Private Tales The sweetest smiles hold the darkest secrets

A private roleplay only for those invited by the first writer
"Great minds," Samara said with a very small smile. This may have been where he was born and raised but it was never his home. The Autumn Court was barely his home, really. Endora was his home and it was the only place she had ever seen that sparkle in his eyes...that true love and happiness.

"I do not care about any of the normal things here. I want to see what you like," she squeezed his forearm gently. "I only care about you in this wretched place, Raph."
 
Raphael looked down at her with a small smile then gave her arm a squeeze.

"Thank you," it meant a lot. He would never be able to express it so he would simply have to hope she understood. His wing stretched to curl around her back and keep her pressed to his side as they walked. Outsiders were not welcomed the same way they were in other parts of the Autumn Court and he had no intentions of letting her wander off to be hurt or... cause mischief as was more likely.

It was a short hike to reach the peak but Raphael enjoyed it after the day of flying. The mountain evened out into a flat viewing platform which afforded unrivalled views of the Autumn Court spreading out from beneath the shade of the Spine far off into the jungles distance.

"This is where I used to come to get away from it all."
 
Samara never felt safer than when she was near Raphael and there was something about the way he would wrap his wings around her that just made it all the better. He was supposed to be big and scary but when they were together, she saw him. The good man beneath every hard time and heartache he had been through.

She was perfectly happy just walking in silence next to him as they hiked to the secret spot that was his sanctuary. When they arrived, she was not disappointed. It was beautiful up here and she could absolutely see why he would come here. There was a subtle breeze and complete silence except for the occasional bird or other animals.

"Wow," she said as she looked out over her homelands. "This is absolutely breathtaking, Raph. I can see why you would come here. I don't think I would want to leave in all honesty. It is so perfect up here..."
 
Raphael laughed and took a perch on his usual rock. Sid had always said it made him look like a gargoyle but he didn't care.

"I never wanted to leave here either, it always took Sid coming to fetch me to get me off here," he smiled sadly at the many memories. If life had been better here he might not have needed such a secluded spot. "After years of being locked underground as well... I just needed to come and see the sky. To remind myself I wasn't trapped under there anymore," he tilted his chin to look up at the sky and the stars that had just begun to emerge.
 
Samara went to take a seat on the rock by Raphael and reached out to take his hand in hers. She had never asked him for details on his life. She knew some but not everything and, while she wanted to know everything about him, she couldn’t stand to see the pain etched across his handsome features.

“You’ll never be trapped again, Raphael,” Samara squeezed his hand and leaned over to press a gentle kiss to his cheek. “I promise. Between your brothers and me, no one will hurt you…”
 
Raphael smiled as he looked down at their hands and then looked back out over the view.

"I'm not the trapped child I was back then. As much as I hate my work, Midir taking me away from here... well," he laughed. "It was probably the happiest day of my life if I'm being honest with myself," he shrugged his shoulders. For a while he fell silent and just enjoyed the view. He could sense the questions Samara was no doubt bursting to ask but was he ready to share them yet? It was a wound that still oozed.

"I think my mother would have liked you Samara, she would be happy to know I found someone I want to leave that torture chamber for."
 
Samara and Raphael sat quietly with their hands entwined taking in the view. It really was beautiful and she really didn’t want to leave to go back down with the hateful puca’s of his tribe.

Assholes.

When he spoke again, she felt a warmth flow over her. Raphael may have had a tough shell to crack but she loved what was underneath now that she was cracking it.

“I wish I could’ve met her,” Samara said quietly. How different would Raphael be if his mother was still alive? How different would his life have been? “I would’ve loved to hear some embarrassing childhood stories,” the shuck teased.
 
Most would have laughed and shared some little childhood story about a mother and her son. About warmth and love. But the truth was Raphael did not have any golden memories of running through fields and his mothers laugh.

"She died when I was very young, before my seventh name day," he shuffled his wings and kept his eyes trained upon the view before him. "I wish I had nicer memories of her and from what little I have learnt she was a bright and loving woman, but the mother I knew was one scared who spent the last years of her life locked beneath the mountain because she chose to have me."
 
Samara had nothing to say to comfort Raphael. She didn't even know how someone could comfort in this situation. She simply squeezed his hand once more and rested her head on his shoulder.

After a few minutes of silence, she spoke, "for what it's worth, Raphael, I am glad she chose to have you..."

They sat in silence for quite some time before Samara decided to change the subject to a (hopefully) better topic.

"Are you sure I can't kill the smug assholes here?" There was teasing in her voice but he would know that she was serious underneath the joking. She hated them all. "I promise to never play keep away with the ball again!"
 
Raphael laughed despite himself. It was a rasping laugh full of pain as well as humour but it was still a laugh; something he had never thought he would do on these dark steps.

"No, it would do no good. The whole tribe is... this is the way of life here," he sighed and glanced down at her. "Nothing will change, it'll just be another arsehole in charge. They need change. That's what me, Sid and Lorcan are trying to do here. Women at least can do more now than stay at home and have children, they can work," sure if it was sewing, cleaning or other flowery jobs the mensfolk thought appropriate for women but it was something. A step towards greater change.

"Let's head back, we should rest before tomorrow."
 
"You three are wonderful men," the shuck said with a small smile. The silence was quite brief this time though.

Samara let out a long, exasperated sigh when Raphael said they should head back. She did not want to head back. At least up here, they could pretend they were elsewhere.

"Fine," she conceded and stood from the rock. "But I am not happy about it!" She said with a tone. It was a tone that Raphael would know was not very serious but serious at the same time. She was itching for a fight with those assholes and he knew it.
 
Raphael smiled but didn't rebuke her nor come to their defence; if killing them would have solved anything or given him a shred of peace nobody would have begrudged him his revenge, not even Midir who had suggested it subtly more than once to his executioner.

Back down the winding mountain paths they went to the cabin they had been given as theirs for the night. It was nothing special, a small space with four pallets made up inside and a cold hearth which Raphael soon got burning.

"These are usually for soldiers who stop over here on their way to and from the Western Courts," Raphael explained.
 
“How thoughtful of them to let us use one,” Samara started to take off her weapons.

Once she was more comfortable, she said down on one of the pallets and watched the fire dance.

“Where would they have stuck us if we weren’t here on the Erlking’s order?”

She wondered if it would have been under the stars to fend of themselves or perhaps in a cell somewhere.

“What are the plans for tomorrow?” She asked as she started to pull off her boots.
 
"It depends how quickly they want me gone," he laughed slightly and eased his boots off. "I suspect they'll have enough volunteers by the morning to launch some kind of distraction. Midir sends them over the Summer Court every now and then to train and we know it draws most eyes up that way. It'll make it easier for us to slip into the territory and make as much use of the distraction to get as close to the palace as we can," he sounded far calmer discussing their real mission than he had been about discussing his home.

"I think we'll find the answers we need there. Uncover why exactly they took Maeve, how they knew... and if they really killed the King of Spring."
 
Samara just shook her head at his assertion that they would work quickly if it meant him leaving. She didn't understand how anyone would Raphael out of their life but here they were surrounded by a bunch of dicks with wings.

"Wait...palace?" She asked. She hadn't actually thought about where they would heading inside of the Summer Court and the palace made sense but they would be noticed just waltzing around there. She could pass for a Summer fae if necessary but Raphael couldn't.

"Do you have someone specifically we are visiting first?" She leaned down to take her own boots off as she asked the question. Nothing felt better than taking them off after a long day.
 
"We'll start with Mercutio," Raphael all but growled the name. He'd seen first hand what he had done to Maeve and it had taken him and Sid to stop Lorcan from tearing into the other fae and beginning a war then and there. He couldn't blame him, if someone had done that to Samara... He angrily laid back on the bed and folded his hands behind his head. "When we're done making him talk hopefully he'll have given us some names, point us in the right direction to who gave the orders. I don't think he has the brains to do anything himself, someone is pulling his string and if it's not Tatiana then we have an even bigger problem. All the courts do."
 
Samara finished taking off her boots and laid down on her own bed. She rolled onto her side and propped herself up on her elbow.

"I think between the two of us, we can make him sing," she said before smiling sadly at Raphael, pulling the blanket over herself.

"I really hope his singing is beneficial though because we need this information. Many lives are depending on us..."

She sighed and rolled onto her back. "Goodnight, Raphael. I hope you get some rest, my puca."
 
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