Author's note: After reading 'Failed to Fail' by ventisquear, I was inspired to write this. So it's dedicated to her, and to Zevran, and to that crazy kid, Airam.

Apologies to anyone who got notified about this before. I had such trouble with FFnet eating my formatting - bolding it all, throwing the stazas together and distorting the meaning - that I took it down. Thanks to bloodsong for her suggestion of using centred full stops as spacers.

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Triptych for Zevran

.

Among the night-winged murder

of crows

my wings were swiftest, my talons

most deadly.

.

I flew

always the black shape

that blotted out the stars. Beside

me, two others. We were carried together

for a time

on love's strange stormwinds.

.

Then, impossibly,

failure

betrayal

another's claws ripped my wings

.

and I tore hers.

.

I tumbled down the scatter-star sky

and I shall never fly again.

.

.

Birds seek to flock with those

who are of their kind. What else was there

for me, who had failed to fly, than to seek

failure

and oblivion's welcome wings?

An ending under the burning sun.

.

If the crow, night-winged carrion bird, calls

a challenge

to the lord of the skies,

he must expect to fail. The lion's claws

will tear him, his blood will stain

the eagle's beak

.

and the griffon will give him peace.

.

This is my hope.

.

.

Instead, his eyes

his kindness, his trust

like wind

beneath my wings.

.

I had forgotten.

.

I distrust his power

sometimes. He commands so easily – fledgling,

little griffon,

the stormwinds are too strong for such as you

.

and I am broken-winged.

.

Improbable child. I don't understand

the ice

born of so warm a heart

.

how, with a smile,

you remake my world.