Bearclaw Valley your dark splendor

Unreachable. Merrick, a skyscraper that screams up to an endless blue. The endless agency and lonesomeness of mountains. Something twists in his heart.
Untouchable. Evien, shuddering, up to his nose in a defeated anger. An inert anger that edges close to disgust. Something else twists in his heart.
He doesn't hear the doctor's words over the beating in his ears, that humming, that whir starting in his head and migrating to his ruined ear and then finally setting in the other ear like being dunked into water. This is what it feels like to be digested alive. He is familiar with it. Three boys and madness snapping at their heels. Something twists on his face. A fine facial muscle stutters just under a blond cheek. What are you going to do?