YOU ARE A GOLDEN THING
IN A HEAVY, HEAVY WORLD
IN A HEAVY, HEAVY WORLD
The sensuality of the sea draws ardor from him in the same way a fresh wound draws blood; it dances; it covets; it rises in eagerness only to withdraw with shy sensualism. Perhaps Orestes asked her here for that very reason. The fickleness reflects their tentative affection; bold to reticent, outright to withheld. There are questions he assumes she will ask, perhaps on his prolonged absence or distant nature. It is not her, but a part of him riles with envy and the question whether her skin will smell like salt.
Orestes might explain more if only he knew how; if only he understood it himself. Instead he waits, and hopes she comes. Instead he waits, and stares at an impassive sea, one that flirts at his ankles, one backed by Terrastella’s ominous cliffs. They are just dark enough to evoke something primitive within him; a visceral fear, tied in no comprehensive thought, only the feeling he should be afraid of such a height, such a jagged edge…
Yet Orestes waits at their base, on a small beach that during high-tide must become nothing more than more sea. There is no sand; instead, rocks shift under-hoof. His eyes follow careening gulls; and then the sea; and then the sky. Ariel lounges on a distant rock spire; he, for once, is not luminous. Out of Solis’s territory and beneath the undercast Terrastellan sky, the Sun Lion looks nearly nondescript. He says nothing, but Orestes knows his thoughts are dubious. Matters of romance, to the lion, appear a waste of time. But Orestes cannot agree—although there is a part of him deeply uncomfortable in front of the spring sea, in another Sovereign’s land, with a creeping apprehension of the cliffs shadowing him.
Please come, he thinks. The invitation, sent by raven, had been brief. But they had minimal interactions since Orestes—
Well, since…
He swallows. The gulls careen overhead. The sea goes shush, shush, shush.
“speaking" || @
"SO EDEN SANK TO GRIEF
SO DAWN GOES DOWN TO DAY
NOTHING GOLD CAN STAY"
SO DAWN GOES DOWN TO DAY
NOTHING GOLD CAN STAY"
