[Though Hayame had managed to shut out communion to try and cling to the few scraps of dignity she could still claim to have left, unwilling and unable to face the possibility that she might have cried out for help... it hadn't protected her from the fact that someone had been waiting for her at her home, and her lies about where she'd been and why she desired to be left alone had been shredded by the revelation that he knew.
He'd heard her, somehow, the human she had told herself she wouldn't cry out for because she didn't want to see a demon rip them to shreds as if they were tissue paper. And who else had that left her? A war god who she couldn't count on to choose her over any of his other, sicker "friends", no matter how devoted and loyal she had been? A sorceress who would never give up her innate interest in the demonic and powerful even as she flirted with pretending to be a trustworthy ally? A blood-eater who had been deceiving her for over a year while she placed humiliating, ignorant trust in him? She wouldn't call on any of them. She wouldn't. That's what she'd decided.
But when the pain had overwhelmed her, when her mind had cracked and struggled to flee from reality... That isn't what had happened. First, he tells her. Then, the Iconoclast among them who was able to force their way just a bit into the cracks of her defenses. And the next morning, once she was finally able to speak properly, to woodenly relate what had happened... she had to listen, too. To the fact that he had spoken with Liem Talbott. That he'd heard her, too. He knew something. (... He'd looked for her.)
Eventually... the "door" cracks open.
She doesn't say anything at first. She doesn't know what to say, even though she knows she has to say something. For now... it is just a presence, mute and dark, lingering at the corner of his mind. Waiting for him to speak first or to turn his "eye" towards her. Almost hoping he doesn't.]
dawn of the next day
He'd heard her, somehow, the human she had told herself she wouldn't cry out for because she didn't want to see a demon rip them to shreds as if they were tissue paper. And who else had that left her? A war god who she couldn't count on to choose her over any of his other, sicker "friends", no matter how devoted and loyal she had been? A sorceress who would never give up her innate interest in the demonic and powerful even as she flirted with pretending to be a trustworthy ally? A blood-eater who had been deceiving her for over a year while she placed humiliating, ignorant trust in him? She wouldn't call on any of them. She wouldn't. That's what she'd decided.
But when the pain had overwhelmed her, when her mind had cracked and struggled to flee from reality... That isn't what had happened. First, he tells her. Then, the Iconoclast among them who was able to force their way just a bit into the cracks of her defenses. And the next morning, once she was finally able to speak properly, to woodenly relate what had happened... she had to listen, too. To the fact that he had spoken with Liem Talbott. That he'd heard her, too. He knew something. (... He'd looked for her.)
Eventually... the "door" cracks open.
She doesn't say anything at first. She doesn't know what to say, even though she knows she has to say something. For now... it is just a presence, mute and dark, lingering at the corner of his mind. Waiting for him to speak first or to turn his "eye" towards her. Almost hoping he doesn't.]