BEXLEY BRIAR
As Bexley descends, she becomes painfully aware of the tension that is strung between them, weighted like birds on a wire - her, bowing to Florentine - how utterly strange. They are no longer equals, at least not in the way that they were, not in the eyes of the public. It hammers away at her incessantly, that thought. That they are no longer worthy of each other. She swallows and feels ice sparkle in the back of her throat - as silver, in blades.
Her nose scrapes the gelid grass as Bexley reaches the apex of her bow, breath spiraling in cyclones from her open mouth and flared nostrils. She sees in detail the crystal frost on the ground, the sparkling dew, the shards of ice buried like stakes into the dirt, crushed by their steps - everything magnified and made freakishly clear. Curls spilling over her cheeks and knee bruising in the icy flora, Bexley’s eyes flicker upward as Florentine speaks, ears flickering to catch the words. A deviant smile splashes across her cheeks. Too late, she points out, deadpan, and rises again to four dished hooves with the easy grace of someone too high to be nervous.
Florentine looks away, and Bex watches without shame, morbidly transfixed by the glass delicacy of the twilight queen. How long have they gone without seeing each other? Without hearing the other’s name aloud? Curiosity turns her skin to fire, her blood to boiling. Trembling slightly in place with uncontrolled anxiety, Bexley lashes her tail against her legs, then starts in a voice hoarse with uncertainty - I suppose so.
You heard about Maxence - for a moment the Solterran’s heart squeezes in her chest, is smothered in an oppressive, blackish grief. She blinks to clear her gaze from the swirling dark spots. Solterra grieves. Her jaw grins for a moment, but then she shrugs, ever the casual sufferer, and shakes the snow from her skin with the roll of her narrow shoulders. And you?
I hope you’re doing badly, says that vindictive, evil voice in the back of her head, unsurprisingly despicable - I hope you miss me too much to function.
She says nothing else.
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