Two Eyes Cenote no, no, it's rightfully mine.

private for a few rounds, then i will open up. <3

Lunar Phase: New Moon
68 °F Clear Skies
11 PM

come along now, she instructed to the lazier of the boys: two, though he knew himself as rowdy.

it did not take long for her to know every facet of his short, tragic life. she'd learned something else about him too, as the weeks progressed into months. in the old world he would have been called m'bezi -- born with purpose -- but that world had long collapsed in on itself with the perfect dissolution of a dying star.

she lead him through a tangle of stunted mangroves that limned the cenote's rim. night gathered in hushed silence here; the water's surface a sinister black so dark not even the stars reflected back in its rippling surface. even the normal chorus of tree frogs seemed absent, the silence punctuated on occasion by the soft and seemingly searching hoo hoo of nightowls.

she motioned for the boy to stand near the stony plinth she'd cleared the night before. he'd been a good boy, carrying the various objects needed for their ritual in the dutiful manner of a mule.

it would not be much longer now. the hour was lean but by measure of stars, qiao understood it was nearly time. set them down here, she unburdened herself of her greenbrier torc and motioned for the boy to do the same.

overhead another mournful croon from an owl, its notes short and swallowed by night's brimming darkness.