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| − | * - Back to [[GoldenCat/FourthMovement|Fourth Movement]]
| + | #REDIRECT [[ADanceOfAngels]] |
| − | * - Back to [[GoldenCat/DanceOfAngels|A Dance of Angels]]
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| − | == A Spark in Clouds of Ash ==
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| − | '''Seventh Moon: ''' It had taken a while to track her down. Things were pretty hectic outside, after Kodak's little demonstration. People running around like they had somewhere to go. Crying and screaming. Garrison and the gangs were actually working together to stop them before they hurt themselves; damn funny thing to see. Sorta.
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| − | Still, anyone with half a brain would have been as far away from that mess as they could be. Which was probably why he had been wading through it and she nestled away snuggly under the heavy shell of a smithies shop.
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| − | The fire had gone out and the forge was dead, but it was still warmer under the thick timbers than out in the street. It had been hard to follow her scent, distinct as it was, and he paused in the door way, peering into the murky half-light to make certain it was her. Then he paused a little longer, telling himself it was out of politeness. That he didn't want to barge in and scare her. That he'd just wait until she noticed him.
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| − | Mostly though, he was just too nervous to take another step. Truth was, she kinda scared him and they hadn't been alone together since that brief moment, a day and a million years ago, at the Heaven House.
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| − | '''Kanti: ''' Kanti had found her way to the smith's shop after Fiona had finally told her to leave the wounded for a time, to rest and meditate and try to recover before the time time came to move again.
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| − | It had been the only quiet place she could find, out of the wind, the pleasant scent of ash and flames around her. There was the vague remains of a fire she'd tried to light herself, though she hadn't found anything left within the shop that would burn, and once she'd found herself in here, she hadn't wanted to leave.
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| − | She had been there for some time when moon found her, and it took her longer to notice him, but finally she did, opening her dark eyes.
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| − | "Yes Moon?" she asks softly.
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| − | '''Seventh Moon: ''' She had looked peaceful. Serene even, in here. When it was dark like this, the scars on her face didn't really seem so bad. Made her look like a normal girl. Kinda made her look a little like someone else he knew, he'd tried not to think about for a while. Kinda hurt to see, just cause of who Kanti was. Illusions like that were pretty fragile.
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| − | Moon was almost ready to quietly back away, go find Selina and her tell the kid what was going down, when Kanti's eyes opened. He found himself blushing slightly, like he had just been caught, and cleared his throat a little before smiling.
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| − | "Hey kid. How's it goin'?" he stepped into the room and took a seat on the edge of a work table, swinging his leg slightly back and forth over the edge.
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| − | '''Kanti: ''' Kanti missed the blush, her eyes just seeing Moons sillouette against the light of the door, following him as he stepped into the shop and sat on the worktable, twisting her legs just a little impossibly up and under herself so she kneels properly.
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| − | "I just came here to get away from it all for a little while ... Fiona said I should." she says quietly, a little guilt in her voice "My wounds have mostly healed now."
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| − | '''Seventh Moon: ''' "Yeah?" Did seem like she was looking a lot better than she had before. The blood-scent was almost gone too, little more than a musky odor of iron-rust around her. He nodded a bit. "That's good. Ya looked pretty banged up back there."
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| − | She had looked half-dead going on all-dead back there, actually. Wasn't a whole lot of point saying that though. Moon picked at the table top idly. "Think ya might be up to movin' around a lil'?"
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| − | '''Kanti: ''' "The Da-...Nerimar ... he.. ''his'' blows were so strong, and I was too slow to evade them." She knew it was Nerimar who attacked her like that ..but... it had been ... No. It wasn't her.
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| − | | |
| − | "Of course. What is it you wish of me?" She was almost all healed, just a few bruises. Nothing that would really slow her down.
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| − | | |
| − | '''Seventh Moon: ''' ''The Da''
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| − | ''The Dark Angel. Her. ''
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| − | Moon's fingers stopped moving against the table and his pale eyes rolled up to look at Kanti.
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| − | The Dark Angel. Her. Selina.
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| − | That's what she had been about to say, before she stumbled over the other name. Selina had done that? It was hard to imagine and not so hard. The image of her biting and chewing the flesh of a dead man was difficult to shake from his mind. The sound of her voice, the faint lilting delight as she talked about killing while they walked down the street together.
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| − | Moon felt a certain queasiness in his gut. Had to be a different explanation for it. Something he just wasn't getting. Selina wouldn't hurt the kid. Had to be.
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| − | Kanti's question was a welcome distraction from an unpleasant line of thought. Moon peered around a moment, looking back out the door. They could have just stayed here. Weren't a lot of people around this area. Scavengers, patrols. Still didn't feel too private though. Too many unfamiliar scents and right now he wanted to get some air anyway.
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| − | He knew a better place anyway.
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| − | Standing up, he held out a hand to her. "Just gotta talk a bit. Shit's goin' down pretty soon. Lets hit somewhere else though. Somewhere bit more warm, y'know?"
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| − | '''Kanti: ''' ''he knows! ''<br>
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| − | ''he knows who attacked me. ''<br>
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| − | ''he knows what my nightmares are! ''<br>
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| − | Kanti briefly looks up at him with some of the same terror in her eyes, swiftly controlled as he extended her hands towards her kindly.
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| − | | |
| − | Kanti rose gracefully to her feet as he extended his hands towards her, taking it and flowing up until she stood before him, the ashes falling off her leaving her clean.
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| − | "Lead on, please."
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| − | '''Seventh Moon: ''' That look in her eyes...
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| − | Moon tried not to think about it as he lead her out into the darkening streets. He tried not to think too much about how Kanti would alternately cling to Selina and seem terrified by her. How much that reminded him of other girls he had known stuck on bastards who beat them, refusing to leave them no matter how bad they got
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| − | ''Selina '''wouldn't''' hurt the kid not like that not at all. ''
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| − | Moon was silent at first as he lead her through the winding streets, brooding flickers of his eyes peeking over at her from time to time. He had to ask. Had to say something but not now.
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| − | "You'll like this place," he told her, managing a smile. "Use ta take other girls to it all the time. They always gotta kick outta it. Been a while, since I last went..."
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| − | The streets were getting noisier as they went. More crowded. Frightened, dark shapes huddled in abandoned buildings. A lot of pale eyes floating in the darkness, watching them pass.
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| − | '''Kanti: ''' Kanti presses herself close to moon, drawing comfort and warmth from his presence, the coat she was wearing insulating him from the screams she was clad in as he lead her through the dimming light of the evening.
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| − | "Where are you taking me? Or is it a surprise?" she asks softly, trying not to think about the people around her, about how they must hurt. She was helping them, wasn't she?
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| − | '''Seventh Moon: ''' ''Cold... ? ''
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| − | Moon's arm wrapped around her shoulders instinctively as she huddled against him. He slowed his pace a little, matching his stride with hers, moving easily together. She was warm on his side, a solid and real presence. Kinda felt nice. Normal. Or familiar, at least.
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| − | Even if he kept expecting to feel the brush of feathers against arm at any moment.
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| − | ''couldn't have''
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| − | Instead of answering Kanti, Moon turned her around another corner and pointed. The foundry was a dark shape on the street, one with a vivid red glow pouring out of every window and doorway. Someone, in a wisdom few others had shown, had kept the flames alive in the foundry even after the rebellion started. People were clustered everywhere around it, black silhouettes from where the two Exalts stood, moving in and out, soaking in the dry warmth of the place.
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| − | Even down the street, the air was warmer. There was ash and oil and steel on the wind, tangy bitterness that stuck to the back of Moon's throat. A human smell to it as well. A Boil smell.
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| − | Moon smiled down at Kanti. "See? Warmer."
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| − | '''Kanti: ''' His arm fit her just right, and she luxuriated in it a little as they walked, letting him wrap his warmth around her.
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| − | ''It was right. ''
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| − | Then she smelt the flames on the wind and she smiled a little more, the oders comforting her more, walking forward with him and feeling the heat carress her skin.
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| − | "Warmer ... thank you." she says with a smile on her face, the firelight catching her eyes, making them gleam.
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| − | '''Seventh Moon: ''' "Heh, no problem." Moon kept smiling back, holding her eye, leading her on towards the foundry. He wanted her to keep that look. She didn't smile a whole lot. Suppose she didn't have a lot to smile about. Kid usually seemed scared though or at least ridged. Only time he'd seen her loosen up was back at Snow Owl. He was still pretty sure she'd been high on something, then.
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| − | Selina didn't smile much either. Though, she was usually too busy being sever to have a grin. Kinda made him wonder though, if she was just scared a lot too; like Kanti, just afraid to show it.
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| − | "Saw a lotta people comin' here. S'fuckin' cold at night around here, y'know?" As they walked, he turned them off the street, away from the welcoming light of the door and into the shadows of a narrow road along side the foundry. " maybe you don't know, come ta think. Where you from anyway?"
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| − | '''Kanti: ''' Kanti let him keep her eyes with his, as he he lead her foraward closer to the flames. Moon was warm, and strong and powerful, and that made it feel so good to be walking alongside him.
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| − | She makes a small nod, her eyes flashing "It's cold, but I don't let it get to me too bad."
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| − | ''Where am I from? ''<br>
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| − | ''The Realm is accurate, I suppose, but that was so long ago and I'm not sure if I really remember... ''<br>
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| − | ''Heaven is more honest, but what will he think? ''
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| − | Kanti bites her lip and hesitates. "Heaven." she eventually whispers, a strangely mixed expression coming over her face.<br>
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| − | ''I fell from Heaven. ''
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| − | '''Seventh Moon: ''' Moon's expression changed. Curious. Doubtful. Intrigued.
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| − | Heaven was where the gods were. It was were the Smiling Lover took the ladies and pretty boys she nabbed from the pleasure houses. It was where Rusty went when he wasn't here and where that fucker Kodak had run to after he killed hundreds of people in the mines. It was a place Moon might have to find a way to break into one day, to kill a bunch of gods he'd never met and satisfy an old mans need for vengeance.
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| − | Heaven was a word that brought mixed feelings.
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| − | "No shittin'?" he asked her, cautious doubt in his voice. It's not that he didn't want to believe her, just that it was so difficult to believe. "How'd ya get up there?"
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| − | It had occurred to him right away that she might have gotten there because of some other god like the Smiling Lover. Someone who plucked her because she was pretty and pulled her into the sky to be a divine play thing. Might have explained a few things though not how she'd ended up with the red-haired bitch.
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| − | '''Kanti: ''' ''He doesn't believe me...? ''<br>
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| − | ''Well, why would he ....? ''
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| − | Kanti's face falls just a little a doubt in Moon's voice, though she does enough to cover it, and she nods, then speaks softly, glancing towards the flames once more.
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| − | "I was taken up there when I was ten. I was purchased from my parents in the Realm by a pow-..powerful man, one of the star chosen." she swallows.
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| − | ''Him. ''
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| − | "St...stolen Sunsets." her voice so soft Moon can barely hear it. "He took me up to Heaven, and he raised me."
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| − | '''Seventh Moon: ''' "Kinda like a foster dad, huh?" Moon asked, giving her a curious glance as her voice grew low. Bad memories? Good memories? He was never any good at figuring out what that sorta tone meant.
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| − | "I had one'a them too, kinda..." he offered, looking away again as his eyes narrowed slightly in memory. "Long time ago though Gotta feelin' mine wasn't much like yours though, y'know?" he finished, smiling a little.
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| − | As they pressed on through the darkness behind the foundry, Moon stuck out his free arm and slid his fingers along the wall, feeling for familiar grooves in the old stone.
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| − | '''Kanti: ''' Kanti nods, pressing in closer to Moon, her eyes trembling a little.
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| − | "He was everything to me."
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| − | So many images come tumbling back....
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| − | ''....seeing his manse for the first time.... ''
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| − | ''...watching the ceruelan lute grow as the aerial rickshaw drew close to... ''
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| − | ''...seeing a goddess of beauty simply standing there... ''
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| − | ''....seeing the sourthern desert spread below her feet at his side.... ''
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| − | These and a thousand more.
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| − | "He was my father. He was my teacher. He was my sifu. He was my lover. He was everything I could want and I would have done anything for Him." Kanti's voice is quiet and laden with a mixture of emotion, joy and sorrow and betrayal and everything inbetween.<br>
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| − | ''Would I, if He asked me now? ''
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| − | '''Seventh Moon: ''' Love. Sadness. Adoration. Fear.
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| − | | |
| − | How could so few words hold so many feelings? Though there was one word that seemed to sum up the quite fever that he heard in Kanti's voice.
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| − | Worship.
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| − | There were two kinds of that. Moon had seen them both. He'd even been the object of it once. But he'd be damned if he knew which kind Kanti was speaking of her old master with.
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| − | ''Father, teacher, lover''
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| − | He couldn't even imagine what sort of fucked up relationship that had been. How a person could even be all those things at once. Different world than his. Different world and one he was suddenly a part of.
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| − | ''Is that all we do ta each other? Is that what this shit is really all about? All this power, all this bull-shit, just comin' down to a buncha spoiled kids out ta see who can fucked the others up the most. Who can leave the rest scared up the worst. ''
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| − | When he stopped them suddenly, it was mostly because his fingers had found the shallow groove cut into the wall, but it gave him a chance to look down at her again. Silver eyes floating in the half-shadow, searching the young woman's face for an answer, uncertain if he could find one.
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| − | "So why ain'tcha still with him?" he broached the question quietly. After where they had found her, in the gang she was running with, there could have been any number of answers that were less than pleasant.
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| − | '''Kanti: ''' Kanti looked up into the silver eyes, and let them fill her world for the moment. It was her way of coping with the emotions running through her, of keeping them from reaching her face too much.
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| − | ''I still don't really know... ''
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| − | ''Why? ''
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| − | ''Why did he leave me? ''
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| − | "He left me with Her." she says very softly, very softly into the moonlight of his eyes "Just like He would leave me with anyone else to entertain ... and then He didn't come back." Kanti's voice is neutral held that way as best she can.
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| − | "I still don't know if I love Him or hate Him for it." she says with her eyes closed.
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| − | '''Seventh Moon: ''' ''Hate him. ''
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| − | Moon already did. He wanted to tell her to do it too. Wanted to grab her and shake her. Nearly wanted to slap her for even having a doubt.
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| − | ''Hate him! ''
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| − | He left her with that bitch. Left her to be cut up. To be scarred and twisted. Left her even though she spoke of him with a reverence in her voice that was almost heartbreaking.
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| − | '''''HATE HIM! '''''
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| − | There would have been no excuse good enough. No cause worth that sort of price. And there wasn't a person born he didn't know who would have ever forgiven that sort of betrayal.
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| − | But then, she wasn't a "person" anymore than he was. And part of him had this sickening sensation that if he told her to hate the man, she'd actually do it simply because he said to.
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| − | "Yeah" he responded in a barren tone, looking away from that confused face. Turning around completely. "Guess that would be kinda hard to figure out."
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| − | His back to her, he stooped down and patted his shoulder. "Hop on darlin'. Hand holes are hard ta find if ya don't know where they are." He settled his weight and waited for her, going on a moment later before the silence could grow too long. "So what was it like? Livin' up in Heaven?"
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| − | '''Kanti: ''' ''...his voice... ''<br>
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| − | ''..I hurt him... ''<br>
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| − | ''...I shouldn't have said anything... ''<br>
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| − | ''...I hurt him because he cares for me... ''<br>
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| − | ''...I shouldn't have tried to get him to care... ''<br>
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| − | ''...or would he anyway? ''<br>
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| − | | |
| − | ''...he would... ''<br>
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| − | ''..well, maybe it isn't so bad then. ''
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| − | Hop on darlin'
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| − | Moon's words pull Kanti out of her introspection once more, and she takes the time to wrap her coat a little tighter about her, to insulate Moon from the screams that make up its threads, and she climbs onto his back, wrapping her arms and legs around him to secure herself.
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| − | He's perhaps a little surprised at her weight, she was heavier and a little tougher than she looked.
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| − | ''I can tell him a nice tale of heaven though... ''
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| − | As he starts to climb, she starts to talk.
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| − | "Heaven is a place of wonders and miracles walking the streets, where even the poorest live richer than most of Creation. No one goes hungry in Heaven, there are feasts daily, and parties almost that often." She speaks whistfully, of memories she isn't sure she is ever going to relive.
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| − | "Oh the parties..." Moon can hear the smile in her voice. "The gods and the star-chosen and the others in all their finery, the plates all piled high with quintessential and ambrosial food, musicians playing impossible tunes on impossible instruments, wine...sometimes even celestial wine...He always used to let me dance at parties...sometimes with him, sometimes alone, sometimes with someone else ... but always I could dance!"
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| − | '''Seventh Moon: ''' Moon closed his eyes as her slim arm wrapped around him. Her weight, even strangely heavy as it was for a girl so slim, was another bit of reality. Another piece of memory.
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| − | ''This is what life use ta be…''
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| − | Giving her arm a reassuring pat, Moon hoisted himself onto the wall. He climbed blind, letting his fingers and toes feel out the familiar shelves chipped away by generations of punks before him. He tried to picture the world she was describing to him, a place with 'miracles on the streets.' Somewhere full of Iron Tears and Smiling Maidens and people like them. Sounded more like a mad-house.
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| − | But, he couldn't stop himself from smiling when she spoke about the dancing. The joy in her voice. He remembered the clocktower, watching her spin and twirl. Damn near the only moment he could think of where that maddening restraint was gone.
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| − | Still the best his imagination could come up with was her dancing alone. The rest of it was like telling some backwater barbarian about the Boil. A place where no one went hungry and you had a party every day. For years and years, just hoping from one glass to the next, drunk off your ass and dancing around. No work. No struggle. Nothing to fight for or over. No turf to stake out. No reason to prove yourself, if everything just gets handed to you. Just idleness for eternity.
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| − | Place was probably even more insane than he thought.
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| − | "How about people?" He asked her as they moved up past a window, the red-gold light of the foundry washing over them with a sigh of hot air. "Any people there?"
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| − | '''Kanti: ''' Kanti holds herself on tightly as they start to ascend, feeling the ground slipping away from them, feeling Moon's reactions against her skin.
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| − | ''he likes the thought of me dancing! ''
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| − | "People? So many people..." Kanti trails off as she thinks about all the hundreds of people, Exalts, Gods and Goddesses she has met within the great dome that is Heaven.
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| − | "There was God, a God of the Loom. He was made all of wood and gears, and he wove you stories of hair and dreams as you listened to him speak. He knew stories from all over Creation and he would always tell you one if you asked politely."
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| − | | |
| − | "There was one of the red star-chosen. She was old and powerful, and she saw everything as though it were a fight, as something to win if she could. When I was with her we would have the strangest conversations, especially in bed."
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| − | "There was a girl. She was an Ice Rose and a Goddess, and we met with a dance. And then we met again and again, exploring the city, for she could go places I could not as a Dragonblood, and those places she could not, the name on my collar would let us almost always."
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| − | "I remember a man, a Tempestuous Wind...he was owned by someone like Stolen Sunsets...they would often met by a pond, and we would spend time together. He drew pictures, of the places he has seen on the pond with ice. The koi always used to chastise him for it."
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| − | "I could go on all evening talking about the people....there were so many...so many I remember."
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| − | '''Seventh Moon: ''' ''Those'' were people?
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| − | Moon's eyes cracked open, slipping back to watch the girl. There was no joke or humor, no more than he'd ever heard out of her. She was serious, as ever.
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| − | Gods and goddesses and star-people. That was her life. Men who painted pictures with ice. Women who were flowers and spirits at once. Nothing real. Nothing you could hold and feel against you. No dirt under your nails or smoke in your face. Just a lot of weird shit bumping around in the clouds. Drunk and crazy, fucking themselves stupid.
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| − | They neared the top of the foundry wall, the air already growing pleasantly warm and dry and the stones against which Moon crawled heated to throbbing pulse.
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| − | "How about real people? Y'know… normal people? Like the Pack? Like-" ''Me? '' No. "Like the Heaven House girls?"
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| − | '''Kanti: ''' ''They were real people ... just...not normal, she supposed, by earthly standards. ''
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| − | "Not in Heaven, Moon."
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| − | ''I'm sorry''
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| − | "Not that I didn't meet people like that. Stolen Sunsets took me all over Creation, from the East to the West to the North to the South and to the Realm. I would see kings and nobles, yes, but sometimes his work would take him amongst normal people, like your gang, like the Heaven House girls...and I remember them too."
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| − | '''Seventh Moon: ''' "Yeah… yeah figured there wouldn't be none." He smirked crookedly. "Few enough down here, y'know?"
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| − | But she had at least seen what normal mortals lived like, in the shit and the mud. Drab and dark and everything out to knife you if look the wrong way. Own your own, though. You never had much, but what you had was yours and if you were proud enough you'd fight for it. And unless you were unlucky, you owned yourself as well.
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| − | He wondered if that mattered to her. Or if she even understood it. What it meant. Why they were even fighting this little war, burning down half the city to save the rest.
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| − | They reached the top and Moon hung himself over the edge, shifting his arms to help her climb up. The air atop the foundry was warmer than bellow, drier than anywhere in the Boil. A layer of ash covered the ground from the darkclouds billowing from the man-tall pipes across the roof. More fell slowly around them, a flurry of gray-white snow and hot red embers. Wasn't the cleanest place around, but it was warm and dry.
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| − | Moon pulled himself up onto the roof and stretched his back a moment, staring at Kanti with a troubled face. "Did ya… did ya like it? Bein' someone's pet like that? Did ya ever wanna just… y'know, decide for yourself? Own yourself? Didn't ya ever think ta… just say no? Not let that b-... not let your master trade ya off?"
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| − | '''Kanti: ''' Kanti returns the smile then climbs dexterously up his arms, and onto to the roof, burying her hands in the comforting still warm ash on the roof, before moving on to let Moon climb up too, slipping out of her coat to reveal the robe of screams below, the better to feel the ash she sat on, delightful pin-pricks from the sharper pieces, leaning back, letting the embers carress her on the way to the roof, some of them leaving tiny lines on her skin.
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| − | | |
| − | Her face drops a little as she sees the look on his face, hears the question he asks her.
| |
| − | | |
| − | ''he won't like my answer... ''
| |
| − | | |
| − | "No." she says simply and quietly
| |
| − | | |
| − | "I was His pet, and it was wondourous. He wouldn't have pushed me, not if I really didn't want to, He wasn't like that. It was my choice to serve Him, to be with Him, or who He asked me to be with...." she trails off into introspection
| |
| − | | |
| − | ''That was part of why I loved Him... ''
| |
| − | ''loved? not love? ''
| |
| − | ''Do I still love Him? ''
| |
| − | | |
| − | '''Seventh Moon: ''' ''How? ''
| |
| − | | |
| − | How could someone love a life like that? He could hear that in her voice. After being traded around like a bottle of cheap wine, she still loved it. After being tossed aside, she still talking about the asshole like he was some kind of hero. They carved her like a piece of meat and made her happy to have them do it.
| |
| − | | |
| − | That wasn't choice. That wasn't her decision. No one would choose that… would they? Maybe it was easier just not to have one. Maybe they just raised her to think she didn't need one…
| |
| − | | |
| − | A tremble passed through Moon's hand. The beat of his heart quickened. She stood serene in the ash, pondering over some beloved memory of her owner. He couldn't look at her, shifting his gaze to the patterns of ash on the ground. Moon nodded and then sat down before his legs could fold out from under him, crushing a heavy layer of ash onto the back of his coat as he sat on the ledge of the roof. He leaned his elbows onto his knees, rested his chin on steepled fingers, and let out a long, slow sigh.
| |
| − | | |
| − | ''How? ''
| |
| − | | |
| − | His head tiled to the side as he stared down between his feet. Moon didn't really want to ask this question and his voice made it clear how much. "Did Selina hurt ya darlin'? Back down there, before I showed up."
| |
| − | | |
| − | | |
| − | '''Kanti: ''' Kanti sits herself in the ash behind Moon, stretching her legs out, feeling the sharp bits of ash scratching along her skin as she does so, still watching the red hot sparks falling.
| |
| − | | |
| − | ''...what is bothering hi-....'' <br>
| |
| − | ''mistress....hurt me? ''
| |
| − | | |
| − | "I...what? errrm....No!" ''even though I want that... '' Kanti looks and sounds confused, pulled out of her reverie of times gone by in heaven...
| |
| − | | |
| − | No mistress hadn't but...
| |
| − | | |
| − | "Nerimar ... the Lord of Nightmares." she says quietly. "When he attacked, he became her for an instant." she wraps her arms around her legs, and starts to speak in a low hollow voice
| |
| − | | |
| − | "She had pale dead skin, and long white hair, and wicked, wicked claws, and her mouth gapped and dripped blood and she roared. Her wings were pinions of bone, feathered with the void and they spread to block out the sun. Her ... scar pulsed on her stomach, and she had terrible terrible weapons in her hand, a scythe with a blade as long as me and crying with tormented souls, and a sword that ravaged the air around it with wyldtwisting force....and she lept at me..." Kanti finishes, still hugging her legs, looking up at Moon with a mixture of guilt and fear.
| |
| − | | |
| − | "...I'm sorry...I shouldn't think about her that way...it isn't right."
| |
| − | | |
| − | '''Seventh Moon: ''' Moon listened to her in silence. A faint sigh of relief when she said no. A stiffening across his shoulders when she began to describe what she saw. Moving slowly as her description went on, Moon's downcast face rose, his back straightening out. Drifts of ash swirled and sighed around them, running hot and cool across his face, clinging to his hair and to his clothes
| |
| − | | |
| − | "Naw" Moon answered at last, staring ahead at the flakes of falling ash. "Naw, don't beat ya self up over it darlin'."
| |
| − | | |
| − | He turned his head, his face oddly drawn. Haggard, as if he were cold despite the warmth of the rooftop. When he smiled at her, it was thin but hard with sympathy. "Tell ya the truth, that's about the same as I see her sometimes, too."
| |
| − | | |
| − | ''It's how I see all of ya''
| |
| − | | |
| − | Strange caricatures dancing around in the cold. Scared but now cheerful slave. Death-lusting monster. White ash. Black ash. Made him wonder just where he fit in between them or if he was just floating around like one of those cherry sparks. Struggle to be what you ain't anymore, till you burn yourself out.
| |
| − | | |
| − | "Ain't all of her," he told Kanti, worn and resigned, head tilting to the side with a softer smile. "But it's part'a her, y'know? Ain't no shame ta admit that it's a fuckin' hard part ta deal with. We all got hard parts ta deal with, y'know?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | '''Kanti: ''' "I shouldn't though..." Kanti murmurs to herself, still guilty "It isn't right, not for her..."she shakes her head, a spray of the fine white ash slipping off her hair as she does so.
| |
| − | | |
| − | It felt so wrong to think such thoughts of someone like Selina, it was not her place to do so.
| |
| − | | |
| − | She managed to smile back at Moon with a timid smile, but a smile non-the-less, and she nods at him "I know. I'll deal with it." ''I have too''
| |
| − | | |
| − | Kanti bites her lip, and then looks up at Moon "Who was Sarah to you?" she asks quietly.
| |
| − | | |
| − | '''Seventh Moon: ''' ''Sarah? ''
| |
| − | | |
| − | Leaning away from Kanti, Moon's eyes grew wide... then narrowed sharply.
| |
| − | | |
| − | "How do ya..."
| |
| − | | |
| − | Oh. No. The red-haired bitch. Moon blinked and his vision cleared.
| |
| − | | |
| − | "Ya know her? Ya seen her?" His hand was over Kanti's squeezing slightly.
| |
| − | | |
| − | Sarah. How long had it been since he'd thought about her? Since he remembered why he'd ever left the city to begin with? Sweet Sarah with tears in her eyes, vanishing in a puff of smoke. Vanishing from between his hands. Sweet Sarah who held him tight any night he didn't want to sleep alone and pouted jealously any time he took someone to bed that wasn't her.
| |
| − | | |
| − | The same thoughts sent a glut of guilt churning in his belly. Where she was, how she was, going to get her none of the had entered his mind for a while. The little girl who loved him, even if he didn't think of her the same. He owed her better than to forget her.
| |
| − | | |
| − | '''Kanti: ''' Kanti felt Moon's hands on her own as he spoke at her, looking at her with concern, and she trembled slightly.
| |
| − | | |
| − | ''Warm hands. ''<br>
| |
| − | ''Comforting hands. ''<br>
| |
| − | ''Hands that had sprouted claws. ''<br>
| |
| − | ''Claws that had ripped Kiri to pieces''
| |
| − | | |
| − | Moon's hands couldn't reassure her, not with what she'd done to Sarah.
| |
| − | | |
| − | "I know her." she says in a low voice. "I've seen her...."
| |
| − | | |
| − | ''...seen her bleeding''<br>
| |
| − | ''...seen her suffering''<br>
| |
| − | ''...seen her recoil from me in fear''<br>
| |
| − | ''...seen her tremble at my touch''<br>
| |
| − | | |
| − | "...she wasn't in pain when I saw her last. That was a day before I left Mi-...the Vestal's side." Kanti's face showing pain at the thought of that, and the lie she is telling by omission...
| |
| − | | |
| − | But she can't admit that to Moon, can she?
| |
| − | | |
| − | '''Seventh Moon: ''' ''She wasn't in pain. ''
| |
| − | | |
| − | Oh fuck, they killed her. Devastation tried to crumble through Moon, a sliver of heart-break agony, but he breathed in deeply and angrily batted the sensation aside. The kid hadn't said that. She had a strange way of putting things, but if Sarah was dead if she was, the kid would tell him. He hoped.
| |
| − | | |
| − | There was something in Kanti's voice that was holding back though. About Sarah, about leaving that whore that had owned her; about what he couldn't tell.
| |
| − | | |
| − | "Is she... did they ''change'' her? Did they fuck her up like-" ''You. '' "Like the rest?"
| |
| − | | |
| − | Was she even worse than the last time he had seen her? Was she as bad now as Kanti?
| |
| − | | |
| − | '''Kanti: ''' ''...I hurt him again. ''<br>
| |
| − | ''I should tell him. ''<br>
| |
| − | ''he'll be so angry. ''
| |
| − | | |
| − | The guilty thoughts run through Kanti's mind, but without Selina or the Vestal to drive her wild just by being there, she can control it, control her face, the guilt not nearly so obvious. Still there though.
| |
| − | | |
| − | "...I made sure she wouldn't scar." ''Not from what I did to her'' "The Vestal didn't want her scarred." ''Physically, at least''
| |
| − | | |
| − | "...I'm sorry."
| |
| − | | |
| − | ''sorry I touched her. ''<br>
| |
| − | ''sorry I hurt her. ''<br>
| |
| − | ''sorry I didn't do more for her''<br>
| |
| − | ''sorry I felt guilty about it''<br>
| |
| − | | |
| − | '''Seventh Moon: ''' Confusion furrowed Moon's brow. Confusion to replace grief and anger. Moon's lips parted slightly to ask a question, but he didn't know what question to ask. At first, he heard only her words. Made sure she didn't scar. Kanti had... healed her? She said Sarah hadn't been in pain the last time she saw her and the kid knew how to take care of people.
| |
| − | | |
| − | For a moment, his face cleared. His heart, lightened. He almost told her it was alright. That it was okay. That at least she'd done what she could.
| |
| − | | |
| − | But then he thought about what she said.
| |
| − | | |
| − | ''"I made sure she wouldn't scar. ''
| |
| − | | |
| − | Where she had been.
| |
| − | | |
| − | ''"The Vestal didn't want her scarred." ''
| |
| − | | |
| − | and who she was.
| |
| − | | |
| − | ''"I'm sorry." ''
| |
| − | | |
| − | All emotion dropped from his face and a cold numbness trickled through his limbs. Moon stared at her. No rage. No grief. No hatred. Nothing but cold, numb incredulousness.
| |
| − | | |
| − | He breathed in. It shook his whole body. ''Then'' the anger came, boiling into his chest, descending over his face like a black winter storm. Squeezing, his fingers closed over hers like a vice, clamping tighter and tighter.
| |
| − | | |
| − | "You." The word was an accusation.
| |
| − | | |
| − | '''Kanti: ''' Kanti doesn't make much noise as Moon crushed her hands, just a small whimper. She didn't try pull away either, it was nothing more than she deserved. The anger in his eyes though. The anger she'd known was there all along. That scared her.
| |
| − | | |
| − | That was when she started to try and pull away, her fingers dislocating as she pulled back from him, sprawling in the ash as she fell backwards.
| |
| − | | |
| − | "I'm so sorry. She...She told me to do it. She told me She'd give Sarah to ..M-Maera if I didn't ... She was so angry at Sarah.....after...after she said she l-l-loved you....she screamed so much...so so much blood..." she mumbles, not daring to look away from him
| |
| − | | |
| − | '''Seventh Moon: ''' Moon rose as she fell away, standing above her in the ash. His eyes gleamed in cold-heat, a moonlight irradiation whipping frenzied through the air around him. Muscle and bone physically pulsed outward as the hound within him howled and strained, throwing itself against the barriers of his soul to be let loose in a way it couldn't any more. To end the pain and eat her alive.
| |
| − | | |
| − | Just like Kiri; his bloodied face gripping her arm. Just like Selina, casually tearing flesh from a corpse.
| |
| − | | |
| − | ''No. ''
| |
| − | | |
| − | Moon's eyes closed, cutting off the light that had gleamed over Kanti's pale form. Deep withn the wounded hound snarled.
| |
| − | | |
| − | '''''No. '''''
| |
| − | | |
| − | He wanted to hurt her. He knew it would make him feel better. But what good would it do? She'd known it was wrong and she'd done it anyway. She'd do it again too, he imagined, because she didn't know how not to. Raised to never think to say no and to never fight back.
| |
| − | | |
| − | ''"I'm sorry. She told me to do it. ''
| |
| − | | |
| − | As if that were an excuse. As if there were anything comprehendible behind that. She wasn't just fucked up, she was a monster. Not the same kind that Selina was, but she was one just the same. A sweet, soft voiced monster that would cut open someone innocent and beautiful, just because she was told to.
| |
| − | | |
| − | Moon's boots scraped as he turned away from Kanti, his back a wall of darkness against the sky. "We're going to kill Barr." He told her softly, voice rough with strain. "You and me. We're going to kill him and after it's done, we're going to finish this shit in the city. And after it's done... you're gonna come with me. Outta here we're gonna get Sarah back."
| |
| − | | |
| − | '''Kanti: ''' Kanti scrabbled backwards in the ash, looking up as the rage boiled though Moon, making him shine with rage, trying to put some distance ... useless distance if he decided to lunge.
| |
| − | | |
| − | "I...I...I couldn't let Maera touch her ... I couldn't" Kanti pleads as he rages at her, looking up at him desperately "she'd do such things to her..." ''and I wanted to please Her. ''
| |
| − | | |
| − | For the second time she looked up into someone's eyes, desperately pleading for some sign that what she had done to Sarah was right, was somehow okay, that she could be forgiven for her transgressions.
| |
| − | | |
| − | And then Moon turned his back on her. Unlike Maera, Moon turned his back on her.
| |
| − | | |
| − | Kanti shrank back further, a chill settling over her, and she nodded to him.
| |
| − | | |
| − | "Yes, Moon."
| |
| − | | |
| − | '''Seventh Moon: ''' Silence between them. Somewhere bellow in the foundry, someone had started singing and people were joining in. A cheerful, hopeful chorus. Because they knew they had a chance to win this. Because they had champions of the earth and the shadow and the moon and the wyld all on their side.
| |
| − | | |
| − | Because they didn't realize that all it came down to was that their monsters were worse than the ones they were fighting.
| |
| − | | |
| − | " I'm gonna go now. Stay here, do whateva ya want. Just" Moon moved his jaw wordlessly a second, letting out a frustrated huff. After what she had said, even knowing what she had done he didn't like this. He hated her right now, but she was hard to really hate. Moon already knew he would forgive her. It was the sort of monster she was. She could slit your throat and you'd still forgive her for it.
| |
| − | | |
| − | But he didn't want to forgive her just yet. He wanted to hold onto the hate for a little while more. Hate, at least, was something he could understand. Something that was real. Something that wasn't horrifying.
| |
| − | | |
| − | " just don't come near me a while, a'ite? Not until we gotta move again. I'll find ya when it's time but but just stay the fuck away." It was an order. It was a plea. It was the last thing he said before he took two quick steps and jumped off the edge of the foundry. Ash swirled up from the rooftop in his wake. Clouds of white ash. Clouds of black ash. And a single red spark swirling between them.
| |
| − | | |
| − | '''Kanti: ''' Kanti watched the red spark as it swirled.<br>
| |
| − | Kanti watched the red spark as it fell.<br>
| |
| − | Kanti watched the red spark as it touched her skin.<br>
| |
| − | Kanti thrilled at the pain it caused as it burned her.<br>
| |
| − | Kanti shivered.
| |
| − | | |
| − | "Yes, Moon."
| |
| − | | |
| − | ----
| |
| − | | |
| − | * Curtain closes
| |
| − | | |
| − | * Audience Applauds
| |
| − | | |
| − | This was.. just... mind-blowing.
| |
| − | | |
| − | | |
| − | ----
| |
| − | | |
| − | * - Back to [[GoldenCat/FourthMovement|Fourth Movement]]
| |
| − | * - Back to [[GoldenCat/DanceOfAngels|A Dance of Angels]]
| |
