narcissus

a cheek to my side, your gaze held high, you watched the stars.

i sat near, tangled amidst your airs. 

in your mind, you had deemed me unworthy the moment we met. 

yet you sat with me anyway, for i deemed you far too worthy, in the same minute of your judgement- and you loved anything that loved you as you did yourself.

if you look me in the eye at all, you seek your own face mirrored in them.

is it a curse?

to long for narcissus' heart to be my own? 

i stay silent. along with my own powerless gaze, a million other fall upon you. 

coy strands of seemingly silver light seem to worship you, 

from those stars you have deemed worthy to be looked upon.

be my own. 

widen your eyes and see beyond yourself.

child of soft touches and summer life,

do you know pain at all? 

is it the pain of being so adored?

nothing marred your skin, or your heart.

your courage is but the bravery of the ignorant,

and yet for each and every speck of earth living 

in those upturned eyes of yours, 

i would die to not see them flooded by tears. 

i would, if it weren't for my sense of survival screaming at me to run away from you.

i wasn't fully blinded yet. not as blinded as you were with yourself. 

i refused to be blinded by you.

i refused to wither like the unseen Echo to the mountain air. 

i refused to die upon your doorstep as a gift for your vanity. 

though my heart had deemed you its sole occupant, the whole of me- 

the daughter my father doted on; 

the unendingly curious child my mentors loved- she still lived.

she will not see herself burned down to a thrown away plaything of a beautiful brat like you.

a myriad of thoughts crossed my mind as i sat there. i had gone through every perverse desperate thought. a finger danced mindlessly on the cool glass of vial hanging above my bosom. 

i had sat up many a night wondering, if you and i might share the same dark desolate corner of the mourning fields in Hades, if I down the vial and kiss you with the lips stained from the same potion. 

we both are doomed to suffer anyway, i by you, you for your wretched love for yourself.

nothing had ever pleased you- be it soft sighs, straddled thighs, swaying hips or sirens' cries. 

i sat there anyway, knowing my fate yet helpless in its grip.

strange that you had called, stranger for you to hesitate and stay silent. 

i wondered which of those dying men in your counsel finally seeped wisdom into your empty head. 

i sat next to you, all my will written and in the wind, tied to my birds and off beyond the ends of your power. all my lineage hidden from the cold hands of your soldiers. 

you turned to me with resolve, and i smiled. 

i was honored. i would be the touch of your death, your final sight, your first and fatal peril.

it seemed fated that we would end up here - our limbs askew and our hearts slowing as we watched each other die.

---

When the sun found our lifeless bodies, word was out that a maid had stabbed the prince's heart with a shard of mirror. 

The valiant prince had slain the traitor with a sword to her belly.

And among the words were whispered amusement. 

For all the mirrors the prince had stared at, it was a comical fate for him to be killed by the one thing he loved the most.

And near and far, two kings mourned, one along with his subjects, the other in the secret of his chambers- letters clutched to his chest.