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edenfallingI am clearing out a bunch of fic scraps I have written longhand at work over the years. This one is Jadis and Cynara at their grandmother's death, written 10/19/12 and given a less sloppy ending tonight. (300 words exactly -- a triple drabble, I suppose.)
[ETA: The AO3 crosspost is now up!]
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No Light Oath
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When Queen Nekoris died, Jadis and Cynara went separately to the garden halfway between their respective wings of the palace. They met this way upon occasion, so the chance encounter raised no suspicions -- or, more accurately, raised no new suspicion. They knew full well their father feared them, both for the prophecy of doom that had marked their births, and for their own strength and skills.
He had taught them desire and given them a target. And while both sisters knew only one could be queen, they were wise enough to share both the risk and the gain of patricide.
"At the funeral?" Jadis asked, idly turning a nightshade leaf between her long, pale fingers.
"At the funeral," Cynara agreed, stepping cat-foot silent over the carpet of autumn leaves. "When he lights the pyre."
"Elegant. They can go to the sunless lands together," Jadis said.
"Efficient," Cynara corrected. "And we can begin the true game directly thereafter, without any delay to uphold appearances."
Jadis smiled at her sister. "No hand but mine will end you. No heart but mine will mourn your passing."
"No hand but mind will end you; no heart but mine will mourn your passing," Cynara echoed, the old bargain they had made after their brother's death. She reached forward and stilled Jadis's fingers, tugging the leaf until they each held half. "This is the last time. Bind it. To the death of the gods and further, this I swear."
"This I swear," Jadis repeated, and held her sister's eyes unblinking while she cast the oath-net around them.
The leaf caught sudden fire, a brilliant green-white flare that licked and scorched their hands: sword hand, spell hand, each a mirror of the other.
The ash and blood of their bargain fell to the garden path in silence.
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Inspired by the 10/8/12![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
15_minute_fic word #252: want
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I will probably post several other scraps tonight. This one turned out to be a complete (if tiny) ficlet, but most of the others are more fragmentary.
[ETA: The AO3 crosspost is now up!]
---------------------------------------------
No Light Oath
---------------------------------------------
When Queen Nekoris died, Jadis and Cynara went separately to the garden halfway between their respective wings of the palace. They met this way upon occasion, so the chance encounter raised no suspicions -- or, more accurately, raised no new suspicion. They knew full well their father feared them, both for the prophecy of doom that had marked their births, and for their own strength and skills.
He had taught them desire and given them a target. And while both sisters knew only one could be queen, they were wise enough to share both the risk and the gain of patricide.
"At the funeral?" Jadis asked, idly turning a nightshade leaf between her long, pale fingers.
"At the funeral," Cynara agreed, stepping cat-foot silent over the carpet of autumn leaves. "When he lights the pyre."
"Elegant. They can go to the sunless lands together," Jadis said.
"Efficient," Cynara corrected. "And we can begin the true game directly thereafter, without any delay to uphold appearances."
Jadis smiled at her sister. "No hand but mine will end you. No heart but mine will mourn your passing."
"No hand but mind will end you; no heart but mine will mourn your passing," Cynara echoed, the old bargain they had made after their brother's death. She reached forward and stilled Jadis's fingers, tugging the leaf until they each held half. "This is the last time. Bind it. To the death of the gods and further, this I swear."
"This I swear," Jadis repeated, and held her sister's eyes unblinking while she cast the oath-net around them.
The leaf caught sudden fire, a brilliant green-white flare that licked and scorched their hands: sword hand, spell hand, each a mirror of the other.
The ash and blood of their bargain fell to the garden path in silence.
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Inspired by the 10/8/12
15_minute_fic word #252: want---------------------------------------------
I will probably post several other scraps tonight. This one turned out to be a complete (if tiny) ficlet, but most of the others are more fragmentary.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-06-06 02:23 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-06-06 02:33 am (UTC)But anyway, I am glad that Jadis and Cynara make sense in context! I had read several "Jadis and her sister" stories before I wrote the first one of my own (which IIRC is the one where they kill their older brother when they're twelve years old), and none had quite clicked for me, particularly not the ones where the sister was somehow a good and even Christian person desperately trying to save her world from her evil sister. O_o The ones where Jadis had no feelings toward her sister also didn't work for me, given how personal she made her sister's death (and how personal her sister was apparently going to make Jadis's death before Jadis pulled out her trump card).
So I wrote my own. Where they are BOTH screwed up and deadly and ambitious as hell, and don't think anyone but each other is quite real. :-)