#narael

Nari stepped out of the way of a moving shard that settled into the wall behind them and weaved through the slow moving flurry surrounding Skrael. She wrapped her arms around their waist, resting a cheek against the small of their back. 

Settled on the soft rugs and pelts that layered the floor, Nari watched Skrael. They brought the ice around them, letting the panes rotate lazily around them, reflecting things in the room and things not. As they attempted to arrange them into a larger mirror, Nari played with the sapling she had grown in their hand, growing and shrinking it to and from seed. Finally giving up on their shards, Skrael let them fall into water and reform as a slick frozen floor.

Skrael settled beside Nari, tucking his legs beneath themself. They gave her a soft smile before turning to their canvas of the huge sheer wall of ice before them. Thin pale rings of magic danced around Skrael’s fingers as they pressed their hand into the ice. It rippled under their touch like a lake disturbed by leaping fish. Darkness poured out from the place of their touch, pulling the wall into shadow before constellations lit onto it with a flash. A perfect replica of the night sky was laid out, like a mirror upturned to the stars.

Nari scooted to them and laid her arms over their shoulders, resting her chin there too. Skrael dragged their fingertips around, sending the stars whirling and the moon through its phases, humming softly under their breath. As he adjusted what was projected on the ice, Nari watched lazily from over their shoulder. 

“Ah- there it is.” Skrael said.

Making a noise of interest, Nari peered at the tablet of soft clay he had picked up. 

“The date,” Skrael scrawled a few marks into the clay with a stylus, “of our next eclipse.”

“Summer?”