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+--- Thread: AW Glory take us into Odin's halls (/showthread.php?tid=11207)
Glory take us into Odin's halls - Vitus - 4/16/2026
Set at the same time as The End Of The BWP
He is barely standing when it ends.
When the chains break, when the ancients speak.
Vitus has done his part, taken blows and continued to break the chains that bind with the others, blows that would be the end of him. Bites and tears he could have avoided, if he had only moved.
The ground vanished beneath his feet, and for a brief moment he stood at Eastborne, baby blue eyes looking at those around him as the warmth dripped down his throat. The world was melting, at long last, the sun was shining.
So why did he feel cold?
Vitus looked down in annoyance as he felt another drip, not...registering, just what it was. The fountain that was coming from the side of his neck, his pale fur soaked in red.
Blood.
.....how?
He has seen his future, he has seen himself an old man, he was not supposed to die yet.
Fate it seemed, had other plans for the seer, as he slid to the ground with the thunder that boomed around the group.
It was....a good place to die, at least.
Pretty.
Did he have regrets?
He had wanted to do more.
RE: Glory take us into Odin's halls - Ezra - 4/16/2026
skill: death touched
It came as no shock to Ezra, seeing his brother dying there. The moment he left Jakten, he knew he was a dead man walking. It was as though every moment Ezra (and for his siblings too before their death) he turned his back, someone died. As if he didn't constantly keep his eye on them, they would be gone in a blink. At least, as far as his family went.
Would it be the same with Amunet ? Ezra would be left to fear any time he was sent on mission, wandered to another nearby land, took a tunnel or two… If he didnt keep his eyes on her every waking moment, would she too die? But there wouldn't be any meeting her one day in Valhalla, would there?
I knew it….He spoke the words outloud, now, as he stood over his brother laying, bleeding out on the ground from a gaping wound on his neck. How? Did it matter? It didn't change the end result.
He sits, then, slowly. His head lowering down as he hunched down near him, his crippled leg raised a little off ground. It ached, but surely not the way his brother did now.
You'll wait for me with the rest of em, won't you?There was no use for dramatics - to yell, to wisp him up in his arms, to cry in agony. Ezra knew where he was going. He just hoped all he could do was wait for him.
RE: Glory take us into Odin's halls - Amunet1 - 4/16/2026
![[Image: P6jHQ0N.png]](https://i.imgur.com/P6jHQ0N.png)
Fear? Surely not, but being lost and the scent of blood heavy in the air...her mind went to the worst outcomes. Wincing, she choked back the sound, heavily pressing into her throat. Scents she did not know and one she had grown intimately acquainted with. Ezra? Her chest tightened, her paws moved before she could think. The dark woman had known loss, but she cursed the idea. Her breathing was ragged, uneven; it felt as though the air had been drawn from her lungs. No cry could be found on her lips; only her eyes would give away her silent curses and hidden pleas. Her family's words are forsaken this time. Her teeth gnashed as anguish rolled over her in waves of denial, cursing fate, and bargaining with it all the same.
It felt like an eternity tracing the scent, the overwhelming scent of blood now churning her stomach. The back of the familiar male was the first thing she saw.
Pale opalescent eyes lingered for a moment longer before she focused more intently on their surroundings. Uncertain what to do, she would stand in a silent, protective vigil.
It felt like an eternity tracing the scent, the overwhelming scent of blood now churning her stomach. The back of the familiar male was the first thing she saw.
Ezra?Her words came out like a prayer, half-whisper, half-broken. She doesn't approach a weight settling into her bones as she takes in the scene. Her eyes rest on the silver and gold-hued creature on the ground, and her head drops slightly. She didn't know this wolf, but it seemed as though Ezra had. Everything in her screamed to reach out to see if it was real or an illusion. The dark woman couldn't bear to invade this space this time. She couldn't know the weight that this loss carried, but she settled reverently in the background. If it was he, then her presence was announced in his name alone.
Pale opalescent eyes lingered for a moment longer before she focused more intently on their surroundings. Uncertain what to do, she would stand in a silent, protective vigil.
May you walk in the Field of Reeds.She muttered the blessings of her family's sake softly and mostly to herself, to fate, to whoever could hear the muffled whispers of reverence. She could only hope that whatever god the fallen male served would receive him well and bring the soul peace. Despite her attempts at being mindful of their surroundings, her eyes continued to find themselves focusing on that oh so familiar frame, anxiously waiting in a careful silence and conflicting emotions.
— artwork: Ulfeid3 ·
Common Speech Coptic Speech
RE: Glory take us into Odin's halls - Elli - 5/1/2026
Locked in the throes of battle, the struggling give-and-take that led the congregated wolves to eventual success, Elli didn't notice her brother's faltering.
Not immediately, not consciously.
Relief filtered through her veins as her shoulders sagged, the levity in the atmosphere serving to dampen the ache of her jaws. Blood dripped at regular intervals as each droplet crept along the softer flesh of her jaws, gathering into a bead before dappling the ground below her hanging head. Fatigue pressed through every ounce of her, but it was over. The world had halted its upheaval, peace restored and fitted around Mythris.
Her calm was rumpled by a twinge of intuition; the humming awareness of something wrong. Dual-toned eyes lifted as she observed the fresh day, dipped in the most vivid tones of dawn. The sight was enough to steal her breath, but that wasn't what caused her lungs to stall, her heart to sink and tumble.
The tiredness faded, replaced by adrenaline.
She cast her gaze around her, searching for her brother. Other wolves milled about, collecting their dead, injured, and those left standing as they sought refuge to lick their wounds. But she cared not for them. She couldn't find it in herself to give a single fuck if they survived, a sentiment given life as she shouldered roughly through a throng of others to walk on quickened, purposeful strides, head on swivel.
With each fruitless glance, her heartrate hastened. She held her breath, vision growing overbright and sharpening to razor edges. Something was wrong - she thought Vitus had been close to her - but had she imagined it? How had she lost track of him in the fray?
It was not Vitus' form she found first, however, but Ezra's.
Her paws stumbled to a stop as she stared with widened eyes, blinking quickly to prove he wasn't some afterimage of a memory long past. But no, it was her brother - he had grown since she saw him last, filling out and evening his proportions. As she had, as Vitus had.
They had grown regardless of the distance between them physically. Time did not halt just because they did not see one another. It seemed like an injustice, she thought to herself distantly.
But none of that mattered. She was desperate to reach him, to cling to something familiar. Maybe he knew where Vitus was - they could find him together. It had always been the three of them against the world.
Until it wasn't.
As she broke into a vantage point to see the scene for what it was, she jerked to a halt.
Air fled her lungs; her chest was compressed, caved in by Vitus' form, so still - preternaturally so. Her eyes locked onto him, begging his flanks to lift in clear defiance of the blood marring his sterling coat. For one heartbreaking moment, she almost tricked herself into seeing the flutter of a breath. She would have screamed at him to breathe, to demand he offer her some sign of life, but she was frozen.
The spring breeze did not reach her, the honeyed nectar on the air was lost on her.
Everything was narrowed into the sight before her. It was surreal, etched in impossibility. Vitus couldn't be dead; he had been the only constant in her life. When everyone else left, he remained.
Even when she died, he stayed. He collected her broken pieces and he laid them to rest.
Vitus was the responsible one, the dependable one; for some reason, she never fathomed she would lose him. He was always supposed to be there; she and Ezra, too, but she knew the two of them likely would never live a lengthy life. They were too prone to danger when compared to their paler sibling. It was as though the gods knew he was something gentler than them, painting him in winter's finest silvers.
She had taken his presence, his steadiness, his voice of reason that broke through to her when nothing, no one else did for granted.
He was supposed to be safe.
She couldn't accept this.
He couldn't be gone. That wasn't how this was supposed to go.
How many times did she need to feel the biting cut of loss before her blood tithe was paid? Had she not lost enough? She had precious little left to give.
The sting of tears burned behind her eyes, her vision wobbling in a kaleidoscope of broken images and swatches of color as they threatened to show themselves in earnest. She took a lumbering, uneasy step forward.
Vitus still hadn't moved. If Ezra said anything to her or moved toward her, she did not yet acknowledge him. Her mind was a haze, stimuli blotted out like running watercolors and a buzzing sound overwhelming her hearing; if not for the hitching tide of her breath, rushing between her teeth, she might have thought she was going deaf.
The detachment that held her upright began to crumble as she drew closer and she could no longer deny or twist what was before her. Grief surged through her, the churning waves of misery quickly cut through with rage.
At first faint but rapidly gaining luminosity, sigils flashed across Elli's form as her expression crumpled and her lips peeled back into a snarl. Her hackles rose, bristling along her spine as her tail curved upward - a battalion flag, promised war. Standing over her brother's too-still body, she flicked her gaze from Ezra to Amunet.
An outlier.
A stranger.
A murderer?
Elli's head snapped in Ezra's direction, her gaze no less intense.
Every god as her witness, she would rend flesh from bone. She would become judge, jury, and executioner. The leash on her restraint was fraying, strung taut and verging on collapse.
All she needed was one sideways comment, one flimsy excuse or cause and her grief-laden fury would be weaponized into a form she would allow herself to feel. A version she had come to know many times in the few years she had been alive.
She tasted iron and wrath and retribution on her tongue.
Not immediately, not consciously.
Relief filtered through her veins as her shoulders sagged, the levity in the atmosphere serving to dampen the ache of her jaws. Blood dripped at regular intervals as each droplet crept along the softer flesh of her jaws, gathering into a bead before dappling the ground below her hanging head. Fatigue pressed through every ounce of her, but it was over. The world had halted its upheaval, peace restored and fitted around Mythris.
Her calm was rumpled by a twinge of intuition; the humming awareness of something wrong. Dual-toned eyes lifted as she observed the fresh day, dipped in the most vivid tones of dawn. The sight was enough to steal her breath, but that wasn't what caused her lungs to stall, her heart to sink and tumble.
The tiredness faded, replaced by adrenaline.
She cast her gaze around her, searching for her brother. Other wolves milled about, collecting their dead, injured, and those left standing as they sought refuge to lick their wounds. But she cared not for them. She couldn't find it in herself to give a single fuck if they survived, a sentiment given life as she shouldered roughly through a throng of others to walk on quickened, purposeful strides, head on swivel.
With each fruitless glance, her heartrate hastened. She held her breath, vision growing overbright and sharpening to razor edges. Something was wrong - she thought Vitus had been close to her - but had she imagined it? How had she lost track of him in the fray?
Vitus?she called above the clamor of returning life.
It was not Vitus' form she found first, however, but Ezra's.
Her paws stumbled to a stop as she stared with widened eyes, blinking quickly to prove he wasn't some afterimage of a memory long past. But no, it was her brother - he had grown since she saw him last, filling out and evening his proportions. As she had, as Vitus had.
They had grown regardless of the distance between them physically. Time did not halt just because they did not see one another. It seemed like an injustice, she thought to herself distantly.
Ezra?she half-greeted, half-questioned, no longer content to walk. Her gait shifted into a run as she made a beeline for his side. She didn't think about how he wouldn't recognize her new form; she sounded and smelled the same, but was that enough? It had been months since they last saw one another and, as far as she knew, he only know she had died, not that she returned.
But none of that mattered. She was desperate to reach him, to cling to something familiar. Maybe he knew where Vitus was - they could find him together. It had always been the three of them against the world.
Until it wasn't.
As she broke into a vantage point to see the scene for what it was, she jerked to a halt.
Air fled her lungs; her chest was compressed, caved in by Vitus' form, so still - preternaturally so. Her eyes locked onto him, begging his flanks to lift in clear defiance of the blood marring his sterling coat. For one heartbreaking moment, she almost tricked herself into seeing the flutter of a breath. She would have screamed at him to breathe, to demand he offer her some sign of life, but she was frozen.
The spring breeze did not reach her, the honeyed nectar on the air was lost on her.
Everything was narrowed into the sight before her. It was surreal, etched in impossibility. Vitus couldn't be dead; he had been the only constant in her life. When everyone else left, he remained.
Even when she died, he stayed. He collected her broken pieces and he laid them to rest.
Vitus was the responsible one, the dependable one; for some reason, she never fathomed she would lose him. He was always supposed to be there; she and Ezra, too, but she knew the two of them likely would never live a lengthy life. They were too prone to danger when compared to their paler sibling. It was as though the gods knew he was something gentler than them, painting him in winter's finest silvers.
She had taken his presence, his steadiness, his voice of reason that broke through to her when nothing, no one else did for granted.
He was supposed to be safe.
She couldn't accept this.
He couldn't be gone. That wasn't how this was supposed to go.
No,she breathed. The word didn't seem real, so quiet and so small and so unlike herself; it might have been spoken or just summoned in the confines of her mind, she couldn't tell. The colors all around her bled and ran together, the sunlight a mockery of the misery sinking into every stitch of her. How could the world be so bright, so alive when her brother was anything but?
How many times did she need to feel the biting cut of loss before her blood tithe was paid? Had she not lost enough? She had precious little left to give.
The sting of tears burned behind her eyes, her vision wobbling in a kaleidoscope of broken images and swatches of color as they threatened to show themselves in earnest. She took a lumbering, uneasy step forward.
Vitus still hadn't moved. If Ezra said anything to her or moved toward her, she did not yet acknowledge him. Her mind was a haze, stimuli blotted out like running watercolors and a buzzing sound overwhelming her hearing; if not for the hitching tide of her breath, rushing between her teeth, she might have thought she was going deaf.
The detachment that held her upright began to crumble as she drew closer and she could no longer deny or twist what was before her. Grief surged through her, the churning waves of misery quickly cut through with rage.
At first faint but rapidly gaining luminosity, sigils flashed across Elli's form as her expression crumpled and her lips peeled back into a snarl. Her hackles rose, bristling along her spine as her tail curved upward - a battalion flag, promised war. Standing over her brother's too-still body, she flicked her gaze from Ezra to Amunet.
An outlier.
A stranger.
A murderer?
Who the fuck is that?Elli demanded, her voice strummed into a dangerous, quiet smoothness - the calm in the eye of the storm; the cooling breeze before the thunderheads arrived. If looks could kill, the stranger would have been stagged by lightning already, ire shining brightly within her eyes as the symbols on her body pulsed with blue-white light.
Did she do this?she prompted through gritted teeth.
Elli's head snapped in Ezra's direction, her gaze no less intense.
Did she kill our brother?Her voice fractured on the last word, the only sign that her anger was layered with grief. Every muscle along her body tensed, prepared to engage, to deliver swift justice.
Every god as her witness, she would rend flesh from bone. She would become judge, jury, and executioner. The leash on her restraint was fraying, strung taut and verging on collapse.
All she needed was one sideways comment, one flimsy excuse or cause and her grief-laden fury would be weaponized into a form she would allow herself to feel. A version she had come to know many times in the few years she had been alive.
She tasted iron and wrath and retribution on her tongue.
RE: Glory take us into Odin's halls - Vitus - 5/5/2026
He was still struggling to breathe, gurgling breaths as he started choking on his own blood.
His eyes caught Ezra's, glad that he was here, that he would know, before Elli's voice reached his ears. He knew she was near, but he couldn't see her from his place in the melting snow.
Vitus was clinging to this life, clawing at the strings of his soul that kept him bound to stay until she was at his side too. He didn't want to be alone as she had been, he wanted her here with him. He knew Journey was around somewhere as well, he had seen her attack the chained wolf but this...this was a moment for the three of them. The Valkyrie would see him eventually, but there were no guarantees that his siblings would fall from battle wounds like he had.
But of course, in very Elli fashion, she directed her grief into anger at the nearest person.
The seer would laugh, if he wasn't...struggling, to stay in the now.
He felt...so....
His body let out the final death rattle, but the man was already gone.
RE: Glory take us into Odin's halls - Ezra - 5/7/2026
skill: death touched
Amunet's voice was an echo, distant behind him as his head spun as his brother under him struggled to breathe. Elli's voice too, a whisper on his mind too, beckoning, calling… She was here to take his brother away, but Ezra could not join them. Not yet.
Too focused on watching the last breaths of his brother leave his body, it wasn't until Elli was at his side with Vitus that he realized it was she which called him - she… who sounded like Elli, smelt like Elli. It was Elli, despite her different flesh. He knew it to be so. After all, she didn't look much horribly different - and her eyes; her eyes were just as he remembered them.
It was those eyes which pulled him away from a brother now gone from him.
You're alive…?Ezra's eyes moved back to Vitus, to Elli and then back again. She had been given new life but that had come at a cost, or so it seemed. He didn't know what to think, what to say. That she had killed him with her return? That she should go back? But Ezra didnt fucking want her to and yet-!
FUCK.
Teeth clenching, he takes a step back, stumbling as he shakes his head to try and make sense of this, to control the emotions that ravaged his mind. Meanwhile Elli begins to burn bright, wraith fueled with god-given light as runes begin a faint glow across her body. Runes he had seen in his dreams, seen on the stones circled all around them during the freedom of Fenrir-not-Fenrir. For he could not be the true deity, for he was freed and still the world did not burn! But Elli did - and so did Ezra.
For the first time he would be forced to face her with ire. He takes another step back, his head lowering and tail down, but his legs splayed and fur bristled. A defensive stance, which he would do, if he must. He would take those blows and he would let his sister take his throat if she so willed it. After all, had he already not deemed his life sacrificial for her? To find a way back to her?
No.He answered sharp, true. If she were thinking clearly, she would know Amunet had no blood of any kind on her but we all knew (and with good reason) Elli was not being rational. He knew Amunet could handle her own. She was a valkyrie in her own right… what were these called in her culture, he wondered? He didn't think to ask if there were any.
She is…Mine? He wouldn't be foolish enough to think he could call her his own. Who was he to think he ever could?
She's with me.
RE: Glory take us into Odin's halls - Amunet1 - 5/7/2026
The light colored woman seemed to appear from nowhere in particular, and yet, upon first glance, she didn't appear as a threat. The dark woman sympathised with grief. Her eyes were watchful, mindful. Sorrow had a way to turn things ugly even if it wasn't desired. Admittedly, she cared little for the woman's reaction; others were permitted to grieve in whatever way felt right to them in these matters. Amunet felt no need to intervene, even as the feeling of what one could consider jealousy crept up her spine. No, this moment was for Ezra and the fallen; she could temper trivial emotions for the time being. Even she had reverence for the dying when it came to someone important to those she cared about.
It wasn't until the woman flashed from looking at Ezra to herself that she lifted her head to full attention. If the matter were not so heavy, she would almost find it insulting. Still, she caught the fact that the poor man on the ground had been his brother, and this was apparently his sister. Even Ezra had seemed to be perplexed on the matter. She watches as he takes a step back. He stumbles slightly, shaking his head. Amunet cared little for the glowing oddities they seemed to carry in their own was her concern was the reaction, and it was enough to captivate her entire attention. The rest of the beast scattered about no longer mattered in the moment, only the three in front before.
It wasn't the baseless words and accusations that made Amunet bristle, witnessing Ezra's stance change to something defensive, wrong. Even as he uttered words in her defence, her snarl broke her silence. She stalked forward, muscles rippling beneath obsidian fur.
She closed the distance from Ezra, close enough that if the stranger lashed out, she could place herself in front of him. Her eyes were cold, and her tone even more frigid.
It wasn't until the woman flashed from looking at Ezra to herself that she lifted her head to full attention. If the matter were not so heavy, she would almost find it insulting. Still, she caught the fact that the poor man on the ground had been his brother, and this was apparently his sister. Even Ezra had seemed to be perplexed on the matter. She watches as he takes a step back. He stumbles slightly, shaking his head. Amunet cared little for the glowing oddities they seemed to carry in their own was her concern was the reaction, and it was enough to captivate her entire attention. The rest of the beast scattered about no longer mattered in the moment, only the three in front before.
It wasn't the baseless words and accusations that made Amunet bristle, witnessing Ezra's stance change to something defensive, wrong. Even as he uttered words in her defence, her snarl broke her silence. She stalked forward, muscles rippling beneath obsidian fur.
Touch him with ill intentions. I swear before all the gods, all the fates. Whatever the fuck you believe in...I will drag you into the abyss with me.The dark woman couldn't control the fury radiating from her body. She cared not if she were injured or worse; Ezra was hers. As capable as he is as a fighter mattered little now. In her presence, she wouldn't tolerate it.
She closed the distance from Ezra, close enough that if the stranger lashed out, she could place herself in front of him. Her eyes were cold, and her tone even more frigid.
I do not wish to dishonour the dead. I desire not to fight you, but I shall if it is required of me.She lowered her head slightly to protect her throat as she subtly widened her stance. Still baring her teeth, she waited for an answer or movement. If she opted to lash out at Ezra, she wouldn't hesitate to throw her shoulder into the woman's smaller frame. If the woman's fury was turned on her, she could take her retaliation. Grief was a feeling she knew well, and while she desired for this to be amicable, Amunet wouldn't hesitate to risk her life for the male before her.
— artwork: Ulfeid3 ·
Common Speech Coptic Speech
RE: Glory take us into Odin's halls - Elli - 5/25/2026
The sound of blooded breaths snagged Elli's attention, and for a terrible moment, she stared in horror at Vitus' form. She had thought him dead, but he lived yet; hope sprung into her chest, weaving its way through the strands of grief and misdirected ire.
But as quickly as it rose, it died with Vitus' final breath.
He was gone - this time with certainty.
For a few heartbeats, she forgot about Ezra and the woman before her. All she could focus on was the ringing in her ears and the phantom rise and fall of her brother's chest, when all good reason demanded it was a trick of light, a breeze toying with the pale fibers of his coat.
What lay at her paws was but a vessel, a used-up husk left behind by his soul when it scorched its way back out. The burning tears fighting for freedom at her waterline were awarded for their efforts, flowing down her pale cheeks as grief tore through her like wildfire - consuming every margin of goodness she might have earned.
And just like that, her attention snapped back to Ezra and the stranger.
Elli noted Ezra's stance - the way he squared up as though to fight her, as if she was the problem when their brother lay dead in the new world's dawn.
Her lips parted to speak, but the stranger surged forward to place herself in preparation to spring between the two Stormborns.
The tempest's brow crinkled as she glared holes into the larger woman's face.
A warning. A threat. The first and final one she would offer.
Pain she had buried deep clawed its way from the grave she made for it, bringing with it the moment she and Vitus had parted ways with Ezra all those months ago.
Her eyes flicked in Ezra's direction, looking him over with an expression that broadcast more than she wanted to show, her anger softening - in its place, it laid bare the hurt festering beneath her collar bone before she could rein it back.
It was supposed to be the three of them against the world - her, Vitus, Ezra. But he had chosen to leave them. He left her. He left Vitus - and look what happened. Both of them had died. And for what? So he could show up with some stranger when he couldn't change any of it? The moment they separated, their union shattered and everything had fallen apart.
Betrayal flooded her system in thrashing waves; it sloshed over the edges of her self, corrosive to the touch as it burned its way out. She felt it in every pore, sluicing across every jagged edge of her heart.
She had no one left, then, if he was going to take the side of this bitch.
No one.
The last words were quieter, smaller in a way that did not suit her. Her brows' furrow deepened and she realized she didn't want an answer. It no longer mattered.
The lights across her body guttered, suffocating beneath the weight of the despair threatening to choke her. All the fight was lost from her hollowed-out gaze, something fundamental snapping clean in half within her. She balanced on the knife's edge between collapse and reviving her fury, but she couldn't find the embers necessary to stoke their fire.
She shot them both an acidic glance before lowering her nose to Vitus' thick mane. He still smelled like him, so familiar and traced with warmth she knew would be gone long before she wished for it to be.
She didn't need anyone.
But as quickly as it rose, it died with Vitus' final breath.
He was gone - this time with certainty.
For a few heartbeats, she forgot about Ezra and the woman before her. All she could focus on was the ringing in her ears and the phantom rise and fall of her brother's chest, when all good reason demanded it was a trick of light, a breeze toying with the pale fibers of his coat.
What lay at her paws was but a vessel, a used-up husk left behind by his soul when it scorched its way back out. The burning tears fighting for freedom at her waterline were awarded for their efforts, flowing down her pale cheeks as grief tore through her like wildfire - consuming every margin of goodness she might have earned.
And just like that, her attention snapped back to Ezra and the stranger.
Elli noted Ezra's stance - the way he squared up as though to fight her, as if she was the problem when their brother lay dead in the new world's dawn.
Her lips parted to speak, but the stranger surged forward to place herself in preparation to spring between the two Stormborns.
The tempest's brow crinkled as she glared holes into the larger woman's face.
What gives you the fucking right to even be here?she asked - demanded - in a tone lethally smooth. Her paws bridged their distance in one step, then another, not removing her eyes from the other's. She snapped her jaws forward, teeth clicking audibly as they gnashed closed in front of the dark wolf.
A warning. A threat. The first and final one she would offer.
This does not concern you - your mere presence is a dishonor to my brother's memory,she snipped, muzzle pleated into a snarl. The anger felt good, a familiar grip in her proverbial hand as she faced down the insurmountable wall of her sorrow. But it burned too hot, she struggled to hold onto it as the realization she lost one brother to death's hands but the one still remaining had willingly chosen to leave her side surfaced.
Pain she had buried deep clawed its way from the grave she made for it, bringing with it the moment she and Vitus had parted ways with Ezra all those months ago.
Her eyes flicked in Ezra's direction, looking him over with an expression that broadcast more than she wanted to show, her anger softening - in its place, it laid bare the hurt festering beneath her collar bone before she could rein it back.
It was supposed to be the three of them against the world - her, Vitus, Ezra. But he had chosen to leave them. He left her. He left Vitus - and look what happened. Both of them had died. And for what? So he could show up with some stranger when he couldn't change any of it? The moment they separated, their union shattered and everything had fallen apart.
Betrayal flooded her system in thrashing waves; it sloshed over the edges of her self, corrosive to the touch as it burned its way out. She felt it in every pore, sluicing across every jagged edge of her heart.
She had no one left, then, if he was going to take the side of this bitch.
No one.
And you - you would let her threaten me as our brother's corpse has not even grown cold,Elli stated, the words spoken with a detached sort of damnation, brooking no observance of an argument.
You chose to leave us. Given the first opportunity, you left. I died with you miles away - did you even care?
The last words were quieter, smaller in a way that did not suit her. Her brows' furrow deepened and she realized she didn't want an answer. It no longer mattered.
The lights across her body guttered, suffocating beneath the weight of the despair threatening to choke her. All the fight was lost from her hollowed-out gaze, something fundamental snapping clean in half within her. She balanced on the knife's edge between collapse and reviving her fury, but she couldn't find the embers necessary to stoke their fire.
Go,she told him, the order torn from her as a single forced, hoarse syllable.
Leaving is what you're good at, so take your bitch and go.
She shot them both an acidic glance before lowering her nose to Vitus' thick mane. He still smelled like him, so familiar and traced with warmth she knew would be gone long before she wished for it to be.
I have a brother to take home and bury,she muttered. While the logistics would be difficult, she would figure out a way to get him home. He had buried her, it was only right she did the same for him.
She didn't need anyone.
RE: Glory take us into Odin's halls - Ezra - 5/28/2026
skill: Death-touched
Oh shut up. Look around. Everyone is here!He barked as he did so himself, twisting his body and head from the left to right. The fields outside of the Eastborne estate were cluttered with wolves everywhere, calling out and scrambling. All lost and trying to find their way after they had been dumped here by the spirits of Mythris.
You were looking for someone to blame before he was even dead. You'd think reincarnation would have given you a bit of wisdom. We all left, the three of us- together. You and Vitus just decided to stop and live with some allies we barely even knew. I went to Jakten where we still had a resemblance of some family still- family that doesnt seem to drop like fucking flies every season, if you dont recall.As it were, after she died, Vitus even decided to stay in the south for a time, with no intention of returning to Northfall until a possibility of their aunt rising to power came to light.
Ezra's teeth grit, pressing tightly together that he thought they might shatter. Beat that than lashing out on his sister for acting like a fucking idiot! Maybe dying and coming back had left her memory a bit foggy. After all, some came back with little memory, some with none at all, some who didnt even know who the fuck they were. Ezra guessed Elli was lucky in that department or, given the look of things, unlucky?
No.A flat retort back. He remained standing where he was, at the side of Amunet which he looked to briefly with knitted brows. A silent apology for the chaos which they spiraled into by their brother's death. The fiery siblings hardly stood the chance without the cooling calm of their brother.
Ezra had every intention of holding back and would be there when Elli worked herself to the bone trying to either backwards-drag her brother or fight balancing him over her back until she couldn't bare it any longer. Eastbourne was an extremely long trek, even with the use of teleportation tunnels, which he was uncertain if his sister was privy to. The strength of Ezra and Amunet's aid was not particularly something she could realistically do without.
RE: Glory take us into Odin's halls - Journey - 6/1/2026
Too many months had passed since the trio of siblings had left. Too many months since Ezra had turned south to live with his uncles and Elli's life had been taken by the festering wounds of bear. Yet it was Vitus which had returned to the north. Vitus which had come to reclaim a rightful place among his family's natal claim. He was there seer and had already proved himself a grand one at that despite his age. It was not the painful rage between two siblings which she turned to, but the corpse of a young brethren of Northfall.
Seer…The valkyrie keeps her distance as she is wise to. Lifetimes ago she could have easily struck both down with a spin of her wings and swing of her sword, though that was ages beyond and she was far less warrior than either of them now.
Instead, she lowers to the ground, her ears sweeping back against her skull as she offers silent prayer.
I would have carried him away, if I could.But she had not felt the weight of wings upon her back in too long. Had not shepherd souls unto Valhalla in far longer.
A warmth touched her cheeks, anxious sorrow burning there and she felt her pulse hard at the edge of her eyes. A new mark on her now, too, pulsed with its own faint glow in a rune stretched over her shoulders. They had all been marked by this war. Some more than others. It would be a long and cruel journey in bringing him home.