( starter  ||  arvious )

capricious weather overhangs the autonomy of his vehicle as eyes peruse transitory scenery. fleeting bushes and tainted saturation of leaves flatter the warmth of amber gaze ( A COLDNESS HIDDEN WITHIN ), whilst lips amuse the tune of radio murmur. variable droplets of water patter across the automobile’s length; the chancellor unphased by nature’s dew. a precipitating dampness, hours earlier than predicted by forecasters, adorns the road in sheets intermittently swayed from linearity by grace of wind. moisture clings to animate flesh, yet his absent-minded humming elicits vague immunity.

as per iedolas’s ineptitude, he dispatched the presence of his chancellor against explicit counsel. no matter ardyn’s conviction, the emperor believed it wisest to send his ‘ leading representative ’ to tenebrae — shadowed by inferior cavalrymen — to forestall the opportunity lady lunafreya may retreat to familial territory. her eminent evasion of the imperial fleet following her escape from insomnia devotes macro resources to tracking her down, himself included. another’s time would have been better wasted for such a tedious escapade, contouring boredom into features inundated. perhaps it was time to activate the roofing coverage ——

advancement had taken its course, delivering the immortal to his intermediate destination: the train to luna’s resplendent birthplace. the platform was barren; its vacancy of dialogue pilfering comfort of eardrums. civilization, an ungrateful cowardice, cringes beneath the empire’s pitiless victory. thus, aside from the obligatory presence of its operators, it appears the vespers of the night air are all that will join him in his reserved compartment —— that is, until the silhouette of another climbs on board thirty or so feet away. as though a harbinger of their own misfortune — a rabbit announcing its presence to an emaciated fox — this figure invites.

“ ——— and who might you be , i wonder ? ”