A court of water and worlds

Chapter #7

Gwyn was numb, she could not move, she could not speak, and she refused to open her eyes to see.
The only indicator that she was still alive were the tears streaming down her cheeks.
There was no poetry to this evil man's grunts, no melody or harmony except the steady noise of him pushing against her. Gwyn felt no pleasure, only pressure, and pain, and the tightness of one thing being forced inside another.
But she was helpless, she couldn't move, and no one was coming to save her—
"No!" Gwyn gasped lurching forward from her bed. "Not real." She said her breathing was speeding up.
Tears were falling down her cheeks uncontrollably. She needed to get up, to do something.
Not but three minutes later, Gwyn was up, dressed, and on her way to the training room.
She tried to get control of her breathing. One two three in, one two three out.
Breath, she told herself, breath.
When she walked into the training room, her eyes automatically shot straight to the shadowsinger himself, Azriel.
She immediately felt calm and safety wash over her as she took him in.
His shadows shot straight towards her and started swirling around her like a cocoon. It was as if they knew she was frightened and needed to be protected.
"Sorry" Azriel said and started walking towards her.
"It's alright" she smiled, and the shadows kept swirling around her.
"It...seems they don't want to listen tonight" he said, jaw clenching.
But Gwyn knew just what to do, because this had happened before.
His shadows wouldn't leave her until she told them she was ok. So she quietly whispered "I'll be ok, Azriel is with me," and the shadows retreated back to their master.
His shadows looked heavier around him, swirling across his face so Gwyn could barely see his eyes.
He looked concerned.
"You ok?" Gwyn asked, taking a step towards him.
"No," he said, rubbing his temples.
"Want to talk about it?" Gwyn asked, and he looked at her, his eyes laced with softness.
He shook his head, no.
They often did this for each other. One would ask if the other was ok, and they would never judge each other's answer. they would just ask if they wanted to talk.
So far neither one of them wanted to talk about their troubles, but Gwyn thought it was nice to have the option.
She had her friends of course, but she always felt embarrassed and ashamed to ask them for help. They were always so happy and Gwyn didn't want to bring their day down just because she was still hurting.
Azriel on the other hand.
He always looked slightly melancholy, like something was constantly nagging him.
So she felt ok letting him see her pain.
Just as Gwyn suspected, azriel echoed her question. "You ok?"
And she had echoed his answers.
"So, shadowsinger if you're not too busy I was wondering if you could help me with archery" Gwyn asked, walking over to the bows and grabbing one.
"Are you tired of running laps?," Azriel teased, grabbing the arrows. "Poor Gwyn had to run twenty-six and a half laps today," he added with a chuckle.
"You counted" Gwyn narrowed her eyes at Azriel.
"I was bored" he held his hands up defensively.
"And you didn't think that maybe instead of watching me you could have stopped being a creepy stalker for like two seconds and helped me," Gwyn said, now angry at the shadowsinger.
"O Gwyn, it would have definitely taken more than two seconds to correct your form." He said, trying and failing to stifle a grin. handing an arrow to her, she looked like she was about to throttle him.
"You are such an ass" Gwyn said, knocking an arrow in place, azriel's brows rose in surprise and his eyes widened with amusement.
A laugh escaped him, it was rich and full like chocolate, and it seemed to chase her nightmare away.
—
"Nes!" Gwyn sequeled running into Nesta's arms and almost taking her to the ground. Nesta was laughing now because Gwyn had knocked over a pile of books in the library.
"Oops" Gwyn said, starting to pick up the books and Nesta bent down to help her as well.
"I didn't think you were coming back till tonight" Gwyn said, still beaming at her friend.
Gwyn loved nesta, there was no question about it. It was a different bond though, then the one she had with Flora.
Flora was more like a little sister, who Gwyn wanted to protect at all costs.
But Nesta was like her sister who, yes, she wanted to protect her at all costs, but Nesta also would protect Gwyn at all costs.
Same with emrie, they were all like sisters, like catrin.
Of course, she would never find anyone who would replace Catrin nor did she want to, but it was nice to have people to care about again.
"We'll, apparently Cas missed out on an important meeting last night, so we needed to come back earlier, so Az could fill him in." Nesta said, putting the stack of fallen books on the table.
That must have been why Az looked so stressed last night when Gywn saw him in the training room. When Gwyn asked him to help her with archery, his grim expression faded away and the slightly annoying teasing Azriel that she knew very well came out.
"A meeting?" Asked Gwyn
"Yeah, I have no clue what it's about, but I'm making Cas tell me when he gets back from being filled in." Nesta said with a smile.
"God, you're so lucky to have a mate on the inside, so you always know what's going on," Gwyn said
"Well sometimes he doesn't tell me anything and I have to pry information from him," Nesta said.
"By seducing him" Gwyn asked with a giggle.
"Actually the opposite, no sex if he doesn't tell me what's going on." Nesta said, sitting on the table.
This was one of the things Gwyn loved most about Nesta, how honest and open she was. It made Gwyn feel like she could also be honest and open without judgement.
"Nes, I don't think you could go a day without sex with him." Gwyn said, shelving some books.
Nesta rolled her eyes at Gwyn "I could go a day without sex with him," Nesta said not very confidently.
Gwyn gave her a look, "one day Gwyneth, you will understand and I will be the one teasing you."
Gwyn's eyes lit up as she remembered.
"O cauldron, Nes, I almost forgot to tell you. Yesterday I saw some tension between Emrie and Mor."
"You're kidding," Nesta said with a faint grin.
"Nope," Gwyn said, sitting down next to nesta.
"But don't ask Em about it; she might kill us both for talking about it," Gwyn added.
"Actually I think I might just ask her about it tonight" Nesta said quickly Getting up. "Sleepover at the house tonight," Nesta said.
"No, wait, Nes" Gwyn said getting up.
"I'll see you there" Nesta said, giving Gwyn a kiss on the cheek, and started walking away.
"Nesta I swear to the mother, if you tell Emrie she is going to kill me," Gwyn said.
"Love you" Nesta yelled and it was followed by a bunch of "shhhh" from some priestesses.
Well, Gwyn has to prepare to die tonight because Emrie is absolutely going to end her.
Nesta seemed happy though, she even gave Gwyn a kiss on the cheek, Gwyn smiled at that.
Nesta is never super affectionate like that, but Gwyn guessed Cassian was rubbing off on her and Gwyn didn't mind one bit.