I want to be with those who know secret things
or else alone
or else alone
Asterion doesn’t think he’ll ever grow used to being bowed to.
Like each time before, as he watches the stranger drop into her greeting, his smile is soft despite his discomfort at the gesture. As with so many foreign things, it marks the way his life is different now, though he feels no more like a king than he had the day Florentine had made him one.
Still, his wariness is already easing as she straightens and speaks, and his smile is widening at her words; little of her seems like a threat, only like another wanderer looking for home. “It’s my privilege,” he answers, but the words are hardly out before the stranger continues. As she speaks (as talkative, he thinks, as his sister is) he settles back where he stands, trying to keep his expression genial and his smile from curling into a grin. Even Cirrus, ever more wary than he, has relaxed enough to begin grooming her feathers, though her quick dark eyes often flit back to the newcomer.
When she mentions King he stands a little taller, and is prepared to answer her in the affirmative - but before he can speak she is continuing again, and this time he can’t help the laugh that escapes him. At once he regrets it, not wanting to make her feel embarrassed, but perhaps with the rate of her talking she hadn’t even noticed.
This time he doesn’t try to speak until he’s certain she’s finished, and as he listens he continues to regard her, from her dorsal fin and markings to the mist that rolls off her in waves. A thousand questions are rising to his tongue - where she’s from, why she’s come to Novus, whether she will be happy so far from the sea-bed. It isn’t until her gaze drops and she falls silent that he stretches his muzzle toward hers the way he might reassure a foal.
“I’m humbled you’ve chosen our court, Bel,” he says at last. “As you’ve guessed, I am Asterion, and it’s my pleasure to be the first to make your introduction. Are you sure you’re comfortable, so far from the shore? The sea makes up half the borders of Terrastella, and I’d be glad to go there if it would be easier.” He does not add that he’s seldom far from it, anyway, or that his dreams are full of thrashing waves and moonlight on the water; she’ll discover soon enough his reputation as a dreamer.
“It took me a long time to adjust to Novus,” the bay adds, hoping to reassure her. “And I didn’t even have to leave my element.” His smile turns a little wry, at that - those first strange days of castles and kings, everything more strange than his own magic could ever be.
@Below Zero your incorporation of her words/culture is so fun!
Asterion.
