city of stars, are you shining just for me?
Azrael nodded at her words, understanding all too well the wandering which brought her here. He hadn’t wandered by desire, but out of necessity. Death and destruction had come for the shed-stars, leaving nothing but a hollow shell of a city, burned to the ground by dragonfire. A piece of him longed to go back, to search among the rubble… and so he had. When the air had cooled and the stars grew soft with sadness once more, the astrologer had made his way back through the treacherous mountain passes, fighting through snow and wind to make his way back to the place he’d once called a homeland… but all he had found was shambles and broken dreams.
He had pieced through the rubble, fishing out broken bits of glass which once had formed the great telescope, and finding twisted bits of metal which resembled the once relics of their people. Still too, the shed-star had found bones, charred and stained white from the sun, and it had all been too much… there were too many memories, still raw and flayed open for the world to see. Even now, as he thinks back on the horrors of that day, Azrael has to swallow a lump and still the heart which races in his chest. He simply cannot forget it, no matter how far he tried to run.
Clearing his throat, he shakes away the memories by drawing a steady breath of sea air into his lungs. “Hopefully you can build a home here, in Denocte. Constant friction and movement are a tiresome sort of life… and I am sorry that Tempus’ magic has been unkind. I’ve heard too many stories like your own, of those who came to this world by a series of circumstance… but there is good in this world, and hopefully you will find your peace.”
He gestures toward the bonfires, licking in the distance against the darkness. “The summer is a beautiful time in Novus – with its warm breezes and clear skies. I came to this place in the summer, though it seems like so long ago now. The place where I am from is no more, so in that regard, I can understand the feeling of new-ness.” He offers her an encouraging smile, noting the way she shivered in the moonlight, as if she were just a hair’s breadth away from breaking. But he does not mention it, making quiet and easy conversation with the mare, aiming to help her feel at peace.
“What have you seen, or do you wish to see in these lands?”
@Kassandra
