middaeg | ( open ) and all your love will be exorcised

Entry tags:

( open ) and all your love will be exorcised

Who: Azura and you
When: Aereuer
Where: Mirror House
What: Dream event
Warnings: Some of Azura's dreams contain violence, blood, and references to child neglect. Some topics that might or might not come up are kidnapping, depression, and suicide.

Azura's mirror is an embellished golden frame with a knotted flower symbol adorning the top and bottom. Closer CR will see feathers, waves, and dragon scales carved into the wood.

A - Siege of Castle Gyges
[ Anyone stepping into this memory is instantly greeted by the sound of fighting off in the distance. The clashing of weapons and the whir of spells being fired off should be familiar to some in particular. Glancing around gives a few of a cavernous-looking palace throne room, decorated with intricate stone architecture and bright golden accents. A group of armored guards bustle past, haggard civilians following them into the recesses of the castle.

At the throne itself stands a woman wearing a feathered crown, staff in hand, barking out orders to guards, maids, and groups of refugees alike. A scout catches up to her and stops her in her tracks with a single sentence. ]

Your Majesty, he's breached the castle walls--!

[ The Queen takes a moment to think, but before she can give out her orders, a deafening roar reverberates throughout the room, sending a chunk of the eastern wall down like a tower of cards. Something is coming, and whatever it is, it's mad, and it's strong enough to destroy a castle. ]

B - Nohrian Court Politics
[ This memory is less...adrenaline-pumping, at least. The Queen from the sieged castle is dressed in black and bending down to plant a gentle kiss on a very small Azura's forehead. The two of them are standing in the hallway of a different castle this time, one some might recognize. ]

Go on now, darling. There are things I must attend to. Paperwork, setting up the new mandates for Windmire, all things you will find very boring. You have many step-brothers and step-sisters, now, so think of all the playmates you have. You won't have to play with your nannies ever again!

[ The woman steps back, and while she plasters a smile on her face for Azura's sake, Azura just looks tired. It takes her a few moments to gather the energy, but she nods. ]

...okay, Mother.

That's it, love. I'll see you at lunchtime. Run along, try to have fun!

[ The very small Azura does as instructed, but hesitantly. She wanders away from her mother and goes down one of Castle Krakenberg's many winding hallways, stopping just outside a sitting room. A group of noble-looking women sit with their children, chat, and look to be having a merry time.

Azura hesitates. ]

c - I'M SO SICK OF BEING STARTLED

[ Light-hearted option. Azura and Laslow's C support. Azura watches a fool dance, gets herself scared for instant karma, admits he was pretty good, and shoots down his attempts to flirt at 11pm. ]

((I'm likely to be slow with tags on this log, but I'm eager to tag this event, so /o/ hit me up at

hakurei if needed))

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[Niles felt mildly uneasy entering Azura's mirror. He couldn't pass up the opportunity, and he needed to stay the temptation from entering his own. The conflicting urges to forget as much of his past as possible and face down and own every wrong committed against him normally rise and fall in an almost predictable pattern, only one desire present and strong on any given day. But now, with his mirror open and answers to his questions a real possibility, the two desires are locked in a head to head grapple.

He deals with this as best he can. By fleeing and seeking a distraction. He needs some other conflict to grapple with, so Azura's disquiet across the bond catches his attention immediately. She's not hard to spot, and he slips into her mirror not long after she does. He swishes his tail, purposefully announcing his presence and walking up to her side before turning his gaze to the scene before them. If she doesn't wish to share, he'll go, no follow up questions.

Her feelings make sense when as he quickly parses what's going on in front of him. This was before his time at the castle, and Leo's descriptions of that time never once included the word fun.]

[ Azura's not even watching her little self go off and get her heart broken, right now. She's turned in the opposite direction, about ten feet away, watching the phantom of her mother walk off into the hallway of the palace until she becomes a formless shadow. She doesn't know what her mother did that afternoon, so Arete fades away and ceases to be a part of this memory.

It's a weird mirror of a scene, two versions of Azura lingering in doorways, watching people. When she feels Niles walk into the mirror, though, she turns her head and regards him with a silent nod.

Little Azura doesn't move yet. The mothers keep chatting. ]

[With her tacit approval, he turns to follow her younger self. He studies the faces of the other children. He recognizes none of them, but he knows who they are. His tail flicks back and forth behind him. Garon's line of succession was one explicit royal heir and then a pack of bastards clawing at one another for second place. Azura escaped the fighting by being kidnapped, but by the time Niles arrived, there were only 5 heirs to the Nohrian throne still standing.

These were Leo's siblings that didn't survive the thinning of the herd. Is he about to watch an assassination?]

[ Before Little Azura can say anything, one of the children, a girl a few years younger than her, notices her. With the mothers absorbed in their conversation, they don't notice the girl excitedly walking over. ]

Hi! I don't know you! Is your mom one of the new maids that came in the other day?

[ Azura--the present day one--remembers the strange feeling hearing that gave her. She wasn't able to put a name to it at the time, but--her mom, a maid? She was the new queen. ]

Um...n-no. She's not a maid. Mother is the--

[ The sound of a foreign voices catches the ear of one of the chatting women, and she looks up sharply. Seeing who it is, she stands up abruptly. She ushers her daughter away from the door, gently, telling her to go play with her brother, saying something over her shoulder Azura can't make out.

And then she turns back to her. ]

Ahhhh, you're that woman's daughter, aren't you? The one who turned up on our doorstep out of nowhere.

[ The woman clicks her tongue, leaving Little Azura looking and feeling like she's done something wrong. She folds her hands in front of her and tips her head down a bit. ]

I'm sure you have other things to do. Go on.

But, Miss, I--

[ Little Azura doesn't get to finish her sentence. The woman shuts the door in front of her. ]

[Niles blinks in surprise. Well, that kid at least lives another day. He's glad whatever fate the child met eventually Azura didn't have to bare witness. He crouches down beside her, increasingly aware that when whatever happened then happened now he'd just have to watch.]

[ The look on her face goes from stunned to hurt in a matter of seconds. To say she didn't expect a reception like that is an understatement. She looks back down the hallway she came. Can she go back to her mother?

But then she looks down at her feet, clenching her hands together. No, no, one try wasn't enough. Maybe she just asked the wrong people. It takes her a good few minutes, but tiny Azura eventually wobbles away from the door and begins to walk further down the hall. Which, if Niles recognizes this particular stretch of hallway, goes past the castle's library. ]

Please don't just...stare at me. Her.

[ that comes from the real one, trailing a safe distance behind all of this ]

I didn't speak much at this age, but it's still me.

[He stands back up and returns to her side.] Sorry. [He takes her hand in his. He might not be able to prevent what's going to happen, but he can comfort the real her, be by her side through it. She's right, he can see well enough from here.]

[ Azura nods and squeezes his hand in return, though she doesn't say anything else. She appreciates it, that's clear enough from her expression.

Walking past the library, the younger version of her stops again. Who knows why she decides to go in there, maybe she just thinks she can hide, or maybe she thinks finding another kid who likes to read will be easier to make friends with, but she steps in.

Her pace is slower among the row of books, and she seems to get lost for a few moments, but she eventually emerges into a clearing of tables and chairs. And--ah, there someone is. Her eyebrows perk up at the sight of someone sitting at a table in the middle of a stack of books. Of course, it looks completely ridiculous, because this "someone" is a blonde kid of Azura's age if not a little younger.

She walks up to him from behind, so his face isn't noticeable at the moment, but let's be real--what other blonde child in this castle would be furiously studying at age nine? ]

[Niles' eye goes wide, and he has to resist the urge to drop Azura's hand immediately and circle around to the other side of the table. As homesick as he is, as deeply as he misses Leo, seeing a memory of his face was far less important than supporting her.]

Is that Lord Leo?

[He asks in a hushed tone of voice, as if speaking too loudly would disturb the children, or maybe he's just conditioned to respect the quiet of the library itself.]

Mmm.

[ a short confirmation. This memory stings less than some of the others she's relived today, because at least she got to know Leo later on in life; it wasn't like seeing her mother's face again when she'd been dead for years.

But it was still hard to watch. ]

...hello.

[ says the younger one, taking a step forward. This being a dead-quiet library, and Leo being absorbed in his book, there is some resulting chain-screaming because he gets startled and shouts, and then she gets startled and shouts and backs up against a bookcase, and it's. It's ridiculous. Little kids, honestly.

Once that's over, though, and there's the requisite amount of finger-pointing of who started it and this-is-a-library-don't-scream, little Azura seems to pick up, actually. Whoever this kid is, he seems nice-ish. Kinda prickly, but maybe friend material? There's a slightly hopeful gleam in her eye, and she politely introduces herself--Arete's daughter, the King's stepdaughter as of last week, Princess Azura.

Leo just kind of. Stops. And starts packing up his things. Wait, wait, where is he going, she asks, did she do something wrong? ]

[Niles does his best to stifle a snicker, but can't quite manage it. He's all to familiar with the slightly jumpy state Leo can get in if surprised while deep in a book. While they squabble he creeps forward a bit to glance at the titles of his desk. Botany. Of course. The one he's reading is open to a chapter on the properties of the nightshade family.

He backs up a pace again to see them both more easily with one eye in time to wince at the confusion and hurt he sees in her eyes.]

[ Leo doesn't say much at first, just gets his notes and his books together. Azura apologizes, starts to ramble. What did she do? Why do people in this castle not want to play with me?

He grits his teeth. Unlike the mothers at the door, he really looks like he wants to stay. I'm sorry, he says. Mother says I'm never to speak with you. Never to play with her, never to be seen with her. He has to leave, now.

She starts to cry. Why, why? What did she do? Leo just shakes his head. He doesn't seem to know why. He just can't be here. When he has his things in hand, he pushes in his chair, spares one last, very pained look at her, and leaves the room. She cries, she cries, she cries for a long while. The library must be empty, because no one comes to quiet her, and she eventually curls up under the table.

The real Azura doesn't say anything. She's looking at the carpet in another direction. It's a little too much. ]

[He watches it play out, eyes fixed on Leo right until he fades out of the memory, then his attention is back on the real her. He's not really sure what to say. He knows what Leo was going through at that age. His mother controlled him completely, with a singular goal in mind All other Nohrian heirs were seen as obstacles to be removed.

So all in all it could have been much worse. That's...probably not helpful to hear. Well, silence it is then. He's always been better with gestures anyway. He can feel her desire to leave clearly over the bond, and sees no reason to linger now that Leo is no longer in view. With a jerk of his head he leads her back towards her mirror's exit. Tail deliberately but gently bumping into or brushing against the side or back of her leg as they walk.

As much as he tries to focus on ways to comfort or distract her, his mind inevitably starts to focus on Leo and Leo alone. Seeing him again had taken a chisel to the slowly widening crack in the damn he'd built around thoughts of home. But the dam was strong, still refusing to collapse completely. Homesickness pooled up around his feet, but the flow wasn't nearly strong enough to sweep him away. Once they're outside the mirror he stops, unsure where to go next, but there's a current starting to rise around his ankles.

He scans the nearby mirrors, searching for familiar imagery.]

In your world, where everyone follows Corrin, did you get a chance to know him better?

[ Azura goes silent until he speaks to her next. She appreciates the quiet and loops her arm in his as they walk.

She wishes she could have shown him something happier. ]

Leo? [ a beat, and she nods ] After some time, yes. I found it a bit difficult to engage with him given our only meeting, but...he was so apologetic about everything. Regretful. He said something like "don't you hate Nohrians for what happened to you? Wounds you get when you're young leave the worst scars."

[Niles spots his mirror and leads them in that direction, halting just before it.]

That sounds like him. [There's a soft fondness in his voice Azura will surely recognize from his most vulnerable moments.] And what was your answer?

Of course I don't. Why would I hate an entire country of people for what a handful of their number did? There are plenty of genuinely kind, caring people in Nohr.

[ she's looking at you oboro ]

[He gives a bit of a shrug. He thinks 'plenty' might be an exaggeration.]

I can think of a few. [He gazes around the frame of his mirror, eyes drawn to the quills and parchment scattered among the weapons.] Leo himself first and foremost, obviously. [He hesitates a little. This offer is risky, but very tempting.] Would you like to try and see what I know of him?

[This is...not the kind of setting Momo can say he's ever encountered outside of a video game, but the slight accoutrements on the mirror frame said that this was someone he at least knew, which is what brought him inside in the first place. Even though the people rushing around pass through him like he's nothing, he naturally moves to one side, somewhere more unobtrusive, to watch what's going on.

And he's kind of glad he did when that roar breaks out through the room. Rather than look afraid, he looks almost curious - not excited, not in the middle of a situation like this, but he looks to where the sound came from, a furrow in his brow like he's not completely sure what to expect next.]

No way... [Well, he does have an idea of what to expect. It's just not one he's very used to considering.]

[ Well, there's someone who looks out of place, here. She's sitting on a windowsill away from the destruction, looking too calm to be actually involved in the scene. When she sees someone out of place, she hops off. ]

...ah. It's you. [ compared to their first meeting, she seems deflated, almost. numb. ] I'd watch your ears. He gets loud.

[ As for what's causing the destruction, it doesn't take long. A head peeks into the space that the wall once occupied. As in, its entire head takes up the space of the wall. It's a giant dragon, and it's absolutely pissed! Suffice to say, nearly everyone in the room just freezes in place. ]

I HAVE COME TO RECLAIM WHAT IS MINE.

[ Seems pretty cut and dry. The Queen, though obviously just as terrified as everyone else, puts on a brave front and stands confidently. ]

I don't see anything of yours in here. Was my husband's blood not enough for you, you craven beast? Come to take mine? I'm afraid I can't allow that.

[ The dragon tilts its head. Another swing of something--claws, a wing, maybe just the scales on its face are strong enough to knock down more pieces of the walls as it crams a single arm into the throne room, closer to the Queen. She stands still as it inches closer, closer, closer. ]

[Momo recognises Azura quickly enough, since she's a pretty distinctive figure and he has a good memory for faces, but he's distracted from what he initially might like to say to her by the arrival of...a giant head in the wall.

Yep, it's a dragon. A considerably cooler-looking dragon than many of the ones Momo's seen in movies in his own world, and he takes a second to digest that sight - and that booming voice, at which he winces slightly but doesn't cover his ears, and what exactly the hell is actually going on here - before posing anything to Azura. He looks a little bit overwhelmed by the sheer oddity of it compared to what he's used to, but his tone is normal enough.]

What is it that it wants? Did she make some kind of deal with it...? [He's watching the arm move closer to the woman, only really maintaining his position in the knowledge that running over there wouldn't help anything anyway.]

He's a brutal tyrant who lost his mind after making foolish choices. My mother is only defending her kingdom.

[ Since. Yeah, the Queen does look like Azura aged up a decade or two. Bright blue hair, yellow eyes.

The dragon inches closer, and though its eyes are out of place, they seem to be looking somewhere behind the Queen. ]

I WILL TAKE YOURS, AND I WILL TAKE YOUR CHILD'S.

[ There's a soft whimper from somewhere unseen, and it's enough for her bravado to crack, the Queen's grip on her staff slipping. She doesn't let herself tear her gaze off of him for a second, though. ]

Azura! I sent you off--!

[ A very, very tiny Azura, seven years old at most, crawls out from underneath the throne itself. The Queen snatches her up with a single arm as quickly as she can, pivoting back around to face the dragon--only to find he's moved closer. ]

ARETE....ARETE...YOU CANNOT POSSIBLY RUN.

This place has a lot of royalty. [Momo's first observation on hearing this queen is Azura's mother, because he's met at least one other princess and someone who claimed to be a king. He's starting to wonder why his prince friend from back home isn't the one here instead of him.] "Tyrant" sounds about right with how he's acting now, though.

[He'd been wondering where in the memory Azura was, too, and immediately looks a whole lot more concerned when tiny Azura emerges from under the throne. Momo likes kids, but that means he absolutely does not want to see a kid getting tangled up in something like this even if he can see right in front of him that she must have survived it.]

That's... [Momo looks vaguely like he wants to march over there and try to fistfight a dragon, but he manages to resist the urge.] ...Does she survive this?

[Azura clearly did, but this really doesn't feel like it's shaping up well for anyone else, particularly not the queen. He's just hoping she at least got to take the dragon down with her if that's the case, but then, he does at least try to be optimistic.]

Mmm.

[ a nod ]

But I can't say the same for the hundreds of thousands of citizens he slaughtered along the way.

[ Some of the staff--one of the maids without a weapon, a man in dirty overalls who was probably one of the castle's gardeners, a woman in an ornate dancing dress clutching a wound in her shoulder--make a run for it and try to head for a doorway situated behind the throne, but footsteps sound off and an arrow flies through the air, hitting the maid in the leg.

Queen Arete can't spare a single glance away, but younger Azura peers over her mother's shoulder in time to see a a squadron of soldiers pile in through the doorway, decked out in similar colors and using similar weapons to the soldiers in the room--other members of the kingdom.

Except these guys are dead. Rotting, covered in dirt, wounds on their bodies, freshly pulled from the grave, glowing eyes, with a sickly purple mist surrounding them.

Queen Arete grits her teeth as more of the dead soldiers file into the room, blocking off the doorways and falling into formation, rounding up the remaining evacuees. ]

[That's a point. The memory's central point being the palace had him thinking more in terms of that scale, but the idea that there's probably a town or city outside the dragon came through makes Momo pale a bit even before the arrow flies and the rest of the army begins to pile in.

Or...not the rest of the army. It would've taken Momo a few more seconds to figure out what was going on if not for the necromancers they dealt with last month, but as it is, almost as soon as he sees their decomposed state, he looks incensed. As someone who tends to care for the people around him more than himself, pitting someone's allies against them certainly hits home.]

That's just low...aren't tyrants supposed to have their own armies? Or does he just kill people to make one wherever he goes? [There's unmistakeable disgust in his tone - there's probably ways necromancy can be used that aren't this foul to watch, but killing an army to pit it back against its own people is taking the prize for worst over what he saw in the Wilde last month.]

He didn't need to. He plundered grave sites all over the country and took the resting dead as fodder from there.

[ Azura puts a hand up her face, looking thoughtful despite the scene before them. ]

I remember hearing something at the time about a historical graveyard being dug up. One full of warriors from an old era. The Crypt of Alyattes. Mother had no idea what could have happened.

[ There's a moment of recognition in Queen Arete's eyes, just as Azura says. ]

It was you...

[ She grips little Azura tigher, holds her as close as she can, maneuvering her staff in front of the both of them for all the good it will do. ]

I HAVE BEEN FORGOTTEN, I HAVE BEEN LEFT TO DIE, I HAVE BEEN BURIED IN THE DARK, DESPITE THE GIFTS I HAVE GIVEN YOU. YOU CANNOT EVEN BARE YOUR FANGS AT ME.

[ The dragon rears its head up, and just as it does, Queen Arete swings her staff. ]

HUMANS OF VALLA, YOUR REIGN ENDS NOW.

[ Whatever attack he was about to make doesn't connect. The light on top of the staff is bright, brighter than it should be, blinding, until the room is covered in a white glow. Even above the battle crescendo, a shifting sound can be heard. It's not unlike something one might hear in a classroom in the Coven, just a woosh of magic happening.

And then everything goes dark. There's a wet, earthy smell all around, but presently no lights at all.

Hm. ]

That's still pretty bad... [And that is a hell of a lot of dead people. It does make Momo wonder if how someone lived has any bearing on how effective they are as a mindless zombie warrior, if the dragon chose to plunder a warrior graveyard specifically, but he files that thought away for later.

Momo shades his eyes when the staff starts to glow brightly, though he's still trying to look at it, to see what's going on and how it ends. He's probably going to have white spots in his eyes for a minute for his efforts, but it at least means the radical chance in surroundings doesn't pass unnoticed.

Doesn't make it any less confusing, though, and Momo drops his hand, sniffing at the air. He's plenty familiar with the smell of wet soil, which is what the scent reminds him of, but he can't exactly see anything right now minus any light source (and with those white spots he was expecting still fading from his eyes).]

...Are we underground? [It's his first guess considering the smell and the darkness.]

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