Wanna Hear A Funny Joke? Yeah, Me Too.

Absinth did not flinch once Aresenn met her gaze, but her jaw tightened at the sight of his anguish mirrored back at her. Her ears flicked back sharply as the monochromatic woman bristled at their shared agony. She let him speak, let his words fill the silence, but her own silence was not one of surrender. It was a moment of calculation, sharpening the edge of her resolve. She hated all of this.

Her tail lashed behind her like a whip as she finally spoke. “I think,” she said, her voice low and hateful, cutting through the bitter wind. Her lips curled back ever so slightly, exposing teeth in a snarl that never fully formed. “The rules we have followed, the traditions we upheld for naught—they were always a leash, Aresenn. For what? A leash we let them tighten around our throats until it strangled him. They made us believe it was strength, but it was never strength. It was submission dressed up in honor. Fuck! It’s all fucked!” She snarled, snapping her jaw in the air, spittle flying as her eyes unfocused. “We knew what we were getting into, but not that it would cost such a high price.”

Her chest heaved. Her breath shuddered. She paused, her eyes tearing, her lips pulling upwards in grief, in a sob. Emeralds glistened with unshed tears as she whispered her truth. “I didn’t know it would hurt this bad. That I would love a young life so much.”

Her claws dug deeper into the ground, trembling with unspent fury, and her hackles rose as if in defiance of the emotions that threatened to consume her. Turning her gaze back to the grave, her throat tightened as she forced herself to speak. “His gifts were crushed while we tried to mold him into something he was never meant to be. I taught them to cherish their gifts. To conquer the world based on their abilities.” Her voice faltered, a tone that verged on a whine, but she pressed on, her breath a cloud in the crisp air. “But I won’t make that mistake again. Not with the others.”

She straightened, her emerald eyes blazing with fury. “Araxina and Dracun are strong. But the game…. It’s about playing the game on terms we manipulate. We’ll push them, but not into the traps we walked into. We’ll make them something no one can predict, something uncontrollable. Survivors. Strategists. Monsters when they need to be.”

Absinth moved her maw to his ear, her voice dropping to a severe whisper. “And if that means burning the old ways to ash, then so be it. Let the Saxe cling to their codes while we teach our children what it really takes to win. They’ll fight dirty. They’ll fight smart. They’ll never walk into this kind of grave again.”

Her gaze bore into Aresenn’s, the rawness of their grief twisting into something harder, more dangerous. “We start now,” she said, the weight of her words final, unyielding. “No more waiting for the world to come for us. We go to it, teeth bared and ready. And if it means tearing the world apart, then we leave nothing standing.”

Her breath quickened as she turned her back to the grave, her paw at his shoulder, her claws flexing into his hide with the faintest pressure, enough to demand his attention without causing pain. “For Indica,” she growled. “For all of them. We’ll make this right. Conquerors, obedient to none.”


"Absinth Artemisia Inferos"