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What do you see up there?
Everything and nothing, all at once, fading lights blinking in and out of existence much like eyes would on a person or an animal, the sky a spider and the world its web, each individual trapped and waiting to be consumed by something far larger than them.
“The stars,” They say instead, because it’s the expected answer and Ente’s thoughts were far too uncomfortable to voice aloud, in case something was heard when it shouldn’t have been. “The moon, the sky.” A list of perfectly normal sights - a simple game of I Spy with a stranger. “Am I supposed to see something else?” Their tail flickers in and out of reality, mimicking the stars above, uncertain whether to remain or cease to exist entirely.
It was dark tonight, much like every other night really, standing atop a tower they hadn’t quite visited since weeks now.
Has it only been that long?
“Depends,” She replies, a smile on her face, sharp and pointed and far too wide, uncomfortable on the visage she presented. “Lots of people say they see different things, and sometimes it’s the things they mention first that are the most telling.” Large eyes focus on their every movement and they have that familiar urge to turn heel and run, the tower seemingly a magnet to all sorts of Strange and Unusual Persons.
If she even was that.
“What’s wrong, pnw?” A step towards them and Ente falters, instinctively stepping back, a hand upon the barrier. Still, she makes no move to get closer, the slightest raise of a brow, her own hand raised to motion for the changeling to settle. “Lost in thought?”
A shake of their head, ignoring the static around them in favour of asking a question. “What did it tell you about me?”
“You spoke of stars first.” There’s no sign of her elaborating, turning on her heel to return to look towards the sky above them. “Have you seen what’s out there? Met or heard?”
“Not everything,” Have they even seen anything, really? In the large scheme of things, they’ve only ever walked the moon, and even then, it was only one moon of only one plane, for less than a month, a week. Not even a year. “I don’t know.” An easier answer to settle for this time, uncertainty about the exact nature of a patron who danced too much around things leaving them in a daze of misunderstanding and confusion, even when they had an answer to offer. Much like her, really. “Have you?”
“There’s a lot, isn’t there? Do you think a lifetime would be enough?” Certainly not, and they both knew that much. It would take far longer than just one mortal lifespan to see everything the worlds could ever offer, walk where no other like them had walked before. “Would you care to see? To meet them all? Know them and have them know of you?”
Ente can’t help but turn their attention away from her figure and back up towards the pillars of the tower, not quite meeting the gaze of endless stars. “I…I have questions.” Maybe, on a usual day or evening they may have said yes immediately, agreed to it without thinking but there was something inherently unnerving about her and the skies and the unwavering attention of the night sky. “I’d like them answered.” But would they care to meet something that could consume the skies? Ever-observant, knowing, powerful in a way that meant-
“We’re much alike in that regard,” And though she was no longer watching them directly, the changeling couldn’t help but feel her utmost attention was paid to their every tiniest breath, the slightest twitch of a limb or the shift of a hair. “Do you remember every answer you’ve ever received? What would you do if you suddenly forgot? If not every memory was quite Right? Off and hazy - would you ask again or never ask in fear of repeating yourself?”
“Again, ask, ask again.” That one was easier, simpler, and yet it made them worried for whether she might steal their memory of this - the night. Would they even want the memory? Yes, they would. If only to remember when they saw her next. Would she even look the same? “You didn’t answer.”
A shrug, her back still towards them. “I’m not too certain.” Wasn’t that a thought? In some ways it was a settling thing, to know that she couldn’t see everything - know everything. It would have been good to get an answer, or more out of her of course, but the fact that she- “I don’t really remember anymore.”
Oh.
“What is your memory like?”
“Hazy,” The word falls into laughter as she turns on her heel again, a swish of fabric with the movement, a wind picking up and stirring the sands below them. “A second, a day, a month, a year. Hard to keep track, hard to tell them all apart. Why did you think I asked?” Her smile is placid, painted and doll-like, unfading as she studies them unblinkingly, owlish eyes observing and piecing them apart. “We could be quite alike - if not for a couple of things. Two birds of similar feathers. In the end, it comes down to the thread we are spun with but we could be working towards weaving a similar image - wouldn’t you think? Or maybe we have a similar purpose, even if the end goal is entirely different.” What did that mean? A thread? Did she mean that every thread had a point where it came to an end, even if some were unreasonably long. Or did it? It wasn't entirely strange for a rope to be un-ending when magic existed so if- “Do you have any other roosts, pnw? Or are you always found loitering around crumbling towers?”
That word again.
ˈPiːnaw?
A nickname, of sorts, where names haven’t been exchanged - and had it been someone else, they may have been willing to ask, but she hadn’t blinked yet. Hadn’t breathed. Watched them without needing her eyes. What would she ask for a name? Maybe if the sun was up, and there weren't a thousand other watchers, maybe if they had back up and maybe if they- “It’s a good spot.” Ente replies, unsure whether to divulge anymore, half of them wanting to try another language entirely to see if she didn’t quite manage to understand them but something in the furthest crevices of their mind told them it might be a Bad Idea. Perhaps she would know already, and they would simply tell her more without meaning to, leave them at a disadvantage where they knew far less. Would there be a point in saying anything else? In the end, an answer would really depend on- “Why?” Why did she need to know? Want to know?
“Why not?” She grins again and it’s something not so civilised, if any of her expressions could have been called civilised before, a glint of something almost feral in that glowing, unblinking stare. “I’d like us to be friends, at a later date.” So she didn’t think them friends yet. Wasn’t that comforting?
“But we can make do with a chance encounter.”
We as in us?
“I need to head back to the dorms.” An excuse, really, they hadn’t made any plans of returning this soon, a thought to linger in the tower overnight initially there, at least until they found they had company. “There’s a storm.” And they try and smile behind their mask, but it ends up more of a grimace than anything else, heart beating faster as hers surely didn’t.
“Not yet there isn’t,” The only helpful observation she provides, watching but not arguing any further.
“I should go.”
“Should you?”
Should they? Would it be a mistake to return? “Yes?” Their body jolts with that response, pieces of them in a haze of static and multicolour amidst the darkness of the night and the shades of the desert. “Without a doubt.” Ente adds, quick to amend the question into a concrete answer.
“Alright.” A wave of her hand in the direction of the stairwell. “Until next time, Ente.” It’s a promise, or an oath, that much isn’t hard to pick up, but equally it’s permission and they breathe a sigh of relief, turning their back with only a moment of hesitation as they feel the pinpricks of her stare on their neck, the sensation of the stars ceaselessly blinking above them not lessening the idea - the knowledge - that they were being observed, the winds howling as pieces of sand get swept up in rising winds, warning signs of dust storms on the horizon.
It would be an executive decision to no longer go to the tower alone, or at least with no plans to meet with someone there in the first place. Twice in one year was two times too many, even if the first time was more bewildering than it was-
It’s definitely the threat of weather turning for the worst that makes them speed up, nearing a run as the tower disappears from sight.
No desire to be lost in a desert.
Certainly not because the feeling of her watching didn’t follow them until the first sign of light from the main buildings making up the rest of the Lorehold campus. Certainly not because they couldn’t place how she knew their name, when they never introduced themselves.
Just the weather.
Nothing more.