[AW] This grand show is eternal

[Asterion]

Asterion in sunshine and in shadow* His smile then is a contradictory thing, at once pleased and rueful, and his dark gaze slips to the grey’s. “Thank you,” he says, and draws in a breath like he might say more (say I wanted a talent with war, not words, or maybe just sigh) but their careful, casual conversation is a current and this is not a moment for it to eddy. Oh, but he wonders. Is he drawn to spill his secrets to this stranger because they don’t know one another’s names? Or because, even nameless, he feels something like a friend? Asterion doesn’t know what to make of it, the way he feels uneasy and happy all at once; he turns his gaze out to sea as though he is suddenly shy. It is very bright, now, with the sunlight glancing off the water. Like his companion, he steadies himself with the salt on his tongue, the sharp-sour smell of the sea like a fresh-split oyster. The beach, for him, is like an intersection between dreams and reality: endless, lulling, pungent and terribly dangerous. Realer than anything, and a mystery he will never solve. It is the only un-knowing he has learned to be comfortable with. Once again he’s nodding, feeling foolish for it but unable to help the kinship he feels with the stallion’s words. The recognition. “Yes,” he says, sounding so decisive that he would blush if he were able. The bay does not elaborate, but he is suddenly very self-aware, and yet curious as to what else they might share. He keeps his gaze trained, now, on the sand before them, or the gulls above them, or the craggy rocks that jut like wrecked ships from the shallow water ahead. The question catches him off guard, but only because he doesn’t know the answer. Is it a betrayal of the gods he’d known – of the unicorn, his Lionheart – if he doesn’t? Is it a betrayal of Florentine and Aislinn and the feeling of being intricately connected to somebody if he does? The bay stops, and opens his mouth, and closes it again. His smile is almost sheepish, when he turns it on the grey. “No, and yes. I miss…who I thought I was going to be.” Warrior, hero – foolish, dreaming boy he’d been. But there had been gods, and magic, and the unicorn with her laugh like a bell and her eyes like cold fire and her certainty, realer than anything, of what was right and what was wrong and what must be done to tear down the latter. He had loved her, but he had loved her like a boy loves a hero in a story. The realization leaves him bereft. He is not given to introspection, and this is why: it is a painful thing, to learn yourself. He forces it out, gives it to the saltwater, almost forgets he isn’t alone. It’s a confession and he feels hollow when it’s done. “I miss the idea of having a cause. I don’t know who I am when there’s no…direction. I don’t know what to do in this place. I just keep walking.” He shakes his head, certain his companion would happily take back what he’d said about being good with words. “I’m sorry,” he says softly, gaze flitting back to the grey’s. “I’m sure this isn’t what you came here for.” @Eik ahhhh so late and sooooo long, I’m sorry. I <3 Eik and whatever happens with this thread they should definitely have another. He’s forcing Asterion into some very wordy revelations xD