ashen light
the apparent faint illumination of the
dark side of the moon
She is warm in his arms, and though she is pale it is a radiant fairness, not the faintness of shadows that Utgard Loki already knows too well -- so he smiles, as the wolves descend. The pain that flares across his arm is sharp and clear as joy, even if he has never known the latter.
She does not look at him, afterwards, but she does not need to; her voice is enough to make Utgard Loki wonder. There is nothing in it which he can recognise -- but there might be, he thinks, something in it that he may learn.
---
dichotomy
the
phase of the moon or an inferior planet in which half its disc
appears illuminated
Utgard Loki looks at the moon every night, now: waits and counts the days as the mocking grin of light widens and grows towards the full moon, waits and counts the days as the full moon comes and goes, alone.
This waiting is not about hope. But he thinks, perhaps, that it makes the wine taste less bitter at night.
/
Tonight the moon has settled back into the sky, but Utgard Loki has given up watching. The wine tastes the same. Utgard Loki thinks it probably does, at least; he notices little beyond Loki's laughing, unimpressed gaze.
Loki's breath is warm against his skin, his touch unhesitating and indifferent. Utgard Loki breathes, breathes, closes his eyes. The difference, he thinks, is that Loki doesn't believe anything is missing.
---
terminator
the boundary
of the illuminated part of the disc of a planet or moon
Lines drawn, so: the crooked curve of Loki's grin, Utgard Loki's breath catching on unsaid words, Loki's hand pressed against Utgard Loki's ribs, fingers spread, keeping the distance between them. This is another step towards the drawing of conclusions. Loki's gaze is cold, like his laughter, yet his touch burns as sharp and clear as anger when it traces the uneven path of Utgard Loki's spine.
Loki's hair is pale in the moonlight, shadowed into grey. The similarities end there: Utgard Loki looks up at that knowing smile and can recognise nothing, not even the lines of his own likeness.