like icarus loved the sun
He had expected a summoning.
He had not expected it to arrive in the form of a Crow — in humour? or a threat?
Reichenbach studied the bird, finding himself pleased by the slick of it's midnight feathers and the intelligence of it's sharp eyes. He knew that it brought a reckoning he had been avoiding, that it's feathers were dusted with fate and that to follow it would mean he would finally have to face Florentine without any excuses. There was... a lot she would be expecting answers for.
He hadn't looked any deeper for answers since their last meeting — looking deeper wasn't something The Night King dared do. Yet he left the castle with the faintest kiss to his lovers satin cheek, taking the scent of woodsmoke and jasmine from the room as he made his way toward the glowing horizon.
The air smelled different as he approached, barely a shadow in the night — it smelled dry. He soon saw why... for there was his flower girl, cast in burning light so that nary a shadow touched her skin. Sunlight embraced her golden skin, the rage hidden so poorly in her rigid limbs and vibrant eyes.
This was not the girl he'd been enraptured by all those night ago, that girl was... there, yes, but she remained only in the subtleties of Florentines lips, her flyaway hair.. the petals still falling. The woman before him was no flower girl — she was a God.
It was an ugly truth for him to bear, that he had barely known her... or perhaps had only known one side of her. Watching her so unleashed pleased him somehow, as if he was discovering her all anew. He felt as if he were witnessing an intimate rebirth, as if Florentine had fallen to ash and was only now recovering her flame.
He barely knew how to react to the woman before him, so certain was he of the anger and pain she would bring forth. Better to feel nothing, if such a thing were possible. Better to let her hate him.
Reichenbach stepped partly into the light, though shadows still clung to his dark skin, sharpening the brightness of his moonbright eyes. He leaned casually against a tree, peering up at Florentine with an arrogant half smile. Gesturing lazily at the slits revealing sunfire and solar storms, he asked wryly;
"Is all this for me?"
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