Her remaining eye closes as his fingers seek out and find the simple binding on the high tail she wears her hair in, releasing it over their bodies in thick, dark waves that have lost the usual pleasing scent of camellia oil to the scorch of dying suns and the damp of root dirt. With her mane released... it is easy to find that ruby streak amidst the jet as she slowly presses her cheek into the hold of his palm.
For a moment, she doesn't say anything. She doesn't do anything. Her breath is warm on his shoulder, along his throat when she tips her head. It's quiet where they are, and it almost quiets the chaotic press and swell of communion bleed-through that has dogged them all since this damned ritual began.
But eventually she moves again, setting the lacquered wooden comb at the base of her skull and dragging it through her hair on the opposite side of Set's hand. Her mane is long, kept long for years by a stable master that preferred his mares to be able to wear the fashionable styles of a lady, as if they were ladies and not chattel. It takes time. When she finally pulls the instrument free... then she has to straighten up slightly, just enough to find the top of his head and begin to comb down, comb her worship into him.]
I give you the demon Sebastian Michaelis, whose eye I took in exchange for mine.
[It wouldn't stay gone, and she hates that, just like he hadn't stayed dead in the dryad wood, but at least it would be a reminder of her paid debt so long as they were trapped in this place. If she were lucky, the rusty spearblade she'd used to stab it out will have left an infection.
Another strand of black, another strand of red.]
I offer you the poorly named "King Undying", who betrayed Meridian only as long as he had a head.
[For all his boasts, his skull had cracked and splattered in her grip just as easily as any human's did. The sound of the comb is soft, her touch gentle and smooth... but when it comes to the next...]
I give you Liem Talbott, who betrayed [me, he betrayed me-] Meridian.
[Liem, had been so weak in the mind that he had put the dagger to his own chest and asked her to help him finish the job. But she wouldn't do it for him. She refused to let him shame himself by being unable to even end his own life. She'd made him bleed himself before she snapped his neck and ended his suffering.
All of the violence she has waged since the roots had claimed them. It is his now.]
no subject
Her remaining eye closes as his fingers seek out and find the simple binding on the high tail she wears her hair in, releasing it over their bodies in thick, dark waves that have lost the usual pleasing scent of camellia oil to the scorch of dying suns and the damp of root dirt. With her mane released... it is easy to find that ruby streak amidst the jet as she slowly presses her cheek into the hold of his palm.
For a moment, she doesn't say anything. She doesn't do anything. Her breath is warm on his shoulder, along his throat when she tips her head. It's quiet where they are, and it almost quiets the chaotic press and swell of communion bleed-through that has dogged them all since this damned ritual began.
But eventually she moves again, setting the lacquered wooden comb at the base of her skull and dragging it through her hair on the opposite side of Set's hand. Her mane is long, kept long for years by a stable master that preferred his mares to be able to wear the fashionable styles of a lady, as if they were ladies and not chattel. It takes time. When she finally pulls the instrument free... then she has to straighten up slightly, just enough to find the top of his head and begin to comb down, comb her worship into him.]
I give you the demon Sebastian Michaelis, whose eye I took in exchange for mine.
[It wouldn't stay gone, and she hates that, just like he hadn't stayed dead in the dryad wood, but at least it would be a reminder of her paid debt so long as they were trapped in this place. If she were lucky, the rusty spearblade she'd used to stab it out will have left an infection.
Another strand of black, another strand of red.]
I offer you the poorly named "King Undying", who betrayed Meridian only as long as he had a head.
[For all his boasts, his skull had cracked and splattered in her grip just as easily as any human's did. The sound of the comb is soft, her touch gentle and smooth... but when it comes to the next...]
I give you Liem Talbott, who betrayed [me, he betrayed me-] Meridian.
[Liem, had been so weak in the mind that he had put the dagger to his own chest and asked her to help him finish the job. But she wouldn't do it for him. She refused to let him shame himself by being unable to even end his own life. She'd made him bleed himself before she snapped his neck and ended his suffering.
All of the violence she has waged since the roots had claimed them. It is his now.]