Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
( by daxdraws )
"IT'S TIME, DARLING."
"B-But you can't leave! Not now!"
"It's for the best. You know I hate this as much as you do. I don't want to leave you and Ember, I have never even considered it until now."
Stomp, stomp, stomp.
"But I-I need you, Atlantes! Ember needs her father to be here! Who's gonna wave her off on her first date, o-or be there when she gets her heartbroken for the first time? Luz looks up to you as well! Camila even said you were the father figure Luz needed in her life!"
Ember curled the sheets up to her nose, hugging her bunny stuffed animal to her chest as her eyes squeeze shut. What were they talking about? Was Ba leaving? Why?
Her little 5-year-old mind swirled with questions, she licks and bites her lips in thought. She turned around, grabbing the small photograph from her and Luz from the fair earlier that month. Hugging it to her chest, she continued to listen in to her parent's conversation.
"I can't stay."
"Then why? You're safe here— We're safe!"
"The Emperor agreed to stop the fighting if I never showed my face there or here again. So, you're not safe as long as you're with me."
A pause. She heard her mother's muffled sobs before her father's light footsteps drew closer to her room. She quickly pretended to sleep again, mouth falling open as she heard the door creak.
"Ember?"
🪄 ꒰ 🛹 ❁ 🧃 ꒱ 🪵
LUZ TAPPED EMBER'S SNOOZING figure aggressively, growling under her breath when Ember doesn't even stir. Ember's face was squashed up against the staff, mouth slightly parted with soft snores emitting from it as a book sat in her lap. Luz brushed a strand of her now shoulder-length hair out of her face before sighing.
She grabbed an ice-glyph, making a small ice cube, opening the back part of the collar of Ember's shirt. She dropped it in and almost immediately, Ember shot awake, shrieking at the cold sensation trickling down her back as she stood up. Quickly pulling the ice out, she turned to Luz with a glare.
