The towering fire burnt itself down to embers. Eerie majesty in the wake of destruction. Orange reflected, throbbing like an easy pulse in the rippled reflection over the water.
Yellow and blue.
She'd been sought by him, and reacted with that regal, reserved composure. So cautious, never pushing or pining like the others. Never allowing signs of what his play at testing boundaries had wrought.
Until now. Now she drew close, leaned against his shoulder in a gesture that from this woman, meant more than it seemed. This came after she had spent hours reading him, growing accustomed with him. Now she slept. Safe, trusting. Maybe he wanted her to. Want... Still so new, but firming. Strengthening.
He listened to her breathing as the flames died and morning came.
This wasn't him reacting to a demand or expectation from anyone else. This was her answer to his. It seemed like it should feel wrong given the circumstances, perhaps if Ryheric were anything but a creature of the immediate present, it would feel wrong. Her. This. Many other things, besides.
But it felt far from wrong.
She hid nothing, she resented and harboured bitterness for only one thing - loss. Grave, serious. Not petty, not irrational or contrived, or for her own gain. This woman was not selfish, nor did she see his actions as a goal to benefit her own life or her heart. She saw him. If only she could see in colours like him, then he could ask her what his colour was.
He would learn to feel loss properly from her, he knew. Aerluinil was teaching him more than she realised, and she would teach him far more yet to come, if he had his way.
As he fell asleep the colour gold flickered behind his eyelids, though perhaps it was simply an illusion, or wishful thinking wrought of fatigue, the brightness of the embers reflected in the lake, and the woman's colour.
Yellow, unguarded - beside him.
She was so warm.
