Jade Fern Grove sturdied up boulders and loosened the river

caligula had not found much calming about their encounter thus far, and her following words did not help, regardless of the caveat they included. the silver bristle of his neck rose; for a moment, the looming threat of confrontation was entirely forgotten, as well as what it promised. “there is nothing bad about it,” he snapped, and the moment he opened his mouth it was if he was watching himself from a distance – knowing exactly what he was inviting, yet powerless to stop it.

and as though he had been the one to receive the blow, the man shied away, painfully aware of her gaze upon him and yet incapable of not retreating in the face of what the instinctual part of him, the part that had kept him alive since, insisted was danger. no matter if arbiter spoke only words; no matter if all she had exchanged was theory, not threat.

“i apologize.” caligula stumbled over the words, an answer in themselves. “i am not…i should not be here.”