in sunshine and in shadow
He keeps waiting for the ground to steady beneath him, for the new strange pieces of his life to fall together, seamless. Instead, it seems that he’s only finding his sea legs; nothing stills, nothing is easy, but he is better at navigating it. For now, it is enough.
Even if it weren’t, he would have Cyrene and Israfel and Florentine, and he is far more sure in their abilities than his own. It’s Cyrene he walks beside now, warm beneath the summer sun, to greet the denizens of Dusk. Her presence is a balm, and it is easy to echo her smiles, easy to reflect her happiness. Easy to pretend, for a moment, that all the blood and betrayal in Dusk and Day and Night is behind them.
Until they step through the gate, and into cool shadows thrown by tall walls, and Asterion turns to say something to his companion and sees a figure, large and dark, tracing a wing-tip along the stone. “Wait,” he says, though he is sure she is seeing her, too. And then his eyes adjust to the light, and the shape of the stranger becomes clearer, and the bay inhales sharply.
He darts Cyrene a look, and clear in its galaxy-darkness it says: not again. It says this is happening too much. And then he blows out his caught breath in a soft sigh, and steps toward the stranger.
Not too near – he does not want to frighten her, or to threaten her, though the idea of either is almost laughable, given how she towers over the both of them. He cannot remember ever seeing a horse so large, not even the gods of Ravos. Even from a few lengths away he catches the copper-tang of blood over the smell of the new summer grass, and that and the sight of her injured wing turns over something sick and ugly in his stomach. All he can see is Aislinn, bandaged and drugged, the silver of tears limning her eyes.
Again he looks toward Cyrene, hating his uncertainty. Finally he clears his throat to speak with an assuredness that nothing in him feels. “Miss? Can we help you?” And then, after a beat (and feeling foolish, for even with her injury and clear disorientation she looks more capable than he ever has,) ”You’re safe here.”
@Cyrene @Virun not as good as ralli's beginning would have been, but woooo
