Forgotten Dusk

Six

Mare

I feel tears come to my eyes as Wren guarantees my fears. I let Cal pull me to his chest and I bury my face in this shirt, which my tears quickly soak. He could've protected himself if that Silencer hadn't kept him from using his ability. I stay there for several minutes before I turn away from Cal and walk towards Farley. She looks up from the table for a moment before her gaze falls back to it.

"Montfort will need a leader. I'm not sure how we'll do it, but we need to inform the country that its leader is dead and then replace him." She is already in action, giving orders to alert the media. I wish I could be so calm, but she's a natural at dealing with heartbreak, and I should be too by now. First Maven, then Shade, then Cal for a while, but worst had to be May. Somehow I've let the one thing Elara and Maven were right about escape me. Hide your heart. I seem to have forgotten how to do that over the years after Maven's death.

Farley breaks my thoughts. "The media will be alerted within the hour, so everyone needs to make themselves presentable!" She announced to everyone in the room. I realize that my hands are once again coated in silver blood. Corianne was there, and she most likely saw my purple sparks fry the silver blood healer before he could even think to heal himself, along with killing multiple other silvers, even though her back was to me through most of the fight.

She only knows bits and pieces of my time locked in silent stone, but she understands my fear of having things on my wrists and of silent stone. She holds that same fear towards guns, and yet she shot that Silencer.

Once again, my thinking is stopped, this time by Cal. "She's right, as usual, and you need to clean up. Forget the silence. Forget the blood. Forget him." Maven. I know who he's talking about, and I had almost forgotten about the dream from this morning, but it comes back in a flood of pain and memories. Closing my eyes doesn't control the pain, but I do it anyway. He leads me to the transport, but my eyes remain closed until we're seated. I look out the window and see Corianne, Clara, and several other teens with them. They seem to be having a conversation, but none of them seem sad, so I assume they don't know about Davidson. I don't ask Cal to stop the transport, though. They'll find out soon enough. Silver catches my eye, and I recognize a Samos magnetron. Then another. Ptolemous's children.

That horrible man killed my brother, and yet he lives his life, not knowing, or not caring, what he took from me. I should have killed him long ago, but a promise to a demon, who I somehow consider to be a friend, will forever hold me back. If given an anonymous chance, I would, but there is little to no chance of that ever occurring.

Seeing my daughter so close to his children scares me, but I hide my fear well this time. The transport speeds away an instant later, and I'm left to wonder why they're all outside alone. Clara hasn't been herself lately, and I'm not the only one who notices. Farley asked me a few weeks ago if I saw the same subtle changes.

Her quick tongue has slowed. Her face seems blank and void of emotion more than before. And of course she seems to care more about the terrain and weather patterns of the Lakelands. She isn't normally this curious. I save those traits for Corianne, who has always taken after her uncle in her interest in the world.

She is very unlike her namesake, so Julian says. I've never asked about Cal's mother before. She is a sensitive subject for him, just as Shade is for me. When we were debating names for our daughter, Cal suggested it, and I was willing to name our eldest daughter after his mother, and our youngest Maya, after my grandmother.

The screeching out the transport's breaks pulls me from my memories, like so many things have today. Sighing, I drag myself from the transport and walk into our home. After the Scarlet Guard finished rebuilding the corrupted government of Norta, my family and the majority of the people I care for most decided that we would forget our past home, and move on to a new life in Montfort. I made friends with my former enemy, and we now live near the sister of my brother's killer. She's apologised for her brothers actions more times than I believe I can count, but she can not change the past, and neither can I.

Our room is nothing like those in Whitefire. It is large, but the similarities end there. Instead of being painted in various house colors, or decorated with things that could be potential weapons for nymphs, greenwardens, or any other element that could be turned into a Silver's weapon, the walls are painted a deep blue and very few decorations of any sort are scattered around the room.

I enter the bathroom, lock the door and shower as quickly as I can manage, and then search through my closet, and eventually deciding on stretchy black pants and a grey blouse with long sleeves that bell out at the wrist, as the majority of my winter shirts do, in a naive attempt to keep anything from touching my wrists. I exchange my black combat boots for dressy flats, and complete the mourning outfit with a black jacket before I turn and leave the room, abandoning Cal in search of Bree or Gisa, but the house seems empty. I decide that Evangeline will probably do, and walk briskly to the house neighboring my own.

Evangeline has also cleaned up from the battle, but her eyes are shadowed. I'm sure mine are as well, so I pay it no mind. I gesture to her to follow me outside, and she does so with noticeable haste. The sun has long since risen, and we say nothing for several minutes, just thinking about the nightmare ahead of us. Finally she breaks the heavy silence.

"What now?"

A/n
It's been forever. I know. I'm going to try to update at least once every two weeks from now on, but no promises. I still need to update Heart of Beating Stone sometime soon too, so schedules won't be particularly routine. Sorry. Also, what do y'all think of my killing Davidson?