There is love in our bodies and it holds us together;

[akingmuststand]

Characters: Schneizel el Britannia, Cornelia li Britannia, Valeria
Location: The town hall
Time: 3rd of August, early morning
Brief Summary: After Cornelia's survival has been ensured by Myhrta, her brother remains reluctant to leave her side. Valeria tags along. But it so happens that the white prince has a lot to answer for.
Rating: PG-13

Comments

[a_la_turk]

The silence previously borne from the solemnity of the occasion was not cut, but wafted from the room for the sound of that familiar voice. Familiar, but different from that to which Valeria was accustomed to hearing in a way that pierced her consciousness and tempted her to turn black eyes from the dark in which she sat to the light, to white stained with rusted crimson and pale, distant faces that she did not know. Should not know, should not be so inclined to trust.

Wood cracked. Paper tore. Rock chipped. Metal dented. Muscles tensed and the flesh made to betray the self, distorting the woman's countenance so that her first instinct was to draw further into herself. That the mask was damaged was irrelevant. It was, as always, a necessary shield, but one that did not hold for those words, his voice. There was nothing to cushion them, nothing to keep them from gripping her core and shaking her, shaking that mask she refused to abandon.

"Your sister...?"

The words processed. Made her chest tighten and twist in that uncomfortable way to which she was not at all accustomed. It made sense, didn't it...? So why she couldn't look at him, at them? Why couldn't she wipe the image of Schneizel holding that woman's hand from her mind? Did it matter that much?

(When did it start mattering? It shouldn't have mattered at all.)

What mattered was the danger averted. What mattered was the life saved. What mattered was something she wouldn't, couldn't bring herself to say, even if only to herself.