Private Tales The Death of Innocence

[Olvir]

"I know!" He shouted over the sound of the rain.

Ollie felt weak. He knew the mistake he had made. Knew what he had done was wrong. All of this could have been avoided. All of the pain and anger. Slowly Ollie pulled himself up from the cobbles, staggering slightly as pain lanced through his thigh.

A piece of the cobble lay embedded within his leg, but the pain was ignored. His clothes were soaked, his hair too, and as he took a step forward he could almost hear the squelching of his boots. "I'm sorry."

He called out to her.

"I am." Ollie continued.

Taking another slow step forward. "I should have been honest."

Could something worse have happened? Maybe, there was no telling, but at least he could have avoided this. Avoided hurting his friend even more.

 

[Houri]

The young girl felt like the storm that raged around them. She watched as Ollie stood and tried not to wince at the sight of him being hurt; he deserved to feel a little of the pain she was feeling. Right? She asked silently, but for once none of the voices answered her.

Before Houri could open her mouth there was a voice from behind her.

"Houri?"

 

[Jiya Luana]

"Houri?"

Jiya hadn't believed the guard when he had said her sister was outside. The last she had been able to tell was that she had been on a mission in the North, but when the Revolution had happened all communications from her had ceased. When she'd asked, or tried to, the Academy had said many had been lost during the uprisings across the territories and that it was safe to presume that Houri was dead. She hadn't been able to tell her surviving siblings such, not until she had a body, but even she had been close to giving up.

Ignoring the storm entirely Jiya ran down the steps and engulfed her sister in a tight hug. She felt the girl stiffen, resist for just a second, before going limp and wrapping her arms around her waist. The feeling of tears seeping through her shirt was the only way to tell her sister was crying over the dim of the storm.

"Come inside!" she shouted to Ollie over the noise. "All of you, come inside," and she guided her sister back into the halls of the Luana mansion.

 

[Olvir]

For a few seconds Ollie simply stood.

He stared at Houri, watching, waiting. He expected a bolt of lightning. A gust of wind. A torrent of rain that would see him drown. Something that would lift the weight of guilt from his shoulders. Something that would make him feel as though he hadn't betrayed his friend.

"Houri?"​

The word rang out through the rain, and his head turned.

He saw Jiya rushing down the steps. He watched as the elder Luana ran and embraced her sister in a tight hug. His featured falling for a moment as he took a breath.

A nod dipped his head, his gaze drawing through the arms of Jiya towards Houri.

Would she even want him there still? Should he even go? His eyes lingered, but as the two Luana girls began to depart Ollie couldn't help it. Despite the pain in his thigh he moved, fingers curling over the wound in his leg. A guard stepped up beside him, catching his arm and pulling him upright as they moved together towards the estate.

 

[Houri]

Home.

And yet... it wasn't. Houri hadn't visited the Luana mansion since she was a youngster, before she had been shipped off to the Academy to control her growing gifts. But even so she had expected some sense of familiarity and safety that came from being back home and yet there was none. Not even the tapestries or art looked the same and she was certain some were even missing.

"Jiya... where is everyone?"

 

[Jiya Luana]

Jiya glanced across her sisters head at Olvir. She didn't know how much the boy had told Houri but she had a sense that it was little, if anything at all.

Quietly she ushered them into a smaller, cozier drawing room she tended to use when reading her books. There were several sprawled over the floors and tables showing they had caught her doing just that. She flipped the open one shut as the butler appeared. He blanched when he saw Houri but even more so when he saw Olvir.

"Master Weiroon," he intoned and bowed deeply, "Lady Houri," he said with a touch more confusion. "Shall I fetch some tea, My Lady?"

"And a medic kit please, I think I can deal with young Olvir's wounds without making a doctor come out in this," she gestured to the weather hammering against the windows. "Please, sit, sit," she guided her sister to a plush sofa and sat down next to her.

"How much have you told her?" she directed almost sharply to Ollie.

 

[Olvir]

Olvir was deposited in a nearby chair, plunked down with little ceremony and even less regard. Something that he could hardly blame the guard for.

A small his left his lips, the pain shooting up his leg. His teeth clicked together, but he didn't offer any complaint as the guard left his side and the butler quickly asked for their needs. Ollie only stayed quiet, his lips thin as he waited for the room to clear.

Then Jiya's attention turned to him.

"Nothing." He said softly, the shame running thick through his voice.

"I didn't..." Olvir trailed off, his head shaking as he dismissed any excused he might have offered. "All Houri knows is that Vel Anir is now a Republic."

He'd not had the heart to say anything else. He'd been too weak.

 

[Houri]

"I'm right here," Houri said with all the ice she could muster when her eyes wouldn't stop leaking. She scrubbed at them with the heel of her palm. "And neither of you have answered me - where is father? Mother?" either of them surely should have answered the door or been called instead of Jiya.

"And weren't you meant to be in Elbion... I thought you were never speaking to father again."

 

[Jiya Luana]

Linton entered the drawing room a moment later with a large silver tray of tea and an assortment of snacks which he always insisted on bringing with tea though Jiya had never touched them. She hardly touched her tea either which always met with frowns, but today she found herself eagerly taking a cup and being relieved to see Houri take one too. She gave a small, tight lipped nod to Ollie. She couldn't have expected more really, it was not his burden to tell Houri the devastation it had brought to her family.

"Houri... mother is fine, she's visiting our aunt at the moment with our youngest siblings - twins - they're about a year old," her lips twitched when she saw Houri scrunch her nose up. How their parents had children was always a cause of disgust for other children. "But during the revolution a lot happened. Father sided with the rebels and was trying to bring peace, but some of our cousins houses revolted. In the chaos, father was killed and Ash... nobody has seen him since," she placed a hand on Houri's knee. "I'm sorry, sister."

 

[Olvir]

Ollie stayed quiet through the exchange, never making a move to touch his tea.

Instead he sat back in the plush chair, watching Houri almost exclusively. Every now and again he looked over at Jiya, wondering how the weight of all of this had fallen on her. He could still remember when she'd been a teenager, when he and Houri had played pranks on her.

His fingers slowly intertwined with one another. How had it all gone this way.

He thought to himself almost bitterly, listening as Jiya finally offered Houri the whole truth.

Eyes cast down onto the ground, shame still pulling through every inch of him. Not able to help but feel the crushing weight of guilt upon his shoulders. Perhaps it had not been his burden to offer Houri the truth, but he felt like it should have been.

He was the one who had gotten her out.

Who had found that place. He should have dealt with the consequences. He would deal with them.

No matter what they would be.

 

[Houri]

Houri stared at her sister in silence.

Dead.

It had been a thing she had been dreading to hear since Ollie had said the word revolution and yet she did not feel some sudden sadness like she thought she should. She felt cold. Empty. Like this news were not something that had any real impact on her at all and Jiya was telling some other girl that her father and eldest brother was dead.

"I assume they're dead, too," she said flatly. Oh. Oh no, she was feeling something. Something cold and lethal.

The storm boomed louder outside.

 

[Jiya Luana]

Jiya had expected the tears of the little sister she had known all those years ago. Not the calm, eerie stare of the woman who sat in front of her. Her question made her start and she glanced briefly to Ollie. His thigh still bled and she gave her sisters hands a little squeeze before standing and walking to the first aid supplies the butler had brought in with the tea.

"Those who were responsible were dealt with, Houri," Jiya replied calmly and knelt next to Ollie to examine the cut. Not too deep but it would need stitches. Houri watched her quietly and then to Ollie.

"But are they dead?" her sister asked again, her eyes boring into them both.

 

[Olvir]

The internal politics of Houses were always something held as dearest secrets. Not even the best spies found it easy to dig up information on the family dynamics of the likes of Luana, Virak, or any of the others. A difficulty that had frustrated many.

Ollie glanced at Jiya, wondering if the vagueness she spoke in was due to him. Not many were eager to share family secrets. "I can g-"

A hiss cut him off as Jiya touched the wound for a brief moment, probing it with the tip of a sowing needle in order to clean the wound. Fingers scrunched ever so slightly on the arm of his chair, and the sword he'd put on the side of the seat almost seemed to vibrate.

He clutched it, as if steeling himself against the pain of the sowing needle.

Ollie knew next to nothing about what had happened with Luana, not really. Just as no one really knew how Aisling had risen to lead House Weiroon.

Not that he would have stepped on Jiya’s toes at this point. ”I can go.”

He reiterated, looking at the two women. ”If this is something you would rather I not hear…”

 

[Houri]

Jiya's glance up at her was all Houri needed to know.

"You just threw them in prison, didn't you!?" she accused, standing up and forgetting all about the tea in her hands. The cup smashed as it hit the hardwood floor. The storm raged and battered at the mansion like a giants fists pounding against the rockface.

"Houri, it's the due process of the realm. I can't go around just loping people's heads off--"

"THEY KILLED OUR FATHER! They deserve death," she snarled.

 

[Olvir]

It was at that point Ollie decided to just melt into the chair he was sitting in.

The rage that Houri bore was clear, and by many arguments justified. Her father had died, her brother had disappeared. She had been refused any and all knowledge for years. The anger she now felt had to be a accumulation of all those emotions springing forth.

It was understandable, and Ollie couldn't help the guilt that sat at his chest. Fingers wrung against the armchair, and he looked at Jiya as the sowing needle stopped it's incessant stabbing. "Houri."

Olvir said quietly, slowly.

He knew it was not his place, but he could not remain silent.

"You're not wrong, but things...they have to be worked through." He said slowly. "There has to be a trial, an understanding so the people know. So they can see what these men did and that they will pay the price."

Slowly he tried to stand, nudging Jiya away.

 

[Houri]

Jiya nodded in agreement.

She. Nodded. In. Agreement.

They were talking about people who had murdered her father! In cold blood! Her whole body quite literally shook with her rage and the house did too with the next strike of lightning.

FORGET THEM. LET US HUNT THESE RATS AND KILL THEM! Boomed the Lord of Storms inside her mind. She was on the prephecise of agreeing with him, of unleashing her own type of justice on everyone who had hurt her family.

"Where are they?" She asked coldly. Jiya stood with her hands on her hips.

"Houri--"

"WHERE. ARE. THEY?"

 

[Olvir]

Ollie almost shirked back as Houri shouted. Her words echoing so loudly in the room they might as well have been a clap of thunder.

His lips thinned, and for the first time it occurred to him that the weather outside was actually his friends doing. The connection drawing as the rain slashed down harder on the windows. Pelting them with such force that he was sure they are about to break. "Houri!"

He insisted.

"Killing them won't bring your father back." It was a truth, a harsh truth. One that he did not want to say. "It won't make you feel better."

Another step towards her. "Please."

Olvir reached out, attempting to wrap his friend in a tight embrace.

 

[Houri]

Killing them won't bring your father back...

The words were like icy daggers in her heart and whilst they hurt they thawed the uncontrollably hurricane of rage. Her father was dead. Dead. The word was so final. She tried to conjure his face and found she could not, even his voice sounded like she was hearing it through water. When had she last seen him? When he had taken her to the Academy himself? She didn't notice Ollie walk tentatively towards her until his arms were around his too-thin frame.

It was too much.

The dam inside of Houri broke and suddenly the girl crumpled into his arms, great heaving sobs leaving her and plump tears rolling down her cheeks.

Her father was dead and there was nothing she could do.

 

[Olvir]

Olvir didn't say anything else.

There wasn't anything that he could say.

He had barely been equipped to handle the situation before, this? He was like a rowboat cutting across the middle of the open sea. There was no bearing, no planned route. Olvir was as lost as could be, wading through the impossible.

But it didn't matter.

In that moment he knew that he would stand firm. That he wouldn't move even as Houri's tears began to flow and her weight crashed into him.

His arms folded a bit more tightly around her form. His weight pushing against hers so that she did not crumple onto the floor. For a few moments he simply held her in silence. No word passing through his lips, simple breaths causing the steady rise and fall of his chest.

The simple comfort of a friend.

 

[Houri]

Houri didn't notice as Jiya quietly dismissed the servants from the room. She didn't seem to notice either the way Ollie's arms tightened about her skeletal waist. All she could feel for some time was a pain she didn't know how to deal with. On and on the tears came. Jiya put a hand comfortingly on her back and she was half aware of her sister helping Ollie move her to a chair but whether she had been standing or sitting on the plush cushions it did not seem to matter.

Houri cried until there were no more tears and her sides hurt from the effort of it all.

The silence seemed to stretch on for an age to the point Jiya was about to place a blanket over her, thinking her asleep, when suddenly she asked.

"What about the Academy? Can I still go home?"

 

[Olvir]

Ollie kept a gentle hand on Houri for as long as she continued to cry. His touch soothing as he tried to do anything that he could to settle his friend.

He knew the pain she was feeling would not go away any time soon. Knew that it would settle in the midst of her soul and stay there until...well, perhaps forever. Ollie hadn't lost his father, his family, he hadn't spent five years in an asylum.

But he did his best in that moment.

Even if that was not very much.

When Houri asked her question, Ollie looked up at Jiya. For a few moments he hesitated, and then slowly nodded his head. "The Academy is still there, if that's where you want to go."

Another look at Jiya, and he wondered if Houri would even be allowed.

 

[Jiya Luana]

Jiya had sat quietly whilst her sister chose Ollie to comfort her over her. She couldn't blame her really, Houri had been young when she had gone to the Academy and before then they had not spent as much time together as the two children had. So she sat patiently, waiting for her sister to come to her, to offer her back her home, when instead she ripped out her heart.

She looked at Ollie with a startled expression.

"Houri... you don't have to go back. I know father made you, but your home is here. Where have you even been all these years? They told me you were dead! I just..." she ran her hands into her braids then let them drop. Dealing with her younger siblings had not been in the instructions her father had left.

 

[Houri]

The Academy is still there.

Houri let out a deep sigh of relief and her shoulders slumped. Of course the Academy was still there, it was its own living, beating thing. No revolution could destroy that. But her whole body stiffened again at Jiya's outpouring.

They told me you were dead.

Did Maz think that too? Their mother? Had their father before he had...

"Father didn't make me!" she defended angrily, scrubbing at her reddened face. "The Academy is where I belong, I've been good, they have to let me back."

Jiya looked bewildered and confused, turning to Ollie.

"Where did you find her?"

 

[Olvir]

Olvir frowned, looked at Jiya for a moment, and then made a decision. He looked at Houri. "If you want to go back, you'll go back."

He didn't know what it would take, if he would have to fight Proctors or even Houri's older sister, but he would let his friend make this choice. It would be different than she remembered, and he was sure that would land as yet another shock.

But this time she would have the choice. "I promise."

If she wanted to go back, Olvir would make sure that she did. Even if he had to scrape together what little political influence he had.

Fingers squeezed her palm gently, and then looked up at Jiya again. His features were stern, but he began to explain.

"I found her in a prison of sorts, an..." He looked at Houri. "An Asylum."

One that he would have to return to. "I think, for Dreadlords and Initiates who were meant to be...forgotten."

His family had certainly known nothing of it, even though it was on Weiroon land, and Olvir couldn't help but wonder who else was trapped in that place. If it had been abandoned after the Revolution, it would be a hunt just to find out who had known about it in the first place.

 

[Jiya Luana]

"AN ASYLUM?!" Jiya exploded, standing up and throwing her hands in the air. How had the Network not uncovered this? For years her father had searched for his little girl - the one that was not a disappointment - and nothing had turned up. Not a whisper, not a whisker. Just Houri's occasional letters, though his spies had long since determined she had never been where she had reported she was. That was the only thing they had known. Jiya was quick to anger but she was furious right then.

"They put you in an asylum and you want to go back?!" she began to pace back and forth.