morozko
and all our footprints in the snow.
It was strange, standing in a foreign place, surrounded by those he didn’t know, listening to the woman who might have been his queen. There was something like deja vu about it, or a dream half-remembered; Morozko couldn’t shake the feeling as the others induced themselves and Rannveig spoke. The heat didn’t help, or the way the sunshine was lazy instead of harsh, a soft warmth over their little piece of the world.
But the unicorn has always been a good soldier, and dutifully pushed the thoughts away. The expression he wore was one of neutral interest, and he made out what he could of the relationships between the members of the Dusk Court, their standings with one another and their sovereign. It was easy enough - save for the paint stallion, whose ease around Rannveig spoke of a deeper relationship, they all interacted in the tentative way of recent acquaintances. What caught him was the warmth; there was an openness that was uncommon in Hiemsterra, where frost was not only a mark of the landscape but of the people.
He did not think his own would thaw, and as he watched the new sovereign he wondered if any part of winter still had a hold on her.
Morozko knew well of her warrior’s heart, how she trained and took what was not given. The stories had made the rounds during his own training, and of course you heard much, as a guardsman in the city. He wondered what her people knew of her - wondered, too, what such a fighter would do in a time of purported peace.
At the heart of it all, she was still a stranger to him, whether he saw her as Silanos or Rannveig, whether queen of Winter or Dusk.
A stranger whose voice shaping his name still made a small thrill run through him like the touch of a winter wind. For a moment their eyes met, cool silver and vivid green.
“Your grace,” he said, and moved smoothly into a bow, dipping his translucent horn until it nearly touched the ground. With the rainclouds gone, her shadow slanted before him, and as he rose his gaze swept from it back to her face. He wore the ghost of a smile when he added, “You’ve grown.”
So she had - but into who?
@Rannveig !!!!
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