Cobalt skies like midnight lies; any

[magnus]

you and I both know that the house is haunted
and you and I both know that the ghost is me

He follows along at her gesturing, not minding the closeness of their bodies. She was easy to talk to, he had discovered, and he was not unhappy about it. There was something about her that put him at ease while also prompting him to open up. He remained guarded about the darker parts of his past, but not because he wanted to keep it hidden; rather, he wanted to protect her from the sharp edges of it.

His laughter is soft and smoky at her line of questioning, but his gaze remains steady, flicking every so often toward her so that his gold-flecked eyes catch her own. “Well, let’s see…” he ponders the first question with a serious face, giving it the weight that it deserved. “I love the color green.” His mind wanders to the lush, rolling hills of Heaven and the wildness of the Jungle’s vines. “It looks like life.”

The next question though is enough to crack his expression a little, something shifting in his eyes. “I grew up with my mother in the Jungle. She was Queen at the time.” His mind wanders back to the days of his childhood when he had run wild and free through the Amazonian kingdom, a strong-willed Prince who was as feral as his mother’s jaguar. He had been in his element—guiltless for being who he was.

“It was indeed nice,” and it had been. Perhaps the happiest he had ever been in his life. There was no shame during those days. He had fought and ran and been one with the sisters around him: a warrior who was not asked to think twice about being such. But times changed that and eventually he learned what it was to feel guilt for the darkness in one’s own heart. He learned to second guess himself and strive to be something he would never achieve. His life was a futile exercise in being someone else.

His smile remains though, such thoughts only an undercurrent to the conversation. “Now it is my turn.” He muses thoughtfully, exaggerating the thoughtfulness with soft sighs and tongue clicking against his teeth. “Where did you grow up?” A pause, “And where is your favorite place to spend your days now?”

MAGNUS

once general. once lord. once king.