

He imagined that when they arrived at the farmhouse, he felt very much like Minette had when they went to the Antropoes' village. His face twisted in surprise. The farmhouse looked just as tired as the landscape in the desaturating moonlight: dreary and weather-beaten. He certainly noticed Minette's sudden lift in spirits and he did what he could to quench the green, slithering snake of jealousy that curled around his heart and wrought it tight.

"Did you spend a lotta time here then?"

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[Elle Joyner]

"Hmm." Moving from the door, Minette wound her way past an upturned chair to the fireplace, tugging open the floo, before settling on the hearth where a stack of logs still remained. These, she began to use to build a small pile in the empty mouth of the stone pit, "Ages... It seemed. Ben and I would come here when things were less than bearable at the palace. I was young... when my betrothal was decided, and even then I knew what it meant. What that life would be like. Ben didn't care that I was to be queen. He never treated me any differently than he would anyone else."

Looking up, she caught sight of Thalion's expression in the light that bled through the window slats and smiling faintly, she rose to collect the metal striker, sparking life against the dry wooden logs.

"He was like a brother to me, Thal. But that's all... I could never see him as anything more, and he far from fancied me. Far as I know, he was bent over backwards for our milkmaid. Probably still is, if she's still around." Dusting off her hands, she crossed the room, looping her arms around his middle.

"And I'm already madly in love with someone else... Though he's a bit dumb about it, I think."

 

[Nav]

While Minette tended a fire, Thalion stolled about the room. He eyed every shelf, every dusty corner with care and concern. There were so many things that looked familiar, though he couldn't say how or why. It had been so long since he had interacted with anything except rudimentary tools or what he could convince the Antropoes to part with, that he did marvel quietly to himself over how beautiful something as simple as a spiral in the iron shaft of a fire poker could be… or how delicately the walls had been seemed together with grout and mortar. It wasn't rough and rudimentary like Evernight was—but even in the impoverished farmhouse, it was well-crafted by well-knowing hands.

He was inspecting things to try and forget the feeling bubbling anxiously at the back of his throat. Of course he was jealous… he had never had any reason to be jealous of anyone or anything before, so the emotion was new and profound on him. He didn't know how to ward it or shed it, though he desperately wished for it to go because it caused him to prickle with anger. Not at Minette, not even at Ben… he wasn't sure what he was angry at really. Minette could have insisted to him all day that Ben was just a friend, but it seemed unable to permeate Thalion's mind. He sighed, reaching up to shift his quiver when he felt the warmth of arms encasing his waist.

His eyes opened and he looked down to Minette, eyeing her carefully as she looked back up at him and professed her love for him—though in a less than obvious manner. His breath escaped him readily and his hands slid down until they fell across her shoulders.

"Like a brother?" he echoed. Thalion wondered for a moment if he had any siblings, but he quickly denied the thought. "Mm, well," his train of thought winding on, "Let's hope he's honest like a brother n' follows through." Thalion had clearly still had his reservations about the man and he didn't readily relax as he usually did, even in Minette's embrace. Still, the hardness of his expression softened some, "But did I just hear you call me dumb?"