[PK] Death of a Gyrfalcon

[Mescaffier 6197]

 

“Jane! You’re early, your life’s work is dirtied by the fools who adore you … The poison makes a portrait of your face in the mirror, smiling with fright.”

♪♫♪♩

 

lmost a decade …

It had been almost a decade, now, that Johanna had struggled with this illness. She was only a small child when the plague had begun to tear its way through Rittersberg, but she would have never thought it’d reach her, of all people. She was strong – even if she was not born so. She was bold, and cunning, and …

“Sick. You are sick, Johanna. Have you lost your hearing?”

 

But the Barclay girl was nothing if not stubborn. For six long years her body fought off what should have been fatal. But it left its mark upon her, for, year after year, she lost more and more of herself. The scarring from the disease riddled her flesh, and her resolve had grown weak from all her time indoors, away from her kin and her dear friends. Especially her dearest, the Crown Prince. 

“We will get through this together. Everything. I don’t care who stands in our way.”

 

She had seen it all. Caius’ mother had grown maddened. His father was an adulterer, and his bastard lived side-by-side with him in their palace. His brother was cold, and apathetic. His sister was even stranger. The Horens were frightening and wildly confusing to the Barclay. But there was a flower hidden behind all of those thorny brambles – Caius. They had grown up together as each others’ closest friends and confidants. Naturally, his parents saw her as the best candidate for his betrothal - little had they known, the two already planned for it. The future had been so, so bright, until . . .

 

“Infertile?”

 

It was the plague. At last, it had gone. It had taken her beauty with it – her face, her limbs, were riddled in patches of scarring and dried, leathery skin. Caius did not care. It had not taken her life, and that was what mattered most. During the last of her meetings with her physician, the woman’s findings were presented to Johanna … bluntly. The pain, the thinning hair. The plague had left a last parting gift upon the Reinmaren woman, or rather, it had taken one in its parting. She would bear no children. 

 

How could she tell Caius? His parents? Her family? What Empress of Man would give no heir? She would watch her beloved Caius be married off like cattle to another girl. Johanna would live in disgrace, and, perhaps as a lonely old woman, recount the time when she almost became an Empress – when she almost lived happily-ever-after with her love – when she almost had a family of her own. 

 

═════════════ 𖤓 ═════════════

23rd of Tobias’ Bounty, 654, upon the sea-cliffs of Reinmar’s coast, the twin of Prince Rodimar – a girl of House Barclay who was none too pleasant, and quite scarcely seen, was found disemboweled upon a sword. A note was found upon her.

 

23rd of Tobias’ Bounty, 654, It is cold here.   I am tired.   My life is over before it begins. Why? What did I do to deserve this? What curse was put upon me? Upon Rodimar, and our siblings? My parents have died, and I have grown to become so ugly and marred by pocks and scars. The damned plague made me live my best years as a shut in. Oh, woe is me.   I am sorry, I am so sorry. I am not strong enough.    “Ƿyrd byð ſƿiðoſt, ƿinter byð cealdoſt, lencten hrimiᵹoſt, he byð lenᵹeſt ceald.” “'Fate is swiftest, winter is coldest, spring is rimiest, it is the longest cold.'”

 

---

 

A scarce few recipients would find letters for them;

 

CAIUS

@cadazio

Spoiler

“My love. I am terribly sorry. I do not write to you in merriment - in fact, this is, perhaps the worst news I could write to you on. I will be straight with you; it was just revealed to me that I have lost the ability to bear children. Forever, I think. There will be no heir, no sons and daughters that we would run after in the gardens, or teach to fence, or read and write. If anyone were to find out, well … lord, you do not need this trouble.

 

I can only imagine the gossip. What would you do? What could I do? I know your mother would have our courtship rended, even if we were to be wed soon. You have always wanted to run off with me to the countryside, but now, I can barely walk. You cannot carry me, Caius, I have always been the stronger one. 

 

I will not cost you anything – your crown nor your reputation. Do good. You are a good person. Free the shackled and help the needy, and show the world all of the kindness your soul carries. I will be jealous if you fall in love again, I admit – if you meet me in the Seven Skies with another woman on your arm I will kick her off the clouds. Name a daughter after me, perhaps. 

 

I love you, Cai. See you in the next one.

Josie.” 

 

TANTE EDITH

@WhimsicalOwl

Spoiler

“Tante Edith, you were like a mother to me. You gave the best advice, you and Onkel Rudolf. You both told me that I would be great one day, and I am horribly sorry to disappoint you. I miss the both of you. I miss my father, and my mother - wherever she went. 

 

I am sorry we never got to go chase those bunnies like we talked about, Tante. Or go and collect honey from the beehives.

 

I love you, Tante and Onkel.

Josie.” 

 

RODIMAR

@yeeter2k

Spoiler

“My brother. I still never came to understand why you did not wish to spar with me. Perhaps you were afraid to hurt me. We never did get to speak much as we became older, and … of course, even less so as you’ve taken our father’s place as Prince. You will do amazing. You are lionhearted, and in truth, I was very jealous of you for very long. 

 

No longer. I know envy has no place in my heart, especially against my kin. I am sorry to depart like this.

 

I love you, brother. Lead our people well, I know you will.

Josie.” 

 

 

Author's Note :J

Spoiler

I have had SO much fun playing Josie!! Unfortunately, my degree & work has gotten far too time consuming and difficult to really play LoTC. I've grown up in this place - joined when I was 11 in 2019, so I've been playing, like, WAYY too long. If a hobby like this ever feels like work, you know it's time to quit. Shoutout to the huzb (husband huzz) @cadazio  for giving me the role, and everyone else who's roleplayed with her!!

 

art creds: mwah

 

pls wish me luck with mathematics. #womeninstem

 

[cadazio 2105]

 

 

A cold sweat ran down the Grenser's back, in the very many times he kept to his chambers. That letter arrived in his suite some odd days later, to petrify the already downtrodden man. He shrieked, for days. The agonizing screams persisted as he refused to leave his chambers, haunting the Palace for excrutiating hours on end. 

 

Everything froze, there within that boy's heart. What love could he find now? How could he feel warmth again, as he had? He saw her face on every surface: the mirrors and the windows, reflected up at him from the garden ponds or on the clean plate if he ever chose to eat. What terrible fate had led to this? What had he done, against others, to be imparted of this?

 

Pain turned, quickly, to guilt. Of what he could've said, of how he could've made her feel better. It was all gone now that the Falcon flew away.

[kuerbis 3802]

Days had passed since the news arrived in the halls of the Imperial Palace. Valentiná hovered before the doors of the Crown Prince's Suite - the one she had occupied herself, not even a decade ago.

 

Muted sobs emanated from within; gut-wrenching, heartbroken sounds of despair she was no stranger to. Hesitation settled upon the Empresses heart, tearing it in two.

The last time Valentiná had spoken to Caius was years past; an encounter that had left them seemingly permanently divided. So did her hand hover over the mahogany door as her brows drew together.

...
No, Val, you are the last person he would wish to speak to now. 
...

And so did she slowly tear herself from the doorframe to slowly ascend those stairs up to her own chambers, into which she disappeared silently. A candle was lit, that night, and the following nights, for an Empress that could have been.

[Cheese 8899]

Constantina's interactions with her niece had been few, and not since the departed Barclay girl could remember. She had been Constantina's favorite, though, as she resembled herself and Clementine so dearly.

 

It wasn't often that Constantina felt for others, but for her twin, and for the nieces and nephews that shared her face, a pang of sympathy ached in a hollow heart. Soon did she travel to Reinmar to comfort her grieving sister, keeping hold of her as she lamented the tragic fate of the almost-Empress.

 

". . . What a strong girl," Constantina murmured aloud to her twin. 

 

She looked towards a portrait of Johanna, whose identical eyes stared right back.

In a way--a sick one, perhaps--Constantina envied the short life and death of her niece.

Spoiler

I wish I could have gotten to interact with Jo 😔💔 but welcome to the WISTEM club queen, good luck with all your future adventures!!!

[MunaZaldrizoti 8037]

Susanna, always ensnared by business behind her Chancellor's desk, did receive news of her niece's demise with a quiet sigh. She had never met the girl, not even as a babe, and could not admit to feeling any grief aside from that sympathy she had for her elder sister Clementine. Girlhood had been their brief moment of bliss, yet it seemed this Johanna had not even been allowed that before her short life met its end. If the weight of a crown weighed upon even the youngest of humanity, she continued to be grateful that God had determined for her a burden more gentle.

 

Gossip was rampant in Alba, and she had heard here and there of how those ladies of the Celosian Court did flock about the imperial halls. With her niece's death came the cynical curiosity of how one ambitious young woman or two might step forth, to claim what now seemed the greatest prize in all the Imperium - the hand of the future Imperator.

[yeeter2k 247]

Tears befell the young prince as he read the letter from his beloved sibling. A surge of feelings mixed within him. Anger, guilt, sadness; he couldn't quite tell which it was, but each of them seemed to take turns occupying the lion's share of his thoughts.

"Damn it all! We were meant to stand together clad in that blackened armor, and I looked forward to the day! God, why!?"
 

The teardrops continued to flow down his face, leaving the brother's eyes reddened and bloodshot as he ruffled through his hair thinking over it all.

"I should have been there... I should have done something...."

Rodimar would remember this day, and what came before it. He'd swear to protect those nearest to him, to not let them suffer the same fates as his sibling and father.
 

 

[WhimsicalOwl 268]

2 hours ago, Mescaffier said:

Spoiler

“Tante Edith, you were like a mother to me. You gave the best advice, you and Onkel Rudolf. You both told me that I would be great one day, and I am horribly sorry to disappoint you. I miss the both of you. I miss my father, and my mother - wherever she went. 

 

I am sorry we never got to go chase those bunnies like we talked about, Tante. Or go and collect honey from the beehives.

 

I love you, Tante and Onkel.

Josie.” 

 

The letter reached Edith in her sleep, awaiting her during her daily walk to the aviary - rarely did she wander too far from her bees now.

 

It felt wrong, the words she was reading - what sick joke was this? Her niece had been so young, so surely- surely this is what such was.

 

Though, despite the denial, as grief once again reared its ugly head like a monster Edith could never escape no matter how much she prayed, she'd slump against the wall she'd stood by.

 

"Oh, Johanna- you were so young..." the aging woman, who did not yet quite look her age, sighs. "Worry not, for you have not, and could never disappoint me."

 

She'd light a candle, each night following the news. Thoughts drifted to Caius, and the company her niece had found in him. Edith could do nothing but utter prayers for the boy, and the future ahead of him.

Spoiler

If formatting sucks it's because I'm on mobile T-T