( • Y • )

i rise to the ash

my distorted silhouette

from a quivering moon

the child screams helplessly

unaware of her savior

growling with two thousand fangs

my mask gleams in the night sun

the metal worn and stained

the steady breaths of my father

muffled with my voice

as I speak to my prey

above the snarls

of her own slaves

she freezes under the wind

the stone over her glove

gleaming under her eyes

the child still sending

Heavy, mortal breaths

to assure that time

hasn't betrayed me

What's your name

she questions my presence

Faeri,

i tell her

you come alone?

just me,

I admit.

though I have the voices

of ancestors lost in the shadows

chanting a melody

with my name as the chorus

she lets silence pass us.

Why have you come so far

to stop humanity

from overcoming its demise?

i dwell and answer:

i want to free humanity

from monsters like you

who use innocence as a throne

to enslave unborn souls

and reign even over death

as it arrives to end your sorrow

she slices the wind with her words

as she exclaims

humanity will see extinction

if we don't act now to save it

it was never about my throne

nor Autumn's fight for glory

but for us as creatures

fighting for survival

not against what lurks on our earth

but what swarms beyond

i force her to silence

to remind her

the good of living

loses its meaning

when it is constant

without a rival

a throne loses its glory

when there is nothing

for it to stand over

a monarch without a kingdom

is equal to a body without a soul

she fights back with her snarls

slowly unraveling from her own chains

to tell me our purpose is meaningless

if we don't have something more

that our reality cannot be limited

to the moment it lets us go

that the pain of loss and time

could be cured with infinite grace

you could still see your father

in more than just your eyes

she said.