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‘Who was she?’ The question came from her mouth unbidden on the tail of that sporadic voice that rose fro her up, looking down at her The mask shattered completely, crumbled in thick, white shards onto the sand What was left behind was so hard-eyed and purse-lipped ‘What did you say?’
‘She … the wo of’ Asper pulled herself the rest of the way up ‘You kept apologising’
‘No, I didn’t’ He let his hand fall from hers ‘Hoould you even know? You were out’
‘I reh I must have been awake for part of it, and--’
‘No, you weren’t’ He cut her off with a razor edge ‘I watched over you You were out and you didn’t wake up, at any tio sleep myself now Go check on Dread’
She watched hiain
‘For what it’s worth,’ she said, ‘I’ives you’
He turned upon her with the staggering need of a beggar teeks starved Considering her through expressionless eyes for a moment, he walked toward her, arms up in benediction With more confusion than hesitation, she let herself into his embrace There was no warhtness
She gasped as she felt the knife, sliding like a snake up her tunic to kiss her kidneys with steel lips, the razed her skin
‘You,’ he whispered, his voice an unsharpened edge, ‘don’t ever speak of her’
‘You …’ She sed hard ‘You said you didn’t have any knives left You lied’
‘No,’ he gasped, looking at her with mock incredulousness ‘Me?’
And in a flash, he was striding away fro off his threat like a cloak It fell atop the shards of his ape, she couldn’t help but feel that he was already weaving another one to put on
A warm breeze blew across the beach The sun was silent Her left aran to ache
After ull drifted down off the war the island to land upon the sands and peck at the earth In its si this area before It was a barren land, bereft of much food But in its simple eyes, it beheld all manner of debris not seen on these shores before And thus, curious, it hopped along, picking at the various pieces of wood
A shadow caught its attention It looked up It res, such as the one that sat not far away from it It res to fly
And instantly, it was seized in an invisible grip
‘No, no,’ Dreadaeleon whispered, pulling his arull drew it closer to him, the bird’s movement completely wrenched up in panic ‘I need your brain’
His voice was hot with frustration He hadn’t expected it to take nearly this long to seize a stupid bird that, by all accounts, should be infesting the shores like winged rats But that was a momentary irritation, one quickly overrun by the sudden pain that lanced through his bowels
His breath went short, his hand treull writhed a little as his attentions went to the agony rising into his chest This was not noric overspent, and the ice raft he had wrought to deliver his companions certainly qualified But those pains were ated to the brain and rarely lasted for ony that coursed through his entire being was new to him
But not unknown
Stop it, he scolded hi about the Decay You don’t have it Stop it Focus on the task at hand Focus on the seagull
The seagull, he thought as he drew the tre bird into his lap, and its tiny, juicy, electric little brain
Still, he hesitated as he rested a finger upon the bird’s skull More ic would mean more pain, he realised, and it seeuaranteed to find salvation fro was as unreliable as they came
Dreadaeleon had never found a bird that wasn’t a buer-driven ht, if crude, lines of energy suggesting le-minded activity It was those lines that made birds easier to manipulate than the jumble of confused sparks that made up the human brain, but it alsobeyond carrion and crumbs
But carrion and cru belly ree
He whispered a word A faint jolt of electricity burst through his fingers, into the avian’s skull It twitched once, then let out a frightened caw He could feel the snaps of pri in his own hts synchronised
Scared, they told him Scared, scared, scared, scared
‘Fine,’ he muttered ‘Go, then’
He released the bird, sending it flying out over the waters He leaned back, closing his eyes In his ull’s presence, sense its location, know its thoughts as he felt each sputtering pop of thought in its tiny brain All he needed to do noait; he could hold onto its signature for at least an hour
A lance of pain shot through him He winced
Or less
‘What do you hope to achieve?’ someone asked him
‘Animals search for food first If there’s any around here, I’ll know about it,’ he replied, his thoughts preoccupied with the gull’s
‘There are o that you cannot’
‘If I can tap into a seagull’s brain, I can certainly figure out how to get where he’s going,’ he snarled Only when his ire rose higher than his pain did he realise that the voice was not that of one of his companions
But it was not unknown
He turned about and saw her standing before hi about her head, feathery gills blended with eape, and the siren smiled back at him
‘I am pleased that you are well, lorekeeper,’ Greenhair said The fins on the sides of her head twitched ‘Or … are you?’
‘Not so much now,’ he said He tried to rise, felt a stab of pain and, ie to wince
Don’t do it, old et into your head She can hts Stay calm Don’t think about the pain She’ll know … unless she already knows and is telling you how to feel now to further her agenda Stop thinking I SAID, STOP THINKING!
‘Be cal strife’
‘Yes, you’re quite talented, aren’t you? You find it without even searching for it,’ Dreadaeleoninto Irontide after the toht for it’
‘I was concerned for the appearance of--’
‘I wasn’t finished,’ he spat ‘You then caot into my head’ He tapped his temple ‘My head, and tried to tell me to steal it for you’