deep into that darkness peering

The apology shrugged away with some additional feathers, the youth followed her progress towards the folding screen. The way his eyes widened at the sight spoke of wonder and joy, trebling and frail - so mingled with hazy memory that one might be forgiven for imagining tears bleeding down his face. But there were none. For someone so immobile, it was a wonder that there was anything communicated at all in posture or changing breaths... and for someone less skilled in the reading of people, he might even appear stoic. A shuddering breath was drawn as she began to play. The notes painted color in the air, whispered fragile tastes upon a tongue long since accustomed to the barren and plain, the sharp and acrid. For a time, he merely lingered. Absorbed, swaying softly to the billowing tune. Then he approached. Soft and quiet, a dark shadow come to loom at her shoulder. Old clothes and the lacking graces of civility should have lent him an unpleasant odor... but it was not. Only wild, reminiscent of cold wind and dry shrubs - dusty feathers and warm fur. Long-fingered hands reached out to join hers on the ivory. Hesitant at first. Shying away from touch... but skilled, oh so quick to pick up the secrets of an instrument never before seen. Soon, it was his hands that brougth the melody onwards. It changed, then, and became something else. Frantic, hollow, a motion driving forward, onwards; paws burrowing into chest deep snow in pursuit of something that could never be caught. Shimmering, faint, a softness came over the young man, then. And from a golden stone tied to his wrist a light burst out, shooting upwards through the ceiling. Giving birth to a star, somewhere high above the heavy clouds. K O R B I N It's a lie for a lie and I'm getting tired An old lullabye, drifting through the sky