#thava tag

[saline-coelacanth]

I made some more Dnd art because oh boy did our most recent session have some fun things happen for Thava

Basically you take a character who already craves violence and give her an amulet that sometimes turns her evil, meaning she's probably gonna crave even MORE violence, so that's fun :3

[incorrectcfvg]

[iironwreath]

Heirloom [Surina]

[199]

Surina was right. Her sister hadn’t been involved—at least, not in the way Valcyis suggested, with any sort of malicious intent. She expected to feel vindicated, but any validation was eclipsed by her sorrow, smothered by the grief and guilt that poured off her sister and filled the room with air that was hard to breathe.

For the first time since returning, it made Surina feel steady on her feet—it made her focused. For once, she could be sure of something. Amysic was always the monster; it was his machinations that sucked everyone else into his whirlpool of deceit. Their problems began and ended with him. It wasn’t vengeance anymore, it was clearing the way for an uncomplicated future. It was justice.

She understood becoming so single-minded you lost sight of everything else. That had been her anger. For Thava, it was her ambition, stoked by their parents’ judgement. Their trauma had become an heirloom, passed from Landgrave to Landgrave. 

Surina hugged Thava close. She would protect Thava from Amysic, and Thava from herself.

[quinntessentialharley]

Dragonborn should have darkvision that's all I'm saying

[notallbards]

Character List

Brief descriptions of my characters that are available to interact with until I have full bios set up for them.

Halyie -- Half-Elf Bard

Bastard child from a royal family who only acknowledged her because they were forced to. She couldn’t wait to get away from them, but what she knows could ruin the family name, so they’re desperate to get her home.

Kalliope -- Tiefling Bard

If you ask her, she’s a (possibly illegitimate, depending on the day) princess from a far off kingdom, who ran away from her disapproving family to be free. It’s an easy story to believe, with her ostentatious clothing and flamboyant personality. In reality, she’s a nobody from the slums who’s determined to never let anyone tell her who she is, or who she isn’t, ever again. 

Thava “Spitfire” Delmirev -- Dragonborn Bard

Just your average, run of the mill, rockstar. She’s part of a band called “Monster Girlz” with Tash (a Half-Orc gorl) Kalliope (a Tiefling girl) and Arietta (a Goblin gal)--Or, she was anyway. She ended up ditching them and going solo because she felt under appreciated as an artist. Her only goal now is to make it to the top.

Lilaea Pelagia -- Naiad Water Elementalist, former gladiator

Kidnapped and sold into slavery as a young child, Lilaea hasn’t had the best life. She eventually ended up in the gladiator ring, and became one of the deadliest fighters there. But those skills came at a great price, and she’s not eager to use them again any time soon.

Vela -- Half-Orc Paladin

Vela is by far the stupidest Paladin you’ll ever meet (She has a 7 for intelligence). She doesn’t remember anything before waking up with a god’s holy symbol in her hand, and the words “be the light you wish to see” echoing in her ears. She believes she was handpicked by her god (tho the name of the deity changes each time she’s asked) to be a beacon of hope and a hero to all.

Abilene Jones -- The best damn sharpshooter this side of the world, and a human to boot.

She’s specifically created for the world of Tal'Dorei. Following the events of Vox Machina, Orthax sought out a way to seek revenge on the party, through some mortal they would never see coming. His choice? Abilene Jones, a woman famous in her hometown for her sharpshooting abilities--with a bow, of course. He offered her the power to do so much more, if she would only kill 7 people (the VM players) for him? Of course she accepted. And thus began her career as a performing sharpshooter (think Annie Get Your Gun). However, it was cut painfully short when she accidentally killed her lover in trick gone wrong. She hung up her guns and retired to the middle of nowhere on a farm, very similar to the one she grew up on. You best be careful if you’re trespassing on her land.

Nadya -- Shadar-Kai bard

She’s an adrenaline junkie who thinks that adrenaline highs are an okay substitute for real emotions, which she doesn’t seem to feel very often. She is the personification of “I’m dead inside” jokes. But, ironically enough, she is greatly against Necromancy--as all followers of the Raven Queen are.

[getwhelmed]

i miss gandy dancer

[frostsinth]

I was tagged by the ever lovely @ivymemnoch

Last Song: Love is Strange

Last Movie: Soul (so good, 10/10 would recommend)

Currently watching: My computer screen?? OH! You mean shows. Nothing. Between shows at the moment. Playing BoW!

Currently Reading: I’ve been reading the 4th Outlander book since before quarantine started, because I used to read on my commute but now I work from home so... I haven’t picked it up since March and I’ve only got like, 20 pages left...

Currently craving: A hug from my family. I haven’t seen them in more than a year now :(.... Also craving dumplings. Because I love dumplings :D

Thanks for the tag! Let’s see, I’ll tag @thava, @exophile3d, @toocurly4me, @vanillabutspicy and anyone else who wants to do it!

[bodiedhorror]

the monty hall ghostfucking problem

[akiharashizuka]

Cardfight Vanguard G: Z turn 16 thoughts

The Hope In Our Hands

Another quite fast-paced episode. Few minutes in and the fight already begins. We also find out that Chaos Breaker and Darkface took Gyze!Kazuma and left in a truck.

Hmm, Valeos could have went with them, but I guess he wanted to deal with the heroes once and for all. 

I find it funny that he started questioning why is he fighting Shion in the middle of the game xD Well, Shion is the one who challenged him, so guessed he couldn’t just refuse. I have to agree that Jaime would have been a better opponent, for now, solely because Thavas vs Valeos sounds like an interesting match-up.

Oh, and Shion uses the new grade 3 Altmile.

I like that they expanded a bit more on the reason why Valeos switched sides. It wasn’t only that Gyze was overpowerd, but the fact that even negative emotions turn into nothingness. Which does sound like a valid reason.

Is it me, or he becomes more and more nuts with each episode? He seemed pretty normal when first introduced, but after Gastille left the picture, he started doing this...I didn’t have a problem with this at first, but now I feel like he needs to chill out.

Well, that was better than expected. I didn’t think that Shion will bring up Altimle’s lore. But it’s quite fitting to mention it after surviving Megiddo’s turn. 

Not to mention that the flashback showing how Shion got into into Vanguard was one of my favorite moments in G, so it’s nice to see some glimpses of it again.

I don’t know if a resurrected Fides is a good idea...guess it’s because the explanation was kind of unsatisfying for me. 

I think it would have been slightly better if Altmile inherited the will of Fides’ holders and acquired power comparable with the sword’s. Something along those lines...

I liked when Valeos called Shion arrogant and greedy. He isn’t wrong about that xD And Shion knows it all too well, but still wants to cling to his ideals. Kind of the opposite to Valeos who switched ideals.

Jaime lifting up Shion like a child cracks me up xD How can he do that though? Shion is quite tall himself...

That was close...Shion got very lucky that Valeos left right before he could be cut. Even so, we see him trembling because of Valeos’ strong killing intent, even after he left his host’s body. 

That bloodthirst felt so real and it’s all thanks to his VA.

So, now they’re back to having 2 ZRs into custody. And all Try3 members will go with Chrono. I was actually thinking a day before the episode aired that it isn’t a very wise thing to let Chrono go by himself.  But now that Shion and Tokoha are tagging along, it should be fine.

Also, did they leave the host’s unconscious body in the hideout? It’s also like the middle of nowhere, so knows when an ambulance can get there... Assuming that they called one offscreen.

And, after the ending song, we have this extra scene with Gyze awakening. That was quite eerie.

Hmm to think that out of all the Apostles, the last 2 turn out to be Darkface and Chaos Breaker, who don’t really get along. It’s gonna be fun ~

Next episode will focus on Chrono’s trip. As expected, Rive will be there. It doesn’t seem like he will fight Chrono yet, but who knows. The summary also reveals that it’s the place where Fides descended on Earth, which gives a good reason for Shion tagging along. Other than being Chrono’s teammate. And Chrono needing bodyguards. 

One thing that was kind of bothering me is that they were walking in the desert without a protection cloak, like the one Rive is wearing. You gotta be careful in such a climate...

[iironwreath]

Tense [Surina]

[197]

“I loved you. I always did.”

Past tense. Even in the heat of the argument, Surina could pick that out. It winded like a well-placed jab to her solar plexus. Thava was a precise woman—she didn’t pick her words by accident.

It was only later she took solace in her friends’ words—how people could say hurtful things they didn’t mean when they were in the deepest depths of their anger, their distress. Love didn’t vanish within a conversation. It didn’t work like that. Surina knew that truth better than anyone, always one wrong prick away from an explosive anger. 

On the way out the door, she willfully chose present tense, floating on a soft voice: “I do love you.”

[quinntessentialharley]

My favorite part about this dnd campaign is that my friends know y character better than I do

If they make any headcanons about Thava I’m like “yes that’s good I like it it’s canon” but as soon as they ask me about her all I can think of is “Gay Bard loves Tieflings”

[quinntessentialharley]

This is just in

Thava is a fucking delight.

[iironwreath]

Reparations [Surina]

[98]

The last time Surina held her sister, it was through prison bars. Thava was seventeen, shorter and smaller, in mind and in body. Now she was a woman, and she hugged back with a ferocity and strength that startled Surina.

She was thirty-two now, wasn’t she? Surina squeezed her tighter still. Thava had to finish growing up with parents who were defined by their despair without her. They couldn’t even put their faith in Thava as their new heir – they turned to necromancy and were shaped into new people over their grief and contempt.

Surina was, too, so to judge too harshly was hypocritical, but at least she retained her core. Her friends reminded her of the value of caring and caring deeply.

With her hatred of Amysic out of the picture and her little sister back in her arms, Surina felt like she had recovered another missing piece of her past.

[iironwreath]

Prison [Surina]

Surina was born of the cold. Ice lived in her veins; it felt wrong on all levels to let it get to her. The cell she was imprisoned in was damp and she was dressed in rags, which soaked up the wet. She felt the frozen remains of something in her chest, seeping into her bones, underneath her protective shell of silver scales.

She huddled in the corner, her breathing slow. She wasn’t at threat of dying, they fed and watered her. They wouldn’t let her die unless it was by the blade of an executioner.

Her cell was a barren stone room with a single raised slab with straw for a bed and a bucket in the corner. There were chains attached to the floor in the opposite corner, which they at least kept off her wrists. She struggled every foot of the way there, but once she was locked within she was no longer violent or made any attempts to free herself.

A single window sat outside her cell, pouring in harsh striped, white light. Two Windcrest guards were stationed either side of the door, standing as rigid as their polearms. There was nothing fetid here for her to smell, at least – the water had the scent of fresh snow and dragonborn did not sweat.

She imagined that would change, however, depending on how long they let her rot.

She did not know how much time had passed. The guards were unresponsive when she spoke. She had no visitors since her incarceration and she crossed between anger and grief like two sides to a river. Were they going to investigate with no word from her? Do everything behind her back?

Did she have no say in her fate?

A knock rang out. One of the guards heaved the door open and in stepped Amysic Venx, flanked by two of his own guards. His brass scales were a splash of life against the dead, but there was still an air about him that was stale. He was dressed in teals and a black fur cloak as if to off-set his own skin. The silhouette of a kestrel was pinned to his breast and a longsword sat at his belt, sheathed.

He waved a hand and all four guards exited. Surina stood and approached the bars. She only stood a few inches taller than Amysic and it was hidden in the distance he kept from the edge of her prison, but she rose to her full height and stretched her shoulders to their terrifying width. Of all the people who could visit her, his face was the one she wanted to see the least.

“What do you want?” she asked. “Why are you here?”

“Well,” he started, cleared his throat, then began anew. “Well, I thought I would come to see the monster behind the bars.”

“I am no monster, and I am not a circus pet,” she growled.

“That would be an amusing outcome, but no, sadly, you are not. Murdered your brother and now even your own parents won’t come to see your face. I suppose you’re the opposite of a circus attraction; nobody wants to see you.”

“You did not answer my question.”

“No, I did not. I came to, ah, see how you are doing, but I also came to tell you that you should have been more careful.”

She shot him a perplexed, angry look.

“I tried to be more careful,” she said, remembering her plea to her father to stay with Kaladan.

“Your baseline knowledge of politics got you into this situation, Surina,” he said, and he hissed her name. She could almost imagine the forked tongue to go with it. “It didn’t take much to craft this turn of events.”

Her brows furrowed and her gaze lowered. In her mind, the pieces began to form together.

“I mean, I couldn’t have predicted quite how it worked out, but I must admit...” He trailed off and sighed. “While Kaladan’s death is regrettable, it does rather nicely get you out of the way.”

“You are responsible?”

“Even if I was, what could you do about it?” He gave her a toothy smile, almost feral. There was a weird intensity to him. Amysic had always been a strange one, but this extended beyond that, uncomfortable and wrong. She grabbed the bars and shoved her face through them, snarling. He didn’t react, smile fixed in place.

“Within a few days, your head will be impaled over the city that you have spent your life in and your body will be left to the dogs, so. You’ll either be a forgotten charter or a cautionary tale for all to remember.”

“How could you – you are – why?” she demanded. She tried to rattle the bars, but they didn’t budge. “What do you gain?”

“Why? Let me tell you why.” He leaned in slow without moving his feet. His voice lowered just enough that only she could hear, arms criss-crossing behind his back. “Because it was fun.”

The cold within Surina swelled and her mouth expelled her fury in a cloud of ice and snow. It settled into a cone shape on the floor, frozen stone and kicked up icicles like whetted blades. Amysic stood on the cusp of it, unharmed. He rolled his shoulders and plucked a single shard of ice from his cloak, inspected it, then flicked it aside.

“Ah, just what I needed,” he said. “How soothing. Do you feel better? What a little tantrum that was.”

“You are vile and loathsome. If I do not die, you will be the first that I kill.”

“Surina, if you survive this, and you may, let me tell you something: you will go far from here and if you dare to come back, what happened with Kaladan will be a sweet memory in comparison to what I will do.”

“How dare you say his name, you murderer.” Tears stung her eyes, but they were tears of anger, biting and sharp. Her whole body trembled with unconstrained rage. “You put me behind bars because you are scared of me. You go through guards and bandits because you cannot face me yourself, and you know this. So when there are no bars between us—” She huffed.

Amysic clenched his left arm, fingers flexing and then curling. Surina only saw it from the corner of her eye, like an eagerness to cast a spell or grab his sword from some source of discomfort. He snorted, a bit of grey smoke curling from his nose.

“You buy others because you cannot do it yourself,” she finished harshly.

“I buy others because it gives me distance,” he spat. “It allowed me to put you in here. You think with your muscles, not with your brain, and that’s why you’re going to at best, die, and at worst, live in some squalor for the rest of your days.”

“You think too much, you do not fight enough. You do not have the mind of a tactician; you have the mind of a coward.”

“Well,” he said dismissively, his tail giving a wide sweep of the floor, “we will see who gets executed first, hm?”

Another cloud of frost fumed from Surina’s nose, but she was spent – it was cool air, nothing that could cause damage. She already felt drained for doing it once, and the hole left behind invited more cold to take its place.

“I’ll give your parents and sister your regards, though they probably won’t want them,” he said.

“Go fuck yourself.”

“Every day,” he sing-songed, waltzing out of the room with a flourish.

Surina’s fingers slackened on the prison bars without releasing them. The metal was sunken in slightly where she’d gripped it, now in the shape of her hands. She sunk to her knees, lightly holding the bars above her head, and screamed into the floor with the full force of her lungs.

--

Surina gave up trying to keep track of the days. It was a waste of energy. She would be released when she was released, either for death or something marginally less unpleasant. It was difficult to think of what her options were when her brain had little sustenance.

Her second guest arrived with much less fanfare. The knock was much more tepid, and the same guard wrenched it open to reveal Thava. She was dressed in short, practical mage robes that ended mid-thigh, dark purple in colour with silver embroidery. A guard outside held her staff in both hands; she entered without it.

Surina rose at once, but her body regretted it. The room spun and she bent forward before she could stagger over, then approached the bars once the spots of white disappeared from her vision.

Thava shot each guard one short, sharp, precise look. “You may go. Leave. I will call you back in when I am done.”

The guards looked to each other and both made a noise of dissent. She raised a finger before they could form words. “No. I outrank you. Please leave. I wish to speak to my sister alone.”

She was authoritative without being cruel. The familiarity of the guards not quite listening to Thava was weird amidst an entirely foreign setting. It was almost normal. But they complied, lowering their heads as they shuffled out of the room.

Thava closed the door behind them. For a moment she stood with her back turned, hand rested on the ring of the handle, not looking. Surina saw her shoulders rise with a deep breath before she straightened, turned, and walked up to her, her face twisted with remorse.

“Oh, Surina,” she murmured.

“Thava, what – I did not think I would see any family again,” Surina nearly cried, grasping the bars.

“You will not see mother and father,” she said softly. “They are – they are convinced that you – they are sure that uh—” Surina saw her fight with her words, to make real what had happened. She understood. “They are certain that you were responsible for Kaladan’s death.”

“But I was not – what do you believe? Do – you know I could not, right?”

“I want to believe it,” Thava said, earnest. “It’s hard, Surina, people are telling me that you did it, that there was evidence and I—”

“What evidence?” Surina cut in. “Whatever evidence there was, it was planted by Amysic.”

“And I – I believe you. I do now, especially after seeing you in person. But no one here will listen to me, I’m sorry. It does not matter what I tell them, it does not matter what I say.”

“So father does not believe the word of either of his daughters?” Surina asked coldly.

“Father is blind with grief,” Thava reasoned. “That does not excuse his behaviour, but it does – it does explain it. They want to take you out in front of the city and behead you, that is their plan.”

Surina bowed her head, sunken with dread.

“But I don’t think they are going to be able to,” Thava continued, rushing to the good news. “You remember your annoying friend’s father, Balkis?”

“Yes?” Surina lifted her head. “But I would not call her annoying.”

“I was trying to lighten the mood, I’m sorry.” She paused, scratching her wrist. “Balkis has gotten the capitals’ judges involved and they do not believe there is enough evidence to kill you over the crime. The most they are willing to go to for father is exile. I know that is not much better, but you will at least be able to live, right?”

Surina exhaled slowly, hands sinking to waist-level on the bars, her forehead nearly touching the metal, relieved. Thava stepped in closer, tentatively reaching to place a hand over Surina’s. Surina released the bar and took hold.

“Whatever happens, Surina, I am so sorry for how things turned out,” Thava said. “The way that this has gone, it’s not right. I am sorry there is not more I can do.”

“Visiting—” Surina brushed her thumbs over Thava’s knuckles. “It is more than anything anyone else I love has done.”

“Listen,” Thava said, lowering her voice, “we both know that it was Amysic, or at least we know he had some part in it. I do not know what I can do, but after you go, after all this has settled, I will try to find a way to prove it was him.” Surina nodded, squeezing her hand. “I do not know if it will ever amount to anything, but perhaps I can do something. Anything.”

“Thank you.”

“And who knows, if you look after yourself out there and survive, maybe I will be able to make it so you can come back.” She smiled, thinly. “I would like that.”

“I do not know if it will happen and I do not know if I would want to come back here, but the thought is appreciated.” Surina glowered. “I get to live so that one day I can use my life to get back at him.”

“I will come and try to see you again before I go. My father – father,” she corrected, “said that I was not allowed to come see you, but someone needs to stand up to him now. You will not be there to do it, so...”

“You are right,” Surina agreed, smiling faintly. More realities dropped on her then – she would be leaving the Imperium for good. She would probably never speak to her parents again. Even though Thava was her sister by blood, she had no family left to call her own.

“Fuck him, fuck them all,” Thava muttered, rubbing between her eyes as if fighting off a migraine. “Fuck them all.”

Surina reached through the opening to clasp her upper arm and stroked up and down, ever the bigger sister, unable to resist a conciliatory gesture despite being the one imprisoned. Thava closed the gap, attempting to hug her through the bars, shuddering with what sounded like a small, wounded sob. Surina attempted to hug her back. She could reach well enough, but she felt the barrier separating her from full comfort.

“If you get any smaller, I could pull you through,” she said gently.

“One day maybe I will know magic that will allow me through,” Thava said, catching her breath. She sniffled. “That may be a bit beyond me yet.”

“You are braver and stronger than our parents, I am sure you will.” Surina lowered the front of her nose into Thava’s shoulder. “You will perhaps be the greatest of all of us.”

Thava sobbed again, clutching tighter. Surina rubbed up and down her back. They remained like that for a quiet minute, but eventually Thava broke away, hands sliding down Surina’s arms.

“Is there anything you want for the journey?” she asked, dabbing at her eyes with the back of her wrists. “I can try and hunt down anything. I will deliver it to Balkis and he can give it to you.”

“A weapon,” Surina said. “Any weapon.” She longed for the weight of anything in her hands that wasn’t bars, something to fend off the utter helplessness she’d felt ever since they threw her into the dungeon.

“I will see what I can do.” Thava nodded. “I will come see you again before you have to go.” She started to turn and paused halfway, torn. Her face flitted through several emotions, all some sort of approximation of coping with the trauma and loss. In a strangled voice she said, “I love you, sister. And I am so, so sorry.”

“I love you, too,” Surina returned.

Thava left.

--

Surina’s third visitor was also her last.

Balkis swept into the room unceremoniously. His brass scales, unlike Amysic’s and his kin, were welcome. Balkis was normally a well put-together man as the landgrave of Skywatch, but his shoulders were sagged, his face weary and clothes dishevelled. If not for the cut of his cloth and the chaplet on his head, he may have appeared like any regular dragonborn.

“Surina, I have come here to take you away,” he announced, and his voice was every bit as tired as he looked. “Guard, unlock the door.”

One of the Windcrest guards procured a ring of jangling keys and fiddled to find the correct one.

“We, uh, I have some fresh clothes for you,” Balkis broached, “and then when you are ready, we will leave Windcrest and I will take you somewhere else, somewhere safe.”

Surina swallowed and nodded, rising slowly this time, using the wall for aid. It wasn’t lost on her that Balkis had thrown away his friendship with her father for all of this. He thrust out a hand to the guards.

“I will deal with this. She is no threat to me. Go, wait outside, we will come out when we’re done.” The guards exchanged a look before bowing and passing the keys and doing as ordered. Balkis approached her cell and Surina met him at the door.

“It’s nice to finally be able to see you, Surina,” he said, gentler now that the guards were no longer present. “Your father would not allow me until now.”

“It would seem he is not letting a lot of people see me,” she said.

“I don’t think he or your mother wish to be convinced you are not to blame.” Balkis fished out the cell key, fit it into the lock, then shook it, struggling, and continued. “They have decided that is what it is. They have proclaimed it for most of the city; to go back on it now would look foolish, but even moreso they feel that you did it. Nothing I say to him can convince him otherwise, nothing your sister says, nothing anyone loyal to you has said.”

“A lot of who I thought were loyal to me has proven not to be,” Surina mused bitterly. “They can be bought out.”

“Politics is a dirty business; it’s why I try to avoid it where I can.”

“I have seen the faces of those who are truly on my side,” she said, gesturing to him.

“There are some common people who believe that you are innocent,” he explained, still struggling with the lock. “There has been some unrest after your father made the announcement. You are popular and many of them believe that you were framed, as you say. They believe it was either bandits or another person who had something to gain, or simply that your father didn’t like having a wilful daughter. There are plenty of rumours, all of which I doubt are true, but what is true is that you are not guilty, and we both know this.”

“Balkis,” she said. “You may not see it as such, but you have saved my life. Literally.”

He glanced up. “If I did not save your life, we both know Valcyis would come back and cut off my tail.”

“More than that, I think.”

He gave a small smile. “You are many things, but you are not a murderer. You loved your brother; I did not need any convincing on that. I have eyes to see.”

Tears welled in Surina’s eyes. The lock finally clicked, stiff as it was, and the door opened with a whine.

“You look like you could do with a bath,” he said lightly, his nose wrinkling. “You certainly smell like you could.”

She remained in the door, uncertain. A small, fragile part of her wondered if she deserved to be caged for her carelessness. Balkis reached up to put a hand on her shoulder, disturbing her downward spiral of thoughts.

“Child, I am sorry. None of this should have happened to you.” She rested a hand over his. “You are going to be alright. We’ll make sure of it.”

“Time will tell.”

“You will survive,” he insisted, “and if there is anything I can do to help you before you leave, I will do it. That is my promise. Not just for Val’s sake, but also my own.”

“Thank you.”

“Come now.” His arm wound around her shoulders, coaxing her out of her prison and towards the exit. “Let’s get out of this dreary place; your father should take better care of his dungeon.”

“He should take better care of his daughter.”  

[iironwreath]

Candlelight [Surina]

"Thava?"

Surina's call was met with silence. The hallway was dark with no signs of life, the only light the candlestick in her hand. She swung it left to right, illuminating the shadowed corners, paintings, mounted swords, and taxidermy of her home.

"Thava," she called again, sterner, adopting the tone her father used. "It is time for bed, do not hide."

This wasn't the first time Thava had stayed up late, and it probably wouldn't be the last. It reminded Surina of when it was only her and Kaladan breaking curfew, but she needed to set an example for Thava, a model daughter and older sister. 

She crept down the hall, pushing doors inwards as she passed them and holding her candle aloft to sweep the room in its glow. She huffed an impatient sigh, wisps of frost escaping her nose. Their father sent her and the sooner she found Thava the sooner she could sleep, too. Thava wasn’t old enough for the drills Surina and Kaladan were subject to and thus exempt from the same exhaustion that came from strict physical training. 

Surina cracked open the door to one of the studies. Her light shimmered off silver scales and curved horns. Thava was curled up in an armchair in the corner with a book open, its covers resting on her knees and the pages inches from her nose. Her hand hovered by her mouth in concentration, eyes fixated on the words. 

Thava was reading. In pitch darkness.

“Thava,” Surina scolded, and her sister started, glancing up from the book.

“Suri,” she said. “Were you calling me?”

“Yes,” Surina said, stepping into the room proper. “What are you doing?”

“Reading,” her sister said, but almost phrased it like a question, as if it was obvious. “I did not hear you, I was - it is really interesting.” She held up her book. 

“It is pitch black,” Surina observed, gesturing to the room and its candles that had long since burnt out. “How can you read?”

“You can’t see?” Thava asked, quirking her head. 

“No,” Surina bit out, also as if it was obvious. She squinted. “Can you?”

“Yes?” Thava asked, and her expression flitted into one of worry and fear. “I thought everyone could see in the dark.”

Surina lowered the candlestick to the nearby desk and strode around it. She plucked the book from Thava’s hands. It was an adventure novella, fictional but taking place within the Imperium. She marked the page to Thava’s quiet protests and set it beside her candle.

“It is time for bed,” she repeated, weariness removing the edge from her voice. She extended her arms. “Come.”

Thava crawled towards her, still forlorn, and Surina hefted her into one arm. She retrieved her candlestick from the desk and butted into the hallway with her shoulder. Thava’s hands tightened around her neck and she shrunk into her side.

“Am I in trouble?” she whispered.

“For staying up past your bedtime, yes.”

“For reading in the dark,” Thava clarified.

“Oh.” Surina didn’t know what it meant. Her sister was always a little odd, but that oddness never manifested in anything physical before. “I do not think so,” she said, but wasn’t certain. “It does not sound like you can stop it. It is not a curse, I think, but a gift, so long as it does not come with a price. Many of us would like to see in the dark.”

Thava nodded, her face pressed against her shoulder.

“We will tell mother and father in the morning,” she said. She hesitated, then planted a quick kiss to the side of Thava’s head. “Perhaps you breaking rules will be overlooked for your..eyesight.” 

Thava giggled. “Does this make me a superhero?”

“Do not push your luck.”

“Sorry.”

[notallbards]