Sparrow feathers against her skin
his voice, from the darkness, unafraid.
Calling to her, breaking her hearts within her chest.
"Just one more step!"
She couldn't see him.
Couldn't feel him.
Her eyes strained against the darkness, tears pouring from her eyes.
"Altair-!"
It came out as a sob.
"Kara!"
Her foot missed the blade.
Agony slashed across her leg.
She slipped.
Her daemon's screams rang through her head.
She couldn't do this anymore. Couldn't balance on the razor's edge.
"Altair!" She screamed his name.
She was going to fall. She could feel it.
Her balancing act had come to and end, and it was time to choose.
Death, or destruction?
"Kara!" A sparrow's shriek."Kara, this way!"
And then she wasn't alone. Infront of her, lit against the darkness as though from within, was a hound, balanced on the razor's edge as though it didn't exist.
Fur as grey as iron. Eyes as red as coals.
This way.
The hound leapt into the darkness.
"Kara! This way!" Her daemon was crying from the darkness her eyes couldn't pierce.
The edge wad digging deeper into her. Any longer and she would bleed out.
A blast of chilling wind tore past her and straight through to her bones, numbing her entire body and turning her hearts to ice.
For a moment, all she knew was fear. She's been fighting for so long. She couldn't give in now. She wouldn't.
But then the ice passed-
-and for the first time in her life, as the warmth of the darkness rushed over her, she understood.
"Kara!" Her daemon appeared suddenly from the darkness, and she threw out her arms to catch him. He pushed himself against her chest, over her heart, and she cupped her hands over him.
Together.
Neither of them spoke the word. But they both knew.
A howl rose from the darkness.
She laughed, even as she started to move. "Cerberus!" She shouted to the hound, "The scriptures! The myths! They're all true!"
She and her daemon were still laughing even as she stepped into the darkness, and off of the blade that was her existence.
They plummeted headfirst, and let the ice chill their hearts to stone.
They'd made their choice.
And nothing would ever be the same again.