@warcrowned is not allowed to leave the pain train
She witnesses the tears cascade and takes pause, steadfast as mountains as the woman before her weeps, weeping for the years—the long centuries—kept apart by the rivers Death and for grief, that weighted sensation nestled deep within the heart like burs. Two tragic, tragic queens are reunited with misery tangled within their threads and the thoughts left unspoken—regrets that couldn't be shared, forced to remain silent for centuries on end—coming forth like the deluge over a battered dam. When will they cease to know tragedy?
Darling Penthesilea, her dearest treasure and beloved sister, with an aged wistfulness and grief e'er painted over those eyes that were never the same after her—Hippolyta's—death, the fearsome figure upon Troy's war-torn shores. Aye, she knows the misfortune that befell after her passing, for the Grail whispers these ill-fated truths and the knowledge pours forth like the ewer of gods ( and like Ganymede, Hippolyta was ferried away prematurely, too soon for a girl with youth still shining bright in her eyes ), leaving every sacrilegious detail bare and naked for even the judgmental eye to purvey.
The lion-blooded girl ( fierce heart, loving hands, the kind of love that the Achus mourns for ) lifts a hand to brush away those violet locks, drying the endless tears that pour their souls out for Charon's ferryboat with her sleeves, all as her heart breaks and mends for her sister a hundred times over.
“My dear sister, what is it that makes you weep so?”
Why must you weep over the dead girl that still haunts your dreams?
The cordolium sings loudly in her ears, clear as the muses' singing—a preamble for every tale—yet she couldn't help but smile, smiling in gratitude that the Moirai pardoned their maelstrom of misfortunes and permitting them this brief respite outside of time, where the greatest sorrows can be laid to rest, if only for a short while. She thanks every god and goddess, every nymph and creature and concept—Ananke, Aion, the Horae—and mercy itself for being kind to their weary souls, as if they hadn't suffered enough for whatever unspoken cruelty they had committed in the past. This is all she can ever hope to ask for. Hippolyta’s smile grows wider, assurance in the lines that crease at the corners of her lips.
“Come now, wipe away those tears, lest they ruin your wonderful face!”