A good read was always something enjoyable, and as old as he was, as much as he had seen come and go, there was always something to learn when it came to new lands and places, though... the Dusk Court was hardly considered new to him. He'd been here a little while, though the books gave him information that he had not been able to see, having been in other lands.
The sage was seated in the library, his nose in a book, mulling over the words and slowly turning the pages every so often, and he blinked a few times as he heard hooves. Ears twitching, the cosmic entity lifted his head, horns glimmering and seeming to shift with colors in the light of the many candles around him. "Oh, Florentine," came his rumble of a voice. Immediately, Relic was smiling, moving to set the book aside, sitting up and carefully mulling about for his tea.
"Care to join me?" He asked. It was late, so he hadn't a clue why the Sovereign was in the library at such an hour, but he more than welcomed her of course, curious. He wouldn't poke or prod in to why she was there, simply bask in her company. "I know it's not the best sort of set up, but I thought it was nice for light reading."
As he spoke, he poured out tea, carefully setting the cups down with the honed telekinetic ability. A smile flickered over his lips, and the sharpened teeth poked through just a little before his lips were covering them once more.
always one decision away from a totally different life
-- ♕ --
Sleep was far from her this night. It lingered upon the rough spun and frayed edges of her. Though drowsy, though her eyelids were made heavy with the weight of sleep, still it did not claim her.
In darkness she lay, counting seconds away, counting the beat of her heart and how it rose and fell as her thoughts wandered over recent events. The quiet was loud with loneliness. It filled her up with a cacophony of unease.
It is of no surprise then, when Florentine surges from her room, her limbs already thrumming with restless electricity. The air is the low hum of a bee’s wings, it drones in her blood and presses stings along her skin.
She shivers against the cold, her golden skin quivering. The library might have passed by in a blur, were it not for a golden light that poured across the stone and before her feet.
Ah gentle light, warm and welcoming. In its glow Florentine stops and her eyes trail to where flames dance beyond the doorway. Each candle lights a stack of books and the night is filled with the scent of beeswax and parchment.
A stranger sits, lit by firelight, eyes reading the words revealed by each flickering flame. He is a pool of ink, surrounded by glimmering gold light and then shadows beyond that. There is a halo about him and the girl cannot decide if it is one he deserves. She is not sure anyone deserves a crown or halo in Novus anymore.
In silence she enters, and only the whisper of her feet upon the flagstone tiles might rouse the devout reader from his study.
Oh, Florentine. The inky stranger knew her. Her eyes trail over the cosmic magic of his scales, his horn. A kirin. Alas, her every encounter with one had not been well. Her memories are enough to want to cast her from the room, but instead she is turning from his scales, drinking in the gaze of his eyes and settling to rest before him.
A small smile tips her lips, but not even the fae-girl can smooth the tension from her golden lips. “I think you have chosen your space well. It is a comfortable time for solitary reading.” Oh but how she yearns to be asleep, not filled with thoughts of gods and antlers and the passages of Time.
“Forgive me that I do not know you. Being queen is a curse when all know my name, but I know too few in return. I wish to correct that as often as I may.”
Tilting his head, keeping his bad eye away from her sight. It was marked with a jagged scar, white and gray against his black fur. Still, Relic only smiled softly, his good eye trained on the Sovereign, not really surprised to see that she was a little shocked that he knew her name. "Thank you very much. I was hoping it would be somewhat comfortable for my long hours." The corners of his eyes crinkled up as he smiled, letting out a chuckle. Despite the tension from the gilded mare, he was at ease.
Millennia upon millennia left its mark on the ancient cosmic being, even if he was mortal now. He knew the value of being relaxed even in the most tense of times.
"It's quite alright, I've only just come in to your ranks, so it's no surprise that I'm not known." The kirin shuffled himself a little, stretching his legs and lifting them before placing them down, his tail curling around his back legs. The tuft of white hair was a plume, resting against dark legs and shimmering scales. "My name is Relic. It's a pleasure to finally meet you in person, rather than hear about you."
He swept his horned head down in a delicate bow, not too deep, before lifting up again as he smiled to her softly.
always one decision away from a totally different life
-- ♕ --
She does not recognize the way he hides his eye in shadows. She does not know to see the way shame slithers like a ghost in his veins. The dark hides all and it crawls over his skin, dancing with the candlelight that flickers upon the walls.
The smell of books is so far from the forests she chose to run in. They are a far far dream from the sea she chooses to soar across. Her chin lifts and bobs watching the soft of the cushions and the way her bones feel liquid in her skin. Her muscles turn pliable and warm, oh sleep hangs upon the fringes of her. It makes her mind hazy in this half-way light. Gold is upon the walls and it is upon her skin. It’s dust gilds her lashes as their shadows fan across her cheek.
Lazy eyes blink slowly, slowly, but sleep will not come to her for her heart is fit and too, too awake. With a sigh she descends to the cushions before him and for a moment takes peace in the presence of a stranger.
In the silence between his words, her gaze trails over the glittering scales of obsidian. Florentine had known only two kirins before and their relationships had never ended well. As she regards this new boy of star-strewn black, she wonders how this third relationship might end. In blood? In tears? Or never at all.
Florentine thinks she prefers the latter.
“Hmmm.” The girl hums with an elven voice that reaches into the dark slumbering silence of the library. “Always a dangerous thing meeting someone after only ever hearing about them. They rarely ever quite reflect the true article…” Her satin lips tip into a small, sleepy smirk. “I just hope the tales of my adventures are true.”
The cushions beneath the ancient were comfortable, and he found his legs curling a little more atop them, his tail covering a good chunk of his body just by resting on his hind legs and flank. As she joined him, he reached with his ability, gently offering up a cup of tea, smelling vaguely of peppermint. It was a good thing to sip on late at night, soothing to the mind and soul, he had found. So he smiled at the woman in gold, content in her presence, and honored she would join him.
A laugh bubbled up from his chest, a deep timbre that worked its way up and out, before softly spilling in to the air. "As a Sovereign, I didn't think it would be too dangerous to meet you. You are a woman of the people, aren't you?" he asked, with that ever lazy smile on his lips.
Calmly, Relic marked his page in the book, gently closing it and allowing it to rest on the table before him, the shadows cast from flickering candles dancing over craggy scales and horns, causing him to shimmer as the cosmos did. Space and gold, contained in one room. The two of them lit up the library with dancing glimmers that reflected on to the walls, colors mingling and weaving through one another.
"I have heard that you make pleasant company, m'lady Florentine. So far, the rumors hold true," Relic admitted pleasantly. It was always good to have the company of those that could make others warm just by being near them. He'd heard many things, but he would not judge based on word of mouth. He had lived too long to make mistakes like that. "I happen to have joined your sages... and I am curious as to the others? I haven't seen them around much, though I find the pull of books alluring recently. It's a need, to learn more of these lands."
always one decision away from a totally different life
-- ♕ --
He offers the tea, the scent of books and beeswax giving way to the scent of peppermint. The girl inclined forwards, carried upon the plume of steam that rolled up from the hot cup. She drank the scent her eyes closing for a moment as each tastebud relished the curious smell. Slowly her eyes opened and her head tilted. She gazed as the kirin from above the cup he still held out for her.
“I have never had peppermint tea before.” The girl muses softly, each word still adorned in sleep like cobwebs. Her smile is just as tired and lazy – hazy with dreams that linger upon the edges of their candlelight. “I have had lots of tea before, when I was… other.” And that is all Florentine will tell of her times in other worlds when her body was not equine but different.
Gracefully she takes the cup from him, bringing it to her gilded lips. “And what are the effects of this concoction you give me?” Then her smile turns more mischievous, her laughter a husky ripple in the air. “Should I be wary of your motives?” The girl asks, even as the liquid touches her lips. Ah, it would be too late for her now if her jesting fell short and the kirin did indeed mean to poison his sovereign.
Placing the cup before her, the flower queen watches the kirin and the infinite stars his skin reflects around them. Yes her skin is gold and bright, but of it is nothing compared to the glow of his. He paints universes with his body and she merely flowers and gold. “Well,” the young mare muses lightly, “I hope the perceive me as one of them.” But even as she says it, she thinks of the bows, the dawning respect and recognition that swept across her brethren when they realized who she was. A frown darkens the gold of her, it draws her delicate features into shadow.
Florentine is grateful then, when conversation rolls on. “Indeed we are short of sages, Relic. Each seem to be busy doing their own thing. Terrastella is known for its strength in healers and ours are incomparable – especially with the Ilati here too. If you wish to grow as a sage, then I know Somnus, Delumine’s sovereign, well and I am sure he would welcome you to join his sages for a season or two if you wish?”
The smile pulled on dark lips and Relic tilted his head just a little, his scarred eye coming in to focus from the shadows, the candlelight flickering off pale skin that was jagged and knotted, that would no longer grow those dark hairs. "I've found it to be oddly calming at night, something to soothe the mind if you worry too much, or think too much, like me." His voice was light and jovial, and he chuckled to himself a little at her mention. Other, was it? "I've sampled many teas myself over the millennia upon millennia that the world has offered. I've managed to find myself stuck here on peppermint."
Relic's voice softened as he spoke, the old look in his eyes like something of a memory more than anything, as if he was peering in to the past he could only see. It was a long time ago, he knew that much. "Hopefully, peace of mind and contentment like it seems to provide for me," came the admission, and he chuckled softly, his tail flicking and the plume of white settling over scaled legs lazily, stark in contrast to such dark hues. "If you worry about well intending motives, I might have to rethink my actions," he teased back, still chuckling to himself.
Florentine was a lovely creature already. Her presence was soothing and reminded him of the older days of peace and soft voices. It was something he hadn't experienced in a while.
Curiosity colored that scarred face of his, fangs showing in a warm smile before he nodded his horned head slowly. "I'm assuming if I were there to learn for a little while, I would still call myself Terrastellan, and come visit home often, yes?" He didn't think he would have to change his allegiance for the sake of learning.
@Florentine || ooooh he'd love it, more to learn for him!
07-06-2018, 10:03 PM
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Obsidian [PM] Posts: 380 — Threads: 45 Signos: 25
i'm a pretty flower girl
check out my pretty flower curls
The kirin moves, candlelight catching along the jagged scar. Such a dancing glow brings the scar alive with memories. Though Florentine’s eyes trail over the healed wound, they do not linger. This girl has seen enough of scars to linger long on yet another. Oh her knife, the one that hangs about her throat, leaves its scar upon worlds. The scars she wears are hidden, they no longer hurt, or even itch. As she sits and gazes upon Relic’s, Florentine wonders to whom that scar belongs. Who was responsible for the blemish upon his satin black skin.
From his scar her dark eyes fall and, beckoned by him, rest upon the tea before her. the cup is full of shadows and heat. The liquid seems mysterious and strange, but he implies it is calming, soothing. It is a sip she takes, only a moment after she glances pointedly at him, her dark eyes glittering. “I believe some sovereigns have tasters, just to check they will not be poisoned…” Ah she had trailed off there, the cup at the curving smile of her lips. “But my brother is not here, so I will have to take a chance on you.” With an impish shrug the fae-girl drinks her first.
Replacing the cup, her taste buds full of warm, warm mint. Her limbs are loose with sleep, for most of the night it has lingered upon the fringes of her. It had woven its lazy way through her bones and made her liquid like the shadows. Her skull nods lightly, even as sleep presses in, dark and lovely and heavy. “You would, Relic. But I am sure Somnus would see you as a guest of Delumine and treat you well. If you choose to go, I shall take you there and talk with Somnus myself.”
Her smile is lost of its impishness. All that remains is hazy and warm, the girl is poured gold upon the cushions and it is with effort that she stands at last. “I thank you for your company tonight, Relic. It seems your tea has worked and sleep is coming a little easier now.” Each blink is slow and heavy but the girl smiles through weighted lips. “I believe my bed is calling at last. I shall see you soon.” Her eyes trail around the darkened library. “Do not spend too long reading tonight.”
And with a final smile the queen is gone, leaving only petals sleeping upon her vacated cushion.
@Relic - i hope you dont mind me wrapping up here? I think it makes sense to move it on to another thread in Dawn where she can ask Somnus when Relic is ready <3
She was lovely to talk to, Relic was rapidly learning. He chuckled only, his stance settling a little more comfortably in to the pillows around him, taking up a position that left him warm and dozy. His tail twitched, bringing the sheet of white over his hind legs again, covering himself almost like a sort of blanket.
"So long as I remained part of Terrastella, I would enjoy learning of things in Delumine. They have an extensive library too, don't they?" He had heard rumors of it, and really, it seemed like the best thing to him. He would love to learn of their culture too, in an exchange. "I believe I would take that offer, Florentine."
Another laugh bubbled from his lips as she stood, smiling all the same as she excused herself. "I will attempt to not overdo it, if I can." He nodded his head in farewell, smiling and curling his tail a little more around himself. "Goodnight m'lady." His head turned back to his books as he sipped the tea, growing more comfortable.
