Whumptober Day 25
hide and seek
escape | flight |
runaway baby - banned magic au finale
warnings: death mention, fire
--------------------
The chilly air was welcome on her stinging and sweaty skin, though in less than an hour of her forced return to that little room, she was shivering. Zelda couldn’t see whatever mark they’d branded into her back, but she couldn’t imagine it was anything but vulgar and humiliating. Is that what they did, then? They rounded up those capable of magic and marked them as an outcast, shunning them from society until it drove them away? Or was that just a way to display power? Surely the fate of all that had been captured could not be as bad as hers.
King Astor himself had blessed her with a visit while she was trying in vain to nurse the charred skin on her back.
“You lie,” she accused him before he could get a word out. He lifted an eyebrow in amusement, like her fire was something funny and not a dangerous thing that could spread. “You have magic yourself, don’t you?”
“And what would make you say that, exactly?” he asked, leaning against the bars of the cell so casually, she wanted to reach through the bars and strangle him.
“Whatever you used to brand me– you laced it with magic. I would have been able to heal it otherwise, so what is it? What makes your magic more righteous than mine?” she challenged, though she didn’t have the strength to stand up. She was dizzy, whether it be from the dull ache of her body, the lasting concussion, or the fact that she hadn’t eaten since she was arrested the day before.