December 14, 2019, 05:30 PM
she's been here for days.
merrick and his shadow are gone, gone inland. she should follow them, but she can't.
she was tied here, at least for a moment longer. caiaphas lingered in the desolation of her home, like the soul of a ghost denied eternal rest. it was all different, anyway. all gone, all empty - as if she was the lone survivor of a shipwreck, looking over the immeasurable and senseless destruction with a profound sense of lost hope.
the grotto had yet to resurface, and tongues of steel-blue water lashed angrily over where it had once stood. different. even the cliffs marking drageda's old claim had become sundered, resting face-first in a tireless and churning sea. looking at all of this, caiaphas couldn't help but feel this was the barren wasteland of a riven empire; to get out, to leave quick, before whatever malign spirits cleaved this bygone civilization hungered for her blood too.
yet still she could not quit. she wandered the shore-lapped sequoia forest, where water rose in thrashing pulses.
somewhere in the dark she found a sodden yet fresh corpse - cache? its smell was sickly yet her mouth watered anyway. eat, the part of her that kept her alive commanded. (it's wrong, she thought)-- but caiaphas knew food was hard to come by. its flesh was sour as it washed down her gullet like a poisonous rind - what animal had it been?
she didn't know, and she didn't care.
she pressed onward into the gathering dusk, looking for all the world like a frail revenant, whose severed soul seemed implacably tied to disaster.
merrick and his shadow are gone, gone inland. she should follow them, but she can't.
she was tied here, at least for a moment longer. caiaphas lingered in the desolation of her home, like the soul of a ghost denied eternal rest. it was all different, anyway. all gone, all empty - as if she was the lone survivor of a shipwreck, looking over the immeasurable and senseless destruction with a profound sense of lost hope.
the grotto had yet to resurface, and tongues of steel-blue water lashed angrily over where it had once stood. different. even the cliffs marking drageda's old claim had become sundered, resting face-first in a tireless and churning sea. looking at all of this, caiaphas couldn't help but feel this was the barren wasteland of a riven empire; to get out, to leave quick, before whatever malign spirits cleaved this bygone civilization hungered for her blood too.
yet still she could not quit. she wandered the shore-lapped sequoia forest, where water rose in thrashing pulses.
somewhere in the dark she found a sodden yet fresh corpse - cache? its smell was sickly yet her mouth watered anyway. eat, the part of her that kept her alive commanded. (it's wrong, she thought)-- but caiaphas knew food was hard to come by. its flesh was sour as it washed down her gullet like a poisonous rind - what animal had it been?
she didn't know, and she didn't care.
she pressed onward into the gathering dusk, looking for all the world like a frail revenant, whose severed soul seemed implacably tied to disaster.