Magnus listened with a crooked smile as Weir explained the animal, his gold-flecked gaze going to the horizon as if he could see the animal that they discussed. He could barely imagine having as much data stuffed in his brain as Weir seemed to have; it was difficult enough to sort through what he did know, but to add on even more to that? To know the names of the animals that scurried across the ground? To know them by more than one name? That seemed unthinkable. “One day, I would very much like to listen to you explain all of Tephra’s residents to me, Weir.” He should know who lives here, at the very least.
Still smiling, he considered the red roan. “Do you remember the day we met in the Gates?” His eyes go dark with the memory. “You had come visiting with that one stallion—what was his name?” He paused, frowning before brightening. “Fynnegan!” His crooked smile softened. “It feels like forever ago.”
Perhaps it was.
His attention, however, was stolen by Eira and his expression darkened. “I’m not certain. A few weeks at the very least.” Guilt ate at him. He should have been more vigilant about keeping track of her, but with so many newcomers calling Tephra home, it was no longer easy to know where people were and whether they remained. “I want to look for her, but I don’t have the faintest idea of where to start.” He had no magic to his name and no real information about her origins. She was a big of a mystery to him as the day that she had come to Tephra. Except, now, he knew the sound of her spine when it cracked and the way it looked when it healed. He knew the fire in her that kept her asking for more, kept her pushing herself.
He knew the pain of her absence, the hole she left behind.
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)