BETWEEN TWO LUNGS ─── the folk of the air

xxvii. REFLECTIONS.

∘₊✧─── ·𖥸· ───✧₊∘

map room,
the nest.

       THE BOMB'S HEAD RISES AS THEY RETURN, her nose coated in a strip of grime. When they entered the room, she had been measuring out her gunpowder, sitting alongside several spun glass globes. Allura sits beside her, watching as she tied her white hair back with string. The Bomb, unlike her Faerie friend, was ready for what came next. Like Jude, the power excited her. They were coming for the Crown.

But Allura wasn't so eager.

"The rest of them are in the back," the Bomb announces happily. "With the princeling, getting some sleep."

        Despite yesterday's events, Allura realised she was just as tired.

"Is there anything to eat around?" Jude asks, rifling through cabinets.

        The Bomb grins and sets her globes down into a basket at her feet. "The Ghost picked up some black bread and butter. We ate the sausages, and the wine's gone, but there might still be some cheese."

Jude disappears to eat.

"Hey, are you okay?" the Bomb asks whilst she makes her explosives.

       Allura hopes her conflict wasn't so telling to the others. "I'm okay. It's just...how do you know that you're doing the right thing?"

Slowly, the Bomb's dainty fingers still from her work. "Is this about Dain?"

      She shakes her head. "I don't know. I just...I feel like no matter what choices I make, someone's always going to get hurt."

"People in Faerie always get hurt," the Bomb shrugs and takes her hands into her own. "Why is that your burden?"

With that, she returns to her anarchy, whistling a haunting tune.

       When Jude returns, she crashes beside Allura with an exhausted sigh. A yawn falls upon her rose taupe lips and she pushes a mug of lemon tea before her friend. Allura smiles, the gesture sweet enough to calm her nerves. She looks at Jude and watches as she takes a deep breath. They were really going to do this.

       "How would you feel about us stealing the crown? Right in front of the Kings and Queens of Faerie?" Jude proposes to the Bomb with a nervous smile.

Her grin widens.

"Just tell me what I have to blow up."

∘₊✧─── ·𖥸· ───✧₊∘

the nest,
palace of elfhame.

      AT THE COMMAND OF HER FRIEND, Allura lights a candle that night and sneaks into the sleeping room. Just as the Bomb had said, she found Cardan stretched out in a cot, looking sickeningly handsome. Since she'd last seen him, he'd washed his face, bringing some new kind of glow. Leaning over, Allura pokes him in the side. Hard.