[AW] close the door, confess your sins

[Antiope]

i have a hunger deep within me i can't shake

I realize too quickly that no part of me has forgotten these night-stone streets, as much as I may have hoped things would look differently. I do not even know where I am going but I go with confidence because I know every street and alley so perfectly, even in the wan morning light. How many times had I stood on cliff’s edge and looked down into Denocte and wondered, and hoped, that there would be nothing and nobody here to remember me?

It does not take me long to notice the girl, following along in the court behind me like a shadow. War made me hyper-aware, and no matter how hard I tried the lioness in my bones could not forget what it was like to always be aware of her surroundings.

I let her follow me long enough to determine that she is not a threat. Whoever she is, the girl is not trying to hide that she is trailing along behind me. Nothing about her says danger. Nothing about her says dangerous. Familiar market stalls and shop windows pass by as I walk. I do not stop to look inside them, nor to greet the merchants and keepers who stare, wide-eyed, at the shadowed face of their ex-monarch.

I do not stop walking when I finally speak, though I turn my head so that my eyes can more easily see the girl beyond the edge of my sapphire scarf. “Were you planning to say something, or only follow us forever?” I’ve caught a glance of her curious expression and remind myself not to be rude. My time in the mountains has not been kind to my humanity and social graces. Fylax drops back, allowing the girl to join me at my side if she wishes. The gryphon towers over the girl, as I do.

I take a moment to consider her, the color of a dormouse with faint brindling on her spine and much more stark, white stripes in various other places. Long hair, ears reminiscent of a deer’s, and eyes the color of winter clouds. When I see the faint pulsing of a heart through a partially exposed ribcage in her side, my nostrils flare. The lioness in my veins purrs and lopes to life languidly. She hums, life, life, life.

My magic aches and yearns at the vulnerable source of energy. I reel it in and turn my head away. “What do you want?” I ask, and it comes out less inviting than intended, even though I am not trying to make friends. I unclench my jaw, ungrit my teeth, and chance another look in the girl’s direction. I definitely do not recognize her, at least. For that I am grateful.

"Speaking."

∞ | @Thomasin