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Parents |
Valas Dhaunae
Shar'ryn Silinrul
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Siblings |
Kor'inth Dhaunae
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Children |
Aran Datari
Aella Datari
Megaera Datari
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"Erinya?" Came the muffled muttering, then a stream of profanities from
a second person, "Would you mind...Yeah...move your talon
please...its...sorta...yeah. Not a comfortable thing, having it jabbed
in my thigh..."
The profanity of course, was Areq...the polite request Elandriil.
"GODS dammit ERIN! GET UP! GODS!? What are you doing? Trying to fly him too?"
To say Areq was a bit...jealous...was an understatement...
The Silver didn't like anyone kicking her ass, or her kicking their ass, unless it was him...
Erin had shifted back to her human form and was about to offer
Elandriil a hand up, given that he'd been politer than his brother,
when Areq decided to add his tuppence worth to things.
"I beg your pardon" she snarled, fists clenching as she
spun around to glare at the prostrate Silver. "What the hell did you
mean by that?" Dark eyes blazed as she silently dared him to be stupid
enough to repeat the accusation.
"I'll just leave you two alone..." The older Silver eased away from the
now bristling Black female, "Maybe...yeah. Let me go check on Vanyalin."
Across the sands he went...it was time to get well away from the blast
zone...he hadn't heard his brother's comment, but could figure it out
easily enough.
Areq never quite knew when to shut up...
"YOU HEARD ME! AND you know what I meant...What the HELL were you doing?"
No...Areq was never one to shut up when he'd stepped in it up to his
ankles...in fact, he was usually the one shovelling the dirt for his
own grave.
"Augh! WOULD you move, gods!"
Somewhere in his brain was the screaming voice of reason, pleading with him to SHUT THE HELL UP...
Unfortunately, he opted instead to shove her back and away from him.
Like his cousin, that wasn't the smarted thing he'd done all day...
Erin's dark eyes iced over. "What I was doing," she bit out, "was
taking a little bit of revenge for the snide remarks Gabriel has felt
inclined to make for the past few months, let alone last night or
today."
She stepped back, making sure one booted foot ground Areq's fingers into the sand as she did so.
"Believe it or not, I thought that was a concept you might understand.
As much as I hate to admit it, perhaps Gabriel actually has a point.
You can act like a bloody child sometimes. You want to grovel around in
the sand by yourself. Fine! I'm not going to bother you. In fact I'll
make damned sure I don't bother you ever again."
She spun on her heel and started to stalk away.
From his place on the ground, Areq watched her ankles as she turned to
walk away and hauled himself off the ground and made a big show of
dusting himself off, all a front to cover his discomfort with the
blunder of the century he'd just managed single-handedly. He stared at
her a moment and thought, KISS my ass if I go after her.
That same voice of reason was now cussing him with every language he
knew...which amounted to Eldredae Elvish, Common and the Silver
tongue...and few handy words in Black he'd picked up over the past
couple of years.
A low groan that said, I AM AN IDIOT in any language one could want rolled out of him as he scrubbed his eyes.
I'm...not...going...to...go...
AUGH!
"Erinya...wait...I SAID wait gods dammit." Areq sprinted across the
sands and caught her around the arm and spun her to face him.
"I'm sorry...I am so sorry..."
Erin stood stiffly, not resisting the hold he had on her, but not
exactly cooperating either. Areq's words had stung, probably more than
she would like to admit. Perhaps once when she was younger she might
have indulged in the one night stands not uncommon amongst her race,
but it had been a long time since she had done that. It had been a long
time since she had had a lover of any description. To let someone
inside the walls as much as she had the night before and then have them
turn around and accuse her of flying the next dragon that came along
was a painful experience. She would also rather die than admit it.
"Fine. You're sorry" she said coolly, her gaze not quite meeting the
Silver's dark emerald eyes. "Perhaps you can let go of my arm now? I'm
sure there's somewhere you need to be. You're supposed to be going to
get the shit kicked out of you in the Gauntlet remember."
"You're right." Areq felt a nerve twitch at the corner of his eye as he
released her, the only outward sign of the flinch that flickered
through him at her words. The walls were closing off again and it was
his fault this time.
"I do have somewhere else to be." He stepped away from her and held his
palms out in a half-way defensive gesture, "As I'm sure you do."
He stepped back again and nodded, "I think we both have other things to
be doing..." He shrugged his shoulders, a slight roll that repositioned
the sword between his shoulder blades he'd managed to get strapped to
his torso at some point during her and Gabriel's brawl.
"Yeah...Yeah...I'm sure we do." He nodded slowly and ground his jaws
together as he looked in her eyes and saw no mercy there, only the cold
glare he'd been privileged enough to see fall away and reveal the fire
beneath.
No further words were spoken as he turned and started away from her.
The Gauntlet was waiting at the far side of the Pit and the trumpets
had sounded. He might was well get it over with...
Your time with me will come soon enough, Datari...
The words whispered back to him from the twilight hour spent in the
stands of the Pit just this spring and around him, he felt the sands
seem to thrum once, then stop.
So today was it then?
So be it...getting the shit kicked out of him though was the least of his worries.
Silently Erin watched him walk away, wondering at the sick sensation
that rolled in her stomach. Unconsciously her nails bit into her palms
and she turned abruptly, spinning on her heel as she headed almost
blindly towards the stands. Part of her wanted to call him back,
another part would be damned before she did, so instead she found
herself a seat a long way from everyone else and sank down low in it.
How could someone who trusted no-one at all explain the concept of trust to someone who apparently wasn't capable of it?
Your time with me will come soon enough….
Areq stood, staring thoughtfully into the Gauntlet. It SEEMED an
ordinary stone maze with high walls and a sand floor. The Silver
Captain knew better and the fact that it seemed so innocuous struck a
chord of unease in him. A whisper of soft laughter played through his
head, Sha’tris…
"Well…lets get this over with." He reached to his hip, instinctively
wanting to pull the dagger he’d carried for so long, and even though it
hadn’t been in his possession for months, he still found himself
reaching for it.
"Gods dammit…" He shrugged again and reached across his shoulder and
felt his fingers close around the hilt of the blade Elandriil had
offered him, the sword of their dead father. It was an elvish made
sword, its hilt of polished, golden oak, its blade chased with the
flowing etching Landrii himself had asked be put on it by Callan.
I am Undrehearn, the blade drawn from ash and was born anew.
The sword whispered free from its sheath at his back and Areq brought
it around with a swinging silver arc of midmorning sun reflected on
polished adamantine. Standing with his eyes closed, the flat of the
blade pressed to his forehead, Areq tried to find the Horizon, the line
of balance in his soul, and felt it slide away. WHAT the HELLS had he
just done?
He knew he answer to that…he’d just crushed what fragile trust he’d
earned with Erinya, and worse, he’d just cast aside an opportunity to
spend the rest of his life as her randii and he knew it. She’d not
asked him to be her mate, it was her choice, but he’d hoped. That
moment was gone now and he knew it was surely as he felt the sun rise
overhead and start glaring down on the sands. The better question was
not WHAT had he just done, but WHY.
"It was intentional, wasn’t it? If you’re being honest with yourself…"
Sha’tris again…its ‘voice’ was soft, a whisper of a caress that may as well had been the touch of a lover sliding up his spine.
"Yeah…" He eyes rolled open, "Yeah…that’s it…I’d push her way on purpose."
"Oh, I think you would…and you did…it’s a shame, Areq Datari, that one
such as you, who once knew how to LIVE is now afraid of doing just
that. Living. You’re afraid now…you stand there, working your tongue
between your jaw and gums, trying to keep your mouth from going dry…and
you don’t even know why…
A low snarl that suggested he'd like to tell the Pit to shut the hell up hissed out of him.
Afraid? Him? A Captain of the Silver Guard?
"Alright then," He drawled out, "Let's dance Sha'tris."
He took one step forward, then two and paused. He was now within the
maze, the entrance only a few feet behind him, there was time to still
back, to admit he wasn't ready for this moment, not now, not after...
The floor caved in beneath him and left him plunging through flame-lit
skies. Beneath him, the Keep was on fire and the scent of charred flesh
flooded his senses.
He'd just been dropped into the one single moment in his life when he'd
discovered heroes were not the men of clear conscience and inner peace
the stories made them out to be. They were people haunted by nightmares
and the faces of the dead and dying, tormented by 'what ifs' and 'if
I'd onlys'
The wind whooshed past his face and just like the moment when the
portal had snicked shut behind him, his father was slammed from above
by two Blacks. Pain was all he knew next, he himself had been attacked,
his shoulder frozen by a White, her claws ripped at his back while ice
seeped from her jaws where they were clamped on his throat...and pair
fell. Blackness swept through him and he was staring at Elandriil down
the sights of his cross-bow, his father's broken and burnt corpse only
a few yards away on the floor of a room in Keep.
It was intentional, wasn't it? Driving her away...and sooo easy for you to do Areq...I know you, you see. You are afraid.
Reality snapped back to his awareness and Areq was deep within the
maze, the only thing he could see was the upper tiers of the stands and
sky overhead. The sounds of the crowd was a muffled roar, blocked by
the Pit itself. The Silver sucked in a shaking, choked breath, he'd not
fallen after all, but the wind was still knocked out of him...or was
it? He'd received broken ribs from the fall with the White...and Areq
gingerly prodded his flanks and felt sharp pain lance through him...
"Damn you...DAMN YOU Sha'tris..."
White hot pain seared through him as he started walking carefully through the corridors.
"Damn me? Why Areq...why waste your breath on me when there are soooo
many others? Why not damn Daemonorel...or Dorian...or Araxmarr? You're
too young to remember this but..." The scenery shifted abruptly and
left Areq's head spinning. The Silmetaurea with its silver trees...a
soft rustle overhead of a summer breeze carried the sound of children's
laughter...unmistakably Landrii and Loril's...his brother and hatchmate
sister. He could hear Delen, a youth then, and Sehaine's laughter as
well...then something else.
Gradually the laughter became screams, then a call to arms and Areq
darted forward, running blind through the trees, blade drawn and ready.
He broke through the wild undergrowth straight into a hell he'd been
too young to remember clearly. Flame exploded in the streets of a
merchant town...where he'd lived as a child. The armies of Nargus were
on a raid.
Areq's eyes lifted upward, the Blacks were in a formation he was well
familiar with...an inverted V Flight...and at the apex of the ranks was
Araxmarr himself...Nargus's vaunted General...and to his right was
Daemonorel.
He skidded to a sliding halt and watched as one of the Flight was
jerked out of the sky by an Eldredae Magus...a mage of the Air...its
body crashed into a building which groaned and slowly collapsed in on
the fallen black...A Lieutenant from the position he'd been in. Rapid
clicks of thought skittered through Areq's mind as he struggled to make
sense of it all...Dorian's back, covered with white scars...a story
never explained as to how they'd gotten there...or what the Eldredae
had done to him when he'd been taken captive.
Its easy, to judge them, isn't it? To hate them, to close yourself
off and walk away. Yet you offered Araxmarr fealty...more than that. He
and his son OWN you, Areq Datari...
A female silver's scream of fear and Rage shattered the air, his mother
in full form swept away from the Flight, her goal her children...the
race was against Araxmarr...
And it was one she lost...Another explosion of molten fire erupted in
the air and her body slammed into the ground, then flipped and rolled,
leaving bloody, charred smears on the scorched street...
From the skies, the Blacks dropped, their booted feet slamming into the
ground as they shifted and began their attack foot. Smoke hung in a
thick, foul smelling, oily blanket in the air, disturbed only by the
armed troops striding through, their wings slowly fanning, then
snapping tight against their back. A slender blade that had once been
his went to his throat as an arm snaked around him from behind. He then
heard an all too familiar, throaty female voice, "Well well...what have we here...going to use that blade, or just gape...boy?"
Erinya?
Hate boiled through him, fuelling the agony and Rage that was
simmering, then surged through him in uncontrolled jolts. His ankle
slipped around hers and jerked and the pair of them went over
backwards, the force of the impact with the ground causing her blade to
open a gash across his throat, but not deep enough to be fatal.
A howl of pure wrath rocked the walls of the maze as he flipped over to
face the Black Captain...and found her form undressed beneath him, her
eyes hazed with something other than hate...but lust.
"GODS! GODS DAMMIT GODS DAMMIT! AAAUUUGGGHH!"
You keep saying that...and I've yet to be damned by the gods, Datari.
Drops of black-red blood splattered down on alabaster skin and mingled
with the rich scent of her, the scent of sandalwood and desert skies,
of dew on the sands at the base of the mountains.
It was intentional, wasn't it? Driving her away...You are afraid to
live, afraid to love her...afraid that she might be carrying your child
after last night.
The form beneath him suddenly collapsed into a heap of sand, the only
other sound made by the phantom was the soft sigh of soil and gravel
melting back into the floor of the arena.
Let's get past this, you and I. You are afraid. Admit it. And she
may or may not have been there, that is for her to tell you, though I
would not be surprised, were I you.
Areq drew himself to his feet, the sound of the sword being dragged
from where it had fallen near the stone and mortar wall was a soft
scrape of Steele on ever shifting sand.
You pushed her away because you are afraid she was there, deep down
inside...and that if you can get beyond that, you are afraid that you
will lose her, as you lost your mother, as you lost your father...that
she will die the way of her kind, in Flame and Chaos.
Indeed, he was afraid, afraid his next step would reveal something even
worse that what he'd already seen. The Pit could show you the past, the
present, and if you were horribly unlucky or in need of a harsh
lesson...the possible paths the future could take.
Lose yourself, Areq Datari...lose the fear, the need to be so damned
arrogant and so thoughtless. The eternity does not revolve around you
and your wounds...rather, it absorbs them like pebble dropped in
surging tide.
You. are. nothing.
"Fuck you..." Areq muttered more profanities, this time in Black, a
language he couldn't help but pick up after spending almost three years
here in the Diirlathe. Wary steps carried him forward, for what other
way did he have to go, but forward?
Indeed! Forward! After all, you cannot go back, you cannot stop,
forward it is then...I like that spirit in you...the need to trudge
on...
"Its the need to get the hell outta here and get shitfaced drunk is what it is..."
Areq turned a corner cautiously and heard footsteps, smelled blood...a
fleeting glimpse of a figure vanished around the next turn and Areq's
eyes narrowed, Delen?
His feet suddenly felt mired and the Silver looked down...blood was
seeping under a wall, turning the sands to mud...and it was dragon
blood. The rich metallic tang filled the close air within the maze and
Areq felt a zing of fear rip through him. He knew this blood, had
tasted it, drawn it countless times...and this blood was laced with the
blood of another, its scent so much like his own, yet hers...a
co-mingling...
The blood of a child between them.
Kanely...Areq...the likes of which the Keep has never seen, not
since Araxmarr turned from killing. You have every right to be afraid.
Were I you, I would walk away from her...before this path becomes part
of the warp and weft, impossible to turn from....
Laughter rich and heavy grated through the maze and just beyond him, the wall sank under the sand.
I'll make it easy for you...there is the way out. Run...RUN
Areq...You want out so bad, you are so afraid of what you are and what
she is...then run.
There it was...the way out. It seemed too easy, too simple, "No. No I
won't. Not from you I won't. Shadows and tricks are all you have shown
me. Old memories and old wounds." The wall began to rise again, the
maze expanding impossibly huge.
Then you have sealed your fate...
The sound of water rushing behind him caused his head to swivel around,
and the feel of the ground shaking beneath him announced that the
purely physical workings of the Pit were in good working order.
"Merde..." Areq swore as a sheet of water swept the blood away and began to rise...okay, maybe now was a good time to run...
Spikes shot up beneath his feet as he lurched to the side and felt one
rip through his calf and lance beneath the skin, there was no time for
healing, the water was rising to quickly and overhead, the walls were
slowly forming a solid ceiling. Sha'tris planned to drown him.
Silence filled that end of the pit as the maze closed off from the view
of the spectators, an ominous sound that was soon swallowed by the
sounds from the brawling side of the Pit. Precious minutes ticked by
and water began to seep out of the very top of the stone prison and
soaked the sands as it ran down the outer walls of the maze.
The crowd began to grow quiet as the realized the first death of the
Tourney may have just occurred while they watched the senseless yet
entertaining fight between the Emperor and his Lieutenant.
Still more minutes past with no change...then a low, rolling boom
rolled through the air, a crack split one outer wall on the opposite
side from where Areq had entered. Another crack raced up the
wall...then an explosion of ice send shards of mortar and a wall of
frosted rock and icy water rushing out into the arena. In the tide of
half-frozen water was the fair-haired Captain, bruised, cut, bleeding
from a cross-bow bolt buried in his back between his shoulders and run
through in several places by the hidden spears and pikes in the
Gauntlet.
But he was alive...just unable to do more than haul himself to his hands and knees and cough up water and blood.
Fingers curled so tightly into fists that the knuckles whitened, dark
blood seeping out from the sides as nails bit deeply into the flesh of
her palms. The roar of the arena seemed very distant as Erin stared
down into the labyrinth that was the Gauntlet. Her blood pounded loudly
in her ears, drowning out the yells and cheers as the others egged on
the brawling Guards. Who the hell cared what Araxmarr and Gabriel were
doing?
As the water began to pour over the top of the walls the dark-haired
woman's breath caught, not wanting to watch and yet unable to look
away. Not like this, please Gods not like this. The refrain repeated
over and over in her mind as she bit back the instinctive sound of
denial. Just when she thought she wouldn't be able to keep back the
scream bubbling up in her throat, the world exploded with a boom, stone
and ice flying as water poured from the tear in the maze wall. Dark
eyes went to the fair-haired figure crouching amidst the carnage, the
Black half risen from her seat before she even realised what she was
going.
Dammit! No, I'm not going to. Not after what just happened.
Even as she told herself this she knew she was fighting a losing battle.
Hell!
Regardless of what he had said, regardless of whether he trusted her or
not, she just wasn't capable of leaving him there like that.
"Are you planning to stay there all day? You're getting in the way of
the other competitors," Erin said in her usual cool, controlled manner
as she arrived beside the Silver. Her expression guarded, she dropped
to one knee beside him, unheeding of the icy water and blood that
muddied the sands.
All Areq could manage for several seconds were heaving coughs to clear
his lungs of the water that had inundated not only the Gauntlet, but
his chest. Gods...he'd felt it seeping into his nose and pouring down
his throat just as the walls had ruptured. Chilled from being
surrounded by water made icy from his own gods-given gift, the Silver
dug his fingers into the sand and stared at Erinya's toes, then the
hilt of the sword he'd carried into the labyrinth, but hadn't used.
As the maze had sank away beneath the wet sand and had almost
immediately raised itself for the next fool to enter the Gauntlet, Areq
slowly raised his eyes to met Erinya's. There were so many things he
wanted to say, questions he wanted to ask and so many emotions all
vying to control his next actions that all he could do was haul himself
back to sit on his heels, pick up the sword with numb fingers then
shove himself off the now infuriatingly dry sand to his feet.
Damn Sha'tris...it was as if nothing had happened, aside from the
broken bones and torn flesh of both body and soul. As the sun warmed
him past the point of shaking uncontrollably, the blood began to run
down his back and seep into the battle leathers he'd worn, staining
them a dark shade of crimson black. Jaws clenched and turning white as
he glared at Erinya, Areq reached behind him and jerked the bolt free
from between his shoulder blades with barely a flinch.
Bloody fingers tossed the spent quarrel to the ground as he started
walking, "No, no, I'm not going to stay here all day. In fact, I doubt
I stay anywhere near this gods damned place any longer than absolutely
necessary."
His dark eyes flashed from Erinya to the far end of the Arena where the
Emperor and Gabriel had yet to come to a pause in their brawling, "Just
tell me one thing, just one. gods forsaken. thing..."
Every word was spat out as he stopped so suddenly he swayed on his feet
from both exhaustion and now from the loss of the blood that was slowly
seeping down his back from a dozen cuts and gashes. Black-emerald
Datari eyes looked the other Captain in the eyes, "Where you there?"
Erin rose slowly to her feet, all trace of emotion locked away beneath
practiced cool composure. "What difference does it make one way or
another, Areq?" she asked, "it's ancient history." Calmly she brushed
sand off her palms, dark eyes meeting dark emerald. "I have been on a
lot of raids during my time, many of them on villages inhabited by
Eldredae or Silvers. You know that already. You might have chosen to
ignore that little fact, but you can't claim that I ever pretended
otherwise. Why then should one specific attack bother you so much?
Because you don't want to think that someone you had sex with was
involved in the deaths of people you actually cared about?"
The dark-haired woman stalked closer with predatory grace. "Or is it
more to do with the fact that if Araxmarr ordered it that would be
you?" Her gaze held an expression of cool challenge. "You, your
brother, all the rest of the Silver Guard, offered the Emperor your
fealty. Whatever he commands you do. The killing may have been called
off, but it can just as easily return. Your cousins that roam the Keep
making snide remarks, do you think that they would see you as anything
other than one of us if the wars started again? I doubt it. You offered
your loyalty to the Blackthorn Throne, your brother made his decision
earlier today didn't he? The change of colours made that clear. That's
it now, the sides have been chosen. I wonder if you truly have any idea
what that really means."
A cold smile curled her lips, "I was not much under three thousand
years old when I bonded to Araxmarr, amongst the first to do so, but I
had been in the Guard for far longer than that. So yes, I have been
sent on raids. I know precisely what it is like to hunt elves and
Silvers alike. I know what their flesh tastes like and I know the smell
of their burning corpses. I am very, very good at my job." And as she
stood before him it was all too easy to believe it. There were those
who called them winged assassins. Others who claimed that there was no
difference between the Emperor's Guard and those who fought under
Nargus's command. Araxmarr had taken natural born killers and given
them discipline, and in the process had created something deadly. Like
a blade forged in the flames, the individual Blacks had become a weapon
that could be wielded with terrifying effect. Together they had been to
hell and back, and were colder and harder for the experience.
"So tell me Areq, what is it that you're afraid of most? That I was there, or that you might be?"
"Shut up!" Areq hissed at her and levelled the tip of Undrehearn at her
as she moved closer to him. "You have NO idea what is bothering me
about THAT!" He pointed at the labyrinth which was now vacant after
Amilyn's run and was waiting for the next competitor like some silent
beast lying in the path of an unsuspecting victim and pretending to be
asleep.
"And yes, gods dammit, yes. I offered MY LIFE to HIM!" Areq jabbed his
finger in Callan's direction, "And I MIGHT CAN GET OVER IT! I MIGHT can
get over the fact HE killed my MOTHER." That last statement might have
sounded callous but the truth was, he'd never known his mother, not
really. Not beyond the toddler stage of his life. She was a beautiful
dream, a creature of pale hair and silver eyes, a sweet voice and
gentle touch...and that was all he knew of her. Delphinia, his aunt had
finished raising him and it had been almost 400 years before he and his
siblings could return to their father's house.
"No. Erinya. Its not because somebody I had sex with might have killed
people I cared about, it's because someone I LOVE might have killed
people I cared about..." the blade wavered then lowered as he stepped
back a pace and paused his ranting shouting long enough to drag in
several gasping breaths that left him wincing from the broken ribs and
pulled muscles.
"And you know what else? THAT HAS BEEN ME! I HAVE followed my orders,
and I HAVE killed Eldredae, and I'd kill my own kind if I had to to
protect what I've found here..."
A howling grunt of frustration bellowed out of him, "AAAUGH! Son of a
BITCH you are CLUELESS what bothers me about that! Aren't YOU? Just
completely clueless!"
He spun the sword around and slammed the blade into the ground with a
spray of sand and a thrumming quivering sound of a blade rocking back
and forth, "EVERYTHING I found here is everything I've ever wanted. I
just didn't know it...and I'll be DAMNED if I fall any further in love
with this place, with the people who live here, with that sonofabitch
Emperor and the idea of his gods' forsaken honour or for that matter,
YOU!"
Areq stopped abruptly and found he was standing nose to nose with
Erinya, "That's what I'm afraid of. THAT is what scares me...THAT is
what bothers me and wakes me up in the middle of the night, begging the
Storm and Justice it was all a nightmare! That EVERYTHING and EVERYONE
I LOVE will go down in flames again and..."
He suddenly blinked, "And NO...I'm not in love with Callan!"
Despite herself, Erin's lips twitched. "I'm sure Arax will be delighted
to hear that" she murmured, "his life seems complicated enough as it
is, what with his wife and her wife and everything else." Heart
pounding so hard she was sure it must be audible to everyone in the
arena, the dark-haired woman raised a slim-fingered hand to cradle the
side of his jaw, closing the slight gap between them as she pressed her
lips to Areq's. His taste, his scent, the words he had so carelessly
thrown at her in anger, filled her head and, just for a second, she
could hardly think for the disbelieving wonder that poured through her.
A faint tremor ran through her fingers as she lifted her head.
"Everyone gets scared sometimes" she said softly, brown eyes meeting
dark emerald with complete honesty as the Black let the walls that
shielded her gaze drop away. "The question is, are you going to let
your fears rule your life? I cannot promise that I won't be killed one
day. I cannot promise that Araxmarr won't send the Guard into battle. I
cannot promise that someone won't try to take a shot at replacing me as
Vor'ill. No-one can make those kinds of promises, Areq. We're not
immortal. We can't see into the future. Do you really think it would be
any easier for me if the situation was reversed? Just for a moment back
there I thought..." Her words trailed away, her throat closing as the
memory of the blind fear that had washed over her stopped her breath.
"I..." She shook her head as if to clear away a fog, a shudder rippling
down her spine. "I suppose what you really need to ask yourself is, if
what you've found here is what you've always wanted, are you prepared
to let it slip through your fingers because you're too afraid of what might happen some day, or not?"
A momentary stiffening of Areq's spine immediately preceded the kiss,
and with the touch of her lips to his, he felt the inevitable dropping
of his defences. Always Erinya could do that to him, with a touch, a
word, a look. Perhaps that was why he'd always reacted to her out of
anger?
His fingers closed around her wrist as she broke the kiss off and his
eyes rolled open and for once, he listened, then to his disbelief,
lowered his forehead to her shoulder, an unconscious show
of...surrender?
"I'm not scared Erinya. Being scared is fleeting, it passes with the
moment. This is fear...complete, utter fear and dread...and for once in
my life, I don't know what to do about it."
Always before he'd lashed out at her, hated her, done his best to push
her into a physical altercation, always to hide the fact that a simple
word from her could have had him at her mercy...as she did now.
"I'm sorry. I..."
He stopped and lifted his head, then pressed temple to hers, "I love
you, I do. I can't NOT tell you, and you're right. We don't know what
could happen tomorrow...or...in this place, five minutes from now...but
I love you."
Dark lashes drifted shut, one hand drifting up to bury itself in
sun-bleached hair, slim fingers caressing the nape of the Silver's
neck. For a long moment Erinya was silent, unable to think of anything
to say let alone say it. Instead she let herself absorb the warmth of
him, the scent of him, as a faint shudder worked it's way down her
spine.
"Areq, I..." The dark-haired woman's throat closed, her words dying
away. The Black kept expecting to feel panic, fear, anything other than
the calm certainty that had settled deep into her soul. Everyone she
had ever loved, ever cared for, had either left her or betrayed her.
How could she risk opening herself up to that again? How could she
freely offer someone the weapon that would tear her soul to shreds? And
yet if she did not, was she not being as much of a coward as she had
just challenged him not to be?
Ebony lashes lifted slowly to reveal deep brown eyes that looked almost
dazed. Then she smiled slowly. What had he once said? To let someone
see inside just required a small crack in the mortar.
"Doste' Iman."
"Aye," was the most Areq managed as he pulled her against him and
nuzzled into her dark hair. Several long moments passed by before he
released her and lifted his head, "Iil nahmen dae, Erinya Dhaunae, and
you alone."
Despite the brawling and ongoing competitions and insane crowd, Areq
Datari lowered his head to kiss the Black Captain that had claimed his
heart the first time he'd met her...granted, the red push up bra in the
exploded lingerie shop had drawn his eye too that day...and she'd
looked far better in it than Mearta had. With a soft sound, Erin wound
her arms around Areq's neck, her lips parting beneath his as she sank
into the kiss. The dark-haired woman was quietly oblivious to the chaos
going on around them, and was perfectly happy to remain so. In that
moment, nothing else mattered. The world could have been about to end
and she would not have cared.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Iil nahmen dae - Silver for I love you.
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