The last time he had walked the winding hallways of Elatus Canyon, they had been painted in red and black. Now they were dusted with white, all the shadows turned to soft blue.
 
He was not the only one to leave the shelter of the buildings to watch the wonder of snow in the desert, but Acton wandered alone, orange as a flame amid the pale day. The snowfall was still mild enough that there was no bell ringing danger in the back of his head – if this was a sign of the gods’ coming, well, the buckskin thought it was kind of nice. It reminded him of winters as a colt, tucked safely in some Crow warren, warm drink in his belly and his makeshift family by his side.
 
What a weird fucking place to wax nostalgic.
 
The snow and the clouds swallowed up every sound but for his breathing, silver in the cold air, and the crunch of each footstep, and the wind moaning through the canyon walls. Every desert-beast that had a lick of sense had fled to their caves and their dens; not even a buzzard disturbed the snow with black wing-tips far overhead.
 
In the surrealness of the moment, it was easy – blessedly so – to forget everything about the question mark of his present. Without the desert sun on his skin, he might not be here at all; this was instead a dream landscape, snowflakes melting to nothing on the bright fire of his skin and his hair dark as a crow’s wing, stark against the white.
 
Acton let all his thoughts wing away from him, gave himself over to the cold and the silence. It didn’t matter whether it was miracle or curse; he was here, either way, and everything was out of his hands.
 
Until he saw another flame before him, whipping like a scarf in the blizzard-white breeze. It was a shade he knew well.
 
“Rhoswen?” he said, and if it seemed a sin to break such a silence, well, at least it was with her name. He closed the distance between them at a trot, each movement crisp against the pale – this was no world he could hide in. Only when he was close enough that the clouds their breath made could mingle did he think of Raum, his eyes blue enough to burn, and the way he spoke of Solterran girls.
 
It almost made Acton’s stomach twist with unease.
 
But this was enough like a dream that he could pretend it existed outside of anything, outside of everything, and so he only cocked his head at her like a boy and raised his brows. “The fuck are you doing out here? I thought this was the kind of thing you left Denocte for.”

JUST BECAUSE YOU CAUGHT ME
DOES THAT MAKE IT A SIN

@Rhoswen  <3