Ankyra Sound angels clawed with burnished wings still loyal kiss the seal

@Caiaphas @Firefly @Rosalyn wtf are timelines but set after caiaphas has been moved and during? before? after? the 1:1 between firefly and roz. whatever works!

she had returned to the sound to find the ground splashed with blood and caiaphas close to death. between the angry snapping of firefly's tone, the steadier anger of rosalyn's own, she had gleaned what had transpired. 
lifting a bundle of damp moss, erzulie quietly bathed caiaphas' dour brow. "you foolish, stupid witch," the harlot growled, dropping it to arrange the woman's limp limbs more comfortably.
but could she have done anything differently? no. faced with a lone dragedan, regardless of the children within her, erzulie would have risen up and tore from him the pain of the earlier war, of rosalyn's almost-loss, of her lover's wounds. for the safety of rusalka, a blood-soaked message that they were not weak before the wolves upon the cliffs.
silently she glared toward the entrance of the grotto, then to caiaphas, the burn of her mintglow stare softening. "i would have done de same," she muttered toward one dark ear.

vague as well! <3

It had been a long time since Rosalyn had felt this heavy of a restlessness.  It disturbed her sleep, and what little she had been eating she found harder even still.  Pregnancy and tension both twisted her stomach and made it feel as though her own skin were a prison.  She wanted to tear something apart, and surprisingly enough, that something wasn't Drageda.

They would come, she was sure of it.  Rosalyn had enough experience with war in the past to know this, but in the past she'd never allowed this.  All her life she'd followed the ways of the raider - strike fast, take, and move.  But here instead she was forced to sit, awaiting retribution while knowing that by the time it came, she might be both helpless and with children she wouldn't be able to protect.

Maybe what she wanted most was to run.

She was likely a coward for thinking it. And she was an even bigger one for refusing to bring it up with Erzulie again.  Silence made it worse, but she knew what the answer would be, and there was no use.  She didn't want to lead this crew, she didn't want to be in this crew, and every fiber of her being was urging her to cut her losses and leave.  Only Erzulie held her there, but it was a chain that was driven fast into the sand, unmoving.

Despite her feelings and her troubles, she knew that she shouldn't ignore Caiaphas.  So in spite of her previous anger, she checked in at times, and helped Erzulie with anything the woman might need.  Today when she arrived her wife was already there, tending her, and Rosalyn hung back a minute, watching.  A deep, yawning frustration filled her, stealing away any words she might have had and surprising her with it's sudden bitter taste.  Perhaps today she wasn't up for this.

another novel here u go ur welcome

there was no missing the wrath that had at first consumed rosalyn; as firefly carefully laid out their interaction with the dragedan, even in caiaphas' light-headed stupor, she had caught the mounting anger that throttled her once-nemesis. she had smiled a bloody smile into the sand, delirious as she formed her comeback and obviously well-planned reason for attacking vercingetorix -- only to have immediately passed out from her own blood loss.

her first thought when she woke, wild-eyed with her head throbbing, was that hellfire was surely coming her way. if rosalyn did not deliver it, the curs of drageda would -- as she wrestled with her ailing body to sit upright (and was just as soon put to the ground by erzulie) caiaphas recalled the reason she had first struck drageda's lone wolf.

it was because as far as she remembered of that stormy night, he was one of very few capable wolves. her opinion of her enemy had been low prior to rosalyn's abduction, and yet seeing drageda in full force that thundering night had done nothing to dissolve her contempt for them: it only grew now that she knew the pack was nothing but yearlings and a few wolves hardly more experienced in war than she. if they had killed him, such a blow would have doubtless been crippling to drageda's auxiliary forces.

if only he had not escaped.

caiaphas grimaced, bitter that the blackened cur had eluded their grasp. had he been dispatched there, drageda would have never known -- but instead, he had managed to weasel his way from what she believed was a deserving death there, alone with nothing but enemies at his throat.

her head suddenly snarled with white pain and she closed her eyes; such exertion, even of the mental kind, still exhausted her.

as she slunk back into feebleness, she heard erzulie's throaty voice -- the quiet admittance that she would have done the same was answered with a thin smile that lingered on the siren's lethal muzzle. aye, that erzulie would have -- caiaphas' only regret now was that it had not be done cleaner.

she was too weak to prop her head up, but she caught the lingering form of rosalyn as her shadow passed over them. glancing upon the woman, she found her expression inscrutable -- whether that was because of her own poor shape, or because much of rosalyn's features were too darkened by the bright contrast behind her, caiaphas could not tell. she could feel the she-wolf's burning, almost writhing intensity -- and half expected that sharp words would surely follow.

but it was not rosalyn who spoke first; erzulie chased dryness from her lips with the edge of her tongue and half-turned to regard the curved, foreboding presence of her wife. "i cannot blame caiaphas for what she did. i only regret it was not me who tore de t'roat from de little wretch." a smile that held no warmth then, for erzulie still harboured her own secret feelings upon the elevation of firefly and his choice of rosalyn as co-leader.
she felt put out, the harlot supposed, though harlot no longer as her belly was filled with the scarred man's cubs. would she have agreed if she had known caiaphas would be uprooted from her post? "dere leader is dead; i heard de cries not long ago. she has struck a mighty blow, de old one."
a determined flash in her mismatched eyes. "i will not allow her to be punished for dis."

Her silence seemed to be the only invitation Erzulie needed to speak, and it would be a lie to say the words didn't hurt.  But they weren't a surprise either.  From the beginning, it had been her wife and Caiaphas on opposition, and ever since her return, she'd accepted that she would be the one to sacrifice her own wants.  

That didnt mean she liked it, and it was impossible for her to hide the marks Erzulie's staunch defense left.

Okay then.

All this time, her anger had been the sure confidence that they were wrong and that she was right.  That war would bring ruin and fighting Drageda was a pointless waste.  But with a history like hers... who the hell was she to say what was right?

She'd allowed her own mother to take her first home from her.  She'd allowed Sarai to take the second.  Caiaphas herself had bested her to steal the third, and she'd allowed the last to be stolen by the beast who had stormed their shore.  Now, she'd let Drageda steal this one from her.  By capturing her, by taking time as well as security, they had poisoned this place for her.  As much as she tried she couldn't feel for it as Erzulie or the rest did.  

That didn't make her feeling correct, or mean that they should feel the same.

Instantly, like a candle extinguished, all the fight left her.  Let them make war.  Let them do what they would, and let her bear the consequences of their choices.  She was tired of bearing the ones from her own.  She'd thought this when she first joined, she remembered... but it hadn't rung true.  She'd still silently held onto the idea that in the end, a part of the choice would be hers.

It had never been hers, and it never should have been.  She was no captain in any of their eyes, this time not even the only ones that mattered.

She felt a lonely emptiness open up in her center, and for a moment, she struggled with it.  Then she swallowed and looked at her wife, standing before Caiaphas.  And when she spoke, it was the siren's gaze she met with her singular eye.

You'll lead, when you can.  I can't and I shouldn't.  I was a fool to think otherwise, she silently added, before bitterly pushing her way out of the den and into the clear ocean air.  As soon as she had, and after taking a deep shakey breath, she lifted her head and howled a resolute renouncement of her claim upon the sound.

there was little triumph in the siren's gaze as she peered at rosalyn, embattled by the defiance of erzulie. it was not the victory caiaphas expected, for she detected erzulie's stand against rosalyn's rightful wrath came as a crippling blow.

she had wanted to be proven right, but not like this.

news of the dragedan leader's demise caused caiaphas to shift in surprise; perhaps her foolhardy attack had not been so fraught with folly after all. she glanced to rosalyn to read her reaction to the news, still feeling little glory to have prompted such division between her packmates.

with their leader dead, they were far more vulnerable - caiaphas had never felt so vilified in her actions, though she kept her expression temperate as rosalyn spoke. lifting her crown carefully as to not incite pain in her neck, caiaphas drew in a breath and said in the most non-climatic of manners: "alright, then." she did not have time to contest rosalyn's edict either way -- for no sooner had she managed to painfully respond, the she-wolf had issued a howl to inform all of her resignation.

caiaphas should never have been toppled. firefly's reasons for doing so were suspect, and erzulie would have respected no explanation from the scarred man. but more than that, her bitterness toward rosalyn's elevation and her meetings with firefly had caused a great sort of bitter distrust in the harlot's chest, far stronger than she cared to admit.
hackles raised as rosalyn renounced her title first in words, then stalked away to sing it to the rest of rusalka. so she was not to be considered there, either? erzulie stared at the sand, then at the seawitch, perhaps unseeingly as the babies kicked within her.
"i did not want dis," she sighed, more to herself than to caiaphas. "i am tired of running. we ran from de bear dat scattered ironsea. we ran from de redhawk wolves down de coastline." a fierce expression was turned to the wounded woman, but the two-toned eyes brimmed with tears that threatened to run over. "i am so tired of running. i want to live."

last for me here!

After her call echoed, Rosalyn felt a conflicted sense of despair wash over her.  Was this right, or was she just running again?

Erzulie's firm backing in Ironsea had been her anchor.  Not having it here, and then to not have any who she'd chosen around her... she wasn't running.  She was giving in, and she doubted a single wolf here would be upset by the news (wrong, she'd later find).

She wouldn't go back just yet, so instead she cast a final glance, then disappeared into the forest.  She really didn't want to run into anyone, and her nausea was beginning to kick up again as she thought about the scene that had just played out.  She couldn't unpack that just yet.

injured as she was, caiaphas attempted to shift up onto her elbows and watch as rosalyn disappeared - she knew what had happened just cut the russet pirate deep. it had not been her intention.

slumping back to the ground in exhaustion, she listened to erzulie's words with a conflicted expression on her face. in a low growl, she at last managed to speak: "you are never done running. no matter what, there is always something out there. but at least now the odds are more in our favor. that male was one of their strongest -- and now he is reduced to very little." little did she know that drageda would disperse shortly, otherwise she might have savored this painful moment a little more.

last for me too <3

caiaphas' words were heard in a grim silence, but the harlot only nodded, did not answer. for what could be said, while the thread betwixt herself and rosalyn stretched thin, so thin — perhaps it would break. the sensation of that left behind soured erzulie's heart further; she cleared her throat. "i will rest here wid you for de night." not because the old woman was in dire need of her, but because she could not bear to return to the den she shared with her wife, not now.
moving some feet away, the chai-tea wolfess cast her gaze grimly toward the sea and lapsed into a forbidding silence.