[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/MEEvh6i.png[/img][/center]
[hr][hr][sub][b]Location:[/b] Sun Temple[/sub]
[hr][hr]

Caring for others had never been Kira’s strong suit. 

She’d spent the better part of her life learning how to end people, not improve them. Asking them how they [i]felt[/i] had never been part of the curriculum. 

Unfortunately — or fortunately — the Aurelian Prince seemed to think of Kira as “[i]helpful[/i]” and “[i]disciplined[/i]”. 

Disciplined, she could agree. If not for her exacting control, the Sages who poked and prodded at her would have already had their throats ripped out. Though, control seemed to be increasingly difficult as of late. Hunger pulled at her with every godforsaken pulse of a human heartbeat within two miles. 

Adjusting back into society had been more difficult than expected. Nonetheless, she’d done a well enough job pretending. Or the bar for a well-behaved blight-born was in the gutter. 

She guessed the latter. 

Admittedly, since the Prince had given her the assignment of watching over two unstable blight-born — Ranni Soleil and Céline Moreau — Kira had done little more than poke her head in to make sure they were alive and didn’t actively look like they’d murdered anyone yet. 

Over the last two weeks, Kira had spent her time lying in bed instead.

Eyes closed. Hands clasped over her ribcage. Slow, measured breaths. Mentally reaching inward, tugging on the invisible thread that bound the Lunarian guard to her — the one she absolutely refused to learn the name of. 

Every chance she got, she latched onto his psyche like a parasite.

Like the good dog he was, he’d managed to get assigned to the moon temple. And at Kira’s order, he volunteered himself to join the expedition party. 

The poor bastard had been terrified every step of the way. She felt it reverberate through her body each time she sunk into him, and hated every second of it. 

He was newer to the army than she’d originally thought. Had never even seen a blight-born until he’d arrived in Dawnhaven. He’d heard the stories about what lay in the Lunarian blightlands, and yet Kira knew he didn’t know the half of it. 

Ignorant piece of meat. Useful, though. 

Their bond grew annoyingly fainter the further the expedition party got from Dawnhaven, but Kira checked in as often as possible. Seeing through his eyes, she kept careful tabs on Katherine. The sneaky, back-stabbing little Cricket. 

Now, the bond slipped through her fingers more easily. Seeing through him. Feeling through him. Controlling him. Each day demanded more patience and focus than the last. Sometimes, his strong emotions would still reach her unbidden, but finding the thread had forcibly become less of an all-day activity. Nonetheless, she still tried every night. 

But that left her days open and her mind unoccupied.

Even more aggravating was a singular sentence said to her by Ivor, before he’d also left on the expedition. 

[i][color=9a45dc]“Be good, people are counting on you!”[/color][/i]

He’d learned about her new assignment through Eris, and wished her well. Believed in her ability to care for Ranni and Celine. 

Kira had buried the sentence at first, but time refused to leave it buried. With each day that passed — each glimpse of Ivor through the guard’s eyes — it ate away at her. 

It was weak to keep returning to his words. Or that genuine look in his eyes. Or that [i]stupid[/i], [i]insufferable[/i] grin he’d always beam at her. 

When he’d called her [i]sister[/i], something inside her had cracked, she knew.

Perhaps Ivor was a sort of parasite himself. 

[color=DC561E][i]Weak.[/i][/color]

She hissed at herself, glowering as she made her way through Dawnhaven’s dim, snow-dusted streets. Headed towards the temple. For Ranni. To ask her [i]how she was[/i]. And actually take the time to listen.

The thought nearly made her sick. 

Somewhere on the other side of town, dark smoke climbed into the sky. The scent of fire drifted through Dawnhaven, clouding her senses, but she continued forward. It wasn’t her problem — hers was directly in front of her. 

Pushing the temple door open, Kira’s eyes narrowed on the “eternal” flame. She imagined kicking the brazier over. 

Aelios was dead. To Kira, she always had been. 

As she strode forward, her gaze landed on one of her other problems — a more physical sort of parasite — Sya. 

[color=DC561E]“I didn’t take you for the religious type.”[/color] She said smoothly, expression unmoving as her voice broke through the silence of the inner chamber. Her orange gaze pulled away, searching the perimeter and landing on the hallway that led to the temple bedrooms. 

[color=DC561E]“Where’s Ranni?”[/color]

[hr]

[sub][b]Interactions:[/b] Sya [@PrinceAlexus]
[b]Mentions:[/b] Ranni [@Queen Arya], Ivor, Celine [@Beard Dad], Kat [@SpicyMeatball][/sub]