who we are and all that we're trying to be
They were unraveling strands now, barely holding it all together – he knew by her eyes, by the bonds, by the compassion worn, by the effects rendered. A shared entanglement of heartache, dashed hopes, and broken, embittered things, lifetimes of regret completed again in one singular week, because the world hastened that they couldn’t have, grasp, or clench more than inches. But the Sword knew he had the Shield, and while they both wanted to break and shatter, to come completely apart at the seams, they were also lifelines and tethers, sanctums and sanctuaries, someone to lean upon, while the world kept descending straight into horrors and oblivion. You have me he declared in the coils of his existence, in the feral, sketched lines of prowess and predilection, in strength and honor and whatever bitter soul he had left. You have me he announced with mere movement and motion alone, as piercing gazes swept and locked and wished for more, for them, than the remnants of LongNight.
The beast tilted his head at the scratches behind his ears, tradition murmuring through the connection and accord, ignoring the fact that they might not have followed suit on this particular one last year. There’d been other circumstances, other multitudes, other mayhems.
The second inquiry coiled a snort for a rebuttal, before hastening towards another patch of thawed earth, claws slipping into their confines; he was calmer with action, with movement, with motion, something to do other than drown. An apology settled somewhere, and then he brushed it aside – she wouldn’t care for a wake of his rue and regret for breaking in the halls, and he didn’t want to relive it. Fishing for compliments? He teased instead, backing away from the freshly dug hole, teeth reaching for a bulb of lilac.
He dropped it within the void, lacking in finesse. Without you, I would still be in that Temple; aiming for an earlier, secondary grave, waiting for the world to come slaughter him again.
It takes dying to know
How to live as ghosts
