10-04-2020, 08:14 AM
echis
“ I will love you until we run out of mornings. Then I will love you in the dark. ”
Echoes of screams - some belonging to her, some to others - flash across her mind as she allows Ryatah to trace the new scars ravaging her young body. She stands perfectly still and holds her breath without ever meaning to. Somewhere in the haze of her memory, she knows that her mother would never harm her, even if she can’t recognize her. But the pressure against her healed wounds taps into the core of her fear. She had thought herself safe in the palm of a god and still she was nearly destroyed.
She exhales sharply when the angel touches her throat and she wants to shy away. But Echis steels herself against the urge to flee. The serpent child only allows herself to tremble.
“Carnage,” she repeats, more a lesson than a recollection. Her tone is flat as his name does not inspire any emotion or imagery for her. Echis stares into the stones embedded in Ryatah’s face as she searches for meaning in her words. Why would he call on her again? Her brow furrows. Something awful stirs in her gut and makes her wince in pain until she pushes it down.
Tears threaten to spill down her cheeks when her mother speaks again. Ryatah had been the constant in her life, even if she does not remember this. She always came to the river and she always dried her daughter’s tears. It made her leaving mean nothing at the end of the day. Echis could anchor herself to the hope of the angel’s return and weather any storm this way.
Even this one, no matter how long it lasts.
“I answered because I thought he’d help.”
@[Ryatah]