"You're right. I want you to stop patronizing me." And for a sweet, blissful moment, Vesper is forced out of her proximity, his voice losing the mocking tone for something that recognizes what she feels: pain. There aren't any stabbing words or biting names that dig deeper into the wound, her body sagging with relief, the fire winking out around her to reveal panting breaths and singed clothing that she hadn't been coherent enough to protect, a hazy red lingering in her gaze.
There's no joy in her brief victory - and such a brief victory it is as he somehow knows enough to slip the knife between her ribs, straight to the guilt beneath. "Just stop. You don't know anything." She might as well be yelling, the emotions so thick they nearly choke her. Moments of his departure flash through her mind - the way they'd been forced out by the people of Caido, the regret in his eyes, the pendant that dangles from her neck, the damning autonomy that had inexplicably ruined it all and kept her from following him. It's too much, the pain stealing her breath before his shadows hit her, the sweeping of her legs nothing in comparison to the loss of equilibrium he glimpses in her memories, the crashing of her body against the ground like a blip in comparison to the way she'd been crushed under the weight of emptiness, the pain laughable in comparison to how the dead connection aches like a phantom limb that she can't remove.
Only instinct darts her into a nearby shadow, unable to hide the wounded sound that cracks from her chest but obscuring her sprawled form in the darkness so he can't see the tears that well like storms on the horizon, harbingers of the damage wreaked and still to come. And if he dares to approach in the moment, a wall of fire will raise like a loyal sentinel, silent but threatening in the protection of its charge.
4/4
There's no joy in her brief victory - and such a brief victory it is as he somehow knows enough to slip the knife between her ribs, straight to the guilt beneath. "Just stop. You don't know anything." She might as well be yelling, the emotions so thick they nearly choke her. Moments of his departure flash through her mind - the way they'd been forced out by the people of Caido, the regret in his eyes, the pendant that dangles from her neck, the damning autonomy that had inexplicably ruined it all and kept her from following him. It's too much, the pain stealing her breath before his shadows hit her, the sweeping of her legs nothing in comparison to the loss of equilibrium he glimpses in her memories, the crashing of her body against the ground like a blip in comparison to the way she'd been crushed under the weight of emptiness, the pain laughable in comparison to how the dead connection aches like a phantom limb that she can't remove.
Only instinct darts her into a nearby shadow, unable to hide the wounded sound that cracks from her chest but obscuring her sprawled form in the darkness so he can't see the tears that well like storms on the horizon, harbingers of the damage wreaked and still to come. And if he dares to approach in the moment, a wall of fire will raise like a loyal sentinel, silent but threatening in the protection of its charge.
4/4
thalassa
so don't waste the time i don't have
