Sunset

The sunset was a golden halo at her back, blackening the surrounding city as though the walls had been covered in a fine soot and it was only the radiance of such a woman that could brighten a dismal place. In reality, the white marble walls were more brilliant than the blue silk dress with its golden embroidery inlaid upon the bodice, welcoming the deepening darkness with defiance.

She was poised against the backdrop of the city, eyes distant as she peered across the water at him without truly seeing. The street she stood upon was bare of people or carts, leaving a clear path from the very heart of the citadel where they stood to the farthest gate at the west end. Around her shoulders the towers rose in great spires, piercing the sky where they ended in sharp points talls enough that one had to crane to look, yet if a stranger had stood beside him and seen the same sight, that man’s eyes would be drawn only to the blue-clad woman.

This was her city. He was the intruder here.

“My Lady,” he greeted softly. The water of the lake lapped at his ankles where he had waded across and stopped just short of the shore. Moralyth was a place where permission was paramount to entering, lest a man wish to walk away less his pride–or worse. She seemed to stare through him, over him, behind him; anywhere but at him until he spoke, upon which colorless, unnatural eyes sharpened unnervingly upon his face and did not waver. He wondered sometimes if she actually could see, but whether there was sight in her eyes, the Lady of Moralyth always Saw.

“Aleith. You come again.” Knowing. It was never a question. “I can offer you no more than I have in recent visits.”

He smiled wryly, sighing, “I know, Lady. I wish only to walk among your walls as I have in the past.” Aleith watched with patience as a frown flashed across her smooth, ageless face, those clear eyes reflecting puzzlement.

“You wish a walk?”

“I do.”

She hesitated, the confusion palpable. She was ancient, wise, but Aleith knew that great age often drew the humanity from the very core of a person. The Lady no longer understood the pleasure of a walk. To her, there was only the Watch.

“Come.”

She stepped aside, and it was as though the doors had been thrown wide, the city bared to the light of the setting sun. Light poured and danced across stone, spilling into crevasses and banishing the blackness, clearing the soot to reveal brilliant white so clean that the sun was thrown away from its surface as though from the strongest shield. Bathed in that warmth and brightness, Aleith closed his eyes and smiled as one bare foot stepped upon the heated stone, letting the light flood over him and wreath him in sunset.

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~ by eeratka on February 24, 2011.