For Rachy: The Upland Road (PG)
Dec 31, 2013 11:59:05 GMT 10
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Rachy, Ankhiale, and 1 more like this
Post by max on Dec 31, 2013 11:59:05 GMT 10
Title: The Upland Road
Rating: PG
For: Rachy
Prompt: 4. Post-Mastiff: everything has changed.
Summary: The current of life is ever onward. Aniki/Rosto.
Notes and warnings: Sorry if this isn't along the lines you wanted. The summary line is Kobodaishi, the title is from my favourite Baxter poem. Aaand if there are grotesque formatting issues I apologise -- I'm posting from a phone and will fix it when I can.
Happy New Year.
Sabine comes back to Corus heart-bleak fatigued. Beka, more beautiful than usual; a new, wholesome mage-lad tied to her apron strings. Tunstall doesn't come back at all, but they have lived through enough to guess what happened out there in the provinces; and to know better than to ask.
The morning after the abolition they meet on the roof of the Dove, but get rained indoors. All seasons in Corus are wetter than she thinks is at all healthy, but according to Rosto she had complained about Hamrkeng in much the same way, when first he knew her.
(I was fifteen, she usually protests when he brings this up, conscious of how heat rises to her cheeks with the irony. Fifteen years old, almost a woman and yet not quite in the ways that seem most important, now that she's proper grown. Fifteen, with the tundra winds still a singing and a recklessness in her bones.)
She wrings the downpour from her hair and feels an arm wrap around her waist.
'Saved you one,' Rosto says, and tousles a towel over her head.
She hadn't heard him coming because he is the best thief she's ever known. Even now, his voice is almost as soft as Pounce's, in the moments when the uncanny creature blinks amethyst eyes up at a mot and speaks in private silence. When she wraps her hair in the cloth he kisses the underside of her jaw.
Beyond the shutters the Lower City is being besieged by water; from the next room wafts the welcome fragrance of fresh bread. They've been kings of Corus four years, now, and of everyone they love, have changed least.
It doesn't feel all that bad, though.
She walks over to the doorway and looks out into the main room. Tansy is already scolding Beka's hapless boy for getting crumbs in the honey while Kora and Ersken stand by, trying not to laugh. Phelan is the only one who sees her standing there, smiles in soft acknowledgement, and doesn't let on.
'It's alright, this life,' voice low, for Rosto alone.
His hand at the small of her back and her sword sheathed at her side.
'That it is, my lovely one.'
And it is.
Rating: PG
For: Rachy
Prompt: 4. Post-Mastiff: everything has changed.
Summary: The current of life is ever onward. Aniki/Rosto.
Notes and warnings: Sorry if this isn't along the lines you wanted. The summary line is Kobodaishi, the title is from my favourite Baxter poem. Aaand if there are grotesque formatting issues I apologise -- I'm posting from a phone and will fix it when I can.
Happy New Year.
Sabine comes back to Corus heart-bleak fatigued. Beka, more beautiful than usual; a new, wholesome mage-lad tied to her apron strings. Tunstall doesn't come back at all, but they have lived through enough to guess what happened out there in the provinces; and to know better than to ask.
The morning after the abolition they meet on the roof of the Dove, but get rained indoors. All seasons in Corus are wetter than she thinks is at all healthy, but according to Rosto she had complained about Hamrkeng in much the same way, when first he knew her.
(I was fifteen, she usually protests when he brings this up, conscious of how heat rises to her cheeks with the irony. Fifteen years old, almost a woman and yet not quite in the ways that seem most important, now that she's proper grown. Fifteen, with the tundra winds still a singing and a recklessness in her bones.)
She wrings the downpour from her hair and feels an arm wrap around her waist.
'Saved you one,' Rosto says, and tousles a towel over her head.
She hadn't heard him coming because he is the best thief she's ever known. Even now, his voice is almost as soft as Pounce's, in the moments when the uncanny creature blinks amethyst eyes up at a mot and speaks in private silence. When she wraps her hair in the cloth he kisses the underside of her jaw.
Beyond the shutters the Lower City is being besieged by water; from the next room wafts the welcome fragrance of fresh bread. They've been kings of Corus four years, now, and of everyone they love, have changed least.
It doesn't feel all that bad, though.
She walks over to the doorway and looks out into the main room. Tansy is already scolding Beka's hapless boy for getting crumbs in the honey while Kora and Ersken stand by, trying not to laugh. Phelan is the only one who sees her standing there, smiles in soft acknowledgement, and doesn't let on.
'It's alright, this life,' voice low, for Rosto alone.
His hand at the small of her back and her sword sheathed at her side.
'That it is, my lovely one.'
And it is.