"It will stop your breath, how cruel I can be."
The mask Veer chooses is simple only in that is it made with only two things-- ore and diamonds. It was of course both the brightest and most simply made mask on the table. He chooses it because tonight he wishes to seem gaudy and shallow, another easy mark for smugglers and crows to look at and whisper to each other, that one, he seems rich and foolish enough to steal from.
Because at night, he knows, it's so easy to want to dissolve into the shadows and rise as something too violent and feral for walls and glittering orbs full of flowers. And so he dawns the mask with a smile and is careful to walk only in the places where the light reflects from the walls like star-shine and is softer than moonlight.
Perhaps that is why he notices Apolonia right away, for the way she moves between the others, like a fish instead of a shark. Veer, of course, knows who her mother is and remembers from the hunt that she could move like a shark if she wanted too. The memory of it makes him smile still. He was young and hungry once.
Now he's only hungry.
The tides of horses part before him (mostly though it's for Najjad who walks fearlessly between the horses and snaps at their tails just because he can). Their eyes catch on him and if they whisper anything at all he's glad to hear it, gladder still to make a secret note of those who whisper dark intents. Later. Veer promises Najjad as the gryphon flicks his feathers restlessly, Later I will let you lead me to them.
“You shouldn't try to blend in so.” He whispers (like a subconscious devil) when he's close enough to lower his lips towards her ear. “You are no more a star than I am a moon.” His smile is bright and dangerous and it glows between his dark lips like a sickle moon.
We are made to be golden. That almost sinister smile seems to say as it reaches up to crease the skin around his golden eyes (that catch the glittering diamond light). Deep in that tunnel between then Najjad adds, golden things are made to burn.
At his side his feathers rustle louder than any whispered secrets in the entire room. Even the soft violin seems like a breeze underneath the sound of his wings.
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