His hair stands on end when the shadow of the falcon falls over him, gliding toward the court in a dead-straight line. He is too far from the capitol to have any chance to beat the bird, but he picks up his pace to a run that sends fistfuls of sand in the air with every bounding step. Nevermind the way his body aches from all the travel- there is something different about that bird. Something that makes his heart sink.
Of course, Eik arrives late to the gathering. Late and a poor sight: foaming with sweat and dirty from his travels. The mud and clay splattered across his legs and barrel have already dried under the Solterran sun to parched brown cakes. From the back of the crowd, over the pounding of his heartbeat in his ear and the rasp of his heaving breaths, he is just in time to catch the sovereign's words-
'it seems that Tempus requests our presence'
Amidst the noise of the crowd's angry, confused, emotional reaction, Eik enters a silent place within himself. He is worried. And for this world and all the ones in it he's come to care about, he is afraid... It is never a good thing when the gods choose to meddle in the affairs of mortals. His eyes seek Seraphina's, knowing she will find him in the writhing crowd, and when he has her gaze he nods before moving away from the claustrophobic mass. His questions will come later.
- - -
There is no better way to know us
E I K
than as two wolves, come separately to a wood
Time makes fools of us all
