Phoenix Dream- Parley

I meet my friend once more, the location familiar but foreign all at once. At the space between sleeping and awake, between calm and stirring, we meet.

"Hey, sorry this took so long, my mind has been a bit of a stunned mess as of late."

She smiles at the ground "No worries, it didn't seem so long to me."

"So, I have been doing a parley thing, and I know it is meant as a kind of challenge/game between friends, but something about that just doesn't sit right here. I feel like you could stomp me and I just don't have the heart for it anyway."

"It's okay, still we are in it, so would you like me to start?"

"Yeah, go ahead and start."

"Even though I am far away and it feels that I don't listen, know the lights are strung up bright to glisten. This road has been long, you know it better than most, but don't think they haven't struggled too without understanding why. Each edge of the sword cuts when it comes to knowledge, belief is as hard from the left or the right, by day or by night. You are on the right path. You are not alone. You have everything you need to finish this, you just have to proceed. You deserve happiness, and you will get what you deserve pass or fail, it is simply the form that takes shape now as you end this tale. I dream of you and paint what I see, this painting's of you, but this painting's for me. No one knows the day, no one knows the hour, so take heart that these things are set, and keep shining for your love despite the driving dark wet."

"Driving dark wet?" I say softly, poorly forcing back a giggle.

"I mean a storm, whatever, it's your turn!"

"My mind swirls deep and the things I could do, how does instinct of something so foreign break through? It is like an instinct learned, and I know this can be, for I feel invigorated when you are with me. To some degree, such talents are not free. For love has its costs, have I paid them in full? Do not worship, but love knows no such rule. Love your enemy, I have seen what this means. If that was once you, how was it meant to proceed? For love blossoms in its time, and it blooms irrevocably, but how can one in good faith make one they love then the enemy? So perhaps I have struck poorly here, as I don my petaled armor, but I speak of love's majesty and dismiss concern for honor. I just hope the fight still excites and you choose not to go, when my heart's not in battle but surrender's shoots've yet show."

"Shoots've yet show!? I hate that I know what you mean there. Shoots've is the worst contraction yet!"

"Psh. Gotta make it fit somehow."

"Alright, well for one so untrained and so thusly aimed you still play a good game, so I ask you your name."

I pause and consider for a moment. While she cannot read my thoughts here, she can read the representation of them I have chosen to share. I consider that the move here that seems required has been telegraphed to me, but still it seems so unlike me to do. Her look conveys a kind stoicism, any emotion now would likely make me overthink more than I already am. I remember my roots and the armor I wear, how it fits like a glove, and the bond that we share. I consider if this is a mistake it can be corrected, and if not by normal means then I will correct it anyway. But still I wonder if it had been detected, these lines I both did and did not parley... 🤔

With a sigh I don my character, with a grin I set the stage, with a smile I just relax and speak. "I'll tell you my name, I have nothing to fear here, but it is not one you say. For one as myself had no name to be spoken, not as such anyway, it is more of a display."

With that I start dancing in a ridiculous fashion. First just in front of her, and then circling around her just to be an obnoxious dork. Somewhere midway through I sense a crack in her demeanor and then she crosses her arms as I continue, having either regained or maintained her disapproving scowl when I circle back around. I finish up with a pantomimed mic drop as I walk away.