[P] jaws of the viper

[Raum]

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

 
He knows Avdotya. From the days he was a mere civilian in Solterra, spying for Denocte, to the day they walked together beneath a violent storm, their exchange amicable, even as the monsoon raged.
 
He watches her, as he watches everything. Yet here he stands in the sun, bathed by light until he shadow is a mere slip beneath his belly. He longs for more, his soul aches for how lit it is. Oh where are the shadows? Where is Caligo’s darkness? His soul might weep, but it is also shriveled like a flower before the autumnal dawn. Raum has broken himself and he feels it, oh how he feels it. It is a chasm within him and it yawns wide and as wanting as a black hole. But Raum knows how to evade darkness as much as to enchant it.
 
So he watches as Avdotya’s red eyes gleam. Slowly he wraps the blindfold about Legion’s eyes and the beast stays still but oh how it bristles, oh how its ire is a stab into Raum’s gut. Legion dreams of the day they would be parted, yet with each passing moment they become more tightly bonded. Their nerves are entwined their psyches in tune. One cannot live and be well without the other.
 
Slowly he descends the steps toward her and insects scatter before him. He watches how her spear glints, how it promises violence at her hands. There is no creature that knows Solterra like her. None. She is valuable, an asset.
 
“You made the Davke rise.” He says soft as liquor, hard as stone. “You brought them back to their rightful place and I would not deprive them of that. For as long as I am in power I will seek to protect them, if you would see that they protect me in return.” He pauses, close to her, close enough to see the scars that line her torso, to see the curve of her eye – wicked like the sun. “If you accept, there is a place for you beside me. I need an advisor, Avdotya.”
 
And oh how softly he finishes, almost as if in confession, yet there is nothing confessional about Solterra’s new king. There is nothing of him that is repentant or weak. He watches her closely, studies the curve of her lips. There are few he respects more than she, few who might understand him as much as she.

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@Avdotya - eeeeeeeee