brokenprism | drowning (FFIV) (Reply)

drowning

Fandom: FFIV
Character: Rydia (child), Cecil, Edward
Rating: PG
Theme: 37, Silence

Summary: It's a little like drowning.

- - -

To her, it's a little like drowning -

(once, when very young, the other, older children of mist convinced her to come to the lake. she hadn't realized that water wasn't breathable, like air.

of course, the other children are all dead now.)

- something around her throat, suffocating, clenching off her breath, her life's-breath, her magic's-breath. She stumbles, steps backwards, hands around her throat as she drops the ice rod -

("never forget your magic, rydia," her mother says, stroking the hair away from her forehead.

"other mages learn magic, write magic, master magic ... but summoners, we are made of it.")

- and Edward gives her a strange look as she drops to her knees. It isn't explainable; she can breathe, she can see, it is just the terrifyingly chilly lack of feeling in her arms, the places where magic usually sings along her bones suddenly and wrechedly silent -

(she'd never seen her mother that still.)

- Cecil cleaves the last beast in two, and glances at her. Her lungs are working fine but she still can't breathe, she can't see, she can barely move -

- - -

"We'll have to head back to Kaipo," Cecil says softly.

Edward blinks, and frowns a little. "Are you sure?"

"She's a mage," Cecil says softly, his love for Rosa clearly etched into every line of his body. "Without magic, she can't do anything."

"That's not fair," Edward huffs, clearly offended at this metric of uselessness. "She can fight as well as-"

"No," Cecil says, and picks up the terrified child. "She - she can't. They say silence is like - you can't ...breathe."

Edward watches as Cecil looks down at her face (Rydia's eyes are clenched tight in terror; it must be her first time Silenced) and wonders, again, about the dark knight and the girl.

"Here," he finds himself saying. "I'll carry her. I'm no good in a fight, anyway."

Cecil pauses, as if reluctant - but then he gently hands Rydia over. "Thanks."

Edward is surprised at how light she is.

Notes: for