Keira Priest
The Iron
Music
She had stood in front of the paved over lot where her childhood home had once stood, staring into empty space as if lost in her own daydream, which wasn't entirely a lie. Despite having burned down the manor herself a part of her still missed it, but all the same she was grateful it was gone. That meant the memories sleeping there couldn't hurt her anymore, or at least, not cut quite as deep. Or so she liked to think. The truth was something like that would never truly leave her, and closure was a fickle, fleeting thing. No matter how long it had been, she was never to forget. That would have been too easy. But she hadn't come here to visit her handiwork and reminisce about the Ticon manor. No, her being here had another purpose, and so she left to her next destination.
Slow, careful steps carried her through the graveyard, the path taken on its way to being reclaimed by nature. It was one easily remembered no matter how overgrown, as it was one she had walked before, first as a child and the next handful of times as a much younger woman. This was the first time in over a decade she had returned, and still she wasn't certain exactly why. But she needed a place to think and someone to talk to, two things that were becoming increasingly rare in recent times. And so she had returned to Corellia for the first time in over a year, this homecoming just as bittersweet as all the others.
This time Keira hadn't come to catch up with an old friend or visit her childhood home. The former hadn't been in contact for quite some time, and the latter...well, gasoline and flames had been some final attempt at seeking closure. But it seemed even destroying the source of her trauma hadn't ended anything, because she was back for what she knew wouldn't be the last time. No, this world and its memories would always haunt her, and she was well aware she would always remember everything, no matter how much she liked to think she'd moved on.
Booted feet came to a stop before a pair of graves, the engravings on the stones faded with age but still legible, parts of it obscured by weeds and grass long in need of maintenance. Even with the wear and tear long years of neglect had inflicted, the names were still decipherable. Though even if they hadn't been she still would have known, because these were the newest graves in the family plot. Before her were the markers for Jaymes and Evelyn Ticon, the headstones designating final resting place of her parents.
Slowly she lowered herself to sit cross-legged between the gravesites, and for a moment all she did was study the inscriptions on each stone, all of it written in Old Corellian. Taking in a breath she released it gradually, air stuttering to escape her lungs as a swell of emotion rose in her throat. Forcibly she swallowed it back down, nearly reaching inside her leather jacket for her flask but thinking better of it, for once forcing herself to feel everything with a purity that was rare with all the substances at her fingertips.
"Hey Mom, hey Dad." Her voice was quiet, thick with unrepressed emotion residing just beneath the surface. "I know it's been awhile since I last stopped by. Sorry for keeping you waiting. I guess the time got away from me." It almost felt natural, had she been speaking to them and not sitting in a cemetery before graves that shouldn't have been there. As a child she had always found solace in her father's office or at her mother's side when she needed a shoulder to lean on, but that support system had been ripped from beneath her at too young an age, the only comfort being that she had found and killed the man responsible years later.
Somewhere in Coronet City
She had stood in front of the paved over lot where her childhood home had once stood, staring into empty space as if lost in her own daydream, which wasn't entirely a lie. Despite having burned down the manor herself a part of her still missed it, but all the same she was grateful it was gone. That meant the memories sleeping there couldn't hurt her anymore, or at least, not cut quite as deep. Or so she liked to think. The truth was something like that would never truly leave her, and closure was a fickle, fleeting thing. No matter how long it had been, she was never to forget. That would have been too easy. But she hadn't come here to visit her handiwork and reminisce about the Ticon manor. No, her being here had another purpose, and so she left to her next destination.
Slow, careful steps carried her through the graveyard, the path taken on its way to being reclaimed by nature. It was one easily remembered no matter how overgrown, as it was one she had walked before, first as a child and the next handful of times as a much younger woman. This was the first time in over a decade she had returned, and still she wasn't certain exactly why. But she needed a place to think and someone to talk to, two things that were becoming increasingly rare in recent times. And so she had returned to Corellia for the first time in over a year, this homecoming just as bittersweet as all the others.
This time Keira hadn't come to catch up with an old friend or visit her childhood home. The former hadn't been in contact for quite some time, and the latter...well, gasoline and flames had been some final attempt at seeking closure. But it seemed even destroying the source of her trauma hadn't ended anything, because she was back for what she knew wouldn't be the last time. No, this world and its memories would always haunt her, and she was well aware she would always remember everything, no matter how much she liked to think she'd moved on.
Booted feet came to a stop before a pair of graves, the engravings on the stones faded with age but still legible, parts of it obscured by weeds and grass long in need of maintenance. Even with the wear and tear long years of neglect had inflicted, the names were still decipherable. Though even if they hadn't been she still would have known, because these were the newest graves in the family plot. Before her were the markers for Jaymes and Evelyn Ticon, the headstones designating final resting place of her parents.
Slowly she lowered herself to sit cross-legged between the gravesites, and for a moment all she did was study the inscriptions on each stone, all of it written in Old Corellian. Taking in a breath she released it gradually, air stuttering to escape her lungs as a swell of emotion rose in her throat. Forcibly she swallowed it back down, nearly reaching inside her leather jacket for her flask but thinking better of it, for once forcing herself to feel everything with a purity that was rare with all the substances at her fingertips.
"Hey Mom, hey Dad." Her voice was quiet, thick with unrepressed emotion residing just beneath the surface. "I know it's been awhile since I last stopped by. Sorry for keeping you waiting. I guess the time got away from me." It almost felt natural, had she been speaking to them and not sitting in a cemetery before graves that shouldn't have been there. As a child she had always found solace in her father's office or at her mother's side when she needed a shoulder to lean on, but that support system had been ripped from beneath her at too young an age, the only comfort being that she had found and killed the man responsible years later.