tell the ones you love, you love them
Deimos <3
Kiada Njovu-Reyes
Hollowed Grounds Registrar

Age: 30 | Height: 5’7 | Race: Ancient | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 2 - Strg: 18 - Dext: 16 - Endr: 29 - Luck: 17 - Int:
Played by: Skylark Offline
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Posts: 1,674 | Total: 13,495
MP: 2712
#1
do not fear the dark, wolf cub, for when the sun leaves the world,
It’s entirely new, the way she can’t feel Deimos as much but can feel her emotions tenfold. It had taken some time, to get him to realize that it wasn’t a joke, that she was here, the emotions and fire tempered for a walk back to the Barracks, through the snow, through the alleys of Halo that both seemed familiar and yet… Not.

How long have I been gone?” She asks, her vibrant blue gaze flickering over to Deimos – unable to keep her arm from being unwrapped around his own, giving him her presence as long as she could. Her voice is hoarse but it doesn’t hurt. There’s no pain associated with this body. Part of it feels like a blessing, part of it doesn’t.

It’s all confusing. But it was something she had asked for. She had picked this. She had chosen to do this to come back to see them all, to continue her life in all the ways she hadn’t before.
the world fears you
KIADA
Kiada has a large X scar on the right side of her neck.
No permission needed for power play!
Feel free to use magic/force on Kiada, without killing her <3
Deimos Ignatius
the Resurrected Sword
Warden of Halo / Guildmaster

Age: 33 | Height: 6'4" | Race: Hybrid | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Halo
Level: 14 - Strg: 72 - Dext: 72 - Endr: 73 - Luck: 80 - Int: 3
BELIAL - Mythical - Peryton (Blend) ZURIEL - Mythical - Unicorn (Healing)
Played by: Heather Offline
Change author:
Posts: 6,559 | Total: 10,652
MP: 9824
#2
i wonder which will get you killed faster - your loyalty
He was breaking again.

He could feel it along the edges, across the seams, the strands he’d so painstakingly tied back together, strived to keep from tearing, from ripping, from fumbling apart. It pierced along the contorting of his veins, curled and coiled into the ramparts’ vestiges, and knocked, fumbled, rattled, and threatened to tear it all down. All the walls, all the guards, all the fortifications could come toppling down on a wayward breeze, on one flickering cinder, on one fallen, wayward ash.

But not out of grief. This was something else altogether. Hope? Love? Devotion? Elation? Did those things exist for him anymore? The monolith had thought them gone, taken and stripped away from him, piece by piece, portion by portion, until he’d wandered out into this world and waited to crumble, for everything to cease, distort, and end. Where did it begin again – when friends picked him up, when there were other beings to live for, or here, now, when the shards weren’t so blunt, and the void not so dark?

He didn’t know. In the back of his mind crept something else; age-old machinations, a whirlwind, a beckoning, clawing warning, but for now he shoved it aside. For now he reveled in the fact that she was real, whole, tangible, alive. For now he forced away the nuances, the consequences, the Reaper tendencies, and simply held.

Who leaned upon who didn’t connect or correspond to his mind – a familiar walk down the cobblestones of the Citadel, limbs taking him towards the Barracks, everything habitual, overridden in their motions. The inquiry clawed and rankled, and the General bit back a sigh. “Since Flowerbirth.” And what had once been a symbol of renewal had been caustically warped into disaster, each season after that stretching into more ruins. “What do you want to know?”
or your stubbornness?
DEIMOS
Kiada Njovu-Reyes
Hollowed Grounds Registrar

Age: 30 | Height: 5’7 | Race: Ancient | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 2 - Strg: 18 - Dext: 16 - Endr: 29 - Luck: 17 - Int:
Played by: Skylark Offline
Change author:
Posts: 1,674 | Total: 13,495
MP: 2712
#3
do not fear the dark, wolf cub, for when the sun leaves the world,
Since Flowerbirth. And it had been the Festival of Lights when she’d risen. Her lips purse slightly, head tilting to watch the path they take, uncertainty lingering in her bones at what all had occurred and  happened since then. She has no idea. But she does know that he’s here, heading toward his home, no longer in the Grounds. And Amalia isn’t here either as far as Kiada knows.

She doesn’t need to breathe, but she still heaves a sigh out of familiarity, iceberg eyes lifting to meet Deimos’ face again, trying to figure out where to start. “Everything.” She admits, a bit of sadness overcoming her at the inability to speak to him through the bond as they so often had, unable to feel the feelings he has harbored and held tight around his mind. “Did… Tanau get saved?” She asks instead, a starting point perhaps, to make it easier.

There was so much lava. Loren had his hand in Tanau’s chest... That's all I remember.” She murmurs softly, tearing her gaze away, recalling the deity in pain and how much she wanted to help him, how much she had tried to help him, before the lava reached up and tore her away.
the world fears you
KIADA
Kiada has a large X scar on the right side of her neck.
No permission needed for power play!
Feel free to use magic/force on Kiada, without killing her <3
Deimos Ignatius
the Resurrected Sword
Warden of Halo / Guildmaster

Age: 33 | Height: 6'4" | Race: Hybrid | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Halo
Level: 14 - Strg: 72 - Dext: 72 - Endr: 73 - Luck: 80 - Int: 3
BELIAL - Mythical - Peryton (Blend) ZURIEL - Mythical - Unicorn (Healing)
Played by: Heather Offline
Change author:
Posts: 6,559 | Total: 10,652
MP: 9824
#4
i wonder which will get you killed faster - your loyalty
He should’ve realized, far, far sooner, along the key differences. How he couldn’t feel the emotions sizzling and searing back and forth, how it was just his in the dark, his own piercing back over his heart again and again and again. Too far gone in the confusion, in the murk, in the relief, the thoughts weren’t immersed in the sanctions of what she’d become, of what would become of her, of them, or if it really mattered. For once, he lived in the moment, instead of the calculations, the plots, the schemes, the Reaper howls contorting down ridges in spines; he had her, and she was safe, and that was enough.

The Sword could hear the sadness though, and he hated it – but had no way of providing some angle of contentment when a majority of the news was damned. A nod followed first, as he opened the door to the barracks, as the darkened walls played with the gentle lull of the fire, as Zuriel’s head rose from the hearth in some startled, shocked expression, as the world threatened to give way. “Yes.”

He swallowed down the harsh, unrelenting haze of the trauma, of what must’ve been her last moments; a stranglehold hastening down as he released her for a second to close the aperture, to place the lanterns in his other hand on the barrack table, leaving them for later. What could he say next? That he was sorry? That he wished he could’ve been there to save her? That everything had gone so horribly, horribly wrong once she’d been erased and vanquished? “But metal was embedded in him, and Loren got it out.” Scars to prove his legacy, his moment. The monolith pulled out a chair, uncertain if she wanted to sit, uncertain if he wanted to do anything but stand and not sway. “It seemed to cause many to become ill.”
or your stubbornness?
DEIMOS
Kiada Njovu-Reyes
Hollowed Grounds Registrar

Age: 30 | Height: 5’7 | Race: Ancient | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 2 - Strg: 18 - Dext: 16 - Endr: 29 - Luck: 17 - Int:
Played by: Skylark Offline
Change author:
Posts: 1,674 | Total: 13,495
MP: 2712
#5
do not fear the dark, wolf cub, for when the sun leaves the world,
The door opens, Kiada sliding into the space and letting her gaze scan around – despite the darkened edges of the room, she can see quite clearly. Not like her Attuned sight, of shifting her eyes to find them, it’s simply… Inherited. An interesting perk that she files away to think about later when her eyes land on Zuriel and a smile cracks her face. A small one, of course, no fangs to be seen just yet. “Zuri!” She chimes in greeting, a bit of relief spreading along her bones as she lets Deimos go, watching and listening when he goes to explain what happened.

Oh.” She murmurs, dark brows furrowing, inching together as she tries to understand the implications. The god had been on fire, how long had it taken for Loren to remove the metal? And with it, damning them all? A chair is pulled out and Kiada swiftly grabs another, quickly with more speed than she should have.

Something to get used to, she supposes, setting the chair with a bit of surprise beside her own. She sits in the one, her gaze lifting to Deimos expectantly, as if silently asking him to sit even if she can’t say it mentally anymore. Her eyes can still convey it. “Was it… Like the Blight?” She asks, by means of the illness, head tilting to the side as she stills. “Did anyone die from it?
the world fears you
KIADA
Kiada has a large X scar on the right side of her neck.
No permission needed for power play!
Feel free to use magic/force on Kiada, without killing her <3
Deimos Ignatius
the Resurrected Sword
Warden of Halo / Guildmaster

Age: 33 | Height: 6'4" | Race: Hybrid | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Halo
Level: 14 - Strg: 72 - Dext: 72 - Endr: 73 - Luck: 80 - Int: 3
BELIAL - Mythical - Peryton (Blend) ZURIEL - Mythical - Unicorn (Healing)
Played by: Heather Offline
Change author:
Posts: 6,559 | Total: 10,652
MP: 9824
#6
i wonder which will get you killed faster - your loyalty
The Sword stepped away from the Harpy, but not far, afraid if he was gone too long she’d fade into nothing, and he’d be alone again. Wisps of smoke, of plumes, of fire, stoked the lamps along the tables, the desks, better light to see her without Attuned adornments, to behold what had been brought back. While he wandered, the unicorn took her opportunity, hastening towards the Harpy, indifferent towards the alteration in species, shoving her maw towards the eternal youth.

When he slipped back within their glow, he strived to smile, the corners of his lips upturning, the wounds not so sharp, not so unrelenting, within a breath, within some fragments of normalcy. He didn’t miss the speed though – the swift, quick churnings of her movements, inhuman, otherworldly, and unearthly. And still, he couldn’t say it.

His head glanced downward, at the floor, at the void, at the chair, before settling into it, leaning forward, elbows on thighs. Not taut and rigid, not unattainable, not unreachable, Reaper voids hastening away, buried and burrowed in his chest – living for the now. “No,” and his cranium shook; the memories of her embedded in its grasp, feral and wild, untamed and belligerent, scratched down the length of his heart. What color was it now – if not black and nefarious, Stygian and dark? A blood, blood red, ruined and marred, misshapen and beaten, abused and forgotten? “All we wanted was fire, and avoided water. There were vivid hallucinations.” I thought you were one skimmed over his tongue, hid behind his teeth. “We were out of our minds.” Sometimes he still felt that way – when worlds collided and blended together and he so desperately craved the nothingness. “Not that I am aware of. There were two possible cures, one from the Voice, and one from Tanau.”
or your stubbornness?
DEIMOS
Kiada Njovu-Reyes
Hollowed Grounds Registrar

Age: 30 | Height: 5’7 | Race: Ancient | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 2 - Strg: 18 - Dext: 16 - Endr: 29 - Luck: 17 - Int:
Played by: Skylark Offline
Change author:
Posts: 1,674 | Total: 13,495
MP: 2712
#7
do not fear the dark, wolf cub, for when the sun leaves the world,
Zuriel approaches, and the Harpy reaches up to embrace the unicorn, pulling her head gently into her touch, running fingers over what she knows should be a velveteen muzzle and ears, despite being unable to feel it. She remains that way as her question is aired, as Deimos sits and she watches over the bridge of the unicorn’s nose. There’s a realization there, in the pinching of her brows, that Deimos had been one of the sick, the way he says ‘we’ rather than ‘the symptoms’, and things of that nature.

So she nods instead, leaning forward to press her cheek against the unicorns, a small embrace before letting her go to better focus on Deimos, reaching forward to take one of his hands, to pull it into her cold ones. “I’m assuming you didn’t take the Voice’s cure.” Because she knows him, she knows that after the Blight, he likely wouldn’t trust it. There’s a crooked smile that crosses her face, the edge of a fang peeking out from the smile, before she settles and runs both her small hands along his large, calloused ones. “When were you healed of it?
the world fears you
KIADA
Kiada has a large X scar on the right side of her neck.
No permission needed for power play!
Feel free to use magic/force on Kiada, without killing her <3
Deimos Ignatius
the Resurrected Sword
Warden of Halo / Guildmaster

Age: 33 | Height: 6'4" | Race: Hybrid | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Halo
Level: 14 - Strg: 72 - Dext: 72 - Endr: 73 - Luck: 80 - Int: 3
BELIAL - Mythical - Peryton (Blend) ZURIEL - Mythical - Unicorn (Healing)
Played by: Heather Offline
Change author:
Posts: 6,559 | Total: 10,652
MP: 9824
#8
i wonder which will get you killed faster - your loyalty
The world was altered and rearranged, but Zuriel, much like her bonded, didn’t particularly care in those moments. The familiarity was enough, leaning into the touch, into the return of the Harpy, saying more in her movements and motions that she could possibly convey otherwise. The mare didn’t mind the chill, because this was still Kiada, and they could make something out of the despair trapping the Sword, they could re-shape, re-hone, re-fortify the losses. Even when she was released, the mythical beast snorted, a warm puff of air, leaning her heavy head over the girl’s shoulder. Like moments of normalcy. Like it wasn’t all lost.

And then it was the Sword’s turn, and he ignored the chill, the coldness of her skin, the adornments of fangs and what it all meant – savoring what he could, while he could. Maybe that made him greedy. Maybe that made him human. Maybe that made him less burdened, less ruined, less broken and brittle and torn. The monolith shifted his hands, made them engulf hers, surround, provide some semblance of warmth she wouldn’t have again. Her fire hadn’t gone out. It’d simply been altered, changed, along with everything else. But he had enough, more than enough – and hadn’t he always given them, those loved, cherished, beloved ones, anything and everything he could? “I did not,” he murmured in the quiet, matching her grin for a Cheshire one of his own, dimpling in the corners of his cheeks, some measure of juvenile emblems. “There are springs in the Climb, and we used the water to keep the sickness at bay for a while. Then we had to gather lilies to put behind the falls. It took us until the end of Longheat.” A pause, a breath, the smile still there. “Which summoned a leviathan.”
or your stubbornness?
DEIMOS
Kiada Njovu-Reyes
Hollowed Grounds Registrar

Age: 30 | Height: 5’7 | Race: Ancient | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 2 - Strg: 18 - Dext: 16 - Endr: 29 - Luck: 17 - Int:
Played by: Skylark Offline
Change author:
Posts: 1,674 | Total: 13,495
MP: 2712
#9
do not fear the dark, wolf cub, for when the sun leaves the world,
Zuriel’s presence over her shoulder is familiar enough that it almost hurts, but she doesn’t let it impact her smile, her playfulness – trying to give some semblance of normalcy when this encounter was anything but normal. All she could do was sit there, take Deimos’ hands in hers, tilt her head just enough so her cheek rest against the unicorns, and let her vibrant gaze focus on adoptive father with all the curiosity of a girl being told a story.

A story that ends in such a way that makes her feel like she’s heard it a thousand times.

Of course it did.” She hums thoughtfully, though it ends with a huff of laughter, a wrinkling of her nose in the distaste of it all. It wouldn’t be a world she’d fallen into without those wrenches thrown into plans. “Then what happened?” She asks, keeping her hands within the confines of his own, letting her eyes focus on his face, unblinking and watchful, waiting for the inevitable destruction of it all.

Still, she can't keep her eyes away from the ghosting of a smile on his face, how it remains rather than disappears. And for that simple miracle, she's happy.
the world fears you
KIADA
Kiada has a large X scar on the right side of her neck.
No permission needed for power play!
Feel free to use magic/force on Kiada, without killing her <3
Deimos Ignatius
the Resurrected Sword
Warden of Halo / Guildmaster

Age: 33 | Height: 6'4" | Race: Hybrid | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Halo
Level: 14 - Strg: 72 - Dext: 72 - Endr: 73 - Luck: 80 - Int: 3
BELIAL - Mythical - Peryton (Blend) ZURIEL - Mythical - Unicorn (Healing)
Played by: Heather Offline
Change author:
Posts: 6,559 | Total: 10,652
MP: 9824
#10
i wonder which will get you killed faster - your loyalty
Some of the interplay was nearly normal, and he could have that, those peeks of semblances where one could almost forget they’d lost one another. That he’d perished once and risen again, and now she’d done the same – but the parallels were skewed, different, in the alterations beneath blood, flesh, and bone. He could tell stories and it wouldn’t hurt. He could recite days of old and it wouldn’t be so damned anguishing. He could unfurl words upon words upon words for her. He could be the Reaper and the Sword and she’d be the Harpy, and nothing else would matter.

The monolith knew better, but ignored it again, placing away those figments and fragments, to peel back into those layers and lacquer when the moments called for it. For now he listened to her laugh, because he thought he’d never hear it again. For now he watched her features rendered into classical Kiada, nothing makeshift, nothing burned away, because he thought he’d never see it again. A light laugh followed suit from him, a rumble unearthing, as if he dared almost not to exude it, as if she’d be chased away, as if everything would be up-ended if he was permitted to be happy for more than an instant.

“We fought it. Gained new wounds, new scars. Then Amalia -,” and he stopped. He paused. He lost his breath, and his head hung, and there were a thousand emotions flickering and buzzing through his mind. Lungs stifled and he forgot how to inhale, how to exhale, without the harsh intake, without the onslaught suddenly pooling into his chest. “Remembered Tanau was behind the falls, and we got him out. He took care of the monster.” And by then, the smile was gone, the laughter departed, head suddenly threatening to hang, eyes downcast on the floor.
or your stubbornness?
DEIMOS
Kiada Njovu-Reyes
Hollowed Grounds Registrar

Age: 30 | Height: 5’7 | Race: Ancient | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 2 - Strg: 18 - Dext: 16 - Endr: 29 - Luck: 17 - Int:
Played by: Skylark Offline
Change author:
Posts: 1,674 | Total: 13,495
MP: 2712
#11
do not fear the dark, wolf cub, for when the sun leaves the world,
They could pretend as much as they wanted, but they both knew things wouldn’t be the same. They both knew that there would be differences, and while she’d selfishly chosen to come back as this, there wasn’t any telling what could happen after. Whether she would be accepted or spurned. She couldn’t say whether or not she’d blame them, either.

And so she holds it off a bit more, waiting, not letting it linger in her mind for longer than necessary while she processes all the things that had happened while she’d been in that blissful warmth, that beautiful peace, unaware of what occurred after.

So she hangs on his words, diving into them rather than into her insecurities, chewing on the inside of her cheek as she considers all the implications and things that happened far beyond any of their reach when he stumbles over Amalia’s name. She can’t feel what goes on mentally with him, but she can spy his face, she can see the way he hangs his head, brows furrowing and an intensity added to her gaze as she focuses on him. “What happened to Amalia?” She interjects, unable to tell whether the Shield had died or what had happened.

She’d missed so much.

The latter half, of monsters vanquished and life continuing on, cures given to those cursed, are filed away to be thought about later. But for now, she focuses on the one thing that seems to drown Deimos, giving his hand a light squeeze of encouragement, wondering if he will tell her or not.
the world fears you
KIADA
Kiada has a large X scar on the right side of her neck.
No permission needed for power play!
Feel free to use magic/force on Kiada, without killing her <3
Deimos Ignatius
the Resurrected Sword
Warden of Halo / Guildmaster

Age: 33 | Height: 6'4" | Race: Hybrid | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Halo
Level: 14 - Strg: 72 - Dext: 72 - Endr: 73 - Luck: 80 - Int: 3
BELIAL - Mythical - Peryton (Blend) ZURIEL - Mythical - Unicorn (Healing)
Played by: Heather Offline
Change author:
Posts: 6,559 | Total: 10,652
MP: 9824
#12
i wonder which will get you killed faster - your loyalty
The world around them was quiet – not feral, not something made for stalking predators or roaming catacombs, merely lacking in the activities of the day. The guards had gone to the festival, reunited with loved ones or staring out in shock, wandering back home to await Deepfrost’s fathoms. The snow fell outside without a sound. The fire in the hearth crackled. Nothing else to drown out the ricocheting echoes bounding and leaping through his mind. Nothing else to overwhelm the memories, to wash away the curling, coiling reverberations of hearts breaking. Maybe this was where they had to stop pretending, stop bending, stop masking.

“Vi changed her. Made her a demigod,” he started, head still hanging low, piercing eyes pinpointed, rooted to the floor. “She came home to tell me you had died.” And then a breath, harsher and rankling, grated over his lungs and chest. “And that she needed to find herself. That she did not know who she was anymore.” And in the end, he’d seen how little he’d mattered, how much he’d done and how his love, no matter how deep, hadn’t been enough. “So she left me.” The tears didn’t flicker or fall down his face, but they threatened and loomed behind his eyes, why he couldn’t look up at her, why he couldn’t let her see his shame, hjs torment, his despair.

He made no mention of how, afterwards, ill and despondent and scattered and laden only with sorrow, he’d wandered. He’d wandered here, alone and alone and alone, and waited to die, to be consumed with his misery and wretchedness, and how even then, there’d been enough to pull him back. There’d been people, willing, to reach out. His jaw clenched and his hands grasped onto hers, tighter, because reliving it over and over again drained him, made him want to hide, made him yearn to flee. But not from Kiada. Just from the rest of the realm.

And if only the Sword could stop there, if that could be the end of the knives carving their way through hearts and bonds and souls. “There is a group, called the Order, intending to rid Caido of the Ascended and take down the Voice.” Deimos finally raised his cranium, tilting it vaguely, to gain her insight, her reactions, to the upcoming implications. “The demigods have been placed somewhere. I do not know if they are connected, but I have my suspicions.” Would he mind the Voice being rendered apart? No. But to maul the Ascended, upon some who didn’t deserve the plight? No. Did he believe Amalia, Remi, Ronin, or Delphia would march their way and slay through the hordes? No.

But there were always too many other outliers. Too many other circumstances. Just like now, with the newly resurrected. With their new allegiances and alliances.
or your stubbornness?
DEIMOS
Kiada Njovu-Reyes
Hollowed Grounds Registrar

Age: 30 | Height: 5’7 | Race: Ancient | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 2 - Strg: 18 - Dext: 16 - Endr: 29 - Luck: 17 - Int:
Played by: Skylark Offline
Change author:
Posts: 1,674 | Total: 13,495
MP: 2712
#13
do not fear the dark, wolf cub, for when the sun leaves the world,
Silence overtakes them, only the sounds of Deimos and Zuriel’s breathing to break up the quiet. She doesn’t need to, and instead sits there with a predatory stillness as she watches the lines on his face, on the mask that cracks and falters through his face. He can’t look at her, simply continues to stare at the floor. “She tried to get to me.” She adds in softly – one of the last memories before blinding pain, fire, and more fire.

But she listens more, hearing his breath grow harsher, a deepened frown crossing along her face, drawing a leg up to wrap one arm around it, keeping her other hand in Deimos’. “That’s not your fault.” She adds in softly, unsure what had all occurred, but knowing that it wasn’t him that had caused all of those things, regardless of what he may have thought, what arguments might have come about from it.

I’m sorry.” She says after, giving his hands a softer squeeze, trying to give him her attention and her presence to try and drag him out of it. But that isn’t all – no, it continues into something that horrifies her now, something that burns within her and tells her to run, so similarly to Deimos’ own internal warfare.

She purses her lips, the fire and frustration within her evident and written on her face, unable to master it now that she’s come back. “They can’t do that…” She says softly, though not without her anger and fire. “I won’t go back.” This is said with more determination. She won’t be killed again if she could help it, but she supposes she might not have a choice in it all.
the world fears you
KIADA
Kiada has a large X scar on the right side of her neck.
No permission needed for power play!
Feel free to use magic/force on Kiada, without killing her <3
Deimos Ignatius
the Resurrected Sword
Warden of Halo / Guildmaster

Age: 33 | Height: 6'4" | Race: Hybrid | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Halo
Level: 14 - Strg: 72 - Dext: 72 - Endr: 73 - Luck: 80 - Int: 3
BELIAL - Mythical - Peryton (Blend) ZURIEL - Mythical - Unicorn (Healing)
Played by: Heather Offline
Change author:
Posts: 6,559 | Total: 10,652
MP: 9824
#14
i wonder which will get you killed faster - your loyalty
He knew – Amalia always tried. While some lingered back, while some plotted, while some devised, she rushed forward with every ounce of determination and faith. Sometimes it worked. Sometimes it didn’t. And that hadn’t been pinned on her either. He’d never placed the blame on anyone, not Amalia, not the void, not Tanau – just circumstances gone horrifically wrong. Cyclical in their destruction, wheels of demolition, shifting when it was another’s turn (and they still fought, sought to disengage the needle).

So he nodded, swallowing down the other emotions, the heartache, the pain that came from constant loss, from abandonment. The soft utterance following the confession of so many things coiled and nestled its way into his mind, and he tried to repeat it like an echo, like a reverberation, until it could sound true and right.

Not your fault.

Not your fault.

Not your fault
.

The Sword had heard it before, from other bellows, howls, and mantras, but might not have been ready to embrace it, follow it, understand it. Too busy fighting himself, gnashing and biting and clawing, and then succumbing to the hollowed portions. It sunk in now, tracing over the foundations, the walls, the cracks, and along the surface, so he could breathe again. “Thank you,” he whispered, another squeeze of his hand, for being able to see him, know him, and dig down deep into where it lingered and hurt most. To pull, to tug, to not leave him there.

But thereafter were the traces of other threats, and his piercing eyes remained on hers, watched and witnessed the feral maelstroms return – though he wouldn’t have wanted it this way. Words with contempt and fire, embers and wrath, fortitude and might, things that had composed the girl from the very beginning, looming there even after death and rebirth. Renewals and resurrections gone in alternating directions, uncertain what the path would be now, or what laid ahead. “I know.” We will not let them contorted and punctured through his thoughts; but he didn’t want to make any more false promises, any vows, any assurances that they may not be able to keep. “We will figure it out,” came instead, a declaration of working together, amongst and amidst the others, of waylaying whatever ominous beacons crept along.

Then he swept forward, tracing over the confidences he could share, the truths, the knowns, hands placed on either side of her face, along her cheeks, intending to push them together so she’d resemble a fish. “I love you, kid. That will never change.” If she had any doubts, any hesitations, any uncertainties, he wanted to ensure it was not with him. That he was still that brutal beacon, that protective guard, that shelter and sanctuary in the coming storm. “I am sorry if I did not say it enough.”

He released her, with the slightest smile dimpling in the corner of his mouth, a sigh flickering through. “And what about your journey? How do you feel?”
or your stubbornness?
DEIMOS


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