For Pratyu to keep track of all the ish that goes on there.
- Aressthalya --> anti ascension, anti demon, main goal: protect family, Altair by getting rid of the demons once and for all. She understands the threat they present to her people
- Jānis --> pro ascension, pro "symbiosis", traditionalist and conservative. Wants to keep the demons around because he understands that Altair would be much worse off without them (in regards to the very nature of the land).
- Most Lumanlisc sisters --> progressivists that do not want the Ascension, are afraid of the demons, and want to live in peace. Against the traditionalists. Binzy and Nquilla want to rule; most of the others do not care one way or another, but acknowledge that if they conceded their seats, Altair would probably devolve into a greater mess.
- Roo --> cannot bring herself to decry demons because she is of the opinion that the land belongs to them as much as it belongs to her own people. Wants to find a way to coexist, even if they frighten her
- Imperialists --> remnants of the Jānis regime. Conservative, insist on the need to keep demons around and very anti Sangrian. Want to return to "the old ways"
- UCAS Internal Rebellion --> want the Lumanliscs out of power, attribute everything terrible that's ever happened in Altair to their rule
When Rhea was a young woman (age 15-16), she got pulled in by a mirror demon. Aress managed to get in as well and got her out. Rhea was trapped for a day, Aress was trapped for a week. This singular event shattered Aressthalya's brain and turned her into what she is today. It is not known to any of the other Lumanliscs.
Aress' desires and personality were pushed to extremes. She no longer had qualms or hesitation (loss of impulse control? loss of empathy? loss of foresight?)
It was hard to hold a steady line of communication with everything going on, but Roo didn't think that her sisters had misunderstood Queen Tyrneamitore's warning. Historically, the queen didn't mince her words, and she'd been particularly blunt about what it meant to leave the Altirian gate open. She'd also been very clear about how they would have to close it. Rhea and Binzy and Nquilla and the others were out there right now, milling about in the dining room or the living area or one of the offices, combing through every page of ancient text or every obscure ritual they had access to; summoning demon allies and sea witches to interrogate about planes and how to tether them, not that anyone would know anything. Tasia Tyrneamitore was the gatekeeper and her word was irrefutable law, despite everyone else's protestations. Roo had known better than to argue, not that hearing the verdict had been easy to swallow; but she'd always been a little cursed, and she supposed that there really was no other way for all of this to end.
She sat in the relative dark of her room, scratching small, meaningless designs on a pad of paper with a quickly-drying pen that had been lying in her nightstand. Motes of dust floated through thin strands of light that tried to push their way in from underneath the blinds. The air was still and cold. Mina was gone and Moira had left because rabbit... deer-crow creatures, Roo supposed, could also be haunted. And she was alone. And now... she tipped her head back as a telltale gnarl wended its way around her throat, thorns pricking at the tender lump that was her voice. Now, she thought steadily, distantly, she had practice. She knew what it was, to be lonely, and now she'd be alone forever.
There were only two options: anchor Altair fully and unleash her demons upon the world, or evacuate and close the gate - lose Altair and everything horrible within to the vast expanse of whatever existed outside of what was known, but save the rest of the realm... one that she had never, and now, would never look upon with her own two eyes.
The gnarl tightened. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, pen stilling in her hands.
There was no point in wishing things were different, praying that they could be. They had all the answers right in front of them. She just had to sit and wait for her sisters to come to the same conclusion.
"Feofil," Roo's voice echoed from the other side. "Hi. How are you doing in the storm? I wanted to check in on you."
“Yeah, that’s one way to put it.” Pari muttered.
“Okay,” she exhaled. “Okay. So she bypassed the wards. That’s… concerning. You need to get out of the house as quickly as you can. I’ll head back right now, I should be there in twenty minutes.”
“We don’t know what she might have infected. If she already entered the house…” Roo exhaled. “Okay. Okay, the princess’s room. There are extra wards etched into the walls - I think it was a nursery at one point. That might be safe.”
Pari exhaled a curse, turned tail and ran, making sure to snatch at his elbow and pull him in the direction of the stairs alongside her. She couldn't hear anything behind them, so hopefully Melat had been incapacitated.
"Wait so," he had to break the spell, just for a moment, and looked into her eyes again, "We're doing this, right? Right now?”
"I mean, I'm half naked in front of you." Pari bit her lip, considering him. "You... do want this, right? Tell me the truth."
"No, yeah," he said quickly. "Yes. I just think maybe I should run to the special supply in the bathroom before I make you wait fully naked in the cold."
"There's a special supply in the bathroom?"
"Yeah, of condoms. Didn't you hear Roo earlier?" He had to stifle a grin. "Even she was feeling the tension."
"Oh my god," she scoffed, rubbing her forehead. "That's what she was talking about. I was wondering why she was being so... what's the word? Like, not subtle."
"It was not subtle at all." He agreed. "Be right back? Don't get cold feet while I'm gone."
"Depends on how fast you get back," she teased.
Pari was a virgin, but she knew about sex. She hadn’t known who or when or how, but she’d had access to the internet and was paranoid enough about her first time to have done some research in years prior, to avoid any sort of embarrassment that would leave her looking naive, or worse — like a failure.
But none of her research had prepared her to sleep with one of her best friends. And none of her research had told her he’d be just as nervous as her, or that he’d be far more considerate. Pari had been prepared to go through the motions. She wanted this, sure, but even more than that — she wanted to be good at this. She wanted to make sure he’d be left with stars in his eyes and wanting more, because nothing would be more humiliating than Feofil’s disappointment.
But when she slipped out of the rest of her clothes, when he took her in his arms, all of her careful planning tossed itself right out the window. Her brain was on the fritz, and sparks flew between her ears instead of thoughts when they kissed, and it only became more confounding from there. She couldn’t recall having a single coherent speculation during their time together, which was more terrifying in retrospect than she cared to admit. It was like the second she began come together, he pulled her apart once again.
She’d also liked it more than she cared to admit. People didn’t touch Pari, and that was by design, but when Feo slid his lips across her skin, no matter where, she fought the urge to melt entirely beneath him, rather than holding herself back from shoving him away. Another thing she hadn’t anticipated. It was made all the worse by the fact that Feo paused intermittently, his hands tangled in her hair, and asked if she was okay. She’d had to confirm around her own impatient keening.
And she had known that some of it would hurt, especially since it was her first time. She’d expected a cramp, like her period, or a quick, sharp pain because hey — she was being impaled.
But before they’d even gone that far, Feo had taken great care to make sure it would go smoothly, that she’d have some idea of what it might feel like beforehand. Fingers weren’t exactly the same, but he was right. The sensation had prepared her for what was to come. And she did, and more than once, which had also been both unexpected and unnerving, again in retrospect. While she definitely had not protested against her own weakness during, or even after the fact, she found herself now morbidly marveling at how easily he’d brought her to her knees.
But it was okay, she decided. Actually, this was good. This was fantastic, because now she’d had sex for the first time with someone she actually did trust; it had been… good, though she wasn’t willing to admit how good; and they’d gotten all of it out. The tension from the last month and the year before that, the warmth that rose in the pit of her stomach when he was near, now she knew what it felt like. That curiosity had been quelled, and… now things could go back to normal. One and done. Right?
"Oof, I'm sorry that we didn't manage to get on the power issue. I hope it's not too cold. I wanted to send someone out, but we got stuck in the village and the storm took out the local lines," she sighed. "Wait, you said there are kids? What are their names? What do they look like?"
“Where are the kids?” she managed.