I P O M O E A
—
T
he night stretches on all around them, while stray fireflies drift between the rows of vines and his errant magic makes new flowers and leaves slowly unfurl and close again along the branches, a lazy, sleepy cycle that goes on, and on, and on. He can feel the flowers in his lungs fluttering like petals, too, wilting and blooming with every breath.It feels as close to contentment as anything else he’s known.
And he supposes that is the meaning of it all, of the lights dancing between the shadows and flickering in his soul. All night he has listened to the stories, of how the first rose up from the earth and grew roots, and branches, and lungs. There is a memory of learning how to breathe flashing in colored lights behind his eyes, the feeling of stretching, and reaching, of growing leaves in the first spring.
All this time he has been waiting, but this — this is becoming. Growth did not know how to wait for long. All it needed was a little sunlight, and water, and air.
He looks away from the vineyard and tries not to think of the way his smile has become too sharp, and too sad, for children. He tries to not let himself slip into the shadows that grow longer and deeper between the corridors, opening like a mouth to swallow him. He tries to only remember the way he had been like her, once — so full of life and growth and naivety.
“My name is Ipomoea, King of Delumine,” he tells her, but his smile softens the way the title feels hanging from his teeth. “And it’s an honor to be in the presence of such a noble lady. Please, call me Po.”
He plucks a few more bunches of grapes from the vine, and bumps his shoulder gently against Maeve’s. A string of fireflies drift closer, as if lighting the way for them. “Come on,” he says with a soft laugh. “There’s a lot of other hidden places in the meadow just as pretty as this one, and then we can go back to the party.” And this time, he’ll make sure the guard remembers to keep a closer eye on her.
He wouldn’t let her be abandoned a second time.
you have dug your soul out of the dark
do not go back to what buried you
@maeve <3
