KORBIN
Leave my loneliness unbroken!
- quit the bust above my door!
- quit the bust above my door!
The ravens shuffled back and forth on their perches in response. The rise and fall of ebony wings was a rustle of silk, beaks clapping and snapping around sonorous croaks neither greeting nor dismissal. Did she expect a response? For them to come flying to settle on her, to treat her like one of them?
She was not. Her clothes reflected it, more than the pale colors of hair and skin. Frilly dresses and fancy gloves, stones in the hair... It was frivolous, fancyful and utterly useless. To Korbin's eyes, she looked like one who begged to die. Sooner rather than later - a few minutes out in the brutal cold would see to that. Once, he would have scoffed at the idiocy, the wanton self-destruction she brandished like a badge.
Now he merely watched. One black bird among many. Only his eyes were different, flinty blue rather than deep jet. A young bird, or not a bird at all. Those eyes followed her, quiet and passive. Just waiting, to see if she would come close enough.
It would be amusing, to soil those pretty clothes of hers.
She was not. Her clothes reflected it, more than the pale colors of hair and skin. Frilly dresses and fancy gloves, stones in the hair... It was frivolous, fancyful and utterly useless. To Korbin's eyes, she looked like one who begged to die. Sooner rather than later - a few minutes out in the brutal cold would see to that. Once, he would have scoffed at the idiocy, the wanton self-destruction she brandished like a badge.
Now he merely watched. One black bird among many. Only his eyes were different, flinty blue rather than deep jet. A young bird, or not a bird at all. Those eyes followed her, quiet and passive. Just waiting, to see if she would come close enough.
It would be amusing, to soil those pretty clothes of hers.
Quoth the Raven,
"Nevermore."
"Nevermore."
