#apeiron originals

[selcouthian]

Nakoa tries desperately to keep Darshana from murdering someone in today's new Apeiron update!

Read the newest page by clicking here!

You can read all of Apeiron and my other short story work through these links:

Chapter 00

Chapter 01

Chapter 02

Chapter 03

Chapter 04

Chapter 05

Chapter 06

Chapter 07

Chapter 08

Chapter 09

Special Chapter: Tale of Timotep

Selcouthian

You can get the latest updates on Apeiron and my other work here:

Instagram

Bluesky

[apeiron-trolls]

Fantroll galore! Took me two weeks to finish em but methinks it was worth it (can’t send the image where they’re all together since it doesn’t wanna upload)

[phosphophillight]

ahhh. the . her name sounds like a medicine god lady (and some others)

i JUST REALIZED I FORGOT TO DRAW HER EARS IN THE FIRST ONE UGH⁉️⁉️⁉️‼️‼️‼️ destroys planet earth. no more peace and love.

[dear-miss-genius-idol-unmatched]

does this woman sleep?

she does, in fact! a hearty ten hours in her comfortable bed always leaves miss yōso readied for the day—and lets not forget that she has a proper self-care routine, too. do you think her hair is as lusciously curled by complete default?

of course, her bodyguard, apeiron [ @pyretic-shots ], has no clue why miss yōso goes through these hoops daily, but he admires her discipline either way.

[lonelymoonbeams]

Sophia lore (because no one talks about her enough)

Sophia is actually canonically Turkish! The grandma in Vertin's head spent a whole trace comparing her to a rug, specifically a kilim, which is a Turkish rug that's known for being very fine, lightweight, and having unique patterns due to being handmade. She's probably from Anatolia, aka Asia Minor.

Her mom was in the hospital for a long time when she was little, and Sophia and Hugh (her dad) would go visit her.

Whenever Sophia finished her studies as a kid, Hugh would give her a candy. She saved them in a jar in order to buy flowers for her mom, although I'm not exactly sure how candies pay for flowers. A trade, maybe?

Also as a kid, Sophia had a habit of calling people's names twice. No relevance. I just thought it was cute.

Sophia used to get up early in order to collect sand from the beach. She used it to polish glass since she wanted to make her dad glasses. Oddly specific skill for a child to know, but hey.

Sophia was the one who introduced 37 to fruits in yoghurt. She learned it elsewhere before coming to Apeiron. She was also the one who gave 6 his metal crown- it was originally going to be a fabric hat until 37 got involved and they made it a metal triangle. Fortunately, 210 intervened and made it wearable.

Sophia worked with 37 on calculating for the return of their ship, likely in the position of Corrector. Both of them were on the shore waiting for it, and both saw their parents get reversed, only to wash up as geometric shapes.

Sophia's nervous habit has always been pulling her hair.

She can get very emotional when answering questions. However, she's always quick to backtrack as soon as she realizes.

Sophia is actually described as very smart. Despite being an outsider, she was faster than many of the others on Apeiron. However, it was never noticed because 37 would always be the one on top.

Girl has such self-esteem issues. Stop. Please. Why are you like this *head in hands*

Sonetto is someone she can relate to. They both are exceptional students and arcanists who will never be better than their childhood friend. They'd probably be friends, in another time.

The reason why she's the Corrector is because no one else wants to do it, since they see it as having to do with the world of matters.

Possibly the funniest- Hofmann has seen Sophia's baby/childhood picture, but they've never met each other.

[acesw]

a short patch timeline on reverse 1999

So I've been going back and forth for almost a year now on comprehending and helping people comprehend the timeline in Reverse: 1999 because oh my god, it's so, so convoluted that it's still taking a long time for me to even write down the information without overexplaining it. And that's just the main story.

However, I've been able to piece together the timeline events by patch and chapter to make things easier for everyone. (...unless you want me to even include the anecdotes, which is another can of worms I'd like to not open.)

However, since 2.0 forwards will be taking place after 1.9, I won't be including the patch names. But, I will put their placements in the timeline without making specific notes to avoid spoilers.

I'd like to first note that 1.6 (Notes on Shuori) has no definite placement on the timeline. The reason why is that 1.6 is personally considered a timeline anomaly; there are plot holes and information that made it difficult to deduce when it took place. (i.e. Yenisei's origins, Getian's character story, Bessmert's* presence) For now, I will leave this out.

Additionally, a lot of the character stories take place between the past and the future. Thus, the character story that chronologically takes place the earliest by far is Lucy's while the latest would be Ezra's.

—

First of all, we start with 1.8 (Farewell, Rayashki) in its entirety. From Windsong's past, to her arrival in Rayashki, to when the second "Storm" took place, and Vila and the kids needed to adjust to this new normal.

Next is Chapter 3 (Nouvelles et Textes pour Rien) and Chapter 5's interchapter. (The Star) Both the story of Vertin's becoming of the Timekeeper, and Greta Hofmann's experience with the Apeiron group are both aligned. Greta even mentions Vertin in her log after returning to the Foundation.

Afterwards we skip to 4 years later, and we're now in 1966. (Post First "Storm") Three events occur here. First, 1.1, (Theft of the Rimet Cup) then 1.3, (Journey to Mor Pankh) and then finally, the Prologue of our story. (This is Tomorrow)

Its then quite straightforward afterwards. We immediately follow up with the first 4 Chapters taking us through 1929 to late 1913. Then afterwards, we have Chapters 5-7 taking place within the first 3 weeks of January 1914, and then we're immediately taken to August 1990 at the end of Chapter 7.

I'd like to also add that within those 3 chapters, both rougelikes (Echoes in the Mountains and Series of Dusks) took place within the same time. Although, Series of Dusks ends before Chapter 7 due to Semmelweis and Lorelei leaving with the Foundation right before the "Storm" hit.

Now, in 1990, we start with 1.2 (Nightmare at Green Lake) followed by patches 2.0-2.2, all of which take place in immediate succession. And then for now, we end with 1.5. (Revival! Of the Uluru Games)

So if I put all of these in one list, it looks like this:

Notes on Shuori (1.6) - Undetermined placement

Farewell, Rayashki (1.8) - 1999+1 (1996) -> 1999+2 (1985)

Nouvelles et Textes pour Rien + The Star (Ch. 3 and Ch. 5 Interchapter) - 1999+4 (1987)

Theft of the Rimet Cup (1.1) - March 1966

Journey to Mor Pankh (1.3) - April-May 1966

This is Tomorrow (Prologue) - Jun. 3 1966 -> Feb. 14 1929

In Our Time (Ch. 1) - Feb. 14 1929

Tender is the Night (Ch. 2) - Feb. 15 1929 -> Aug. 1913

Nouvelles et Textes pour Rien (Ch. 3 - Present Time) - Aug. 25 1913

El Oro de Los Tigres (Ch. 4) - Aug. 26 -> Oct. 10 1913

Prisoner in The Cave (Ch. 5) - Dec. 24 - Jan. 4 1914

The Star (Ch. 5 - Interchapter) - Jan. 4 1914

Echoes in the Mountain (Rougelike 1) - Undetermined time, before Jan. 8 1914

E lucevan le Stelle (Ch. 6) - Jan. 6-12 1914

Series of Dusks (Rougelike 2) - Jan. 8-13 1914

Vereinsamt (Ch. 7) - Jan. 12-13 1914 -> Aug. 1990

Nightmare of Green Lake (1.2) - Sept. - Oct. 1990

Patches 2.0 - 2.2 - Sept. - Nov. 1990

Revival! Of the Uluru Games (1.5) - Jan 1991

The story can only get even more convoluted from here. As of the moment, I've been sort of working on a larger timeline to piece the entire story together, especially since we've yet to finish it before the story ends. New stories and information continuously flows in the meantime.

[stari-hun]

More No Storm but Vertin has a Time Traveling Arcanum Content

Inaccurately Named Modern AU

* Apeiron

I think with like knowledge and math becoming more accessible sooo many people in Apeiron would go to the outside world to share their knowledge because 77 (37s mom) showed that even the people most faithful to their school of thought are interested in calculation machines. Give them Mathway.com and people would lose their minds.

6 would be a professional gamer. In fact he’d take so well to modern society that he’d be one of those people thriving in the 2020 lockdown and being away from Apeiron. Afterwards he’d also recover fast and put daily walks into his schedule or something cause he knows how badly his physical would’ve gotten. 6 would have an Instagram that’s the weirdest thing ever. People use it as inspiration for arg characters because he unintentionally posts with the vibe of someone extremely inhuman, and even though with the internet most humans would be aware of nonhuman arcanist they’d still be like what… There’s several video essays breaking down theories on who or what he might be. On the other side his posts are all pictures of objects he sees on daily walks that he sees have interesting dimensions to them or placement in a scene. The issue is that he doesn’t give any preamble or context to his math like 210 who wants to share math with the world would, or 37 who genuinely wants to teach, he just drops it in the caption and closes the app. He’d also have a YouTube explaining how he wins matches with others and insane speedrun content and how he beats games in under three minutes in extremely stupid calculations and exploits. His uploads are once in a blue moon but he’s a really popular faceless YouTuber (unlike 37 he reads comments and thinks about the questions he gets a lot, and even answers them in other videos). Also his like daily wanderings until he wants to go back home and risk interaction with others.

37 would get ahold of the internet like fish to water. She’d be an early YouTuber on 6’s recommendation and get super popular without realizing it. Her upload schedule is a “think of something start recording it and post with little to no editing” kinda style that for her ends up being 6-12 videos per week. 37 probably wouldn’t even realize there’s a comment section but Sophia knows it. Sometimes she’ll relay the comments to her from fans if they’re questions or constructive, but she mostly keeps them for herself because she’s happy 37 is branching out even if she isn’t entirely meaning too. I think 37’s content is a personality type. She’s giving constructive lessons that are informative but her personality and voice made her gain an audience mostly there to listen to her as background noise while she does homework. She does have a very loyal core audience of economists and radiologists since the topic she circles back around to the most is patterns in the weather and how they can be applied to daily life. Her most viewed video would be a super complicated explanation on how to predict when the next storm will happen in your area, and the top comment is a link to a website where someone made it into a calculator (it works with like a 5% chance of error). Also fun fact Vertin tried to use it once and the website was down for a week after she tried it. Sophia would have more kids centered content. Her follower base would mostly be parents who sit their kids in front of an iPad during work, but heavily monitoring their internet use and want them to watch content that’s good for them. She’d be faceless but unintentionally blow up super hard for story reading content, and her process for making up original stories. Afterwards she’d take a huge social media break entirely, only helping 37 with hers before slowly going back to her usual audiobook content with locked comments.

On that note, it’s slightlyyyy canon based, but I also think 210 would become good friends with Sweetheart after the island opened up and he reached out to her through Pandora to be their liaison. They’d do a ton of promotions and fashion statements. 210 already has an established interest in beauty, arts, and how they tie to math, and Sweetheart as a person who’s mathematically perfect would be his best excuse to study arts. Then Sweetheart would enjoy the company of any asexual, especially if they’re good for her image, and 210 is genuinely there to vibe and enjoy the beauty of the world. I also feel like he’d have one of those instagrams where he’s super popular for his looks but vast majority of his posts are sky pics and pictures of flora he sees.

I think in the story Sweetheart and Pandora are already on pretty good terms but I think in a Modern!Twist AU Pandora would be even more active in her writing. I think she’d have a small but famous journalism company where she employs only those she deems have a fresh perspective in a way she can’t supply. I talk about it in my other post, but Marcus interns there after getting an associates degree journalism during her dual enrollment and finishing Highschool. 210 and her run top series in UTTU for numbers and art analysis in a way people hadn’t thought of before, and Marcus runs a deep dive on historical spaces and the hidden stories within them.

UTTU would sometimes have interview segments where guest slots of an employee’s choosing (approved of by Pandora) will get a special feature. Windsong is the most reoccurring interviewee alongside Vila for research papers in ley lines and ecosystem observations respectively. Both are very popular features every time due to how they provide perspective on Marcus’ and 210’s segments.

[schneiderenjoyer]

The Wheel & The Rock

Time for another theory crafting and discussion on the world of reverse 1999! This time, I want to tackle something that's brewing up more and more as the story goes on.

That's The Wheel's connection to the Storm and possibly one of many catalysts to figuring out how it works.

There'll be discussions about what Chapter 5 has revealed to us, so keep that in mind. This topic is extremely long, so please take your time to read!

Let's start with The Wheel itself and what we know so far and what new information Chapter 5 brought to the table.

The Wheel is something located within the suitcase, specifically in the only place that never seems to change its form no matter how much the Wilderness shifts its appearance; The Lake.

We aren't given too much of a description about this lake, but we can assume it's exactly the body of water this wheel is submerged in, surrounded by fog. And it seems that this "Storm" lake holds none of the properties left to "sift" out anyone. Unless it's being counter balanced by the fog surrounding it.

A fog that apparently has a hallucinogenic ability like that of Apeiron's inner cave of secrets.

While Vertin is immune to the fog in her suitcase.

She's not to the fog of Apeiron and required a means to snap out of it.

Which brings up the conclusion that Vertin ends up thinking about, but with something missing about it.

Someone already owns the cave, therefore controls that rock. And it bends to their will only while others are repelled through means of illusions and inevitably,

Fall into a trap.

This could explain how Vertin is immune to the wheel's fog. Because she's the owner of the suitcase, thus the owner of the wheel and the fog surrounding it. And how the wheel even exists could also be solve by entertaining a certain idea.

The space in the suitcase is Vertin's arcane skill.

We're often told that Vertin's not the best at arcanum, but she's still able to use it. Meaning, at some point in her time as the Timekeeper, she's able to unlock her arcane skill. And to have her ability to be purely a support spell that creates a safe space than a combative attack fits her perfectly. If you consider it this way, everything inside that space reflects her personality and being. It can explain how they can expand the space for more rooms for her team, how the wilderness bends and shifts differently to her will. It's acknowledge in a Wilderness dialogue with Door:

If many things within the suitcase is reflected by who Vertin is, then it's possible that it has also reflected her ability to be immune to the Storm. That it represents as a reflection of her soul. Amidst all the surroundings at constant change, at her core, the wheel, is a never changing monument resistant to the Storm.

So that means another question has popped up. Who made the rock? It could be assumed that its place of origin is through the existence by someone or something. After all, just like the Manus masks, it's possible to create an item that can repel the effects of the Storm.

Which leads me to pitch this idea:

It's made by someone in Apeiron thousands of years ago. I don't see it a possibility of the rock being a new thing to the people of the island, it's far too ancient to be recent. But this "model" 37's mother has made could possibly not just mean their theorem on calculating the Storm, but also the ability of this rock to show the island's people its "truth".

Why do I consider that?

Because Vertin's wheel has its own ability aside from creating that fog that repels the Storm:

Its ability to summon arcanists.

I'll talk about it in a different post since this is getting way too long. Look forward to me going crazy conspiracy theorist on unilogs and its implications!

[mediocremckie]

Original Sonic.exe Retake. 1991 / Apeiron X

[authorchia]

𖡼.𖤣𖥧 𝒯𝒽𝑒 𝒻𝒾𝓇𝓈𝓉 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒻𝓊𝓃𝒹𝒶𝓂𝑒𝓃𝓉𝒶𝓁 𝐿𝒶𝓌 𝑜𝒻 𝒩𝒶𝓉𝓊𝓇𝑒. 𝒲𝒽𝒾𝒸𝒽 𝒾𝓈, 𝓉𝑜 𝓈𝑒𝑒𝓀 𝓅𝑒𝒶𝒸𝑒 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒻𝑜𝓁𝓁𝑜𝓌 𝒾𝓉. ⋆.ೃ࿔*:･

Thomas Hobbes

I SWEAR I WILL MAKE ART OF ALL MY SHIPS I JUST NEED TIME-

Soooo.... DruSix! Another rarepair I cooked because they actually almost makes sense. I promise you it'll make you interested too ;3

Applause to @acesw to help me cook too, I appreciate it XD OH! If you don't want spoilers of 1.4 CN version, you can see this post after the GB version released!

💛 Ship name origin Yall would be confused why this ship is called Imperfects. They're pretty, dressed well, and all that. But my reasoning is this:

Druvis is the daughter of the Weyerhousers, basically a family of aristocrats. But she was meant to belong in the forest of her ancient bloodline inheritence. She also defies the standards for nobles and prefers staying in the wild, while she still acts politely and with grace. Not to mention the fireman incident, she was accused of the cause of the fire because she was there... But now with Vertin, she has released her true self.

6 is the Apeiron leader and is said the number stands for perfection and harmony. But his CN trailer is called "The Imperfect One" and he clearly said that he's not a perfect leader (image above). He also grew suspicious of some things. But even then, he still needs to fulfill his duties as 6.

One is free but one is bound with duties, yet they have so much in common. Coincidentally, there's philosophies about nature too~

💛 Their dynamics It's giving kuudere x kuudere ngl HAHA-

It's also because the way they speak, very calm and soothing to hear. They also talks in a very fancy way.

Their Ultimate voicelines have some sort of similarities too: Druvis III: I weave the gown in thorns. You shall repay with sacrifice of wounds. 6: The scale of your soul has tilted. The balance needs to be restored.

I like to think both of them would go to either the beach or the forest, being alone together while listening to nature.

also from the one and only:

💛 Last words

Damn me and my mutual COOKED HARD for this man. If you're done reading this, have an apple for compensation~ 🍎

[caeliangel]

IMAGE ID. 3 rectangular flags with 5 stripes that are, in order: light pastel yellow, neon green, turquoise, purple, light pastel pink. END OF ID

୨୧ • apeirongender / apeironic flag recolor

︵︵︵︵︵︵★ ꒱ explanations :

୨୧ • an alternative / recolor of the apeironic flag.

︵︵︵︵︵︵★ ꒱ meanings :

୨୧ • no individual meanings but here's the link for the wiki page / og flag!

PT. apeirongender slash apeironic flag recolor. explanations. an alternative slash recolor of the apeironic flag. no individual meanings but here's the link for the wiki page slash og flag [see original text] END OF PT.

[selcouthian]

Darshana continues fighting in today's new comic update!

Read the newest page by clicking here!

You can read all of Apeiron and my other short story work through these links:

Chapter 00

Chapter 01

Chapter 02

Chapter 03

Chapter 04

Chapter 05

Chapter 06

Chapter 07

Chapter 08

Chapter 09

Special Chapter: Tale of Timotep

Selcouthian

You can get the latest updates on Apeiron and my other work here:

Instagram

Bluesky

[teleiaexi]

τέλεια έξι

τέλεια έξι — meaning, “perfect six.” he is the sum of his proper positive divisors and the leader of the School of Apeiron.

unaffiliated 6 (Atticus) of Reverse: 1999. low-activity, single muse, semi-selective. canon-based para.

mobile links: mun + rules / doss

Thinking, the origin of all. (The name of the mun is Avci; rules and details of the muse are linked above and in the desktop theme.)

Opinion, the revelation. (Though I am chiefly interested in interacting with other characters canon to Reverse: 1999, OCs and characters of other sources are welcome to interact.)

Wisdom, to become whole. (I would prefer to plot in most instances—especially when interacting beyond canon R1999—but little to none can be acceptable with strong enough basis. I will need discussion if I do not know your source material however.)

patience, friends. there is a life beyond the veil.

(only the wise one can escape the cave and return to rescue the rest of us.)

[cruxin-art]

Bench art of Apeiron, including my first time messing with screenshot UI editing and stuff. Currently used as my banner in most places. Do wanna redraw this some time, there's some issues... Still. Happy with it.

Originally posted 2 Nov 2022

[notasfilosoficas]

“Las cosas se originan por la separación de los contrarios”

Anaximandro

Fue un filósofo y geógrafo griego, nacido en Mileto, (actual provincia de Aydin en Turquía) en el año 610 a.C. 

Fue discípulo y continuador de Tales, el filósofo y matemático y de Anaximenes.

Se le atribuye sólo un libro conocido con el título de “Sobre la Naturaleza”, y según menciona el filósofo Temistio, fue uno de los primeros griegos conocidos en publicar una obra escrita sobre la naturaleza y aunque dicha obra se ha perdido, su palabra a llegado a la actualidad mediante comentarios de otros autores como Aristóteles, Teofastro y a varios otros doxógrafos que sus fragmentos han sido conservados.

Anaximandro fue considerado como el primer pensador en adoptar una visión naturalista de las cosas. Fue el primero en llamar “Mundo” al universo y sus contribuciones abrieron el camino a la física, la geografía, la metereología o la biología tal como la conocemos.

Anaximandro buscó encontrar una explicación al problema del cambio, y para él, el primer principio que da razón de la estabilidad de la realidad no es el agua, sino el “ apeirón” o “ lo indefinido”, y esto lo convierte para algunos el primer metafísico.

De acuerdo con la interpretación de Teofastro y Aristoteles, los primeros filósofos intentaron descubrir el principio u origen de todas las cosas (arché), y es probable que Anaximandro haya sido el primero en utilizar el término arché para referirse a ese principio.

Según algunas fuentes, Anaximandro identificó este primer principio como “indefinido”, “ilimitado” o “apeiron “ en griego, es decir aquello que no tiene límites, aunque es difícil precisar inclusive por sus contemporáneos exactamente a qué se refería, y en tiempos recientes, los expertos han discutido si el apeirón de Anaximandro ha de ser considerado como algo que carece de límites espaciales, temporales o cualitativos.

Aunque  Anaximandro atribuye al apeirón las prerrogativas de los dioses homéricos, cuestión que podría llegar de la continuidad del pensamiento de Aristóteles, al parecer añade una nota original, en el sentido de que el apeirón es un principio ilimitado, y como tal ingenerable, es decir, el apeirón no solo es inmortal, indestructible e imperecedero, sino que tampoco ha sido engendrado por nadie, pues argumenta que “aquello que no tiene fin, no puede tampoco tener un principio”

Anaximandro debate la teoría de Tales de que el agua es el origen de todas las cosas con un argumento lógico, ya que si el agua es el origen de todo, como es posible que este elemento no se haya impuesto a los demás elementos?. Pues si alguno de ellos fuera infinito los demás quedarían ya destruidos. Por tanto, argumenta Anaximandro, el primer principio debe ser algo aparte, anterior y origen de los elementos. Es algo ni caliente ni húmedo ni frío, sino indeterminado, algo intermedio entre el agua y el aire, o el aire y el fuego, más denso que el agua y el fuego y más sutil que estos. Una mezcla de todos los elementos.

Fuentes Wikipedia y philosophica.info

[finalgirlfall]

reposting the text of an ask answered by elucipher in 2014 for archival purposes

archive link to the original post, which included a read-more break

maynads asked: Your posts on Helen are absolutely amazing and so informative!! On that note - could you share your views on Cassandra of Troy?

elucipher answered:

Apollo, Apollo! Leader of journeys, my destroyer!

All this way you have led me, to destroy me again?

— Cassandra, Agamemnon.

i. This story is not kind.

ix. The queen Clytemnestra stands before the doors of Argos' tall royal slaughterhouse. Her hands stink red.

Cassandra stumbles forward, to that woman who is false honey and full-nerved hate, and an image of her death rears up before her: smile of axe-edge, crack and blood-bloom. There is no swerving from it—the sight unstoppers her throat and she retches gouts of prophecy, and knows she is not heard.

The killing queen calls her in. To the east the sky is on fire, and fate is the silver tremor of her heart.

ii. In her seventh year, the king and queen take their godstruck daughter to the sanctuary of Thymbraean Apollo. At dawn she is found sleeping in the coils of snakes, her ears licked clean to hear the voice of the god.

iii. No woman was ever so young a priestess. She kneels at prayer in his temple, O Apollo Apollo, and the god climbs down from the sky. He is glory; he draws her face up with hot hands.

He says, I will give you fate's far-seeing eyes.

Yes, she says, rising. Yes.

She is sun-struck, brimming with radical light that pours down her backbone and through all the deep of her. But when the bright god presses his body to her and his fingers scorch at the hollow of her throat, she drives him back. Then darkly he draws himself up, prideful and savage, and he spits in her mouth.

Treacherous woman. A hissing like wildfire. Yours will be a lunatic tongue.

Cassandra runs, across the plain that will swell with nameless graves. For a moment she sees flames as tall as sails, feeding on the walls of Troy.

iv. She dreams of white ships on the horizon’s knife. A girl gowned for a wedding is hoisted up for slaughter. Soldiers clash in octaves of havoc. Sun-sucked streets run black with gore.

She tells of this ruin but no one heeds her. She rages--why are you not afraid—and begs her family to listen, but they hear only shriller delirium. She shouts in the streets and the people whisper fool, fanatic; they call her mad and devil-stolen.

When she will not be consoled she is shut in a house like a tomb. Apollo has made her a monster, an exile of the grey place that is called to apeiron--the unbounded, the place of wolves.

v. Her brother Paris comes to her bedchamber where she weaves. Bound for Achaea, he is fair and strong in light-licked armour, and calamity lies like a shadow on his shoulders. He stoops to kiss her brow. There is a knife hidden in her sleeve, but she cannot bear to cut that fateful horizon into his throat.

His ship sets sail. Cassandra dreams of a horse with a bellyful of iron maggots, and her brother’s eyes when he is dead.

From her window she hears the covenants of duskbirds, the golden city in soft repose. It all burns.

vi. She warned until her voice gave way. She took axe and torch and set upon the great horse, to kill what lurked there. The king’s men prisoned her in the dark with Apollo’s laughter and the city was slaughtered as it slept.

In the years of siege she saw augury's shadows come again as sound and flesh: Andromache, dull-staring, dragged away by her hair; Hector, faceless, his funeral shroud dust and clotted blood; Paris, so fair, with an arrow through his throat; her father, slumped over a shattered altar; her mother, a slave for Odysseus; her youngest sister, bled like an animal on the grave of Achilles.

Now she goes foot by foot through the streets of ash and fume and sword-shriek, treading over carcasses.

The conquerors find her, and she will not be silent. A foreign soldier, death-drunk, sprawls her on the floor of Athena's temple and lurches over her, and she roars out his fate—for this, the goddess will swell a storm and crack his ship and his bones on the rocks of Euboea.

Her body is hefted away by soldiers. At the brink of her hearing—thunder.

vii.

Agamemnon, king, keeps her chained in his tent as he gloats over the spoils of felled and gutted Troy. He calls for prophecy and laughs at her raving.

She sees pyres of bodies unseamed by swords, Dardanian captives crying in and out of speech. The sky is deaf to prayers—it sends only carrion birds, who bear no missives and squabble among the butchered. She is a witness, hollowed but for her rage.

The king lies beside her in glutted beast-sleep and she whispers his death: the queen with red hands, the lioness crouched in long shadows.

vii. The king's longships set sail. She leans over the edge, with her loosed hair and her mouth salt-limned, and watches the billowing and glister of waves, the shadows beneath mosaic light.

Her belly is swollen. She knows them, her sons: crooked laugh; steady and devoted hands. She gives birth to them on the deck, the sun sweltering on her body. With every agony she curses Apollo.

Later, under mute stars, her children lie stirring in the vigil of her arms and she sings to them of a city no longer alive. They do not hear madness, only the soft and breaking swell of her voice.

When the ship lands on Argos, the children are torn from her. She thought herself iron-proofed against pain, but the sounds from her throat are not human.

Agamemnon hails his queen, and in her smile there is the shadow of her smile, the bladed gleam Cassandra dreamt. In her hands there is death.

x. Cassandra wakes in the dim place at the rim of the earth. Around her thronging dead glimmer up, their mouths ajar. They are gentle.

Apollo trespasses there, too bright to bear. He kneels before her. He is violent glory and his eyes shine, void.

I loved you ever, he says.

She is yet his prophet: in an awful voice she tells him of the mortals he will love till they are burned inside-out, and his deathless grief. Shaken, he leads her out of that dark.

The sun, slanted in hazy carnival, laps at the hem of her dress. Her god offers her the sky but she does not heed him—she has already turned away.

He lets her go, a wolf beyond light’s coveting hands.

Cassandra walks in the ungolden ruins of Troy, and sings of the world to come.