Eik had never been good at sleeping. He tended to wander mindlessly at night, letting his legs take him wherever they felt like going. They usually led him into the wilds, away from the collective breathing of the city, the smell of shit and smoke, the heat of all those bodies crammed together. He liked it quiet, and clean, and lonely.
Things were different here with Isra and the girls. He didn’t want to stray too far. So he kept to the court proper when he was not with them, and even learned to sleep most nights. It was easier with family, far easier than he ever thought it would be.
A raven had come from Terrastella that morning (or was it a day ago? two? time had been slippery, afterwards) telling of the disappearance of Asterion, Florentine, and Lysander. Regent Marisol would lead the court in the sovereign’s absence, it said. As though they got misplaced on a stroll somewhere in Novus and were just going to be a bit longer returning home.
But Eik knew that Asterion was not coming back.
So old habits resurfaced, and he walked, and he walked, and he kept walking until all those well-oiled blades caught his eye.
It surprised him to look up from his grief and realize how the world had kept moving on. Everyone continued with their lives, completely unaware of what had been lost. Didn’t anyone else feel it? That hole in the fabric of the world where a man used to be? A king? Around him people are laughing, dancing, heckling each other, flirting like yearlings. Completely untouched by the sorrow that hangs so heavy on Eik it almost begins to blur reality. That was just the way life was. Indifferent to the details.
Someone was saying something. To him. He has to replay the words in his head. “You don't strike me as someone who would wield a dagger.” Oh.
“I’m not.” He smiles briefly. She had read him well. “Don’t need one. Just admiring the craftsmanship.” The merchant snorts loudly and busies himself with polishing his stock.
“You know, I once knew a girl with a dagger that could cut through time and space…” he muses with another glance across the table of wares. None of these daggers would be like that, would they? And there was nothing he could do to find his missing friend. This was not a nothing that could be prodded at until it became a something. This was a most certain, absolute, resounding nothing. Asterion is not coming back.
His attention refocuses on the pied mare beside him. He recognizes her. “I’m Eik.” He can’t tell if she knows that already or not. Better not to assume. “Would you like a drink, Warden?”
It wasn’t as if he was going to get any sleep tonight, anyway.
the world, a double blossom, opens:
sadness of having come,
joy of being here.
@Morrighan eeee so excited for them to meet! <3
Time makes fools of us all
