Shia

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Once the loyal mate to Adavar's Silent General, Chroma, and resident of the Obscured Crescent for four years since her birth, Shia has since rejoined her father in their allied clan of Dramatica.
She thought nothing would ever make her leave Chroma, that nothing could tear them apart, that their love was limitless and bound not even by time -- but the shifting in the hierarchy of her birth clan proved her wrong.
Chroma had been Cabrra's only friend for a long time, and remained as such even after she was reborn as Umbra, despite his unease at her sudden desire to re-rule the clan. Like many, Shia didn't agree with Umbra -- Nocturne and Rosekeep had always been and would continue to be the rightful rulers. She thought Chroma would feel the same way, as they did about many things, but she was wrong about that too.

It was a brief yet painful farewell:


Shia found him in his garden, a generous name for a small hole in the cavern's wall from which, strangely, flora grew in the dim light of magical lanterns better than it did on the surface.
He had curled himself up, breath fanning the hairy stem of a flower she did not know the name of, despite Chroma telling her extensively about every creature and plant that found its way into his garden, as his eyes detailed the dazzling colours of a butterbee flexing its large wings over the flower's petals.

"Is it time?" he asked, finally acknowledging her entrance as the butterbee flew away to another flower.

She nodded. "I've given my goodbyes to Viper... He mourns me like I'm dead already, as if he'll never see me again. Please remind him that he can, whenever he wants," she replied quietly.
She didn't want to say any goodbyes to either of them, not really. She wished Umbra was the one leaving so that the fog of misery that had descended on Adavar since her return could be lifted -- unsurprising to her, really, that one who had never known the love of another drake could bring nothing but the hurt she had harboured all her life to a clan Shia had once known nothing but care from. "My father loves it there, says Dramatica will suit me well..." she paused then, as she thought about what Plague had said about the air of her new-clan, because she supposed she had known all along that Chroma wouldn't follow her there. Adavar was the perfect place for him, there was nowhere else. "Angel and Mist will be happy to see me, and I them..." she trailed off as Chroma still lay in silence.

Some in the clan would assume his silence was a childish defiance of reality, when something went wrong for him he would be quiet, in the illusion that if he did not speak of it, the problem would go away. They were right, and it often did, but it wouldn't this time.

"Do you have to?" He didn't meet her gaze as he asked, instead it lingered on the rainbow of colours before him as the various insects passed each other in search for a new landing ground.

Shia knew Chroma better than herself, so she knew when the drake of few words and even fewer expressions was happy and when he was sad. So she knew, though it pained her to know and she wished more than anything that she had never learnt how to read him, that in that moment his heart was breaking because he already knew the answer. He rarely asked things he knew the answer to, but he really, really wanted her to reconsider. But she couldn't. It was asking too much.

"Do you have to?" she returned and, finally, he met her gaze with one full of love and loss. Or, perhaps, his eyes simply reflected the emotions in her own. "I have never loved anyone but you, Chroma, sometimes even more than life itself... and I think I always will love you, but I don't love our home anymore; after all the king did for us, I cannot watch Umbra's reckless devotion tear this clan apart... when it's already torn us apart..." Her voice cracked, faltered, and her eyes left him. The word swirled in her mind: Us, a word she thought would last for eternity, a word she thought meant forever. They met as fledglings at the cusp of maturity, and so it had never been 'I' or 'me', always 'we', always 'us'.
Neither had ever considered being alone, and now it loomed over her, even with the knowledge she would be joining her family -- at the loss of the one she had here. She would be alone, without Chroma, and he would be alone without her.
She'd never been to Dramatica, despite their closeness, and she didn't know how well they'd take to her; she'd always been hot and cold at making friends, good because it came so easily to her, kin were attracted to her bright and bubbly personality as it was strange for Shadow's ilk to be so delightful, and then bad once they questioned how Chroma's and her personalities didn't collide -- how they must collide. But they never had, until now. She was used to always defending him, but this, his choice, she could not defend.

The grey imperial lowered his head and did not do his title injustice.

Shia, although she knew him well, scoffed. "Look after our son. I know he probably won't visit me, because he is stubborn and naive, and in that, he takes after you. Make sure he remembers what care is, and make sure Umbra's teachings never reach him... because he's not a fighter..." Shia was surprised to see her once-mate nod, though she knew he would've done it anyway. Chroma, despite being a general, knew what it was to not be a fighter and knew how it felt to be surrounded by blood anyway. Her voice lowered as she continued, "I know our children were not the strongest. But the few we have, I love. I didn't mind that for years now the nests have become few and far between. The time we spent nurturing our eggs, raising and teaching our young, are some of my fondest moments. I'll always regret that our last time was for her, and I'll regret not loving them, but how could I when I knew their fate? I could not teach them love and warmth when I knew that all they'd know would be war."
"I hope, Chroma... I really hope that one day you come to see that what she's reaching for is wrong. Maybe somewhere else, another place, another time, another clan. But it isn't Adavar, it's not what we were meant to be."

Having said her piece, she waited, in foolish hope, for a reply. But it didn't come, he remained with his snout pointing at the ground and his sorrowed gaze anywhere but on her. So she turned, without another word, and left.
Forever.

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Once-Mate Chroma

Father Plague

Sister Angel

Son Viper

Daughter Mist

Once-King Nocturne

Once-Queen Rosekeep

Bane Umbra

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