[The first thing he says is undoubtedly true. This man was glowing like a mushroom in a dark forest, and since he'd begun it he moved like lightning. As much as she wanted to believe that her arrows would reach him because she should be faster, because in a world that made sense she would be... If he used that speed to run she could not catch him.
But he claims to understand her, perfectly, and Hayame's hackles race immediately, the glamor spell that presents her as a woman with two legs only beginning to crack and splinter as her will to maintain the illusion suffers. If she wold just open her heart or her mind to the bond between aions, invisible and empathic, perhaps she would be unable to call him a liar...
Except she hasn't been able to. Not properly. She's spent her entire life guarding her true thoughts and deceiving her own heart, forcing it to grow icy and cold for the sake of survival in a world where to bleed and feel was weakness. She has been here for months, and only once has she managed communion, the only other time the Regent had ripped her spirit into his court, it had not been her choice. It's there, some sick and unexplainable sense of this man she could reach out and touch and know-
But she's afraid. Because if she brushes up against him... he will be able to feel her. He'll know that beneath the rage and hate and desperate need for revenge... there is only despair. Fear. The urge to cut her belly open and end it all rather than attempt to live in a world that isn't her own and never will be, the only jinba left alive in a sea of men who saw her as half a beast.]
No one here understands me! Certainly no man!
[Her voice snaps out, knuckles pale on her bow shaft, doing nothing to disprove his claims. When it came to words... she cannot call him a liar in his assessment of her, and yet-]
You had no choice but to join the Regent, but now you do?
[She doesn't know how this black sludge worked. Did its hold weaken over time? Could he be telling the truth? Her fingers nearly release the arrow, only barely keeping her knuckles clenched behind the fletching.]
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But he claims to understand her, perfectly, and Hayame's hackles race immediately, the glamor spell that presents her as a woman with two legs only beginning to crack and splinter as her will to maintain the illusion suffers. If she wold just open her heart or her mind to the bond between aions, invisible and empathic, perhaps she would be unable to call him a liar...
Except she hasn't been able to. Not properly. She's spent her entire life guarding her true thoughts and deceiving her own heart, forcing it to grow icy and cold for the sake of survival in a world where to bleed and feel was weakness. She has been here for months, and only once has she managed communion, the only other time the Regent had ripped her spirit into his court, it had not been her choice. It's there, some sick and unexplainable sense of this man she could reach out and touch and know-
But she's afraid. Because if she brushes up against him... he will be able to feel her. He'll know that beneath the rage and hate and desperate need for revenge... there is only despair. Fear. The urge to cut her belly open and end it all rather than attempt to live in a world that isn't her own and never will be, the only jinba left alive in a sea of men who saw her as half a beast.]
No one here understands me! Certainly no man!
[Her voice snaps out, knuckles pale on her bow shaft, doing nothing to disprove his claims. When it came to words... she cannot call him a liar in his assessment of her, and yet-]
You had no choice but to join the Regent, but now you do?
[She doesn't know how this black sludge worked. Did its hold weaken over time? Could he be telling the truth? Her fingers nearly release the arrow, only barely keeping her knuckles clenched behind the fletching.]