when it rains -- well, you know

The square was rainy and cold. The sullen droplets of water that fell from the sky created a steady pit-patter on the broken cobblestones. The sound was much more defined and quite a bit louder than if they'd been in any natural part of the world, where it was water against tree canopies or muddy earth. The stone basins had filled with water and were beginning to overflow, lining the divots between the stones with shining silver. Normally, the square would've been filled with the city's children-- but it seemed it was just too cold and unpleasant for them today. That, or their parents shut them in regardless.


It was perhaps for this reason of solitude and seclusion that her mother was here, sitting beneath a decrepit stone pergola with a creeping, branching tree twined around it and offered at least some shelter from the rain. Cairo stood on the steps that lead down into the square, lips tight as she blinked at the form of her mother alone.


But she would not be alone for long.


The timber girl stepped down and crossed the square, ignoring the rain that caused her speckled fur to separate and spike. "Mother, she greeted. "Can I join you?"


If she agreed, Cairo would move beneath the pergola to sit down beside the warrior. There were a million things in the girl's head, and she was certain there were at least a million and one things in her mother's. Where to even begin. "Xandria's back," she said, though it was not news to either of them. She had returned last night, seen Nassar, and then Cairo had spoken with her hours before that morning. "And you have a new betrothed." Also not news to Nassar. She said the words matter-of-factly, forcing them out-- for she didn't want to bring it up, and yet she wanted her mother to know that she knew.


Ankh had told Cairo of her plans -- even before she had told Nassar.

-----------------------------------------

It was a test.

"What do you think?" Ankh asked, and Cairo could feel those sharp and calculating pink eyes heavy on her auburn crown as she stared at the ground. Ankh wasn't really asking what Cairo thought, wasn't asking for her input -- Cairo knew this. This was a gauge -- she wanted to see if Cairo had the proper response. She was used to Ankh's little tests (hell, they all were), but for some reason it struck differently this time. Cairo was used to knowing exactly what the correct answer was, had no problem stating her beliefs with a puffed out chest and a satisfied smile as a reward. But now? Her honey eyes stared hard at the ground as her mind raced, reaching for the correct answer -- but for the first time in her life --

she couldn't find one.

"I don't think Mother will agree to this." Cairo said, buying herself time as it was the only true thing she knew at the moment. Ankh frowned, and a piece of Cairo shriveled within her. She was not used to Ankh's frowns.

----------------------------------------------

Cairo leveled her eyes with her mother's, if Nassar would allow it, searching. There was no rebelling against the Matriarch's word, they all knew that. Her mother was trapped, truly this time. And seeing Ankh's frown at Cairo -- a thing she was not accustomed to and had quite hated -- the girl could now just begin to imagine all the things her mother had gone through -- was currently going through. It was no secret Nassar's marriage to Kohl was not a blessed one, nor was Ankh's ire toward the pair.


Nassar had endure it all the while-- and Cairo never truly understood.


She felt... stupid. When Ankh had tested it, it was perhaps the first time she saw the true Matriarch for what she was. She was not a pure Royalist loyal to the Crown and to the betterment of her family. She was something more, something deeper -- and Cairo had been a fool to think life was as black and white as she always imagined it to be. With that, and the unimaginable death of Kohl (how could he die? how could he lose?), with her brother missing, her sister stepping far out of line -- all of the sudden the world was painted in nothing but gray.

She despised it all.


"Have you talked to him?" she asked, meaning Kvothe. She wondered his position on the matter, but more than anything she wondered if her mother had found any peace at all with the decision.

manip + code: clae

@Nassar

Nassar had always hated rain. It made the city too loud, the stones too slick. Her fur, be it summer or winter, would flatten and fold uncomfortably against her skin. Every outline, be it of her muscled shoulders or scarred flanks, would suddenly become visible as though her last refuge from the world had been shattered and left barren. Kohl—impossibly—had loved it. As a young man, he tussled with other soldiers in mud pits and reveled in the wayward menagerie of momentum. He had dragged her out into the rain many a time, chasing him through the forests, all the while waiting for her growls to turned to giggles. A gray ear flicked, her chin tilting up as she gaze at the bleak sky. Amber eyes were half-lidded as she searched the shapeless clouds for meaning. As a husband, he had been dutiful. Cairo and Ahkoris had been born during rain and he had stood outside, guarding them all, for hours. And when their passion had begun to die, it had felt like the freezing cold of a breeze brushing by when one had been caught in the rain. So when she felt it now... “Of course," Nassar answered, nodding her head. A stray droplet rolled down the bridge of her nose as she shifted away, making space for her eldest. With mechanical precision, Cairo listed the latest news of the Tiamat clan. Nassar could only nod, a heavy sigh leaving her lips. “He is satisfied." Tension lined Nassar's frame and yet this was nothing unusual. Tiamat women rarely lounged, even when they sought their private moments of solitude. “Although he was not privy to the arrangement, he will be pleased to have me as a wife, and you and your siblings as children." As he had explained, this was the best possible outcome for him. “I asked for an anullment." At this moment, she turned to look her daughter in the eyes, to try and piece apart how Cairo felt. For a girl so adored by the Matriarch, what was this news? Was it a betrayal? A logical movement of chess pieces? “There will not be one." “You seemed to replace your brain with your heart ."

ART➤Amphi STOCK ➤ Dawnthieves

@Cairo

“Of course,” her mother agreed, moving so that Cairo could sit beside her. The timber girl settled next to Nassar so that their pelts brushed. All at once she felt tense and yet also, the desire to melt into her mother’s side as if she were a pup again. To bury her forehead in her mother’s ember fur, feel her embrace and strength and scent of spiced pines. She did not melt, though. Her mother did not need a daughter acting weak and childish-- she needed a pillar, something else to rely on in the wake of their crumbling and morphing foundation. Cairo relied on facts for this, and Nassar only sighed.


“He is satisfied.” she answered, and Cairo’s chestnut ears flicked. Well of course he is, she thought, somewhat bitterly. “Although he was not privy to the arrangement, he will be pleased to have me as a wife, and you and your siblings as children.” Perhaps it was the reference that they would be his ‘children’ that made it entirely more real and abbhorable for Cairo. Her fur bristled in spite of herself, and she leveled her fiery eyes on her mother. “We will not be his children,” she said. “And you will not be his love.” It was all political, and all sterile. Wife was a legal agreement-- and nothing more. “Those titles belong to Dad,” she said, more subdued and nearly in a whisper, as if it was a secret they would take to their graves. "And I am sure that he knows that." which 'he' she was talking about was unclear.


“I asked for an annulment.” Nassar said, and looked Cairo straight on. “There will not be one.” The girl shifted somewhat uncomfortably beneath her mother’s gaze, for she felt the probing curiosity. “I expect not,” she replied cautiously. She knew there would never ben an annulment. This was a plan by the Matriarch, carefully executed and thought out -- and it would not change for anyone's whims. Still, though. "I'm sorry, Mother." she said simply, helplessly. She would not rage against the Matriarch's decision as Xandria had done-- it was wasted energy. And, in spite of it all, she could see why the decision was a smart one. Her eyes flitted to her paws briefly. "I knew about her plans," she blurted suddenly, as if she couldn't help herself. A sudden admission of guilt. "I didn't say anything to object it," her voice trailed. It was as if she was asking forgiveness from her mother for her lack of fortitude. "Everything feels...." she lifted her sunny eyes to search her mother's face. "Muddied." and that was an understatement.

manip + code: clae

@Nassar

Nassar shifted her weight so that the barest amount of pressure eased into Cairo's hip, the touch a gentle reminder that mother was there—that she was strong enough to carry them both if Cairo needed it. Of course, that was rarely the case. Ever since she had been a pup, Cairo had been independent. The first to stop nursing and switch to meat, the first of her siblings to pass the military's test, the first to see war. She had not needed Nassar's embrace for quite some time now. But it was there, waiting, all the same. As Cairo bristled, Nassar's ear twitched. Her face turned so that she might study her daughter's face. Frustration and abject refusal lingered there, yellow eyes opposing Nassar's words just as strongly as her tongue had. But what was there to be done? She was inclined to agree, to commiserate, but her daughter's following words caused something to spark. "I knew about her plans..." The fur along Nassar's nape ruffled and she felt her lip curl and twitch. It was not her daughter's lack of refusal that stabbed her in the gut. It was the lack of warning. The fact that her daughter had started trading secrets with the matriarch first. And with her mother second. Or not at all. "You will belong to both in the eyes of the crown." Nassar snapped, relying on the familiar harshness of the law. Its iron weight supported her when her bones threatened to fail. "When we marry, you are his. I am his. And he will be ours." Amber eyes glowed with fury and raw betrayal that appeared only implicitly in the way her words cut. "I hope you do not object again." Nassar stood, ears flaring forward. "It would be, after all, out of character," and here she seethed, almost spitting on her daughter yet refraining from that insult. And she turned. And she left. - exit nassar - “You seemed to replace your brain with your heart ."

ART➤Amphi STOCK ➤ Dawnthieves

@Cairo