remember that you can't save everyone
remember that you have to try
The good news he longed to share seemed to dissipate into the woven, entangled webs of their conversation, and he kept it hidden behind everything else, uncertain when the topic would come up again. He’d become a steely fortress in the interim of Sunjata and Ru, reliving particles and places, of fires forged and punishments placed and everything that crumbled thereafter, only to wonder if the cycle was doomed to repeat. He didn’t care how terrible the Flood was with words, or how different it seemed, because that man’s character had long since been tarnished by all the other misdeeds. War had been war, but what had been the explanations beforehand – for any number of sins? Or maybe Deimos simply couldn’t comprehend the rationale behind forgiveness, when it’d been extended to Sunjata time and time and time again, and he consistently threw it away on stupidity and selfishness. The Sword had burnt many bridges with no intent of repair; content on watching them smolder into embers, and never touched them again. Clemency and absolution were rarities in his mind – for people seldom gave him a reason extend the attributes. “And whose are they to forgive then?” His eyes narrowed, staring out over the horizon, jaw clenching tightly. “The people who died because of his actions?” How could she overlook the way he’d bent and broken her too? How could she pretend it never happened? How could she forget the number of times she’d wept, damned by his actions? What happiness was there – when he’d scorned and punctured and lanced every opportunity?
He shook his head, nearly mulish, longing for a day when the Flood evaporated into the void. “I will never understand it,” was an admittance of his coldness and reasoning; justifiable means on his end. Were things different because Nate was gone? Because Sunjata had nothing left, and he could meander his way around the Valkyrie again – use and use and use because she was willing? If it were up to him, the cretin would never be permitted to breathe again, much less persist in his antics: to die alone, banished, fallen and broken apart amidst King’s End, and tossed in one of the hills there, forgotten. “Yet, he is the one who hurt you, and took away your peace, over and over again.”
out for vengeance
DEIMOS
