shards of iron and ice

MELITA

Her head whipped back towards him, eyes narrowed, a dangerous conflagration drifting into their gilded sights. Oh, she could hold grudges – one only needed to ask Kiada. But they were never unfounded things; never appearing out of thin air, or because her temper flared at treacherous angles. There were foundations, reasons, for her rage, for her rancor, for her bitterness, and it’d been his cheating, inept, unwinding stupidity. Because she’d had faith that they would’ve practiced with staffs, with skirmishes, with challenging one another – and not to the point where he’d taken it. “No. It’s because you broke my trust. Training isn’t about winning, or breaking someone apart. It was about learning. And you took it too far.” They’d already discussed this before, but perhaps his thick skull just had trouble absorbing it.

His next words were so ridiculous that she erupted into wild, savage laughter. “Gods, you wish.” Then she turned to move away again, ambling along the market.

help tonight to split its seams
Give the bruises out like gifts