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 Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2015 3:53 pm
A storm built over the northern mountains, slightly to the west and dark. The winds that whipped over the peaks and between the valleys when the Doryu family arrived home were already bitter and nipped with the chill of coming frost. It was mid-evening, the sun still well above the ‘horizon’ but beneath the mountains with most of its light further dimmed by the grey sky and gathering storm. After the hastars were tended to, fed, cleaned, and settled away in their stalls and all immediate traveling items from the trip stored, Detraeus gathered with his daughter in the main room of their home.
Ataya lingered, silent as the shadow he cast, in the threshold between the first room and the hall that lead to he and his sister’s bedrooms. Waiting.
“Who?” Detraeus said. “And how long? You are healthy? Why was there no word of this? You will tell me everything that you have failed to so far — that you ought to have told your mother and I well before this point.”
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Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2015 4:17 pm
Akara leaned against her mother, tucking as close as she could as Ara wrapped her arm around Kara’s shoulders and kissed the top of her head. The ride up the mountain had been uneventful and Kara had stuck close to her brother. Now, she clung to her mother as they waited for Detra to settle down. Kara’s gaze, meanwhile, flicked to the shadows of the hallway, knowing that Ataya likely lingered there, watching. Any other time she would not be happy about his spying — today, though, she was extremely thankful to know that she had at least one person one hundred percent on her side.
When her father spoke, Kara tensed in her mother’s arms and closed her eyes tight. She wasn’t ready for this conversation. She tucked her face against her mom, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly before looking back up. “We’ve been...together...for a little over a year but I’ve known him longer...three years, maybe?.” She paused as she moved to sit up, pulling away from her mother and laying a hand lightly over her stomach. She pulsed her magic into herself as she spoke. “I’m fine. Completely healthy.”
She eyed her father a moment before answering the next question. “I was scared to tell you…”
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Tangled Puppet Vice Captain
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Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2015 4:39 pm
Detraeus opened his mouth, but then paused, frowning, at the last words to leave his daughter’s mouth. Still standing — all of him far too restless to bother with a chair — Detraeus’ tail flicked, and the took a step and then turned, pacing without thinking before forcing himself to pause and shaking his head.
“Frightened—why would y—? Do I frighten you…?” Part of Detraeus’ anger, in spite of himself, weakened at the thought, his shoulders dipping a half fraction before he stepped in, closer to his daughter. “Akara, this…” He breathed out. “I am angry with you—disappointed, confused…but I am so because you kept something so large as this from me…from your mother. This…is what we are here for, to protect and look out for you, and we cannot see to your safety if you do not keep us informed. There are reasons we…”
Left to the mountains.
Live here as opposed to the city.
Are so concerned, always.
After an extensive pause, he stepped forward, crouching before the chair his daughter was sat in and frowning as he laid a hand — uncertainly gently — on her knee. “You should not…be frightened. I am not angry so much about the child as that you should have trusted us with this sooner…” He eyed her. “How…long, with the child…?”
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Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2015 4:47 pm
Kara frowned and watched as her father paced back and forth. His inability to stay still made her all the more nervous so when he spoke again, all she could do was nod weakly and whisper out a response. “Sometimes…” She bit her lip, gaze flicking to the floor. When she noticed movement, she forced herself to look up. She tensed slightly as her father crouched in front of her but sagged when he touched her knees.
“Not very long. Maybe not even a month.” She paused, forcing herself to breathe. “I’m sorry, daddy…”
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Tangled Puppet Vice Captain
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Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2015 5:10 pm
Detraeus’ posture sank at the first admittance, his shoulders falling and brow pinching. He didn’t not want his children frightened of him, just…
Sighing, he shook his head, expression still tight as he ran a thumb over his daughter’s knee and then dipped his forehead to rest briefly against it. “Do not be frightened, Akara. This…will see itself to an end, and your mother and I will do everything to see that that end is as well as it can be.” He lifted his head, studying her briefly before releasing a breath. “The father. He did not hurt you…? Does he know of it? He will meet with me. You are a child yourself and too young to bare one, but the goddess seems to have seen fit to make your fate otherwise. I will speak with the boy who was her instrument…”
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Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2015 5:21 pm
Akara shook her head quickly, already speaking before the movement stopped. “Nesrinn wouldn’t hurt me!” She snapped her mouth shut as she realized she’d let slip who the father was. She looked away and closed her eyes. When she spoke again, the words were quieter. “He knows. I told him.”
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Tangled Puppet Vice Captain
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Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2015 5:57 pm
“Nesrinn,” Detraeus repeated. “That boy…” His eyes narrowed a touch instinctively, but he kept most of the dangerous edge out of his tone. “Dovaa…firani, mm?” So the child would be, mostly, dovaa of lineage. Perhaps, if she his daughter was very fortunate, the child would come out looking passable as such. Eyes. That is what the child would need. Detraeus stood. “He intends to care for the child with you? Act as a father should? Assume his responsibilities? Where does he live…”
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Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2015 6:05 pm
“Firani...yes…” Kara’s gaze flicked to her mother, frowning. She wished she could shrink and escape from this house — run until she was far away. That, however, was not going to happen and Kara knew that she would have to face the music one way or another. “He...lives in Taliuma. And yes, he wants to care for it with me. We...didn’t get much time to talk about it…” Her body shuddered, tongue thick in her mouth as she forced the next words out. “Daddy...he’s not just dovaa.”
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Tangled Puppet Vice Captain
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Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2015 6:46 pm
Detraeus stilled briefly at the information, and then glanced to her. Another hybrid? That made more sense. Despite — as a child — holding a sort of looming distasteful attitude towards mixed-bloods, purely because that seemed to be how things were, as he was now, the situation was very different. He found himself almost relieved in a way, relaxing a touch at the thought. At least, if the boy were hybrid, he would understand his daughter’s predicament more. Understand where she stood in society and share many of her struggles. Given the boy’s dark, brown-tan skin, combined with his own personal attitudes, Detraeus’ mind immediately made its assumptions.
When he did speak aloud, his tone was neutral. “A hybrid. More dovaa than oblivionite? He looks it…”
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Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2015 6:48 pm
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Tangled Puppet Vice Captain
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Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2015 6:53 pm
Detraeus stiffened. His mind, naturally, leapt. But no. Surely…
“Khehora…?” he said aloud, working with minimal success to keep the bite out of his tongue.
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Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2015 6:54 pm
Kara leaned forward, elbows resting against her knees, and hid her face in her hands. She shook her head minutely in response to his question. “No…”
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Tangled Puppet Vice Captain
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Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2015 7:22 pm
Detraeus’ pulse stuttered. Panic. Fury. Confusion. She couldn’t have. If the boy was—
“Orderite, Father,” Ataya said, his voice seeming for a moment to be suspended in the space over the threshold before he took proper shape, arms folded and white ‘stare’ blank but narrowed. “Nesrinn is born of orderite blood. He—”
“You,” Detraeus snarled, near to his son in a moment and holding him to a pushed pin against the wall. “You knew of this—”
“Let go of me…”
Detraeus gripped, fingers folding into the front of Ataya’s tunic, latching and then dragging forward hard and shoving back. “You didn’t tell—”
“Did you think she would tell you?” Ataya snapped. “For how hateful you are? How you keep us here like childre—”
“You ARE children—”
“—that she would trust you? If she came to care for a man — any man — ‘gods’ forbid one that carried a bloodtype you butchered, hybrid or not, in the—”
Detraeus shoved, releasing Ataya with a rough push and turning on his heel to head towards the door. “No one is leaving. You will all stay inside the house until I return and kill anything that attempts to enter…”
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Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2015 7:27 pm
“Daddy...no!” Kara was on her feet in seconds, moving quickly over to where her father had Ataya pinned against the wall. “Daddy, please…” She reached out to grab hold of his arm, to pull him away from Ata, but jerked back as he shoved her brother against the wall and then let go. Her father’s words didn’t register with her at first, all she cared about was making sure that Ata was alright. She moved over to him, pulsing her magic out and healing any bruises that might have already been forming. “I’m sorry, Ataya.” As the word kill clicked in her brain, though, she froze, gaze snapping to her father. “You can’t!”
Araceli was already on her feet, moving over to the door and taking hold of her mate’s arm. “Detraeus, you can’t leave — not now. Your daughter is pregnant.”
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Tangled Puppet Vice Captain
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Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2015 7:44 pm
“My daughter is pregnant…and she has a mother and a brother here,” Detraeus grit out, “who will look over her while I manage and eliminate other risks. I will be back shortly…” He moved for the door.
Ataya, weight still against the wall, frowned, shaking his head at his sister as her magic moved over him. “I am fine,” he murmured, the words beneath his breath and most of his focus on the heavy dropping footsteps of their father as he approached the door. “He was not so rough as he might have been. With your boy, though…”
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