So This Is A Cop Out - Tumblr Posts

you had always known you weren’t quite human.

it wasn’t something you were told. (it wasn’t like there was anyone around to tell you anyways.) the feeling was just there, haunting and lingering. it followed you the night you left liyue, when you escaped with nothing but a bag and a burning vision, and it was present when you fell into the sea in a flurry of sparks and ashes and emerged alive.

and it was here now, as you sat in your cage of crystal and frost, as you curled up and suffocated in the cold (and oh, it was so, so cold.)

even from the throne room, the thundering was unmistakable. it was the sound of an army on the horizon, of a nation on the brink of destruction. each step resonated within your core, but the roaring calls and shrill laughter could not hide the wails echoing throughout the city.

you peered through the spaces of your prison to the window. the horde was fast approaching and, under the light of the moon, they seemed like a wave of shadow, come to drown the very heart of snezhnaya. it would not take long to reach the edges of the city.

a spark flitted between your fingers, despite the absence of a vision. you turned your head to stare at it, pondering. (the harbingers didn’t seem to notice, too busy and too frantic.) should you? this was not your nation nor your home—you had been kept here as a trophy—but innocents should not die for the actions of others.

so you let it snap.

bolts of lightning fractured the sky, bridging and linking in the blink of an eye. those at the forefront crashed into the line and evaporated in a swirl of smoke and sparks. gasps sounded from around the cage, but you hardly noticed. shrieks erupted and the march came to a stuttering halt.

and for one brilliant moment, the world went silent.

until it wasn’t, and the night was filled with roars again, but of anger this time. the barrier flashed and flickered, bolts of electricity crackling in the air. violet and violent in the frigid weather, it was a wall keeping the horde at bay. you breathed. some time had been bought.

through fluttering eyes and diminishing sight, you vaguely noticed the inky clouds swirling in the sky, ominous through the window. beautiful, you thought, and terrible. before the world went dark though, you caught a pair of familiar golden eyes from beyond the storm. the message was clear.

this is war.