[Flashback] Similarly Fated (Volinir)

[Renalee]

As the moon progressed on his celestial, path that first whisper of Volinir’s name became just a distant memory. Ren had moaned the three syllables, she had screamed them time and time again and had filled them with so much lust and passion, and affection that they would never sound the same in her ears. The girl had never felt as complete as she did right now in Volinir’s arms. Even her Kelvic soul which dreamt of belonging to someone every moment of every day hadn’t suspected what it would truly feel to belong to him. Ren’s hands had travelled Volinir’s body, after accepting his help in baring his milky skin, paler than hers even. Her fingers had traced his chest, learned the way his muscles rippled under his skin. She had felt the points in his body where hiss fragile bones almost broke through. She had kissed his skin and trailed her tongue over his scars. She had tasted him and had drowned in his scent. Every moment was fluid water and burning fire at the same time. Ren felt as light as a feather on the air as the man kissed her and more grounded, more certain of her own self than she had ever been when he claimed her. The young girl had never know what it was to feel immortal in your mortality until she had given herself to the Symenestra. Even now when she was lying in his arms in an easily shared silence, the breath in both their chests slowly returning to normal, Ren couldn’t stop reaching out to him. Her forehead would press into his shoulder. Her fingers would trace a pattern on his chest before reaching up to run through his hair. Her lips would plant a feather-light kiss on his neck or trace a line on his jaw. The girl was drinking in his scent and his presence with a need that should have been sated, but was very much akin to that of those dying of thirst. There was just a single thing that crept under the peaceful haze that had settled over her mind. ”Can you stay?” Her voice broke the silence, quiet and hesitant. “I don’t want to be alone. Please?” The last word was no more than a whisper as Ren looked up and sought his eyes with hers.

[Volinir Orchid]

Ashen lips teased her neck and met her pink ones. Soft hands explored the myriad curves of her body. Soon everything blurred together in a wild medley of colors and sensations. The piercing green of her eyes before another plunge, the shimmering gold of her hair as it brushed against him, her warmth, her seducing smell, the sounds of their ecstasy building, and the almost spiritual sense of connection at their release. His senses sharpened, colors vibrant and sounds acute, skin sensitive as raw flesh. The shack melted out of thought and existence. Everything did, except for Renalee. Eventually though, he had to come back to earth. As the tempest of their love died down, Volinir finally became painfully, agonizingly aware of what he'd just done. Far more than possibly squandering one of his few chances to sire, more than (in his mind) taking advantage of a vulnerable woman. Just for a few chimes of carnal pleasure, "I killed her..." Waves of guilt crashed on him, guilt that was lessened, but not wiped out by the gentle nudges of the girl in his arms. Still, he couldn't just shut her out. He'd wind a lock of her golden hair around his finger, or nuzzle up against her when she went to kiss him again. He almost got started again, except that doing that would mean increasing the already high chance of her death. His eyes fell on the moon by coincidence, and relief washed over him. Tonight wasn't his night, so to speak. She would be safe. Suddenly her voice shattered the silence like glass. ”Can you stay? I don’t want to be alone. Please?” He hesitated for a few moments. Saying yes meant putting her in even further danger, and irking the ire of a Nitrozian. Saying no meant breaking this beautiful flower's heart. A tear trickled down Volinir's cheek, and he squeezed her as if she'd be torn away if he didn't hold her hard enough. He kissed the crown of her head, and whispered, "Always."

[Renalee]

There was nothing more dangerous than giving yourself to a Symenestra. Ren had listened to the horror stories time and time again, perched on her usual stool in The Drunken Fish at the Sunberth’s Docks. The Sailors would come to drink their mizas away and after the second drink, sometimes even the first their tongues would untie. They would share what they had seen and done or what others had seen and done and told them about it. When ships from Kalea arrived it was a given that the night would be spent talking about the mysterious spider race of Kalinor. Ren would sit in her corner, wide-eyed and quiet and would absorb every word that was said, every embellished story. It was talk about the terrible things Symenestra did to females from other races that could sober up the worst drunkards and brought grief, or frowns, or anger to the wind-marked faces of the sailors. It was after someone on their fifth pint described in gruesome details the death of the cousin of his barber’s son’s wife who was unlucky enough to be captured by a ‘Sym dog’ that the tavern suddenly quieted. Throats would be cleared, eyes would be downcast and feet would shuffle until someone would dare speak about what Zulrav sent their ship last in an unnecessarily loud and falsely jovial voice. But wrapped tightly in Volinir’s arms Ren thought it must have all been lies, for she had never felt safer and she had never know happiness quite like that before encountering the enigmatic Symenestra. This man who had freed her, who had looked at her with kind and tender eyes, who had brought her ecstasy she didn’t know she could experience - this man couldn’t possibly be cruel. He couldn’t possibly have hurt her. So she begged him to stay, hoping against all hope that he might be hers for just another moment longer. The thought that she would have to part with him was unbearable. Yet, despite her desires, Ren thought she must have heard him wrong at first, when the single word she had most craved from him was whispered in the space between them. But the man’s arms around her had tightened their hold, pulling her impossibly close to his chest and holding her there. The girl laid there still, listening to Volinir’s heart and as he kissed her head something from deep within her chest rose and took a hold of her throat, suddenly making it hard to breath. The blonde pushed herself gently away from his chest, wanting to look in the man’s eyes and see his expression, read his promise on the face that in this moment felt as familiar as her own. What she saw instead was a single, crystal clear tear rolling down against the smooth, pale skin and glistening softly under the stray ray of moonlight that was making it through the cracks in the roof. Her heart constricted painfully and with that the hold on her throat tightened. Ren rose a little more, one hand on Volinir’s chest for support and the other rising to caress the side of his face that remained dry. She leaned forward, breath ghosting momentarily against his cheek, before her mouth caught the droplet of salty water and kissed away the trail it had left behind. Ren’s lips then moved to hover against the man’s and she whispered, because speaking in anything else above that seemed wrong. “I don’t know much about fate or deities. I don’t know if the stories about them are true or not. They’re human things. I don’t understand them well. But... Perhaps...” The words failed her as that inexplicable emotion threatened to overtake her soul again. Closing her eyes and shutting the confusion away Ren crossed the distance between they lips and claimed his mouth for hers again. In that single gesture she tried pouring all she couldn’t or didn’t know how to voice. It was so much easier to give in to the instincts that had never failed her before and kiss Volinir like she would if her life depended on it. It certainly felt like it did.

[Volinir Orchid]

The sailors weren't completely wrong. Volinir was more than familiar with the harvests; the search for surrogates by the first born of each family. Indeed, the harvest was what had brought him to Ravok in the first place. The only difference between the reality of harvests and the stories lay in the technique. Most Symenestra would do as Volinir did, with different intentions, and a great deal more celibacy. It wouldn't do to damage them, after all. Even when they were in Kalinor, for the most part surrogates were treated as honored guests. Honored guests who weren't allowed to leave, but it wasn't an unpleasant experience. Well, other than the whole death by baby venom bit. That could be icky. It was the reason they needed surrogates in the first place. Usually. Volinir was one of the few exceptions. Harvests weren't something he thought of often, however, and certainly not with Renalee. Volinir wasn't crying from sadness, but from joy. She had helped him to feel alive again, and he was so full of love he felt like he might burst. His arm wound loosely around her waist when she rose up, and a hand moved to rest on the one Ren had laid on his chest. The half sun tattoo on it glared back at her like a condemning eye, but Volinir's were filled with nothing but adoration. He stroked her head as she kissed his tears away, half expecting to wake up in the Estate. There was no way there could be a girl like this in Ravok. His heart started hammering in his chest when she moved to his mouth, heard her say, “I don’t know much about fate or deities. I don’t know if the stories about them are true or not. They’re human things. I don’t understand them well. But... Perhaps...” Before he could respond, he was swept back into the dream scape of their passion, his fingers twining themselves in her glistering locks.

[Renalee]

Love. Whenever Ren had considered the feeling it had alway been in some way connected to her bonded. This single person who would become more important than anything or anyone else and for whom she would be prepared to give her life in an instant. Because that’s what love was, wasn’t it? Loyalty, and affection, and belonging to and with someone. It turned out love was so much more. Love was luck, and fate, and need, and passion, and confusion, and pain, and... and...and.... Love was Volinir. His lips tasted of Summer and of sweetness, like some of those mysterious fruits Ren had gotten to try as a child, which burst in your mouth, filling it with a luscious syrup you simply couldn’t get enough of. Both his hair and his skin were the softest of silk and in the otherwise dark hut, where Leth’s light barely reached, he looked like a creature that was out of this world. His scent which was the only thing left in her lungs was intoxicating, the rush making her lose sense of anything else that wasn’t Volinir. If there was poison on his lips and if it had entered her system the girl wouldn’t have been able to tell. She was too lost in him. Pulling away from him after what felt like mere moments, but was probably many chimes of shared breaths, Ren laid back down against the man’s chest, head nestled in the crook of his neck. A small, satisfied sigh left her lips as she pressed herself as close to his body as she could. Her hand was holding his over his stomach and she was looking at the obsidian claws that stood out - beautiful and deadly - against the milk of his navel. Her eyes then moved to the marks on his wrist, fingers following the shift to gently rub at the marred skin. “Why did you stay in Ravok,” Ren spoke softly when it felt alright to break the silence. “I wouldn’t have been able to... after this.” Her voice held bitterness that was easy to trace. The black branding on Volinir’s hand was burning an angry hole in Ren’s heart, pronouncing its verdict with a cruel finality - Slave. She wanted to make it disappear, take it upon herself if she had to, just so the pain and desperation, and helplessness the man must have felt could be erased. She brought his hand to her lip, planting a kiss over the outline of the half sun, as if she could alter the meaning with the affection the gesture carried and through the sheer power of her will. Ren wanted to know what had happened to the handsome Symenestra. Knowing his pain might just help her find a way of easing it. She couldn’t ask however, not wanting to bring up memories that he might have preferred staying buried. All she could hope was that if she could show him how much he had come to mean to her in the last few bells the knowledge would bring him a form of joy and peace.

[Volinir Orchid]

She was hypnotic, irresistible, divine. While Volinir was far from innocent, he'd never experienced anything close to the raw passion of Renalee's love, and when she finally pulled away, the Symenestra lifted himself up almost a foot off the ground, reluctant to let her go. Peace was something hard for Volinir to come by, but lying on the soft wood, idly stroking Renalee's bare shoulder while she played with his hand, it was hard to think that everything wouldn't turn out fine, or to grasp just how difficult a task hiding would be. When she inquired about his choice of location, he sobered up, however. "Ravok's on a lake. The only way out is by boat, and no one will give a slave a ride out." It hadn't stopped him from trying, but all his escape attempts thus far crashed and burned. The difference this time, of course, was that he would be hiding instead of running. Plans and thoughts of plans were pushed to the back of his mind as Ren's soft lips pressed against his skin again. He brushed any loose locks of hair out of her eyes and trailed his fingers down her neck, lightly tracing the red ring where iron used to chafe skin. "It doesn't matter, though. There's too many non humans here, and the Docks are too big to search." he murmured reassuringly. His mentioning of non humans brought to mind something Ren had said earlier. "That reminds me... You said faith was a human thing. If you're not a human... What are you?" Whatever the answer was, Volinir doubted it would make much of a difference. She was still the same Renalee. She was still the girl he loved.

[Renalee]

[quote="Renalee"]

Volinir’s gentle hand on her shoulder was sending something akin to electric shocks that spread in a pleasant tingling sensation throughout her whole body. Ren couldn’t comprehend why the smallest of touches could have such a profound effect when she had already spent the better part of the night, learning to know his body in the most intimate way. In the end it didn’t really matter why. Only the ‘how’ was important. And that was deliciously sweet. "Ravok's on a lake. The only way out is by boat, and no one will give a slave a ride out." His voice was graver than she had heard it before and the girl thought she could hear a little bit of her own bitterness in it. ‘But you’re no longer a slave!’, Ren suddenly wanted to say, but knew that the marks on his wrists and his neck would tell a different story to any guard that was looking. And look they would, needing only the smallest of provocation to give out punishment, make use of their weapons or worse - detain him and bring him back to the pits. Slave. She hated the word so much. From the moment Ren’s human teeth had sunk into the neck of the slaver left to keep an eye on her she had thought of running. Nothing was more important than finding a way out of the city and into the wild again. She would be no one’s toy, no one’s pet, no one’s slave. But when Volinir spoke of a ‘search’ the Kelvic knew he meant for them to hide rather than run. And Ren found herself considering it with the immediacy only complete, unquestionable trust in someone could bring. If it was for him... she would stay in a heartbeat. Decision she didn’t know she would be faced with already made with ease, Ren thought of rising and claiming the man’s mouth again. And she would have, if not for the words Volinir chose to speak next. "That reminds me... You said faith was a human thing. If you're not a human... What are you?" The Kelvic had never thought of herself as an animal - at least not in the way humans understood the word. She had seen herself as someone who simply was lucky enough to belong in two words. While some human mannerisms and concepts still felt foreign to her she had grown up amongst them and felt like it was her right to walk with them as an equal. Just like it was her right to run with the cougars in the wild. It wasn’t until that horrible winter day more than a Season ago, when she had felt the weigh of a collar for the first time, that she realized that perhaps she had no rights at all. At least not in the eyes of those she thought of as equal to her. But that realization was nothing compared to the one that settled in the pit of her stomach, cold and cutting as ice. Fear gripped her heart, unmoving and unforgiving. What if the moment she told Volinir she was a Kelvic - and she had to, he had asked - he thought of her as an ‘animal’ - a creature to be disregarded and scorned? What if those beautiful amethyst eyes which she already loved so much were wiped clear of all tenderness and filled with disgust instead? The thought was too horrifying to contemplate. Ren’s hand let go of the man’s curling into a fist on his chest instead. Her eyes focused on a spot on the floor as she slowly filled her lungs with air, trying to gain time. Volinir’s sweet scent invaded her senses again and she clung to it, memorizing every nuance, as if it would be ripped away from her the moment she said what needed to said. For all she knew, it might. “I’m a Kelvic.” Renalee had never suspected there might come a day when she would loath to admit to her nature. “A puma.” The girl didn’t dare move or breath, her whole body tensing up the moment the words left her mouth. There was nothing she wanted more than to look up and see Volinir’s reaction. There was nothing she wanted less either.

[Volinir Orchid]

"Kelvic." Volinir had only heard vague stories of the beast people of Mizahar, but when Renalee said she was a puma, he started to piece two and two together. The affectionate nudges that were so much like a pleased feline's, the purring, the hiss and elongated canines when they first met. His eyes lit up, "You're a shape shifter?" he asked curiously, a fascinated smile tugging at his lips. Volinir had seen many strange things since he left Kalinor, on the other side of the world. He had seen humans who rode eagles like horses, massive apes who spoke and held wisdom beyond his understanding, men who felt no bite of cold and whose eyes changed color, a sailor that changed into some shiny white horned thing at night, cities that shuffled their very structure on an hourly basis; and he saw how strange he himself was. Pale skin, hair like tarnished silver wire, fangs, claws, and hands and feet that stuck to surfaces. He was an oddity to them, just as they were an oddity to him. Ren's confession didn't elicit the slightest alarm or worry from him. He simply chuckled softly and tried to tilt her head up to look into those vibrant verdant eyes again. "You'll pass out if you keep holding your breath, dear." he crooned before kissing her forehead. It wasn't hard to infer what had made her so tense. She was worried; worried he wouldn't accept her for what she was. He tried to take Ren's fist on his chest and lace his fingers between hers. "Don't be afraid... I'm just as odd as you. Odder, even. I was just curious." That clenched fist was a signal of stress. Volinir wanted to turn it into a sign of love.

[Renalee]

"You're a shape shifter?" A tense nod. The breath was still caught in Ren’s throat and she felt as if suspended over a chasm, Volinir’s voice and the words he chose to speak the only thing that could free her or condemn her and send her crashing to her death. If she had gathered the courage to look up, she would have seen the soft smile that had accompanied the question and would have known she was already saved. As it was however, she didn’t even have the courage to meet Volinir’s eyes when the man’s hand gently took a hold of her chin and made her face him. Lashes fell over green eyes to shield them from what could be waiting for her in the man’s expression. It was only the small chuckle and the slightly teasing words, delivered in a low, but encouraging tone that gave her the strength to finally look at him. The moment her eyes were open Volinir leaned in, tenderly kissing her forehead. Ren could only blink and stare in surprise for the next few moments. She had truly believed he would shun her, push her away from him and want nothing to do with her again. When the meaning of his words finally sunk in, the same as what his eyes had been saying all along, Ren’s body sagged against his, tension suddenly completely draining from her muscles. Her chest heaved with the release of a breath that had been held for too long. Her eyes stung with tears of relief she refused to let fall. She realized she had never been so scared in her life and the feeling of lightness that followed the complete destruction of that fear was making her head spin. Ren felt Volinir slowly trying to get her to unclench the fist she hadn’t realized she had still been holding. She let him take her hand, intertwining their fingers, and she held on to him as tightly as she could without fearing she would cause him harm. She buried her face into his chest, golden locks completely hiding it from view for the briefest of moments as she whispered, “Thank you.” She didn’t know if she was thanking him for the acceptance he gave with such ease or whatever force of nature or circumstance it was that had brought them together. Had it truly been just a few bells since this stranger had come into her life and become the most important person in it? It couldn’t be. It felt like a lifetime. At last, when Ren was certain that her eyes no longer shone with unshed tears, she looked up again. Tugging gently at his hand she motioned for them to sit up a little bit, backs leaning against the hut’s wall, so she could see his face better and seek out his eyes with ease whenever she wanted to. “So you think we would be ok here?” Ren allowed herself the question, relishing in the freedom to think about a future shared with Volinir again. “Is this where you’ve been since...” The girl didn’t say the actual words. She just let the fingers of the hand that wasn’t held in his lightly caress his neck, passing over the marks of his suffering. Ren believed they were one and the same - two escaped prisoners. And if one could make it in this nightmarish city, why not two?

[Volinir Orchid]

Renalee might have been trying to hide her tears, but Volinir could feel the moisture on his chest. He rubbed the Kelvic's back, whispering worriedly, "Why are you crying, love?" The nickname rolled as naturally off his tongue as his own. A pang of pain shot through Volinir's gut as if her pain was his own, and he wanted nothing more than to make her smile again. At her signal, he sat up with her, nodding in response to her first question. "We'll have to switch locations every week or two, and getting a steady job will be hard. Hunting and filching will be the main sources of food for us, but we'll have freedom, a roof over our heads, and each other." "Is this where you've been since..." "I was a Nitrozian's, and that's where I was. When I first came to Ravok though, I stayed in a boarding house not too far from here. Can't go there now, though, with my tattoo." He frowned and looked down at the black brand on his hand that was standing between him and a happy life for Renalee. "There has to be some way to get rid of this thing..." he thought bitterly to himself. His attention soon returned to the girl at his side, to the cotton-soft fingers running along his neck. His lips slowly traced a path across her arm, up her neck, and finally onto her luscious lips. After a breath, he pulled back so they were rubbing noses, their interlocked hands held between them. "We'll make it, Renalee..." "I know it."