RORY
He tried to call up what he actually knew of Maea, and it was precious little. She lived on the Valair family farm, she was short, she was pale, she was an outcast, and she had always been rather.. well, frosty? avoidant? when he came around. He had never thought about it, had always treated her with politeness, and allowed her her space. He had no reason to go butting into her life.But there she stood next to him. She was so small, willowy and thin, barely reaching past his shoulders. In the strange lighting of the Temple she was bone-white and ghastly, but candle by candle her skin was given a warm glow, a nearly-human golden tone that he knew was a lie. He almost thought she'd feel like dry parchment if he touched her then.
Images of Jigano swam into his mind: the white fox, the white raven, the white hair .. the honeyed skin. He blinked the images away, letting the dark wicks eat fire once more. "Abandoned," he said, his voice light, the bitterness barely audible, but it was there, snake venom among the syllables.
It surprised him that she spoke with him; it surprised him that she didn't leave him alone once she saw who it was. Her gaze didn't seem like it had lingered on his face and the soon-to-be-scars that pulled uncomfortably on his skin, and what she said was a question, just without the inflection of one. He put his burning stick to the last candle, then held it up in front of his face.
It went out.
He watched the smoke curl lazily from its blackened tip.
"Things are changing," he told the bit of burnt wood. "I don't know what possessed Amalia and I to ride into the Settlement, but.. we did. Something had broken the perch we'd built. We managed to repair it, but got stuck here."
He turned his head to watch her, his blue eyes unreadable. Considering what they had accomplished, he ought to have looked proud, confident, but if anything he looked conflicted. "Turns out it worked, though. But what about you? Why aren't you at home?"
as if you were on fire from within,
the moon lives in the lining of your skin.
the moon lives in the lining of your skin.
