Females were very rare in the night court's ruling family as it was, all either die young or end up forgotten in the abyss of history.
Rhysand ever thought he'd have to father one of these, in fact, he did't believe he even deserve to be a father, u...
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" I am calm, I am calm, I am calm;
It is the calm before something awful."
It was certainly past midnight, Mor lounged against Cassian as Elayla leaned her head against Azriel's arm, his shadows swirling against the curls of her hair, making her laugh and snicker at their soft brush against her skin. "Hey, stop that..." She giggle as they start tickling her, a ghost of a smile graced Az's lips, and he ends up holding them back.
She had always wondered how her Ujak learnt talking to the shadows, if it were a gift born with him or a skill he learnt himself, for shadowsingers were very rare, and even meeting one of them was a great honour, according to the book she read about them, let alone have the privilege of considering one a family member.
For the longest time, she believed that Cassian and Azriel were her uncles by blood, since her father called them his brothers without any hesitation. It wasn't until a few months ago that she learned that they had no blood ties whats whoever, that the three of them chose each other as brothers, a purely fated choice sealed by the Mother and the Cauldron for all three of them, it only made her love her uncles even more.
Her mind wandered to Under The Mountain, the sacred place where her father was now away from his brothers' protection and aid, out of reach, she felt the knot inside her stomach twisting, bile rose in her throat at the memory of the mere glimpse she caught of Amarantha. "Ujak Cass," She called, sitting up straight.
"Yes, Layla..?" Cassian's head percked up, his brows forrowing as he tried to take in his niece's sudden hesitation. He had known her ever since she was a babe, toddling behind him like his own shadow, trying to catch childish curiouse glances at his weapons and siphons, who's bloody red color fascinated her a little bit too much for a small child.
Elayla never faltered around any of them, never backed down unless asked by Rhys to do so, she was bold, passionate, alive with every sense of the word. Just like her father has always been. Just like her mother was before her.
Despite her having very little memories left of Maliah, Elayla still took on a good amount of mannerisms from her, the little tilt of her head, the night owl tendencies, the passive agressive snarky comments.
"Baba will be coming back tomorrow, right?" She muttered under my breath, but not quiet enough for her family not to hear her, her fingers fidgeted on the fabric of her sparkly dark blue shirt. Azriel's head snapped to Morrigan, who's face softened as she stared at her cousin's little girl, his shadows went quiet and still. Cassian, him, clenched his jaw tightly.
They didn't know what Rhysand was up to, didn't know what schemes ran inside his magically unpredictable head, but there was a common sense of dread in the room that no one wanted to aknowledge, not around Layla anyways, she had enough on her late dealing with all their emotions combined in silence for them to voice them out loud.
