Eik takes a roundabout path, but eventually it leads him to the library. It gives him a chance to get to know the night court on a deeper level. He imagines the shape of the court, the materials and layout, all of these silent things have gently shaped the people who live and die within these walls. There are so many corridors he wants to walk down, so many untold stories that lie just around the next corner, always close but out of sight.
Solterra is built on secrets and Denocte on mysteries. The two are undeniably different, but also strangely similar. Eik does not quite feel at home, but he feels... something close to it.
As he walks, he learns about this place by looking and imagining, and when he is ready he slowly opens his mind and reaches out with his magic. Well, it is not really reaching out so much as staying still and waiting for thoughts to come to him. A merchant nervously counts and recounts the day's sales. A sad-eyed mare is thinking of Terrastella and what state it might be in. He looks into the images her imagination creates, great sinkholes swallowing home. The fields I learned to run in, gone. The kingdom I raised my children in, gone, the-- He withdraws as the imagery becomes hard to bear, blinking his eyes heavily. He is not sure if the tears on his cheek are his or the stranger's until a few moments later when he is fully untangled from her.
Not for the first time, his heart is heavy but his eyes are dry. He does not use his magic for a while after that.
All this to say he is tired-- mentally, physically, magically-- by the time he makes it to the library. And Moira Tonnerre is nowhere to be found. It is disappointing but not terribly surprising... after all, she could not always be here.
He inhales and can just barely smell her among the paper and candle wax. There are others, too (-- Isra?) and a happy-bird smell (crow friend?) and the ocean through the open windows. He turns his attention to the books, and pours himself into selecting one to read while he waits for Moira to return.
the biggest ache was mine
@
Time makes fools of us all
