13th Day of Spring, 519 AV
Elias Caldera found himself laying on his back, desperate for breath and staring up at the clouds as they lazily drifted between the leaves overhead, and all the while wondering where exactly had the time gone? With a wry grin, he turned his attention to the side and looked upon his love whom laid besides him, skin glistening with sweat and chest heaving just as fiercely as his. As his eyes fell upon her heavenly and supple form, he realized with a quickening of his heartbeat that he could not bring himself to look away again, even if he wanted. Every contour of her flesh, every curve that blessed it and scar that marred it, Elias knew by heart, yet still they served to mesmerize the soldier again and again without fail. He looked upon her, his mistress, his lover, his queen, and beheld perfection faintly smiling back at him. Lips like lavender, hair like an autumn breeze, even in exhaustion she radiated a beauty that was difficult to describe and impossible to replicate. All Elias knew for certain was that when she looked at him with those emerald eyes, their brilliance magnified tenfold by a giddy smile, there was something inside the soldier that simply… surrendered.
It was a sensation of calm and belonging, a dire reprieve that he had not known for so long, yet since their return to the mansion together, could not imagine himself without anymore. His fingers stirred to life in response, whimsically tracing a path across the valleys of her stomach and the peaks of her breasts until at last they snaked their way down her long and slender arm and found her fingers waiting at their journeys end. Elias intertwined his own in hers and was for the moment, content.
That was until he realized with some small alarm that his pants were likely still hanging from a tree or a bush somewhere. As he slowly began to crane his neck and looked about the small clearing by the lake they had claimed as their own this fine mid-morning day, he noticed that his boots too were nowhere to be seen. Luckily, his sword still leaned against the nearby oak that had been so kind as to cast its shifting shade over their writhing forms. Shiress had fared little better it seemed, the whereabouts of her dress as much a mystery as the rest of her hastily discarded garb. In fact, the only thing Elias could see for certain were the pair of velvety black undergarments -his uncontested favorite of hers- hanging limply from the girl’s ankle upon which it had been thoroughly forgotten.
He remembered, through the haze and the heat of their passion, how this had all started; a declaration of war. Shiress, the impish minx, had attempted to swipe the last blueberry tart from out under his nose. Sure, she had been the one to pack the picnic basket full of them when he’d first suggested they go to the country for their lesson, but the bond between a man and his last tart is not so easily forsaken. What had followed was a desperate and daring chase through the clearing, one which both the smirking hunter and his giggling prey had been equally eager to end in the catch. Elias couldn’t quite recall what had happened to it in the end, likely ant food by now he imagined. Things had certainly become… hectic the moment the two of them had collapsed to the forest floor in a heap of jubilant screams and breathy snickering. In each others arm they had found their priorities all of the sudden shifting from sugary pastries to something else just as sweet and tempting. He couldn’t say how long a time they had spent like that, nor even how long they had remained satisfied to simply lie in each other’s arms afterwards. In truth, bells, days, weeks, the time they shared together never seemed to really matter anymore.
“I think…” Elias began, clearing his throat and wiping a scarred hand over his brow, “its possible, we might have gotten a bit distracted.” He muttered, turning to face her once more. The two shared a look, and his facade of professionalism and embarrassment lasted all of two ticks before the pale mage broke down into unadulterated fit of laughter upon the ramfulled blanket they laid upon.
The soldier breathed a heavy sigh, knowing full well it was high time he rose and set to the task at hand, but whether it was Shiress holding him down or his own good sense, he couldn’t tell. Instead, he elected to pull his healer closer, her auburn head of hair resting upon his chest while their legs proceeded to hopelessly entangled themselves in one another beneath. For a while, it was bliss unparralled, with not but the gentle winds tussling the spring born trees, and the melodies of distant song birds echoing across the crystal clear waters. After a moment however, Elias broke the serenity of the silence once more. “Do you feel that?” He whispered, eyes fixated upon the faded sheen of Lake Ravok lapping gently lapping against the shore not ten yards from where they lay. “Its like a weight lifted from our shoulders. A muscle coming unbound after so long coiled tight…” he went on, voice soft and untethered like a dream. “Ever since the gardens I’ve felt a change. No longer is there a knife hiding in every shadow, or a threat lingering around each corner.” He guffawed. “Even my neck hasn’t felt this good in years, and I realize now its because I’ve stopped looking over my shoulder every waking hour of every single day expecting the next tragedy to come creeping up from behind.”
Another deep and satiated breath, this time as he laid his head atop of hers and reveled in the faint aroma of vanilla and flowers unplucked. “I didn’t know the name of this feeling until now.” He confessed with air of reverence and assured benediction. "Peace." Elias muttered.
“This is what is peace is… and it’s all ours.”
It felt like another few chimes before anyone dared to spurn the carefree delight the pale lord and the former slave basked in, but like before he felt something moving him to purpose, and this time he could not shake it.
“It changes you, you know.” The Caldera murmured, the tone and tenor of his once tranquil mumblings changed now to something not as demure. “You tell yourself you’re still the same person, that you’ll stay that way for as long as you like, but it becomes a part of you -it always was, but now its right there, dragged to the forefront for the world to see and trying to deny it is like trying to deny the very air in yours lungs. When you came to me, eager and earnest to learn, I admit I was proud. I saw the same drive in you that I think my masters saw in me, but never once did I see it as a choice. It was always just a mean to an end, a tool at my disposal, a weapon in my hand, but you…” Something changed again in the pale man, and slowly he began to rouse himself from their paradise, pushing upwards until his hardened bulk leaned over Shiress, a hand upon her tender cheek and his cold gaze bearing down upon hers in earnest. “You have a choice, Shiress. One I never had." Thus came the dreaded question that had to be asked, and the answer that had to be spoken in no uncertain terms.
"Are you certain this is what you truly want. Are you certain you’re prepared to call yourself a sorceress from now on, because if you do go down this path, know that there is no coming back.”
It was a sensation of calm and belonging, a dire reprieve that he had not known for so long, yet since their return to the mansion together, could not imagine himself without anymore. His fingers stirred to life in response, whimsically tracing a path across the valleys of her stomach and the peaks of her breasts until at last they snaked their way down her long and slender arm and found her fingers waiting at their journeys end. Elias intertwined his own in hers and was for the moment, content.
That was until he realized with some small alarm that his pants were likely still hanging from a tree or a bush somewhere. As he slowly began to crane his neck and looked about the small clearing by the lake they had claimed as their own this fine mid-morning day, he noticed that his boots too were nowhere to be seen. Luckily, his sword still leaned against the nearby oak that had been so kind as to cast its shifting shade over their writhing forms. Shiress had fared little better it seemed, the whereabouts of her dress as much a mystery as the rest of her hastily discarded garb. In fact, the only thing Elias could see for certain were the pair of velvety black undergarments -his uncontested favorite of hers- hanging limply from the girl’s ankle upon which it had been thoroughly forgotten.
He remembered, through the haze and the heat of their passion, how this had all started; a declaration of war. Shiress, the impish minx, had attempted to swipe the last blueberry tart from out under his nose. Sure, she had been the one to pack the picnic basket full of them when he’d first suggested they go to the country for their lesson, but the bond between a man and his last tart is not so easily forsaken. What had followed was a desperate and daring chase through the clearing, one which both the smirking hunter and his giggling prey had been equally eager to end in the catch. Elias couldn’t quite recall what had happened to it in the end, likely ant food by now he imagined. Things had certainly become… hectic the moment the two of them had collapsed to the forest floor in a heap of jubilant screams and breathy snickering. In each others arm they had found their priorities all of the sudden shifting from sugary pastries to something else just as sweet and tempting. He couldn’t say how long a time they had spent like that, nor even how long they had remained satisfied to simply lie in each other’s arms afterwards. In truth, bells, days, weeks, the time they shared together never seemed to really matter anymore.
“I think…” Elias began, clearing his throat and wiping a scarred hand over his brow, “its possible, we might have gotten a bit distracted.” He muttered, turning to face her once more. The two shared a look, and his facade of professionalism and embarrassment lasted all of two ticks before the pale mage broke down into unadulterated fit of laughter upon the ramfulled blanket they laid upon.
The soldier breathed a heavy sigh, knowing full well it was high time he rose and set to the task at hand, but whether it was Shiress holding him down or his own good sense, he couldn’t tell. Instead, he elected to pull his healer closer, her auburn head of hair resting upon his chest while their legs proceeded to hopelessly entangled themselves in one another beneath. For a while, it was bliss unparralled, with not but the gentle winds tussling the spring born trees, and the melodies of distant song birds echoing across the crystal clear waters. After a moment however, Elias broke the serenity of the silence once more. “Do you feel that?” He whispered, eyes fixated upon the faded sheen of Lake Ravok lapping gently lapping against the shore not ten yards from where they lay. “Its like a weight lifted from our shoulders. A muscle coming unbound after so long coiled tight…” he went on, voice soft and untethered like a dream. “Ever since the gardens I’ve felt a change. No longer is there a knife hiding in every shadow, or a threat lingering around each corner.” He guffawed. “Even my neck hasn’t felt this good in years, and I realize now its because I’ve stopped looking over my shoulder every waking hour of every single day expecting the next tragedy to come creeping up from behind.”
Another deep and satiated breath, this time as he laid his head atop of hers and reveled in the faint aroma of vanilla and flowers unplucked. “I didn’t know the name of this feeling until now.” He confessed with air of reverence and assured benediction. "Peace." Elias muttered.
“This is what is peace is… and it’s all ours.”
It felt like another few chimes before anyone dared to spurn the carefree delight the pale lord and the former slave basked in, but like before he felt something moving him to purpose, and this time he could not shake it.
“It changes you, you know.” The Caldera murmured, the tone and tenor of his once tranquil mumblings changed now to something not as demure. “You tell yourself you’re still the same person, that you’ll stay that way for as long as you like, but it becomes a part of you -it always was, but now its right there, dragged to the forefront for the world to see and trying to deny it is like trying to deny the very air in yours lungs. When you came to me, eager and earnest to learn, I admit I was proud. I saw the same drive in you that I think my masters saw in me, but never once did I see it as a choice. It was always just a mean to an end, a tool at my disposal, a weapon in my hand, but you…” Something changed again in the pale man, and slowly he began to rouse himself from their paradise, pushing upwards until his hardened bulk leaned over Shiress, a hand upon her tender cheek and his cold gaze bearing down upon hers in earnest. “You have a choice, Shiress. One I never had." Thus came the dreaded question that had to be asked, and the answer that had to be spoken in no uncertain terms.
"Are you certain this is what you truly want. Are you certain you’re prepared to call yourself a sorceress from now on, because if you do go down this path, know that there is no coming back.”
