dorian ♕’s Comments (group member since Nov 28, 2020)

dorian ♕’s comments from the Grimoire’s Return. group.

Hestia was breathing heavily. She didn’t see Marcus, but she assumed he was in the foray of fighting, probably trying to get to Ace’s mother, who leaned over her husband’s body softly, not moving.

At least she was alive.

At least Marcus was alive.

She could have that comfort.

Hestia looked at Ace, though, and she lifted her up. “Ace, we NEED to go. Now, before anyone else notices us, and they try to do with Gaelanon di—“

A thud behind her.

Hestia went still for a moment, before slowly turning around.

Zhyla.

He was on their side.

And Ace had no magic, and Hestia’s magic was barely strong enough to take him on, nonetheless that she was weak form almost being burned.

And if he had managed to get to their side, then that meant that he had magic.

Hestia held her head high, and looked at him. “What do you want?”

Hestia pulled Ace up, looking at her frantically. Her wrists had stopped bleeding, assumably a blood clot.

“Ace, we need to get out of here. We need to go. NOW.” She shook Ace. “I know, I understand that what we just saw…what we are SEEING—“

Genocide.

Pure, adultered, genocide, by the one man Hestia would never think was capable of it.

These people were dying, and they needed to go, because they were NOT capable of taking him on if he managed to do this.

They weren’t capable at all.

The screaming around Marcus wouldn’t stop. The way the bodies of people fell as they were stabbed through, the chaos…it was too much. He walked backwards, trying to get away from it all, moving and moving…

Until he tripped.

He found himself falling over the gap in the ground, when he felt someone grab his arm. He looked up.

Hadrian.

“Oh saints, Hadrian, thank you so fucking—“

Blood splattered on his face. Marcus gagged, as it got in his mouth.

He felt Hadrian’s hand loosen.

He saw the sword through the man’s gut.

And, Marcus fell.

All the way to his death.

Behind Cas, Gaelanon stood silently. He winced a bit, at the pain in his knee, but he hid it well. Gaelanon threw his hands out at the scene, at Cas and Dante laying in the rubble. “See this. The woman, the one who is the daughter of The Witch Labelle, cares. The irony.”

Then, he looked at Cas herself. And all he did was raise a hand.

Marcus resized it before everyone else, the way Gaelanon turned for show, and he started to scream. “RUN! GO! HES GOING TO KILL YOU!”

But, he was too late.

The killing started, and it wouldn’t stop.

Dante bled from his nose, from a deep cut on his neck. It was a wonder that his head hadn’t simply rolled from the cut on his neck yet. He looked at Caspian, and simply smiled. He reached a bloody hand forward, and he rested it upon her palm.

“I love you, Caspian Lamendola.”

It was a whisper.

(Why😍😍)

“This,” Gaelanon said, “is your precious king. The one you worship, the one you love. And yet,” Gaelanon held the King’s limp body, his hands treading the ground, “he died in the flash of a hand.”

A lady next to Marcus screamed and fell to her knees.

Marcus could only watch, stare, as Gaelanon dropped Darian’s body onto the rubble.

“And this man,” Gaelanon said, holding up a man from their hair. He was JUST barely alive. “was his fighter.”

The man had dark hair and a dark shade of blue eyes, and nonoonono.

Dante.

No.

Marcus started to back away, slowly but surely. No. He needed to get to Ace, and needed to do it NOW, because this was slowly turning from bad to worse.

Gaelanon smiled a bit, a splatter of blood on the side of his face. “I, ladies and gentlemen, am your new King. Any complaints?”

He unsheathed a sword from his hip, the sword drizzled in red.

Hestia pulled apart form Ace as soon as she heard the calling of her mother. She turned towards Ace’s mother, who had, if possible, the most mother-like, yet, angry look she had ever seen.

Was Ace in trouble? That would be completely ridiculous, however, given all things concerned. It was a wonder no one had died yet.

Hestia, looking at the woman who looked so similar to Ace, yet so different, walked forward, and shoved her hand out. “Nice to meet you. I’m Hestia Stiria.”

•••

The racket behind Marcus had distracted him for the umpteenth time. Be was trying to think about ways to get Ace and Hestia from the other side of town, but none came to mind.

And it was because of the damn PEOPLE BEHIND HIM.

He turned, to find Gaelanon, standing in the rubble of the Attolian Theater.

Marcus tired his head. He had wondered where was Gaelanon, being that he would love to see Hestia get murdered; he hated the girl.

But, what was more interesting, was that he had the King in his arms. The people of the town were screaming bloody murder, as they witnessed Gaelanon, with Kind Darian in his arms.

Then Gaelanon started to speak.

There were so many slurs being thrown at Hestia right now, it was a blur. Things from “witch” to “traitor” to even “khannith”.

But she wasn’t worried about that. What she was worried about was why was the world open in front of her and even more worrisome:

Ace was CRYING. She barely cried. What the hell?

Hestia looked at the thorns on her hands, and with a grunt, she moved her finger, summoning a wind to rip the thorns out. She screamed internally, as wounds opened around her wrists, and blood started to drip down her arms. But she looked at Ace, and she got up.

Hestia moved towards Ace and hugged her for a moment, before tilting her head to look up at her. “Infernalis. No. We will not be crying right now. Not at all.”

Then, with all reside gone, she pressed her lips to Ace’s.

They were going to die.

At first it was Hestia, and she found that maybe some part of her could accept it, but of COURSE Infernalis had to come forward and act brave and they were both going to die now.

Hestia, without a doubt, said immediately: “I love you too, Infernalis. But you need to go. They are going to KILL you.”

Behind her, Zhyla was already preparing, telling the crowds of people to don’t fear, and the gathering soldiers to ready their swords to charge at Ace. Hestia watched it all.

“Infernalis, PLEASE. If you love me, truly, you will get away.”

Zhyla was almost there.

Hestia looked at Ace, and whispered, so quietly that angry Ace could hear it, “kiss me.”

And the world ended before her eyes.

The ground split apart, the bottoms half of the cross coming with, allowing Hestia to have control of her legs. She fell to the ground, then looked up to see Zhyla and his group of soldiers getting further and further away.

“What the… Ace?” She looked at Ace. “Where’s Marcus and Hadrian?”

The first thing Hestia Stiria felt was blood trickling down her forehead.

It was cold, and she shivered underneath it. After a moment, she opened her eyes, and found herself tied to a cross. Underneath her was a gathered bunch of wood, sticks, anything flammable. She wore a ragged, tattered cream dress, the end of the skirt jagged and cut; likely changed for this event.

Her trial.

This was the day she was going to die.

She rustled against the cross, and practically screamed at the pain of the thorns that chained her to the cross.

Then, finally, she looked around. She was in the plaza of the Aenia, the town square, or rather, what USED to be the town square, given the war decimated it and all.

It was night, and the stars twinkled above her, gleaming their lights.

And finally, she looked forward.

In front of her was none other than Zhyla, the Second to Gaelanon. Hestia snarled at her. “You. I thought you were against Gaelanon, trying to get him to see the errors of his ways.

Which, to be fair, was stupid on Hestia’s part. She should’ve knew better than to trust a man.

Zhyla merely chuckled at Hestia, and patted her face. “Truly darling,” he started, “you should be surprised it took as long as it did. I had to keep myself from you, repress my feelings towards you. Because otherwise, you have been with my child by now.”

Hestia repressed the urge to gag. Oh god. Oh saints.

She was going to die.

The next to arrive was Hestia. She had almost made it to her room without incident or confrontation, when she stumbled into Gaelanon.

Based on her appearance, the scorch marks upon her suit, and just the overall look of tiredness, she assumed he immediately guessed why had happened, but she didn’t care. She didn’t care at all anymore.

She passed Gaelanon, who merely scoffed, which caused Hestia to stop in her tracks. He had ridiculed her for years, had made her to be nothing.

No more.

NEVER more.

Hestia whirled, and she pointed. A point that had meaning, that emphasized death and aggression in it. “If you EVER,” she started, “and I mean, EVER, talk to me, or even breathe in my manner like that again, I will kill you. I swear on it.”

Gaelanon simply scoffed.

Hestia whirled back around, containing her anger, and opened her door to her room.

And she passed out.

Hestia had teared up a bit, she wouldn’t lie.

But she also knew she was a queen, and queens didn’t cry.

So she continue forward, back towards the castle, even with the sun beginning to rise on the east. They had been here all night. They didn’t tell anyone, we’re actually told NOT TO, and they went against it.

Whatever happened next, they would be in trouble. So much fucking trouble.

Hadrian followed behind the girls softly, now having the man in his arms. The man slept gently, barely weighed anything; it disgusted Hadrian to think they had tortured the man to the point that he weighed less than a child.

But they had him now. The man would be okay.

Marcus smiled. “No. I couldn’t.”

And that was that.

He had come to terms with Ace and their relationship…or the lack thereof. She wouldn’t love him anymore. And that was okay. He would survive.

He just hoped that she would be okay, too.

Hestia gritted her teeth a bit, before she pushed those loose locks of hers back. She moved for a moment, before marching forward towards Ace, and with no remorse, slapped her.

“Don’t, EVER, scare me like that again, asshole.”

There’s was a small scream from Hadrian, as Ace suddenly gasped, a breath of life back into her. He stared between Ace, Hestia, and Marcus, not sure how to react.

Hestia was staring at Ace, a look of horror….or maybe longing? At the way she looked at Marcus, the way Marcus looked at her. Did Hestia like Ace? Hadron wondered, all things considered.

But before Hadrian could wonder further, a different look settled onto Hestia’s face. Her mask.

She sneered a bit at Ace. “Good. You’re alive.”

Hadrian looked between the two, not sure how Ace would respond. Marcus looked behind him at Hestia, furrowing his brows. “Are you guys okay?”

*🥲*

Marcus searched his mind, and only one thing came to it.

The ribbon.

The second time he had met Ace, she had given him a ribbon for winning their game of hide and seek.

Maybe all she needed was a reminder, a tether to bring her back to life.

He pressed on Hestia’s shoulder, a sigh to move out of his way, and he knelt before hee. He grabbed her wrist, and pushed his shirt back, revealing his wrist.

A limp blue ribbon, still on his wrist after all these years. He untied it, and then started to tie it around Ace’s wrist, hoping, PRAYING for something.

She was dying.

Marcus was the first to realize it, with the way the light coming from her was fading.

“She’s dying.” He said, eyes slowly widening. “Ace is dying, and we are spending time right here, arguing about nothing.”

Oh fuck.

Hadrian set her down on the ground, quickly but gently, and Hestia felt her pulse.

It was beating slowly.

She barely controlled her magic, her power, and yet Ace was dying in front of her.

Marcus seemed calm. Hestia wondered absentminded if this had happened before, if Ace has had near death scenarios.

Hestia waved her hand over Ace’s chest.

Hestia ran as well as she could with the man at her side, them managing to get away from the Encampment quickly. They managed to make it across the border of the encampment, when they stopped, at the insistence of Marcus.

He fell to his knees, gasping for air. “Do you guys not realize what the hell we just did? We are going to have so many fuckers on our back now. It’s all ruined.”

And, apparently, Infernalis was harboring a world fugitive, so they needed to figure things out quickly.

Hestia looked at the girl, who hung limp in Hadrian’s arms, faintly glowing. “Acelopina, what the FUCK was that?”

They needed to go.

To his own surprise, Hadrian found himself being the first to get up, unslinging the man’s arm from around him and running to Ace’s side. With a strong amount of exertion, he lifted Ace up, straining against the strength of her muscles.

“Let’s go.” He said. They needed to go, since ten minutes ago when the alarm had started.

Hestia, shaking her head of her thoughts, helped the man along, and Marcus followed behind them, sword unsheathed, and looking around.