A year ago Antiope had stepped off a boat and onto the docks of Denocte like a goddess in new skin. Or like a new goddess, just birthed from the wind and the fire and the storm. Her eyes were the water, her body the earth and the clouds in the sky. Now, she walks the shore of the place she has called home for the time since then like she has known it all of her life.
She remembers stepping off the boat and onto the dock in silence, and how the other passengers had parted around her like a stream around a rock. She remembers how they had looked at her and her weapon distrustfully. The had only feared her because that is her purpose: to instill fear in others. To kill.
That is how she was made, to be a predator.
But now she is a Regent, a leader, a guardian. She does not wield her axe for battle but for light, or heat. She has used it to guide, not to harm. But there is still a lioness in her bones, rumbling, hunting, hungry.
Sometimes, she wonders if they should fear the lioness in her bones. Sometimes, she wonders if she should fear the thing the gods have made her to be, no matter how hard she tries not to be it.
There is a whole sea between her, vast and deep and dark, and the empty temple of dead gods she has left behind. There is a world between her and the truths and the memories, but Antiope has learned to let them rest in the places inside her where they fell all that time ago. She still has so much to learn, still.
The docks are bustling and loud behind her, but in the distance Antiope sees the distinct shape of an equine upon the shore. She most toward them, lithe and graceful and powerful, and the light fall across her like a second skin. “Hello,” she says, and upon coming to their side she can see that it is a man; one that she does not recognize.
She remembers stepping off the boat and onto the dock in silence, and how the other passengers had parted around her like a stream around a rock. She remembers how they had looked at her and her weapon distrustfully. The had only feared her because that is her purpose: to instill fear in others. To kill.
That is how she was made, to be a predator.
But now she is a Regent, a leader, a guardian. She does not wield her axe for battle but for light, or heat. She has used it to guide, not to harm. But there is still a lioness in her bones, rumbling, hunting, hungry.
Sometimes, she wonders if they should fear the lioness in her bones. Sometimes, she wonders if she should fear the thing the gods have made her to be, no matter how hard she tries not to be it.
There is a whole sea between her, vast and deep and dark, and the empty temple of dead gods she has left behind. There is a world between her and the truths and the memories, but Antiope has learned to let them rest in the places inside her where they fell all that time ago. She still has so much to learn, still.
The docks are bustling and loud behind her, but in the distance Antiope sees the distinct shape of an equine upon the shore. She most toward them, lithe and graceful and powerful, and the light fall across her like a second skin. “Hello,” she says, and upon coming to their side she can see that it is a man; one that she does not recognize.
![[Image: 13716916_Rc8f5hGvZkB3cYP.png]](https://file.toyhou.se/images/13716916_Rc8f5hGvZkB3cYP.png)
a war is calling
the tides are turned
the tides are turned
