Music of the Night {Seasonal Thread}

The sun was beginning to sink beneath the treetops, allowing a few stars to gathering in the unusually clear sky. He watched the herd of luxere below the branches, grazing on what little bushes and grass they could find. Kysma walked among them as though she belonged, and none of them seemed to mind her presence. In fact, Kalt thought that perhaps they even liked her there.    One leg hanged from a thick branch, as a soft tune was plucked from his guitar. Kalt sat upon the branches of a sturdy tree with guitar on his lap, his back comfortably leaned against the thick trunk. He hummed softly, feeling a slow acceptance of the melody as his fingers fell into a familiar song he had played once in the Guild.    He remembered the first – and last – time he played the song like it happened just the other day. It was dusk with just a few stars peeking from the growing darkness, and he was perched on top of the Keep as he usually was when he played. Ashetta had joined him… That was the last time she had heard him play in the Guild.    The song itself drew to a conclusion, but Kalt’s fingers continued to pick at the instrument’s strings. He smiled softly at the faint glow starting to appear on the luxere’s antlers as the night drew closer. ”Plan on actually joining me?” He asked Ashe with a smirk, not turning at all to look her way.

Ashe  run for the heavens, sing to the stars  love like a lover, shine in the dark    It had been a long time since she last heard this song. A long time since she had snuck after Kalt in the muted light of dusk. It was different now, of course. Even aside from the fact that she wasn’t scaling the side of the Assassin’s Keep to sit on the roof to shadow the man, there was that constant thread of contact between them. They both knew she followed, but still he humored her, letting her silently slip after his trail through the snow and trees.    At first, she thought he had simply found himself a comfortable tree to perch upon while Kysma grazed below. She knew he’d be playing his music, but what she hadn’t expected was a small herd of luxere to gather below and mingle with the gleaming black unicorn. Ashe was crouched on a branch above Kalt, remaining so still that she vanished entirely. She watched the gathering reindeer, the song Kalt sang filling the air as the antlers began to glow. It all felt like it was out of a storybook in Northwind.    She let herself get caught in Kalt’s voice, her mind drifting years back, and there was a strange sort of ache in her chest that had her eyes prickling. She had left for her final contract not very long after the last time she heard this.    He acknowledged her as his voice faded into the sound of the guitar, and she took a slow breath through her nose as she turned away from that line of thought. The raven-haired girl stirred and dropped down smoothly from her perch, blue cloak fluttering around her as she nimbly landed in front of Kalt. Ashe flashed a smirk as she settled herself with her legs swinging on either side of the branch, the mythical animals below continuing on as though the pair above them weren’t there.    She didn’t say anything at first, just listened to the quiet strumming of the guitar, her eyes holding his steadily. ”The luxere like your singing,” she remarked, taking an easy breath as she glanced him over, then down to the glowy reindeer and Kysma below. She tossed a smirk back up at him. ”Maybe if you stay awake for the entire longnight and sing, a few will hang around. Could juice you with coffee and lightning.”  shout like an army, sound the alarm  i am a burning, burning, burning heart.