[ the wind comes for kaveh's wings. kaveh knows its strike, knows its angle of approach. it drags him beneath the undertow anyway, because the weight and heft of his newfound appendages can't be calculated away. the angle of the world tilts. midnight's blade comes. it aims for his heart. kaveh thinks, in that split moment - it was option four after all. it could only be a lover's suicide, and netzach, he would have to kill them both. he is sorry.

midnight's blade comes. kaveh's claymore swings. suddenly, their motions truncate as if as one. kaveh's sleeve falls away, cut like a single head of a camilla flower, falling in resplendent winter. the momentum of kaveh's claymore ends just by midnight's neck, thin wisps of his hair shedding across the radiant light of its blade.

kaveh answered his god. of course he does. ]

I clawed my way out from hell long ago to seek my god. [ he says in turn, low, and slow, ] I have always known that there was only ever one. On this earth, I met another. I was wrong. I have only ever had one god. When two claims to hold my reins, I choose my own.

[ and then, because he is kaveh, and will always be kaveh, he says thus, to midnight. ] Good. I will. I am furious. That is a promise.

[ kaveh breathes out.

finally: ] Netzach, you have bound my wings. They were your wings, they always were. They are yours to bind, just as I am yours to take. Come for me.