When Asterion speaks it does not sound foolish at all to Eik. (It is no wonder they like each other so much! Are they two fools or two wise men? Surely it doesn't matter anyway.) " I wonder the same, " and also, if the magic will leave with them. Anyone else might have considered this magic a gift, but for Eik it is a conflicting thing. It is not just a trick or a show or even a tool to be used objectively-- it is a door to the world that lies behind closed eyes. Learning to live with it has been an uncomfortable experience at best. It is an uncanny thing to eavesdrop on another's thoughts and feelings, to realize just how deep those rivers run, and then to realize there are rivers in you too, changing with the seasons as all wild things do. It was easier, to live life the way he did before his magic, and yet-- he would miss it terribly if it were taken away.
"They did say there would be change." There is something mournful in his voice, and it almost borders on bitterness. Surely death could have been avoided and damage mitigated, if the gods had thought to provide even the barest of specifics. "Do you think the worst of it is behind us?"
Even with the future ahead of them, unknown and quite possibly unfortunate, Eik feels at ease. It feels so natural, standing here next to the bay. He can't quite wrap his mind around it, the way everything is, objectively, different. The way everything is, definitely, exactly the same. Maybe it's just the sound of the ocean in the background now, blurring his first memory of Asterion with their present circumstance. And so, being who they are, magic enters the conversation the way weather does between strangers.
"Well, sometimes it's just like this," his mind-voice is everywhere and nowhere at once. It is a little intimate and a lot off to hear a sound with no source. Just a voice, a whisper in both ears. "Sometimes it is like this," Eik opens himself a little wider so Asterion is hit with wave after gentle wave of Eik's mind. First is pleasure of time spent with an old friend, then wonder at the beauty of this place (this wave an inexplicably lighter shade of blue, something like turquoise kissed by moonlight) then curiosity at who it is that wants to meet him. As each wave withdraws there is the tug of a deeper current - anxiety, fear, uncertainty - and it promises deeper waters, but we don't need to go swimming now. Eik withdraws carefully, to his magic's silent protest, before he gets carried away and starts to splash in Asterion's waters instead of his own. He doesn't like to spend too long in the mind of a friend, out of fear of his few positive relations becoming unbalanced but he picks up a few of Asterion's thoughts and to his surprise senses magic.
But now is time for new friends. Cirrus flies past in a manner that could take Eik's breath away, if he were a touch more dramatic by nature. Instead he just watches carefully and cheerfully, and when she lands on his back and they both look at him with different expressions... Well he wishes suddenly that he could paint as Moira Tonnerre does, and remember for the rest of his life the way they look right now.
"Hi." He says aloud quietly, and he realizes all too late that Asterion knows very well what his mind-magic is like. He knows how another being is a complex web of choice and circumstance with a shade of destiny-- and countless other things too wonderful and nuanced to put into words. Eik reaches out with utmost politeness and skims the top of Cirrus' mind. When he speaks it is a private thing between them. "You take good care of him, don't you?" This is not really a thing that needs be said, even in the silent way of speaking, but Eik thinks he ought to anyway
"Thank you. He's special." His gaze meets Asterion's with a pleased look, and then his attention rests on the sea for some time, where he imagines sensing it as Cirrus might. And then he turns to the king with a little mischief in his eyes. "I showed you my magic, friend... or should I call you king?" He bows in the grand way he's seen others do to Seraphina, hiding a grin beneath his tucked head. "Now, will you show me yours?"
Ooc:@Asterion apologies for any typos! My kindle has the worst autocorrect (to my bafflement it changes Eik to Rio. Every. Time. (Which is a cute name, but still))
Time makes fools of us all
