He attempted to sweep the guilt away, decisively, poignantly, so it’d be released from her shoulders, another burden taken and discarded, but she knew, even with his assertions, even with his declarations, the guilt would still be harbored within her body, taut and rigid, unrelenting and vivid. Perhaps eventually, years later, she’d forgive herself for the torment and horrors she’d put them both through, but it would forever tarnish and score her frame, etchings, reminders, a tapestry of scars and imprints assuring a haunted, selfish semblance of her desires. Her strength, her determination, would endure, but the gliding, smirking hands of her succumbed whims, of her mercurial pursuits, would snicker and remain, taunting and unraveling; she heaved one more sigh against his skin, maneuvered her jaw so it rested at the top of his shoulder, and her gaze could look out across the wide expanse. Everything was so clear and bright, so dazzling and vibrant, brilliant and strong, and inwardly, she fought her emotions, she warred with shame, she bristled and battled with so much remorse she nearly burst with all of its complexities, and he stayed, tied into the cold, chilling hands of the ocean. The nymph remained scattered amidst the elements, torn and reassembled with so many strange, conflicting nuances, and she’d already burdened, asked, too much from him. He shouldn’t have to try and put her back together again either. Grateful, unsure of how to continually express her appreciation, her debts, she slid her mouth across his shoulders, nestled her lips against his withers, along his nape, in a gentle, dulcet kiss, a butterfly’s caress, a songbird’s stroke, before drawing away. Her frame immediately disapproved, but she yearned not to show, not to display, any more weakness, any more fragility, clinging to the rancorous, embittered edges of her vitality, ensuring and composing fortitude where it’d truly ran dry, bowing her head against the current, swiveling one ear towards Imogen, silent on the shore. Her voice managed to amplify across the ocean swells, the sultry, soft sea breeze, ruffling manes and hearts, the signature of their meetings, where she credited and recognized all of his blessings, he asked for nothing in return, and she fumbled about, feeling like an inconsiderate cretin. “Thank you.” Her limbs, her figure, swayed without their usual grace, without their quaint, ambient finesse, but she pretended it was the surf, the current, rippling over her weakened form. The sylph painted a grin where they normally appeared, warm, bright, sunny, not quite reaching her eyes, not quite true or tangible – and she didn’t know what to say, how to break apart without him following. She didn’t want him to accompany her again and get hurt in the process, because she’d already nearly done that once before. Her preference was woven in bearing the rest of her adventure alone, where no one else would be harmed, where her yearning, her longing, her mercenary reels weren’t so readily exposed and damaging. So she fumbled, she tightened, she harked and laid whatever shambles of armor she had left over her chest and along her burns, smiling and twinkling. “I’ll just…head to the Sun God now.” Awkward, it felt so stilted and confining, and she turned away, feeling colder than before they’d ever embarked onto the sand and soil.

@[Roland]
- For Sun God quest. ^_^]