Deimos
Dare we know the halo's hanging low
Ever the listener, he strung and stung himself back into silence, watching, waiting, surveying from behind his own mug, the cake left undisturbed in its small remnants and remains. He was being analyzed far more than Safrin – for his choices, for his paths, for his sojourns, and found the shaman’s indifference, if not acidic response, only sharpened his nonchalance. What could have been cordial conversation on anything else had surged into this, and the gruff tones resonated in their measures. “No. It was not coerced.” He’d heard them too – about Sunjata and his foolishness, impulsive notions, and stupefying tendencies. About Ronin, and the messes around those chaotic moments. Perhaps the greater question was not why he’d gone to a god – the Sword had already made that abundantly clear along multiple occasions, but the choice of the deity. He sipped at the cocoa again, settling into the cooling flavor rather than other sentiments (like a surge of exasperation or irritation); the mettle and resolve iron in his jaw, working together in the cluster of calculations. “And if we all had those same experiences, I doubt anyone would meet with them.” A tiny grin managed to reappear in the corner of his mouth, as if trying to find some humor in the way this earth pierced and maneuvered. “Though I am certain they would be loath to admit it, the deities are just as complex, if not more so, than normal people.” Caught by whims and mercurial exploits, by betrayals and treacheries, by innocence and light, by power and dominion. None of them were black and white.
His eyes left the shaman, the upraised mask, and the table, looming briefly over the festivities, before rounding out once more – giving time to the order in his words. He didn’t want to bring up Amalia – unwilling to stir those emotions and munitions again, not when she was gone and the edges of her influence only remained as some vivid reminder of pain. “Safrin can also be kind, patient, and forgiving. Has granted me advice that I needed to hear, often more than once, to truly sink in.”
