Later, he will know, a hand's span — he should have floated higher. Now, given his sign, tempted to move, he sharpens the zither's sound, tainted with sorcery, until the spell and the strength of the song's vibration combine into a deep, jagging cut —
And it springs out, severing where the two cords are bound, missing by a margin, nearly hitting the sorcerer's wire alone, but for the surprising convenience of the Motherless, trembling, and sinking down.
He thinks it screams, when its cord is slashed. Feels it, deep in himself — that, or the grotesque rumble of the grounds quaked and thundered by the zither's energy in a wall-wave of magic, all-consuming. So little he makes use of his guqin of late, that he forgets, at times, that this is no weapon of precision, of small and gentle shavings, of tender cuts.
It severs everything it encounters, in a clean line, for li.
He does not beckon it again, breathlessly stumbling off his sword and taking the knee, as he lands beside Stephen Strange and his... fluid.
Now has passed between them. )
Is it done?
( In the distance, the mutation of the earth, wrought by the Motherless' presence, recedes. But he cannot be certain. )
no subject
( Now.
Later, he will know, a hand's span — he should have floated higher. Now, given his sign, tempted to move, he sharpens the zither's sound, tainted with sorcery, until the spell and the strength of the song's vibration combine into a deep, jagging cut —
And it springs out, severing where the two cords are bound, missing by a margin, nearly hitting the sorcerer's wire alone, but for the surprising convenience of the Motherless, trembling, and sinking down.
He thinks it screams, when its cord is slashed. Feels it, deep in himself — that, or the grotesque rumble of the grounds quaked and thundered by the zither's energy in a wall-wave of magic, all-consuming. So little he makes use of his guqin of late, that he forgets, at times, that this is no weapon of precision, of small and gentle shavings, of tender cuts.
It severs everything it encounters, in a clean line, for li.
He does not beckon it again, breathlessly stumbling off his sword and taking the knee, as he lands beside Stephen Strange and his... fluid.
Now has passed between them. )
Is it done?
( In the distance, the mutation of the earth, wrought by the Motherless' presence, recedes. But he cannot be certain. )