☪Even in the darkness, all I see are the stars☪

‘Hello miss. Why are you up so high in these mountains? You seem cold…’

Briseis had heard him coming, but she jumped nonetheless. She was constantly on edge, it seemed, and everything surprised her now despite the fact that the worst things that could possibly happen to anyone had already happened to her. She had found love, yes, but it had been marred and ruined by the puppeteer who played her marionette strings ruthlessly and without guilt or pause. She knew both of her parents, yes, but neither of them knew her, and she doubted that she would ever get the reunion that she had always dreamed of. The only true connection she had was to her mother‘s alter ego, which was based off of her mother‘s memories of her dead brother. Henadin was like a father to her, despite the fact that he used a woman‘s voice and had a woman‘s body. It was messed up and crazy and stupid… But it was all that Brie had, the only connection she was allotted. And then, of course, there was the puppeteer previously mentioned - her master. He betwixt her mind in a way that she did not want, controlled her and forced her to do things she did not wish. It had taken a long time for her to realize this but… It was no longer her life. Yes, there were some minuscule choices she was still allowed to make by herself, but all of the big events, the things that really mattered? She had no say in.

Once her pounding heart slowed enough for her to catch her breath, she swallowed, and turned to face the brute who had approached her, spoken to her. He seemed kind right off the bat, but then again, she had seen Draven appear kind only to pull his prey in. It was a trap, it always was. And after seeing the beast, no, the demon that her father had caged up within him? She was sure that this one would be no different. Perhaps that was why she scowled at him - it did not matter that his words were kind, his question innocent. In her mind, he could only mean one thing, have one goal - yet another titan who sought to control her, to use her. That was what they all did… Except, of course, for Rogan. With the tears still rolling down her face, making deep paths of wetted down fur, she spilled bitter words out of him, and halfway through had to stop as a sob wrecked her voice.

“What is the point of a hello when the greeting will be fleeting and mean nothing more than an eventual and inevitable goodbye? I’m up on this mountain because it is the one damn place that I can choose to go right now…” She paused and inhaled sharply, swallowing down the cry that nearly broke out, held back only by her tightened lips. “If I am cold, I do not feel it. Other than the icy fingers seeking to ruin my heart and tear it from my chest, nothing really else matters. I have no say in it, I can’t change the weather, now can I? And listen, if you are trying to be nice to me to trick me into bringing me somewhere to do awful things to me, it’s not going to work. Or maybe it will, but you will never get the satisfaction of being the worst thing that ever happened to me, that right belongs to Draven, and Draven alone. So why are you here, then?” Brie exhaled and shook her head, closing her eyes. It seemed that the conversation would continue whether or not she actually wanted it to.

“Go ahead and tell me some elaborate story as to how you got pulled here because you knew I would be here? Or perhaps is it that you knew for some reason that you had to come? What a lame excuse have you for being here, in the same place as me, when there are 1000 other peaks you could’ve climbed, one million different trails you could’ve taken? What, what, what is it that you want!?”

She nearly yelled at him, in exasperation and frustration. All she wanted was something right, something real. Something to show her that she was not merely a doll upon Draven’s shelf. She didn’t want anything to do with this life that had been given to her, she didn’t want any of it. But it seemed this was it… And she had no choice in it. But then she calmed… Inside, and let all of the feeling of helplessness go. No, it had not been her choice to end up here, nor had it been her choice to become a prisoner. But this path had let her to eventually find her father. She would be damned if she let Draven win, if she let him turn her into the sycophant, into this depressing lonesome creature. He could control her body, her tongue, her actions… But her mind was her’s, and her feelings were hers. Those, those he could not tamper with or taint, not unless she let him.

“I’m sorry… None of this is your fault or because of you. I just do not have the best hand gifted to me when it comes to life in general. My name is Briseis, what is yours?”

Ω Briseis Ω Chained to Draven Ω Slave of Caidir Olc Ω Azura ΩTable Credit to Xathira