There is an absence in Avdotya’s gaze as she stands over the sparkling blue water of the oasis; her eyes are blank, devoid of anything, no anger or hatred, no guilt or anguish. She feels nothing. The emptiness seeps through her veins as heavy as stone with a hold that is steadfast and utterly unrelenting. It is the feeling that overtook her when she escaped that dirty old cell in the palace underground, the one that urged her to slit Zolin’s throat as he lay in his bed pleading for his worthless life. It pushed her to light that very palace aflame not so long ago. What else, the viper wonders, could it lead her to in the wake of Makeda’s death.
Those thoughts are disturbed when Jahin arrives at her flank, calm and collected and very much oblivious. Do you know that your love is dead? Do you want to know how I found her emaciated body, Jahin? The way the flies dined upon her open eyes? Hillocks of rib and sunken skin flourish once more in her mind, but she blinks them away before the details can unfold. Perhaps it is a good thing that he wasn’t the one who found her - he can remember Makeda the way he had always loved her, with that mischievous flicker in her gaze and fullness in her proud step. She was the closest thing Avdotya knew to love and to see her the way she was in the canyon was like nothing else.
No, Jahin did not know. At least, not yet.
He takes a drink of water, surely the first in days she assumes. When he is done, he looks at her. Her ears spin to listen to him speak, but while he does so she reaches around to the wooden handle of her spear and unwinds something jingling from it. She tosses it to his feet, before him the glittering, golden chain that once decorated Makeda’s vibrant face. Avdotya knows he will recognize it.
”Long live the king.” She repeats.
@jahin (i did not proofread this i hope there is nothing too embarrassing in here lol)
Those thoughts are disturbed when Jahin arrives at her flank, calm and collected and very much oblivious. Do you know that your love is dead? Do you want to know how I found her emaciated body, Jahin? The way the flies dined upon her open eyes? Hillocks of rib and sunken skin flourish once more in her mind, but she blinks them away before the details can unfold. Perhaps it is a good thing that he wasn’t the one who found her - he can remember Makeda the way he had always loved her, with that mischievous flicker in her gaze and fullness in her proud step. She was the closest thing Avdotya knew to love and to see her the way she was in the canyon was like nothing else.
No, Jahin did not know. At least, not yet.
He takes a drink of water, surely the first in days she assumes. When he is done, he looks at her. Her ears spin to listen to him speak, but while he does so she reaches around to the wooden handle of her spear and unwinds something jingling from it. She tosses it to his feet, before him the glittering, golden chain that once decorated Makeda’s vibrant face. Avdotya knows he will recognize it.
”Long live the king.” She repeats.
@jahin (i did not proofread this i hope there is nothing too embarrassing in here lol)
