𝚒𝚗𝚋𝚘𝚡 — 𝚜𝚘𝚖𝚗𝚒𝚊.

[sacral]

EVEN WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS

Comments

[hallowedly]

Now, you don't witness an apocalypse stirred by one boy's choice and truly believe that.

[sacral]

Then it's likely more that...

I don't have the right to blame him for anything.

[hallowedly]

..."but I do." Is that what's missing?

[sacral]

I told you how I felt about the world's future.

[hallowedly]

The studied venal indifference of a man with nothing to lose.

That was then.

This is now, in an arena where the thirteenth head of the Sumeragi has been working tirelessly to support every passing stranger.

[sacral]

In this "now", you've already marked the difference for me.

For him, there may be something still left there.

[hallowedly]

I suppose this means you'll want him in custody.

[sacral]

If he agrees to that.

I did betray him.

[hallowedly]

Even princes of death need a court.

You're shy. It's sweet.

[sacral]

My kekkai still numbers me in his.

I'll have to unlearn it.

[hallowedly]

I'm — ...whatever we call my state. ( Laughter ripples through the Murmur, scant. ) I'm afraid that leaves you squarely in his custody, though defection is always a noble cause.

[sacral]

[ The connection's ambience hitches, reels, releases. ]

It came to that once. A defection here might complicate what balance we're afforded.

[hallowedly]

( And then the —




— rupture. )

Chief Sumeragi, you certainly like to bury the lede. Now, won't you please elaborate?

[sacral]

There was a time... after you. Do you really want to hear what happened?

[hallowedly]

( A beat of


r e v u lsion

tidal fear



exhilaration —


and he is known to himself again. Static. Controlled. )


You must know this changes everything. Carry on.

[sacral]

[ Of course Kamui lies at the crux of the situation, torrential souled with an eking balance, the gravity on which black and white circle with eternally bared jaws. To cross, to side, to lose, to gain, metamorphosed by fate and fortune's spinning wheel. ]

In the moment my sister's spell activated, I was unseated from the Dragons of Heaven. [ He knew. He must have. ] So, I left them.

I thought that would be the end of it. But... it wasn't.

The Kamui, the other one, approached me.

[hallowedly]

...with what claim?

[sacral]

Your left eye.

[hallowedly]

I regret to inform you that isn't a claim. That isn't a covenant. That is a body part.

[sacral]

His claim was conditional on it. Accepting it meant to accept your seat next to him, your powers, and your responsibilities.

[ In a word: he meddled. ]

[hallowedly]

( Bright white blinding eruption of anger, then nothingness, then the visual cycle of sakura petals soawning, raining, scattering, spawning, dancing, dispersing, spawning —

A mantra of disciple or seclusion or both. Disgusting. He is — ...disgusted. )

You fool. The eye was yours. The powers and duty would have come indifferent of flesh, you killed the incumbent.

( Petals. More petals. A storm. He needs to breathe. )

You cut... a deal for what was already yours. You incomprehensible idiot. No. I won't be elegant. This is foolishness beyond naivete. This is — negligence. And waste. You were wasteful.

[sacral]

[ Ah. His heart has the capacity for it. This Murmur chokes with it, a refashioning of familiar illusion made corporeal by dismay. ]

I did. I couldn't cast it away. And my apostasy would have come to fruition, if she didn't intervene.

[hallowedly]

...that boy you've charmed. He won't turn against you. He doesn't know how.

( Life, somehow, hasn't taught him. Monou Fuuma can but try. )

Wasting everything, but wanting for nothing. What a prince you are.

( For once, the Murmur's connection withers and pales and dies a sickly death on his end, first. )