Sunbeam Lair iii: relentless

@Cassiopeia

since slaughtering her father, her whole life had been wandering. place to place, aimlessly, hoping that none of her past failed attempts at destruction surfaced to cut her throat while she slept. every slumber was catlike: one eye constantly open, even if only a slit. make one mistake, fail to cover tracks adequately--

death would come. it came to all. but the angel of death would not fall to carelessness. she would choose. she would die on her own terms.

the woman strolls through the caverns, eyes glittering like emeralds in the moonlight. these lands have not been good to her; she thinks she must leave, soon. but for now, she will rest here. the cave is warm, and smells of green things. most importantly, it does not smell inhabited, and that is good.

Kaali is tired. she struggles with her life's mission. perhaps it would be better to go with the status quo. but each time this traitorous thought surfaces, she thinks of her mother, and grows angry once more.

in her death, her mother keeps her alive.

what would she have thought?

she was weak--Kumaari. weak and submissive. she had gone along with everything, taken every blow. if she had simply acted, like Kaali had, she would be alive. she would be whole. it makes her furious to think of it, but Kaali knows, deep down, that that was not her way.

her mother was the soothing peace of a mountain spring.

Kaali was the sun in midsummer, on a cloudless day.

hot. omnipresent. vengeful.

relentless.