Insurgent

I'm no hero and I'm not made of stone

She listened unflinching to his outburst, attentive but without a trace of reproach or seeming desire to soothe those strong feelings of his. On the contrary; as soon as he quiets the little mare nodded with a grim smile.

"Good, we are of the same mind then" she said, all while she shook the water from the wings - clean and white again, and almost dry - and folded them back against the sides. "I thought so, but I had to be sure... I don't want you to think that I am doubting you, Volterra, but truth be told I don't know you as well as I ought to, and what I want to talk about is... sensitive. Far too important for mistakes."

She paused then, and lowered her gaze to the ground as she gathered up her thoughts, tried to make sense of all the ideas and wishes and sort the possible from the probable and the unlikely.

"As much as we both hate this place, I think we are going to have to accept that we cannot go back to Helovia" she said finally. It was a grim thought, a painful and heart-wrenching conclusion - but one she could not blind herself to, no matter how much she would like to. "Without our Gods, I cannot see how we could ever purify the lands from Kaos curse, and even if we could... I suspect we would find that so much have changed that it would no longer be home, no more than the Rift is."

"And, if that is the case, it means we will have to find a way to get by here. It means - and Lady Moon knows I hate to say it - that we have to do as that heathen demon says... at least for now. We have to learn more about this place, everything we can find; about the lands, about the plants and wildlife, about the natives who live here and their dead gods... I hope you realize that they will be none too happy with us? In their eyes we should be as bad as Kaos is to us, and our crime is nearly as big. We are god-slayers, Volterra. Both of us..."

Her troubled gaze turned towards his, faintly worried about how he would take her words thus far. There was so much more she had to say, so much more she wished to share with him; of her plans, of her worries and thoughts... but for that to be possible he would have to understand and accept her position, and she feared that his reactions might be different from what she had hoped.

Right or wrong, I can hardly tell
I'm on the wrong side of heaven and the righteous side of hell

Image Credit