If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.

[Moloch]

tap
tap
tap
tap.

This winter is particularly aggressive.

Enough so that you can't hear a soul around you.

tap
tap
tap
tap.

That's a good thing, I'd say.

There's much less to filter out.

tap
tap
tap
tap.

They'll tell me as soon as I'm home.

That they've chosen me as the Ambassador; that I'm to set for -that- shrine as soon as the frost clears.

I can already imagine it. The door sliding open, news striking before I can brush off the rime or take my shoes off.

tap
tap

...
tap.

They're sending me to a much louder place.

I should just... stand here and empty my head. If I don't go inside, then I won't be obligated to travel abroad.

.
.
.

fwooooooshhhh...

.
.
.

"I'm cold."

.
.
.

tap
tap
tap.

If the alternative is to freeze to death, then that's just very unfortunate.

A very Yueliang way to go.

I can't have that...

tap
...
tap
tap

The door's right there, the news are surely behind. I can read them in the air.

The shikigami keep whispering them, louder each step nearer I draw.

.
.
.

My words to them are so predictable, a rookie could read them in the tea leaves at the bottom of the cup.

A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.

"So be it."

[Moloch]

breath lobbed halfway through my throat, incapable of sliding either way.

to no reproach, to no flux.

betwixt approval and every fiber in my body acting in retort, whilst your soul is sold away.

to no reproach, to no flux.

i hate you, for this dishonesty.

i hate you, for having deceived me.

alanis.

mayra.

.

.

.
what are you doing?! run - run away! stop her, do something. anything!

i wish i could choose again, not to attend... nor pretend to know or see.

to no reproach, to no flux.

in my ignorance, my wishful thinking. in my wishful thinking, my inability. the terror.

to no reproach, to no flux.

in my inability, all my hate. that which i cannot stop.

to no reproach, to no flux.

my hands drip with blood.

your hands drip with blood.
i desperately want to kill you, i have tried to.

alanis.

mayra.

.

.

.

i should have stayed home, i should have stayed home, i should have stayed home, i should have stayed home, i should have stayed home, i should have stayed home, i should have stayed home, i should have stayed home, i should have stayed home, i should have stayed home, i should have stayed home, i should have stayed home, i should have stayed home, i should have stayed home, i should have stayed home, i should have stayed home, i should have stayed home, 

i'm a sinner, now.

i've enabled all of this.
to no reproach, to no flux.
there's nothing i would like more than to cease to exist in this instant

is this trust?