Thinking Out Loud: Fadeless.

Originally posted here as part of the 15 Minute Ficlet, I wanna poke at this some more...


La'faen was the kind of girl who never really enjoyed social events; solstice parties on the village green seemed largey like a waste of time. Why would she need to dress up in her prettiest frock and shawl? So some young man could ask her if she would like to dance? Offer her flowers? Trinkets? Usually she ended up hovering at the edge of the green, staring longingly up at the Daesharr Temple, wondering if maybe Danayl would see fit to deliver her from this fate of boredom. Surely her parents wouldn't really object if she opted to conscript herself into the army or something? Swords were interesting, far more so than sewing. She had been up to Col'Lefyra once, with her father, to visit his dying mother. The capital city of Feranath had left her bubbling with words, trickling steadily out over her lips until her father had told her pointedly to be quieter in her excitement. She had tried. Ash and blood, she had tried so hard to hold her tongue.

Now, she glanced around, wondering where her walk away from the dancing on the green had taken her. She knew it was dangerous to wander away from the village into the woods on the Kinai, the darkest, longest night of the year, but at least here, in the darkness, away from all the fiddles and singing and twirly-whirly dancing, she could think. It was strange, here surrounded by nothing but winter-scorched and sap-bursted trees that she actually felt like she was living - enlivened by the solitude. It was like she was the only person alive out here, with all the other creatures of the forest asleep in hibernation or gone. There were no wolves in these parts, not for generations.

"Pretty night for a young woman to be out on her own," a voice said and La'faen nearly fell over as she spun around.

The speaker made no attempt to conceal herself. She was tall, taller than most women La'faen had seen; and she was beautiful - beautiful in a way that made La'faen's knees go weak with a desire she had never thought to feel for another of her own sex. The long black hair fell down around a strangely pale face, juxtaposed by the black lines that seemed to curl up to her cheek - tattoos?

"I - "

"Sorry, girl, didn't mean to scare you. I came here to get away from the hubbub at Felyriah," the woman said, leaning back against the frozen bark of an ancient oak. Felyriah? A shot of panic rushed through the young girl; Felyriah was the only place where...

"You're one of the Dar'nayl..." she breathed.

"Yes, I am," the strange woman said. It was only then that La'faen noticed the sharpeness of her teeth when her lips parted, the teeth made for killing, "don't worry. I'm not here to eat you, girl. I'm here because I can't stand parties, and I quite like frozen dead forests, somehow they make me feel like I'm bursting with life and energy. Which of course I am."

The Dark Lady...the Dark Prince's consort. Ash and blood. La'faen felt giddy with excitement, terror. The adrenalin bursting through her veins made her want to run and skip and dance. The Dark Lady seemed to study her for a moment, watching her with a lopsided smile.

"Can't stand parties either?"

"No, m'lady," La'faen squeaked, finally finding her voice.

"Kae. We're in the middle of the forest, girl, bothering with titles is stupid and taxing."

"Yes...er...Kae," La'faen said, feeling slightly bold for daring. Kae'ra Vexantris t'Ameandir tyr'Kainiri smiled at her, a brilliant toothy smile, and it was then that La'faen realised why she felt so alive: when you were staring death - or one who walked its edge - in the face, you had very little choice but to remember just how alive you were.


Thinking out loud.
Obviously this takes place after "Lady of the Glaive", the first part of The Fadeless. I'm thinking it's gotta be in the vicinity of Kainiri, given Kae's showing up there. I doubt she would run too far from Felyriah; she wouldn't stray to far from Teforne, especially during the second part. So...that gives me quaint lil village in the nearabouts of Kainiri, so it's probably on the coast?

I really wish I could draw Kae from this scene, it's after she's gone through the Awakening, obviously: the tattoos and the hair, which is black in this scene. So she's been through the Door...come out. I wonder if I can't doodle some and sketch some ideas for how it's KINDA meant to look, even if I can't draw it properly. Maybe there's someone out there who'll take pity on a drawingless writer, lolz.