She shrugs off his gratitude like it doesn't matter, and it probably doesn't. He knows she doesn't do it for him or any individual but for Solterra itself, and he wonders-- will he ever love his court like that? Will he ever love it at all in a way that could be understood by anyone other than himself? Maybe love is not the right word for it, he wouldn't know. He couldn't, not yet anyway. All he knows now is that he belongs here, as surely as the saguaro and twice as stubborn.
Eik doesn't like being helped, he was always stupidly stubborn when it came to his independence, but he sees her point. It would be best to rest-- he almost has no choice, his eyelids are so heavy-- so he accepts her offer with a simple "yes." The feel of her skin is a cool surprise as he leans a fever-hot shoulder into her. It is a thought that will linger in his mind later when sleep takes him over: maybe this heat is his natural state, and the rest of the world is always as cold as it feels now.
He does not say thank you out loud, not again, but maybe his magic reaches out to her mind and plants a seed of appreciation. It might feel like a brief ray of warmth, like pure sunlight, although it would fade too quickly to be understood.
I have let myself go where the dust
E I K
Has the color of nothing
art by Footybandit
@Teiran I need another with them sometime <3
Time makes fools of us all
