GoldenCat/AwakeningTheBinds
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Awakening
Cael feels it.
Ever since then... with all the flashbacks...
Remembering what they can do. Feeling them in his body.
He can almost hear whispers.
More and more, they feel alive in his skin. More and more, he feels like there is... more, to them.
And today, he feels through them, and through himself, something like... a calling.
Asking him to go somewhere... somewhere far on the mountains...
Cael: Cael stood in his cabin on the Zephyr, shirt off, and gazing into the mirror at his chest, at the golden swirls of the binds, now glowing on his chest, so much so he saw them through the sheets when he awoke that morning.
Those dreams last night ... I am not so sure they were dreams now.
He looks up at the mirror, at a face he does not know, a face he has not worn for over a thousand years.
They were not dreams.
Looking back at his own face in the mirror, he addresses Calisara "Cal my dear? Could you please ask Milla to take Cedric and Anne off the ship. I need to go somewhere with you that I'm not sure I want to take them."
Calisara: She appears ghostly behind him, holding his bare chest...
"Of... course, Cael."
"But...where?"
Cael: Cael puts his hands on her arms, looking at her in the mirror, his face is calm, though his eyes show a deep concern
"I am not sure yet. I will know when I am there."
"I hope that maybe I will get some answers ..."
Calisara: Her hand vanishes between his fingers. There is a long silence.
"They are out. I told Anne to take all of her drawings too."
"She is worried. Millia managed to keep Cedric from noticing anything strange, thankfully."
Cael: Why would Anne need to take her drawings? Cael wonders briefly, before dismissing the thought for the moment. He could ask Cal about that later, when the tattoos weren't feeling like they were about to leave his skin and fly around the room.
"Thanks Cal." He smiles at her, then considers "When did Ryshassa and Alexsei leave?"
Calisara: She begins to manifest closer to Cael, her quicksliver eyes worried. "Earlier. They are training, apparently. Or they figured I am watching and decided to take away the show." she makes an exxagerated, overblown sigh, "Killjoys!"
Cael: Cael shakes his head and laughs, all his worries banished at the expression on Calisara's face as she says that
"I will be sure to register your complaint with them."
The moment of amusement doesn't last that long, the serious expression soon returning to his face.
He spends a few moments and motes composing a message to be carried to Ryshassa on the winds, explaining that he will be gone from the camp for a short time, but that he will be back shortly.
Then he walks down to the pilot's room, taking up the helm.
"Well, Cal, we'll be on our way now."
And then the Zephyr is climbing up into the sky, and to the mountains.
- Calisara stays there, sighing in some sort of pleasure as she always does when he takes up the controls...
Helping him as he takes them through the mountains, to a place that is not in the frontier with Windia anymore, leading to barren lands, Gradafes far to the Northeast. A strange bird flies pass, a made of ice, and bigger than it should possibly be. Cael feels the pulll - the place was down there, a clearing where he could place the Zephyr not too far from it, a trail leading to a place of great, strange trees of ice...
Cael: Cael watches the bird as it approaches the airship, then vanishes behind it, wondering at the size of it ...
Such a large bird ... and of Ice?
Then he sees the forest, the tall trees with trunks of ice and leaves of snow, and he somehow knows he's here, wherever here is...
"I think we're here, my dear." he says to the empty air beside him, the cabin now bathed in gold and shadow as the binds are ablaze. He starts to set the ship down in the clearing...
Calisara: Calisara looks at it...
"That is a... Demesne?"
"Raw essence... out of control... what do you want here, Cael?"
Her tone tells Cael she already knows. Or thinks she does.
She just prays that Cael will tell her what she is thinking is wrong.
Cael: Cael turns to look at her, his face reassuring though his chest is still lit up with burnished gold.
"I'm not sure Cal, my dear. I need to know what is happening to me, what the Binds are doing." his face shows some lines of concern then, not the carefree windwraith.
"And in that demense are the answers. This I know. Somehow." Probably not the most reassuring of answers, but it was the truth.
Calisara: She holds his wrist. Her eyes have a plea.
"You don't need to know about the Binds! You don't need to..."
Cael: Cael puts his hand on her own, his own eyes meeting hers.
"I do, Calisara, if only to stop the things I see in my dreams. I'm not just dreaming about them at night Cal, I'm seeing things while I wake. This needs to stop. I know that in there lies the answers."
Calisara: She lets go.
"Don't... stop being yourself, please."
"Please, do not cease to be yourself."
Cael: Cael smiles at her, then kisses her lips softly.
"I won't." I promise
He smiles at her once more, then says "Look after the Zephyr while I'm gone for me please, Cal."
Then he turned and walked from the cabin, pulling on a shirt, and his long white coat, wrapping magics against the corruption of the wyld about him, then walks out of the Zephyr, his hand on the door controls a caress.
Then he walks up and into the forest of frozen trees.
- Within the Demesne, there is... peace.
All is white. So clear white.
Trees are snow.
As are the Swans, walking in it, to the lake in the middle of it.
A lake made of milk. Of such odd milk.
Essence appeared visible all around, sometimes. And Cael could almost see words in it.
Protected against the warping essence, he felt like everything around him was so... fragile.
Cael: Cael walks slowly up through it all, feeling the aura of calm even through the protections against the wyld, feeling the essence itself.
Milk...?
That was a surprise even to Cael, who had seen his fair share of the wylder places in the world.
And then there were the words, maddeningly on the edge of his vision, never quite in focus, swirling in and out of visibility. Cael closed his eyes, and then he drew a symbol the air.
Drew a symbol of gold.
Drew a symbol of power.
Drew a symbol that had not been seen for fresh in creation for a very long time.
The symbol was a highly stylised B, one that was both completely unknown to him, and so intimately his he could draw it without knowing....
...and then he waited.
.: He begun to draw the symbols. The 'B' begun to shift... it begun to change... and all around him it begun to... change. Others words appeared. Words that were already there. Already there, within the essence, a little broken because of it. Cael could see as the swirling essence of the demesne broke them... like unweaving a tight tapestry, allowing you to see that it was actually made of strands...
The words remained there.
They waited for something. The words looked at him, expectantly
With that gaze only Letters are meant to have...
... and then... they vanished.
They vanished as a scent was added to the milk.
The scent of Camelias.
The scent of blood.
Tahira: A droplet of blood fell in the pool of milk. Something so pure, so immaculate, tainted by blood... the memory of children bleeding. Of snow bleeding. Her giggle, so joyful. So pure. So innocent. She giggled, as she watched him. So many feelings on that giggle.
Cael: Cael looked about him expectantly as the words started to form, started to make themselves visible, started pay attention to him. His eyes started to scan over them, started to try and make sense of them.
And then they went away.
Blood.
Camelias
Tahira!
An expression of annoyance passed over his face, at the fact she would show herself again, at the intrusion, at the casual descration of the purity of the place he was in.
And that giggle. A giggle was not supposed to do that.
"Hello, my wife of old." His voice sure, controlled, commanding as it reached out through the already shattered tranquility of the demense.
Tahira: She was smiling as immaculate little feet touched the pool of milk.
She walked above it, bringing blood-coated fingers to her face.
The face of a Terrestrial Exalted inside her robes. She was young, but older than Anne, the last form he had seen her in. The marks on her flesh so green, camelias on her hair... such small ones... she picks one, feeling the scent as crimson droplets fall to the pool... watching Cael. Intently.
"Hello, Husband. It has been... such a short time."
"Such a long time."
"You have changed since then. It continues since last we spoke..."
"You are returning to your place, Lover. To your proper station. To your proper understanding."
Cael: Cael's eyes narrowed as he took in her form, a new one, a wood dragoness, and her blood no doubt on Tahira's hands. He watched her as she stepped across the surface of the pond, and then he took a step towards her.
"It has not been long enough." he says simply. not long enough by far
"I have changed though, yes. I know a little more of how the world works."
"And you are still feeding on defenceless girls, I see." Keeping his voice level.
"I promised to protect her, you know. And then you fed on her."
Tahira: She giggles again. Her fingertips brush against her lips. A lady.
The tails of a fox moving coily around her...
"You wound me, lover. Almost like you did not like our last meeting... you were so... interested then. Is it because I am not wearing a little girl's skin anymore? I thought you would appreciate the terrestrial's more... she put up a bit of a fight, husband dearest. But I did what I had to do. And she was... hmmm. Like wine." The gentle feet walk on the pool, and to Cael. She offers her hand, the blood seeming to still be alive, coating it... "Want to taste?"
She does not mention Anne, yet.
Cael: "I would have appreciated her more if you were not wearing her skin, wife of old." he says as she steps onto the shore near to him.
"I did not realise," maybe I did not want to know "what had happened to Anne for those few moments in the bath, for what I tasted on my lips."
"If you wish offer me blood to taste, offer your own." he makes no gesture to taste the hand.
Tahira: "I would think you were already tired of mine, husband." She says, walking around him... every movement with a grace that no creature should have. Her smile, beautiful like few could be. The tails, so coy around her... her robes so clingy to her skin. "You saw me wearing her skin, husband dearest. You saw blood drip on the water. You tasted her blood on my lips. You knew it."
"It was just convenient for you to feel anger afterwards. I did not kill your pet. I have more respect for you than that."
"That is the only reason to care. Because she is yours. You just... do not understand that yet. So... silly."
"Silly, silly lover."
She wills the blood to drip.
And her hands are clean. Clean until she drives a claw to her palm.
Making crimson tears flow. She brings them to her lips.
Savors them.
Leans closer, and kisses Cael. Passionately, making him taste her lips, the blood...and the camelias.
Tastier than the finest dishes to ever grace his lips.
"Silly, slly lover..."
Cael: "I have set eyes on your form but once that I can remember, my wife of old." his eyes watching every footstep. He had seen fae that she was making look clumsy. Fae she was making look plain, too.
"She is mine to protect, and you hurt her without asking me, without asking her. Because you knew I would not let that happen to her. And still you did it. That is why I am angry with you." he says this as he watches the blood drip from her hands, polluting the ground, leaving her clean, watches the blood flow fresh. Watches her savouring the taste.
Then comes the kiss. Hot and warm and so delicious...
...he draws in a sharp breath after it's over, far too many memories stired up by the touch. Nothing he could see clearly, nothing that truely made sense, a jumble of visions, and the emotions that came with them. Emotions not his own and so familiar they could be no one elses.
He took a step back, and just watched her, fighting to keep his face level, trying to bring his thoughts back into some kind of order. Not wanting to say anything until he knew what he would say.
Tahira: She breaks the kiss... and she is herself.
The hair of the palest gold, the color of the fox's ears, the color of her tails.
The eyes, of a turquoise so pure, it could only exist on a goddess.
The smile... ah, the smile.
The smile on the lips of a queen...
And she presses against Cael. "I wanted to understand you. I honestly thought you would not mind. I left her alive, did I not? I wanted to know what you felt for her. I wanted to..." She thinks, for a moment... "Well... maybe I knew you would get angry. Maybe that is why I did it. Maybe I wanted to see you angry... I like it when you are angry, now. Things change, since before. I imagine if Calisara knew it would make me angry, too. I wonder if she just did not think about it."
She kisses him again, her tails holding him to her... "Do you prefer me like this, husband?"
Cael: Cael watches the transformation, watches her become someone he has seen only once before, moments before he died in another time.
Gold and turquiose and pleasant to the eyes in a way he had not known in quite this way before....
He pulls himself back from the pretty lie before him, the body so nice with that ... predatory mind inside.
"I do, yes, my wife of old." he says, his voice straining at control. The kiss was different and yet the same, comforting and revolting.
"You left her dying. Had Alexander not been able to draw her hurt into him, she would have died. Don't tell me you knew Alex could have saved her, would have reached her in time?" he demands of her, the binds starting to glow through the coat.
"And what of Calisara? What of her?"
Tahira: "Calisara. She had made an oath not to lay with you. I wonder if she thinks of that every time she spreads her cloudy legs to you. I wonder if the fact it is forbidden does not make it all the more exciting and interesting for her. I wonder." The tails around him hold him to her. They do not let him move away. "She would not die. Just be hurt. I was sure you had some way of making her heal faster if you care to have her in shape until then. I can kill one without spilling a droplet of blood, Lover. Trust me to know when my prey is to die, and when my prey is to live."
Cael: Calisara ... ?
Why do I want to know you are lying?
Why do I believe you?
"She swore an oath? An oath to who? To you?" Cael makes more demands of the lunar, the pattern of the binds completely visible through the clothing he wears as he's pressed up to her body. "You still hurt her, and you will pay for that, my wife of old." Cael says to her face, and holds back the urge to kiss her lips once again
Tahira: "To you. So she would watch, and long. Long for you, never able to touch...and she knew I would dislike it if she broke the oath. I can feel the excitement on her as she accepts you. I wish I had been there for it. So long of pent up desire, and I was not there. She did not ask for my blessing. That makes me... angry, husband." She kissed him again, her lips dancing to his neck, her ears brushing in him, almost tickling him cutely.
Then, her hands move to his shirt, beneath the coat. Then, she rips it as if it was nothing.
She looks down, seeing the binds glowing...
"Will you punish me today? Using the binds, like you used to?"
"Do you even remember how, silly?"
Cael: ...She was rather eager the first time we were together ... I assumed it was merely the long time below the ice...
I... Basitian would do such a thing?
I suppose I would, if not for so long...
"You do not seem to be angry now, my love from another life... she was magnificant though" he adds, unable to resist the temptation as her lips play over his neck, adding a slighlty urgent undertone to his voice. He shivers as the ice cold air hits his chest, the amulet about his neck protecting from the worst of it.
I should not be distracted...
He draws a letter on the air, a sigil for pain, and holds it on her cheek.
"Of course I remember, lover from another age."
Tahira: "I did not say I would be angry, did I? Just that she would think so... although, I am a little."
"I wish I could have been there. Matured in such a fine wine, and I never got to see her be tasted..."
She leans on him then, as it touches her cheek. Cael feels her skin, soft as that of a pampered princess... she was perfect, in all ways. And she whimpered, softly, in pain. He felt her shivers, through her skin... her heard the soft whimper of pain.... a droplet of blood falling from her cheek. "Yesss..."
Hand on his coat now. Pushing it down, looking at him with that smile... that pure, joyful smile... now not so pure. It was somewhat feral now, needful... "Pehaps, someday I will see how she has matured. Pehaps we will make another one like her. My dear bastard. My dear husband... "
"I missed you. I missed looking at the Binds."
Cael: Cael traces a finger down her other cheek, feeling the sofness below his fingertips, marvelling at it, smiling at the reaction to the gentle carress, one of the fingers on the hand holding the sigil, bringing that droplet of blood over to her lips as she exhales in pleasure.
He pulls back to let her push the coat from his body, pulling her body to his, carefully and slowly tracing the sigil down... sometimes drawing blood, sometimes not.
"I am not the man who was your bastard, your husband." small twists of the sigil emphasising the words bastard and husband, a gentle carress as she says she missed him "I'm sorry that you missed me though, wife of my old self."
"What did you miss about the them, about the Binds?" the sigil now rose tinted from the blood, starting to delicately trace over her flawless breast.
Tahira: A soft, small tongue artfully licks his fingers clean...
"Their power."
"Their beauty."
"Their majesty."
She shivers. She whimpers. She moans, with the pain.
"Their power... I can feel it! So much... so... so..." Her nails rake on his chest. He feels his skin rupturing. He feels blood forcing out from the small ruptures. She leans, and licks them close. The taste of her tongue is even more thrilling, there. Pain and pleasure mix into something undiscernible. "But you are right..." She says, leaning back up, holding his hand over her breast.. her priestess robe about to fall. "You are not him. He was a king... and you. You have to remember. You have to know not to be a pawn. To be anything but a pawn."
"It is a game, husband."
"In it, I do what I want."
She holds the hand, the crimson tainting her ivory robe...
"And so do you."
Cael: Cael exhales at the sharpness of the sensation, as the nails rake over his skin, blood trickling out from the cuts on the spaces between the Binds, keeping the sounds her tounge threatens to pull from him to himself.
"I am not a king, no." holding the crimson shaded sigil just where it is, not pulling it out "But niether am I pawn." he says, and leans in to kiss her, tasting the traces of his own blood on her lips.
"I suppose, then, the question is ... just what do we want?" twisting the sigil in her flesh just a little.
Tahira: "What do we want...?"
"Is it power? Is it to rule? Is it to be amused? Is it to do great things before dusk comes?" Each word is said on the instant their lips part. Silver binds appear around her own skin. They shine. The binds shine in response. "I have much, my dear. But you... you want simpler things. You want to not be a pawn. You want to understand. You want to make things better. You want the binds..."
Her lips play with his, and her flawless image plays in his eyes. ".. and you want me!"
She seems to do something, as the binds begin to burn in Cael's skin...
Cael: Cael watches the binds flow into view on her skin, silver to his gold, the light building between the pair as they react.
So unlike Valencia's much more like the the Binds themselves... he thinks in the corner of his mind that isn't affected by the woman infront of him or the Binds on his skin.
"You do have the advantage of years on me, love of the first age." is all he says in response to her interpretation of his 'simpler desires'
"And you want me!"
He couldn't exactly deny it, so he kissed her again, biting her lip softly as they parted. "No more than you want me."
Then he almost screams as the Binds burn on his skin, looking at her with a face that demands to know what she just did.
Tahira: They shine, silver and gold, as she comes closer. Giggling. "They are awakening. The world is in motion at last. They want to awaken... let them. Let it burn. Let it out."
She holds him, her nails digging on the skin of his back. She begins to whisper.
She whispers of their desire.
She whispers of their power.
She whispers of the Binds.
She whispers...
Words that are not words, but that make his skin burn. Words that he cannot pronounce, but he knows how to draw. He feels the pain on the binds, he feels the pain of her claws, he feels the pleasure of her body against his'. He feels that he knows what to write, and how to... to make the burning stop, to let it all out...
Cael: Cael closes his eyes as she whispers, as the Binds seem to twist and burn on his skin, the knowledge of the words coming back to him.
He takes one of the hands off her back, where he was gripping her for support. Twisting the tips of his fingers through the symbol.<b> Twisting the tips of his fingers to scribe on the air.
The symbol hangs there, burning like a small sun. And then it explodes, and on Cael's body, the binds do too, brilliant arcs of light shooting out in all directions.
They cut into the trees behind him.
They cut into the sky above him.
They cut into the lunar in front of him.
He looks at her again, covered in a fine tracery of cuts, as the pain starts to fade, he looks into her eyes and kisses her lips and doesn't stop.
Tahira: She bleeds. She holds him. He bleeds. They bleed. They kiss.
She pushes him to the ground, with enough stregth to hurt. The binds cut her more. She whimpers.
She heals. The cuts close. She licks his'. They close as well. She keeps whispering.
More symbols in the air. More more more and more. The sky opens. The fabric of Creation is cut, and bleeds.
The demesne around them breaks, essence scattered everywhere, golden kanji and blood everywhere.
The violence of essence ravages their forms. The violence of lovemaking ravages their bodies.
The demesne unmade, a tower of golden words reaches up to the sky, with darkness and blood.
Somewhere, Creation screams
The Pattern Spiders freeze.
A Maiden cries.
At least one shadow smiles.
The Empyrean Binds have awoken.
Much later...
Cael did not know how long it was, until he could even see the sky again.
Tahira was there, with him. Her robe immaculate again. His clothing gone, all but the bracers and the collar... and the binds.
She idly played with his caste mark, now burning strangely on his forehead. She smiled. And once again, her smile was pure, satisfied, gentle.
They stood amidst the remains of a great part of the mount, Luna painting them silver. Cael could swear the stars looked to him accusingly. The remains were like ashes, but they did not stain. Like snow, but they were warm. Like sand, but it was soft like cushions. They stood half-buried it like it was a lavish bubble bath. Of course, Tahira made anything seem to regal... she kissed him. It was gentle.
"This is what I missed."
Cael: Cael kisses her back, softly and tenderly, not answering her just yet before he pulls away, and looks around him.
At the ... remains of the demense.
At the stars above him and their accusing glares.
At the soft light light of luna.
What just happened here?
What did we do?
What are the binds?
What are they going to do?
What are they going to do?
All these questions and a hundred more cross his mind and yet none of them seemed quite right for time.
"I can't imagine why ..." he says, with a faint grin on his face that doesn't quite conceal what he feels for her in this moment.
Tahira: She leans against him, seeming... so human now. So frail. So normal. Soft skin and light weight, and not the creature that cut his flesh in her passion and made him love every minute of it. Not the creature that the binds cut through, and shivered and moaned with the cuts.just so... normal. "This is what we are supposed to be... powerful. Godly. To shake the world around us. To play with it. It is our board to play in. I wonder what will be your next move. Now that you know the pieces on your hand, dear husband. Or at least, some of them."
Cael: Cael stroked her cheek softly as she leaned on him, and she spoke to him, marveling inside at the change that had come over her. At what she had made him become. No, at what she had drawn out of him... "So do I, dear." is all he can say in answer to that, not yet knowing the powers he could now command. He gently pulled her down until they were sitting, watched her for a time, then asked "But perhaps you could tell me something of moves in the past ... What was Serenair?"
Tahira: "Home... sweet home."
She says, getting comfortable sat with him... "It is home. The only place in this entire crazy world I can call that." Her tails flickered, caressing him... "To the north, and to the East... amidst the shadows, amidst the chaos. It is so beautiful, Lover. I keep it as it was. Or as close as I can... it was ravaged when I spent some time away. I had to bring it back, and so many things that should not break broke... but it is still home. Still a place to rest."
"It still has your scent in it..."
Cael: Cael holds her in his arms as she speaks to him of the city to the north east. Of a home, something he hasn't had, beyond the comforting walls of the Zephyr. Of a broken down place ravaged by time, but what place was not? Though..amidst the shadows and the chaos...?
"I will have to come and visit, sometime soon, to see this city of old." he says, with a gentle stroke down her face, offering her the comfort she seems to want right now, not sure what else would suit someone as mercurial as she. "What else would you tell me of that age that you think might help me in this?"
Tahira: But she continued to speak of Serenair, rubbing against Cael, the fur away shaking just a bit to tickle him... "I wonder what you would think of it now. I wonder what your Calisara remembers of the place. Of our beautiful pets, of our honored guests, of our red sun, of our shifting sky, of our gardens... home."
The images touch Cael's mind, then...
The great gardens, so many flowers, so many variants of Camelias for her...
The packs of foxes running on the wild...
The noble ghosts, moliated in so many beautiful forms, his courtiers...
The foxes, some were chaos, some were dead...
The words, forming towers of wisdom. The words, forming concubines, each with their own epic tale.
The balls, dancing with her in the middle of their inhuman onlookers.
Their servants.
Their friends.
Her smile, then, just like now, but... it was not frightening.
It was warm.
All was happy.
Innocent.
Fun.
Home.
"So much... and an advice, Lover? For you?" She giggles. "Silly. Increase your power. Increase your understanding. Be wary of the dead, and those touched by the dead you travel with. Conspiracies are woven like the webs of a hundred spiders, and they intersect. Trust not even those you have no reason to distrust. Look out for the Star-Chosen - they are our enemies, now and forever. Look out for the Deathknights - they have more problems than you can imagine. Learn where you are. Do not be a pawn."
"You should never, ever be a pawn."
Cael: Cael listens to her then, his fingers tracing slow comforting patterns through her fur, half based on memories of this age, half on barely remembered ones of times that they spent together. He wasn't sure at all why he felt calm here, sitting next to the woman who had almost killed Anne, who had come to him wearing another woman's body, who had nearly torn him apart in lovemaking that had blackened the sky, but just for this moment he did, and that was enough.
Serenair ... a city of death.
Serenair ... a city of wyld.
Serenair ... a city of learning.
Serenair ... a city of their own.
It sounded fascinating. And terrible. And wonderful. And insane.
So much like the woman next to him telling him of it.
"I will see it soon enough, and then I will know."
And I don't know what I will do then. Love it, hate it, fear it?
"I asked for your advice, dear, not said I would follow it. You can learn something of people when you ask for their advice." he says easily "Though your advice is .... interesting and I thank you for it."
Tahira: "You will do what you want. That is your prerrogative, husband. Me, I did what I had to, today."
She said, leaning down and kissing his chest. Kissing the binds.
"Now, I can return to doing what I want. Duty is rarely so... fun. And nostalgic."
Cael: Cael guided her with small carresses to the side of her face, to kiss in the areas he found most pleasing, to encourage her to kiss more.
"And should something happen to you? Is there anything I would have to do?" he asks, drawing a finger down her chin and slowly, gently raising her her face to meet his.
Tahira: She enjoyed it, and cooed softly. The warmth. The familiarity. The binds. Her kiss was gentle; Soft; It called to his soul and tasted differently than it had on all the other times.
"No. I just had to help you. he Binds... they need to be awake."
She closed her eyes for a moment, and kissed him again. A kiss that lasted so long, her body hrubbing against his'... seeming so vulnerable now.
".. and that is all I can say. I am sorry."
She whispered.
"I wish you would call me something other than 'my wife of old'."
"What do you wish to be called?"
Cael: Cael nods slow, after the kiss, after she speaks. She was soft and warm and there.
"Then that is what you have said." He says, accepting this fact much like you accept that rains fell some days. He wasn't sure what else he could do. He leaned forward, kissed her forehead.
"Then I will call you Tahira, for for I do not know what place you occupy in my heart yet. Call me what you will of the names I wear in this time, I will answer any of them from your lips." tilting her head, kissing them softly, tasting them again
Tahira: "You never do. Silly, silly husband. Silly, silly Cael."
She responds to the kiss, needful.
"I should go now. I should go now, but. Soon, I will be with you until the Sun appear on the sky. Soon, I will be with you, and our dreams will be one." She smiles, beggining to distance from him... "Soon... I promise this much. Soon. After all is said and done and the Binds have done what only they can..."
The petals again, the Camelia petals filling the air...
She begins to disappear, once again...
"Oh..."
She says, as the petals begin to take her face...
"Your blood is even tastier this time. A taste I had felt before... one of those you fight feel just the same... the same taste. The same feel... so much like you. So much like me, the Ivory Shadow. His blood was tasty as well..."
She licks her lips, while they are still there...
Cael: Cael says nothing as she speaks her farewells to him.
Cael says nothing as she starts to fade to camelias
Cael says nothing as she speaks her disturbing words about the Disciple
He watches her fade into petals that drift on the wind.
"Good bye." he says, when the last flower petal fades into nothing, then he stands up and wakes out of the remains of the demense, and down to the Zephyr, his mind working furiously and a faint smile on his face.
- As he comes into the Zephyr... he hears nothing.
Not a single word from Calisara.
Not the wind caressing him.
Nothing...
Cael: "Cal?" he calls out softly, as he makes his way to his cabin, to find himself some more clothes.
Calisara: He comes into his cabin... and sees her.
Binds of silver light on her arms, holding them above her head, dangling from the ceiling.
Covered in sweat. Her hair sticking to her face.
"C-Cael..."
"B-bastian..."
Her head hangs up, and she sees Cael. Filled with desire. With need.
"More..."
Cael: Calisara ... ? What has she done to you?
Cael takes a step towards her, and then another, sitting on the bed, stroking a hand down her side.
"What has she done to you, my dear?" he says softy, making no move to release her just yet.
Calisara: "More..." She pleads once again, as he sits next to her... and she tears flow from her eyes.
She is not sure why they flow.
"You... him... her... all I ever wanted... for so long... for so long..."
"It was so good..."
Cael: Cael makes a gesture, scribing a letter on the air, not really a word, nor even a letter, more a suggestion of one. He throws it upwards and it severs the rope holding her to the ceiling of the room, though not the ropes keeping her hands together, her hands settling far more comfortably behind her back.
He leans in and gently kisses the tears from her face, then kisses her lips.
"You enjoyed the waiting, or the release?" he asks of her quietly, stroking her face.
Calisara: The arms fall, and she winces.
She looks into his eyes, never so fragile. She kisses him with so much desire, and as his lips leave, she comes closer to him, trembling, needing... her lips shaking... stopped by his hand, leaning on it, rubbing against it. "The release... the release... it was so... so wonderful... it was... it was all I thought it would be..." Her eyes close, in shame. "I...sorry... I never told you..."
Cael: Cael kisses her again, for a time, before pulling back way before Calisara feels she's been kissed long enough, waits for her to open her eyes again, gently cupping a breast and playing with the nipple. He lets the comment about not telling slide, for the moment
"So, is that how you want it to be?" He asks of her "Some waiting ... and then release?"
"Or like it was before this morning and after I met you?"
Calisara: She looks at him... warm, ecstastic noises coming from her at every touch of his fingers.
"I... no... I don't... I want... I... I don't..."
She swallows, and hangs her head, her silverly hair falling over her face...
"... Yes..."
She says, shamefully, her eyes only slightly looking up as he touches her nipple... "Cael... you are... still... that.."
"You remembered? You... changed..?"
There is a plea, there.
But she has no idea who she wants the most.
Because she wants...
Cael: Cael smiles at her, approvingly, the way he would have smiled which ever way she had chosen.
"Then, my dear, you will wait." his fingers slowly part her sex. "And then sometimes, there will be release."
His other hand lifts her chin. "I have remembered. And I have changed. But I am still Cael. I am not Bastian."
Calisara: She breathes even harder, her thighs closing just slightly on him, rubbing down on his hand...
... and she looks at him, and for a moment, she is disappointed.
And tears fall,
Because he is still Cael.
Because she is glad for it.
Because she is disappointed with it.
"Don't make me wait... not right now... please..."
Cael: Cael kisses the tears away ...
Cael doesn't make her wait ...
... that much longer, anyway.
- - Back to Fifth Movement
- - Back to A Dance of Angels
