you can hear when the heart stops
 | HELLO DARKNESS, MY OLD FRIEND
The shadowmare is quiet as Beyza shows her what it was that she experienced beyond the veil. The shadowmare had her suspicions about who could have organized such a thing – send them beyond and brought them back. And in the flashes of Beyza’s memory she saw not just Jamie but Anomaly as well – so two of her children had taken this journey along with her young protégé. But she suspected that each one of them would have a strikingly different story to tell.
The sight of otherworldly creatures so different from her own is unsettling, to say the least. Part of her is curious – curious if these creatures could be tamed by magic if they ever came to Beqanna. But part of her is wary for surely if that were the case there would have been no reason to send volunteers beyond the veil for this little…experiment. There was a flicker of worry if perhaps something else had been opened – last time the veil had been opened the dead had been allowed to walk Beqanna. What damage had been done this time?
But the more specific parts of the journey that Beyza shows her – the parts that weigh on her still – are not the ones that draw the shadowmare’s attention. However, she can see why they’ve drawn Beyza’s thoughts and why she lingers on them. She knows the girl is close with both of her children, but it is obvious that she is unaware of Anomaly’s role in her story. Anomaly – her daughter who had perhaps been the precursor that lead her to assist in the creation of Beyza herself. But that’s a story for another day.
She isn’t surprised that the girl’s thoughts linger on death – on the struggle to justify it. But she waits for Beyza to finish before she speaks.
“I have. Both directly and indirectly,” her voice is matter of fact, but there is no regret in her voice – no real emotion of any kind. “But I like to think that I do not waste life that is valuable. But a good example is to consider Ripley and her kin. Ripley has been bound to me since she was born in this current form. I allow her some degree of control that she can exist in Beqanna – but she and the other xenomorphs must feed. I allow them to hunt. So those deaths I am indirectly responsible for, wouldn’t you agree? I could have killed Ripley that night instead, but I chose not to. And I do not regret my choice to do so.” A brief pause, and then she continues.
“But the girl you saved – the other fill that you spared from death that day. That was my daughter, Beyza. So you have saved my daughter and your sister from death – perhaps it is selfish of me but I find that to be more than just. There may be others that are less deserving of life – or others that are suffering - that you could send to death in their place. Surely that would be just in the end?” she muses, knowing that Beyza’s magic is tightly bound to the girl’s beliefs.
A N A X A R E T E |
image credit
@[Beyza]
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