someone says: i have forgotten how to pray; this is not to say that there is no divinity between us, in this; merely that i do not know what to do with it.
He unrolls the map.
To the East, and behind him, the river carves through the woods. It's high this time of year, fed by the upland cold, and its sound echoes his raging heart, for better or for worse. In a better time it might sound triumphant, the roar of a lion, or the snarl of a wolf. These days it sounds more like words spoken in a crowded chapel - all panic, an overlapping murmur with no words, just sound. Urgent sound. A sound like faraway sirens.
Ahead, over a deer track that loops through the trees, behind a wall of ivy, there is nothing but death. Andras stares at the map, but it tells him nothing new. There is death in Viride. Death and unrest and a punctuated fear that he sees in every face, hears on the drawling end of every word.
Andras sets his jaw, clenches his teeth tight. A thin blue branch of electricity somersaults down his spine, dying with a loud crack. Andras stares at the map again and it continues to leer back at him soundlessly, except for the quiet crumpling sound as he tightens his grip. He turns to Kindred.
(The letter had said:
I forgot to get your name.
Either way, we're going tomorrow. Midday, when the light is best.
I expect it won't be fun.
Signed,
Andras Demyan, Warden of Delumine
He had rolled it carefully, and sent a bird with little more than a phrase: find the medic. It had brought her to him, either by divine intervention or genuine skill. He does not know or particularly care which. He had met her with little more than a curt nod as he rubbed his glasses with the feathers of one wing, wiping away the condensation that the winter cold had brought with it.)
"What do you think," he says through a sigh, "ready for the horror-show? Emersyn's map says it's through here." He starts walking before he finishes his thought, eyes still trained on the map.
all you want to do is dance out of your skin into another song not quite about heroes, but still a song where you can lift the spear and say yes as it flashes.
@Kindred
they made you into a weapon
and told you to find peace.
