there's fire in your blood
 | Mazikeen hears someone approach, hears that first strangled sound, and she tries to stir to react to it but she can’t. She slips into the darkness again just long enough to be startled by the feeling of someone touching her. In contrast to her bruised and shredded body, Sabal’s kind and worried words and touch are alarming. They help her return to the present - even though the present is a horrible place for her to be. She tries to lift her head, to comfort Sabal - to tell her she’s alright even as her blood soaks into the ground around them. She can’t die and she tries to tell her friend this. Even though the words do not make it out of her mouth, even though it certainly feels like she should be dead.
When Sabal asks about the babies, Mazikeen manages to reply - this particular ache reaching through all the others. Her voice is low and rough - and the injury that is the cause is the only one she remembers getting, when the Curse had latched itself to her throat. “I don’t know. I… I took them to Tephra but… I think he was here, I think my son was here.” Another sob racks through her broken body.
Had she failed at keeping their children safe already? The one thing she thought she would be able to do? She needs to get to Tephra, she needs to make sure they’re safe with Wishbone. Needs to know that she did not already fuck up their lives even when she took herself out of them.
The hollow centre of her chest where her heart should be aches at the arrival of another. Mazikeen feels guilty that Ryatah is here to piece her together again, enough that she tries to shift away - she doesn’t deserve the angel’s kindness this time. But what Mazikeen thinks is movement of her body is only a twitch of her legs, too little energy left in her body to do anything more than think about protesting.
Is it weak of her to want the healing, even though she doesn’t deserve it?
The physical pain recedes but there is still a deep ache in her chest, she assumes it is heartbreak even though she cannot hear her normally thundering heartbeat in her ears. She wants to apologize, wants to tell Ryatah how sorry she is that they only meet while Mazikeen is dying. But the winged mare quietly asks who did this to her and there is no point in trying to protect anyone from the truth any longer. “Gale. He’s my…” But what word is there to describe what he is to her? She hadn’t even known what to call him before. “He’s… normally very nice.” Mazikeen says this with a strangled, horrified laugh as her head rests on the blood-soaked grass. She’d fallen in love with him because of that kindness, because of his laughter and his ability to draw laughter out of her, and because of his strength.
It wasn’t Gale who did this to her, but it was his body.
She doesn’t know where the desire to defend him comes from but the words rise up anyway. Or maybe she’s defending her choice to be with him. “He’s Cursed now, not himself.” And then urgency bleeds into her voice as she twists her head to where she heard Ryatah’s voice. “If you or any of your family see an iridescent blue stallion or animal, stay as far away as you can.”
She tries to move then, this urgency and the dulling of the pain freeing her frantic thoughts. How much time has she wasted lying here? Where did Gale go? Was Malik okay? Had anyone else been harmed? Mazikeen tries to get her legs underneath her but she is shaking too much to try to stand. Her mind keeps wanting to blink her eyes, to clear her vision, but nothing seems to help. The world is black again, like the eclipse has returned and washed them all in a deeper darkness than before.
“Why can’t I see anything? Is the sun gone again?” She finally asks in a whisper - because even though her mind is a little clearer now she cannot remember what happened after her rage had taken over. It is only a small blessing that she was not conscious to watch the one she loves tear her burning eyes from her face.
m a z i k e e n . |
@[Sabal]
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