Ouroboros Spine a place that no one else can find

Kigipigak had not returned.

Sakhmet had a soft lapse in her progress of coming out of her shell once more. Startled by the talk of faces she thought to be ghosts now. It had not been Aiolos' fault. Not truly.

Still far too much of her time had become time to spend looking inward.

At the repose she sat, deathly silent.

Willing her time to hold out, hold on. Not wishing to burn without her hawk in snow.

What if she did?

What then?

when kukutux came down from the mountains, it was to see the burning-woman in thought.

kigipigak had gone and not returned. moonwoman had begun to wonder if the spirits of men were not strong enough for this village. not unless they held the strength of aiolos.

she came to sit beside her sister; she put her muzzle into the soft ruff and began to pull away the tangles.

Silent.

Even as Kukutux came down from her place and touched her. Worked free the tangles of Sakhmet's bedding and adventuring.

She wondered if she might swallow her own tongue with such heavy thoughts. If it might keep her from speaking a million fears and digging her own grave. How deeply she missed the coast now. How easy and free it had been to speak out there.

After a few long moments of that stretching, cold silence, her voice croaked.

Is it me?

for a moment her tongue swam with salt.

not with tears.

with the memory of the dreaming.

"it is men," she said in the voice of her mothers and foremothers, her grandmothers. "they do not understand our mysteries. they do not understand that women grow in power. they are restless and fickle."

and yet for balance the great oneness needed them also.

Restless and fickle.

She sat upon the words for longer now. Silence swallowed her, wrapped around like a fur shawl. She did not know if it was better or worse that it was not her.

It moved it beyond her control.

Kukutux had proven to be a figure she could speak her fears into, though.

I am scared that I'll burn and he'll be gone still.

kukutux nodded.

you will.

there had been no hawk-of-snow in her vision.

"if you do, i will hide you in the mountain." the duck smiled softly, but she felt sakhmet's pain. why had kigipigak gone so suddenly?

"my kinsman has always wandered. but he has always been guided back to this village when the moment was meant for it."

Hide in the mountains!

It had not been what she wanted, but then again, did she know what she wanted?

But there was that seed of hope. Soft and sweet, that Kigipigak might return at the right moment. It was not so far fetched. They had reunited before at the perfect time.

Yet something felt different this time.

Perhaps I should make mountain preparations now...to be safe.

So that when the time came she could disappear without worry, without thought.

kukutux drew a breath.

tooteega guided her now.

"i have been given a new vision."

she looked out toward the direction of the sea. "when my time comes, i will take aiolos to the sea."

her voice was a seeking, unsure tendril.

"if your time comes and he has not come back —"

come with us. come with me.

the spirits listened.

She was unprepared.

Perhaps she should not have been. They had just discussed co-wife, but...it had been clear that Aiolos had no interest in laying with another.

Yet maybe that was not what was being offered. Maybe only safety, maybe only company among trusted faces.

But she wanted to hear things clearly. Not guess or hope or dream.

Then what, Kukutux?

Her voice small, hushed.

agana's face filled her mind, the looks in courtfall. the way they had spoken softly together.

but it had become nothing.

and yet the stirrings felt so long ago in that first hour became a leap. a daring.

"come with me."

kukutux did not think aiolos would resist.

but she knew for certain she would not.

perhaps the title of co-wife meant more than men.

With you,

Her voice soft and pressed against gently parted lips.

Kukutux meant to hide her away, now Kukutux wished to whisk her away! Which was it, she wished to ask! Sakhmet still sought that clarity. Wish to know just what that vision was.

Just you? To the sea or —

Her gaze was carefully placed upon the duck.

she did not know! and yet she did.

"i dreamed of all of us beside the sea, sakhmet. you and me and aiolos. your face was a long shadow but i knew it was you."

the words were lifting and flying like young birds.

"i think we are bound. i do not understand how. but i know that the sea calls to us both."

"you and me and aiolos."

Her cheeks were hot, tingling. She did not know if it was the cold or the emotions.

"i think we are bound."

She thought fondly of the sea with Kukutux. How much the trip had freed some of the shackles she had not known she carried.

Aiolos would be there, but it was not the sunman who lived in her mind now.

Okay. Her word only a breath, an exhale of her lungs that she had not realized she had held onto. Yes. Yes, Kukutux.

her skin felt as if lightning mother were kissing it.

she did not know why this had not come to her mind before.

sakhmet spoke yes and moonwoman's heart leapt.

she did not say the final part of the vision: that they were meant to walk into this fire with sun man.

kukutux stayed there, warm beside sakhmet, and thinking of the ocean and the orca.

It was good to sit and have a plan.

Live for days, not years, she remembered. So she'd look forward to the coming days. Knowing that if it arrived, they might go at once.

Back to the sea.

Oh, but her mind was vast and endless. Silence could not be forever!

Does that mean I'll be —

Co-wife?

Her voice fell off.

"maybe aiolos will be co-husband," she laughed, but her springjade eyes were alight with something that had not rested there before.

"where do you have the want to stand, sakhmet?" this future the spirits had told her could be shaped by more than kukutux.

Co-husband!

But she realized in that jest that she was not in it for the men. She considered the space of co-wife for the great comfort that Kukutux brought her. The knowledge that they shared and the peace she felt each time they spoke.

With you.

It was the only answer she had to give even if she did not know just what she meant!

I mean— Her voice caught in the back of her throat. Co-wife was more...for you, wasn't it? I want to support you, like you support me. Titles or not.

"yes," she said softly. "it is for me."

"but i did not know it could also be like this."

new to her also, the way of co-wives when a man only lay with one of them.

and still, she hoped, hoped for them to bring forth cousins.

kinship ties for moonglow.

but it would not truly matter, not when the moment came. she looked into sakhmet's eyes with a minute shyness.

Like this?

Her voice soft now, as she gazed back at the moon woman. A million things in her mind and yet she wished to speak none of them.

She wished to hear the words of Kukutux.

More, more, more.

Where do you want me to stand, Kukutux?

moonwoman. sun man. star hunter.

"i ask to know. they who placed me as wisewoman of the village will know who you will be, sakhmet."

her eyes were resolute.

"but you will stand with me even when they speak." in open. in the eyes of moonglow.

She could not explain it.

The odd, soft bloom in her stomach.

For a moment she feared that she had just begun to burn! How embarrassing that would have been! She'd be spared it, though.

Left only with her bundle of emotions. It felt like every day she had new ones to sort through.

Stand with you... Half a question, half a statement.

Her pale gaze fluttered off towards the mountains, then towards the trail to the sea.

"as not only wife to aiolos, but wife to kukutux, moonwoman of moonglow."

a woman in her own right, a nuiruk doted upon by both.

she spoke the words in a voice that trembled but did not fade.

"...but wife to kukutux, moonwoman of moonglow."

Hot, burning.

Her eyes were burning now too!

All at once, she pressed her face into the soft, scarred shoulder of Moonwoman.

Yes.

she kissed sakhmet's cheek.

for now it was only soft and bore the love she had always carried for the fire-starter.

akmaak.

"go and rest. meditate. think of the winterhawk. think of the time that comes next."

think of me. be sure.

last from me! <3

She had no words, nothing felt fitting in the moments that followed.

Go, think of Winterhawk.

At once she knew she would only think of all the way she had hurt him. A list of names, a list of places, a list of sins.

Think of the time that would come next.

She would think of burning, bright and vibrant. She would think of the faces that might try to come to her in those moments. Moths to her flame.

She would think of Kukutux there, protection like always.