[P] I want your money but your money ain't right;

[Seraphina]

BY THE PRICKING OF MY THUMBS
something wicked this way comes

--

He loosens in front of her, drawing a charming smile across his lips and approaching her with all the posture and poise of a metaphorical olive branch; she does not even unwind fractionally, stiff and emotionless as carved stone. She does not smile, but she never smiles – and there is nothing behind her eyes, for all their vibrancy. She is certainly nothing like Bexley, a golden beauty with a sharp tongue and even sharper wit, and perhaps she is an abnormality in the Day Court; if they are all fire and passion, she is a quiet, subtle emptiness, a creature of restraint and deliberation. Seraphina exists as a temperance, a space in-between, an aberration to the desert heat.

She watches in silence as he begins to speak, his tone almost painfully polite, striking the mare as manufactured despite his apparently relaxed posture. (Perhaps she is merely suspicious by nature.) Here to take a message to…Rhoswen? Rhos? She knew the cream-coated beauty, but she was not aware she held any connection to Denocte…but the prick of confusion in her chest did not show on her features, and her words were smooth, neutral. “I see. Rhoswen is charming – I suspect she has many admirers.” She supposes that she’ll have to speak with Rhoswen about that at some point; however, if Denocte was so quick to admit her connection, she couldn’t be the spy. She pushes thoughts of Rhoswen aside, however, and adds, “I would suggest you send word prior to your arrival next time – we wouldn’t want anyone to get the wrong idea. For now, I will accompany you to the Court. The Mors are full of dangerous creatures…I wouldn’t want you to run into trouble on the way.” She isn’t lying; sandwyrms are quick to sink their teeth into unprepared travelers. However, with relations between the courts so tense, she suspects that it is in her – and Solterra’s – best interest to keep her eyes on any travelers from Denocte that found their way into the desert. As if to dare him to argue with her proposition, she moves toward him, though she sweeps by his sides; she moves to prowl around him, movements somehow akin to the predatory strides of a large cat, her odd, cool eyes still sweeping his frame – just in case he happens to be carrying anything with him.

“Seraphina. A pleasure, Acton.” She suspects that he already knows who she is, with how quickly information tends to move in the kingdom of night, however. When he finally bares his fangs – as she expected he would – she scarcely bats a lash; her features remain as cool and detached as winter ice, her strange, disconcerting eyes never moving from his own. “The laws of the Day Court state that anyone is allowed within our boundaries, but trespassers are afforded no protections.” The words slide off her tongue, smooth as rippling folds of silk. “If you don’t wish to find yourself ‘bound and drugged,’ as you put it, I would watch your tongue around my people; the desert breeds quick tempers.” There is no threat in her rolling, throaty tones, but there is a warning. She whisks away before it can linger.

She brushes past him, the harsh clack of her hooves against the stone of the canyon interrupting the tense silence that stretched out between them; she glances back over her shoulder expectantly, her eyes darting down this Acton’s frame with something akin to surgical precision. Seraphina doesn’t think him a fool, so she knows he won’t dare to attack her. However, it’s second nature to her, a girl raised between war zones, to keep an eye out for any potential threat…

(She doesn’t know who or what he is, but she would likely feel differently if she knew she was in the presence of one of Reichenbach’s crows – they were both orphans raised as knives. She doesn’t know that, of course, though she knows of the sovereign’s band of thieves, assassins, and performers…she remembers meeting Reichenbach, and, somehow, she didn’t peg him as the type, just a Viceroy wearing different skin and bearing a different set of gifts.

But then, she knows never to trust a pleasant smile – particularly the one in front of her.)

@

@Acton - <3