She swallows. He will be like her, then. Another loved one put down your own hand. How it taught you to hate yourself, to the last. That it never left.
The deflection is obvious. He has talked about something painful, and he deserves a break, surely. Even if he will not find something happier there. Only a reflection of a story told through a different lens.
The spirits that rule this place must have known when they drove him to her door. Sent him wild into her rooms. Fickle things, always. Was it cruelty or kindness? ]
The painting is from when I was younger, much younger. [ She gestures up, to the image on the wall, of that sombre family. Of a woman, enthroned, with two men either side of her, and the children around her feet and fanning out, all six of them. Each of them with her same sharp blue eyes, the same eyes that looked at him as she spoke. ] That is my mother, in the middle, her name is Hildegard. My fathers, her husbands - Salvric and Alwin. My mother is the most fearsome woman of her age. She once made a seasoned General weep because he dared to speak impertinently in her presence.
[ A shadow that engulfed all her children. ]
There is Nikolai. He is our eldest brother, and you shall not find a wiser man. There is me, I was the first girl. [ There is no mistaking that head of blond curls that refused to stay contained in the photo. ] My sister Elspeth, she is beautiful and as she is fierce, she loves to sail and would never return if no one made her. Farfalee came next. No one is quicker with kitchen knives as Farfalee. Then my youngest brother, Leif. He is so fiercely clever, he can tell you anything there is to know about anything. But he is kind too, even to me, his dullest sister who cannot keep up with him at all.
[ And she swallows, there, looking at the one she had left for last, though he was clearly supposed to be second in that list, next to Nikolai, the pair of them almost twins in their likeness. Black hair, that crook of their lips like something was secretly amusing.
The one whose singular portrait Asura had found and thrust at her that made her recoil.] ... and that is Godfinn. We liked to say that when he smiled, the whole world smiled with him, such was the joy he took in life.
[ If only they had known, if only. Or maybe they did, and it was she alone who never wanted to see. ]
... And we are the royal family. The Royal Family of St. Loe. [ There it was - in the end. That noose around every child's neck. Why that mother should be so fearsome, why they should not spare a smile even amongst so many children.
Where power was the rule of a family, what happiness could there be that lasts? ] I have a husband, and a wife, soon, and thre- two children of my own.
no subject
She swallows. He will be like her, then. Another loved one put down your own hand. How it taught you to hate yourself, to the last. That it never left.
The deflection is obvious. He has talked about something painful, and he deserves a break, surely. Even if he will not find something happier there. Only a reflection of a story told through a different lens.
The spirits that rule this place must have known when they drove him to her door. Sent him wild into her rooms. Fickle things, always. Was it cruelty or kindness? ]
The painting is from when I was younger, much younger. [ She gestures up, to the image on the wall, of that sombre family. Of a woman, enthroned, with two men either side of her, and the children around her feet and fanning out, all six of them. Each of them with her same sharp blue eyes, the same eyes that looked at him as she spoke. ] That is my mother, in the middle, her name is Hildegard. My fathers, her husbands - Salvric and Alwin. My mother is the most fearsome woman of her age. She once made a seasoned General weep because he dared to speak impertinently in her presence.
[ A shadow that engulfed all her children. ]
There is Nikolai. He is our eldest brother, and you shall not find a wiser man. There is me, I was the first girl. [ There is no mistaking that head of blond curls that refused to stay contained in the photo. ] My sister Elspeth, she is beautiful and as she is fierce, she loves to sail and would never return if no one made her. Farfalee came next. No one is quicker with kitchen knives as Farfalee. Then my youngest brother, Leif. He is so fiercely clever, he can tell you anything there is to know about anything. But he is kind too, even to me, his dullest sister who cannot keep up with him at all.
[ And she swallows, there, looking at the one she had left for last, though he was clearly supposed to be second in that list, next to Nikolai, the pair of them almost twins in their likeness. Black hair, that crook of their lips like something was secretly amusing.
The one whose singular portrait Asura had found and thrust at her that made her recoil.] ... and that is Godfinn. We liked to say that when he smiled, the whole world smiled with him, such was the joy he took in life.
[ If only they had known, if only. Or maybe they did, and it was she alone who never wanted to see. ]
... And we are the royal family. The Royal Family of St. Loe. [ There it was - in the end. That noose around every child's neck. Why that mother should be so fearsome, why they should not spare a smile even amongst so many children.
Where power was the rule of a family, what happiness could there be that lasts? ] I have a husband, and a wife, soon, and thre- two children of my own.