hold my hand in yours

[valeas]

WHO: Emilia & some closed starters.
WHEN: One is backdated to dragon shenanigans. Others throughout October.
WHERE: The Bessis Tower. Doxe's palace. Places!
WHAT: Cold misery. New allies. Wrath.
WARNINGS: Food that might make you hungry. Some KotC spoilers. I'll add the rest as we go.

( if you'd like anything with emilia, please feel free to send a PM or hit me up at moonstones. i love writing starters. ♥ )

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[valeas]

A thick wall of ice stands in between Emilia and the sudden noise that brings her to stillness. She steps forward, soundless and cautious. Certain patches of the ice wall are cloudier than others, and all she can see is a blurry silhouette.

Something less-defined, too.

There's an insistent tug in her center, one she's learning not to cast aside too quickly. Embracing intuition over her tendency to overthink isn't easy, but it hasn't steered her wrong when she's chosen to listen.

She takes another step forward. Gathers all her focus. Strains to see past what normal eyesight allows, and there, there alongside the silhouette is a faint aura that's grown somewhat familiar to her. It glows, and reveals.

"Allison?" Emilia quickens her pace. "Allison!"

[rumorate]

She hits the ground hard, groaning as her weight comes down against her hands. The tar Allison swings to give her a kick in the ribs and but she manages to roll out of the way and avoid the blow.

She hears her name, from somewhere nearby and she shoots her leg out towards the shins of the creature, to try and force it back.

"Emilia, don't come closer!"

[valeas]

Underneath Emilia's quiet disposition is a terribly stubborn, fiery thing that frightens even her, at times. It listens to no one, her genuine desire to play it smart forever at odds with her instinct to charge forward and protect.

Like she is somehow meant to, beyond the fact she cares for Allison and could never leave her.

She must help, but how? Her memory is the greatest traitor of all.

In moments where she needs her spells most, she forgets what little Nonna Maria taught her. Emilia is quick to reach for her amulet, dread sluicing through her veins upon remembering she returned it to Wrath. As if the bastard needs it. He already knows safety at his own hand. He possesses power beyond measure, the sort of power she longs for so deeply she could choke on it.

It was hers once too, she almost swears it was.

Emilia puts her full weight into kicking at the ice wall that separates her from Allison. She may be stronger than she looks, but it's not enough to knock the ice down. Frustration and rage crowd at her throat, and she lets out a suffocated noise as her fists bang against the wall, mindless of the blisters that form. If she could summon fire like the Bessis —

Her mind grows dark, and she closes her eyes against a searing pain that fills it. When she opens them, her hands glow with a light. It begins to crackle, sifting out of her until a ball of rose-gold flames hovers in between her palms. It pulses as if saying hello, and in the urgency of the moment, all Emilia can do in response is throw it against the wall and watch it burn brighter.

[rumorate]

The ball of warmth hurtles towards her and all she can do is bring up her hands to shield her eyes. She does her best to roll away, putting more space between herself and the ice wall. As the monster repositions to try and get a better blow, the glow of light catches it and it lets out a cry of pain, before fleeing from the fire.

As it clears, she sees Emilia on the other side, and her eyes widen in surprise.

"... Did you do that?"

[valeas]

"... Yes."

And there is no time to unpack that, nor give in to fear that someone else has seen, even when that someone is Allison. Tar threatens to slither off the wall in ringlets, as though attempting to gather itself back to fuller form. Emilia lifts her still glowing hand in its direction, watching it flee. She rushes to Allison's side. "We have to go."

[rumorate]

Allison tries to scramble to her feet, her eyes watching the tar as it slithers in their direction. It's cold, but the adrenaline pumping through her system is keeping her moving for now. She reaches for Emilia's arm and glances around to see their paths.

"C'mon. I think we have to go back this way."

They can talk about that fireball later. Right now they need to get out of here.

[valeas]

Emilia could not agree more.

She reaches for Allison at the exact moment Allison reaches for her. Once they have a firm grip on each other, she begins to move in earnest. Forces herself to ignore the trembling in her bones, the new wave of ice-turned-water intensifying the cold she already felt. It doesn't, can't, matter until they've left these goddess-forsaken aqueducts.

Before they can turn a corner, Emilia hears it. Hears it before she can see.

Desperate, anguished wailing.

[rumorate]

Allison hears it too, her head snapping up in the direction of the sound. She can't make anything out in the shadows, but she knows that the sound chills her to the bone, and she doesn't like it.

"That's not a good sound."

She doesn't let go of Amelia, though. Splitting the party is what gets people killed.