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

[Acton]

Acton these violent delights have violent ends   He noted that she made no move to offer insight to her own past, but for once he made no effort to needle her, to pry. He had a long walk home to conjure up all sorts of possible pasts for her; for now he only nodded. Whether she meant the universal you or the specific, she wasn’t far off the mark.   “Yes,” he agreed, “but that goes for anything else you’d care to look for, too.” Life is a rich tapestry, Dunnigan, the merchant who’d bought his sentence, always said, and though Acton would never admit to agreeing with him he knew what he meant. Everywhere you turned your eyes there was light and there was shadow, and the one you focused on was up to you. Of course, sometimes there was a damned heap of shadow. And sometimes you had to make your own light – something Acton was particularly adept at, though less on the ‘optimism’ side and more on the ‘colorful explosives’ one. Maybe it was optimism, though, that had him interpreting her next comment as just a shade shy of humor. It was close enough for Acton, and he grinned, even as he wondered if her follow-up had a second meaning. He would not forget her suspicion – nor the fact that she was right to feel it. Raum was proof of that. He was proof of it. A shame, really, since the buckskin was warming up to her. If she found out what he was doing here, what kept him circling Day Court, neither of them would have to look to far for tragedy. Parties were much more pleasant things to think about. “Ah, see. You hit the nail on the head with ‘effort.’ Merrymaking we like, but planning it…” He shook his head as if the thought itself was distasteful. Of course, it was mainly the Crows he referred to, and not the Night Court as a whole, but for Acton, interest in others dropped off sharply outside his motley crew of family. Besides, if he gave her the impression that Denoctians were lazy fun-seekers and little else, well. All the better. His eyes drew across the landscape as they walked, near opposite of each other in their hair and coloring, but twins in wearing dust and sweat. A black-tipped ear twisted at her emphatic agreement; this time his grin was a secret thing, a bite at the inside of his cheek. What a terrible, dangerous, foolish game he played – but oh, what fun. It was easy to picture the bodies she mentioned; what was impossible for him was to see himself or Raum among them. He glanced at her, expression serious for a moment before he arched a brow. “Well, you have my admiration there. Doesn’t seem like an easy place to dig a hole.” Maybe they just ceremonially heaved bodies into caves; there were certainly plenty of those, he’d noted on his way in. And now he ran a practiced eye over them, dark crevices like dark promises, until he heard Denocte. Then he turned his amber-eyed gaze on her again. Already he couldn’t remember which of her eyes he’d seen first – the golden or the electric blue. They’d had stories, where he came from, that someone with two different-colored eyes could tell when you were lying. Acton had always loved the tales, but never believed them. Again he nodded, picturing the foothills sloping away to craggy peaks, all the places you could fall. All the things that would eat you, or the snow that could trap you for weeks until you starved to death. Oh, it was lovely, lovely and treacherous, like all the things he loved. “I suppose you’re right, though it’s a different kind of danger. I guess the moral of it is – must be gods-damned nice to have wings.” His short laugh echoed off the canyon walls; it sounded lonely, almost ghostly. Another turn or two and things had begun to look familiar; a cooler breeze was blowing in, carrying a hint of winter. Again he caught her eye, and his expression was nothing like the one he’d worn on first meeting her. “I think I can manage from here, Seraphina. You’ve got my thanks for passing on word to Rhos. Tell her we all say hello.” He would wait until he was well out of sight to breathe a sigh of relief. @Seraphina zomg so long and hopefully not shitty