knightsoflegend | chapter five ♔ it'll be a day like this one when the sky falls down

the blues - switchfoot

WHO || The Knights
WHAT || Failboat returns from the disaster in LA as the Knighthood goes on lockdown
WHERE || The castle, London
WHEN || Directly after this, Fall 2017
HOW || Actionspam

Hasmed's announcement does not brook any rebuttal: all Knights are recalled to the Castle, where they must remain until the Section Heads and Jack Chessing have spoken about the events in Los Angeles that have left the Knighthood without their usual leader.

The entire Los Angeles area is now covered with a dark miasma that has interfered with any signals that might be sent out from phones, etc., leaving the whole world wondering what exactly is happening down there. Final images showed horrendous monsters, a panic of citizens, looting and violence from humans and Shadowkind alike.

Hasmed has warned of extra magical wards on the castle, and anyone arriving will immediately take notice of one very prominent one: above the entire roof of the excessively large building hovers a black and red sigil in the air, a pentagram in a circle surrounded by runes or words in an unknown language, stretching for miles.

[ This is the social log for post-LA lockdown. Failboat must complete the top log before being allowed to tag outside of it. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[He lets that sit in his head for a moment, weighing her words against the expression on her face, then finally gives her a single nod.]

If you think that's best, though I'm sure you realize how difficult it is for me to agree to that.

I do. I've spent the better part of the last couple of years, having to not do anything.

[It wasn't quite the same, but it was still having a problem that she couldn't fight with her fists.]

And I know you. [Still. Even after everything.] So I wouldn't ask it of you if it weren't absolutely necessary.

[His gaze is steady as he looks at her, weighing her words, the way she delivers them. She's dead serious and he's not going to question it.]

You know that if you do need anything, you can ask me.

[But he'll do as she wants. Nothing. Unless she changes her mind down the line.]

I'll be careful.

I know. [And she realised as she said those words, that it was true. For all that had changed, her death as it were, had shown her that some things were still the same. They weren't together, but he would still always be there for her.]

The thing is... I'm not going to be around to ask you. Not, here anyway.

[Well, that sounds like she's leaving.

Except they've basically been ordered not to for the time being. Temporarily likely, so maybe she's talking about sometime in the future and not...now.]

You make it sound as if I'll wake up tomorrow and you won't be here.

[She shouldn't even need to answer with the look she gives him now and while maybe she should or even could apologize for taking off just as soon as he's returned? She won't. She won't because she knows he will understand it.]

We leave tonight. This fight... it's too important to sit out and Solace and Hasmed? They're wrong. About... everything.

[He sighs, barely resisting the urge to rub at his temples.]

Roza...

[But it's not his place to reprimand, even gently. She's an adult, has been for awhile, and she's proven she doesn't need him to watch over her, or even watch her back.

She has other people who can do that for her, ones that may even be better than himself.]

Do what you think you need to do. Then come and see me when it's over. I will keep an eye on things here.

I don't know... [If I'll survive this.] ... if I'll even be allowed back.

[The part she didn't say, was a reality they both understood, had accepted that long before they joined the Knights. The latter, was at least so he could see that she had thought this through, and was willing to deal with the consequences.]

But they can't stop me from contacting you.

[A part of her still hoped that Wynn would return, that he'd restore order. That Hasmed and Solace would crawl back under the rocks they emerged from. A part of her still wanted to believe in fairytales, too...]

I won't ask you not to fight... but you won't be able to beat Blade or the Mindmaster. Not with brute force, not with magic, not with anything we currently have. The only way you'll survive if you meet them face to face, is if you run.

[A lesson he had once taught her in a very different time and a very different place.]

Nor can they keep you out of London. They would be fools to refuse you a place here, and if it comes to that when it's over then this will not be the place for me anymore, either.

[Not because she won't be here, but because if she isn't welcome, he won't feel as if he is, either.]

There are times when we can't run, even when the odds are stacked against us. This might be one of those times. But I will not run straight into the arms of death, either.

[His smile is sad and quiet.]

You will be alright, Roza. One way or another.

[That was clearly the last thing she had expected him to say, Rose’s surprise quickly morphing into something deeper as emotion made her throat constrict. She didn’t dare ask him if he really meant that, because Dimitri was not a man who spoke lightly of such matters. For him to have said it at all means that it’s something he knows with certainty.

Her gaze drops to her hands, Rose struggling to find words that sounded right in response, but in the end all she could do was offer him up a crumpled, half smile, nodding as she swallowed past the lump in her throat.]

This world… The knights… [Lifting her gaze.] … needs people like you. [That broken half smile returning.] So just, make sure you’re still around when this is over.

[This felt a little too much like goodbye, not just for now, but much longer than that. Perhaps it would be a less painful conversation to have if that weren’t a very real possibility.]

I know. [ Realizing as she said that, that she actually believed it. So much had happened these last few years but she'd made it this far. She was not about to let anything, be it a Nightmare God or Hell itself, stop her now. ] Despite how it sounds... I'm not about to let this be goodbye, okay.

It needs people like you too.

[For the record. But it sounds like she's just as determined to come out of this as he is.]

Good. Then we're agreed.

[He gives her a small smile, one that is full of bittersweet sadness, but still somehow hopeful.]

When I see you again, you'll have to tell me about your big adventure.

chapter five ♔ it'll be a day like this one when the sky falls down

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject