[P] clever words and phrases

[Atreus]

over the moaning bones
of those who quit and chose to remain

 
Things were… complicated. Just as they had always been. Just as Atreus preferred them to be.

His grand entrance into Delumine had garnered quite a crowd, but he’d only had eyes for the gilded form of his brother. He’d looked on at the now Sovereign with a poisonous smile, spilling words of faux melancholy and spinning wicked tales of just how much he had missed his dearest brother. In the eyes of a stranger, they might have seemed sincere and genuine, but there was murder hidden behind the silken curtains of his performance.

Holding to his promise despite it all, Atreus had tended to the sickly boy born of his brother and the most likely the woman who had stood mostly silently at his side. What exactly ailed him was still a mystery to be uncovered, one that the roan was unfathomably thrilled to solve no matter the temptation to extinguish the already weak flame that remained within the scrawny dun. Later, maybe, depending on how the rest of his stay went.

The better part of morning had already come and gone, the reds and purples of sunrise giving way to a bland sky of blue above Delumine. He didn’t have plans to visit the crown Prince today, having giving him a cocktail of ingredients that were meant to alleviate his coughs and increase his pitiful appetite the day prior. It was up to his parents to find him if anything seemed amiss with the boy, so until they sought him out, he had every intention of exploring the western side of Novus and prying into the lives of its residents.

Making his way through the citadel, Atreus idly considered the differences between it and the one standing in Terrastella, but when he found himself standing in the great hall, his attention was immediately pulled to a form he easily recognized. Pale gold dusted by freckles, hair of honey braided up and out of the way – Somnus’ other half and mother to his one and only patient.

Winding his way closer, Atreus pushed a complacent smile to his dark lips and came to stand beside her, only feet apart. Her question seemed idle, but as he tipped his nose toward the mare to regard her, he answered pleasantly. “Oh, I do hope I’m not being a bother,” he said, exchanging his smile for a brief frown as though worried he was being a pest. “I saw you alone and merely saw an opportunity to speak with you, is all. I regret to say that I don’t even know your name, my dear.”

@Eulalie
 
“Speaking.”

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