(N
o Peak or Lagoon claims please <3)
Time seemed to slip away while Marceline was in the Forest.
As she returned to the Shore, guilt sat heavily on her shoulders, pressing in upon her until she felt as if her spine may snap beneath its weight.
She knew Asmodeus was gone. She knew that, but still she felt a profound sense of remorse about allowing herself to fall into the arms of another. He had reminded her of Asmodeus in so many ways… it had been nearly impossible to not get caught up in it. To close her eyes and allow herself to believe, if only for awhile, that her mate had returned, that he was the one pressed so tightly against her, that it was his lips upon her neck and his breath in her ear.
But it wasn't him. Chances were, she would never feel Asmodeus' touch again, and that thought alone was enough to nearly shatter her. She had been desperate for affection, feeling more unmoored than she ever had been, adrift in a black sea of grief. She had thought herself stronger than that, had thought that the walls she had so carefully erected around her heart would hold no matter how much the world tried to batter and break them. But years of pain and anger and betrayal and hurt had made cracks in the mortar, and something had come loose, opening the floodgates to emotions she thought long repressed.
It had been too easy to let herself get lost in Hasan, determined to forget her memories of Asmodeus for just awhile. Now she could do little else but hope that nothing would take root from their coupling. She wasn't sure she could bear the thought of bringing a child into this world that wasn't
his.
She returned to the Shore as the sun was sinking towards the horizon, her stomach twisting itself into ever more intricate knots as she neared the beach. She didn't hold the new king's opinion in high regard, but she was keenly aware that there could be consequences caused by her little dalliance. Though he had never officially given her consent to stay, he had not seemed to take issue with her presence. A tenacious sense of peace had been established, but Marceline feared she might be on the path to destroying it.
As Marceline pulled herself from the sea and shook the saltwater from her coat, she cast her eyes towards the treeline. It wasn't long before Imshael's form emerged from the forest. Marceline was quick to embrace him, pressing her nose against the slope of his shoulder and breathing in his familiar scent.
"Where's your brother?" she asked as she pulled away, scanning the beach.
Imshael said something then that made her heart stutter and stop within her chest: Oberon was gone. He had left Imshael alone on the beach and set off towards the Crossing, eager to set out on his own path now that his sire was gone.
Marceline's face fell, an icy chill crawling its way down her spine. Oberon was gone? And he had left his brother all by himself? The ice that splintered through her veins was slowly replaced by white-hot rage that burned its way through her breast.
"Come, Imshael," she demands, turning swiftly on her heel and heading for the waves once more.
"We're going to find him." And when she did - well, Marceline didn't expect it to be a particularly pretty reunion.
Any exhaustion she might have felt was swiftly burned away, her ire fueling her on the long swim to the Crossing. Dusk had fallen by the time she pulled herself onto the shore of the Commons, beckoning Imshael to her side with a soft nicker. The towering trees that surrounded the vast meadow cast long shadows across the swaying grass, and somewhere in the distance Marceline could hear the faint murmur of voices.
Amber eyes scanned the clearing cautiously - for all the years she had spent on the Islands, she had never set hoof in the crossing as an unattached mare. She'd always been acutely aware that it was a dangerous place for lone mares, but with luck she would be in and out with Oberon in tow, heading back to the safety of the Shore.
former queen of the shore
Marceline