When she holds their eyes together it's as if he's more than a star. She's wondering if Asterion could light her way home, a silver shine through the thick black river of death she walks in. Thana almost steps closer then to catch the breath of smoke falling from his lips like a weapon. But, when she inhales and tastes only ash and not brine, she tell herself that he would only lead her to madness.
Although her blood sings to her that moon-madness would not be so terrible.
The space she grows between them starts to call itself a monster when she steps back, back, back towards that black treeline no firelight or moonlight can touch. Thana wants to loose herself in the dark, and forgot all about the way the words, “I would not want to be returned,” feel in her heart when she cleaves the last bit of wonder between them into two pieces.
There is only Asterion standing by the fire and Thana far from him with something hot like fury in her belly.
But it doesn't singe her like fury should. It rises in flames of cold-fire and still it does not start to ache like she expects it to. It makes her hungrier than she has ever been and still it does not hurt in a way that makes her want to peel back the map of his stardust to whatever place it is that she's looking for.
So Thana turns and runs. She runs until her belly starts to ache and her bones start to feel once more like steel beneath her skin. Even then she does not stop, because the world still does not make sense in the same way the ache does.
@Asterion
