stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires
It was later than he would've liked, the sun low and the shadows long. In another twenty or thirty minutes it would be gone for the day, and Rory ill liked the idea of riding home in the dark.
Which he probably would've done anyway, even if he hadn't ended up sitting and staring at the Spire for an unknown amount of time.
Wessex was dead.
He still couldn't believe it, but it was true: Wessex was dead, torn to pieces by the spire demon, discarded like so much waste and scattered across the ground. He was lucky he had been able to safely identify anything at all.
The white fox had veered off when they'd approached the edge of the town, disappearing like a ghost in the snow after a mutual goodbye which somehow did not need two mouths speaking the same language. He'd stared after it for a little while, curious and humbled and grateful, before riding in between the houses. Best get his actual business out of the way first, so he nudged Talys round corners, up and down streets, making his handful of stops and exchanging his finished orders for whatever form of payment he'd negotiated. Salt, among them.
Then he rode for the Temple, a place he rarely visited. The Settlement was usually fairly quiet, but the Sanctuary, well.. since the Outlanders's arrival, it had been busy, in a different way. They were strangers, newcomers, trying to find their rhythm and pace and footing, and it made them stand out. It made him uneasy.
The Sanctuary had practically been dead before their arrival.
Sighing, Rory hitched the black pony to a suitable post, and stood there for a while, stroking her neck and face and murmuring comforting nonsense into her fluffy ears. Told her things she didn't need to know, like how terrible a cook Wessex seemed to have been.
But he couldn't stand out there forever in the now deep dark, so he eventually left the pony where she was and stepped into the Temple. He took off his cap and mittens, shook the snow out of them and shoved them into his greatcoat, and then he strode into the main hall.
"Ronin? Remi?" he called into the open space.
[ This is a sort of information sharing event, specifically tagging Honey and Odd. If you only want to participate to hear the information there's no need to post more than once. ^^ This takes place after the end of {KQ} Hush ]
Which he probably would've done anyway, even if he hadn't ended up sitting and staring at the Spire for an unknown amount of time.
Wessex was dead.
He still couldn't believe it, but it was true: Wessex was dead, torn to pieces by the spire demon, discarded like so much waste and scattered across the ground. He was lucky he had been able to safely identify anything at all.
The white fox had veered off when they'd approached the edge of the town, disappearing like a ghost in the snow after a mutual goodbye which somehow did not need two mouths speaking the same language. He'd stared after it for a little while, curious and humbled and grateful, before riding in between the houses. Best get his actual business out of the way first, so he nudged Talys round corners, up and down streets, making his handful of stops and exchanging his finished orders for whatever form of payment he'd negotiated. Salt, among them.
Then he rode for the Temple, a place he rarely visited. The Settlement was usually fairly quiet, but the Sanctuary, well.. since the Outlanders's arrival, it had been busy, in a different way. They were strangers, newcomers, trying to find their rhythm and pace and footing, and it made them stand out. It made him uneasy.
The Sanctuary had practically been dead before their arrival.
Sighing, Rory hitched the black pony to a suitable post, and stood there for a while, stroking her neck and face and murmuring comforting nonsense into her fluffy ears. Told her things she didn't need to know, like how terrible a cook Wessex seemed to have been.
But he couldn't stand out there forever in the now deep dark, so he eventually left the pony where she was and stepped into the Temple. He took off his cap and mittens, shook the snow out of them and shoved them into his greatcoat, and then he strode into the main hall.
"Ronin? Remi?" he called into the open space.
[ This is a sort of information sharing event, specifically tagging Honey and Odd. If you only want to participate to hear the information there's no need to post more than once. ^^ This takes place after the end of {KQ} Hush ]
