Shes Not Sure What Reaction She Expects. While Their Training And Ideologies For The Most Part Are The

She’s not sure what reaction she expects. While their training and ideologies for the most part are the same, Jade has never known what to expect from the Pacalcade when she tells the story of Ballantine’s tragic end. But to be honest, she’s been too busy and distracted to really consider it. And perhaps she prefers it that way. Because now all she can wonder is if they’ll hate her for it. Will they think she’s lying? Or will they agree with the actions taken as honorable knights of the realm? Maybe she’ll encounter all three. Regardless, it leaves her uneasy.

The silence seems never ending. She watches and waits as Hati goes through the motions. There’s almost a relief when he seems to understand her predicament. Maybe she isn’t a monster and won’t be in the eyes of her Pacalcade brothers. Hati is one of the most honorable and dutiful knights she knows. If he’s on her side, the others will surely follow. Maybe not all of them, but most of them.

His apology leaves her shaken. No, this was never a burden she should have had to take on. And no one has said that to her until Hati. She feels the weight of it everyday. It’s more than a burden. It broke her and molded her into something new. The Jade from before this rescue mission is gone. She died with Ballantine in the Pitiless Pass.

“It wasn’t enough,” she responds. Her love as a daughter, his love as a father, it hadn’t been enough. She can hear Elora and Kit in her head. We believe that love is the most powerful thing in the universe. Love had saved Graydon. Love had saved Airk. Both corrupted then set free from the Lich, from the Crone. But Ballantine, her father? Duty and honor came before love, overpowered it, always had. Love cannot save while duty and honor are determined to kill. And that revelation has changed Jade, too.

Jade reaches out and clasps Hati’s forearm just below the joint, a gesture of solidarity. “Who has the queen promoted to Commander? An older knight, I presume.” She has no desire to discuss how she feels about what she did. What was done was done. Whether necessary or not, Jade can’t continue to ponder for the sake of her mental state and her friendships.

He watches her shake her head and two wolves fight within his heart - were it not for the strengths of the emotions now crashing over Hati, he might have realised the irony of such an idea. There is that strange sigh of relief that wishes to escape his lips, for he knows Ballantine would not have wanted it any other way. Death over Dishonor. It is what he has been raised to believe. And if the commander is dead it will not fall to him or the other knights to hunt him down.

But that sigh cannot leave, for there is also a sharp cry of pain stuck in his windpipe. Merrick lost, Keene lost. His brothers in arms dead. Ballantine somewhere cold and lifeless... He feels his knees trembling, his features a mirror of the shock he is feeling. What they all have feared has come true, and though he knew it was coming it still rips the ground from beneath his feet.

Elora Danan. He had heard the legends, the tales, that concept of a rightful Empress that never quite sat right with him - for Hati already has Sorsha, his rightful queen. And he saw that girl, Brunhilde, grow up in the castle. It is not easy to put the two - legend and girl - together, not even after days.

I killed him.

That sentence hangs between them and Hati finally loses that last bit of stoic control and discipline. A curse escapes his lips and he sinks into a nearby chair, head buried in his hands, fingers clinging to dark locks. He struggles to find the right words to say, the weight of the situation, of the loss, of that dreadful responsibility, weighing him down. Finally, he swallows hard, clasps his hands together to keep them from becoming fists as he raises his gaze toward Jade once more.

"I am sorry", words filled with tenderness and grief alike, "I am sorry for your loss, Jade. This should have never been your burden to carry. I know how much he meant to you.", Hati rises, stepping towards her, reaching out - if she is willing to have someone close now - "But I also know how much you meant to him. It may not be of much help now but I am sure it brought comfort to our commander, being loved even to the end." They have never spoken about this openly, how much Ballantine was a father to the both of them. But Hati has seen it over and over again, in the way the older man treated Jade, in the way she looked up at him. His hand still hangs between them, ready for her to dismiss or take. He will not judge either way, Hati knows that grief takes different forms. "And you are allowed regret, anger that he ordered you of all people to do it. But never hatred towards yourself, you were braver than I could ever be."

Just got hit with a huge dose of anger and grief, so looks like it's a Willow while I work day.

Fanfic writers really are the masters of building you up and shattering your heart. The rollercoaster two chapters can put you through.

Jade ran a tongue over a blood-soaked fang, cleaning the last of her meal from her teeth. Hunger-crazed hazel eyes never left the horrified redhead in front of her… Well, seemingly horrified. Jade would never assume to know what anyone was thinking, except Kit. Fuck! Kit! She wasn’t going to be pleased with any of this. Jade needed to get out of here clean, which meant no witnesses.

“And how do I know I can trust you?” Jade called from across the room, watching the young woman intently. “What makes you any different from them?” Her saunter seemed aimless and dreamy, but she knew her direction. She was approaching the young woman in the most non-threatening yet mesmerizing way she could think of. She couldn’t afford a mess. Not tonight.

@dutyxbound gets a Vampire/Ex-Hunter AU

"Wow, those are some neat fangs", she stepped back, one hand already reaching for the incense and iron in her back pocket - and found nothing. Her heartbeat quickened and she was sure the girl that she had just stumbled upon in a dark alleyway could hear said heart very loud and clear.

This was not how she had planned for tonight to go. Running in, Rookie mistake. If she survived this encounter surely she'd never hear the end of it.

As soon as Darius had given her information on what the hunters were planning Elora made her own preparations to save as many inhabitants of the sanctuary as possible, be they werewolves, fae, or sprites. Maybe she should have checked the guestlist more thoroughly though.

"Listen", she held up both hands, palms up, "I am not with them." At the last word her head motioned towards the shouting, the noise and smoke, on the other side of the cathedral. "I used to be, but tonight? Tonight I am here to help. I let you go, you let me go, kay? Do you know how many are still in there?"

sharing a kiss while sitting by a campfire — @tanthalos

She hasn’t felt this relaxed all day. Makes sense, seeing as the day started with Kit voluntarily falling off the top of a waterfall into the unknown. The days are so long here and Jade can feel it. With the nights so short, she should be sleeping like the rest of the party… but she hasn’t been able to pull away from Kit for the last five minutes. Why would she want to?

After the hell that was the Immemorial City, this is heaven. Kit’s lips are the gentlest sensation she’s felt in what feels like forever. One would think after such a long day, she would crave sleep. And she does, but what she desires most is the feeling of Kit’s skin against her own. Even if there weren’t a slowly dying campfire next to them, Jade would still be burning up. Her fingers slowly drift down from Kit’s cheeks, tracing her jaw and lightly caressing her neck along the edges of a metallic choker.

“We’ve got to figure out how to get you out of this thing,” Jade whispers when she finally musters the strength to break away, playfully pulling at the front of the Cuirass. Her girlfriend is incredibly sexy in it, but by the Mothers, the young knight desperately wants to take it off of her.

"Nothing I've ever wanted has come naturally to me." "What did you want?"

fulfilling @nicolelovesfandoms idea (x) 1/2