Any Day Darling: A Feysand Story

Part 23: The End to a Very Long Day

AN PLEASE READ: Hey Guys! Quick update; First off, if you're still reading after all this time and my long hiatus, thank you; I really appreciate all of you. Your comments on my chapters make quarantine a little less lonely. Secondly, in efforts to be super transparent with y'all, I just wanted to update you all on life, my plans for this story, etc. Like all of us, I am social distancing right now and I am out of school. My schooling situation was already really complicated, to begin with, and it's even more complicated now. I am a high school senior, but besides electives, I take all my classes at a local university; neither my high school or university has the resources to provide every student with wifi and a computer so we don't have classes, but we DO have exams and finals. Until my 'finals' week, I plan to update 2-4 times per week. However, managing my mental health in quarantine and figuring out this new way of schooling is not easy, so there will be weeks when I post a lot more and weeks when I can't post at all. I am sorry that I cant promise you all consistency. I have a lot of plans for this story and it is nowhere near over (I really really really want to write long enough to finally get to the scene that inspired this story to begin with). Finally, I wanted to ask if you all would be interested (or be opposed) to me also publishing this story on A03. As always, I love hearing from you all, so if you would like me to post there, or if you have any other feedback, or if your just lonely and need so SJM fan friends comment below. Thanks! -EVP 

I was so tired my knees almost buckled when we landed in the foyer of the river house. I quickly caught myself so Mor and Rhys didn't see how tired I was. The second we appeared, Rhys was dashing across the room to where Az was leaning in the doorway, looking as exhausted as I felt.

"What the fuck!" He half-shouted at the spymaster, "How the hell did we not know there was a fucking rebellion raging on!" Az slowly approached him, trying to keep his distance from his angry friend.

"We have a problem," Az said in his low voice. "Nuala hasn't come back, I haven't heard from her in hours, Rhys, hours."

"What?" I rushed over to his side. What did he mean, she hasn't come back?

"I thought something might have happened when I didn't hear from them at all yesterday, but we were all so busy finding beds for people that I just let it slide and when I heard from them this morning, I just assumed they were fine but-"

"But what?" I asked him. I grabbed Rhys's hand, partly to try to soothe his anger, and partly to calm my own nerves.

"Cerridwen came back without her and...Well, I'll just let you see for yourself." Az must have let Rhys into his mind because his demeanor changed entirely.

What is it, I asked him, What did they do to her?

"Is she in the house?" Rhys asked Az. He nodded and pointed up. Rhys grabbed the spymaster's shoulder for a moment before turning around, back to Mor.

"Are you okay to run damage control?" He said, "Keir can not hear about any of this." Mor nodded and winnowed away.

What did they do? I asked him again. He turned and just stared at me for a moment, before pulling me close and burying his face in my hair.

Hey, It's okay, I'm okay. I tried to reassure him. I'm right here. I ran my fingers through his hair trying to calm him down. He wasn't shaking, per se, but shadows loomed just under his skin, threatening to spill out and crawl around the house. Just as he had done for me so many times, I filled the room with the calm darkness of the night sky. Rhys?

I'm sorry, he finally replied.

Don't. I purred down the bond, You have nothing to apologize for. This...has been a hell of a day. He pulled me tighter, his arms were completely wrapped around my waist. What did they do? He finally showed me.