[P] invite the wild in

[Antiope]

drinking deeply of moonlight magic
and the rich golden hum,

It almost feels like a lie, to stand beneath the arch she had commissioned to be built in this hallowed place. A lie to stand beneath something that, though it is intended to represent her people—to represent their freedom—she knows it represents their goddess too. A goddess that Antiope still cannot come to terms with standing beside, with living, breathing, leading under.

But the arch itself is impressive, and it takes her breath away a little every time she looks at it, every time she stands beneath it and feels just a little smaller. Just a little less god-like.

There is something new to see and admire in its craftsmanship every time her sapphire eyes rest upon it.

Antiope passes beneath the structure, becoming shrouded in darkness by the shadow it casts upon the ground. The moon is near nexus and bright, and the light spills through the stained glass windows in a dazzling array of colors.

She keeps walking, until she reaches the middle window, until she becomes bathed in blues and teals and purples. The light is otherworldly, almost oceanic, but the scene on the window is reminiscent of Veneror: a large peak rising high into the sky, dotted with trees at the bottom. A star, large and bright, fills the top part of the window.

Oh, it is behind her and here before her, an inescapable truth. There is a temple upon that mountain that is waiting for her. If only the last temple she had set hoof into hadn’t been bathed in red and so much hate.

A sound distracts the sovereign, her ears twisting to catch it. Steps, in the grass. Antiope turns to find a familiar albeit long unseen face appear beneath the opening of the arch. She watches Boudika pause, as if waiting. As if considering. For a long, quiet moment, she wonders if the woman will go.

She does not.

“Something calling to you?” Antiope asks, wading through the dizzying aurora and into the moonlight. She sheds the colors like a cloak or a second skin, becoming marble and tiger once again. Her sapphire eyes, however, are still sharp and bright, bright, bright.

"Speaking."

∞ | @Boudika