Fatality ━━ Matt vs Chris Sturniolo²

𝖝𝖝𝖝𝖛𝖎. The Water's Embrace

[ tw: funeral ]

𝖝𝖝𝖝𝖛𝖎. The Water's Embrace

Reva

THE BAY laps at Reva's bare ankles, refreshing, renewing. It's cold before the sunrise, but she hardly feels the chill. She finds sanctuary in the simple sensation. She knows these waters as well as she knows her own face. She can feel them far beyond her feet, the pulse of the softest current, the smallest ripple of the river feeding the bay, and the bay feeding the lake. The coming light of dawn bleeds across the smooth surface. The mirror image distorts in streaks of pale blue and rose pink. Such calm lets her forget who she is, but not for long. She is Reva Rivers, a princess born, a queen made. She doesn't have the luxury of forgetting anything, no matter how much she may want to.

They wait together ━ her mother, her sister, and her ━ with their attention fixed on the southern horizon. Fog hangs low across the narrow mouth of Clear Bay, obstructing the peninsula dotted with guard towers, as well as Lake Eris beyond. A few lights from the towers twinkle through the fog, like stars hanging low. As the fog shifts, moving in the wind off the lake, more and more towers come into view. Tall stone structures, improved and rebuilt a hundred times over hundreds of years. The towers have seen more war and ruin than even historians can say. Their lights flare, too many ablaze this close to dawn. But the beacons will remain all day, torches burning and electric lights beaming. The flags streaming in the breeze are different from the usual standard of the Lakelands. Each tower flies cobalt blue slashed with black. To honor so many dead in Corvium, to mourn.

To say goodbye to their king.

Reva shed her tears already, in hours spent crying last night. She shouldn't have any more tears left to give, but they still come. Her sister, Oriana, keeps herself in better check. She raises her chin, a diadem crown winking across her brow. It's a braid of dark sapphire and jet, hung low across her forehead. Even though Reva is a queen now, her crown is much simpler than her sister's, barely a string of blue diamonds punctuated by red gems to symbolize Norta.

Oriana is twenty-four, four years Reva's elder, and the heir to the throne of the Lakelands. Reva used to say her sister was grim and silent, loath to cry, unable to laugh. But, her serious nature serves well as their mother's heir. She has far more skill in controlling her emotions, though Reva does her best to keep still as the lakes. Oriana locks her gaze forward, her spine straight with the pride not even a funeral could break. Despite her stoic nature, even she cries for their father. Her tears are less evident, quickly dropping into the bay swirling around their feet. She's a nymph like the rest of their family, and uses her ability to cast the tears away and leave nothing of them behind. Reva would do the same if she had the strength, but she can't summon anything right now.