DEIMOS
Zuriel snorted, but appreciated the gesture, muzzle going toward Aisha’s elbow, and then settling back before the fire. Deimos left her to her own devices; she seemed quite comfortable, before advancing along the walls, the halls, the floors. It was arcane and ancient, alive and whole in its own way – having seen far more than they ever would or could dream, designate, and to hold a place in its distinction was an honor. The Sword had never been a creature to take anything for granted; avaricious in that manner, and he wouldn’t here either, not when he’d been given another opportunity. No one had to let him live here, no one had to allow him to start, try, to thrive back into the confines of battles, defenses, and armaments, to remember, recall, exactly who he was and what he’d been, and the memories of steel, of crushing blows, of ramparts ricocheting and fortifications fastened into thresholds. And as always, he’d pay them back with his own merit, his grit, his fire, his determination, instilling the fiber of sedition and conflagrations, collaborations, mettle for mettle, bone for bone, blood for blood. He’d fallen, tripped, stumbled, and fumbled along for too long now. And maybe this threshold, this world, would permit him to recall what he’d been all along.
While Aisha stalked, he listened, appreciating her blunt commentary, arching a brow at the figments he already knew, hastened, and could smile about. “I have no doubt someone will.” An arch to his brow signified nothing and everything, the cheeky glorifications sculpted into his features, rendered juvenile and boyish again without the semblance of trepidation carving them back into reticence. His eyes traced and trailed over the foundations, of the stonework that had once sculpted and protected, at the assistance it would need, at the devotion he could carry and maul into it. “Yes,” came first, already marking and making considerations in his cranium. “It had a rough Deepfrost last year. And with so many other projects, it was probably not high on the list.” Not when there’d been upheavals, manifestations, afflictions, deaths, and everything else contorted, unresolved. “But that is where we come in.” To breathe life, renewal, resurgence, and strength back into it.
He was something solid
to lean against
violent and fierce and unmoving
