Legion and the sea

The small pale girl with blood on her hands darted into the shadows, watching and wary. She’d tried to cut out Denenthorn’s eyes. He’d been foolish to unbind her in the first place, but he’d allowed Pontifex to bait him into it. She knew Denenthorn’s wrath was legendary so she crouched, waiting and listening for the rustle of wings, Nareth’s blade dancing in her hand.

A shimmering in the air alerted the girl that someone was coming. She quickly padded into the alleyway, staring into the darkness as Legion appeared, first as an impression of a transparent outline, then drifting slowly into opacity. Legion gazed gently at the girl, Her eyes wandering from the girl’s face to the blade at her neck. A whisper of many voices echoed on the air as She stepped forward to place a hand upon the girl’s shoulder, "We are here to take you with Us."

A shiver swept through the girl at Legion's touch. "They're trying to find me,” she whispered. “I don't want to be bound again." Her voice pleads. The blade at the girl’s neck is hungry, and she wants to feed it, but she also doesn't want to be found. "It's hungry." She taps the blade’s edge urgently with her fingertip.

Without a word, Legion leads the girl by the shoulder through the dim streets, out towards the shoreline, to the edge of the floating platform overlooking the sea. The girl can feel the boards bobbing lightly under her feet to the lapping of the tide. Legion trades the hand on the girl’s shoulder with Her other hand, facing the girl out to sea. The girl looks out silently over the water.

Placing Her freed hand between the girl’s shoulder blades, palm adhering with something rather like a static pop, a feeling like the attraction of many begins to conduct through that touch, and plumes out into the girl’s chest. Legion’s whispers come affectionately from inside the girl. "Look out to sea, Our jewel."

The girl blinks, and then eyes adjusting to the twilight, she takes in the hazy sky, the stars. Though it is a night with no moon she sees clearly over the water.

Legion draws nearer to press Her front into the side of the girl’s back, and Her chin over her shoulder. She draws Her palm down the bare portions of the girl’s back, dragging the feel of static with it. The voices slide around inside the girl, branching out and in and around like endorphins. "The sea is the world remembered,” Legion begins, “The world as it is...and the world yet to be...all in song...all in never ceasing rise and fall." Her hand drifts idly down further, finally resting on the curve of the girl’s hips.

The girl listens to the lapping water, smells the sickly sweet salt marsh mingled with toxic fumes. Finally she relaxes against Legion's arm, whispering, "Her heart is out there. I can feel it beating."

Legion maneuvers the girl into the cradle of Her looped arm, encouraging her back into Her strong embrace, and rocking her gently to the sounds of the sea. "Her heart means nothing,” She says. “Her heart is a grain of sand upon the ocean floor. We are here as on the event horizon of all time, the rise and fall of civilizations, the birth and death of billions, all have their place in the song..."

Legion coaxes the girl to give her weight to Her, and hang weightless in Her arms, floating free above the advancing water. The girl takes a deep shuddering breath, then leans, trusting, into Legion's arms. She drifts, weightlessly, eyes gazing out to sea, mesmerized by Legion's words. She can see civilizations birthed and dying as she floats; she can hear the song.

Legion's cheek presses into the girl’s, Her jaw sliding over her shoulder soft as clouds, till the corner of Her mouth is against the girl’s cheek. The words continue in a quilt of rhythms, rolling towards the girl’s consciousness, mesmerizing, like the surface rolling across girl’s sight, and running under the edge of her field of view, every wave surely lapping into her. "The song is in you, Our Jewel...the song of creation, when sung in its complete harmony, can raise the light from out of void, and make creation out of nothing it all." Legion's hand is upon the girl’s lower stomach, laying Her palm and fingers sprawled upon it's skin "We have put a piece of it inside you...inside your womb...and you will be it's flower bloomed..."

The girl’s eyes half close as her fingers trace the tops of Legion's hands. She feels wrapped in warmth, peace. She sees the void washing over her, then a little point of light like a star, growing, sparkles radiating outward, filling the nothingness.

But the blade does not sleep.