#I can't even begin to say how absolutely STUNNING Stormy is

[everybodysenemies]

I can't stress this enough... The Winx Club fandom is SLEEPING on how fucking GORGEOUS THESE LADIES ARE

And they want ME to give a shit about glittery fairies? BITCH PLEASE

[waltwhitmansbeard]

go on, claim my heart: chapter four

see my masterpost for what came before this. inspired by @romeoandjulietyouwish's medieval au.

Vex walks briskly back toward the castle, mentally reciting the list of things she needs to tell her lieutenant to prepare him for her absence, but she slows when she hears a second pair of feet crunching behind her. She turns and waits for Percy to catch up, but he doesn't appear to notice her, his eyes staring unblinking downward as he trudges in the direction of the castle. Vex watches, stunned, as he passes her, and she shakes herself to start running after him. "Percival. Percival!"

He doesn't stop walking, but he at least acknowledges her presence with a small hum when she catches up to walk beside him. "Percival, why didn't you tell me?"

He won't look at her, and it's driving her mad. "What was there to say? I was a boy when it happened. It was so long ago."

"Hey." She grabs his arm and yanks him to a stop. His nostrils flare in a huff and finally, finally he looks at her. His eyes are dark, stormy seas, and she wishes she could see what churns in his head. "I don't care if it happened a hundred years ago. I want to know the ghosts that haunt you."

"What, now?" He throws up his hands. "I don't know if you noticed, Vex'ahlia, but there's a bit of a crisis going on."

"Do not be cross with me, Percival, my niece is missing!" she snaps back. She crosses her arms. "How are you so sure?"

His eyes narrow. "What?"

"How are you so sure that Lord Sylas Briarwood is the one who took Vilya? It is a rather large accusation to make with little evidence and if it takes us down the wrong path we could be too late to save her."

She watches his eyes dart around, desperately searching for an escape from this conversation like an unbroken horse in a corral. "Do you think me an untrustworthy source?"

"Percy." Vex grabs his hands and holds them tightly in hers. "Please. She is my family. We are about to cross the continent and face down the terrors of your past on your word. If you can't even speak of what happened in Whitestone, how are you to be of any help to us? To her?"

There's a long silence, during which Vex wants to tear her hair from her head for the tension. Finally, Percy slips a hand from hers and brushes the side of her neck. "Most vampires bite you here." His fingers dance across the broad length of her throat. "But Lord Briarwood..." His fingers travel up, leaving a trail of gooseflesh in their wake, to rest just behind her ear, on the soft flesh. "He whispers something to you, right in your ear, before he kills you. I watched him do it to my brother Oliver." His hand slips away, and he turns and begins walking back to the castle, leaving Vex speechless on the lawn.

.

"Have you lost your mind?"

"Absolutely not!"

"Your Highness, you can't."

Vax, Korrin, and Derrig all talk at once, aghast at Keyleth's declaration. Vax watches her eyes flash at their protest, and for a moment, he is relieved to see something other than empty desolation there. "Why not? She is my daughter, same as yours. Am I to sit here and stew while the people I care about go out and risk their lives for her? I will not stare out the window and wonder if I have lost my entire family for good, not when I can help them."

"Kiki..." Vax runs a tired hand through his hair. "I cannot go retrieve our daughter if I am also trying to keep you safe."

Keyleth takes a step back from him. "I do not need you to keep me safe! I have magics of my own, remember. I will not wait here while I could be of use to our child!"

"I am not trying to dismiss your capabilities, but please, be reasonable—"

"Keyleth." She turns to glare at her father, who, though a ruler of a nation, withers slightly under her ire. "I cannot allow both of my heirs to be in such a precarious situation. The Ashari Nation needs you alive as much as I do, both as a father and a sovereign."

Keyleth's face twists through a thousand different emotions. "Do you truly believe I am concerned about heirs right now?" Her hands are clenched at her sides, and Vax notices small wisps of smoke emanating from between her fingers. "She is my child, Father! Not even a year old! I would burn this nation to its bedrock for her!" Tiny flames lick up the sides of her fists.

Vax grabs her wrist and carefully tugs her in the direction of the bedroom, muttering something resembling an apology until the door is closed and they are alone. He unpeels her fingers, hissing at the faint burns he incurs, and murmurs, "Kiki, please."

Her breath is coming fast and hot, and gods, he feels it too, the rage, the anguish. He himself feels like a bowstring, incredibly taut and one flinch away from snapping in twain. He pulls her in, tucks her head under his chin. His hand moves automatically up and down her back as she breaks down in his arms.

"I have to go to her," she sobs into his chest, barely audible. "I cannot be left behind while she is out there."

"I know," he breathes, "I know." And he does know, does understand the boiling of her blood, the primal urge to tear through the land until she is reunited with her baby. He knows he is prepared to commit the most heinous acts if that is what is required to find Vilya, and he will not regret a single one if they lead to him delivering their little girl back into her mother's arms.

But he cannot do this. He cannot allow his wife, the person for whose life he bargained with the gods themselves, to leave the relative safety of these stone walls and venture into a world of peril and violence. He buries his face into her hair. "I am so sorry to ask this of you, but...please don't fight us on this. We will go, we will get her, and we will bring her home to you." He pulls back to look her in the eyes once more. "Believe me when I say this: there is nothing in this life or the next that could stop me from getting to her."

Keyleth stares at him with desperation, and he wishes he knew the thing to say to make her confident in his promise. He watches something shift in her eyes, something he's never seen before, and then she nods once. "I believe you." Then, without another word, she turns and leaves, walking out of their bedroom, past her father and Derrig, and out the front door of the cottage.

From the bedroom, Vax sees a bewildered Derrig start to follow her out. "Leave her." He walks back into the common area. "She...give her some time."

Derrig nods, and then the three men begin planning. As Vax throws some clothes and supplies into a haversack, they discuss what security changes need to be made to the castle while the Captain of the Royal Guard and the rest of the assembled party are away. They agree that Keyleth should be moved back into the castle, both for her safety and to ensure that she is not alone. Korrin briefly considers sending letters to request aid from their Ashari and foreign allies, but then decides against it, not wishing to paint an even bigger target on the infant princess's back. Instead he promises to leverage some remaining wartime connections to various spies and covert operatives to glean whatever information he can about these mysterious Briarwoods. After approximately half an hour, Vax is ready to go, and he makes his way first to the castle gardens, where he presumes his wife to be, as that has long been a place of comfort for her. Not finding her there, he tries the grand library of the castle, where she often fled for privacy when the eyes at court became too much to bear. She is also not there, so he begrudgingly walks to the stables, figuring he can at least get the horses prepared before trying to track Keyleth down again.

He requests the appropriate horses from the head groom, one for each of the party's members, and then walks over to Simon, who nickers at the sight of him. As he slides a hand up and down his muzzle, he notices the stall next to Simon's is empty.

"Oi," he calls over his shoulder toward the groom. "Where is Minxie?"

The groom looks at him, confused. "They left about twenty minutes ago, sir."

Vax's stomach sinks like a stone. "What do you mean?"

"The princess. She came, requested her horse be readied for travel, disappeared for a bit, and then returned, dressed for riding. She left shortly thereafter."

Stunned, Vax stumbles back against the door to Simon's stall. He knows exactly what his wife has done and where she is going, and what dangers await her on the way. Panic and fury twist in his gut like hot pokers.

He's going to kill her, if someone else doesn't do it first.