Come... be mine... /OPEN/

[Centari]

He had flinched. Centari did not like it when he flinched. She smiled though, to hide an angry growl. She had to keep her patience with this human. She couldn't let him slip away in her anger. He was her only source of fun so far.

"Well, texts aren't very helpful in reality." She chuckled and looked away from him, eyes flashing around at everyone. "I should read what they say about Ethaefal however. It may be imperative to see what others are writing and reading." She looked back at him with less of a sharp gaze and more just to look. Hopefully, it would ease his worries and he would not flinch when she touched him. "I don't take offense very easily anymore. But if I do, you'll be the first to know."

She watched him deliberate over locations in his mind, seeing the wheels turning as he roamed through possible locations. He must have lived in Alvadas for quite some time if he knew so many places that it took a few chimes to get to a suitable location. The one he came up with, The Gardens, was not one she was familiar with, but she raised her eyes at the description. She did love beautiful scenery.

"Are there going to be other people there?" She asked softly, smiling again.

[Seidaku]

"Oh, well that really depends on the, ah, reliability of the source of the text," Seidaku said, and then nodded his agreement, "But you are, umm, quite right in this instance. Most of what I have read is, umm, second or even third hand accounts. Much of the truth can be, umm, lost in the retelling. Especially when one takes into account the, umm, potential personal bias of of those recounting."

He felt a pressure lift off of his chest when Centari's gaze wandered. Logically, he knew that it was just a result of his being overawed at the oportunity to speak firsthand with one of the Ethaefal, but her attention had been disconcertingly sharp.

When he saw the look on her face at his choice of locations, he knew that he had chosen well. It would seem that the natural affinity to their deity's celestial body was in fact an accurate detail.

"I, ah, don't think so," Seidaku said with an answering smile, "The Garden of No Return tends to, umm, respect the desire for privacy. I think."

[Centari]

"I'm sure that, even with the questionable reliability of the accounts, I'll find the books quite illuminating." She'd tried to sound less intimidating. She couldn't eat him now, during the day, and frightening one's prey was an easy way to ensure food would come to one's belly.

"You should relax, Seidaku. I can't possibly induce such uncertainty alone." Time for flattery. "In fact, you are most certainly as attractive to me as I seem to be to you." A brash assumption that he was attracted to her had been voiced. But really, which creature didn't find her lovely except those without conscious thought? She played with her physical beauty to get what she wanted, like the black widow spider that seduced knowing males into her web and devoured them after the need to mate was sated. She wouldn't devour this man of course. Not yet anyway, since he had pleased her by showing interest in her, but she would use him for her desires. Repeatedly, hopefully.

"It respects privacy? Now that must be a truly wonderful, secretive place." She smiled even more and offered her hand to the male. She was feeling twinges of euphoria at the knowledge she'd be in a private place with someone she wished to enjoy. "Shall we?"

[Seidaku]

"Oh, umm, yes, well...," he stammered, completely at a loss for words. Her statement forced an immediate comparison to Vhanet. Attractive did not enter into it with the Ethaefal. She was beautiful in the same ephemeral way as a sunset, or a mountain valley. But Vhanet, Vhanet was something else entirely. Beautiful, vulnerable, sensual.

In the end, he managed to stammer out, "Umm, thank you."

He then kicked himself mentally for a fool. She could not possibly mean what he had interpreted her words as. She was simply trying to put him at ease, as he was so obviously uncomfortable in a social situation. She would not be following him into the Garden if she thought he had impure intentions.

Though, one had to wonder. Were Ethaefal and humans sexually compatible? If so, were they capable of interbreeding? With a deepening blush, he realized that those were questions that he no longer desired answers to.

"It is beyond doubt the most, ah, most beautiful garden in Alvadas. I have heard it called, umm, Ionu's Bouquet," with a smile, he added, "Follow me."

[Centari]

Such an endearing human... Centari felt a sigh bubble up and pass her lips. He was such an innocent little thing, like the others had been when she believed herself worthy enough to have friends. He was a small little flower as well, and the first bite of winter would consume him until he was withered and grey. But, such was the norm to Centari. She had lost dozens of friends, half a dozen consorts, and had fallen into madness and the desire to have purpose. Stray fingers curled around one of the slim vials attached to the waist of her skirt. Poison. She was a purveyor of poisons. If someone proved useless, he would be poisoned. The same if he proved too interesting to let go. Or if he refused her.

Citrine eyes darkened as she wallowed in misery for a few moments. This human made her think of others long dead and consumed by the dirt and scavengers. He would join them, whether by old age or by her own hand. There was nothing left of her heart to give someone as frail as everyone else had been, at least to her mind. She would coax him to play, to give her his fealty and love, and she would decide whether to kill him or keep him, depending on his willingness to help her Harvest.

The Ethaefal reached out to take his hand in hers, feeling the warmth of another that was not blood nor tears. She had no conscious thought to take his hand. She just did. Very few people had been taken like this, and none at all in the last decade. But Centari couldn't resist. Such an endearing human coaxed out reactions she hadn't had in a long time.

"Ionu's Bouquet sounds like a divine name." She said quietly, withdrawn as she allowed him to lead her. She would have touched Seidaku's face, but she didn't want to watch him cringe from her again. She would not be able to help herself from hurting him in return for the snub. "Tell me about yourself, Seidaku... Were you born in Alvadas?"

[Seidaku]

Seidaku had already begun to turn away to lead her to the Garden, and blinked in surprise when he felt her take his hand. He considered pulling away before deciding that the gesture was ultimately harmless. Besides, he could only guess at the cultures and behaviors that had shaped her interactions with others. And it had the added benefit of all but guaranteeing that Alvadas could not fling them apart before they could reach their destination.

He glanced over his shoulder with his mouth open with the first of undoubtedly many questions, small talk to shatter a silence that had begun to feel awkward. He turned to face forward again without speaking though, seeing a look of deep introspection upon her face that even he could not miss. It would not be his place to intrude and, just as bad as being terribly rude, it might cause her to change her mind about speaking with him.

Which is why her abrupt question - if would have been a demand if it had been delivered without such a sense of... sadness, maybe? - came as such a surprise, jolting him out of his own thoughts. He had been more than content to just let his feet carry him to the Garden with no more than cursory input from the rest of him.

"Oh, umm, yes," he said, turning to face backward and bumping into others in the crowd for his total lack of attention. After a muttered apology and a ducked head to the man he had struck, he added, "Born and, ah, raised."

He led them to the end of a long avenue that was hung with strings of silvered bells that chimed musically in the soft summer breeze and, seized by inspiration, turned back the way they had come instead of turning either left or right. As they completed the turn, Seidaku and Centari found themselves in a small courtyard, paved with cut gems in every color imaginable, and several that he had not imagined until seeing them. On the other end of the courtyard, stretching away in the direction they had just walked, was a pair of long hedges, broken periodically by intersecting paths. The entire length was dotted with flowers that would put the gems of the courtyard to shame.

"There's, ah, no place in Mizahar like it," he said with a smile.

[Centari]

The fact that he didn't wrench his hand from her was a relatively good sign, although the fact that he wasn't warming up to her caused a burn of anger in where her heart should have been. It was there, physically, but in the manner of figurative speech, she had no heart. Her mind drifted along how best to use her Lash, and which poison would adequately punish him very painfully. If he held his heart for another, she'd have to kill that other, or at least bring her down to Kalinor to die in a more useful method.

"How old does that make you, then?" She was genuinely interested. For now. She was floundering for an option of what to do with him. If he refused to be hers, she had something to force down his throat so she could bring him outside of the city. Her lash would also do well for strangling him and leaving his corpse in a beautiful, strange garden. She would let him live, if he proved that he would come to her another day. "Have you figured out the way Alvadas moves yet? And it truly is one of a kind. But, if you want timeless beauty and not a migraine-inducing illusion, I suggest you go see Kalinor or Lhavit. Nothing comes close to them." Perhaps Kalinor was one of the most dangerous places in Mizahar, along with the Nests of the Dhani and the location the Zith kept colonies in, but she meant it. Kalinor's city-web was beautiful. Ephemeral.

She fell silent as she looked around the Garden. Seidaku had not lied when he described it. No matter what darkness inhabited her, she knew beauty when she saw it. Living beauty mocked her, and while she loved the flowers she also hated them, but she wouldn't let her current companion know. It was no use letting a person who could very possibly die in. Instead, the Eth decided to try and earn his affection the human way.

Centari donned an expression of gentle sadness as she reached down to take a little flower. "After all the years I've lived, still some things are beautiful enough to make one wish to cry..." She muttered quietly. Despite her outside expression, the inside of Centari's mind was wondering if this flower was useful for poison or antidote. "This Garden alone is one of a kind.."

[Seidaku]

"Umm...," Seidaku had to think for a moment before he could come up with an answer to the question. He had not really paid attention to the passage of years for... well, years, "Twenty eight years... I think? Maybe twenty-nine? And I have no more idea how Alvadas, ah, shifts now than I did, umm, years ago. Not, uh, consciously, at least. Getting around feels easier, though." With a shrug and a grin, he added, "It helps to, ah, keep your destination in mind. And not worry about how you're going to, umm, get there."

Following Centari into the Garden path, he asked in a voice touched lightly by awe, "You have been to both of them? Is Kalinor really, umm, completely dark and lightless? Is Lhavit, ah, carved from glowing crystals? Do Symenestra really dissolve their food in acid before they consume it?" He snapped his mouth shut on the flood of questions and gave an apologetic smile, "Sorry. Just, umm, excited."

[Centari]

"Twenty-eight years? And you haven't grown mad yet?" Her eyebrows rose as she looked at him. Afterwards, she gave him an indulgent smile and held out the flower she'd plucked to him. She wanted him to have it, and keep it, but she didn't say so directly.

At the light awe she caught, she lowered her gaze and nodded. The passage of time had worn heavily on her, even if she denied it. Kalinor she often visited, for reasons she would not pass on to this naïve little man, and Lhavit she'd lived in for some time.

"Lhavit was the first city I came to after the Ukalas. But it's not really wound of crystal. I wouldn't know how to explain it, but it's like glass, and only the Alvina's chosen can build with it. It's the most beautiful place after sunset. I lived there for many years. I have come to hold Lhavit in my heart. Same for the Spires in Taldera." She paused before she went on to Kalinor. How interesting that this man didn't inquire about the Harvest. Most did, at hearing of the great, spider-infested city. "Kalinor... It's ghostly. Like a mirage. It shimmers faintly, the webs that make the great city. And it's quiet... So very quiet."

She hesitated again. "The venom they use now is stronger than the venom they used before the Valterrian." She said after a few moments. "It's corrosive. The hungrier the Symenestra, the more dangerous their bite. If you wish, I can show you what it looks like when their venom is injected into organic material. My form under Leth is a Symenestra... But don't tell anyone." She chuckled quietly. "My form came from before the Valterrian, however, but it is still potent enough to kill."

She dropped the subject of her form quickly afterwards, but she chuckled. "Questions are fine, Seidaku... It's good to ask questions." She donned sadness in her eyes and looked around at the garden. "How did you find this place?"

[Seidaku]

Seidaku took the offered flower with an answering smile, "Madness and sanity are, umm, relative to experience and perception. So, maybe?"

He held the flower gently, not wanting to damage the surprisingly delicate petals. In a flash of insight, he saw the comparison to between the flower and the Ethaefal who had picked it. Beneath the confidence and happiness, he thought he saw a sense of melancholy, quickly dispelled. He dropped his eyes to the flower, uncomfortable with what he had seen, like he had been eavesdropping.

But then Centari began speaking, and his attention was drawn back to her and he stood in rapt amazement at the picture her words painted. Living glass, sculpted by a goddess' chosen. A city formed of silken web, silent and dark. And a third city that she had traveled to! He had never met anyone who had seen anywhere near as much of Mizahar, and was unlikely to meet one who had.

And another fact confirmed. He had read that Ethaefal had two forms, one that honored their god or goddess and a form of one of the mortal races - from her description, it sounded like perhaps a previous life... that information had not been in the tome - that they assumed when their deity did not grace the sky.

It was her last statements that blotted out any other questions, though. Her form was from before the Valterrian? In a quiet voice made breathless with awe, he asked, "Do- do you have any memories from before the, ah, the Valterrian? So much was lost... lives, innovations, knowledge. Anything you could share would be an, umm, an unimaginable gift."