A/N When I was going through the books to make a Lark/Rosethorn chronology for this challenge over at Goldenlake, I realized that it's really only a matter of months, at the most, that Rosethorn and Evvy are in Summersea before they peace out and go off to battle volcanoes in Melting Stones. So, this is after that decision is made and Rosethorn and Lark talk about Rosethorn leaving.
The space that separated them was filled with silence, the kind that was fixed in place and impassable – a wall constructed of anger containing all the things you didn't want to say (but that was almost as bad, wasn't it? She could still see it in her eyes). Even though they were in the same room, the silence filled it until there was no room for all the things Rosethorn wanted to say, even if there had been a way for her to put it that she hadn't tried in the past few hours. Lark agreed that Evvy had to get out of Winding Circle for a while after her frankly disturbing behaviour during the fight she and Comas had gotten in with the temple students.
But just because Lark knew the reasons did not mean she was happy about it. No matter how Rosethorn explained, there was still that abandoned look in Lark's eyes, and Rosethorn couldn't stand to be the cause of that.
Lark's back was to her (please, turn around) and she sorted through thread of different colours that had tangled themselves into resistant knots. She did the tedious work with a gentle patience that didn't belie her anger, but Rosethorn could feel it. It covered that wall like thorn-covered vines, keeping her at a distance (please, turn around). She hadn't felt this distance between her and her friend (her lover, her everything) since they had been strangers forced together by luck and Honoured Firebird, and she hated it, but as she opened her mouth to try again to explain, that wall was there, suffocating as it separated.
Rosethorn wanted to explain what Gyongxe had meant. Not the politics or the battles or the death, even, because Lark had seen enough of the world to know what that meant. Not what war was but what it meant, because to Rosethorn all the suffering around her wasn't as bad as her being incapable of stopping it. The violence and destruction and utter senselessness of the brutality couldn't compare to the helplessness. To what it had felt like to feel her power draining away and know it wasn't enough (never, never, never enough) and to know there was nothing she could do to stop any of it.
That was why she was going. She couldn't stand by, because, even though she was miles away, she could hear the people of the Battle Islands begging for someone to help them.
And Rosethorn had heard enough begging to last her until she died.
(So, please turn around.)