The peace that formerly reigned in Terra Nova has eroded, now little more than a memory. War ravages the continent. Disputes divide kingdoms; ideals divide families. The quest for power consumes absolutely and indiscriminately. None are immune to its allure.
Who will rise and who will fall? Only time—and ambition—will tell.
UPDATES
05.26.2023
2 month character creation hold for all existing members begins 6/5/2023. Ended 8/5/2023.
10.29.2023
Change in how times flows. Was 4 IC seasons, now only 2 IC seasons per 1 OOC year.
5 whole years of Heir Apparent goodness! When I started the site, I knew I was hunkering down for the long haul, but I never could have predicted the numerous twists and turns this roleplay site has seen. Hundreds of plots, characters, and members have come and gone, all leaving marks on the site. I am so very thankful for those who have invested. Because you keep coming back, keep getting on, and keep writing, Heir Apparent has the legacy it does today. Three cheers to us!
How could she have been so blind for so long? She had no retort or comebacks for the two who had witnessed the whole ordeal nor did she think that night was the right time to try and explain. She hadn’t thought about the summoning. Not when it had a host… it had someone feeding it. Or so she thought. But watching the life bleed back into Ravin at her cut hand, she was stunned into silence with how wrong she had been. It still needed her. It needed life. Her life to be exact.
Deimos and her had gotten all of them back to her home. She didn’t have any overnight staff, as they were not needed in her mind. So no one to bother when they came inside and she stood in her entrance hallway. “I… am so sorry.” It was the first words she had spoken directly to him. Her eyes slowly swinging towards him with so much sorrow within them. “I should have known… I feed Deimos… I-,” she squeezed her eyes shut. She had failed Ravin and he almost died because of her. “I will make sure to speak with the two… I will help send money to remake the green house.” She looked back up to him.
Warmth back to his skin, his eyes had more life than she had seen in a long time. “Ravin?” She asked, but had nothing more. Are you okay seemed too casual. Nothing seemed the right thing to say.
Post by Ravin Tracey on May 13, 2023 18:15:38 GMT -5
You are as dangerous as he is. And he is better off dead.
For the first time in weeks, Ravin felt warmth sinking into his bones. He’d forgotten what it felt like as if he’d been living in a cave and now stepping into the sun.
Norah’s blood was still wet on his lips, streaking beneath his ruddy cheeks. Ravin looked alive—or at least, a grotesque facsimile thereof. He would still need Norah’s support to stand but he was stronger than he’d been since he first reawakened in his human body. Though his body was still exhausted, his mind was clear, as was his path.
Ravin looked at her, drinking in the sight of her with such tenderness. He relished the sound of his name on her tongue, and let it drag him even closer into the light.
“It’s alright, darling,” Ravin pushed a strand of hair away from her face, “Everything will be alright.” His manner and tone were eerily calm.
How Ravin could stand to even look at her was beyond her. And yet he reached for her, brushing her hair back and she almost crumbled in front of him at the gentleness of the touch. Norah Prowze… the one made of iron steel and her chin held high despite how bad she could be losing… was almost brought to her knees. And tears were brought to her eyes.
She pressed her cheek into his hand, tears running down her cheeks. “I’ll make things right. I swear,” she squeezed her eyes shut for a moment. What had she done to him? She had brought nothing but trouble to him, though she couldn’t say it. Because she loved him, she wanted every ounce of him… and she knew she had it. But she was squeezing the life from him. “I promise I’ll spend the rest of our lives making up for this.”
Dark eyes opened to look up to him. “I promise you Ravin… my crow, my love,” her voice cracked with heavy emotion as she nuzzled into his palm further. “Do you need more?” She lifted her hand, an offering, one that didn’t even scratch the surface on what she owed him after all of this.
Post by Ravin Tracey on May 17, 2023 19:02:23 GMT -5
Ravin took her offered hand and raised it to look at it. He could still see the faint mark he'd left all those years ago. He held out his own hand now, laying it side-by-side with Norah's so that his bitemark was visible as well. A calm came over him then. A strange, eerie certainty that transformed his features.
The rest of their lives. Ravin's future now seemed more like a prison. How could he live on, dependent on Norah's suffering for succor? She couldn't support him and Deimos both. And besides, even fi she could sustain him, what is it she'd be left with? Would she really have her husband back? Could she ever?
"Walk me to the study, my love?" Ravin tucked a strand of hair, smiling warmly, "My enchantress?"
She didn’t miss the way his eyes lingered on their matching scars, for her eyes fell to them and she thought about that night. Back when she had no idea what she’d be getting into with him, when she didn’t realize how much she’d fall in love with the rogue who owned a brothel. But that mark had been the start of them, and she often absentmindedly ran her fingers over the imperfect skin.
Norah didn’t think twice about his request, not when he smiled at her the way he was. It had been so long since she had seen him like this that she felt like it showed her hope. Hope for their future and for managing the summoning within him. “Of course,” she wrapped her arm within his, giving him a crutch in a way but without holding him in a way to feel weak. They’d made it to the study a few doors away, and she’d settle him onto the lounge in front of the embers of the fireplace that still burned hot. She added a few pieces of wood and would grab a blanket to wrap around the two of them as she nestled in closely to his side.
“Did he… just come out? Did the other witch release him?” She asked quietly as she took his hand in hers, her eyes tracing his features as if watching for the small changes now that he had her blood and sacrifice flowing through him.
Post by Ravin Tracey on May 20, 2023 14:16:29 GMT -5
Ravin’s laugh was a hollow chuckle that wheezed like a bellows in his chest. “She can’t control him,” He grated in a sorrowful whisper, “No one can.”
Ravin’s clammy hand took hers and squeezed. “Remember our dream of a cottage by the sea? Children, running about in the garden?” His voice cracked for a moment, “I think about that quite a lot.”
Her chest squeezed at his laugh, her heart struggling in her chest for a moment. “Maybe I can… I just… I need to come home,” she didn’t know how to explain any of it, but perhaps if she just asked… if she admitted failure in Cambria… she could come home and focus on him.
Sitting beside him, she saw the image he spoke of. The one they had promised to one another, the one filled with laughter and children… children. More than one. “I still dream of it.” She admitted, her eyes gazing around the room they sat in. The estate left to her after Lord Carter’s death. “We could start looking, you know.” She turned towards him, dark eyes dancing with the firelight in them. “Find a place outside of Skia so we don’t have to compete for the shore. Plenty of space for a few little ones and a giant… Deimos prancing around.” Her smile was faint but it was there, looking towards the fire as she pictured it. Little dark haired children, bright eyes like Ravin… that crooked smile… she’d love them endlessly.
Post by Ravin Tracey on May 20, 2023 19:03:47 GMT -5
No. She couldn't come home. Of that Ravin was certain. There was nothing for her to come home to: just a whisp of a man, a mere shadow of the one she loved. His eyes shone with tears as the full weight of what needed to be done came crashing down upon him. He swallowed with a click, smiling at her.
"I haven't the strength anymore..." He tilted her face up, stroking her cheek, a single tear dropping down his sunken features. She was so beautiful. So full of life.
Norah turned to him, blinking at his words. Anymore? “Tonight was a long night. We should go to bed, you’ll feel better in the morning.” Had she really looked, she would’ve known exactly why his eyes filled with tears. But she was blinded by her own desperate love for him. She went to wrap her arm around him to help him up, the best she could, when he asked her to do something.
Her weight settling back in its spot on the ground beside him. “What is it, love?” She asked, her hand finding his.
Post by Ravin Tracey on May 20, 2023 19:05:49 GMT -5
The morning. He’d been waiting for dawn to break ever since he’d been liberated from that cage. But the night had endured. On and on, sleepless and endless and full of nightmares. Norah was his guiding star, but not enough to stave off the blackness. He smiled at her, still stroking her cheek.
“I’d do anything for you, Norah,” Ravin said gently, voice full of love and pain and sorrow all twisted together, “I’d go to the ends of the earth, as far and as long as you asked of me. That’s why—” Ravin’s voice cracked, “I need you to let me go. To let me rest.”
He spoke with a softness that unsettled her. It was a type of calm and yet love and sadness twined with each word. Her eyes searching him because this felt… like a good bye. Like he was telling her he was leaving… and a panic raised within her as his voice cracked.
“Let you go?” She echoed the words with a hollowness in her chest, as if he had plunged his hand through the center and pulled out everything that belonged there. “I can fix this,” tears clouded her vision because she didn’t even believe her words, because she didn’t know how to fix it. “Ravin, I-,” now her voice was breaking. “I love you.” It was as the tears poured down her face that she felt herself sag into his touch.
“I don’t know how to be without you.” It was pathetic, she hated how weak it sounded… but she had always been weak for him.
Post by Ravin Tracey on May 20, 2023 19:07:57 GMT -5
Ravin held her, stroked her cheek, as if he could banish her sorrow. Every word hurt, cut like a dagger, but he was beyond feeling pain. The exhaustion was far more powerful. The exhaustion of living without the will to. Now, knowing that there was a door that had cracked open, Ravin felt—for the first time in months—at peace.
“There’s nothing to fix,” Ravin smiled sadly, brushing a piece of hair from her face, “I love you, and if you ask me to stay I will, but—” A tear dropped down his cheek, “Don’t ask me. Please, I’m begging you, don't...” His voice cracked as he shook his head.
Norah’s eyes closed, wincing as he begged her. When she finally felt like she saw a shred of hope, a sliver of the old Ravin… he was asking her to let him go. Not because he was choosing Ben over her… not because things had gotten too complicated between them or with the threat of her mother… but because he wanted to be let go.
He’d stay if she asked, selfishly the words bubbled to her tongue but it was his gentle shake of his head that had her open her eyes back to him. She wanted to defy his ask, hadnt he heard her? She didn’t know how to be without him. She couldn’t picture tomorrow without him, or picture returning from Cambria to walls that meant nothing to her without him within.
But she loved him. With everything she was. Her body shook for a moment, breathing labored as she forced her lips to stop their trembling. She had selfishly kept him alive… barely… and hadn’t realized how much pain he had lived in. For her. Blinking rapidly, she cleared her eyes enough to view him properly. “Can I ask for morning? To have you till then?” She wasn’t sure she deserved that much, but she had somewhere she wanted to go with him. For the first… and last time… if he’d allow her. “Let me have till morning Ravin.” A few more tears escaped her as she asked, though her voice was more a plea.
Post by Ravin Tracey on May 20, 2023 19:09:05 GMT -5
Ravin wondered if it was selfish or manipulative of him to ask Norah in a way that he knew she would relent to. But he was a desperate man and would reach for anything to assuage the guilt of letting go. Ravin held her, eyes swimming with hope and longing and grief too endless to fathom.
“Can I ask for morning?”
Ravin started to cry in relief. In some ways, the morning was what he asked for. The hope of a new dawn in endless night. And he could give her until then, so long as she would deliver him to his own dawn.
“Of course,” He said, still crying. Ravin wrapped his arms around her, clutching her so tightly rocking her a little.
It was his relief that caused everything to rush from her. Stunning her for a few moments. Her mind swimming back and forth, voices speaking to her that she used to hear all the time… memories… past events… and she realized for a moment she needed… to breathe. A hand rose, pale against his shirt as she pushed back just a bit. “Let me get some things.” She did what she could to mask the growing ache in her chest. Giving him a small, faint smile. “I want to go to where we wanted to end up.” Pressing shaking lips to his cheek.
She wouldn’t be gone long, and in place of Norah, Deimos would curl around Ravin. His massive body warm and his head resting in Ravin’s lap. The summoning had many things to say, but he knew… nothing would fix either of them. So instead he pressed his head a bit closer to Ravin in place of words. Norah went to grab them both a fresh cloaks and on her way back, she paused at her work room. Staring in it, she knew she had some potions inside… two vials taken with shaking hands and shoved into the pocket she had.
Norah brought the two of them to the ocean side, far away from Skia without completely wasting their time together. His last night wouldn’t be spent within the confines of the estate that held him captive for so many years. Not for his last night. They’d be free together…
Together, they left the estate and she never let go of him once she had him back in sight. The two of them curling into each others arms at the front of the carriage, driving themselves out as this moment wasn’t to share with anyone else. Once by the ocean, they’d fall into one another at the top of the hill… where she would’ve commissioned a house be built for the two of them… for their future children. She wouldn’t tell him that now. Wouldn’t waste her time pleading, not when she could feel each minute ticking by as if every heart beat of hers was a minute in time.
No she wouldn’t beg and plead, instead they’d fall into the carriage and make love with no restraints. Like they had they first time. Completely lost to one another… in one another, only leaving the carriage when the first hint of sunlight broke into the carriage. Her throat was starting to tighten, and so she took advantage of the moment, “once more… one more moment.” She eventually did begged, and would coax him back to her one last time before they’d gather themselves enough in the cloaks and sat to watch the ocean side. Listening to the crashing waves as she leaned her head against his shoulder and they remained holding one another.
She wasn’t sure how she’d leave this spot without... Deimos had curled under the carriage to watch them and give them space. “You… will always be my greatest treasure. And always have my heart.” She said, a small smile on her lips as the sun started to peek over the waves. “I’ll always love you.” She looked up to him, savoring the view of his ruffled hair, the light glow of the surrounding dawn upon his face. He was quite a sight to be seen, and if she could freeze time, she would. Norah would freeze the entire world if she knew the right curse. Anything for another moment.