apassingafternoon: (but inside my head so loud and clear)
kαıηє {нคяd тσ Ъε รσƒт, тσugн тσ Ъε тεหdεя} ([personal profile] apassingafternoon) wrote2015-04-17 09:08 pm

Bottle It Up

Kaine didn't see Nariko after she returned to the palace. There would have been something oddly poignant about sharing the entire experience, speaking a bit frankly about it, but Kaine wanted to hold it to herself for a little while longer. In the end that was for the best. Sekht and Fyra's wedding was held in the morning and they all stood for it and then danced for it. Everything should have been goddamn peachy. There was no more pressure or tension in her general atmosphere, just the understandable, acceptable level of regret and acceptance. Kaine could deal with that.

What she couldn't fucking deal with was Nariko. Oh, sure, she smiled and clapped and when Sekht playfully asked her for a dance but every warning sign in the book was on full display. Her smile was hollow, her polite manner far too restrained. The natural ease that she'd found with Roland was nowhere to be found, in fact she seemed far too content with pretending he wasn't even anywhere near her. And maybe the obnoxious sleeves of her shirt - it was fucking insane that anyone could be unaffected by this heat - hid her left hand but Kaine saw the black chord around her neck and in that voiceless, deep way she had always possessed when it came to Nariko, Kaine knew that the other woman's wedding ring was hiding underneath her clothes.

This was some bullshit and Kaine, free of her nervousness and caution, was real fucking tired of pussyfooting around here.

So the wedding party continued but Kaine wasn't around to enjoy the latter half of it. She had dragged Nariko off and then returned alone.

Livid didn't begin to describe how she felt. But she made her way over to Bert anyway, jaw clenched tight and her arms folded even tighter.

"I need you to do something for me."
toweredingly: (Rose)

[personal profile] toweredingly 2015-04-20 10:39 pm (UTC)(link)
"I wouldn't try to stop you," Roland replied flatly. Flatly, but with a certain dangerous undercurrent of anger which was almost unnoticeable. "I've forced us back together once. If ka wants us apart, well, I guess it'll happen." It was clear, and understandably so, that he was unhappy with that. It was equally clear that he meant it. He wasn't about to step in now. Part of him, endlessly weary even at his young age, said that you could only follow someone, not force them to follow you. Nor, if he was honest, did he altogether want any of them to. You will lose all that you love...

"When it comes down to the moment," he said after a little while, "I swear to you, I will not force her to anything she doesn't want to. And nor will you. What comes after that..." He shrugged. "There'll be water if God wills it."
toweredingly: (Standing and staring)

[personal profile] toweredingly 2015-04-21 05:08 pm (UTC)(link)
The trouble was that injecting poison into conversation with Roland was that the more toxic you were, the more stonily implacable he tended to become. This was no exception. His face hardened a little, his voice cool and flat. "You're right. You don't." He got to his feet, looking down at her. "But it is my business. Not just as concerns Cuthbert. Nariko is part of my ka-tet. She's my wife. And until she - not you, she - tells me otherwise, that's how it's going to stay. What happens at the end of this will happen. You can curse me for it all you want, tell me it's not ka, but until it happens, you don't know what it is." He reached out, gripping her shoulder, his blue eyes boring into her. "As for what's separating us, you tell me this: if it came to a choice between Nariko and Cuthbert, would you find it so easy?"
toweredingly: (Moody Ro' is moody)

[personal profile] toweredingly 2015-04-23 06:38 pm (UTC)(link)
"I've not known her so long as you," Roland said, very coolly, and let go of her. One dark eyebrow arched, and he folded his arms, looking down at her. "But I've a sense you know the answer to that question. So tell me."

Not that he wasn't considering it. He was, and would continue to, letting the question tick over in his mind for a good long time while his thoughts ground away at it, slow but exceeding fine. But for now, he was interested to know what she thought on the subject - not that you would have guessed it, from the stony immobility of his face.
toweredingly: (Time)

roland you're a butt

[personal profile] toweredingly 2015-04-23 09:14 pm (UTC)(link)
That was a poor choice of words. It wouldn't have been so bad, except that Hambry was a wound too freshly reopened, too close to the conversation. Shiveens and side-wives... those weren't things he wanted to think about. Not in a conversation including Susan. Roland's eyes hardened. "She's no gilly. She ought to know that. Just as she ought to know that if I wanted to free her from our vows, I would. She told me herself that they were vows made to Gilead and the Eld, and both are gone."
toweredingly: (Trudging on)

[personal profile] toweredingly 2015-04-23 10:42 pm (UTC)(link)
"If I showed a third of that passion..." Roland began, and cut himself off, his jaw working tautly under his skin. For a moment, he was quiet, then he said in a rather lower tone, "My passion has a tendency to get people killed. If you think she knows me, then she ought to know that. Just ask Susan."

And that was more than enough of that conversation for him. Pulling himself up to his full height, he turned on his heel, aiming to walk away and lose himself in the crowd for a while.
toweredingly: (Standing and staring)

[personal profile] toweredingly 2015-04-23 11:30 pm (UTC)(link)
For a moment, Roland stood stock still, looking down at her, as if he had been entirely taken out of time, Then, slowly, he relaxed, little by little, back into being merely tense.

"If you are lucky, and he takes no interest in you," he said, his voice low, "he may only be deadly." There's a tension under the level tone which belies just how much he does not want to talk about this. "I was... unlucky. And one day, he will pay for that. But now, in public? I will not speak of it."