You -- you have this gift, Sheff. You write stories that I find myself thinking about for days after I read them, and being happy all over again because they happened. This is definitely going to be one of them.
I love how your Zargabaath thinks, how cautious he is and how prickly, and how well they both parry each other (directly into position) and the contrast in their levels of experience, and the ways that Zargabaath could envy Zecht and instead admires him -- and the ways that all the spaces they inhabit together are thus invested with meaning for him --
Thank you so much for taking this prompt. The metaphoric rather than literal interpretation came out just wonderfully. ♥