Iris, the sculptor, sat in the field of broken clay and stone that was her home. Attendants were absent, and night had come upon her. The latest attempt lay shattered at her feet.
As she looked, footsteps began to move closer. From the statues, a hooded figure with an onyx wand emerged, looking around at Iris and her work.
“Iris. The sculptor,” the witchblood said. It wasn’t a question.
“Yes, that’s me,” Iris said, running a hand through her messy hair, grumbling. “Although I’ve done a shit job of it lately, huh?”
As she leaned against a broken base, the cloaked figure got closer, sitting down across from her.
“What seems to be the problem?”
Iris looked at one of the statues, lifting a shard in her shaking hand.
“I have fallen for another. This…always happens. My heart screams, and it wants, and I cannot give it to it. And so it demands I work. It demands I do something.”
The stone was slammed into the ground, cracking as Iris chuckled weakly. The visitor looked worried, glancing around.
“…You’ve made a lot of attempts. Were none…good enough? None got you the attention of this woman?”
Iris chuckled, shaking her head.
“It’s…not about attention. This…thing. This damn statue that is unwinding my mind…it’s so I don’t forget. So there’s…something. Some record. That this terrible thing in my chest isn’t…wasted.”
“So you’re trying to turn it into work. Art,” the traveler asked again. “And why not use that energy on this woman, then?”
Another stone lifted, Iris raising an eyebrow.
“That isn’t how this works. She knows. She knows how I feel. She can see the damn field of statues, can’t she?” Iris said, laughing. “No. This is not meant to be. But the heart screams still, and it takes time to make it stop.”
As Iris stood, she gave a melancholy smile to the broken field, crossing her arms and sighing.
“It’s always the same. Always will be. I fall for somebody. They don’t fall back. They move on, and I sit here and work until it’s finally gone. Until I can breath without thinking of her, and I can move forward as well. And this mess.”
Iris gestured to the field.
“-Is so the next time my heart starts pulling this, I can remember why it’s a bad idea.”
The traveler looked at Iris, before standing.
“…I don’t think this was a good lesson.”
Iris shook her head, letting out a weak laugh, almost like a sob.
“Then, gods, please teach me a better one.”
Strike The Horizon 