[ P ] watch it all fall down

A murder of crows watched the funeral procession with their eerie black eyes, ruffling their feathers and squawking from their perch on the winter bare trees. There were no mourning crowds draped in black as Cecil would have wanted. Only one invitation had been sent out for their guest of honour and only one would have answered regardless now that Cecil's misdeeds had been spread through Rionnach like a virus on everyone's lips. Valther was the name they praised for his bravery in exposing his crimes while Eleanor's was whispered with scepticism. Did she know? It was the question that everyone was asking. Valther did nothing to settle the flames surrounding her either. He made vague comments like “I cannot speak for Eleanor,” and smiled politely at them. The servants had their own theories which they shared with each other and Valther didn't bother to silence them. He wanted everyone to look upon him as the favoured Calyx heir to strengthen his hold over the inheritance that he had stolen.

Cecil was unceremoniously dumped into the hole that had been dug for him besides Valther's favourite perch on Eleanor's parent’s gravestone. A few of the servants tried to spit in his grave and Valther, ever the good son, asked them to treat his father with respect if only for him. They obeyed and murmured about how Cecil didn't deserve such a kind child. If only they knew that the cuckoo growing fat on the Calyx riches was much worse than their former master.

“I’d like to say a few words about my father, Cecil Calyx. I know I was only a tool for him to use, but he rescued me from the streets and gave me a place in his home. For that I will always be grateful,” that he was such a fool, he then nodded his head and stepped away from the grave. When the crows began to grow restless again he knew that they were announcing the arrival of their guest of honour.

code: elyon | art: ashon

Crawling away in defeat and refusing to heed the invitation to honor her uncle one last time after her failure to lower her head in deference to Mutt was not an option. No matter how much she wanted to leave Rionna, sail across the sea and leave this life behind, as the only true Calyx left, it was her duty to uphold the legacy being tarnished throughout the city they called home. The lies she heard when she shuffled through the streets were like insidious vines falling over her and tangling around her limbs, her chest, her throat, tightening into a noose with every step she took. And still she held her chin high, determined that if she was going to be choked then she'd at least keep her dignity.

The crows fluttered and cawed to announce her arrival. Eleanor supposed it was fitting that a murder would welcome her home when it had been a murder that had driven her out.

There wasn't any resistance this time when she tried to enter her home. The guards posted outside eyed her with contempt but made no moves to impede her, allowing her to push the grand doors open to see Hael waiting in the foyer. He looked no less arrogant now than he had during their last encounter, but if there was any venom on his tongue, he held it at bay. The few words he did offer were only to direct her into the garden, and she'd passed by without comment or acknowledgement of his hideous smile.

"Well, isn't this lovely." Her soul could not be gleaned in the lifeless eyes that beheld Mutt hosting the pathetic excuse for a funeral. Without an audience, and with the ever-growing contempt for the Calyx name, Eleanor didn't bother trying to save face by masking her ire. It was the only thing flashing dangerously in her gemstone gaze, constantly at war with the utter devastation she felt inside.

art by ashon

The gathering of Cecil's former victims and servants were the only ones who were in attendance and they left once the service was over. Most had wanted to see their tormentor entombed within the earth so that it could serve as their final memory of him. Valther knew how burdensome unfinished business could be so he accepted their presence and they benefited him because they had served as the perfect audience for the final act in his plan. The crow’s croaky serenade was silenced by the time the doors opened and the soulless husk Eleanor Calyx stepped inside. He recalled seeing more life in the amethyst gemstones that Cecil collected than within the glassy dual-toned eyes that watched the service unfold. Her words were like an empty echo, a doll speaking with Eleanor’s voice yet stripped of the essence of who she was.

He smiled, content in seeing the one who had scorned him so emotionally ruined and hollow. “Welcome home, Ellie,” Valther greeted her warmly as if she were truly beloved to him. “I’m so relieved you could find time in your busy schedule to bid goodbye to father. How unfortunate you didn't make the effort to see him a little sooner,” he sighed, shaking his head and clicking his tongue in disappointment.

“If only things had been different. He might not have suffered so much if you had been there…” he trailed off, that smile of his so deceptively gentle as he continued. “He didn't stop asking for you. Right until the end all he wanted was you,” he approached her then, leaning close to whisper the final blow. “His last words were your name.”

code: elyon | art: ashon

Where did it all go wrong? Eleanor couldn’t stop the question from whirling in the storming planes of her mind as she approached her parents' gravesite and the pitiful mound next to it that was all that remained of Cecil Calyx. From powerful titan commanding an audience to disturbed earth, it ground the fractured pieces of her heart into fine dust. Only the high garden walls stopped a stray breeze from blowing it away.

Eleanor could mostly drown out Mutt’s meaningless mockery and the fake sympathy he was offering, as if her refusal to submit was truly a pity, until his breath hitting her cheek delivered a destructive blow.

His last words were your name.

"It's your fault," she murmured the words that no one believed but she knew to be true. An illness, the raven had declared upon Cecil's death, attributing his sudden decline to a virus he must have contracted that his elderly body was too frail to fight off. In the throes of a brutal winter, no one batted an eye when the obituary was brought by black-winged messengers. All but for Eleanor, who clung to conviction until her knuckles turned white.

The metaphorical vines restraining her soul snapped under the force of its resurgence, the one true Calyx spurring back to life in an instant. His muzzle still close to her face, with the speed and fury of a cobra she struck out, aiming to carve that twisted smile right off it.

art by ashon

"It's your fault," Her hatred was like a sweet ambrosia filling his hollow, wicked heart with ecstasy. Valther had carried the torch that had burned down her world in his own jaws and now he was watching it all go down in flames. With an almost twisted sense of curiosity he was eager to see what would remain of Eleanor in the ashes. Would she still hold herself in such high regard when everything was taken from her and her tattered pride was all she had left to her name? A carnivorous grin, full of teeth and predatory hunger flashed in the last few moments of Eleanor’s fleeting consciousness and with one last insult he had the final word. “You could have stopped me,” he pointed out, his grin softening into a knowing smirk.

As if donning a mask his expression shifted into the solemn mournful countenance expected of a grieving son, stepping away from Eleanor and leaving her to the servants to attend to. “Take her to her room and keep a guard at the door,” he barked the order, sending wolves scurrying like ants to do his bidding. At least within the Calyx Manor she wouldn’t be able to cause him any trouble while he considered her fate. Her death would be most convenient to ensure his succession, but he couldn’t be too hasty or the Imperials would come sniffing around his business.

- Exit Valther

code: elyon | art: ashon