[DROP] dance of the naiad

DEIMOS And in your darkest hour, I hold secrets flame The expectation of what would come next made him hold his breath, eyes narrowed, suspicions heightened, uncertain of anything and everything in those strangled moments – would there be fire? Would there be bloodshed? Would there be something else? It was answered amidst the Fae stepping down, along the water’s edge, light surging, Stonesong imploring, and the river called, siren, as they danced. He didn’t know what any of it meant, neither Fae or Natural, Outlander and Abandoned, forsaken and desolate, but still curious and drawn, inexplicable, without explanation, except the current, the rapids, coiling against his mind. Come, they said, in some familiar strokes and hymns, and he swallowed it down, retorted in silence. What if it was a trick, a ruse? What if it was meant to entangle and brutalize them, more sacrifices meant to batter against the rocks, ichor and lifeforce staining the rapids? Or what if it was celebration, and they were simply incapable of comprehending it, too human, too mortal, too absorbed in other things, away from the ethereal, from the ether, from the air and elements? Before he could stop himself, he was on the edge of the embankment, stopped only because he had the slightest hesitation, because he was unworthy, because he didn’t want to be tangled into one more seething trap, one more imploring snare. His eyes found Jyoti though, watched, as the starwhale slid amongst its brethren. master of nothing place; of recoil and grace