Out with the golden we sew // Rapt

[rapt]

there is a dream in the space between the hammer and the nail ------ the dream of about-to-be-hit, which is a bad dream ------------ but the nail will take the hit if it gets to sleep inside the wood forever The woman – her wife – the queen – comes to them from the air, and Rapt notices her as Abysm moves away. He feels the weight of her gaze, the same judgement he casts on her, like animals circling one another – except he has no wont for what she has. Yet here he is, an outsider, in a kingdom where he pledges no loyalty. “I’m Rapt,” he says, and nods his head to her. She’s awkward too, stumbling over her words, and there is a mean streak of gladness in his heart. He doesn’t wish them ill – either of them – not consciously, but he wants to be gone from here, he wants to be in a world where it’s just him and his son, where there’s no strange and unfamiliar territory to conquer, like what do you do when you meet your ex-lover’s wife? What do you do when you share a child, but he feels wholly yours, when she turned on her heel and ran? (He wonders how Kagerus told that story, to her wife. If it mattered.) Solace is welcomed toward Kagerus, the easy familiarity between them. Kagerus speaks for her, telling him – them – of her own children. “Congratulations,” he tells Solace, “I’m sure twins are a handful.” The whole air is still awkward, and then Kagerus speaks again, asking for questions, like this is some surreal seminar. There are a few replies to her words that he swallows back – he isn’t cruel - so he goes with silence, instead. rapt caius x else