The Sleeping Citadel: Gray Magic

Sweet Nothings

AN: Originally posted 1/1/2024. Reposted 2/29/2024.

As soon as she crossed the threshold, the familiar scent of home filled her nostrils. The lights were dim, soft, and golden. The air was warm (and blessedly less sticky than that of Mourner's Mount). Sonorhc trailed after the other two up to each of their respective rooms. The house was at once one and all of theirs. So close were they that any of them had permission to visit any of the others at practically any time. Despite herself, a tiny smile flickered across Sonorhc's face when she saw her clothes lying in a heap beside theirs.

I spy with my little tired eye, tiny as a firefly, a pebble that we picked up last July. She peered in the pocket of the discarded, dark jacket. It was a small, smooth, round, gray stone. Nothing special. She could barely even remember the story of how she found it and why she saved it. She just remembered that it had something to do with Reaper and Nevermore. They were the only things worth remembering anyway.

Does it ever miss its home sometimes? The Necromage finally turned her gaze from the stone to her companions as they changed into their pajamas. They said the end is coming. Everyone's up to something. I find myself running home to your sweet nothings...

The rest of the world jostled and jolted. Everyone wanted a piece of the powerful Necromage that could potentially help give them more time with lost loved ones. Of course she understood. And not every pusher and shover was out to get her. But... she was only just one person. So sometimes, she covered her ears and ran, drowning them out, turning tail and fleeing with that tail between her legs. And where did she always run?

To Reaper and Nevermore. You're in the kitchen humming. All that you ever wanted from me was sweet nothing...

"Time for a midnight snack!" Reaper grinned as she happily ripped open both doors of the fridge.

"Don't even lie. It's going to be a whole meal and you know it!" Nevermore teased.

"Oh, you know it, girlfriend!" Reaper laughed, bathed in the white light of the fridge. Nevermore laughed as well and said something in return.

Sonorhc watched them silently, only the tiniest of smiles on her face, but for the first time in too long, it was sincere. She was soothed by the consistent, droning chatter. In her head, she was writing poems, songs, and stories. Before, there was insurmountable grief, now there was calamitous love. It hurt, but for the first time, the pain was good.

What a mind... Sonorhc smirked at herself. I knew this would happen. The world would crumble all around her, hazy gray and miserable, but even if she didn't know when, there always came a time when her stormy heart ceased its endless rages. It settled and tamed, if only for a little while. Now, all she could think was how beautiful life was, and how lucky she was to have friends—family—like Reaper and Nevermore.

'Cause they said the end is coming. Everyone's up to something. I find myself running home to your sweet nothings... Outside, the humans and ghosts were knocking on the windows and jiggling the doorknob, but the noise and pressure were drowned out by the laughter and chattering hum of her two most beloved and cherished companions.

All either of YOU wanted from me was... sweet, sweet nothing. To them, she'd always been enough. Not too much, not too little, not some grand and glorious gleaming star, just... enough. Perfectly perfect and right and satisfying. It was a strange sensation, the sort of peace she'd never known before. Was this what it felt like to be enough? How curious... And yet... how restful too, shoulders slumping in aching, weary relief.

Outside, they were out-gladhanding each other, everyone trying to be better than the rest, and humbler too, no matter how ironic or oxymoronic that was. Then there was Sonorhc. Hidden away inside. Not a competitive bone in her body. Never was, never would be. To them, Sonorhc was silent and invisible. But to Reaper and Nevermore could she admit...

"Hey, are you ok?" Reaper noticed first, Sonorhc's calm expression melted back into one of world-weariness. Nevermore turned around as well, smile fading when she also saw Sonorhc's face. And it was obvious she was trying so hard to hide it from them.

"Just tired." There was silence, broken only by a tired sigh from Sonorhc. To you two I can admit... "I'm just too soft for all of this..."

She sighed and hung her head. Reaper and Nevermore padded over quietly. Reaper sat down beside her and leaned over until her shoulder was pressing up against Sonorhc's. Nevermore sat across from them, expression worried, but she reached out and rested a hand on each of theirs. Sonorhc cried quietly. She was grateful that they didn't ask why, because she couldn't even tell if the tears were wounded, or... beatific.

Nevermore met Reaper's eyes with a worried expression, but Reaper subtly and silently shook her head. A rare moment of perceptivity, she understood that Sonorhc's tears were a good thing. She certainly could've stood to let her emotions out a little more often! Good and bad and everything in between, everything bittersweet, nostalgic, and so, deeply full of a tragic and grieving love.

'Cause they said the end is coming. Everyone's up to something. I find myself running home to your sweet, blissful nothing...

AN: Inspired by my chapter in the Pride 2022 Anthology (Gaylor Swift's Version) that uses the following songs: Hoax, Peace, The Lakes. I wrote this fic back when this song first came out, then totally forgot about it until nostalgia led me back to it.

Honestly, the gray and melancholic aesthetic of Taylor's Folklore album fits Sonorhc so well, IMO