03-14-2020, 06:45 PM
Into the silence she explained everything, inwardly waiting for the moment he would baulk. But he only watched the waters while she talked, twisting the wedding band around his finger. For the first time she considered that he was the one not being completely honest with her; that he knew something beyond what she was telling him -- something that clearly softened the blow of its strangeness. Her head tilted, perplexed, and for a moment she wondered if she ought be afraid, but if he was perhaps the most severe creature she had ever met, nothing about him spiked her instincts to fear. Still, she wished she had given Nox a little more detail about where she was, and with whom.
“You seem very calm,” she said eventually. Koit sighed rather than offer any real answer.
“Your hand,” he said. “You can’t go back in the water.”
Water streamed. Koit gasped as he emerged, and Thalia crawled to the bank to help, but he only directed her to pull the towels from the bag. The box had not reacted to his touch; she saw it curled in his grasp, and flinched away from it as she did as she was told. The shadows had lengthened and begun to recede since they began. She fumbled for the zip and upended his supplies, ignoring the sharp protest of pain in her palm.
Koit draped the first towel around his shoulders. His pale hair flattened close to his skull, and droplets of water followed the hollowed line of his cheeks. Thalia didn’t notice the churn of mud as she sat alongside him. There had been something frenetic about him in the search, like a man clinging to salvation, and so she was gentle with him now -- as if, were she very quiet, she might be given the chance to rummage through the pieces and fix what was broken. It drew her like moth to light.
Koit rubbed a hand over his face. He placed the box between them, and Thalia’s attentions realigned like he offered a viper.
Marks were scorched into the wood, and she did not need to hold her palm alongside to recognise their sameness. How was still a mystery. Or as much as the power remained a mystery -- they both realised that much. The why was bigger than the how though. She wanted to laugh, but it got so caught up in her throat she was afraid it would come out as a sob. Panic gnawed all her edges the longer she looked at it, so she didn’t.
“I dreamed,” he said then. “Of the woman I saw you drawing this morning.”
Thalia’s attention jerked up. Her eyes were round as saucers. Koit looked at her, and opened the lid.
“You seem very calm,” she said eventually. Koit sighed rather than offer any real answer.
“Your hand,” he said. “You can’t go back in the water.”
Water streamed. Koit gasped as he emerged, and Thalia crawled to the bank to help, but he only directed her to pull the towels from the bag. The box had not reacted to his touch; she saw it curled in his grasp, and flinched away from it as she did as she was told. The shadows had lengthened and begun to recede since they began. She fumbled for the zip and upended his supplies, ignoring the sharp protest of pain in her palm.
Koit draped the first towel around his shoulders. His pale hair flattened close to his skull, and droplets of water followed the hollowed line of his cheeks. Thalia didn’t notice the churn of mud as she sat alongside him. There had been something frenetic about him in the search, like a man clinging to salvation, and so she was gentle with him now -- as if, were she very quiet, she might be given the chance to rummage through the pieces and fix what was broken. It drew her like moth to light.
Koit rubbed a hand over his face. He placed the box between them, and Thalia’s attentions realigned like he offered a viper.
Marks were scorched into the wood, and she did not need to hold her palm alongside to recognise their sameness. How was still a mystery. Or as much as the power remained a mystery -- they both realised that much. The why was bigger than the how though. She wanted to laugh, but it got so caught up in her throat she was afraid it would come out as a sob. Panic gnawed all her edges the longer she looked at it, so she didn’t.
“I dreamed,” he said then. “Of the woman I saw you drawing this morning.”
Thalia’s attention jerked up. Her eyes were round as saucers. Koit looked at her, and opened the lid.