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separatist-apologist · 2 years

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Wonderland

Haven't you heard what becomes of curious minds?

Summary: In a kingdom where a Maiden is forced to be sacrificed to appease the monster in the woods, Elain Archeron is chosen out of spite by her spurned suitor, Graysen. Trapped in a tower with her beast, Elain must unravel if she can truly trust the monster promising not to hurt. She doesn't know he's freed every maiden he's ever been sent...but her? Her, he intends to keep.

Read More: Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | AO3

WARNING: MONSTER/ Breeding kink/Human men

11k words

Elain thought she woke to Lucien’s hands sliding up her legs. It had been an infuriating night. For a man so concerned about predators, he sure had no problem bleating their current circumstances about the meadow as he bounced from mountainside to mountainside, blowing fire and smoke everywhere he landed. She’d tried to drag him back inside but Lucien wouldn’t budge. She’d declared he could sleep in the rain, snapping the door shut loudly behind her in hopes he’d come trailing behind, proverbial tail tucked between his legs.

It took her a moment to realize she was still dreaming and the cold that was sliding over her was a strange blue-black mist that glittered like the night sky. She could see herself tucked beneath an appropriate amount of blankets given Lucien still had not returned, her hair wild about her face.

And then Elain was back in the city square, emptied of people but herself. It was the same moody, nearly rainy day it had been when she’d left in that wagon. Elain walked over the stone towards a massive fountain of a man, sword raised in the air, slaying a trembling dragon-like beast. It could have been her dragon, could have been Lucien’s golden body prone around that warrior. She touched the edge, surprised to find it was cold.

“How am I here?”

Clipping boots on the cobblestone drew her attention away from the carved image she’d never thought much of when she’d lived there. Elain turned, annoyed to find when she tried to look at whoever approached, her surroundings slipped into that inky abyss. It made her legs wobble, to be surrounded by nothing but darkness and stars and so Elain turned her back despite every instinct telling her not to.

“Terrible thing, isn’t it?” The man's voice was cold and smooth, like a winters wind whipping about her face. “My father had it commissioned to pacify the humans.”

“Why would he do that?” she asked, sitting on the edge of the fountain to skim her hand along the gray, frigid water.

“We’re hiding, just like the rest,” came his bored reply. As if she should assume as much.

“Are you offering me a history lesson?”

“A warning, lady.” His words were almost earnest, his presence hedging closer. Elain wished she could see him. “Your mate has warded your home and it is not so easy to leave things for you. I see he completed the bonding ritual…and you did not die.”

“Were you hoping I would?” she asked breathlessly, her heart pounding in her chest.

“No. I hoped you would survive…just as I am hoping you survive this babe.”

Dread pooled in her stomach. “Why wouldn’t I?”

He paused for a moment. “Before the extermination, our kind took mates of our own species. It would have been rare for a male to have a human mate. Now, with so many of us scattered—”

“There are more?”

He chuckled. “Many, many more. Just hidden, not wholly aware of each other's presence. With so many of us scattered, the great Mother Goddess has clearly begun to bless us in other ways. Perhaps, after centuries of fighting, she has decided it’s best to merge us back into one species. I cannot speak to her innate knowledge, but I do trust her wisdom. A lot is riding on you surviving.”

“Like what?”

He paused again. “I have my own human mate,” he finally admitted. “I have kept my distance…I am fearful I might harm her. Seeing you accept the magic so easily, it has given me hope. It will give the others hope, too. We could reunify, we—”

“The rest of the humans would never allow it,” Elain insisted, shivering at the thought of a male like Lucien stalking the city for one of her sisters. “If they find out, they’ll begin hunting your kind again.”

She heard him click his teeth impatiently. “People are tired of the swaggering males sending good females to die. Every year we lose another breeding female to the continent. There is discontent, restlessness. The males will try and stir up their usual fear believing there are very few of us left but Elain, there are many of us left. An army’s worth of males who remember the cruelty of the humans very well and who might be fascinated to see a hybrid child born to a female human mated to one of our own.”

“I’m not going to help you start a war,” Elain whispered, still staring into that reflective pool. The presence behind her crept closer, revealing the body of a man…but not his face. He was dressed finely, like a great lord in his tailored black pants. His onyx and silver jacket was buttoned to his neck, likely hiding whatever marked him as other. He might have blended in entirely, were it not for the massive, shadowy wings at his back.

“War is inevitable,” he murmured. “It has been for centuries. Your males went looking for you and returned with your bloodied clothes, satisfied you were dead. Your sisters are not so certain. They’re out for blood and I have it on very good authority that if they do not settle, one of them will go next year…and the third will take a husband to avoid the same fate.”

“I wrote them,” Elain whispered.

“Yes,” the male voice murmured. “A terrible mistake on your part. It has made the males suspicious of their insistence that you are alive. Even,” he interrupted her protest, “If you had died like you should have, the males are restless. War has been brewing before they were born. They are emboldened by their attacks on their own females. They crave the taste of blood.”

“Why are you telling me this?” Elain asked, wanting to return to the safety of her bed.

“They’ll come for you first,” the man murmured. “And I want you to be prepared. Move higher into the mountains…travel to the Illyrian Steppes. There is a rather large collection of us still living together. Their leader will help you, if he knows you are mated to a male and carrying his child.”

“What’s his name?”

“Cassian,” the man murmured softly. “I have been unable to reach him…perhaps you could tell him that we spoke?”

“And do you have a name?”

Another pause, and then— “Tell him the Prince of Nightmares is looking for him.”

Elain woke with a loud gasp, back in bed just in time to hear footsteps pounding on the stairs. Lucien burst into the room, slick from the rain and coated in a fine layer of ash, his eyes a burning gold. His nostrils flared. “I can scent the male,” he growled, looking around the room. Elain sighed.

“Good morning, Lucien,” she grumbled. “It was nice to wake up in your arms. I had the most terrible dream my mate spent the evening flying about the valley looking for threats when he should have been warming my bed.”

Her sarcasm did not deter him. Lucien paced the room as if he might find the man who had snuck into Elain’s dream hiding beneath the bed. She kicked off the blankets with exasperation. “There is no one here, Lucien!”

He stilled, catching the anger in her tone. Golden eyes shifted back to russet and finally he had the decency to look a little shamed.

“And even if he had been, what good were you all the way out there? When another of your males can slip into my mind and talk to me?” she demanded, shoving past him for the hall. “Good thing he only wanted to talk about your kind being hidden and not carve out my mind or—”

“There was a male in your mind?” Lucien interrupted, padding after her into the bathroom.

“Yes,” she said, rounding on him. “Talking of the Illyrian Steppes and a man named Cassian that he wants us to go meet.”

Lucien considered that. “And…and you trust he was not trying to harm you?”

“He says he has a human mate, too,” Elain explained, softening only a little. Only because Lucien was towering over her with his big, golden body utterly unclothed. She had such a weakness for him stripped to nothing, vulnerable and soft before her. “He is watching us, to see how the baby will fare.”

Lucien’s hand immediately flew to her stomach, his pleasure immediate. “Our baby,” he murmured, reminding her why she was angry with him. Elain pushed at his chest, shoving him into the hall so she could use the bathroom without him hovering over her with his big, happy eyes.

Lucien was still waiting in the hall when she emerged, towel wrapped around her body. He yanked the edge, barring her body to him while she squealed, darting back into their bedroom. Lucien was just behind, catching her gently about the waist and setting her just beside the bed.

“Now you want to be affectionate?” she complained when his hand slid over her wet stomach.

“Warning away males from my pregnant mate is affectionate,” he protested, sinking to his knees to press a kiss to her skin. “I have bathed the valley in our scent to keep you and the baby safe. I am sorry you had to sleep alone and dream of other males.”

He paused for a moment, ear pressed against her stomach. “What did this male look like?”

“He was hidden in shadow,” she murmured. “I don’t think he wanted me to know who he was.”

Lucien nodded. “It’s just as well. I might be tempted to find him.”

“Do you want to see if there are others like you?” Elain questioned, some of her anger evaporating at his obvious adoration. “It might be nice to know…”

“I will think on it,” Lucien finally murmured, kissing her stomach again. “For now, I have other things to consider.”

“Like what?”

He looked up with worshipful eyes. Elain’s toes curled at the sight. “My mate is pregnant and winter is approaching. There is much left to do.”

“Oh?”

Lucien pushed her back to the bed with a wicked smile. “I left her unpleasured last night. It would make me a poor male if I did not rectify that.”

Elain meant to remind him he had pleasured her quite well the night before right until Lucien put his head beneath her dress.

It could wait.

~*~

Elain bounded into Lucien’s wood shop mid-afternoon two days after he’d pieced together his mate was carrying his child. If he had it his way, Lucien would have tied her to the bed and kept her there for the duration of the pregnancy. He did not have it his way as Elain was feisty and very good at aiming her heel so she caught him in the jaw. Lucien didn’t dare ask her to rest again, not unless she was so sick she couldn’t stand. Then he was allowed to sweep her up in his arms and make a big fuss.

She deserved to be fussed over. He wanted her to lay back down, to snuggle beneath the blankets and let him take care of everything. It was Elain that was the problem, always moving, too curious to stay in one place and certain everything she did was good for the baby. Lucien didn’t know enough about infant care to contradict her, though he was growing suspicious she wasn’t an expert, either.

“You shouldn’t be in here,” Lucien said, eyeing the nails scattered about the straw laden floor. She was going to pierce her foot and get tetanus and then he’d have to take her to the humans for care.

“Why not? The baby wanted to see you.”

Lucien eyed her flat stomach. “How can you be sure?”

“I just know these things.”

Elain and her knowing.

“I wanted to see you,” she huffed, which was all she had to say. Lucien, covered in sawdust, grinned.

“I am building the baby a bassinet,” he explained, rushing forward to sweep nails off the floor with a booted foot. “For when he is small, that way he can stay in our room while we sleep.”

Lucien only had the pieces but in his mind it would rock gently like the wind when he flew. He imagined himself sitting on the floor mimicking the feeling while Elain slept soundly in their bed. The whole scene made his chest ache.

“He?” she teased, letting him wrap her up against his chest. “You’re so sure this baby is a boy?”

Lucien frowned. “My father had seven sons.” Another male just seemed natural. He’d given very little thought to a female and yet when he imagined a babe with Elain’s pretty eyes and soft golden hair, Lucien felt like he might cry.

“My father had three daughters,” she reminded him, unaware of the emotions roiling through him.

“A female would be good,” Lucien acknowledged gruffly. “Now go back inside before you get hurt.”

“You think the whole world is dangerous,” she complained as he all but shoved her back into the biting autumn afternoon.

“Because it is dangerous,” Lucien agreed. “And you are small and soft. Why not eat some cheese and take a nap?”

“I resent that,” she grumbled. “Have you thought anymore on going to the Steppes and—”

“No.”

Elain’s disappointment was palpable. She wanted him to see if her dream visitor was truthful and there truly were more of them than Lucien had imagined. The problem was Elain had a sense of how badly he did want to do this. Until recently, Lucien had been alone for centuries. Even with her, she didn’t entirely understand that sense of loss, of the belief that he really was the last. Even the thought that more like him had survived somewhere bolstered his spirits.

And terrified him all at once. Maybe if he’d been alone, still. Maybe if he wasn’t so terrified of leaving his pregnant mate by herself. Or worse. Elain, he knew, wanted to join him. Lucien could imagine every terrible thing that might go wrong. Even if the beasts were friendly and kind, the Illryian Steppes were brutal and cold. Elain didn’t heat herself the way he did, had only her clothes and skin for warmth. Too much could go wrong.

“We’ll talk about this later,” he added, catching how her mouth opened to argue. “In bed tonight.”

Her eyes narrowed. “You can’t distract me with your mouth, Lucien.”

He grinned. “Why not? It’s always worked before.”

She wasn’t smiling back.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Elain began, the pull of her eyes dragging him out of his little shop and away from his bassinet. His mate was unhappy and Lucien loathed when Elain wasn’t happy. Especially now, when she was giving him everything he’d ever hoped for with no complaints, only soft smiles and parted legs. He heaved a sigh.

“Elain–”

“I want you to go. Even if you leave me behind. I’ll be fine,” she added, as if Lucien had any intention of leaving his pregnant mate anywhere but in his bed.

“Let’s wait,” he tried, desperation edging his words just a little. “When the baby is born—”

“Then you’ll be fussing that the baby is too small, too fragile, that we should wait until she’s older and stronger—”

“She?” he questioned, wondering if this was more of her knowing. Elain breezed right past that.

“And there will be another child, and then another and before you know it a decade will have passed and you’ll still be here. Alone.”

“Not alone,” he protested, crossing his arms over his chest. “It sounds like you're promising to give me a brood. I’ll be too busy–”

“Lucien!” she snapped. “You’re doing it again. I want to go before winter. Either you go by yourself or you take me with you.”

“Or what?” Lucien asked, padding towards her until he all but towered over his little mate. She didn’t cower. Elain merely put her hands on her hips, eyes blazing with defiance.

“Or I’ll have this baby in the woods without you,” she whispered, her words a knife to the gut. “You’ll come home one day to the smell of my blood and a new baby swaddled in bed.”

“That’s cruel,” he whispered, not bothering to hide his hurt. Elain threw up her hands.

“You make all the rules and I don’t like it! You promised me freedom,” she reminded him. “And now all you do is keep me shut away in the house.”

“Because I know what could happen,” he murmured, reaching for her face. “How am I supposed to live without you?”

“You’re not,” Elain reminded him with exasperation. “Nothing is going to happen. You’ll get your brood and your people. Truly, Lucien, you could have it all.”

She turned on her heel, in no mood for his affection, which was just as well. Lucien didn’t appreciate her threat to hide the baby away or to give birth somewhere he couldn’t find her. He didn’t doubt Elain wouldn’t try. She was feisty and stubborn and so utterly frustrating because she didn’t understand. She was still so blithely human, so unaware of how the centuries of being alone had ground Lucien’s bones to nothing. She was the first bright spot, the first scrap of light he’d had since his mother died.

She was asking him to gamble the future he’d dreamed of on the chance he wasn’t alone and Lucien was not willing to do it. He wouldn’t risk leaving his pregnant mate alone to face the world, to raise their baby among the very people who might one day rip those wings from their fragile little body.

Lucien was miserable by the time he plodded up the steps. He avoided her with a bath, shedding himself of the itching clothes he hated. With wet hair and bare skin, Lucien opened up the bedroom door, expecting more of Elain’s wrath. She didn’t need fire to bring him to his knees though he could imagine, had she been one of the Fae, she would have been utterly lethal.

She was also dead asleep, worn out from the simple, yet difficult task of growing the baby. This, he thought, was what she didn’t understand. The sight of her in the dying firelight, curled around a massive pillow she’d once told him reminded her of his body. Golden hair spread gently around her flushed face. She was warm again, buried beneath too many blankets. Elain thought the baby had raised her body temperature though Lucien couldn’t be sure.

Lucien gently removed the pillow to the sound of her sleepy protests, sliding his body beside her until it was him she clung to. “I’m still mad at you,” she whispered, her mouth moving against his neck.

“I was alone for a very long time,” Lucien told her, twisting until their foreheads were touching. “Even when your kind sent the females, we weren’t friends. We didn’t speak. No one but you ever saw my two-legged form. I made my peace with it. I accepted my life for what it was. It was small but I was helpful. It made me feel less alone to take those females over the sea, to know they were safer, out of reach of the people who’d hurt them. And I meant to do that for you, too.”

Elain’s fingers brushed over his cheek.

“You are my mate,” he breathed. “My whole life. I only just found you and now you want to rush off into danger and all I can think about is how empty life would be if I was given this time and it was my own carelessness that stole you away.”

“You can’t protect me from everything,” Elain reminded him, those same fingertips ghosting against his lips.

“We’re happy here. Isn’t that enough?” It was one last desperate plea. Lucien knew, looking at her earnest, hopeful gaze, that Elain could not be persuaded.

“And what when the baby learns she has your form? Your magic? When she wants to play with other children? Or if she realizes she has a different sort of power? Wouldn’t it be nice to know there are others who can help? That if anything ever did happen—to either of us—that she wouldn’t be lost and alone like you were?”

He had to choke back his words. It was the way Elain spoke of the baby.

Her. She. A daughter, a living breathing little girl.

Lucien knew what happened to girls alone in the world. Had seen centuries of them chained up in a tower to slake male lust for violence. Lucien practically shook as he imagined a little girl with the same banded gold and her mothers soft eyes trying to flee those males, alone without either him or Elain.

He shuddered. “Okay. We’ll look for the others.”

Elain pressed her lips to her mouth. “I love you, Lucien. Nothing is going to happen to either of us.”

But Lucien wasn’t sure she was right.”

~*~

Lucien agreed to go and, true to his word, was agreeable just as soon as he finished between her legs. She hadn’t complained—it was a wonderful way to wake up, all things considered—though he didn’t want to be touched in return. He was antsy and anxious, his dread practically palpable as he bundled her in a coat and scarf and hat. His eyes all but pleaded—change your mind, change your mind—but she wouldn’t and she wasn’t. Elain didn’t pretend to understand Lucien’s fear but she did think some of it was unwarranted. After all, his father could have taken his son and fled. He’d chosen to stay. How much about what Lucien believed was even true?

Bundled until she was merely a pair of eyes, Lucien pressed a kiss to her gloved hands. “If anything even smells wrong, we’re coming back,” he warned. Elain nodded, stumbling forward for a clumsy hug. It amused him, tugging the first smile she’d gotten all day.

“When we get home, I’m putting my cock in your mouth,” he added, draping one last blanket over her shoulders. “I will be cold.”

She had a scarf pressed to her lips, keeping her from enthusiastically endorsing his plan. Lucien gave more often than he took and Elain jumped at the chance to make him feel as good as he did when he woke her with his rough tongue against her sensitive body. It wasn’t the time to think about it—if Lucien caught even a whiff of arousal he’d call the whole thing off to keep her trapped in bed. Letting Lucien think he could continue to use his handsome, muscular form as a distraction was a mistake. He won too many arguments simply by standing in front of her without a stitch of clothing on.

Lucien shifted in the early morning gloom. Had autumn always been so wet? She knew Lucien didn’t like it and yet she refused to be deterred. Snow wasn’t soon behind if the dropping temperature was any indication and by the time spring rolled around she’d be far too heavy to fly. It was now or it was never.

Lucien took off, the woosh of air stealing the breath from her lungs. She’d never get used to it though admitting to Lucien she didn’t like being so high in the air or clinging to his body as he rose into the atmosphere was tantamount to never leaving their home ever again. Lucien wouldn’t forget, was too concerned with ensuring she never felt a moment of discomfort and so Elain kept her hands tight against his raised scales, grateful for his careful grace.

She’d thought the clothes were an overreaction until the wind began to scream around her, its brutal kiss stinging beneath the layers of wool. The valley beneath them vanished to nothing, leaving only snow rolling snow drifts stretched for miles like a vast, endless sea. Elain had to close her eyes and focus on breathing through her nose when Lucien plunged into gloomy cloud cover, the once soft, drizzling rain shifting to frigid ice and snow.

It seemed to go on forever. Lucien doved from beneath the cloud cover, circling mountain sides and pointed peaks until Elain was practically breathless from the altitude. There was nothing—no life, no trees, just the ever present ice she was certain would never thaw. Beneath her, Lucien’s tension seemed to mount the longer they searched. She felt awful. Maybe it had been nothing more than an incredibly vivid dream. Perhaps she’d gotten his hopes up for nothing. He was a good mate and she wasn’t, she thought, cheek nuzzled against his back. She tried to kiss him through the scarf wrapped around her chapped lips, her gloved hands stroking what she hoped translated into an apology.

Lucien whipped his head to the side, she thought to look at her. Elain leaned to the side, hand outstretched to pat his snout when she saw his usual russet eyes slide to gold. A streak of black and red seemed to burst from the clouds below, slamming so hard into Lucien’s body he couldn’t keep her on his back. Elain just narrowly avoided being hit with Lucien’s heavy spiked tail as she plunged to the ground, hitting the relatively soft snow below. She’d been right to think it was deeper than she was tall. Elain had to dig her away out among the furious, screaming bellows overhead.

Lucien screamed violently to the earth like a bolt of golden lightning, his tail thrashing violently. The other dragon—larger, with what Elain though were curious red eyes, flapped huge, leathery wings just overhead. She couldn’t get close to Lucien without risking harm and he clearly couldn’t hear her over his own snapping and snarling.

So Elain, looking at the other creature, decided to wave.

We won’t hurt you, she hoped her body was saying. Don’t hurt us.

Lucien blew a furious cloud of steam and flame as the beast crept closer, his dark scales shifting red in the gloomy, filtered sunlight. She beckoned him closer until a beast no longer stood before her. This man shifted in pants. It was a revelation not to see another penis–which hadn’t occurred to her until she’d seen the rippling of his body shimmering in the air—and a face that was so eerily similar to Lucien’s.

Not in appearance. This man’s skin was a shade browner and instead of the lovely gold ribboning Lucien wore, he had a line of whorling red tattoos that streaked over his neck, his bare chest, and across his arms. His wings had shifted, folded and been made smaller but where will bunched against his back, the taloned tips nearly grazing his tattooed shoulders.

“We didn’t come to harm you!” Elain shouted over Lucien’s insistent fury and the rippling wind. “We were sent to find someone!”

He grinned, running a broad hand through his tangled, shoulder length hair. “Who are you looking for?” his booming voice replied, hazel eyes sparkling with mischief. She knew who he was.

“Cassian.”

He threw out muscular arms, striding towards her as if he might give her a hug. Only Lucien’s furious, spiked tail slamming between them stopped Cassian from coming any closer. “You found me. How lucky.”

His teasing smile told her he’d already known she was coming, that he’d been out waiting. Elain cleared her throat. “The ah…the Prince of Nightmares—”

“Is that what he calls himself now?” Cassian asked, eyeing Lucien just behind him. “Hiding in opulence, having a human do his dirty work? You should tell him to come face me himself.”

“I don’t exactly have a direct line to him,” Elain grumbled.

“Will your male let me take you somewhere warmer? I don’t want to die today,” he added with amusement.

“He doesn’t have pants,” Elain explained with embarrassment. Cassian looked into the golden eyes of Lucien.

“He seems wild. I haven’t seen one of his kind in centuries…where did you find him?”

Elain pressed her lips together, ignoring the ache in her body now that the adrenaline had begun to wear off. She’d fallen far, and though the snow was soft enough, she was certain she’d bruised something.

“I don’t mind his nudity,” Cassian finally offered. “Though I doubt he wants to shift. He can wait outside for all I care, so long as he doesn’t frighten off the younglings.” That captured Lucien’s attention. He snuffed, eyes raised.

“Very wild,” Cassian murmured. “Follow me, then.”

His body rippled, shimmering red against the hazy fog. It wasn’t like the violent shift Lucien often gave into—as if his skin were replaced by the scales just beneath. Cassian moved with fluidity, with a sort of magic that allowed him to remain two-legged even when his terrifying wings flared around him.

Elain plodded through the snow. “You hurt me when you dropped me,” she murmured, pressing a soft kiss against his nose. “So now we do what I say. We’re going to follow him and you’re going to behave.”

Russet eyes blinked back to life, only to shift back into the gold. It was assent, or as close as she’d get. He lowered himself, nosing her ass as she clambered back onto his back until she had to swat him away. Cassian watched overhead, hovering like a terrifying creature of the night. The Prince of Nightmares. That was what the terrifying man of shadow had called himself. What did that make Cassian, then? He was massive, a thing of pure muscle and flesh.

He took them deeper into the mountains, skimming close to the ground until snow gave way to a city. Lucien reared back, clearly startled by what he saw. For a moment neither of them moved, hovering in the air as they gazed down at the pointed, thatched roofs attached to brick houses. Not just houses, either. She saw shops and other buildings nestled among the mountainside. Their roads were clear and made of dark cobblestone, the sides lined with little fences and pine colored shrubs.

He stilled entirely at the sound of a shrieking child. Not fear. It was joy that cut through the howling wind. Elain rubbed his back, wishing she knew what he was thinking. Why hadn’t he been brought here? Why had Lucien been left to fend for himself in the wilds?

Lucien deposited her on the outskirts, tail flicking nervously. Cassian, who’d already shifted back to his leather armored pants, glanced over. “He can come into the city. Our streets are wide enough…but if he loses his temper he’s gonna get hurt.”

Elain knew Lucien wouldn’t stay. “I understand.”

Lucien’s eyes remained nervous but russet as they stepped onto the streets. His head swiveled back and forth, watching people in very normal clothing walk about. They weren’t like him—massive, taloned wings remained pinned at their backs even in their two-legged forms. Just like Cassian’s had. Not all of them bore any marks on their faces at all. Some of the men were tattooed and shirtless but the majority might have been human, had they not bore those leathery wings.

“You stay out here,” Cassian ordered when they reached one of the little thatched homes. “I want to speak with your female. She will explain…and you will not harm anyone in this city.”

Lucien snuffed in agreement but there was fear in his eyes, radiating in waves. Elain pressed a reassuring hand on his nose before gesturing towards a large, green shuttered window. “I’ll stand right here so you can see I’m not being harmed.”

Lucien nuzzled her with his massive nose while Cassian opened the rounded wooden door. “Is it usual for his kind to be so…affectionate towards mortals?”

Elain stepped into the cozy little cottage, delighted when Cassian raised a tattooed hand and lit the fireplace at the far end of the room. Much like her own, there was a rather inviting living space that branched into a kitchen before spiraling upwards into what she assumed must be bedrooms. True to her word, Elain took the squashy sand colored chair just be the window, though Lucien’s head was still turned towards the city.

Cassian leaned against the mantle, watching intently. She’d almost forgotten he’d asked a question. “We’re mates,” she admitted, tugging off her scarves and jackets and coats to show him the golden band ribboned around her neck. Cassian went still for a moment. She wasn’t sure he drew even a breath as he stared.

“Mates? With a human?”

“Yes,” she agreed. “It was why your prince–”

“He is not our prince,” Cassian interrupted hotly. “He’s a coward.”

She’d come back to that in a moment. “He sent me because he said more of you might have human mates. He—”

“Wants us to fight another war for him,” Cassian interrupted again. “The human males are encroaching, are wondering how many of us are left. I’m sure your beast doesn’t hide away like he should and draws attention—”

“He was left in that forest,” she snapped defensively. “All by himself. If he doesn’t know your ways he can hardly be blamed.”

Cassian exhaled a breath. “So I am being promised a mate for my help?” he asked.

“I didn’t come here to ask you for anything but community. We’re having a baby and—”

Cassian’s sharp gasp of air silenced her. “A baby?”

She pressed a protective hand over her bundled stomach. “Yes.”

He looked to the window with unmistakable longing. “We have not had a child born here in three decades. There are so few females left…we are too closely related, now, even if the humans had not killed so many.”

“I heard a child laughing as we came in,” Elain protested.

“Our kind age much slower,” Cassian explained. “Our babes take nearly seventy years to reach maturity. That little boy you heard is…perhaps…ten? In human years? He will grow for another forty before he is an adult male ready to live out on his own.”

“And my baby? Will they age so slowly?” she questioned. Cassian’s eyes softened.

“I couldn’t say. You would be the first mortal I’d ever met to carry a Fae child. How did he convince you? Humans detest us.”

“Not all of us,” Elain murmured. “He did not have to try very hard. He’s not like the men in my village back home. Lucien is kind–”

“He is your mate,” Cassian agreed impatiently. “To harm a mate is to harm oneself. I understand why you were sent, though I resent that our terrible monarch used a pregnant female as bait.”

“I don’t want a war,” Elain protested gently. “I just want my baby to be able to live somewhere safe.”

“You are always welcome in Velaris,” Cassian swore. “You and your feral mate. We protect our own. I will need to discuss this with the others…perhaps I could visit you?”

Elain glanced back to Lucien, still watching the village with near hungry appreciation. “We’re in the valley at the base of the mountains.”

“Hardly safe,” Cassian snorted. Elain suppressed an eye roll.

“I don’t like the cold and he—”

“His kind once lived by the western sea. Some still do, I’ve seen his golden coloring before. I’ll send out a messenger. Perhaps he has kin. I ah…” Cassian rubbed the back of his neck. “The males will be interested in knowing more about you. About your females.”

“We prefer the two-legged form,” she admitted. “Although my sister might like to take on a massive dragon.”

There was an edge to Cassian’s eyes. “I would be happy to spar with any female who thinks she could take me on, mortal or not.”

“I think she might win,” Elain all but teased. “She has talons, too.”

Cassian came forward, his broad hand hovering over her stomach. “You have given us much to consider. Take your mate and rest easy. Tell him you are safe here. Even if you hate the snow, the humans cannot reach us. Your baby would be safe.”

Elain smiled. “That means everything to me.”

~*~

Elain was practically buzzing with excitement when they returned, stripping from her layers while Lucien paced nervously across the floor. Had he not seen it for himself, he might have thought the Illyrian community was nothing more than a very vivid dream. Beron had sworn there were no more of them. He and Lucien were the last, chained to that forest and the mortals with no hope for anything else.

He’d seen a child. Winged and strange and yet a child had run through the snow, kicking up powder and making a mess of things while his annoyed mama watched with amused eyes. Those people, that city—Lucien was coming apart even as Elain chattered.

“—baby will be safe and can learn—” “No.”

Elain froze, hand on the tail of her silvery blue scarf. “No?”

He shook his head, overcome with a wild fear. “We should leave. Leave this whole place. Go to the continent, perhaps, somewhere—”

“Lucien!” she interrupted, crossing the room to put her hands on his bare shoulders. “What is going on? Why are you trembling?”

His knees buckled and Lucien, who should have been stronger, fell to his knees. He gripped her body, pulling her soft body until he had his face buried in her stomach. He could hear the baby's fluttering heartbeat beneath her skin mingled against the steady beat of her own. Alive and safe…and not alone. Lucien inhaled sharply to keep himself from weeping while Elain threaded her fingers through his hair.

“You don’t have to do everything by yourself anymore,” she murmured.

“Why didn’t my father tell me?” he asked, his voice ragged even to his own ears.

She slithered to the ground, cupping his face in her hands. “I don’t know. Maybe he was scared,” she murmured, pressing a soft kiss to his cheek. “Cassian said he’d seen others with your coloring on the western coast. Maybe relatives–”

Lucien sucked in a soft breath. “It will all go wrong.”

“It won’t,” she insisted because Elain believed the world was good and fair. It must be so simply because she willed it. As if she hadn’t been brought to him in irons, as if she hadn’t expected to die. Elain, who had pulled a spear from the gut of a wounded beast even when she thought he’d kill her. Who knelt before him carrying his child, his mark, his scent.

“I will go where you tell me to go,” Lucien whispered, pressing his forehead against her own, nose nuzzling her face. “I will do what you tell me to do. I am yours.”

“We don’t need to do anything right now,” she murmured, kissing him again. Lucien knew where she was going with this. Her mouth was a distraction he wanted to lose himself in. “We can stay here until the baby is born.”

“And if I want to stay forever?” he questioned, tongue darting forward to trace the line of her lips. “I am a jealous male. I don’t want the others to see you.”

She rolled her eyes. “You don’t want them to see me huge and disgusting—”

Lucien gaped. “Disgusting?”

Elain’s cheeks bloomed with heat. “It is well known—”

“Among human males, you mean. Well known among human males,” he prompted, his anger already too hot. More of their nonsense, more absurd statements from males who did not know a good thing when they saw it.

“That once a woman becomes heavy with child she’s no longer…you know.”

“I don’t.” He suspected he was about to find out.

“He doesn’t wish to have sex with her,” Elain finished, squaring her shoulders. “Because she is no longer attractive.”

Lucien leveled a stare. “From the same males who are afraid of blood, I assume?”

Her flush deepened. “Your body changes—”

“I cannot wait,” he declared with relish, pulling her into his arms. Lucien licked the length of her neck. “I intend to keep you very, very naked. I want no more talk of what human males find appealing. I am beginning to think they do not like females at all, given their list of revulsions.”

“You’re just saying that,” she murmured, her fingertips reaching for his already hard cock. Lucien scoffed.

“I wouldn’t lie.”

“You think everything I do is appealing.”

“Because it is. You are my heart,” he reminded her, sighing when she stroked him gently. “And I pity your females left unattended while they’re pregnant. You have never smelled more appealing to me.”

“You make me sound like a meal,” she complained. Lucien tried to push her back, to spread her out but Elain was far too quick, dodging out of grasping range.

“You are a meal,” he complained when she moved to the edge of the bed, hands on her knees.

“Not tonight. Tonight the only thing being licked is you.”

His whole body went tight. “You don’t—”

“I’m well aware I don’t have to,” Elain interrupted primly. “Can’t I just want to?”

Lucien nodded, clambering to his feet. It felt strange to walk to her, cock jutting nearly straight ahead, and pointing it at her face. Disrespectful, in fact, to get as close as he did hoping she’d open her mouth…even when that’s exactly what she did.

“Elain—” he tried again, a half-hearted and yet valiant attempt given the way her soft mouth sucked him between her lips. His head lolled back on its own accord, his breath punched from his lungs. It was all Lucien could do but reach down and gather up her hair so it didn’t get caught against her face. It seemed polite given she had half his cock pushed into her throat and was bobbing her head, cheeks hollowed, tongue sliding up and down the ridged bottom of his length. It was maddening, her slow rhythm and the way her hand and lips created a different sort of friction.

“Please,” he whispered, unsure what he was even asking for. It encouraged her, a smile curving that he could feel against his too-hard cock. He wanted more, wanted her to move faster, to take all of him until he could feel the back of her throat the way he could feel her cunt. Lucien pushed his hips, holding her head still to see just how much she could take. Elain’s eyes widened, her hands coming to his thighs to shove. She gagged and Lucien withdrew entirely to the sound of his gasping mate.

“Too much,” she breathed, wiping tears from the corners of her eyes. “That was too much.”

“I agree,” he replied, hauling her up in his arms. She was so delicate, so lovely and beautiful and so, so unhappy when he all but shredded her clothes with little more than a slice of an elongated talon.

“Lucien,” she complained, wiggling against his grasp. Lucien merely adjusted his hold until one of her legs was slung over his shoulder, the other parted, her foot pressed against his pectoral.

“What are you doing?” she breathed, as if it weren’t obvious. Lucien guided her onto his still wet cock, exhaling at that first slide of her cunt.

“I’m fucking my mate,” he replied, pushing her onto him until her round ass was flush against his abdomen. “I’d like you to make a mess of me.”

Elain’s eyes rolled backwards, head going limp in his hand. He understood why–the changed angle made it seem as if he’d gone deeper, was practically invading her body, her senses. His arms trembled, not from her weight but just touching her. She was everything, his whole life draped against his body, drawing him so tight he felt truly connected.

Elain kicked gently against his chest, straining in her effort to get him to thrust the way he knew she wanted. He couldn’t truly fuck her while he held her and just for a moment, Lucien wanted to enjoy the sight of his pretty mate in his hands, her tight cunt wrapped obscenely tight around his cock. Elain whined, rolling her hips until she’d slicked her own arousal through the trail of hair just beneath his stomach, soaking the sparse strands. Lucien lost his tenuous control then, bringing her to the bed so he could pound into her relentlessly, thumb rubbing her clit until Elain came with a breathless sob not once but twice. He quite liked the hormones she was always bemoaning—while they might make her queasy, they’d also made her breasts more generous and perhaps more importantly, her cunt seemed wetter.

She reached for him, nuzzling her head into his neck. “Are you happy?”

He could still feel the rolling thrum of her climax against the skin of his cock. Lucien knew Elain wanted to know if he was happy about the others. He peered down at her.

“Yes.”

She was his happiness.

~*~

Cassian returned the day Lucien finished the bassinet. Elain was fussing over it in the living room when she heard Lucien’s furious bellow, his screaming snarl cut against the cheerful autumn afternoon.

“I haven’t come to harm her!” Cassian’s voice shouted with irritation. “Your scent is all over her, I couldn’t have her if I wanted!”

Elain went to the door as Cassian muttered, “Which I don’t.”

“A hello to you too,” she murmured with dry amusement. Cassian’s head snapped to Lucien, prowling in the grass.

“You need to teach him manners.” Cassian grumbled. “He’s too territorial.”

Elain wasn’t going to apologize for Lucien even if she sometimes agreed. When Cassian said it, she felt defensive—protective. “He’s a good mate,” she said, glancing towards the dragon that would almost certainly shift into a male to menace the other Fae.

“Yes. With a pregnant female,” Cassian agreed, eyes falling on the mahogany bassinet sitting in the living room. “I spoke with the others. They want to see you.”

“No.” Lucien’s voice cut through the conversation, drawing both Cassian and Elain’s attention to his half naked form. Lucien was jamming his feet into pants in the doorway, his eyes never leaving Cassian’s face. “No strange males around my pregnant mate.”

“They don’t believe me,” Cassian explained. “No one thinks it’s possible to impregnate a human even if you could get close to one.”

“They’re not going to hurt the women, are they?” Elain asked suddenly, her fear overwhelming her. Lucien, too, looked at Cassian with expectant eyes. Cassian sighed.

“No. No one is going to abduct females and force them to bear children. The hope is for a mate, and mates are equals.”

Elain breathed a sigh of relief. “What’s the harm, then?”

Cassian winced, as if he knew exactly what Lucien would say. “The harm is you,” Lucien snarled furiously. “You are so….so….so casual about your safety!”

“You can’t be serious,” she grumbled, crossing her arms over her chest. Lucien stared her down. “We’re not doing this here. Not now,” she added, embarrassed for Cassian to witness this argument.

“I don’t see why not,” Lucien, blissfully unaware of the social norms that dictated such things, seemed bound and determined to just plow through every edict on manners Elain had ever been given. She was burning angry all the sudden.

“Of course you don’t!” she shrieked, her temper overwhelming her good sense. “You just push and push and push until you have your way! It is just me making compromises! You are not the only person afraid, Lucien! You, at least, have your wings and talons and scales and what do I have? A body that is easily overpowered by practically everyone, a child I am now responsible for, and a mate who thinks he should be allowed to decide what I am and am not allowed to do!”

“You are making my point–!”

Elain cut him off.

“I was the one dragged through that forest, shackled and chained. It was my neck they restrained against your bed! You don’t ever think about what any of that was like for me! What it felt like to see you fly into that room and hope and pray you weren’t going to draw out my death!”

Lucien had gone very, very still. Elain was crying, not from sadness, but anger. She couldn’t help herself, half embarrassed by Cassian’s uncomfortable shuffling beside her, half furious Lucien had brought them to this point.

“You aren’t the one being left gifts,” she reminded him, wiping at her face. “Or dealing with the dreams. You weren’t thrown to the ground, you aren’t a pawn. You keep saying mates are equals and yet you treat me like you are above me because you are stronger. That I’m somehow to stupid to make a good choice for myself and need you to protect me. You’re angry about the men from my village but you’re not any better!”

Lucien’s eyes went wide, his hand flying to his bare chest. She knew, in that moment, she’d gone too far. Lucien was better in every conceivable way. It was too late to take back those words and in her haze of fury, Elain wasn’t entirely sure she wanted to. Let him stew, she decided. Elain shoved past him, elbowing him out of the doorway to step into the cool autumn air.

“Elain,” Lucien called miserably. “Elain, don’t…”

Fury gave way to shame and embarrassment as Elain marched down the sloping hill towards that too cold lake. Each step filled her with regret. She wished she hadn’t told him he was no better than the human men. Elain knew Lucien was going to internalize that long after she apologized. Fingers spanning her still flat stomach, she took a breath.

“I want our baby to grow up around people who understand her,” she murmured. Lucien, who’d been trailing behind her the entire stomp towards the lake, put his hands on her shoulders and pulled her against his chest. “I don’t want them to suffer like you did.”

He buried his face in her hair. “My mate is too sweet,” he said, his voice ragged. “And I dread the thought of what could happen to you.”

She didn’t turn to look at him, well aware she’d break if she saw the anguish she heard so plain. “Who protects you, Lucien? Who keeps you safe?”

She could feel him trembling, gripping her so tight he was likely leaving bruises. “I am not important—”

“You’re wrong!” she interrupted hotly, tears flooding her eyes. “You’re important to me, to this baby! Sometimes…” her voice cracked. “Sometimes I feel like you’re doing all this preparing so you can leave. And I can’t stand the thought of it.”

Lucien tugged, forcing her to look up at him. It was a mistake. Every inch of him radiated misery. “We will go to see the others,” he said, russet eyes searching her face. “Tomorrow. Cassian knows to expect us. And…and you can do what you need to do. I will not be in your way.”

“Lucien,” she whispered but he shook his head of hair, the braid she’d placed just that morning shedding some of the little orange marigolds.

“You were right. I am no better—”

“I’m sorry,” she gasped, rising up on her tiptoes to kiss him before he could finish that thought. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, Lucien—”

His mouth slanted over hers, arms wrapped around her body. “Don’t apologize,” he moaned, pulling her to the grass so she was in his lap, legs straddling his waist. “I–”

“Am perfect,” she kissed, tongue sliding against his own. Lucien groaned again, his body so warm, so hard even in the cool kiss of air. “I love you,” she added for good measure, delighted when he nipped at her bottom lip, rolling her to the ground to have her among a bed of grass. It had been so long since they’d last come together beneath a peaceful sky and yet this was right.

He was right. If she lived a thousand years, it would never be enough.

Lucien didn’t bother to undress her, didn’t bother with the slow seduction of his mouth, or dragging her out. This was a hasty apology from them both, a begging of forgiveness for their callousness, their unintended cruelty. He pushed aside the fabric of her clothes, sliding a finger over her cunt just to be sure she was ready before his was sliding into her, somehow freed of her trousers without her ever noticing.

Lucien didn’t break the kiss and neither did Elain. The point of this coupling, she knew, wasn’t the sex so much as it was the joining. The touching, the connection, the radiating love. The pleasure was only secondary and still she took it, legs wrapped around his waist until they came together, trembling and sweaty and still kissing, over and over, that desperate hunger never leaving, never fading.

She didn’t think it ever would.

~*~

He didn’t like it. Didn’t like how beautiful she looked in that pretty pink dress, didn’t like the care she’d taken with her hair, her face, her everything. He disliked even more the way every male in the room had stilled when she walked in, their nostrils flaring to drink in her scent. It was hell to keep himself dressed and still, to not shift as he’d promised Cassian. Lucien let Elain take a comfortable seat, one that a male yielded when she floated in, scrambling upwards and gesturing for her towards the chair nearest the fire.

He understood their awe. She was so very obviously mortal and yet not, her skin marked by him. She reeked of his cock—Luicen hadn’t told her they’d be able to smell him all over her skin when he’d insisted on fucking her that morning, withdrawing to paint her breasts and face in his come. She’d washed but it lingered, a warning for any male who might think about getting too close. Being too friendly.

Cassian was the only male in the room he trusted, standing just beside Elain’s chair with his bright, hazel eyes. “Tell them what you told me,” Cassian prompted, cutting a glance at Lucien. Don’t fuck this up, his expression seemed to warn.

Lucien didn’t acknowledge that at all. He’d follow their rules so long as they came no closer. Elain was perfection, glowing and smiling, one hand resting against her still flat stomach. They could scent that, too. She smiled, taking the time to learn their names, to ask after them. He was proud of how good she was at making people feel at ease, at settling the males until they were seated, no longer bristling and spoiling with tension.

Elain spoke so sweetly that it was easy to forget the story she told was one of horror. There were things Lucien didn’t know—of this world she came from where women were pushed to mate too soon, too young with males twice their age in order to avoid being sent to the dragon. He knew he was not the only one bothered by that cruelty. All of the males blanched, revolted at the trickery, at the callous disregard for what was sacred to them.

Her story began far before the tower, winding through a culture of fear. She had sisters, she explained. She wanted to get them out, wanted to offer a place for any mortal female that was tired of being ground to dust. Lucien could have told Elain every male in the room would agree even when they murmured their appreciation for such a plan.

The problem was Elain. She thought they ought to return, to explain the entire thing. With force, of course. Cassian caught his eye as Lucien’s fingers dug into the chair, nearly splintering the wood below. Elain twisted to look up at him with her shining eyes and he knew he’d be outvoted on this.

“Elain,” he whispered, ignoring the excitement of the other males. Cassian, too, grimaced.

“To go back risks the safety of our home,” Cassian added.

“They can’t reach us here–” one began but Lucien cut him off.

“Yet. They can’t reach you here yet.”

And Lucien knew, from the slant of their eyes and the set of their jaws, what would happen next. Elain, for all her optimism, had hoped to provide a place of safety for their child but the males were thinking differently. They were thinking of how they’d been denied what Lucien had, not because they were inept but because the human males killed children and females first when they invaded villages. The males that survived, that managed to defend their homes were left to carry the grief and guilt. He could see that hurt, that rage. If they came for human females, the males would merely slaughter whatever they could not hoard, would cut apart children that were half their own kin.

“Then it’s war,” the male called Azriel declared. “Just as the Prince of Nightmares has decreed.”

Elain gasped. “That’s not—”

“You will leave my mate from the fighting,” Lucien interrupted, knowing full well she would be angry with him. “And I will help you through the forest.”

Cassian smiled. It was exactly as Lucien had expected and clearly as the General had hoped. Elain twisted, looking at him with pleading eyes. Betrayal. Lucien shifted, reaching for her and settling her into his lap as he took over her chair. Fingers stroking over her arm, he murmured, “I tried to warn you not to come.”

She looked so sad, her hurt so apparent. “We will try and spare as many as we can, lady,” Azriel told her when her disappointment and disapproval was too much to be ignored.

“Your sisters especially,” Cassian added, as if he wasn’t interested in the line that Elain came from. “No one wants to see innocents be harmed.”

“But they will be,” Elain protested. “You can’t avoid it.”

Lucien pulled her against his chest at the stifling emotions roiling through the room. “She doesn’t know,” he said, trying to calm their tempers. “She was not alive for it.”

“When they came the first time, we did not attack them,” Azriel murmured, speaking for the ground. He came from the shadows holding a glinting knife. Lucien didn’t like the threat of violence or the blade wielded so casually. He tightened his grip on Elain who studied the dark haired males blue markings that trailed over his bare shoulders. “We merely defended. They came in the night. They hid, they ambushed, they drove our females and children into traps and cut them down one by one. We would defend, drive them back, but…”

Elain trembled in Lucien’s arms. She needed to hear Azriel tell this story, needed to understand why the eager males could not abide the thought of more humans coming with their weapons.

“Are you any better if you invade?”

“We do not go to eradicate,” Azriel snapped when Cassian stepped forward. “But to warn, to reestablish ourselves. If you cannot understand the difference, well…”

“Watch yourself,” Lucien warned. “She has been harmed by those males, too.”

“We should have done this centuries ago,” Cassian murmured. “We were too afraid to diminish our numbers. I have written to the west and they are coming. We will be united for the first time in centuries—”

“If we can find the Prince of Nightmares,” Azriel added, eyes shifting back to Elain. “Can you find him?”

“I…” she looked as if she might cry. Things were not going as she’d hoped.

“She will,” Lucien said for her. “Give her some time. He is tricky.”

And that was that. Lucien left Elain to rebundle, meeting with Cassian just outside the door. “Your female is displeased with us.”

“She has a soft heart,” Lucien replied with affection. “She wants a place to raise our baby.”

“You should leave her here,” Cassian cautioned. “There is a home at the edge of the village. Smaller than your cottage but it could see you through winter. I would not leave her in that valley no matter how much she loves it. In the spring, take her west where it is warm and there are fewer humans.

“When do you plan to attack?”

Cassian shrugged. “It will take time for the west to arrive, to study the maps and decide where is the safest place to set up a camp. We want to keep them from looking too closely at the mountains, from the relative safety we already have. Perhaps spring, perhaps sooner. If the Prince of Nightmares shows his face…”

Lucien only shrugged. “He only shows himself to her.”

“A curious thing. Keep a careful watch on her. I will come in three days for an update and to try and coax her up north.”

“We will talk more,” Lucien agreed as Elain ambled forward, her eyes—the only part of her not covered in cloth—openly miserable. “In three days. I hope to have good news for you.”

Cassian nodded. “Things will work out as they are supposed to. Trust in that.”

Lucien didn’t. He only trusted the female coming towards him, hand outstretched. “Don’t be sad,” he murmured.

“Take me home, Lucien,” she mumbled, her words mumbled.

And Lucien could do nothing but obey.

~*~

She was dreaming. Elain knew she was and still she looked around that city square and it’s curious, burning pyre with interest.

“Why are we here?” she asked, not bothering to look at the swirling mass of shadow just beside her. Golden brown hands held a letter with familiar writing, dressed in the elegant black and silver from before. Only his face was unknowable, obscured in starless darkness she didn't dare look at.

“You were not careful,” his voice murmured. “And your dragon even more careless.”

“What has he done?”

“Besides defy the orders given to him?” the Prince of Darkness asked, turning his gaze on her. Elain didn’t know how to explain it, how she knew his eyes studied her. Only that she did, just as she knew he would not hurt her. “Or destroy that tower until only the rubbled remains were left?”

“They can’t prove that,” she murmured, even when he placed her own letter to Ferye into her hands.

“You told your sisters too much,” the prince murmured. “And the woman from last year has returned, telling of the most unbelievable tale. The humans are coming for you, Elain Archeron. They’re coming for you both.”

She looked back at that pyre. “What a coincidence. Your kind is looking for you.”

“I am where I need to be. What did they decide?”

“War,” she said bitterly, hating the way his body seemed to ooze with delight.

“Good. I am ready to see fae and mortals merge again. Tell Lucien he needs to leave,” the prince added. “I don’t want to watch you die.”

“Why would you—” Elain gasped, sitting up in bed. Light poured into the room nearly blinding her for a moment. Infuriating, she thought, kicking the blankets from her body. Elain strode to the bathing chamber where warm water waited just as it always did. She turned the dream over and over in her mind, wondering how long her and Lucien had before Graysen and the other figured out where they’d gone. Days? A few weeks at most? She heaved a loud sigh, disappointed and most of all, exhausted. She had to force herself from the water, to put on the velvety orange dress, to pull her wet hair from her face in a braid.

“Lucien?” she called once her shoes were on. It was unlike him to be gone for so long and not so unusual she felt any panic. “Lucien, have you eat—”

“Is that the creature's name, then?” Graysen asked when Elain rounded the corner at the bottom of the stairs for the kitchen. “Or did you give it to him?”

Elain took a step backwards on instinct. Graysen, dressed in a blue dress uniform, examined his nails for a moment. “What are you doing here?”

“I came to rescue you,” Graysen replied sarcastically, looking around at her little home with his ugly eyes. “Women are returning from the continent telling of a dragon who frees women…and yet you’re here cooking it breakfast.”

“Where is he?”

Graysen chuckled, taking a step towards her. Elain stumbled back, careful to keep her hands from flying to her stomach. He couldn’t tell, didn’t know, didn’t—

The living room had been picked through, she realized when she swept inside. Cushions overturned, chairs moved…and her little bassinet kicked to its side. Graysen came right up behind her, chest pressed to her back, his hands on her hips. “Will you tell me what it was like, Elain? Fucking that monster? Did you cry? Or did you bend over willingly—”

A furious bellow in the distance punctuated Graysen’s taunts. Hands skimmed up her body, tangling in her braided hair. “I’ll bet you liked it, you fucking cunt.”

His other hand squeezed around her neck, so tight Elain scrambled to push him off, clawing and writhing until her elbow connected with his gut hard enough to make him wheeze.

“You gave up a life with me for this?!” he demanded. “For this poverty, to raise some deformed beast like child?”

He was staring at her neck, at that ribbon of gold that marked her. Panting and wild, his usually coiffed hair falling in his empty, ugly eyes. “I would have given you everything—”

“You can offer me nothing,” Elain whispered, her voice trembling in her throat. “Nothing I want, nothing I need.”

“Is this what you need, then?” he asked, reaching for the bassinet Lucien had spent so much time working on. In one swift move, Graysen threw it against the wall, splintering it violently. Her hand flew to her mouth to hide her gasp. “This beast?” he roared, turning from the living room for her kitchen, the one place Elain loved almost as much as their bedroom. Graysen raged, ripping her plants from their hanging pots to shatter at her feet. He tore the curtains from the window, flung her dishes at the wall, at the floor, at her.

Graysen lunged again, a knife in hand. He shoved her towards the door, the blade curved against her throat. Elain gasped at the sight of the valley, once green and lush and dotted with little flowers she spent each morning plucking so she could braid into his hair. It had become a wasteland of charred earth and fire. Lucien was covered in heavy iron chains held on all sides of his massive, golden body and still he fought, his spiked tail thrashing violently. She could see he was injured, could see the bloodied gashes over his broad chest, his sweet snout. Elain balked, dragging her heels into the ground but Lucien had seen. His fury ripped through the air at the sight, wings beating against his restraints.

“End your fight, beast!” Graysen snarled, digging the sharpened, jagged end of his blade against her throat. Blood slid down her neck, stilling Lucien instantly.

“Don’t,” she whispered, for all the good it did. He shifted in an instant, naked before the human men. Coated and blood and dirt, Lucien panted, one hand thrown out.

“Let her go,” he ordered as Graysen dragged her closer. She could feel his fury digging against the arm that held her, drinking in the sight of Lucien no longer a dragon…but practically a mortal.

“You fucking whore,” he whispered roughly, pushing his knife so hard she could barely breathe.

“Let her go,” Lucien said again, all of his worst fears coming to fruition. “You don’t need to harm her.”

“Does it…does it care for you?” Graysen asked incredulously. “And here I just assumed you liked being spread apart but this thing loves you, doesn’t it?”

“Let her go,” Lucien repeated, his jaw tight.

“Alright, beast. I swear not to harm your pretty little toy if you come on two legs.”

He’s lying,” she gasped. “Lucien—”

“That’s enough, I think,” Graysen clapped his hand over her mouth, digging the point of his knife against her cheek. “Women are so chatty, am I right? I would stay a beast too, if it meant avoiding their noise.”

Lucien didn’t respond, his eyes never leaving her face. She knew what he was trying to silently say when his eyes fell on the house behind them, on the carved path he’d been working on. Find the others. Elain poured her pleading into her gaze.

Don’t make me leave you with them.

But Lucien knew Graysen would never honor his promise. That if they both came quietly, if they both complied Graysen would merely use her to secure Lucien’s cooperation before he killed Elain in front of Lucien as a means of torture. And who knew what he’d do to her in the meantime. Elain had to think about their baby.

Cassian had promised to come in two days. She couldn’t reach him any faster but she could hide herself away, could wait and hope and pray the Prince of Nightmares, who was somewhere in the city, would keep Lucien safe.

Lucien, hands restrained by the soldiers just behind, reared his head forward as Elain twisted, letting Lucien smash his face into Graysens'. Lucien was still bigger, still stronger.

“RUN,” he ordered, his words a terrifying snarl. “Do not come back for me.”

Elain took off, just as Lucien ordered. She would run and she would hide, just as he wanted. Just as she knew Lucien would walk the other way through the forest, would let them parade him through the city streets and make a mockery of everything lovely about him.

But Elain had no intention of leaving him.

The Prince of Nightmares wanted a war?

Elain would give them a war

#elucien #elucien fic #elucien fanfic #how will i ever recapture the magic that is this fic?#i love it so much #wake up girlies elain is smashing the patriarchy #elain x lucien #oops all plot

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trooperst-3v3 · 4 years

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Hux found out about my Kool-Aid water fountain experiment. He says I have to undo it because sugary drinks are unhealthy for the cadets. I pointed out that Captain Phasma’s “Combat With Improvised Weaponry” class probably isn’t exactly “healthy,” either, but he said it's not the same because armor can protect them from a stab wound, but not from tooth decay. So, “No” to sugar water for the younglings, but “Yes” to teaching those same younglings how to fashion their No.2 pencils into a shiv. Got it, boss. I will never understand the educational system.

#ST-3V3 #star wars #the rise of skywalker #stormtrooper #general hux #kool-aid

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captainkurosolaire · 4 years

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Passion’s Twist

🎵 Music 🎵 In a chilling pitch confronted right before the shadowy seated past the organ’s conductor pausing clearly detecting the Captain’s arrival. Underestimating and not paying attention to his vessel’s intruder that’s just how the former gap and dynamic of what was so known frail prior a plant that’s existence was only to be stomped on. "This is a world where we barter for freedom do you remember that price?" “Blood." A signalized assurance that this was inescapable as was their pact before going into a war-zone now they were the parties involved and they’d spill. For beliefs, for principals, for freedom stands the mightiest and tallest. It was time to see what they do with their own respective. The Betrayer obviously chose to dominate and like any tyrannical with power they’d enslave any beneather.

Fiendishly hands came unraveled from the organ The Betrayer’s figure came unglued, a side-stand with a pipe was dragged off rest. A cheap and forward lunge came darting from out through a trench coat the rugged Midlander of porcelain complexion revealed before a lighting strike nearby a dangling choker carrying a tiny dirk near his torso a message of his inner characteristics an untrustworthy backstabber. Instinctively Captain recoiled defensively to block grabbing one grip between him and the blunt object. However he had forgotten as often a turncoat always carries under their sleeves pocketed disaster. Shivs drew out and plunged into the forearm deeply of the Seeker causing him to bellow out in agony. Two inserted before Kuro bounced back on his feet. Stammering as fitting First blood was drawn. He pried the steel from his arms chunking them like darts to the owner. Who batted them with the lead pipe. Shaking his head and fighting off the fatigue settling quickly in that was telling him to fall to rest. Kuro stood back up and charging in grit a tucked under palm like a hand holding out for fountain water drew to collect his own blood when he closed in the distance he’d stop suddenly and slather it forward as like tar to blind using his own blood. Now another grunt echoed back from opposition aimlessly the pipes swung towards the direction. Kuro taking the wrists and swinging around and elbowing to the heart of Bellum caused him to disarm before growling out and now charging also back. He’d shove Kuro towards the organ and then continue thrashing and wailing on him banging and drumming the skull of the Miqo’te against the keyboard making them both flounder from the tune that sought to deprive them of their hearing. Shouting back, “Ye should’ve stayed dead!!!“ As his adrenaline and rage spiked his memories recalling his fondness and their bond that he squandered to the waste side. However it seemed he hadn’t truly buried it far enough under internal shallow. A daze rang against the Seeker who barely heard through who hung and began curling to block his face against being slammed the boarded prints grazed his cheeks. He’d kick back hitting the kneecap of the blindly rampant and then capitalize on hitting a below the belt hit. Staggering back and wincing he bought enough time before both them in the center room locked up again. Punching each-other senseless square in the face unguarded blow after blow they began swelling up already. Every emotion tossed back they felt the depletion in their vitality with each landed impact. Kuro staggering and teetering allowed opportunity for the Dirk on The Betrayer’s necklace to be removed and hastily close in. Kuro barely grabbed his wrists in-time, the razor literally an ilm off from hitting his pupil. His leather boot squished and stood on his armed opponent to keep him locked in and prevent from scooting off. They both in guttural wrenches looked to hold decisiveness. Kuro’s eye’s glowered brighter than before as his pupil spun and shaped into using his gifted amplified Star-Sight. He cross-chopped in the neck Bellum losing his hold as the tiny blade disappeared, after it lost from his grips seemingly disappearing in vanish. Captain in pure sharp pain cried a shout back at it ran against his face in his reflective pupil the knife was lodged and vaulted into a pocketed of him. He’d send it back to him magically drifting out of his palm and placing it against the thorax of The Betrayer putting him into a ending situation. Instead however of slashing or leading more bloodshed Captain as that wasn’t ever his aim, he pushed with every bit of his physical and animistic other portion of him as his runic forearm glowed around with engravings lending from his every core.

As Bellum was tossed by Feral Kuro towering over protruding in crimson lightly under his bottom lip and fall on his rump the crooked Warlord getting his payment back out of his conqueror none came close but this ghost standing before haunting him, he was beside himself,"Why'd ye blasted come back dammit!?" The gravity of loss was felt his muscles too weak to muscle or string up defenselessly.

With sorrow lineament in amber hues, "When you love something you know not even the currents cannot keep you apart. In my case, someone..." Right as Bellum's pupil's extended a love message sent in poetic fashion realizing this wasn't grudge for scorned pride but unspoken feelings that were mutual, like a gun shot he'd drum a booming chin kick to Bellum's slowly raising and weakened frame sliding up upside the wall he was pent against gathering right in position before a stained window all the pressure and force sent him shattering and splintering his back and mind rolling to faded black, the pop heard across the jaw in weighted heartfelt emotion.

Right before the unconscious and Bellum's lost defeated corpse sunk below in semblance of the same treatment the Captain endured when exiled and being beaten in his parley, calloused hands studiously latched to his opponent's ankles pulled back with a merciful save.

"All this that transpired was me confronting you; a past. I wasn't strong enough prior for either of our goals or ambitions, I faltered as th' Captain everyone deserved or saw that was needed and should've properly led. Well here's me reclaiming a rewrite by pages of one."

He'd cradle somberly in kinship, laying back and putting his former First Matey into his bed and heartily deliver a 'Last' smooch on the forehead in his restless state stained in their blood they went to war for the value in what was shared. Compassion unleashed in it's own potent strength now seen.

Battered, bruised from heads to toe, he still tasted that hinted of metallic blood in his mouth and limped outside against a Sunlight departing from the aftermath. It marked this was over and settled as was the pouring storm. Everything read in clear-skies. Taking in a breathe for his next destination to register, "How peculiar... I think I've the unique mood for some tea, think I heard some rumbling over yonder. That'll hold fer me." His head readjusting with the winds against his sun-kissed frame as his gaze held towards the direction of The Shroud’s that’s where his ‘Next’ was drawn.

🎵 End 🎵

[Previous]

#Part Finale #Tales of the Goldbrand #The First #The Last #Betrayer #Captain #The Writ #Closure #FFXIV #Creative Writing #Offender #Waged Importance #Unspoken #Pirate Affairs #Final Fantasy XIV #Never End X Treasures

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themodernvedic · 4 years

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World View in Shaivism

Shaivism philosophy has been recognized as the best among all the Sadhana Paths that lead to self-recognition. According to this system mind is to be withdrawn from objective activities and turned towards the subject, which is the real self and has to be merged into it. We bow to that Samvit Devi i.e. Shiva's coordinating force or cosmic energy that is transcendental (independent of experience) and immanent. She is a quintessence of Shiva and is blossomed / projected into this universe through the manifestation of the divine shakti. The Shaivism philosophy teaches us that this entire world is the play of consciousness. Thus, one does not have to undergo any kind of difficulty to attain God. Forgetfulness of one's true nature is the mass of ignorance which veils the experience of the self. All scriptures and Sadhanas are simply washing away the filth of ignorance. They have no ability of their own to reveal the wisdom of the self because that principle is self-existent, perfect and always manifest. When a seeker becomes worthy of attaining the absolute, his mind becomes unshakable and contended. A fountain of joy wells up in one’s heart when one's awareness becomes stable. He looks upon everyone with love and understands the following: Harsh words are a sign of inner dryness. Self-praise is evidence of non-attainment. Cruelty is a proof of hatred. The idea of difference indicates the cancer of ignorance. Living in the midst of people, the seeker loves all but remains independent of everyone. He gives up all expectations. The principal scriptures of Shaivism philosophy are the Shiva Sutras. These teachings were revealed by Shiva and were kept hidden till the great Vasugupta disseminated them throughout the world. The Shiv Sutras describe three upayas or means of Sadhna i.e. Shambhava upaya Shakt upaya Anava upaya Shambhava upaya is the belief that the world is the embodiment of Shiva. The Shakt upaya is the process by which the mind and intellect completely merge into the inner self. The anava upaya is a dualistic as well as non-dualistic path because it leads to unity. It involves the use of body, mind, intellect, senses and Prana Shakti. Through Japa, meditation and other dharanas a person becomes one with Siva and attains peace of mind. We do not need to know the scriptures to recognize our parents. Once our mother shows us who our father is, we do not have to mediate on him incessantly or repeat the mantras of his name. We always know him. In the same way at the precise moment when one recognizes the inner consciousness, as prakasha and vimarsha one becomes perfect. This is the Anupaya or Guru-Kripa-upaya - the path of Guru's grace. This upaya depends on seekers worthiness. Prakasha (light of consciousness) or Vimarsha (its awareness) are the two aspects of Param Shiva. Prakasha is Shiva, the static aspect, which similar to the nature of light. Vimarsha is the dynamic aspect or Shakti through which Param Shiva is able to survey Himself, and cause manifestation and dissolution. Param Shiva or Para Sammvit contains various powers and its nature of consciousness, is the supreme principle. As per the first Shiva Sutra, "The self is consciousness". In truth there is nothing other than that conscious light, which is the ultimate Reality. This world is the play of that Principle - the universal consciousness. Param Shiva Himself, by contradicting his own will brought about the effects of three impurities: Ang mala, is ego. Maya mala, is differentiation. Karma mala, refers to the activities of virtue and vice. Enveloped in these three impurities, the individual soul falls under the influence of the letters or sound syllables, which are the basis of words. From these letters arises language, from language come ideas and from ideas comes understanding. The understanding derived from many factors, which contributes to the functioning of a human being, his body, his senses, his mind and various gross and subtle principles takes a form so that others can understand it. These letters arise from a source known as the matrika chakra. From the gross body to the matrika charka there is nothing but a group of powers and shakties. Shri Swami Vidhyadhar Ji in his hymn to Goddess Saraswati has described it like this: The physical body, which is made up of five elements, has to be understood fully so should the purishtaka or subtle body, which is composed of five tanmatras along with the mind, Ego and intellect. One should also understand the gross and subtle principles from Shiva to the Earth. According to the Shaivism philosophy, the universe is a form of Shakti, the supreme principle. Shiva and Shakti are one, they are not separate. A person, say a "Yogi", who has attained perfection considers the universe to be the light of his own self like the light produced by a flame. The knowledge of one's true nature (Aham-I) and the knowledge of the universe (idam - this) merge into an all-pervading unity. This is the understating that one should have. The knowledge of "l" is like a flame and the knowledge of "this" is like its light, which spreads everywhere equally. This universe of ordinary experience contains infinite permutations of consciousness such as in the form of manifestation of the material of the world. Nila blue is among the countless colors and forms that make up the objects perceived through the outer senses. Similarly, Sukha (pleasure) is one of the many experiences of inner senses. Deha (the body) is the basis of the both inner and outer experiences. Para - vital force is one of the many conscious powers that makes the body function. This way the universe is full of numerous forms. Secondly, these are called Pramana (means of knowing) Pramata (the knower - subject) and Prameya (object of knowledge-object). Shiva is both the means and the end. No other light is needed to reveal light, it reveals itself and other objects as well. Similarly, consciousness reveals its own nature and also gives us the knowledge of other objects. It is called Para Samvit, Param Shiva or Chetanaya. Param Shiva is as serene as a still ocean. In this state Shiva is transcendent (independent of experience). He is always filled with bliss. In his immanent aspect through the independent power of the supreme I consciousness, Param Shiva becomes the thirty-six tattavas and reveals the seven experiences from within Himself. Main aim of Jeeva (individual soul) is to, Bring self-consciousness together. Simple individual is known as (to whom all the three malas (coverings mentioned above) arise. After passing many trans-migrations or births an individual gets awakened to the knowledge of the identity of the soul with the supreme spirit. In case he still does not get awakened and gets entangled in cheap activities he remains bound by the fetters of malas (coverings) and the universe. When he throws out all the three malas then eternal ego merges and remains in "शिवम्य आत्मा स्वरूप" Being constantly in this state, he gets perfection. To conclude, there are three paths to reach to the ultimate reality: Devotion Knowledge Renunciation But, these three are meaningless without the guidance and grace of the Guru (called Guru Kripa). Bimba Pratibimba (Doctrine of Reflection) in the Shaivism Philosophy Bimba Pratibimba is one of the most wonderful principles of Shaivism philosophy. The universe is reflected in Parmeshwar who is Sat-Chit-Anand. Bimba infact is Pratibimba, the object and its reflection are identical. Shiva is the world and the world is in Shiva. Shiva and the world are not two but one. The principle of Bimba is true knowledge निरमलं मुकरं यद्वत् भान्ति भूमिजलादयः। आमिश्रास्तवत् एकस्मिन चिन्मात्रे विश्व वृतयः॥ Just as water, earth, etc. are reflected in a clean mirror without intermingling, in the same way the entire world is reflected in one God an embodiment of consciousness. The world, which we experience, is conglomeration of five elements. The human body is an epitome of objectification of the universe composed of five elements and all objects of the world have sprung from them. If we keenly refer to the elements described in Acharya Khem Raj Para Preveshka, we find these five elements referred to as space, air, fire, water, earth. These elements have five qualities viz. sound, touch, form, taste and smell. Every material object has these five qualities. A person has five senses to perceive and to reflect the corresponding qualities. Sound is reflected in the ears, touch in the skin, form in the eyes, taste in the tongue and smell in the nose. However, the senses do not have the power to perceive them independently. For this our senses need the help of the four psychic instruments and along with the Chit Shakti. As the strength of each sense increases, the objects are reflected and perceived more clearly and in finer detail. Yogis feel and perceive their finer qualities through "Sadhana". They have thus sharper and clearer senses of perception. A reflection appears in a mirror or on a clear surface. The mirror and the object reflected in it are different from each other although they do not appear to be so. Whatever be the size of the mirror, the reflection does not undergo any change, its size remains the same. Moreover, even if many objects are reflected in a mirror, they do not intermingle with one another e.g. fire and cotton may be reflected simultaneously in the same mirror, similarly cow and lion are reflected in the same mirror, the cow is not afraid of the lion and the latter does not attack the former. So, they do not intermingle with one another. The cleaner the mirror or say the surface is, the clearer the reflection will be. Importantly, if something is to be reflected, there must be an object, and that object must have a form. We see our face in a mirror but we cannot see the mirror in our face. Therefore, we can say that the face lacks the clarity to reflect. This is the case with the relationship between the external world and God. God revealed the world to us but the world can't reveal God. Therefore, we reach to the conclusion that, clearer our heart becomes, brighter will be the reflection of Shiva. In the case of mirror, there is an external object that is reflected, and in the case of universal consciousness/ Parmeshvera, it is its own ideation that is reflected. In the case of a mirror there is external light due to which reflection is possible but in the case of universal consciousness it has its own light, it does not require any external light. It is the light of all lights. Moreover, the mirror being non-consciousness does not know the reflection within itself. On the contrary the universal consciousness is self-conscious. Acharaya Yog Raja Analyses this in Parmarthsara as: अन्तर्विभाति सकलं जगदात्मनीह। यद्वत् विचत्र रचना मुकरान्तराले।। बोधः पुनर्निज विमर्शन सारयुक्तया। विश्वं परामुशति नो मकुरस्तथा।। Just as a variety of objects appear, within a mirror, even so the entire universe appears within consciousness or the self-consciousness owing to its Vimarsha or self-consciousness knows the world, but in the case of a mirror it does not know its objects. When we use the energy of an object and its reflection, we speak of a mirror as the basis of its reflection. That which is being reflected is separate from the mirror, but when it is seen, it is called a reflection. Thus, three things are involved, an object, its reflection and a mirror. When applied to God and the Universe these are not three separate entities. Shiva or consciousness is all the three - the object, the reflecting instrument, and the reflection. Shiva is the object and the universe is His reflection. The pain and pleasure, which arise in our lives, are experienced in two ways. One through inner remembrance and another through the perception of outer objects. This is the result of the vibration produced by our sensory perceptions. This pain and pleasure are reflections of some of the five qualities of the elements. These reflections cause a vibration in our sensory perception, which in turn produces involvements such as anger and desire. Once these tendencies merge into our Chitti, you will no longer experience any pain or pleasure. An enlightened being does not become attached to momentary pain and pleasure. He realizes that they are mere reflections. मत्रास्पर्शास्तु कौन्तेय शीतोष्ण सुख दुखदाः। आगमापयिनीऽनित्यास्तांस्तितिक्षस्व भारत । -Bhagwad Gita II - 14 O, Son of Kunti, the contacts of the senses with their objects, which cause heat and cold, pleasure and pain, have a beginning and an end. They are impairment. Endure them bravely, O Arjuna. Everything that we know is simply a reflection. Whether it is an inner experience or the perception of outer objects, it cannot be anything other than a reflection. By contemplating these reflections, which are the source of duality, we understand the differences between them and the experience of our true nature, which leads to all pervasive unity. The understanding of the principle of Bimba Pratibimba In Shaivism Philosophy is very helpful in attaining this experience. Through it we learn to reject reflections, which are the cause of pain. When we have a firm faith that the universe is a reflection into Chiti and attachment and aversion are just in our consciousness, we attain the bliss of consciousness. Read the full article

#consciousness #kashmir #meditation #philosophy #shaivism #shiva #world

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eclectic-witch-tarot-blog · 6 years

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Indian Magic: Intro

-Using a square woolen mat or kush mat instead of a circle. A woolen mat represents all elements. Wool grew on sheep, who breathed air, were alive which represents fire, ate what the earth produced and drank water. In addition the magic involves a fifth element, sky/ether. You sit on it. You’re the representation of the sky/ether.

-Using diyas. A diya is a terracotta dish, filled with oil or pure cow butter with a cotton wick in it which is then lighted for use instead of candles. The concept is that you add essential oils, that are sacred to the gods or goddesses that you’re calling, in the oil and burn it to attract them.

-Offering foods. Bananas are sacred to almost all gods and goddesses. Then there are gods who take weird offerings. Lotus for Lakshmi, Dhatura-which is poisonous-for Shiv, Shed feathers of a peacock for Krishn etc...

-River waters. Especially the River Ganga because she flows through all three universes-yes I said universes-and brings life to them all.

-Shankh (conch shell) is blown to purify the air of any lingering negative energies including shades and poltergeists.

-Ghanti, which is a bell that can be anywhere between the size of your index finger to the size of an elephant, is rung to indicate the wings of Garuda. Garuda is a giant eagle who carries Vishnu and Lakshmi in all their battles. He/she can also cut through snake venom and is the enemy of the King/Queen of Snakes. The sound is a primeval sound that scares anything that should not be there.

-Any water, including tap, that has a leaf of holy basil added to it becomes sacred.

-Camphor is burned to attract Shiv, the god of destruction and the arts.

-Any rhythmic sound, it could be something as simple as the clapping of hands or as difficult as beating a range of drums in sync, is used to underline urgency in a calling. The deities recognize this and come with all due haste.

-Chants and prayers specific to the god or goddess in question are used for different purposes.

-Talismanic stotras-which are sung at the top of your voice-when you need protection from an enemy/another deity/a curse you can’t conquer alone with your power.

-The thousand names of the god/dess is question which are spoken under the breath. This is used to summon them for any purpose. Make sure to have a food offering and water on hand. Shakta-the sect of the goddess- and Shaiva-the sect of Shiv, may be offered spirits. Vishnu and Lakshmi don’t accept liquor. Its forbidden in Vaishnavism. Fresh fruits and water are all rounders.

-Alternatively, if the matter is urgent and needs to be addressed yesterday, there are Hundred and Eight names of all deities that you can use to summon them. No matter the place or time. It is in the format “Om (name) namaha (pronounce: nuh-muh-huh)”. You will know they have answered when you smell a distinct fragrance in the air.

-Mantras accompanied by yagya-a raised square fire pit, set slight with woods, to which ghee-cow butter-is added on every interval. Mantras are more about a specific purpose. To bring someone back from the verge of death, to make a golem, to vanquish an enemy in battle, for binding a shade who’s been haunting a house, to lift a curse, to appease a planet etc. After every mantra, you add ghee to the fire and its consumed by the deity in question. From there its customized. Rich foods are burned, incense specific to the deity, essential oils cherished by the deity etc....the results are swift. Literally. Like not even hours pass by before you have what you want.

-Animal sacrifices are not acceptable in Vaishnav, Smart (sm-arth) or Saurya (So-ryuh) paths.

-Water-to which holy basil is added-can purify anything. This is the reason why all Hindu houses have a tulsi plant in their house. Sprinkle it around your house. Drink it. Put it on your clothes. Holy basil is the sage of Indian craft.

-Marigold, red rose and jasmine are standard flower offerings when you don’t know the specifics. All deities will accept them with pleasure.

-Colors. Red for Lakshmi-wealth, health and prosperity. Yellow for Vishnu/Krishn-compassion, healing, nurturing, vanquishing enemies in battle. White for Shiv and Sarasvati-peace, destruction, arts, miracles, writing, music sex. Blue for Radha-the goddess of all sixty-four arts and love. The list goes on. Rule of thumb-use red or yellow cloth when uncertain.

-Take a cotton cloth the size of a handkerchief dyed with the specific color, add seeds of the flowers or dried flowers sacred to the deity in question, a leaf/leaves of holy basil, a drop of fragrance oil sacred to the deity, perform rites over this and close the kerchief with a knot or any number of knots in odd number. This bundle is now energized and has the energy of the god in it. Put the Lakshmi bundle in your wardrobe/locker/purse where you keep money or important documents. Vishnu bundle at your altar. Shiv bundle near your bed. Radha bundle in your studio etc etc...You can use this in conjunction with the deities that you work with.

-Wear a tulsi (tool-see) mala. This keeps your body ready to perform any ritual at any time. Indian rituals revolve around bathing for purification, performing rites on an empty stomach to help your chakra energy flow unhindered and wearing an unbleached cotton cloth called aboat (uh-boat), which has not been sewed or otherwise manipulated by anything or anyone. By wearing a tulsi mala, you bypass these requirements and restrictions. Cuz you ready for ritual at all times.

-Rituals are traditionally performed at dawn, dusk or midnight, depending on deity’s preference. Shiv and his many incarnations and the goddesses-all goddesses-prefer night.

-Altars are kept in all homes. Its a mini-mandir-a temple-in which all your deities’ idols sit. You sit them on top of a silk/cotton cloth that has been sprinkled with, you guessed it, holy basil water. You can also use a stool top, a table top etc covered with silk/cotton. That’s what I do.

-Milk, yogurt, honey and ghee baths are given to the figurine of the deity you’re calling on, fragrance oils are rubbed on and offerings presented to them as you would present to the deities themselves if they were there in person, to please them and keep their energy around on hand everyday.

-You yourself bathe in milk, yogurt, honey and ghee followed by a thorough rinsing by water, before performing high rituals like yagyas. The modern witch can just add half a liter of milk, a pint of yogurt, a few drops honey and ghee to their bath or the pail instead. Cuz we all broke as fuck.

-Food that has been offered to the deity in a ritual is consumed by the crafter afterwards.This food is blessed by the deity and infused with your purpose.

-Anything-jewellery, new sketchbooks, art materials, paints, pencils, chalks, candles-can just be placed on the altar for the blessings of all your deities. I keep em their overnight.

-LUNAR CALENDAR

-The stotras/mantras/names that you use the most should be copied in a pothi-a handmade book bound with red cloth, written down in red ink with a brush or quill. Its like a book of shadows really. The modern witch can use any red covered book and write in it in red pen, I recommend fountain but anything works. The color red is where its at.

These are the tips I have for now. I incorporate them in my practice/crafting. I don’t exclusively practice Indian magic, rather a mixture of Hoodoo, Norse/Germanic magic, Japanese/Chinese magic, Balinese, Hawaiian and Fijian practices and I add more ideas from other cultures as I go. So yeah. You can use these ideas in your practice or just use this as reference for when you’re incorporating Indian deities in your practice.

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noidacommercial9 · 2 years

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myaashis1 · 7 months

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Embracing Tranquility : Enhancing Your Space with Water and Buddha Fountains

In the hustle and bustle of modern life, finding moments of serenity can feel like a luxury. However, incorporating elements of tranquility into our surroundings can significantly impact our well-being.

One way to achieve this is by introducing water features such as water fountains and Buddha fountains into our living spaces.

Let's explore how these exquisite additions can transform your environment into a haven of peace and harmony.

Enhancing Ambiance with Water Fountains

Water fountains have been revered for centuries for their ability to create a soothing atmosphere and evoke a sense of calm.

Here's how they can elevate your space :

Relaxation

The gentle flow of water emanating from a water fountain can induce a state of relaxation, helping to alleviate stress and tension after a long day.

Aesthetic Appeal

Beyond their therapeutic benefits, water fountains serve as captivating focal points, adding elegance and charm to any indoor or outdoor setting.

Natural Soundscapes

The tranquil sound of flowing water provides a natural soundtrack that masks unwanted noise, promoting a peaceful ambiance conducive to meditation and contemplation.

Invoking Serenity with Buddha Fountains

Buddha fountains offer a unique blend of artistic beauty and spiritual significance, infusing your space with a sense of tranquility and enlightenment:

Symbolism

The presence of a Buddha fountain symbolizes enlightenment, inner peace, and the path to spiritual awakening, serving as a poignant reminder to cultivate mindfulness and compassion in our daily lives.

Zen-inspired Design

Characterized by serene Buddha sculptures and minimalist aesthetics, these fountains evoke the essence of Zen philosophy, encouraging mindfulness and introspection.

Harmonizing Energy

According to Feng Shui principles, the gentle flow of water in a Buddha fountain helps to harmonize the flow of energy (Qi) in the environment, promoting balance, prosperity, and well-being.

Creating Your Sanctuary

Whether you opt for a traditional water fountain or a Buddha fountain, incorporating these elements into your space can transform it into a sanctuary of peace and tranquility.

Here are some tips for maximizing their therapeutic benefits:

Placement

Position your fountain in a central location where its soothing presence can be fully appreciated, whether it's in a meditation corner, a garden oasis, or a tranquil indoor space.

Maintenance

Regularly clean and maintain your fountain to ensure optimal performance and longevity. Keep the water clean and free of debris to preserve its clarity and soothing effect.

Personalization

Customize your fountain with decorative elements such as pebbles, crystals, or plants to enhance its aesthetic appeal and create a harmonious blend with your existing décor.

Conclusion

Incorporating water fountains and Buddha fountains into your living space is not just about enhancing its visual appeal; it's about nurturing your soul and embracing moments of tranquility in a fast-paced world. So, indulge in the therapeutic allure of these exquisite features and embark on a journey of inner peace and serenity.

#Water fountain #Indoor water fountain #Shiv water fountain #Fengshui water fountain #Ganesha water fountain #Ganesh water fountain #Buddha water fountain #Buddha fountain #Sai water fountain #Radhay krishna water fountain

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neonblessing · 10 months

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10.

⚠️ SPOILER ALERT! ⚠️ Click here to read Neon Blessing from the beginning!

Club RED was a labor of love. A cyclopean eye of neon tubes stared down at the street from the facade of a beautiful temple to excess, bathing the darkening street in bloodred light which played through the mist kicked up by a nearby waterfall. The building was dark glass and darker stone, three stories tall and culminating in a domed roof. It wasn’t even 5 pm, but the line was pouring out the door and onto the sidewalk, foreign raincoats and umbrellas standing side by side with wet-haired Diluvian partygoers.

Shiv had never entered a nightclub through the front before. There’d been one club, the Magpie, that she’d frequented with her friends, but the owner was one of Ornarch’s devout and always let them skip the lines. Huh. She hadn’t been to the Magpie in years. She wasn’t even sure if it was still in business.

The line moved quickly, and before long, she was at the door. “Let’s see some ID.” There were two bouncers, identically dour and militaristic-looking men who loomed over her like a pair of sunglasses-clad statues, their suits custom-made to fit over the bulky structure of a mil-spec exocloak. Thin seams in the skin of their faces suggested the presence of subdermal armor plating to protect what the mechanized armor didn’t. One of them handled a scanner with the practiced care of a guy whose grip could crush a human skull.

Shiv showed them the card. “Kooler sent me.” The one with the scanner stared her down while the other barked a few quick words into a headset. If shit went south, the only viable exit was ducking the rope to the left, but Headset would make a grab for her and if those huge hands got a grip it was over. She’d need to distract him first, maybe blind him. Throw her coat in his face? She started to shrug it off her shoulder, just in case. Scanner continued to glower at her in a prolific display of disdain. He should be too far away to do anything, but just in case-

Headset spoke, snapping her out of her planning.

“Hm?” She’d missed what he’d actually said.

“Go on in. The boss is on the second floor.” Shiv pulled her coat back over her shoulder and brushed past the bouncers and into the club. She pushed her way past a heavy curtain of soundproof fabric and replaced the endless roar of the streets with the endless roar of Club RED’s speakers.

Water poured down gilded fountain walls and colored lights arced and scattered through thick smoke, produced by a mix of sweet-scented cigarettes and industrial fog machines. Waiters and waitresses wearing practically nothing served a very peculiar clientele: half of the patrons were exactly what she’d expected, the sort of wealthy-looking folks willing to spend fifteen credits on a can of beer; and the other half were all grizzled paramilitary types. The burning coal glow of their cybernetic eyes stared out at her through the fog, automatically seeking out her vital organs before flicking back to their drinks.

Shiv scaled the stairs to the second floor, taking a moment to look out on the dance floor from the balcony. The band’s frontwoman was more work of art than human, her limbs all formed from sweeping lines of carbon fiber and steel. Her guitar plugged into a port on the back of her neck, her quicksilver fingers dancing over the strings with surreal grace. She had a voice like an angel with a smoking habit.

“She’s quite something, ain’t she?” A woman’s voice came from behind Shiv. She turned to see Kurtz, for who else could it be? The owner of Club RED was maybe forty years old, a little shorter than Shiv, and built like a brick. Her head was clean-shaven, revealing dozens of tally mark tattoos, in sets of five, spreading from near her temple and across half of her head. Unlike everyone else, she was dressed simply and practically, in sturdy black pants and a tank top, and unlike everyone else, she had a gun at her hip, an antique revolver. Both of her eyes were red: one eye was flesh, with an iris that had either been dyed or transplanted. The other eye was metal, the iris glowing the exact same shade as the vast eye on the front of the building. She carried herself with an easy confidence, bordering on arrogance. “Are you the one Kooler mentioned?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m Joan Kurtz, owner of Club RED and REDEYE PMSC. What brings you to my door?”

First Page – Previous Page – Next Page

#neon blessing #10 #shiv #kurtz #xuria

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weudaipurtaxi · 4 years

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Top 5 Things to Do in Udaipur in summer

In summers, tourists from all over the world flock to Udaipur to have a taste of Rajasthan’s best. There are a lot of things to do in Udaipur. We have got for you the top 5 things to do in Udaipur. This city offers some amazing things to do in summer, whether it is visiting an art gallery or a museum or simply floating in the lake on your wooden boat and try fishing as well.

SajjanGarh Biological Park

Biological Park, Sajjan Garh is situated in the picturesque location near Ambodi village. The hilly terrain with a combination of forests is the perfect home for various species belonging to the diverse ecosystem. Biological park is an ideal place to enjoy the natural beauty of this city. It will definitely give you a sense of joy-ride of natural beauty Udaipur holds.

Visit Monsoon Palace

It is one of the places you should visit in Udaipur as Sajjan Garh is known as Monsoon Palace. It has a beautiful white marble structure built in the hills of Aravalli Range by Maharana Sajjan Singh in 1884. It was initially built as an astronomical center for keeping track of the movement of the sun.

Nehru Garden Island

Nehru Garden also known as Lake Garden or, the locally popular name of the garden is Devidhan Teela(island) is one of the essential attractions in Udaipur. It was inaugurated by then Prime minister of India Indira Gandhi in 1967 on the occasion of 14th November. Nehru garden is an artificial island which is located in the middle of lake Fatehsagar, which comes under APTS (Ajmer Public Trust Society).

Saheliyon Ki Bari

The Sachehleyon Ki Bari, also known as The Garden of Maidens, was built by King Sangram Singh in the early 18th century. The garden is situated on a hill overlooking Lake Pichola. It has some beautiful displays with water channels and fountains. It is also one of the oldest gardens in Udaipur and covers an area of about 2 hectares.

Lake Doodh Talai

Strolling at Doodh Talai is one place which has always been when we talk about the things to do in Udaipur. The place is a small pond which rests just near the Shiv Niwas Palace. It’s a popular come-and-go sort of place which is also used for recreation for a lot of people.

Taxi tour is a fun way to explore the tourist places. If you are traveling to Udaipur you may like to know some beautiful tourist places at Udaipur. The best way of exploring Udaipur is taking taxi tour of Udaipur. You will get an opportunity to explore the most important places of interest in a single day.

Then what are you thinking… Hurry up hire a professional taxi services in Udaipur and just make memories

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bad-end · 7 years

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sandcastle | 4/5 | dlrg

3187 words

Part IV: Water under the Bridge

One day, in the midst of a conversation about death and dying, something prompted Dreadlord to ask about Royal Guard’s relationships. Caught off guard and struck by tenderness for a moment, Royal Guard let it slip that once upon a time, his closest friend had died.

Dreadlord fell silent. Maybe it was a bit too much, but Royal Guard gave him what he wanted. Even if he regretted it, he couldn’t take it back. For a good minute and a half, neither of them spoke. “Did he-” it was awkward, Dreadlord tested the waters.

“I killed him, “Royal Guard lied, “I think he would have suffered more if I didn’t.”

“A mercy kill.”

“There was nothing merciful about it.”

“Suicide is scary,” Dreadlord said replied, “You did him a favour.”

The idea of Dreadlord being scared of suicide made him want to laugh.

“No, no way.”

“Just because he didn’t seem like he was capable of it, it doesn’t mean he wasn’t scared of it when it happened.”

It shook him. Royal Guard felt it rattling inside his skill, but he tried not to think about what other things Dreadlord was hiding behind that brave front of his.

They talked about nothing for a little while longer and then went their separate ways with the promise to come back tomorrow.

By now, he had been in this town for two months. Two months was long enough for it to feel like home. There was something in those dates that made them feel like he always belonged.

He left for the cafe with Noblesse aware of the situation. Even though she didn’t approve, in the end, all she gave him were her disapproving glances. She did not command him to stay for the afternoons when she took a nap, so Royal Guard left the inn each afternoon with his conscious both guilty and not.

The cafe was at its usual capacity when he left for it this afternoon, but Dreadlord was not in his usual seat. He thought perhaps, Dreadlord was running late and wished he had a phone to check.

By the time Royal Guard sought to find his usual seat and wait for Dreadlord there, it was already taken. He found an empty seat and sat down there instead, waiting for Dreadlord with both his hands knit together.

Ten minutes passed, and no Dreadlord turned up. It was work keeping him, Royal Guard thought. It was his fault for not having a phone, the least he could do was wait for Dreadlord a little bit longer. Then twenty minutes had passed, and Royal Guard was getting a little antsy. Sure, he had no engagement, but it was a little awkward to sit there and wait for someone without ordering a drink or any indication that you intended to order one. Maybe he could ask the cafe to call the flower shop, or would it disturb Dreadlord at work?

He stood up to leave, but the bell on top of the door jingled. Chiliarch barreled throughout of breath. She searched with a frenzy, and he could see the impatience and worry in her expression. She locked eyes with him, and her shoulders fell slightly. Then she ran over and gripped both his gloved hands, yanking them towards the door, “You have to come quick, it’s-”

She didn’t have to finish. They were already out the door.

When they found him, he was in an alley with three men lying on the floor.

Though his knuckles were split and blood was slowly dripping from them onto the ground, he did not appear injured otherwise. Chiliarch sensed something because she was apprehensively hiding behind him, and it took Royal Guard a moment to realize why.

He didn’t look like himself. There was no witty sarcastic comment that could come out of that Dreadlord. Instead, the cloud that fell over him was someone Royal Guard knew very well. It was the assassin that had given up his life for his liege, both of whom had been dead for a long time. Chiliarch pulled on his clothes again, fearfully shrinking back from what should have been her most trusted protector.

Royal Guard recognized him, of course, from the shiv in his hand to looking like he just hadn't had enough. The men were already incapacitated, but he was still hungry.

“Dreadlord!”

The single word was enough. Recognition flooded into his expression and the cloud seemed to waver. He blinked several times, dropped the shiv, and walked away from the sight before him. Though he still looked dazed, at least he did not look like he wanted to kill anyone that got in his way.

Royal Guard gripped his arm and squeezed down. “Dreadlord, damn it, Dreadlord. Look at me!”

Dreadlord obeyed, and Royal Guard saw the stars in his eyes. He glanced quickly down at Chiliarch below, and she merely had innocent, if not fear clouded, blue eyes. Why would she have her demon eyes? Then again, why did Dreadlord?

“Royal Guard,” Dreadlord rasped, enough for him to hear the words, but then the demon cloud completely receded, and he was human again. He looked confused for a few seconds, but before he had a chance to react, Chiliarch barreled into his arms. There was the sound of glass shattering in his ears but from where? He didn’t know.

Dreadlord pat Chiliarch on the head, careful of his bloody knuckles, and while she cried, he took the opportunity to look around at the mess he made for himself. Instead of panicking, he just mumbled a characteristic, “Well, shit.”

Just like that, Royal Guard was smiling again. He tried his best not to, but it was hard to resist.

Seeing him smile was enough, Chiliarch started crying. “You idiot, you jerk!” Her cries were muffled by the fabric of Dreadlord’s clothes, he wasn’t sure what he could do besides pat her on the head and let her cry out.

He smiled at Royal Guard apologetically, and Royal Guard fished around for a handkerchief to dry Chiliarch’s tears. She blew her nose in it in a dramatic fashion and then started hitting him where her tiny arms could read. “You biiig, huuuuuuge jerk! You’re the worst!”

“Whoa, Whoa, let’s calm down first and ta-”

“I will not calm down! You’re terrible! You’re the worst!” She sniffled again. Royal Guard tried not to laugh at the spectacle.

“You’re not making any sense, what’s wrong?” Dreadlord frowned.

“You, you you you you, I thought I lost you! You looked like you really wanted to kill them! That you could actually-” Chiliarch hiccuped.

She burst into tears again, and Dreadlord waited for her to finish with a comforting pat on the back. Slowly, he calmed, and when she wasn’t sniffling anymore, he said,“Let’s go back to the candy shop.”

“Mmm, only if you let me get some jelly beans,” she said with a stuffy nose.

“You can have as many as you’d like.”

“You promise?”

“I promise.”

She looked at Royal Guard as if concluding a pact, “He promised.”

Royal Guard smiled back, “He did.”

He thought that they would let him go, but they didn’t. Specifically, Chiliarch refused, she pulled on his hand with one, and on Dreadlord’s with the other. Then the three of them tried to make it through the narrow boardwalk in a row.

Dreadlord’s split knuckles were on plain display, and Royal Guard reminded himself to get them patched up. He was pretending they didn’t hurt, but they had to. There should have been some kind of medical supply shop along the boardwalk.

It took them until they were actually on the boardwalk for Royal Guard to realized he and Noblesse entered the town on this path. That day, she requested to buy some taffy, and Chiliarch looked like she was headed there right now for jelly beans.

“You looked really scary, I didn’t even recognize you,” she said, “I don’t want to see you like that ever again.”

“It won’t happen again, promise. Anyway, what made you go get hi,?” Dreadlord asked, awkwardly trying to shove his knuckles into pants without hurting himself more.

“You go to that cafe every day so I thought, maybe if I go your date would be there to come help me!”

“Smart girl,”

She beamed up at him, “He calmed you down, and it worked so never do it again.”

“I won’t, I won’t. Didn’t you hear me promise.”

Royal Guard’s hands were clammy underneath his gloves. He thought about how Dreadlord had so easily lost control, and he himself couldn’t tell the reason. But in that moment, he recognized the Dreadlord from his past. Though to have it happen now, when he was sure the old world was gone, what could have caused it?

But they passed by the pharmacy just then, so he pushed his thoughts aside for now.

“Please excuse me for a second,”

“Everything alright?” Dreadlord asked.

“Yes, I will rejoin you in a moment.”

“Alright, we’ll be at the candy place, so just meet us there and don’t get lost, hopefully.”

Royal Guard ignored that last comment.

He joined them maybe fifteen minutes later and found Dreadlord leaned against the fence. He was staring into the waves of the sea, and a cigarette idly burned in his hand. There was melancholy on his face again. Something about the ocean just captured him. No Chiliarch was in sight. The candy store was behind them.

Dreadlord saw him emerge and waved, Royal Guard joined him. Dreadlord stared down at the cigarette, shook his head, and snuffed it out in the sand. “How bad do I look, be honest.”

“A bit,”

“I thought I said be honest.”

“I am being honest,” He sighed, “Aside from your hands you don’t look that bad.”

“Really? I still look good?”

Royal Guard stared at him, and Dreadlord laughed and turned over his palms to look at his knuckles. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to lose control. I don’t know what happened. Were you scared?”

Honestly? He didn’t know the answer to that himself.

“We could… talk about it,”

Dreadlord shook his head.

“I can’t remember much anyway. Uh, just stay for a bit, okay? I’m still trying to process what happened. It must have been pretty bad to walk into that. So let me just try to make sense of what happened with what I can remember.”

“I’ll stay. Give me your hand.”

“Thanks.”

Royal Guard tried to look at how torn up they were and motioned for the public fountain not even a hundred meters away. Then Royal Guard dressed Dredlord’s wounds. He tried not to smile when he watched Dreadlord squirm and write. .

“Hold still.”

“I’m trying! It hurts like hell! Hurry up!”

“I’m almost done, just hold still for another minute!”

When they finished, Dreadlord pat his back pocket for a cigarette. After a moment, he shook his head and decided against it.

“You smoke?” Royal Guard asked.

“I picked it up recently, I know it's bad but it helps with the dreams.” Dreadlord sighed, “You saw what happened back there. I don’t think I could make it out without a cigarette.”

Dreams. “I see. I understand.”

If there was supposed to be another conversation, it didn’t happen. Chiliarch emerged from the candy store with two armfuls of jelly beans. He thought he heard Dreadlord sigh. The look on Dreadlord’s face- Royal Guard wasn’t sure how to describe what he just saw.

“Let’s go home! Help me carry these.” She shoved the two jars into Dreadlord’s arms, and then sniffled, “You smell.”

“Okay, okay.”

“When did you get bandages?” Then her gaze fell on Royal Guard, and then back to Dreadlord.

Dreadlord changed the topic without acknowledging her question. “You should come over for dinner, as thanks.” Still, he picked up the jelly beans from Chiliarch, and tried to balance two huge jars underneath his arms. “When I said you could have many, I didn’t mean bankrupt us!”

She ignored him.

Royal Guard thought about Noblesse. Leaving her to eat dinner alone would be too cruel, so he shook his head.

Dreadlord must have read his mind, “Well, if you change your mind, bring your friend over for dinner, okay? The inn’s food isn't bad, but it’s not the same when you’re eating with friends. We live above the flower shop, there’s only two in town so just tell the innkeeper you’re looking for me, and they’ll point you in the right direction.”

“Bye bye Ciel!” Chiliarch called, “See you soon, okay?”

“Yeah. See you soon.”

On the way back to the inn, the sun was beginning to set.

He was late, and Noblesse would be upset with him. There was nothing ‘formal’ about when he had to return for tea, but still, the guilt in his stomach told him everything about this moment. The walk to the room was alright, but when he stopped in front of the door to knock, he couldn’t do it.

He gathered his courage, raised his hand, and Noblesse opened the door for him. She just shook her head, stepped aside, and went to sit in her chair by the window.

Somehow that made it worse? He wasn’t sure. “I-”

From there, she also stared at the ocean. There was something in her expression that looked like Dreadlord’, and just as hard to read. What was that melancholy supposed to mean?

“I’ll go put on the tea.”

“Don’t bother,” Noblesse cut him off, and Royal Guard confusedly stared at her. If not tea, when what did she want him to do? If he had no orders, then should he tidy? Fix the bed-

“Did you tell him?” She cut off him again, interrupting his thoughts with invasive questions.

“Tell him what?”

Noblesse turned away from the window to face him. The sunlight caught the curve of her cheek, and it shined brighter than the rest of her face in the shadow. “Tell him about you two.”

“If you haven’t,” she saw him hesitate, “You… no. Nevermind. I thought this would happen but I’m not here to lecture you. But demons affect others around them, and if something happened to him, it wouldn’t be good. I just want you to be prepared.” she leaned into her cheek, “Be the adult you’re supposed to be.”

Royal Guard didn’t move, and Noblesse said, “I’d like to have some tea, please.”

He obeyed.

She didn’t ask where he went, and why he was late. That was what bothered him most of all. Although it was now quickly approaching evening, they were still having afternoon tea as per their daily routine. This scene was too jarring. It just didn’t make sense.

“I’m just worried about you.” She admitted, “I’m not saying you can’t have fun, but you might be too much for him right now. If you don’t… I’m pulling us out of this town before it kills you or him.”

The teapot in his hand trembled slightly, but Noblesse went back to staring at the ocean. He decided to make dinner with the ingredients in the fridge and tried to pretend he wasn’t thinking about what Dreadlord was making for dinner.

Before long, Noblesse fell asleep. He wished her sweet dreams and left the room, closing the door softly behind him and waited for the latch to click.

He couldn’t be in that room for much longer, even though he had nowhere else to go. A quick walk around the inn, then maybe he would wander into town. When every store closed at 7, it would be a quiet walk with the night sky and his thoughts alone.

But when he made his way onto the beach, Dreadlord appeared in the corner of his eyes. Chiliarch wasn’t with him, and Royal Guard figured it must have been she was busy sleeping. Their eyes locked, and Dreadlord jogged over to meet him.

“Whoa, good timing.”

“Yeah.”

“Out for a walk this late? The weather’s pretty good.”

Royal Guard couldn’t tell if he was sarcastic or not. “You’re out too.”

“After a meal, it’s nice to get some air and clear your head. Did you eat?”

He nodded.

Dreadlord frowned, “Did something happen?”

Royal Guard smiled thinly, “Well, what do you think?

“You look terrible?”

Royal Guard wanted to slap him.

“I’m all ears, seriously. If you want it to be private, we can talk here or back at the flower shop. It’s a pretty quiet neighbourhood.”

“But-”

“She’s asleep now. You should come. I’ll make tea..”

Maybe he was making a mistake, but maybe a mistake was what he needed to clear his head.

“Alright,” Royal Guard relented,” Alright.”

The smile that Dreadlord had, nothing good could come of it, but even still, if Dreadlord said it with a little more urgency than usual, how was he supposed to resist?

#elsword #dlrg #v: sandcastle (dlrg)

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