DEIMOS
ache first, but then let the cuts close
spit out the blood
spit out the blood
By the time he’d turned back around to see if she’d followed, Cordelia was already clinging to his chest. Confused and bewildered, within a moment the clarity was an overwhelming, suffocating boundary, lifted, launched between Attuned bonds. For a man who’d spent lifetimes carving his way through loss, whose figure was etched in its inscriptions, who’d spent seasons striving not to be buried beneath its weight, the semblance was staggering. Haunting and threatening; interlocked and woven memories of demise. The Sword spent a few moments of his own striving not to drown beneath the surface, inwardly raising his head above the blackening, Stygian waters, where the sea of his failures tugged and pulled, where he’d struggled against the current for as long as he could remember. A tightening of his chest; it dug through ribcages and lungs, through spines and marrow, through flesh, tissue, and bone, before clawing at his soul –
And Deimos breathed, snorting a little as he gained traction again. A warning next time, please he murmured, though it remained somewhat light, ambivalent, as he fought to keep them both from flickering and falling apart in the middle of the damned parlor.
Thereafter, he could peruse the sadness, the heartbreak, the familial ties hastened and destroyed, while steering her a little closer to the hearth, listening to his companions shift around them. Not Noah then – as that would’ve been his first guess – and the whole of the Citadel would’ve been aware if something disastrous had occurred upon their Sentinel. Allowing Cordelia a few more seconds of steady comfort and peace, he then granted her access to the nearest chair, before crouching down in front of her. “What happened?”
And Deimos breathed, snorting a little as he gained traction again. A warning next time, please he murmured, though it remained somewhat light, ambivalent, as he fought to keep them both from flickering and falling apart in the middle of the damned parlor.
Thereafter, he could peruse the sadness, the heartbreak, the familial ties hastened and destroyed, while steering her a little closer to the hearth, listening to his companions shift around them. Not Noah then – as that would’ve been his first guess – and the whole of the Citadel would’ve been aware if something disastrous had occurred upon their Sentinel. Allowing Cordelia a few more seconds of steady comfort and peace, he then granted her access to the nearest chair, before crouching down in front of her. “What happened?”
watch your body pull itself back together
then let your soul do the same
then let your soul do the same
