Azriel relied on the light of the day to save him from the darkness. To keep him from the shadows and scars that haunted his nightmares.
Tahlia relied on the darkness to save her from the light. By keeping to the shadows, she can protect her future...
(And because I'm so bad at updating, here's a little spice ;) Also I'd like to make it very clear I actually know nothing about archery... So there's that. Enjoy x)
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He was about ready to excuse himself
Already beginning to come up with an excuse to leave
Or get her to a more secluded spot
***
Azriel's feet had carried him to the armoury through instinct alone. He hadn't known what to do with himself, everyone had dispersed throughout the morning to their own means and somehow he'd found himself stuck with Cassian's company. It'd been either the training ring or the armoury, and honestly he was sore, muscles tight and he had knots all through his body.
To no surprise, he hadn't slept. Barely a wink, and not peacefully even then. It was difficult when his brain was so deep in uproar that he couldn't dissect one thought from another. He was either thinking of Hybern or the Mortal Queens or Tahlia. He'd like to say he was innocent in that respect, but that was rather difficult when some of the time that couldn't have been further from the truth.
It'd start with him thinking of spies and Tamlin then would slowly but surely curve around to her and her face helpless and blood splattered. Azriel tried to keep that memory there, it would've been bad enough. Though it rarely did, because then he could picture her smiling, or blushing in that way she did when she used her hair to try and curtain it away and hide it from others. Then he could see her tossing his blade between her hands and... it just spiralled drastically from there.
She'd been in his room, he found it very hard not to blame her for him being trapped picturing her there for unsavory reasons. Reasons that would make him sweat and fidget enough that he really did not fancy being around Cassian when the thoughts appeared.
Azriel wasn't a lucky person, so as he reached the bottom step into the armoury, he let Cassian step through first if only to give himself a brief moment to adjust himself. Cassian couldn't know. Nobody could. He'd never hear the end of it. It didn't matter if he could help it or not.
"I'm sorry am I boring you?" Azriel's eyes snapped up, praying to the cauldron that there wasn't an ounce of guilt slipping onto his face even if he was sure Cassian knew him well enough to smell it from a mile off. "You know, if I was anyone else, I might start taking offence to you never listening to me."
"I'm sorry." But it was a pitiful effort at an apology. "I've got a lot on my mind." When he did somehow get his mind off of Tahlia, it was stuck whirring around the topic of war. Of fighting. Of loss and potential loss he could feel brewing on the horizon.
"It's a ball, Azriel. It's not the end of the world. Send Mor to find you an outfit, when's she ever steered you wrong?" He could tell by the darkness in Cassian's eyes that he knew exactly what his mind was on, but he thanked him silently for the diversion of topic.
