Deimos
suns for bones and constellations for eyes
The mention of Kiada, and their innate fondness for one another, drew a more comfortable smile upon his mouth. “She has always been known to choose her own path. I tried to support her along the way.” She’d succumbed to death, only to rise again from it, and mark her place amidst another unknown enigma; the youth knew how to survive, even when everything else seemed so out of balance. While he may not have agreed with her choice to bow her head towards the Voice, he’d understood the implications of why. And sometimes that seemed to be enough.But with the tables slightly turned, with her cheeks flushing too, embarrassment, he didn’t feel as discomforted as they mucked about the notions together. There’d been different stakes on either side; legacies of namesakes or trappings of failure – and he tilted his head again, studying her as she glanced elsewhere. For all he’d heard of the Wordsworth parents, nothing had been good or grand, leading to Sam’s hidden measures, where he could’ve been confident and soaring, and Evie’s furtive measures to merely protect the layers of secrets embedded amidst racism and terror. Perhaps he’d been lucky in that accord; his mother and father had been supportive, understanding, until they were gone. “I am sorry you were not given that opportunity,” until lately – and then his gaze snagged at icicles on beams of rooftops, at citizens walking past. “Children should not have to carry the burden of their parents.”
And then he winced at the notions of other days and events – for he could recall, in between the pain and torment his own actions had caused – all the others circumventing back upon his shoulders. “I do.” His glance fell back upon the cobblestones as they passed by and along the familiar stretches, a breath hastening through his lungs, unwinding into puffs of air that felt sharpened. “Sometimes I feel as though all I can do is protect others, and even then, it backfires.” Like with Rexanna. Like with Clemente. And maybe, here and now, years into the future, when defenses had been rendered, he’d still find a way to fail Halo. “I would not want my errors somehow extended to one of my own either.”
