[P] white knuckles;

[Martell]

I do not pilfer victory.

—

He stands on the surface of the bridge, on the stone that is not stone but the monstrous spine of something that once breathe as he breathes now. 

There is sunshine beating down where there should not be, a kind of false-light that is nothing like the daylight that saw him step into the cavern. From here he can’t hear the wailing, or the singing, or the sound of wind-chimes in the shops; he can’t hear anything at all but the wind, and the sound of water far, far below the bridge (or is it above?). 

Martell is only an animal, only a man, and he does not want to go on. There is nothing in particular he fears, but every instinct in him is screaming for him to turn, to flee, to not look again on this city except, shivering, in nightmares. 

But Novus is a mad country, with queens who possess too much power, the kind of power that could build just such a place. And there is such a dream-like quality to the city, to the bridge, to the caves and the false-light (a fever-dream) that a part of him already believes that if he would be to die here, it would not be a true death at all. 

The unicorn walks on, leaving the creaking ribcage of the bridge behind him, and into the city. 
 

@Lucinda

♢

[Lucinda]

don't forget the violence

T

he kelpie finds herself on the island again and it has drastically changed. Last time she had been here with a witch that filled her with more fury than even Anandi ever gave her. They had been surrounded by an illusion of the night sky as stars and celestial bodies floated around them.

Now, there is only death.

When Lucinda emerges from the sea, Abraxia meets her by the water's edge, concern in the folds of her skin. There is not much the dragon fears, but something about this place makes her uncertain. For Lucinda, it sings a song she has only learned since being turned.

There is a ribcage where a bridge should be. Her hooves remember stepping onto the hardened lava rock the last time she had been here, but instead they make a different sound as they hit the bone. It reminds her of how her jaws crunch into the marrow of a kill and every part of her feels alive the further down she gets.

Her dragon follows closely behind, eyeing the way the shadows make stranger shapes than normal or how the light from the not-sun shines on everything here. When they reach the city, it looks abandoned, but it's in the distance that everything is alive. There is a mix of screaming and singing (or perhaps it's both), it almost covers the gentle sound of the wind chimes in front of one of the lost shops. Then there is a man, a unicorn, who she's never seen before.

"Are you lost?" Lucinda asks, although there is a want, a hunger, in her green eyes. She normally feels this way by the sea, but this island calls to her in a different yet similar way. She wonders if this man feels it too.

{ @martell "speaks" }

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