Eik suffered from a sort of jetlag of the soul.
He had gone somewhere, when Isra was kidnapped by Raum. He went further, when he learned Seraphina had fallen in battle, and further again when Rhoswen burned.
Eventually he came back, or at least he thought he did. Everything felt a little different, like some core part of him was present but the rest was struggling to catch up to the here and now. Still grieving, or hunting, or grieving some more. Isra was safe (for now), Seraphina was alive (for now), and Rhoswen was--
He didn't know with any certainty where or what or why Rhoswen was, but he hoped it was a better place than here. It was the only comfort he could find in such tragedy, although it did little to ease the discomforts.
In the wake of her death, Eik’s dreams returned to being full of fire. Flames and charred flesh and everything burning, just like everything burned in the place he was born. He knows he did not bring the fire to Solterra, but he wonders sometimes… oh, how he wonders…
“Sometimes it is better to not remember.” He pauses. “or to not dream at all.” Even if he did have beautiful dreams, lush and wondrous and full of every hue except red and orange, he thinks he would prefer the cavernous darkness of dreamless sleep. Oblivion, is the word for it. He would prefer oblivion.
“I have seen Isra, and Seraphina,” Eik smiles despite himself, despite the worry in his friend’s voice (worry he feels too) and the uncertainty of past and future. How precious it is to be reminded that Seraphina still lives, and to hear her name spoken once more– it did not seem safe to say that name in Solterra, not yet. And Isra, of course– those four letters fill him with a joy that verges on incomprehensible.
“Raum is here?” He stops walking. Body and voice draw serious and tense, and a calm kind of wildness enters his eyes. “I did not know,” he says softly, thoughtfully. “I have been waiting very long to meet him again.” He had spent countless hours stalking the streets of Solterra, searching the minds of every stranger for any scrap of the snake who called himself Raum.
There was what they called unfinished business between the two stallions.
Eik doesn’t want Asterion to become tangled in this mess, but it really isn’t his mess to be deciding who will or will not be involved in. This stems beyond vengeance, beyond anything personal. He remembers once again that his friend is a king. It is so easy to forget that, when they amble along the sandy path like boys beyond the touch of time. They could not just be boys exploring a magical island, not anymore. Responsibility made men of them. Responsibility and love.
“Of course I will help you.” He wishes (not for the first or last time) that his magic was stronger, more powerful. But he has Asterion by his side, and Isra, and Seraphina, and he thinks that between their magic and their might they are a force that would cause the gods to tremble– and to wonder, what have they made.
The steel in his eyes promises: I will always help you, until the end of days.
@Asterion ahh no, you're perfect! As usual <3
Time makes fools of us all
