He has no way of knowing the pain that Warrick has suffered, or the grief that is rooted within him; he has no way of knowing how he aches and pains, how he longs for things that are just out of reach. The things that he can see and not grasp, twinkling there within reach, teasing him for the distance. Still, if he could, perhaps he would have empathized—perhaps he could have told him stories of life stolen from his lungs and loves he had watched bled dry before him. Perhaps he could have told him about the stone that sits in his chest sometimes, or the way he finds himself longing for years floating in the saltwater.
But Magnus, of course, has no way of knowing these things, of knowing these pains, and he instead can simply only giving him the courtesy of his polite behavior. He maintains his smile, watching Neon in the background but not calling out to her again. She was elusive and wild and trying to tame her would be as futile as trying to drink the ocean into your belly. He had known she was but a flickering light in his life the second they had met. And while he cherished the warmth, he appreciated it for what it was:
Temporary
So instead of calling to her, he just nods his head to her, hoping she knew she was always welcome, before turning his attention back to Warrick. “A change of scenery can be a mighty powerful thing,” he muses, thinking of all the times he has upheaved his life to turn the chapter to new one. “I would be happy to tell you whatever you want to know about Tephra. It is a fairly new land—” a grim smile twists his inky, scarred lips, as he amends, “Well, all of the lands are now fairly new, I suppose.” A tilt of the head in thought before he continues, “But there is plenty for me to share, if you would like to hear it.”
out of the blue out into the loneliest place that you'll ever know
I carried the world just as far as I could but the damage had taken its toll
![[Image: gqYjsHr.png]](https://i.postimg.cc/KjqNDKxc/gqYjsHr.png)