'ᴡᴇ ꜱʜᴀʀᴇ ᴀ ꜱᴇɴᴛɪᴍᴇɴᴛ. ɪ ᴄᴀɴ ʙᴇ ʙᴏᴜɢʜᴛ ᴡɪᴛʜ ʙʟᴏᴏᴅ ᴀɴᴅ ʀᴇᴠᴇʀᴇɴᴄᴇ.'
Only one month has passed in Daliah Viper's life trying to reintegrate at court and follow the uneasy trails her eyes have caught.
One month filled with blood, tribulations, and l...
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My mother leaves the house in the morning. It is a walk filled with shame and her head hangs deep.
Watching her existence erased from the house is a long time due. Seeing her musical instruments and her belongings carried out, a long caravan of boxes and arms heaving on a piano, I take a moment in my morning routine to watch. The dogs topple over me, hunting each other in the yard, leaping over the ground. They are loud and they hit each other hard, but the sneezing and puffing they produce is sign enough of their nature.
The pack is reunited and they celebrate it by fighting again.
The smell of the kennels is soothing my nerves. The sounds of so many creatures, their muscles, their noses, their voices.
I breathe it in deep while I exercise. And that also helps. Running laps, controlling my breath in white clouds drifting up the sky.
I can already count the days and I will bleed again, with cramps and pain included I don't need.
Loren joins me in the morning course, Hadrien sits down at the edge in his own training gear, but just starts to throw treats at the dogs after a while. So we continue watching the procession.
For a moment, this turns into ashamed silence, because he knows very well he watched me leave the Viper mansion in the summer just like this.
As my mother leaves, someone else returns.
Atara appears after breakfast, dressed in black and green uniform pants and jacket, hair pushed back into an even shorter knot dangling behind her neck shaved clean off any long hair. The only thing that has stayed the same is the talon clasped around her throat.
"Welcome back," I greet her. "I can use any capable hand in the future."
"Hello Tara," Loren adds, eyes not pointed anywhere near her face.
Neither of us get an answer except for a deadly look. The black lines around her eyes are so smudged and smeared, she looks like she has been wearing it for a few days, only refreshing it but never removing.
Her hands hold a big bag tightly, and she throws it at Asher when he is unfortunate enough to come close to her. With a smash he catches it, then hands it to Bryce, who stares at the big luggage as if it is a newborn baby.
"What am I supposed to do with it?"
"Are you stupid, soldier?" She asks. "You hand it servants or carry it to my room."
"You heard her," Asher mumbles, smiling slighty. "You get to carry the lady's bag. And I get to carry anything else for..."
She doesn't offer to reintroduce herself, maybe he hoped to get her to be sweet this time around. He had an eye on her when we visited. He doesn't know either of my cousins if he hopes for sweetness in us ladies.
