lepis, comtesse of taiga
RUN AND TELL ALL OF THE ANGELS; THIS COULD TAKE ALL NIGHT
i think i need a devil to help me get things right
The Comtesse has meant to put the little nereid off balance, and it seems she has achieved that literally as well as figuratively. The dun mare pauses politely as the girl trips over her own feet, and doesn’t move forward even when Aquaria catches herself. A wise choice, it seems, for the Ischia draws to a near immediate halt. The pain that flickers openly across Aquaria’s face as she speaks tells Lepis everything she had wanted to know, though her twitching ears catch each word as well.
“I will hold you to that,” she responds smoothly, and then smiles in a way that is neither pleased or displeased.
Aquaria might retreat back to politeness as they continue through the woods, but Lepis glances at her now with an expression quite near to satisfaction. Not just a pearl oyster, she thinks, but a little crab willing to leave the safety of its shell to brandish its claws when the need arose. And she seems aware, too, that Lepis is best dealt with using the shell. She inclines her navy head at Aquaria’s meek acceptance of her offer, and the two wait in what Lepis considers companionable silence. When a dark speck in the snow-darkened sky becomes near enough to identify as Pteron, Lepis says as much and bids the Ischian farewell before heading east to find her youngest children,
|
