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ISOPIA
Consider your origin. You were not formed to live like brutes but to follow virtue and knowledge.
It was over, spelled out in precise cursive lettering in red blood on the white snow, and in rapidly expanding bruises and maroon tributaries on her body.
Isopia let her muscles sag, and her body leaned heavily to the side. Pain still flooded with a bright, hot, ire from her neck and upwards with a throbbing sting from her stomach, but that pain - and Ashamin's words - were like a buzz in the back of her mind. Dulled by her triumph and made inconsequential given what she had achieved. And so, when Ashamin's magic gripped her heart one last time, Isopia tensed and writhed with her breath held. She hadn't been expecting another attack from him. Foolishly she had allowed her mind to revel in her successful manipulation of him. She hadn't even considered that his reason for fighting her had not yet been accomplished, even if hers had.
Pain warbled anew through her injuries as Ashamin's magic forced her heart to beat faster. Rich, oxygenated blood reminded every inch of her body of how much pain it was in, and the demi-goddess bit back on the shriek of discomfort that burned in her mouth.
As the cerndyrs rushed to the aid of Ashamin, Hubris glided towards Isopia. He could sense the extent of her injuries and so opted to remain on the ground next to her, rather than taking his usual place on her withers.
As the painted stag's magic pulled away from her with his sudden realization of her motives, Isopia finally let forth the breath that she had been holding. The air rushed out from her hot and tired lips, crystallizing in the frostfall air like a small pathetic cloud. But much to her astonishment, it wasn't just air that she had released. Her heart beat didn't slow, despite the fact that Ashamin's invisible tendrils no longer coaxed it into a frenzy. Now it beat with a realization not unlike Ashamin's - an understanding of what she had done, in a way that she hadn't comprehended before.
Death was what she had wanted. Death for the life inside of her, born out of ignorance and a heroic lack of understanding of what she and Volterra--
--her breath hitched again at the thought of his name, and the accompanying images of the two of them together. The way they used to be. It was as if her throat was trying to clamp down on the feelings before they could stagger out of her. Another breath, this one far more tentative, though weighty with regret and unbearable misery, shimmered pale white in the air before her.
She had wanted death. But death was not all she had got.
She had got an ending.
And ending to her days of boycotting her role on this earth with the guise of intellectual incomprehension. She knew why she was here, but she had skirted her responsibilities and in doing so, had fallen in love. Even then, despite the warnings of her dead brother via the circumstances of his death, she had allowed herself to flirt with what would likely be her own downfall, by flirting with Volterra. She had allowed herself to go too far, and while engaging with Ashamin in this way ensured that the life which had begun inside of her would never be forced to bear the cruelty of the world, the repercussions of her actions didn't stop there.
It was an ending to she and Volterra (if there ever were such a thing). An ending to the only happiness that she had ever known.
And horrifically (given the dead body now inside of her), it was that knowledge which hurt most of all. Because she could no longer allow herself to love him, even though she still did.
"Thank you-" Isopia said, her voice discordantly calm and level despite what both she and Ashamin had just done. Her eyes, however, betrayed the confidence in her voice, and for perhaps only the second time in her entire life, Isopia's eyes shimmered with tears.
Although Isopia knew little about Ashamin, she knew that he would likely not be able to stomach what had just occurred easily. And so, not wanting to be party to whatever flurry of questions or flood of renewed attacks he might have planned - after all, she had her own emotional breakdown to deal with - the demi-goddess left as abruptly as she could. Her body shrunk and contorted, turning black and feathered. The transformation was painful given her injuries, but the overwhelming grief and despair that she felt easily overshadowed her bodily pains. Hubris defensively moved in front of his bonded's now raven-body, though he doubted that the trio before him were planning on attacking again. He whistled a single note, low and sad, before taking flight after Isopia.
WC: 800
Attack: Closing Defense
HNGGGGGGGGGGGG -cries ugly crocodile tears for days-
Thank you for being a part of this madness Jen. You and Ashamin did beautifully <333333333
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[JUDGED] Heading for something that she won't forget | Ashamin challenge
