(no subject)

[thewidewideworld]

{Continued from here}

Sinric heads down the stairs and out into the gardens, a wrap pulled around his shoulders and his hair still damp. He breathes in the scent of approaching evening as if committing it to memory before turning towards the lake.

He has no idea which way Athelstan might have gone but the lake always seems like a good place to start.

Comments

[athelstanthescribe]

"Ah." He grimaces. "Yes, Constantine would have been more - amenable to allowing that."

[thewidewideworld]

"Looking back, I suspect he may have done it on purpose, to remind them all not to take him for granted." Sinric muses, reaching for the branch of the next tree, clambering up. "I look back now and wonder how much of the court politics I was too young and naive to notice."

[athelstanthescribe]

"Well, you were only a child. And even when older, he likely shielded you from most of the complications of it."

[thewidewideworld]

"You may be right." He lays around the branch, dangling lean limbs as he passes a handful of cherries down to Athelstan. "If not to protect our innocence, then to keep a part of his life uncomplicated by court intrigue."

[athelstanthescribe]

Athelstan nods.

"And if it was all-encompassing outside that room, it must have been a welcome reprieve."

[thewidewideworld]

"We were his little birds, his indulgences away from the pressures of his position. Looking back, I realise most people would frown on what was done to us." He sighs, letting his hair fall over his face. "But time has not diminished my love for him."

[athelstanthescribe]

"People from the future are living in a different world", he points out gently. "Perhaps it is a better one in many ways, but they can't understand. You and I were both exceptionally lucky in our slavery."

[thewidewideworld]

He pauses, leaning his weight on a branch to reach for Athelstan, touching his cheek lightly. "We have. And in the loves that have come from them."

[athelstanthescribe]

"To give us the memories of happiness, at least."

He shifts closer, watching Sinric's precarious position.

[thewidewideworld]

Sinric steadies himself, comfortable and secure. He dangles his arms, watching Athelstan's expression in the dying light. "Just so."

[athelstanthescribe]

His expression is uncertain and he isn't meeting Sinric's eyes.

"The future people wouldn't understand that at all."

[thewidewideworld]

"No, no you're right. And in times past I have encountered future people who have been outright cruel around it." He shrugs, flipping down with care and dusting off his dress. "But it doesn't change what I still feel for Constantine."

[athelstanthescribe]

"No more it should. You know he was good to you, within the world as it was."

And after all, it wasn't Constantine who made Sinric a slave. That had already happened.

[thewidewideworld]

"Nor did Ragnar mistreat you." He frowns, troubled by Athelstan's expression. "Or did he?"

[athelstanthescribe]

He shrugs.

"Not nearly as he could have, and not at all since the earliest days. But nothing is the same any more."

[thewidewideworld]

"Athelstan, what's troubling you?" He asks softly, pushing his hair back from his face.

[athelstanthescribe]

He's just said as close as he can get to explaining, and he just shrugs.

[thewidewideworld]

Sinric frowns and holds out his hand, offering Athelstan physical contact if he wants it.

[athelstanthescribe]

Contact of hands, he can deal with.

"Nothing is the same", he says again.

[thewidewideworld]

Then Sinric leave it at that, holding Athelstan's hand. "Things will never be as they were, for any of us. I want to make things as they are now as best they can be."

[athelstanthescribe]

"But they aren't getting better", he says miserably. "They're only getting worse."

[thewidewideworld]

"You finding it harder than before, to feel right in yourself?" He asks softly. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

[athelstanthescribe]

"I don't know", he admits. "And I don't know if things will ever be right again, even in the North."

[thewidewideworld]

Sinric gives his hand a little squeeze. "I understand. I hope you know I will be here for you, no matter what."

[athelstanthescribe]

"I know you will as far as you possibly can. If the bar allows, I mean. And perhaps you'll come back to us in our own time."