Melusina, I...

She staggers back. One step, then two.

It felt like a violation, an invasion. He'd bore witness to parts of her life she thought sacred, hers alone. And yet, if he had told her—if he had revealed himself—Melusina might have just let him in. He might have been the one thing from her past she let slip past the walls she'd erected upon her departure. Every new step since then had been entirely her own.

Or, so she had thought.

I have always followed you.

Her eyes sweep shut, in a blink that lasts far too long.

I found you, and just...watched over you.

I could have used you, you know, she seethes, her lips twisting into a wide frown. I could have used a friend.

Those nights she'd spent weeping under the endless stretch of starless sky, begging her mother and father's forgiveness—had he heard her? Had he listened to her throes through the trees? She wonders, then, what could have stayed his hand; the fear of being found?

But despite all her anger and regret, there is something of a strange strength in those nights she thought herself alone. There had been no one to wipe her tears, to reassure her, to give her the mercy of a loss of control. She had to drag herself out of her hovels, had to bite past the pain of a journey she should have never survived, and had to forge herself a new destiny.

I... she finally relents, casting her gaze to the side. I suppose it was a journey I needed to make alone.

Had @Dominic revealed himself, it might have...complicated things.

She'd needed every part of her past stripped from her to be reborn anew.

Into what, she isn't sure.

But no more, she demands, her half-narrowed gaze burning into his, I will not lose you to the shadows.

Art by AleTie, table by cala

artwork • coding

How could he have intervened? Dominic didn't understand any of it, he didn't know how he could protect her from herself - or from the emotions that wreaked havoc upon her psyche. Perhaps part of him feared not being enough, not enough to keep her from crying, to make her happy. It had been his own fear and insecurity that had kept him from approaching her during those quiet, intimate moments.

As those anger filled words touched his ears, they flick back and brows furrow heavily into his features - a soft scowl expressing upon his face. "I..." He began, finding his throat tightening and words failing to come to him. What could he say to make this better? Should he have not told her? Dominic watches her body step back, away from him. Always away from him - or just within reach, but never able to touch. That's what she felt like.

Something that could never belong to him.

It was then he realized those feelings; complicated as they were. Had it always been this way? Since her sweet voice had grace his ears years ago, when they were but children. Innocent.

He knew now that she was different. And how could she not be? Life had been a cruel ride for her. More so her than him. A sigh escapes his lips as she speaks again - though it isn't a sound born of relief. Instead, it's simply because he doesn't know what to say.

I will not lose you to the shadows.

What did that mean? Dominic is confused, unsure - but still he steps forward. Toward her, in hopes of perhaps touching her. A paw outstretches to touch, to perhaps slide along her cheek, but instead it hangs there in the air before falling back to the earth. "I should go..." For now. There was much he wanted to say, but he was conflicted on what this all meant. Was he no longer able to watch after her?

The shadows was all he knew.

With a look over his shoulder at her, Dominic searches her features for a long moment before offering a small smile - and then he departs. Falling back into the darkness where he felt he belonged.

She cannot appreciate the depth of love in his actions, nor the kinsmanship of grief that share together. Whether it is because she is too young or too thoroughly broken, she does not know. Instead, all she feels is that anger borne of agony. She had spent so much of her life in the throes of anguish that she had nothing left but its burning remains. Angry, heavy, unrelenting.

Her heart, the way it is now, has no room for love.

Melusina must appear half-feral, her face flushed and pink, her eyes blinking wide in the wake of @Dominic's stammer.

I... he begins, and Melusina holds her breath in anticipation. I should go...

She has never hidden her emotions well, and her reaction is almost instantaneous. Her jaws set, shoulders reel back, ears pull behind her head.

Her hesitance lasts a moment too long. Whatever desire she has to reach out for him is wrested out of existence as he turns and walks away. He throws that long, longing look over his shoulder, and even that is not enough to shake Melusina free of the half-wild shock she has stilled herself into.

Suddenly, she struggles to find any excuse in the world to ask him to stay, to not resign himself to the distance as he had for so long. The familiar ache it breeds in her heart, however, is frightening—and she cannot bear to cry out to him. Helplessness, she recognizes; what she had felt the day Aeistrios had taken her, the day Dominic had been maimed trying to protect her, what she felt here, now.

No longer.

Fine— she stutters at first, before swallowing the grief in her voice. —Go.

She would remain a moment longer. There was strange company among the ghosts of elephants.

---

Exit Melusina.

Art by AleTie, table by cala