When the southern sky bloomed in colors of gunmetal and charcoal, Mateo did not go to investigate. Mateo retreated to where it was safe and quiet and there were answers to every question you could think of, if you only have the patience to search for it-- and patience was key. Sometimes the searching took a very long time. The sky was on fire(-- no, the sky was already burned) and while others danced and stomped and bared their teeth for war (what war? who are we fighting?) Mateo retreated and armed himself with the only weapon he ever wielded successfully- knowledge.
His favorite desk, in the quiet room where Ipomoea sought him out not very long ago, is covered with books. The Destruction of Islas is open to a detailed retelling of a volcanic eruption on an island-- Islas (a horribly uncreative name for an island, in his opinion)-- and its aftermath. Birds refused to fly overhead for months afterward, and it was said that all who stepped foot on the isle would be cursed. The author leaned too heavily on superstition and heresay and so Mateo had abandoned it in search of another, more informative read. (From the abandoned book’s introduction: “The night before the eruption, a cardinal rested outside my window and tapped on the pane three times. I should have known, then, how doom approached swiftly on hooves of black death”… blah blah blah)
He has his nose in a scroll of Warden Thurisson's when someone else walks in, peering closely at the library’s vast collection. Mateo peeks at the other man to see if it’s someone he knows (he knows most Deluminians, on account of his sociable– borderline nosy– debatably not borderline at all– nature) but it isn’t. The pegasus returns to his scroll but the stranger intrigues him. All intent beings do.
After a few minutes he looks up. The scroll does not have the information he had hoped for anyway.
“Hey,” he says, quiet but friendly. His eyes are fuzzy with sleep and his short mane tousled. A few feathers hang loosely from his wings, a sign that he has not flown in days. Days-- has he been here that long already? Regardless, he is able to smile sweetly despite his exhaustion. “What are you looking for?”
- - -
@Lasairian
