[P] You lift me up and I am found

[Asterion]

Asterion in sunshine and in shadow*   There is no room in his heart for sorrow tonight. The drink is easing into his blood; it feels like starlight, like the first warm breath of spring. Even knowing how much loss there has been, how much sadness, he can feel nothing but gratefulness and pride. Each thing his eye touches it beautiful, and he knows what it cost to create. Asterion has never been a lover of Novus’s parties, but this one only feels like hope. A dark ear flicks at her words, and he studies her (or what he can see below the mask). She has not yet turned to him, allowing Asterion a moment to note the strength of her. Surely, he thinks, she was a mighty warrior - in comparison he is slender, almost slight. So what she tells him (and the way her eyes at last find his) does not come as great a surprise as it might have. “Spoken as if from experience,” he says, and the look in his eyes is knowing, too - but Katniss has already turned away. Asterion is not the kind to pry, but he almost asks her then of the home she had left - whether she had been a ruler, there. Whether her leaving had been by choice, or whether fate had forced her hand. The bay had listened well to his sister’s stories of the rift; if he knew that was where Katniss had left, there would be much more he would both wonder and understand. But he knows only what she has told him, and what can be guessed at in each rare glance. So he, too, passes his gaze across the room, touching on each little interaction, each smile and laugh. “You said you would stay and rebuild - and it seems that Denocte is near whole once again. What will you do now, Katniss?” @Katniss