The Empty

Sunburned golden eyes take in the Void for the first time

As it swallows him and lays him bare

He reaches with hands that aren't there

For a life he doesn't know he has lost

The Void has frozen the Firebird's heart

Ice crystallizes on his lashes

And in his helplessness, he screams

But the Void is silent

Frigid in its indifference

It only waits It only watches

Those who were taken before him lie frozen

On the side of the path he treads

They see him

Unseeing

With eyes frosted in their death and decay

The Magician avoids them

Lest they infect him

Lest they eat him until all that remains is glistening bone and his shattered sea glass heart

Rotted sinew stretches like Victorian lace across his aching ribs

A fishnet cage for what remains of his soul

The path ends before him, crumbles behind him

The Firebird is lost, alone

And the path falls away

Below, only darkness

And silently the Firebird falls