Stormbreak

Sidra cursed softly as she tried to stand, and Sulien was instantly by her side.

“I hate this,” Sidra said softly. “I hate feeling so weak.”

Sulien gently supported her, helping her come to her hooves. “You don’t need to be strong by yourself,” he murmured. “I will be by your side every step of the way.”

Sidra looked at Sulien, gentle Sulien who was always by her side since that first time they had laid eyes on one another. Sidra had always been something. A sister, a daughter, a princess. She had always been something more to others, something to be cherished and protected. But looking at Sulien, Sidra realized that Sulien had never asked anything more of her. Sulien saw her as Sidra, just Sidra. As a Quirlicorn, an individual, not part of anything more. She was simply Sidra. But….

“Why do you stay with me?” Sidra asked, her voice soft and vulnerable. If Sulien was surprised by her uncharacteristic vulnerability, he didn’t show it.

He really considered her words, and Sidra was grateful that he didn’t just give her some bullshit non-answer.

“Because the moment I saw you, I was drawn to you. We were so much younger then, and I didn’t really understand why. But I knew that I wanted to be your friend,” Sulien said with a rueful smile, and Sidra felt a sting in her heart at the word ‘friend’. But before she could comment on it, or snap at him, Sulien continued.

“When we got to know each other, I saw the strength in you, and the fragility. But you didn’t need my protection, hon. You were fire and light and everything burning in the world. You burned, not to destroy, but to create. But fire can easily be put out, and I saw that in you. It drew me like a moth to a flame. And as we grew…. You became a friend, and more. I believe in you, and your dreams. And I want them to succeed. And well….. I’m not sure why. But I don’t think I could ever leave. To leave would be the death of my being. We are twin flames, two stars locked in orbit. I believe I was meant to find you, and stay with you, in whatever way you will have me.”

While it wasn’t some great proclamation of love, it warmed Sidra’s heart. She didn’t entirely understand his words, but the meaning behind them and the look in his eyes as he spoke made her pause. He looked at her as if she was precious to him, holy and unblemished.

It didn’t entirely quell her fear that she was stopping him from pursuing his own life, but looking at him now, no, looking at them both…. They were a far cry from the spoiled mare and prim stallion who had left Queensbreak.

Looking at Sulien now, he had lost some of the polish and poise that he used to have. Standing before her was a stallion who had traveled part of the world with her, and had changed from it. His hair was no longer as neat and styled as it used to be, his coat didn’t permanently look like he had just bathed. He had some mud around his hooves, something that Sidra couldn’t remember ever seeing while they lived in Espeor, no matter the situations they had gotten in to.

Sulien had a reassuring clarity and purpose in his gaze, and some of that shallow demeanor had rubbed off them both. Sidra rarely thought of being clean, or dressing in jewels and flowing silks. They both had more purpose now.

So Sidra straightened, pulling herself away from Sulien slightly, and took her first wobbling step.

A few days later, Sidra walked slowly back and forth outside of the house under the three sisters and Sulien’s careful watch. It was a relief to be outside and moving. Voyeur had been gone for a while, but Sidra wasn’t worried. He knew the swamp better than she did, and knew what to look for.

“You still have a long way to go,” Karou said, quite bluntly. For a princess of the land, Sidra realized that Karou possessed none of the couth and niceties of Sidra’s royal siblings.

“You don’t talk like a princess,” Sidra commented instead of letting herself think of what Karou was insinuating.

Karou snorted, and Sidra looked over to see Karou looking wholly unimpressed, Tallie and Theo snickering behind her.

“My mother may be Baroness, but we don’t follow the structure of your lands,” Karou said simply. “I am not a princess, and my mother is not a Queen. I have no reason to pretend I’m something I’m not.”

Sidra held back her glare, and Karou smirked. “Oh how you would love to snap back at me,” Karou purred. “But you won’t, because you think it is below you.”

Sidra gave a smirk back, but chose to say nothing as she heard the sounds of someone approaching.

Voyeur seemed to materialize from trees around them, a pleased and surprised look on his face as he found her walking.

“Where have you been off to this time?” Sidra asked with a slight smile, as if she and Karou hadn’t been moments from fighting.

Voyeur snorted slightly. “Helping a turtle make a nest,” he replied, and Sidra gave him a baffled look. A Turtle?

Sulien moved forward suddenly, offering his side as Sidra swayed seconds later. “Thank you,” she murmured, and Sulien nodded with a smile.

“Anytime,” Sulien said with a teasing glint to his eyes, and Sidra smiled softly at him before turning her attention back to Voyeur with a hint of a smirk.

“So really, a turtle?”

Voyeur gave a slightly awkward shrug. “Well I was walking….. Nearly stepped on it. And I don’t know, it was trying so hard. So I just…. Helped it out. Helped her out I guess. She laid some eggs, I helped cover it and well. Here I am,” he said, and Sidra nearly chuckled at the tone.

“More importantly, how are you feeling?” Voyeur quickly asked, his changing of the subject not lost on Sidra.

“Better, I think,” Sidra mused. “I am walking after all,” she added with a teasing tone that had Sulien chuckling.

“You still aren't at full strength,” Karou said, a bit sharply. Sidra rolled her eyes before looking over to the mare.

“I could fight a gorgon right now and win,” Sidra said teasingly, if only to annoy Karou.

Tallie looked over with a dubious look. “No you couldn’t,” she said, and Theo nodded with that dreamy look again.

“A gorgon could kill you,” Theo said, but her tone was completely wrong. Instead of sounding serious and concerned, she stated it more like it was fact, but also like she was debating how it would go. Sidra leveled a stare at Theo for a few seconds before shrugging slightly.

“I personally wouldn’t recommend anything too crazy,” Voyeur said a bit softly, and Sidra felt her temper rise.

“I am powerful,” she hissed. “I would blast it to bits and bring its head back with me.”

She pointedly ignored the surprised looks of those around her.

“Regardless,” Karou said, with a raised eyebrow. “It is not something you should attempt any time soon.”

Tallie nodded gravely, and Theo gave a slightly creepy, slightly dreamy smile.

Sidra held Karou’s gaze for many tense moments before she broke it, turning to look at Sulien.

“Let’s go back inside,” Sidra said and Sulien nodded, helping her back toward the house, their familiars following.

Karou had gotten under Sidra’s skin more than she wanted to admit. She laid there that night awake, watching the others around her. Sulien had drifted off a half hour before, and the sisters and Voyeur slept on the other side of the room. Sidra quietly rose from her spot beside Sulien, gesturing to her cat when he woke to stay asleep.

Then Sidra snuck out of the house.

She wasn’t at full strength, she knew that. She wasn’t anywhere near it, but she had a point to prove. Pushing herself to her limits, she wandered off into the swamp. She was strong, she was the daughter of powerful bloodlines and would prove it.

To all of them.

The swamp at night held dangers at every turn, but her mind had turned back to their previous conversation. Sidra had meant it as a joke, after Tallie had warned Voyeur to stay away from the northeast side of the swamp, and the gorgon there.

But now her honor was at stake, and Sidra would not fail.

Sulien woke, and wasn’t quite sure why. As he came back to wakefulness, he noticed one shocking fact - the other side of the bed was cold. Blinking in the dark, the stallion felt a strike of fear in his gut.

Sidra was gone.

It wasn’t Sulien who woke the others. He didn’t have to. The night had gone silent, the sounds of the swamp creatures suddenly missing. It was a warning, he realized, as a huge crack rang through the swamp, waking the others.

“What's going on?” Voyeur asked, still bleary eyed from sleep.

“Sidra is gone,” Sulien said, the urgency in his tone causing the others to snap awake. Another loud crash rang out, and Sulien felt the tang of magic in the air.

“That idiot!” Karou spat, storming out of the house, her sisters on her heels. Sulien and Voyeur shared a look before following.

“She went after the gorgon,” Theo said in her dreamy tone.

That sent a spike of fear through Sulien. “We have to go find her!”

“We can’t, if the gorgon sees us, we are all dead,” Karou spat.

Sulien stood strong under Karou’s weighted stare. “If we don’t get to her, she is dead. As is your alliance with Khaalida,” Sulien said, his voice soft and dangerous. “If her daughter dies, and she finds out you could have done something….”

Karou’s eyes flashed dangerously. But she spun on heel. “Theo, prepare the healing herbs. Tallie, get the antidotes. We don't know what she will be hit with by the time we get there,” she instructed, the two sisters rushing off to do her bidding.

Karou turned her eyes back to the stallions, noting Sulien’s hawk on his back and Voyeur’s dragon around his leg. Sidra’s cat paced in front of them, looking toward where the sounds of magic and battle continued.

“You can speak to them,” Karou said, more of a statement of fact than a question, but Sulien nodded anyway. “Tell your hawk to scout ahead. Can that dragon get any bigger?” Karou turned her attention to Voyeur with the question, and Voyeur gave a curt nod. “Good, we are going to need them to shield our retreat.”

The trio moved out, Karou leading the way. Falkreath soared ahead, and Sulien felt dread twisting in his gut. The sounds of battle continued, but he felt in his soul that Sidra was weakening. She hadn’t been back to full strength, and this expenditure of magic…. It wasn’t safe.

They didn’t need Falkreath to tell them they were close. The very air was hot and felt heavy with magic and power. But as Falkreath soared back and spoke, Sulien’s knees felt unsteady.

“She is getting weaker, but still fighting,” Sulien said with a hint of pain in his voice. “She is using a lot of magic very quickly.”

Karou snorted. “They have immunities to magic,” she said, and Sulien sucked in a breath. Voyeur was gazing forward with a concerned look as they got closer.

The water around their ankles heated, and Sulien realized the flashes of light ahead were some form of fire or light.

“I won’t go any further,” Karou said, coming to a stop, and Sulien looked at her incredulously.

“You might not have to deal with the repercussions of this but I will,” Karou said simply. “I’m giving that gorgon no reason to come after my sisters.”

“It makes sense,” Voyeur said gently, and Sulien glared at him for a few moments before giving in.

“Let’s go get her,” Sulien said, looking ahead with determination, and Voyeur nodded.

“Shadowdancer will stay small until we need her, a secret weapon,” he said.

With a shared look between the two stallions, they headed off into the fray.

Magic flashed and whirled, fire flashing, water rising, air whipping and the earth itself rising to aid Sidra. Lightning crackled around her, and there was something that looked like lava boiling around the edges of the clearing.

“Holy deities,” Voyeur breathed in awe, watching the mare in front of them. A strange sensation crawled over both the stallions and they suddenly felt a wave of dizziness and exhaustion, and Sulien realized Sidra must be pulling extra energy from the surroundings to amplify her powers and strength.

“We just have to grab her,” Sulien said softly, trying to figure out how to get through the mess around them.

“It looks like Shadowdancer needs to go now,” Voyeur said, all thoughts of saving her for their retreat gone. The gorgon was nearly obscured by the flashes of magic and power being hurtled around.

“I’ll go for Sidra the moment Shadowdancer moves. I don’t want your dragon getting hurt in the magic,” Sulien said.

“You can’t go into that! She might kill you,” Voyeur tried to reason with him.

“She won’t,” Sulien said simply, and started walking toward Sidra.

Voyeur cursed, and the shadows shifted and deepened as Shadowdancer grew. But Sulien only had eyes for Sidra.

“Sidra.”

Her name. That was her name. The mare could barely think, could barely realize she had a body around her, around this place she had sunk to. This place of power. It rolled under her skin, it was a beast of claws and fangs that wanted free.

“Sidra.”

She knew that voice. Her mind did, her body did. A recognition so deep, she felt it in his deep place.

Spikes of pain ran through her, and it felt like reaching from deep underwater just to turn her gaze, to find that stallion. But there he was. She knew that face.

“Come back, Sidra.”

The first step was the hardest. Not a physical step, but one from within her, climbing back from that rolling place of power within her.

But he was waiting for her.

So Sidra fought to bring herself back from that place, from that core within her. She fought for each step, until she could feel her body around her, until she felt herself settling back into her physical form.

With it came a wave of pain and exhaustion that had her buckling. The magic that had slowly been fading disappeared entirely, leaving a wrecked clearing.

“Sulien,” Sidra breathed, and everything went black.

Sulien caught Sidra, and looked around at the destroyed clearing.

“We need to move her,” Voyeur said, finally approaching. “Can you carry her?”

Sulien only nodded, his mind still a bit fuzzy and in awe of what had happened. The magic had parted for him, as if even in that deep place it had recognized him.

Voyeur supported Sidra as Sulien knelt, and pushed her on to Sulien’s back. Sulien stood, grunting slightly under the weight.

“I’m ok,” he said at Voyeur’s concerned look. Another roar split the night, and Sulien looked over to see Shadowdancer attacking the gorgon. He watched in awe as Shadowdancer’s jaws closed around the gorgon’s neck, and ripped the head straight off.

A roar of victory came from the dragon, and Voyeur winced at the loud noise.

“We had to attack,” Voyeur said at Sulien’s questioning gaze. “Once Sidra’s magic wasn’t focused on it, it went for you.”

Sulien nodded slightly, feeling an additional lighter weight on his back as Sidra’s cat curled up beside her.

“Let’s go,” Sulien said, and Voyeur nodded.

Karou was waiting for them where they had left her. Despite the scorn in her gaze, there was concern under it as she saw Sidra’s form over Sulien’s back.

“Hurry,” Karou only murmured, leading them back at a fast pace to her sisters.

Karou, Tallie and Theo worked on Sidra and Shadowdancer, patching their wounds. By the time they were done it was midday, and Sidra was sleeping peacefully again.

“Is she going to be okay?” Sulien asked, worriedly, as he stood over Sidra.

Karou sighed. “She used a lot of magic, and gave herself over to it instead of controlling it. There may be some long term weakness, especially where her magic is concerned. But otherwise, she is exhausted. She went out before she was ready, and now has to pay the consequences,” Karou said. “There is a chance her magic may not recover for a long while yet.”

Sulien gazed down at Sidra, curled up with her cat, and sighed. He should have been paying better attention to her moods, her tone…. All of it.

Voyeur stood by Shadowdancer, but was listening to every word. “Will she still be able to use her magic?” he asked.

Karou looked between the pair, her gaze as flat as the eyes of the snake that curled around her neck. “It’s possible she will. It’s possible she won’t. She might have a mental block from the trauma.”

“Even if she never touches her magic again….” Sulien shared a look with Voyeur, seeing the concern on his face. “Even if she never shows a lick of that magic again, I will still follow her.”

No one had asked, but the statement was clear. Karou and Voyeur didn’t reply, but the fierceness in Sulien’s gaze spoke volumes.

Sidra woke a week later. By then, even Karou had been worried she simply might not wake. But on the seventh morning, a soft sound came from her, shooting the two stallions and three sisters to high alert, right before her eyes cracked open.

Sulien was instantly by her side, and Karou moved forward to help Sulien as Sidra murmured roughly for water.

Sidra drank, then made a disgusted face. “What is that?” she said in a hoarse whisper.

“Liquid that will help you heal,” Karou said, her gaze stern.

Sidra shook her head slightly, but her gaze seemed more focused as she looked around. Then she lowered her gaze, looking at the floor.

“Do I have to tell you how stupid that was?” Karou asked, a bit sharply.

“Rou….” Tallie said softly, but in a warning tone.

“It didn’t kill her,” Theo said, a bit dreamily, and seemingly a bit put out.

“You could have died!” Karou said, ignoring her sisters. “Do you know how much of a royal pain in the ass it would have been if Khaalida’s daughter died in our lands?”

Sidra’s eyes flashed with ire. “Ah yes, good to know your only concern was what would happen if the queen found out about this,” she snapped.

Karou’s eyes narrowed, looking once again very serpentine. “It would have been a political nightmare, not to mention the personal repercussions. She may have decided to blow us all to hell for this,” Karou said sharply. “Think about what you did, and you aren’t even a deity like her. If you think your magical temper tantrum wasn’t bad, you should see what you did to that part of the swamp. You wiped it off the map. There is nothing but debris left, scorched earth and rubble. Not to mention the power your mother has. She could wipe us entirely from existence over this.”

Sidra looked down at the floor for a few moments. “She has no reason to know about this, or care. I’m not one of her pure blooded children. I’m just a political pawn piece,” Sidra said softly, but with venom.

Karou laughed bitterly. “That is the thinking of a spoiled child,” Karou said simply. “She may have made a big mistake by ever letting you leave. You obviously were not ready for any of this. You should have stayed in your sheltered life until you had a lick of sense.”

Sidra shot to her hooves, a bit unsteadily, and as her gaze met Karou’s, it was filled with power.

“Do not make judgements about my life,” Sidra said softly, the undercurrent of that power lacing her words. “Do not pretend that you know anything about me. You never tried to get to know me, so you have no right.”

Karou snorted, and Tallie and Theo shifted anxiously behind her.

“Like you gave us a chance?” Karou replied, gesturing to herself and her sisters. “Like you did anything other than mope around after you woke last time? Like you even had the grace to thank my sisters for their efforts in saving your life, twice now? You didn’t want to, princess. You never took the chance to get to know us or treat us as equals. You simply got too caught up in yourself to care about anyone else around you. It was expected that we would care for you, take you in. You didn’t care to thank Tallie, whose bed you have been resting in. You didn’t care to thank Theo, who tried to warn you about the gorgon.”

Sidra gave Karou a long look. “And what about you?”

“I don’t need your thanks,” Karou said, straightening her posture. In that moment Karou truly looked the part of the heir of this land in the swamp. “The thanks of a spoiled brat like you means nothing to me.”

Karou had stormed out with her sisters following behind, leaving Sulien and Voyeur looking concerned, but Sidra didn’t care. She felt her power rolling within her, begging for release. Part of her wanted to be petty, just blow up this entire house. But she also knew that would be dancing on the line of a reason for war.

And like it or not, Karou had struck a sour note on this whole adventure. Anything Sidra said or did reflected on Khaalida. Her precious, perfect mother who ruled justly and fairly, who had climbed to the ranks of the deities of the world. Who’s power ensured her borders would be safe, who’s power allowed her to make the alliances she had. Who’s power, when mixed with another powerful line, had borne Sidra and her siblings.

Sidra didn’t think about her siblings often, but she did now. Minuet and Sonnet were so different from her, not just personality but how they were raised. Sidra had known structure, training, and protection. Her siblings had grown wild, but Sidra was made to uphold what it meant to be a princess of Espeor. Sometimes Sidra wished she too had been shipped off to join them. Perhaps she wouldn’t have found herself where she was now.

Standing in a room, but feeling so very alone. Sulien and Voyeur were watching her with concern, yes, but also caution. As if she was a bomb near an open flame, waiting to detonate.

Sidra took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Her weakness has no space here. The trembling of her legs, the shakiness in her soul.

“We leave in the morning,” Sidra spoke, and neither stallion offered commentary.

Sidra almost wished they had. The solitary feeling crashed down on her, but she strengthened her resolve. 

There was nothing for her here, anyway. The kindness of Sulien, the rationality of Voyeur, even the three sisters, wherever they had gone to. None of them could possibly understand the storm within her. She thought the storm had broken, in that fight. She could barely remember it. 

But as she stood there, Sidra realized it had only begun.