Ankyra Sound everybody want to talk too much

too close and too far at once. sobeille peered back at the cliff, who cast its long shadow over the darkened sand of the sound. it stood as permanent reminder, the tallest bastion to sapphique’s endless reach.

to sobeille, it was just another territory nestled under sapphique’s arm. like glintwater, or bluepeace — naturalized to their claim as water was.

we can keep goin’ den. see what else you like. she pointed to the hole in the sound’s cliff face where the grotto sat, and whispered to chani in a sotto voice about the witch that had stolen her tooth.

then she motioned to the stacks of solira, and in a much braver voice, told her of tilden— the seal that had met her several times in that expanse of blue, and even seemed to demonstrate a species of canid intelligence.

she showed chani where she’d found the great boneflower, where astera had pulled the moonstone from the ground — various haunts and hideaways where a lonely girl had played by herself. she showed her the tall sequoias so large they seemed older and bigger yet than the cliffs — trees teeming with old forest spirits. she wondered if chani would see the magic of this world, or if it would look dark and alien through the lens of a girl who mourned for home.