



Of course she will choose you. The fort is going to fall. Tomorrow. Next week. Someday. And I do not believe for a moment that you are stupid enough to let yourself be buried beneath it when it does. It will pain her to leave me behind… What we have shared these past few months, it will be very hard. But you… without you, there is no her. I am here in part to secure my own future. I will not apologize for that. But that is not why I’m asking you to cooperate with me. I am asking because though I know we have our differences, I know there is one thing we share. We both love her. Let us make sure her future at least is secure.
I said no to Marion Guthrie’s plan… despite having no alternative and at the risk of losing the entire endeavor because I refuse to situate a man in a position where he might interfere one day with my ability to repair things with you.
I do not know which is worse: that [Anne] perish fighting for Jack, or that she survive without him. If it is even truly surviving, losing half of herself this way.
There may be ways of severing oneself in that way, sacrificing one part to save the other. But in that moment, I honestly couldn’t find something sharp enough to make the cut.
I truly am sorry. For all of it.
My piece for the gorgeous @blacksailszine which you can find here https://blacksailszine.itch.io/ ! Loved working on this and very grateful to the kind, professional mods and all of my incredibly inspiring co-contributors!!!