faderift | the days that bind us

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the days that bind us

WHO: Lots of people
WHAT: Recovering lost phylacteries
WHEN: Guardian 23, 9:44
WHERE: The Storm Coast
NOTES: Violence! OOC post over here.

All signs point to the Storm Coast, and once scouts have narrowed down the location it's only a short journey across the Waking Sea to move a small force onto the rocky coast. They row ashore just after dawn in driving rain, and follow the beach for at least a mile before finding a path that actually reaches the top of the cliff. The rain fades to a drizzle but the day remains relentlessly overcast as they hike toward their goal, grey and dim even at noon, with a raw breeze off the water.

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"I am safe," she agrees. "As are you. And all of us." She slips her hand into his, pausing as a spray of water from the tide throws mist over them. It hardly matters since they've been soaked since their arrival, and if anything, it provides a cold blast to the senses.

"But I am now thinking of the future, as I often do when I should not." She offers him a tired smile before slipping a hand into the pouch on her belt and drawing out a vial of blood, glowing brightly in her presence. Even without the faded label with her name upon it, it would be clear to see this is her phylactery.

"Before arriving here, I thought I wanted nothing more than to crush this beneath my feet. Then I saw the mages here and I began to think of terrible scenarios where I might be kidnapped and forced to do horrible things." Christine squeezes his hand tightly as she slows to a stop, turning to face him.

"...You don't...want to crush it anymore? Or pour it out into the sea?" He blinks, tired, not wide-eyed for the salty spray and just the everything, but still very attentive. And very confused. "Nothing's gonna happen to you so long as I'm around, you got that? I won't let it."

"I..." She hesitates, looking down at the tiny thing. It's caused her so much grief and trouble, but now in a world where she gets to control what happens to it, she wants to make a decision she won't regret. The issue has been given plenty of thought, and her only worry is how he'll react, and if her regret will be drawing him into this in the first place.

"Trust is very important to me," she begins, meeting his eyes. "And I trust you with my life. If I were alone -- if I had never met you -- I would destroy it. But with you here... there is another option." Her hand extends towards him, offering the vial. "I trust you enough to put my life in your hands. This is yours. If you wish to destroy it, then do it. If you wish to keep it safe, then should anything happen to me when you are not with me, this will lead you to me like a compass."

"...You want me to have that? Me? Fumbles McStupid? You want me to have your glowing vial of blood. That's a thing? That you genuinely want?"

He's utterly baffled by the decision, and only hesitantly reaches out, to cover the vial and her hand with his.

"Why?"

Her tongue clicks in disapproval at what he calls himself, but she waits until he's finished.

"Because I trust you, as I said. You have long said you would take care of me, protect me, save me from all harm, but you have also always said I am my own person and I know you would never control me." Her fingers curl around the edge of his hand. "You dueled the suitor my mother sent not to win me, but because he insulted me. It would never cross your mind to own me. That is why I trust you with this. I know that you will either destroy it to protect me, or protect it at all costs so no one can harm me with it again."

There is too much to say to that. There's too much that's happened, that they've had to simply put up with, that he finds himself speechless. Not for a lack of what to say, but that nothing sounds even remotely adequate.

So he takes it, not without first bringing up their hands and placing a kiss to the back of hers. It glows in her proximity, almost pretty. This thing full of magically tuned blood that's been the cause of at least half of her problems over the past month or two. Because some people just don't fucking like mages. It's god damn barbaric.

With that in mind, he turns toward the sea and pulls back his arm, winding up to chuck it into the depths where it'll get dashed on the rocks eventually and be done with, but it's the other half of the possibilities that sees him pause, that sees him lower his arm and look at the damn thing again.

"You said if you get lost, or something happens--if something ever happens, I can find you with this?"

Her eyes shift to his arm with her phylactery glowing against his hand as a feeling of relief wells up inside her. When he lowers his arm, that feeling doesn't go away. He's accepted it now, so she knows she's safe.

"Yes. If the enemy captures me, or some independent force--" Here she waves a hand vaguely towards the steep hillside with the extremists' base at the top. "That will lead you to me. It will glow the brightest in the direction I am in. When you start, you will know which cardinal direction to follow and from there, just follow the glow."

This is more than just a symbol of her trust; it's a symbol of her love as well. But Christine can't just come out and say such a thing. It's implied, isn't it? And haven't they always let their actions speak for them?

"You will keep it, then?"

"...For now. 'Til I figure out what to do with it. I dunno--you can't just put something like this on the mantle, y'know? And I can't just keep it in a pocket, not with all the shit I get up to."

But he wraps an arm around her, holding fast. "I'm gonna protect you whether I have it or not. I'm gonna damn well try. Thank you. For...trusting me like this."

"We can find someplace secret to store it." Maybe under the floorboards, or they can put in a hidden drawer somewhere. That way no one but the two of them will ever know it's there.

Christine tucks in her head close to his neck, wrapping her arm around his waist. She never pictured herself in this life; going into battle with the man that means everything to her by her side. But she wouldn't trade this for anything.

"I know you would. And I will do the same in return." Or at least try, as he said. She couldn't shield him from the Rifter illness, after all. "It is your own actions in the time I have known you that makes me trust you. There is no need to thank me for that."

"I dunno that I'll ever get used to it. But, like, in a good way, I guess? It's good to be trusted and wanted. Never get tired of it."

Not in the same way the AI had wanted him, not in the same way the Blues trusted him. Not in the same way as Tex, he can admit that much. This is...less complicated. And more pure, in a sense.

He settles the vial in a pocket for now, to be tucked in a pack for a safe journey back. And then they'll find a place for it. Together, he thinks. Better that she have a say in it, knowing its power. Something for Just In Case. "You know I love you, right? That I'm never gonna stop, no matter what happens. Cuz I don't want you to doubt that for a second."

Things are only complicated until they're not, and it's been quite awhile since Christine deemed this relationship to be complicated. Things simply fell into place without effort; like they were always meant to be this way.

The words he says don't cause some panicked reaction in her like they might have once before, but she is surprised that he chooses to say it so openly. What she expects from him are actions and not so much the words themselves. Her head lifts and her eyes meet his, shining with tears.

"I know." The water throws another spray of water at them, and the cold jolt makes her laugh and take his face in her hands. "I do." There are so many things she could say; like about how she's always wanted this, but living in the Circle it was always a distant dream. She could say she'd wanted to wait until the war was over to have romance in her life, but that he came and stole her heart like a thief in the night. She could say that she prefers to over plan for everything in her life, including her future, yet now with him she just wants to live one day at a time and let life surprise her.

But she doesn't say any of this. Instead she says, "I love you too. I always will." Her hair is getting drenched, and a chill is starting to work its way through her armor. "Let's get on board and into dry clothes before we become ill, hmm?" Nothing, not even a declaration of love, can stop Christine Delacroix from being a healer.

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the days that bind us

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