Anandi had great potential to be deeply terrible, but it was not her natural state. She much preferred to keep her monsters hidden, their secret presence giving her power. She was aware of the repulsive urges to snap the other mare’s neck or shove her off the cliff, but they were not uncontrollable. It was easy enough to keep them safely tucked away, ready to be unleashed in a split second of indiscretion or rage or self-defense.
That was the power with which the emissary moved. It was the knowing that she could kill, if she had to. Not only that, she would enjoy it. Test me, her body begged. Push me. Bite me.
Let me show you my teeth.
With all her monsters and sharp teeth tucked away neatly, it’s hard not to be charmed by the other mare’s open-book sweetness. When Phoebe grins delightedly, Anandi can’t help but to smile warmly (almost defeatedly) in return. “Of course.” She says dismissively. It really was not a huge inconvenience. Anyway, getting to know the populace of Dusk, particularly the newest members, felt like one of her responsibilities as a regime member.
They slowly work their way across the jagged cliffside. Anandi moves slowly and keeps a careful eye on her protege, nodding in understanding as the younger girl says she was from a faraway land, and found Novus preferable to her tastes. “I'm Phoebe, by the way. Are you from here?”
Anandi feels something hot flush behind her cheeks, and she is not sure if it is shame or pride. She’s never been mistaken for a native before, not in the entire year she’s lived here. “Oh, no.” She laughs like a flower blooming. “I come from beneath the sea.” Nonchalant as sand on a beach. She carefully watches the mare’s reaction for a long, drawn out moment...
And then she looks forward. The scent of the ocean is growing stronger, more urgent. It smells like freedom and ruin. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Phoebe. I’m Anandi, princess of Minn and Emissary of Terrastella. And this,” a few more steps forward and the ocean is before and beneath them. A hundred shades of blue and wild, wild, wild. “is the Terminus Sea.”
call it singing
A N A N D I
@Phoebe <3
some say the loving and the devouring are all the same thing
☾
