DEIMOS
ache first, but then let the cuts close
spit out the blood
spit out the blood
There were a few seconds where he slipped away; mind elsewhere, focused on the horizon, on figments and realities blurring, blending, bending together. In the distance there were shapes and faces of things he’d had and knew and understood, a canvas of ivory, a rising summit threatening to pierce the sky, wayward souls coming to drift away from anonymity, and into the mountain’s clutches. Gone and not; sealed away in the edges of his heart, and he breathed, felt the fire, the daggers, everything else warping and shaping together – blades tucked away, figments of them, harpy feathers and thief tandems, blizzard configurations and drawn knives, wolves howling to impart their friends home. Maybe they were ghosts, remnants of the season’s turn, maybe they were memories, maybe they were nothing at all but things he craved – taking them in with notes of fondness, instead of the bleak nuances of what he no longer had. Then he blinked, and they were gone, and Sah was inquiring.
His attention was drawn back over his shoulder once more, until his lengthy strides slowed, and Sah was permitted to catch up with him. “I have seen luxere, which are deer with glowing horns. But there are animals like moose, and creatures of the arctic.” An arch of a brow hinted towards the ursurs, and then a vigilant nod. “Big bears. With tusks.” His most recent run-in had been within a cave though, and they’d had opportunity to evade and escape.
The list of essentials sounded fine and understandable, most of them loaded into his own pack as well. The monolith’s gaze riveted momentarily to the unicorn at his side. “Good. Zuriel can heal as well, so we should be covered in case anything happens.” And with his magic, his shifts, they should be capable of rendering the hunt successful without getting too perilously injured – but gods knew what they’d encounter.
He waited until they were further out, where the Citadel was merely a backdrop, a blunt reach in an outcropping of stark white, before entangling his machinations. “You wait here with her, and I will see if there is anything nearby.” Zuriel tilted her head in an positively haughty indication of her prowess towards Sah, before the Sword was suddenly naught more than an assemblage of feathers and plumage, eagle adornments hailing along the sky.
His attention was drawn back over his shoulder once more, until his lengthy strides slowed, and Sah was permitted to catch up with him. “I have seen luxere, which are deer with glowing horns. But there are animals like moose, and creatures of the arctic.” An arch of a brow hinted towards the ursurs, and then a vigilant nod. “Big bears. With tusks.” His most recent run-in had been within a cave though, and they’d had opportunity to evade and escape.
The list of essentials sounded fine and understandable, most of them loaded into his own pack as well. The monolith’s gaze riveted momentarily to the unicorn at his side. “Good. Zuriel can heal as well, so we should be covered in case anything happens.” And with his magic, his shifts, they should be capable of rendering the hunt successful without getting too perilously injured – but gods knew what they’d encounter.
He waited until they were further out, where the Citadel was merely a backdrop, a blunt reach in an outcropping of stark white, before entangling his machinations. “You wait here with her, and I will see if there is anything nearby.” Zuriel tilted her head in an positively haughty indication of her prowess towards Sah, before the Sword was suddenly naught more than an assemblage of feathers and plumage, eagle adornments hailing along the sky.
watch your body pull itself back together
then let your soul do the same
then let your soul do the same
