in sunshine and in shadow
There is something so wild about her - something so foreign to the horses of the capital, with their clothing and their buildings and their magic made almost domestic. She reminds him of the creatures of the wood and the sea, of the animals he had known in Ravos and worlds before. Like a doe the whole of the dark world seems reflected in her strange amethyst eyes, bright as the stone on her brow. (And who gave you that charm? What is it to you? he wonders.)
But tonight, even in the calm of Terrastella, the setting does nothing to tame her. There is a bite in the air, and the woodsmoke layered over the salt and brine of the sea makes things ancient and strange. Firelight dances around the spirals of her horn, from darkness to light, and Asterion is caught remembering the fall of a droplet of golden water down and down that shape when he realizes how near he is standing.
When he wants to trace the path of lightning that cleaves her fine-boned face, he steps away.
“Were there any traditions like this in the world you left?” Oh, the question itself betrays his ignorance of her, all the blank spaces of things he doesn’t know. But he could never begin to ask all the questions he keeps for her, numerous as the stars bright and cold above them - was there fire? was there winter at all? was there anything stable, was there anything like happiness?
Standing next to her, a longing stirs in him like a storm begins to build over a blank expanse of water, far from any shore. Asterion does not want to die in Novus, to grow old and wither in a world he can learn. He is almost surprised to find that within him is a still a boy dreaming of adventure, untethered as a rowboat, hungry for a strong current and a strange horizon. Foolish boy - he will never have his fill of monsters.
“I’m glad you’re here,” he says, surprising himself with the fierceness of the words, and even when he feels heat flush his cheeks, warm as firelight, he does not look away.
@Thana
