freya remembers the battlefields, blurry as they are, but pockmarked by adrenaline-made snapshots. emotions like high-strung relief, a terrible foreboding, upon seeing illeana become the alchemist on those sprawling icelands.

and again, while freya was still half-delirious, poison thrumming through her veins, bearing witness to the woman who could defy space itself. 

these memories are juxtaposed by the one their ghosts both share, and is sad that the war is so much closer, even as the chains creak and the playground sand sifts under their heels. the woman next to her forever painted in shades of pink and red.

"no," she says, "i haven't."

clouds drift overhead, blotting out the light.

"but the world keeps turning and i wanted to ask you - do you remember our last conversation here?"

illeana reyes

☉

"we have too much to do to dwell on our grievances," she says and uses her toes to guide her swing back. it's less momentum and more the turning of her heel that moves her forward and back, but the chains groan all the same. 

"i do." through her lashes, she looks up at the sky, as though waiting for it to darken. another drop of rain splashes on her nose, making it crinkle, as though teasing her. 

she does not take her eyes off the sky when she says, unmoved, as though discussing the weather, "rayquaza has abandoned eva and made me their new avatar in her stead."

illeana reyes

☉

maybe they might have had rayquaza not intervened. she can still feel them now - all the cracks, the imperfections, like a worn sweater patched one too many times. but there is so much room inside of her now. no longer is she suffocating. 

she's no fool. she knows it's the deity's doing, but so too was it their doing when she found eva limp in her arms, lips blue, and all the pain in the world in her eyes. 

this world and these deities, they break us. over and over and over again, they break us.

"left her, yes," she says, and the humidity thickens. a patter of rain wets the earth. "but not abandoned," she amends, "because i won't leave her." that is why they chose her - eva will heal and when she can withstand the blessing, their peacemaker will return.

her lips thin. "a storm has followed me since then. but like i said, too much to do." a shift in concern, a nudging deflection. "you brought a lot of people back. that couldn't have been easy."

illeana reyes

☉

"and you can, i think," she says, rubbing at the knotting in her chest. her fingers move in slow, rhythmic circles, matching the curling of her toes, the gentle sway of her swing. 

"because i want you to keep working on what you we talked about before. checks and balances to these powers." she looks down at her hand, drops it to her lap. where illeana fractures, she drifts. she had been bursting at the seams, too much of a soul to fit in her one body, but they blessed her with the expanse. 

endless millennia, a lonely sky. 

a small laugh, a harder push on her swing. "you've every right to feel wrathful. exasperated. but where does that anger get us?" running to the wrong man, lapping power from palms. self-immolation masquerading as salvation. 

"and not acting on that rage separates us from our lessors." she side-eyes her. "and have you recovered?"

illeana reyes

☉

"i'm going to hold you to that," she says, lips thin. even with the world fracturing around them, even with their own bodies and minds betraying them, they must be better than their predecessors. they cannot end up like MATIAS SILPH, overridden and manipulated, turned against their own. 

her expression softens, though, and upon illie's admission, freya does as they had before. tugs her hand free from the swing and holds it out between the two of them, fingers waiting for the other. 

"we'll get through it. just...promise me if it ever gets to be too much, you lean on people you can trust." she hesitates. "you can come to me."

illeana reyes

☉

"call me fortune's fool, but i don't believe in fate." it's another synonym with chains and it's all too often used as the scapegoat for damnable actions. was it fate that drove matias to the brink of his mental instability? was it fate that threatened to break eva?

was it fate that put them here, together, on this swingset? 

she does not flinch as illeana scrapes against her flesh, but her brows furrow in concern. "i was made a monster once too," she says. "and coming back from that is the hardest thing i've ever done.

"but i couldn't have done it without help, so yes, even then, i will take you, but gods, reyes, don't drift too far from us."

illeana reyes

☉