by Ryn » Fri Jul 21, 2023 10:27 pm
Ryn looks at Katarina and her brow knits in puzzled thought. Her immediate response is how that could possibly be true. Here's a human, bathed in the light of attention and suddenly stripped of her dreams. And then there's Ryn, cloaked in darkness, doing the same thing she's always done no matter where she is. How is that the same, she asks herself. But Katarina is not stupid. She sees things that Ryn misses, subtle things, human things. Things that are more than they seem, like metaphor-words. She thinks she's sliding towards the same thing Ryn is, is being dragged into it by the scales on her back and the lure in her voice. Ryn's eyebrows shoot up.
Katarina is right. Somehow Ryn has missed the obvious. She's so set in her ways, so unchanging, that she did not consider Katarina could be anything but who she sees before her now. Because she judges those around her by the taint their deeds have left on their soul. She should have known better. Humans change and even a sliver of what Ryn's power has wrought would taint Katarina's soul. Ryn has never been anything else, has no lost innocence to mourn. But Katarina does. Ryn is free to be remorseless. A monster. Sin-Eater. Katarina feels the sting of loss and now, finally, so does Ryn.
"The same... That's why you think we're the same..." she whispers her horrified realization. "That's why you tear at your scales and why you're afraid. You think you might become like me."