whatever you say

JACK

This is what dying will feel like, he thinks, when it finally comes for him. Like being pushed off the edge of the cosmos, spiralling and splintering and - will your mind ever recover from this, Jack you fucking idiot - streaming with starlight. His head tilts up to watch the goddess, haloed by the moon and seeming bright and dark and effortless as the tide. Her fingertips are porcelain and fire, his head instinctively turning into the press of her palm; into the pain that's about to spiderweb through his skull.

He thinks he screams with the pain, but honestly it might all be in his head - either way, before he can properly comprehend it (dream of it, have sex dreams about it, have nightmares about it) all of it ends. Like the sea after a wretched, bucking storm, Jack is adrift in a goddess's smile. "I'd better not keep her, then," he mumbles of his ship, though his legs won't respond one bit. "Thank you, Safrin."

Maeve

It's beautiful chaos and Maeve isn't privy to even half of it. If it wasn't for the way his lips part in a silent scream, face twisting with pain and relaxing again, she might not have even known anything had happened. Safrin gives him exactly what they came here for with less pomp and circumstance than Maeve was expecting. Whatever she saw in Jack's mind must have been enough and there is a faint surge of jealousy to think he already holds so much favor with the goddess.

Maeve keeps herself from letting it show, instead stepping forward to help Jack stand, bracing herself against his side so he doesn't collapse. "Yes... Thank you, Safrin. I have no doubt this will not be forgotten." By either of them. As if the herald would allow it. "I'll help him get back." She says softly with a final dip of her head.

Oh your mouth is poison
Your mouth is wine

The Nightshade

Safrin

"Certainly not." Safrin agrees, and in his mind her presence will spiderweb throughout his consciousness like irreparable fractures in ice or bone. With a final rake of her nails against his scalp, the goddess will step forward and through him. Disappearing like a sigh breathed in a maelstrom, Safrin will let Jack's memories twist and tangle the encounter as he sees fit, into nightmares and daydreams, and sexcapades alike. And perhaps should one of those seem more real in the moment than it has any right to, as if her hands nails are actually upon his skin, clawing stroking, her lips laughing screaming, well then, Jack might just realize he isn't the only one with magic he keeps hidden.

~FIN

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!