05-06-2023, 10:47 PM
asterope—
She has lived in abject terror, lurking just below the surface of the water, watching as the wildlife has fled from horrors she cannot see. Beyond the edge of the forest, there has been upheaval, chaos, some worlds crushed while others are reborn.
The dark magician had come once, he had dragged her from the depths, he had walked her out into the light. (She had stumbled and staggered, as she was a creature of the water and her legs had become largely useless in the years she had spent confined to that pond at the heart of the forest.) The magician had not spoken, simply walked alongside her in silence, the two tethered together by magic (the only thing capable of keeping her alive away from the water that had become her singular lifeforce).
He had wanted to show her the wreckage. It had been a moment of both softness and absolute ruin. He had turned to look at her as her heart had seized, her breath catching. She had been only days old when he had taken her from her mother, the sisters, condemned her to that water. She’d had no way of knowing if Beqanna had always been fraught with this specific kind of devastation, but there had been something in the way he’d looked out at the chaos (it had been delight, she realizes now) that had told her this was new.
And then, equally as silent, he had turned back and led her back to the water. And for the first time in her life, she had been glad to be back there beneath the surface. It was safe there, if not so unbearably lonely. She was grateful too, though, grateful that he had thought to show her the ruin because it had worked to soothe her aching heart. Perhaps this was why she had not seen Sickle in such a terribly long time.
She spends her days now worried that her friend has been hurt in some way. She languishes there at the pond’s edge, just enough of her left in the water to keep her heart beating, and stares into the trees, silently willing her friend to appear.
The dark magician had come once, he had dragged her from the depths, he had walked her out into the light. (She had stumbled and staggered, as she was a creature of the water and her legs had become largely useless in the years she had spent confined to that pond at the heart of the forest.) The magician had not spoken, simply walked alongside her in silence, the two tethered together by magic (the only thing capable of keeping her alive away from the water that had become her singular lifeforce).
He had wanted to show her the wreckage. It had been a moment of both softness and absolute ruin. He had turned to look at her as her heart had seized, her breath catching. She had been only days old when he had taken her from her mother, the sisters, condemned her to that water. She’d had no way of knowing if Beqanna had always been fraught with this specific kind of devastation, but there had been something in the way he’d looked out at the chaos (it had been delight, she realizes now) that had told her this was new.
And then, equally as silent, he had turned back and led her back to the water. And for the first time in her life, she had been glad to be back there beneath the surface. It was safe there, if not so unbearably lonely. She was grateful too, though, grateful that he had thought to show her the ruin because it had worked to soothe her aching heart. Perhaps this was why she had not seen Sickle in such a terribly long time.
She spends her days now worried that her friend has been hurt in some way. She languishes there at the pond’s edge, just enough of her left in the water to keep her heart beating, and stares into the trees, silently willing her friend to appear.
—what was it like to feel in love?
@Sickle