allowed to reach

DEIMOS

what tried to destroy you
didn't have the strength

There it was; and everything he’d accomplished seemed to fall away to nothing. He didn’t even dare look at her – head bowed, the solemnness coming off in waves, in the footfalls of a mistake that was going to echo well beyond these means and measures. “I was not aware Torchline was pledged to you.” That gods and heralds could truly even render themselves inclined to one area or the other. Had never imagined the sea belonging to anything but the sea; but perhaps that was his ignorance and folly all over again. That this world had more similarities to Helovia. He swallowed down a trail of bile coating down the back of his throat, the veracity in his words still managing to somehow stoke through. “It had nothing to do with your part in the circumstances, and everything to do with his. I have not liked that man for some time.” Since the first instance he’d maimed Ru; emotionally. “I only knew it was either Sunjata’s or Nate’s building. I was just tired of seeing her hurt.”

He paused, the uncertainty still crawling and curling over his spine, taking in the depths of the chill. “I will own that my loyalties can be flaws, but I did not consider them clashing in the moment.” To the herald or to someone he considered his family. A need for vehemence taken over. “I admit it was not worth it.” Not with the loss of Atlas, not with the crowd, not with anything, really. No satisfaction to be had.

still you stand
sturdy and smelling of smoke