shri | FADE RIFT [INBOX]

"You would make no friends, I think." Lakshmi has her eyes closed, for the most part, one hand idly playing with Magni's damp hair, twisting it about her fingers to ringlets then letting it go.

It's only a little that she opens them, but enough to look down and see that smile playing there, slight and telling. Returns in briefly with a laugh, before letting her head fall back.

An expression of faux-hurt, with is really just a slight furrowing of the brow before she pushes up and presses a kiss to Lakshmi's neck. "Such hurtful words," she murmurs.

The crystal is loosely held in her hand, but mostly forgotten, as she blows a raspberry against Lakshmi's skin.

#seduction

She starts to laugh, scrunching up her nose at the feeling and digging back with elbows and knees to get Magni off from doing that. It half works, if she isn't pushing her full way, digging in deep, Magni easily locks her in, boxes her in small in a way that makes her feel...

Oh, something ridiculous and beneath her, undoubtedly, "worse," she counters further, "you would have to talk, and at length." she rolls underneath her, pointed movements, hips and knees, lifting up in the arch of her spine. All elegance - until she chomps on Magni's ear, just at the top, white flat line of teeth.

“I’m a great orator,” she counters, trying to wrestle Lakshmi into containment, an all too pleased groan dragging past her throat as Lakshmi bites her ear. Self control was one thing, and then there was tactical temptation, and she twists to try and capture Lakshmi’s hands, the crystal falling loose to lie amongst the blankets.

And wrestled she is, half meant, barely a bit of fight in her. Wasn't that the luxury? The crystal forgot, her arms pinned above her head that she tests only to make some hardly meant point that she could break free, truly, she could leave at any time. Lets her graze her lips against the side of her face in a kiss that surely were trying not to share until there was some sense of normalcy to this and - definitely didn't raise her knee up, half a dare of locking her legs around her hips.

Because it's almost, almost, a lot of things, almost contentment, almost, safe, almost this and for once, there is nothing she must fight right this second to make these moments in bed feel wasted. Enough that she doesn't hear the voice start to begin to babble out of crystal.

And then, like a hot knife through the air, it cracks apart, and she goes still, so very still, under her as that voice gets to its point.

At first Magni doesn't pay the crystal any mind. This is far more engaging, this playful closeness and she savours each moment of it.

Just as well, apparently. As Lakshmi goes still, Magni's attention is drawn to the crystal, and the words she had only half-heard hit her. Shifter. Dog-looking.

"Manikarnika," she says, cautiously. Doesn't move her hands, but does not tighten her hold, either. The stillness could be the shock of the message, rather than an inherent sign of a dramatic reaction to come.

She's still, so utterly still, kept underneath her. Her breath thin, small, slow, steadying herself.

"I need to go. Now."

There is only that. There is only moving. There is only ending this before it starts. Ready, ready, ready, waiting for Magni to move or - or she doesn't know. I don't have a rifle. Shit. Curse these people and their wretched lack of guns.

"No." Her grip does tighten on Lakshmi's wrists then, and she braces herself for what she anticipates will be a struggle. "Not yet."

They don't know if that rifter is the same manner of beast. If she is, if she must be destroyed, then it cannot be something that Lakshmi does herself in the heat of the moment. It must be seen by all to be to the benefit of the Inquisition, if Lakshmi is to survive it herself.

For another - they'd be flipped across the room already, and she'd be gone. Knife, she thinks, the long one, learned from experience that the swords only work so much. She doesn't have an axe, for this sort of work. All hacking. The muscles were so thick and the blood splattered so darkly.

Her eyes flick up hard - not a look she gives to anyone, often, nor one she gives to Magni least of all. It has no mercy in it, no pity, no ounce off give as those wrists curl up tightly. She is Rani Lakshmi Bai, and she is the woman that an Empire feared the name of, and she would never be less than that.

"Why?"

Edited 2019-02-09 08:52 (UTC)

That look would hurt, make her flinch, but she has some idea of how much these beasts and what they have done eats at Lakshmi. How it has torn at her as surely as they tore apart the flesh of her people.

"If you kill her without proving to the Inquisition that she is a danger, or if you try and you fail, then the Inquisition will kill you. If you are dead, then she and any other threat like her that comes will not have an adversary who knows it well enough to combat it."

Her grip stays firm.

She takes breathe - how hard it is, to hear reason at this point. Because Magni is right, but there is a truth there. They won't believe her, and the fear is so palatable and this pattern so familiar, that she aches so deeply with it.

"They won't listen, they never listen," it's croaked, dry, unsure.

Because she isn't very good, at being afraid, even when she is. Isn't good at the stillness, the waiting, the not break apart with her bare hands. Not like Magni was, but with the knowledge that Magni was - she croaks. "I do not want to lose them all again."

"We wait and we get proof." Quiet, a little reassured that Lakshmi hasn't kicked her off, hasn't fought against her. "We ensure she is the same as the monsters you have fought before." Because there are so many rifters who have crossed the land of dreams from so many places, and what other wonders and horrors might there be?

"I won't lose you to recklessness. Understand?" Her voice doesn't crack, but there is a real danger of it.

She swallows, going quiet, staying still, for much and as little as that was. It isn't being told now, it isn't being shouted down like so many others had done, here, home, or otherwise. Doesn't have to fight tooth and nail for it, because Magni is with her, and she is not -

Not alone in this fight.

Lakshmi breaths, and at long last, she nods in agreement. "Recklessness has not got me yet." That is a poor joke, Lakshmi.

"It only needs to get you once," she replies, very quietly. A faint rasp in it, tripping over the edge of the pain she had tried hard not to let betray her. They had only just found one another, realised what it was that they shared. She would not let that be squandered.

Her fingers loosen on Lakshmi's wrists. "Promise me."

She could promise her - but it would be a hard thing to say, easily. Rather - the truth is there, in the simplest of actions.

The one where she does nothing at all, even when the pressure on her wrists lessons, she stays put. The long breath she takes eases her back into the pillows, the blankets, hair tangled up underneath her. Pointedly, obviously, that could not be mistaken.

Such a strange thing, to be cared for, like this, like this body was worth more than a burning city.

"I will... need to talk to Commander Coupe. She should know."

Magni relaxes, bringing her hands away from Lakshmi’s wrists and settling them either side of her. She remains looming over her, though now she just watches intently, looks for shifts in her mood, her manner. Telltale signs of anything brewing.

At the suggestion, she nods. “I will accompany, if you wish. The Commander likes me.”

To that, she shakes her head. Little as that is when she is laying back like this. A brief thing, barely a twitch as she closes her eyes briefly in thought.

"No. Best not compromise that with me. Her mood is poor when I am involved."

To say the least of it, there was no love lost there, and enough badly traded words on Lakshmi's behalf no less. She didn't fault the Commander for disliking her, exactly, but she wasn't rushing to amend that bridge.

Leaning down, Magni gently nudges Lakshmi's cheek with her nose. As you wish. She is not wholly satisfied with it, imagines she could offer some softening, some aid, but Lakshmi knows diplomacy and negotiation far better than she. She has entirely no idea what she might say.

Just a kiss to Lakshmi's cheek, and she lingers to offer whatever reassurance she might be able.

Her hand lifts, moving to cup her hand to the back of Magni's head, smoothing through her hair with a soft tangle of fingers. Because - it is more comfort than she has had in moments like this for years. It lets her eyes close to taking a deep, long, ragged breath. Letting herself settle smaller under Magni's weight and the contact.

Not that she is trapped. But she lets herself feel her own edges inside of the limits of Magni against her. Knees, elbows, her shoulders and ankles where they curl up so slightly to press in close. "When will I be free of such things?" She ventures in a sigh, hiding her face against the curve of Magni's cheek and neck.

It is more steadying than it has a right to be, feeling Lakshmi lean into her, feel herself standing as some kind of shield that could try to protect Lakshmi from all the world.

"That I don't know." She wishes she did, that she might make some assurance, but it would be false. Misleading hope, even. No; Magni brings her hand to lightly cup Lakshmi's neck, thumb running slowly along the line of her jaw. "But I will be here to face it with you."

Then I am truly blessed, she thinks, does not say, too busy feeling it instead. That warmth and steadiness that realigns her back to this body, this place, not some sick twisted over fear and purpose, all rolled into one. Gently, she cards through her hair, feeling it soft, slip through her fingers. Soaking in the affection like it was one of her long hot baths.

"It would be very tiresome," she says at long last. "To have to burn the whole Gallows down."

"It should burn regardless," she replies, voice slightly muffled, "once the war is done."

Because as much as it was granted better purpose, now, this stone and mortar was the home to a great deal that was fucked up.

"We'll burn it down and go back to Talonhold." What a fairytale ending.

She falls silent, with it. That was true, she could not deny it. She felt it like some old echo bearing down on them all. A reminder to Lakshmi at least, of all she must fight for. All she must never forget.

"Sometimes it feels like the walls ache. All the pain in them." But then - laughs, and burrows against her, turning her face into her hair and huffing into it. "Up into the cold, you're cruel to me, Saawariya."

A quiet sound of agreement. This place should never have been made to be permanent.

Tilting her head, she retaliates - leans into the playfulness, that she might lighten Lakshmi's mood, and nips Lakshmi's jaw with her teeth. "I didn't know you were so fearful."

It's hard, not to want more. To stick by the arbitrary rules of going slow of making sure to embed this in more than just skin on skin and the sharp inhale of breath that is the unending effort of drinking each other deeply. Because she values Magni for so much more than the clumsy touching in the dark.

But it's harder to refuse when there are teeth on her jaw, a hot breath on her neck. Her heel digs in against the bed. "Of snow? Always." She chuckles. "You love a daughter of the desert, I am afraid. I detest the cold."

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject