Early morinings
Early mornings
Still 3 months before, two weeks after the ceremony for Nadia’s deathday
Phrythian, The Ilrryrian mountains.
Kadea groaned as Lydia’s pillow made contact with her head for the sixth time in the last minute.
“Wake up”, smack, “C’moooon Kade ”, smack, smack, as she drew out the words in an exasperated manner. “WAKE. UP!”
Kadea rolled over, eyes still closed, and caught the pillow before it got to land on her face again.
“What are you?”, she muttered, voice still raspy from sleep. “Five?”
“Yeah”, Lydia responded on autopilot. “Five inches deep in your m-”, she paused. “You know what, nevermind.”
Kadea let out a sleepy chuckle, amused by her sister’s grimace. She almost looked as if she expected Nesta herself to barge into their shared room any minute now, scowl in place and hands on her hips.
“You know, L, one day, it will be around mom when your mouth forgets to connect to your brain like that. And I’ll be there to enjoy the outcome.” Kade said, while stretching her sore limbs. “Dad and I both.”
Lydia rolled her eyes, and made a beeline for Kadea’s closet, starting to dig through it, pursing her pierced lips every now and then, at the sight of something she didn’t consider fit for whatever activity she was waking her sister at the break of dawn for.
Propping herself on her elbows, Kadea struggled to keep her dry eyes open, as she watched her twin make a mess out of her carefully organized closet. She didn’t have the energy to scold her.
Unsurprisingly, Lydia wasn’t nowhere near as dead this morning as her. She must’ve woken up at least one hour before, considering her appearance and how much it usually takes her to achieve it.
That, or she didn’t even make it home the night before in the first place.
Her dark hair was braided here and there, and put up in a high ponytail, that barely reached her shoulders and showed the undercut on both sides of her tattooed head. Her usual bold makeup was accompanied by little drawings made in eyeliner, which were different everyday. Today, she had three horizontal lines on her nose, and a crescent moon under each eye.
And something that was never missing : her countless piercings. Ears, lips, cheeks, eyebrows, nose. Everywhere. They sure as hell were a pain to put in each morning.
And somehow, she still did it.
“Where the fuck are your flying leathers?” Lydia said, as she gave up on her search.
Kade yawned. “Got my last clean ones dirty yesterday, during training. Training that, may I point out, you didn’t attend.”
“Dad was kinda mad.”, she continued before her sister got the chance to respond. “Well, maybe more annoyed than mad, but still.”
“I skip training all the time.”, Lydia muttered, as she crossed her arms and leaned against the closet.
“Yeah, nothing new under the sun.”, Kadea said as she got out of bed and started unbraiding her big curly hair. “But Maleeha and her trainees joined us. And he would’ve wanted you present.”
Lydia went still. “When did she get here?”
“I don’t know, a few hours before lunch? It was short notice anyway. Kinda weird.” She caught sight of her reflection in the mirror facing the bed. “Damn, I gotta dye my roots again.”, she noticed, getting closer to it and parting her hair in different directions to see the dark brown hair that has started to appear through the blonde. Completely oblivious to her sister’s little silent crisis.
“Didn’t she-um, didn’t she say why she came?” Lydia asked at last, scowling at the floor like it personally offended her.
“Something about wanting to get those younglings out into the world or some crap.” Kade said without paying much attention. “Why?”
At the silence that followed she turned around, raising her eyebrow. “Why?”
“Just wondering . . .”, Lydia muttered, and before Kade got the chance to insist, continued, with more energy, “Go and find some leathers. We have to go in, like, um,”, she looked at the clock. “Twenty minutes.”
Kade didn’t want to drop the subject yet, but asked instead anyway. “Why leathers? Where are we going?”
It was indeed a weird sight, her sister wearing them outside practice. And yet here she was, clad in all black, looking like an Illyrian through and through.
Except for the siphons.
Unlike Kade herself, who proudly wore four amber-coloured ones, Lydia had none. They didn’t work for her. Which would've been expected, for one that was also half-Fae. It was common. Some had their Fae magic gene more dominant, and therefore their characteristic power broke them, just as it was in her uncle Rhys’ case. Others were simply just not compatible with them, be it for lack of Illyrian magic power, or something else, and could only wear them as mere jewelry. Which wasn’t all that likely since Illyrians were all but generous when offering siphons.
But Lydia was a whole other deal.
Hers didn’t break, or rejected her. They burned her.
The first time she tried one on, all hell broke loose around the camp. It was like in the stories humans have about faeries, where iron physically hurts a Fae. But instead of iron, it was the siphon that did that to Lydia.
Stubborn as she was, she tried it on again and again, even if it almost burned her to the bone. Eventually, Azriel had toforcefully take it away from her.
That day led to many questions, that remained unanswered not necessarily for the lack of possible explanations, but more so for the fear of what said explanations were.
Whitch, some eldery Illyrians had whispered. But . . .
“I spotted a place in the eastern mountains last night.” Lydia interrupted her train of thought. “You gotta see it.”
Kade clicked her tongue and crossed her arms. “You mean, you found something you want to explore but are too much of a coward to go on your own.”
“It’s called strategic thinking, sissy.”, she said raising one finger. “Besides, when would I ever lose an opportunity to profit off of your hero complex?”
Kade just looked at her for a moment, but eventually sighed. “You’re not gonna tell me where we’re going, are you?”
“Nope.”, her sister said as she made it for the door. “Go get ready, and meet me on the roof in 15 minutes.”
“Oh, and”, she continued after stopping abruptly. “Don’t let mom and dad see you.”
A wink over her shoulder and she was gone.
Kadea sighed yet again, and made a short prayer for the Mother.