Near the Edge [Dasreide]

by **Litani** on July 17th, 2013, 10:53 pm

Lost in the sensuous kiss, the passionate Konti let herself forget everything else for a time... forget the comparisons, forget the differences, forget the reality that this was only their second meeting. Just for a moment, she was merely a woman enjoying the embrace of a man, savoring the scent and taste of him, heedlessly letting her mind cast itself in every which direction...

When he broke that connection, however, and set her back down and stepped away from her, he said something that made her entire being come to a pause. She blinked at him. Bad enough that he'd gone from embrace to vacant, physically, but now he'd proclaimed his intent to leave her. Two breaths distant from calling her his mate.

Swallowing tightly, her brows furrowed deeply and she stared in confused silence for long moments before finally making enough sense of her emotions to give voice to them. "You're... going to leave Riverfall. But yet...?" She breathed a quiet, low chuckle. The bitter sound of a woman who had felt one thing a moment ago, and was now feeling something completely different. "You want me for what, for however long you're here? I... " She cut off then, shaking her head, looking away from him for a moment. She was getting angry. Quick. "So I'm good enough to prey upon, good enough to stalk and good enough to threaten. But not good enough to stay for."

She was probably being unreasonable. That much, she admitted even to herself. But she came to this city looking for a ghost that would never be again, the ghost of the only person who had loved her more than breath. She'd hoped to find a mate, hoped that the honorable Akalak could give her something resembling the kind of partner that her father would have wished for her. Instead, she only felt... played with. Insufficient. It was simply too much for her. Hers were simple desires - all she wanted was to have a purpose, to have a place, to serve her Gods and find someone who could want her as she wanted him... And the games were getting too thick. She grew tired of being compared to every other female he'd ever known, woman or girl. She grew restless knowing that he was not even at balance with himself, much less with her. And now he'd all but promised to abandon her when he was done with her.

"No, Dasreide," she said then, her voice becoming more calm with the reserve of a decided mind. "You haven't the slightest idea what you want or who you are. You go find that." Bending, she unlaced the leather sheath of his Lakan from her calf and handed it back to him, sheath and all. "You go find that and don't chase after the heart of a woman until you know your own."

With the faintest twitch of an eyebrow, she stood there in the sand, his Lakan in her hand and the wind in her hair. Her eyes bored into him deeply, nothing if not fiercely independent. He'd underestimated her every moment since their first meeting and now she was showing him that she knew precisely who she was, and what she wanted. Not that he'd ever bothered to ask.

by **Dasreide** on July 18th, 2013, 8:44 pm

Denial.

The word was not fit, but it came the closest to the feeling he felt at the point when she handed back his lakan. What did he do wrong? Was it incorrect to inform her that he had been planning to leave for Syliras and Zeltiva? He couldn't tell.

He simply stood there, listening to her speak for a moment before his eyes widened. She had come to the assumption he wanted her only for a few nights. How very wrong she was. A twinge of pain shot through the centermost of his being as finished speaking, turning his once-hopeful look into that of a hurt man.

"I warned you, Dasreide. She does not care for you." The Nameless echoed into his mind, his voice laced with a sinister joy to the situation. "She just wanted to use your emotions. To twist your feelings and then shatter them. She is no better than the others." The Nameless laughed, a hallow echoing sound that reverberated off ever crevasse and thought within Dasreide's mind.

"NO!" He shouted aloud, his eyes closed tightly as his voice found surface, backed with the hurt emotions he was feeling. His heart quickened pace. "You... have no idea how wrong you are." He couldn't tell if he was speaking to Litani or the Nameless, but his anger and sadness matched his words evenly. He was conflicted, his face twisting into a grimace of emotional imbalance.

He clutched the lakan in his hand tightly enough that the leather audibly strained in his grip. His chest clutched inwardly as his emotions threatened to erupt. It was then that the echoing laughter within his mind became audible to Litani. The Nameless took over and began to laugh at the feelings Dasreide held towards him and Litani. He let his hands rest on his hips as his head careened back as he let out his bellowing laughter.

"Wise choice, Litani. Offend the man who truly felt for you. Hurt him beyond all belief." He looked over his shoulder at Litani, his gaze sinister and cold, yet alight with joy. "The feelings he is expressing right now..." He inhaled as if smelling a sweet flower, "Exuberant." The Nameless remained there, a sneering grin on his lips before he turned back to face Litani, still clutching the Lakan in his grip.

"He was going to ask you to accompany him to Syliras and then to Zeltiva on his trip." He let out a sharp laugh, "But you are just the same as the rest. Quick to judge. Utilizing the wit of the short-lived rather than the clarity of those preceding you. Fool." The Nameless turned away and kicked the carcass of the crab aside as he began to trek his way back to the city, leaving Litani behind in broad strides without another thought. After a few moments, he was gone.

by **Litani** on July 18th, 2013, 10:04 pm

Her heart twisted and she looked at the ground. A hundred things, a thousand went through her mind and she wanted nothing more than to cry. But she was also angry. One moment he was in her arms, the next he was setting her down and telling her he meant to leave. Only now, when she withdrew, now there was an explanation. Now a reason.

And how many times had she heard reasons before?

Dasreide might truly have another in his head, but at times, Litani felt very much the same way. Her own inner chorus was caught between fear of the Nameless, grief at hurting him, and some sliver of elation at knowing she was wrong. But apparently she was too wrong. And he, too, was too quick to judge. She chided herself more severely than he ever could and felt every inch the idiot.

She started to summon up the words to explain herself to him. To tell him why she had come to Riverfall, how hard it was to have done so, all the things she left behind... all the things she hoped for. All the things she wanted to find and what she almost glimpsed in his eyes. And then he began to laugh.

"That is not him," she replied to the Nameless, as he spoke of what Dasreide was feeling. "That is you. And I could have loved you both. I would have tried." And it was true. Her voice could have strangled her with the weight of what she was feeling; she started to cross the distance to him, but then stopped as she saw the change that the Nameless brought to Dasreide's handsome face. "You need peace within yourself," she said quietly, imploringly, as if her asking him to find it would mean some measure of salvation... if not for them, then at least for him. "Please forgive me, I..."

And then he started to walk away. And did not stop, and did not look back.

Alone... I am nothing but a fool, alone here where I do not belong.

May the Gods be merciful... I do not know if I am wise or a fool. He might have hurt me... worse. But I could have tried. I would have tried. He would have been worth it... or else I am a fool, all the more.

Alone, the Konti curled up on the sand, in what was left of the torn clothing she had cut so recently to bind his wounds. She felt naked and abandoned, and cursed herself relentlessly. In trying to be strong, in trying to be sensible, she'd pushed away the only one who had cared for her since...

by **Banickle** on August 4th, 2013, 1:26 pm

And the Mozcars for Best PCs in Leading Roles go to... :

"May I swing you a lullaby? Shall I slay you a tune? It will be fun, I promise, to fear my croon!"

Completed Near the Edge [Dasreide]