Work Text:
Serafina called to her, Serpent, Serpent. Temptress. Are you there?
Mary turned in her sleep, and she felt the air around her grow cold and clear and full of starlight. I'm here, she said. I'm here.
The witch's robes fluttered around her like falling birds. Serpent, she said again.
I don't understand, Mary told her. Is this about what the Cave told me, about how I must play the serpent? What does that mean, anyway?
We are the symbols around the rim, said Serafina. We are the angelic scripts, the celestial alphabets. She is the needle. We the question, she the answer.
Who? Mary called into the dark.
Her, Serafina answered, and it was an answer. Every tangled thing in Mary's head came suddenly clear, and she was sore afraid.
Does it frighten you? she asked the witch.
Of course, said Serafina. I might well die in this. You might well die. I am very much afraid. But all the same, there is something in this time of war that makes my blood sing. To see the usurpers and oppressors fall, to see the world clean and unfettered, as it has not been for so long - Serpent, we live in wondrous times.
I'm petrified, Mary confessed. I left all of this behind for reasons, good ones. I just want things to be simple.
But barring simplicity, would you choose stagnation over passionate struggle? Serafina questioned her sharply.
Of course not.
Nor would I, the witch told her. No witch ever could. Our blood is oil, and we cannot help but flame. Better to burn consuming bright than to be slowly strangled by the world.
The strangest part of it, Mary said, is that this all makes so much sense to me. That's exactly how I've always felt, except that no one has ever understood it before.
You are the Serpent, Serafina told her. Of course there is marsh oil and star fire in your blood. In my world, you would have been my sister-queen, and we would have flown together over the ice for a thousand years.
The world rushed by beneath them, endless expanses of shadow and light and cold. Mary saw them, but didn't feel them. She hung suspended in the aether, above the world, outside of the world.
Will it happen soon? The war, the - garden? Mary asked.
Serafina took her hand. I don't know, sister, Serafina whispered into her ear. I don't know. I expect we'll know when it comes.
Yes.
Rest now, sister, Serpent, Temptress, Serafina said. The wave of war is coming, and you must be ready. Rest.
We are the symbols, Mary told her sleepily.
Yes. Rest now.
Good night, witch-sister.
Sleep now, sister-Serpent.