[P] I had a dream,

[Asterion]

Asterion in sunshine and in shadow*   He is surprised when some feeling (a thing he can’t name - not nostalgia and not sorrow and not joy and not want, but all of them together, a memory of a thing that never happened) wraps around him like warmth, like water. His glance to Eik when he sends that thought is brief and sharp and glad, and then he closes his eyes as though he can catch it beneath his lashes and keep it forever, tied more securely than the sand-dollar in his mane. For now he pretends that he can. Asterion oughtn’t to have been surprised at Eik’s reaction to his own gifts (he is learning, by now, how similar they are, how many things they share down in the quiet dark of them) but he still can’t help but feel a little relieved. He matches that grin and for a moment they are the two colts that Eik had envisioned before, laughing on a cliffside with the sea crashing loud below, careless and joyous and ready for more. But his grin recedes like a wave drawing back from the shore at the gray man’s question, and they are two men again (and not just men, but kings and emissaries). Beside them Cirrus stirs, flicking out her wings and tucking them again to her white sides, but Asterion is once more looking out to sea. He thinks of all the ways he has used his magic to help; he thinks of all the opportunities he’s had to use it for something else. When his dark eyes regard Eik again the line of his mouth is somber. “I think you and I have always had responsibilities,” he says. Not for the first time he wonders if the magic is a gift, or a reward - but then he thinks of Vespera, of her words and her actions. Asterion does not believe the magic came from her, and not only because he’s had it before. “And they seem to keep growing,” he adds, and smiles again. After a moment he nudges Eik on the shoulder, a soft bump of his nose. “Have you had a tour yet? If not, I’ll do my best not to get us lost.” There is a flash of his grin like sunlight on water before he turns, away from the railing and the wild wide sea, and Cirrus once more takes to air. @Eik <3