Wildfire

Eighty Three

The palace had been shaking something awful at more and more alarming rates... The two dragons had barely been giving each other time to get clear of each other as they threw themselves at the home that I've finally started to truly care for, and our only guess was that the battle between the royal guard and those bold enough to offend us on today of all days... But it feels as though it is too soon for it to be this quiet... 

Everything had stopped so suddenly that I am not sure whether I still need to cling so very fearfully to my husband so that he might protect me from his very own father and the man his father had all but hired to beat me senseless... Neither one of them deserves a quick meeting of their fate for the way they have tormented us... For the way they have poisoned my mind with the knowledge of what bitterness tastes like... For the way I nearly spent the rest of my life living with partial darkness from the beating that had been so very unnecessary...

All I have ever wanted was to feel accepted... To feel like I was truly meant to be loved by the people who love me instead of feeling like it was all an act my entire childhood... Like they laughed at me every time they pulled away to visit here over whatever royal summons that had failed to have any mention of my name or the option of a family guest on it... The invitations always going so far to even name which staff members were allowed to make the trip so that there might not be any hope at all of ever passing me off as one of them or their children... 

For so long I have felt as though I was never good enough to get anywhere near the intimidating gates of the palace or even the outer wall of the royal village... I do not remember a single day on which my family had to part from me due to one of those damned invitations on which my heart did not feel as though it had been broken in the worst way possible... I was born a pauper, and Xiang had made sure that I felt it... 

My mind hopes that if the battle is over it is only because the two offenders have been mortally wounded and Cho is letting the two of them suffer, but if it is not the case outside, then I fear that none of us are safe, even tucked away in Xiang's fortified chambers. 

...

Emrys

...

Rayne's tears haven't truly stopped since the shivering of the walls began, but his sobs at the moment have fallen silent... 

I regret urging him to give his heart fully to the celebration today, for now, I fear I have broken it beyond repair with the promises of what today should have been for the two of us... 

I had thought no one would be mad enough to attack us on a day like today when they should have known that there was an increased presence of people who have sworn their lives to myself and my Queen all gathered into one room... They should have known that they would never get anywhere near Rayne ever again, they should have never been anywhere near him in the first place... 

I find myself unable to control the temperature of my body for the first time since I was a small child, and while I know he must be uncomfortable, to say the least, my sweet shard of starlight has strayed not even once... 

I want to tell him not to cling to me, to watch his hands, and make sure that his delicate palms are not burned... I want to tell him to close his eyes and that when he opens them again he won't be frightened anymore, even of the silence currently raising the tiny hairs on the backs of all of our necks... 

All I have ever wanted to do was protect him, and love him as much as he'll let me in this lifetime... All I want is for him to be happy and to love me as much as he can... I do not think that that is too much for a man to ask from his life, King or not... I daresay that a happy spouse and peaceful life are something that most people would want for their children and other people, but clearly, there are some in the world who do not think that anyone should be allowed something that they themselves aren't currently enjoying...

...

Rayne

...

Where I had wished that the silence would break, when it does I am not happy with the noise that greets our ears... The heavy landing of two bodies that sounds exactly like the deafening landings from earlier, only this time to the extreme. 

Somehow more than one body seems to be hitting the palace at once and its a wonder that the whole structure doesn't come down with how the candles are dancing on the tables and in the chandelier.  So much is happening that I don't know where to look or who to look at with the chaos that is sounding around us... Screaming from around us on what sounds like the ground from shifters in their human form, and clearly more than one dragon in the air throwing not only their weight but their flame around... If the palace were made of anything other than onyx it would be melting or on fire at the moment with how much animosity has taken over the sky...

I wish I could throw myself out into the middle of it all and demand that they all stop and see the pointlessness of all of this violence and hate... There should be no reason at all for Xiang to hate me so much that he felt the need to isolate me and ostracize me, there was no need for him to try and take my life... If he had come to me and politely asked me not to proceed with courting his son I would have considered it from his point of view, and the point of view a biased King would be expected to take when presented with the fact that his only son chose a low-born wife... I could have accepted that he could never accept me if he had done it politely...

Instead, he had been cruel, to the point of pain... And the violence unfolding around us is the entire palace trying to expell the true pus that he is from the wound.