Stone Circle and I know the love you showed me came

It was easy to fall back into the part of him that only followed orders.

Where the edges of the world began to blur, he found himself there. His body moved, chewed the plants, feeling the shoestring muscles moving with his twitching jaw. But the pain was far away, the demon and the spider skuttled in his shadow, and he was away.

Held like a child by the tender choir, who whispered platitudes to him in their gentle, choral hum.

Oh Brutus, oh Brutus, brought so low.

Who will you be? Where will you go?

Oh Brutus, if only you knew,

We are as stars, and we weep for you too.

He lingered in the halfway point, the lulling dark of water lapping at the edges of his mind. Aquillius stood on that endless shore, closing his eyes and taking a breath, then striding out into the darkness with the discipline of a soldier.

He went silent and far away, carted by the dark into unconsciousness, a blessing for the pain, the choir humming overtaking the mad laughter of the demon.