It is the certainty that frightens her most, the absolute - not decision, but knowing. Knowing that their deaths were right and necessary and inevitable. Knowing that she could, would, kill not only them, but every single beating heart in the city, to preserve what was hers, what she'd been waiting for, her purpose and calling and breath and love --
She feels dizzy with the intensity of foreign emotion.
(It's a kindness, she'll later realize, that Verim kept the connection through Fayura calming him. It doesn't leave her stranded in that ferocity of feeling, as he's calmed down, she is too, and it helps - even if it leaves in place that feeling of connection. It's - aloe on a burn, but it's also... sunlight.)
She can hear his voice vaguely, and it takes a few minutes for it to register because of the strangeness of the split. She'd been -- but she was --
Breathe. Breathe.
She bows her (her) physical body over, placing her head between her knees to fight off the dizziness and surge of nausea. She can still feel echoes of that certainty, the rage and killing intent. While she'd felt righteous indignation at Fayura's treatment and the urge to help, for Verim... that hadn't even been in the ballpark, it was like comparing a flashlight beam to a lightning bolt.
Piper reaches for a memory of her own, something uniquely hers to help ground her. It might be embarrassing, but the first thing comes to mind is being high among the clouds, on the back of a mechanical dragon, between two of her favorite people in the world, and that...
She takes another breath, then swallows and straightens before turning her mental attention back to Verim. She is back inside her skin, but feels... very close to the surface of it, still a little dizzy. ]
Are you okay?
[ After all, he was the one who'd just opened up his mind and relived those memories. She had her own to fall back on, but he... he lived with this. Did they all -- they all live like this? ]
this is all amazing, ty v. much for this story
It is the certainty that frightens her most, the absolute - not decision, but knowing. Knowing that their deaths were right and necessary and inevitable. Knowing that she could, would, kill not only them, but every single beating heart in the city, to preserve what was hers, what she'd been waiting for, her purpose and calling and breath and love --
She feels dizzy with the intensity of foreign emotion.
(It's a kindness, she'll later realize, that Verim kept the connection through Fayura calming him. It doesn't leave her stranded in that ferocity of feeling, as he's calmed down, she is too, and it helps - even if it leaves in place that feeling of connection. It's - aloe on a burn, but it's also... sunlight.)
She can hear his voice vaguely, and it takes a few minutes for it to register because of the strangeness of the split. She'd been -- but she was --
Breathe. Breathe.
She bows her (her) physical body over, placing her head between her knees to fight off the dizziness and surge of nausea. She can still feel echoes of that certainty, the rage and killing intent. While she'd felt righteous indignation at Fayura's treatment and the urge to help, for Verim... that hadn't even been in the ballpark, it was like comparing a flashlight beam to a lightning bolt.
Piper reaches for a memory of her own, something uniquely hers to help ground her. It might be embarrassing, but the first thing comes to mind is being high among the clouds, on the back of a mechanical dragon, between two of her favorite people in the world, and that...
She takes another breath, then swallows and straightens before turning her mental attention back to Verim. She is back inside her skin, but feels... very close to the surface of it, still a little dizzy. ]
Are you okay?
[ After all, he was the one who'd just opened up his mind and relived those memories. She had her own to fall back on, but he... he lived with this. Did they all -- they all live like this? ]