A Departure

[rukio 8924]

Spoiler

 

Life and time had not been kind to Adelith. Yet she had endured most everything that had been thrown her way. Woe to those who had been in her life, however. Some might joke that she was cursed, that some deity, bored with their own realm, had singled her out to torment for a laugh or two. Others would say she was the affliction, a curse to those who knew her, to those who had loved her or been loved by her. Seven skies know that those she loved never did meet a good fate. Endure she did. Until the death of her brother. 

 

The death of the love of her life, the man she had viewed as a soulmate, had crippled her in her youth. It had shattered her self image and will to live. The branch she had tried so desperately to hang herself from had broken and so she accepted her fate and endured. “Good” had been her response when told that paladins don’t often live to see old age, how eager she had been to rejoin Samuel in the afterlife. Those who knew her best would know she was never the same after his passing, even with the return of his ghost. First love is the strongest because it is new to the sufferer, pure in nature and hardest to forget because the heart values and pines for it so strongly. Adelith was no exception, and so with his death a piece of her passed on as well.

 

The death of someone she had grown to view as a father figure in her childhood had come as no surprise. The Scyfling war had taken Samuel, and so it was to be expected, with the bitterness to her heart, that Jack would die to it as well. Everyone, she had thought, that she cares about dies after all. The pain of his death came not from the death itself, he had lived a full life. It came from the sheer helplessness, the uselessness she had experienced as he bled out from a javelin. She had knelt mere inches from him, her own arms useless and drenched in blood from the javelin through her right and the arrow wounds to her left. Live, mister Jack, please... she had pleaded internally but her silent begging fell upon the deaf ears of death. The intention she had when she had joined the war effort was to join Sam in death, she was too scared to attempt to take her own life again after all. Instead, the outcome had been physical scars, grotesque and deformed from the method used to mend them and mental wounds she would never heal from, plaguing her mind with an affliction of unspoken grief and horror.

 

Both deaths had many things in common, including that she had been able to endure and move on despite the sheer agony her heart felt at every moment’s notice. The near death of Vya, done at the hand of a Gehennite, and the first murder Adelith had committed only proved to change her further. At least someone else I loved didn’t die this time. Never again. Never. She lost herself in the piano, in her chores, and later in her dedication to Xan. Lefkos’ disconnection ensured that she would never feel truly connected to the other paladins, that she had lost the only solace and true friend she had found among them, for, to her, there was no way the others could understand her past or those she had cared about. Yet she continued to follow the Sunlit path, becoming indoctrinated further into their ways of life. This would lead to the grief that she would never shake.

 

I may be a monster but I won’t be the one to cut their own sibling down. Those words, the last words David had said to her before his suicide, still haunted her. The intent had been pure, the actions and route she had taken had not however, and all actions have their consequences. With his death, so too had their mother killed herself, and with their deaths, so too did their father follow them to the grave within two years' time. The birth parents she abhorred, their deaths, didn’t sting. The loss of her older brother, who she had always adored, who had been the only member of their family to seek her out, however… that death had simply been too much for her to bear. With his passing, so too did she lose the adoptive family she was raised by. Vya, who had adopted Addie when she was but a mere eight years old, found it too difficult to love the forever difficult to love child, needing her space and distance in a time when Adelith needed comfort the most, distanced herself from the girl for perhaps too long. Their reunion and acceptance of each other later on never did feel as genuine as it had before, to Adelith at least. 

 

Whatever deity had found their pleasure in torturing her was not done yet, however. It never was. Sam had disappeared soon after Lefkos’ disconnection, the reason had never made itself known to Adelith but it left her devastated all the same. With time, as with most things, she did her best to move on. She had a child with Cassius, the birth of which nearly killed her, yet both she and baby had survived by some miracle. Or curse. She never did fully recover from it, perhaps some internal damage had marred the young woman, not that there would be a way to confirm. Infection was her downfall. The arrival of her father to meet his grandchild, good intentioned by Hillith, had led to Adelith fleeing with said baby in tow. No, she had thought, I won’t let you bring that dragonkin sympathizing monster around my child. The travel left her ragged and with a horrific infection. 

 

And so here comes the lull to the Yung Merc’s tale. Death was not yet kind enough to let her into its rest, to allow her to join Xan in his realm. Vyranni would be her home for now, perhaps some day she would recover, return to Arcas with her son. For now, however, the skeletal frame, nearly unrecognizable as the once strong Adelith, ventured off to join her great great great uncle Gaius and his side of the family in the same land her mother had been sent away from some 40 or so years ago, to recover from wounds unseen and things unspoken of. 

 

Several letters would be left in places known only to those who they were left for. Most were written shakily, short in nature on account of her unhealthy state upon their writing. ((Aka this information cannot be treated like in-character knowledge just because you read it on my post, unless your character’s name is on it, or the person shares it with your character. Not that any of them are sensitive in nature, really.))

 

Vya:

Spoiler

Dear Haelun,

Forgive the length of my letter. I find it incredibly hard to think of what to say when almost everything has been said already. I’m sorry I was never able to be the child you wanted me to be. That I never grew into the woman you wanted me to be. May your newest and the twins be a better success than I. Good luck with Farrador, may Xan watch over you and guide your path in these troubled times. I’m sorry for all I put you through and thank you for raising me as best you could. I’ve said my farewell to Riot already. May we meet again when I am healthier.

 

Anduin: 

Spoiler

To Anduin, 

We never did get those dogs we planned to or got to hunt those monsters I wanted to. I hope someday you come to forgive me for having to depart in the middle of the Inferi crisis. If I were healthy I would stay, I would fight alongside you and Jack, but I leave you with this. Take good care of him, I went to some great lengths to get him sent in from Aeldin. The breeder said he’ll grow up to be a large, sturdy warhound, as all of his breed do. P.S. Don’t you dare die or stray from the Sunlit path, either. 

[!] A young, maybe 3 month old, Renatian Mountain Hound would be bundled up, safe and secure next to the letter. His most distinctive feature would be his eyes, the left a bright blue, his right eye a dark brown.

 

 

Mael’ead: 

Spoiler

To Mael’ead

Thank you, llir, for being my friend all of those years, even when our paths were destined to turn us against each other. I’m sorry I don’t have much to say, but I hope we get to catch up some day, if I’m able to return. I look forward to hearing about everything you’ve done in my absence if that day comes. 

 

Cassius: 

Spoiler

Dear Cassius, 

I thought about what to say and how to say it for a long time. I wrote and rewrote this letter many times. In the end I felt something short would make this easier for the both of us. For all that I love you, I hope you are able to find someone else to fall in love with some day, to love them as you loved me. Grow old with them, cherish your time together. Be happy.

 

Lucia:

Spoiler

My dearest sister,

Grow up well little sister. Write to me often, tell me of your journeys. The Kaedrin home is yours until the day I might return. Tend to the horses well and grow up to be happy. Live a simple life, a life I was never able to. Love you sis. 

[!] A large, imposing eurasian eagle owl would be caged next to the letter. Clearly this was a bird who would be able to reach the village in Vyranni. A last gift to ensure Lucia would know she wasn’t alone and could always reach Adelith.

 

 

David:

Spoiler

Dear Big Brother...

I know you’re dead, no ghost of you remains, but it didn’t feel right leaving without a final farewell to you as well, big brother. I’m still so sorry for what happened that day. I’ll never forgive myself and I don’t expect your soul to forgive me in the afterlife either. How I wish I could take back my words, to change those fatal wounds from your throat to my own. I never meant to call you a monster, I never thought of you that way. I just wanted you to go back to how you had been before you were afflicted. I didn’t think you would…I’m so sorry. Nothing I do will ever atone for your death and no apology will ever suffice.

 

Storm:

Spoiler

To Storm,

I know by the end that we weren’t on the best footing. That said, I hope you are able to find joy in life. Maybe you were right about me all along, Storm. Thank you for tolerating me while you did. I know I was never easy to deal with. I hope your new family brings you the much needed joy and healing you’ve sought for so long. Oh, and because I’m me, there’s a small bundle waiting for you nearby. I did tell you to get one, after all, and you never did. Pour your heart into him if nothing else lets you.

[!] A small puppy, blond in color, spaniel-esque in build, is bundled up near the letter. Friendly, good natured eyes would greet Storm once it was found, which would take minimal time. This small puppy, given his breed, would make for a needy, loving companion for the elf, should he raise it to be such.

 

Sam:

Spoiler

To My Dearest,

Oh Sam. How I had wanted to grow old together, to be by your side and see you be happy in life. Death took that from you, from us. The things I have done in your absence will never be forgivable, the ways I have tried to move on. Despite all of my efforts, my heart never moved on from your death, and the grief of it still haunts me at night. I don’t know if you’ll ever find this letter, you’ve been gone for so long. But I also know you promised you were never truly gone, not forever. So I trust that you’ll find it some day of your own accord. You will always be the love of my life...and I’m sorry for all that I was not able to be for you. I kept my promise, I outlived you, as painful as it was. The only problem is I’m scared now that if I die you won’t welcome me as you once might have...

 

-x-

((Not my art, obviously. It’s from pinterest.))

-x-

Spoiler

Lyrics below, because well, I’m rukio and I have to do that :^)

-x-

There once was a time when I was a girl
That darkness hunged in my sky
I was old before I learned to be young
Stone cold till I learn how to cry

And the weeds in the ground have grew up through my skin
It's taking a lonesome girl's heart
I will go where the stolen roses grow
To forget that I have fell apart

The thorns on the roses cut through my skin
The vultures flew down and then pecked
What lay on the surface was a tiny crack
And below was a gigantic wreck
So I held my head down and I dealt with the blows
In hope that I'd soon be free to go where the stolen roses grow
To forget all the bad memories

-x-

 

Obviously its not a pk post:

I just don’t feel like appealing.

At least, not for now, anyways.

Her story warranted a departure.

[StormBreaker0520 192]

Storm Elibar’acal would open the door to his house, upon hearing a light whimpering after he had awoken. Upon spotting the whimpering bundle, the somber elf’s brows would furrow in confusion ”Perhaps someone left it here by mistake?” he queries to himself, bending down to inspect the package. He would first see the note from Adelith, picking it up to read it. Storm would let out a heavy sigh, shaking his head ”Oh Adelith, Dear. You were right, all along. But despite our conflicts, you will always have a home and welcome arms from me. You were like a daughter to me.” He would then turn his attention to the puppy. Having never owned a pet other than in independent bird, he would be unsure how to approach it. The elf would opt to gingerly pick up the bundle, holding it close, like a ”I’ll cherish it with all my heart, Adelith. That is my promise to you. Do be safe, Dear, and I hope you send bird occasionally.”