Ankyra Sound i keep on dancing through the quicksand

it was supposed to be easy. she was supposed to love them the moment she lifted their caul, and heard their squalling voices.

that magic didn’t come. the cold indifference that she felt her whole life didn’t lift; instead a new ally arrived and augmented her discomfort. a prevailing sense of failure.

she’d brought lives to ankyra, while sapphique sundered. if not for treepie, sobeille might have fed each of them to the moon-pool, or better, marionette.

knowing thinking of such things was unspeakable evil, sobeille did what she often did when an unpalatable thought claimed her. she wormed her way out of the grotto, leaving the squirming bodies in situ with pelts procured by @Yura months before.

at the foot of the grotto’s entrance sobeille stopped and scanned the misty periphery. fog obscured both the sea and the great forest; all she could make out were grim shadows rising in dark pylons across the forest floor. somewhere nearby, she heard treepie’s careful step and wondered what she was up to.