a perfect halo Posted on July 9, 2023 at 10:00:55 AM by Yıldırım
painted in flames
Yıldırım lapses into quiet contemplation as he waits for his companion to speak, dipping his regal head in acknowledgement of Rigel’s answer. And when the night-sky stallion gently maneuvers the conversation towards a far more serious topic, the gold and white male shifts his posture, turning to grant Rigel his full attention, storm-green eyes focused, tongue silent behind his teeth.
The Arab-Teke listens and considers, and though a sharp spike of energy sings through his veins, the palomino clenches his jaw to stop from speaking until Rigel has said his piece and seeks an honest answer. “She has never seemed so to me,” Yıldırım says at length, careful and considerate in his choice of words, and the tone in which he delivers them.
“I admit I have been reticent, and distant.” The golden stallion allowed his gaze to drift, toward the sheltered oasis, where the topic of their conversation hopefully slept soundly. It had only ever been out of respect for his Sheik and Mira, for their precious daughter, for his place amongst them. “You must understand - ” he stars, and then pauses, to shift his weight, and amend his words. “I know you would understand, my sister and I were raised without a people, because of the love of our parents…” There is a tightness in his throat then, that renders him quiet for a moment, as he struggles with - and then swallows - his grief.
Yıldırım blinks, and turns away momentarily, to look up to the starry heavens once more. The constellations were familiar to him, but he hadn’t seen them as they were now. The desert where he’d been born was a long way from where he stood now. “I know that things are different here. It’s why she told us stories of you, of this Sadim, because she knew we would be safe amongst you, and accepted.” It stirred up that same old ache in his chest, speaking of Shahrazad.
“But I never imagined I would ever come to know such favor, or be…” He drops his gaze, and his head, and his voice, to murmur something under his breath that had long sat like a weight in his chest, serving as an anchor to him, keeping him grounded to this life. “Twice-Blessed.” He is uncertain, hesitant even to give voice to these secret, innermost thoughts that he has spoken of to no-one, not even his most beloved twin. “When I lost Sana in the floodwaters, and -”and everyone else “- I thought it was for Caria alone that I survived…”
Though his strength of spirit had saved him and his sister both, Yıldırım was well aware of his sheltered youth and lack of experience in the grander scheme of things. But change was on the horizon, that was the truth that rippled through Rigel’s words like an undercurrent, whether or not Yıldırım embraced it. And if he turned away now… “I cannot even begin to fathom how, Rigel, but I am convinced that if I were to break Nashira’s heart, I would be breaking my own.” Even as he speaks, a tremble in his voice, Yıldırım finds himself bracing internally for whatever were to come next.
Had he just risked everything, giving voice to something that was incomprehensible even to him? In his heart, though, the golden stallion knew he would do anything for the princess, whom he had watched over from his little distance ever since she’d been born, and whom he’d come to love in secret with a depth that none could fathom.