Gale
this is going to break me clean in two --
this is going to bring me close to you
“Be still,” Gale the whale clicks to his young nephew.
Picking through the boy’s heart is not difficult, but it is new to him, so Gale moves cautiously. What he’d done with Mazikeen had been haphazard and accidental, and in changing her he had permanently altered himself as well.
This time, he intends to be more careful.
It takes time - long moments of blue-eyed staring - but Gale finds what he is looking for. Will Bolder feel the way some of his goodness is pulled out of him? Will he recognize the shadows that rise to fill their place? Gale isn’t really thinking of that. Instead, he’s puzzling out what to do with the little bit of soul that hovers in the water just outside of Bolder’s skin.
It glows brightly, good and cheerful and pleasant, which bothers him. So Gale forces it into darkness instead, his eyes turning back to Bolder. Had he felt the change, felt something separate within him?
“You’ll be better now,” Gale tells him, as though that will explain the difference. “Focus on yourself, on what you want. You can take any shape, Bolder. You’re a shifter. You can take anything you want.”
He waits for the boy to think of a shape - hopefully a shape that Bolder's magic alone is incapable of. Gale means to transform him into that shape, to give him, at least temporarily, the intoxicating sensation of power. Let that be the motivation, Gale thinks, knowing all too well how addicting Power can become.
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