[PRP] fetchpatrick & fitzpatrick (eve & julian & jeremiah)

[cibarium]

"Oh, is that the big reveal? I'm not surprised," Eve replied. She gave an intrigued look to Jeremiah before directing her gaze to the backyard, where Leila's chickens were slowly moseying about. "A moonwalker can form a bond with an animal the same way a warg can, if we become powerful enough. Wargs probably have similar potential, though I couldn't guess the specifics."

Her wife being able to shapeshift into a hen someday was a funny thought.

"Something went wrong, I'm guessing."

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"No," he chuckled softly, somehow amused that Eve was aware; if someone was going to be, it would be here, "that's not the big reveal but one of them."

The chuckles died away, his tea picked up for a drink. "The spirit bond was very powerful. It was meant to be a blessing, not a curse - Pride referred to it this way - but apparently there were those that abused their power on this side."

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

"So someone did something to split us in two?" Eve guessed. With a bitter little laugh, she added, "Gives meaning to the mysterious references I've heard to us having once been more than we are. Of course."

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"Someones, Eve. Adoelle was involved in this. It had been something Pride created for Renard, they cared for him, just like Pax did. Yet everything was laid at Pride's feet, Pax's too potentially. People were abusing the bond, the dead were rising; fetches, and there were monsters at the crossroads ..."

Jeremiah shook his head. The story sounded ... Well, it was not a work of fiction but how much of it was lie and truth? That was the problem.

"A decision was made to create a second sigil, one that affected the magic."

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

"Gathering in secret to conduct a blood ritual didn't turn out badly enough the first time?" Eve bitterly replied.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"It was deemed necessary by Adoelle, possibly the other two as well," Jeremiah replied, "and they carried it out. This resulted in the creation of the Noble charter. That which the Court is founded upon, the tenets it follows, but it also is what created the wargs and the moonwalkers as we know them."

He leaned to take a drink of his tea, fingers tight around it (but mindful all the same). "It was abuse and lack of consent, Eve. That is what theses ... roles we are were founded on. Not just the Court but the moonwalkers and the wargs as well."

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

Eve had a tired look on her face as she rested the side of her head on her palm. "What's worse is we've been participating in all this, Jeremiah. We've casually discussed committing similar acts and chosen to do others, and we've called it necessary too." It was clear this had been on her mind a lot without having needed to know about this second seal.

"I can't pretend I'm not above it." She took a deep breath and topped off her teacup. "I just want to know how to make it stop."

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"Essentially," Jeremiah replied. It was part of the very conversation he had had with Ezra but even then he had revealed that it was not something he was not alright with. Would not ever be alright with. "It goes against everything but it's been done time and time again."

This was on his mind more and more, especially as he delved deeper into the magic and learned how things like this were actually carried out. "Stopping it is more complicated. Will opening the cage achieve that? Yet that is a future goal, not now. Right now we are looking finding the Noble Charter - the document upon which the Court is founded - and that should enable us to change things. Hopefully for the better but ... there is so much misinformation around. Never mind the fact that it ties with both the wargs and the moonwalkers and so it's a matter for many."

chiparium

word count to here: 1018

 

[cibarium]

Eve was smoldering (figuratively) in her seat.

"I'm fascinated they chose a binary," she offered. She was watching the chickens bob about the yard again.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"It," he said slowly, "gets worse than that."

For a moment Jeremiah was actually smoldering figuratively and literally before he caught himself and it stopped.

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

"This is a lot to unpack, Jeremiah," admitted Eve. Not that they'd all been dropped in a warehouse full of boxes since the beginning, but something about this stung and stuck with her in a way nothing else had yet. She loved being a moonwalker. She took pride in it and did her best to help her pack find similar comfort in how their bodies worked now. The fact there was supposed to be more to it, possibly even more than a warg alone could do... she felt cheated. Leila would too.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"I know." Jeremiah's voice was low now, his eyes looking away. "It was not a good beginning, Eve, how this started. I've barely been able to process it properly."

His fingers sought out hers and it was there, for a fleeting moment, frustration and revulsion at what he was about to discuss. It was never like that for Eve, his feelings around her always positive so for something like that to bleed through-

It was not good was an understatement. This was not easy to talk about.

"Our powers as Nobles, moonwalkers, and wargs," he continued, "were literally built upon the lack of consent. The mind, body, soul, and bone of an innocent. It's a secondary Sigil and it was put upon a young woman, one who was drugged and then-" Jeremiah had to stop for a moment.

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

Eve reached an arm around to pull gently on Jeremiah's shoulder, encouraging him to shuffle closer. If just learning about it had been so traumatic, she could understand his hesitation to describe the act itself. The fact it required someone to be drugged already told her more than she felt entitled to knowing. "It was obviously an act of violence," she quietly said. "I don't need the complete description..."

This was making her regret Adoelle's death a bit less.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

Jeremiah did move closer, leaning against her and resting his head against hers with a sigh. While he had maintained his demeanor during the truth of it being revealed, here like this he felt no need to do so.

Eve could be trusted to see what laid underneath his exterior.

"It was a sacrifice. One for the good of many." He turned his head a moment, face hidden against Eve's hair as he took a breath and then turned back (still remaining close). "We are trying to get the Charter so that we can try to undo, or fix, what has been done as well as save Pax, Pride and Noeh. I think it's needed, it gave structure to other ashdown, but ..."

Not at the kind of cost it came at the first time.

"I've got to speak to someone who helped make it to learn of the potential consequences before we moved forward. The abuse has to end."

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

There was another pause after Jeremiah gave the rest of his thoughts, which Eve processed while gently tousling his hair. Some of her curiosity about wargs and moonwalkers had been fed here, and the answers had given her bitterness instead of insight. An act of violence had designed them all.

"I'm glad you're being careful," said Eve. "But I can't be optimistic on what can be undone."

azuredreams