1 Samuel 15:25

[trickster_mk2]

[Gabriel had stayed in the palace, if only because his... well, his not-quite-himself-self had liked the opulence and grandeur of it, had liked the beasts that roamed the halls and growled at him when he hissed at them. He'd liked being king of the place, the rush through his veins

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[risegloriana]

[Elizabeth had woken up... not just out of sorts, but with an awful feeling in her heart that everything was wrong. All of it. In Sanctuary, alone. A grief that she didn't understand choking her. As deep as the bruises on her neck. The empty call of birds she wasn't familiar with in the morning air -- and below all that, a bitter sting she knew well

[trickster_mk2]

[As much as he's hoped for a reply he hasn't expected to get one. He was very much used to vengeful women who would let him stew in his own mistakes and brothers that would ignore his very existence or brush him off as unimportant. The fact she answered at all made something in him sing. It was the first step to forgiveness after all.]

Thank you, Lizzie. I'll see you in a moment.

[And then he has to cut the reply, because the tremble in his voice is probably far too obvious and he has a lot of work to do.

The palace is fast returned to as it was, reducing the walls back from their bright Indian colours to wooden wainscotting, tapestries unfurling and fires lighting in grates. It would be home, warm and welcoming, a home she was familiar with.

But he couldn't get rid of the tigers that lounged on the wooden floors and the flagstones of the courtyard, unfazed by the changes and very clearly waiting for her return.]

[risegloriana]

[It doesn't take her very long, to bundle up the few things she has here, that Helen had given her to take care of herself, most of them she left. Easier to find someone to take her back. It was a little uncomfortable how much they all looked at her with pity. She had never wanted that. Getting out of there was for the best really.

But it is a relief to see her home as she was used to it. Home, her childhood, where she had been genuinely happy for a while. Where she had been happy with him. But still, she was slow, getting used to it again.] Gabriel? [she's sure he would hear her, after all, even when the place was so huge. But she kept walking back into the courtyard, smiling a little when she saw the tigers waiting for her.]

[trickster_mk2]

[Gabriel held back, half-hidden in the doorway. The truth was, he'd been there for some time, ever-since he'd had a rose-bush trained around a door and the buds form into perfect twists of red and white and pink. Whatever he could do to make the palace seem like a welcoming place, a safe place, he had done. And then he'd waited, at the door, peering out and waiting for her arrival. She didn't have to call for him, he had seen her step into the courtyard, just as he had felt her presence as soon as she was back in the Venetian district. He'd stayed hidden, if only to try and judge her mood before he showed himself. The Tigers had seemed to soften her, anyway. Or maybe it was all an act.

Either way, he couldn't pretend he wasn't there. He could just disappear away now to lick his wounds, and it was a tempting idea. Very, very tempting. But from some small crevice in his soul he managed to find bravery enough to step out from the shadow, and to meet her]I thought with Advent on the way, you might want it looking a little more familiar.