[1] WEEPING MONK // you're not what I was looking for

21| Beauty in Silence {Part One}

═ 𝘽𝙚𝙖𝙪𝙩𝙮 𝙄𝙣 𝙎𝙞𝙡𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚 ═

Lancelot sorts out some of his feelings but is left even more confused when Ari crosses the line between them.

❖

I can feel something so soothing in the way she speaks my name, and there's something in her voice that could numb any kind of pain.
Nothing's ever drawn me like the way she draws me near, for somewhere in her mouth I know are all the things I want so much to hear.

❖

They had lost about five days of travelling whilst Ari was healing, and now when they set off in the morning they were taking things slower than usual because of her. Squirrel didn't seem to mind the pace that they were travelling though, contempt with plodding on towards their destination, the horses didn't seem to mind it too much either. This day seemed to go by quicker than the rest, and they had made good ground despite their slower pace.

Ari tried not to think about what had happened yesterday, pushing it away with her grief and all her other emotions like she usually did. Each time Lancelot gave her that look, the one which silently asked if she was okay, Ari just said that she was fine and they carried on, insisting on riding her own horse this time. She could not quite hold his gaze, for something in his eyes had shifted, the blue had tinted further like the ocean and each time she saw them she wanted to be closer, to thread her hand back into his again. I'll catch you if you start to fall, the promise had rolled off of his tongue too easily and the fact that it had come from him, a man who had been incapable of anything but murder and had never cared for anyone else in his life, made it all the more special. She knew that he had meant it, and it only made her mind disconnect from her heart further.

Lancelot couldn't remember the last time that he had been this far south. The River Wren had started to taper off into its constituent valleys and streams and he could tell that they were getting close to where the Druid had said to go. He wondered how the Fey would have gotten off of their ships unseen since Byzantine was a port village, this much he did know. Perhaps they docked somewhere else or ran aground further along the coast? He would find out soon enough.

He couldn't quite understand why Ari wasn't completely looking at him, why she was shying away her gaze from his eyes as if he was burning her. Just when he started to work her out, she shifted and he was back to the start again. He didn't need to think too hard to remember how they were the night before, how he held her hand in his and promised not to let her fall. He didn't even recognise himself as he thought back on it. He still felt it, the touch of her skin lingering like a dream he didn't want to wake up from between his fingers. He was about to get lost in his own mind as they walked along between the trees when,

"What do you think would have happened to you if the Burning Night didn't happen?" Lancelot's eyes came over to Squirrel from atop his great horse. The child always came out with the most random questions, and this one was strangely wise and ominous for the child. Perhaps you don't give the boy enough credit? Squirrel had listened to Ari's stories and their conversations and had pieced several of the facts together by now.