Merlin 3:23 “Coerced Coexistence”
~ @mjbanks
A heron in a pool, a sky in the morning, a great egret bathing on the mountain as the air grows brighter, near the peak before the dawn one side, and waking valley fords twixt rivers tother. As there was a female soldier unidentified, her arcane armor gathered in Sino’s bedchamber, its occupant Kylesa standing at the cave entrance, the opening a dark portal to a brightly beautiful blue sky as she stands a stark silhouette against it, in the opening of the ascending tunnel from the darkness. Sino walks thru the dark tunnels, from silent darkness the faint sounds of his boots shuffling, closer to the echo summoned. The leather of his boots laden with oil and stain unseen without light trod thru sediment shadowed for centuries, save of dragon fire from breaths asleep and churning ageless fire while dreaming, the fabric of his cloak toils by sound and sight unseen against the stagnant air and spiral shadow, trudging heavily forth, and in so much to Kylesa. Two silhouettes standing in the opening, outlines of themselves, faces hidden from tunnel airflow whispers within the mountain.
Kylesa: “There air is thin this high, but it is a beautiful sky.”
Sino: “What heaven’s beauty is without weakness to and fro?”
They have a bonding embrace and passionate kiss.
Kylesa: “The windy day is not the one for planning shelters.”
Sino: “My noose is lonely without Merlin’s throat.”
Kylesa: “Rarely is a fight continued when the sage is felled.”
Sino: “A soft answer turns away anger. Friend and foe assume the worst. The mouth that speaks not is sweet to hear. Thus I thee oblige into my favor, bade to deliver the son of Merlin, the Lugh Troy, to my grasp.”
Kylesa: “Youth sheds many skins.”
Sino: “Yes, but a secret it is not if known to three, it is not a matter of station, but of rises and falls from power.”
Kylesa: “Without his rancor, I will invoke his debt of justice to malice distressed.”
Sino: “Your actions will bring you to desires and dangers. Be his eyes and he will reflect your hunt for a victim.”
Kylesa: “Beauty will not make the pot boil.”
Sino: “There is only one way to reap death. Good blood ends in thirst, and the truths shall change truths so they shall wait. Hide your teeth until you can bite, do not go making and ending in the likes of a church, it will only set to turn him as ruthless as lions ignoring a crow, paint a marshal black, and he shall open the wrong cage.”
Kylesa: “Have you anything without skill?”
Sino: “Vouchsafe, to me, your success and together we will love what we have missed.”
With illicit arcane concerns in the darkness of the caves and her heart, she leaves him, stretching her hand and his by fingertips of longing, to the massive white bird her command, down it lays its head at water’s edge and lifts her with pillows bright, leaping into the air and swooning overfore.
In the darkness, there are shadows, in the shadows there is a noise of footstep, the Valkyrie aggressor a calm placating conspirator of Sino’s multifarious debris, the leather wrapping bootstraps and light colors cloth, hidden by the dim sight of dour and the thin light of hour. An Aesir guard, seeing in the absence of light with wings wound tight and standing at its edge, to stare at Sino’s silhouette and he to stare at the Valkyrie’s obsequious darken.
Lucifer: “Do you care on her?”
Sino: “As it would seem, in many ways I do.”
Lucifer: “What will you do if she betrays.”
Sino: “Then I will condemn her myself.”
Sino stares into the distance, perceiving failure in not demonstrating more robustness and courage before her, the challenge of relationship.
Lucifer: “There is rage in the air, the essence of war can be gathered from blood spilled in vain, you will these things, and you will get, us, these things, for our plan. Are you listening?”
Sino: “I listen with my heart, sick with bated breath.”
Lucifer: “My guidance doesn't come at a cheap price and my words shouldn't be taken lightly.”
Sino: “I will recover the pledged, taking unruly from the avowed, trust me, eyes will burn.”
Lucifer: “I serve the air you breathe, and defend your existence, should you stray, beset as a dog, obey my realm, and find paradise in empire, in a place everyone you know will rest in peace.”
The Valkyrie is to his side nearly and at his shoulder, quieter still to watch him and what he watches, and speak the words conspiratorial.
Sino stares down the mountainside from the cave opening, a personality trait, which he viewed as negative he has shunned brings disdains of the norms, and utmost, views it as direct opposite of the rewarded and encouragement he so often found in bloodshed. Hiding from the cloudless day, two devils determine themselves to conflict and cruelty to display and obtain rare examples of original sin to spite the worlds and their makers.