-Oh my love, don't forsake me; Take what the water gave me-
“We do what we came here to do.” She speaks up, in reply to Thana’s request.
They’ve come, the huddled mass of them. Come here to the forest where Gryffen has lead them - away from the destruction of the only home Circinae has ever known, or loved. She - they have lost everything in their attempt and gained nothing by their cause. Nothing but grief for the whole lot of them.
And yet, Circinae feels her anger growing in another direction entirely. Jah-Lilah is interwoven with her, cooing sweet adoration into the hollow of her throat and without so much as the blink of an eye, Circy returns the tender gestures with pliant embraces of her own: a soft kiss on her copper cheek here, a gentle nudge on her shoulder there. The lightning mare was wound tight; they all were, and Circinae wouldn’t begrudge her the necessary reassurance that lovers were indebted to pay, the rest of the onlookers be damned.
But she is here for a reason, they all are, after all. With a soothing bump of her nose the wolf-shifter glides around the taller mare, comes to the forefront so that she might see and be seen. Corvus is here, Crevan’s smell is surprisingly strong (where was that boy?!) and Jah was safe by her side. The time for worry had passed; the time for action: set into motion. “Gryffen.” She calls out, firmly but without anger. Before the downfall of the great redwood forest he had asked her what she most desired, had begun to warp her senses and she figured magic was at play - what kind she couldn’t be sure of, but she feels that she has the semblance of an idea now.
When his gaze alights on her, she’ll give him the answer he sought not so long ago. Her own eyes water, grow hazy the longer she stares at his fading white form, and then he’s gone and her world is gone too - replaced by the vision of them all as they tread over new land, marked by rolling hills and crowned by a weeping mare, her dark feathers hanging limply by her golden sides. Another image replaces the first, as quickly as she can blink, and there is another creature; painted like a wolf but with the body of a horse, lying broken and useless before her.
She smiles.
“We rebuild, however we see fit.” She answers herself stiffly, loudly, so that all gathered might hear. Only Gryffen would be privy to her true desires, and that is a secret she would rather only the two of them know. Let the rest be enflamed with their own aspirations, it didn’t matter; Circinae knew exactly what she wanted.
Revenge.
Circinae
