@ahlite : ‘ i don’t ask how you’ve been. what’s the point? you’d lie anyways. ’ —— grave suggestions ( accepting )
❝ so forthright !! there’s a smile playing along his mouth, their gaze bemused, as though this odd traveler were saying such a thing in jest, as opposed to wholeheartedly, meaning and accusation underlying each and every word uttered. HER FACE IS EMPTY ( when isn’t it? oh : when they aren’t around him, of course ), gaze vacant, but perhaps there is a glimpse of near sadness. oh, what a concept / sadness, all for this glacial heart. “what must you think of me, to say such a thing?”
the light meets the darkness and the darkness weeps : for it was never meant to encounter such a luminous glow, trapped beneath the bowels of the earth, buried amongst the abyss. the darkness meets the light and the light recoils : for there are places where even THE LIGHT cannot reach. sometimes they wonder if they know / that once upon a time, so very long ago, a small boy wearing an eyepatch cried at the light of the sun, terrified of it and the sprawling sky above, clinging to the shirtsleeve of his brother, yearning for the security of the earth above.
she moves with hopelessness draped off of her shoulders, despair dragging with every step. he wonders what it was that broke them, remembers them as hopeful and bright / ODD and full of life / cryptic and weary and seeking, yearning for their BROTHER. ( oh, he’s familiar with such a thing / such a look. isn’t that the lot of the lost sibling? ) WHAT HAPPENED? where did that haunted longing come from? this loss of love / a brand of solitude that has embedded itself into their skin, impossible to pry apart.
they would know. they would know. ( like knows like, after all. )
KAEYA SPEAKS IN LIES : he’s a liar, a liar by trade, a liar by nature. lying was their second tongue, its secrets whispered into his ear by his father, nurtured by his mother, deep beneath the earth where THE LIGHT could never dream to touch. they speak in nonsensical truths and bizarre lies and more delicate fibs, fingers deftly weaving a web : wider and wider and wider, so immense that it would cover the whole of tevat and beyond, falling into darkness. LUMINE SPEAKS IN ABSOLUTES, as if she is condemning, as if they are passing judgment with every last thing that she says, with those vacuous eyes and that steadily dimming light.
would he lie to them about this? ( isn’t it telling that he must ask himself that at all? ) something so innocuous as how are you? how have you been? will you draw the truth from me, drag it into the light? you truly shouldn’t, you know, the truth is best viewed in darkness. ❝ i hardly have a reason to lie to you, lumine, ❞ words lacking in inflection, simply spoken, who’s to say where the emphasis should be placed? i hardly have a reason to lie to you : no reason at all / but what’s a man made of lies to do?
here is a shred of the truth : THEY WOULD LIE. ( what else could be said? oh, traveler : i am exhausted i am tired i am worn i am full of hatred and full of love in equal measure i crave absolution and the end of strife and the continuance thereof i yearn for my father but not the father whose blood runs through my veins and isn’t that a betrayal of my country and people yet i yearn for my blood, too, and isn’t that a betrayal of the family who loved me and i miss my brother terribly and don’t you understand that, too? i cannot remember when i last slept soundly when i last slept truly my country is in tatters of darkness and i cannot pull it into light because it is not meant for the light for you and your kin and your ILK. )
❝ if you’re so convinced, however, i suppose nothing i say could inform you otherwise, ❞ they say it as if they’re TEASING, a drawling smile on his face, thumb set below his bottom lip. “but you strike me as the sort to take risks,” a flash of teeth / a widening grin, ❝ so perhaps you should roll the dice, anyways. we could make a nice conversation out of it, even. shall i begin? how are you, lumine? i hope your travels have been treating you well. ❞
