her teeth grazes her bottom lip. BREVITY , she expects, would be BEST . SOMETIMES PEOPLE STEAL GLANCES OF ME , LIKE MAGPIES AND SILVER . plucking information free, with naive impunity. OR CROWS & WORMS . vulnerability writhed and looped around her ribcage, riddling behind her eyes like worms, worms, worms. she thought she had solved this problem years ago, taken the heart out of herself and replaced it with teeth gnashing in her chest, hungering for flesh and power and dominion. ( if she must be honest, honest she will be : EXPOSURE is terrifying. ) deify her, only do not humanize her. please. few options remain. she cycles through them - simplicity still suits, but she could give a genuine compliment about zelda’s ambition, and how that might scare others. it does not scare lilith. she could play coquettish and say some similar complimentary thing, pretend she is frightened and humbled and all things feminine and submissive. that rings hollow, too, as the magic requires she not LIE. flippancy and cruelty (and exposure) are her options left. flippancy : a joke. zelda’s delight in contact sports. ( but lilith does not fear this. nor should she. ) cruelty : a FLAW of zelda’s. her temper, perhaps. ( even though lilith does not f e a r this either. ) EXPOSURE : a fear of lilith’s wrapping around zelda’s neck like a snake, telling her she could breathe if only she swallowed that silly little apple core, coils tightening. the dark lord’s return and, sensing a proximity, his punishment for lilith meted out on someone else. SOMEONE UNDESERVING. ( this, lilith fears all right. )
“ that vein pounding on her forehead when i enter a room. ” flippancy, then. a little bit of cruelty, too. “ i care, above all else, for sweet zelda’s safety. her blood pressure is an aspect of that. ” & a little exposure, when said with a heavy enough sprinkling of the other two qualities, is hardly detectable at all. just like a charmed ring in the goat eyes of a dark creature ought to be.
