Glamour-Gaze
Glamour-Gaze
As the peak of Kheta-Kedet's grand pyramid split the sun's burning gaze in half, I felt distant, as if I was not myself, as if I wasn't even there. I had felt this during times when I was alone in the tower, after Risa had died, and before Stirna had been born. It was awful, as if I was losing control of my body. My thoughts rushed back to Stirna, who was busy admiring her new wings. She didn't have to look at hers as I used to mine, caked in blood and bristled in alert. Hers flowed smoothly, a grey river with soft feathers overlapping each other, which she touched gently.
Maybe staring at her was just a temporary distraction of what was wrong with me, and what would probably be wrong with her, soon too. If the owl killed Risa, or influenced her death in some way, why wouldn't it do something to me? Maybe it would before Stirna even had a chance to properly know me, to understand who I think I am and what I think of her. My sister would be lost as soon as she was found.
I couldn't feel where I ended and the owl began, there was no clear line between us anymore, it felt as thought he thought for me, influenced my actions in every dull moment, with every instinct, with every slight motion I made or thought I came up with when I wasn't fully paying attention.
It kept me alert, although I doubted that being so fearful was useful.
I hadn't even noticed when we landed, or when I followed Stirna's curious waltz into the pyramid. I only snapped back to reality when I saw...something...spinning, purple and forboding, infinite yet contained in black, staring at me with its twisting, spiraled eye. I could not see Semet in front of me, oblivious to my presence or Stirna's, or the guards who kept their eyes trained on the deep purple allure. I snapped back to my senses and grabbed Stirna's hand, pulling her back through the entrance. I could have sworn that one of the guards saw, but I wasn't sure.
That haze, alien to my eyes, scared me so deeply that I ran to the river's edge and threw up. Stirna asked me if I was alright, her voice laced with worry. I just hugged her, slamming my eyes shut and, yet it was dark behind my eyelids, I could still feel the pull of the purple swirl, dragging me through it's frame and taking me elsewhere, like an accursed doorway.