[AW] . & our paper houses reach the stars

[Raum]

 

The flame is sinking into mud and he watches her go.
 
From his perch atop the rugged bank, the Crow drinks in her melancholy with a vague interest. There was a reason he had followed her here, however… This girl reminded him of Rhoswen. They were both carved from the sun and its fire is a glint that sparked in both their eyes.
 
The water shatters at her feet, broken by her displeasure. Raum wonders if her heart is as fierce as Rhoswen’s too... Her wings reach up, feathers like fingers of flame, stretching to pluck the stars from the sky. He wonders if Moira might melt the world with wings like that. It is wonder the lake does not hiss at her touch and turn to steam beneath that phoenix skin of hers.
 
This strange girl is white-hot fire, but Raum is the silver across the water; a piece of Lithium set to burn the lake like gasoline. The Crow moves, but he is not shadow, rather he is moonlit mercury, pouring across a mirror. The blue of his gaze is a drop of water upon her scolding wings and he wonders if they might turn to steam with just a look. Her wings laugh through their flames, he fancies, and he hears their call to look.
 
He turns his gaze from her.
 
In silence, in the blistering heat of a sun that knows no rest, Raum steps down into the water. It is cool as it hides his limbs beneath the surface, it is wild as it dances beneath the sky, mirroring a world more alive and distorted than the one he resides within.
 
That drowning gaze, returns to her and then never does it slip from the fire of her as he wades closer. The water chatters happily at his limbs; Moira is fortunate – does she know? It is uncommon to hear this Crow approach, the death he brings does not even whisper. It knows only the beauty of silence.
 
“Dislike what you see?” Raum asks her quietly, as the waters still tremble from her strike. What twisted truth had the lake told this time? The assassin is curious to know as he steps up beside the fire-girl, his eyes turning to ash beneath her flames.

@Moira - here have a Raum!