Let regret hold no dominion
Let resentments rot and die
Let every nightmare flee
Before my watchful eye
The past is just a chain
And now, it’s time to fly
Break the final shackle
Taste the burning sky.
-Lamentation 10: 8
CW: NSFW, suggestive language and situation, violence
“…I’m not dreaming, am I?”
Zelith’s face was buried in Grey’s shoulder, arms wrapped around her the sounds of gulls drifted in from outside the Sunvaar’s ship. The room was much of it always was smelling like fur and sweat and smoke, the scent that was burned into Zelith’s memory now. Grey.
Grey grunted, looking over to look at Zelith, tilting her head a bit.
“No,” Grey said finally. “…Think you are?”
Zelith just pulled herself closer, her eyes looking heavy.
“…I dreamed a lot. When I was younger,” Zelith said weakly. “When Lasair was cutting me up. When I was with…her. I dreamed that somebody would show up and make everything better. Save me, take me away from all of the bad things. The dreams helped.”
Zelith shifted, closed her eyes.
“But that isn’t how the world works. You live, you work, and if you get lucky, you run into somebody who tolerates you.”
Grey frowned, continuing to look at Zelith.
“…And us? How do we fit this?” she asked.
“I try not to think about that,” Zelith whispered.
Grey grumbled a bit, sitting up as Zelith stirred, looking up at her and looking concerned.
“Sorry, I shouldn’t have said-” Zelith said weakly, before Grey shook her head, putting a hand to Zelith’s mouth, the witchblood immediately quieting down.
“World is cruel, yes,” Grey growled. “Very. But you are cruel to you.”
Grey looked at the scars along Zelith’s arm, thinking back to the woman she’d clawed at the festival, that damned shark smile.
“Lies. That damn shark woman, your parents, Lasair. Liars,” Grey hissed out. “They want you to be low, so they can feel tall. So you do not question them.”
Zelith looked ready to protest, but Grey turned to look her in the eyes, a grin coming to the wolf woman’s face at Zelith’s immediate blush at the look.
“Weak,” Grey grinned, moving her other hand to steady Zelith’s chin. “They are weak. Pathetic. They want you, and know if you rose high, they would fall.”
Grey laughed a bit, her expression softening as Zelith’s face split into a weak smile.
“Get strong. Become better, together. That is the truth of you. Don’t be weak so pathetic creatures can look down on you.”
Zelith couldn’t help but smirk a bit at that, finding her voice again.
“Ironic, coming from you,” Zelith said, leaning closer. “What was that from last night again? A favorite sight, I think.”
Grey growled a bit, Zelith laughing and hugging the wolf closer.
“Sorry for…that. Sometimes it can hard to remember this is…real. That I’m not just back there. And…that anybody would want me.”
“Mad talk,” Grey chuckled. “You are worth wanting. And want to get better. Most don’t.”
Zelith nodded, grabbing her own hand and stretching her arm over her head, grinning more as Grey’s eyes very, very obviously moved to stare.
“I should probably start working on that wand,” Zelith said.
“Hmm, hmm. Yes,” Grey said, very obviously not listening to a word Zelith was saying.
“I’m still not sure on the metal, though. It’s like a dagger, so it’s a cross between steel and something more expensive. Which one do you think I should use?”
“…Second,” Grey said, cracking her neck and snorting, clearly not listening much.
“And the gemstone, what do you think-”
Zelith yelped a bit as Grey grabbed Zelith’s arm, looming over her. As the wolf woman leaned closer, Zelith’s blush just deepened.
“I think you need to just ask,” Grey whispered into Zelith’s ear, her voice low as Zelith giggled.
“Teasing’s fun,” Zelith responded, still grinning as Grey just stared at her with those hungry eyes. “You can always ask me to stop.”
Grey looked at Zelith for another moment, grinning that wolf grin as she leaned closer.
“Better way to stop it,” Grey said simply, before wrapped her hands through Zelith’s hair and leaning close, immediately planting her lips on the witchblood’s. Zelith immediately melted at the contact, her tongue desperately moving to taste Grey’s.
Grey eventually broke away, starting to move down Zelith’s neck, kissing her and biting at the flesh lightly as Zelith moaned. There were similar marks already there, a familiar path that was usually hidden by the uniform of Lahrii.
“Can a dream do this?” Grey murmured into Zelith’s pinkish skin, looking up at Zelith’s glowing eyes as the witchblood smiled, still blushing violently.
“No,” Zelith whispered back.
“Good girl,” Grey said, Zelith immediately melting again as Grey pushed her down onto the furs laid out in the room.
One mark for every time she needed to be reminded, Grey reasoned, grin widening. That seems good.
Conall, frazzled from his studies and needing a breath of fresh air, paused as he entered the dock of the school. Kevyn, the golden-haired Sunvaar, was sitting near the dock, clutching his forehead. As Conall walked closer, he could hear muttering.
“I am the wall. I am the wall. I am the wall.”
Conall frowned, reaching a hand out to Kevyn’s shoulder. The man jolted at the contact, before looking over at Conall.
“Something is fucking wrong,” Kevyn said weakly. “Here. It’s here, in the school. The veil is screaming.“
Conall didn’t know what to say to that, just sitting down.
“Are you sure you didn’t just drink too much? Come on, maybe some food would be good,” Conall said, but Kevyn didn’t budge, the man’s golden eyes locked in fear as a strange flash crackled through the water. Before Conall could register it entirely, memories flooding through his mind, visions behind his eyelids.
A grand archway, surrounded by rings of water and defenses, barricades and gates. A grand gateway.
The room erupted in case. Horrifying abominations filled the space, blood spilling across the ground as armored figures, some looking as young as ten. The things that spilled over them looked like they were made of oil and bones, surging forward in a mass of claws and horrifying burning eyes covering their bodies.
A flash. Kevyn, so young, pinned to the ground by one of the beast’s clawed limbs, his helmet peeling away as the claws ripped into his face, his eye going blind as blood streamed out. Kevyn screamed.
An explosion. Water. So much water, and crushing depth. And then, he was on the surface.
Days and days of drifting, before the familiar ship of the Sunvaar appeared on the edge of his fading consciousness.
Conall staggered back as Kevyn shot to his feet, starting at something only he could see, energy crackling around him.
“They’ve found a way out,” he said, looking horrified.
“W…what?” Conall asked, hurriedly. “What were those things?”
Kevyn reeled, looking down to look at Conall, his one remaining eye haunted.
“The beasts from beyond the stars. The Thousand Eyes. The burning hordes.”
Kevyn gripped a white-knuckled hand to his greatsword. Conall couldn’t help but realize the large man seemed so young and frail.
“…the end of the world.”
Strike The Horizon 