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.
Liam is tall, tall enough that Andras is dwarfed by his arrival, all red and gold and sunshine where he is somehow simulatenously as cold as the dirt underfoot and as hot as the core of the earth. His magic is humming in his ear, the roar of half a decade in silence, the trembling of tectonic plates in motion.
Oriens must be laughing, somewhere, with his holy fist around the Warden's throat. He must tell his priests about every cruel wrench of his hand. He must tell his priests the sad story of his country's Warden, clothed in branches of blue light that buzz like a power line.
He realizes now that he had never quite been an engine, never quite felt so full of wild, hungry energy, until it happened. There is nothing holy about this feeling. There is nothing holy about tearing himself apart, even in service, even in prayer. When Liam speaks and Andras feels his jaw tighten at tooth-shattering speed, it does not feel like a prayer at all.
Andras laughs. It sounds like broken glass, like a cough, almost. It is mirthless. Black. He doesn't care. "I sincerely doubt that." he says, a statement that is final. Percussive. It drops out of him like a rock.
A part of him wishes it didn't. A part of him wishes he was not so full of the wilderness. To close his eyes and not see gold or scales or blood or teeth would be like seeing the face of god. And now he is looking at Liam but all he sees is eyes like molten gold, scales glinting in the cold white light of winter. He would worry if it weren't its own kind of heart-pounding joy. He aches with it.
He folds his wings, carefully. The smooth black of his face does little to hide his ugly frown. "I'm curious," he says, too slowly, with too much emphasis, "what you think the problem is? Hmm?"
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.
@Liam
they made you into a weapon
and told you to find peace.
