Ouroboros Spine My atonement lasts the best part of eternity.

He had not made sense of the story and it had not been something of great value to him, only a curiosity, and he could not imagine giving up anything in exchange for it; but what she said was true, too. Nuak had followed her. He had eaten the woman's food and been cared for, in so far as he welcomed it, during his stay within the village. Nuak did not know they had exchanged anything of note.

The boy considered what he could exchange now for the vagaries she offered him — freedom potentially, or the right to die by her warrior's teeth, or something else more cruel that he could not imagine.

There was no way for him to know what might come of it. He judged her harshly, as the world had always judged himself.

I don't know anything, he claimed, unaware that the limited knowledge he did carry was of great importance to the witch. He thought lowly of himself, and cursed the name of his father vehemently in his own mind; it was the only piece of him that he knew, through Merrick's tellings.

I have to do what she wants. While he said this, there was a shrewd look on his face, many thoughts swirling in his head as he gathered shards of what he knew together.

Tupilak. He wanted to rip that word out of the woman's throat, but he knew he couldn't do that. Calling the girl by her true name would only brand her further, and Nuak could not put Avicus at such risk; he had one purpose on this earth and it was in defense of the princess.

My father gave me to Bearclaw. He gave them my mother, my brother, me — and then my mother died, and my brother — Nuak couldn't talk about Astyanax for long and clamped his mouth shut, folding in to himself again. He sat there at the back of the chasm while the immensity of his emotions briefly sidelined his thoughts.

Rather die than be a mother to you.

He didn't want to hurt when he thought of them and so he put that aside, choosing anger instead. It was easier than facing the empty feeling the story caused in him. Nuak rose to his feet and made to lunge in to the light again, a thrashing at the air, as he snapped and rose in challenge towards Kukutux; she was a safe distance away even so, and the boy fell back to pacing at the liminal edge.

I am nobody, and nothing, without her. She is my family.