staring at the ceiling in the dark
same old empty feeling in your heart
The clap of wings causes the dun to raise her head. Castile, still a dragon, wings his way toward them.
Lepis neither hides nor manufactures the surprise that flashes across her face at his arrival. Where has he been, she wonders, and why has he returned?
He greets Alcinder affectionately, but she receives only flashing teeth and a hiss from between them. This is what Ilma had meant, Lepis decides, when she had said that Castile might lose himself to the dragon. He is fortunate then, that he has Lepis to pick up the pieces, has Lepis to ensure that their leadership remains free. Castile cannot know the tension between Lepis and his messenger, but only losing his mind to the beast would explain why he is unable to understand that she has done what is best for Loess by ignoring his plan for succession. A civilized mind would surely know that allowing Pangea to capture their queen is akin to capitulation; crowning her while she is captive would have been the peak of insanity.
When he is himself again, he will understand.
For now, she returns his hiss with a frown of her own, but does not back away. She is small and mortal, but she is brave.
She doesn’t recognize the younger man that has come to stand beside Starsin while Lepis locked eyes with the dragon, but he looks enough like the older one that she assumes he must be their son. He seems bolder than his father, and Lepis’ blue-grey gaze lingers on the healing injuries. Remnants of captivity, she thinks, more reasons to have acted sooner. She cannot change the past, she reminds herself, and she nods in agreement with his words.
“We will,” she replies, for she is not as fond of chaos as her predecessor. It has a time and a place, and now - with family and friends at risk – is neither.
“In the meantime, avoid anything that might further provoke Pangea – or the other lands. When Loess is powerful again” (for it will be, the certainty in her voice says, it will be the most powerful), “We will gather again, and discuss moving farther forward.” With that, she means to end the gathering, eager to move on to actions to support her claims, and efforts to restore Loess to the glory it held for years.
LEPIS
staring at the bottom of your glass--
hoping one day you’ll make a dream last
but dreams come slow and they go so fast |
