[private] I love to gaze into infinity [Gale]

[Ciri]

Ciri

The disappointment in his eyes and the frown on his face is enough. Even if it hadn’t been, the words that follow next are. As he shrugs and admits that he wanted to see if her stars were more then decoration, that slow spreading dread now smothers her like a thick blanket. It takes a minute it for it to click, to understand that it is her friend that is behind the monstrosity that had just attacked them, no, attacked her.

The Gale she knows would never play on her fears just as the Gale she knew would have recalled her star shield. She remembers that visit to Hyaline when she had been unsure about the lake and the “monster” that lay beneath its waters. How he had soothed her worry when he recalled that she had fought her way from the lake once before. The similarity of the deer bones to the Leshen she had once faced are salt in an open wound as the little world she had started to rebuild all comes crashing down around her just as a star in the sky above them blazes across the sky as it falls.

“You’re not Gale.” She whispers and takes a defiant step towards him. The swirls in her cold eyes churn with sudden anger, alleviating her from the choking fear that rises in her throat. She still doesn’t comprehend the full extent of what stands before her. She’s had her run in with evil shifters before, the mark from that encounter still permanently slashed across her face. She assumes that this is some cruel prank or joke, someone in disguise or even an illusion. She has no idea that this is all that's left of the kind stallion she had once known.

“What have you done with my friend?” She snarls as she pulls her stars back around her and throws up her shield. This is a side of Ciri that Gale had never gotten to see and the one that had gotten her through the Underneath. At the heart of her is a fighter and she feeds off the strong emotions that roll through her now of worry, sadness, anger, and fear. She could fix this, she thinks, she can find the real Gale and they will talk of the heavens and the stars and everything will be just fine. She can fix this. She can.

Can't she?

all of time and space, everywhere and anywhere, every star that ever was

@Gale

[Gale]

Gale this is going to break me clean in two -- this is going to bring me close to you She whispers an accusation, and he gives her an exceptionally charming smle in reply. She is right. He is not Gale. He is something dark and intangible, something sour and wrong, something that seethes with hate and rage and greed within the body of his host. Ciri asks what he has done to Gale, and the Curse shrugs the stallion’s brindle shoulders. He’s no idea where the mind of a host goes when it loses the final tethers. He had driven out the consciousness of the man that once lived in this body, and given it no other thought since. He still does not, instead looking curiously at the stars that she has once more pulled around herself. Can he take them away, he wonders? Can he sever her link to the stars? He isn’t sure he can, but he begins to try just after he says: “He’s not here anymore. And he’s not coming back.” @Ciri

[Ciri]

Ciri

It is Gale’s charming smile but the warmth of it doesn’t reach his eyes like it should.

A nonchalant shrug as The Thing That Is Not Gale keeps the secret of where the Gale she knew was now. She does not like the way he now looks at her stars, so similar to the way the real Gale had once studied them. She barely has time to shiver as he finally confirms that the stallion she had known is gone and not coming back. The grief has no time to register because then The Thing That Is Not Gale is trying to find it’s way through her stars and every second of energy is spent focused on keeping him from getting through.

She knows deep down that she is no match for him. Not for a magician that can shift into a thousand different things to hurt her, that can bring bone to life, that can heal himself after every hoof, bite, and burn she throws at him. There is also the warning bell in her head that night was fading and she will not be able to hold on to this shield forever. If she is still here by morning then she is done for. She cannot take on this thing alone.

Panic to tell Nashua about his brother overwhelms her need for vengeance and finally after her stars start to weaken, when whatever he throws at her starts to land, she gives a frustrated cry and finally flees from him. She hates this, hates leaving this unfinished, and vows to herself that somehow she will figure this out. Somehow she will make this right.

With gritted teeth and shame, she grabs on to the last dregs of energy and pushes herself to her boundaries as she darts away from him and prays he will not follow.

all of time and space, everywhere and anywhere, every star that ever was

@Gale

[Gale]

There are few things in life as wonderful as watching the fear rise up in the face of his victims.

The sound of a final feeble breath and the first taste of a heart full of strange Power are nearly as delightful, but as Gale watches her struggle, he knows for certain that this will be a memory he keeps.

Ciri had cared about Gale, and so the Curse will destroy her. How the brindle stallion has kept the memories of the star mare away from him remains a mystery, but it is one he no longer has any interest in solving. He has her here, now, and that is what matters.

When he feels the stars begin to give, when he can reach one sickle clawed hand through and swipe at her face and chest, he laughs aloud.

The panic grows in her silvery eyes, and when she turns to flee, Gale snaps both her front legs. She still struggles, even when her fear is so thick Gale must press though it to reach her, and he stands over her with a smile that is so like Gale’s.

He carves her chest open with a single thought, and pulls out her stars. Not her heart - that he has learned from Aela can stay intact - just her magic, and opens his mouth to swallow the glittering orb.

“Delicious.” he tells her with a nod, and then spins around, kicking her so hard in the head that she’s sure to loose consciousness. Perhaps she might even die!