Chapter Text
She stood knee-deep in the ocean, eyes closed and head tilted back as she listened to the gentle lapping of the evening waves surrounding her. The shell clasped tightly in her hands felt heavier than it ought to have been. Perhaps it was echoing the gravity of the situation she’d found herself in or perhaps it was all in her head. The Princess of Wakanda wasn’t sure, but she had already steeled herself in her resolve. There was no time. She needed to speak to him before things took a turn for the worse.
Despite the newly obtained power of the panther goddess flowing through her, Shuri did not bring her suit, nor did she bring a security detail. This was something she needed to do alone and, as she waited for him to come, she hoped she was making the right choice.
Taking a deep breath, she brought the mouth of the shell to her lips and blew with all the strength she could muster. As she leaned down to dip it into the water, she hoped the urgency of her call would be accurately translated. In any other circumstance, the scientist in her would have been hypothesizing about how this unfamiliar form of communication might work. However, she had no need for that side of herself that day. There was no time for science as she willed Bast to finally answer the prayers in her heart and deliver her message to the Talokanil God-King.
Thankfully, she did not have to wait long. Mere minutes later, she saw a familiar black head and vibranium spear begin to rise from the water until he was standing before her, closer than she should be allowing anyone she considered an enemy to be.
Then again, she wasn’t so sure he was an enemy. Even as their people prepared to go to war with each other, she could not think of him that way. Not anymore.
“Princess,” he greeted. There was a hardness to his features, like it pained him to be there. He glanced around behind her, relaxing ever so slightly when he spoke his next words.
“You are alone.” It was a statement, not a question. Of course, nothing got past the Feather Serpent God.
“Yes,” she nodded, feeling betrayed by the way her voice cracked.
“You have made your decision then?”
She nodded again, not bothering to use her words this time. This, it seemed, surprised him. He was sure the death of her mother and Queen would solidify her decision to go to war with Talokan.
“What made you change your mind?” he asked, letting surprise colour his tone.
The princess said nothing for a few heartbeats, attempting to will the stinging in her eyes to go away but her tears fell anyway, heart aching for what they’d both lost and what they would both lose if they went to war.
“I saw them,” she said, voice choked up. “I spoke with them. We cannot go to war. It will destroy our people. It will destroy us.”
The urgency in her voice was not lost on him, and he knew something crucial had happened between the flooding of Wakanda and their current meeting.
“Who, princess?” He asked, closing the gap between them as he gently gripped her slim shoulders. He had never seen the Princess cry and was not sure what to make of it. “Who did you see?”
She looks into his dark eyes, so different yet so similar to the ones she'd seen in the ancestral plane. Then she lets go, allowing all the pain, anger, rage and grief she’d been suppressing flow out of her like one of her country’s great rivers.
“Our mothers. I saw our mothers.”