writing_shadows

((A piece for the aftermath of the last Edinburgh game when they rescued Ishtar's brother Tal. Cross-posted to my character journal so sorry if you get it twice.))

Being sober was taking some getting used to; she hadn’t really been so for very long for quite a while now. Not that the drinking or even the drugs had really helped, but once she had started it had become harder and harder to stop. Being sober had meant living up to the fact that her brother was not there, that he could well be dead and that she had felt utterly unable to do anything at all to get him back, at least not without breaking principles and putting the lives of others potentially at risk.

It was therefore an immense relief that they had gotten him back safely now, retrieved from the Seers with no loss of life or of resources, though she and August had been briefly captured in the attempt before Solomon had later freed them. The relief was tinged with fear though, this was the second time he had been kidnapped by her enemies and she couldn’t go through it again.

Ishtar sighed and leaned her forehead against the cold glass of the window. The journey to Glasgow was giving her too much time to think before she saw him. Too much had been lost to get him back, the Tick Tock men had wrecked parts of the city with the bombs they made with the tass they had been given. It could have been even worse, the Seers could have killed her and August instead of capturing them, and the artefact that Solomon had lent her for the mission could have been taken as well.

So much had been done to help get him back by others and not really so much for her brother’s sake as it was for hers. His life was no more important to them than any other would be, but to her he was the last of her family, the person she loved more than anyone else in the world. She would kill for him and she would die for him, but she didn’t feel like she could let anyone else bear the consequences of it, not when he would not take responsibility for his own actions.

It was strange; he had always been the more sensible one, the one who had reigned in her wild impulses. But lately their roles had switched round, perhaps he no longer felt like she needed him or something along those lines. She understood but understanding wasn’t enough. There were duties, responsibilities and no matter what happened she could not let him put other lives in danger again, it just wasn’t right.

She was dreading the conversation to come, dreading the choices she might have to make to stop this from ever happening again. He was the last of her family, she loved him more than anything else and that made him her biggest liability and that was something that had to change and soon.