can't float in an ocean that's already been drained

[Gale]

Gale started under neon lights, then it all got dark i only know how to go too far The Curse that afflicts Gale is not entirely the same as the one that had felled his father. There is an otherworldly darkness to it, a remnant of the slain Monster, and a nasty streak to the diabolism where Carnage had first Seen and Speared him through his sister’s eyes. It had become something sentient with the theft of Mazikeen’s emotions, and that sentience only cemented the arrogance that it has always possessed. There is no real danger to it here, the Cursed creature thinks. It stretches the lightning wings, having plucked them from her memory as a show of strength, and chosen them for the minimal effort they required. The magician need only direct some of the electricity that crackles through the air. Thunder peals as the brindle stallion adjusts them at his sides, inaudible over the roar of the storm. It finishes speaking, and she goes transparent. Prepared for a different attack, the smug creature is taken by surprise by the crystal spears. It had expected something tied to the water, or a physical blow. It has never fought another magician before, and Beyza’s first strike lands exactly as she plans. Despite its ability to Heal, Gale’s equine body is not at all impervious to injury. Held immobile by dozens of glass spears, the Curse fixes its unpunctured eye on Beyza. It begins to smile, because it has a ready counterattack. But then the smile falters, and the crystal spikes begin to glow. Light. There is is so much light. It has never faced something like this before There is no space left within its host’s body for darkness. All of it - skin and shadow and bone and blood and curse - glows from within. Its eye rolls back in its head, and its blue mouth goes slack, charred from within. The lightning from its wings crackles across skin, turning it to ash that is whipped away by the same wind and rain that are already washing Gale’s blood from the glass spikes. In the end, it is a rather unceremonious ending for a creature that had caused so much pain, but it is an ending nonetheless. The Curse dies, and what is left of Gale blows away in a thousand bits of dust. His healing will have much to do.

@ Beyza

[Beyza]

B E Y Z A

remember me when i’m reborn as a shrike

Though she is mostly passive and indifferent as she hovers there as white mist, Beyza’s screaming on the inside. This feels so different than her other murders - those were ones of mercy and had to be twisted to fit her logic, and in the end she had regretted them. The sick filly who reminded her so much of young Este still haunts her thoughts and continues to soften her.

Here, standing among the tempest and twisting the glass shards deeper through Gale’s body, she feels none of that softness - none of the guilt. It is raw anger and grief pouring out of her and feeding the flames and they grow brighter and brighter until she cannot even see the way his smile falters at the end. Everything she had felt when Ryatah had been taken from them, everything she feared she’d feel again if Gale set his sights next on someone else she cared for - like her daughters.

Maybe a roar finally escapes her as he bursts into ash, but if the storm hears her scream it will keep that secret.

When the ashes scatter, Beyza’s body solidifies and the glass spikes return to the sand she had crafted them from.

Exhausted, she stumbles on the shoal, the waves of the storm crashing into her and knocking her around. She’s already fighting for breath when the water sweeps her legs out from underneath her. Instead of letting herself be washed back to shore or out to sea, she allows her heart to tell her where she wishes to be - and then she materializes in Hyaline.

a little closer just because I can